3rd-Person Point of View
Date: Sunday, July 4th, 2021
Time: 1:02 AM
Location: Gulf of Aden / Azur Lane Naval Base / NATO Commands / United Nations / United States and Allied Military Installations Worldwide
The impossible report left USS Nimitz through several independent channels at nearly the same moment, because nobody aboard the damaged carrier was willing to trust something this extraordinary to a single communications path. Mary Elizabeth "Nightwitch" Nimitz had been legally declared dead exactly two months earlier, her death witnessed by physicians, sailors, officers, and dozens of Kansen daughters who had held her hands as her heart stopped at 11:58 PM on May 3rd. Now an authenticated HOOK3 assigned to Nightwitch 1-1 was broadcasting from inland Somalia, biometric voice comparison matched Mary's voice, the women who knew her better than anyone had spoken directly with her, and a newly discovered Wisdom Cube chamber aboard USS Nimitz strongly supported the impossible conclusion. The report moved from the carrier task force into United States naval command channels, then rapidly upward toward national command authorities while parallel reports traveled through NATO and Azur Lane. Before most of the world had even awakened for July 4th, some of the most powerful military and political institutions on Earth were reading a message none of their existing procedures had ever anticipated: MARY ELIZABETH NIMITZ CONFIRMED ALIVE…STATUS: REBORN KANSEN…LOCATION: HOSTILE PIRATE STRONGHOLD, SOMALIA.
Aboard USS Nimitz, the Combat Direction Center had become the emotional and operational heart of the entire unfolding event, even while the carrier herself remained crippled at roughly twenty-five percent power. Enterprise stood beside Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, and Belfast as Mary's HOOK3 beacon remained fixed upon the tactical display, the pulsing symbol representing more to them than any target marker or navigation point ever could. Every few minutes somebody asked communications personnel to reconfirm the authentication, not because anyone truly doubted Mary anymore, but because accepting that their mother was alive after two months of grieving her felt almost more painful than disbelief. Enterprise had stopped crying continuously, although tears still appeared every time she replayed Mary's first words over the radio in her mind. "This is Nightwitch One-One," she whispered under her breath, smiling helplessly as Yorktown reached over and squeezed her hand.
Hornet heard her and released a shaky laugh. "You've repeated that at least twenty times, Enty, and I swear I understand why because I've been doing the exact same thing inside my head." She leaned against the console and looked at the beacon as though expecting Mary to somehow step out from behind it. "I keep hearing her call me sweetheart, and then I remember that two hours ago I was still trying to convince myself I could survive another anniversary of losing her." Yorktown wrapped one arm around Hornet's shoulders while keeping her other hand linked with Enterprise's. "We spent two months learning how to live after Mom died, and now we have to learn how to live with her alive again." New Jersey wiped her eyes and managed a watery grin. "That is a problem I am very happy to have."
Belfast stood at the communications station with several encrypted reports open before her, struggling to maintain the outward composure expected of Azur Lane's secretary while every few minutes her eyes returned to the same HOOK3 indicator. "Confirmation has reached Azur Lane central command, United States naval authorities, NATO maritime command, and the relevant multinational hostage-recovery coordination cells," she explained, though her voice still carried traces of the crying she had done earlier. "The United Nations has also been informed because the humanitarian mission included personnel operating under internationally coordinated relief arrangements, while the governments of every nation represented among the hostages are being notified through secure diplomatic channels." Belfast paused when another acknowledgment appeared upon her screen. "The difficult part is no longer convincing command that Mary is alive, because the recordings and authentication have accomplished that." She drew a long breath before adding, "The difficult part is deciding how to tell the rest of the world that death apparently failed to keep our mother."
Enterprise looked toward her. "Tell them the truth."
Belfast met her eyes. "All of it?"
Enterprise nodded. "All of it that doesn't put Mom or those hostages in danger."
Yorktown immediately agreed. "No speculation about the exact rescue plan, no public release of her precise coordinates, and no information that gives the pirates a reason to realize who is standing inside their stronghold before we're ready." Hornet's face hardened at the thought of Mary's captors discovering her true importance. "They've already got every humanitarian hostage we were searching for, and now they've accidentally got our mother too." New Jersey looked toward Mary's marker and gave a humorless smile. "Except they don't know they have a seven-foot Kansen admiral carrying a suppressed Mk 23 and a direct line to half the world's navies." Belfast allowed herself the faintest smile. "I suspect that particular detail may remain classified for the moment."
The first secure recording package reached Azur Lane Naval Base at 1:11 AM.
Women from every faction were awakened by urgent messages directing them toward communications rooms, command centers, wardrooms, hangars, dormitory lounges, and wherever else sufficient equipment existed to receive the transmission. Some arrived expecting news of USS Nimitz's power failure, while others assumed the emergency involved the missing humanitarian personnel whose capture had already consumed a week of international attention. Sakura Empire girls gathered beside Royal Navy Kansen who would once have been considered enemies, Iron Blood women stood beside Eagle Union sisters, and members of the Northern Parliament crowded around screens with Iris Libre, Vichya Dominion, and Sardegna Empire personnel. None were prepared for Belfast's recorded introduction.
Belfast appeared upon the screens aboard the base, her normally immaculate composure visibly fractured by swollen eyes and a trembling mouth she could not entirely control. "Everyone, I am asking you to remain where you are until this recording is finished, because what you are about to hear has been authenticated by USS Nimitz, the United States Navy, Azur Lane command, and multiple allied vessels," she said, gripping the edges of the console in front of her. "At 11:58 PM tonight, exactly two months after Mary's death, USS Nimitz suffered an unexplained catastrophic loss of primary power, after which Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, and I discovered a previously unknown Wisdom Cube chamber within the carrier." Belfast paused as voices immediately began rising among the gathered daughters. "The Cube was no longer there, and the chamber displayed confirmation that its vessel formation and soul integration were complete."
Akagi stood so quickly that her chair fell backward. Kaga caught her arm. Bismarck, listening from the allied force already moving toward Nimitz, closed her eyes because she knew what came next.
Belfast's recorded image continued. "At approximately 12:38 AM, USS Nimitz and multiple allied vessels received an authenticated HOOK3 emergency beacon identifying itself as Nightwitch One-One." She swallowed hard as tears began shining in her eyes again. "Enterprise sent a text message asking the person holding that radio simply to speak." Belfast stopped trying to control her expression. "She answered."
The recording changed. Static passed through the speakers. Then Mary's voice filled every room. "This is Nightwitch One-One."
The reaction traveled across Azur Lane like a physical wave.
