Haze Gray 85
"So back to boring, at least on the ocean. This is good." Taylor nodded.
The girls all chuckled. Juggernaut tossed out "Yeah, we need to invent some stuff, get the excitement back up."
Amy sighed "Speak for yourself, Hong, Bing, and I have all the work we can handle. Our airlines are cheap enough they just fly people to us now. Speaking of which, Tradewinds for Mare Island? Really? How is there no airport there?"
Leslie shrugged "Actually a bunch close, Alameda, Oakland, San Francisco, lots got BRACed. Just easiest to run the Tradewinds, they can drive right up to the pier and unload. We don't have to drive far then, plus we will be on our own little island. Plus ours are like four hundred knots. Four or five hours and we are there.
"Not much traffic on the water as the portals work and the yards get raw material out of them. Plus, our yard is ship space, nearly no straight civilians in the area. Just the two big drydocks under the cover and the cat walks of course. Two drydocks outside, and slips. Plus fitting out piers.
"We could put in an airfield?"
Lucy piped up on the net "Let's wait and see how much aggregate we generate there, plus we need a miner to get to work on all of those fault zones. We have the plan to push the earthquakes to uninhabited areas, might have to buy them as they will never stop shaking again. At least if the one we picked and set up down here is any guide. The bottom of the Milwaukie deep is like a waterbed under water, it's not solid at all, just contained. Anyway, CalEmrgMan approved the plan. Hint, everything you say out there put Cal in front of it, at least all the nouns. Serious inferiority complex. Fortunately, we aren't from Texas or Alaska or we would never get anything from the nimnals."
Amy nodded "Enough space for a hospital and good access, right?"
Amanda added "Yes, in the building like Brocton Bay even. A ship space one. They jumped all over that Medicare rate charge stuff. Then asked about pro bono. I told them the Medicare rate was pro bono." over the net.
Taylor nodded "Well if we can get the G5 to not panic we can take a ride. At least go look. They are going to fire the furnaces today, let the California Air Research Board and CalEnviromental get samples, so we will go tomorrow. This has settled, plus we are leaving I Corps here."
The LHDs giggled. Taylor sighed "That's not permission to make another one. Jeez, how hungry can you all be?"
"They need boyfriends, or girlfriends." Rachel offered.
Taylor paused and thought then blanched. "Uh, no, well, yes if they find one, but let's not go looking. Wait, those Chinese guys that came with you all..." The Chinese girls pinked and twittered.
Missy face palmed "Crackers, it's got to be a displacement thing."
One of the Chinese Gearings laughed "Nope. Married, first anniversary coming up. I owe Ziz a present, her sinking us at least got us on the same island. We were in different fleets. Stupid Army Navy."
"Damnit!"
Taylor smiled "So three thousand miles. Caps for fuel lines, I guess."
Tess nodded "Bakuda got a thing though. We will not be deaf; it sucks up sound and converts it to energy. Of course, you have to drop it as a bomb when it gets full. Not sure how long it takes to fill one yet. Size of a baseball, equivalent to a mark eighty-four. That girl is dangerous."
Taylor blinked "Hey, how sensitive is it? Could we shoot it out of the three-inch fifties with a sabot?" her chief yeoman stuck her head out of her cleavage 'Hey' "And a proximity fuse, of course. I thought we weren't going to use that hatch?" 'Hey' "You're on look out. Amy this is your chief nurses' fault."
Aisha wriggled and her wake went a little snaky "Damnit! Now mine are doing it!" Everyone looked and sure enough there was a small head poking up in the V of Aisha's sailor top.
Juggernaut exclaimed "Where did you come from; I don't have yeomen?" Looking down her own top. 'Hey' "Modern Navy, what? Who are you hot racking with?" 'heeyyy' "Oh my god, I'm the love boat."
Taylor shook her head and kept skating. They were at economical cruise and had an hour to get back to port yet. Not that they were dragging their feet or anything. After all she was linked in a teleconference with the leadership of the western hemisphere and Meili. That whole tribunal, what was a tribunal with eight members? Thing was ripping right along though.
