Resupplying

Enterprise nervously paced her flight deck. Her fleet was waiting for a resupply before continuing their push. Normally they would have pulled back by now and let the other fleet continue the work, but this time it was different. They were waiting for a resupply and repairs and the one helping them was of special interest to Enterprise.

Finally, she saw her. Escorted by a tiny fleet of cruisers and destroyers and South Dakota, the lone Liberty ship made its way toward Enterprise and her fellow kansen. One by one, the vanguards were all resupplied and fully repaired from the severe battering they took in the last engagement. Finally, the Liberty ship made its way toward Enterprise. The vessel's sole humanoid crew member, a small girl, jumped up and down and waved expectantly. Enterprise waved back and then leapt off of her flight deck and onto the deck of the smaller ship. The girl ran over to her and Enterprise wrapped her arms around the child's small body. "Mommy!" Liberty exclaimed happily as Enterprise picked her up and twirled her around.

"How was the trip? I hope it wasn't too boring," said Enterprise putting her down and ruffling her daughter's long white hair.

"It was fun, Mommy, I got to see so many new things in the sea," replied Liberty, her green eyes sparkling with joy, "I got to see dolphins, Mommy, real live dolphins! They looked so cool leaping out of the ocean! Have you ever gotten to see dolphins?"

"Well, I don't often get a close look at the ocean from my flight deck, since I am usually up so high," said Enterprise, "but I will keep my eye out for them on the way back."

"Oh, okay. By the way, Daddy told me to give you this," Liberty handed her a lunch box. Inside was a pair of handmade wraps containing a perfectly balanced mixture of vegetables, meats, cheese, fries, and chilies. Well Edmond certainly knew how to get back into her good books quickly even if a small part of her was still a bit peeved that Liberty had been allowed out this far. Normally, Enterprise handmade her own simple lunch but today Liberty had the privilege of taking lunch to Mommy.

While the two ate their lunches, Liberty talked about what she learned from Z23 today and the preparations for the trip. Enterprise couldn't help but feel proud about how far her daughter had come. Despite having the appearance and mentality of a nine year old, Liberty was only year and a half old due to having a wisdom cube assisted birth that materialized her body outside of her mother. In the early days of her life, Liberty frequently fell asleep and had energy crashes due to her human side preventing her from fully metabolizing her own wisdom cube's energy. She needed an artificial rigging to live a full healthy life. Eventually, the artificial rigging was given the form of a Liberty ship due to Enterprise's insistence that Liberty not become a warship, hence the only weapons Liberty had were defensive. She could accommodate up to three Manjuu repair teams instead of the usual one meaning there was greater capacity to heal a fleet.

Today was the first time that Liberty could performed this function due to the fact that, until now, she had been only allowed to move around the waters in the perimeter of the home base. Still, as Edmond had pointed out last night, their daughter was getting restless from just puttering around such a small stretch of water and had wanted to see more of the ocean and that it best to let her stretch her wings in a controlled manner rather have her succumb to the temptation to push out too far without permission. Liberty loved the ocean and would spend at least an hour a day staring off at it. She liked thinking about what might be out there and was at her most energetic and animated every time she talked about it.

"And Vestal tells me that I may actually be growing after all, just very slowly." Liberty beamed with pride. "That means that I could one day grow up to be a big, strong ship like you!" Enterprise gave her a thoughtful look.

"Did she say how much and how long it would take for you to grow?"

"Vestal says that there is a chance I could start growing normally when my age matches my face. It's all based on that strange machine Akashi was tinkering around with," Liberty replied. "It means that I might be strong enough to help repair you at sea as well as Vestal."

"Hopefully, by that time the war with the Sirens will be over," Enterprise stated firmly, "you should think about what peaceful things you could do with your powers. It will never do you good to chase after conflict even if your role is passive. For instance, you could—"

"Enterprise, Sirens are heading toward our position!" Helena's voice suddenly broke in over the radio. Enterprise hurriedly swallowed the last piece of wrap she was holding and turned to Liberty. "You need to leave right now." Liberty looked like she wanted to argue but didn't. After all it was part of the agreement they had all made that Liberty was to immediately depart at the first sight of trouble.

"Okay Mommy." Before Enterprise could leap back onto her flight deck, Liberty pulled her into one last hug. "I love you."

"I love you too, Liberty," Enterprise replied ruffling her hair, "I'll be back in time to tuck you in okay?" Liberty nodded and Enterprise leapt back onto her flight deck. As Enterprise got into battle formation with the rest of her fleet, she looked back and saw Liberty speeding away with the rest of her escorts. "One day this war must end. Then my rigging can be scrapped and I can be a full time mommy to you. Hopefully this will be before you completely grow up," thought Enterprise with a renewed sense of determination.

On the way home, Enterprise kept an eye out for dolphins. She had to admit that they were indeed pretty cool.

Author's note: This fic was written over the course of a couple months as I was trying to develop a rhythm for writing for fun since all of my previous writing had been for grad school. I wanted to try my hand at writing a fluff piece when a previous attempt to write something more complicated didn't pull through. I would write a few lines a day which might not have been the best tack and I have most likely demonstrated that I have a lot to learn still.

I wanted to briefly touch upon the idea of half-Kansen children and potential complications that could result from such a union.

Some other facts about Liberty that I was unable to touch upon in this fic:

Liberty was conceived when both parents were recovering from a distressing incident in their lives. What happened may be elaborated on in a future fic.

Both Enterprise and Edmond had, at one point, considered giving their child up for adoption, reasoning that a baby wouldn't know better. However, when Liberty was born in an advanced state and identified both of her parents, neither of them could bring themselves to give her up. This was most fortunate given Liberty's health problems.

Most of what Liberty eats is handmade and natural given that her body is still a bit unstable even with the artificial rigging.