Not Heaven Part V

--------------------FIFTH DAY----------------

‘Hey Sara, wake up’

Saratoga grumbled, swore and turned around.

‘S-sara i-isn’t much of a morning person’
‘Gambier Bay?’

An absolute mess of golden hair peeked out from underneath Saratoga’s blanket

‘Yes, Good m-morning, Essex’

She remembers how incredibly scared and or nervous Gambier bay used to be, so she tried to put on a smile and make her voice a little softer. Like Warspite

‘Hey little Missy. Slept well?’

Gambier bay nods

‘Good. You usually crash with Sarah?’

She nods again

‘M-makes it easier to sleep’
‘That’s very sweet of her. So, uhh, Gambier Bay…’

Enterprise halts herself halfway through that sentence

‘She calls you “Gamby”, right? Can i say that too?’

The rather small and very nervous blonde nods. Again

‘Okay, that’s good. Gamby… Anyway, think you can help a fellow flattop?
‘You… Need m-my help?’
‘Yep. I need your help. Mind coming down to the shore in a few minutes?’
‘Wait!’
‘Huh?’
‘W-wait a little. Don’t g-go without me’
‘Alright, Gamby. I’ll wait’

The little carrier very very carefully nestles her way out of Saratoga’s sleepy grip, not to wake her up. Well out of bed she was quick with dressing up and doing a weak attempt at tidying up her messy hair by just splitting it in a right and a left half.

Enterprise kept a close eye on the little carrier who seemed like she simply couldn’t relax outside. Always on her toes, always nervous, maybe even a bit scared. Enterprise figured that if Saratoga’s mere presence could calm the little one down as well as it did, she’d do alright herself.

And the fact that Gambier Bay actually trusted her was probably another thing she had to thank Saratoga for. Naturally, that didn’t mean Gambier bay actually did something like speak in any way that wasn’t direct answers or short sentences. That would probably take some time.

‘So, here’s what i need your help with…’

Enterprise showed the smaller carrier whole rigging laying by the beach. Two parts, the superstructure she carried on her back and the flight deck launcher lay in the shade of a palm tree, with the bottom, “propulsion” part being stuck halfway into the water.

‘What h-happened?’
‘Augh… i was getting some help and we didn’t know how it worked. What i believe happened is it needed water to work, but instead of water, the pumps just sucked in sand because i didn’t push it out far enough in the water’
‘Does it… n-need water?’
‘Yes. The steam turbines. And… eight secondary closed systems. Which I don't really know what they do’
‘M-make steam maybe?’

Enterprise sighs

‘Yeah. . I sure hope so. I just don't have a clue on how, i’ve never seen such devices before’
‘Does-does that matter? H-how it works? I-if it works, i mean-’
‘I suppose you have a point. Yeah…’

Enterprise furrows her brow and looks at the litte carrier with a hint of a smile.

‘Maybe i shouldn’t worry as much about “how” and focus more on the results themselves. Do we have a pier or something like that?’
‘Mhm!’

Gambier bay got handed the gun-launcher, while enterprise lifted the propulsion module out of the water and took it on her shoulder and carried the superstructure under the other arm. The escort carrier was a little impressed with how much she could lift.

Near the big concrete building the other fleetgirls would sortie from was a little pier, enough for enterprise to lay down and fix things. With a few curious eyes watching, Enterprise dropped the propulsion module into the sea with a splash

‘Right, i’ll try get the diesels running to start the pumps. Hold on’

Enterprise lies down on the pier and flicks the switch for the diesel generators and is greeted by total silence

‘Come on, these worked two hours ago…’

The batteries were depleted because they had never been charged in the first place. The diesels wouldn’t start for some unknown reason and with all the sand in the pipes, the main engines wouldn’t start either. She was, with a word, stuck in the water.

‘Eugh… Someone has some auxiliary power?’
‘Uhh, not without our rigging, and that’s inside until we s-sortie or practice’
‘So come practice then? I sure need it, maybe you can show me a trick or two?’

Gambier Bay squirmed a little, probably at the thought of having to go and speak to someone who was as strict as Bismarck was. Enterprise groaned, and was about to get up when a head peeked over the side of the propulsion module, coming from underneath the water

‘The hell?’
‘S-submarine. She’s german’
‘Uhh…’

Enterprise turned from Gambier Bay to the little head

‘Can you help us? I need batteries to start the pumps, but my generators aren’t working. Can you lend me some power?’

