If it wasn't for the ominous presence of the Lieutenant Commander, Saratoga could have distracted herself from the trip's dark purpose. For a military base in an active conflict, Fleet Activities Yokosuka was remarkably devoid of activity. The uniformed personnel seemed to be outnumbered by the civilian contractors wandering around the base, walking weedwhackers along the edge of walkways and restocking vending machines. The understrength seventh fleet was almost entirely forwards-deployed to Taiwan, and now it saw more use from ships escorting convoys from the Americas than those who'd called it their homeport. Watching the sparse occupants pay no attention to the occasional crater or husk of a burnt-out structure only added to the base's surreal nature.

Activity only picked up again once their vehicle parked in front of the fleet's headquarters, 7th Fleet's yeomen lending life to the building as they dutifully handled the paperwork to keep the distant fleet fighting. It was there, in a room normally used to conduct onboarding briefings, where Katori and Saratoga had their official meeting.

The questions Underwood's staff asked had been painfully bland. Often, they referred to minor incidents that had already been clearly spelled out in earlier reports, or were so open-ended not much of a useful answer could be taken from them.

"Katori, would you consider Saratoga's seakeeping skills on par with what you'd expect from a capital ship of the JMSDF?" A Lieutenant J.G. asked, his eager tone implying this had been his first chance to talk with a shipgirl. The officer had been leading the discussion, seemingly unaware of the lack of enthusiasm showed by both his comrades and the shipgirls they were meeting.

"Of course." the Japanese ship allowed, her formal tone possessing an edge Saratoga had heard of, but never witnessed before. "Wouldn't you have determined that during her sea trials?"

"Of course!" The human backpedaled, glancing to Lieutenant Commander Murray, perhaps for help. The Spook was busy writing something on a notepad, however, leaving the junior officer to his own devices. "But an experienced training ship like yourself might have noticed something that we missed."

"I appreciate the compliment..." Katori lied. "...but I haven't seen any reason for concern."

Questions continued like this for another half hour, the training cruiser quickly recognizing that the Navy was wasting her time. All the while, Saratoga stood alongside her, answering as much as she could to make the experience less grating on her friend, but with her thoughts focused elsewhere, she only did so occasionally.

Lieutenant Commander Murray looked different from when she'd seen him last. On the Kennedy, he'd looked like a model officer, exuding an aura of confidence and control as he'd greeted Saratoga. Now, his hair had grown rough, remaining in regulations only due to the grace of a few quick trims around the ears. Shadows were forming under his eyes, the man's careful posture slouching a little bit as he watched the interview.

Still, his poker face remained as unreadable as ever, leaving Saratoga with nothing but baseless speculation as to their true purpose here.

I had to have been something major, if they were calling her over in such a… blunt manner. It was clear they hadn't put enough time into this outing, although the young officer grilling Katori seemed to be pretty proud of his questions. Still, if Trinitite had done something catastrophic, she doubted it would be much of a secret. Washington's coast was far too populated and networked for a terrible incident to just get covered up, and Saratoga hadn't really heard anything.

What did that leave, though? Had they managed to capture her?

Anxiety continued to build in her keel. That would technically be good news, she guessed, but if she was in Yokosuka's Brig right now, Saratoga wasn't sure she'd be prepared to meet her. They wouldn't dare put the two in the same room together with so little preparation, right?

The Carrier's thoughts continued to trace over increasingly intricate scenarios as the interview continued, but always came to the same problem:

She had no idea what she'd do if she had to talk with the abyssal. She didn't have a clue what Trinitite would do if she was communicating with her, either. Saratoga had promised to think a little more on the Wo-class's personality and try to get some useful information, but diving into her memories was uncomfortable enough that she'd been happy to lose herself in training the girls at Maizuru instead.

Having to talk with The Wo was only the worst-case scenario, though.

...Actually, it wasn't at all! What if she had hurt someone?

At the thought, her worry only grew. Good god, what if the Wo-class had killed someone? The thought that her- no, that her past self's subordinate was out there, loose and killing innocent people was like an iceberg tearing into hull. Had her running from her past condemned others to death?

Come to think of it, it was a little strange that Saratoga hadn't thought of this possibility first. Violent crime was common in large cities. Something like that wouldn't have been reported on, especially if the strange nature of the suspect was covered up. A small part of her insisted that Trinitite didn't seem like a killer, but she ignored it. The Abyssal had killed before, after all, as the USS Montana, multiple subgirls, and a handful of pilots could attest. She also couldn't forget all the times she'd threatened to kill people as well, in the past couple of weeks.

"Alright, that's all I have for both of you." The junior officer remarked, standing. "If you're alright with it Ma'am, I'd like to split you two up and ask you a few more questions."

Katori paused, the keen training cruiser biting her lip, before finally nodding.

"Alright. Carry on, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Ma'am." He replied. Motioning to Murray, he directed his attention to Saratoga. "Ensign, please accompany this man."

It was then The Carrier noticed Murray's uniform was missing its rank tabs. The Spook was hiding his rank.

