#nadleeh

Of course, if one could ask Nadleeh herself, she would tell them that the ship was named after her. For she was the awakened consciousness of a Gundam, the last remnant of a more hostile time. Her original black box rested in the core of the ship, and from that tiny spark, Nadleeh had become aware.

Innovades were created with less experience than her black box contained, so Nadleeh felt rather like a mother to them. Now if only she could get the ship’s resident Innovade, an over-inquisitive base pattern 0026 by the name of Gentility Song (who was neither gentle nor skilled at music), to stop destroying her bodies with foolish accidents…

But it was hard to keep one’s children out of trouble when one was a hologram- for Nadleeh was no ghost at all. She relied on the holographic projectors throughout the ship to walk amongst the crew. The projectors weren’t technically built for her. They were for safety announcements, emergencies. But when there wasn’t an emergency, Nadleeh blinked in and out, getting to know humans more intimately.

At first, it was an experiment, to see if she would even dignify these people with her presence. It wasn’t her idea to be put on this ship and she had a biting sort of feeling about it. Later, one of the crew would name this experience for her- resentment. She resented having her black box moved.

It did, however, mean that she would get to see Tieria Erde once their ships rendez-voused near the TRAPPIST system. This made her feel lighter, happy. And so she pressed onward with her experiment, and realized she rather enjoyed startling her crew. After a while, even Ensign Crossroad didn’t shriek anymore, although he still have a rather satisfying leap into the air- no mean feat in zero gravity.

She could not, however, get the speakers to work correctly. Gentility theorized that it was a limitation of her system. Gundams didn’t actually have enough harddrive space and computing power to hold an entire personality and consciousness file, which is why Nadleeh had needed Tieria in the first place. So Nadleeh was restricted in how much she could learn and do while contained, even with the bit of power she borrowed from the ship itself. Multitasking was a major issue.

Oh, how that burned! Resentment again, that a foolish child like Gentility could possibly have more mental, emotional, and physical capacity than her. She was a Gundam! She had been incredibly advanced in her time! And she was not going to take this lying down. Or contained in a box. And so Nadleeh went over Gentility’s head and went right to Regene Regetta.

Regene thought it was a grand idea, his consciousness cackling with delight from inside Veda. All Nadleeh had to do was promise to surprise Tieria instead of tell him beforehand, and permission was granted for Nadleeh to gain a body of her own.

So until Gentility was done regrowing her body (again), Nadleeh amused herself with practice. She appeared to the crew, randomly, without warning. A year passed and they even seemed fond of their ‘ghost’. They left her offerings of trinkets and snacks, and told stories about how she might have died. Even though she couldn’t speak yet, she liked it better than the silence of Virtue’s armor.

And then the day came. Her new body, an Innovade with a unique base pattern of number 0992- red of hair, green of eye, and completely devoid of freckles. A Gundam had to have some vanities, after all- emerged from the regeneration cell that Gentility had thankfully not needed for a whole two months (Nadleeh suspected she was saving up for some very grand mischief). She could finally walk amongst her crew.

Ensign Crossroad’s eyes bulged when he saw her and he looked away but didn’t cry out, a definite improvement over their first encounter. Although she was proud of his growing bravery, Nadleeh felt a pang in her chest- regret, she would later learn- at the thought that she would never be able to shimmer into ‘existence’ in front of him and make him jump. But being human (or near enough) should outweigh that loss. At the very least she could keep Gentility from tearing through bodies so quickly.

“Good morning, Ensign.” She smiled at him, and felt like she was welcoming herself into the crew. Her heart lifted.

Ensign Crossroad shrieked as he had never shrieked before, and fell over in a faint.

Nadleeh gave his prone form her first smile. Oh, this was going to be even better than the holograms!

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Endnotes: Innovade base pattern type 0026 in Ribbons. Please feel free to imagine Gentility Song as Hilling Care, but her smile is less vicious and far too playful, and her hair is a bit longer. Gaudy barrettes can be a thing if you so wish. She is not gentle because she’s exuberant and not terribly wise, not because she has her pattern type’s usual penchant for hubris.