Sabre Dancing with the Dead Ch 35
Tokonosu, April 24 20xx
Day 20.
17:30
Wolf stood back from the map table, and watched as the staff officers mapped out the route. As he sipped his coffee, General Uchimoto came in from his inspection of the terminal defences. He looked at the mass of photos and the multi colored map. He nodded and turned to Wolf.
"Your recon flight did wonders for our planning. My officers have already determined that at least 65-70 % of the route should be very easy to traverse." He commented.
"Yeah, Saburo and I figure the hardest parts are going to be the bridges. One of the reasons we decided to grab a couple of Type 90 recovery vehicles from the base. Bulldozer blades, and cranes. That will make our lives a lot easier. I used a modified Komatsu truck to get from the high school to the club where my boat was moored. Getting through some of the blockages was made a lot easier because of the ability to shove cars and small trucks out of the way." Wolf replied as he turned from the map table.
As he looked at the photos of the bridges, it occurred to him that having the Type 90s was one thing. Having people skilled in the use of them was a whole other story. His people were at best amateurs who managed to get them started and moving... he turned towards the General.
"How many qualified engineers do you have in your group, sir?" he asked.
"Good question. I see your point." With that, the General waved one of his officers over, explained the need to find out how many engineers had made it to the perimeter. The officer saluted, and made a beeline to the admin section to check the rosters. He returned in 20 minutes and told them that there were 47 combat engineers in the land perimeter, and on the Island.
"Excellent. Thank you. Carry on with the route planning, but I'll have other orders for you shortly."
The officer turned back to the map table and went on with planning. The general in the mean time signalled Wolf to follow him back to his office. Once there, he bid Wolf to sit and he went around behind his desk.
"It seems that we will have to get some troops and those combat engineers over to your compound before your team leaves the safety of your perimeter. They won't do much good to you on the first leg of the march if they are all sitting behind our wall. Suggestions on how to accomplish that?
Wolf sipped his coffee for a moment and then replied with a grin. "You know if any of your people get sea sick? Getting them there will be easy. I'll return to my base, snag a couple of decent sailors and return with a couple of boats. Alternatively I could speak to Capt Nishizawa about loaning us his motor launch. It's a good 40 feet long and could carry at least 20 men."
"Who is this Capt Nishizawa? I don't recollect you mentioning him." the General asked.
"Oh, sorry. Capt Nishizawa is the Captain of a container ship moored at the Takagi docks. He and some of his crew survived by the simple expedient of pulling up the gangway. We met while my crew was securing the Takagi facilities."
"I see. It would be simpler and faster if that were to be arranged." the General replied.
"I'll see what i can do about it. How soon do you think we can get this show on the road?" Wolf asked.
"I expect my staff will have worked all the bugs out by tomorrow. Is there anything else you can think of that we should incorporate in the plan?"
"No General, nothing I can think of right now. The last little thing that had me worried was the crewing of the engineering units. My people could probably get the job done but if professionals are available we'd be fools not to use them." came the answer.
"Well Wolf, then may I suggest that you take your people home and get ready to collect the people we need to send to your location. You can always get me via radio, my comms officer will give you the direct frequency for this operations room. No point in letting the REMF's get all in an uproar by having them pass on a message."
Wolf thought about that for a moment, then laughed. "Aw come on General, it would be fun, don't you think?"
At that, Uchimoto burst into laughter as well. He stood, came round the desk and offered his hand as Wolf stood as well.
"I think you and your people will get along just fine with mine. We can take turns poking the REMFs."
The staff officers paused in their work, as the sound of raucous laughter was heard coming from Uchimoto's office. They all looked at each other and grinned. They might all be up to their butts in walking stiffs, facing the end of the world, but by god, their commander knew how to keep them all motivated. And sane to boot.
The civilian came out of the office, closely followed by their CO. Both were still chuckling. Wolf turned to the General and once more shook his hand, then turned and headed over where the other 3 of his people were standing. He spoke with them for a moment, and then followed the sentry who'd be ordered to escort them back to the harbour.
Deep in thought, General Uchimoto returned to his office and picked up a pen to write out orders to be sent to the engineering unit, requiring them to assemble at the Command center. Their help would be needed soon enough. He also wrote a warning order for Major Sagawa to select a 2nd in command, and 15 men to accompany the mission to the University. Sagawa had been right in contacting him to set up the meeting. This mission was of vital importance and Sagawa had already volunteered. His request would be granted. Sagawa was a "doomer" just like most of his inner circle. He brought much to the table.
On the way to the boat dock, Wolf and the others spoke about the mission planning so far. With an evil grin, he turned to Shizuka and inquired about the state of her "cherry". As he'd expected, Shizuka exploded, but this time Rika couldn't control it and burst into laughter as well. Saburo just turned away and tried to keep from laughing too. It took a few minutes to settle her down, but only after she'd given him a pretty respectable punch in the arm.
Arriving at the dock, the sentry saluted and turned back towards the terminal. All four got on board and made ready to cast off and head back to the yacht club. Wolf was pleasantly surprised when Shizuka, still glaring at him, moved straight to the helm position. He let her be and had Rika and Saburo make ready to hoist the main. This was done in short order and the jib was set to be hauled out.
