Ametheliana
Well-known member
YSS Kaiyō II
Medical Bay
12日 8月 YE 46
Hour After Mission End
There were a large number of empty beds and unfilled hemosynth tubes in the medical bay of the YSS Kaiyō II. But, unlike most days aboard the Fuji-class gunship, there were three tubes in use today and one in a bed, sleeping off injuries. The three crewmen who had become NMX Nekovalkyrja to go undercover within an Mishhuvurthyar base and stayed there for two weeks were getting into their original bodies now after the success of the mission.
Though the medical lab's containment cells usually held prisoners captured on the battlefield, today the emptied cargo hold had been tasked with the undertaking. Bursting at the seams, within the last hour the ship had taken on over two hundred NMX Nekovalkryja, some of which the three in the hemo tubes had worked with, and the atmosphere on the ship was tenser than normal due to this.
The medical teal panels on Muyomi's bodysuit matched her waves of curls that tossed themselves down her shoulders and back. She was always on edge and the addition of so many chaotic variables in the form of dangerous super soldiers did nothing to cut the tension that was her homeostatis. It did feel good to have work to do within the quiet confines of the medical bay, though, and she had worked with the information the SAINT infiltration team had left her as well as taking the crew's bodies out of cold stasis with a smile on her face. Even treating the ID-SOL's wounds and pushing him to sleep had been fun in its challenge.
Now, Muyomi was seeing the first of those being soul transferred back into their old bodies beginning the waking process within the hemosynth tubes and she immediately sent a message to the bridge to let them know. The hemosynth in the tube had to drain before Molli could leave the tube, but knowing that the Nepleslian was now conscious meant something to Muyomi. The medic diverted her eyes from the naked woman and held a towel in front of her for when the tube did open. A new duty uniform for the Joto Hei was neatly folded on the bed opposite her tube, as was one for the two others for when their minds were properly re-placed and exited their own hemo tubes.
The reason for Molli's expedited return to her original body was simple: the NMX Nekovalkyrja form suffered a great deal of trauma in the wake of the Kaiyo's messy infiltration. Severe burns scorched her backside to such a degree that it had the consistency of fried jerky, a fracture in the skull threatened irrecoverable mental damage, and a blade had pierced dangerously close to her heart. Nekos were built to take a lot of punishment, but even their bodies had limits, and Molli had exceeded hers. Just as Molli was put under for the initial transfer weeks ago, the return trip also happened in an uneasy slumber that she jostled awake from once the comforting warmth of the hemosynth drained and was replaced by the relative frigidity of the nude.
The Nepleslian emerged from the tube in a bleary haze, with trembling knees that made her cling to the door for support. Muyomi's towel invited a reprieve from the embarrassment of the nude, but Molli reached for it with an arm that wasn't there, and the cyborg woman remembered that they'd removed it before putting her body in the freezer. It was a small comfort that they let her keep her cybernetic eyes -- Molli didn't fancy waking up naked and blind. For a moment, she stared at the metal port that had been grafted to her shoulder with an expression of unfamiliarity.
Her knees had stopped shaking enough that Molli felt comfortable snatching the towel from Muyomi's hand with the flesh and blood arm and wrapping it over her torso. Hemosynth fluid puddled at Molli's feet, and when she stared down, the Yamatain soldier could see a young woman staring back up at her. Her bronzed skin was paler than she remembered, with glowing red eyes and a face framed by long tresses of black locks that fell in a messy heap around her face. Stubby black horns peeked through the tresses, and the sight made Molli's heart skip a beat. Of course they'd grow back, she forgot to tell Muyomi to file those damned horns down.
"Wuh...S'cold..." Molli's voice was scratchy and hoarse from disuse, and felt as unfamiliar and sore as the rest of her body. "Mooyahme-" The brutal pronunciation of the the medical officer's name made Molli flinch as her tongue butchered a word that had sounded so clear in her head. Right, speaking was going to be harder, just like it always was. "How're th'others?" she stared at the other tubes holding the bodies of her comrades and friends. "S'Reeyoh doin' good?"
"Better to focus on yourself," Muyomi had her answer at the tip of her tongue, but when Molli followed up with specifics, she couldn't help but speak meakishly. "Yoshida-hei suffered extensive third degree burns, but thankfully it would take much longer to heal her than to simply put her back in her original body as we are. She'll be fine. Back to you, how are you feeling?"
That was the sort of question Molli usually hated, like all the rest of the small-talk conversation starters. Today, after all that had happened, though, it was the sort of question she had to really think about. "Ah'm..." she pressed a hand over her chest, expecting to feel a healed over stab wound, but finding herself none the worse for wear. "Ahunno." Physically, she was groggy and lightheaded, but memories of Myga's experiences weighed down on her like a waterfall. "Ah feel like...somefin's been downloaded in m'brain. All what's happened in th'other body..."
