A/N: Sorry for being a little bit late, there was a lot of research to be done with this chapter. You will find the deployment history in this chapter correlates with real Navy Deployments. I did find out the name of CO of each unit, but given most of them are still alive, and I don't want to disrespect and mis-portray them in my story, I didn't use their names. So in summary, the units and dates were historically accurate, only for this chapter, the people in it are purely fictitious. Enjoy!

Chapter 4 - Navy Life

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Fremantle, Western Australia,
0535 (UTC+8),
December 25, 2002

Lieutenant Junior Grade Chuck "Einstein" Bartowski was lying in his bunk, looking at a picture of his family, he missed his family. Chuck loved everything about the Navy, it was like joining a big family, but he missed the family he left behind, especially in days like today. He had missed Mother's day, he was missing Christmas, and he was going to miss New Year's Eve.

With the phone banks on the ship, he could call home, but there wasn't enough phones, so Chuck wanted to let everyone else use it first. Maybe he could get permission from the squadron commander, to allow the rest of the squadron to call home, using his 'satellite relay watch'. Yep, he would see the squadron commander in an hour or so, the Commander wouldn't be up yet.

Chuck looked back this past year, to say it was hectic was putting it mildly. 6 weeks into OCS, he did an amplitude test for flight school, when he came back from his last field exercise two weeks later, he was informed, that he got fast tracked for flight school. He was rushed through the rest of the theory course, a week later, he was on his way to join one of the first groups of Navy aviators, to be trained to fly the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets. Chuck did manage to get a day off to graduate this time though, and he was glad to be able to see his family during his commissioning ceremony.

Not surprisingly, Chuck graduated as top of his OCS class. There were only a couple of people who beat his physical fitness score, clearly, his hard work in the past 6 months had paid off. During OCS, he also picked up Aikido and Krav Maga from his classmates, while carrying on improving the styles he was already competent with. Chuck had also thoroughly read and analysed every word of a translated version of 'Art of War' written by Sun Tzu, he knew it would be useful one day.

When he arrived at flight school, the other students had already started on that particular airframe 2 months ago, but Chuck was a fast learner, he caught up with everyone by the end of the next two months, learned everything about the aircraft like the back of his hand. Chuck was fast tracked again, and finished flight school by mid-July, so he could fill a spot in Strike Fighter Squadron 115 (VFA-115) the "Eagles", for Super Hornets' first operational tour in the US Navy. By then he had already made two upgrades to his F/A-18E Super Hornet, one on the radar system, to increase sensitivity; the other on the targeting system, making lock on much easier. Needless to say, the Commanding Officer of the flight school was very impressed, and encouraged him to send his design specifications off to Boeing. Chuck did as he was told after getting the patent, and signed the contract for an initial licensing fee of 20 million (they offered 50 million), and 25% of the profit for royalties. Not long after signing the contract, he was deployed with the Eagles along with the rest of Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW 14), including Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5 (HC-5), the "Providers", and left Naval Station Everett aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) aircraft carrier.

USS Abraham Lincoln didn't reach the Persian Gulf to join Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Southern Watch until mid-September, during the journey there, Chuck had first bonded with the rest of his squadron, having been through a frat house really helped. He discovered that, many of the enlisted men in his squadron, like him, joined up because of the 9/11 attack, and some of them dropped out of college, to enlist in the Navy. So Chuck spent some extra time with them, helping them to devise a plan to earn the credits needed for them to graduate without leaving the Navy. For Chuck, helping people came naturally, he got hold of all their study materials on his laptop with some hacking during the port visits, while the rest of the ship were enjoying the Hawaii beach or getting drunk to blow off some steams. Chuck studied those materials himself first, and helped his 'students' through them after. Needless to say, the unit cohesion within the squadron was never better, eventually, the other Junior Officers joined the help as well.

The 'Bartowski Class' started with the few guys in the Eagles, later, as word spreads, men from the Providers and the rest of Carrier Air Wing 14 joined in as well. By mid-December, two of his best 'students' had received their diploma through the mail.

