She hated hospitals.
Sure, she could deal with small clinics like Tofu once had in Nerima. They were small and built more for common care, patient comfort and happiness.
But hospitals? No, she never liked them. They were too sterile, too confined, too full of death and nearly empty on hope.
It was the last place she saw her mother, before…
Nabiki shook her head, banishing the memory away before it could rear any emotional attachment. She didn’t need nor want to show emotion at the moment. Emotion led to snap judgments, and with her needs at the moment, those could cost her more in the long run.
But it was easy for her to assess why that memory had come unbidden to her. Just looking around the overfilled sickbay of the ship told her just as much, spoke of so many similarities to those fears and hatreds she could understand. Walking wounded were bandaged, treated as best they could be both a tired and somewhat depleted medical staff. The beds were reserved for those who had a chance to survive, a small one, but still a chance.
Those with no chance were placed on gurneys, wheeled to the chapel, and given what comforts that could be had by the seminary staff and the few personnel whose duties couldn’t be utilized or whose skills weren’t needed at the moment.
It wasn’t the best of ways to pass beyond this world, but at least you weren’t alone. That counted for something, it at least meant you could die humanly.
They didn’t fall into either category, instead placed in a debriefing room for pilots, three gurneys secured to the floor as the ship was still being pumped of seawater. It likely meant they were some symbol of hope, but it was much more likely to both isolate them and perhaps keep any disturbed individuals from trying to extract some misguided vengeance upon them.
She recognized the girl with her chest wrapped up, the daughter of Katsuragi. And while the child was awake, it was quite obvious trauma was setting in.
The purple-haired girl had been the main reason she had been so hard on the man. After all, she recognized a father like her own when she saw them. And just like Nabiki and her sisters had, Misato had lashed out at her father her own way. It was what one could expect from children of parents who preferred to do things for you and not with you.
At least she doesn’t have to worry about arranged marriages to God knows what when she gets older, Nabiki mused.
She herself was merely resting on top of the gurney, dressed in at least fresh clothes provided by the supplies officer, as close to a relaxing female dress as one could find on a ship. Her only damaged seemed to be a tuff of hair on her head turning the same grey as Ranma’s. Of course after slapping one pilot who had jokingly referred to it as a ‘skunk dew’, the comments had not been an issue. Aside from going grey several decades earlier than she either planned or wanted, she seemed to be fine, or at least in a better mental condition than the other two.
That led her to her guard, her savior: Ranma.
He hadn’t woken up, hadn’t even reacted to several tests performed by the doctors who had had the time to check them before rushing off to tend to more severe cases. He hadn’t even as much twitched when she used a nearby sink to check his curse, a fact that hadn’t been exposed to the military when they were rescued.
It worked, but unlike when he slipped into the Nekoken, the mental reboot did nothing.
Physically, he seemed fine. In both forms, his hair was still all grey, including that below his waist—it never hurts for a girl to be thorough. His eyes had changed as well, something she could fully see now that she had more than a red light shining about her. His irises, still showing no sign of even noticing the change in light, had shifted. The outer rims of them were still as blue as ever. But the inner iris before it came to the pupil … was red as blood.
The doctor had postulated that perhaps the explosion had ruptured some blood vessels there.
She wasn’t about to take anything for granted. Not after…
Shuddering a bit, she edged herself carefully off the bed. All things considered, being slightly sore and exhausted were easily acceptable payments.
It was probably better than whatever had happened to the rest of those that had been stationed at what was once Mt. Markham.
Forcing herself to walk steadily, she bypassed the bed of someone she hoped would be okay, and sat on the bed of the injured girl, gently arranging them both so that Misato’s head was laying on Nabiki’s thigh, and began to stroke the younger girl’s hair, trying to mimic the way she remembered her own mother doing.
The silent sobs of the girl near here was the only proof Nabiki needed to know she had done the right thing. So caught up with ensuring the young girl wasn’t mentally scarred as badly as she could have been with the incident, she never noticed that someone was now watching her.
Someone with red and blue eyes with full grey hair…
Keel Lorenz looked across the table towards a man simply known as Shadow, a man that SEELE had used for many years to ‘dissuade’ certain issues from coming to light.
One such issue was fast approaching.
“You know why you are here?” he asked.
Shadow nodded, his distorted voice answering the question. “You wish certain parties involved in the Katsuragi expeditions to have problems within the next few days, for certain information to be untraceable.”
Keel nodded. “Some of them are asking questions, questions that should never be asked.”
“Silence is golden,” said Shadow. He knew what Keel wanted, knew how to best go about it in several ways. But when dealing with Keel, he usually had ways he wanted it done. And it was always better to let the client dictate all of the terms, before proceeding. Unnecessary actions could always be bad for business.
Keel slid a disk across the table towards the man. “Here is the method and our desired point of application. A desired timetable is included, but we can be flexible on that.”
The man simply grabbed the disk, placing it inside of a laptop he had stolen earlier that day, ensuring it was clean, untraceable to him, and could be destroyed later as needed.
What came up on the screen was not something he expected, especially not on such a scale. “It is doable,” he said, removing the disk and shutting down the computer. For the moment, it was still useful. “I will need to start now. Payment deposited as the usual rate time four for the scale, same pay schedule.”
“Agreed,” said Keel, as he stood up. Nodding slightly, he walked out of the room.
Shadow soon followed taking a back exit, not even looking as smoke began to billow out of the building. Keel always destroyed their meeting places to further obscure any trail that could lead to either of them. So that was nothing he needed to worry about.
He just had to worry about getting a suitable aircraft ready, and then hope Keel and his group provided the correct data and files he needed to acquire the final needed component.
After all, an N2 mine sounded very intriguing.
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(Posted Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:48)
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