She walked over to the bed, which seemed particularly inviting, and picked up the uniform. It was a bodysuit that felt soft to the touch in a way that a flight suit typically wasn't, and Molli was quick to wipe herself down with the towel and change into it. It was sleek, snug, and surprisingly warm, and Molli wondered if it had thermal lining.
Having come in from just the deck below, the captain had strode into the med bay just in time to catch Molli's last words. Hoshi's expression was taut, having been dealing with procedures and prejudices while working with the NMX in the cargo hold. The return trip was not looking to be easy, but she kept reminding herself it would at least be shorter than those from the Kuvexian frontier.
"How much do you remember from the mission?" Hoshi asked, less worried about the actuality of Molli not retaining them. Molli would have, but the captain truly wanted to know what she asked next. "How do you feel about those memories, I suppose, is my next question."
"S'comin' in bits 'n pieces," Molli scratched at her lengthy, unkempt hair, "Like ah...like ah movie." The follow-up question made her pause and really consider the answer, because it felt like the type of question that could lead to a comfortable night in a bunk, or a horribly awkward period in a holding cell. "...Ent gonna think it were ah good time, if that's whatcha mean," she replied cagily.
"No," Hoshi said only. The furrow in her brow after having come from deck five didn't dissipate but only grew as she spoke to Molli. "We've had better. I'm glad to hear your voice again, though." It was usually an offhand sentiment, but the captain's words were heavy as she seemed to genuinely feel them as she said them. She looked the Nepleslian up and down and, for a split second, her expression lifted.
"Boss made you that suit for off duty, glad it fits. And Aratani has been working on your arm. Something about inner chambers has her hung up, but you'll have it by tonight or she'll be sleeping in the cargo hold." Hoshi informed her.
At the mention of someone tinkering with her precious arm, Molli's eyes widened. "W-What's wrong wiv m'ar-" she started, her voice cracking as it rose in pitch.
Morgana wasn't far behind, having had time to have a shower can a change of clothes, swapping the type 31 SAINT suit for a standard green paneled body suit. It was clear that not every mark on her face was grim as even cleaned dark rings had formed around her eyes. "If you'd rather forget, in your case it would be rather trival to extract those memories. The engrams were formed with a digital signature, and stand out rather prominently compared to the more chaotic signature normally associated with Nepleslian engram structures."
Hoshi's mouth opened as if ready with a quick response to Morgana's offer. But then she closed it and looked to Molli instead.
The notion of forgetting two entire weeks made Molli's knees tremble on reflex, and she had to sit on the bed or risk falling over entirely. "Wuh- Um... Ent no point... Everyone else'll remember... I dunn-"
Interrupting, Muyomi squeaked, "Another tube is draining."
Awakening from one of the tubes was Sif, eyes slowly fluttering open as her mind booted up. A strange wave of nostalgia washed over her, taking her to the time of her first awakening. Sure, the space was a lot more cramped and there were overall fewer naked bodies being ushered out of the room, but her senses being a little fuzzy and gradually sharpening as her heart beat invoked the memories.
As she stepped out of the tube, she did a big stretch and yawned. "It feels good to be back in my own body," she said as her stretch transitioned to a hug to herself. "Feels so much healthier than Cynea. That base's diet left a lot to be desired," she said sheepishly.
"That's what I like to hear," Hoshi said, smiling at Sif. "Cooks also made a dinner special for all of you guys, so once you're ready head down there and you'll have more than just memories of your old diet."
"After two weeks, I feel like I'm going to eat myself into a refeeding syndrome," Sif chuckled as she began slicking back her hair to gather up the strands, beginning to weave them into her signature braid, though the lack of hair ties made her stop half way, and instead she decided to just squeeze out the excess hemosynth still clinging to her. "Though a nice hot shower sounds really good right now."
"If you're going to change your mind you had better do it quick." Morgana continued to Molli, looking down at her tablet. "As you continue to form new memories, these ones will begin to become foundational and get intertwined. It will become harder and harder to unravel them."
"Eh...? That ent gonna, like...make m'brain bleed, will it?" Molli asked, looking alarmed. She peered past Hoshi, Muyomi, and Morgana to see Sif; though she was quick to avert her gaze.
"No, just a repeat of the proceedure. We ST you out, do some edits, then ST you back in." Morgana answered. "No more traumatic than what you've already gone though."
"Ah ken handle some bad memories, ah grew up rough," Molli gave her chest a thump with her fist. "...No lyin', nuffin' coulda prepped me for somefin that swivin' awful."
"If we have to remember," Hoshi quipped, "you have to remember." Her voice had lost its levity as she said, "It was pretty rough out there, you weren't quite yourself at times. Then at others, you were exactly who I know you as and more. Learning from and embodying both aree important to keep growing, I'd say."