The carrier gave Katori a sympathetic glance, noting the carefully-hidden frustration in her features, before following the spook out of the room. The pair walked in silence for a few yards, before ducking into an empty room. Murray held the door open for Saratoga, his features softening a little in the privacy, before motioning to a pair of office chairs facing each other in the middle of the room.

"Coffee?" He asked, gesturing to a neglected machine sitting in a corner.

"Thank you sir, but no." Saratoga rejected, taking one of the two chairs and bracing as she eased herself into it. "What happened?"

"She got a job." Murray flatly reported.

"A job?" Saratoga dumbly echoed. What did he mean by that?

Instead of taking a seat, Murray walked over to a seemingly abandoned filing cabinet, casually unlocking it and producing a manilla folder.

"The full report is in here." He started, offering the folder to the carrier as he took his own seat. "It's for your eyes only, of course."

Saratoga accepted the orange folder, noting the ominous stamps on its front and back. She wanted to tear the thing open, or at least pour over it on the drive back, but she'd probably have to wait until she was safe in her quarters to give it a real read.

"For now, I'll give you the short version." Murray continued, sitting down. "About a week ago, Trinitite entered a construction site in one of Seattle's Suburbs and begged the foreman for a job."

"...huh."

Initially, Saratoga wasn't able to muster more of a response then that. Trying to imagine the Wo-class she knew of from Jellyfish's fragmented memories casually working a jackhammer next to several average Americans was… difficult. However, her thoughts soon focused on one of the Spook's particular choice of words.

"She'd… begged?"

"Those were the foreman's words." Murray confirmed. "He got the impression that she was desperate. He said he gave her a chance and she did a good job, so he kept her on."

A dozen more questions came up in Saratoga's head, but she couldn't decide on which was more important to ask. She'd just stolen a bunch of supplies from a supermarket, right? Why had she been so desperate? What, exactly, did she do on the construction site? What had her coworkers thought of her? Why'd she look for employment in the first place? Wouldn't that only bog the Wo-class down in her search for Saratoga? What kind of cover story had she invented?

How do we know about this?

"Luckily, some odd behavior on her part made one of her coworkers suspect her nature as an abyssal. He started gathering evidence before reporting her to us, and took a few photos of her which I've compiled in the report."

Saratoga suppressed an inappropriate chuckle at the thought of what kind of 'odd behaviors' could have led to those suspicions. Enjoying steel during lunch? Glowing eyes? It wasn't that funny, though, as the poor worker had no doubt been in fear for his life. Murray's serious visage as he leaned forwards helped, as well.

"While taking those pictures, however, he believes Trinitite discovered that her disguise had been compromised." The spook continued, and the anxiousness from earlier returned. "There was an accident moments later. A pallet loaded with rebar fell on the worker."

Saratoga took the news with a sharp intake of breath, a hand reaching up to hide her mouth. She felt even worse for almost laughing, now. The worker must have survived, but if he was badly hurt…

Jellyfish had caused that. No, she had, letting herself fall into despair during Crossroads. If… whatever it was that was behind the abyssals hadn't gotten the opportunity to corrupt her, then that civilian would still be-

"He's fine!" Murray quickly clarified, raising a placating hand. "Bruised, but that's the worst of it. Trinitite intervened, apparently shielding him from the falling palette. She saved his life."

He finished then, letting the news sink in.

"Oh," She finally replied, dumbfounded, "this is good news, then." She'd been expecting news that the Wo-class who'd been hunting her had just hurt someone, but this was the exact opposite!

"In a way, yes." Murray agreed. "She's still a step ahead of us, which is unfortunate, but it gives us a huge insight into her character.

"Trinitite had nothing to gain from saving Alton Owen. We know she recognized him as a threat, because she confirmed he knew with him before she ran, but she jumped in to help anyway."

"That… means we'll be able to talk to her when we find her, then." Saratoga stated. "Maybe figure out why she's after me?"

She hadn't really considered the possibility that the Wo would have anything other than bad intentions until now. If she'd gone out of her way to stop a random human from getting hurt, then maybe she'd was more reasonable then they'd ever hoped to guess.

Unless… she'd had other reasons for saving the man. Saratoga suddenly wondered how the civilian she'd saved looked, and how well they'd gotten to know each other in the week they'd had together. Trinitite had never even seen a man up close until just recently, after all.

She wasn't sure why the idea of the abyssal getting into a completely different kind of trouble was so disturbing, but the Lieutenant Commander didn't give her the time to dwell on it.

"Shangri La's been advocating for just that." Murray said, nodding with Saratoga's suggestion. She was involved? Saratoga would have to write to her, apologizing that the Essex-class had needed to get involved in this mess. "On a similar note, there's something I regret that I have to ask you for."

The Spook's gaze suddenly intensified, and Saratoga suddenly found herself sitting up. "I need to know if Trinitite saved her coworker out of instinct from her training as a convoy escort, or if she'll be just as unlikely to resort to violence the next time she's discovered." Pressure built in her boilers as The Carrier nodded along with Murray. She could guess what was coming next.

