3rd-Person Point of View
Date: Sunday, July 4th, 2021
Time: 3:48 PM
Location: USS Nimitz (CVNG-68), Multinational Allied Task Force, Gulf of Aden
By the time the President of the United States approached USS Nimitz aboard the presidential helicopter, the carrier he had been briefed to expect and the carrier visible through the aircraft's windows appeared to be two completely different warships. His earliest reports had described a hundred-thousand-ton guided-missile aircraft carrier reduced to roughly twenty-five percent electrical power, incapable of normal flight operations, dependent upon escorts for protection, and completely without propulsion after an impossible Wisdom Cube event at exactly 11:58 PM. The enormous vessel waiting beneath him now had aircraft moving across her dark-blue flight deck, deck crews working around restored aviation equipment, radar arrays operating from the island, and escorts maintaining a wide protective formation around what looked far more like an active flagship than a crippled ship. What the President could not see from the air was the equally important limitation beneath all that renewed strength, because all four shafts remained useless and the carrier could not move a single mile under her own power. USS Nimitz had regained her eyes, her voice, her weapons, her aircraft facilities, and much of her electrical strength, but she was still waiting for the living Kansen heart currently trapped inside Somalia before she could truly sail again.
Enterprise stood near the secured presidential landing area with Yorktown on one side and Hornet on the other, while New Jersey and Belfast remained slightly behind them beside Mary's brother and several senior naval officers. None of the daughters had slept properly since the previous night, yet exhaustion had become secondary to the knowledge that their mother remained alive and could somehow watch them through almost every camera aboard the ship. Enterprise occasionally found herself looking toward the nearest camera without thinking, only to remember that Mary might actually be looking back from a concrete hostage chamber hundreds of miles away. "Mom, if you're watching the flight deck, his helicopter is coming in now," Enterprise said into her headset, knowing she no longer truly needed a radio to reach Mary because the ship herself had become the connection. Mary's amused voice immediately came back through a nearby flight-deck speaker, "Sweetheart, I can see the helicopter better than you can from where you're standing, and I can also see Hornet trying to straighten your collar without you noticing."
Enterprise turned sharply toward Hornet, who instantly pulled both hands behind her back with an expression of exaggerated innocence. "I wasn't touching anything," Hornet protested, although Yorktown's laugh made it obvious nobody believed her. Mary responded from the speaker with affectionate amusement, "You absolutely were, and I appreciate you looking after your sister even when she pretends she doesn't need it." Hornet looked upward toward one of the flight-deck cameras and smiled through the emotion that still appeared every time Mary spoke directly to them. "I missed you catching me doing things," she admitted softly, and Mary's answer lost its teasing edge as she replied, "I missed having things to catch you doing." Enterprise reached sideways and took both sisters' hands as the incoming helicopter descended toward the restored carrier.
The presidential helicopter touched down smoothly while its accompanying aircraft remained positioned according to security requirements, and the powerful rotor wash rolled across the flight deck where sailors stood ready to receive the country's Commander in Chief. The President stepped down with members of his security detail and senior officials, expecting to be greeted first by the carrier's human commanding officers, but his attention almost immediately shifted toward the Kansen waiting with them. Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, and New Jersey had become familiar faces to national leadership through Azur Lane operations, while Belfast's position as Mary's longtime secretary made her equally recognizable to anyone briefed on the extraordinary events of the previous night. Mary's brother stood among them as well, still carrying the mixture of exhaustion and barely contained emotion created by hearing his supposedly dead sister speak through an aircraft carrier. The President took several steps onto the flight deck and looked slowly around at the active aircraft, illuminated status stations beneath protective covers, moving deck elevators, and the island whose sensors were once again feeding information into the multinational network.
"This is not what I expected to see when I was told USS Nimitz lost nearly all of her power last night," the President said, raising his voice enough to be heard over the remaining aircraft noise as Enterprise stepped forward. Enterprise saluted before answering with controlled emotion, "Sir, she was almost completely crippled until Mom discovered she could reconnect to the ship through her Wisdom Cube heart." The President's expression changed slightly at the word Mom, not with disbelief but with the same recognition increasingly common among people who understood what Mary meant to Azur Lane. "And she did all of this from inside the Somali stronghold?" he asked, gesturing toward the functioning carrier around them. Enterprise nodded and replied, "One A4W reactor is back at full available output, the major sensors and communications are restored, the aviation systems and hangar lifts are operational, and the defensive and guided-missile systems have power again under the crew's normal controls." Her expression became more serious before she added, "But she cannot restore propulsion from where she is."
The President looked toward the bow as if the missing movement might somehow become visible by staring hard enough at the deck. "So this ship can fight, see, communicate, and support aircraft, but she cannot actually move," he said, carefully confirming the unusual situation rather than assuming he understood it. Yorktown stepped forward beside Enterprise and answered, "That's correct, sir, and Mom believes the difference is physical rather than mechanical now because the Wisdom Cube that became Nimitz's true heart is inside her body." The President looked back toward the sisters as Yorktown continued, her voice carrying both wonder and fear. "The second reactor will not answer her at all, and the propulsion plant feels closed to her from a distance, while the reactor already online responded when she reestablished the Kansen connection." Yorktown glanced toward the flight deck beneath her feet before finishing, "Mom says the ship feels like she's waiting for her to come home."
The nearest camera rotated. Several Secret Service agents noticed immediately. One looked toward the camera, then toward another positioned farther along the island, only for that one to shift a few degrees as well. The President followed their gaze.
Mary's voice came through the flight-deck speaker with unmistakable amusement as she said, "Mr. President, if your detail keeps looking at my cameras like they're about to arrest them, I am going to start feeling self-conscious." For a fraction of a second, almost everyone near the presidential party simply stared upward, because knowing intellectually that Mary could inhabit the carrier's electronic senses was different from hearing a supposedly dead woman casually speak through the ship around them. The President finally looked directly toward the closest camera and said, "Admiral Nimitz, I assume that's you."
Mary laughed softly through the speaker. "That still sounds strange, sir, but yes, it's me."
The President took another step toward the camera rather than away from it, while Enterprise watched his reaction with obvious interest. "Can you actually see me right now?" he asked, and the camera immediately centered itself upon him as though answering before Mary spoke. "Very clearly, sir, and I watched your helicopter approach from three different cameras before you landed," Mary replied from Somalia. "I can hear most of the microphones tied into the ship, move between the camera feeds, speak through the internal and external speakers, and access communications circuits when the crew opens them to me." She paused before adding with dry humor, "I also discovered that I can apparently catch New Jersey stealing donuts from several decks away, which may be the single most strategically important ability Wisdom Cube technology has ever given me."
New Jersey made an offended sound behind the President. "I was not stealing it!"
