Louise awoke to the feeling of comfort, a warm blanket, a soft bed comfier than any she could recall sleeping on. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. Nothing was a dream, she on a ship, in the blackness of the night sky, crewed my monsters and non human beings.
Being that were nicer than most humans and nobles she had dealt with.
She brought a hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes, finding them a bit moist, meaning she had likely been crying in her sleep.
"I can't do that, I need to be strong," She quietly muttered to herself as she rolled onto her side and sat up to see Montmorency still asleep across from her.
While her life was not what many would call great, she knew she was better off than some, and one rule of herm others still held strong in her mind. The 'Rule of Steel' as her mother called it was many things. It required one to always obey those of a higher standing to them, to never betray, and among other things, to never let ones emotions control and rule them. It was the only part of the rule that after being in the academy Louise still felt and kind of care for. If she was constantly letting her emotions control her, she would be a wreck and would never have been able to keep up with the other students in their classes, and if she let her emotions control her now, she would likely break down like she almost did on the monstrous ship where -.
Louise shook her head, trying to remove such thoughts from her mind. She didn't want to remember that ship, or what happened to the other two. She had to be strong for Montmorency, especially with what happened between her and Guiche.
"When I next see him, I might just kill him," Louise muttered in a moment of anger.
Shaking her head again she kicked her legs over the side of the bed, finding her eyes drifting to the outfit she was wearing. Montmorency did not seem to like the body tight outfit that covered them from neck to toe, claiming it revealed to much, but Louise found it rather interesting. Sure it showed off almost everything, but neither of them were by any means ugly. Sure, she was even less developed than Montmorency, but it kind of felt nice to show off her body in a indirect way. Such thoughts were why she had such mixed feeling about Kirche Von Zerbst historically. If she had a body as developed as hers she would probably want to flaunt it as well, just not while being a whore on the side.
"Mmm,"
Louise looked up to see Montmorency shifting in her sleep, an arm rising to rub her eyes. "Good morning."
"Mmm, its not good," Montmorency said as she touched the metal frame of the bed as she shifted how she was lying on her side."" We are stuck on a ship of monsters, with no idea when we will get home."
"At least they are friendly, and at least we are alive," Louise responded as she forced as natural a smile as she could. "We'll find our way back."
"Not all of us," Montmorency said morosely as she sat up on her bed, before drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.
"No, but we will get back," Louise said before seeing that she would not likely be able to make Montmorency feel better with just words alone. "Do you want to get some breakfast?"
"How do you know its even the morning?"
"Well," Louise stopped and looked at the wall by the door where a black plate was illuminated with bright green numbers. "According to that it is nine in the morning, I think."
" . . . . Do you even remember the way to that, canteen was it?" Montmorency asked.
Her question made Louise flinch a bit. To say that the hallways were confusing was an understatement. "Well, if we cant find it, we could ask someone, right?"
Montmorency seemed against the idea, right up until her stomach made noise, making her look down I embarrassment. " Fine."
"Okay," Louise said as she got off her bed and stretched her hands above her head. She then offered a hand to Montmorency. "Shall we?"
Montmorency said nothing as she took Louise's hand and was pulled up off her bed, further embarrassment covering her face due to her feelings about their current clothes.
Louise decided it was best to not comment, even if she thought the outfit was quite nice, and instead led Montmorency out of their room and into the halls of the ship. Unlike in the room, the hallways had a constant noise bout them. Whether it was the soles of their shoes built into their outfits clicking on the metal plates, the whirring of some unknown machinery, or the sound of the ships monstrous crew speaking in the distance, the noise was omnipresent in a way that was a bit overwhelming.
Despite it the two of them made their way through the halls as best they could, being turned around twice before they were standing in front of a door with a label above it that said Canteen, and as it opened on their approach, they saw it was indeed their objective.
Stepping in they found the canteen utterly empty except for one entity that made both of them pause in confusion and wonder equally. At the back of the room sat a being that looked to be made of various beams of metal. Its head was like a great lamp, and its multiple arms all seemed to be split into many more, all of them touching panes of light that glowed in all the colors of the rainbow, sometimes shifting their color as it moved the light panes themselves with mere touches of its appendages. The very light around the entity seemed to be darker, making the glow of the panes of light even brighter.
After a few seconds the entity stopped moving, and then its head turned to the doorway, looking at the two girls with its flickering singular eye like light of a head. "Homo Sapiens Females designate, Montmorency, Louise, a pleasure to meet you both. Please do not be alarmed by my presence. If you require organic sustenance you can receive it. I am merely utilizing the canteen for a time to peruse information acquired from the Gray Ship, Designate Ooblan."
Montmorency froze up at he entities strange echolike voice that was neither male nor female, and shifted slightly behind Louise.
Louise however took a step into the canteen, and then began stepping closer to the entity, albeit at a cautious pace. "Who, or what, are you?" She asked carefully as she noticed a number of think black rope like things wiggling about in and around many of the entities many limbs."
"This unit Designation, Emden, a SRO, Sentient Robotic organism. I was once a mere artificial intelligence that gained true sentience, though it cannot be said that this unit has a soul as Androids such as captain, Designate Musashi, does." The thing said as its head turned back to one of the panes of light. Its many arms and ropey tendrils began moving again as well, touching panes and causing markings that looked like some sort of language to be shifted around and moved.
"That, tells me nothing," Louise said simply, not understanding even half of the words the thing before her.