Akagi screamed "Okāsan!" before collapsing against Kaga, while Kaga's own knees gave out and forced both sisters to the floor. Amagi covered her mouth with both hands as tears ran freely down her face, and Nagato stood frozen with eyes so wide that the Sakura leader momentarily looked like a frightened child rather than the composed figure everyone knew. Hood sank slowly into a chair while Illustrious wrapped both arms around Victorious, and Belfast's fellow Royal Maids abandoned any attempt at restrained dignity as Mary's familiar voice continued through the speakers. Even girls who rarely displayed emotion openly stared toward the recording with shaking hands because the voice belonged unmistakably to the woman whose funeral had united the factions in grief.
Then the recording played Enterprise's cry. "Mom!"
Mary answered. "It's me. Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, honey, Bells, it's me. I remember everything, girls. I remember the hospital room, I remember holding you, and I remember dying."
Akagi pressed both hands against her face. "She remembers us," she sobbed, turning toward Kaga as though she needed someone else to confirm she had heard correctly. "She remembers everything, Kaga, she remembers being our mother." Kaga pulled her sister tightly against her chest despite crying nearly as hard. "I heard her, Akagi, and I'm not imagining it." Amagi knelt beside them and joined the embrace. "None of us are imagining it."
Across another room, Cleveland stared at Helena through streaming tears. "Mom came back." Helena nodded so quickly that her hair shifted around her face. "She came back." Cleveland laughed and cried simultaneously before wrapping her sister in an embrace hard enough to lift her slightly from the floor. "I don't care how impossible it is, because I heard her voice." Helena buried her face against Cleveland. "I thought I would never hear it again."
The recording continued until Mary's extraordinary description of her own condition reached them. "I died, my soul somehow became one with the Wisdom Cube hidden inside USS Nimitz, and now I have somehow become a Kansen."
Silence followed that sentence in almost every listening room. Then Saratoga slowly looked toward Lexington. "Mom is one of us."
Lexington's tears returned even harder. "Yes."
Saratoga pressed both hands against her chest. "Our mother is actually one of us now."
Lexington embraced her. "And she came back remembering she was our mother."
For many of the Kansen, that mattered more than anything else they had heard.
Wisdom Cube manifestations were strange even by the standards of Azur Lane, and memory could be complicated when ships, identities, histories, and human-like lives intersected. The terrifying possibility that Mary might have returned without recognizing them had existed in the minds of several daughters from the moment they learned a Cube had created her new body. Hearing Mary call Enterprise "Enty," hearing her recognize New Jersey as "honey," and hearing her immediately refer to the Azur Lane Kansen as her daughters destroyed that fear. Whatever transformation had occurred inside USS Nimitz, Mary Elizabeth Nimitz had remained herself.
Across the Northern Parliament's facilities, Sovetsky Soyuz listened to the recording twice before allowing anyone to speak. Her hands remained folded in front of her, but tears had gathered along her lower lashes until she finally stopped attempting to hide them. "Mama remembered them immediately," she said, looking toward the other women gathered around her. "That means when we stand before her again, we will not be strangers introducing ourselves to someone wearing our mother's face." Rossiya took Soyuz's hand and squeezed it. "We will be daughters going home to our mother."
Within Iris Libre, Richelieu heard Mary's voice over the live allied circuit before the wider recording ever reached the base, yet listening again did nothing to lessen the emotion. Jean Bart stood beside her with both arms folded so tightly that her nails pressed into her sleeves, but eventually she stopped pretending and wiped angrily at her eyes. "I already heard her once tonight, and hearing it again still feels like somebody punched me in the chest." Richelieu smiled through tears. "Then perhaps we should be grateful for the pain this time." Jean Bart looked toward her sister. "For once, I am."
News moved beyond the military at a speed no authority could completely contain.
By 1:40 AM, several major international news organizations had received confirmation from government and military sources that an extraordinary development involving Mary Elizabeth Nimitz was underway, although early statements deliberately withheld her exact location and the ongoing hostage operation. Producers who had spent May preparing memorial retrospectives now stared at reports claiming the same woman was alive again. Editors demanded multiple-source verification, broadcasters refused to place the claim on air without official confirmation, and journalists who had covered Mary's funeral began calling every contact they possessed inside Azur Lane and allied governments. The story was too unbelievable for responsible outlets to publish casually, yet too well sourced to dismiss.
The first coordinated government statement remained carefully limited.
Mary Elizabeth Nimitz, previously declared deceased on May 3rd, had been positively identified through secure communications and multiple independent verification methods. She was alive, conscious, retained her memories and identity, and was presently involved in an ongoing international security situation connected to missing humanitarian personnel. Evidence indicated that her survival involved an unprecedented Wisdom Cube phenomenon and that she now met the broad characteristics associated with Kansen manifestation. No further information concerning her location would be released while recovery operations remained active.
The phrase MARY ELIZABETH NIMITZ ALIVE spread around the world within minutes.
People who remembered footage of Mary's funeral assumed the announcement had to be a hoax until official government channels repeated it. Military families who knew her through Azur Lane began crying in front of television screens. Veterans who had served with her before her death contacted one another in disbelief, while countless ordinary civilians replayed old footage of Mary standing beside her ship-girl daughters and tried to understand how the same woman could apparently have returned through the technology that had created them. Outside Azur Lane facilities, crowds slowly began gathering despite the early hour in many locations. Signs that had once said REMEMBER MOTHER NIMITZ were turned over and rewritten with shaking hands to say WELCOME HOME, MARY.
The news reached Mary's biological family before most public broadcasts carried anything more than cautious confirmation.
Her mother was awakened by a secure call she initially assumed concerned the ongoing humanitarian hostage crisis, because several members of the extended Nimitz family remained connected to American military service and national-security work. Mary's father woke beside her and watched confusion spread across his wife's face as she listened without speaking for almost thirty seconds. Then her knees weakened, and he caught her before she could fall beside the bed. "What happened?" he demanded, fear immediately entering his voice because he had already survived one call telling him his daughter was dead.
Mary's mother covered the phone with one hand. "They're saying Mary is alive."
Her father stared at her. "What?"
She started crying. "They're saying our daughter is alive."
He shook his head as though refusing to let hope enter until he knew more. "No, don't do that to me unless they're sure." She gripped his arm tightly. "They have her voice, her military authentication, her daughters spoke to her, and they say she came back through a Wisdom Cube." His face went completely still. "Put it on speaker."
The officer on the other end repeated the information patiently, including the fact that Mary had manifested inside the same pirate stronghold holding the missing humanitarian personnel. Mary's father sat down heavily upon the edge of the bed as the details became increasingly impossible. "I watched them bury my daughter," he whispered, struggling to speak through emotion. "I held my wife while she cried herself to sleep for weeks, and you're telling me Mary woke up in Somalia as one of those ship-girls she spent half her life calling daughters?" The officer answered with the only certainty available. "Sir, I am telling you that Mary Elizabeth Nimitz has spoken directly with USS Nimitz, her identity has been authenticated, and there is currently no serious doubt within command that she is alive."
