Ch 9. Exit patrol boats
Two months later
Maxine
"Let's have some quiet please!", Commander Maxine White shouted in the command room.
The discussion stopped.
"I accept your discontent, but discuss it in the mess and keep your professionalism in the command room, will you?", she announced.
A murmured 'yes ma'am' was heard.
Displeased as well she stepped to her office. She walked in, closed the door and sat down. She opened the file with the hated note from the Minister of Defence and started reading it once again.
It lasts already for two months and it's not getting better from week to week.
Can I help it if the government has decided to stop Navy surveillance of our coast line?
Can I help it if that task has been shifted to the coast guard?
Can I help it if they have their own staff and that the Navy doesn't have enough open seats for the patrol boats people and their maintenance services?
Can I help it if the majority is going to be fired? The first crews are already gone!
No! I can't help it, but everyone is blaming me because I'm the commanding officer.
I'm fed up of hearing these grunts and lamentations. And every time you must stay polite. More and more I feel the urge to shout at them 'Can I help it? Go see the minister and complain to him!', but you can't do that. You're their CO and they expect an acceptable answer from you. But there isn't! I can't imagine logical and acceptable answers because they are not! These stupid assholes of the Ministry of Defence found out all of a sudden that the control of our coast line doesn't belong to our core business anymore. Bye-bye sailors. A golden handshake and get lost!
Some people have escaped.
Me.
Because I'm commanding this department and the other ships are also under my command.
Thanks to that and with a little help from Sydney and Canberra I was able to safe the skin of some others as well.
My son Ryan. He has a transfer to one of the hydrographic vessels.
His girlfriend Jessica Bird too. I'll enroll her in a training session and then she can probably become petty officer in a couple of years.
Petty Officer Mulholland survived too. The brass explicitly asked for him, they really need people with real combat experience like him. It couldn't go faster than fast for them because I had his transfer here!
She smiled.
And Mike! That wasn't an easy task. But his famous reputation made it easier. This is for sure the only highlight of this stupid case. He stays in the Navy and close to me, and far from that blonde young woman. The brass asked me if there were more valuable forces to fill the rare open seats. She's good, one of the best, but I'm not going to put them back together. Thus I didn't put her name on the list. Bye-bye Kate, go as far as you can because he's mine!
She looked at the schedule board.
Hmm the Hammersley is finishing its last patrol. Tomorrow they will be back here.
She sighed.
My last boat! The press will be there too. I've mixed feelings about that. Normally I hate these people because they don't always bring the right version of the facts.
Now I hope the crew give a raw expression about their feeling so that Australia knows what kind of idiots there are in the government.
She closed the file with a slap.
"Coffee!", she mumbled as she stood up.
The next day.
Hammersley
Mike looked around at the bridge as the Hammersley headed to Cairns for the last time. He had never felt as bad as now.
You could have cut with a knife the mood of sadness that reigned on board. No more jokes, no more banter, just the bare essentials. Even worse, there had been more quarrels then before.
I keep my job. I should be happy, but I'm not when I see the faces of my colleagues around me. All excellent sailors and they must leave. Moreover I'm going to miss the Hammersley, a good ship.
He looked at Kate and wanted to tell her thousands of things but it just didn't work.
Where to start? Every time I asked how her eyes were, she was stuck saying she was fine. She seems to be suffering from an eye infection because her eyes were puffy and red since these last weeks. Other than that she was extremely quiet. Moreover she looks paler than usual.
He thought back to their brief interaction this morning in the command room.
That morning.
Kate bent over the map of Cairns coast , she was looking at the passages through the reefs until the map becomes blurry in her eyes.
With a sniff she made two steps towards the tissue box to grab one and dry her eyes.
She sighed.
I feel so deeply sad that I can cry wherever I am. When I was looking at the map for our last approach I started again. I just can't help it. I feel that I'm much more emotional than before. No wonder, a pregnancy makes a mess of your emotions. And icing on the cake, I can look for another job from tomorrow. My brain, my emotions, my hormones, it's one bloody, bloody mess.