Morgana looked at Hoshi as she talked with an impassive expression, then back at Molli without commentary. "It's up to you, ultimately." She said finally "Overcomming traumatic experiences can be useful. I would still consider psychiatric assistance for the next few weeks at least. That is a non medical recommendation though, I'll leave that for Muyomi to make." She said before moving over to Sif.
"What d'you reckon, Sif?" Molli's eyes briefly flicked toward her comrade, maybe a second opinion could help.
The purple-skinned neko was pulled out of her musings when her opinion was asked about memory erasure. Her answer didn't take a whole lot of time. "Well, if we were to cut away every bad memory, we'd be simply naive shells, stuck at a constant, never growing to be more than a simple weapon. But for this particular section... well, as much as it would hurt to process, I don't want to forget the bonds we made, as fleeting as it would be now."
Morgana held her tablet up to Sif's head for a moment, then lowered it back. "In your case it's more trival. Nekovalkaryan minds are more ordered and can compensate for missing dependancies." She held her breath for a moment and looked to the side thoughtfully before her eyes returned to the tablet. "Ultimately though, I'm not a clinician."
Looking between those speaking, Muyomi sidled up to Hoshi to quietly say, "Last tube is drained."
The second most injured of the NMX infiltrators was the last to awaken. With a particularly fould face as she stepped out of her tube Rio said flatly, "Can we please not do that again? I know what being grilled is like now..."
Morgana slid over to Rio, still with tablet in hand. "As I was saying to the others, I can edit that knowledge out if you'd like." She said looking down at the device before lifting it up to Rio's head.
Sif's word's struck a chord with Molli, who rested a hand over where she'd been stabbed in her other body. "What's gonna happen t'tha NMX what got out?"
Rio shook her head at Morgana's offer to edit her memories "I would rather not. Those are important experiences in their own way." Hearing Molli's question about the captives Rio also asked "Good question. What is the plan?"
Moving her hands behind her, Hoshi jumped backwards with a huff to sit on one of the medical facility's beds. "They'll be brought back to Yamatai temporarily to surrender. From there they can either join Yamatai's banner or become Free Neko. There is a subculture of them with the Poku Saeruo that I don't know much about named the Niko Yârme. What's more that I do know about is that the NMX Neko we found in stasis on Nebel were the ones that alerted us to the Mishhuvurthyar presence on this planet. They're very different than the Neko you worked with, having never been "activated", so to speak." Hoshi sighed, but it didn't sound sad, just resigned to the facts she had at her disposal.
"The Neko of Nebel have already offered community to the NMX Neko from this base and I've let them know as much, so we'll see. They won't be forced to fight for Yamatai if that's not what they want, but they will be forced to surrender to Yamatai with a rehabilitation period, at the very least." Hoshi finished.
It was Rio that decided to ask a more complicated question "What about Hihja? Has she been treated? Is she alive still?"
"Ah pulled her up t'the ship m'self," Molli explained, whilst leaving out a few crucial details. It wasn't going to help Hihja's case if those details slipped out.
Hoshi's deep blue eyes flickered to Molli and stayed there as she queried, "Muyomi, she's alive and stable in triage, correct?"
"Yes, that is correct, captain," the medic responded. "I treated the NMX Nekovalkyrja and Ketsurui-sama's wounds earlier this hour along with William-san's." She pointed to the sleeping ID-SOL. "He needed to be sedated due to the extent, though."
"Eesh..." Molli stared at William, whose presence up to now had always been in the corner of her vision. "Least ah had a healthy bod t'go back to..." She didn't want to imagine the kind of fighting he'd seen down on the planet, but it would have been easier than pondering the fate of her -- or rather, Myga's -- former comrades.
"William's insane for fighting with us, on our ship. It's his first true home, though. But we don't have the facilities for an ID-SOL like a Nepleslian ship does. He's committing to a lot to take a bullet wound while attached tot he Kaiyo, much less three or four." Hoshi rambled, then got serious and looked at Sif. "I wish I had been able to question him about something his team may have seen or done, but I can ask you."
"Hm? What about?" Sif responded. "When we got separated when you went deeper into the base?"
"There was an Overseer that I heard got killed." Hoshi asked, a gloom about her that was unshakable. "Was that you? Or him? She had grey hair. I saw her earlier in the mission then never again. If you did,, that's fine."
Hoshi's last sentence seemed to be the least genuine ones she had said in the last few minutes and her face betrayed the lie as she grimaced sharply while saying them.
"Oh... You mean Overseer Charbon?" Sif's eyebrow raised, remembering her trying to come in contact with them a number of times. "Yeah, we met her in an abandoned hallway. William shot at her at first, but she was alive when we parted. She gave us directions to the hangar, and to that chute I went through to meet up with you guys."