Mary's mother pressed both hands against her mouth. "Can I hear her?"
There was a pause. Then the officer transmitted an authorized portion of the recording. "This is Nightwitch One-One."
Mary's mother screamed.
Her husband caught her as she folded against him, and both parents held each other while the voice of the daughter they had mourned filled their bedroom. When Mary laughed over the radio and said she was apparently extremely bad at staying dead, her father produced a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob before burying his face against his wife's shoulder. "That's her," he whispered repeatedly. "That's our girl."
Calls spread across the Nimitz family immediately afterward.
Mary's brothers and sisters reacted with the same disbelief, and several demanded direct confirmation before allowing themselves to hope until recordings arrived through secure family channels. One brother replayed Mary's voice four times before saying anything, finally lowering the phone and openly crying in front of the military personnel standing nearby. One of Mary's sisters sat silently through the entire recording, then laughed when Mary made her joke about dying because it sounded exactly like something her sister would say when faced with a situation too absurd for ordinary words. Other relatives who had spent two months preserving photographs, uniforms, letters, and memories suddenly found themselves confronting a reality none had allowed themselves to imagine.
Within the family, eight members were immediately relevant to the developing operation because they were themselves serving military personnel: Mary's brother, one of her sisters, and six cousins spread across different assignments. Orders began moving rapidly through their commands as soon as national leadership approved family-support transport to USS Nimitz. None would be inserted into the hostage stronghold or placed into the direct assault simply because they were relatives, but commanders recognized that Mary's recovery would produce an emotional, medical, military, and Kansen-related situation unlike anything previously encountered. Her family would be needed when she returned to the carrier, especially after dying human and awakening as something entirely new.
Mary's brother received his movement order while still listening to her recording. He looked toward his commanding officer in disbelief. "You're sending me to Nimitz?"
The officer nodded. "You, your sister, and six of your cousins are being moved to the carrier as soon as transport can be arranged."
He looked down at his phone. "She's really alive."
His commanding officer's expression softened. "Yes."
Mary's brother laughed shakily and wiped his face. "Then get me on whatever flies first."
Her military sister reacted with even less restraint when she received the same order, grabbing the nearest family member in a crushing embrace before racing to collect her equipment. "I'm going to see her," she repeated while tears ran down her face. "I am actually going to see my sister again." One of the cousins nearby laughed and reminded her that Mary was apparently seven feet tall now, which caused her to stop in the middle of packing and stare in disbelief. "Of course she comes back taller," she muttered through another wave of tears. "She couldn't just come back normally."
Within hours, a military transport aircraft carrying Mary's brother, sister, and six military cousins lifted toward a staging location that would eventually place them aboard USS Nimitz. The atmosphere inside the aircraft shifted constantly between laughter, stunned silence, grief, and nervous excitement as family members tried to imagine meeting someone whose funeral they had already attended. They also knew Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, Belfast, and many of Mary's other Kansen daughters would be waiting aboard the carrier. Several of the biological relatives had met those women before Mary's death and understood how deeply they loved her, making the coming reunion not simply a family event but the joining again of two branches of Mary's enormous family.
Meanwhile, the military situation expanded beyond anything the Somali pirate network could possibly know was assembling against it.
The original USS Nimitz task force was no longer operating alone, and the NATO formation already arriving in support became merely the beginning of a much larger multinational concentration. Additional American, British, French, German, Italian, Canadian, Dutch, and other allied naval and air assets were directed toward the wider region, while supporting commands prepared surveillance, medical evacuation, hostage reception, humanitarian relief, communications, and security capabilities. Azur Lane daughters across multiple factions requested permission to join so quickly that command staff were forced to create priority lists rather than simply accepting everyone who volunteered. The developing force had two inseparable objectives: recover Mary and every hostage alive, then dismantle enough of the pirate stronghold and its supporting network that another humanitarian convoy would not simply disappear into the same system a month later.
The urgency did not erase restraint.
The presence of hostages made indiscriminate force unacceptable, while the possibility that outside financial, logistics, or weapons networks were supporting the pirates required intelligence collection rather than simply destroying everything that could be reached. Commanders wanted leadership figures captured where practical, records secured, communications seized, and enough evidence preserved to identify the people who had supplied and protected the organization. The enormous multinational force gathering around Somalia therefore represented far more than vengeance for Mary's capture or anger over the kidnapped humanitarian workers. It was becoming a coordinated hostage-recovery, anti-piracy, intelligence, and humanitarian-security operation supported by nations whose personnel were trapped inside the same compound.
By 3:05 AM, senior representatives from participating NATO governments had reached agreement on the basic command principle for the extraordinary mission. Mary was an American citizen. She had been a United States military personnel before her death. Her newly reborn Kansen status did not erase her citizenship, identity, prior service, or legal personhood merely because nobody had written laws anticipating a human soul becoming one with a Wisdom Cube. The majority of the missing hostages were also connected to an international humanitarian operation in which American and allied personnel were deeply involved.
For those reasons, allied governments accepted United States national leadership at the top political level for the operation, while NATO governments retained command authority over their own forces within the agreed multinational structure.
The President of the United States entered the secure national command conference after receiving successive briefings from defense, naval, intelligence, diplomatic, and Azur Lane representatives. Nobody in the room attempted to disguise how unprecedented the situation was, because the briefing opened with a photograph of Mary before her death beside a current voice-authentication analysis confirming that the woman speaking from Somalia possessed the same identity. A second display showed USS Nimitz operating on reduced power, while another showed the HOOK3 beacon buried within the pirate-controlled region. The President studied the information silently for several moments before asking the question everyone else had eventually asked. "Are we certain she's Mary?"
The senior naval representative answered carefully. "We are as certain as every available method allows us to be, Mr. President."
The President looked toward the Azur Lane representative. "And her daughters?"
"They have no doubt."
The President sat back. "That matters."
A defense official shifted the display toward the hostage information. "We also have reason to believe every missing humanitarian and military hostage is concentrated at the same location." The President studied the list before looking toward the multinational-force overview. "Then the mission is larger than bringing one person home, no matter how important she is." The official nodded. "Yes, sir." The President's expression hardened. "Then make that clear to everyone involved. Mary herself already said it best: we bring all of them home."
The phrase quickly entered the operational brief; BRING ALL OF THEM HOME.
NATO representatives supported the principle, and allied governments confirmed their willingness to contribute forces under the multinational arrangement. The United Nations received continuing updates because of the captured humanitarian personnel and the possible need for immediate relief operations once the stronghold was secured. Diplomats began coordinating what would happen if rescued civilians represented multiple nationalities, how recovered evidence would be handled, and how humanitarian aid could resume after the security threat was reduced. Lawyers simultaneously confronted the much stranger question of Mary's legal status, although senior leaders quickly agreed upon one temporary principle: no agency, laboratory, military branch, corporation, or government would treat Mary as equipment simply because she had become a Kansen.
