"Sir the life guards agree to the training, they hadn't been able to get in contact with their superiors until just the day before for some reason and their superiors have agreed to the training so a schedule will be set up soon so that everyone can get the training in that's needed for the Coast Guard"

"Were you questioned about why you are in the Coast Guard despite your young age?"

"Yes but I mentioned that it's classified and unless you have a certain security clearance that's the truth so I didn't lie to him"

"That's true, but didn't I recently hear that EDC kids of a certain age know about you?"

"Only to a certain degree to keep them safe, but yes they do know things about me that most people even in the military doesn't but what they know is limited"

"So ready to see your temporary home?"

"Let's get home I'm hungry and I need to unpack too, even though I am part of the military I also need to actually swim in the ocean so as soon as the beaches open I'll be going to the beach"

"That's perfectly fine with me, you're technically off tomorrow but getting to know the conditions actually make sense so as long as you swim at a beach with life guards I'm perfectly fine with you going to the beach today. Just make sure you remember your limits and remember the rules about swimming"

"Don't worry I won't let myself get hypothermic and I will also make sure to eat and then wait before swimming, don't worry I've been with the Coast Guard since I was a kid I know what I'm doing"

"I know sorry this is the first time I'm fostering someone even temporarily so I'm a bit nervous and have forgotten your training even though I shouldn't"

"It's okay, back to base tomorrow?"

"Yes you're on duty tomorrow, have fun Kerenai"

Karen went to the beach once she knew it was safe and there were life guards and simply enjoyed the day swimming and actually adapting to the changing ocean, actually getting caught in a rip current once which she knew what to do and easily got herself out of the situation after which she decided to stay out of the water long enough to get lunch and simply get to know the local area a bit more. The rest of her summer was spent either at the base or occasionally going out with her temporary foster parent to either the store or another place to relax

"Well that's it for now, but soon you'll be learning the ropes in regards to flying"

"That won't be for two summers, I turn fifteen in August so I'll still have a year before being able to get a pilot's license in the civilian sector and I'll mainly be working on flying planes, though I will also get a helicopter license at a later date but I'm hoping to become a SEAT pilot which means I'll be in the reserves if at all possible"

"Wow I didn't know you were hoping to become a SEAT what made you think of that?"

"Oh various factors that I am not wanting to explain"

"Where do you want to work?"

"Hopefully a national park"

"Either way you'll be a good pilot, but for now it's time for you to go home"

"Indeed it is time for me to go home"

Karen went home and started school yet again but that year there was a major disruption two months in, a bomb threat happened and the students were only just evacuated in time, and everyone knew that this time it would take a lot longer to return to school because of the fact that the school damaged by fire hadn't been totaled like this one, instead there was a lot of fire damage and part of the roof needed repaired and equipment replaced when the fire happened and that took a few months but this would take at least a year to a year and a half if not longer

"Okay now what?"

"We have absolutely no idea, but we'll figure something out"

"Would our neighboring district be able to donate a building for us again? I also wonder if they would be willing"

"We simply don't know, for now you students are officially in limbo and you might end up a year behind everyone else depending on what happens over the next few days to weeks"

"Do you know if the police have any leads?"

"They do and they're actually calling in a group called NCIS"

"NCIS what could possibly have happened to bring in the Navy cops?"

"They're Navy cops?"

"Yep NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, basically any crime committed by Navy or Marine personnel are investigated and then arrested by NCIS, JAG or Judge Advocate General then will take over and handle things from there in their version of the court system"

"As an EDC kid you certainly know a lot"

"Trust me you have to learn things fast if you want to survive" (sighs) "I get the feeling that we're all going to be questioned soon by both the police and NCIS to see what knowledge we have of the incident and I might not be able to attend school in a normal fashion for a while depending on the situation and no you can't know what I mean, only the principal and district leaders know certain things about me for everyone's safety"

As it turned out they were indeed questioned by the local police and the NCIS once they arrived and that's when Karen was informed that due to a situation that had recently happened she was needed in the Navy as a SEAL until further notice

"Fine but I also am still a student so I need schoolwork whenever possible, the district will get things set up once we have an idea about where the rest of the students can go to school until the building is back in order but since I will be away on missions or on base I need the schoolwork and the district will give me strict deadlines that I will need to obey once we put the plan in action"

"How strict are we talking about?"

