Katori sighed, skimming over the report again as she focused on killing time. Considering she'd written it the training cruiser knew it's contents exactly, but with them waiting on their last guest and with some of her present company, she didn't particularly feel like socializing.
The training cruiser looked up from the report, giving Lieutenant Commander Murray a carefully neutral gaze. She recognized the Intelligence Officer as the one who'd taken Saratoga aside during that insulting visit to Yokosuka, although his uniform at the time had only marked him out as some enlisted aid. It wouldn't have surprised her if he'd arranged that entire ordeal. Admiral Hirano hoped this briefing would shine a light on that surreal trip to Yokosuka, but Katori wasn't so confident. Murray and the Americans were already leaning on false pretense and were hiding something important about Saratoga's past, so why would they suddenly decide to be honest now?
The American spook looked up from a sheaf of classified papers he'd been reviewing, and Katori quickly redirected her attention to her own report. The topic had been Hiyou, and both Saratoga's and her own recommendation that the light carrier be considered qualified for full duty. Considering she had years of limited experience over her counterparts, this wasn't a surprise, and after failing to glean anything new from her own report Katori's attention once again turned to the room's other occupants.
Admiral Hirano wasn't paying any attention to the rest of the room. She'd been the last one to enter the room, preempting any traditional ceremony with a curt 'as you were' as the door swung open. The Admiral was normally at the base's Gym at this time, the wet sheen in her tightly-wound hair evidence she'd cut into her limited free time to be here. Even now she was still working, answering emails on her phone while she waited for their last guest.
Next to her, USS Saratoga shifted in her chair, her shoulders hunched forwards as her rangefinders remained focused on the carpet. If Commander Murray inviting both of Japan's former abyssal princesses to the briefing wasn't enough of a hint that this was related to Saratoga's old life, then the newly promoted Lieutenant J.G. made it abundantly clear. The Aircraft Carrier was a lot of things, and had certainly earned Katori's respect despite this issue, but being a good liar was not one of her qualities. It had been clear something had been bothering her ever since she'd been transferred to Admiral Hirano's command, and while she'd stuck with the story that the trip to Yokosuka several weeks ago had only been for a run-of-the-mill debriefing, the way she'd bit her lip and looked away when she relayed her story convinced no one.
The last filled chair belonged to an extremely bored aircraft carrier, the Twin-tailed veteran boredly doodling on a notepad she'd brought with her. Zuikaku had been unsurprisingly informal when she'd entered, but with whom had been illuminating. The way she'd greeted the Lieutenant Commander with a friendly handshake, of all things, suggested the unassuming American was still more important than his rank implied. When the former abyssal princess continued to congratulate him on his recent promotion, it only fermented Katori's distrust of the man. This was something related to the abyssals, and the fact the defenders of humanity were withholding any secrets about them from each other was… misguided, at best.
There was no point in speculation beyond that, however. In that direction lay those insane rumors about an abyssal-made nuclear device, along with the crackpot stories of a band of American submarines going renegade in abyssal territory to hunt it down. She'd just have to wait, and hope the human officer was going to be telling them the truth this time. Just like everyone else in the room was, with the exception of the Admiral.
The door swung open, queuing a whispered "Finally" from Zuikaku, and their last guest was revealed.
"Good afternoon~" The light cruiser's sing-song voice entered the room with a familiar flash of orange fabric. "Idol of the Fleet, Naka-chan, is here!"
"Glad you could make it, Lieutenant." Admiral Hirano replied, her phone disappearing into her uniform. "Please, take a seat."
"Yes, Admiral." Naka replied, business returning to her voice at Hirano's command, or perhaps once her eyes settled on Murray. "I'm sorry I'm late to work."
She wasn't. The briefing didn't officially start for another twenty minutes, but everyone got here as soon as they could. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement that the sooner the tension in the room could be dissipated, the better.
Still, The Training Cruiser wasn't expecting much beyond disappointment.
"Ma'am, may I get started with the briefing?" Murray asked, suddenly looking up from his stack of papers.
"Of course." Hirano replied, leaning forwards. "I've got a feeling I'll need a drink after this, and I'd rather get started early."
Zuikaku snorted, and a thin smile snuck onto Murray's lips.
