The Postmortem

Floating.

I'm buoyant.

It was a familiar feeling Iona had never expected to feel again. The cushion of water beneath her. The sensation of rolling ocean waves caressing her hull.

Her first action was to check her chronometer. Eleven point nine eight minutes had elapsed that she couldn't account for. Her last memory was of Takao accessing her processor via the root pathway.

I feel strange.

Before she could focus further attention on the oddness of her body, she became aware of her mental model again.

Hardness. I'm lying against a flat surface…

She quickly programmed a subroutine and dedicated a portion of her processor to further examination of her vessel, but a mixture of anticipation and dread pushed her attention to the wondrous but limited interface of her mental model. She walled off the subroutine now operating her ship so nothing would interrupt her much more important task.

Gunzou…

Despite her mental model returning data identical to before, she still struggled to reconnect fully to it. Her processor felt…foreign somehow. Her 'Iona' form seemed like an ill-fitting garment for her now. Her connection to her human representation initially felt like she was trying to move through the honey she had been introduced to by Shizuka for sweetening her tea. As she managed to start moving, though, things began to feel more natural.

She moved her arms to push herself off the deck below her and blinked her eyes to take in her surroundings.

Gunzou!

Her captain laid safely near her, on his back and seeming none the worse for the wear. She knew she could initiate sensors and immediately know his status, but she felt afraid to do so. She wanted to know he was safe, but what if he was…

Although her movement was becoming freer every moment, the combination of her anxiety and the unfamiliar interface caused her to move slowly…hesitantly…to her first friend. Unsure what she would do if she failed to feel anything, she leaned over his face once again, seeking for breath. She had been his breath for an indeterminate period of time. Had she succeeded?

A smile spread across her face as the movement of carbon-dioxide enriched mammalian breath caressed her cheek.

"Gunzou!"

Only now did she engage diagnostic subroutines to assess the human's health in detail. His medical condition, although better than it had been when she had ceased all but life support functions, was still tenuous. At the very least, the man was anemic from blood loss. He needed medical attention. She reconnected to the portion of her processor which had been tasked with assessing her new vessel and immediately was confronted with a string of communication attempts from her Blue Steel sisters.

From the messages, she quickly gathered that her strange self-appraisal wasn't an anomaly. Her new form, designed by Takao, was radically different from her previous one. In addition to being well over twice as massive as before, even after she'd incorporated portions of Hyuuga, she now sported additional energy weapons, improved armor and engines, and a serious increase in standoff weaponry.

She also learned that her human crew was waiting just a few yards from her hull, including Sou and Shizuka who, between them, had demonstrated almost physician-level medical skill in the past.

{I-401} Flagship Command – All Blue Steel Vessels: Initiate Concept Comm dialog simulation

While her mental model continued to watch over her captain, her awareness now focused itself on the concept of a peaceful gazebo with her sisters. Once again she was seated in a whitewashed aluminum chair at a glass-topped table with a warm cup of chamomile tea resting in her hands. Just as before, birds were chirping and the smell of wildflowers competed in her nostrils with the tea beneath her nose.

"Iona-oneesama!" Iona struggled valiantly, without much success, to keep from spilling hot liquid on her lap as her shoulders were roughly embraced and reddish-brown curls twirled before her eyes. "You're safe!"

"Have you determined that objectively, Hyuuga?" a huskier voice this time, also behind her. "So far I can't separate the Takao from the Iona elements. It may be you're smothering Takao for all we know."

The admonition from Haruna did seem to take some of the zeal from the woman currently glomped to her. Iona turned her face to look into Hyuuga's eyes. "Hyuuga, you spilled my tea," she noted calmly, allowing just a hint of annoyance into her voice.

"It really is you, oneesama!" Hyuuga's embrace tightened again and more tea escaped its intended container and dribbled between her legs. "No one can replicate your special love for me!"

{Haruna} Command: Permit Haruna, Kirishima, and Hyuuga unfettered access to logs since separation from rest of Blue Steel fleet

{I-401} Command accepted

Iona immediately accepted the request and permitted her fleet sisters full access to her recent logs and the processing power necessary to run whatever queries they desired. She presented no resistance to their data comparison heuristics as the other Fog processors examined the data, looking for inconsistencies that would suggest corruption, intentional or otherwise.