Two kinda empty looking eyes stared back up at Enterprise

‘Power?’

Still nothing

‘Uhm…’

Gambier Bay tugged Enterprise’s shirt a little

‘That is “Yuu”. She’s… a little special’
‘Yeah. I can tell’

The two looked down on the seemingly very young girl in front of them, with just her eyes peeking above the water.

‘Can she breathe like that?’ Enterprise asked, looking a little confused.

‘Uhh… S-she is a submarine’
‘Huh’

With all conversation ground to a halt the two carriers just stood and looked at the little submarine in confusion. She started back. At last Enterprise decided the poor thing looked cold and pulled her out of the water. The little girl, and she was just that, little weighed barely anything at all. Apart from that, she seemed very content with being lifted up.

‘You okay there?’

The little submarine smiled lazily.

‘Come on, little one. I need your help. Could you provide some auxiliary power for my rigging. Can you do that?’

The submarine's expression didn’t change even the slightest.

‘Eugh, this is pointless’

Enterprise was going to throw Yuu back in the water, but very much underestimated the girl’s weight and her own strength. She shouted out an amused yell as she arched through the air before hitting the water

‘Shit, is she okay??’

Bubbles rose to the surface in a trail and the little submarine surfaced a little while later, giggling like mad.

‘I th-think she liked it’

Yuu came back to the pier, waving her arms and wanting to be picked up again.

‘The hell…?’
‘M-maybe you should try again, E-essex’
‘Throw her in?

Gambier Bay nods. Enterprise sighs a bit and picks up the submarine by her waist, upside down. Then the big carrier raised Yuu high over her own head, a little like a big spear and took two steps backwards. These two steps worth of run up created some extra momentum when Enterprise threw the little submarine with all her might. This was the first time as a person she had really used all her strength and she was genuinely surprised with just how far she threw the little girl.

Yuu flew in a beautiful arch towards the deeper end of the little bay, face first and screaming of joy.

And about two seconds after the little sub hit the water, Enterprise looked over to her right side, where Bismarck stood with her hands on her hips and not at all a happy expression on her face

‘Uhm… Hi?’
‘What is going on here?!’

Gambier Bay, who obviously wasn’t much much a fan of Bismarck jumped behind enterprise to hide, or maybe for protection. Sadly, her massive yellow locks could probably be seen from low earth orbit.

‘Well, i was-

They are both interrupted by a short short click and a long whooshing sound, as the propulsion module in the water puked out tons of sand into the water. Little Yuu had done something or other to power the batteries, which forced sand out and water in. Worryingly, the whole rig made an awful sound while doing it. Not much unlike having a finely tuned automobile engine and feeding it gravel.

Bismark audibly cringed at the sound of it, and it didnt get better as it started whizzing out steam, as the poor diesel engines were force started by the batteries. Not fast enough to be self sustaining, but fast enough for the salt water to slowly be forced out of the cylinders. With the grace and elegance of a steam locomotive rolling down a hill (and with a similar sound) one of the four diesel generators woke to life. Fuel, with a healthy dose of salt water and sand was ignited and pushed out through stubby exhaust pipes.

To Bismarck, the sound was like running chalk on a blackboard

‘-getting help with my rigging. What can i do for you?’
‘There are things we have to discuss. Between four eyes. Please follow me’
‘Yeah. Can i just leave my stuff here?’

Just as Bismarck was about to lecture the carrier in keeping things tidy, a second diesel generator woke to life, making the same ungodly diesel and gravel fueled racket as the first. Bismarck sighed and turned around, with Enterprise following, after gesturing the other two girls to keep trying to get the other generators running

Enterprise stepped into Bismarck’s office, and the slew of papers, all in net stacks. However, a clearing had been made in the middle of the table for a helicopter, very much like the one that never got back home from the SAR mission last evening

‘Lovely, i wondered where that one had gone’
‘Your rouge airplane has caused issues’

Bismarck offered Enterprise a seat and sat down herself

‘It was given to me by members of the first carrier division yesterday, and had they not been so rude in their proposal, things had been different’
‘Oh’
‘Now tell me what you know of it, and what it did yesterday’

Puzzling the two sides of the stories together, the are now sure the helicopter left Enterprise’s deck for the sole purpose of an SAR mission, picked up the pilots, and then tried to fly them to their respective carrier. The japanese did of course not know this, no one did, and responded with capturing one of them

With how goal oriented Bismarck was, it all got done with quickly. But as Enterprise was halfway out the door, something from the past conversation caught her.