"Aye, Ma'am" The American replied. He abruptly stood, taking the stack of papers he'd been holding and handling all but one to Naka. "Could you pass these around?"
"Haiiii." Naka intoned, but her normal smile seemed a little more fragile than it did on TV. Katori didn't know what the process of recalling memories as an abyssal would be like, but she couldn't imagine it would be pleasant.
"Ladies. What I'm about to brief you on isn't a particularly new development for me or Saratoga. It's clear to me, however, that my team is in desperate need of the insight from other former princesses," he nodded to Zuikaku as he spoke, then looked over to Naka, "despite how uncomfortable such a process may be. Thank you for coming.
"As for the Admiral and the Commander," He continued, formally referring to Hirano and Katori, "this… situation directly affects your command's ability to perform its mission. It took some time, as well as Saratoga's recommendation, to convince the higher-ups in the DoD that you had a need to know."
So the Lieutenant Commander was leading with an apology? It was about as close to one the man could give without any real ass-covering on his part, and the Training Cruiser wasn't buying it. Saratoga handed Katori the diminished stack of stapled packets, but before she could scan them, Murray spoke up again.
"Saratoga, do you want to start?"
Saratoga's rangefinders jerked over to Murray, and she swallowed. "The full profile?"
"No, just an overview." The Lieutenant Commander shook his head. "I think a full profile would require a separate briefing."
'Profile?' Were they talking about a person? Katori glanced down at the sheaf of papers in her hand, past the 'TOP SECRET' stamp decorating the top of the cover page.
OPERATION ABSOLUTE RAILROAD
Person of Interest: CFS Trinitite, Wo E-6 "Cassion"
What? Why would any information on a Wo-class warrant a top secret classification? Yes, information on abyssals was normally classified to some extent due to the normal operational security concerns, but the Americans wouldn't lock information on any single mainline abyssal behind their highest form of secrecy for just any reason.
"Aye, sir." Saratoga replied, standing and joining Lieutenant Commander Murray at the front of the room. Belatedly, Katori remembered to pass two of the remaining packets onto her admiral, and quietly did so. The Carrier had the confused training cruiser's undivided attention, as well as that of every other member of the JMSDF in the room, no doubt. Murray hit a button on a laptop he'd set up earlier, and the wall behind Saratoga lit up with the image of a dark, twisted Essex-class aircraft carrier. It had been taken from a modern digital camera, as evidenced by the now-infamous shutter artifacts and ghost images that marred it's quality. Despite the interference and a dark plume of smoke that obscured a good portion of the ship, it was fairly easy to tell what kind of condition she was in.
It wasn't good. The center of her deck had collapsed, like some vortex was tearing through her deck. Katori had to puzzle over the image for a while before she realized the planking had been a patch for even more serious damage, a second incident causing the facade of health the abyssal had built to collapse in on itself.
In short, beyond the two twin 5" turrets in front of her island, she didn't look like much of a threat to anyone.
"I'd like to apologize beforehand." Saratoga continued, reaching an unsteady hand into her hold and pulling out a notebook. "I haven't talked to Murray since I recalled a lot of this, so I've never told some of this to someone before." She bit her lip again, shuffling a little as she started flick through the loose paper. "My thoughts aren't really in order, so if I start rambling, just-"
"You're doing fine!" Naka interrupted, holding her hands out in front of her like a film director. "The cuteness could use a little work, and you need to show a bit more confidence, but just by looking at you I know there won't be any problems!"
Saratoga nodded weakly. It was jarring, seeing her like this. The Saratoga Katori had always worked with had been composed and confident, if a little melancholy at times. This certainly wasn't something as simple as stage fright, either. Here, despite standing in a naval base deep in human territory, Saratoga was afraid.
Pressure started to build in Katori's boilers. She didn't know how this heavily-damaged abyssal could inspire so much fear from her comrade and so much paranoia from the rest of the Americans, but that only furthered her developing dread. Like she was playing a board game with a seemingly-innocuous opponent, only to slowly realize she'd been horribly outplayed.
"Alright." Saratoga continued, the loose papers in her hand shuffling some more as she searched for the right page. "When The Abyss corrupted me, some of the first Abyssals it created to serve me were three Wo-class aircraft carriers. Modeled off the Essex-Class, they reminded Jellyfish of the real Essex sisters, who I-" Saratoga caught herself. "-who She thought were scrapped because of my performance at Crossroads.
