Nimbus Child I: Games of War

Chapter 8

Oki had lost against Kongō.

They had told the flagships the truth, the whole thing, told them that "Subject X" was the world, the need to balance... all of it.

It led to a minor crisis, a meeting and the decision to not tell anyone else.

(That ramped up the "drama meter" a bit. It wasn't enough.)

"I still think that we should attack the AI now", Montana pouted, making Tirpitz almost throttle her on the spot.

There were so many intelligent ships in that goddamn American branch of the fleet, but somehow Montana had become flagship!

Luckily for Tirpitz' patience, that idea was already scrapped for two reasons:

According to Oki, pretty much useless

What kind of horror would the world pull if they did that?

Bismarck still had to physically hold her back.

Eritrea was humming in thought: "It's true that we might need to wait too long", she tapped the hardwood table's surface, "but any other way of action seems unacceptable."

"Can someone recount the possibilities, please?", Black Swan, the sloop Kongō had made her second-in-command for the British side, requested nervously, "just so we're on the same page, I mean."

"Shall I?", Bismarck asked the round, beginning after getting an affirmative from everyone, "OK. Possibility one: Oki lives and the world dies."

"This is out of the question... because... God... won't let us", Tirpitz interjected.

Her sister nodded: "Correct. Possibility two: Oki dies and the world lives."

"Out of the question as well", Eritrea recounted, "unacceptable."

"Possibility three: we wage war against the AI, which would have no mention-worthy effect. Thus, actual possibility three: wait until the AI has learned from our historic records and then fight them – this might work, but it could take too long."

"The time pressure could have a positive effect, however", commented Bougainville.

"Lastly, possibility four: We wage war against each other."

No one said anything to that, because that needed no comment.

It would be enough, easily, but the downsides were also enough to not count it as a serious option... yet.

There was uncomfortable silence, until Black Swan broke it: "Uhm... so we don't know if we have enough time, right? That's our only issue, correct? Do... Oki, do you know how much time we have?"

Oki was sitting on Kongō's lap, a white ghost against the black sea, and jolted: "I don't... I don't know", she tucked her head in, "God could tell, I think, but I don't know..."

"Can't you ask... God?", saying this had been such a strange thing to do.

Oh, oh she could as long as God wanted to answer, but... even if she did... to return to that place was... it was nothing she wanted to do.

So, instead, she chose a half-truth: "God only answers me if she has time..."

Black Swan sighed: "So we don't know."

"Hey, wait a moment! If you don't know how much time we have", Canarias suddenly realized, "then how do you know that we don't have enough time for waiting until they have learned everything?"

"We don't", Eritrea retorted, brows furrowed in confusion, "that's exactly the point. We know the situation is bad because Oki can feel it, we know that it is really bad because God told her so."

Canarias wanted to say something in return, but was stopped by another voice: "What if God is lying?", all eyes turned to Cheng An.

"Whyyy... should she?", asked Montana.

"I do not know, but what if she is?"

"We would still be unstable", said Gryf, the Polish flagship the only one who hadn't looked over and was instead playing with her headphones idly, "God only says it's really bad, but Oki also says it's bad so it's definitely bad at the very least", she nodded to herself, "so we would have to do something anyway."

That... was a good enough point.

Black Swan was the one who broke the silence again: "If I... understood that right", she played with her fingers to keep from shifting, "then we can just wait and hope it is early enough..."

Kongō had picked up on the sloop's change in expression before her words had started drifting off: "What is it, Black Swan, what did you realize?"

"If...", she looked up at Kongō and formulated her sentence slowly, word after word, "if God's most important thing in this world is the demonic ship... and losing the world would mean losing her... then wouldn't God interfere anyway? If we don't figure this out, then God might."

"God is cruel", came from Tirpitz, "I'd rather not risk it."

"Ah, no, that's not what I meant! I meant, if we start running out of time, then we will know because something really bad will happen, right?"

If they ran out of time, early enough where God would most likely send the demonic ship in first before appearing herself, then the Great Combined Fleet had a signal to cancel the wait for the AI and... start fighting itself.

That would definitely work, so it was the last ditch.

That would definitely work, so it was the cruelest.

Oki backed up into Kongō's chest, no doubt having realized as well that they had a... fail-safe.

Bismarck looked at her hands on the table for a while: "Everyone", she looked up at them, "we should concentrate on what we know. We will wait for the AI to be ready and prepare for war. While we wait, let us search for the demonic ship and always make sure that Oki is not alone", a slight blush rose to her cheeks, "is that alright with everyone?"

"Very well", Kongō agreed, her smile a minimal amount more honest when looking at the battleship.

--

She had lost Haruna that day too, just in a different way.