The adventures of the young engineer and Prinz Eugen Volume 2.

Adventure No. 9 "Endings" Chapter 1

Prinz Eugen looked forward to the Kieler Woche, the great naval review was a festivity she quite enjoyed. She had fond memories of the times all the visitors came to see her and the other ships of the navy as well as foreign guests. All the people who admired their shapes and beauty and the pride she felt radiating off her crew every time they were able to present their ship, her, to the world. Since she had become conscious the festivities had changed but the socializing and showing off had not. But now she was able to not just witness the celebration but it would be her 24th year she would take an active part in them. But what made her the most excited were two other things. Apparently after the festivities a large exercise was planned in which large elements of the fleet were supposed to take part in. The idea of finally being able to plan a large operation made her excited and so many ideas for maneuvers and tactics came to her mind for any possible situation. Serving as the leader of one of the cruiser and destroyer formations excited her. But even more exciting was the fact that she was going to be able to spend some time with her friend. Ever since the engineer got reassigned he was almost never let out of the base. Sure they talked on the phone regularly at least once every couple of days, but the amount of times she had seen him, when he had a day off over the last two years since their shared and turbulent vacation amounted to less than a week. He only ever got some time off when a holiday was around or he had worked so much overtime they could not pay him out. She knew how little time he had and she appreciated him for coming to Wesermünde, to his home to spend the time with her, Hipper and his Godfather. But after he got transferred away together with Fritz Mahler and the researchers, the base had become little more than a quiet refuling station. Only the Submarines had active duty and she, Hipper and their half dozen escorting destroyers had been held in reserve if the ugly sisters needed any help in mopping up Sirens that dared to enter their waters. Perhaps this was finally the moment when the two could get the private conversation eye to eye to catch up.

She got ripped out of her thoughts by a figure appearing in her sight. The young engineer that had been assigned to her at the beginning of the year had appeared, dressed in his dark blue naval uniform. The fact that the barley 20 year old boy had completely wetted his clothes and soiled his uniform when he had made her rigging ready amused her. The contrast to her old engineer could not have been bigger. The latter always wore a combination of civilian clothing and work clothes that could get dirty and were water resistant. This one wore his full uniform and soiled and damaged it every day. But she had to admit that despite his lack of practicality and perfectionism, he did his job alright. She could tell that he was one of the engineers that had enjoyed old Wiedlings tutelage in the naval academy for engineers. "Your rigging is ready." He informed her. "Thank you Walter." She smiled before standing up from her sofa and walked onto the surface of the water in her basin. She quickly attached her rigging to her while Walter opened the lock of her dock. She preferred to put on her rigging by herself. Ever since her old engineer left she had not quite trusted any of the others after one of them groped her when assisting her in attaching the rigging. Since then she had grown weary of them, after she realized that far fewer people were as prude as her old engineer. Passing Walter at the lock, she waved him goodbye and met up with Hipper in the larger basin inside the bunker. "I see you are ready as well, dear sister." She greeted her older sister. "Obviously you klutz, I have been waiting for you for almost 20 minutes." Hipper complained. "Our destroyers have already left the harbor and are waiting for us in the river mouth." She informed her younger sister. "Are you ready to head over to Kiel through the channel?" Hipper asked. "Sure thing." Prinz Eugen smiled and started to accelerate. "Hey! Wait, I am supposed to lead us!" Hipper yelled infuriated and started to catch up.