Wracking her head for any other detail, one thing did pop into her mind, though it turned out that it had nothing to do with Charbon when she confronted her on it. "Oh, right, when we were going through that abandoned hallway, I did find an NSP with a message engraved on it. Did you see it?"
"I see, I didn't expect that." Hoshi bit her cheek and looked to her hands in her lap momentarily, then back to Sif. "I'd love to see it, I'll check your NMX body for it a after this. Any other intel or findings to share before I head back to the cargo bay? From anyone? Aiko-chusa's holding it down there pretty well but it will still need all hands on deck until we get back to Yamatai."
Sif thought for a moment to scan through her brain for anything she might have missed mentioning. "Aside from the plans for Elysia, I don't think there was anything pertinent left. We were able to extract it, right?" her gaze turned to Morgana, who she somewhat recalled as being the one to extract the data, but she was only half sure, having been attending someone else at the time.
Morgana nodded in response. "I've given it to Boss for processing." She answered.
"Oh, and by the way," Sif added. "One of the NMX, she had red hair like Cynea. Is she... is she alright? Her name's Nari and, well, she has a bit of authority with the Nekos in that base, but... she, well, she might be a handful... She was a bit solemn when I saw her outside. I hope she isn't causing any trouble."
Crinkling her brow, Hoshi asked, "Do you feel comfortable going down to deck five to look yourself? Otherwise you can send me a mental image of her and I'll report back." Hoshi had in fact seen Nari from the back when Charbon was escorting the armorer out of the space the team needed to be, but didn't know her face or name well enough to pick her out from a group or know that's who Sif was talking about.
"No, I should look for her too," SIf responded, swallowing a hard lump in her throat, knowing that she owed an explanation. "Rem too... I didn't see her in the crowd, so I'm a bit worried..."
The mention of Nari made Rio halt her redressing "Aside from my radiant, do you think she'll be mad about everything else we threw in the lava?" As out of place as it was, the memories of Nari throwing a fit over damaged weapons still stood out. "Speaking of...where is it? I would like to keep it if possible?"
"Is she a bit of a hard ass?" Hoshi asked quizically. "Your radiant? I'm keeping the M3 pistol this time. Just make sure to have Aratani fabricate some new ammo for it."
A chuckle escaped Sif, "She's a nightmare. But she is amazing in the stuff she does. Pretty sure some of the overseers were afraid to mess with her armory."
"Sounds like she has reason to be a bit mad, then. Good luck to you, honestly! Before you go there, though, make sure to get a good meal in the wardroom. That's an order to all of you," Hoshi said sternly as she stood and clapped her hands softly in front of her.
Morgana's stomach loudly rumbled as though in reponse to to Hoshi's order. She looked up from her device wide eyes with a slight blush to her cheeks. "Probably a good idea."
Rio nodded happily at Hoshi's advice to have more ammunition made "I will after everything settles down. But for now real food sounds like a dream come true after that nightmare of a base." Rio giggles at the sound of Morgana's stomach "I'm not the only one it seems!"
"I'm going to be getting an earful from Nari for sure," Sif let out a sigh. "So I definitely need something in my stomach. Who knows how long she'll keep me there."
"Ah... ent feelin' hungry," Molli lied, "Can ah see Hihja?" she wasn't sure how she'd feel about encountering her former friend again, especially after she'd tried to kill her.
"Get a couple bites of food in you and you can. Just let the officer on duty know beforehand for extra protection," the captain said. It was against her better judgement, but Hoshi hoped that pushing for Molli to get at least part of a meal in her would make herself feel better about the now-Nepleslian seeing her former comrade again. After having witnessed what Hihja had done to Molli on the planet andnable to act in the moment, Hoshi only hoped that either she or Aiko would be able to stop the same from happening again aboard the Kaiyō.
"The Taisa is right. We all need food. Why don't we go eat then bring back some food for Hihja and William if they both awake? We can all see her then." Rio said as she offered up another solution while she finished redressing into her duty uniform.
Their arguments seemingly broke down the wall Molli was trying to build, as her shoulders slumped a tad, and she shrugged. "Awright... Nuffin' but th'best fer 'em, though, yeah?" Even if her friend hated her, or at least the person she once was, Molli didn't want to give Hihja any more reason to be hostile.
Rio nodded thoughtfully at Molli's demand "Of course. It's a peace offering sort of. I'm sure she'll be upset enough as is. I can't imagine how it feels finding out that the sisters that you've grown so close too were really the enemy the entire time." In a way though Rio could understand. After all it was her own squad that had proverbially stabbed Hihja in the back.
Hoshi took a lasting sidelong glance at Rio. A small smile had tucked into the corner of her mouth and stayed there. Despite the hardships of the mission and what the ship now had to undergo, she was reminded of the strong bonds of her new and old crewmen and such made the tension she had walked into the medical bay with almost disappear.