‘Say… for someone who is new here. Who exactly is in the first carrier division?’
‘Kaga and Akagi. They are the most effective carriers we have right now. Bit surprised you haven’t heard about them’
‘Oh, i’ve heard about them alright’

She had to bite her tongue a little not to tell Bismarck she had sunken both of them

‘You will have time to get along. But i must get back to work’
‘Yeah, keep it up. I’ll see you later’

Bismarck growls a little about manners as the door slams shut.

Back at the pier, things were quiet, save for Gambier Bay’s whimpering

‘What’s going on, Gamby?’
‘S-sorry Essex, th-they stopped’
‘Shit, the diesels?’
‘I-i’m sorry!’
‘Whoawhoawhoa, easy now little one. It’s okay. Did they just stop?’

Gambier bay said something but it was mostly drowner out in sobbing and whimpering

‘Don’t worry Gamby, it’s alright. Not your fault’

Gambier bay seemed to dissolve under the pressure of the generators not working. Enterprise had absolutely no idea how to deal with something like this. Maybe shift focus? That is what uncle sam did when things looked down

‘I know, they just ran out of fuel! Know where we can get more? Get some Diesel?’

Gambier bay seemed to go from terrified to confused in blink of an eye. And then realized she actually knew where to get it.

With Gambier Bay out of sight, Enterprise hurried to get her landing deck back up, and within two minutes had a two engined aircraft land on it.

Contrary to what she had told anyone else, she did get a few precious minutes of testing before the engines had guzzled up all sand.

She managed to get one plane, a “mother”, sent up with the gun-launcher, which interestingly enough worked of steam pressure. She was aware of aircraft catapults which used gunpowder to launch the planes, but steam was something new.

On a purely technical level, it would be better because of redundancy, but it would need incredible amounts of power to work. Just like everything else in her rigging, which turned her attention to the engines. Again. What the hell were these things? Another thing she would figure out later. For now the issue was the “mother” that had been flying around for several hours now. No one was looking at her right now, so the process of raising the landing deck, catching the plane (which she now knew needed the arresting cables) and putting it back in its pouch was quick. No one saw. Probably.

Gambier Bay did return a while later. The fuel was seemingly heavy, and she had asked her one zone of safety in this world, Saratoga to come along. The three American flattops spent more time than they were comfortable to admit finding the fuel filler cap, and then carefully poured the diesel in.

But as anyone who had worked with diesel engines before could tell them, if they run it empty, they would need to bleed the whole fuel system before the engines would work.

Saratoga was busy, and excused herself to go and do something somewhere else with Gambier Bay in tow.

Which left Enterprise pulling her (yet again) malfunctioning rigging out of the water and had started walking to the workshop when the loudspeakers blared out something about aircraft carriers and the concrete building.

With some haste she took the remaining two parts of her rigging and walked off to the the structure that looked like a submarine pen more than anything else. It even looked like how she would imagine how one looked. Cold, damp and badly lit.

The first thing Enterprise saw as she walked into a larger room was Bismarck standing by a large map with needles in it.

‘Essex! Please get in line, I will brief you shortly’
‘Yes’

There were several other carriers in the room. Gambier Bay in a corner, as was Saratoga and Graf Zeppelin. Even Ark Royal with her stumpy leg sat on a table by the wall.

And after a few minutes the last carrier arrived. She was rather short, with wild red hair and friendly eyes. As she sat down to next to Graf Zeppelin, Bismarck started talking.

‘We're here for an emergency. Just half an hour ago a Japanese destroyer force sighted a very large abyssal surface fleet, approximately here!’

She whacked the map with a stick to show the carriers where.

