Sakura Wars: The 21st Century
By Steve Edward
The Return
Chapter 20
Friday, January 29th, 2010 – USS Wisconsin BB-64 – 0815 hours –
Admiral John Long stood on the flag bridge, observing the surrounding area as the Wisconsin put to sea. Beside him Captain Frank Orkney, who had received the latest message traffic which contained a message from the Pentagon and White House; causes him to let out a low whistle. Frank handed it to John for him to read, "You might be glad we are leaving now. The Pentagon and the White House are apparently both serious."
Taking the message and reading, "Well I suppose it was inevitable. It was going to be kind of hard to keep the existence of the Rose and Dream Division a secret for very long," as John handed the message traffic back.
Staff Sergeant Bloomberg in her Marine blues standing to their rear, "Do you suppose we had a leak onboard sir?" turning to Teresa, "No not on the Wisconsin. The crew of this ship has demonstrated that they are very capable of holding their tongues. I suspect it was a leak on Capital Hill. The politicians tend to think that they are doing the right thing or they want to get even for not getting things their way. Personally if I had my druthers, I would put a couple of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles on top of them just for being so damn stupid, but we will get through it."
Looking downward and aft, John took in the Dream Division manning the rails. At least the issue of their silk kimonos hand been handled with replacing them with much safer cotton kimonos. Still highly visible and mixed among the crew members of the Wisconsin, the sight of the ship leaving San Diego had drawn crowds to the shore line.
Above the Wisconsin and kept at a considerable distance by heavily armed US Marine AH-64 Apache helicopters, civilian news helicopters hovered; capturing the sight feeding their view to the world.
Surrounding the ship was a heavy presence of United States Coast Guard vessels to ensure that the Wisconsin's passage would not be impeded in any way. The Marine detachment were manning the various 25 MM chain guns and .50 caliber machine guns placed strategically around the Wisconsin, ready to engage if necessary any threat that got past the Coast Guard escorts.
It was a banner hanging from a high rise that was visible from the ship channel that caught John's attention, reading it, "God Bless Wisconsin and the Rose and Dream Divisions!" he turned to Frank to point it out. Looking at it then turning to John, "Well I suppose the cat is really out of the bag now."
Captain Hollister too had seen the banner and turning to her Executive Officer, "Do you suppose John might be a little ticked off about now?" as Chris took in the sight, "Frankly, be grateful that we are not in Cruise Missile range of Capital Hill otherwise he would be launching everything we got at them", as he turned to the quartermaster in the wheelhouse.
Below Commander Fujieda manning the rail with the Rose Division noted the farewell message and could on wonder what was going through the minds of Admiral Long and Captain Hollister at the moment. Admiral Long entering the Flag Bridge issued orders that once the Wisconsin's remaining helicopter was recovered, the Task Group was to temporarily proceed at 30 knots away from the coast so as to get out of air range of news helicopters, as he frankly did not want to have them hovering about.
As John sat in his chair on the Flag Bridge, he recalled the message from the President notifying him that he was going to make a speech before Joint Sessions of the Congress. The speech was to announce the existence of Task Group Rose and it was sure to cause an uproar which John had no doubt. The secrecy surrounding the Time Travel mission to 1927 and the implications of being able to do time travel would be even louder. But the President also included that he had authorized a joint military mission with Great Britain to take out a scientific project being undertaken in a third world country that was along the lines of Project Wachstum. It would be the last time any country would attempt to resurrect Project Wachstum.
Friday, January 29th, 2010 – USS Wisconsin BB-64 – 1400 hours –
Now cruising at 15 knots, the Wisconsin and her escorts steamed through the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The only incident was a media fixed wing aircraft that had flown out to Wisconsin in an effort to talk by radio to Admiral Long. It was a wasted effort as the media aircraft soon found itself with two US Navy F-35 Strike Fighters armed for air-to-air combat sitting on either wing; their pilots signaling to follow them which it did only after a warning flare was fired by a signalman on the Wisconsin.
John who had been in his cabin had heard the order to fire the warning flare over the ships 1MC. Though missing the spectacle, John approved Captain Hollister's actions. Since 2001 the view of the world had changed and the innocent looking car, plane or even boat could spell disaster. Sammy had already prepared to issue the shoot-down order if required and would have given clearance had the Navy pilots seen anything suspicious. John suspected that the pilot would have some serious questions to answer from the FAA when he landed.
