“I fined my guys more than that!”
“Well your chaps do get paid more after all,” Heck countered.
Lost for words the captain blurted the first thing that came to mind. “We bailed your asses out twice, in both world wars!”
“On both the first and second test matches you turned up late for the third innings and Germany was ahead by five runs… we’d already taken two wickets… storming googlies at that, and one out for LBW too!”
Totally lost for words but convinced he was in the presence of a lunatic uttering gibberish the artillery captain had departed.
“Well I thought that went rather well, didn’t you?” he asked Tony McMarn and Daniel King who had been sat at the back of the office for ‘Company Orders’. Lt McMarn was eating the edge of his beret to stop laughing and Daniel was mentally burying Anglo American relations.
On this dull grey morning the trains heading for the ports slowed to a halt long before the tracks separated to the north of the cities limits. Waiting is an art soon mastered by servicemen the world over. There was no point worrying about this stoppage, certainly nothing to warrant straying along the track in the drizzle for. If anyone came along shouting about their still being far from the docks, well no matter, they had a train driver to blame and being a civilian was immune to military bollockings and probably deserved shooting for being paid more than them anyway.
Heck, Tony and Danny, who was still ‘tagging along’ as liaison were catching up on sleep, as soldiers do in daylight, with their berets or other head gear over their faces.
Far ahead, a favourite niece of a VIP had been sent a text in the early hours’ to get in the car and drive west ASAP. Within an hour the number of people warned and sworn to secrecy increased exponentially until the local TV and Radio got the word. By the time the first of the trains reached a crossing outside the city there was a panicked mass fleeing the city. A Winnebago ignored the crossing sign and tried to beat the train across the track. The derailed engine sat atop the remains of the vehicle and the family of five occupants. Panicked drivers, road rage shootings and insufficient road widths caused other accidents and hold-ups on the other routes from the city.
Ambulance and Fire & Rescue vehicles tried to respond but were trapped in the lines of slow or non-moving vehicles. The Police didn’t respond as they had no one available who wasn’t already fully committed with the log jammed traffic and looting that had begun.
The north Pacific was just as inhospitable as it had been since they had come aboard. Captain Hong had sailed these waters and see it far worse, his sailors were all experienced seamen, some with many more years in these waters than himself, he felt himself lucky to have such an excellent company of men. Looking about him he saw that his bridge crew were already gaining in competency, but this was a relatively easy function compared with other areas of the ship, the nuclear power plant department for instance, they were reliant upon the skill of their Russian tutors to run the department and pass on the skills needed to run and maintain it. His Chief Engineer had never seen a nuclear power plant before coming aboard; he spent most of his time with his head in a book and a Russian engineer schooling him. Fortunately the rest of the ship was not so far removed from what his other departments were used to. He was far less certain about his pilots and so were their Russian instructors, the original eight days preparation was highly optimistic, he knew that he had too many pilots barely competent at landing in good weather, in daylight, on the Russian training runway. When he had received his orders to prepare for combat operations in four days he had almost snapped at Marshal Lo Chang over the secure channel when he had requested verbal confirmation. The PRC was not forgiving of its citizens, in uniform or out when it came to refusal or failure, Captain Hong had no option but to apologise for bothering the Marshal once his new orders were confirmed.
The Admiral who was to command the carrier group was enroute to join the ship now, although he had been appointed at the same time as Hong he had not chosen to grace them with his presence until today. Hong was somewhat surprised by the choice of the man, he was sponsored by the defence minister but far from being the most experienced choice to command such an important asset in time of war.
Vice Admiral Putchev came onto the bridge and smiled as he saw Hong.
“Captain, I have come to wish you farewell before I depart. It seems your Admiral does not feel the need for advice, I am leaving on the same aircraft that delivers him.”
Hong was shocked.
“But Admiral, we have still much to learn. Admiral Li has no experience with air operations or carrier tactics!”
Putchev shrugged and watched as an Antonov-140 AWACS was catapulted from the deck.
Hong joined him.
“Sir, Admiral Li has less experience than other officers who could have been given this command.”
“I think you mean that he has managed to attain his rank through influence rather than his seamanship or command abilities, Captain” he looked at Hong.
“True?”
Hong checked that they were not likely to be overheard before he answered.
“True.”
“I have left a report for Admiral Li, stating that you and your crew have surpassed my expectations… but in my opinion are a month short of being combat ready.” Putchev looked aft to observe a SU-27KUB trainer that was making a rather hesitant approach, the daylight was fading fast and that was likely to worry any inexperienced carrier pilot.
“He is too high,” he told Hong. The aircraft was indeed too high; the pilot attempted to correct by throttling back further but sank too fast and poured on power and retracted his tail hook. The Sukhoi touched down and raced the length of the flight deck as the pilot boltered and went around to try again.
“He will likely be worse the next time around, it will be even darker then,” he said aloud.
The next SU-27 pilot however was apparently made of sterner stuff, the approach was smooth and the trap went well, catching the two wire.
“I thought that was one of my pilot instructors for a moment.” Putchev said to the Chinese captain.
Hong smiled ruefully.
“Lieutenant Shen, if only all my pilots were such quick learners.” He remarked.
“The lieutenant is a remarkably good pilot Captain, your other pilots are also very good or they would not be aboard this ship, he just learnt faster.”
A messenger saluted and informed them that the two aircraft carrying the new Admiral and his staff were inbound, ETA fifteen minutes.
“I will take my leave of you Captain,” said Putchev “May we all soon live in… less interesting times.”
Hong grinned.
“Until we meet again sir.” holding out his hand.
“Until we meet again,” agreed Putchev, shaking his hand.
Circling around once more to attempt to land, Major Lee was conscious of his instructor sat beside him talking him through it yet again. The SU-27KUB, Korabelny Uchebno Boevoy, the ship borne combat trainer, again followed the pattern.
“Try not think of it as a ship at sea Major, if you can pretend that it’s just a small landing field were some idiot built the tower too close to the runway, it may help.” Lee took a deep breath and began his approach once more.
Lieutenant Fu Shen was standing on the side of the deck to watch his squadron commander when the aircraft handler shooed him away. The deck of an aircraft carrier is a busy and dangerous place, so he entered the island, heading for where he could observe, he arrived in time to see Major Lee catch the four wire.