Chapter 3

Downes let out a long sigh. She rested her head on her fists and continued staring into space, the summer sun warming the small guard post to a comfortable warmth, the kind that made it hard to resist the urge to take a nice nap.

Her legs idly kicked back and forth in the air, her chair too tall for her feet to touch the ground, its design more suited to those of a taller stature.

She could feel it, the tempting call of her ship, the need to let her guns fire, to be out in the open ocean again. She had willed herself through the past few weeks of work knowing there would soon be time off for her and Cassin, but she was stuck in a small cramped guard post due to her own stupid fault now.

Another sigh, and more staring at nothing.

Someone approached her post, she gave a quick glance before looking back at the particular patch of grass she was counting the blades in.

"Hey." She said to the newcomer.

The figure stopped and after a few short seconds of waiting Downes heard a throat being cleared, prompting her to look properly.

"Oh shit, you're a human." She realised, finally seeing Jessica properly. "Sorry, I just kinda saw you and thought you were one of us."

Jessica looked down at herself. It was technically a day off so she had disregarded her uniform for something more casual. A pair of trainers with some simple paints and her old grey Navy hoodie she had got after basic training. Nothing like the extravagant types of clothing the ship girls were known for wearing.

"And what made you think I was a ship?" She asked curiously.

"Duh, you're female." Downes shrugged. "Not many of them outside of our kind knocking about on the base."

Jessica had to concede. She had been the only female in her class and there were barely any on the base to begin with. She folded her arms across her chest.

"Be that as it may, you are seemingly on guard duty. You should be paying more attention to who comes in and out of the shipgirl dorms."

"Hey, if anyone wants to break into our dorms, they can try." The destroyer gestured to the large building. "But they're gonna soon regret trespassing in an area where women have naval weapons at their fingertips." Downes held out a fist to the woman. "Downes, by the way. Mahan-class destroyer, at your service."

"Oh, uh. Sterling. Jessica Sterling." She returned the fist bump.

"Destroyer huh? no wonder it's easy to speak to her."

Jessica looked past Downes at the seemingly empty guard post. "Pretty sure regulation says that a minimum of two should occupy a post. Why are you here alone?"

"I'm not alone." Downes grinned, leaning back to let Jessica look down.

Laying on the floor with a small pillow to rest her head and a blanket adorned with a fluffy cloud pattern was the Fletcher-class destroyer Nicholas, a puddle of silvery blue hair surrounding her head as she peacefully snoozed away.

"Aww." Jessica cooed, smiling at the sleeping destroyer.

Downes snorted. "You chew me out for just being a little distracted, yet she's sleeping on duty and it's all hunky-dory?"

"Nicholas has problems sleeping, It's always good when she's able to get a few winks in." Jessica explained.

"Whatever." Downes waved a hand dismissively. "What are you doing around these parts anyway?"

Downes' question brought the commander back to the task at hand. "Ah, uh, I've come to find Bremerton. Do you know what room she's in?"

"Well yeah, everyone knows what room she's in." Downes said matter-of-factly. Something however didn't quite feel right to the destroyer, who then took another look at the young woman, realisation finally striking. "Oh fuck, you're the girl from her story. You're the one who's gonna be ordering Brem around."

Downes looked at Jessica up and down, a dangerous smile on her face. "Have to say I'm impressed, you're definitely not who I expected she'd get."

"Oh? What sort of commander did you expect she would have been assigned?"

Jessica was honestly curious. She had spent the morning researching the cruiser, only to find the bare minimum on her. The Commander had been right in saying she was newly launched.

"Oh, you know." Downes rocked her head. "Someone with a rather different set of equipment to start. And when she spoke to me about it she seemed to be excited at the prospect of snagging a looker who could sweep her off her feet."

"Ah, right." Jessica realised she was probably the exact opposite of what the cruiser wanted. While it was the navy and you didn't always get what you wanted, Langley had made it clear in her long lectures that the ship girls performance is directly impacted by their mood.

Downes seemed to sense Jessica's reticence. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Brem makes friends with everyone. You'll be the best of buds in no time."

Jessica smiled awkwardly. "Thanks."

"No prob." Dowens leaned forward and pointed over to the dorms. "Third floor. Take a left and it should be the sixth door on your right, should say Baltimore class on it. Don't worry about knocking, just go straight in."

"Thanks." The young commander said. "Try to pay a little more attention from now on. You'll get a hell of a chewing out if someone more important than I catches you like this."

