The Iowa Sisters #1 Pacific Fire

Chapter 27

ULITHI APRIL 1945 "PENNSYLVANIA"

I watched with amusement as Missouri led Wisconsin to a makeshift scale. "47000 tons, that's not good." Missouri muttered. Wisconsin normally weighed 45000 tons and with no fuel or provisions on board at the moment, that was her designated weight or at least it should've been. Just to be sure, Missouri stepped on the scale. Sure enough, it read 45000 even.

"You need to cut back on the ice cream, sis." She said. Wisconsin glared at her. "I'm not exactly the same as you. My designated weight was around 47000 tons and up to 55000 tons when fully laden with fuel and supplies." She hissed.

"Or fully laden with fat." Nevada whispered to California. The other battleship snickered. "Enough." I ordered. They shut up at once. Indianapolis came over.

"You called for me?" She asked. "Yes, I did. I want you to make a run over to Tinian. There's a special cargo that just arrived from the states and it's important that you get it there safely." I ordered.

She looked at me closely. "It's the uranium isn't it?" She asked. I smiled sadly, Indianapolis didn't miss a thing. "Yes, it is. It's about half the world's supply and is all that we have currently. It is vital to the war effort and under no circumstances should it fall into enemy hands." I said.

"In other words, if I'm caught you want me to sink with it?" She asked. "Yep." I replied. She sighed. "Why me Pennsy, you know how I feel about this?" She asked. "You're the right ship for the job and orders are orders. I don't like it either, it'll bring great destruction and will usher in a new age of armament on both sides like HMS Dreadnought did in Europe but it must be done. Germany has been developing their own bomb as has Russia. If anyone is going to have this thing first, it's going to be us." I growled.

"A good old fashioned pile on, great." She said sarcastically. "Believe me Inde, this is that last thing I want to do." I growled. "I know that, it's the last thing I want to do too." She sighed again. "Alright, I'll do it. You do realize that this thing might not work, but if it does, it could very well destroy us all." She hissed.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that." I replied. She dipped her head and left. I heard a frustrated yowl and turned in time to see Wisconsin rolling heavily onto her side. Missouri stood over her, triumphant. "Got ya!" She laughed.

"No you didn't." Wisconsin replied and leaped playfully at her. But she was slow and her blows were clumsy. Missouri quickly flipped her on her back again. "Ugh, I had you." Wisconsin complained.

"And that folks, is a perfect example of what happens when you have two helpings of vanilla ice cream." Nevada said in an announcer's voice. Wisconsin craned her neck around to glare at her. "Shut up you insufferable little seaworm." She growled.

"And you tell me to watch my language." Missouri teased. "Oh be quiet." Wisconsin snapped. She pushed Missouri off her and rose to her feet. "Could you show me that move again?" She asked. "Sure." Missouri replied.

The two sisters resumed their training. Missouri teaching and Wisconsin carefully copying her. I watched them for a time, and then turned my attention to Enterprise. Vestal's apprentice was busy stacking herbs as I approached.

"Hey En, what's the store like?" I asked. She shrugged. "We've got plenty of herbs to treat wounds, thank the Ancients but we're very low on lavender and we're out of tansy. Plus, they're not in season right now so I have no way of replacing them. If a ship gets sick, she's done for." She replied.

"There's a large stock of it, but it's in Tokyo." She added. "Well, I hope Vestal's aware of that too and does some trading while she's over there." I said. "Vestal knows, she'll bring some back. But as to what herb of ours she'll switch it with, that depends on what they're low on over there." She said.