"My… maternal attitude towards the Essexes is fairly well known," Saratoga continued, "and the grief that arose from thinking that I'd indirectly gotten them killed was what that thing dug into to corrupt me. To deal with the hopelessness and grief that overwhelmed pretty much everything else about me, Jellyfish started treating Firestorm, Hypocenter, and Trinitite as if they were the real Essexes. The entire fleet were a bunch of dolls for her to play 'fleet' with."
"At least that's a much less destructive form of crazy…" Zuikaku commented, her voice a little sour. "you're lucky Jellyfish was too protective to unleash her ships on cities like Crane did."
The comment hit Saratoga like a punch. She swayed visibly as the converted battlecruiser shot Zuikaku a painfully forced smile.
"Zuikaku, I had a lot of respect for you as an enemy in the war. That only increased when I heard you were the first abyssal princess to be purified, and you're the only one who did so by themselves, through sheer force of will..." She turned, looking back at the projected image. "...but that was a very poor choice of words."
Zuikaku's eyes suddenly went wide in realization.
"Shit, that hostage situation went bad, didn't it?"
Hostage situation? How hadn't she heard of something like that before?
"I'll get to that," Saratoga dodged, "or the Lieutenant commander will. Bottom line, I never really cared for them, just what they'd represented. I sent them on regular missions to get supplies for the fleet, content to stay behind and mope. When one was seriously damaged, I was concerned, but no more than I would be for a burning plane I might have to jettison."
The Carrier sighed, turning to stare at the projected image again. "I… don't think they realized how shallow my feelings were towards them. The way they acted around Jellyfish, listening to her stories about the war and atomics… I think they loved her."
"That's insane!" The Japanese carrier suddenly exclaimed. With everyone's attention suddenly on her, however, Zuikaku's face reddened, and she looked away from Saratoga. "Please forgive me. It's just, from what I've seen of Abyssals, I don't think they're capable of love. I never noticed much in the way of personality at all from the Crane Princess's minions."
"We had very different fleets." Saratoga replied, dryly. "The Crane's ships existed to serve in a war, while Jellyfish's were to serve in a fantasy. I can't say what that means for the psychology and nature of all abyssal regulars, but I'm certain about Trinitite. I also know…" She motioned to the image behind her. "...that she somehow survived the battle of Bikini."
Enough hints had been dropped that Katori wasn't surprised by the news, but her mind was already reeling from the information leading up to that. The Abyssals were always considered a monolithic threat, a faceless mass of hate defined only by their princesses and weakened somewhat by their petty squabbles. To suddenly learn that each and every ship they'd fought had their own personality, with thoughts beyond the simple tactics required to pursue the war…
It brought a new facet of horror to the abyss. Entirely new life had been created, given the ability to hope and love and perhaps more, before being thrown into circumstances that twisted them into hateful killing machines. Katori involuntarily shuddered. That the only choice they had in dealing with such beings was to sink them felt like a failure, but there wasn't any other option.
"On top of that, it's the opinion of the Lieutenant Commander and myself that she witnessed my purification." She turned back around, her gaze flitting over the crowd "What she thought of it, I don't know for sure, and I think Commander Murray is more qualified to speak about her actions in the weeks afterwards then I am."
"Thank you, Sarah." The intelligence officer replied, standing to take the stage. The packet of papers Katori had been given was left still unopened, the training cruiser taking the pause in the briefing to survey her colleagues in the JMSDF.
Admiral Hirano, so far, had taken the new information in stride, her face sporting that carefully-neutral expression she did when she was still considering an issue. The incredulity in Zuikaku's eyes was clear. Despite her delinquent personality she was polite enough not to interrupt the American any more, but the way she looked at the image of the damaged Wo-class made Katori worry if she'd burn a hole through the wall. The packet in her lap stayed unread, crumpling in the Aircraft Carrier's superhuman grip.
And Naka…
The normally-cherry light cruiser looked sick, somehow. She'd opened the handout and scanned through it while everyone else had been focused on the former Jellyfish Princess, but now the notes seemed to have been forgotten. They were slowly sliding off her orange dress as she stared into the floor
"Are you alright, Naka?" Saratoga preempted Katori's own question. Naka's gaze snapped upwards, allowing Katori to get a brief look into a pit of regret before the light cruiser's mask returned and her emotions disappeared.