"Extremely strict, strict enough that if I have a mission the day the assignment is due I'd better make sure the work is completed and sent off at least two days in advance to make sure it gets to the school in time strict, I will have a slight extension due to the fact that since I am going to be on active duty the school need to accommodate for that but even though I will have an extension for schoolwork I will still be on a deadline and will have just as much homework as a regular student maybe a bit more because they will have no idea as to when I will be out on missions"

"Fine, by the way have you ever heard of The Masters of Freedom?"

"Yeah it's a domestic terrorist group from what I've gathered and as such if they're involved we need to get the FBI involved as well"

"That's one of the calls we're going to make however it's suspected that active duty Navy and Marine personnel are involved whenever they're state side and as such it falls under our jurisdiction"

"Don't tell me let me guess whenever I'm state side I'm going to be assisting NCIS in bringing down the organization and also bringing in proof of Navy and Marine involvement, or bringing proof that they aren't involved and as such we back out of the investigation immediately"

"Exactly, but first like I said you're needed for a SEAL mission so you'd best report to base in uniform and get further orders from there"

"Understood Agent, and for the record I am going to request government aid in the rebuilding process of my school because if government employees are involved then the government should help us rebuild"

"Don't worry that's a message I have for your district leaders, the fact that we're giving you guys aid in the form of money and manpower"

"Okay then I'm out of here so that I'm not late for duty"

As Karen left one of the agents actually asked a valid question in his mind

"Sir if it turns out that government employees aren't involved wouldn't we have wasted money and manpower?"

"Actually no because even though we don't know for a fact that Marine and Navy personnel are involved I already have proof of government involvement in the form of corrupt DEA agents"

"How so?"

"I received a coded message recently that led me to make an observation and found a known DEA agent working with a biker gang that's known to associate with this terrorist cell, and from what I can tell the DEA agent isn't undercover and I've been trained to tell those things, that and the fact that he told me to either leave the gang alone or he would kill me was a big hint and we have universal codes to identify undercover agents from any federal law enforcement now and he never gave me such a code which you are required to do even in deep cover"

"Okay then that answers my questions quite nicely, but why haven't you brought this to the attention of the DEA then?"

"Not enough proof and currently too dangerous"

"Okay how is there not enough proof?"

"Just trust me on this one okay, and if you're wondering how it's too dangerous think about the biker gang that's associated with this group and you'll know why it's too dangerous at the moment. We need more time before we can do anything"

"You're right, how well do you know Kerenai?"

"Not good enough in my mind but unfortunately all we can do is hope she survives the current mission that she's been requested for"

"Think the government will allow her to go back to school once it's rebuilt?"

"Not according to what she said"

What they didn't realize was that Karen knew that if she was being called in it was serious because not only could Coast Guard teams simply be put together at a moments notice because of the standardization throughout the fleet but the spec ops teams could if forced work with another member of their team within their military branch and undergone the same spec ops training meaning another SEAL with the SEAL team that needs it, a SWCC member, etc, granted they won't be as smooth but they could do it. Karen got into uniform and reported to base and soon found out exactly why she had been called in for the mission, part of the problem was that there had been a training accident recently that had been in the news but they didn't state just which branch of the military so she didn't even know of the possibility of being called up because so many soldiers were either injured or dead. So now that she was called she knew it might be a while because she was only called in when things were desperate and once she was called in she could be there for weeks to months at a time depending on how long they needed her to fill empty spots in the section that had called her

"Okay how long should I pack for?"

