Chapter Text
-- Luna --
And I run, run towards their ship. Well, as good as I can run anyway. Slipping, falling, it all just strengthens my cover now, doesn't it? The base doesn't expect me to be able to run well. And the people on the ship will see me as vulnerable. This is my only chance. A scientist, equipped with 40 people and a whole ship? Bringing down a surprise aircraft in seconds? He might be a match for Xeno.
I need to see him for myself. Whoever might be on that ship, there is… at least a chance? To rebuild society? Restore knowledge? Not with Dr. Xeno at the top. All HE cares about is his power fantasy.
But this one? They even found a way to revive humans. A better way than just dropping some nitric acid on people and hoping for the best. A reliable way.
The ship… I'm close enough they spotted me, they can see me. I say my lines, prepared by Xeno. Easy English, so even Japanese teenagers should be able to understand.
"Help! Help me! Please! I escaped!"
Crashing down in front of their ship. I'm not even acting. Running those 100m here, that was too much. Still, a perfect cover, right? Crashing down, looking helpless, mistreated. Maybe they think I actually fled. Buying my story. But if they would? Not smart enough. They wouldn't win, they wouldn't survive. Then at least I have to protect their knowledge of that revival fluid. So it won't get lost, and Xeno won't get his hands on it.
Panting, fainting, my belly hurts way too much. More than it should. Steps on the wooden plank in front of me. Feet in some hastily thrown-together leather rugs. A voice, surprisingly friendly and inviting.
"Are you alright? You're safe now. You can stay with us.”
An extended hand. I look up. And see him. Older, but there's no mistake.
That's Ishigami Senku.
The absolute worst case! High risk, possibly high reward? And Stanley’s gun is pointed right at his head this very moment.
“Sen…?!” my mouth is betraying me again. I fake a coughing fit to drown out the name. A name that isn't allowed to be heard by the bug. If Dr. Xeno were to know his old mentee is here? The one he fears the most, the one he loves the most? The brilliant mind he shaped for eight years? The imprudent boy who rejected his ideals?
I still remember what Stanley said about him: “He’s already on my to-shoot list".
If Stanley hears that name, I don't even need to point anymore. It would be over in that instant. I can't let that happen! I have to protect him at least for a while. He might still turn out to be like Xeno. But he might turn out to be just like I always imagined him when I read his papers.
Still coughing, I take his hand to pull myself up. Just enough, so I can fold over with an even stronger cough. Curling down, almost falling into his arms on purpose. Pressing his hands against the bug. The fresh wound stings.
Please Senku, be as sharp as the stories about you. As observant as your research papers made you out to be. Please, get the hint!
His hand wandering around my belly, probing, touching, examining. I look up and his eyes… surprise?
One of the other kids yells in Japanese:
“She’s hurt! Take her to the lab!"
And one of the girls gently picks me up.
“Don’t worry," she says in English, with the same accent most Japanese speakers have in English. I know it well; the astronaut was speaking like that, too. She carries me to their lab.
-- Senku --
Eh? Now that was something. And Nikki is already carrying that spy girl below deck. Grabbing my hand, pressing it against her abdomen? What was that about? Just a girl who was afraid and hurt? Hah, certainly not.
The way she looked at me? That went quickly from fear to recognition to panic. Like you would look at the meteor you discovered as a kid that somehow decided to fall into your bedroom. Specifically your bedroom. While you’re asleep.
She knows me, ten billion percent. A random US girl just knowing me by chance? Nope. So what’s going on here?
Nah, scratch that! That is not even the most important part. After that hand press, at least one thing is certain: Subcutaneous implants. Some kind of listening device, eh? Clever. But she just letting me in on that secret? What are you gambling on, spy girl?
That ‘Sen’? She knew my name, didn’t she? But quickly covered it up with her fake coughing. She doesn't want her side to know I’m here? Wouldn't that be convenient? Or just not wanting to let me know she knows me? Too late for that.
Split-second decision and efficiency in one package? Way too calculating, isn't she? Better hurry down to the lab, who knows what that girl is up to. You can already hear her coughing from the stairs.
Yuzuhira and François are almost done treating her wounds. They look nasty. Old ones? Nah. Those are fresh. Made for the purpose of gaining empathy? Their welcome was a surprise airstrike. Beating up a spy to gain sympathy fits right into that line of thinking.
Three cups of water by her side. All untouched. What the hell are those guys blabbering about that that spy girl has to destroy her airways just to cover up? And shouldn't they have figured it out after she didn't even touch that first cup?
Ah, she spotted me. You'd expect a smile. Not trying to win me over, spy girl? Already realized that wouldn't work on me? But what do I get instead of a smile? She looks at my workspace, back to me. A small nod? Eh? She picked up on that? The few wires I used to improvise a Faraday cage? It's basically an unrecognizable mess.