Those bastards really might be giving up everything on each other to avoid a hanging. Still going to prison forever though. Just as soon as they cooked the concrete on that prison layer cake the miner was building. Hope some of them were good at farming. One of them better be a blacksmith too or they were going to be farming with flatware. The Cubans were not for letting them out or giving them resources. It was going to be Lord of the Flies in that thing. Meili's escort's commentary was hilarious. That girl was an older Amy. How did she not end up a Haven instead of a heavy cruiser?
Haze Gray
Taylor looked at the fleet of boats through her binoculars and groaned. The singing was already going on. Wait were those fire boats? When did they get fireboats? How were they making the water from the monitors those colors? Feeding them always settled them "Practice torpedoes everyone."
Haze Gray
Fidel glared at the tribunal. Then he sat. They had already made him not a man, what else could they take? He gaped when the judgement was read, his life, they couldn't do this!"
Haze Gray
Johan looked at the G5 "I see nothing wrong with the sentence, it is the traditional punishment. He has starved untold thousands, killed his political enemies, trafficked persons, started wars in other countries, if he had chemical weapons, I'm sure he would have used them, on his own people most likely."
Barack sighed "Meili?"
"I voted for imprisonment Mr. President."
Barack nodded "Dana?" He asked the Staff Judge Advocate, an Army three star.
"It's well established precedent Mr. President and the evidence of his guilt is undeniable."
Barack looked at Viviana Perdomo, our favorite wild-eyed Cuban revolutionary, "Ms. Perdomo?"
Viviana nodded "It will be put to the people. We would keep these individuals' blood off La Dona's hands, we will if we can."
Angela frowned "We do not have the death penalty; I understand from the rules the tribunal was operating under that a seven-member panel must have at least a two thirds majority to issue a death penalty? While the addition of the French, Mexican, and Spanish officers give us more than the seven members, we have a two thirds majority?"
Meili nodded "I was the only one who voted for life in prison."
The leaders of the involved countries frowned appearing either in person or on the telepresence devices. This was going to be complicated and set a precedent. Never in modern history had someone executed the leader of a country for war crimes. Defacto or not.
All one hundred and ninety-five members of the very exclusive leaders club were going to want to weigh in on this.
Haze Gray
"Great, now I'm going to get hate from the North Koreans over this." Maili bowed, she and her escort and made war emergency power all the way back, and Taylor huffed and stood her back up. "Not your fault. The thing that makes me angry is it isn't mine either. I didn't tell him to be the way he was."
Amy shrugged "We'll bring them democracy if the Chinese and Russians leave anything."
Taylor paused and then winced "Ouch, yes, man, bad position. Hmmm, we might need to help the South Koreans.
Taylor settled in the chatter on the ship to ship was relaxing. This was going to be a cracker show, the thing with hanging Fidel and Raul. She could completely understand the elected politicians' position. What happened if the other party got elected and accused you of some 'crimes against humanity'? Hell, Lincoln could have been charged. Those EPW camps were brutal and Sherman's march to the sea was a terror campaign. Roosevelt for Lemay firebombing Japan on purpose, Truman, atomic bombs anyone? Kennedy for Indo China. Johnson for agent orange. Yep, this was a bit problematic for them.
They were going to have to have a little history lesson. Fidel wasn't elected. He started a revolution and seized power. The last free election the Cubans had was, uh, that couldn't be right? Never? Oh man. This was going to be crazy. They had all the steps to get through. Haiti and the Dominican Republic had at least ruled themselves somewhat successfully a few times.
Anyway, the Castros' weren't elected in a free and fair election. Holy moly what a cracker show. Now, how many of these were elected, let's not even talk about free and fair? "Boat."
Taylor looked up at Kathy's call "Yes?"
Kathy chuckled and shoved her. They both missed the sixty-foot power boat. They waved at the people on it looking nervously at the walls of haze gray steel that slid past for a long moment. Amy called out "Hey! That's my job! Taylor, pay attention Babe. Busy gulf. You can write your history lesson plan for the G5 later."
