Reaching Out

Yuki rushed in catching her before she slammed against the floor. “Yumi!” It hit her far harder than he imagined that it would. “How long have you been going like this Yumi…” He could only stare at her waiting for everything to work its way through her mind. What hit her had a massive shock to her system. She needed some time to recover from it.

Snapping back to reality, Yumi looked to see Yuki next to her with her body propped up against the wall. She slowly pulled herself up to return to her feet. “How long?”

“An hour.”

“I lost that much time…” She pounded her hand against the wall frustrated with herself and the situation. ‘I can’t believe I became that trapped within my own reality that I didn’t notice it…so much for being an adult…’ With a clearer head on her shoulders, she looked over to Yuki. “Thanks for the wake up call.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” he said with a smile. “Do you have a plan now that you’re thinking clearly?”

“Unfortunately no. The reality as you’ve already figured out is that I’ve been stuck at what seems like the end for who knows how long.” The realization of that failure paralyzed her already once and it hung over her still as a dark cloud. “I might have known somewhere in there that it was pointless, but if I gave up then I would have lost all hope. Yuki…I’m stuck in an endless loop and if I’m unable to see the answer I’m going to die here repeating the same weeks endlessly until my real body fades away!”

He could see the conflict building in Yumi. Unlike before where she was driven to ignore anything that might call into question her resolve all she had now were questions with no answers. Questions overran her mind and another paralysis started to look to set in. “They wouldn’t make it impossible, Yumi!”

“I know that!” She rubbed the side of her head trying to keep hope alive in any way possible. Her hair broke away spreading out in strains that half covered her face. Parts of her shook, unable to keep it all together no matter her efforts. “I know…that’s why I kept going all this time…there is a solution. I just can’t find it…”

“Maybe I can help.”

“Yuki…I’ve been at this for year after damnable year. The things I know and can do. What possible knowledge could you have in the field of astro-physics that I don’t?”

“Yes, I’m not going to be able to do anything about the engine, but I wasn’t offering that. If you’re hitting a wall in that path, could you possibly be going down the wrong path?”

“The wrong path? But if the engine doesn’t work everyone’s going to die. I already looked into tactical options against the enemy, but they have superior weaponry, besides this not being a military facility and being solely reliant on the 3rd Fleet for defense.”

“But there are other possible outcomes still. Like what happens after this station is attacked the second time.”

“What do you mean?”

“What happens after the attack? Are there any tricks that you use or escape?”

“I haven’t a clue what happens. I loop back when the first attack strikes the Ark. I don’t have any control over it, when I fail it restarts.”

“So you just have to not fail and you can keep going forward.”

“If it were that easy I wouldn’t be losing my mind, Yuki…”

“Yes, but you don’t even know what happens after that point.”

“It’s pretty obvious, we’re all dead.”

“But this place is huge, a single strike isn’t going to be enough to destroy it. Maybe there’s something you haven’t noticed yet.”

“I’ve seen it every single time. I haven’t missed anything.”

“I’m just offering alternatives.”

“Yes, I know…” Yumi pulled her hair back trying to discover any sort of order that might remain within her. She clenched her hands together to brace against the shaking in her arms. ‘I don’t know what happens after…’

Chapter 488 – Reaching Out

Suddenly after a term of silence from Yumi, she stood up and started walking down the hall once more. Yuki quickly followed after her, catching up to her side. “Where are you going?”

“To explore a curiosity.” Some more purpose went into her step as she found the shaking had calmed finally. She arrived at the lift waiting for it to come. It took a little longer than necessary for the lift to arrive for her.

Leaning against the wall, Yuki looked around at the complex facility that they ran in an effort to change the fate of humanity. “I have a bit of a guess of what’s going on, but what is their plan anyway?”

The lift finally arrived letting them on to go deeper into the Ark. Yumi stepped on with Yuki as she pressed for the floor that the command room was on. “It’s fairly simple. Faster than light travel doesn’t exist in this world. The best that they have is approaching the speed of light until the problems inherent in that solution surface. Because of that, they had quite a bit of advance notice of the enemy arriving, it’s why they were able to retrofit this station for their purpose. That’s why it’s a little strange.

“This became their grounds for their tests on a new type of engine that Sumiko theorized was possible. While alternatives to getting around the issue of speed of light travel have been theorized for centuries in this world and decades likely in our own, the actual achievement was never possible or proven. Until Sumiko proved it, though no one believed in her proof since it makes assumptions about certain fundamentals about physics that would be considered straight out impossible.