Mary immediately shifted one nearby camera toward her. "Honey, your hand was physically touching the donut."
The President looked from the camera toward New Jersey, whose cheeks had gone red while Hornet covered her mouth to keep from laughing. "That sounds like fairly strong evidence," he remarked, and New Jersey looked betrayed by the entire chain of command before responding, "Sir, respectfully, I feel like everyone is ignoring the serious privacy implications of my mother becoming an aircraft carrier." Mary's laughter rolled from multiple flight-deck speakers at once before she answered, "Sweetheart, I promise to establish reasonable privacy rules as soon as I stop being trapped inside a pirate fortress." Belfast calmly added, "I will personally ensure those rules are written before New Jersey declares a constitutional crisis over pastries."
The laughter across the reception area briefly broke through the tension surrounding the mission, and even several sailors working nearby allowed themselves smiles because Mary's personality remained unmistakably present despite everything that had happened to her. The President eventually returned his attention toward the camera and spoke more quietly. "Mary, I listened to the authenticated recordings before I came here, but I wanted to speak with you directly before this operation moved further." The humor disappeared from Mary's voice without removing its warmth as she answered, "I understand, sir." The President looked toward Enterprise and the others before returning his attention toward the camera. "You were declared dead two months ago, your family buried you, this country recorded your death, and now I am standing on a warship you can apparently see and speak through while you're alive again hundreds of miles away." He stopped for a moment before saying, "I need to ask you myself whether you are Mary Elizabeth Nimitz."
Silence fell across the flight deck around the presidential party. Mary did not sound offended. Instead, her voice became deeply emotional.
"Yes, sir, I am Mary Elizabeth Nimitz," she answered through the speaker, each word steady despite the faint crack beneath them. "I remember my parents, my brothers and sisters, my family, my service, my daughters, Belfast making sure I remembered meals, Enterprise pretending she didn't need comfort, Yorktown trying to carry everyone by herself, Hornet swearing she could scare me with a B-25, and New Jersey hugging me hard enough to make me wonder whether my ribs were government property." The daughters' expressions began breaking one after another as Mary continued. "I remember dying aboard this ship on May third, and I remember the last people I saw before everything went dark."
Enterprise started crying again. Mary heard it through the flight-deck microphones. "And I remember saying goodbye to my girls."
Enterprise lowered her head, Yorktown immediately wrapped an arm around her, and Hornet reached across from the other side until all three sisters stood pressed together. New Jersey wiped tears from beneath both eyes without caring that the President could see her, while Belfast lowered her head and allowed her own emotion to show openly. Mary's brother stood several steps behind them with one hand covering his mouth, because hearing Mary describe her last night remained almost unbearably painful despite knowing she had somehow returned. The President remained silent until Mary had finished before saying, "Then I have the answer I needed from you directly." Mary replied simply, "Yes, sir."
The President looked toward Mary's brother next, and the man's eyes immediately revealed that no official voice analysis had been necessary for him. "You have no doubt she's your sister?" the President asked, and Mary's brother let out a strained laugh before shaking his head. "Sir, she threatened to remotely lock a door on me less than an hour after I got aboard because I reminded her she's always been bossy." Mary instantly replied through the speaker, "I still might." Her brother pointed toward the camera and said, "That right there is exactly why I have no doubt." Enterprise laughed through her tears, while the President allowed a brief smile before his attention returned to the larger operation.
The group moved from the flight deck toward an internal command area where the restored power of USS Nimitz became even more apparent. Passageway lighting had returned to normal levels, internal communications functioned cleanly, and the restored electrical network carried the steady controlled energy of the single online A4W reactor operating at full available output. When the President entered Combat, the difference between the earlier emergency reports and the present ship became even more striking because the Aegis combat system was active, radar information flowed from the AN/SPS-48E, AN/SPS-49, and AN/SPQ-9 systems, allied ships appeared clearly across the tactical picture, and secure communications tied USS Nimitz directly into the growing multinational force. Weapon-system readiness indicators showed the carrier's post-refit defensive and guided-missile systems powered and available while remaining under their normal human authorization and command safeguards. Only the propulsion status remained stubbornly dark.
A senior naval officer briefed the President while Mary listened through the room. "Sir, one Westinghouse A4W reactor is operating at full available output, the ship's combat and aviation networks have recovered, all four hangar lifts are available, and the flight deck can support operations within the restrictions created by the ship's inability to maneuver." The officer indicated the propulsion section of the display before continuing, "The four steam turbines and four shafts remain unavailable for propulsion because the Kansen connection appears incomplete until Mary physically returns aboard." The President studied the display closely and asked, "Has anything comparable happened with another Kansen vessel?" Yorktown answered before the officer could, "Not like this, sir, because Mom is the first person we know who died human, bonded with the hidden Wisdom Cube of an active nuclear carrier, and then manifested as that carrier's Kansen."
Mary's voice came through an overhead speaker. "In other words, sir, everybody is making this up as we go."
The President looked upward. "That appears to be the most accurate summary I've received all day."
Mary chuckled before becoming serious again. "I want one thing understood before we talk about what Nimitz can contribute." The President glanced toward the officers around him as Mary continued from Somalia. "The humanitarian workers and captured military guards come first, and I do not want this turned into a rescue mission for me while everyone else becomes secondary." Her voice hardened with command authority that nobody in the compartment mistook for a request born from fear. "If somebody has to choose between getting me out and getting a wounded hostage out, they take the hostage."
Enterprise immediately looked toward the camera. "Mom."
Mary answered before Enterprise could continue. "Enty, you know me."
Enterprise closed her eyes. "That is exactly why I'm worried."
The President listened to the exchange for several seconds before speaking. "Mary, the operational direction remains exactly what was agreed earlier: every hostage is part of the recovery objective, and you are not being treated as the only person whose life matters inside that compound." Mary's voice softened slightly. "Thank you, sir." He then added, "At the same time, nobody involved is going to pretend you are expendable simply because you're willing to put everyone else first." Mary went quiet long enough that Enterprise gave the camera a tiny, satisfied smile. "Got you, Mom."
Mary sighed through the speaker. "I am surrounded by traitors."
Hornet looked upward and replied, "You raised most of us, so that sounds like a parenting problem." Even the President laughed at that, while Mary responded, "I survived death just to be disrespected by my own children." Yorktown wiped the last of her tears and answered, "You love us." Mary immediately replied, "Completely, which is unfortunately the problem." The emotional normality of their exchange made several senior officials in the room look toward one another, because nothing established Mary's identity more convincingly than hearing a mother and daughters fall naturally back into the same affectionate arguments they had shared before her death.