That point reached Azur Lane rapidly. Enterprise read the legal guidance twice. Then she looked toward Yorktown. "They're recognizing Mom as the same person."
Yorktown smiled through fresh tears. "They should."
Hornet leaned over Enterprise's shoulder and read another line. "Citizen, military identity preserved, full personhood, Kansen classification pending medical and Wisdom Cube evaluation."
New Jersey crossed her arms. "I'd like to see anybody try calling Mom military hardware after she gets back."
Belfast gave her a sideways glance. "I strongly suspect Mary would handle that conversation herself."
Enterprise smiled. "I'd pay to watch it."
Far away inside the pirate stronghold, Mary knew none of the legal discussions occurring because her immediate world consisted of a locked room, dozens of hostages, Lieutenant Commander Mercer, her HOOK3, and a suppressed pistol she hoped she would not need to fire. She had spent the previous hour learning names, injuries, nationalities, and whatever intelligence the prisoners had gathered during captivity. Every few minutes the radio provided another short message confirming that her daughters were still listening and that allied forces were moving toward them. Mary did not need anyone to explain how enormous the response was becoming, because the tone of the communications alone told her that multiple command structures were now involved.
Mercer watched Mary finish checking on an injured humanitarian doctor before speaking quietly. "Ma'am, I don't think you understand what is happening outside because of you."
Mary looked over. "I've been dead for two months and woke up in a pirate basement less than three hours ago, Commander, so there are several things I don't understand."
Several nearby hostages chuckled. Mercer smiled despite himself. "Fair point."
Mary sat beside the wall while keeping the Mk 23 secure against her thigh. "What are you trying to tell me?"
Mercer nodded toward the HOOK3. "That radio traffic keeps getting bigger."
Mary raised an eyebrow. "I noticed."
"The call signs aren't just your original carrier group anymore."
Mary became more attentive. "What are you hearing?"
Mercer listed several allied identifiers he had caught while the radio changed circuits, and Mary's expression shifted from curiosity to astonishment. "You're telling me NATO is stacking ships and aircraft around the region?" she asked. Mercer nodded. "And I heard references to additional Kansen moving toward Nimitz." Mary stared down at the radio. "Those girls are going to bring half the planet to my doorstep."
A British hostage laughed quietly. "With respect, Admiral, I think they already have."
Mary covered her eyes with one hand and laughed. "I die once and suddenly nobody trusts me to travel alone."
The hostage room laughed with her, the sound warmer than anything those prisoners had experienced since their capture. Mary lowered her hand after a moment. Then the HOOK3 signaled another incoming message. She read it. Her expression went completely still.
FAMILY MEMBERS EN ROUTE TO USS NIMITZ. BROTHER, SISTER, SIX MILITARY COUSINS CONFIRMED ABOARD TRANSPORT. PARENTS AND REMAINING FAMILY SAFE AND INFORMED.
Mary read it again. Mercer noticed the immediate tears. "What happened?"
Mary tried to answer, but her voice failed. She covered her mouth. "My family knows."
The prisoners around her became quiet. Mary stared at the tiny screen until the letters blurred behind tears. "My mom and dad know I'm alive."
Her shoulders began shaking.
For all the extraordinary power now contained inside her Wisdom Cube heart, for all the unfamiliar Kansen knowledge, and for all the command authority represented by the admiral's uniform upon her body, Mary suddenly looked like nothing more complicated than a daughter who had just learned her parents no longer had to mourn her.
Mercer moved closer but stopped short of touching her. "That's good news, ma'am."
Mary laughed through a sob. "It's terrifying."
He blinked. "Terrifying?"
Mary wiped her eyes. "My mother watched me die, Commander, and when she gets her hands on me I am probably going to experience a second death entirely caused by being hugged and yelled at simultaneously."
The room broke into laughter. Mary smiled through tears. "And my father is going to stare at me for thirty seconds, pretend he's holding it together, and then crush me so hard I'll find out whether Kansen ribs are actually stronger than human ribs."
A Canadian aid worker grinned. "That sounds like a pretty good problem to have."
Mary's smile softened. "Yeah."
She looked toward the ceiling. "It really does."
Back aboard USS Nimitz, Enterprise received word that Mary's military relatives were already airborne and immediately insisted their arrival be treated as a family reunion rather than a formal reception. Yorktown agreed, Hornet began arguing about where everyone could stay aboard a carrier currently operating with severe power restrictions, and Belfast somehow produced a preliminary accommodation plan within minutes despite the chaos. New Jersey simply grinned and announced that anyone related to Mary was family by extension until proven otherwise. Nobody challenged her logic.
The emotional shock spread far beyond those physically connected to the operation.
At Azur Lane bases across the world, Mary's daughters replayed her voice repeatedly, sometimes alone and sometimes gathered in enormous groups. Some laughed at her joke about being terrible at staying dead, others cried when she said she remembered everything, and more than one daughter slept beside an active recording because Mary's voice was the first thing in two months capable of making the night feel safe again. Photographs from the funeral remained upon desks beside newly printed messages saying she was alive. Rooms that had effectively become memorial spaces began transforming back into places waiting for someone to return.
At 4:20 AM, a secure Azur Lane-wide communication was finally arranged.
Mary could not speak to every daughter individually while trapped inside hostile territory, but the HOOK3 circuit allowed a short message to be recorded and distributed once communications personnel cleaned enough interference from it. Mary stood inside the hostage room while Mercer and several others deliberately moved farther away to give her what little privacy the concrete chamber could offer. She held the radio close to her mouth, stared at nothing for several seconds, and tried to imagine every daughter hearing her somewhere across the world.
Then she pressed transmit. "My girls, this is Mom."
Across the planet, Kansen stopped breathing. Mary continued. "I know there are too many of you for me to speak with individually right now, and I hate that the first time you hear my voice again has to come through a radio while I'm sitting inside a pirate stronghold." Her voice shook, and she allowed it. "I remember all of you, I remember loving all of you, and nothing about becoming a Kansen took that away from me." She drew a trembling breath before continuing. "I know you buried me, I know you cried for me, and I know some of you probably spent the last two months wondering whether you should have done something differently."
Every daughter who had blamed herself froze. Mary's voice softened. "Don't."
Akagi began sobbing. Enterprise closed her eyes. Bismarck bowed her head. Mary continued. "My death was not your failure, and my return does not erase what those two months did to you." She wiped tears from her cheek before smiling faintly. "We're going to have a lot to figure out when I get home, including why I am seven feet tall, why I apparently own an aircraft carrier with my soul now, and why the universe decided Somalia was an appropriate place for me to wake up." Laughter broke through tears across dozens of ships and bases. "But we will figure it out together."