No one on the ship saw 'Bartowski Class' as an arrogant power move though, fellow officers as well as the sailors could tell helping people genuinely make Chuck happy. Not only that, Chuck was humble, he would ask about anything he didn't understand and he was interested in, and Chuck was interested in everything. He was like a kid on Christmas, Chuck had visited every part of the ship that was not restricted, asked questions from workings of the Sikorsky MH-60 S Knighthawk helicopters flew by the Providers to the garbage disposal system in the kitchen. When he saw an improvement that can be made, he would make a note of it, and start to design the improvement on his laptop. The Captain of the ship had already allowed him to upgrade the ship's radar system after hearing his tales of upgrading the radar system of his fighter jet.

Even with all these things going on, Chuck kept up with his physical training. He still practiced all the styles of martial arts he had learned, in addition, he was learning new fighting styles from the SEALs stationed on board. It was a platoon of sixteen hardened warriors led by Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, Chuck had developed a special bond with the platoon, but that was a story for another day.

The SEALs started to teach Chuck everything they know that can be taught on an aircraft carrier, from new fighting styles, to fire arms handling, and Chuck loved learning from them. He looked up to these warriors, as they were the ones willingly jumping into firefights, while he was flying over the battle, not that it wasn't dangerous at all for Chuck, he just felt these men were so much braver than he was. When the SEALs were having problems with their equipment, naturally, they came to Chuck first. Chuck had redesigned their communication systems, which were now much easier to operate, more secure with a much better range. The men were very grateful for the upgrade, they knew the improved radios had saved their butts a number of times already.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Fremantle, Western Australia,
0800 (UTC+8),
December 26, 2002

Commander Carl Hogan, CO of VFA-115 got back into his office, shaking his head. Bartowski had done it again, he was like the annoying problem child in kindergarten you couldn't help but love, and CDR Hogan was sure he wasn't alone in this. Everyone in the squadron liked him, everyone in the air wing liked him, the SEALs on board treated him like one of their own, hell, even the Marines on board were polite when LTJG Bartowski showed up. Captain Cardwell was convinced Bartowski would be the youngest Navy officer to get a star on his collar one day.

CDR Hogan's paperwork had doubled, or even tripled since Ensign Bartowski had joined the ranks of the Eagles, half of the increase came from all the upgrades "Einstein" kept making for absolutely everything; the other half came from promotion applications and college references. Despite of all these extra work, CDR Hogan had never felt better about his job, to be able to facilitate people under his command grow; they were having easier times passing their promotion exams, two of them already got their college diploma, with more on the way, even the Captain of the ship was happy because of the more efficient equipment, and most importantly, he had never seen the men and the women in his unit gotten along better, and all this was all down to one Chuck Bartowski. Seriously what kind of name was 'Chuck"?

Regardless of his ridiculous name, the young man was a damn fine pilot, he wasn't sure he and the CAG themselves could handle that bird like "Einstein" could, he didn't even know the Super Hornet was even designed to do some of the manoeuvres "Einstein" put his bird through. On top of that, the curious young officer had been learning how to fly the Knighthawk from Lieutenant Commander Matthew Dalton from HC-5, "Einstein" had co-piloted LCDR Dalton's bird for several missions, when his usual co-pilot Lieutenant Nicola Granger was in sick bay. His last mission as co-pilot in a Knighthawk didn't go well, but that was a long story. In the end, they lost a chopper, Bartowski had saved Dalton's life, Dalton was sent home, expecting a full recovery and "Einstein" had been pulling additional duty, to pilot the replacement Knighthawk with LT Granger as co-pilot ever since. According to the Commanding Officer of the Providers, CDR Martin Dukes, "Einstein" was as a good pilot in a Knighthawk as he was in his Super Hornet.