"Yeah, yeah." Downes half waved as the rookie commander walked by, once she was gone the destroyer returned to her previous position. She heard shuffling below her and a quick glance showed Nicholas to be stirring.

"Someone?" The half asleep destroyer asked.

"It's nothing. Just go back to sleep."

The sleepy destroyer didn't need to be told twice and her head immediately hit the pillow again. Downes sighed and resumed counting the blades of grass.


Anyone who looked inside the dorms would have a hard time telling it was part of a naval base. The main entrance opened up into a large communal space filled with several tables and large sofas dotted around where a few groups of the girls seemed to be either sitting together eating breakfast or playing games. There was even a fireplace on one wall that really drove home the feeling of it being more like a college dorm.

"Or more like one of those stately homes they have in the royal isles." Jessica thought as she walked to the staircase.

She had been inside only a few times before, but the juxtaposition against the rest of the base was always a little jarring. A few of the girls only spared her a half glance before returning to what they were doing, though she could feel the gazes of some of the larger, more protective ships following her across the room.

"Jessica." A soft gentle tone called out to her just before she reached the stairs. Glancing over she saw it was Fletcher that had called her name. The destroyer promptly finished up the conversation with a slightly taller blond haired girl. The tall bunny ears adorning her head helped Jessica dredge up the name Benson from her memory.

Fletcher made her way over to the new commander, pushing her green glasses closer to her eyes with a finger as habitually as it was for her.

"I believe congratulations are in order. I was happy to hear of your promotion, I know how hard you worked to achieve it." She offered up a hand.

"Thanks, It would have been rude to not achieve it after all the help you and your sisters gave me." Jessica shook. "How have you been recently? Haven't seen you around base all that much."

"Oh, you know. The usual. Dealing with all my sister's constant antics, Sometimes I envy you humans and your tendency to only have a low number of siblings. Had to spend half the night speaking to engineers halfway across the world to help with repairs to Charles." Fletcher noticed Jessica's expression change to one of worry. She waved away any concern. "Don't worry, it's nothing too major. Just my sister being her speed addicted self as always."

"Sounds like Charles." Jessica noted, sharing a smile. "I have to give you kudos for managing all your sisters. I only have three siblings and it was a nigh-constant nightmare growing up."

"You get used to it. And it means I never have a dull day." The destroyer let out a long sigh. "Though recently there's always so many of us out on patrol nowadays; our room keeps getting quieter and quieter. I hope we can at least spend Thanksgiving together this year."

"I hope you can too." Jessica said with a smile. "Did any of your sisters get assigned a commander? Haven't been able to see the full deployment list yet and I was curious."

Fletcher shook her head, the large bow holding her ponytail saying as her head moved. "I told my sisters they were free to do what they wanted but none put her name down and the navy didn't seem to care. Probably for the better anyway, my sisters tend to be rather… esoteric when it comes to brewing up rather mischievous schemes and I'd hate for them to get anyone in trouble."

The destroyer looked around to see if anyone was paying too much attention to the conversation, when she didn't spot anyone she leaned forward and whispered in a more conspiratorial tone. "And most of us don't like the idea of not being under direct command of the Commander anymore. Interpret that how you want."

"Oh?" Jessica's brow furrowed. "Anything bad brewing?"

"Hopefully nothing too serious and just a case of damaged pride."

Fletcher adjusted her glasses, then lit up as she remembered something. "Ah, Bache told me to tell you that you looked very smart in your uniform yesterday from the photos she got from Columbia. She wished she could have been there to congratulate you in person but as always duty overrules personal desires.

"Story of my life." Jessica bemoaned. "Any news when she'll be back from patrol?"

"Hopefully not too long. The fleet was originally only supposed to be out for a month. But with all that's been going on here it's now steadily reaching three. They were recently laid over in port Belgrano for a week due to Phoenix having problems with her rudder, and are now out in the south atlantic relying on supplies being flown to Hornet." The lead ship sighed. "We may be ships but even we need some time off."

"Hopefully they'll be relieved soon, when everything is over and done with."

"We can hope so. It's supposed to be the Royal Navy's turn to patrol those waters but them along with the rest of our eastern cousins have been rather reclusive as of late, but I'll let that be a concern for someone who doesn't have more siblings than fingers." Fletcher waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, I won't keep you any longer, I'm sure you have a mountain of work to be done and I still need to go over our ship's engine design with Morrison."

"Right, thanks for the catchup." Jessica smiled. "Hope the problem with Charles' engine gets fixed soon."