Leaving his cabin, he walked to the Combat Information Center and entered the brains of the ship itself. Immediately recognized he gave the carry on order and walked to the tactical officer position manned by Lieutenant Linda Carr. Approaching Lieutenant Carr he requested an update.
Lieutenant Carr turned to Admiral Long, "Currently on prescribed base course at a speed of 15 knots. We are well out of range of any civilian rotary winged aircraft; currently we have two F-35 Strike Fighters which are armed for air-to-air combat; loitering on station at 25,000 feet. The aircraft are being rotated out every two hours and will remain on station till night fall. Our escorts are on their prescribed stations and currently the surface picture is clear out to 175 miles with three surface contacts at that distance. All three skunks have been identified as friendly and belong to commercial concerns. Closest point of approach by all three will be at 80 miles or greater which has already occurred. All three are on general courses of Southwest, West South West and a North Easterly course.
No sub-surface platforms either friendly or non-friendly are operating in or near our transit area at this time sir." Thanking the Lieutenant, "Lt. Carr, is Captain Hollister on the bridge?" speaking briefly into her headset, "No sir, the bridge reports she is on the fantail, Shall I contact her to join you here sir?" as John turned to leave, "No that will not be necessary, I'll join her there. Thank you, Lieutenant that will be all."
Exiting CIC, John walked aft and downward to the port side main deck where he headed aft to the fantail. In the distance he could see a deck hydrant that had been fitted with a pipe patch training unit spewing water into the air. Approaching it on the run were Sakura Shinguji and Kohran Ri both determined to stop it. Stopping short of the fantail and unobserved Admiral Long took in the damage control training session in progress.
Seeing that the pipe patching test had been successful, just about as John prepared to continue; the Hull Technician in charge of the training changed out the unit for another just as bad off for another session. Turning the water on and with it spewing about, John watched as Iris and a member of the Dream Division raced to shut the water and patch it. Both young girls did a remarkable job and when the water pressure was returned, the minor leaks that did occur were perfectly acceptable.
Finally making his presence known, he walked across the fantail to Sammy who had been standing on the sidelines cheering the Rose and Dream Divisions on during their training, "Well Sammy enjoying yourself?" as John walked up to her.
Sammy turned to look at him, "Just how long have you been standing back there watching me make a fool of myself?" as she grinned. Trying to look innocent, "Not long enough, I should have stayed where I was at." as John looked on.
Seeing that things were in order, John turned to Sammy; "I would like to do a briefing over the ships CCTV system to all hands, can we set it up for 1700 hours. I want to get the word out before the President drops his bomb shell on Capital Hill tonight," as Sammy took in Lieutenant Altair and Tsubaki Takamura racing to spewing riser. Turning to John, "I have them setup immediately." Thanking Sammy, John departed headed back to the Flag Bridge to compose his thoughts.
Friday, January 29th, 2010 – USS Wisconsin BB-64 – 2000 hours –
John who was sitting in his cabin, watching the satellite news feeds of the breaking story from Washington D.C. turned to Captain Orkney whose expression remained neutral, "Well Frank, I suppose it was going to happen though I was not exactly expecting it in this fashion," as Frank leaned back in his chair. Turning to Commander Fujieda, "Kaede when I made the announcement on ship wide television how did our ladies react?"
Kaede put on the spot, "They knew that there could be some accusations brought up by the uninformed. But they have accepted their status." Some status, John thought ruefully. One unknowledgeable Senator from Ohio had already demanded that the Wisconsin be recalled to San Diego, citing that there was no need for such young women to be aboard the ship and going further to demand that the women who "displayed" special powers should be taken into custody for "further study." The Senator would pay for that statement later at the next election, when a little known opponent replayed those words again and again with pictures of what would become the famed Rose Combat Division, with jail bars placed over their photographs. The 26 year veteran of the Senate and a senior Republican found out the hard way when it came to leaking secrets when he lost his seat in the Senate.
John had directed that a DVD recording be made of his briefing and that it be light lined to the escort ships as soon as possible. He frankly did not want wild rumors starting up on any of the other ships. He reasoned that if they heard the truth from him directly, in all likelihood things would go much smoother. The DVD recording being played on the McCain, Hooper, and the Shiloh as he sat reflecting on his current problem would help out considerably.
