Thanks for the comments you guys! Especially since it's only the prologue so far without much happening yet.
And JFC, after your post I realized I've watched waaay too much Star Trek in my life.
Don't read too much into that comment though lol, at least as far as this story's concerned.
Anyway, here's the first chapter! All of you have been guessing who's who, and some of you have even done well considering the small amount of information, but this should answer a lot of questions.
I say a lot... but there are still far more to go as you'll see.
Anyway, hope you enjoy, and until next time. ^^
Chapter 1Seven girls stared at each other over a table they’d found in a room adjoining what was apparently a command center for flying whatever ship they were in. The girl the others were more than happy to acknowledge as the Captain drummed her fingers slowly on the hard wood. Takahashi Ai, they had called her. She supposed she could live with that name – for some reason it felt right, perhaps something left over from the memories that still hadn’t returned.
That was, everyone was happy to let her be the Captain except for a certain long-haired girl who seemed comfortable giving orders. Ai thought that perhaps she just didn’t want someone giving her orders herself. Still, it was rather uncomfortable, because the girl kept looking at her the whole time as if the situation was somehow her fault. Then again, for all she knew it might have been.
The stiffly sitting girl also didn’t stare calmly like all the rest, her head jerking around almost unnaturally the whole time as if everything that was within sight was just amazing. Ai looked around herself. The room they were in wasn’t quite as nice as the command area – “bridge” she somehow remembered it was called – but she supposed it served its purpose well enough, with a stand to one side with a pitcher on it as if to serve tea, and comfortable enough chairs.
“Well the good news is…” the athletic girl said, fiddling with a computerized notebook in front of her, “I think I’ve almost found a list containing the names of all the command staff of… our… ship. It’s happening slowly, but I’m remembering how to access it all. Still, there’s a password needed for the full crew and civilian files which my mind is completely blank on, so unless I find a textpad with the password scribbled onto it, we may only have our names to go by for a while.”
“How many others do you think are on this ship?” short girl asked. Ai would definitely be glad to soon have names for these girls who she had a feeling she should know as well as the palm of her own hand.
“I can’t be sure without the full data…” the other responded, “But for some reason I know it’s a large number. Plus, remember the hyper girl who ran away earlier still hasn’t returned, so there must be a lot of places in here to go.”
“Anyone up for exploring the ship?” thin girl asked with a wry grin. “It’ll be like a metaphorical adventure in our own backyard… only without the metaphor…”
“I wouldn’t mind doing that,” athletic girl responded, still tapping away at the datapad’s touch screen.
“You seem very concerned about the crew,” short girl commented astutely, looking at the other with a slightly narrow-eyed, considering gaze. “If we are going by those beads as indicators of rank, it would seem you, she,” she listed off, pointing also to long-haired girl, “and I are of a similar level, and second only to Captain Takahashi. That is, if no one else of higher rank is on board.”
“If I may,” Ai said quietly with a slightly raised hand as if she wasn’t the one apparently in charge, “I believe no one will be. My memories of many things aren’t clear, but the senior command staff shouldn’t be too large a number on a ship like this, and they would also be stationed on the bridge, where we all woke up, so if you find a list of command staff, I think we’ll be it.”
“As the Captain says,” long-haired girl commented, giving her one of those looks again. Ai decided to stay quiet for the moment. She had the feeling she was one of those Captains that preferred to delegate most matters to her specialized staff, taking part generally when executive attention was needed.
“Point noted,” short girl said with a gracious nod. Ai was definitely getting the impression this was a rather analytical person. “Where I was headed with my logic was that our colleague here seems very knowledgeable on personnel matters – I tried to look up more than I found at first, but had no clue where to start – so it made me wonder if those of us of similar rank have similarly distributed responsibilities, such as one in charge of personnel, as well as one in charge, if I may say so,” she said, pointing to herself, “of more technical matters.”
“And where does that leave me?” long-haired girl asked, seeming to get a little impatient, though doing well at holding her outward calm.
Short girl was silent on that point, but a thought suddenly came to Ai and words left her mouth almost before she realized she’d opened it. “First officer…” she said, staring at the girl whose position she named. She didn’t know where exactly the thought came to her from, but it certainly made sense – used to giving orders but not the Captain; if the Captain delegated a lot of the time, what would make more sense than her first officer?
“First officer, huh?” the girl said, tasting the sound of the words as her mood seemed to quickly be improving.
