by Alex Powell
Kaede replied in a voice so soft that Mari nearly missed it, "Yes."
When they had looked their fill, Sano took them up to the docking level, where Mari and Kaede would enter the bridge.
"Normally, Nomura would be attended by several source technicians and the bridge would have a navigation crew and a commander. For now, we don't need all the extra noise, not until you're used to it. We'll only be doing this for about twenty minutes, and we won't be moving far. Go on then. Nomura, you're the only one that can open that thing, just follow the instructions of the techs and engineers."
Kaede carefully removed her yukata and hung it up in a locker room on their way to the docking door. Her body was slim, and her stature slight. Mari reckoned that her arm was twice the size of Kaede's. Where Mari's skin was rough and darkened by the sun, Kaede's was smooth and pale.
"You're a moon-angel," Mari said without thinking.
"I'm a source," Kaede replied, continuing on to the entrance.
Even Mari could tell it was chilly and she was wearing her full uniform and a bomber jacket. She couldn't imagine what it was like for Kaede, her body exposed to give access to her ports. Kaede didn't appear to notice the cold, reaching out a hand to place it on a console.
Her hand briefly lit up blue, and the entrance rumbled before opening, groaning from disuse. They stepped out onto the bridge, which was covered in a fine layer of dust. It took her a minute to get orientated, but eventually Mari figured out which set of consoles was for her use.
The commander had a high seat, so that everyone could see them. Her consoles were quite near the commander's position, and the navigators were farther back. She recognized her dials and controls from running Level 3 machines, but they'd had no use for a navigation crew. Kaede's seat was right in the back, obvious technical equipment arranged for her ports.
Kaede sat in the seat and made a face. "I'll require your help in a moment."
"What, why?" Curious, Mari came up beside her.
"I usually do this myself, but I can't reach the ports on my back. I suppose that's what technicians are for, but there are none here at the moment. Once I'm done with all the other ports, you'll have to hook up the three on my back."
Mari leaned down and peered behind the chair. Sure enough, there were three larger cables running along the back of the chair. There were gaps, and Mari could see the ports along Kaede's spine. Mari had never seen anyone with ports on their back, and they were quite a lot larger than the others running up Kaede's legs and arms.
"Won't these be uncomfortable?" Mari ventured to ask, looking at the plugs that would be connecting Kaede into the machine's power mainframe. "They're ... very big."
Kaede looked up from where she was plugging cables into her legs and scoffed, "I'm used to this, you know. Do the words 'walking battery' ring any bells?"
Ah. So maybe Kaede was angry with her in particular after all.
She waited for Kaede to finish with the rest of her body, not daring to offer to help with the other ports even though it would speed up the process. All things considered, Kaede probably didn't even want her touching the three she couldn't reach.
"Nomura, are you plugged in yet?" The comm crackled.
Kaede jerked her head up at Mari and so she pressed her comm pressure point just under her ear and replied, "She's just finishing up now, sir. We'll be up in about three minutes."
"Good, we're on standby."
"Okay, now you can do it," Kaede said, expression not betraying a thing.
Mari leaned back down and examined the plugs. She decided to go from bottom to top, and reached for the first one. The metal was cold, and Mari felt her own spine tingle in sympathy.
"I'm about to insert it. Three, two, one."
She slid it home, and Kaede jerked slightly as it connected.
"Okay?" Mari asked, pausing before she reached for the next one.
"Yes, fine. New ports always feel a bit weird the first few times they're used." Kaede twitched again and settled back in the chair. "It's okay, just go."
Mari slid in the next one, and this time Kaede managed to hold still. The last one was going into the back of her neck, and Mari nudged the edge of her braided hair aside carefully. She positioned the plug and waited for a second.
"Ready," Kaede said, gritting her teeth in anticipation.
Mari pushed it in, and Kaede made a sound in the back of her throat. "That made my back molars sting."
Mari stood and went back to her control panel.
"Right, let's get this thing started. Beginning initiation sequence." She began priming her controls.
"Beginning initiation sequence," Kaede repeated behind her, and her body started to glow.
Hakusan lit up around them and purred into life, stirring and shifting awake. Mari could hardly breathe as she gripped the controls. She'd been dreaming of this moment forever, and now it was hers.
3
Kaede squirmed in the seat, trying to adjust herself to the odd new feeling of having ports that close to her spine. It didn't hurt, it felt ticklish somehow, as if someone was scratching at those three spots with the edge of their fingernail.
"Beginning initiation sequence."
Kaede was barely aware of herself repeating the words as she leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes and relaxing. She started the breathing pattern and brought her mind to the familiar place where she visualized her energy web. Hers was made up of stars, diamonds and light, criss-crossing and interconnecting.
She felt the energy flare to life beneath her skin, starting to flow through her body like a stream, thrumming up within her until she felt close to spilling over. She let it trickle out, finding the spots all over her body where the energy could escape outwards.