The President moved to a larger display showing the multinational force gathering around the region, although no detailed assault plan appeared in the open briefing. American, British, French, German, Italian, Canadian, Dutch, and other allied assets had converged around the broader rescue effort, while Azur Lane Kansen continued arriving aboard multiple ships. USS Nimitz now served as one of the most important command-and-aviation platforms in that network despite remaining fixed in place, and her restored sensors contributed to the overall picture while allied escorts maintained a protective screen around her. The President studied the scale of the gathering before asking, "Mary, can you use the ship's sensors as naturally as the cameras?" Mary's response came quickly. "Not naturally yet, sir, but I can feel them and understand what they're showing when I focus."
Enterprise looked toward the camera. "She was learning camera control by spying on New Jersey."
New Jersey groaned. "We are never letting that go, are we?"
Mary replied instantly. "Not in your lifetime, honey."
The President asked Mary whether controlling so many systems was physically exhausting, and the question caused her to pause longer than expected. "It can be," she admitted, her voice carrying more honesty than reassurance. "When I first connected to all the cameras at once, it felt like hundreds of eyes opening inside my head, and I had to learn how to narrow them down so I didn't overwhelm myself." She explained that the ship's systems did not feel like ordinary computer interfaces because the Wisdom Cube connection translated much of the information into instinct, sensation, and awareness rather than forcing her to mentally read thousands of separate displays. "The reactor feels like a heartbeat, the radar feels almost like looking into the distance, and damaged or unavailable parts feel numb," Mary said. "Propulsion is the strangest because it doesn't feel broken anymore; it feels like I'm trying to move legs that aren't attached to me."
Yorktown's face became thoughtful. "That makes sense."
New Jersey looked toward her. "How does that make sense?"
Yorktown placed one hand against the bulkhead and answered, "Because Mom is the Kansen now, and the ship isn't complete without the person connected to the Cube." Mary responded immediately, "Exactly, sweetheart." Yorktown looked upward with a faint smile because hearing Mary approve her interpretation still made warmth spread through her chest. "Once you're physically aboard, I think the ship will recognize her heart as returned rather than trying to maintain the connection across hundreds of miles." Mary became quieter before saying, "That's what she keeps telling me too."
The President turned toward one of the cameras. "You said earlier that the ship feels like she's waiting."
Mary answered softly. "She is."
He looked around the command center. "And this ship is you?"
Mary considered the question carefully instead of answering immediately. "Yes and no, sir," she finally said. "USS Nimitz is my ship-form and part of me in the way Enterprise's ship is part of her, but I'm still Mary standing inside Somalia right now." She paused as a faint note of wonder entered her voice. "I can feel this ship like my own body, but I'm not just the steel, reactor, aircraft, or weapons any more than Enterprise is only a flight deck and guns." Enterprise smiled toward the camera as Mary finished, "I'm a person first."
The President nodded. "That distinction is important."
Mary immediately answered, "Very."
Nobody in the room missed the weight behind her response because news of discussions concerning her legal and military status had already reached the carrier. Belfast had told Mary that national leadership recognized her as the same legal person rather than equipment created by a Wisdom Cube, yet hearing the President address the matter directly still mattered. "For the record," the President said, looking toward the camera rather than the officers around him, "your transformation does not make you government property, ship equipment, or something to be transferred into a laboratory because scientists have questions." Mary's breathing became audible for a moment through the speakers before she quietly replied, "Thank you."
Enterprise's eyes filled with tears again. Belfast placed one gloved hand over her heart.
Mary continued after regaining control of her voice. "I will cooperate with doctors, engineers, and Wisdom Cube specialists because I have about a thousand questions of my own, but I won't accept anyone treating my daughters that way either." The President answered, "That discussion can happen properly after you're home." Mary gave a tired laugh. "Sir, you keep saying after you're home, and I am becoming extremely fond of that phrase." Enterprise looked toward the camera and whispered, "So are we."
The command discussion paused when one of the communications officers announced that Mary's HOOK3 remained stable and that Lieutenant Commander Mercer had requested a brief update. Mary immediately shifted part of her attention back toward her physical surroundings in Somalia, where she opened her eyes and found Mercer watching her carefully. "You disappeared into the ship again," he said quietly, while nearby hostages rested or listened without interrupting. Mary gave him a weary smile and replied, "The President just landed aboard USS Nimitz and apparently I can hold a conversation with him through my own speakers while sitting here with you." Mercer stared at her for two seconds before shaking his head. "I have officially stopped trying to decide which part of tonight is the strangest."
Mary laughed. "That is probably healthier."
Mercer crouched beside her and asked, "How is the ship?" Mary's smile became deeply personal. "Awake, armed, watching, and still stuck in one place because she wants me back." He nodded toward her chest and said, "Then I suggest we make sure you get there." Mary looked around at the exhausted hostages before answering, "All of us." Mercer immediately nodded. "All of us."
Back aboard USS Nimitz, the President's tour continued onto the flight deck once more so he could see the restored aviation systems firsthand. One of the four hangar lifts was operating under test conditions, aircraft-handling crews were repositioning selected planes, and the C-13-1 steam catapult systems had returned to powered readiness even though actual launches would remain governed by weather, wind, mission need, and the carrier's inability to maneuver. Defensive weapons remained visibly alert around the ship, from close-in systems to the guided-missile launchers integrated during the carrier's refits, while the island continued feeding radar and communications information across the multinational force. To anyone unaware of the powerless shafts beneath the waterline, USS Nimitz appeared ready to sail directly into battle. The President stopped near the island and looked down the immense flight deck before asking, "Mary, can you see this view too?"
A camera near him rotated toward the bow. "Yes, sir."
He looked toward the camera. "Then you've seen what you brought back."
Mary remained quiet for several seconds. "I've seen what my crew brought back."
The nearby sailors heard her.
Mary continued before anyone could credit her alone. "I reconnected the Wisdom Cube side of the ship, but those sailors kept her safe during the blackout, held the surviving reactor, restored what they could before I even knew I was alive, and then trusted me enough not to panic when the ship started talking back." Several sailors smiled or looked down with visible emotion as Mary's voice traveled over the flight deck. "USS Nimitz did not wake up because one person did everything."
The President looked toward the sailors around him and nodded once. "Understood."
Mary's brother approached the camera after the formal discussion had begun winding down and waited until the President stepped several paces away with senior commanders. "Sis, are you still there?" he asked, though everyone already knew the answer. Mary immediately centered the camera upon him and said, "Where exactly would I go?" He laughed and looked across the flight deck before replying, "I'm starting to understand why your daughters talk to ships like they're people." Mary's voice softened. "She is part of me now."
Her brother pressed one hand against the nearby bulkhead. "Then I'll look after her until you're back."
Mary stopped speaking. Enterprise watched his expression change when he realized how much the promise had affected her. "Mary?" he asked gently, and her answer came with a tremor she could not hide. "Thank you." He swallowed hard and kept his hand against the steel. "You don't have to thank me for taking care of my sister."
