Who Can Fathom the Soundless Depths

Surprise!

It is a nice day on base, the sun's shining, and the birds are singing. On days like this, ships like Reprisal... are sleeping.

"poke. poke poke."

I turn my head away from something poking me. "mhmm..."

"wake up."

I roll over, groaning out "Five more... minutes..."

"Laffey says wake up."

"...huh?" I sit up, raising an arm to block my eyes from the sunlight peeking through the tree's grove. "Laffey... what's wrong?"

"Your Mom called you. It's important."

For once, Laffey looked almost fully awake, and not about to pass out into the nearest comfy spot. Usually me.

"Alright, lead the way."

_

I'm walking to the common room with Laffey. When I asked her why, she just mumbled something to herself and kept walking.

'Y'know, looking back on it, I'm glad Mom got me to hang out with Laffey. She's a great reading buddy... even if she doesn't read, but just naps on my shoulder while I read to her. Eh, it's still nice, and she somehow still remembers most of what I read.

Although I do miss the other girls, Atago,Takao and Akagi. They can't return until tensions settle, lest they get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. '

"almost there."

'Ugh, it's dumb that it works like this, Atago and Takao were even building up the suspense for my... birthday...'

As we enter the room, I see Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, and Vestal all standing around a table with party hats on. The table holds a cake on it, with two candles on it, spelling out 20.

'It's weird how my aging works, apparently I grew at the pace of... well, I guess dogs are a good example. Regardless, it suddenly slowed down around what should be 16 years old for humans, and I have been aging normally since.'

As Laffey walks around the table to join the others, I notice a large screen behind them, as well as a camera above it with a flashing light, indicating that it's on.

'I suppose that's for Yorktown, so she can remember these moments.'

Everyone shouts in unison, big smiles on all their faces. "Happy Birthday Reprisal!"

'I'm lucky to have them. If only the others could be here for this.'

"Thank you, everyone." I say this, my voice trailing off at the end of the sentence, which they recognise. Their smiles falter ever so slightly in response, and I hang my head in shame at that. 'I really made them frown at my own surprise party? It's not their fault the others can't be here right now.'

Yorktown walks up to me, grabbing my cheeks and lifting my head up to look at her. "Sweetie, it's alright. I know you want to see them again, and you will."

My voice cracks up as I speak, my eyes threatening to let tears fall, "But not now, and not for a while... sorry, I shouldn't be like this now, it's my birthday after all, and you were all so nice as to throw me a party, so... thank you."

"I'm glad to hear it sweetie, now come up and make a wish."

"Yeah! And hurry up, we're all waiting to dig in!" Hornet adds on, trying to hype me up. 'Though she might seriously just want the cake, I'm not sure.'

"Laffey is hungry, it looks yummy." 'She's definitely just hungry.'

I walk up to the table, leaning down a little to reach the candles, closing my eye and blowing them out in one puff. 'I wish that everyone could be here... Atago, Takao, Akagi.'