All at once, her mind was everywhere instantaneously. It happened like that every time she synced up with a machine. Kaede could sense all the pathways that her energy took, saw in her mental map how she had to control the flow of her energy. She expanded steadily outward, keeping a careful tab on where she was directing the power.
Hadn't the technician said this was supposed to be difficult? This wasn't so bad. Nothing was aching or stretching yet in a way she hadn't expected.
And of course, that was when everything went wrong.
She hit her regular limit, the mental space where her Level 3 machine usually cut off and restricted her power. She was used to having to ruthlessly pull on her mental reins and slowing her energy flow to a trickle. Suddenly, there was no edge. Her energy kept spilling over the tipping point of her mind-constructed limit and going off into the void. She jerked her energy back in shock, trying to feel around in that space for a point where she could stop without her energy bleeding away.
It took her much too long to realize that of course there was no limit. Kaede could expand as much as she wanted, and she guessed that this was where the stretching came. It wasn't the void she was pouring her energy into, it was the rest of the machine. She'd lost control of it after a certain point, but now she had to take control back and direct it further out.
The process was slow going, but seemed to be working for a while. It was like feeling around in the dark with your eyes closed, flailing to find the walls to guide herself along. She was exploring the uncharted areas on her mental map, the farthest reaches of her imagination.
She thought she was doing well when everything jerked to a halt again. There was still room to go, but now there wasn't enough energy to fill the empty spaces. She was stretched to her limit, and for several long, terrifying moments, she thought she wasn't a Level 1 source after all. This was all just a huge mistake. She'd been wrong, and everyone else had been wrong too.
Then she realized that she was still following her old energy web pattern. She was still using all the smaller ports, but they didn't allow enough power out; it had bottle-necked. She hadn't remembered her three new ports when she'd started her source-trance, and now there was no energy flowing from them.
Oh no.
Did this mean she had to restart the entire trance? She wouldn't really be able to, not unless Mariko started the shutdown sequence.
She decided to pull back some energy from one area and hopefully feed it into the area of her energy web that were absent of power.
The process was hard. It was like trying to stretch out something that was too small to fit something larger. It ached, and occasionally a sharp flare of pain caused her to stop. She was forging new pathways in her own inner energy web and it hurt.
Finally, after what seemed like an endless lifetime of tunnelling through her own body, she found the three ports and fed energy into them. That left behind a stinging sensation sharper than the ache of making new energy pathways. The ache lessened the more she allowed the flow of energy to increase; she did so until the paths were well-established, if a bit raw.
Her energy spilled outward faster, filling out the space of the machine, going so fast now that she didn't really have time to keep a map of her energy. Kaede was just pouring it into the machine and letting it flow where it would. Doing that wasn't a good practice if one wanted to keep track of energy and regulate it, but at this point, she just wanted to expand until the machine was full.
She kept up the flow of power far longer than she ever had before, and it welled up inside her as if her energy were endless. She saturated every inch of the machine, and at last she found the edges that contained her.
She rested, just for a second, not pushing outward. Her energy settled; now she could make a map of the power spread out all around her.
That was it. Now it was stabilized.
She was so pleased at finally getting it right that all she felt was keen disappointment when the machine started its powering down sequence. Their twenty minutes must be up.
Kaede let her energy go and waited, coming out of her source-trance slowly.
As her senses came back to her, she realized that she could hear raised voices over her comm system and Mariko yelling something back at them. What was all the noise about?
"Nomura, are you with us yet?"
"Yes. What's going on?"
"We've got a problem, and we're wondering what went wrong on your end."
"My end? What's the problem?"
"Just look out the view port!" Mariko waved her hands in the air, adding several expletives onto the end of her statement.
Kaede did as she was told and couldn't believe her eyes. They were right up against the side of the cavern, and it looked as if their impact had been hard enough to tear through the steel panelling. A large swath of earth was revealed where the metal was crumpled away.
"What happened? How are we going to get out?" Kaede asked.
"Beats me, but I'm sure the CO has a few ideas."
Kaede sat in silence, waiting and unable to move with her ports still engaged. She thought they would be there for a little while, so she might as well sit tight.
*~*~*
Mari waited as the systems powered up, lighting up all the consoles around her. She could hardly restrain herself from snatching up the controls right that moment and starting steering procedures. Instead, she sat in her seat tapping her nail against the console, watching her own screens.
Even the screens were fascinating, to be honest. She had monitors all around her giving visuals from every angle around Hakusan. At the moment, all she could see was the seemingly endless steel cavern. There were also sensors producing power readings from all over the machine.
She was done waiting. Sources didn't take that long to power up their machines. Level 3 Sources usually had themselves completely synced up with their machine within a couple of minutes and then they were ready to go.
Mariko studied the controls. They were exactly as they had seemed in the manuals and sims she'd practiced with. Hakusan had eight legs, like a spider, which moved in conjunction with each other and distributed the weight evenly. If one leg was lost, the other seven would compensate adequately for a short while.
Deciding that she might as well start moving, she gently pushed forward on the control column. She held her breath and waited. A moment later, the entire structure groaned, and then, they were in motion. She could feel the deck shift slightly beneath her feet and grinned at the visual consoles that witnessed their motion.
