8882: No thanks to some of our logistics and medical shipfolk, we now have liners intended for the eastbound route from Europe to Asia. All shipgirls intending to join the invasion of Singapore please be advised, the new supply line is currently being established.
Portsmouth
The preparations were made, the resources carefully and discreetly salvaged (some would say recycled), the circle drawn and ready. Now all that remained was to conduct the rite itself, and for that, a long overdue meeting had to be convened.
"Not to rain on any parade you British plan on having, but warum sind wir hier?" So spoke SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, her face unreadable as ever due to the golden mask covering it. "Is it not your own ships you plan on summoning? I hardly see the need to bring us into the affair." Aquitania, who had been stacking the offerings into neat little piles in the center of the overlapping heptagrams inscribed within the circle, looked up at her with a nonplussed expression. "It may be our ships we're attempting to raise, but you and your brothers were the first and oldest of us," he explained, finally stepping back from a pile of steel ingots arranged like a Jenga tower. "We'll have a better chance of bringing those two back specifically if all of us are present - they were the last of our kind after all."
"Hmph." Wilhelm II remained fairly unimpressed, or at least it seemed that way. "All this trouble just to complete the whole lot of us." "Well why not, meine Schwester?" SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse had made his way over to her, resting a hand on her shoulder (which she then irritatedly shrugged off). "The Canadians have their schooners, and there is also the Historical Fleet, ja? I would like to see our final two colleagues, if only to match the other fleets, and it is right that we who came before greet them who were last." All then fell silent as the regal beauty that was SS France entered the room. "Bonsoir mon amis. I see that the preparations are complete?" she asked, nodding at the offerings with an approving smile. "Perhaps to increase our chances, something from their port of call..." Reaching into her pocket, she laid several glittering stones upon the little towers of steel and bauxite, and if one was paying enough attention one could swear Kronprinz Wilhelm's fingers had twitched at the sight of them.
"Diamonds..." SS Deutschland breathed, hardly daring to believe her own eyes. "South African diamonds," SS France added. "Since they were originally meant to ply the Southampton-Cape Town route. I got the idea from monsieur Titanic's summoning, the one which included an ice cube oui?" "Madame, that was an accident," the liner in question reminded her, a bit of a flustered grin on his face from the fact that she had taken inspiration from his summoning. "Including an extra item deliberately, on the other hand... Well let's hope we don't end up summoning the two with any unexpected side effects." Kronprinzessin Cecilie grumbled under his breath at the mention of side effects, before raising his voice. "Very well then! All is ready, British liners? Frau Frankreich? Then let us begin."
The twelve ocean liners thus gathered took their places, each standing at one of the fourteen points formed by the two overlapping heptagrams. Only two points were thus left vacant, and at Mauretania's signal, the drums and pipes began: fitting music to call forth two ships named after medieval castles. Some of them even muttered under their breath various utterances, as if to call back and command them to come forth. Soon the circle began to glow, brighter and brighter until with a blinding flash all present had to shut their eyes or turn away. When it was safe to look, the twelve of them could see two shipgirls with auburn hair like Lusitania's standing in the center of the circle, one with her hair down in a hawser-like braid and a necklace of diamonds clear as ice, and the other with her hair done up in a tall bun almost like a beehive. "How dare you disturb our rest?" the latter protested, rounding on her onlookers (most of whom did not know her or her sister very well). "We demand an explanation this instant, you, you pestilential interlopers!"
Aquitania had to clear his throat, looking a bit awkward as he did so. "Ahem. Windsor, do you mind toning it down maybe? It would be difficult for us to explain while you're haranguing us you know." That got her attention in short order, and she turned to scrutinize him more closely. "Wh- how- Aquitania?!" she spluttered, immediately going red in the face as she realized her former WW2-era colleague was now a veritable Adonis. "I... no way! The Ship Beautiful, who served as troop transport alongside us?" the other shipgirl queried, herself more than a little lost regarding the whole situation.
"It's... sort of a long story" Gulp. Aquitania cleared his throat again, looking from one shipgirl to the other. "You might want to have a chat with the Admiral about this. We'd best bring you up to speed and then I'll introduce you to everyone else here."
~*~* ~~*~ ~**
"They summoned who?!" No less than four admirals were gathered in video conference over secure channels to discuss the matter: Admirals Collingwood of Scapa Flow, Graham of Portsmouth, Hartman of Wilhelmshaven, and Masson of Toulon. That so many of their ocean liners managed to pull off an unauthorized summoning right under their noses was reason enough for the emergency meeting, and Hartmann already suspected Kronprinz Wilhelm had some hand in the preparations. "Apparently, the ship that took fifteen hours to sink after being torpedoed, and her sister," Collingwood muttered, knocking back his sixth shot glass of whiskey with one hand still pressed to his temple. "Windsor Castle and Arundel Castle..."
"Those two? It seems oddly specific to be gunning for those two," Masson conceded, tenting her fingers with elbows on the table as she leaned forward. "Surely there were better summoning targets to choose from?" "Their excuse was letting them take charge of the route to Asia via Africa. But did you notice who our perpetrators happened to be?" Graham pressed, raising the list he'd drawn up - all the liners involved, with pics of their steel-hull days. "Spot the common thread, I dare you." For a while, there was silence as three pairs of eyes looked the list over, and then...
"Mein Gott." Comprehension slowly dawned on Admiral Hartmann's face, eyes widening in silent awe. "They actually did it, those absolute madmen, and madwomen!" "Four-stackers," Masson whispered, a hand slowly shifting over her mouth. "You don't mean to say..." "As a matter of fact, I do," Graham answered grimly, "and no, none of us are dreaming or losing our marbles. Gentlemen- and lady- for the first time in history..." It was Collingwood who finished the sentence, reaching to refill his glass before making his solemn pronouncement. "They're all back. All fourteen of the four-funnel ocean liners... they've all been summoned as shipfolk now."