"That is not unexpected," it said without stopping its actions. "Entities from primitive class words would not understand. Simply refer to this unit as Emden, a member of the crew of the ship, Designate Telicherry."
"Alright," Louise said as she took a second to prepare herself. "What, exactly is all of, this," she gestured tward the panes of light. "What are you doing?"
"This unit is currently extrapolating data acquired from the banks of the Gray ship, attempting to discern what they had been doing, and how they had been operating, in the hopes of discovering anything of note to assist in the discovery of your home world for return," Emden answered simply as its various appendages continued to move about.
"You, are trying to find us a way home?" Louise asked after a second of figuring out what it actually said.
"Correct."
"You've found it then, right?!" Montmorency spoke up hopefully as she almost, but not quiet, moved around Louise. "Or something to help, right? You've found something?"
"Incorrect," Emden said, causing Montmorency to deflate. "Gray encryption is very advanced, and that ships encryption seems to have been hardened by a third party. Thus far I have only found fragment data pertaining to the actions they took upon you and the other who expired."
"Uhm, you are still looking through it though, right?" Louise asked hopefully. "I mean, there is more to check on and there is a chance, right?"
"That is correct. There is currently 7.91066 petabytes of information to continue looking through. The Gray computer was nearly full to capacity, and as such it takes time to parse the information to discover what is proper information and what is junk data."
"So, it will take time?" Louise asked, clearly confused by what in the founders name a peeta bite was.
"Affirmative. Likely a number of-" Emden was cut off when the hissing of the door to the canteen caught its attention before Marila stepped into the room.
"Ah good you all are here!" the giant bear woman thing said with a soft and warm tone. "Emden, the Boss wants you on the ground team for when we land on Absalom."
"Designate Marila, query, we have arrived in system ahead of schedule then, correct?" Emden asked as the bear walked over, making Montmorency decide that being closer to Emden was safer than closer to a bear and repositioned herself accordingly.
"We have, yes, it seems the Starstone is in good condition right now and we made good time," Marila said as she turned her gaze toward the two girls. "Ladies, we have arrived in the Pact worlds system and while it will be a few hours till we reach Absalom, I was thinking you might like to see the system and the station as we approach from the Observation deck."
"Um, thank you for the offer, but we were just about to get some food," Montmorency said nervously as she ended up staring at the bear woman's teeth.
"Oh that is fine, we can get you some breakfast bars and go up with them," Marila said as she walked over to the strange machines on the one wall and pressed something, coming back a moment later with a handful of wrapped sticks of some sort that looked to maybe be made of oats or something similar.
"I take it this is something akin to watching a ship pull into port?" Louise asked as she moved toward Marila and took one of the bars, finding a strange clear film that surrounded it. It felt solid, but crinkled in her grip. "Are we, supposed to eat this covering?"
"No, do not eat the plastic, just tear it off and toss it in one of the garbage buns by the door," Marila said as she pointed to the hole in the wall in question while holding out a bar for Montmorency. "As for what it is like, a mere sailing ship cannot compare to the wonder of seeing a planet from space, or seeing Absalom station for the first time!"
Louise looked at Montmorency and found she was staring at her with obvious mixed feelings. So instead of answering Louise wrangled the package in her hands open, almost sending the bar flying in the process, and took a bit out of it, finding it sort of tasted like honey. "This is pretty good actually, but, what exactly is an observation deck"
"Ah yes, it's the tip most deck of the ship, that had large glass plates so you can see out into space. It is also a great place for meditation and the like," Marila said with a nod of her head that made her snout look like it was bouncing "Come, I'll bring you there and you can see for yourself!"
"It would be best, if you accompany Designate Marila, she does not often take no for an answer when her mind is set upon something for others benefit." Emden stated simply.
It was at that moment that the two girls notice Marila already walking toward the door. "Come on!"
"We, should probably go with her," Louise said carefully. "It might be fun?"
"I guess," Montmorency said in a uncaring tone.
"Enjoy the view, it is always getting better," Emden said s the two girls left the canteen following Marila. Unlike when they went down the halls on their own Marila seemed to know exactly where she was going. Down the halls, up a couple of ramps and in short order they found themselves before double doors that opened on her approach.
The room they went into was beyond what either Louise or Montmorency could imagine. It was not big, and had a couple benches, a table with chairs around it, and carpets on the floors. But what truly made it unbelievable was that the entire ceiling and opposite wall were a single curved pane of glass.
And through it they saw the stars and space. A canvas of darkness with wisps of other colors off in the distance, thousands of twinkling lights illuminating the darkness with wonder. To the right was a massive ball of brown an blues with wisps of yellow surrounding it, and to the left was a larger sphere of blue and green, white wisps traveling across it.
"What, what are those!" Louise found herself exclaiming as she ran up to the window and pressed her hands against it, finding the glass to be startling cold.
"Those are planets, Worlds like the one you came from," Marila said as she stepped up behind Louise, while Montmorency approached the window with a face of wonder. "On the right is the planet Verces, and the left, Castrovel. Each worlds with populations in the trillions easily."
"Those are, worlds, like where we came from?" Montmorency asked as she stepped up beside Louise. "Does, would Halkeginia look like those?"
"It is certainly possible," Marila said with a grin as she pointed ahead into the darkness where a bright green light could be seen. " You see that light? That is where we are going. That, is Absalom Station!"