CHAPTER FOURTEEN: NORFOLK
Naval Station Norfolk had clearly taken a pounding, but they found a clear pier and managed to navigate the ship in. "Who could have done this?" Slattery murmured to the Captain as they stood on the bridge, watching the ship pull in to Pier 3. Several nearby buildings had burned to the ground.
"I don't know," Tom replied in kind. "Maybe it was part of Amy Granderson's plan to keep us moving north to Baltimore." They'd never planned to stop at Norfolk back in October; their destination had been the Washington Navy Yard, up the Potomac River. However, once they'd found that the lab at Fort Detrick had burned down, they'd needed a plan B. If they'd gone to Norfolk, finding the naval station in shambles would helped to convince them to bring the ship up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore.
"Do you really think Granderson had the firepower to damage a Navy base like this?" Mike skeptically wondered. With all the ships in the harbor, they should have been more than capable of fighting back.
Tom sighed as he looked out at the bodies scattered around on the ground and in the water; those sailors hadn't burned to death. Fires had been the second thing to ravage the base. "I'm not sure it was much of a challenge since everyone was already dead from the virus." This didn't bode well for finding surviving family members in the area.
Mike grimaced as the other man's words sank in. "As soon as the lines are tied, we've got teams ready to start searching the base and shipyard for supplies and parts."
Tom glanced out the window at the setting sun. "It's going to be dark pretty soon," he pointed out. Norfolk Naval Shipyard was at least 15 minutes away by RHIB.
"Well, we'll make the most of whatever daylight we've got left," Mike replied, undaunted.
Tom knew what was going on. The faster they got everything they needed, the faster everyone could set out on their secondary missions. He wondered briefly if his XO was pushing the crew or just following their lead. Either way, they'd come too far and been through too much to start getting sloppy now. "I'm not putting our people at risk unnecessarily. Stick to the base for tonight, and the teams can head for the shipyard at first light."
Mike bit his lip, forcing himself to keep from saying something he'd regret. "Aye, Sir," was all he finally responded.
That night, Tom and Rachel made another attempt at spending some downtime together in his quarters. They talked about the children, the ship, and the missions the crew was about to undertake. Being in port again and letting the crew venture into the unknown had the Captain feeling nervous, but he was grateful to be able to share his concerns. It was a new concept for him; on previous deployments, he'd always tried not to worry his wife with the details. By the time he could share things with her, they were usually long over.
At one point, Tom realized that Rachel had fallen asleep on his shoulder. She hadn't gotten much rest recently, and he was glad that she felt comfortable enough to let her guard down.
He gently laid her out more comfortably on his bed and pulled up the blanket before settling on the edge of the bed beside her. She was absolutely beautiful in his eyes, calm and still.
I could get used to this, he thought to himself with a smile.
In the middle of the night, Tom woke up to the sound of whimpers. Rachel's sleep was no longer peaceful; her features were painted with distress and she seemed to be fighting an invisible foe. "Rach, wake up," he said as he shook her shoulder. "You're okay; it's just a dream."
A moment later, his reflexes were put to the test as her fist shot out. Tom just barely caught her wrist before he got hit in the face.
"You're okay!" he repeated. "It's just me! You're safe."
Rachel's eyes suddenly flew open, and she went absolutely still. "Tom?" she whispered.
"Yeah, I'm right here. Everything's fine." He waited as her breathing slowed, but she didn't say anything else. "Where were you?" he softly wondered.
"It was nothing."
"That's not what I asked." Rachel didn't respond. "Baltimore?" he took a guess.
Her lips pressed together in a thin line. It seemed to dawn on her at that moment where she was and she started to sit up. "I should get back to the lab," she told him. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."
Tom caught her arm. "I thought you weren't going to do this anymore."
"Do what?"
"Keep things from me." His tone was more disappointed than annoyed.
Rachel shook her head. "I'm… I wish I could keep it from myself. I don't want to remember."
He gently rubbed a hand over her back. "I don't think it works that way, babe."
