CHAPTER 65: CONFRONTING ONESELF
Abyssal was currently alone in the captain quarters of the Fierca. The room was locked and she was alone in the place. Looking at the cameras, she could see Meica and Kuon hanging around the cargo bay. It seemed that they were testing out a certain piece of equipment that was recently given to Abyssal— the Jump Shields.
The jump shield that Abyssal assimilated could only fit a fighter-sized ship like the Fierca class and it was installed accordingly, giving Meica a reprieve from the nauseating effects of E’s ship’s FTL system. So far, there wasn’t much of a problem with it. However, both Kuon and Meica believed that they could reverse-engineer the blueprint to make a better one that would fit the Shark-class instead. Meica’s action was driven by her not wanting to stay in the Fierca all the time when E makes jumps. Kuon, on the hand, simply wanted something to work on to improve her designs like the Shark class even further.
It may just be Abyssal, but both Kuon and Meica looked rather excited and happy and having to work on the project. A small smile came to Abyssal’s imaginary face as she witnessed how closely they are working with each other. It was rare to see them not fighting and it was rarer to see Kuon actually being enthusiastic about doing something. Despite being a two-person group, they were very lively and made quite a bit of a ruckus.
Abyssal had wanted to actually help them out as the prospect of getting hybrid shields on her corvette would be a great boon. Though she didn’t do so as she had something more important to do. After searching her entire ship for clues of her core and finding absolutely nothing, she finally zoned in on the final location.
“Alright, this is it…” Abyssal muttered as she stood in front of the box containing the remains of her beloved Kapitan.
‘This is the only place left. This has to be it,’ Abyssal thought to herself as she opened up the large lockbox to find the very familiar remains of her old pilot, the very first ‘person’ she has met. Abyssal reached out using her robotic arms and brought out Kapitan’s skull.
‘Kapitan…’ Abyssal muttered. It was the silly name given to the previous pilot of the Abyssal, the person before Abyssal came to be. As Abyssal held her skull, Abyssal couldn’t help but wonder what really happened to her. How did she get into that situation and why did Abyssal only gain consciousness years after she died.
“Sorry about this,” Abyssal said as she held her skull before looking around every nook and corner of the thing. She looked through the eye socket, she looked through at the cranium and even looked at her jaws. With her robotic arms, she tapped the skull to hear any weird noises, perhaps trying to find a hidden compartment.
It may be silly for Abyssal to think that there would be hidden compartments in Kapitain’s skeletal remains, but something inside herself told her that Kapitan’s remains were very suspicious. She always felt a certain strong attachment towards the bones for some reason that she couldn’t explain. Sure she may be her old captain, but certainly, there wasn’t a need for her to prioritise the remains over so many other things that she had done. There was also a question of how easy it was for Abyssal to actually attach the bones together to make a skeleton. It was a knowledge that shouldn’t be available to her as she never really had that particular set of skill to assemble a skeleton in her previous life.
“The skull looks clear,” Abyssal muttered as she placed the skull neatly on a table nearby. She then went over and picked up the next part.
Abyssal scanned the remains, bone by bone, from the ribs to the spine to the feet— not a single piece of bone escaped her gaze. The final two bones that she inspected was the bone marrow. She tapped on what would have been the thighs of the person should she still be alive and listened closely to the sound that it made.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Nothing of course. Not even a sign that the bone was hollow.
“What the hell…” Abyssal cursed as she placed the bone on the table together with the rest of the remains.
She found absolutely no traces of her core anywhere, not even with the bones. “Something is wrong. Where is my damn core then? Abby! Explain!”
No response came. Abby decided to remain silent even at this moment.
Letting out a sigh, Abyssal went back to check on Kapitan’s bones again. She tried to assemble the bone and placed them together. She figured that if she organized the remains, she may be able to see a big picture of sorts. With her robotic arms, Abyssal easily combined the bones at the joints. After a few minutes, what lies in front of Abyssal was Kapitan sitting on a chair in a similar pose as to how she met her for the first time.
“Hmm? Wait a minute….” Abyssal muttered as she noticed something weird with the pile of bones.
Abyssal made Kapitan stand upright in front of her. At a standing motion, Abyssal could tell that the bones were at least 185 cm tall. There was also another thing that she noticed, that the width of Kapitan’s shoulders was quite wide.
“Aren’t you a little bit too tall and wide for a woman, Kapitan?” Abyssal asked a question. She never really noticed before as she never had a reference on how big a human would be when she first met Kapitan and all the way until she met Kuon.
“I don’t want to generalise… but shouldn’t a woman be more slender? Doctor Julia and Meica are nowhere near this big or tall… Could Kapitan be a giant or something?”
Abyssal circled around the skeleton to find any clues. Circle and circle around she did, looking closely at Kapitan. Her eyes scowled as she looked at every inch of the 185 cm tall skeletal remains. However, nothing came out to her no matter how many times she circled around.
“Hmm? Wait a minute… Can’t I just assimilate this? I don’t really know what would happen… but it’s the one surefire way to actually make sure of it, right? Nothing I’ve assimilated disappeared into thin air before, so she should be okay, right?” asked Abyssal as she pointed her finger towards Kapitan.
“...”
“Argh… but what if she turned to soup? I’ve never really done it with biological objects before!” Abyssal yelled out in a moment of hesitation. She stood there in silence as she tried to weigh all her options. In the end, her curiosity of finding more about herself got the better of her as she pointed at Kapitan once again.
“Dammit, please please please please,” Abyssal pleaded before closing her ‘eyes’. She directed the nanite cloud within herself to assimilate her beloved Kapitan.
One minute passed.
Two Minute passed.
Three minutes passed.
However, nothing happened. There wasn’t any familiar sense of knowledge entering her consciousness nor the feeling of tasting food came to her.
‘Hmm? Did it not work?’ Abyssal asked herself as she opened her ‘eyes’.
“What the…?” She asked herself as she suddenly found herself in a strange place. She was in a gazebo in a nice European garden facing a large mansion.
Abyssal looked around further in all directions. Up, left, right, back and finally down. What came into her sight was two large mounds blocking her view. She immediately recognized this to be her artificial inflated breast. She then quickly brought out her arms only to see two human hands with white skin. With these hands, she touched her face to confirm if she was in her avatar.
It was. Unknowingly, she arrived in her virtual realm.
“Wait… why am I here? I never...”
“Personality Abyssal correct. The core is in the remains. However, I suggest personality Abyssal to not figure out too much. It is not the right time yet. It is for our mutual benefit that you remain oblivious.”
A voice came from behind Abyssal. It was a very familiar voice that Abyssal has heard quite a number of times. The only thing about the voice was that it lacked the usual energy that was supposed to come with it. It was Abyssal’s own voice.
Turning around, Abyssal could see her exact copy in looks, wearing a gothic outfit standing behind Abyssal in the gardens of her virtual realm. Everything about the two looked the same except for the expression and the clothes that they were wearing. On Abyssal’s face, an expression that contained a thousand words and on Abby’s face, the lifeless look of a doll.
The only other notable difference was the size of the Abyssal’s and Abby’s breasts but that was irrelevant.