“I think that would make sense on a ship like this…” short girl said, now surveying both the first officer and Ai, who were exchanging glances.
“I guess that means you and I would be close, wouldn’t it?” long-haired girl said, smiling crookedly. “It’s funny though that I get the feeling we don’t get along all that well…”
“If we got along perfectly, then there would be no second-guessing of each other’s decisions,” Ai said, once again before hardly thinking. “The best Captain/First Officer relationships are those where disagreements are common, to make sure as correct a decision as possible is always arrived at.”
“Somehow I think our Captain is quite capable,” thin girl said, still grinning. Ai was beginning to wonder if the girl did that all the time.
“Aha, I have it!” came a sudden voice a good bit louder than the rest, making all of them flinch unconsciously. “The command crew manifest!”
“Oh, that’s all?” long-haired girl remarked, gripping the table in front of her hard. “By your tone I was afraid we were under attack…”
“What?” the other girl said, blinking up at them, but the others just laughed.
Ai took the chance to catch a glance at the two girls who hadn’t spoken yet. One was still seemingly trying to take in every detail of the room, as well as each of them, while the other was silent and just watching, though in her opinion, watching rather studiously. Ai’s gaze lingered on the single bead on her shoulder before turning to athletic girl as she began to list off names. Hopefully this was the last time she’d have to think of one of them like that…
“There is of course Captain Takahashi,” she said, frowning down at her datapad. “Though it must be Captain’s privilege or something, but I can’t find anything more about her than her name and position.” Everyone stole a glance at said Captain a second, but she just gave a ‘what-can-you-do?’ shrug in response.
“Then, in order of ship’s standing, there’s First Officer, Commander Risa Niigaki. I guess that would be you, eh?” she said, looking up to long-haired girl.
“Sounds good to me…” the girl replied, seeming satisfied enough for the moment.
“Then, there’s Science Officer, Commander Saki Shimizu.” Everyone nodded to short girl as if it was suddenly as clear as day. Ai thought the girl had done a good job of noticing their relative positions. “And Personnel Officer, Commander Maimi Yajima. I guess that’s me, eh?” she said, raising an eyebrow. Nobody voiced an objection.
“Then we have three Lieutenant Commanders, although I don’t think they’re all here…” She didn’t look up, but the eyes of the rest of the girls flickered to the three beads on thin girl’s shoulder. She was the only one present with that number. “Listed first are Momoko Tsugunaga and Miyabi Natsuyaki, with their positions as engineers. Perhaps another section?” Ai nodded, and she didn’t think she was the only one. Together with impression of the girl’s words, the memories seemed to rise back into her mind. “Then there’s Reina Tanaka, Tactical Officer. You, huh?” she asked, looking up again momentarily at short girl.
“Tactical…” Tanaka responded. “I like that. That means I get to blow things up, right?”
“Hopefully not too many things,” Niigaki commented dourly. “We’re not going to be in shape for many battles for a while I think. If that’s even what this ship is designed for, and somehow I have a feeling it isn’t.”
Ai pondered on the girl’s words. Now that she mentioned it, she got a similar feeling. This was not a battleship sent out in some kind of war, of that she was somehow sure. Still, that made her wonder even more at what their reason
was for being where they were, and especially in the present situation they seemed to be in.
“Then we also have three Lieutenants,” Yajima went on, seeming fascinated by nothing else than the names and information showing on the device in her hand. “Although one is not actually part of the command staff – Saki Nakajima, listed as ship’s doctor. There’s also another Engineer, Airi Suzuki, and then there’s Operations Officer… Eri Kamei…”
Everyone turned to look at the stiffly sitting girl with two beads, and apparently under the scrutiny she was distracted from her perusal of the room and looked around at the rest of them. “My name is Eri Kamei?” she asked. The others blinked. How could she have actually been paying attention to what they were saying? “Nice to meet you.” She smiled, and suddenly seemed to become calmer.
Niigaki gave Ai a long, wry glance, to which Ai only shrugged again. The Lieutenant was definitely strange, but there must have been a reason she was assigned to the bridge crew, and she seemed rather adept at picking up things the others missed, attention to detail that Ai thought would be very important, especially in a position such as Operations.
“That leaves me out I guess, huh?” the last unnamed girl said, smiling resignedly at the others. “And Miss Escapee too. Hopefully you’ll be able to find that password before too long.”