She let out a shuddering sigh. "I know… They wanted the cure: the ability to make as much as they wanted, but just for the people they wanted to save… I refused to help them. They knew I would. Which is why they went after the ship."
"But the crew fought back," Tom stated.
She nodded. "And they couldn't get what they needed… so that just left Alisha and I."
Tom shook his head in disbelief. "I still can't believe that woman would hurt her own daughter." How could anyone be so deranged?
"It was her band of thugs, the state troopers. And they didn't simply want to hurt us," Rachel corrected him, "They needed to break us, or at least me." She took a deep breath. "I didn't care what they tried to do to me. And they quickly realized that. But Alisha…" She trailed off as the memories overwhelmed her. "I didn't want them to separate us. She kept telling me not to give in, that she'd be okay…"
Tom felt a surge of pride for his young officer, but knew there were no happy endings at the conclusion of this tale. "So they hurt her instead?"
Rachel nodded. "I shouldn't have listened to her. When I saw her again later…" She couldn't get further than that.
Tom held her close, still rubbing her back. "You did the right thing," he tried to reassure her.
"It was my fault," she countered. "And then all the casualties during the rescue - including you."
"I make my own messes," he protested.
"Too many people have died because of me," she whispered.
"We're all alive because of you," Tom countered. "My kids are alive because of you." It made him furious that Rachel had had to deal with any of this; all she'd been trying to do was help people. If Amy Granderson hadn't already been dead, he would've gladly taken her out himself. "I'm so sorry; I never should have left you there…"
Rachel shook her head. "It's not your fault. I didn't want you to blame yourself." She'd known he would feel guilty and hadn't wanted to put that on his shoulders.
Tom kissed her forehead. "I get to take care of you, now. It's going to be okay."
When Rachel woke up in the morning, it took her a long moment to figure out where she was. Her surroundings didn't match the lab or her stateroom. But then she felt the warmth of another person behind her and fingers in her hair. It had become an unconscious habit for Tom to play with her hair whenever they were alone, a small intimacy that seemed to reassure him she was actually there.
He offered a little smile as she turned over to face him. "Hi."
"Hi."
"How much do you remember about last night?" he tentatively wondered.
"I never made it back to the lab," Rachel replied. His face fell.
"That's it?"
The corner of her mouth turned up and she gave him a gentle kiss. "I remember feeling safe. Cared for."
"I'll do everything in my power," he promised.
"I know. I prided myself on never needing a knight in shining armor - "
"I've noticed," he teased, earning a poke in the ribs.
"But now that I have such a brave and handsome one…" She smiled.
Tom tipped an imaginary hat to her. "At your service, milady."
Rachel laughed. "I actually did intend to go back to the lab last night. I was trying to finish one more batch of the cure."
"Nobody's leaving yet," he reminded her. "You still have some time… But I'm not sorry that you stayed."
"Even with the middle-of-the-night wake up?" she wondered.
"It was an important wake up," he replied. "I needed to know, and I think you needed to get it off your chest. And hey, I'll take time alone with you however I can get it." As Rachel leaned forward to kiss him again, there was a knock on the hatch. Tom rolled his eyes. "Perfect timing," he muttered before calling out, "One sec!" to whoever was in the hall.
They both got up and straightened their clothes; they'd been wearing casual attire the previous night. Tom smoothed the blanket on his bed while Rachel ran her fingers through her hair, trying to make it less obvious that they'd just gotten up.
When Tom opened the hatch, they expected to see one or both of his children standing in the hall. They did not expect to see Mike Slattery. It was obvious that he was similarly surprised to find Rachel standing behind the Captain; his expression soured.
"Sir," he stiffly greeted Tom.
"I should go," Rachel started to say, but Tom caught her arm.
"No, stay." He wasn't going to let his friend chase her away. "What is it, XO?"
"Scout teams left at dawn for the shipyard," he reported. "They just radioed back that they hit the jackpot for parts. Chief Engineer is on her way there now to oversee them loading everything up."
Tom nodded. "Good."
"Fuel tanks filled overnight, and we're taking on jet fuel for the Seahawk." It would be a huge advantage in the future to have their helicopter operational again.