You know your electrodynamics, spy girl. Well, isn't that exhilarating?
-- Luna --
Senku followed my gaze to the Faraday Cage and gives me a half smile. He noticed. He understood. Still standing in the doorway, he gestures the girl who carried me here to come over. I don't know what they are talking about, but shortly afterwards, she comes back to me.
“Don’t worry. Just a short and quick examination. Go into this full metal cage, please. The… uhh… things are there! Please follow."
Her English was quite broken, wasn't it more coherent earlier? Is she doing this on purpose? And the way she emphasized ‘full metal cage’? Did Senku feed her those lines to make sure the base doesn't suspect anything when the transmission will be interrupted for a bit?
"Ah.. uhm, yeah? Just a quick and harmless examination, right?"
I willingly go into the cage, but with my last step, the cage still open, I turn. I touch Senku’s leather sleeve, just at wrist height. I don’t even need to pull. He knows it as well, examining through the wire would risk destabilizing the flimsy cage. Without hesitation, he follows me.
Carefully, he closes the door behind us. Making sure the signal won’t slip through. And before I can even say something, he is already down on his knees, lifting up my dress to examine me. It startles me a bit, but that guard girl’s voice suddenly booming startles me more.
"Senku, what the hell? Have some decency! That is NOT okay!"
I feel like she doesn't have a grasp on the situation. This is an emergency, decency has nothing to do with it. Switching to Japanese, I speak up:
"Uhm? I- I don't mind! It's fine! We really don't have enough time to waste it on polite questions…"
From down below me, I hear a chuckle and Senku mumbling to himself
"Eh? And she even speaks Japanese…”
He starts the examination while asking questions in parallel.
“So, huh? You just waltz in here, knowing my face, knowing my name? I sure as hell never met you. So..., care to elaborate?”
I do NOT care to elaborate right now!
"Ah, haha?"
My nervous habit breaks through and I start to fidget with my hands. I should have expected he picks up on that and doesn't shy back from asking the big questions right at the start. But I can’t tell him those things, not until I know more. And we have more pressing matters.
“Uhm, so. The thing is? We have a time limit of only 16 minutes. By then, I have to be on deck again, looking like you all trust me? Ahaha? A bit much to ask probably?"
I panic, more fidgeting. I haven't even said half of it, but my voice already keeps failing, and I'm getting light-headed again. Trying my best to keep my balance despite the examination.
"If I don't make it, uhm… Someone will die, probably a few…"
"Eh? So you expect me to deactivate the bug in 16 minutes? What are you, an NPC that gives out timed quests?”
And in the background, below her breath, the guard girl mumbles:
"What the hell? Is she a spy?"
He doesn't even look at me, just examines further. Making those small thinking sounds. When he suddenly looks up, looking slightly worried.
“The thing is… disabling the bug is a matter of seconds. But whoever shoved a whole battery in there must've really hated you. You're about to go septic. See that scary red line wandering all the way from your abdomen upwards? It’s headed for your armpit. I don’t need to spell out that going septic with our medical options would be a guaranteed death sentence, right? Cutting all of that out and closing you up? Ten minutes. On today’s anesthesia special menu, we only offer ethyl chloride spray. You fine with that?"
Ethyl chloride spray? That'll only freeze the outer layers of the skin, though? Calling that an anesthetic is a bad joke. But it's not like we got time to discuss. I don't think Senku would allow me back up on deck without removing all the infected areas first. I look away from him. When I speak, I'm still too nervous.
“Ethyl chloride is better than nothing. It'll work."
Playing with my hands in front of me, Senku instructs the guard girl with some new lines before he opens the cage. The girl says
“Was okay, right? But you have an infection. Let’s cut out that piercing!”
“What? My piercing? But it's still fresh, that's the reason it’s still red! I just recently got it! Don’t worry, just let it be?”
I have to put on at least a bit of a show for the base who are listening in again, now that we left the cage. A little fight to keep the piercing so the base thinks I’m doing a good job in protecting their spy equipment.
“No, no, not good! Infection is death! We will cut!"
And with those words, Senku already managed to deactivate the bug. Ten seconds, just as promised, but now the surgery begins. He asks that guard girl to go up already, informing the others they got a new team member and to be nice. She leaves us alone.
Me lying on a table, dress pulled up. Senku splashing alcohol over every surface he can find. In a routine speed that makes me think this is not his first surgery with Stone Age tech. He even uses the time the alcohol needs to properly work to sterilize the scalpel over a gas fire. Cutting seconds.