"I…" She said, the cutesy idol voice she was famous for completely missing. "I just remembered something, that's all." She smiled herself, an expression eerily close to Saratoga's own today. "Let's continue."
Murray nodded gravely, depressing a button on the remote he was holding. The damaged aircraft carrier behind him disappeared, replaced by a map of the northern Pacific and a course charted across it. A circle just under a thousand nautical miles northeast of Midway marked a location where the line changed from a dark black to a hostile red. How did the American Navy let her get that close to their homeland?
"On September Ninth, Trinitite was spotted by the civil air patrol around here." A red dot appeared on the wall, Lieutenant Murray using a laser to circle an area just west of the circle. "Unfortunately, it was too late to warn the fishing trawler Pacific Lily of the Abyssal's presence, and the unfortunate ship was chased down and boarded by the Wo-class." The laser shifted to the circle on the image, before disappearing as Murray looked back towards his audience.
"So this is the 'hostage situation' Zuikaku mentioned." Katori stated.
"It is." Murray confirmed, nodding. "I've been skimming over tactical details, but I was a part of the force that intercepted the captured vessel." He looked back at the projection, changing it to show the Wo-class standing on the deck of the trawler, looking up at the camera. With her rigging dismissed, megaphone in her hands hanging loosely in front of her, and her glowing eyes wide with her mouth agape, the Abyssal's monstrous appearance was diminished. If someone who hadn't known about the abyssals had seen it, he might not have recognized the threat Trinitite posed at all.
"She looks desperate." Saratoga observed.
"She was." The Lieutenant Commander confirmed. "We had two destroyers, a DDG, and a light cruiser watching her. If we'd known then what we know now, I think I could have convinced her to back down, but as it was, she broke the stalemate by creating a diversion and swimming to shore."
"She can swim?" Saratoga exclaimed, leaning forwards in surprise. When everyone stared at her, she elaborated. "Where did she learn that? I don't know how to swim…"
"We don't know." Murray replied, shrugging. "But she can, and it allowed her to get onto the Olympic Peninsula, where she disappeared into the terrain."
There was a brief moment of silence as everyone in the room mulled over the news.
"...Shit." Zuikaku finally summarized, and despite the statement's rudeness Katori found herself agreeing with it. There was a reason Aircraft Carriers were considered so important before the abyssals appeared. Their ability to deal damage far inland was a cornerstone of every nation's geopolitical considerations. Yes, Trinitite didn't have a deck now, but Katori didn't know enough about repair baths, either shipgirl or abyssal, to know if the Wo-class could make one herself.
The idea of one of those things lurking in the mountains, picking off the occasional well-stocked traveler or outdoorsman for supplies while she slowly built her strength… It was no wonder the Americans had kept this disaster secret. Stupid, considering how much Japan relied on the ports Trinitite was threatening, but understandable.
"So… she's gone?" Admiral Hirano asked, a sliver of irritation creeping into his voice. "Saratoga's disgruntled former minion is loose somewhere around Puget Sound?"
"It's more complicated than that, Ma'am." Murray replied. "I'm the head of the team dedicated to locating Trinitite and assessing how much danger she really possesses, and through several additional incidents we've been able to make some inferences on her current strategy and ultimate goals. After I've mentioned the other encounters we know about, so you can understand her tactics, then I'll talk about what we know about her intentions so far."
The slideshow changed again, showing the Abyssal towering over a terrified civilian… in the middle of an American supermarket.
"She appeared again in a town south of Puget Sound. The Abyssal ambushed the manager of a supermarket in the dead of night, and forced her to open it so she could raid it's supplies. Beyond the food you'd expect, she also stole a large amount of clothing and cosmetic products."
Katori's breath caught at the revelation. Forget the mountains, Trinitite could suddenly be anywhere in North America! She could only imagine that poor shopkeeper's last moments, knowing she'd helped this monster damn any number of people, but powerless to stop it.
"After reviewing the security footage and the woman's testimony-"
"She lived?" Naka interjected.
"She did." Murray replied, his voice rising slightly as he nodded. "Trinitite even promised to eventually reimburse her for all the supplies she stole, but I'm not expecting that to happen."