‘There is still questions about the size of this force and others. Secretary ship Nagato has asked for our assistance in a sweep search, which we will comply to. You will each be given a sector to conduct your search. You will set sail as soon as possible, escorts will be assigned as you're on open water. Any questions?’
‘Yes’ Ark Royal began ‘What kind of composition does this surface fleet consist of that would warrant all of our carriers?’
‘Details are uncertain at this point. Early estimates suggests they are preparing for a night attack. Hence using your planes as long as you can, and leave it over to gunboats when the sun goes down’
‘Understood’
‘Anything else?’
‘U-boot threat?’ Asked Graf Zeppelin
‘Very likely. Be on your toes’

The room went quiet for a while, which ended in Bismarck’s hand slamming in the table

‘Then we move out!’

The other carriers all walked out through the room, save for Ark royal, whom stayed put.

‘Are you not going, Essex?’
‘Oh, uhh, yeah. I will. I'm just having some… some more issues with my rigging’
‘Yet more?’
‘That's right’
‘Oh heavens. What is it this time?’
‘The generators ran dry so I need to bleed the whole damn system. What about you?’

She dangled around the stump which had been her right leg

‘I can't do much looking like this. And it seems the dry docks are in a state of being eternally full. I'll do what little I can from the naval district’
‘Alright. Good luck to you, I have to get working’
‘Good luck, Essex. Stay alive’

Enterprise felt Ark Royal genuinely meant the last thing as she walked outside. These last few months must have been really bad.

Enterprise did eventually get  hand on some tape a can of diesel and a funnel. The system would have to be bled manually.

She took a deep breath and filled her lungs with the delicious aroma of metal piping and diesel fumes the fuel system offered. As she inhaled, air bubbled out and was replaced by diesel. Another deep breath, more fumes, and more fuel being sucked in.
She thought to herself how God damn awful this was, and yet thanked her lucky star she was fortunate enough to be awful up here and not dead down there, in the abyss.

When she finally inhaled (and unfortunately swallowed) diesel instead of the fumes, she decided the system had been bled and it was ready to go. What she had not anticipated was she had now flooded six out of the eight engine rooms.

Enterprise sang a long song of curses, profanities and threats of violence and emptied her anger on the malfunctioning rigging with a few swift kicks. With boiling blood and a hurting toe she radioed into Bismarck. The secretary ship decided it was preferable to run the mission at reduced power instead of staying behind and fixing it.

Enterprise instead headed back into the concrete building where the fleetgirls put on their rigging. A thick pair of socks, the leather liners and then the metal boots would make sure her feet would stay warm. The left boot clicked into the front of the propulsion module, and she put the right behind.

With the superstructure on her back and the gun launcher in her hands, it was finally the moment of truth. There was charge in the batteries, she could feel that. All four generators roared to life with the power of suggestion. Which started the pumps, and…

There came the main engines. Two of them, number 7 and 8 actually started doing their thing. She had no idea what it was, but it felt like a rush of energy unlike anything she had felt the last few days. But for one reason or another, Ark Royal didn't look too happy about it.

Without sparing a thought, Enterprise floored the throttle on her two working engines and set out for the bay. While her speed was pitifully bad and her balance worse she loved being out on open water again. She didn't know how she felt the warm, salty water on her hull or the wind over the deck, but she loved it. Going sideways, (since her way of moving forwards was more akin to that of a motorized wakeboard than ice skates) took a bit of getting used to, but this feeling, this wonderful feeling it air, water and avgas was worth it a thousand times.

‘USS Essex, come in’
‘Big E setting sail, loud’n proud. Be advised, my speed is reduced but my planes are fat and angry. Gimme something to bomb’
‘Your enthusiasm is appreciated but please  maintain radio discipline’

Bismarck was on a mission and wasn't in the mood for jokes

‘Head to the mouth of the bay and link up with Red section and await orders. Bismarck, over and out’

As she left the shore behind she was slowly starting to get the hang of her rigging. Having her eyes on the horizon helped a lot with keeping stable. If she leaned backwards a little the rig would gently turn to the left, forwards would turn it right. She didn't quite know how she did with the throttle, she just… Sort of went along.

Now to see if the radio worked.