Senku is only a bit younger than me, but Gen told me he was the one who woke up first. Five years ago. What life had he lived that he is now here, with a ship in America, routinely operating on a ‘spy’ (me)? But he doesn't give me much time to think.
Senku’s hair held back, a mask to cover mouth and nose, a light strapped to his head, he leans over me. Senku holds the bottle of ethyl chloride spray in his hands, warming it up, before cutting open the valve. With a shhhhh sound the gas gets ejected and the skin on my belly turns white. While starting to cut he asks:
“So what, am I a household name in that military base or why are you covering for me?"
And of course, he came to that conclusion just by observing. Yeah, I see why Xeno fears him as much as he loves him. But these kinds of questions have to wait. I can't make it through such a surgery without losing consciousness and Senku is the most obvious scientist-looking guy I have ever seen. He will manage to get himself shot before I'll even wake up again.
"Maybe.. but.."
The first few cuts were painless. The skin above the implants had become completely numb. But Senku has to cut below, too. Cleaning out the infected tissue. But talking through the pain is still easier than talking through fear. What do I even say? I can't just tell him ‘I was sent here to kill you, but please try not to die while I'm passed out?’, but then again, how much time do I even have left to think this over and find better words?
"There is a sniper watching. Looking for the ship’s scientist. Uhm, and that's obviously you, Senku. My only job is to point at you. I won't! Uhm. But that sniper isn't stupid or something. He's a pro! He will spot you if you look like a scientist or the leader. He wouldn’t be waiting for my signal, if he’s sure enough. And you have the most famous physics equation written on your shirt?"
“Eh? Criticizing my fashion sense while I’m cutting through your subcutaneous tissue? Bold choice.."
He waits for me to continue. I do not have much energy left, but this is still important.
“I’m sorry, I lied. I knew the pain would be too much… But it's still fine! I just have to be on deck where the others visibly care for me…”
I hope those last words were not too mumbled. I wasn't even hearing them myself anymore. I lost consciousness.
-- Senku --
Huuuh… So she knew she would lose consciousness from the start and just went along with that? How bothersome. Just say if you can't handle the pain. We could have worked out something better, I'm sure. Did she think she would lose too much time if we start discussing?
Focus on the cut now. This has to be done fast and precisely. The implant hadn't been in there long. No fibrotic tissue, yet. Easy to cut through. The implant can be removed in multiple parts. Good! Less stress on the system. One part out and plop! it goes into the bin.
Those guys really didn't care, huh? The battery left heat damage. Well, that delayed the sepsis, so aren't we unusually lucky today. Another part gone. Yeesh, that's bleeding too much. Wire? A quick run over the fire, connecting it to an electrical source, and bam! Improvised cauterization! Tssszzz… A lot of steam. Blood is really just water with some fancy parts.
She didn’t even flinch when I started to examine the bug. Instead of answering my questions, she used the time efficiently to say what needed saying. Informing me about the running timer, the sniper, even instructing me how not to stand out to avoid becoming a target? Why…
That could be the behavior of someone who doesn’t want the base to win. Or the behavior of somebody who wants to seem like they don’t want the base to win, only to betray us. That would be something Gen might pull. An act? The truth? I don't have enough information to go with. Either way: she is already more of a threat than that scientist who thinks bragging about himself mass-producing nitric acid is a valid war strategy.
Now, just a few last stitches. There! Done. My hands are pretty much bathed in blood. How convenient! Covering blood with blood. And BAM! No one will be able to read that equation.
But she miscalculated badly, that spy girl, eh? We’re three decks below, three steep staircases in two minutes. That will be gruesome.
"You better be worth it, spy girl."
She probably weighs no more than 40kg, isn’t that way too thin? Still… this will almost kill me. But what other chance do we have?
I try to grab her, lift her up, and fail. Eh? Wasn’t that a 30-degree angle? I hate proprioception. Only two minutes. Readjust, check, readjust, check, until I hit that optimal angle, using the leverage to the max.
Huuuuchz, I got her, but my legs are already wobbling. Three decks of steep ship stairs, speedrun any percent.
Don’t you know I’m famous for being even weaker than I look? They call me water flea, you now?
What a pathetic sight I must be right now. Knees pointing outwards, shivering, twitching, every step of the stairs a deep breath. Ugh, only one more stair to go. I feel like I could vomit, I probably will. And pass out right next to that spy girl. I only need to open that last door now…
Nikki immediately spots me.
"Senku, are you crazy carrying her here all by yourself? You’re a leek!"
She jumps up, running over to me, picking up that unconscious spy.
“You might drop her and then what?"
Unable to do anything else besides grasping for air, I crash down on the floor. Hah, that will wreak havoc on my system. I need tea, salt, and a hot bath.