From one of the transparent cylinders, suddenly, I hear a rush of air bubbles bubbling their way up to the top, and I slowly look up to see what is happening. I'm fully expecting to have to take this as a sign that one of the girls is finally showing signs of dying, since I think the human brain gives off a few last spurts of neural activity that cause the person dying to undergo hallucination-like experiences in their final moments, so with this in mind, I imagine it's something similar for the ship girls. Instead, to my small surprise, I find the girl in the sixth chamber from the left, the one that houses the ship girl named Samidare, sporting a slowly brightening six-pronged blue halo over her head. All of the ship girls have sported such pronged halos, but for some reason Samidare's is shining more and more brightly, and the number of air bubbles cascading out of the back of her breathing apparatus slowly returns to normal. I feel intrigued by this, admittedly, so I stand up to my feet and approach Samidare in her chamber to see what's going on.
I certainly didn't expect Samidare's voice to resonate from within the chamber to speak to me through the heavy glass cylinder or whatever the thing's made of.
"…Admiral…?"
I'm kind of done feeling awestruck, I felt enough of that on the first day I stumbled upon them in this room. So I waste no time replying to her, despite still feeling surprised that not only can she talk and that I can hear her clearly, but also that her voice shows no sign of pain or weakness as I'd imagined all of them would exhibit. But what I do notice immediately that is awry with Samidare's voice especially is the heavy tint of seriousness in her voice. I've never heard her speak so seriously or heavily before…but, given what she's going through right now, I don't think I can question it.
"Yeah, Samidare. I'm here," I speak in Japanese, as I've always done. They have never been programmed to understand English, and over the month of always communicating with them in Japanese, my Japanese has vastly improved thanks to her and her sisters. "Have you just woken up, or…?"
I can tell Samidare has just tried to nod, because her head attempts to bob down due to the contraction of the muscles in her neck, but the robotic arms that are restraining her like a farm animal prevent her from doing so, so she simply has to rely solely on her voice…I don't really know how she's speaking underwater, through a breathing mask, but if I can somehow speak to at least one of my ship girls, I will fucking take this opportunity.
"…Admiral, how long have you been watching us…?" Samidare asks. Her voice is very slow and deliberate, like her voice is physically wading through a river of molasses. In fact, she sounds more like an actual A.I. than a humanlike android. I guess it's only fitting…
"It's been eight days since I woke up and found myself here. I've been spending as much time with you girls in here as possible," I reply. "This is the first time I'm talking with any of you."
"…I see…"
I really want to ask her many things, but I restrain myself. I'm not the one suffering here, so my questions can wait. If there is anything she wants to say, she deserves to say it first. So I wait until she wants to speak again, which she does shortly:
"…Admiral…how much do you know? About what has happened to us?"
"Nothing. All they've told me is that your children have no fathers, and I don't know what they meant by that. They've told me literally nothing else."
To my surprise Samidare replies immediately.
"I see…that makes sense."
"What? What makes sense?" For this, I'm totally unable to resist my temptation to ask Samidare at least this one question. What does she mean by "this makes sense"?
"…Admiral…my child…its genetic composition, according to the reports compiled by my fetal development program, is identical to mine. There is no father."
…uh, excuse me?
"The child you're pregnant with is your clone?" I summarize blankly. Now I'm starting to feel shocked and speechless again. "But why the fuck would they do that?"
"Did they not tell you? You are our Admiral…I want to think they at least told you…?"
"Like I said, they didn't tell me anything. I only know that your child and everyone else's child has no father. That's all I've got."
Samidare doesn't respond this time. I can imagine that speaking is a gruesomely tiresome task for her to perform, so I don't mind Samidare staying silent.
But she speaks again anyway within the moment. And this time, she says:
"…Admiral…do not let this child live."
I think I can hear glass shattering somewhere. Then I realize it's my mind being blown. I'm utterly amazed at myself that I'm still able to respond coherently to Samidare even after hearing my own mind blow itself into oblivion.
"Why? Why are you telling me to kill your child?"
"Even if the genetic identification report compiled by my fetal development program suggests that this baby is my exact clone, I feel that it cannot be allowed to live. It does not feel like a child. I feel as though I am giving birth to a weapon."
Giving birth to a weapon…"ow" is all I can say to that.
"But what if you don't make it? Even if you tell me to kill your child, I at least want them to live so that they can carry on your memory."
"Admiral, what is happening to me is designed to kill me once I give birth, the program code clearly indicates this. I will not survive past giving birth. Are all of my sisters also like this too?"
"Yeah, they are."
"Then…I think they will all die too. Their children…I don't know what they would want for their children, but I truly believe my child must not be allowed to live. She may not even be a ship girl like her mother."
"What, really? How's that even possible?"
"I do not know, Admiral. ETA to the birth of my child ranges between thirty-six to forty-eight hours."
The room falls silent. I just realize that Samidare's voice is very watery and echoey, like it's evaporating right off my eardrums the moment she ceases speaking.
"…Admiral, I don't want to tell you what to do with my child or the children of my sisters. If you want to let them live after we are deceased, then please do so. But I urge you to not allow my own child to live. I cannot give you a good reason other than my personal belief that letting it live could be very bad. But please…if there is one last thing I can ask of you, it is this."
I really don't know how to respond to that. I really am completely speechless. This doesn't sound like Samidare at all, and I'm starting to think that her original personality's become corrupted or tampered with somehow. But if it's been corrupted or tampered, why would she emphasize wanting to have her own child killed? Is it because instead of the scientists tampering with her personality codex or whatever they called it, Samidare has somehow corrupted herself?
"…I don't know, Samidare. I really don't know."
"Please take your time."
I nod helplessly. I guess that's the only thing I really can do by this point.
"Admiral?"
I look up again. The bright blue halo over her head is rapidly fading away back to normal.
"This wasn't how I wanted to say this, but…I love you, Admiral. I'll always love you."
Her blue halo is completely drained of its brief blue light, and the rush of air bubbles that has been kicking up from the back of her breathing apparatus as her halo was fading away returns to normal again.
I'm going to cry my fucking eyes out in the corner.