Medical Bay
12日 8月 YE 46
Hour After Mission End
There were a large number of empty beds and unfilled hemosynth tubes in the medical bay of the YSS Kaiyō II. But, unlike most days aboard the Fuji-class gunship, there were three tubes in use today and one in a bed, sleeping off injuries. The three crewmen who had become NMX Nekovalkyrja to go undercover within an Mishhuvurthyar base and stayed there for two weeks were getting into their original bodies now after the success of the mission.
Though the medical lab's containment cells usually held prisoners captured on the battlefield, today the emptied cargo hold had been tasked with the undertaking. Bursting at the seams, within the last hour the ship had taken on over two hundred NMX Nekovalkryja, some of which the three in the hemo tubes had worked with, and the atmosphere on the ship was tenser than normal due to this.
The medical teal panels on Muyomi's bodysuit matched her waves of curls that tossed themselves down her shoulders and back. She was always on edge and the addition of so many chaotic variables in the form of dangerous super soldiers did nothing to cut the tension that was her homeostatis. It did feel good to have work to do within the quiet confines of the medical bay, though, and she had worked with the information the SAINT infiltration team had left her as well as taking the crew's bodies out of cold stasis with a smile on her face. Even treating the ID-SOL's wounds and pushing him to sleep had been fun in its challenge.
Now, Muyomi was seeing the first of those being soul transferred back into their old bodies beginning the waking process within the hemosynth tubes and she immediately sent a message to the bridge to let them know. The hemosynth in the tube had to drain before Molli could leave the tube, but knowing that the Nepleslian was now conscious meant something to Muyomi. The medic diverted her eyes from the naked woman and held a towel in front of her for when the tube did open. A new duty uniform for the Joto Hei was neatly folded on the bed opposite her tube, as was one for the two others for when their minds were properly re-placed and exited their own hemo tubes.
The reason for Molli's expedited return to her original body was simple: the NMX Nekovalkyrja form suffered a great deal of trauma in the wake of the Kaiyo's messy infiltration. Severe burns scorched her backside to such a degree that it had the consistency of fried jerky, a fracture in the skull threatened irrecoverable mental damage, and a blade had pierced dangerously close to her heart. Nekos were built to take a lot of punishment, but even their bodies had limits, and Molli had exceeded hers. Just as Molli was put under for the initial transfer weeks ago, the return trip also happened in an uneasy slumber that she jostled awake from once the comforting warmth of the hemosynth drained and was replaced by the relative frigidity of the nude.
The Nepleslian emerged from the tube in a bleary haze, with trembling knees that made her cling to the door for support. Muyomi's towel invited a reprieve from the embarrassment of the nude, but Molli reached for it with an arm that wasn't there, and the cyborg woman remembered that they'd removed it before putting her body in the freezer. It was a small comfort that they let her keep her cybernetic eyes -- Molli didn't fancy waking up naked and blind. For a moment, she stared at the metal port that had been grafted to her shoulder with an expression of unfamiliarity.
Her knees had stopped shaking enough that Molli felt comfortable snatching the towel from Muyomi's hand with the flesh and blood arm and wrapping it over her torso. Hemosynth fluid puddled at Molli's feet, and when she stared down, the Yamatain soldier could see a young woman staring back up at her. Her bronzed skin was paler than she remembered, with glowing red eyes and a face framed by long tresses of black locks that fell in a messy heap around her face. Stubby black horns peeked through the tresses, and the sight made Molli's heart skip a beat. Of course they'd grow back, she forgot to tell Muyomi to file those damned horns down.
"Wuh...S'cold..." Molli's voice was scratchy and hoarse from disuse, and felt as unfamiliar and sore as the rest of her body. "Mooyahme-" The brutal pronunciation of the the medical officer's name made Molli flinch as her tongue butchered a word that had sounded so clear in her head. Right, speaking was going to be harder, just like it always was. "How're th'others?" she stared at the other tubes holding the bodies of her comrades and friends. "S'Reeyoh doin' good?"
"Better to focus on yourself," Muyomi had her answer at the tip of her tongue, but when Molli followed up with specifics, she couldn't help but speak meakishly. "Yoshida-hei suffered extensive third degree burns, but thankfully it would take much longer to heal her than to simply put her back in her original body as we are. She'll be fine. Back to you, how are you feeling?"
That was the sort of question Molli usually hated, like all the rest of the small-talk conversation starters. Today, after all that had happened, though, it was the sort of question she had to really think about. "Ah'm..." she pressed a hand over her chest, expecting to feel a healed over stab wound, but finding herself none the worse for wear. "Ahunno." Physically, she was groggy and lightheaded, but memories of Myga's experiences weighed down on her like a waterfall. "Ah feel like...somefin's been downloaded in m'brain. All what's happened in th'other body..."