"Two weeks, maybe longer but we don't know exactly. You're going to be the sniper for the mission this time as well as the person in charge of communications"

"Understood sir"

Karen finishes the mission no problem and then for the next five months continues to go on multiple Navy missions while doing her homework and also trying to help NCIS bring down a terrorist cell, she even was actually approached by a few members of the group and none of them were Navy or Marine's but one was a known DEA agent and she managed to get inside per her orders and helped bring them down, though she wasn't actually there for the take down because she had been given orders to help a ship on a medical mission so she told the group she had to be deployed and they were taken down only three days later but her evidence was used in a court of law while she was deployed

"Hey Karen got a letter for you, it's not only coded for highest security level which only you and the Captain have but from what I can tell it also has foreign language involved as well"

Karen looks at the message and realizes that yes to the sailor it would look like foreign language but to her it was her second native language and the language was alien at that, but what she read from the alien language made her pale

"Karen what's wrong?"

"Sorry, not meant for you, it's meant for me and the Captain only, however since we weren't sure if anyone knew the code besides me and the Captain the added security measure of the foreign language was used in certain sections"

Letter

Karen this is the President and Rodimus Prime writing to you in conjunction with each other, first of all don't worry about Optimus or Megatron, Optimus had to go to Cybertron for a meeting and Megatron was needed in Japan for a different meeting that you knew of in advance however you should know that Soundwave, Blaster, Jazz, and Barricade have gone missing in space while dealing with Quintessons that have been hassling some of our allies recently. There's also the fact that Inferno and Red Alert have been injured in a forest fire incident where Yellow Stone National Park called for our aid because of just how big the forest fire had gotten in only six hours time. You need to tell the Captain that we're upgrading our defense level DEFCON 3 due to a situation that's developed in Africa and we don't know if we'll have to upgrade yet again at the time you get this message, if the Captain is asleep wake him up to alert him to the situation, afterwords you will stay on board for another two weeks and then you're going home to finish the school year at the temporary school and that's final, you need to be on the ground for a bit and you are to actually take a vacation this summer and are ordered to stay away from the Coast Guard unless I specifically tell you, the main reason why is because quite frankly there's nothing else for you to be trained in except as a pilot for the armed forces and you still have a year to go before you can qualify in the civilian sector

End of letter

"Where's the Captain?"

"He's in his quarters last I knew"

"Okay then that's where I'm headed because I have information that he needs to know"

Karen heads to the Captain's quarters and initially he isn't happy to be woken up when there obviously wasn't an emergency but once he realized that it was Karen who had woken him up he let her in knowing she wouldn't wake him up without reason

"What's going on Lt.?"

"Sir we're upgrading to DEFCON 3 until further notice due to a situation developing in Africa, I don't know the exact details of the situation all I know is something is up"

"How did you find out?"

"A coded letter that only the two of us can break and even then I would have been involved because some of it has Cybertronian in it and you can't read Cybertronian"

"And you can because it's a native language for you"

"Exactly, I grew up hearing both English and Cybertronian and I've learned to read and write in both, in fact I can even read and write Ancient Cybertronian and that's hard to do"

"So when do I lose you?"

"Two weeks, the President wants me back in the States to finish schooling for the year, I've also been given other orders which make sense seeing as how I can't fly quite yet"

"Oh yeah I was told you weren't to be put on pilot status why was that?"

"I need to qualify to become a pilot in the civilian sector first. Basically until I'm old enough to go for a license in the civilian world I'm not allowed to go for a license in the military world"

"Oh yeah you have to split your world into two"

"Exactly"

"So two weeks and then you're gone"

"Yes, but until then I am under your command like I have been since pretty much the beginning"

"Okay, for now you just finished a radar shift didn't you?"

"Yes sir I did"

"Okay then I need you to go to your quarters and get some sleep, if an emergency happens...I need you on the bridge to be a second set of eyes for me, I also might need you to man the guns from the bridge as well depending on the situation"

"Understood sir, other than that routine radar duty?"

"Exactly"

"Orders received, see you in a few hours then, and sir, you need to get more sleep yourself because if the Captain goes down that's not good, even if we have a good second-in-command ready to pick up the slack"

"I know, it's just that I've been extremely busy as of late and have lost track of time way too often in the past several days, I think I might need a minder so that I don't overdo it and simply fall asleep while on duty because I'm so tired"

"We'll think of something I'm sure of it"

"As do I, now then bed"

"Yes sir"