New Jersey immediately looked toward him. "Oh, you're going to regret saying that."
Mary's brother glanced toward her. "Why?"
Hornet grinned. "Because now Mom has an argument that you're technically touching your sister every time you touch the ship."
He stared at his palm against the bulkhead. Then slowly remove it. Mary burst out laughing through the speakers. "Too late."
Even the President turned at the sound of the laughter and looked back toward the family gathered beneath the camera. The scene did not resemble any military reception he had ever attended, because a reborn Kansen admiral trapped in Somalia was laughing through an aircraft carrier while her biological brother argued with her daughters about whether touching the ship counted as touching her. Yet the absurdity carried an important truth beneath it. Mary had returned not as a weapon, phenomenon, or mystery alone, but as the same woman whose family had already reclaimed her emotionally before anyone could physically bring her home.
As the afternoon moved forward, the President formally established USS Nimitz as his primary at-sea location for overseeing the American contribution to the multinational operation, with allied governments continuing to exercise authority over their participating forces through the agreed command structure. The decision surprised no one once the carrier's restored systems were confirmed, because despite being immobile she possessed powerful communications, sensors, aviation facilities, and defensive systems while sitting at the emotional center of the crisis. Mary's ability to hear and speak through the carrier also created an unprecedented direct connection between national leadership, the fleet, and the woman physically inside the hostage location. Nobody pretended that this gave Mary unrestricted command over every military decision, but nobody ignored the value of having a Kansen who could simultaneously experience the hostage room and portions of the flagship hundreds of miles away. For the first time, the impossible nature of her rebirth was becoming an operational advantage rather than merely a mystery.
The President returned to the command center before concluding his initial inspection and looked once more toward the camera Mary had been using most frequently. "Mary, I am going to remain aboard while the operation develops, so I expect we'll speak again." Mary replied, "Considering I can hear most of this ship when I focus, sir, I suspect avoiding me would be harder than finding me." He gave a small smile before saying, "Then I'll consider that useful." Mary became serious one final time. "Bring them all home, sir."
The President looked around at Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, Belfast, Mary's brother, the carrier's officers, and the allied tactical picture glowing across restored displays. "That remains the mission."
Enterprise looked toward Mary's camera. "You heard him, Mom."
Mary answered softly. "I heard."
Yorktown rested one hand upon the console. "We're getting closer."
Hornet added, "And when you get back, you still owe me that B-25 ride."
Mary groaned audibly through the entire compartment. "I knew resurrection would have consequences."
New Jersey grinned. "You promised."
Belfast allowed herself a warm smile. "Your daughters have excellent memories, Mary."
Mary's brother looked toward the camera. "So does your family."
Mary was silent for a heartbeat before responding with overwhelming affection. "Good."
Far inside Somalia, Mary closed her eyes and opened hundreds of distant mechanical eyes aboard the carrier that had become part of her soul. She saw the President standing in her Combat Direction Center, her daughters surrounding him, her brother watching one of her cameras, sailors moving beneath restored lighting, aircraft waiting above, and allied warships spread across the Gulf of Aden around the stationary giant. She felt the single Westinghouse A4W reactor she had restored burning steadily at full available output, while the second remained unreachable and all four shafts stayed silent beneath the water. Every part of USS Nimitz that could answer her from a distance seemed awake except the systems that would carry the carrier forward.
Mary placed her palm over the cyan Wisdom Cube light beneath her white admiral's uniform. "I know, girl." USS Nimitz could not answer in words. She did not need to. Mary felt the same message she had sensed since discovering their bond. Come home.
Her expression softened as she opened her physical eyes inside the hostage chamber, where Mercer and dozens of exhausted prisoners waited for the rescue force gathering beyond the horizon. "I'm trying," Mary whispered, and the HOOK3 beside her carried the faintest edge of those words back toward the carrier. Hundreds of miles away, Enterprise heard them through one of the restored circuits and placed her hand gently against the nearest bulkhead. "We're coming, Mom."
The carrier remained motionless in the Gulf of Aden. But she was no longer crippled. She was waiting.
And now the President of the United States was waiting aboard her with Mary's daughters, Mary's brother, thousands of sailors, and an expanding multinational fleet for the moment her living heart could finally return.
Time: 5:26 PM
Location: USS Nimitz (CVNG-68), Gulf of Aden / Somali Pirate Stronghold
Mary knew the helicopter was coming before anyone on the flight deck announced it, and that realization still felt strange enough to make her physically open her eyes inside the Somali hostage chamber despite the fact that doing so was not necessary. Hundreds of miles away, the AN/SPS-48E and supporting sensor systems aboard USS Nimitz had already placed the approaching aircraft inside the enormous awareness that Mary was slowly learning to recognize as her own, while cameras along the island and flight deck gave her visual angles no human body could ever naturally possess. At the same time, her seven-foot Kansen form remained seated beside a concrete wall among exhausted humanitarian workers and captured military personnel, the suppressed Mk 23 resting safely against her thigh and her HOOK3 within reach. The contradiction had confused her for hours because part of her human mind kept thinking of the aircraft carrier as something somewhere else that she was controlling from a distance. The deeper Wisdom Cube instinct inside her knew better, and each passing hour made one truth increasingly impossible to deny.
Mary is USS Nimitz. Not merely connected to her. Not merely bonded with her. Not a woman operating a distant carrier through some supernatural remote-control system.
The 1,092-foot guided-missile aircraft carrier sitting motionless in the Gulf of Aden was Mary just as surely as the seven-foot woman wearing an Admiral Full Dress White Uniform inside Somalia was Mary. The dark-blue flight deck was hers, the gunship-gray hull was hers, the operational Westinghouse A4W reactor pulsing steadily beneath armored decks was hers, the cameras were her eyes, the microphones were an extension of her hearing, and the shipwide speakers had become another voice available whenever she chose to use it. Even the silent second reactor and motionless four shafts felt like parts of her body refusing to answer until the human-shaped Kansen heart returned physically aboard. Mary had not misunderstood what she was because the truth was hidden from her; she had simply needed time for a human mind that once occupied one body to accept that it now occupied something weighing more than one hundred thousand tons.
Lieutenant Commander Mercer noticed the distant expression crossing Mary's face and lowered himself onto one knee beside her. "You're aboard the carrier again," he said quietly, having learned during the last several hours how to identify the moments when Mary's attention stretched across the Gulf of Aden. Mary smiled without closing her physical eyes this time and answered, "I'm here too, Commander, but I finally think I've been describing it wrong." Mercer tilted his head slightly while several nearby hostages listened with quiet curiosity. "Describing what is wrong?" Mary placed one hand against the center of her white uniform where faint cyan light occasionally marked the Wisdom Cube resting within her chest. "I keep saying I'm connected to USS Nimitz, or that she's waiting for me, like she's a second thing attached to me." Her smile became almost embarrassed before she whispered, "She isn't."