"This goes against my advice not to focus too hard on your past life, but my team needs a report on Trinitite. We know what she did in combat from our own forces, but I need to know what she was like. Any sort of anecdotes, conversations you witnessed, how she trained and reported to Jellyfish…" He trailed off, breaking eye contact as he sighed.

"Aye, sir." Saratoga replied, discipline keeping her dread at bay. Despite resolving to eventually get as much information on Trinitite to Murray's team as possible on several occasions, she'd never been able to sit down with a pen and start doing it. Maybe this was the kick in the aft she needed to finally help in the hunt for the Wo-class, but she still wasn't looking forward to it. "Jellyfish never cared enough to know her underlings, though. I'll have to speculate a lot."

"That's what we do in intelligence." Murray replied. "Your intuition is probably going to be more valuable than you think. Just keep it separated from the facts and you'll do fine." He sat up again, wiping his forehead. "This… isn't an order. I don't want to-"

"I understand, Sir." Saratoga interrupted, remembering the reports she'd read on her own liberation. "Your insight helped free me from the abyss, and it's indirectly my fault that you're in one of the least enviable positions an officer could be in."

She'd read about the witch trials that occurred after the La Palma disaster, and remembered the ill-fated political career of Admiral Richardson as he fought a loosing battle with Washington to prepare The Navy for the Pacific War. Things had already gotten to the point in the Trinitite drama that people were going to start pointing fingers, and eager to avoid the same premature scolding many of their predecessors had, and thinking themselves more valuable then some spook, Murray's superiors would toss him to the Senate to divert their attention.

"My career can hang." He deadpanned, averting his eyes from Saratoga. "If it wasn't for this war, I'd be getting out of the Navy as an O-2, ready for a rewarding career as a counselor anyways."

"...Regardless," Saratoga continued, pretending not to notice the dark insinuation in Murray's voice. He knew what was coming if this wasn't wrapped up quickly. "If you need me to look into some uncomfortable memories to help wrap this mess up, I will."

The intelligence officer nodded.

"Thank you." He stood then, the poker face returning. "It'll be good to know if that police officer was in any real danger."

"She had a run-in with the police?" Why hadn't that come up yet?

"Yes." the Lieutenant Commander bit out, annoyance returning to his voice as he started to pace. "For some reason, the Wo-class thought it would be a good idea to sleep in the woods next to the police station. A cop woke her up to warn her about squatting, and gets her glowing eyes on his bodycam."

Saratoga didn't know what a bodycam was, but the rest of the story didn't paint a pretty picture at all.

"He ran away, of course." The Spook continued. "Basically let the entire department know before we got contacted. There were too many people to effectively silence, so our FBI contacts just confiscated the evidence and left them to rumor-monger."

"Sounds like a mess." Saratoga sympathized. She hadn't known civilian law enforcement had gotten involved, but it made sense. Murray was a psychologist, after all, not a detective.

He shrugged. "We've already got The Canadians, several ships' crews, a fighter squadron, plenty of our own ships, and an entire infantry division involved in parts of the hunt for Trinitite. Some of them have probably started talking already."

"You don't think you can keep this a secret?"

"Not entirely, no," He admitted, "but that brings up another issue:"

Saratoga felt her crew bracing for impact as she straightened in her chair.

"We shouldn't have to just rely on you for inside information on abyssals like Trinitite. There's four other former Princesses in the world's navies, and while Bismark is almost always at sea and there's no way I could convince the brass to let me brief Gangut on this, I'm writing up a request to get Zuikaku and Naka involved, at least. That would mean bringing the JMSDF into this, however, and they've been against that so far." He stopped pacing, turning to look back at Saratoga. "With your recommendation, however, I think I can be a bit more persuasive."

Thank goodness. Saratoga was expecting another shocking piece of news, but this was something she'd been hoping for as well.

"Oh, that won't be a problem." She nodded, standing as well. "Katori's going to be asking for an explanation of this, anyways. It'll be a lot easier for me to pass intel to you if Admiral Hirano knew what you were working on."

"Agreed." He nodded. "I'll be waiting for that. In the mean time, you were speaking of Katori…" The Spook trailed off, looking towards the door.

"She's probably done with her own interview." Saratoga picked up where the spook left off.

"Probably." Murray concurred. "Well, I won't take any more of your training time, then. Thank you, Saratoga."

"Thank you too." Saratoga replied. She had a lot to think about, and a lot she needed to do when she got back, but the news she got could have been a lot worse. "Lead the way," she looked down at the empty rank tab on the officer's uniform, "Seaman."

The intelligence officer chuckled. "I went a bit too far with that, didn't I?"

Trinitite had given both Murray and herself plenty of headaches, it seemed. Hopefully, they'd have the time to deal with them now, and whatever The Wo was doing now wouldn't be giving them many more.

And thus, the string of interludes draws to an end, and a new act begins. I've got the first couple chapters roughly outlined already thanks to boot camp, but minor things like important character's names hasn't really been figured out yet. Hopefully that'll come once it's time to write those scenes. Good news is I've got a very long series of flights coming up soon, and I usually get a lot written down during those, so hopefully the next chapter will be coming shortly.