"Murray."
The Lieutenant Commander paused, blinking as he looked over at Zuikaku. The former Crane Princess seemed much calmer then she'd been a few minutes ago, her elbows resting on her knees as she stared at The American.
"We've worked together before, and I trust you, which is why I'm saying this… civilian…" She spat the word out, implying she meant something very different. "...lied to you, instead of you trying to take us for fools. There's no way the Abyssal could have said that."
The Lieutenant Commander recoiled in apparent confusion, his eyes widening for a moment. His brow furrowed.
"I'm sorry?"
"Abyssals are an extension of the will of their princess." Zuikaku elaborated, moving her hands for emphasis. "They follow her orders, they do what they think she wants them to do, at all times. That's what The Abyss made them to do. Saratoga?"
"Yeah?" The converted battlecruiser asked, leaning forwards herself to get a better look at Zuikaku..
"Jellifish didn't do anything about it because of nukes, but she still hated humanity, correct?"
"Yes, she did."
"And Trinitite knew that, right?"
"Yeah," Saratoga acknowledged, her red hair swinging as she shook her head. "but-"
"Then there's no way she'd think of herself as indebted to a human, then!" Zuikaku finished, triumphant. "Abyssals might do more than what they're told, but they aren't just going to break from their Princess's will like that."
"That's been beaten into them." Naka half-heartedly agreed. The way she'd been alternating between staring at the deck, focusing far too much on the projected images, or simply staring off into space, Katori was a bit surprised the light cruiser had been paying attention to the conversation at all.
"That's why the Light Cruiser Demon's fleet is still wasting away on Poluwat, and why I had to put the last of Crane's ships down myself. They would have just kept killing in Okinawa otherwise."
Zuikaku shook her head, the finality in her verdict clear. "If Trinitite was worried about any debt, leaving the civilian alive was probably enough to repay it."
A few seconds of silence followed, as everyone watched for Murray's counter argument.
"Thank you for the insight, Zuikaku." The American finally acknowledged. "I'll take that under advisement, even though I disagree." The Japanese Carrier's face hardened, but Murray continued. "Hopefully, after you hear of the rest of the incidents she's been involved in, you'll understand why."
The slide changed again, showing an image of a tiny clearing. The image had been taken at night, as the bright flash of the camera harshly illuminated a pair of police officers, the bushes around them, colorless streaks of heavy rain that interfered with the photo, and not much else. In the center of the photo, A patch of disturbed vegetation was surrounded by what looked like a camping stove, a propane bottle sitting near a soggy bag of some white substance.
"The second encounter occurred on the twenty second, eight days later. The police department for a town south of our base at Everett was receiving complaints about strange lights in a small patch of woods, and an officer was dispatched to investigate. Trinitite was sleeping, then, having finished using these supplies she'd bought from a nearby Walmart to cook." The laser pointer came out again, circling the camping stove. "She used that pot to make cookies for herself, believe it or not."
Katori didn't. Murray seemed like he knew what he was talking about, but the image of an abyssal, her eyes glowing with cold malice as she slowly stirred a vat of chocolaty sweets was just too ridiculous to accept. The slide changed again, and somehow the image quality deteriorated even more. The seemingly regular woman was terribly lit via flashlight, her glowing eyes maxing out the camera's aperture setting and filling the dark scene with blue and orange lens flares. From what the light cruiser could tell, the abyssal had been laying down, and whomever had the camera was standing over them.
"Anyways, she appears to have the ability to turn off the glow in her eyes, somehow. That wasn't in play when the police officer woke her up, which meant he immediately identified the Wo-class as an abyssal. Both ran from the scene, leaving it in the condition displayed in the previous image."
The screen shifted again, Murray once again showing them the two police officers in the clearing.
"She didn't even attempt a pursuit?" Katori asked. It didn't mean much if she didn't act aggressive, there- she had just been woken up, after all, and must have been at least a little sluggish- but it was interesting she didn't immediately eliminate the human who'd found her out.
"The tracks we found pointed towards no." Murray confirmed, looking to Zuikaku. "However, she could have just been skittish instead of merciful, considering her damage."
Zuikaku nodded in agreement, her face unreadable.
"On the other hand…" He opened up again, looking back at the projection as he switched to the next slide. "The last incident was much less ambiguous."