Thinking about his next move John turned to Frank, "It may be in our best interests to do this Frank. Arrange to have the recording made of my briefing to the ships crew and our escort ships uploaded to the Pentagon. There are no further secrets that we are holding back and it may help us with public opinion and when we put a public face on the Rose and Dream Divisions with the crew of the Wisconsin behind them; there will be a lot of politicians at the next election cycle looking for jobs in the private sector," as Frank stood John stopped him, "Also make arrangements with Captain Hollister, to have the consorts to the both the Rose and Dream Division interviewed and stress that it is entirely voluntary. They have been with them individually and have come to know them in some instances better than I have. Let's try to get the interviews started so that we can upload to the Pentagon as soon as it can be done," as Frank stood by the door he cracked a smile, "Back to yourself I see it will be done immediately John." Minutes later the ships 1MC directed all former consorts to the Rose and Dream Division personnel to the mess decks on the double. John would later find out that the entire compliment of the Wisconsin had volunteered to be interviewed.
Saturday, January 30th, 2010 – USS Wisconsin BB-64 – 0800 hours –
With the morning staff briefing completed and the scheduled flight training for the Rose Combat Division to begin at 0900, John headed to the Flag Bridge. Joined there by Captain Orkney, who looked a lot worse for wear having come straight from the morning briefing; Frank still carrying the message traffic that had been sent to the Admiral regarding the Rose and Dream Divisions.
Turning to Frank, "Captain did you stay up late all night?" as Frank accepted his estimated 6th cup of coffee for the morning from Staff Sergeant Teresa Bloomberg, "Yes I have and so did a lot of the crew of the Wisconsin. Besides the consorts who were with them, the entire compliment of this ship wanted to tell their stories too," which certainly got the Admiral's attention.
Taking the message board from Frank, John reading the messages from the Shiloh, the Hooper and the McCain all said basically the same thing. Their crews were one hundred and fifty percent supportive of their "sisters." Andrea in the Hooper had added, "John, no matter what those idiots in Washington want or demand your decisions have been made with honesty and conviction. I look forward to meeting them all when I can, God bless."
"Bridge, Flag Bridge!" squawked the 21MC, John punched the transmit button, "Go ahead Bridge," as John replied, "Sir, we are setting flight quarters and launching Charlie-2 with followed by Rose Division at this time." Looking at his watch, showing 0845 hours; John acknowledge and gave his permission for immediate launch.
Commander Fujieda who had been on her way to the Flag Bridge had been stopped repeatedly by crew members of the Wisconsin going about their duties, each time the same message but told in a different fashion each time. The Rose and Dream Divisions were their sisters and no matter what they would stick with them. Kaede still amazed at the outpouring of support entered the Flag Bridge to find Admiral Long and Captain Orkney at his side with Staff Sergeant Bloomberg taking dictation for outbound message traffic.
Commander Fujieda apologized for not arriving on time but John had figured that the Rose Division Executive Officer would be sought out by the ships crew so he ignored tardiness, "Kaede it is all right, no harm no foul;" as he finished the dictation to Teresa.
Looking at Kaede, "Is everything a go?" as he stepped out to look towards the fantail. Kaede who followed, "Yes sir all systems on the Koubu and the Eisenkleid are fully functional and ready for all flight regimes."
Admiral Long watched as the SH-60 dubbed Charlie-2 cleared the deck and as it passed, acknowledged the salute of the co-pilot. In the distance the sounds of the jet packs spooling up on all ten of the Koubus and Eisenkleids, matched the thrill he got as they launched as one, matched by the deep throated roar of the Wisconsin's ship whistle as Captain Hollister herself had yanked on the handle.
The USS Hooper, racing eastward at 35 knots to take station astern of the Wisconsin; with signal lights flashing added to the noisy event with its own whistle roaring as well. A messenger from the signal bridge brought the message directly to the Admiral to read, "From Andrea in Hooper, You Go Girls! And the Guy Too!" smiling at the message John wrote his reply, "Thanks for the support Andrea and give my thanks as Commanding Officer of Task Group Rose to the crew of your ship, signed Admiral John Long," as he returned the message pad to the signalmen; he turned in time to see both Iris's and Leni's units scream by at mast level in perfect formation at nearly 400 knots.
As the day progressed, the touch and go landings were accomplished. The USS Hooper volunteered to be the first test subject for the Rose Division which did not bother the Admiral. It was not till later after all three escort ships had been involved in the touch and goes that John learned what had occurred on the Hooper followed by the McCain and finally the Shiloh
Commander Andrea London had on her prerogative as the Captain of the USS Hooper DDG-70, purchased and installed a small hothouse with her own money. Within the hothouse were her pride and joy, that which she had grown. The hothouse filled with Rose's of different varieties that she had collected during deployments was silent testament to skills of being a gardener and ships captain.