"Excellent news. Has there been any sign of survivors in the area?"
The other man looked away. "No. There have been a couple indicators of recent activity, but... no signs of life." Someone had been in the area, but it looked like they'd moved on to the north pretty recently.
"Understood." Tom hoped the crew would have better luck elsewhere. "Are your search teams ready to deploy?"
Mike nodded crisply. "Teams 1 through 6 can be ready within the hour, and the rest will be ready once the resupply teams return."
"All right, then. You have a go to begin departing the ship." Their crew of just under 200 was about to be nearly cut in half as many set off to find their families or support those missions.
"Thank you, Sir."
"Good luck, Commander," Rachel spoke up from the corner of the room. Both men turned to look at her.
"Thank you," Mike finally replied after a lengthy hesitation, his voice gruff.
"Dismissed," Tom told him. Once the hatch was shut, he turned back to Rachel. "I'm sorry. He just… he doesn't understand."
She shrugged. "He has a right to his feelings."
"Well, he doesn't have the right to take them out on you," he replied. "I don't care what he says to me, but - "
Rachel gave him a kiss to stop him. "I should get down to the lab."
"Dinner later?"
"Maybe. Depends on how much I get done today."
Out in the hall, Rachel dropped the smile that she'd been forcing for the Captain's benefit. Mike's attitude bothered her, but not for the reason Tom thought. She could handle the XO openly displaying his displeasure with her; he'd known Darien Chandler and was trying to defend what he thought to be right. What worried her was the idea that Tom's children felt the same way, but were hiding their resentment in an attempt to keep their father happy.
Maybe Mike was right. Maybe they were doing something wrong.
Later in the day, Tom stood on one of the bridge wings and watched as several teams disembarked the ship. His sailors had been grouped together by destination, along with a couple extra personnel to provide tactical support and watch their backs along the journey.
The first few teams that had left that morning stayed within the Hampton Roads area, checking homes on or near the naval station. Those crewmembers hadn't heard anything at all from their families since the previous June. None of them had come back happy, as Tom had feared.
The rest of the teams were headed for destinations much further away, like Mike Slattery's journey to Deer Park, IL. They'd searched the base for as many operational vehicles as possible and filled up multiple fuel cans for each one. It wasn't likely that they'd find working gas stations along their journeys. A drone flight that morning had shown the roads out of Norfolk to be mostly passable, with the exception of the main highways. Like they'd seen up in Maryland, the interstates were jammed with cars that had tried to escape. Each team got several doses of the cure and a flash drive with all of Rachel's research. They also packed weapons and a myriad of survival gear. They were taking a huge risk by setting out into the unknown, and Tom was taking a huge risk in letting them do it, but there was no turning back now.
"Sir?" Lt. Commander Garnett asked as she stepped outside.
Tom motioned for her to join him. "Do you need something, Commander? I wanted to tell you I'm very sorry for your losses." He'd seen on a status report that she'd found her husband and daughter's bodies that morning at their home on base. Tom had expected her to be holed up in her berth to mourn, not working around the ship.
Garnett forced a very shaky smile. "I think I'd already known, Sir, I just…" she shook her head and left the sentence unfinished. "I've got the latest duty schedule." Garnett would be serving as acting XO instead of Chief Engineer while Slattery was gone; the Commander's team had departed an hour earlier.
"How bad does it look?"
"Well, we're all going to be busy, sir. But we can handle it."
Tom nodded. Keeping the ship running with a skeleton crew was going to be a challenge for all of them, but they couldn't just sit and wait in the Chesapeake. Besides leaving the ship vulnerable, it would leave the crew bored as hell. Nothing good could come of that. "Good. Keeping busy keeps people out of trouble."
Garnett nodded. "Yes, sir."
"I want to set a course for the Charleston area as soon as the last teams are off the ship and the last of the supplies are onboard."
"Aye, Sir."
While all the search teams carried out their missions across the country, the rest of the crew would keep to their original goal of helping whoever they could. It was going to be an interesting few weeks for everyone.
TBC...