Young and Elder

"What the Hell?" USS Trinitite blinked, looking at a Wo-class shipgirl double in Hypocenter's arms, and then back at the USS Saratoga.

The last thing she remembered was that battle back on what the Bikini Atoll . . .had become since last she had visited it. She had left it in shambles, and after learning what her Princess had happened to her because of the Abyss? After what she had learned what . . .

No, she'd never wanted to return there. And with the "redecorating" the Abyss's minions had been doing to the Atoll . . . .God! She never wanted to visit this place again, even in her nightmares! But there was a lot to witness, and to take in (even if she really had not wanted to do such).

Ah, and read? There WILL be a lot to take in here. Fair warning.

The prison was there. but there was this air of wrongness when you cast your eyes upon it, and according to satellite imagery, the d*mn thing wasn't even there! Satellites showed just an ordinary speck of land you'd come to expect from this particular Marshal Island known as the Bikini Atoll. But it was there, and the enemy fleet surrounding it had NOT been happy to greet them!

They'd fought through the Abyssal fleet, the disparity in weaponry and quality bolstered by pure blind fanatism that . . . just wasn't anything the former Crossroad Fleet (nor the fleet of the former Crane Princess) had ever seen before. It was mad. It was . . .fanatical, well beyond what one could and would ever see in Common Abyssals protecting their Princess.

These were fantics who were following the Orders from their Goddess! And something told the sisters that THIS is what the Abyss would have wanted all "fodder" Abyssal to have been from day one.

The Abyss's forces had pretty much receded, leaving only token outposts here and there with only scraps for resources. A long lull in new Abyssal shipgirls showing their faces, and now this? Yes, the Abyss seemed to finally gotten around to addressing the "free will" problem that She seemed to have found so vexing when both Firestorm and Hypocenter had defied her so long ago.

There was no direct proof, but...

Ah, but that all said it would appear that AGAIN the Abyss had moved on fixing this problem a little too little and a little too late. All these fanatical shipgirls in the service of the Abyss could do was die messily as they at best delayed both Fleets converging into the prison, the air thick with the exhaust from the Abyssal shipgirl's boilers. Its thickness would almost have made a viable gas weapon against any ordinary human forces. More than a few of those of the Saratoga's fleet had wondered if the Abyss had been Hoarding all the fossil fuel that her shipgirls still used....

Fossil fuels had grown rather scarce on the ground around the world due to this damnable war.

What, you haven't figured it out? Well, the thing here was simple enough. Since shipgirls on both sides usually ran on fossil fuels and a LOT of fossil fuel as the war waged on and on, the world's supply of fossil fuel got drained a LOT faster rate than pre-war. Pre-war, the figures had put reserves lasting around fifty years. Shipgirls sped up that consumption by an alarming rate (and pumping out a truly alarming amount of carbon)...

Steps had to be made, else human industry (indeed civilization) was going to come to a grinding halt. And let us not talk about things like climatic change!!

The solution for both tackle increasing temperature (and all the problems associated with it) from the carbon footprint turned out to be also the solution to the dire straights that the shipgirls were facing: starvation. And before you ask, no way were shipgirls going to be able to be sustained by things like wind or solar energy. Are you kidding me?!

Basically, it was due to the first breakthroughs in atomic energy through the creation of the first "regular" fusion atomic reactors (hot plasma and others of that type): HOT fusion

Then DARPA pulled a rabbit out of the hat: Muon-Catalyzed Fusion! Also known as cold fusion.

Basically, the mad lads at DARPA figured out not only how to stop Muons from getting "stuck" as quickly as they usually would do in normal circumstances They did . . .something that solved the problem of muons getting stuck by using several nanoscopic ridges that are shaped to increase the surface area as much as possible to free any muons that might get stuck and stop the fusion process.

Between hot and cold fusion, humanity had enough energy to power machinery capable of removing the carbon from Earth's atmosphere in sufficient quantities to stop (too much) climatic change. What was done with the recapture carbon was an interesting tale involving various schemes (including a way of tackling world hunger but that is a tale for another day).

Zuikaku had been the first to have a miniaturized "cold fusion" reactor installed inside her, which . . .pretty much made her remaining boilers pretty much redundant (and unneeded). The trick had been doing it in such a way to make it small enough to fit within her, while just large enough to power her (but not to the point of overloading her).

Oh, and power "something" that was the answer for the "phsyics problem" using rigging weaponry on dry land caused. I think you know what I am talking about...

Yeah, basically what had happened was the former Crane Princess had become a nuclear-powered aircraft carreir! And with that, soon all Kanmusu-ized shipgirls and just plain Kanmusu shipgirls were nuclear powered, leaving the Abyssal Shipgirls to basically run out of fuel in increasing numbers. A really ugly way to go. . . not that the Abyss cared, of course. Just made her angrier and angrier as time went on, and corrupting "traditional" nuclear ships could only carry the Abyss's war efforts so far. She was still being outnumbered more and more as more and more fodder Abyssals were summoned to humanity's side...

