The Predator of the Depths

A Dying Ship

Inside the medical bay we see Alicorn sleeping in a bed with the blankets covering her. She's hooked up to several machines and an IV. She has a pained look on her face as sweat falls from her brow. A red hue spans across her nose as she takes ragged breaths.

Sitting next to Alicorn's bed is Yorktown, with a worried look on her face, as she sits in silence with the only sound being the heart monitor.

Alicorn coughs a few times as her breathing turns harsher. Yorktown grows even more worried and leans to Alicorn and grabs one her hands and holds it. After a few seconds Alicorn stops coughing, but her breathing remains harsh.

The door to the room opens, and in walks Vestal with a little yellow bird, called a Manjuu, following her. The Manjuu has a lab coat on, and it is carrying a clipboard. Vestal and the bird walk over to Yorktown and Alicorn.

Yorktown glances as Vestal, her eyes wet. "What's going in with my baby girl?"

The Manjuu holds up the clipboard and Vestal grabs it and reads through it. She then sighs. "I'm gonna give it to you straight, Yorktown, she's dying."

Yorktown grips Alicorn's hand tightly has her face scrunches up in sadness. "How?"

Vestal walks over to the side of Alicorn's bed and puts a hand onto her chest, then she pulls out Alicorn's wisdom cube, causing Yorktown to gasp.

Half of Alicorn's Wisdom cube is a dull and lifeless grey. The other half of her black-ish-blue cube has a sickly glow, except the single shard, that was given to her, continues to glow brightly.

"Wh-What's happening?" Yorktown asks.

"We don't really know." Vestal says with a sad tone. "Her Wisdom Cube is just 'Shutting Down' which is killing her body from the inside out. That may be why she freaked out yesterday, it did a number on her brain."

"I-Is there anything we can do to stop it?" Vestal shakes her head and Yorktown's eyes go dull as she freezes.

"I'm sorry Yorktown, she's a ship built way ahead of her time, so none of our equipment is suitable to fix something like this. There may not even be anything suitable to fix her."

The door opens. "Well, there may b-b-be one pl-place that has equipment needed t-t-to save her." Commander Sicilia walks in, a large folder in her hands.

"Commander Sicilia." Vestal greets.

"How can we save my little girl?" Yorktown asks as Alicorn starts to cough and some blood seeps from her mouth, with Yorktown quickly wiping it away.

Sicilia nods to the large folder she's holding. "This is w-w-what Doctor Erik had on A-A-Alicorn before he died. Every single thing about her, do-do-down to her likes in food and clothing and everything on how to repair her s-s-ship and how she was made." She hands the folder to Vestal and said ship-girl medic starts reading through it.

"Fascinating." Vestal reads through the papers.

Sicilia continues. "There maybe be some e-e-e-equipment needed to s-save her in Nanquet Cay, the island she wh-wh-where was created."

Vestal looks up to her Commander. "But that place was overrun by the Sirens a few weeks back."

"Then we'll take an army there!" Yorktown shouts. "We'll sink every single Siren to save my daughter!"

Sicilia sweats. "N-Now Miss Y-Y-Yorktown, we can't go do that. We're s-s-spread thin with personnel w-w-w-w-with the latest Siren attacks. S-S-So I've had the Manjuu's start do other work then h-h-help repair ships. B-But I've had B-Bluegill and Cavalla do s-s-some recon, there are a few holes in th-th-their patrolling that we can slip t-t-through."