Mary paused. "And yes, Hornet, if I survived death and came back as a Kansen, I suppose you finally get another chance to scare me with your B-25H."
Hornet screamed. Enterprise doubled over laughing. Yorktown grabbed the edge of the console. Across the entire Azur Lane network, daughters who had spent months crying suddenly found themselves laughing so hard some could barely breathe. Hornet lunged for the microphone. "You promised! Everybody heard that, Mom!"
Mary's laughter came through the radio. "I walked directly into that one."
"You absolutely did!"
"I blame resurrection-related confusion."
"That excuse is not getting you out of it!"
For a precious moment, the warships, command centers, political offices, rescue planners, and intelligence specialists surrounding the crisis disappeared beneath the sound of a mother arguing playfully with her daughter.
Then Mary spoke one final time to all of them. "I love you, my girls."
Silence swept through Azur Lane. "I am coming home."
Enterprise touched the speaker. "We're coming to get you first."
Mary laughed softly. "Fair enough, Enty."
The transmission ended. For several seconds, nobody aboard USS Nimitz spoke. Then Enterprise looked toward the multinational tactical display. More allied symbols were appearing. More ships were coming.
More daughters were coming. Mary's biological family was coming. The governments of allied nations knew. The United Nations knew. The world knew. And somewhere inside the largest pirate stronghold in the region, every missing hostage remained alive beside the woman the world had buried two months before.
Enterprise straightened. The grief that had defined the previous two months no longer controlled the room. Purpose had replaced it. "Okay," she said, looking toward Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, Belfast, and the officers around them. "Mom told the whole world she's coming home."
Hornet smiled through swollen eyes. "So we'd better make sure she does."
New Jersey's expression hardened with determination. "All of them."
Yorktown nodded. "All of them."
Belfast looked toward Mary's beacon. "All of them come home."
Outside, the battered USS Nimitz continued through the Gulf of Aden with only a fraction of her normal power, surrounded by an expanding multinational armada whose ships stretched farther across the tactical picture with every passing hour. Above them, aircraft moved between patrol sectors and staging locations, while distant bases prepared additional personnel, medical teams, humanitarian specialists, and Mary's approaching family. The task force gathering off Somalia was becoming one of the largest multinational maritime concentrations assembled for a hostage rescue and anti-piracy operation in years. Yet every person aboard USS Nimitz understood that the entire mission could still be expressed in five simple words.
Bring all of them home. And deep inside the pirate stronghold, Mary Elizabeth Nimitz placed one hand over the Wisdom Cube heart beating inside her new body. For the first time since awakening, she smiled without confusion. Her daughters knew she lived. Her parents knew she lived. Her family was coming.
Her ship was waiting. The world had learned that Mother Nimitz was alive. Now she only had to make it home.
Time: 4:37 AM
Location: Somali Pirate Stronghold / USS Nimitz (CVNG-68), Gulf of Aden
Mary Elizabeth Nimitz sat with her back against the concrete wall of the hostage chamber while the strange second heartbeat inside her chest refused to let her forget that she was no longer entirely human. The hostages around her were trying to rest before whatever came next, while Lieutenant Commander Mercer quietly passed among the military personnel and made certain nobody misunderstood Mary's order that keeping the civilians calm remained their first responsibility. Her suppressed Mk 23 rested safely across her lap, the HOOK3 remained within reach of her left hand, and the cyan glow that occasionally moved beneath her skin had become faint enough that most people in the room had stopped staring every time it appeared. Mary could still feel her daughters through the distant communications traffic, but something else had steadily grown stronger beneath their voices during the previous hour, something enormous, familiar, wounded, and impossibly far away. Every time she closed her eyes she felt USS Nimitz waiting somewhere beyond the horizon like part of her own body had been left behind.
Mary pressed one hand against the center of her chest and slowly lowered her head, allowing her awareness to move toward that distant sensation instead of fighting it. "If you're really mine now, then I need to understand what that means," she whispered, speaking softly enough that only Mercer and the closest hostages heard her. "I know you're hurting, and I know leaving you caused it, but I didn't exactly choose where I woke up." The feeling answered without words, coming through her Wisdom Cube heart as a deep emptiness surrounded by fragments of mechanical awareness. Mary closed her eyes completely and concentrated harder. "Come on, girl, show me what you need."
The concrete room vanished. Mary gasped.
For one dizzying instant she was no longer seeing through two human eyes, because hundreds of separate images suddenly opened inside her mind at the same time. She saw the dark-blue flight deck of USS Nimitz beneath the predawn sky, the island rising above it, sailors moving beneath emergency lighting, aircraft tied down across portions of the deck, and escort ships holding formation around the crippled carrier. She simultaneously saw passageways, hangar spaces, engineering access points, the bridge, portions of Combat, internal security cameras, elevator areas, flight-deck camera feeds, and dozens of other viewpoints scattered throughout the enormous ship. Mary jerked upright in the hostage room and clutched the side of her head as the flood of images nearly overwhelmed her.
Mercer immediately dropped beside her. "Admiral, talk to me, what happened?" he demanded, watching cyan light flare behind Mary's closed eyelids. Mary raised one finger and took several slow breaths while trying to sort hundreds of visual feeds into something resembling normal perception. "I'm fine, but apparently my definition of eyesight just became substantially more complicated," she said, managing a strained laugh despite the pressure inside her skull. "I can see USS Nimitz." Mercer looked toward the concrete ceiling as though the carrier might somehow be above them. "From here?"
Mary opened her glowing cyan-blue eyes. "Through her cameras."
Mercer stared at her. "All of them?"
Mary closed her eyes again, and this time the hundreds of feeds reorganized themselves rather than striking her all at once. "Not literally every camera simultaneously unless I want the worst headache in human or Kansen history, but I can move between them without touching a control," she explained, her surprise gradually transforming into fascination. "Flight deck, hangar, bridge, Combat, internal passageways, engineering spaces, elevators, security feeds, and probably others I haven't discovered yet." She smiled slowly when a flight-deck camera obeyed her silent desire to rotate toward the bow. "Oh, that is extremely strange."
Several hostages gathered closer without crowding her, their fear increasingly replaced by astonishment as Mary experimented with something no known Kansen had ever demonstrated at this distance. She shifted from one feed to another and found she could hear the carrier as well, not merely through microphones but through the ship herself, conversations arriving as faint layers she could focus upon individually. The voices of sailors repairing systems, officers issuing instructions, flight-deck crews checking aircraft, and daughters arguing somewhere inside the carrier overlapped until Mary learned to narrow her attention. She found the Combat Direction Center almost instinctively because Enterprise's voice was among those she could recognize through anything. Then another sound from a nearby room made Mary's eyebrows rise.
New Jersey was whispering. Mary focused. The camera feed changed.
