They say people tend to remember traumatic events with perfect clarity as a defense mechanism. That by remembering something so horrific in excruciating detail, you'll know what not to do next time. I don't know how remembering exactly how the sound and sight of Form 1144-I being slid into the "Outgoing" box is going to help avoid tragedy in the future, but apparently, my brain thinks it's important.

No sooner than I filed that report, the door burst open and a panting Sumner rushed in. "Urgent message from Patrol Group Thirty-Eight!"

As I slowly got up from my chair, I tried to remember who was in that particular patrol. And then I remembered and cried out, "Intrepid!" I dashed out the door, pausing just long enough to point at Essex and order, "Get the rescue teams mobilized on the double!" I didn't even wait for her to acknowledge me before I took off at breakneck speed, hoping against hope that the nightmare was becoming a reality.

When I burst into the CIC, I was greeted by the pulsing red icon that indicated a patrol group in distress. Other dots, still a bright blue, were already heading towards them, ready to lend a hand if needed. With a trembling hand, I grabbed the radio receiver and thumbed the transmit button.

"Azur Lane Actual to Patrol Group Three-Eight, requesting a sitrep." I screwed my eyes shut as I prayed to hear Intrepid's voice on the other line. They went unanswered.

"Patrol Group Three-Eight here," Bunker Hill's cool voice replied and my heart dropped like a stone. "Ran into a Siren ambush, we fought them off but we took casualties. Requesting rescue team on arrival."

I took a deep breath and tried to keep my voice steady. "Already done, Three-Eight." I didn't want to ask the follow-up question. I already knew what it was going to be and I wasn't sure I could stand to hear the answer spoken aloud. But I had to know… "Who's hit?"

The time between my question and her answer stretched out into an agonizing eternity. "Eleven, sir." Keeping with operational security, Bunker Hill used Intrepid's hull number to identify her. "The rest of us have taken minor damage, but we're still fit to fight."

Every fiber of my being wanted to break protocol and ask how she was doing, but I knew asking, even on an encrypted channel, could put all of them at risk. "Understood. Get back here as fast as you can, Three-Eight. Out."

I tossed the radio receiver onto the holotable and turned to head down to the docks when the door swung open and Bremerton walked in. As soon as she saw my face, she immediately knew what happened.

"It's her, isn't it?" she asked, her voice a choked whisper as the color drained from her face. I nodded numbly.

"They're bringing her back in," I said as I moved to rush past her. "I'm headed down to the pier now to be there when she arrives."

Bremerton, however, moved to block me. "Not like that, you're not," she warned as she placed her hand gently, but firmly on my chest. "You can't go out there looking like you're about to fall apart."

My anxiety began shifting to anger as she stopped me. Just who the hell did she think she was? "She's going to need me!" I nearly shouted, trying to keep my anger in check.

"She's not the only one," she coolly replied. "You can't let the base see you're falling to pieces over this. I know how much she means to you, but you've got to keep it together."

And then I said what might have been the worst thing to say in this situation, especially to her. "You don't understand! She's-"

"Don't." Bremerton very quickly and very sharply cut me off, and I knew immediately I'd gone too far. "Don't ever tell me I don't understand. She's been my friend a hell of a lot longer than you've even known her so don't begin to tell me I don't know what it's like!"

Her words left me reeling and I took an involuntary half step back. It had been a verbal slap in the face that I'd sorely needed to get my head straight, and to be honest, much more effective than an actual slap in the face. I looked down at her and saw her pink eyes beginning to well up with tears, and I realized just what a jerk I'd been. "God, Brem," I started, feeling the shame wash over me. "I didn't think. I'm…I'm sorry."

She sniffled as she tried to dry her eyes. "Damn right you didn't," she muttered. "But you need to. This is gonna…" her voice wavered, cracked and she took a shuddering breath before she spoke again. "This is gonna be hard enough on everyone without watching you fall apart, too. If you wanna come to my office afterward, or I'll go to your office, or wherever private and let you vent, that's fine. But they can't see you crack up."

My jaw worked up and down as I tried to find the right words to say, and when I came up short, I simply grabbed her and pulled her into a comforting hug. Bremerton didn't hug back at first, then slowly wrapped her arms around me as we leaned against one another.

"I, uh, I know I'm not the best at words," I began after I finally found my voice, "but like I said, I'm sorry. I think…I think we can lean on each other, though, to get us through this. Assuming you can forgive me."

"Heh," she scoffed as she pulled away, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy. "I dunno, you were a bit of a jerkass back there…" For a second, I thought she was serious, but then I caught the shaky grin that had begun to cross her face.

I let out a huge sigh of relief as I nodded. "I don't know what got into me back there. I had a nightmare last night, and I woke up with this horrible feeling of dread that something happened to Intrepid, and now that it has, I just…"

Bremerton gave me an quizzical look. "Nightmare? What nightmare?" Whether she knew I was going to object or she came to the same realization, in any case, she shook her head and said, "Later. Right now, we've got to get down to the docks."