Taylor blushed "Sorry. Thanks Kathy. What is that guy doing out here. Holy crap! What are all these doing out here?" The other girls laughed. "Wait, when did we get in the harbor?"
Haze Gray
Barack watched the girls come up the gulf slowly, mobbed by boats, and cross the harbor, then walk out on the packed beach and pick up the torpedoes. Which had as usual filled the cannery nets. He stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows in the gigantic penthouse conference room he had been led to from the helipad and looked at the other leaders, those there in person and the ever-growing crowd of telepresence devices. "Well, sorry you aren't all here, looks like, oh lobster, surf and surf tonight."
He winced at the bedlam from the telepresences. He let it go a minute then nodded "Your devices will be able to navigate the beach and they are waterproof.
"My advice? Talk to La Dona, do not threaten, she responds extremely poorly to threats."
David pointed toward Cuba "As demonstrated."
Stephen nodded "She is remarkably calm, right up until she isn't. Let's get her take."
Maria came ashore and smiled at the children squealing until they got caught for a greasing. Viviana climbed out of a hatch in her legs and dropped to the ground where she became normal sized "That was strange. You have a very nice crew though."
Maria nodded "For me a bit too but I got used to it. Now let's find La Dona and see what she thinks of putting this on the ballot."
Viviana blinked "But her message said that was the thing to do?"
Maria shrugged "Let's find out if the plan changed before the jackals close in." She nodded to the G5 and the telepresence's closing the range.
Viviana smirked "I can talk to them. Amira and her girls will be here on the helicopter soon."
Maria blinked "What helicopter? Wait, wrong answer, no. We talk to La Dona and present a united front."
Taylor looked at the two walking up and smiled "Still going on the ballot. The people of Cuba are well educated, we'll get some information out to them on both sides of the issue. Fidel was never elected by a free and fair election. That will back some of these off.
"Dictators living to ripe old ages is new, an advent of our times. Peron, Franco, Castro, Stalin, Mao. Tito, all different men, yet all dictators in the end. Some dictators that rose at the same time as those men found a much different, more historically normal fate. Their times however end, as all things must.
"The people should decide their own fate and should not have to risk their lives to do it. Not the party elites, I don't even care for the electoral college system really. It's a relic from an era before secure, near instantaneous, mass communication and has served its purpose well, but we can get a true sense of what the majority want now.
"In the case of Cuba, with a well-educated populace, shouldn't we?
"That being the case shouldn't we allow them this choice. Are we required to follow precedent established more than sixty-five years ago or can we establish a new precedent?"
Stephen nodded and Angela clapped softly. Mozah beamed at her. Barack looked at her then the telepresences. More than half of them were nodding. He smiled. "So, what's for dinner?" Hilary walked off.
Michelle watched her go, that one was going to try to establish a new precedent and become the first US Secretary of State to get elected to the oval office since the eighteen fifties. That job normally killed a political career, as being the senior statesman was sort of a finisher job, the ultimate position in diplomacy, it rightfully should, those people should be very experienced, read old. She would need watched.
Haze Gray
Taylor looked down from her position on the hatch that permitted entry into the bottom of the number two engine cowling of the Tradewind. The politicians swirled twenty, maybe thirty feet below her. They had taken to following her everywhere. Of course, that it was a moving feast/dance party helped? She shook her head and went back to talking to the Chief in charge of this Tradewind. "Four thousand kilowatts on methane with the caps? We tweaked the faff out of these didn't we?" 'Hehehey!' Taylor smiled at him. She looked back down and sighed. The chief nodded 'Hey'. "Easy now, I'm one of those guys." 'Hey' "I'm a ship, doesn't count." Taylor rolled her eyes. "OK, come on, let's get this beast off the beach and give them a ride." 'Hey' "All of them in the cockpit?" 'Hey' "Oh, a few at a time, you've done dog and pony shows before." 'Hey' "The yard gave you a death merchant sales video for inflight entertainment."