Mercer studied her expression. "What is she?"
Mary laughed softly. "Me."
He did not interrupt.
Mary looked toward a wall even though her consciousness simultaneously watched a military helicopter approaching her flight deck hundreds of miles away. "USS Nimitz is me, Commander," she said, and speaking the words aloud seemed to settle something inside her that had been unsettled since awakening. "The ship isn't another consciousness and I don't feel another person inside my head. When I feel the reactor running, that's my reactor. When I look through the flight-deck cameras, those are my eyes in another form. When a sailor walks across the deck, I don't feel every boot like somebody stepping on my skin, but I know they're there in the same instinctive way I know where my own hands are without staring at them." Mary shook her head with a breathless laugh. "I think I've spent the last several hours trying to make this less strange by pretending there's Mary on one side and Nimitz on the other."
Mercer smiled faintly. "And there aren't."
"No."
Mary looked down at her enormous hands. "There is just me."
The truth should have frightened her more than it did. Instead, it felt right.
Mary had spent most of her human life aboard ships, beside sailors, surrounded by Kansen daughters whose identities blurred the traditional line between woman and warship in ways ordinary people rarely understood. Now she finally understood something she had previously only accepted intellectually when Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, or another daughter explained what it meant to be both. Nobody asked Enterprise whether the woman or carrier was the real Enterprise, because both existed as expressions of one complete person. Mary had become the same kind of existence, although the unprecedented manner of her creation and the active nuclear-powered modern carrier involved made her manifestation far stranger than anything Azur Lane had documented before.
The approaching helicopter crossed another invisible point within Mary's awareness.
Her expression changed instantly. Mercer saw it. "Family?"
Mary swallowed. "My sister and cousins."
Time: 5:31 PM
Location: Flight Deck, USS Nimitz, Gulf of Aden
Enterprise stood near the designated landing area with Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, Belfast, Mary's brother, and several of the Kansen daughters who had already arrived aboard during the expanding multinational buildup. The President remained elsewhere aboard USS Nimitz with senior commanders and allied representatives, allowing what was about to happen to remain a family moment rather than another formal event. Flight-deck personnel worked around them beneath the roar of the approaching helicopter, while aircraft positioned around the enormous deck stood ready for the rescue operation still taking shape across the allied force. The restored A4W reactor provided stable electrical power through the carrier, aviation systems functioned again, and the island's sensors continued watching airspace and sea around the immobile vessel. Yet every person waiting near the landing area understood that the aircraft approaching them carried something Mary had wanted almost as desperately as rescue itself.
Her family.
Mary's brother stared toward the descending helicopter with both hands clenched tightly at his sides. He had already experienced the impossible once when his dead sister spoke to him through an overhead speaker, yet the arrival of their sister and six cousins made the reality feel new again. "They're going to lose it when she talks," he said, voice nearly disappearing beneath rotor noise. Enterprise looked toward him and squeezed his shoulder. "You did." He gave her an incredulous expression. "I went to her funeral, Enterprise." Enterprise's own eyes filled as she replied, "So did we."
Yorktown reached for both of them. "And now we get something none of us believed we'd ever have."
Hornet smiled through the tears already gathering in her violet eyes. "Another family reunion."
The helicopter descended.
Mary saw it from three external cameras at once, but this time the multiple views did not overwhelm her. One camera watched the aircraft settle toward the dark-blue flight deck, another caught the waiting faces of Enterprise and her siblings, while a third gave Mary a wide view of the enormous Number 68 painted forward upon the deck that was now literally part of her identity. The downdraft moved across her flight deck, and for the first time Mary became aware of the landing as more than a camera image. She felt the aircraft's weight settle onto her deck…not as pain, pressure, or a human tactile sensation, but as knowledge carried through the vast physical awareness of being a ship.
Mary gasped inside Somalia. Mercer looked at her. "What?"
Mary began laughing and crying simultaneously. "They landed on me."
Mercer blinked. "That sentence is going to take some getting used to."
Mary wiped quickly at one eye. "You think?"
The helicopter doors opened. Mary forgot the hostage room for several seconds. Her sister stepped onto the flight deck first.
She wore a United States military uniform and carried the exhaustion of a journey completed through several rapid transfers, but none of that mattered when her boots touched USS Nimitz's deck. Mary recognized her immediately through the nearest camera, not merely visually but with the violent emotional certainty of a sister seeing someone she thought she might never touch again. Six cousins followed behind, all military personnel as established in the family-support movement orders, and each looked around the flight deck with the same mix of awe and apprehension. They knew Mary was alive. They had heard the recording. They had been told she could apparently see through USS Nimitz's cameras and speak through the ship.
Knowing did nothing to prepare them. Mary's brother broke from the waiting group first. His sister met him halfway.
The two crashed into one another so hard that one of their cousins laughed through immediate tears, and for several seconds neither sibling cared about the President aboard, the sailors watching discreetly from their stations, or the enormous multinational military operation surrounding them. Mary's sister buried her face against her brother's shoulder while he wrapped both arms around her and held on as though she might disappear. "She's alive," she sobbed, saying the words as though speaking them aloud was still necessary to make them real. "She's alive, she's alive, she's actually alive."
Their brother's face crumpled. "I talked to her."
"I know!"
"She talked through the damn ceiling!"
His sister laughed and sobbed at once. "Of course she did."
The six cousins reached them next, and the sibling embrace rapidly became a confused mass of arms, military uniforms, tears, laughter, and people trying unsuccessfully to speak at the same time. Enterprise watched from several feet away before her own composure began failing, because she remembered Mary telling them on her deathbed that family did not stop being family simply because history, nationality, or bloodlines differed. These people were Mary's first family, the people who had known her before Azur Lane and before she became Mother to hundreds of women born from ships. Watching them cry for the same woman Enterprise had spent two months mourning made the distance between the biological family and Kansen daughters feel suddenly meaningless.
Mary's sister finally pulled away enough to look around. Her eyes found Enterprise. The expression on her face collapsed all over again. "Oh, Enty."
Enterprise started crying before she could answer. Mary's sister crossed the distance and wrapped Enterprise in both arms. Enterprise immediately returned the embrace. "I tried," Enterprise sobbed against her shoulder. "I tried to take care of everybody after she died, but I couldn't do it the way she did."
Mary's sister tightened her hold. "You weren't supposed to replace her."
Enterprise trembled. "I know."
"No, sweetheart, listen to me."
Enterprise lifted her face. Mary's sister held both sides of her head exactly the way Mary once had. "You weren't supposed to become her just because she died."
Enterprise closed her eyes. That sentence reached Mary through the flight-deck microphones. Inside Somalia, Mary's entire face crumpled.