She walked over to the bed, which seemed particularly inviting, and picked up the uniform. It was a bodysuit that felt soft to the touch in a way that a flight suit typically wasn't, and Molli was quick to wipe herself down with the towel and change into it. It was sleek, snug, and surprisingly warm, and Molli wondered if it had thermal lining.
Having come in from just the deck below, the captain had strode into the med bay just in time to catch Molli's last words. Hoshi's expression was taut, having been dealing with procedures and prejudices while working with the NMX in the cargo hold. The return trip was not looking to be easy, but she kept reminding herself it would at least be shorter than those from the Kuvexian frontier.
"How much do you remember from the mission?" Hoshi asked, less worried about the actuality of Molli not retaining them. Molli would have, but the captain truly wanted to know what she asked next. "How do you feel about those memories, I suppose, is my next question."
"S'comin' in bits 'n pieces," Molli scratched at her lengthy, unkempt hair, "Like ah...like ah movie." The follow-up question made her pause and really consider the answer, because it felt like the type of question that could lead to a comfortable night in a bunk, or a horribly awkward period in a holding cell. "...Ent gonna think it were ah good time, if that's whatcha mean," she replied cagily.
"No," Hoshi said only. The furrow in her brow after having come from deck five didn't dissipate but only grew as she spoke to Molli. "We've had better. I'm glad to hear your voice again, though." It was usually an offhand sentiment, but the captain's words were heavy as she seemed to genuinely feel them as she said them. She looked the Nepleslian up and down and, for a split second, her expression lifted.
"Boss made you that suit for off duty, glad it fits. And Aratani has been working on your arm. Something about inner chambers has her hung up, but you'll have it by tonight or she'll be sleeping in the cargo hold." Hoshi informed her.
At the mention of someone tinkering with her precious arm, Molli's eyes widened. "W-What's wrong wiv m'ar-" she started, her voice cracking as it rose in pitch.
Morgana wasn't far behind, having had time to have a shower can a change of clothes, swapping the type 31 SAINT suit for a standard green paneled body suit. It was clear that not every mark on her face was grim as even cleaned dark rings had formed around her eyes. "If you'd rather forget, in your case it would be rather trival to extract those memories. The engrams were formed with a digital signature, and stand out rather prominently compared to the more chaotic signature normally associated with Nepleslian engram structures."
Hoshi's mouth opened as if ready with a quick response to Morgana's offer. But then she closed it and looked to Molli instead.
The notion of forgetting two entire weeks made Molli's knees tremble on reflex, and she had to sit on the bed or risk falling over entirely. "Wuh- Um... Ent no point... Everyone else'll remember... I dunn-"
Interrupting, Muyomi squeaked, "Another tube is draining."
Awakening from one of the tubes was Sif, eyes slowly fluttering open as her mind booted up. A strange wave of nostalgia washed over her, taking her to the time of her first awakening. Sure, the space was a lot more cramped and there were overall fewer naked bodies being ushered out of the room, but her senses being a little fuzzy and gradually sharpening as her heart beat invoked the memories.
As she stepped out of the tube, she did a big stretch and yawned. "It feels good to be back in my own body," she said as her stretch transitioned to a hug to herself. "Feels so much healthier than Cynea. That base's diet left a lot to be desired," she said sheepishly.
"That's what I like to hear," Hoshi said, smiling at Sif. "Cooks also made a dinner special for all of you guys, so once you're ready head down there and you'll have more than just memories of your old diet."
"After two weeks, I feel like I'm going to eat myself into a refeeding syndrome," Sif chuckled as she began slicking back her hair to gather up the strands, beginning to weave them into her signature braid, though the lack of hair ties made her stop half way, and instead she decided to just squeeze out the excess hemosynth still clinging to her. "Though a nice hot shower sounds really good right now."
"If you're going to change your mind you had better do it quick." Morgana continued to Molli, looking down at her tablet. "As you continue to form new memories, these ones will begin to become foundational and get intertwined. It will become harder and harder to unravel them."
"Eh...? That ent gonna, like...make m'brain bleed, will it?" Molli asked, looking alarmed. She peered past Hoshi, Muyomi, and Morgana to see Sif; though she was quick to avert her gaze.
"No, just a repeat of the proceedure. We ST you out, do some edits, then ST you back in." Morgana answered. "No more traumatic than what you've already gone though."
"Ah ken handle some bad memories, ah grew up rough," Molli gave her chest a thump with her fist. "...No lyin', nuffin' coulda prepped me for somefin that swivin' awful."
"If we have to remember," Hoshi quipped, "you have to remember." Her voice had lost its levity as she said, "It was pretty rough out there, you weren't quite yourself at times. Then at others, you were exactly who I know you as and more. Learning from and embodying both aree important to keep growing, I'd say."
