Sent To Protect and Serve Humanity

Chapter 37: Departure

3rd POV

"Hey! Wake up!"

Courageous fluttered her eyes open to find herself in the center of a pitch-black room, only illuminated by her shining light blue eyes, gleaming tips of her hair, the light blue tips of her cat-like features, and a series of dim lights to her right. After a moment, her eyes adjusted to the dark, and she took a second to scan her surroundings with confusion.

"Where am I?" The French frigate mumbled, rubbing the back of her head in pain. "Ow!" She winced as she jerked her hand away.

From her point of view, she could find herself sitting atop an examination table of sorts that was pushed against a wall with several medical utensils on a tray nearby, sitting perfectly sterile. Along the wall to her right was a series of servers, terminals, and monitors, each displaying varied statistics that otherwise had no apparent meaning. Her curious and confused eyes then turned toward the entrance of the room, finding it opposite of the main terminal.

"Spring?" Courageous whispered as she sluggishly began to climb off the table, her HUD flickering to life. "Where are we? How long has it been?"

"Erm... no clue!" The A.I. replied after a short pause. A small box on the right side of the frigate's HUD appeared, detailing the speech pattern of the intelligence. "But... if you could hook me up to the terminal over there, we can find out!"

The French girl landed with a little wobble before she began to make her way toward the terminal at the center of the wall. She slightly shivered as she walked beneath one of the ventilation ducts, using her hands to rub her shoulders, only to realize she still had the skin-tight black body suit on.

"Damn-"

"Already warming up your systems." Spring cut the girl off. Just after, the body suit would begin to warm the girl up, providing a sense of comfort and relief as she stopped shivering. "I'm in your head, remember?"

"Ah, that's gonna take some getting used to." Courageous mumbled, slightly ticked off not even her thoughts were private anymore. "Anyways, how do I... get you to this?" She asked as they now stood in front of the terminal.

"Simple!" Spring began with an eager tone. "First, hold your palm out, facing up."

The frigate raised her right hand just above her stomach and opened her fist into a palm. After a moment, several light green particles began to swirl at the center of her hand before they coalesced into the form of a young woman, perhaps an older teenager, with a light green tint. The young girl had green eyes and long, similarly-colored hair tied in a ponytail. She wore a green summer dress with white straps, a flower crown on her head, and a set of flower bracelets around her wrist, stepping forward on her bare feet.

"Hello!" Spring properly introduced herself with an excited wave. "Now, uh, lower me to the terminal, pretty please."

"Oh, uh, got it." Courageous shook herself out of the disbelief and did as she was told. Once she did so, the A.I. walked toward the terminal and leaned out of the girl's hands to touch it, disappearing once she did so. The frigate cautiously ran her other hand up the back of her neck and felt the neural chip she had, wondering when she came across an A.I. "Hey, Spring?"

"What's up?" The A.I.'s speech box returned to the frigate's HUD.

"Who... what are you?" The girl asked as she hardened her gaze on the series of servers and monitors.

"Honestly..." Spring spoke with a tone of uncertainty. "I don't know. Earlier, when it was just me awake, I kept having these visions- if you wanna call them that." She paused for a moment. "Something about a Maiden and her sisters meeting an old man, a-a Wizard or something." Then, the terminal shut off, and she appeared on the surface of it. Her face looked in pain as if she was overthinking it. "All I know is my name is Spring. That's it. I've been with you from the moment of my... birth? Conception? Whatever it is, you've been the only person I've talked to about... anything." She looked up with a hopeful smile.