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

No 9 Chapter 11

The engineer enjoyed the calm now that he was completely alone on the balcony. While checking some notifications on his phone he almost drank the fresh air that the seaside winds carried into the harbor. Only now did he realize how upset he was by what Eugen had done once again. Why would she use their friendship in such a stupid manner to prove a point of allegeance? All she did was to discredit him in front of others. People that he feared, yes. But also ones that helped him and with whom he was on good terms. Why did she pick such a stupid fight? Why would she want to ruin his friendship with some of them and the relationship of respect to all of them? For personal gain? For showing him who they really were? That he knew already. All she did was to show him that she was apparently just as willing to use him as her tool again as she claimed the others would do. In the end she had proven Gangut right.
He grimaced. After the party he will have to get a hold of her and give her a piece of his mind. Snorting in anger he cleared his mind and shook his body as almost in an attempt to shake the anger out of himself before he was going to go back inside.
He closed his phone and while storing it away in his uniform pockets he looked across the yard that stretched out beneath his view. Next to the many cars with officials and other guests had arrived the engineer saw many of the drivers and guards stand together to chat while smoking, he saw some of the guests catching fresh air like he did while some others seemed to escort friends of theirs out that had visibly too much to drink. In between the two dozen odd people all over the courtyard the engineer spotted two people he would have rather not seen here. Kronshtadt and Chapayev had made their way out and were on their way to exit the courtyard between a barracks building and an administrative building towards the direction of the naval bases archive and the adjacent research area that was on the other side of the basin in that direction. The engineer's inner alrambells started to all go off immediately. He knew better than to let these two unsupervised go anywhere. He hurriedly walked along the balcony to its outside set of stairs from which he left the height of the first floor of the main hall and entered the courtyard as well. He knew the shortcuts through the base and therefore hurried to get a lead on the two Northern Parliament ships. He started to run though the old barracks buildings and was soon sure he had overtaken the two slowly walking warships when he realized he could neither be in all places that could be of interest to the two ships nor could he, as a mere human, stop them. He stopped in his tracks and reached for his phone to call his friend Fritz. It took a couple of moments before his friend picked up. By the amount of noise audible through the phone speaker of his friend the engineer knew that he was still in the main hall partaking in the celebrations. "How may I help you?" Fritz yelled into his phone over the background noise. "Kronshtadt and Chapayev are outside and heading into the direction of the archive and our research department." The engineer answered with a loud voice in the hope that his voice was audible to his friend over the noise of the celebrations. "They are away?" Fritz asked, telling the engineer that his words were understood. "Yes they are. I am trying to arrive ahead of them wherever they want to be. I do need help though since I can't be at our place of the archive at the same time and neither can I alone stop them. Can you cover the archive with one or two ships? I will continue to our part of the base to make sure they don't get the research. Do send me some of the girls as well." The engineer yelled into his phone. "I am on my way. I will get some of the ships to follow me and meet up with you at the document room of the research facility in our part of the base." Fritz agreed before ending the conversation.

Feeling better that support was on the way and others were warned, the engineer picked up where he had left and ran towards the two buildings and the covered dock that made up their research facility.

Prinz Eugen laughed amused about how awkward Tallinn and Hipper both tried to make conversation without flattering the other too much while she herself enjoyed the spectacle and her 32nd glass of Whiskey. Weser and Mainz both added to the conversation with the odd comments and anecdote. Eugen had her fun and was happy to see almost all of her sisters spending time together. She overlooked the point that she would have to have a talk with Tallinn regarding her treatment of her dear friend, but that was a conversation for a coming day. But what worried her was that she could not see Chapayev and Kronshtadt nor her friend. The engineer was adamant that the two would be up to no good. But she had also not received any news from him about the two. When the two excused themselves to go and find their admiral the cruiser was not bothered by the fact. But that the officers of the Northern Parliament returned to their table without the two ships had started her suspicions. "Tut mir leid dass ich störe. Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Mainz und Weser. Ihr werdet gebraucht. Weser, schnapp dir Hipper und sehe zu das du mit Friedrich der Große zum Archiv der Basis kommst. Mainz, nehme Prinz Eugen mit und trefft euch mit Ulrich von Hutten und Prinz Heinrich bei meinem Arbeitsplatz ein. Unser Ingenieur ist schon auf dem Weg dorthin. Wir haben wohl unerwünschte Mitleser dort zu erwarten." Fritz Mahler informed the Hipper sisters in Ironblood. The fact that Tallinn was perfectly capable of understanding him must have slipped the officers mind. Then again Eugen did not think that he cared if she understood him and he also used vague language to not call out anyone by name but she knew who was meant and all of them knew what was most likely happening. The sisters looked at each other before they paired up and hurried on their way. "I will show you the way. Heinrich and Hutten will be on their way already I guess." Mainz told her older sister while the two hurried over the courtyard. "Do you know more?" She asked Eugen. "Our friend had the suspicion that some of the Northern Parliament ships might be up to nothing good. By the way Fritz split us. I guess they spotted a potential danger and called on us and the others to hinder the ships from getting any sensitive information." Eugen told her sisters briefly what the rough plan was most likely going to be. The fact that she worried about was, that her friend the engineer, was probably out alone. She hoped that he had got himself an escort for his own sake. Facing other Shipgirls alone could be the end of him. But she was quite sure that he was with Ulrich von Hutten and Prinz Heinrich. He would not be stupid enough to head out alone in such a situation. He had plenty of experience of what it meant to deal alone with Shipgirls after all. At least that was what she hoped for. But her doubt about this hope was also there, knowing how the engineer liked to take the initiative despite knowing better on some occasions.