He turned to Shizuka and asked her how she planned on getting off the dock. She'd been looking about, gauging the wind and noted that it was coming off the island and just about dead down the length of the dock they were alongside. She told him it would be much the same as when they'd left the mooring. Cast off the bow line, push the nose off, snub the stern line til they were clear of the dock, haul out the jib and away they'd go. As they turned to beam on, she would slack the main so it would not draw. The jib would be enough to get them turning down wind. Once they started to head down wind, she'd have Saburo haul it up tight to and then shove it out to the opposite side from the jib. They could then set the whisker pole and run downwind.
Wolf grinned at her, and told her to carry on. A huge smile burst out and she happily told the others what to do to get them going. The maneuver went without a hitch and 5 minutes later they were clearing the entrance to the Island Airport harbour.
He notice Shizuka looking about, trying to figure out where the club was, so he told her to steer about 135° as that would get them there. She nodded and told the others to get ready to trim sail as she slowly altered the course. Saburo had been paying attention and saw that they would be running with the wind on their starboard quarter. The main would have to come over to the other side and he started pulling it in as fast as he could. Eventually it reached the center line and he was able to let it out on the same side as the jib. Saburo glanced at him, and he just grinned and gave the flyer a thumbs up.
"We've got all summer to get people up to speed with sailing, Saburo. Don't worry, you'll get your turn. I suspect we will be sailing to relax once this mission is completed and we are into the grind of trying to set up a new world. I saw half a dozen sailing dinghies in the boat shed. It's a useful skill and very relaxing... Right Shizuka?"
Shizuka turned to him, a happy smile on her face. Gradually the smile faded. Her expression grew serious. "I never knew sailing could be so much fun. I'm not much of a technical person but driving this little boat is much more fun than driving a car. Thank you for teaching me, Wolf... I want to learn all of it. I suppose sailing in bad weather will terrify me, but it is a challenge I want to face."
The others sat in wonder, even Rika was surprised. Her timid girlfriend was rarely so serious. Wolf wasn't that surprised. He'd seen this change in people before. He'd always gotten a kick out of taking strangers out for a sail, watching the bug grab them. Sight seers on the dock would look over at his boat and sometimes strike up a conversation. More often than not, he'd invite them aboard and they'd end up going for their first sail. He figured that about half of them were so taken with sailing that they'd eventually end up with a boat of their own. The looks on their faces was much the same as the one that shone from Shizuka.
Shizuka paused, and checked the area, checked the set of the sails and had Saburo tighten up on the main sheet a bit. Satisfied that everything was right, she turned back to the 3 of them.
"Wolf, Rika, Saburo... our world is dead. It will never come back, not the way we knew it. All we have now, is each other and the skills and values we bring with us out of this chaos. I am a nurse. I hope to be a doctor one day. And I want to be a teacher as well. I've just found a new skill to master, and one day I'd like to be able to teach it to Alice chan." She paused in thought then continued. "We might as well be pioneering a new world, a hundred years ago. So learning new things will be what keeps us alive and passing that on to the next generation will keep them alive."
Wolf looked at her for a moment. "Well said Shizuka, Well said. You may never have heard about doomers, but you sure will make a good one"
The other two agreed and complimented the nurse on her insight. She gradually lost the serious expression and got back into the joy of sailing.
By this time it was about 18:30. Wolf looked at the sun slowly disappearing behind the hills in back of Tokonosu city. He glanced at Shizuka and asked her if she wanted him to take the helm once it was full on dark.
"No Wolf, not yet. The compass is lit, and I can make out the bonfire at the club so I know which way to go. There is nothing out here to bump into, so if it's alright, I want to keep at it til we get to the club. Getting in there will be tricky, so I'll just watch as you do it." she replied.
The sun sank out of sight behind the hills and darkness gathered. Shizuka kept them on a steady course, the wind was obliging and they made good time. The reached the entrance to the yacht basin by just after 8pm, and Wolf guided them in the last few hundred yards til they picked up their mooring. As they slowly moved into the basin, Shizuka was paying close attention and asking questions if Wolf wasn't giving her a play by play. By the time they got to the dock, most of the people there had gathered to welcome them home.
The crowd then moved into the club house where oil lamps lit the space with a nice cozy feel and the four were served a late supper. After that, they took turns telling people what they'd seen, who they'd met and how the planning was going. Wolf and Saburo answered endless questions as to what they'd seen while flying around the city. Finally, things started to fizzle out and by 11pm Kate and Wolf rowed out to sleep. Things were starting to come together.
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Author's notes: I don't own HOTD, or any of its characters. I just get to play in their universe. All characters in this story other than those listed below are (So far) my own.
Komuro Tadashi
Miyamoto Rei
Miyamoto Tadashi
Miyamoto Kiriko
Busujima Saeko
Takagi Saya
Hirano Kouta
Marikawa Shizuka
Marasato Alice
Minami Rika
Reviews gratefully accepted, as long as they are constructive and non-abusive.
Anyone interested in following the progress on the real life Sabre Dance is welcome to visit my builder's blog. Just search for Sabredancing. You'll find it. The gods have smiled on me. More like the executive decided that COVID had indeed put a dent into my two year rebuild timetable. They gave me one more year to get it done, and I've been putting in time working on her. Currently welding up the interior furniture framework from 1/8 angle iron.