Yesterday, the young officer had requested permission for the rest the squadron, to make secure calls to their loved ones, using a device he had designed. As the commander walked past his unit during breakfast, he could tell their morale had improved significantly, once again, CDR Hogan marvelled at LTJG Bartowski's ability to bring the unit together, giving him an earlier promotion was definitely one of the commander's smart decisions. In fact, CDR Hogan felt like he could learn something from the junior officer, he decided to speak to the CAG, and see if he could get the rest of the Air Wing permission to call home, using Bartowski's little device. Given the time zone difference, it would still be Christmas day back home.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Great Australian Bight,
0755 (UTC+9),
January 1, 2003

He had gotten word from Washington about an hour ago, USS Abraham Lincoln was turning around, she was order back to redeploy for the Arabian Gulf to support Operation Southern Watch. Captain Jack Cardwell only took command of the ship 2 months ago, already, he had to bear bad news to the 5000 men and women under his command. He needed to think of a way to boost the morale after this turn of event. The CO of Air Wing had told him about LTJG Bartowski's involvement in setting up secure calls for the entirety of the Air Wing, with his permission and access to the combat direction centre, CAPT Cardwell was sure the young lad could do much more. So he had called for LTJG Bartowski for a meet at 0800.

0800 on the dot, there was a knock on his door, LTJG Bartowski's voice came from the other side, "Lieutenant Junior Grade Bartowski, reporting as ordered, Sir."

"Enter, Lieutenant." The older man replied.

Chuck marched in professionally, and saluted, to which the Captain returned. "At ease, Lieutenant, take a seat."

"Thank you, Sir." Chuck replied politely and took a seat. Chuck wasn't sure what this was about, but he wasn't too worried, unless the Captain didn't approve of him giving half of the ship secure satellite connection to call home. And what do you know, the next sentence came out of the Captain confirmed Chuck's suspicion.

The older man liked the kid, he was clearly a genius, physically fit with good reflexes, a natural born leader; yet he was so humble, never afraid to ask questions, always seek to help others without being asked, Chuck was the kind of leader who brings the best out of others. But just because the man liked the kid, it didn't mean he wasn't going to enjoy making him squirm a bit. "So," The Captain paused for effect. "I heard you accessed a secure satellite feed, and allowed people under your command to exploit it to make personal calls." The Captain watched carefully for the young man's reaction.

Now Chuck knew he was in trouble, and this wasn't giving his CO more paper work trouble, this was real trouble that could lead to a conviction in Court Martial. The watch he designed, it would hack in any satellite in range, he should have thought that in all probability, some of the satellites were military, and he could be charged with treason if found out. His sister would be devastated if he was sent to jail. But the Captain had not mentioned that part yet, maybe he didn't know the details, and Chuck wasn't going to volunteer the information that he hacked into secure government satellites. Chuck wasn't going to throw anyone else under the bus either, so he did what any good officer would do, he sat up straight and replied with an air of confidence he didn't feel.

"Yes, Sir. I take full responsibility for that action, there wasn't enough phones in the phone banks for everyone to call home, so I decided to help out as much as I could. In essence, I allowed them 8 hours access, of a number of secure satellite phones to call their loved ones. They were acting under instructions, my instructions, thus, the responsibilities of any wrong doing is mine and mine alone. With respect, Sir, my action indirectly freed up more phones in the phone banks, and allowed more sailors to call home for Christmas, despite the trouble I am in, I would make the same choices again in a heartbeat, Sir." Chuck finished passionately.

Captain Cardwell was impressed to say the least, he wasn't expecting a full speech. The young officer in front of him had transitioned from being nervous to confident in matter of seconds, under his scrutiny; and delivered a concise speech, taking full responsibility as a good leader should, defended his actions, and not incriminating himself or anyone else any further in the process. Yes, he knew the young man in front of him would sit with the Joint Chiefs one day, if he didn't get himself into too much trouble first, that was.

To Chuck's surprise, the Captain relaxed his posture and smiled, "Relax, Chuck. You are not in any trouble."

