Selecting Ouroboros

Her body started to get warm from sweat as the tension increased with all eyes on her. ‘What happens if I die? Do things still reset or I have lost?’ It wasn’t really something that Yumi wanted to test out. Sumiko was unlikely to kill her or something severe like that, it’s the only reason she did what she did. But she hadn’t pushed the woman either. She had no idea what she was truly capable of if pushed too far. That was what sowed doubt for Yumi. The unknown that she couldn’t predict.

Anticipation only made it worse because she wasn’t saying anything to her. Seconds passed as she stared deeply into Yumi’s eyes. She made no indication what was going on in her mind. Her expression only held something that hovered between determined and focused. Yumi couldn’t clearly tell if she was angry or not.

Awkward silence.

Nearly a minute passed until Sumiko spoke to Yumi, finally breaking the staring contest. “What you did was very reckless and could have gotten you killed. There’s a reason we had a recall order on all crews. The extent of the damage from the attack was unknown. You got lucky, but luck is not something to count on.” She motioned over to the guards, thankfully different from before. “Escort them to my office. I’ll finish chewing them out once I’m done here.”

“Yes, ma’am!” They kept their weapons at their sides not making threatening motions, but sternly looked at Yumi and her friends to obey without question.

Yumi nodded silently while glancing at everyone else. So far things weren’t the worst case scenario that she feared. She followed their escort up to Sumiko’s office that was situated above the command room on the fifth floor. It gave a good view through the window into the command room, like an observatory.

Inside Sumiko’s office, there were only two chairs, not including the one that she used. It was hardly meant for all of them. Yori merely leaned up against the corner of the room, while Seiji just stood around pacing. Yumi offered Yuki the seat, though he looked a little indignant at Yumi giving it to him. She insisted on him taking it, which he gave in to a little visible protest not making a big scene about something really minor. The other remained empty as Nerine and Saki both refused it.

When ten minutes passed and Sumiko had not shown up yet, she started to worry it was going to be like the cell all over again. They would have to wait a day for her to do anything about them. Which seemed unreasonable to do, but her mind went there first.

Fortunately, Sumiko showed up about thirty minutes after sending them away. The door slid open giving her a packed room of strangers waiting to learn what their fate was. “So you didn’t run off.”

“You mean the door wasn’t locked?”

“Nope! I wanted to see what you would do.”

“A test…”

“That’s right.”

“And what are the results?”

“Jury’s still out,” she replied quickly, taking a seat behind her desk. The casual look on her face disappeared as she got serious again. “Let’s find out what a bunch of people lying to my team are doing in my facility.”

Chapter 484 – Selecting Ouroboros

Another test seemed to have begun. It didn’t play out how she thought it would. Sumiko seemed like a pretty easy going sort of person from her previous interactions. Yumi didn’t think she would make this so complicated. ‘I guess this is a different path I took. She was not so friendly to someone sneaking around lying and fixing things.’ A slow swallow went down her throat as things returned to being tense.

Yumi took the spare seat now, meeting eyes directly with Sumiko. ‘So she knows everything that we’ve done then…’

“I couldn’t tell you in front of everyone, but despite all of your reckless stunts you did repair the damaged controls. For that at least, I thank you.” Things didn’t seem so bad. Some of the tension fell off for Yumi. “But I want some answers from you. We had not even identified that damage there yet. So how did you know that it was in need of repairs?”

The question quickly stopped the tension from disappearing. Yumi felt the pressure increasing again. ‘I can’t tell her that I’ve been living the same week and that’s how I knew.’ She glanced for a moment at Yuki, but turned back to Sumiko when she caught herself. “We were close to the habitat when the attack first began. I could see from where we were the damage. There are hundreds of thousands of people there. I only thought about their safety.”

“The damage wasn’t so severe that they would have died immediately.”

“I didn’t have that information. I had to make a call in the moment. Was it the wrong one?”

Sumiko leaned back in her chair not liking the way that Yumi flipped the conversation around. She ground her teeth together a little on the moral question that Yumi threw at her. “And there’s another matter of you not being in the records. We don’t know who you are or why you’re here.”

“Spies then.”

“That’s the common answer everyone has. Though you make for some strange spies putting your own lives at risk.” She leaned forward looking at the whole group. “You also don’t stay hidden very well either.” Part of that went towards Yuki, she kept it down to only eye contact.

“What then?”

“Not really that sure. You’re strange.”

Yumi pressed forward with Sumiko keeping her expression in control. She needed to be as convincing as possible. Things had to progress in a desirable way. “We just want to help, that’s all. You may not want to rely on luck, but given the situation it seems like it would be a shame to turn it down if it shows up.”

“Luck is also unpredictable and dangerous.”

“And sometimes beneficial.”

She leaned back in her chair looking like she had started to reach a conclusion. “But if you’re going to be staying here, you won’t be relying on that anymore. We can’t afford mistakes.”

