"Cruise of the Ronin"
--by David Alan Abramczyk
Disclaimer: I own neither "Love Hina", nor the computer game "Enigma: Rising Tide".
March 7th, 1938
Tokyo Naval Base, Japan
Captain Gordon Little, a dour looking New Zealander in the uniform of the Royal Navy-in-Exile (RNE) fidgeted nervously as he sat in a leather chair outside the office of Vice-Admiral Osami Nagano, the League of Free Nations' Chief of Personnel. He'd been transferred off his old ship, HMS Bagheera, almost as soon as she had docked in Halifax after escorting HMS Hood, and summoned to the Pacific theatre. While it made a change from the terrible stormy seas of the Atlantic, Captain Little knew from bitter experience that the Pacific Ocean could be far worse than the North Atlantic ever could... Strangely, since arriving in Japan several months before, he'd mostly been kicking his heels, and learning Japanese. Why he'd been ordered to do so, he didn't know, but deciding that "ours is not to reason why", he'd stuck in to it, and was now reasonably fluent.
"Captain Little? Vice-Admiral Nagano will see you now." a young Japanese officer, obviously Naganos' aide-de-camp, called.
"T-th-thank you, Lieutenant..." Gordon paused for a second, before the name popped into his mind. "... Lieutenant Masayuki." With a slight shake to get his uniform looking it's best, Gordon entered Naganos' office.
About an hour later, Gordon walked out of Naganos' office, looking puzzled. Admiral Nagano had informed him that he was to take command of HMS Hinata, a standard Alliance-class Destroyer on her shakedown cruise, but he'd been strangely vague about the details.
Shrugging, Gordon left the Command Post, and began walking down the piers to where the destroyers were docked. When he finally found HMS Hinata, he was even more puzzled. Normally destroyers were tied up in pairs on each side of the dock, but HMS Hinata was tied up by herself at the end of an empty pier. Walking up the gangway to the ship, Gordon suddenly jumped as a crashing sound echoed out of an open hatch, and an enraged voice bellowed "URASHIMA!"
Moments later, a young-ish man, wearing the uniform of a Commander in the IJN leaped out of the hatch and ran for dear life towards the stern, passing the disbelieving New Zealander at a rate of knots. As Gordon twisted his head to check that he would step safely onto the quarterdeck, he got the shock of his life.
A tall, admittedly attractive woman dressed, of all things, in the uniform of an IJN Lt. Commander, was tearing after that man, presumably Commander Urashima. In her hand, she held a very sharp looking katana, and Gordon had to jump out of the way. Unfortunately, he hadn't cleared the gangplank yet. With a loud yelp, he toppled over the side and landed in Tokyo Bay with a loud Splash.
Three minutes later, a now disgruntled, and very wet, Captain Little stomped onto the deck of HMS Hinata, muttering obscenities under his breath. Shaking his legs to try to get the worst of the water out of his trousers, he glared at the ships' crest he had spotted. "Sempre Vigilo." "Always Vigilant."
"Hah!" Little laughed bitterly at the motto, and then squelched towards the nearest ventilation duct, intending to dry off using the exhaust. As the waves of warm air, filled with diesel fumes, began to warm his body and dry out his uniform, he turned and saw another woman, this time a Commander with tan hair, walk over towards him with an unpleasantly ambivalent expression.
"Who are you?" she asked suspiciously, her right hand hovering somewhere between a salute and a fist.
"Captain Gordon Little, the new CO." Little said, returning the Commanders' sudden, shaky salute with a stiff, formal one. "And you are...?" he added for effect.
"C-Commander Naru Narusegawa, sir." Commander Narusegawa said shakily. "I'm the Navigation Officer."
"I beg your pardon? A woman on a fighting ship? That's unheard off!" Gordon exclaimed after a moment.
Commander Narusegawa shut her eyes and slowly counted to ten before she spoke. "Your Admiralty instituted a trial programme in early January. We are it."
Captain Little gave Naru a long, hard stare. "Riiiiiiigggggghhhtt. Okay then, Commander, say I do believe you. Get all the officers out here at the double. I might as well see what I have to work with here, on this ship of fools...," he said, mumbling the last part to himself as Naru sped off.
A few minutes later, after a brief rundown by Narusegawa and Keitaro Urashima, his new XO, Captain Little was inspecting the line of men and women (he still couldn't believe that last part), his shoes still squelching slightly from his damp socks. The male officers all passed muster without comment, but each of the female officers gave him pause, particularly one.
Little stood in front of the Lt. Commander who had knocked him off the gangplank not ten minutes before. Glancing back for a moment at the file that Commander Urashima had given him, he faced the woman, who was looking at him in what he thought was a funny way.
"Lieutenant Commander Aoyama. Do you find my appearance amusing?" he asked pointedly.
"No, sir." Motoko replied.
"THEN WIPE THAT BLOODY SMILE OFF YOUR FACE OR I'LL BLOODY WELL WIPE IT OFF FOR YOU!!!" Gordon roared. "Where do you get off, Aoyama, trying to drown a superior officer?!" he shouted, having long gone past angry and now in 'bloody furious'.
Motokos' eyes narrowed in anger, and then Keitaro stepped forwards, and anxiously drew Captain Little to the next in line. Finally, Captain Little turned to face his Command Staff.
"God preserve me, what a bleedin' shower.." He said to himself in English, before switching to Japanese.
"Right, stand at ease, ladies and gentlemen. As you may have guessed, I'm your new Commanding Officer. The Admiralty, in their infinite wisdom, has instituted a pilot programme to see if women should be allowed to serve on fighting ships, and so it is up to you to set me a good example for when I make my report after the trial concludes." he stated, slowly marching up and down in front of them.
"Get your kit packed away, we sail at sunset. DISMISSED!"
The group all returned to their posts, except for a blonde-haired, tanned woman who came up to him.
"Captain Little, sir, permission to speak freely?"
"Granted, Commander Su." Gordon said, bowing slightly. A subordinate she may have been, but Her Royal Highness, Commander Kaolla Su, was still a member of the Royal Family of the Sovereign Nation of MolMol, one of the charter members of the League. Respect was a two-way street in this case.
"Why are you being so mean to Motoko?" she asked plainly, giving Gordon pause for thought.
"Well... I can't tell you exactly what it is, but it's partly because of the way she treated Commander Urashima as I was coming aboard. She was threatening him with a sword, for Gods' Sake! What reason could she have possibly had to try and murder a superior officer? By all rights she should be cooling her heels in the brig this very moment."
The Princess was quiet for a few moments before speaking. "She can be a little hot-headed sometimes, but she's a good person, sir. Don't let what she did colour your impressions. Now, please excuse me, I must head to my post."
Gordon was quiet as he contemplated this. "She has a point..." he mumbled to himself a little while later, as he stood on the bridge and watched the gangplank be retracted and the mooring lines cast off.
Soon, the setting sun cast everything in an orange glow, as the anchor rose from the green-grey water. With a long, mournful Hoooooooooot of her steam whistle, the propellers of HMS Hinata began to churn the waters of Tokyo Bay as the destroyer nosed out into the Pacific Ocean. The shakedown cruise was underway.
To be continued...