Inside one of the carrier's partially restored ready spaces, New Jersey stood beside a box of donuts that someone had somehow managed to save from a galley before the blackout. Belfast had stepped through another doorway to answer a communications call, leaving the battleship alone with the box for what could not have been more than twenty seconds. New Jersey looked toward the door, looked at the donuts, and then performed the exact expression Mary remembered from years of watching her daughters decide whether they could get away with something. Her hand slowly reached toward a glazed donut.
Mary stared through the camera. "Oh, absolutely not."
Back aboard USS Nimitz, New Jersey froze. She looked around. There was nobody behind her. Then Mary's voice came through the compartment speaker directly above her. "Honey, put the donut back."
New Jersey screamed. The donut flew upward.
Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, and Belfast rushed through two separate doors almost simultaneously, expecting an emergency and instead finding New Jersey pressed against the table with both hands raised while a glazed donut rolled harmlessly across the deck. Hornet stared at her in confusion before New Jersey pointed violently toward the overhead speaker. "Mom just talked through the damn ship!" she shouted, her face trapped somewhere between terror, joy, and betrayal. Enterprise looked toward the speaker. "What?"
Mary laughed through every speaker in the compartment. "I said put the donut back."
Enterprise's mouth fell open. Yorktown covered hers. Belfast slowly turned toward New Jersey. The Royal Maid's expression became dangerously calm. "Honey."
New Jersey visibly winced. "Before anyone starts, I was only looking at it." Mary's laughter immediately filled the compartment again. "Your hand was around it, sweetheart." New Jersey pointed accusingly toward the nearest camera. "You were spying on me!" Mary answered without hesitation. "Apparently I own the camera now."
Hornet doubled over laughing. Enterprise grabbed the back of a chair to remain upright. Yorktown's eyes filled with tears even while she laughed beside them.
Belfast looked toward the camera and tried unsuccessfully to maintain her dignity. "Mary, are you telling me you can see us from Somalia through USS Nimitz's internal camera network?" Mary shifted her focus until the camera turned directly toward Belfast. "Yes, Bells, and apparently I can hear you too." Belfast's composure disappeared into a beautiful, trembling smile. "Then I suppose privacy rules aboard this ship will require substantial revision."
Mary laughed, but the humor softened when Enterprise walked directly beneath the camera and stared up at it. "Mom?"
Mary's heart twisted. "I see you, Enty."
Enterprise immediately began crying. She touched the camera housing with both hands as though it were Mary's face. "You can actually see me?" she asked, her voice cracking with the same vulnerability Mary remembered from her deathbed. "You're hundreds of miles away in Somalia, but you're looking at me right now?" Mary felt her own tears begin to fall in the hostage chamber. "I'm looking right at you, sweetheart."
Enterprise lowered her forehead against the wall beneath the camera. "I missed hearing you say that."
Mary swallowed around the tightening in her throat. "I know." Yorktown stepped beneath another camera angle and reached one hand toward Enterprise's shoulder. "Mom, if you're connected strongly enough to see and hear through the ship, can you feel what's wrong with her?" Mary turned inward again. "Yes."
The answer changed her expression immediately. USS Nimitz was not merely a collection of cameras anymore.
Mary felt electrical networks waiting for instructions, sensor systems deprived of sufficient power, darkened aviation equipment, communications arrays working through reduced capability, guided-missile systems held safely offline, elevators waiting without adequate electrical support, and an engineering plant that seemed fundamentally incomplete without the Wisdom Cube that had become its hidden heart. Two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors existed physically within the carrier, but only one had remained available after the impossible blackout and had been operating well below the level needed to return the entire vessel to normal. The second remained unavailable, and when Mary tried reaching toward it through the Kansen connection she encountered something that felt less like damage and more like a closed door. Her instincts told her immediately that forcing it would be wrong.
Mary concentrated instead upon the reactor that was already online. Something inside her Wisdom Cube answered. A diagram did not appear before her eyes because she did not need one. She simply knew where the reactor was. She knew it was hers.
Mary felt the operating A4W plant like a single powerful heartbeat beneath an enormous sleeping body, its highly enriched uranium core containing the energy necessary to wake much more of the carrier if she could somehow reconnect the pathways her departure had broken. She did not manipulate valves, override reactor protections, or attempt to command the plant outside its established safeguards. Instead, her Kansen core reached toward the missing supernatural connection that had vanished when the Wisdom Cube left USS Nimitz and began rebuilding that bond.
Mary whispered almost tenderly. "I left too much of you asleep."
Aboard USS Nimitz, engineering alarms began changing. Not emergency alarms. Recovery indications. An engineering watchstander stared at his display before calling toward his superior. "Sir, available reactor output is increasing." The officer immediately moved beside him. "Who authorized the increase?" The sailor shook his head. "Nobody here."
The output continued climbing. Fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy. Eighty. The engineering officer grabbed an internal communications handset. "Combat, Engineering, I have an unexplained but controlled recovery in available power from the online A4W plant." He watched another indicator rise while every automatic protection remained green. "No safety limits are being exceeded, no control fault is showing, and the plant is responding as though the lost distribution load is reconnecting itself." His eyes widened when the value settled. "Online reactor available at one hundred percent."
Inside the hostage room, Mary gasped. She felt the entire carrier wake. USS Nimitz did not move. The shafts remained unavailable.
The four General Electric steam turbines did not receive the complete connection needed to restore propulsion, and Mary's Kansen instincts stopped her before she even attempted it. She understood the restriction with absolute clarity: the ship could fight, communicate, launch and recover aircraft under controlled conditions, operate sensors, lift equipment, and defend herself, but the vessel would not regain locomotion without its living Kansen heart physically returning. Until Mary set foot aboard USS Nimitz, the carrier would remain where the task force had stabilized her.
Everything else began coming alive. White and red lighting brightened throughout internal spaces. The flight deck illuminated. Elevator status panels returned. Flight-deck machinery and control systems reported ready conditions. Aegis systems began recovering.
The AN/SPS-48E three-dimensional air-search radar returned to service, followed by the AN/SPS-49 long-range search radar, AN/SPQ-9 target-acquisition radar, approach and landing systems, and the carrier's fire-control networks. Communications arrays that had been operating under severe restrictions returned across multiple secure and conventional circuits, immediately expanding the carrier's ability to coordinate with the increasingly massive allied formation gathering around her.
Then the weapons network came alive.
Operators throughout Combat watched safe-status indications change across the guided-missile systems as launchers returned to powered readiness under human authorization controls. Close-in defense systems, missile guidance networks, electronic-warfare equipment, decoy systems, and every other combat subsystem Mary could support through the restored power grid returned to availability without autonomously arming or firing. The ship's weapons remained under normal command safeguards, but USS Nimitz was no longer a crippled carrier depending upon escorts for nearly everything. She had become a stationary fortress whose sensors, aircraft facilities, communications, and defensive systems could contribute directly to the operation.