“The engine that she’s building here will be able to get around the limit by creating an artificial wormhole. The work she’s done here has already proved that part possible. I’ve seen firsthand myself… However, this place is massive and making a stable wormhole is not something that she’s been able to do. If she could even just make a stable wormhole we could just use the escape pods, but neither is currently an option. It either collapses too soon or we can’t keep the structure stable for travel with it destroying any probe we send.”

“I see what you mean by just needing more time. She will eventually find what is needed, but there’s just no time to do it.” Yuki nodded, finally understanding what was happening around him. Like with Yumi, they never gave him more than a piece of the story to what was happening. Considering what little he could do to help, it made sense. It wasn’t as though she could do anything for them before she learned how. They lacked the time or need to explain the details. It wasn’t something that she could wholly fault them. Though the secrecy seemed unnecessary given the dire situation.

When the door slid open, Karen greeted them with surprise at seeing Yumi, the mysterious woman hiding in their facility. “So you managed to find her after all! When you stopped responding to me I got worried. You know how long it has been?!”

It was a face that she hadn’t seen in quite some time. She couldn’t actually remember how long it had been. Yumi could remember Karen and most of the memories that she shared with her, even though she could not recall any of them. “Sorry for the trouble, Karen.”

Startled by Yumi knowing her, she jumped back a little, getting defensive. “H-how do you know me?!”

“Still easily surprised…” Making further vague and oddly familiar remarks weren’t improving the situation. Yumi straightened up starting to find her center again after the countless time staring at a screen. “I’ve been watching you since I’ve arrived on the Ark.”

“W-watching…me…”

“…Yumi, is that really helping?”

“I’ve got a play.”

“…alright…”

“Who do you think sent you the message for repairing the sub-reactor.”

“That was you?! Impossible, that knowledge requires—“

“An understanding in astro-physics and theoretical space constructs, yes I’ve got quite the range of things that I know.”

“But I couldn’t even trace the message, everything in the network was trashed.”

“Hacking your network isn’t that hard for me.”

“She has been hiding from your scans,” Yuki added, trying to help make it a little easier to accept that Yumi could do all of these things that should normally be impossible. “My friend is really smart.”

“I just haven’t found anything that I’ve wanted to apply myself to, it’s all been quite boring until I saw what you were working on here. Dr. Sumiko has always fascinated me.”

“Y-you know about her too?”

“She’s quite famous, you shouldn’t find that so surprising.” Yumi stepped forward grabbing Karen's hand to try to stabilize her now. ‘She’s not even thinking straight now. Seems I pushed a little too much on her. She breaks too easily under pressure.’

“R-right!”

A slow nod to her try to help her see that she wasn’t trying to be threatening. Enough pressure had been applied to Karen, so she just needed to rebuild her now. “My friend…he’s convinced me that I should help you out rather than work from the shadows. I don’t really do well with crowds.”

Karen still shook like a leaf, not calming down. So many things were flying at her that she was not prepared for. For how capable of a woman she was, it always surprised and amused Yumi that she couldn’t take the unexpected very well. Just a quirk about her, Yumi tried to help her back to her terminal. “Crowds? I guess that makes sense. But you’ve been stealing food!”

‘You’re focusing on the strangest thing right now…’ Yumi acknowledged it briefly for Karen, but turned her to get back on track. “My hunger aside, where is Dr. Sumiko right now? If we’re to get the reactor properly stabilized she’s going to want extra hands.”

Now that Karen found herself back at her terminal a bit of strength returned to her. “She’s busy. I can’t let a complete stranger near such things as the reactor.”

“I understand your hesitation, but as I said I sent you the solution that saved the sub-reactor. I’m not saying that I can fix the reactor’s problem. I’m not as smart as her, but I can still provide assistance.”

Even with the modesty that Yumi gave, it wasn’t enough to convince Karen as she sat down. “I’m sorry, when Sumiko is free I’ll let her know about you, but that is the most that I can do for you.”

Yumi pressed her hands on the shelf of the terminal, staring directly at Karen. “We don’t have that sort of time, Karen! The situation is critical and we need to get that working correctly. There’s still a chance! We can’t be ruling out any options if it has a chance to succeed! This is our hope!”