She had spent so much of the previous hours worrying about whether she was still herself after becoming Nimitz that she had not considered how many of her daughters might have tried filling the space she left behind by becoming something they were never supposed to be. Enterprise had always carried too much responsibility, and Mary knew with painful certainty that her death would have made that instinct worse.
Mary's sister continued softly, "She was your mother, Enterprise, and you were her daughter. You were allowed to fall apart."
Enterprise made a broken sound. Then Mary's voice rolled gently from a nearby flight-deck speaker. "And you still are."
Everyone froze. Mary's sister turned toward the speaker so fast her boots scraped against the deck. The nearest camera rotated. Mary focused it directly upon her. Her sister stared into its lens. "Mary?"
Every cousin went silent. Mary tried to answer. Her voice disappeared. The people inside the Somali hostage room heard the first sob before anyone aboard Nimitz did. Mary pressed both hands over her face. Her sister stepped toward the camera. "Mary Elizabeth Nimitz, you better answer me right now."
Mary laughed through her hands. There it was.
The exact voice she remembered from family arguments, childhood fights, adult phone calls, holidays, deployments, and all the ordinary moments she had once believed death had permanently taken from her.
Mary lowered her hands.
Her voice emerged through the flight-deck speaker. "Hey, sis."
Her sister collapsed against Enterprise. Enterprise caught her.
The six cousins immediately moved forward, some crying openly before Mary said another word. Her brother wrapped one arm around their sister from the opposite side while Yorktown and Hornet joined them, turning the small area beneath the camera into another family cluster. Mary's sister stared upward despite barely being able to stand. "You died!"
Mary cried and laughed simultaneously. "So everybody keeps reminding me!"
"You absolute bitch!"
Half the flight deck froze. Mary's brother immediately started laughing. Enterprise's eyes widened. Hornet covered her mouth. Belfast's eyebrows rose with almost perfect aristocratic surprise. Mary, however, laughed harder than she had since awakening. "I missed you too!"
Her sister pointed at the camera while tears streamed down her face. "I stood beside your coffin! I watched Mom nearly break! Dad wouldn't speak for half the night after the funeral, and I spent two months wishing I had called you one more time before you died!" Her voice became raw enough that every sailor who could hear suddenly found somewhere else to look. "And now you're talking to me through a nuclear aircraft carrier like this is normal!"
Mary's laughter vanished. "I know."
Her sister pressed one shaking hand against the bulkhead beneath the camera. "No, you don't get to say that calmly."
Mary's voice broke. "I don't know how else to say it."
Her sister closed her eyes. "I missed you so much."
Mary began crying openly. "I missed you too."
The strange thing was that Mary could feel the hand resting against her bulkhead. Not like fingers against human skin. Not exactly.
The touch registered somewhere vast and quiet within the physical awareness she was still learning to inhabit, a tiny point of warmth on a structure more than a thousand feet long. Mary suddenly understood that the sensation would probably have been nothing if the hand belonged to a stranger passing through a corridor, because the sheer scale of her ship body filtered thousands of routine contacts into background awareness. Her sister's hand mattered because Mary focused upon it.
The steel beneath her sister's palm became meaningful because Mary chose it. Mary whispered through the nearby speaker. "I can feel your hand."
Her sister's eyes flew open. "What?"
Everyone looked toward the bulkhead. Mary took another emotional breath. "Not like you touching my arm or my face, but I know exactly where your hand is because you're touching me."
Her sister slowly looked down at her palm against USS Nimitz. Then back toward the camera. "You mean the ship."
Mary corrected her gently. "I mean me."
Silence spread across the family. Enterprise looked toward Yorktown. Yorktown's eyes immediately softened because she understood the importance of the wording before anyone else. Mary continued, her voice steadier now. "I kept talking about USS Nimitz like she was something attached to me because my brain was trying to understand all this in pieces." The flight-deck camera slowly moved, giving the gathered family an almost human sense of Mary looking among them. "There aren't two of us. I'm not Mary who owns Nimitz, and I'm not Mary connected to Nimitz." Her voice became quieter. "I am Nimitz."
Her sister stared around the carrier.
One cousin looked toward the flight deck beneath his boots.
Another cousin looked toward the island.
Mary's brother rested his palm against the bulkhead beside his sister's.
"So this is actually your body."
"One of my forms."
The correction came naturally.
Mary smiled in Somalia while continuing. "This ship is my full vessel form. The seven-foot woman sitting in Somalia is my Kansen body. Both are me." Her brother swallowed before asking, "And you're okay with that?"
Mary considered the question. "I think I'm becoming okay with it."
Her sister's expression softened. "That sounds more honest."
"It is."
Mary laughed faintly. "Yesterday I was a dead human woman, and today I'm discovering that people landing helicopters on my flight deck feels vaguely like someone setting something down on a table I own with my whole body."
Hornet lost the fight against laughter. "That explanation did not help."
Mary laughed too. "I am learning!"
New Jersey moved underneath the camera. "So when I was walking around earlier, were you feeling me walking on you?"
Mary shifted the camera toward her. "Honey, there are thousands of sailors aboard me."
New Jersey blinked. "That sounded incredibly strange."
Everyone started laughing. Mary groaned through the speaker. "You know exactly what I meant."
New Jersey grinned. "I absolutely do."
Mary's sister wiped her eyes.
"You really are still Mary."
Mary's voice softened immediately.
"Completely."
The six cousins began approaching the camera one at a time after the initial emotional shock settled, although none managed the reunion with anything resembling military composure. The first cousin stood beneath the lens and looked upward for several seconds before shaking his head. "I rehearsed this entire speech on the aircraft, and now I can't remember a single damn word." Mary laughed warmly. "You always were terrible at speeches." The cousin immediately pointed toward the camera. "There she is."
Another cousin pressed both hands to their face while crying. "I kept your last voicemail." Mary became silent. "You did?" The cousin nodded and lowered their hands. "I couldn't delete it after the funeral." Mary's voice barely emerged from the speaker. "Don't ever delete it."
"I won't."
The third cousin looked around the carrier with an expression of complete disbelief. "So when I insult the ship now, I'm insulting you personally?" Mary answered, "Yes." The cousin immediately grinned despite tears. "That is dangerous information." Mary rotated the camera toward them with exaggerated slowness. "Remember that I can lock doors."
Her brother laughed.
"She really can."
The fourth cousin stepped forward and placed one hand against the deck.
"Can you feel this?"
Mary focused.
"Yes."
The cousin immediately knelt and pressed both palms against the dark-blue flight deck.
"Then I'm hugging you."
Mary stopped breathing.
Nobody laughed.
The simple gesture tore through her harder than anything complicated could have done.