‘This is USS Essex, red section come in, red section come in’
‘At last we meet! I am Russian battleship Gangut, it's an honor to make your acquaintance. Proceed on current course and I will see us soon’

Ivan was very polite, Enterprise thought to herself. But she had to be on her toes. She had never once fought a Soviet, but she was aware the relations between the two countries had worsened after the war. The strange thing was she introduced herself as “Russian”. If she predated the union, she had to be very old.

The big carrier wondered a second about what year this strange place had until she rounded the corner of the bay. Standing tall and proud stood (predictably) a woman with a white coat and hair and a red undershirt. Four massive three gun turrets hung in a metal rig on her back

She the pipe she had in her mouth away before addressing Enterprise

‘American! Please come here!’
‘Gangut?’
‘As true as it is said’

She lowered her head in a polite bow

‘I am happy the enemy doesn't have anyone in your size. But we can get acquainted on the way. Let us head out!’
‘No other escort? Never seen a task force of just a carrier and a battleship before’
‘We have the blue cruiser as well, Tashkent. But I fear you will see little of her this evening. She has lots of sea to cover, but she is fast!’
‘Alright, if that's how we're doing this. But I'll warn you, I'm running on reduced power’
‘Worry not, American. With me the pace will be dignified’

Enterprise smirks and sends full power to her two working engines. And despite a 75% loss of power she managed a dignified 15 knots, just as Gangut had said. The journey to the search area was uneventful save from the odd radio call from the destroyer (contrary how Gangut called her a cruiser). Tashkent was quiet, diligent and absurdly fast. The best estimate Enterprise could do was somewhere between two and a half and three times their own speed. Even the lower estimate would put her in the high 30 knot range.

‘We are approaching our target’
‘Right, time to do my thing…’

Enterprise wobbled a little when she tried to get to grips with her gun-launcher. Raider lead was first to fire up the engine and roar off the flight deck. It was noticeably easier this time, with some wind over the deck and only cannon ammunition.
But as Enterprise had seen the fourth Skyraider take off, she remembered she actually had a catapult for airplanes. How would that work?

She ran Raider 2-1 up the flight deck a few times to see if the plane soul click into a latch or something that catapult could act on. Nothing. Then again, the skyraiders didn't actually need a catapult.

But they could use a faster launch system. Is that what the elevator and hangar was for?

Her thoughts grounded to a halt. If the bottom of the launcher looked like an old Winchester, maybe she should treat it as one? If the lever operated the elevator, then the hangar…

Enterprise took a firm grip on the fore end of the gun-launcher with her left hand and firmly pulled the brass lever down with her right. With the elevator lowered, the back of the hangar with the pulley system was revealed. She took one Skyraider and pushed it forwards until it clicked, then another and more. Four Skyraiders fit in the compartment that on an aircraft carrier be a hangar, but more resembled a tube magazine in this case.

Enterprise scoffed a bit to herself

‘I have to say, the more i learn about this place, the less i understand about it’
‘We cannot do much about that. I thought much about such things when i arrived here. But it will not to lead to much. No matter how much i think, my biggest contribution will be my guns’
‘Riiight…’

Treating her gun-launcher more as a gun than a launcher, Enterprise shouldered it, racked the lever forwards and back. A plane had been moved onto the elevator. Wings unfolded and engine running. How, Enterprise didn’t know. her right index finger moved to the trigger, and with a feeble click, absolutely nothing happened

‘Oh come on… What do i have to do now?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Damnit. No, not you, Gangut. This god damn rigging does not stop giving me headaches’
‘What is not working?’
‘This is supposed to be a steam catapult but it doesn’t do anything’
‘Can you tell if there is steam being made now?’
‘I have no idea how i’d figure that out’
‘Temperature, dear Essex. Is it warm?’
‘Uhh…’

Enterprise patted down the gun-launcher in hope of finding something warm. Nothing

‘Nope, nothing. And I don’t have a goddamn clue how to get steam to the launcher’
‘I’m afraid i can’t do much to help’
‘Eugh. Let’s slow down to 10 for a minute’
‘10 knots, you got it’

Naturally, this made no difference whatsoever, and the trigger did nothing but click as Enterprise pulled it. She growled a little and poked the little fairy who resided in the pocket of her jacket

‘You! Earn your god damn pay and help me get this pile working!’