This was the first time CAPT Cardwell had called him 'Chuck', Chuck was puzzled, nonetheless, he let out of a breathe he didn't know he was holding, and tentatively asked, "Sir?"

"I know you followed protocol, and asked permission from your immediate superior first, it was a good thing you did, I could tell the entire air group's morale had been improved. So no, you are not in trouble at all. As a matter of fact, I am in need of your unique skills. As you probably just heard, we were just ordered to be redeployed to Arabian Gulf, the sailors are not going to be happy. I am thinking for a way to boost their morale somewhat, and calling home seemed to do the trick for the Air Wing, so why not for the whole ship. Are you following me, Lieutenant?"

Chuck didn't miss a beat, and replied, "I think so, Sir. You want me to give everyone on the ship the same access I gave to the Air Wing."

CAPT Cardwell smiled, "You certainly catch on fast, don't you? Yes, that's precisely my intention. I figured with my permission, and the access of the combat direction centre, you would have no problem setting that up."

Chuck's inside was bursting with excitement he could barely contain, asked incredulously, "You are giving me access to the CDC, Sir?"

CAPT Cardwell could literally see the young officer's eyes lit up at his mention of the combat direction centre, it contained the most classified and advanced technologies on the ship. "Yes, Lieutenant, I have upgraded your clearance, you now have access to the CDC for the remainder of this deployment. For now, just do your magic, give them 8 hours of access, and get it done as soon as you can, so I can deliver the good news for once. Dismissed." CAPT Cardwell knew what Chuck did to get access to secure satellite feed was probably illegal, he didn't ask, he was pretty sure this was one of those times he was better off not knowing.

His order was clear, so Chuck replied, "Aye, Aye, Sir." He stood up to attention, saluted at the Captain, who returned the gesture, and Chuck left the Captain's quarter.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
0800 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Invasion of Iraq had begun, VFA-115 along with VFA-113 were tasked with taking out of enemy air defence, focusing on surface-to-air missiles, in order to achieve air superiority. They had accomplished their mission within the first hour, and had been patrolling in the sky to provide over watch. "Einstein" and his wingman had just landed back on the Lincoln for refuelling, and were grounded until further tasking.

Chuck had been especially busy since New Year, after that 'favour' he did for the Captain, he became a celebrity on the ship, Chuck wasn't sure if he enjoyed his new found fame, he was never the type to boost. But LTJG Bartowski was happy that more people came to him for help, mostly with their promotion exams, among other thing, either way, Chuck was always happy to help.

Since his security clearance had been upgraded, Chuck was given access to all areas of the ship, but a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is enormous, Chuck was still studying the island, where CDC was located. Granted, Chuck didn't really have much time for himself, he was pulling two sets of duties and more. Chuck had been flying for the Eagles as well as the Providers; every now and then, he would also take a walk across the Afghan deserts with LT McGarrett and his men, on reconnaissance missions to select, plant or paint air-strike targets, the young pilot had participated in a number of fire-fights already.

Despite of the amount work he was doing, Chuck was having the time of his life, and he thought life couldn't get any better than college, clearly he was mistaken.

As he was taking his flight suit off, one of his helicopter crew, Petty Officer Second Class Gary Stark ran into the locker room, and passed him his body armour, "Sir, we are being scrambled, I will explain on the way. You are going to need your weapons, sir."

"Thank you, Petty Officer Stark, get the chopper ready, tell Lieutenant Granger I will be there in 3, and we'll lift off in 5." Chuck immediately switched on his mission mode.

"Aye, Aye, Sir."

LTJG Bartowski clipped on his body armour, grabbed his M4 carbine and Beretta M9, checked them, and sprinted towards his Knighthawk.

Chuck secured himself in the cockpit, and took off with 2 other choppers. As the three Knighthawks flew towards Iraqi coastline, LTJG Bartowski asked his co-pilot, "What's the situation, Lieutenant."