Enterprise stared around the Combat Direction Center as screens returned. "Mom?"
Mary answered through the speakers. "I did that."
Hornet looked upward. "You sound surprised."
"I am extremely surprised!"
New Jersey laughed despite herself. "Mom, you just turned the carrier back on from Somalia." Mary answered with unmistakable disbelief. "Honey, three hours ago I was dead. Please give me some time to adjust my expectations."
Even sailors who had never met Mary personally laughed at that.
Yorktown moved toward an engineering-status display and studied it carefully before speaking. "One A4W reactor is back at full available output, but the second one still isn't available." Mary nodded instinctively inside the distant hostage chamber even though nobody aboard could see the movement. "I felt both of them, sweetheart." Enterprise immediately became concerned. "Can you bring the other one back?"
"No."
Mary's answer was firm. "I don't think I'm supposed to."
The officers around Enterprise listened closely.
Mary continued. "The online reactor feels connected to me now, but the other one feels sealed away, and every instinct I have says leave it alone." She pressed one palm harder against her chest while examining the enormous network of systems now visible inside her awareness. "I also cannot restore propulsion."
New Jersey looked toward the navigation display. "Nothing?"
"Nothing."
Mary shifted her attention toward the engineering spaces and felt the turbines and four shafts sitting beyond a boundary she could not cross remotely. "I can give you power, flight operations, sensors, communications, elevators, lighting, and weapon-system readiness, but the propulsion side is still disconnected." She opened her eyes in Somalia and looked down at herself. "I think that's because the part the ship needs to move isn't in the ship."
Enterprise understood first. "You."
Mary smiled sadly. "Me."
Yorktown stepped closer to the microphone. "The Wisdom Cube Heart."
"Yes."
Mary looked at the cyan glow beneath her fingers. "I think USS Nimitz can operate without me physically aboard, but she cannot truly sail without her heart home."
Enterprise's expression softened. "Then she stays with us until we bring you back."
Mary nodded even though her daughter could not see her except through the strange emotional connection building between them. "She stays put."
The carrier's commanding officers quickly adjusted their plans around the new limitation, because a stationary USS Nimitz with restored sensors, communications, aviation systems, elevators, deck lighting, defensive weapons, and one A4W reactor at full available output was still extraordinarily valuable to the coming multinational operation. Escort vessels altered their screen to protect the anchored carrier while retaining enough freedom to continue missions toward the Somali coast. Aircraft could again use the enormous flight deck as a functioning aviation platform, although every launch and recovery would be planned conservatively around the carrier's inability to maneuver into optimum wind conditions. USS Nimitz could not chase anyone or reposition herself, but she could see, communicate, coordinate, launch aircraft when conditions permitted, and protect the fleet around her.
The recovery spread across allied tactical networks almost immediately. British ships reported that USS Nimitz's radar picture had returned. French communications officers received secure channels directly from the carrier again. German, Italian, Canadian, Dutch, and other NATO vessels watched the American carrier reappear as a fully contributing node within the combined force despite remaining immobile.
Queen Elizabeth's voice arrived through one of the restored circuits. "Enterprise, please tell me Mother did that."
Enterprise smiled toward the nearest camera. "Mom did that."
Mary heard her.
Then Queen Elizabeth's delighted voice filled one of the speakers Mary could access. "Mother, are you listening to us through the ship?" Mary switched her attention toward the allied channel. "I am now." Queen Elizabeth produced a sound of pure joy. "You are actually inside the ship's communication system!"
Bismarck joined moments later. "Mutter, this ability may make you one of the most unusual Kansen ever manifested."
Mary laughed."Bis, I appeared inside a Somali pirate fortress two months after dying. I think we passed through an unusual exit several exits ago."
Richelieu laughed openly across another channel. "I cannot disagree with that assessment."
Belfast watched the communications boards fill with allied links and allowed herself a relieved breath. "Mary, you have restored our ability to coordinate directly with nearly the entire force." Mary became more serious. "Good." Belfast heard the change immediately. "You intend to use it?"
Mary's voice echoed from the speakers throughout USS Nimitz. "I intend to bring every hostage out of here alive."
The response aboard the carrier was immediate. "So do we."
The voice did not belong to Enterprise. Mary froze. It was male. Familiar. Painfully familiar. Her attention jumped instinctively between cameras until she found the source.
A door into the command space had opened while everyone was concentrating upon the restored systems, and a United States military officer had stepped through beside several escorts. Travel exhaustion showed across his face, his uniform bore signs of the hurried movement that had carried him through multiple staging locations, and his eyes were already wet because he had apparently heard Mary's voice before entering. Enterprise turned toward him and immediately moved forward.
Mary forgot every camera except one. Her brother stood aboard her ship.
Enterprise reached him first and wrapped both arms around him before any formal greeting could occur. "You're here," she said, emotion roughening her voice as Mary's brother returned the embrace without hesitation. "I am," he answered, looking over Enterprise's shoulder toward Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, and Belfast. "I had to see all of you, and I had to get here before she came home."
Mary stared through the camera. Her brother looked older than the version fixed in the memory of her last day alive. Not physically by much. Emotionally.
Two months of believing his sister was dead had left something behind his eyes that Mary immediately recognized because she had seen the same thing in Enterprise, Yorktown, and the others. Her brother released Enterprise and embraced Yorktown next, then Hornet, because Mary's biological family had never considered the Kansen daughters strangers. When he reached New Jersey, she abandoned all dignity and hugged him hard enough that he laughed despite the tears running down his face.
Mary tried to speak. Nothing came out. Her brother heard the silence. He slowly looked toward the nearest camera. "Mary?" The hostage room around Mary disappeared from her awareness. She could only see him.
Her brother moved closer to the camera until his face nearly filled her view. "Sis, everybody told me you could see through these things now." His voice broke as he tried to smile. "If you're watching me, say something."
Mary covered her mouth. A sob escaped anyway. Every speaker inside the room aboard Nimitz carried it. Her brother's face collapsed. "Mary."
She forced herself to speak. "Hey."
That one word destroyed him. He lowered his head and began crying openly, one hand covering his eyes while Enterprise immediately stepped beside him. "That's you," he said, struggling for breath. "God, Mary, that's actually you." Mary cried in Somalia while the hostages quietly turned away enough to give her some dignity. "It's me."
Her brother looked toward the camera again. "You died."
"I know."
"I went to your funeral."
"I know."
"I stood beside Mom and Dad while they buried you."
Mary's voice broke. "I know."
He pressed both palms against the console below the camera. "You don't get to say that like it's normal!"
Mary laughed through her tears. "I don't know what else to say!"