Seemingly woken up from a deep sleep, the white clad fairy started squeaking furiously, and waved her tiny arms around, almost enough to make her fall out of the pocket. Sounds came from inside the launcher. The sound of metal and tiny hammering. Gangut looked at it with questioning look, and enterprise could only answer with a shrug. Within a minute a whooshing sound came from within the gun-launcher.

And then more angry squeaking

‘The hell do you want now?’
‘Perhaps you need water?’
‘Oh riiiiight. Yeah’

Enterprise was halfway down to dip the gun-launcher in the water, when a choir of a hundred fairies screamed and shouted, clearly unhappy about being forced to bathe.

‘That’s fucking it, you guys are telling me how to fill this thing up or you’re going in the drink. ALL OF YOU’

The squeaking turned from furious to terrified. The fairies ran around like mad around the launcher, and it actually sounded like they were doing something

‘Keep the pace up! Or you’re going in the sea! Work! Work!’

Gangut did look a little taken back at the american who was shouting at her own gun and threatening it with lowering it into seawater. It later turned out there was a water reservoir in the propulsion unit, but it would need a tube leading up to the gun. For now, it would have to be single loaded with water, the automatic feeding had to wait until they got back to port.

Another flight of four Skyraiders were sent up without the catapult, but with the new magazine loading system. This modification alone greatly helped her get planes up faster, but she just knew that catapult would make it even faster.

‘These aircraft you have-’
‘Yeah?’
‘Are they not a bit on the heavy side?’
‘Oh yeah, at least three times as heavy as a Zero. Three times as powerful as well, and with lots and lots of cannon rounds’
‘You have to excuse me if i am being ignorant. And while i am no carrier, i have spent a more than a little while defending myself against aircraft. But is it not a little heavy for a fighter?’
‘Oh yeah, it is. It’s not even a fighter, it’s was originally made as a torpedo bomber’

Enterprise fires away another section of four Skyraiders before she gets back to Gangut

‘As i said, Originally made as a torpedo bomber. These ones have bombs and rockets as well, more payload than two entire zeroes, in fact’
‘You are making me concerned, Essex’
‘Oh, they will be able to shoot down planes, alright. these guys have all the experience in the world fighting more nimble opponents. And i promise you, there are none more powerful. Aren’t we just scouting, anyway?’
‘It is true, i must admit, this is a reconnaissance mission’
‘So we’re alright then’
‘We should, yes’

They did eventually stop at the position they were given. Nothing was there. Tashkent flew around at seemingly the speed of sound looking for any submarines, while the 15 remaining Skyraiders scanned the horizon for any enemy ships. They found absolutely nothing. Even flying in a sunflower formation, which was a bit risky but helped a lot in finding things, nothing. Not one vessel in sight.

But life as an aircraft carrier was usually not all guns and fire. The whole point was staying away from big, dangerous guns while she could hit them with planes. And now the staying away from the big guns meant actually finding them.

Then again, things could be worse. She was enjoying a warm breeze, looking over the sky slowly turning red behind her, and deep blue over the seemingly endless pacific in front of her.

‘You know, since nothing is happening here, let’s see if i can’t get some training in’
‘I must remind you this can still become a combat mission. We need to stay alert and ready’
‘Yeah, except i seem to the biggest ship anywhere here, and i have eighteen working planes. No wait, with the shot down ones, fifteen. i have more planes, but i don’t have a damn clue how to get them working. Wait, actually…’

Enterprise picks up a plane from her pouch, a “mother” and shows it to Gangut.

‘I’ve never seen something like that on an airplane. What is it carrying on the back?’
‘No clue. It doesn’t have any weapons at all, and that is not fuel. I have no idea’

Gangut looked around. Everything was quiet and peaceful. There was barely any wind

‘I suppose you have time to test it’
‘Right’

The carrier took some time filling the little reservoir with water, all while the fairies shouted on choir about not falling into the water. The tank was eventually filled up, and the first twin engined plane stood on Enterprise’s flight deck. How long would it take for the steam to boil? She didn’t know now, but… she’d find out soon. With the runway pointing at the horizon and pulled the trigger.