Taylor shook her head and closed the hatch climbing up and walking to the top hatch on the aircraft to go down inside to get to the cockpit. "Hope you guys remember how to do this." She was after all a cruiser sailor, aircraft carriers were cruisers with airplanes, and a lot of her officers had been pilots, a few on these things, small navy, hehe. Oh god they were all going to die. 'Hey.' "Oh, fine, you got this. Sure." 'Hey.' "Let you do what now? Amy will kill you if you master me, she'll find a way to make it permanent too." 'Hey.' "Fine Mr. confidence, your funeral."
Taylor sat in the pilot's seat and a copilot shimmied out of her shorts and grew to normal sized before sitting in the copilots' seat. A Loadmaster shimmed out next. Taylor rolled her eyes "You guys can use the hatches that are uncovered you know?" She snorted when they both looked scandalized while her body manipulated the controls and looked things over. While getting a lecture down to the details of the composition of the die used to color the resin on the skin of the aircraft. The copilot grinned and nodded sympathetically. 'Hey.'
"He was on the project, fell in love and is the one who designed ours? He updated it with every new technology through the years. How do you guys get all that compressed into one syllable and three letters?" Taylor arched a brow then jerked when she got a mental finger thump and a pay attention hey from the guy who was driving her body.
She reached over and turned main power on and started doing things on the all glass cockpit. On? Too? Whichever. "Hey! Slow down, back up and go through all that again."
While the leaders sorted themselves out in the hold and dinner was served from the small galley, well, admirals mess right now, ship space you know, Taylor got comfortable in the cockpit and finally started the engines. Stewards got everyone sitting, or their telepresence device lashed down, as Taylor pushed back from the beach on reverse thrust.
Danny, watching from the jump seat in the cockpit with Maria gave her a bit of a glare "You could do that the whole time and have instead been going to flight school with me?"
Maria shook her head and nodded "Poi? Who knew you could do that? Taylor, always something new with her. Always first shipping."
Danny blinked and looked at Marias frustrated face then laughed and laughed.
The Tradewind, loaded to the maximum with people and telepresences, a lot of the leaders had come with staffs, strap hangers, got off the beach, turned around, and Taylor checked the harbor. Then she steeled her resolve and pushed the throttles forward.
Once they were up, she grunted "OK, so that was easy." Then she rolled her eyes at herself "Ouch, stop that." The copilot broke up hey laughing.
'Hey' "Two hundred forty thousand pounds of thrust makes everything easy. Hmm, well power is helpful." She grinned and facepalmed. The copilot pointed and laughed more.
Down in the hold the leaders were taking notes as the yards death merchant sales video ran. The stewards passed the word that they could move around if they wanted and unhooked the tie downs on the telepresences.
Barack headed for the flight deck. He found Mozah already there and Taylor giving a lecture on capabilities and cost? "Hey! We got dibs!" He got smiled at. "One question. How is it so quiet?"
Taylor grinned "Bakuda got a thing. It's about the size of a tennis or baseball and eats vibration, so noise, as these would be way to loud without it, we have them scattered all over the aircraft, inside and out, about a B52s worth of throw weight of them."
Barack thought about that a minute "Bakuda, the bomb tinker?"
Taylor nodded "Yeah, downside is when they get full the only way to discharge them is to drop them like a bomb. Estimates are they should equal a two thousand pounder. Hence thirty-five equal seventy thousand pounds of bombs. They don't go off until you crack them open. Sort of insensitive munitions, but it's going to get damn noisy down in the hold when they get full. Hmm, we will need to do some work on a dispenser and a sight. I'll talk to Arc Light."
Then she heyed at herself for a minute, then as they watched a Navy pilot climbed out of her pocket and became full sized. Taylor blinked "GPS? Guided? How much is that going to cost? During the war they got pretty good with both visual and radar bombing. I might go with radar, we already have lots of that, I'm not paying millions of dollars per baseball to drop these things on idiots."
Barack blinked "What just happened?"
Danny shrugged "Taylor learned to fly and got large multi engine certified the easy way." 'Hey' "Beg your pardon, she still has to land to get certified. You don't really solo one of these I guess."