"I'm sure once it's done another of my sisters will cause a new problem that needs solving." Fletcher chuckled wearily. "You should come round our dorm one evening, we can have some drinks and watch a movie, we would all love to have your company."

"I'll… give it some thought." Jessica said apprehensively. While she found it easy to speak with destroyers, a whole class of them in one room might be a little too much.

"Happy to hear. Talk to you later." Adjusting her glasses one more time Fletcher waved and merrily went on her way.

Jessica resumed her original objective and walked up the stairs. She reached the third floor, and found the walls and wood discoloured, presumably from patchwork repairs that had been painted over. She tried to imagine what eccentric characters had been responsible for the damage.

Her musings continued until she soon found herself standing before a door. Sixth one on the right just as Downes had said, any worries about it being a prank vanishing when she found the words 'Baltimore class' embroidered onto the doors nameplate.

She also remembered the silver haired destroyer's comment about just walking straight in. But after hovering her hand by the handle for a few seconds she eventually decided to knock.

After she had finished a cheerful voice called out. "Just come on in, it's always unlocked."

Mustering her resolve the young woman opened the door and stepped through.

For a few seconds she was seemingly alone in the large room, her eyes scanning over the furniture. There were two separate, differently coloured beds on opposite sides of the room each with matching night tables and wardrobes, one set pink, another blue. There was also a large sofa near the door with a woolly blanket draped over it. A soft aroma of white sage permeated throughout the air of the room, its source being a small incense stick slowly burning in on the room's small table.

The sound of footsteps pulled her attention towards a door leading to the rooms ensuite. Half dressed and with a toothbrush in her mouth Bremerton walked out from the doorway.

"Ah c-munder. G-mornin." The cruiser mumbled. "-Iggin your -reds."

Jessica stifled a sigh. "Finish up. You're going to end up getting toothpaste all over yourself." she said, letting the cruiser return to her morning activities. "And uh, good morning to you too."

Bremerton disappeared back to the ensuite. There was the sound of brushing soon followed by a tap running as she finished. Soon enough, she returned once more.

"I'm surprised whoever told you where to find my room didn't tell you that you could just come straight in, my door is always open to anyone." The cruiser said cheerfully, now running a brush through her fluffy pink hair. "Still, good to see you, really liking your style. You shoulda messaged me you were coming this early, would have got ready a little earlier."

"It passed my mind." The new commander lied, she had pondered sending a message but decided against it, feeling that once that bell had been rung she would end up getting nonstop messages from the overbearing cruiser. "Sorry for coming unannounced, and while you're still getting dressed."

"Eh, it doesn't bother me." The cruiser walked over to her wardrobe (the pink one, to no one's surprise). "Could you pass me my hair clips, they should be on my bedside table." She asked while fishing out her clothes.

"Yeah, sure." Jessica walked over to the small table, finding it cluttered with an extensive array of beauty and self care products, ranging from expensive cream jars, more types of natural oils that Jessica had seen in her life, to a wild assortment of nail polishes and everything in between. The only clear space was a small rectangle where she assumed Bremerton placed her phone at night. She eventually spied the two long plastic hair clips she had seen her wear the day before. She picked them up and carried them over to the now changing cruiser.

"Ta." Bremerton thanked while temporarily placing them atop the wardrobe before pulling her pyjamas off to get dressed. "So what's the plan for today? Wanna head into town? Intrepid said there's a nice li'l coffee shop that serves the best pastries and even offers a discount to you sailors."

"Maybe, i-if we get time." Jessica tried her hardest not to stare, while it wasn't like she wasn't used to being around others getting changed, it was common knowledge that while most had more normal body types some of the ship girls leaned a little on the more exaggerated side, and Bremerton's body was definitely part of the latter. "While we may not have any official orders, there is still work to be done." She said, trying not to blush at the sight of the ship girl's curvy figure.

"Huh. Well, we'll have to work doubly hard then." Bremerton looked over to Jessica as she pulled up one of her stockings, oblivious to the discomfort of her guest.

With the cruiser now at a somewhat state of decent clothing–or as close as she was probably going to ever get with her… "uniform", Jessica was able to relax somewhat.

"Not really something we can rush. We basically need to go back and forth between the storehouses and the docks, ferrying supplies to the ships due to ship out in the coming days. Nothing too fancy, just some basic provisions and equipment."

Bremerton looked at her new commander through the mirror on the wardrobe's door while tying her hair up. "Huh. Surprised they got you doing such menial work."