“Well we’ll have to give you some kind of name for the time being,” Ai said, in an attempt to be comforting. “I can’t keep calling you ‘strong girl’ all the time, especially when trying to command a ship.”
“Strong girl?” the other asked, a half-grin twisting her mouth.
“Don’t tell me you gave us all names like that…” Niigaki said, rolling her eyes. Ai clicked her teeth shut. Was she always this bad with words?
“Ooh,” Tanaka cooed. “What was my name? I bet it was a fun one. Better than Reina. I can’t really find myself saying that much at all…”
“Well, I was going to identify you by your long hair, but I noticed Niigaki first…”
“Long hair? Geez Captain, you sure come up with the lamest nicknames…” said Niigaki commented.
“Excuse me…” Ai said in a sardonically affronted voice.
“It’s really okay, I can live with Strong Girl,” the lone nameless one said quickly.
“Nah, she’s right,” Niigaki said. “We need a better name for you. How about… Ichigo? That’s cute.”
“Ensign Ichigo?” Ai asked skeptically.
“Ensign?” Tanaka asked.
“I think our honorable Captain is remembering some things about ranks…” Yajima said with a small smile.
“Ok, Ichigo it is!” Niigaki confirmed. Ai glanced at her. Had the girl actually thought she was agreeing with her? Something so dainty didn’t seem to fit this girl at all…
Ichigo looked like she was about to protest, but suddenly the ship jolted, and the girls almost fell out of their chairs. After giving each other quick glances, they just as quickly rose and hurried back to the bridge.
Upon arriving and looking at the screen, Ai noticed that the stars weren’t flying by nearly as quickly any longer, and in fact had almost become still. “Can somebody figure out what’s going on?” she asked no one in particular, still not sure who would prosecute such a task.
“The engines have stalled, and the ship is nearing a full stop,” Kamei said from her panel in front of the screen. Ai blinked, rather surprised at the girl’s response and seeming togetherness in the situation. Actually, she seemed the calmest of any of them, quickly going about her business of checking on the engines. She’d have to keep that in mind about the girl in the future.
“Confirmed,” Shimizu agreed. “There is no longer any power to the engines. Reason unknown as of now.”
Then, a crackling sound as of static became audible, and an unfamiliar high-pitched voice broke around them. “Hello? This is… Well, I don’t know who I am, but I’m in engineering. Is anyone out there?”
“Yes,” Ai said before anyone else could. Niigaki gave her an unreadable look. “We’re all here. At least I think so. This is Captain Ai Takahashi. As for you… If you’re in engineering, I think we could probably let you know, right?” she asked, looking to Yajima who gave a curt nod. “How many beads do you have on your uniform?”
“Um… three…” came the voice.
This time, before Ai could respond Yajima cut in, still studying her datapad from her perch in the chair to the right of Ai’s. “Then you would be either Lieutenant Commander Tsugunaga or Natsuyaki. Hmm, tell me, are you short?”
“Um…” was the only response from the other end, until another, lower pitched voice broke in.
“Yes, she is short,” the new voice said. “Hello, I suppose I would be one of your Lieutenant Commanders as well.”
Yajima nodded over her datapad. “Hello. That would make you Natsuyaki, and the one who spoke first Tsugunaga. It’s nice to meet you, though I can’t help but feel that I’m somehow failing in my job by saying that…”
“So…” Niigaki said, looking to Ai as if for approval to go on. In response, Ai just nodded quickly, and Niigaki went on with a smile, “This is Commander Niigaki. What seems to be the trouble with the engines?”
“Well,” Tsugunaga said, “We don’t think there’s anything wrong with them. It’s just that…”
“The… Lieutenant…?” Natsuyaki followed up, “down here spilled her coffee on one of the control panels. You see, we were all having trouble waking up, so…”
“It wasn’t my fault!” came a fainter voice of protest. “The ship jolted, and… and…”
“Yeah yeah,” Natsuyaki said, her voice a bit muffled as well as if speaking away from the receiver. “Tell that to the Captain.”
“Isn’t that what I’m doing now?” the other voice asked, sounding slightly puzzled.
Silence.