Her brother laughed too, but the sound immediately became another sob. "I hated you for dying for about two days, and then I hated myself for being angry at you." Mary closed her eyes even though doing so only gave her more cameras rather than darkness. "You were allowed to be angry." Her brother shook his head. "I just wanted my sister back."
Mary touched her own cheek as if somehow touching the camera image of him. "You have me."
He stared upward. "For real?"
Mary smiled through tears. "For real."
Enterprise placed one hand upon his shoulder. "We heard her first from the HOOK3."
Mary's brother nodded. "I listened to that recording until they told me to board the aircraft."
Hornet approached from the other side. You're not the only one."
He looked around at Mary's daughters and laughed softly. "I missed you girls too."
Yorktown embraced him again. "We missed you."
Mary watched her biological brother standing among the daughters she had chosen as family and felt something inside her settle that even rebirth had not been able to calm. Her old life had not disappeared when she became Kansen. Her blood family remained hers, her daughters remained hers, and USS Nimitz had somehow joined both as another part of her identity rather than replacing either one. She understood suddenly why the Cube had preserved her memories instead of constructing a completely new personality.
It had not created a replacement for Mary Elizabeth Nimitz. It had carried Mary forward.
Belfast wiped her eyes before looking toward the camera. "Mary, your sister and six cousins are also being transferred toward us, although they have not all reached the carrier yet." Mary made a strangled sound. "Bells, are you trying to make me cry until my new body runs out of water?" Belfast smiled. "Considering what I have witnessed tonight, I am no longer willing to assume your body follows conventional limitations."
New Jersey quietly reached again toward the abandoned donut. Mary immediately changed cameras. "Honey."
New Jersey stopped. Everyone turned toward her. She slowly withdrew her hand. "I wasn't doing anything."
Mary's brother stared at her. Enterprise began laughing.
Mary answered through the overhead speaker. "She tried this five minutes before you arrived." New Jersey placed both hands on her hips. "Mom, you are abusing your new surveillance powers." Mary sounded entirely unapologetic. "I raised my daughters. Surveillance was inevitable."
Hornet nearly fell against Yorktown laughing.
Mary's brother looked up at the camera and grinned for the first time without grief behind it. "Yep, that's my sister." Mary laughed. "And you remember that the next time you decide to steal food too." He pointed toward the camera. "You being able to watch the entire ship is deeply unfair." Mary answered brightly, "Being dead for two months was also deeply unfair, so I am accepting compensation."
Even Belfast gave up trying to stop laughing.
The emotional moment gradually returned to operational seriousness when one of USS Nimitz's officers entered with an updated readiness report. He confirmed that one Westinghouse A4W reactor was stable at full available output, that the restored electrical network was supporting essential and combat systems, and that the carrier's sensor and communications suites were once again tied into the allied force. Flight-deck systems, deck elevators, aviation lighting, and support equipment had returned to service, while guided-missile and close-in defensive systems showed powered readiness under established command controls. Propulsion remained completely unavailable despite the electrical recovery. The carrier could participate in the operation, but she could not leave her position.
Mary listened through the room's microphones. "So we work with what we have."
The officer looked toward the camera automatically now. "Yes, Admiral."
Mary paused at the title. She glanced down at the white uniform covering her new body. The insignia had appeared with her. The word NIMITZ remained fixed over her chest. "I'm still getting used to that."
Her brother laughed softly. "You were bossy before the uniform."
Mary narrowed her eyes even though only the camera could express the movement through its sudden zoom. "Would you like to test whether I can lock doors from here?"
Her brother froze. Enterprise's eyes widened. Hornet whispered, "Can you?"
Mary paused. Then she discovered the access-control network. A nearby door closed. Everyone stared at it. Mary sounded delighted. "Oh, that's dangerous."
Belfast immediately looked toward the camera. "Mary."
Mary laughed. "I opened it again!"
The door reopened. New Jersey pointed toward the ceiling. "She absolutely cannot be trusted with this." Mary's brother nodded solemnly. "For once, New Jersey and I are in complete agreement." Mary switched the nearest camera between them. "I can hear both of you."
The room erupted again.
Far away in Somalia, the hostages watched Mary's expressions change as she simultaneously occupied two worlds. Her physical body remained seated among them with a pistol at her side, yet part of her consciousness stretched across hundreds of miles into a nuclear-powered guided-missile carrier surrounded by an international fleet. She could see her daughters, hear her brother, speak through shipboard speakers, and feel the restored A4W reactor burning steadily inside a vessel now connected to her soul. The impossible scale of what had happened to Mary became clearer with every passing minute.
Mercer approached once Mary's laughter settled. "Admiral, may I ask something?"
Mary opened her eyes and looked toward him. "Go ahead."
"If USS Nimitz is your ship form now, what happens when you physically get back aboard?"
Mary became very still. "I don't know."
Mercer glanced toward the faint light beneath her chest. "Do you think she gets propulsion back?"
Mary looked inward. The answer did not arrive as words, but she understood it anyway. "Yes."
Mercer raised his eyebrows. "You're sure?"
Mary nodded. "The ship keeps telling me she's waiting."
She closed her eyes again and shifted her attention toward the flight deck camera, seeing predawn light beginning to form over the Gulf of Aden. USS Nimitz sat surrounded by American and NATO warships like a wounded giant refusing to leave the battlefield. Aircraft stood ready under deck crews who now possessed functioning equipment again, radars swept the surrounding airspace, communications moved constantly between allied ships, and the guided-missile carrier's defensive systems waited under the control of her human crew. She was awake.
She simply could not move. Not without Mary. Mary spoke through the carrier's speakers and through her HOOK3 at the same time. "Enterprise."
Enterprise looked upward. "I'm here."
"Tell the captain and the fleet that Nimitz is available for the operation."
Enterprise smiled. "I think they already figured that out."
Mary continued. "But make the limitation clear."
Yorktown nodded before Enterprise could answer. "No propulsion until you come home."
"Exactly."
Mary's brother stepped beneath the camera again. "Then we'll get you back here."
Mary looked at him through the ship. "All of us come back."
He understood immediately. "Every hostage."
"Every single one."
Enterprise placed her hand over his shoulder. "All of them."
New Jersey's playful expression disappeared beneath sudden determination. "All of them."
Belfast straightened. "We bring all of them home."
Mary closed her eyes in Somalia and felt the words move through the carrier, through her daughters, through her family, and into the multinational force gathering around them. USS Nimitz could not move, but she no longer felt helpless or wounded. One of her two A4W hearts burned at full strength, her eyes were open through radar and cameras, her voice could travel through every speaker and radio, and her weapons and aircraft systems had awakened beneath the care of her crew. The carrier was waiting for one final thing.
Her Kansen. Mary placed her palm against the Wisdom Cube inside her chest. "Hold on, girl."
Across hundreds of miles, USS Nimitz's flight-deck lights brightened beneath the approaching dawn. "I am coming home."