Chapter 3

"I can't go any closer..."

"No, this is fine. Don't worry about it Sara."

I clenched my fist by my side, looking out at the ruined naval station. Thick, choking black smoke rose from ruined buildings, black splotches in an otherwise clear sky. There were no flames...but that hardly mattered. Because even from this distance, the debris in the water too cluttered for a ship of Sara's size to get closer, I could see the damage. Shattered frames. Ruined walls. Blackened roofs.

Naval Station Guam was a destroyed husk.

"Danny, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lena whispered softly by my side, her hand gripping my own tightly.

"Yeah..." I forced my hand to relax, gently squeezing my sister's. The smell of burning wood and tortured metal was quite clear in the air, but I tried to avoid focusing on that. "Whatever did this hit hard and fast. Maybe more than once."

Casting one last look at the ruined buildings, I turned my head instead to the woman who had gotten us here.

"Sara? What do you think?"

The aircraft carrier, her blue eyes filled with an old pain, shook her head at me, "I...this reminds me far too much of Pearl Harbor, Captain. The way that the buildings were hit. The ship in dock. I...it..." Sara sucked in a breath, her shoulders shaking ever so slightly. "It's all too familiar."

"That's what I thought too." A sigh escaped my lips. Yeah...this was way too familiar. "Might even have been a carrier that did this. And if it's still around..."

I didn't need to finish the sentence. I didn't finish it. Lena sent me a sharp look, and Sara flinched slightly. Couldn't blame either of them, this was all so very new and frightening. In more ways than one!

But yet, familiar. A surprise attack on an American naval base, but no land invasion. Ruined ships and buildings, but no troops. The parallels were worrying.

Letting out another sigh, I shook my head and walked away from the railing I had been standing next to. "Come on, we need to get down there. If this was a carrier, I want to see if anyone's alive out there who can tell us. Better to know than not to know, right?"

"You're the Captain," Lena shrugged, a forced levity to her tone. A strained smile on her face, "I mean, literally. And all."

Even in this situation, I couldn't help but roll my eyes, "Yeah, I am."

I appreciated the gesture though, and if the smile Sara wore was any indication, so did she. I had only known her for a few days, but I liked to think I was getting better at reading her. She reminded me of some teacher's I'd had once upon a time...quiet and calm. It was relaxing to talk to her, honestly, and her smile just had you wishing you saw it more often.

Hopefully, I will see it more often. But for now...

Well, for now we needed to get to the island. And for that, we had an old whaleboat. That the carrier was standing at the wheel of, while a crane moved to lower it into the water.

Good thing Sara inherited some things from her crew, eh?

"Let's get going," I clambered into the boat, my legs brushing against the rough wood. The sound of my body dropping into the boat, Lena soon to follow, was loud. A rough slap of flesh against wood.

But at least it was better than explosions.

"I'm ready when you are, Captain..." Sara spoke softly, her crane reaching down to the hoist mounted on the whaleboat. "Are you sure you don't want to go closer to shore?"

A small frown crossed my face, "Completely sure, Sara. If we have to leave quickly, I'd rather not have to worry about you running aground or into a wreck."

Even as I said that, I placed a hand on her arm, my frown twisting into what I hoped was a comforting smile.

"That said, I'm glad you're questioning things."

The carrier flushed bright pink at that, but her smile- small as it was -could have lit up an opera house.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Stepping out of the whaleboat and onto solid ground, I found myself missing that smile. Away from the massive form of Saratoga, the smoke in the air was far more present. I could taste the harshness of burning wood. And it wasn't like that was the only issue, the smell of fire and death...

It's one thing to fight a battle from a distance, and I haven't even really done that...

Squaring my shoulders, I pushed forward from the cracked little pier we had docked at. I didn't need to look over my shoulder to see that Sara and Lena were following, but they were both silent. My sister was probably struggling to take everything in...if it was hard on me, it was worse on her. She was not a soldier of any stripe. Sara...well.

She was just quiet in general.

"Hello!" I called out, cupping my hands over my mouth, "Is anyone still alive out here?!"

I wasn't sure if I expected an answer, but I had to at least try.

And yet, only silence greeted the shout. Save for the rush of wind and the distant crackle of fires and collapsing buildings. It was a warzone, right out of a movie. And it...I...

"Captain..." Sara's soft voice was the only answer. "Wouldn't anyone still alive have..."

Sighing, I nodded wearily, "Yeah. Anyone alive would have moved to safer ground by now."

"Well, then shouldn't we do that?" Lena's voice was far more shaky than mine or Sara's, when she spoke.

Twisting around to look at my sister, I frowned slightly. She had her arms wrapped around her chest, the water-stained fabric of her shirt stretched taught over her torso. Her shoulders shook. And when she noticed me staring? She turned her eyes up to meet my own, blue meeting green.

Haunted look meeting sad reality.

"Yeah, we need to find someone," I may have said that, but I still turned around and walked back to my sister. Lena grimaced at my action, but she didn't move away.

She just stood there when I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and squeezed gently.

"I'm not a kid, Danny..." Lena weakly protested. But still, she didn't move.

I just sighed, "No, you aren't. But you aren't a soldier either." Giving another gentle squeeze, I turned my head to Sara. Who, for her part, was just giving us both a sad smile. "Come on, let's get moving again. We're not going to find anyone here."

"Lead the way, Captain." Sara replied, holding up her hand to gesture at the smoking buildings in the distance.

