Chapter 30: Kongou, Goshdangit...

Being full was an altogether strange experience for the fast battleship New Jersey. It wasn't that she was a glutton. She'd eaten her fill before, even if she hadn't quite stuffed herself to bursting like she did during her breakfast with Kongou. But… the very experience of digesting felt bizarre. She could feel hundreds of eggs, mountains of pancakes and at least two pigs worth of bacon sitting contentedly in her belly—even if her waistline hadn't grown an inch.

But she could also feel her faeries scuttling around her hull. She felt minuscule sailors topping off her tanks with fuel oil. She felt her magazines fill up as diminutive gunners mates' hoisted armory-fresh shells though anti-flash bulkheads. And weirdest of all, she could feel her faerie cooks loading canned fruits and meats by the ton. She hadn't eatenthat much… had she?

Before she had too much time to contemplate, Kongou confronted her with an even stranger experience.

"We're going~" giggled the bouncing fast battleship, her dreamy smile growing warmer and wider with each skipping step. "To see~" She giggled. And then she exploded into a sprint, her feet slamming against the concrete as she ran. Her arms were thrown out behind her, her billowing sleeves snapping taut from her headwind as she plowed though the naval base like a destroyer on crack.

"TEI!" Kongou strung the word out into a yearning deceleration of love. Her bouncy voice boomed with all the power of her fourteen inch rifles.

Jersey blinked. She was faster than Kongou. Hell, she was almost faster than her with only four boilers hot. She could afford to take one last bite of her toast before taking off after Kongou.

"TO!"

Jersey brushed a few errant crumbs off her shirt. If her Admiral was going to stare at her chest, he wouldn't do it because she'd left a mess! Jersey blinked. She had no idea where that thought came from. Oh well, more pressing matters…

She dug her feet into the concrete, exploding into a powerful trot. She wasn't quite sprinting, not yet. But the thirty-five knot American was quickly gaining on her twenty-nine knot counterpart. She was mere feet behind when Kongou skidded to a stop in font of the Admiral's office.

"KU!" Kongou flung open the door to Goto's office, her face glowing in a smile it forced her eyes closed. "BURNING LOVE!" she bellowed and… and…

Jersey blinked. She wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it herself… Kongou lept up into a ball and pounced into the office, her arms flung wide in some kind of flying-tackle hug.

Admiral Goto must've seen this before. His face didn't quiver from professional stone-faced calm. Without even a hint of panicked haste, he set his pen down on his desk and casually rolled his chair a foot to the right.

The Kongou-class spinning-hug-ball sailed cleanly past him. "Teitoku~" Kongou smiled, curling herself around… around a light cruiser who was resingedly accepting the kisses Kongou lavished on her.

"Teitoku, chu~ chu~ cu- oh!" Kongou blinked, looking at the girl she'd wrapped herself around. "Ooyodo?"

The cruiser let out a sigh, "I am, Ooyodo, yes." She glanced up at Kongou with a bemused look plastered over her face. "We've been over this."

Kongou just smiled as she unfolded herself from her hug.

Jersey would've laughed if it wasn't so patently absurd.

"I guess you win the bet." The chuckling, but still instantly-recognizable sound of Admiral Williams—of Jersey's Admiral—issued from a flat-screen television mounted in one corner of the room.

Jersey snapped to faster than she'd ever done in her life. "Sir."

Williams smiled, returning the salute with one of his own, "Good morning, Jersey. How're you feeling?"

Jersey beamed, her chest puffing up with pride. "Good…" she stopped, mentally calculating the time difference, "Evening, sir. I'm feeling better. One-hundred percent combat ready."

"What about White Plains?" asked Goto, his hands thrust lazily into his pockets as his eyes bounced from Kongou to Jersey and back again. "I've looked at the report from her faries, but…" he carefully handed Jersey a manila folder the size of a postage stamp.

"Oh," Jersey carefully opened the folder with her fingernail. Inside were several pages of typed notes, tiny annotated pictures, and even more typed pages. Except the only word was "hey" written over and over again. "Yeah, I can see how that'd cause a problem." She carefully closed the folder again and handed it back to Goto.

"White took a hell of a beating getting out here," said Jersey, "Her boilers were shot, and she needed an engine rebuild, and there was some minor hull damage around her shafts. But, uh… she's feeling a lot better now, she's mostly just sleepy."

"So fast?" Said Williams, "The SDF's carriers to take weeks to repair."

"That's because Jap DC suuuuuuucks," said Jersey, elongating the last word by several seconds to make sure the full weight of her unmitigated disdain was felt by all. Including… hew new Japanese friend. And the Japanese Admiral. Craaaaaaap.

Jersey heard herself gulp. "I mean, uh… not you Japs, them Japs," she waved in the general direction of the past. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?" said the battleship with a sigh. Damn decaf.

"Dess!" said Kongou with a beaming smile.

"She's right though," said Goto, rubbing at his temples with a sigh. "Japan made many mistakes during the war." He pursed his lips, his gaze going hazy as something started to form in his head. He was pulling a plan together, Jersey could smell it. "Jersey?"

"Sir?"

"How long until White Plains' is seaworthy?"

"Uh… if you give her a mission, she's not going to say no," said Jersey with a hint of a proud smile. "But you really shouldn't put her into combat. Not when she's still so sleepy. Why?"

"She's an Anti-submarine-warfare carrier, yes?"

Jersey nodded.

"A discipline the Imperial Japanese Navy…" he smiled, "Sucked at. Could I borrow her for a while, have her teach our girls until she heals up?"

"Yeah, of course," said Jersey, rolling a kink out of her neck as she spoke. "I think she'd love to heelll-" she the bemused portrait of her Admiral slid into her view-"llllp. Help. And you weren't asking me, you were asking my Admiral, weren't you?"

Both men, plus Kongou, offered a simple nod.

"I'm…" Jersey scowled. Goddamn Decaf. So now she knew what the sub skippers felt when all they had were those crappy-ass Mark fourteens. "I'm gonna stop talking now."

Kongou flashed an even wider smile.

Williams let out a tiny chuckle. "That may be for the best, Commander. But I agree with you. Let's put her skills to good use."

"In the mean time," said Goto, "We're still trying to figure out what happened to you girls off Alaska. I've dispatched Iku on a reconnaissance mission, but she won't even be in position for another two days."

"You girls will be part of the counter-attack force," said Williams, "Which means you'll need to sit tight until we can get a strike planned."

"We've assigned you all temporary quarters," said Goto. "We should have a plan for you by week's end. Until then, you're free to enjoy some well-earned shore-leave."

"Thank you, sirs," said Jersey, snapping her hand to her brow in salute.

"As you were, Jersey. Williams out."