LT Granger liked her new partner, she would normally have protested to be the co-pilot for someone with rank junior to her, but not with Chuck. He had always treated her with respect, valued her opinion and even offered to switch places with her numerous time. She did agree a number of times on exercises, but she would always jump back to the co-pilot seat if they were flying into a war-zone. LT Granger knew Chuck was a much better pilot, she felt more assured that they would get back to the Lincoln in one piece if Chuck were to fly the chopper.

LT Granger found Chuck extremely attractive as well, smart, tall, muscular and kind, what wasn't to like, if she wasn't engaged already, the attractive brunette would have made her move, Navy guidelines be damned. But if she were honest to herself, she wasn't sure she would succeed if she did try. She knew she wasn't the only female officer on board who were attracted to Chuck, she could literally see the predatory gleams in some of their eyes, but Chuck was oblivious, and seemed never to be interested in anything more than friendship, the rumour was, someone broke his heart back in college, dumped him on the day he was going to propose. Stupid Skank. LT Granger thought, who could be so stupid to throw away a man like that. LT Granger had long decided to build a solid friendship with her partner, she had learned from others and from her own experience, Chuck Bartowski's friendship was worth more than anything money could buy, he would go hell and back for his friends, his family.

LT Granger answered the pilot's question concisely, "We still don't have all the information, but here are the basics. A VIP from our government wasn't able to leave the country before the invasion begins, his security team had extracted him from Baghdad to Basra International Airport, hoping to catch a ride there. However, Iraqi military had taken over the airport, the group were heading south towards Kuwait border when they were engaged, they requested extraction, and we were the only unit available for tasking… Wait one…, new information had arrived, the VIP is a US Senator, protected by a team of six Secret Service agents, Agent in Charge is David Kane."

LT Granger had just finished her SitRep, when the radio came online, "Blue Leader to Blue Two and Einstein, radio check over." "This is Blue two, good copy, over." Chuck waited for his turn and answered, "Einstein to Blue Leader, read you loud and clear, over."

"Good Copy, this is the plan. Einstein is responsible for the extraction of the VIP and his security team, while Blue Two and I will be providing cover fire. ROE, you are cleared to engage anyone wearing Iraqi military uniform and anyone else firing at friendlies, I say again, you are cleared to engage anyone wearing Iraqi military uniform and anyone else firing at friendlies. Any questions? Over."

"Blue Two to Blue Leader, loud and clear, out."

"Einstein to Blue Leader, roger that, out."

As the three choppers approached the extraction site, Chuck saw a group of people taking fire from all sides, he shook his head, thinking, Recipe for friendly fire. Chuck saw the man who looked like the VIP returning fire with a pistol, and what he saw next dazed him.

Four enemy personal flanked them, an agent suddenly jumped out from cover, engaged all four men who were armed with AK type weapons, with a knife. From this distance, Chuck couldn't make out the face, but the agent was clearly female, with long blonde hair, fierce, but graceful movements, Chuck was enchanted by the tall blonde female agent with scary knife skills. The blonde made short work of the 4 men, and saw two more enemy approaching from another angle, who were in the process of aiming their weapon at the back of her charge's head. Chuck saw her threw her knife dead centre into the throat of one of the men, clearly running out of options, she ran towards the Senator.

Chuck shook himself out of his daze, and realised what the blonde agent was about to do, she was clearly going to jump in front of the bullet, or push the Senator out of the bullet trajectory while putting herself in it. Chuck acted out of instinct, and landed his chopper between the Senator and the lone enemy who was ready to take the shot.

Review Feedback: Again, thank you for all your lovely reviews, I really appreciate them. Guess who the blonde agent was? Don't answer, that was rhetorical.

To answer some questions, as you can see, I left it quite open, Chuck did his Subliminal Imaging Test which wasn't seen by Fleming. Given how far Chuck progressed, it should be clear that he would be involved in the intelligence community somehow.

Thank you, Nomadic Nerd, for spotting a mistake. When Red Leader was giving out ROE, I meant Iraqi military. For those of you don't know, ROE stand for rules of engagement.