Morgana looked at Hoshi as she talked with an impassive expression, then back at Molli without commentary. "It's up to you, ultimately." She said finally "Overcomming traumatic experiences can be useful. I would still consider psychiatric assistance for the next few weeks at least. That is a non medical recommendation though, I'll leave that for Muyomi to make." She said before moving over to Sif.
"What d'you reckon, Sif?" Molli's eyes briefly flicked toward her comrade, maybe a second opinion could help.
The purple-skinned neko was pulled out of her musings when her opinion was asked about memory erasure. Her answer didn't take a whole lot of time. "Well, if we were to cut away every bad memory, we'd be simply naive shells, stuck at a constant, never growing to be more than a simple weapon. But for this particular section... well, as much as it would hurt to process, I don't want to forget the bonds we made, as fleeting as it would be now."
Morgana held her tablet up to Sif's head for a moment, then lowered it back. "In your case it's more trival. Nekovalkaryan minds are more ordered and can compensate for missing dependancies." She held her breath for a moment and looked to the side thoughtfully before her eyes returned to the tablet. "Ultimately though, I'm not a clinician."
Looking between those speaking, Muyomi sidled up to Hoshi to quietly say, "Last tube is drained."
The second most injured of the NMX infiltrators was the last to awaken. With a particularly fould face as she stepped out of her tube Rio said flatly, "Can we please not do that again? I know what being grilled is like now..."
Morgana slid over to Rio, still with tablet in hand. "As I was saying to the others, I can edit that knowledge out if you'd like." She said looking down at the device before lifting it up to Rio's head.
Sif's word's struck a chord with Molli, who rested a hand over where she'd been stabbed in her other body. "What's gonna happen t'tha NMX what got out?"
Rio shook her head at Morgana's offer to edit her memories "I would rather not. Those are important experiences in their own way." Hearing Molli's question about the captives Rio also asked "Good question. What is the plan?"
Moving her hands behind her, Hoshi jumped backwards with a huff to sit on one of the medical facility's beds. "They'll be brought back to Yamatai temporarily to surrender. From there they can either join Yamatai's banner or become Free Neko. There is a subculture of them with the Poku Saeruo that I don't know much about named the Niko Yârme. What's more that I do know about is that the NMX Neko we found in stasis on Nebel were the ones that alerted us to the Mishhuvurthyar presence on this planet. They're very different than the Neko you worked with, having never been "activated", so to speak." Hoshi sighed, but it didn't sound sad, just resigned to the facts she had at her disposal.
"The Neko of Nebel have already offered community to the NMX Neko from this base and I've let them know as much, so we'll see. They won't be forced to fight for Yamatai if that's not what they want, but they will be forced to surrender to Yamatai with a rehabilitation period, at the very least." Hoshi finished.
It was Rio that decided to ask a more complicated question "What about Hihja? Has she been treated? Is she alive still?"
"Ah pulled her up t'the ship m'self," Molli explained, whilst leaving out a few crucial details. It wasn't going to help Hihja's case if those details slipped out.
Hoshi's deep blue eyes flickered to Molli and stayed there as she queried, "Muyomi, she's alive and stable in triage, correct?"
"Yes, that is correct, captain," the medic responded. "I treated the NMX Nekovalkyrja and Ketsurui-sama's wounds earlier this hour along with William-san's." She pointed to the sleeping ID-SOL. "He needed to be sedated due to the extent, though."
"Eesh..." Molli stared at William, whose presence up to now had always been in the corner of her vision. "Least ah had a healthy bod t'go back to..." She didn't want to imagine the kind of fighting he'd seen down on the planet, but it would have been easier than pondering the fate of her -- or rather, Myga's -- former comrades.
"William's insane for fighting with us, on our ship. It's his first true home, though. But we don't have the facilities for an ID-SOL like a Nepleslian ship does. He's committing to a lot to take a bullet wound while attached tot he Kaiyo, much less three or four." Hoshi rambled, then got serious and looked at Sif. "I wish I had been able to question him about something his team may have seen or done, but I can ask you."
"Hm? What about?" Sif responded. "When we got separated when you went deeper into the base?"
"There was an Overseer that I heard got killed." Hoshi asked, a gloom about her that was unshakable. "Was that you? Or him? She had grey hair. I saw her earlier in the mission then never again. If you did,, that's fine."
Hoshi's last sentence seemed to be the least genuine ones she had said in the last few minutes and her face betrayed the lie as she grimaced sharply while saying them.
"Oh... You mean Overseer Charbon?" Sif's eyebrow raised, remembering her trying to come in contact with them a number of times. "Yeah, we met her in an abandoned hallway. William shot at her at first, but she was alive when we parted. She gave us directions to the hangar, and to that chute I went through to meet up with you guys."