Until what happened with Georgia and the other Boomers. If the Abyss couldn't win this war, then she could d*mn well make humanity lose!

Or something like that. Nobody, in the end, was sure why all the sacrifices had been about. What exactly the plans the Abyss had beyond it having something to do with Summoning Her there to Earth's plane of existence, but Her being on Earth would have been bad enough. Just looking at the B*tch had been a monstrous strain on the shipgirl's sanity. All that Non-Euclidean geometry! And considering how powerful Abyssal Princesses were, what kind of nightmare monster would the actual Abyss be in the eldritch flesh?!

Well, the world thankfully will never know the answer to that question due to actions taken by Georgia (who'd come along with Saratoga's fleet despite almost being orders NOT to come along). The sub shipgirl wasn't going to miss taking that Abyss B*tch down for what she'd done to her and her sisters!!

But now? What about the situation here with two Trinitites. Not aware of just HOW different the elder is to herself, the younger Trinitite is alarmed. Indeed, the sight of her twin almost makes the younger Trinitite summon her Rigging. However, upon seeing USS Saratoga?

...

"Mother?" Trinitite whispered, a surging feeling sweeping out of here and then BACK through her, nearly knocking her to her knees. As it was, it just staggered her a bit. And was unknowingly transformed, in a metaphysical way. "Reporting for duty, my Princess!"

Saratoga? Well, she felt something sweep through her and sweep BACK out at Trinitite the younger. Ah, but what exactly? What DID happen was this.

"My sweet brave Wo!" Saratoga whispered, rushing over and embracing the younger Trinitite, accepting her into the Fleet and family. As one of her own! And pretty quickly the younger Trinitite found herself being either hugged or otherwise welcomed into the Fleet by the rest of her sisters of the Fleet.

What would have happened if younger Trinitite--the one of THIS reality-- had actually met the Saratoga (of this reality)? Well, the very act would have been . . .interesting for the whole of Seattle (or whatever human city), this should occur within! While true enough that fodder Abyssals loved and obeyed their Hime and would die to protect her, there was a little twist that the Abyss of this realm added here. A failsafe. If a Princess should get freed of the Abyss's grip, but even ONE fodder Abyssal should survive? Of course, they'd seek their Hime out! Of course, they'd try to talk sense to them, hull to hull, to bring them back to their senses. To bring them back to being an Ayssal! But in this case? The mere act of seeing the younger Trinitite would have instantly transformed the (native) Saratoga back into Jellyfish!

A deliberate, hidden failsafe and pretty much a bad ending for a LOT of people in the end.

But here? USS Saratoga didn't have that "failsafe" engraved within her soul by the Abyss, thank goodness. Now? The younger Trinitite got transformed a bit, though she doesn't know that quite yet.

"Nani?!" Chitose blinked, finally managing to get a clearer view of just exactly who the Wo-class had been hugging and crying over. "What in the Hell are you doing here instead of teaching back in Japan, Saratoga? The aircraft carriers were really needing your expertise and you're here in the US?!"

The seaplane tender then pauses, noticing the rank that USS Saratoga was wearing: Admiral!

"That . . .was more than a decade and a half ago whoever you are," the aircraft carrier/fleet admiral mugs, giving the shipgirl an annoyed look for interrupting the moment. "By chance are you perhaps mistaking me for my sister, Lexington? She's on the roster over there in Japan for the latest in anti-Abyssal tactics, last I heard. Even IF the war pretty much is winding down to its end."

In Saratoga's defense, not much time really had passed since finding themselves suddenly here at their homeport: Seattle. Finding what they'd thought was their Georgia and a younger Trinitite had slowed down the truth revealing itself...

"Of course . . .that could have something to do with why I have an extra daughter," Saratoga added, looking over where the younger Trinitite and her elder are chatting away about something in excitement, along with some submarine sisters: Neutron and Reactor.

This wasn't some kind of Summoning Pool mishap where sometimes a clone got created?

Looking around, the town of Seattle kind of looked . . .less built up than last she remembered...

"Nani?" Chitose blinked.

Meanwhile, in Japan . . .

Saratoga staggers, looking around as if something . . .had changed. A sense of relief . . . and of loss sweeping in equal measures through here for no apparent reason. Shaking her head, she decided to continue the class and look into . . .whatever that was at a later time when she could.

"Uh . . .Sara?" Zuikaku called out to Saratoga, interrupting her class despite Saratoga's resolution. "We . . .may have a problem here?"

USS Aki smiled awkwardly as she and the rest of her fleet sisters stood back and Rear Admiral Zuikaku stepped forward to speak, pausing when seeing that the Admiral of the base seemed to have stepped away from this class for whatever reason...

" I . . .was hoping to speak with the Admiral here," the Japanese aircraft carrier/fleet admiral began. "I fear it is . . .urgent."

1. What?!

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