Unraveling The Past (Part 1)

Posted on Sun Aug 8th, 2021 @ 11:48am by Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Major Chiyo Shimada & Lieutenant Iowa Riverside 'Grey Ghost' & Captain Elizabeth F. "Liz" Beurling & Lieutenant JG Mika Fujimoto 'Pickpocket'
Edited on on Mon Sep 13th, 2021 @ 12:31pm

1,560 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Operation Romulus Return
Location: USS Tokyo (NCC-91101), Holodeck, Deck 3
Timeline: About 12 hours after the Tokyo gets underway

Iowa stood alone on the holodeck in the middle of a simulation of a Japanese mountain pass. She and Mika had had the brilliant idea to enter the holodecks while they were in use to see what their shipmates did in their free time. Upon stepping through into this particular holodeck, Mika had been captivated that someone else aboard enjoyed the nuances of mountain passes, and that captivation was only added onto when the marine command staff rolled up in a familiar car to her shortly after she and Iowa had stepped through onto the holodeck.

However, the joy had been short lived when the Marine vice commander, who had been behind the wheel, told them that the holodeck was in official use by the Marines, and Iowa and Mika were told to go and bother somebody else on a different holodeck. However, that didn't stop Mika, for shortly after the marines had sped off, Mika loaded her own version of the Toyota AE86 into the simulation and had taken off after them. Mika had offered to Iowa to come with, but knowing what had happened to Saeko, Iowa had passed on Mika's offer.

Since Mika had sped off, Iowa had stood alone in the same spot that they had entered the holodeck from, listening to the occasional distant squeal of tires.

A door in the rockface slid back, and Kusuda stepped out into the holosuite.

"I hope I'm not intruding, Lieutenant," she began, making her way over to where Iowa was standing. "Sorenchi told me I'd find Mika up here; you wouldn't have happened to have seen her anywhere, would you?"

"Fujimoto? Oh, she's just decidin' to be an idiot and chase after the marine ladies." Iowa explained. "She took off as soon as she loaded in her 86. Hope you don't mind talkin' to her after the marine ladies chew her a new asshole."

Kusuda's smile faltered.

"Yeesh," she muttered under her breath. "And I thought her threatening to rob me was brazen..."

"Yeah, Fujimoto has strange ways of gettin' her kicks..." Iowa sighed.

The two of them fell silent for a minute or two, gazing out over the mountainside and listening to the melodic hum of cicadas.

"Hey, if you don't mind my asking," Kusuda eventually piped up, leaning forward slightly so she could get a better look at Iowa's face. "How long has she been like this?"

"To be honest, Kusuda; I haven't really known Fujimoto all that long." Iowa admitted. "Though with everything we've been through, it feels like we've been close friends for a long time."

Iowa turned her head to face Nozomi.

"You weren't around when we were first transferred here." She explained. "We were vouched for by the old Air Boss. You've probably never met him, but trust me when I say he was one demented motherfucker. Dude acted just about as scarily as he looked: I heard rumors that he betrayed us all, but let's be frank: We at the bottom of the food chain: What goes on at the top really ain't our business."

Iowa turned and looked back out into the void as tires squealed once again.

"Fujimoto and I faced scorn from the other pilots for being of the Air Boss' picking, which is apparently something rarer than we expected." She continued. "Couple that with the fact that hardly anybody liked the dude, and you can understand why we always found comfort in each other's company at a table off in the corner of the pilots' lounge. We used to call ourselves 'The Outcasts', because we all felt out of place, vouched for by an unpopular Air Boss. Really, nobody bothered us until you came along. That was probably the first time anybody really bothered to approach us in an informal capacity."

Kusuda's eyes widened in surprise.

"I... I didn't know it was that bad..." she stammered. "Is that why Mika's been acting out?"

"Acting out?" Iowa responded in question. "Now, what do you mean by that?"

Kusuda shrugged. "Robbing people, harassing marines... that sort of deal?"