The whole system released all the steam into a little piston connecting to a hook on the flight deck. The Gun-launcher recoiled backwards as it catapulted the airplane off the deck

‘It worked!’

The “Mother” roared off, sounding very much different to the other propeller aircraft. Why did it sound like that? Not the metallic roar, but more like a whooshing soar

‘Alright, let’s see what this can do’

The answer seemed to be “Not much”. They both knew the plane was unarmed. It didn’t even seem to be interested in leave the comfortable circle it flew around Enterprise. She was actually a little disappointed in it.

‘Well that’s fun’
‘I must say, it is a peculiar plane. What does it gain from having that disk there? Could it not fit in the fuselage?’
‘No, it seems to be feel of fairies in there’
‘Perhaps it is for communication? Like a flying radio!’
‘My own LF radio should do that, but sure, let’s give that a try’

Enterprise sighed and turned on her own microphone

‘Mother lead, come in’

Enterprise waited a few seconds for the plane to reply as she readied the second for take off. She waited a little more before she remembered that she couldn't actually understand what the fairies said, even if they replied

‘Ehem, Mother lead, try to establish radio contact with Blue section’

Blue section was the one with Saratoga in

‘Right, That’s cool. Blue section is 276km from us, bearing one-nine-five and doing 12 knots bearing one-zero-five’

Gangut looked a little taken back

‘What is it?’
‘Those are very big, and very precise numbers. Did Blue section give you their position, and you counted those numbers from our position?’
‘Uhh, no? The plane told me’
‘Correct me if i am wrong, but there isn’t a radar in the world that can detect a surface target at even a fraction of that range’
‘Yeah…’
‘And you have received such data from an airplane’
‘You’re right!’

Enterprise launches another aircraft skywards

‘Mother 2, head south and find Black section’
‘Are you going to spy on the Germans…?’
‘It’s my duty as an American’

Something happened to her. Something flashed up in her eyes, already glowing slightly of blue.

‘Gangut, if we can find our forces with these things…’

Enterprise fished up the last two “Mothers” from her pouch and set the first on the runway. Naturally the water had ran out and she had to spend another minute topping it up. Eventually all of mother squadron was airborne. The airplanes had given them exact location, speed and heading of Black and Blue section. But it seemed this evening was taking a turn

‘Essex, orders coming in from Black section. The carriers are to recover their aircraft and return to port’
‘Have we found them?’
‘We have. A tide of them, south west of here. Get to safety, and wish us good luck’

Enterprise figured this wasn’t the place to argue. But then again… She was the grey ghost. She was the only carrier on her side of the war that could conduct nighttime carrier operations, something the enemy was also capable of doing. But they knew that. They knew only Enterprise could operate planes at night, Or would be able to find out. And she didn’t trust her rigging to keep her out of harm's way when she was limited to 15 knots. No, she had to get in this fight, without being seen or detected be either friendly or hostile forces. Now that was a challenge that would live up to her past achievements.

But first she had to get the god damn diesel out of her engine rooms. Yet another hour back to the naval district, shout at the first carrier she sees to get a pump and a a hose for the water. That took yet another half hour and the clock was now past 10 before she managed to get all eight engines running.

And by god did they make a difference. She was faster, so much faster. She even had issues standing up from the wind. God, how much was this? Twenty five knots? Thirty? More? The engines were nothing short of amazing. She was no longer limited from what the engines could do, but how much she could take. It was a tricky standing up in all this wind. Hair being messed up, skirt fluttering away. But now that the sun had set the game had changed. With so little visibility. A good radar, in perfect weather could detect a surface ship at maybe 25 miles. And with her planes, Enterprise could see three hundred.

She brought down four flights of Skyraiders, refuel rearm. Now with cannons, torpedoes, rockets and bombs. And now the pieces fell together. When the planes were ready in the hangar, a swift cycle of the lever brought the plane up to the runway, hooked into the catapult. Whoosh, and the plane was up. Chack-chack! Loaded! Woosh! Launched!

It didn’t take her much time at all to get all those planes up. Radier flight and mother squadron gave her bigger eyes and a bigger stick than anyone else in this ocean. And she could see loads, and loads of ships. Two big forces heading one way, one going the other.

With a grin and a lust for blood, the Grey Ghost turned southwest and put the throttle all the way down