Iowa found herself once again guided down the nondescript and professionally bland walls of administrative section of the base by the girl of much the same description. Iowa found the same hostile silence as before, awkwardly waving at the occasional passing greetings of Navy personnel and marines, who seemed to return the greeting in a frustratingly professional manner.
Stewart continued until the pair of warships reached a governmental lowest bidder purchased wooden door. Stewart, reached crisply to attention gave the door a firm knock
"Come in," Commander Andrew's voice called behind the door. Stewart pulled opened the door, giving Iowa a stoic look and motioning her to enter. "You are dismissed Stewart, thank you."
Stewart saluted crisply and turned about with an about face executed well enough to make any honor guard proud.
Inside the sparsely furnished government room an impromptu meeting had taken place. Behind a large wooden desk Commander Andrews smiled at Iowa in greeting before returning to her previous task of staring intently at bright rectangle and typing on what appeared a compact typewriter. Iowa was tempted to ask about it when she noticed the other occupants in the room, a pair of moderately sized shipgirls absolutely bristling with, in Iowa's opinion, excessive number of small double barreled turrets They appeared to be in an excited and emotional conversation and Iowa noticed with a small amount of frustration that both seemed completely uninterested in her entrance.
They were sisters clearly, similar in clothes and dress, with both wearing a skirt; the further one in a pleated camouflage pattern and the nearer in light grey and short short grey petticoat. Their physical appearance was similar as well with the primary difference being the closer one's glasses and darker tint to her auburn hair.
"Good morning Iowa," Commander Andrews stated, interrupting the battleship's analysis of the newcomers.
"Morning," Iowa stated, giving a lopsided smile through the mixture of pancake and plaster coating her face.
"How are you holding up?"
"Fine, thank you." She turned and sat down, on the nearest chair, heedless of the groaning the furniture made under over 10,000 tons of American warship.
As if provoked by the noise, the pair of cruisers finally stopped their conversation, a heated debate about somewhere called, "Guadalcanal" and gave Iowa a curious expression as if just now realizing she had entered.
"This is USS Atlanta and USS San Juan," the Commander stated pointing to the assembled ships, "light cruisers, Atlanta class. In fact San Juan was summoned a few hours before you."
"It's a pleasure." The light cruiser said warmly, breaking her confused expression, staning up and offering her hand to Iowa.
Iowa smiled and shook it, before another deep blush took her face as the cruiser's change of expression reminded Iowa that she had now passed on Franks' sticky greeting.
Iowa continued to smile disarmingly and totally not awkwardly.
Seeing the exchange Atlanta elected to offer a friendly wave.
"So you're the new battleship?" The first girl asked.
Iowa's expression turned prideful at the word 'battleship' and she definitely didn't strike a heroic pose a little bit. "Yeah, that's me, USS Iowa, Battleship Number 4, at your service." she stated with authority.
"USS, San Juan, Atlanta Class." The girl stated before pulling her sister in a tight arm hug "This shy little lass here is called Atlanta, she's my sister," she mocked in an atrocious pass for a southern accent, eliciting an embarrassed expression from the other girl.
"I told you not to do that!" the older sister exclaimed through her own more genuine southern drawl.
"That doesn't mean I won't stop."
Commander Andrews interjected. "So, Iowa, we were just discussing possible service goals for the two of you, figuring out future assignments based on your skill and design capabilities."
Iowa's expression took a serious turn and her position straightened. "Had you arrived at any conclusions?"
"Nothing concrete, I had been in contact with the admiral and the lead instructor at the academy in Japan, so far we've been mulling over several possibilities. It mostly depends on what your combat capabilities tend to be."
I see" Iowa stared flatly, her fingers fidgeting nervously.
"In terms of posting, it's been discussed in the past forming a 'reserve fleet' of... less modern designs to escort convoys moving out of less than secure areas" the commander stated carefully. "Yourself, Stewart and several other girls we've found would fit in well here."
"If you're found to be put in too much of a risk by putting you in risk of combat at all, you'll either be appointed as an instructor, if the personnel overseeing those programs think you'll fit in, or aid here with administration and other programs."
Iowa stared at the ground silently for a bit before stating sternly, "So those who know have concluded me incapable of normal combat service."
The woman gave a sympathetic recession "That seems likely, yes."
Iowa nodded solemnly.
"It's not all bad," the Commander assuaged, " there are plenty of vessels out there who have found themselves in satisfying no -combat jobs".
"For example Vestal has been working tirelessly in the workshop, fixing up girls and their equipment. She's gotten quite well liked for it."
"Wasn't vestal a repair ship?" San Juan asked innocently before eliciting a yelp as her sister slapped her across the back.
"Um-yes…"
"Listen." Whatever position you end up receiving you are still a warship." The commander addressed the cruisers as well as Oowa "There's a joint training center in Japan that, if you two are willing to attend, should provide you with the know-how to not make a mess of things too badly in your new bodies. We'll find something you can do that you won't hate, that I'll promise"
Iowa's frown brightened slightly. "Right!"
"But to preface the base is in Japan and full of international shipgirls," I'd like to make sure neither of you have a problem interacting with foreign nationals."
"No problem here, ma'am," San Juan stated emotionlessly
"Which foreign nationals?" Iowa asked, slight nervousness still in her voice.
"Mostly Japanese and a few older British girls, the other Europeans tend to learn across the Atlantic at Scapa Flow. Will that be a problem?"
"I don't think so" Iowa mentioned, "I was never in the European War, I only ever struck against the Spanish and I hardly have anything close to hating them."
Andrews looked pleased "Excellent, as long as the two of you maintain your word we should do fine. I'd like to have you two retrained as soon as possible. While I understand you are experts at your own brand of warfare, all of our personnel and all the foreign girls are giving universal refresher courses as policy to ensure smoother operations."
"What sort of refresher courses?"
"Gunnery drills, formation fighting, night fighting, leadership training anti-aircraft drills." The woman cast a sympathetic look to Iowa, "I suspect the last one will be the most difficult for you."
"Like shooting down recon planes?" Iowa asked pride returning to her voice, "Seems a secondary focus, I think my crew and armor have weathered more than a few bombs through those Spanish guns." She stated, proudly pointing towards the 14" of Harvey Armor.
The two cruisers gave her curious looks, San Juan seemed to giggle slightly before Atlanta attempted to slap the grin off of her again.
"What?!" Iowa asked bewildered.
"When did the Commander say her service was?" San Juan asked Atlanta to the side, before being greeted by a rude expression from her sister.
"1898 to 1927." Andrews responded.
"Oh, well she's in for a rude shock." San Juan added before her sister vainly attempted to stop her with a punch her in the leg.
"San Juan, please don't stress out Iowa more than we a;ready have." Commander Andrews stated flatly, "She'll receive the proper training and acclimation in due time. But to answer the confusion Iowa aircraft had a new role in naval warfare in the years after your service."
"I can still figure out my own damn way!" she declared proudly to San Juan.
"Calm down, sis, she needs time to get adjusted." Atlanta defused.
Andrews grimaced "This segways me to why I wanted to talk to you Atlanta. The normal northern convoys to Japan are a tad overstretched at the moment. I'd like to assign you and the destroyers to take these two as escorts and to haul a convoy to Japan, a dual purpose mission."
The girl looked quizzically above her glasses, "Seems easy enough why did you want to talk to me?"
"I wanted to ensure you brought *all* the girls."
"Ah." Atlanta's expression darkened "So this is about Stewart…"
"Leaving her alone here seems cause for even more resentment."
"It still seems a bad idea to bring her."
"I'm not leaving her alone here, you know damn well she'd hate everybody and herself for it. If you think it'd compromise mission effectiveness let me know, otherwise she's going."
Atlanta looked disappointed but says nothing.
"If there are no further issues regarding the upcoming task, I don't have anything more for you. Mission date is set for the 15th."
The two cruisers nodded and headed out, San Juan grinning like an idiot. Iowa herself was preparing to leave when the Commander interrupted.
"Hey Iowa, I wanted to ask, have you've been holding up okay?"
"Um- fine, thanks for asking," she stated confused
"Are you sure? A lot of girls have trouble adjusting and- I did check with the records beforehand, you seem to be the oldest girl currently in service, are you certain nothing bothering you. I have an open door policy."
Iowa frowned slightly, shifting from foot to foot. "I'd be lying if I said all of the changes are welcome or nothing is overwhelming, but I think I should be able to make it through just fine, I just need to figure out how things have gotten out there."
"As I said, If you have any questions I'll be here."
"Actually," Iowa hesitated "how is Jennifer and the Lieutenant Commander? I hadn't talked to her since I was reassigned.
"She's thrilled, they've been bunking down down in the family accommodations until they can get their bathroom fixed. Apparently the theorists are already chomping at the bit to figure out what she did. But I think she's been excited to be here, you could stop by their quarters if you'd like."
Iowa felt her cheeks redden and had mixed hopes about the remnants of said bathroom covering it up, "I'd like that, I do still owe her for being such a generous host."
"I'll let her know," he announced, "in the meantime, I'm here if you need someone to talk to, let me know if there's anything you need, I'll send Stewart to give you a mobile so you can contact me."
"A mobile?"
"It's easier to show than the tell, Stewart will be down later."
"Right!" Iowa agreed definitively.
"Also, I don't mean to offend, but consider asking her to show you how to use the shower when she's there, it's a bit finicky but not too bad. I only mention it because if you weren't aware you still have a bit of plaster on you."
Author Shenanigans:
I think between this and the next story I'm going to go back and revisit 2-5, I'd like to put a bit more personality into Iowa and add more details about what's going on. There won't be any event changes, just some more detailwork done, so while I will be renaming them when they're updated you can feel free to skip over.