Jessica decided not to say that she had volunteered for the work after spending the early hours of the morning contemplating what she was supposed to do with the cruiser all day. "Well… with how hectic everything is, it's all hands on deck. And you know how it is, nobody is ever too important to do a job that needs doing."

"Huh, yeah. I guess that makes sense." Bremerton agreed. "Well, let me just grab my phone and we can get going. Rather excited to finally get to do a day's work."

"Really?" Jessica looked at the cruiser as they began their walk towards the door. "You've never had any work to do? I always see you girls out and about on base doing things."

The buxom cruiser sighed. "Well, I've helped out around the dorms like in the kitchen and during the weekly cleandown. But my name has never appeared in the rotas, so I've just been left to my own devices since I arrived."

Jessica waved to a destroyer as they passed in the corridor. "Lucky." She said, returning to the conversation. "There were times in my training where I barely got five minutes to myself. You'll be wishing for those relaxing times when we're up to our necks in work."

"Heh, Balti said something similar. But I can tell you just sitting around in port slowly rusting away isn't the best life either."

Once the duo had reached the ground floor a room off to the side caught Bremerton's attention. "Ah. Haven't had breakfast." She checked the time on her phone. "Should still be serving. Have you had anything to eat yet?"

"Uhh." Jessica had already eaten a few hours ago, but she had the creeping feeling that Bremerton would just forgo breakfast if she said she did. "I hadn't actually, We're running a little behind though, so we'll just have to get something light."

The canteen seemed to be the only part of the dorms that hinted at it actually being a military building, from laminated floors to bench like tables and a large serving counter in front of a door leading into the kitchen. But then there were other features. From small indoor plants scattered around to drawings and photos dotted all over the walls. It seemed like just as anywhere the shipgirls occupied they tried their hardest to make it feel like home, there was even a small group–fleet?–Of girls still eating their breakfast while watching cartoons on a television mounted to the wall.

"Ah! Sterling, well ain't ya a sight for sore eyes." A southern tone drew the woman's attention. The owner of the voice has been Nevada, the tough willed battleship who was currently in the process of cleaning down empty parts of the serving counter. "Congratulations on yer promotion by the way, always happy to see a young'un making a name for 'erself. Pass on ma word to Ford if ya see him, kid sure can take a drink."

"I'll be sure to. Thanks for dragging him back to his room yesterday by the way. Would have been hell to pay if the MP's had found him."

"Was no problem. It was partially ma fault for getting him 'n such a state, can never turn down a challenge." She brushed aside the bang that covered half of her face, temporarily exposing her usually obscured right eye, before her sandy brown hair fell back to its usual position. "Kid's got a good head on his shoulders. His usual sweet talkin' had me a bit woozy, and I offer'd to take him to my room, but he rejected, statin' there's only one woman for his heart."

"Ooh? Who's this we're talking about?" Bremerton curiously asked, excited at the chance of gossip.

"Ford, one of the newly promoted commanders." Jessica informed the cruiser. "As for the love of his life, that would be the Royal navy battleship King George V. He met her one time and hasn't shut up about her since." She chuckled to herself. "Probably was jumping with joy at his posting to northern Europe."

Bremerton nodded with understanding. "I see, well I hope everything goes well for him. Have yet to meet a Royal Navy ship but I hear they are a good bunch."

Nevada hummed. "Bit too prim for my likin', but I've had the opportunity to sail with a few of the Georges'. A good group a' girls who know how to get a job done, And if loverboy does catch the eye of George, I can assure ya that the battleship lass will claim her prize no matter what."

Nodding her head once again the ever curious cruiser committed the gossip to memory.

Jessica spied the clock mounted on the wall. "Anyway, we need to get back on track, we only came here to grab a quick bite, still tons of work needed to be done." She grabbed a few slices of buttered toast, handing half to her pink haired companion. "Would love to talk for longer but we really must be going."

"Ahh, don't let me keep ya." She waved a hand. "If duty calls then that's all ya can do. But you really should be eatin' more, ain't gonna get no bigger of that's all your gettin'. Could whip ya up a hearty meal in no time if that's what you fancy."

Not really wanting to end up with a plate full of steak, Jessica shook her head. "Sorry, really gotta go, maybe some other time? I'll make sure to pass on your regards to Ford if I see him before he ships out."

"Fair enough." Nevada turned to face Bremerton. "Best not go causin' too much trouble for ya new commander, Brem. Not unless ya want a swarm of destroyers givin' you hassle." She said in a playful tone, though it was more of a joke than any meaningful warning.

"I'll be sure to keep it in mind. Give my best to Oklahoma, I heard her hull got a pretty bad scratch when she struck some shallows a few days back."