Mary looked down at her physical Kansen arms inside Somalia, then simultaneously looked through a flight-deck camera at her cousin kneeling upon her deck with both hands spread flat. The human-shaped body could not physically embrace them. Her full vessel body could not wrap steel arms around anyone. But the cousin had found a way to bridge both realities without needing either to behave like the other.
Mary's voice shook violently.
"I feel it."
The cousin bowed their head.
"I love you."
Mary answered through several speakers at once without meaning to.
"I love you too."
Her sister immediately lowered herself beside the cousin and placed both hands against the deck.
Mary's brother did the same.
The remaining cousins followed.
Enterprise looked at Yorktown.
Then at Hornet.
New Jersey was already moving.
Within seconds, Mary's biological family and several of her daughters were kneeling or crouching upon the flight deck with palms pressed to its surface.
Belfast remained standing for only another heartbeat before quietly removing one glove and placing her bare palm against the nearby bulkhead.
Mary completely lost control of her emotions.
Her crying came through speakers across the immediate flight-deck area while the hostages in Somalia watched tears pour down her face. Mercer turned his head respectfully, but Mary shook her head and laughed through the sobs. "No, don't look away."
Mercer looked back.
Mary pressed one hand against her Wisdom Cube.
"My family's hugging me."
He smiled.
"Then you should enjoy it."
Mary did.
For several minutes, the upcoming operation, pirate stronghold, multinational task force, political leadership, and mysteries of Wisdom Cube science became distant concerns. Mary allowed herself to experience the impossible reunion through every form she possessed. Her Kansen body cried in Somalia while her carrier body rested motionless in the Gulf of Aden beneath the hands of people she loved. The running A4W reactor continued producing steady power beneath them, and Mary suddenly realized that its rhythmic presence no longer felt merely mechanical.
It felt like her heartbeat.
Not metaphorically.
Not poetically.
The reactor belonged to a warship, and Mary was that warship.
The thought should have been absurd.
Instead, she smiled.
Her sister eventually stood and looked toward the camera again. "Are Mom and Dad going to be allowed out here?" Mary went completely still. "Not into the operation area right now." Her sister nodded. "I know." Mary swallowed. "But after?"
Her brother answered this time.
"Nothing is going to stop them after."
Mary laughed tearfully.
"Dad is going to spend three hours arguing with somebody about the safety regulations."
Her sister smiled.
"And Mom is going to ignore all of them."
Mary could picture it perfectly. "I am seven feet tall now."
Her sister shrugged. "Mom won't care."
Mary's brother added, "She'll still somehow make you feel twelve."
Mary groaned. "Some things are apparently stronger than Wisdom Cubes."
Enterprise laughed quietly beside them. "You sound happy."
Mary shifted the nearest camera toward her. "I am."
Enterprise's smile deepened. "Good."
Mary's sister turned toward Enterprise and finally took in the other daughters properly now that the first shock had passed. She walked toward Yorktown next and embraced her with little warning. Yorktown immediately responded, though surprise flashed across her face. "You kept them together," Mary's sister whispered. Yorktown's eyes filled. "I tried." Mary's sister shook her head. "Mom told you not to carry everybody alone."
Mary spoke through the speaker.
"She did."
Yorktown looked upward.
"That wasn't fair."
Mary responded softly.
"Probably not."
Yorktown wrapped both arms around Mary's sister.
"I missed having someone tell me that."
Mary's sister stroked the back of her head.
"You've got several of us now."
Hornet was next, and the hug became louder because Hornet made no attempt to control herself. "I swear if your sister says one thing about that B-25 promise…" Mary started.
Her sister immediately looked toward the camera. "What B-25 promise?"
Hornet's entire face lit up.
Mary groaned.
"No."
Hornet practically bounced in place.
"Mom promised that because she survived death and became a Kansen, I get another chance to scare her in my B-25!"
Mary's sister stared toward the camera.
Then she began laughing so hard she had to hold Hornet's shoulder.
"You made that promise?"
Mary sounded deeply wounded.
"I was emotionally vulnerable."
Hornet protested immediately.
"You were perfectly lucid!"
Mary's brother joined the laughter.
"I want to see this."
Mary answered, "Traitor."
Her sister pointed toward the camera.
"I want video."
Mary groaned louder.
"I regret coming back."
Enterprise smiled upward.
"No, you don't."
Mary immediately softened.
"No."
A quiet pause followed.
"I really don't."
New Jersey received an embrace from Mary's sister next and tried making a joke until Mary's sister squeezed her hard enough to silence it. "You took care of her when she was alive," she whispered. New Jersey's expression changed instantly. "She took care of me." Mary's sister pulled back enough to see her face. "Same thing."
New Jersey began crying.
"I'm supposed to be the loud fun one."
Mary's sister smiled sadly.
"You're allowed to be both."
Mary spoke from the speaker.
"I told her that for years."
New Jersey looked toward the camera with wet eyes.
"And I ignored you for years."
Mary answered affectionately.
"I know, honey."
Belfast was last among the daughters standing nearest the family, and Mary's sister approached her with much more hesitation than she had shown with the others. Belfast had been Mary's secretary, caretaker, confidante, and one of the people who knew more about Mary's daily life than almost anyone alive. Mary's sister stopped directly before her. "Thank you."
Belfast's lips parted. "For what?"
"For staying with her."
Belfast's composure vanished.
Mary's sister wrapped her in a hug.
Belfast remained stiff for only a second before returning it with both arms. "I could not save her," Belfast whispered, and the guilt hidden inside the words had clearly existed since May. Mary's sister shook her head against Belfast's shoulder. "That wasn't your job."
Belfast started sobbing. Mary's voice came through the speaker. "Bells."
Belfast squeezed her eyes shut. "You told me that before."
"I'll tell you as many times as you need."
Belfast nodded while still holding Mary's sister. "Then I may need to hear it for a while."
Mary answered without hesitation. "As long as it takes."
The reunion gradually moved below deck once flight-deck operations required the landing area to return fully to service. Mary followed them without physically walking anywhere, transitioning from external cameras to passageway feeds and then internal spaces with increasing ease. Her family quickly learned that speaking toward any nearby camera or microphone generally attracted Mary's attention, although she warned them she could not consciously follow thousands of conversations at once without exhausting herself. Her sister tested that almost immediately by whispering Mary's childhood nickname beneath one camera and receiving an irritated, "I heard that," from the overhead speaker.
The cousins erupted in laughter. Mary's brother looked toward the camera, "You're doomed."
Mary answered, "So are all of you."
One cousin looked upward. "How many doors can you lock at once?"
Mary was quiet for two seconds. Her brother immediately raised one finger. "Do not encourage her."
Mary's sister grinned "I want to know."
Mary tested her awareness of access-control systems, then wisely stopped before doing anything. "Enough that Belfast is probably about to write me rules."
