“I fucked up,” Stephie whispered to Admiral Thornton. She was too close to the microphones. Laughter erupted, this time, at great volume, from the thousands of people gathered below and from her father on the platform’s television monitor. Stephie felt the blood rush to her face.
“Go on,” a grinning Thornton directed.
Stephie cleared her throat again and stepped up to the microphone, following the script that she had memorized the night before. “I commission this vessel,” she said in a voice that resounded over the PA system across the docks, “the U.S.S. Bill Baker! Men and women of the United States Navy, man this vessel and bring her to life!”
The crowd cheered wildly, far louder than before. The band struck up the national anthem. America returned to the sea.