2007
Kate was on the bridge. It was a tiny and cramped space barely enough room to swing a cat. The swain was steering though they were pretty much on a straight line back to base. A monkey could do this.
"Revolutions 320" she called not taking her eyes off the charts she was looking at.
"run then repeated Ma'am"
"very good" she smiled in swains direction. Looking over Nav was working on the charts to get them back to port. "you know if you go through the channel then you will find..."
Nav looked at her. She had been navigating through these waters a lot longer than the X and although the X had more experience it wasn't through these waters.
"okay never mind it was just a suggestion" Kate responded
Nav picked up the papers she had been working on and her cup. "i'll be in the ward room updating the operations plan." She made her way to the door
"oh Nav when you get a sec can you move your stuff to the top rack."
Nav just glared at her
"seniority" Kate smiled "better rack"
"right" Nav responded feeling put in her place. This new XO had only been on the ship for a few hours and was already acting like she was the queen bee. She had heard things about a Kate McGregor at AFDA. Apparently she was nick-named perfect princess. If this was the same Kate McGregor then it suited her to a tee.
"come on up charge I was just leaving" Nav sauntered out and down the narrow stairway leading from the bridge.
"you have the ship Ma'am" he called
"I have"
" we are currently doing about 6 knots so I would like to take down the port engine for some maintenance"
Kate knew the protocol anything like this had to be ran past the captain. But they were only doing 6 knots and were towing that stupid FFV back to base. Why bother waking the CO for something so trivial.
"sure" she got up from the seat and went to the window "why not. Go right ahead" she smiled
"aye Ma'am" charge left the bridge.
It wasn't until the following morning that everything hit the fan. They had a signal in from NAVCOM. There was a marine biologist on one of the local islands who had called in a medical emergency and as the nearest asset Hammersley had been tasked with assisting. They were 70 miles away but closer than any other vessel.
"Nav take the ship. X we need to talk now" Mike opened the door to the bridge and indicated for Kate to go down.
"aye sir" Nav called as they both left
He waited till they were out of earshot of anyone before having a go.
"why the hell did you give permission to take down that engine. You know the protocol" he walked in to his cabin followed by Kate.
"you were asleep" she argued back
"were my ship is concerned I am NEVER asleep"
"and we were going to be towing all the way back to base"
"and now we are not"
"nobody could have predicted that"
"good planning means being able to deal with the unpredictable."
She just stared at him. He was being unreasonable in her mind. It was only one engine and they were only towing fishermen back to base who would be arrested, charged and with in 6 months back out poaching their fish resources.
he thought maybe he was a little harsh. She wasn't use to this type of vessel. He had forgotten about how much she liked to argue her point and fight back. One thing was for sure she still had that fire behind her eyes. Taking a different approach
"it is basic to the running of the vessel. It is a bout teamwork, its about consultation. Its about not taking over my ship"
"team work but it is YOUR ship" she scoffed
"damn right it is my ship. Its my responsibility and teamwork is there to achieve that result."
"very good Sir" she stormed out
He sighed. "well you blew that one didn't you" he thought to himself. This was going to be tough.
Kate went back to her cabin. Why was he doing this. He was infuriating. It wasn't the end of the world. Her mind flashed back to when they met at Watsons bay and how he had loved the fact she argued back and knew her own mind.
enjoy. thanks to ALIMOO1971 for noticing the little errors in the last chapter which are now changed
duckmadgirl