A small smile came over Yumi's face, relief started to pour into her body, dried up by all of the sweating tension. “I—We understand. Whatever you need help with!”

“I like the confidence and energy.” Sumiko stood up from the desk and walked over to the window out into the command room. “Honestly, we can use another set of hands with what’s going on. Systems are offline all over the facility and we need to get them back online. Everyone’s panicked and worried, though they’re doing their best to keep it hidden. They know what’s at stake. So a little positivity can be a good thing right now.”

She turned back around to face them. “Just remember to look a little knocked down a peg. I did send you up here to yell at you in private. Between us, I know that you don’t belong here, but no one else does. I’ve spoken to security about it already. So make sure I haven’t misplaced my trust.”

‘All this time…she’s more cunning than I realized…’ Yumi stood up from the chair to meet Sumiko directly. It certainly wasn’t as clean as she wanted it to be in the end, but it worked out. The woman was who she thought, someone that could believe in people. She had a deeper faith in people than most seemed to. Perhaps that was why she was the leader and they followed her. “I’ll make sure to look a little brow beaten.”

“Glad to have you onboard! As you figured out already, I’m in charge around here. Name’s Sumiko!”

“Yumi, my friends…Yuki, Saki, Seiji, Nerine and Yori.”

“Let’s find you some work!”

And work she delivered. Since the whole day went largely unknown to Yumi in the previous experiences, she had no idea what they did in the meantime for repairs. Their lack of technical knowledge did mean that the way that they could help proved to be as limited as before, that still gave them extra hands.

They were able to finish all the work, though they were still left in about the same position as previously. Things hadn’t changed so much as she had hoped that they would. It was as if fate or some outside hand twisted and pushed things to get them back on their natural course whenever Yumi tried something different.

Yumi stood around at the gathering with team leaders of the facility. It was a small gathering that Sumiko called now that all of the immediate problems had been resolved. She already guessed what it was going to be about. “The Ark is back and functioning properly now thanks to all of your hard work. Though as some of you already know we still have a big problem. The sub-reactor’s on the verge of going critical and we’ve got less than two hours to fix it before we have to eject it. And you know what’ll happen if we have to.”

A grim silence that understood every word of what she said needed nothing more from her. Yumi however wished that she had been a little more clear, but she couldn’t avoid it. She was the outlier and someone that didn’t really belong in the meeting.

“I’ll be splitting you up to tackle different parts of the repairs on the sub-reactor. We all need to work together on this! You’re the best team I could ask for! Just do what you know and we’ll see that tomorrow.” She motioned over to her assistant Alexander to distribute the work orders to the teams.

Once there was a clear moment as Sumiko started to walk away, Yumi rushed over to her. “Is there anything that we—I can do?”

She shook her head already having figured out if Yumi had any place in the plan. “We’ve got it covered. Just get some rest. You’ve done plenty.”

“Please!” Yumi grabbed her hand trying to convince her for anything. ‘I need to be there! Come on!’ Desperation started to spill into her face as she looked up at Sumiko. “I can learn! Whatever it takes! I want to help! Please!”

“I’m sorry, this is a very technical job and I can’t risk or lose time teaching you. If it was a different scenario and time wasn’t a factor I’d take you. But I’m responsible for everyone on this facility. It’s not a risk I can take. Please understand.”

‘Dammit…nothing’s going to change!’ Sumiko separated from Yumi and walked away as her reality settled in. She leaned up against the wall to the entrance of the hall. Her mind spun around trying to figure out a way that it could have worked. But there were just too many things against her.

By the time that she returned to her surroundings the whole place was empty. Alone, Yumi slowly walked back to her friends that waited for her in the cafeteria. She sat down as they served up some food for her.

“Judging from your expression we don’t have more work.”

“No…she refused.”

“Damnit to hell! The place is doomed if things play out the way you said!”

Nerine tried to work on calming him down, especially in a public area. “Your voice.”

He looked around, seeing a few concerned eyes in his direction. “Sorry…”

“What’s the plan?”

“I don’t know. I need time to think…” Time ran short for her though as on clockwork as already happened, the sub-reactor repairs failed and they felt the explosion though the facility. Yumi clinched her hands together in frustration. She stared out of the window that gave a deep view of space without the facility. “This is another doomed run. I’m going to repeat again…” Her head knocked against whatever sci-fi material made the glass-like window. “If only I knew how it worked, then I could have changed things…they would listen to me…”

Minutes slowly trickled away as Yumi sat in her turmoil until she came back around to her thoughts. They echoed in her mind stronger. Her eyes narrowed as she started to see it come into focus for her now. “That’s what I’ll do! I’ll make this work! I’ll learn whatever it is I need to so that she’ll accept me! This isn’t how it ends for me!”