As they sailed through the night, the Fleet girls of Pearl Harbor were in a jovial mood despite their various scrapes, bruises, and other injuries. Though no one dared turn a light on out of a healthy fear of what abyssal submarines were capable of, the air was full of chatter as the girls compared stories and kill counts.
With the radio mast of her rigging now somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific, North was only able to hear snippets of these conversations whenever someone near her started talking. This was merely one of the myriad problems her damage control teams had cataloged as the group sailed back home at a steady 20 knots.
Her sight wasn't much better, the radar and optics it depended on torn apart by the same volley that had knocked out her radio. While she could make out the shapes of Sullivan's and Kidd, her two close escorts, she could only track the sub hunting Taffies by their movements when they entered her limited field of view.
The good news was that they wouldn't be alone for long. Besides the eye in the sky that still watched them from above, two Mk.5 Special Operations Craft sailed towards the fleet to give them a lift back to Pearl. Though they were still an hour's sail from the meeting point, already she found herself fantasizing a nice trip to the repair docks.
"Hell of a job, right?" Augusta said as sail up next to North Carolina. The heavy cruiser slapped North on the back of her shoulder as she did so, causing the battleship to flinch as yet another wave of pain shot through her body as the Northampton class's hand found one of her bruises. "We kicked their asses real good." The cruiser continued seemingly unconcerned with the pain she had inadvertently caused her flagship. "A battleship, 2 cruisers, and 4 destroyers sunk with only a few scrapes and bruises on our side."
"Speak for yourself." North heard Kidd say. Out in front of her she could see Kidd had her good arm draped around Sullivan in order to keep Sully steady. Her other arm now sat in a makeshift sling, her mangled hand now buried under a pile of gauze bandages. Sully's head looked very similar, though the bandages wrapped around it were starting to soak through with her blood, turning them dark crimson is certain spots. Every so often North could see her swerve as if avoiding some sort of object only she could see. And to be honest, North wasn't much better off. Besides the gashes in her head and side and the intense burning pain in her gut, bruises seemed to be forming on just about every square inch of her body.
"Easy there Tin Can." Augusta replied. "No one's in any real danger of sinking and everything can be fixed with a couple of spa days and a visit from the doc."
Kidd simply shook her head while a very confused look developed on North's face. "We have a doctor for us on Pearl?" She asked, genuinely perplexed.
"Kind-a-sort-a." Augusta replied, waving her hand in that "sort of yes, sort of no" motion. "The US Navy has a couple of repair boats that came back. Not enough to put one at each fleet girl base but enough to put one on each coast. She's probably being flown in from San Diego right now."
It seemed to Admiral Enfield that he had barely closed his eyes when a knock on the door to his office jolted him awake. He had opted to use the couch in his office, figuring that it would be easier with the coming mountain of work that would soon be upon him after the day's battle. "Enter." He said, standing up and brushing off the set of NWU's he had fallen asleep in as he did so.
He had expected to see one his command staff enter the door, most likely with news relating to the members of his fleet that were out to sea at the moment. Instead, what he got was someone that while unexpected, at least in terms of how quickly she had gotten to Pearl, was very much a welcome sight.
Despite barely being taller than the destroyers he commanded and looking just as young, the girl in front of him could have stood in for Rosie the Riveter. Even under the battleship grey coveralls the girl wore, he could make out a physique that would have beat most midshipmen in a weight lifting competition. Brown work boots and tool belt in place of the gun belt that most girls wore with their 'original' uniform completed the look.
Despite the hours long flight she had just taken to get from San Diego, the girl barely looked worse for wear. With all but a few strands of her light green hair tucked under a red bandana, Enfield could see her sea green eyes sparkled with a light one wouldn't expect to find given her line of work.
The girl saluted after entering the room. "USS Medusa reporting with orders from CINCPAC." The first purpose built repair ship said.
"Good to see you." Admiral Enfield replied returning the salute. "We didn't expect you for a couple more hours."
Medusa just shrugged. "CINCPAC ordered me here as soon as I could gather supplies and get a plane ride."
"Wish it was under better circumstances though."
Medusa just smirked at the comment. "Sir, it's never a good thing if I'm coming to a base outside of 'Dago. You guys don't exactly invite me here for birthdays. So," she continued crossing her arms. "What do you got for me today?"
"Here are the initial damage reports from Northampton and Augusta." Enfield replied, handing Medusa the rough outline the two cruisers had managed to get from the girl's various damage control crews.
"How bad off are those two?" Medusa asked as she took the document, not so fondly remembering the two main reasons she normally ended up at Pearl.