They weren't going very fast. Someone doing a light jog could probably keep pace with them. Mari edged the controls forward until it seemed that they were keeping a steady rhythm. Knowing that she was driving such a colossal machine was marvellous.
She was so engaged with the lulling motion of the machine that it took her far too long to notice that they were approaching the cavern at an odd angle.
"What? That's not right; I haven't changed direction at all. We should be moving in a straight line!" she cried, checking the energy monitors.
The energy distribution was uneven. Half of the legs were moving at a slightly faster pace than the rest, turning the machine and causing strain to the controls as the steering resisted changing direction.
"Nope, not good. Change directions. Come on, go straight again!"
Mari thought she might have managed to correct their course if nothing else went wrong, but suddenly a large portion of her monitors went blank.
"Oh, great," she huffed, trying to use the remaining monitors to estimate which direction they were going. "Come on, Source. Get the power back on!"
The machine responded by unexpectedly losing power in two of its legs. The deck tilted as the weight distribution became uneven and the machine stumbled. Mari yanked on the controls, trying not to think of what the repercussions of a machine the size of Hakusan "tripping" would be.
"Come on, Kaede, do something!"
At once, the monitors all came back online and the legs righted themselves. Mari was all set to be relieved until she actually looked at the monitors and found that several of them were far too close to the steel wall for comfort. She tried to right the controls, but the machine was still in motion.
Mari yelped as there was a loud crumpling noise from outside audible even from the bridge. The whole machine shook as the immovable wall of the cavern abruptly halted its progress. Mari half fell out of her seat, jarred by the collision. She grasped at the controls, managing to get the machine to pull back a little before it lunged forward and smashed against the side of the cavern again.
"Oh jeez," Mari said, taking her hands away from the controls.
The machine groaned as it settled in its position against the wall.
"Ishigaki! Report! What the hell is going on up there?"
She pressed her comm button and replied, "We seem to have a few energy distribution problems, sir."
"Shut it down. Before you do more damage!"
"Is the machine damaged?"
"It's not the machine I'm worried about."
Mari did as he said and powered down, and behind her, she could hear Kaede starting to groan slightly as she came out of her source-trance.
"Ishigaki, explain what went wrong."
She tried to explain that it really wasn't her fault at all because it was Kaede's job to regulate the energy flow and she'd failed. Mari went through all the ways that the power failure had adversely affected her controls.
"You dolt, Ishigaki. You have three monitors dedicated to energy distribution. You could have checked the levels yourself before moving. Moreover, upon losing visual contact with the outside world, you should have stopped forward motion! Don't tell me you didn't hear the alarm from the navigation consoles indicating a proximity alert?"
She stopped to listen and found that actually, yes, there was a background alert going off. Fancy that.
Kaede was groggily looking around to see what was going on and Mari snapped at her in irritation. This was her fault. If she had just held up her end of the deal, they'd have been fine.
She was waiting for orders when she heard Kaede struggling to move behind her and remembered that she couldn't because she was still plugged in. Mari snorted in anno
yance, stomping over to her, she reached back around the chair and unceremoniously yanked out the lowest plug.
It completely shocked her when Kaede let out a high-pitched whimper and flinched as the plug slid free from the port. She'd seen sources disconnecting from their machines hundreds of times, and not once had they reacted like that. Mari paused and frowned, plug still in hand. She rubbed at it thoughtfully with her thumb, trying to puzzle it out.
With slowly-dawning horror, she realized that the metal beneath her fingers was slick and sticky. Very carefully, she lowered her head down to look, and it was just as bad as she'd feared. The plug was coated in blood, and the other two were much the same. Her spine was dripping down congealing blood from underneath the ports.
Mari felt a tad ill, and she was glad that Kaede couldn't see her own back.
"I'm going to need source technicians on stand-by," Mari reported, voice flat. "Nomura is in a bad way. There's something wrong with her ports."
"Copy that. We're sending down a rescue crew. Open the hatch and we'll get you out."
Mari did, then went back to Kaede. She'd seemed alert when she'd first disengaged from the mainframe, but now that she was coming down off her power-high, she looked wrecked. Kaede was starting to shiver, and her entire body was grimy with sweat. Mari realized that there were tear-tracks down her face and that her eyelashes had clumped together.
"Can I remove the other two plugs?" she asked quietly.
Kaede jerked her head in a sharp nod, eyes unfocused. She closed them again and waited.
Mari knelt down behind the chair and placed her palm carefully against Kaede's lower back, bracing the area around the plug before slowly removing it. Kaede let out a sharp breath, but otherwise didn't make a sound. Mari removed the other one as well, and then drew back.
"Others," Kaede slurred, body slumped and eyes lidded.
It took Mari a moment before she realized that Kaede meant the rest of the plugs. Thankfully, the other plugs looked intact and undamaged. Even so, Mari was very gentle when removing them, not wanting to cause any more undue trauma and exacerbate Kaede's wounds.