I took a deep breath, buried my worries as best I could, and followed her out the door.


We hurried down to the docks as quickly as we could without sprinting, and by the time we got there, a crowd had already formed just as Bunker Hill pulled up to the dock. I could see Vestal's ambulance and a manjuu emergency repair crew had arrived which is probably what drew the crowd in the first place.

As we approached, some of the shipgirls saw us coming and cleared us a path to the front where Vestal was anxiously waiting. When she turned around and saw me, she rushed over to my side.

"How bad is it?" she quietly asked, making sure her voice didn't carry to the throng behind us.

"I don't know exactly," I answered, keeping my voice low. "All I know is that it's Intrepid and she's unconscious. We couldn't discuss more over an open channel."

Her eyes flicked to the gangplank as it was lowered. "Guess I'll find out here in a second."

I followed her gaze and saw Intrepid's patrol bearing her down the ramp on a litter modified to carry both her and her rigging. Or what was left of it. Gasps and murmurs rippled through the assembled kansen as they saw just how badly she had been damaged. Her rigging was blackened and still smoldering, and the flight deck had huge rents torn into it. Intrepid herself lay motionless on the stretcher, her body bruised and battered from whatever had happened to her.

For a second I couldn't move. I just stood there in mute horror as they carried her down the gangplank, desperately this was all part of that same terrible nightmare. And then Vestal leaped into action and the spell was broken.

I rushed to her side as they laid the basket stretcher onto the dock, but did my best to stay out of Vestal's way. I watched, my heart in my throat, as she worked, checking Intrepid for any vital signs. When she didn't make any immediate declarations, I quietly asked, "How's she doing?"

Vestal didn't look up as she answered, still working on unsummoning Intrepid's rigging. "Hard to say. I'll need to get a good look at her rigging once I've got it off her, but…right now, I think she'll make it. Just need to…there!"

Intrepid's flight deck vanished in a flash of light, rematerializing as the full ship on the opposite side of the pier. I spared a glance at the ship and winced. The ship was blackened by soot almost entirely from stem to stern, but her superstructure seemed intact and there was no sign that she was currently taking on water. Intrepid's buoyancy kept my own hopes afloat that she would pull through this okay.

On her stretcher, the carrier let out a soft moan as she began to stir. My head whipped back around to see if she was starting to wake up, but her eyes didn't open and she didn't respond to Vestal's gentle yet insistent prodding. "We'll need to get her back to the hospital to do a thorough examination. Help me move her to the gurney."

Immediately, I knelt down, along with Bremerton, Vestal, and Bunker Hill, and we gingerly lifted her from the stretcher basket and laid her down onto the gurney. Intrepid moaned softly again and I placed my hand on her forehead, hoping she would recognize my touch.

"Sir, I need to get moving," Vestal stated as she finished buckling in Intrepid's unconscious form.

I nodded and took a step back, gesturing to Bremerton. "Go with her, and if anything changes, let me know immediately."

Bremerton's eyes met mine, and as we saw the pain and anguish in one another, we also saw the grim resolve lurking there as well. She nodded once and rushed off after Vestal. I watched them go for a few seconds before I turned around and looked at the remaining patrol. "Alright, you know how this goes. Follow me to the CIC for debrief."


"What happened?"

The destroyers looked nervously at the others, waiting for someone else to speak up. They didn't have to wait long, however, before Bunker Hill took the lead.

"Siren ambush," she stated. "They surrounded us with mass-produced ships. Intrepid led the charge to punch a hole in the ring and escape before they had us completely boxed in."

Smart move, but I didn't want to betray any emotion just yet. I had to be impassive in this. I needed the facts, and I would draw my own conclusions afterward. "What was her plan of attack?"

"She wanted us to take on the toughest fleet," Independence chimed in.

I fought the urge to raise an eyebrow in her direction. "She wanted you to punch your way out through the toughest part of the trap?"

"Yes, sir," she confirmed. "The fleet was the only one with a carrier, so she determined that no matter which fleet we fought, we'd have to fight the carrier's aircraft. As a result, the carrier had to go."

Very smart move. "I see. Go on."

Independence took a deep breath, nodded, and continued. "She had Bunker Hill and Potter run rearguard interference while we punched a hole in the enemy fleet. It was a tough fight, but we managed to take out the entire fleet."

At this point, it sounded like Intrepid just saved her entire patrol, and I was beginning to wonder how she managed to get herself injured this gravely. "And then what?"

The mood among the group took a sudden turn. The destroyers suddenly averted their gaze, Biloxi gave me an empathetic, helpless look, and even Bunker Hill and Independence looked uncomfortable.

"That carrier must've sent a mess of fighters our way as some sort of…last ditch revenge," the cruiser picked up where Independence left off. "Because one minute I'm tanglin' with destroyers and the next I've got bogeys all over my radar. We did what we could, but…about a dozen of 'em got through and just…slammed right into Intrepid. She made it through the first eleven alright, but that last one…" She slowly shook her head. "I'm dreadfully sorry, Commander. If it's any consolation, taking out that fleet seemed to break their spirit. The rest gave up and ran like rabbits once it went under."

