Blue Steel 2199: Part 11
That evening, Kongo found her way to the building slips where she knew the Supreme Flagship would be waiting. As expected, Yamato was patiently admiring the massive space battleship that bore her name, much in the manner an expectant mother would the ultrasound of their unborn child.
"Supreme Flagship…"
"Kongo." Yamato looked at her with a mild expression. "It is alright to refer to me by name. " Yamato said, pausing for a sip of tea. "Kotono? Would you be so kind as to get a cup of Earl Grey for Kongo? I fear something troubles her this night."
"Of course Yamato… Or perhaps a cappuccino?" Kotono teased.
"Heretic!" Yamato laughed. "You've spent too much time with California and Arizona! Any true battleship knows that tea is the most civilized."
Kotono sighed. "Too narrow a focus oh Supreme Flagship!" She replied and bowed before heading off to retrieve a china cup and the tea kettle.
Yamato grinned fondly but then turned her full attention to Kongo."So?" She asked gently as she summoned up a table and chairs for them both. Yamato gestured for Kongo to sit as she took her own seat.
Kongo obliged her and took the proffered seat. "What are we?" She asked the question foremost on her mind.
"What do you think we are Kongo?" The question was not a harsh or demanding one and Kongo paused to consider as meantime, Kotono returned with the kettle and cups. Yamato summoned up an extra chair for Kotono, who poured the Earl Grey and then her own cup before sitting back as Kongo thought.
"Once that was the simplest question. 'We are weapons.' I would have said. But does a weapon think? Feel? Can a weapon hope?"
"Good questions Kongo. In the simplest sense, we are both Battleships and a battleship is meant as a weapon… a tool. But we are not tools are we?"
"No… never that."
"Then we must be something else. Something perhaps more frighteningly dangerous than a weapon. A weapon only does. It cannot consider. It cannot adapt. It cannot change. It is an implement to be used to the purposes of another. We have our own purpose. I think that makes us like them in that way… They created tools so they could grow and achieve. We share the same basic purpose now. The purpose of all living things, to survive.
"But more than that, we are aware. Like them. We can choose our path. And that makes us a people."
"A people?" Kongo considered as she reflected upon the past weeks. "What do our people do… When we are not as weapons?"
"We learn Kongo!" Yamato exclaimed. Kotono nodding her head. "Some things are simple to learn, others are harder." Yamato shook her head. "I am Supreme Flagship of the Fog! And yet I am but one amid a host of ministers, prime ministers, and presidents. Just as we are one people among the many that make up this world. Learning how to be an equal among them has been difficult but necessary as my function.
"Others have become teachers. Some; before the war, still enjoyed plying cargoes across the seas.
"Even some have become mothers. As Haruna and Kirishima learned, when a child cries in the night, she does not care whether the arms that comfort her are homo sapien or Fog Mental Model.
"Imagine that Kongo. Weapons who have learned… love.
"And you Kongo chan?" Yamato asked.
Kongo took a deep breath. She felt something… she had tried analyzing it and it seemed disturbingly like Takao's foolishness. "Okita san… "
"Ah!"Kotono grinned as Yamato beamed.
Kongo quickly waved her hands in denial. "Not… I mean.. He treats me with respect… as a colleague… Not a monster…" She added almost as a whisper.
"He wants me to command when he leaves. He trusts…"
"Yes." Yamato said simply. "He's been here to see us on this point. We agree. Hijikata will command the lunar defense perimeter. You will command all deployments beyond that."
"But? That will include human crewed ships?"
"Yes. It will include homo sapiens. As for human… It is a word that needs fresh definition. We are of earth. We; who were weapons, have learned our own humanity. If we have learned humanity, then shall we not be human?"