Inviting the Rose Combat Division to do touch and goes, Commander London would personally deliver a single red rose to each member of the Rose Combat Division after touch down along with a personal letter from her. Lieutenant Commander Oogami, who was the last one to do a touch and go on the USS Hooper, received two. Ichiro taken aback initially by the gift accepted after Andrea requested the he deliver a Rose to Admiral Long along with a letter. The letter which Oogami took back to the Wisconsin; contained the signatures of every crewman aboard her ship.
Saturday, January 30th, 2010 – USS Wisconsin BB-64 – 1500 hours –
Captain Sammy Hollister happy over the day's events went to meet with the ship's journalist, Petty Officer First Class Marla Simmons. Marla who had interviewed the consorts the previous night and throughout the morning was found within the state of the art television studio where she was doing the final editing. Having filmed the multiple launching of the Rose Combat Division earlier in the day, she turned to look at who was entering the compartment when the idea struck her for who should do the voice commentary for the interviews and the documentary.
Having not yet uploaded the Admiral's briefing to the Pentagon, Sammy had wanted to include the interviews as well, wanting to give the Admiral as much rebuttal ammunition that she possibly could.
Marla smiled at Sammy as she sat down next to her, "Captain, I have something that I would like you to do and you are perfect for it," as she handed Sammy a script that she had prepared. Sammy reading it, stopped. "Petty Officer Simmons are you out of you mind?" as she sat back in the chair.
Replying that she was not, she went into the details which included a DVD hardcopy of the Waltz's of the World performance recorded by Admiral Long at the Imperial Theater and given to her by Captain Orkney on the up and up. Picking up a nearby phone to call Commander Tyler to inform him that she would be indisposed for about an hour in CCTV, but was interrupted by Marla; "Better make it two hours Ma'm just in case we need to redo anything," correcting herself, Sammy advised Commander Tyler that it would be two hours and that any officer that wanted to eat ahead of her may do so. Hanging up the phone, Sammy was directed to a sound proof booth assured by Marla; who would in the event of an emergency immediately notify the Captain.
In his cabin reviewing the reports from the observers on the escort ships of the touch and go landings that had been carried out, Lieutenant Commander Oogami and Commander Fujieda requested to meet with him as did the remainder of the Rose Combat Division.
Expecting the inevitable visit, John pushed the reports to the side of his desk and directed Staff Sergeant Bloomberg to close the door and stay, "I am rather glad that we are getting this over with since it was bound to happen sooner or later as I had previously stated in the briefing to the crew of this ship." Ichiro approached and placed the Rose from Andrea and her crew's support letter on the desk and stepping away as he did so, "It is not about our status John, it is about all of these that were given to us by the other ships when we landed on them."
Observing that they each had envelopes in their hands and were carrying the hats given to them by the crews of the Hooper, McCain, and the Shiloh; John pushed back his chair and walked around to the front of his desk, "I see that everyone one of you got something. Consider it a gift from their hearts to yours. Even though the men and women on those ships are military, they too still have feelings." Turning to the television, which was turned off; John continued "That square box of electronics, sitting in the corner can deliver both entertainment and news to the viewer, who has to make a decision based on what he or she hears to form an opinion. The crews of those ships made those choices and with freedom to talk about it amongst themselves they have chosen to support you."
Interrupted by a knock on the door, John has Teresa see who it is. Captain Orkney briefly pokes his head in, "Sorry to interrupt, but I will be on the Bridge with Commander Tyler; Captain Hollister is indisposed for a while," waving at Iris as he leaves, John is unable to ask why Captain Hollister is "indisposed." Pondering what is going on now, John continues; "What ever happens here on out will be in the eyes of the public, what ever we do from now on out will be a press feeding frenzy. Those of you, who witnessed the news helicopters covering our departure from San Diego, have not seen anything yet."
Reaching for the letter from Andrea which he opened, John read the contents then laid it aside, "We obviously got support from our fellow shipmates on those other ships. I doubt any of those Captain's would follow any orders directing them to escort us back to San Diego or for that matter any other port and would willingly engage anyone attempting to carry out such orders."
As he looked to each one, "I am willing to sacrifice everything to keep all of you free and that is a promise I intend to keep. If you will excuse me, I need to find out what is going on with Captain Hollister," with that Admiral Long walked out and headed to the Bridge.