Wracking her head for any other detail, one thing did pop into her mind, though it turned out that it had nothing to do with Charbon when she confronted her on it. "Oh, right, when we were going through that abandoned hallway, I did find an NSP with a message engraved on it. Did you see it?"
"I see, I didn't expect that." Hoshi bit her cheek and looked to her hands in her lap momentarily, then back to Sif. "I'd love to see it, I'll check your NMX body for it a after this. Any other intel or findings to share before I head back to the cargo bay? From anyone? Aiko-chusa's holding it down there pretty well but it will still need all hands on deck until we get back to Yamatai."
Sif thought for a moment to scan through her brain for anything she might have missed mentioning. "Aside from the plans for Elysia, I don't think there was anything pertinent left. We were able to extract it, right?" her gaze turned to Morgana, who she somewhat recalled as being the one to extract the data, but she was only half sure, having been attending someone else at the time.
Morgana nodded in response. "I've given it to Boss for processing." She answered.
"Oh, and by the way," Sif added. "One of the NMX, she had red hair like Cynea. Is she... is she alright? Her name's Nari and, well, she has a bit of authority with the Nekos in that base, but... she, well, she might be a handful... She was a bit solemn when I saw her outside. I hope she isn't causing any trouble."
Crinkling her brow, Hoshi asked, "Do you feel comfortable going down to deck five to look yourself? Otherwise you can send me a mental image of her and I'll report back." Hoshi had in fact seen Nari from the back when Charbon was escorting the armorer out of the space the team needed to be, but didn't know her face or name well enough to pick her out from a group or know that's who Sif was talking about.
"No, I should look for her too," SIf responded, swallowing a hard lump in her throat, knowing that she owed an explanation. "Rem too... I didn't see her in the crowd, so I'm a bit worried..."
The mention of Nari made Rio halt her redressing "Aside from my radiant, do you think she'll be mad about everything else we threw in the lava?" As out of place as it was, the memories of Nari throwing a fit over damaged weapons still stood out. "Speaking of...where is it? I would like to keep it if possible?"
"Is she a bit of a hard ass?" Hoshi asked quizically. "Your radiant? I'm keeping the M3 pistol this time. Just make sure to have Aratani fabricate some new ammo for it."
A chuckle escaped Sif, "She's a nightmare. But she is amazing in the stuff she does. Pretty sure some of the overseers were afraid to mess with her armory."
"Sounds like she has reason to be a bit mad, then. Good luck to you, honestly! Before you go there, though, make sure to get a good meal in the wardroom. That's an order to all of you," Hoshi said sternly as she stood and clapped her hands softly in front of her.
Morgana's stomach loudly rumbled as though in reponse to to Hoshi's order. She looked up from her device wide eyes with a slight blush to her cheeks. "Probably a good idea."
Rio nodded happily at Hoshi's advice to have more ammunition made "I will after everything settles down. But for now real food sounds like a dream come true after that nightmare of a base." Rio giggles at the sound of Morgana's stomach "I'm not the only one it seems!"
"I'm going to be getting an earful from Nari for sure," Sif let out a sigh. "So I definitely need something in my stomach. Who knows how long she'll keep me there."
"Ah... ent feelin' hungry," Molli lied, "Can ah see Hihja?" she wasn't sure how she'd feel about encountering her former friend again, especially after she'd tried to kill her.
"Get a couple bites of food in you and you can. Just let the officer on duty know beforehand for extra protection," the captain said. It was against her better judgement, but Hoshi hoped that pushing for Molli to get at least part of a meal in her would make herself feel better about the now-Nepleslian seeing her former comrade again. After having witnessed what Hihja had done to Molli on the planet andnable to act in the moment, Hoshi only hoped that either she or Aiko would be able to stop the same from happening again aboard the Kaiyō.
"The Taisa is right. We all need food. Why don't we go eat then bring back some food for Hihja and William if they both awake? We can all see her then." Rio said as she offered up another solution while she finished redressing into her duty uniform.
Their arguments seemingly broke down the wall Molli was trying to build, as her shoulders slumped a tad, and she shrugged. "Awright... Nuffin' but th'best fer 'em, though, yeah?" Even if her friend hated her, or at least the person she once was, Molli didn't want to give Hihja any more reason to be hostile.
Rio nodded thoughtfully at Molli's demand "Of course. It's a peace offering sort of. I'm sure she'll be upset enough as is. I can't imagine how it feels finding out that the sisters that you've grown so close too were really the enemy the entire time." In a way though Rio could understand. After all it was her own squad that had proverbially stabbed Hihja in the back.
Hoshi took a lasting sidelong glance at Rio. A small smile had tucked into the corner of her mouth and stayed there. Despite the hardships of the mission and what the ship now had to undergo, she was reminded of the strong bonds of her new and old crewmen and such made the tension she had walked into the medical bay with almost disappear.