I gave the girls a soft, sad smile and shook my head. "Sounds like it was nothing you could've done. You were in a difficult situation, but you managed to fight your way out of it and bring home an injured shipmate. Go ahead and send your combat data to Enterprise and she'll forward it on to me. Following a review of the data, I'll be recommending you all for a commendation, at minimum. In the meantime, get some rest. Dismissed."

I waited for them all to file out before letting out a long sigh and running my hand over my face. It wasn't even noon and I felt completely drained. On the one hand, it seemed Intrepid acquitted herself bravely and got her fleet out of a bad situation. On the other, she bore the brunt of the attack and I had no idea when she'd be back on her feet again.

As silly as it sounded, part of me felt like this was my fault as if the nightmare had been a warning that I'd let slip by unheeded, and now Intrepid was paying the price for my folly. I needed to see her, and soon.

In a moment of impeccable timing, Essex knocked on the door before she poked her head in. "All done, Commander?"

I nodded and waved for her to come in. "Yeah, they just left. Think you can hold down the fort for a bit? I'm going to go check on Intrepid."

She gave me a reassuring smile. "No problem, sir. Tell her we all said hi."

"Will do," I gave her a thin smile as I headed out and hoped she would be awake by the time I got there.


That hope was dashed when I got to the lobby and saw Bremerton pacing anxiously, her phone forgotten in her hand. She glanced up, saw me, and gave a half-hearted wave. "Hey, Commander. She's still out."

"Thanks, Brem," I replied with a half-hearted smile. "Any word on repairs?"

She shook her head and sighed. "Just that they've got a team working on it right now. Aside from that, Vestal thinks she'll pull through okay, but she doesn't want to make an official prognosis just yet." The cruiser looked around before asking, "What the hell happened?"

"Siren ambush. They managed to break out of it, but Intrepid got hit with a whole squadron of kamikaze fighters right at the end."

Bremerton grimaced and shook her head. "Dammit…"

"I haven't gone over the data yet, but by all accounts, she did a damn good job out there." I knew that wasn't much consolation, but I was trying to take what I could get.

"Yeah…" she absentmindedly agree as she began pacing around the lobby again. "Dammit! I really wish I'd been out there with her!"

"You and me both," I said with a rueful grin. "Maybe we could've saved her, maybe not, but at least we could've done something about it."

"Damn straight we could've done something!" The pink-haired kansen looked around the room as if she were going to take out her frustrations on something before she visibly deflated and collapsed into a chair. "Hindsight's always twenty-twenty, I guess," she sighed, then paused as she remembered something. "Oh yeah, didn't you mention something about a nightmare?"

That jogged my memory and I nodded emphatically. "Yeah, yeah, I did. Had that dream where I'm floating in the void, headed towards that star, only this time it flickers, then goes out, leaving me in the darkness once more."

Bremerton's eyes widened as it fell into place. "I can see how you'd be freaked out about that," she commented before she gave me a stern look. "Why didn't you come to talk to me this morning?"

"You were in training," I replied, a bit more defensively than I liked. "And when I got into the office, I had Essex check on her patrol, nothing unusual, no distress calls so I just chalked it up as a bad dream."

Bremerton nodded slowly. "Ah. And when you got the distress call…"

"That came flooding back," I finished. "And I just...I lost it."

"Hey," she said, her voice soft as she patted the empty seat next to her. "You've been under a lot of stress lately, and it seems like Intrepid's been helping you deal with that stress. It's natural to worry about losing a major support mechanism like that, especially for someone in your position." For the first time that day, a genuine smile crossed her face. "By the way, you never did tell me how the date went."

I sat down in the chair next to her with a sigh and tried to get as comfortable as possible. "It went really well, if I'm being honest. Fantastic, even. She looked beautiful, and the work she put into recreating the Cafe was…it was mind-blowing. I honestly have no idea how to top it."

"Moon date?" Bremerton playfully suggested.

"Essex already shot that one down," I grinned.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Ah, well. I'm sure you'll think of something."

I peered over at her. "I know that tone. That's your 'You know the answer but don't know you know so I'm going to let you figure it out for yourself' tone."

She looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. "That's an oddly specific tone," she smirked.

"Not hearing a denial."

Her laugh echoed through the lobby as she shook her head. "Not wrong there," she said.

Just as I was about to say something undoubtedly witty, the doors slid open and Vestal strode out, chart in hand. She looked between the two of us and announced, "Intrepid's awake, but before you can see her, I'd like a word with you, Commander." When I hesitated and looked between her and Bremerton, the repair kansen added, "Nothing serious, just about her condition."

"Mind if Bremerton comes along?"

She smiled warmly and shook her head. "If it's alright with you."

I held out my hand to help Bremerton up onto her feet before ushering her ahead. "Lead on, then."

A/N-Well that got a little…tense. Hopefully this doesn't derail anything for the Commander. Until next week, fair winds and following seas!