She blinked to chase a few tears.
She slid her hand over her belly and smiled.
Mike's.
Although he doesn't know yet.
My stupid fault.
Because of my dislike for any pills I'm in this state now.
When the news of our resignation was known we both tried to comfort one evening at his house. A drink, good food, the heardstone, another drink, our mood, our feelings for each other, all the ingredients for a good cocktail of love that night in bed. He didn't use a protection, probably thinking that I did.
It wasn't.
Now we're two.
I don't know how to tell him.
I don't know how he will react.
What if he gets angry? What if he doesn't want the baby, …or me? He has never said that he loved me. Yes, it's a pretty easy sentence. Three words, I… love…you. Nothing more nothing less. But no, for Mister Flynn it's seemingly too difficult.
I comforted myself in the silence that lets me hope for a positive reaction.
But sooner or later I have to tell him.
Today!
Tomorrow I'm out of the Navy.
He not.
What a stupid situation! Now that I'm expecting our child I'm out of work. Who's going to employ a pregnant woman nowadays?
Damn, it's crap!
Huh? Who's entering?
Phew, it's Mike.
He saw Kate turn to him and noticed her red puffy eyes.
"Hey X, Do you feel good? Your eyes, what's going on?", he asked.
"Sir, I'm fine", she answered faintly.
"Yes? They're red and puffy since a few days. Have you already asked Swain to look at it?", he asked pointing to her eyes.
Kate gave him a faint smile.
I cried my eyes out! Can't you really see that? Typically Mike.
"A little irritation I think. Maybe too much salt water?", she replied.
"See Swain, he has for sure something for it", he said with a small nod.
Kate nodded. "Will do", she murmured.
Does he have also something for loneliness or a broken heart?
"Do you have the course for the base?", he asked her.
She gave him a sad look, "the last home run", she said faintly.
He threw her a quick glance but didn't elaborate on it.
Kate smiled wryly.
I didn't expect anything else!
"What… what now?", she asked him.
He looked in her deep green eyes that demanded much more than these two words.
"We discussed this before and then I've said that I don't know. The situation hasn't changed much, no?", he replied.
He had the impression that her eyes had lost their brightness.
Kate winced and looked at the map without answering.
He raised his eyebrows and grabbed the files for which he had entered and left.
Kate stared at the map and remembered a conversation they'd had during their last shore leave.
Both stood in his house gazing at the garden waiting for the spaghetti to be ready.
"Mike, I think we have to see the positive side of this situation. You remain on duty and I'll be on shore. What could prevent us from deepening our relationship?", she asked wrapping her arm around his waist.
Perhaps it's time to tell him that I'm pregnant?
He turned and kissed her forehead.
"Katie, is it not a bit rushed? I want it too, you know, but there are too many unknown parameters. We are going to complicate things if we start building a relationship now".
Kate recoiled as is she had been hit by something hard.
"You say no?"
"No, I just say that it's too quick."
"For God's sake Mike, we're skirting around already for four years and all we got was a few cosy evenings, a long weekend in Sydney and a few bed moments. And now you ask me to wait again? Until when? Keep in mind that I'm getting older and that it becomes more and more difficult to have kids huh".
"Kids?!"
"Yeah, kids. You sound surprised. Isn't that an aim for every couple? To have a kid?", she asked trying to hide her emotions.
"Hmm, yes, but are you not going a bit too fast now? All of a sudden we're in the middle of the most unexpected situation of our career. They are going to abandon the patrol boats services. We do not all know what we'll do next. Should I stay here? Where will you find a job? Our relationship must restart again and now you're already looking forward to have kids. It's a way too fast Kate", he replied.
"Uh-hu", she mumbled as she walked slowly to the living room. There she squeezed her eyes with her fingers to prevent tears from flowing.
"Let's wait for a month or two, then we'll know more. Ok?", he said.
Kate shrugged.
"Ok, food's ready!", he announced.
They sat down and ate the spaghetti but for Kate, it did not have anymore taste.
To be continued