Nevada folded her arms and chuckled. "Dont worry too much, it will take more than that to lay a Nevada class low. Knowing the klutz that my sis is, she was probably daydreaming when it happened."

With the conversation finished Jessica and Bremerton said their farewells and left the canteen.

"So what was that about destroyers?" Bremerton asked while munching on a slice of toast.

"Nothing much." Jessica replied while opening the door to the outside. "Spent a fair bit of time of my training on a few Fletchers, it seems that once you become a friend of one, you become close friends of the entire class."

"Ah, I see. Those girls do tend to stick together like glue. They may be small, but I'm sure with enough of them even battleships would have a problem holding them off."

As the two passed the guard post Jesica took a quick look, seeing in the time since she'd passed by Downes had fallen asleep. The destroyer's head was comfortably resting on her arms as she snoozed. The commander considered intervening, but in hindsight Downes had been right, the patchwork repairs and eagle eyed capital ships inside the dorm would make any would-be intruder soon regret their decisions.


The job of ferrying supplies from the storehouses to the docks had been tedious at best. With a lot of ships due to sortie out in the afternoon they all needed to be supplied with enough provisions to last the trip, however with most of the ships only having one or two souls onboard there really wasn't all that much to be taken over to each ship and did not warrant using any type of motorised transport. Instead Jessica and Bremerton had resorted to pushing carts laden with crates back and forth

The cargo would either be left on the ramp to the ship if it was docked or in a designated area for the ship to come and pick up and take over to the ship themselves.

Jessica had done this type of monotonous work a million times over in the past, and like most of her fellow service members had built up a method of being able to let her body run on auto while her mind drifted. Not quite mindless, but there is only so much one can do to make a repetitive, menial task more engaging.

Bremerton however, really seemed to go at her own pace irregardless.

She had the natural ability to completely interrupt any sort of flow the woman tried to get into, but not due to any malice on her part, Jessica could tell the cruiser was unaware of her disruptions. From constantly chatting about the goings on of her fellow ship girls, to her constant querying about human life, stopping occasionally to check something on her phone or show Sterling something she found interesting.

A task that should have only taken a few hours had ended up taking almost the entire day, but eventually the final batch of cargo had been wheeled over to the ship it was destined for.

"So where abouts are you from anyway?" Bremerton asked while moving the last box from her cart and placing it on the pile. "Can't really get a pin on your accent, but that may be because you're like, the fifth human I've ever spoken to."

"Mmm?" Jessica looked up from the paperwork she was writing Memphis's name on. "Oh, uh. My family is back in Pierre, in South Dakota."

"South Dakota, huh." Bremerton hummed. "Pretty far from any ocean, all the way up there."

"Yeah, as far from it as you can get." Jessica murmured to herself, a drip of spite falling into her words.

"Huh? Something up?" The cruiser asked, only half hearing what Jessica had said.

"Oh uh, nothing." She said, dismissing any concerns. "Technically I'm originally from Santa Cruz in California. But my family moved from there around fourteen years ago when I was ten.

Bremerton hummed, trying to picture a younger version of her commander, but found herself struggling due to her kind seemingly not being able to age. "Any reason why you moved? Seems like a big downgrade from golden beaches to what I hear is a boring state, for a ship at least." The cruiser's face flushed with panic. "Uh, don't tell South Dakota I said that. I've never been able to get a read on that woman and I don't know how she would take that."

Sterling leaned against the handle to her cart and looked at the arrayed ships as they slowly bobbed on the water. "Well… Fifteen years ago anywhere near the coast wasn't considered the safest place to be."

"Ah… yeah…" Bremerton laughed sheepishly.

The Azur Lane alliance had been mostly a rumour and most nations who had the limited number of ship girls that were around back then had to fend for themselves, and if you weren't a major city you didn't get much in the way of a quick response.

Jessica tried to shake off the melancholic feeling. "But the main reason wasn't anything as dramatic as that, just my father had to go where work took him and with four children to feed a good job offer all the way up in South Dakota was too good to deny."

"I've heard stories about those times. The likes of Enterprise and Brooklyn helped the Commander pioneer the startings of the Azur Lane. Oh, to have been around during those glory days." Bremerton wished.

"I'm sure it wasn't always so glorious." The human woman sighed. She spotted two figures walking over, and the head of bubblegum pink hair immediately gave away who the woman was and her companion.

"Ford, Memphis. Good to see you two. Just finished delivering some supplies for ya." Jessica greeted, handing the manifest to the ship's owner who eagerly began studying the document.