Katori wasn't entirely certain what she was looking at. The concrete skeleton of a slowly-forming building dominated the image, while several wood splinters and bent steel rods lay around a limp rope at its muddy base. There was one particularly large pile of shattered wood in the center of the image, but whatever it was was no longer recognizable considering the trauma inflicted on it.
"This was where the Wo-class worked." Murray elaborated, although that statement didn't help Katori's confusion at all.
"...What do you mean?" Zuikaku finally asked, her tone guarded.
"Apparently, two days after her raid, she walked into the office of a construction site west of Seattle, where they were building housing for refugees. She begged the Foreman for a job, and he gave her a chance, only for her to predictably be capable in manual labor."
"Begged?" Naka echoed.
"Yes." Murray deadpanned. "The Abyssal's negotiation tactics have moved beyond coercion or fair deals."
"No, she knew how to do that already." Saratoga disagreed. "When Trinitite was asking for something from Jellyfish, she got very adept at that sort of thing." It was a minor detail, and something she doubted anyone else in the room noticed, but Katori wondered at the way the edges of her lips twitched upwards at the memory. "But admitting her vulnerability to a human and placing herself at his mercy would be a very different prospect."
"I stand corrected, then." Murray spoke, sighing meaningfully. "Well, it got her the job, and she proved to be a very capable construction worker. So capable, in fact, that one of her coworkers started to suspect her to be an abyssal."
"That's… fortunate," Zuikaku spoke up, "but what lead him to that conclusion?"
"'A bunch of little things,' according to his words." Murray dismissed, his own skepticism apparent in his voice. "To confirm his suspicions and get proof to show to authorities, he ordered a thermal camera and took an image of Trinitite." He depressed a button on his remote and a pair of images appeared, both of a seemingly-normal Woman handling a chain. If she hadn't known the grainier, monotone copy of her was supposed to be thermal, she wouldn't have noticed anything wrong.
"The abyssal detected this action, and deduced that her coworker had discovered her secret. She then broke the chain she'd been using to hoist a pallet of rebar." The slide switched back to the scene of the accident, the remains of the pallet now a little clearer to make out now that Katori knew what to look for. "Maybe it was an accident, because she then tackled the man she knew had seen through her disguise, shielding him from the falling load."
"So she saved his life." Naka assessed, reeling with the implication.
"Yes. She even asked the human if he knew, before leaving the scene." Murray's voice rose again, as if he was suddenly talking to a much larger crowd. "This wasn't some disguise, or ploy. Trinitite would have maintained her cover for longer if she'd just stood and watched the human die. As for why…" In a noticeably un-military gesture, he shrugged. "...we don't know."
"My best theory is that she thought of her company as a kind of convoy." Saratoga spoke up. "Whenever she was on a mission, she had charges to protect. That sort of thing is probably deeply engraved into her personality."
"So this was instinctual, then." Zuikaku rationalized, relief in her voice.
"Maybe, but it would require her to identify humans as members of her fleet anyways." the Lieutenant Commander replied. "It doesn't solve the problem of an abyssal developing working relationships with humans at all."
The Carrier didn't respond. Katori could speak for anyone else in the room, but the news had robbed her of words. The idea of an abyssal, of all things, getting a job and quietly working among humans, was something she never would have expected outside some poor-taste comedy routine.
"Through these incidents and interviewing those involved, we've managed to build a fairly reliable picture of her objective." Murray continued, ignoring the shock in the room. "When questioned by the crew of the Pacific Lilly, Trinitite claimed to be 'looking for someone.' When talking about her supposed past with her coworkers, she claimed that her mother might have survived the 'abyssal attack' which caused her to flee, that she was unsure if she was really alive, and doesn't know where she is." Murray finished, looking meaningfully towards the audience.
"It's pretty clear she's talking about Saratoga." He concluded, skipping through the thermal image of the abyssal and ending the slideshow. "That's about all we know at the moment. I'll answer any questions you might have, and I'll be occasionally returning to provide updates to this developing situation in the future."
"So," Katori started, making an effort to ignore the groundbreaking implications to focus on the practical problems, "we're dealing less with a lone wolf terrorist, and more of a stalker?"