"Girl, Fujimoto's kinda been like that the whole time I've known her." Iowa responded. "Ain't no outside factors that come with this transfer that I know of that's causing her to act this way."

Iowa suddenly turned to Nozomi, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"You know, Kusuda;" She said. "For something that shouldn't be your concern, you seem awfully nosy."

"I get that a lot," Kusuda chuckled, as if being nosy was no big deal in and of itself. "I guess you could say that I like trying to figure people out and understand where they're coming from; It's kind of like a puzzle for me."

"And Fujimoto is the most recent object of your fascinations..." Iowa muttered.

"You could say that..."

Their conversation was cut short by the sound of two approaching engines. Iowa turned her head as she and Kusuda were illuminated by headlight glare as two Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86s pulled to a stop. The pop up headlights folded into the lead car before the doors opened, and two women in green uniforms stepped out of the car. The driver, with black hair, flicked a cigarette butt off into the distance as the door of the tail car opened behind her and Mika stepped out.

"Computer, end program." The lead car's passenger, a woman with light brown hair, instructed.

Within an instant, the simulation vanished, leaving the five of them standing in the bare walls of the now-inactive holodeck.

"Well, Liz; I'll have to... consider your idea. Maybe run some further tests with the concept before we can implement it into our strategy." The woman with the brown hair explained as the two marines approached Iowa and Kusuda. "Sorry, ladies, for cutting into your holodeck booking:" She said to the two pilots. "Next time my XO here has a new idea she wants to share, I'll remind her that we marines have a dedicated holodeck for this kind of crap."

"You ain't cuttin' into shit, captain." Iowa responded. "We just snoopin' around, seein' what our shipmates like to do in their free time."

"Whatever, pilot." The Marine CO nonchalantly muttered. "Come on, Liz: Let's get out of here."

Without further word, the marine CO turned and headed towards the exit of the holodeck. However, the Marine XO, Liz, faltered in following, for there was something naggingly familiar about Kusuda to her.

"You:" She said, pointing to Kusuda. "Ensign: Have we met before?"

"Come to think of it, you do look awfully familiar..." the Ensign remarked, trying to recall when and where she might have encountered her.

"By any chance, were you aboard the USS Las Vegas about six years ago?" Liz asked, concluding by the reg's rank that the Ensign was unlikely to have served on any of her assignments prior to that one, not without at least making Lieutenant JG.

Kusuda recoiled in shock. "So that's where I remember you from!"

Liz's eyes widened as she was also taken aback, but she quickly regained her composure as she bummed a cigarette.

"I always wondered what happened to those kids after security led them away..." She muttered as she lit the cigarette.

"I guess you were right after all these years," Kusuda admitted, a sad look in her eyes betraying the brave face she was putting on for Iowa and Mika. "My fellow cadets had me convinced that what I was doing was the right thing, and I made a bad judgement call. I can't undo what happened, but I promise this much; I won't be making the same mistake twice."

Liz blew out a puff of smoke.

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to." She responded. "It sounds to me like the only person you need to apologize to is yourself. But, I suppose since we're aboard the same vessel once again, I'll be seeing you around. Ciao."

And without further word, Liz turned and strode off the holodeck through the exit.

"What the hell was that all about?" Iowa asked once the doors had swooshed shut, leaving the three pilots alone on the holodeck.

"Just something that happened while I was still in the Academy," Kusuda dismissed as if it were nothing. "It's all water under the bridge anyways..."

She turned to face the other two, her features brightening once again. "But in all honesty, I didn't come up here for a pity party; what's say we save this discussion for another time and follow through on our little bet?"

Iowa and Mika exchanged a look: It had been evident in Kusuda's exchange with the Marine XO that there was something the other pilot wasn't going off about, and she seemed equally suspicious to shrug it off. Mika turned back to Kusuda and made a confident smirk.

"Sure, I don't mind settling some unfinished business:" She responded. "We'll knock this out of the park right now. Computer, load program 'Mount Haruna, early morning'. Spawn in 'Toyota AE86, Fujimoto Tempura Store spec'."

To Be Continued...

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