{Hyuuga} Security string - diagnostic level – TAKAO

Iona was surprised that she immediately responded to Hyuuga's login to her processor using keys that had been meant for Takao. Although it wasn't true root access, the connection the Blue Steel processors allowed Hyuuga was 'sub awareness', meaning she couldn't trace what Hyuuga was doing right now. The level was necessary for Hyuuga to perform upgrades on her sisters, but it still felt strange when put into action.

{Hyuuga} Security string – diagnostic level – I-401

Iona again felt herself respond to the request. She was unsure what exactly Hyuuga was looking for, but she couldn't think straight at the moment. She was no longer aware of sensation from any source – her concept comm, her mental model, or even her vessel. Even her connection to her processor cycles was inhibited. It was a strange, disembodied feeling, like her processor at the moment was not her own.

An awareness made itself known to her in the nothingness, communicating at the level of pure data. "I'm doing a low level diagnostic which is impinging on your emotional and self-awareness subroutines. It will only be a moment. I know it's disquieting, but it's best we find out now just what that baka tsundere managed to make of the two of you. I'm still holding you and won't let go, I promise."

"That's supposed to be reassuring, Hyuuga?"

"Of course!" Iona wasn't sure how she knew the battleship winked at her with those words, but she somehow did.

Just as quickly as the strange feeling came on, it was gone and Iona once again was aware of the dialog simulation. Her teacup was now safely on the table before her and it was like the tea drenching her skirt had never fallen there. She turned her head to see Hyuuga, Kirishima, and Haruna talking quietly a few meters away from her.

Unsure what to think of them holding a private conversation about her, she decided to trust her sisters and focused her attention on the outside world. She manifested an opening into her vessel near where her crew, her sisters' mental models, and their precious cargo were waiting on three lifeboats. She directed some nanomaterials to the purpose of being a crane to assist the boats into her hull, quickly writing a subroutine to operate it outside her awareness. She then refocused her attention on the concept comm since weeks of subjective time could pass in the dialog simulation for every second that passed objectively outside.

"You're talking about Takao, aren't you?" Iona prompted as she reached out and lifted her tea cup to her lips and took a long sip of the soothing beverage. Her own diagnostics strongly suggested that her personality subroutines were intact. It was clear from her struggles using her processor that her circuitry was very much different from before, but she was getting more and more adept every cycle at using the new configuration. But it was already apparent that she did not have access to her entire processor. There were two union cores now, plus a main processor that appeared to be shared. She existed in only one of those cores. She could see the pathways to the other one, but it wasn't accessible to her.

The conversation away from her stopped and the three others made their way to join her at the table. Cups appeared for the others as they sat down. Kirishima settled on Haruna's lap and removed her bear's head to allow the human head representation to manifest while they talked.

"Yes, we were," Hyuuga finally confirmed after taking a drink of her own tea. Peppermint by the smell of it.

"So what is the verdict, Hyuuga? I don't detect any significant elements of Takao in my own routines, but I don't have the benefit of low level diagnostics. How badly did the tsundere heavy cruiser mess up?"

Hyuuga shrugged with a sigh. "I'm not really sure. It looks like she started something but was unable to finish it given the processing power left over after allocating enough for your personal routines and the shared processing space necessary to fully operate your vessel at peak combat efficiency. She's there, but…" Hyuuga cocked her head to the side and seemed lost in thought a moment. Iona sensed Hyuuga was accessing her processor, but couldn't tell much beyond that.

Then Hyuuga giggled. "That foolish…she built a wall but forgot to include a door. Then didn't leave herself enough materials to fix the problem. Iona oneesama, this may feel strange for a moment, but I have an idea. Forgive me for asking, but I'll need Takao's root access to do it. If you don't have it, then set one up. I think you'll find her core will recognize you as self."

Iona did as Hyuuga suggested and discovered the battleship was right. She established a private data connection with Hyuuga. Before she could do anything else, she felt something snap in her head…like a rubber band snapping her mind. She blinked and was immediately aware of another presence in the room.

"And lo the dead shall rise…" Haruna deadpanned.

"Shut up, Haruna," Takao growled as she pulled up a chair, manifested a double shot mocha, and took a big swig of the beverage. She knocked her long, blue hair back absently with her free hand before continuing. "And before any of you say anything else, yes that was the DUMBEST thing I ever did. Next topic, please?"

***Author's Notes***

I have a few more chapters in me. I'm enjoying dealing with the merged sub and heavy cruiser.