"They actually came out without a scratch. It's North Carolina and the three destroyers that I'm worried about."
"Thank god for small miracles." Medusa muttered as she began looking over the report. "Let's seeā¦USS North Carolina. One port side dual 5-inch battery knocked out, two more with heavy damage and a fourth moderately damaged. Two hits to the bridge destroyed just about everything important in it. There's fragmentation damage to her superstructure from secondary explosions in the 5-inch batteries. And to top it all off, numerous armor plates on her hull that will need to be replaced. Jesus Chris, you have her all of two weeks and you already broke the poor girl. You need to be more gentle with the girls while they're still getting use to dry land sir." She said teasingly.
"Always quick with a joke, aren't you."
"Only way to stay sane when your job is to literally put your friends back together piece by piece. You either learn to laugh during the day or accept that you're going to cry yourself to sleep at night."
Enfield simply nodded. "So, what about the rest of my girls?"
"They all look worse than they are. While Sully has damage to her bridge, she still seems to have most of her functions still and that sort of damage is easily fixed by the fairies. We'll know more once I get a good up close look at her, but I'd say we're only looking at a 4 to 5-day repair job. Laffey only suffered damage to her turret and surrounding deck space, and while Kidd had her bow shot up, most of the hits were to non-vital spaces except for that turret. I'd say a week for the former and 10 to 14 days for the later. North's going to be longer though, three weeks to a month going by how widespread the damage is and how many systems were knocked out of order."
"Damn," Enfield said. "I was hoping for better news than that. I was counting on North to anchor our defensive line here. That and I was hoping for some good news to calm down her mother."
"Almost forgot to tell you." Medusa said with a smile. "I might need to borrow her to help me with North's repairs. I know North's about 40 years older than her, but I wouldn't mind a few extra hands to help me, and I don't exactly trust the rest of your destroyers and cruisers being near acetylene."
Enfield groaned. "You do realize she already wants to kill me for this right."
This just elicited a snicker from Medusa. "I doubt she really wants to kill you."
"There's a desk in the command center that would be pretty vocal in disagreeing with you if it could talk." Enfield muttered. "I'd still give her a few minutes to catch some rest it's been a long day for her."
"I'm still going to need some help off loading supplies from the deuce and a half I borrowed from the Air Force."
Enfield began to ask how a girl who looked barely old enough to drive had managed to commandeer the vehicle but decided against it, figuring some things were better left unknown. "I'll work on getting a crew together to help you with that. North and the others should be meeting up with the SOC's soon."
-
North could tell they were close to the rendezvous when Augusta signaled for the group to stop. "Hoel's got a pair of faint contacts about 5 miles in front of us." The cruiser explained before radioing the destroyer back. "Go ahead and signal them."
Everything was quiet for a minute as the destroyer attempted to radio the two unknown contacts. While they were most likely the SOCs that were being used to get them home, there was always the chance that the two vessels might be Abyssals looking for an easy kill.
"Ok, it's them." Augusta said, causing North to release the breath she hadn't even realized she was holding. "Here's the plan. North, Kidd, Sully, and Laffey are going on the first boat. After you're clear, the rest of us will pile into the other one. Remember to take your rigging off before you step foot on the boat or you're going to capsize it."
"Wait; if we take this off won't we need to-" North began before Northampton cut her off.
"The things just disappear and reappear back at base. We still don't know how that happens, but it makes tricks like this a lot easier to pull off."
Any further attempts to explain were cut off by the approach of the Special Operations Craft. North heard the sleet grey boats long before they seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The vessels, which bore a very close resemblance to the PT boats of World War 2, quickly moved to within feet of the girls.
One by one, each of the wounded ships slipped out of the straps that connected them to their damaged rigging before being helped onto the boat by a pair of night vision goggled crew-members. As North Carolina felt her rigging slip off her back, the toll of the battle finally hit her. She had barely made it aboard the boat when her legs finally failed her, turning to jelly as she collapsed into the to sailors helping her onto the deck. "Sorry" she said weakly. "I've had a hell of a day."
"Don't worry about it ma'am." One of them said as the duo helped her into a seating position against the crafts hull. "Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride."
This was exactly what North did. After a quick check on her wounds by one of the sailors manning the vessel, North leaned her head back, falling asleep for the first time in almost a full day as the SOC sped on its way back to Pearl.
Author note: Yes I know Vestal and other repair ships predate Medusa, but they were all converted coalers. Medusa was the first one built from the keel up as a repair boat.