Entering the Bridge at just past 1600 hours, the Marine announced the Admirals presence and John spying Captain Orkney sitting in Hollister's bridge chair made a bee line to him. Frank who was enjoying the view turned the chair to greet the Admiral, "Well John, how did things go with the troops?" as the Admiral's eye looked on in puzzlement, "Ok Frank, what gives? Where is Sammy?" Commander Tyler chimed in, "Admiral she is in CCTV reading a script sir," as the Executive Officer suddenly remembered he had urgent business on the port bridge wing. Turning to Frank, "What script; Captain?"
Listening in astonishment to Captain Orkney, Admiral Long did not wait for him to complete his explanation. Frank called out to the Officer of the Deck to call CCTV and give them a heads up on the Admiral and to notify Staff Sergeant Bloomberg and Commander Fujieda that the Admiral just blew his safeties.
It is a very rare sight in the Navy on any ship that crew members get to see a three star Admiral sprinting through the passageways. John, who tried going through an armored water tight door opening at a dead run, only to painfully bang his shins on the combing in the process; continued the sprint from opening to opening.
Trying to take a short cut through the ships office's passageway, he ended up being slowed down by Tsubaki, who's view was obstructed by a pile of personnel folders that she was carrying; so John without so much as an apology physically picks her up and sets her down on a nearby power transformer and continues on nearly bowling over Yuri who had come out to see what the commotion was about.
Captain Hollister, just having set down the head phones that she had worn while reading the script, sees Admiral Long entering CCTV rather agitated but oddly very silently. Remembering that the booth is indeed sound proof; Sammy opens the door and gets an earful, "Sammy! Just what in the hell are you doing? What the hell is this script I keep hearing about?" as John passes Marla. Behind Marla, the door opens again, this time Staff Sergeant Bloomberg and Commander Fujieda who hurry in to grab the Admiral.
Both grabbed him by his shoulders to restrain, Staff Sergeant Bloomberg aware of John's abilities prepares to defend herself and Commander Kaede from any attack, finally breathes a sigh of relief after John settles down.
Still a bit ticked off John is guided to a nearby chair by Kaede and rubbing his shin that he banged on the armored knee knocker, John turns to Sammy; "Ok just what the heck are you planning?" as his eyes focus on her. Sammy taking a nearby chair gives a nod to Marla who punched several buttons, "A Documentary of both the Rose and Dream Divisions, John. That is what I have been doing. I provided the voice for the narration." Turning to Marla who she introduces to John, "She is a Navy Journalist. A professional in her own right, she and her fellows have spent nearly 15 hours interviewing, video tapping and transcribing to put together a story about the origins of the Rose and Dream Divisions. At my direction they have included what transpired in 1927 to the events on this ship at this moment, though we will leave out the bit about you blowing your safeties over this."
Looking back and forth between Sammy and Marla, "Ok, just how much is going into the documentary?" as Marla looks at the total time, she replies "The Documentary is precisely two hours long and includes footage from the final performance of the Imperial Flower Operatic Troupe, better known as the Imperial Flower Combat Troop. I have also cleaned up the entire footage of the performance and in beautiful surround sound it comes out rather nicely." Smiling as Marla continues, "Recording it on the digital media was a brilliant idea, because it made it so easy to enhance the individual performers including your dance routine sir; though I would like to know how you captured the sound clarity so well?" Looking at Marla, "You really do not want to know and certain individuals would not be pleased to learn how or for what purpose I utilized their equipment."
John turned to Sammy, "Ok what about the interviews?" as John looked at her, Sammy replied, "All have been completed and we will be including the letters that came from the crews of the USS Hooper, USS Shiloh and USS McCain as a sort of voices from the fleet, the letters have been read by various volunteers here on the Wisconsin."
Looking at Marla, "Is everything done?" as Sammy eyed the DVD burners. Pausing to check the readouts, "Yes Ma'm all completed. Shall I burn additional copies for the escort ships as well?" Sammy nodding stood up. "John, I have seen part of the two hour video that was made at the Imperial Theater with you dancing, and I can say that I am impressed. We are sending that out too, both by uplink and when we get to Pearl Harbor so take credit where you can. You deserve a lot of it."
John finally standing and apologizing for what he had done, ordered Sammy to give the ship full holiday routine for Sunday and convey that to the rest of the ships as well. When John asked who had requested the video from the Imperial Theater, Sammy smiled; "None other than General Allen Gleason, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," as she walked out the door. John quipped as he left, "Oh great now I am sunk, Allen is going to have a field day with it."
Marla who chuckled at that comment, loaded a fresh set of blank DVD's and started another burn run.