Ford let a large navy blue duffle bag he had held over his shoulder swing down onto the concrete. "Great, even more stuff to lug around. Darn Navy had to go and give us less than a day to prepare for departure." He complained before perking up when he noticed Sterling's companion. "Well hello, miss. Don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting yet." he straightened up his shirt and offered a hand to her.

The cruiser matched the gesture. "Bremerton, nice to meetcha. You must be Ford, heard a fair few things about ya."

"Nothing bad I hope." He said with a confident smile. "But unfortunately I've heard next to nothing about such a sweet dame like you. I mus-Agh!" The man winced as Memphis' foot hammered on his toes, prompting the man to hop on one leg and Bremerton to giggle slightly.

"Huh." Jessica smiled. "Never thought to do that, I usually just hit him over the back of his head."

"Too high for me to reach." Memphis replied, her attention still on the paperwork for a moment longer before she finally looked up. "However, if he doesn't wind his act in he will be finding himself needing to swim his way to Europe."

"I will, I will. Just being polite." he pleaded to his new charge, tentatively putting his weight back on his injured foot.

"So when are you shipping out?" Jessica asked.

"In a few hours." he answered while straightening out his cap. "Nearly all of the ships to be deployed over in Europe are leaving today and those heading to the Pacific are leaving tomorrow. I had a look at the deployments, not gonna be many left here with you. But then again, an escort for Enterprise." He whistled. "Doesn't get any more prestigious than that."

"Yeah." The weight of the responsibility was still settling on the new commander's mind. "For now we are just to wait here until she deploys again."

"Speaking of deployments." Memphis interjected, and the ship beside the group suddenly became a hive of activity. A steady stream of jet black smoke began to pour from all four of the smokestacks as sensors and radars started to spin and warm up. All of this was joined by a deep rumble from the boilers as the ship slowly came to life. "We are starting to fall behind schedule. There is still a plethora of pre-departure checks we need to do and you need to get familiar with my command and control."

Ford let out a sigh. "Duty calls. Wish we could have all gotten together to celebrate, but it seems like the navy had other plans." He offered out a hand to Jessica. "I'll catch you around, Sterling. Drop me a message if you're ever in my neck of the woods."

"Aye, and try to not cause an international incident."

"No promises made!" He smirked, before tipping his hat towards Bremerton. "Wish I could have gotten to know a beautiful girl like you a little better, but guess it was just never meant to be." Memphis tapped her foot and the man chuckled.

Bremerton smiled. "It was nice meeting you too, I wish you the best of luck with George."

"You told her?" The man looked at Jessica with a hint of discomfort on his face.

"Not like you were keeping it that much of a secret. Oh and Nevada gives her regards, says to congratulate you on your promotion."

The man merely grumbled something before beginning the walk up the ramp.

It was Memphis' turn to offer Jessica her hand. "I had heard about you from some of the girls from time to time. I'm glad we got to meet before I left. Best of luck with Enterprise, don't worry about that overly serious demeanour she gives off, she's actually a rather laid back woman."

Jessica shook the cruiser's offered hand. "Thanks for the support. And if Ford gives you too much hassle, you have my permission to throw him overboard."

Memphis chuckled. "Will do. And Brem, congratulations to you too for the posting, make sure you show that carrier that us cruisers are still important."

"Will do. Give my best to Marblehead, I heard she was sent thataway a few weeks back. The makeup advice she gave me was rockin'."

The light cruiser nodded before grabbing a smaller crate and following her commander up the ramp towards her ship.

"Those two seem to get along well." Bremerton mused as the two began pushing the carts back towards the storehouse. The air had been filled with the smell of ship engine's beginning to power up. All over the docks ships were making their final preparations for departure.

Jessica looked out to the docks as they walked. "Ford may seem grating and his flirtatious tendencies have resulted in him getting slapped more times than I can count. but I can't deny he is dependable, and a hard worker where it counts. Though he has a serious problem when it comes to organising paperwork."

"Heh, he's lucky to have gotten Memphis then, there isn't a thing that passes that girls notice." Bremerton gave an approving whistle. "The Commander sure knew his stuff when picking assignments."

"Yeah, it seems like it." She sighed. Her gaze moving over to the bubilly cruiser that walked alongside her.

"If that's the case, what was his reason for pairing us?"


(A/N) Writing Nevada's tone was both fun and difficult.

I have been really enjoying writing this as it allows me to try out new techniques and styles. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing.