A thin mist coated the air around Iowa, her breath coming in rapid choppy gasps.
Around her shadows moved, "Who's there?!" she cried.
The answers not forthcoming, she raised her cannons, scanning the mists with distrustful eyes. Thin shapes dancing in the corners of her eyes, disappearing as she turned to confront them, whispers sounding all around her.
"Show yourself!" She called, more nervousness than authority tinting her voice. "Don't make me shoot! I'm a battleship!"
The voices became comprehensible, not in word, but in a thick laugh, spreading evenly throughout the dark fog around her, mocking in tone.
Iowa whimpered slightly and became suddenly aware of the mechanical noise of raising cannons and turning turrets. For a few palpable seconds the world was quiet. Then the distant rumble of cannons and flashes sounded through he fog.
Iowa moved to dodge, her engines and props sluggish and weak. Shells turning he sea around her, turning it into a frothy storm, impacts tore painfully at her rigging and body and each impact made her body feel heavier as she slowly slipped beneath the waves.
When her head slipped beneath the ink black ocean, there was naught but darkness.
Iowa groggily sat back up, her sudden return to consciousness coupled with the uncomfortable nature of her impromptu bed forcing the blood back to her head. She groaned and glanced upwards, noting that the deserted nature of the small post kanmusu library that she had decided to use to read up on her century of absence. Stretching dramatically she glanced down at her book, noting with some shame the large pool of drool that had formed around her chapter title "Black Friday." She wiped the side of her face, and slammed the large book dramatically.
The large pile of books to her left, mentally noted as the "unread" section was a daunting task. She glared at the massive volume titled "A Brief and Authoritative History of the United States, vol. 3 1900-1950" before grumbling slightly and putting it off to the side. Glancing at the self accumulated pile of books, Iowa pulled one off at random, "The Soviet Union" written simply on the title, she tossed that one off hand, the Russians had never been particularly relevant to the US politics in the past.
"Arsenal of Democracy: The American Homefront: 1941-1945"
"No." She muttered aloud.
"Democracy at war: a History of American Military Campaigns 1917-1995"
She sighed, yawned and dramatically opened the book she found herself just starting to become interested as to why the European War was referred to as World War I when a dramatic slam from the far end of the table interrupted her thoughts.
USS Haggard had thrown a rather dramatic time onto the table in front of her labeled "Cruisers of the United Kingdom", shooting Iowa a fierce and determined look.
"Oh, hello," Iowa replied. "Didn't expect anyone to show up in honesty." she stated, waving politely at the destroyer.
"Good morning Iowa!" A cheery southern accent greeted. From behind her.
Turning to greet the second of the newcomer, Iowa returned the greeting cautiously, "Oh uh- hi, Atlanta, right?" she asked pensively.
The girl nodded, "Frank's needed some help in finding research materials, wanted to find good books on English cruisers.," She looked abashed but proud behind her own stack of books, "I'm pretty familiar with the layout of the library."
"Wait why is she reading up on English cruisers?" Iowa asked, a confused expression taking her face.
Opening the book to the first page, Iowa noted that the girl hadn't broken her glare, "I'm going to find out what you are!" She declared to the battleship accusatorily.
Iowa returned the girl's glare with a confused look until the girl pointed dramatically at the title of the book, "Netflix or Youtube might not have anything on Limey boats, but sometimes unconventional tactics are needed "
Atlanta gave a pleading look, "The library is not a 'strange tactic', Haggard, you could learn a lot here."
"Also I'm not British." Iowa stated firmly, pounding a fist into the table in a manner which, if the startled look from Haggard was to be judged was far more aggressive than she had intended.
But Haggard continued, "You can't fool me, you don't look like a Jap or a Kraut and I know no one could convince a French ship to pull it off with that attitude of theirs. I'm smarter than you think limey!
"Haggard is this what this is about?!" Atlanta interjected, "I knew that business about 'improving allied interaction' was nonsense!"
"I told you" Iowa started Ignoring Atlanta, "I'm American."
"No you can't be!" The girl started annoyed, "I know all our heavy cruisers from Pensacola to Des Moines, you're not one of them."
"I'm not a heavy cruiser either!" Iowa defended "I don't even know who those are."
"I read the books on battleship, even your limey ones. You weren't no battleship! Your hull is barely longer than mine!"
"No look-see" Iowa sighed and gripped the bridge of her nose in her hand, "One second" she stated standing up. "Hey Atlanta where's the battleship section?", She demanded annoyed.
"Um- section 938, about halfway down but-"
"Thanks." Iowa replied curtly.
Haggard girl followed with her distrustful scowl still present, which Iowa secretly noted past her own frustration was fairly adorable.
Flipping through her chosen section Iowa grabbed a promising book, "Battleships of the Prewar Period." flipping through the book's content quickly she found herself scowling and tossed the book aggressively aside before picking up a second off the shelf and eventually doing the same. Atlanta's scowling at the haphazard throwing of precious literature.
"Why am I not in these books?" Iowa asked frustratedly Iit's just those damnable dreadnaughts"
Haggard took a smug edge to her glare which prompted Iowa to begin tearing up the shelves in earnest, until Atlanta coughed slightly, an awkward look on her face and her hand hovered over a book, "Pre-Dreadnaughts of the United States Navy".
Iowa glared and cursed bitterly at the title, but nonetheless opened the book, flipping through several pages before arrogantly shoving it in Haggard's face.
"Holy shit, you're old!" Was the only response.
Iowa's face reddened at the response, "I'm not that old! Also watch your language."
"Were you evening fighting the Japs?" Haggard asked mockingly
"We fought the Japanese?" Iowa deadpanned.
Franks mouth opened slightly as if to think of a response.
"Yes. Yes we did." Atlanta answered "How far did you get in those books you were reading?"
"About 1930." Iowa admitted, sheepishly grinding her heel into the carpet, "I had to brush up a bit. the last years were a bit foggy.
"So you know nothing about the Second World War?" Atlanta confirmed
"I mean-gathered it's existence from the references to the European War as 'World War 1', but not in specifics no." Iowa admitted
"Huh. I guess that makes sense. To be honest though books are boring." replied Frank's before a mischievous grin took hold on her face, "why don't we watch some documentaries to clear things up on it?"
"Wait, what's a documentary?"
"It's like a film but it makes you learn stuff." Haggard proclaimed excitedly "They're pretty boring but not as boring as books! 'sides I know a great one that should help out a lot! We should watch it! Franks and Hailey love it too!"
"It's basically a film designed as an informative course on a certain subject, in this case, I've got a few good ones from the BBC." The light cruiser followed excitedly.
"I've got a good one too!" Frank's interjected.
"If you say Inglorious Bastards, I swear to high heck!" Atlanta intoned, a dark tone tinting her southern drawl.
"No i-"
"We're not going to teach her with Tarantino."
"But everyone loves Tarantino!" The girl mewled.
"No!" the older girl countered sternly before turning back to Iowa with a smile vacant of all traces of the previous hostility, "now if you'd like, I can put something on in the common room, might be a tad easier to follow than those books."
Iowa beamed "I'd love to!"
"NO SCOPE!" USS Hailey yelled, thrusting her controller victoriously into the air from her sprawled out position on the bean bag.
"It's not a 'no scope' if you didn't have a scope in the first place." Franks protested.
"It's a bolt action rifle, every kill counts as a no scope if I don't use a scope."
Franks let out an unconvinced grunt, focusing again on the television.
He door loudly slammed open to reveal Haggard, standing dramatically in front of Iowa and Atlanta.
"Hey guys!", Haggard yelled leading the trio of newcomers' charge into the common area "we're going to teach Iowa about the war!"
"Which war?" a- at least to Iowa, new destroyer asked, distractedly looking up from a brutal digital deathmatch with Franks.
"The war"
"Doesn't she know all about the war?" The new ship asked,
"No Hailey, she's like super old!"
"Hey!" Iowa retaliated in an offended tone as she seated herself on the large couch placed in front of the TV, "It all depends on what you use to gauge age!"
Haggard gave her a dismissive look before turning again to the other two destroyers, "she's almost from the Civil War! She probably knew boats that old!"
Atlanta seemed thrilled by the observation, but focused primarily on moving herself directly in front the of the television in order to switch out the disks in the game system the two destroyers were using.
Hailey protested audibly. But was placated by Franks as the later of the two destroyers moved herself down comfortably next to Iowa.
"But our deathmatch-" Hailey whined feebly to Franks, gesturing towards the TV as a the logos and credits of various production agencies began to shift themselves across the screen, light music began
"It's okay Hailey, Franks affirmed."
"It's in color!" The battleship proclaimed excitedly pointing at the pre-program credits and interviews.
"Well this part is," Atlanta affirmed, taking a seat in a chair to the right of Iowa, "the rest is in black and white."
"Oh." Iowa responded, slumping dejectedly as the images switched to wartime footage.
The show began, a series of dramatic images of black and white warfare and somber British narration immediately captured the battleship's attention, the images of wholesale destruction that followed seemed to stir a new feeling every few minutes, mostly she filtered between 'nationalistic pride' and 'outraged anger', silently gloating over there country's achievements or willing hurtful things on hurtful people.
The episode titled "the Fall of France", had just informed her that one of the world's oldest and most powerful superpower had fallen to an upstart new dictator, she sat in quiet and shocked contemplation while a new episode began, the title screen and music dramatically showcasing the "Battle of the Atlantic". Dramatic images of warships and British sailors were scrurrying about anti aircraft guns and launching depth charges, when she felt a small form pressing into her right shoulder.
As the television displayed the cornerstone of the Royal Navy, those shiny new dreadnaughts that were apparantly the best thing ever, larger warships began repeating over the television in a retelling that focused on something called a 'Bismark'. Iowa was more focused however, on the adorable form of Franksh, as the smaller girl had begun to protectively press her face into Iowa's shoulder, guarding herself against the sight of the larger vessels.
Iowa glanced over to Atlanta, the light cruiser was completely enraptured by images of British Battlecruisers sailing mightily across the English channel and seemed to ignore Iowa.
The battleship placed a comforting arm over the destroyer in her charge, and patted her reassuringly over her head. Before the guns of Rodney and Nelson, who Iowa noted scornfully lacked any sort of the decorum or graceful construction her generation had, had sunk the German warship, the destroyer's breathing extended into the long breathing of a peaceful slumber.
Noting this, the battleship yawned slightly, deciding that whatever the British ended up doing to the Italian fleet at Taranto could wait until morning and that, let's face it the Italians hadn't don't anything in any important conflict since Iowa could remember. The 11,000 tons of gunboat diplomacy leaned back into the couch, noting the comforting shallow breathing of the destroyer and closed her eyes shut.
Iowa soon found herself joining Franks. Her sleep was peaceful.