“A-anyway!” came the high-pitched voice of Tsugunaga once again. “We don’t think anything serious was wrong, aside from one of the staff here being slightly electrocuted…”
“…She’s still lying unconscious on the floor…” Natsuyaki interrupted in what sounded a rather tight voice. “I wouldn’t exactly call that ‘slightly’ anything! I wish I at least knew her name to like, reassure her or something. Like what a kind person would do.” Ai exchanged wide-eyed glances with the other members of the crew near her. She was beginning to wonder again about the people working on this ship.
“Aside from that!” Tsugunaga continued hurriedly as if afraid the other Lieutenant Commander would say more, “The ship seems to be fine. We just shut the engines down as a precaution for the time being. Once we get this sorted out, we’ll have us going once again, I promise!” And with that, there was a beep and silence, leaving Ai with her mouth slightly open as she was about to ask just how soon they planned to have the engines running again.
“Should we reopen the channel to down there?” Niigaki asked in a very sardonic voice, staring strongly at Ai. “I mean, you looked like you wanted to say something, Captain…”
“No,” Ai replied weakly, “That’s all right. We’ll… we’ll talk more with them later…”
“Good,” Shimizu said, frowning down at her station. “Because I haven’t quite remembered how to open a communication channel yet. And I have a suspicion it’s not normally my job either… though who’s it would be I’m not sure…”
Ai stayed quiet after her response to her First Mate, looking at the back of Kamei’s head. The girl was staring out into the black space as if there couldn’t be anything more interesting in the world. Even if she talked to those Engineers again, what would she say? Get the engines back online? To what end? After all, did she have any clue where they were going?
“You’re wondering where we’re going, aren’t you?” came a voice that made her swing her head sharply in its direction. Tanaka was looking at her with at least as focused a gaze as Niigaki had. “Now that we’ve gotten through the more pressing issues of remembering things like our names, you’re wondering why we’re here, where we’re going.”
Ai blinked. Had the girl read her mind? She narrowed her eyes. For all she knew, she could have that ability… They
were out in the middle of space, after all. At the Lieutenant Commander’s words, Niigaki had looked over at the girl as well, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“Well…” Ai said, trying to find something to say that didn’t make her sound like an idiot after that. “We still don’t know who everyone is. Like Ensign Ichigo over there.”
“Ichigo…” the named girl grumbled, appearing as if she was focused hard on her panel even though Ai believed it was the one used for flight, and since they at the moment weren’t exactly going anywhere, she wasn’t sure what all the girl would have to do there.
“I’m working on it,” Yajima said in a low voice, still focused with fingers working frenziedly on her datapad.
“As to your other questions…” Shimizu added, giving Ai and Tanaka a cautious glance, the latter still staring at Ai, who felt like her soul was bared under the rude girl’s gaze. “I’m checking into that as well. But it’s strange…” She frowned.
“I think I’m accessing the navigational database correctly, but there doesn’t seem to be any information whatsoever about where we are right now. In fact, there’s little information at all in here. I’d say the computer’s memory was wiped clean the same as our own, but everything else seems to be intact, and I see no evidence of deletions. The free digispace is completely fresh, looking as if it’s never held any data at all before.
Ai’s first reaction to the girl’s words was to ask about this “digispace”, but she quickly decided against it. “So we’re a crew without names, on a ship called the Hakudo Maru that seems to have no apparent direction,” she said, looking around at her crew, all who seemed to either be avoiding her, focused on the datapads or panels in front of them, or both.
“If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share them.” Silence greeted her in response as if the others were ignoring her, although she knew they’d heard every word she spoke. “In that case, I think I’m going to go take a rest. It seems like it’s been quite a long day – even the small part I remember. I suggest some of you do the same as well. We’ll reconvene here in three hours to try to decide what we’re doing?” After a moment, nods came from around the room, and Tanaka at least looked up at her once more.
As she shared the girl’s gaze, she continued in a softer, gentler voice, “And if any of you happen to run into any other passengers on this ship, please make sure they’re in as good a state as can be expected, and perhaps even try to help them discover who they are a little bit, ne?” Tanaka nodded, and Ai unbuttoned the top button of her jacket as she headed for the door that she supposed was the room’s exit.
“Oh,” she said without looking back as she arrived at the doorway, the door sliding open for her. “And if someone would find our wayward bridge officer, please bring her back.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” one of the girls said from behind. She thought it might be Niigaki.
In response, she only nodded and began walking once more, the door sliding shut behind her.
Topic: 白童丸物語 - The Tale of the Hakudo Maru [Chapter 2] (Read 10257 times)