Belfast replied from farther down the passageway. "I already started."
Mary laughed. "Of course you did."
The family eventually reached a ready room where Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, New Jersey, Belfast, and Mary's brother had been spending portions of the day between operational briefings. A camera in one upper corner became Mary's preferred viewpoint while several microphones allowed her to hear everyone naturally. Her sister sat down beside Mary's brother, while the six cousins occupied whatever seats were available and immediately began talking over one another about the trip, their parents, Mary's funeral, the absurd international news coverage, and how nobody understood what to say when relatives started asking whether Mary technically counted as an aircraft carrier at family gatherings.
Mary answered that question herself through the speaker. "Yes."
Everyone looked upward. Mary continued. "I am USS Nimitz."
Her sister nodded slowly. "You sound more certain now."
"I am."
Mary paused. "I was taking time to get used to it."
Her brother leaned back in his chair. "And now?"
Mary shifted the camera slightly, almost like a human changing posture.
"Now I understand that becoming Nimitz didn't replace Mary."
Enterprise smiled. "It made you Kansen."
Mary considered that. "Yes."
Yorktown spoke softly. "You're both the woman and the ship because those were never supposed to be separate things."
Mary's voice warmed. "Exactly."
Her sister looked around the ready room. "So when we're sitting in this room, we're technically inside our sister."
There was a horrible pause. Mary's brother slowly covered his face. Hornet made a choking noise. New Jersey collapsed sideways into Enterprise. Mary screamed through the speaker. "That is not how we're phrasing it!"
The room exploded.
Mary's sister was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. "I'm sorry! I realized how that sounded after I said it!" Mary responded, "You had an entire second to stop yourself!" Enterprise's shoulders shook violently while Yorktown tried and failed to remain dignified. Belfast actually turned away and placed one hand over her mouth.
One cousin managed to gasp, "Thank God the President isn't in here."
Mary answered immediately. "I would have turned off the microphones."
Her brother lowered his hands. "So you admit you can selectively stop listening."
"Yes."
New Jersey suddenly sat upright. "Privacy rights!"
Mary groaned. "Not the donut again."
The laughter continued long enough that sailors passing the ready room outside began smiling simply from hearing it.
Eventually the humor softened. Mary's sister leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and looked toward the camera. "When are they getting you out?"
The room changed. Mary's daughters became serious immediately. Mary's voice lowered. "The operation is getting closer."
Her brother's jaw tightened. "How dangerous?"
Mary was honest. "Very."
Her sister closed her eyes briefly. "Are you safe right now?"
"Yes."
Mary paused. "As safe as somebody can be in a locked room inside a heavily fortified pirate stronghold."
Her brother looked upward sharply. "That is not reassuring."
"I know."
Mary's sister asked, "Do they know who you are yet?"
"As far as we can tell, no."
Enterprise joined in. "And we're trying very hard to keep it that way."
Mary's sister nodded. "Good."
A cousin sitting near the wall looked toward the camera. "You have a weapon?"
Mary answered, "H&K Mk 23 MOD 0, suppressed, laser aiming module, twenty-four-round magazine. 45 APC Full Metal Jacket ammunition"
Her brother sighed. "Of course resurrection came with a pistol."
Mary replied, "And a HOOK3."
Her sister shook her head. "You really woke up with a full survival package."
Mary laughed faintly. "Apparently whoever designed my rebirth believed in preparation."
Yorktown looked toward the camera with concern. "Mom, any new abilities since the camera and ship-control connection?"
Mary's physical hand moved over her chest in Somalia. "Awareness is getting easier."
She shifted her attention deliberately. Through USS Nimitz, she felt the operational A4W reactor. The restored radar. Flight-deck systems. The four hangar lifts.
Aegis. Communication systems. Powered guided-missile launchers remaining under human authorization. Aircraft secured across her deck. Thousands of sailors moving through her passageways.
Her family sitting within her hull. The silent second reactor. The four silent shafts.
Mary understood every part as her own with increasing clarity. "I know what I am now."
Enterprise tilted her head. Mary continued. "I can feel where all of you are aboard me when I focus, although people aren't individual sensations unless I pay attention. I can feel the reactor like a heartbeat, and I can feel that my propulsion isn't dead."
Yorktown immediately became interested. "What does it feel like?"
Mary searched for the right language. "Asleep."
New Jersey leaned forward. "Not broken?"
"No."
Mary's voice carried growing certainty. "The turbines and shafts aren't damaged from what I can sense. They're waiting for my Kansen body to come back aboard."
Her sister looked upward. "So when you come home…"
Mary finished softly "...I become whole again."
The words silenced everyone. Enterprise placed one hand against the bulkhead beside her. "You already are whole."
Mary felt the touch because she focused upon it. Her voice softened immediately. "I know what you mean, sweetheart."
Enterprise continued. "You're not less Mary because your body is stuck over there and your ship-form is here."
Mary almost laughed because Enterprise had somehow reversed the comfort Mary once gave her. "When did you get so wise?"
Hornet raised her hand. "She stole it from Yorktown."
Yorktown gave her a look. Enterprise laughed. Mary did too. Then Mary's sister placed her own hand against the bulkhead beside Enterprise's. "Come back to us."
Mary looked at her through the camera. "I will."
Her brother placed his hand beside theirs. "You'd better."
The six cousins followed in whatever way they could reach the wall, table fixed to the deck, or other structure belonging to the carrier. New Jersey pressed her palm down. Hornet joined her. Yorktown. Belfast. Enterprise. Mary felt every contact because she chose to.
The enormous carrier resting motionless in the Gulf of Aden could not embrace them, but Mary did not need arms to understand what the gesture meant. Inside Somalia, tears slid down her face. Mercer sat nearby and smiled quietly. Mary whispered aloud to the hostage room and simultaneously through the speakers aboard her ship. "I love all of you."
Her sister answered first. "We love you too."
Enterprise followed. "We're bringing you home, Mom."
Mary looked around the hostage chamber at the humanitarian workers and military guards who now depended upon the same rescue.
Her expression became determined. "All of us."
Her brother nodded. "All of you."
Mary focused again upon the ship she no longer thought of as a separate entity. Her reactor remained steady. Her sensors watched the sky. Her cameras watched her family. Her speakers carried her voice.
Her enormous hull remained fixed against the sea because her Kansen body had not yet returned. Mary finally understood the contradiction without fear. She was not reaching across hundreds of miles to control USS Nimitz. Mary Elizabeth Nimitz was standing in Somalia and floating in the Gulf of Aden at the same time.
She was a woman. She was a mother. She was a sister. She was an admiral. She was a Kansen. And she was USS Nimitz (CVNG-68).
For the first time since she opened her eyes inside the pirate stronghold, none of those truths felt like they contradicted one another.