"It appears to be that way, yes." the Lieutenant Commander replied. "We don't know what she'd do if she found Saratoga, so the general consensus is it would be safer to keep her here, in Japan."
"I guess," Zuikaku started, "but what if she comes here, somehow?"
"Katori," The Admiral suddenly said. With the exception of the pointed question about losing an abyssal earlier, she'd been quiet, the annoyance in the features slowly deepening, "remind me to modify the watch bill so we have a shipgirl on the perimeter at all times."
"Aye." Katori replied, making a note in her log. Hirano wasn't the type to forget something like that, but the announcement, and more importantly the tired, annoyed tone she gave it in, subtilty informed Murray of her attitude towards the ordeal. She turned back to Murray.
"Lieutenant Commander:" She started, emphasizing his entire rank instead of shortening it to the customary 'Commander.' "I assume Bismark and Gangut haven't been briefed on this?"
"No, Ma'am." The American reported, meeting the Japanese admiral's unceasing gaze. "Bismark is busy out at sea, and I haven't been authorized to brief Gangut yet."
The admiral sighed in exasperation, and Katori couldn't help but agree. If news reports, especially the Russian ones, were anything to believe, you'd have a hard time believing the two countries were rivals before the war. The images of an Udaloy-class sailing in formation with a distant Supercarrier were the most compelling to Katori, but similar pictures of Su-33s taxing down American Runways and Russian road guards directing M109s through Siberian roads were all over the media. Even the impractical Bering Strait Tunnel Project had been greenlit, although between a lack of infrastructure and the regular presence of abyssals in said straight, nobody who was informed was expecting much from it.
In reality, there was zero trust in the alliance, as demonstrated by America's refusal to admit to their supposed partner the disaster unfolding on their West Coast. To say they were exclusively guilty of such political distrust would be grossly incorrect (the refusal of either party to let each other anywhere near their guided weapons, for example, had caused hiccups in operations before), but it was still disappointing to see, especially on a topic so important.
"I see." Hirano replied, standing. "Well, you're fortunate she can work with humans, because I'm sure you know you have to take her alive."
What?
"Because she could be resummoned by another Princess and pass her skills in infiltration on if we sunk her, correct?" Murray guessed, and the admiral nodded. "Very well, Ma'am. I'll pass that on to Admiral MacKey when I return to the US."
"No need." Hirano replied, briskly walking towards the exit. "I'll be calling him now. Carry on, Commander."
And with that, the door closed, leaving Katori and Murray with the three abyssal princesses.
"Well," Zuikaku started, her dark expression apparent as she stood as well. "Thank you for this… information, Murray. I think you've misjudged the situation, but I'll still consider your theory, revie this…" She lifted the sheaf of papers she'd been handed "...and get back to you." She turned to leave as well, pausing at the door. "Good luck, Saratoga."
"Thank you, Zuikaku." Saratoga replied.
"I think I should go, too." Naka was standing as well, now. Her voice shook a little as it's energetic tone attempted to return. "An idol's work is never done, right?"
"Call any of us if you need us, Naka." Murray replied, concerned in his eyes. Nobody had missed how much the briefing had shaken the light cruiser, it seemed. "I might be busy with Trinitite, but I can advise you on any operational planning if you need it."
She only nodded, hurrying into the hallway without another word. Silence dominated, until Murray looked meaningfully at his watch and walked to his laptop.
"Katori, you wouldn't mind if we started that second briefing I mentioned?" he asked, powering the device down. "The more I know about Trinitite, the better chance we have of finding her."
"Go ahead." Katori replied, looking back at Saratoga. She'd stood as well, making a clear effort to regulate her breathing as she focused on unpleasant memories. "Can I stay?"
"Please, do." Saratoga's soft voice interjected, a weak smile appearing on her lips. "Thank you."
"Of course." Saratoga's feelings on the abyssal seemed more complicated than Katori would have guessed, but she'd done a spectacular job in training her charges even with this distraction. Being there for her as the situation developed seemed like the least the Training Cruiser could do.
...and thus, I broke my own rules on chapter length once again. This is ending up as a trend among interludes. I definitely think breaking this chapter up would have harmed it, however, so enjoy this text dump!
I hope you enjoyed! This was actually a lot of fun to write, but I'm still gad it's over, because I'm also looking forewords to writing the next chapter...