Another sigh rumbled it's way up my throat, as I shook my head. This was, in more ways than one, not what I expected to be doing when I joined the Navy. But it didn't stop me from walking forward anyway, Lena tucked to my side. In any other situation, both of us would have been protesting that. My arm around her shoulder as I guided her along a charred road.

But then, this wasn't most situations.

Our feet crunching along broken asphalt was not normal. The whistle of wind through burnt out husks, was not something we should hear. Seeing an American military base reduced to ruins...

Hit harder than it probably should have.

"Captain," Sara pulled up alongside me, her steps much louder than my own, "I...I think there might be someone close."

My back stiffened, but I didn't show any other outward signs of noticing, "Hm?"

"I can hear footsteps. Maybe because I have to hear things far away from my hull...?" The old carrier trailed off, shaking her head sharply. Strawberry blonde slapped against her cheeks- and mine -as her blue eyes narrowed slightly. "I guess it doesn't matter. There's someone out there. I'm sure of it!"

"I see..."

Turning my head up, I scanned the dilapidated buildings we were rapidly approaching. Guam was not my home port, but even with the damage done I could- and did -recognize the central offices of the Naval Station.

And, if I looked just right, the glint of a rifle scope peaking out from one of the shattered windows.

"Danny..." Lena seemed to have noticed as well, tucking in tighter to my side.

Yeah, she was afraid alright.

"Don't worry sis," I gently gripped her shoulder, staring up at the building. Thrusting my chest out, I shouted at the loudest tone I could make my voice go, "I see you there! There is no need to worry, I'm a Captain in the United States Navy!"

Admittedly, my shorts and dark grey t-shirt that I had been wearing when Bikini was attacked did little to emphasize that image...

"Name and ID!"

Yet, a voice shouted back. A hoarse voice, with more than a little pain held in its tone. But a very human voice, nonetheless.

Without even realizing it, my shoulders slumped slightly in relief. Hostile or not, suspicious or not, at least someone was alive.

"Daniel Jones, Captain USN, 00815747!" And if my voice held a little bit of that relief when I listed off my name, rank and serial number? Well...I couldn't well be blamed for that, now could I?

And indeed, the rifle in the window lowered. Or, at the least, the glint vanished. Replaced by a haggard face of a Marine, his brown eyes filled with a hunted look, even from this distance. A white cloth was wrapped around his forehead, red staining the fabric. There was a barely healed cut crossing across his cheek as well, the man clearly having been through...whatever had attacked Guam.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear a friendly voice, Captain!" The Marine's gruff voice shouted down from the window, a hint of confusion in it now. But mostly relief similar to my own. "You come in on that carrier? Never seen one like it!"

"I did, yes!" My eyes drifted to Sara, but only for a split-second. The situation was going to be confusing enough without explaining exactly what carrier I had come in on. "Your name, Marine? And what happened here?"

The Marine's roughed-up face twisted into a sardonic smile, a hand- presumably the hand not gripping his rifle -coming up in a non-regulation salute, "Corporal Tom Hackett, sir. And...well, it'd be easier to take you to the Colonel to explain that, Captain."

A colonel...well...

"At least someone is in command here," I muttered softly, finally pulling away from my sister and setting up towards the damaged building, "Will do! Just let whoever else is in there know I'm coming with my sister and a..." Green eyes drifted to Sara again, noting the nervousness in her stance. "A friend."

"Will do sir!" Hackett called back, vanishing from the window.

And leaving me to wonder exactly how this meeting was going to go...

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"I apologize for the condition of our base, Captain...and for the fact that your sister and friend have to wait with the civilians."

My first impression of Colonel Mann was that the Marine had been through hell and back...and done it more than once. His face was swathed in bandages, some darkened with old blood. The faintest stubble was visible where the bandages didn't cover, covering a square chin. A strong chin. In fact, one could say that about the man entirely. He was built like a tank. All muscle and squareness, that just emphasized what the bandages already said.

That he was a tough old dog who wouldn't stay down as long as he was needed.

Granted, his dark brown eyes staring out at me with an appraising expression probably helped that case...

"Considering what hit you, I'd say it's a good thing there's anything intact at all," I replied, hand unconsciously tapping at my leg. Nerves...yeah, even I'd admit I was nervous about this. "And I apologize for being out of uniform. My sister and I were visiting Bikini to dive on the wrecks when this all happened. We got very lucky to still be alive."

"Aren't we all?" Colonel Mann gave a rhetorical reply, gesturing with his bandage-swathed hand at the ruined office we sat in. Papers were scattered every which way, the plaster of the walls were cracked...and the door was flat out missing.

The man had a point.

"That said, what I want to know is where you found an old World War Two flattop to sail around in," the gruff Marine continued, his sharp eyes narrowing at me.

My hand immediately stopped tapping, as I froze in place. Despite myself, I couldn't stop my green eyes from widening at the Colonel, his own mouth twisting into a solid frown. There was no humor in his expression at all. And it had me sweating slightly.

"You actually know what she is?" My voice was admirably calm as I asked that, despite having to force myself from twitching at the other man's gaze.

Mann laughed harshly, "It's not a supercarrier. And the monsters that did this had one like it."

Lexington...?

"Like Sara?"

The Marine frowned, "So that's her name. And no, not exactly. But a straight deck? Smaller than a supercarrier?"

On the one hand, I felt myself sag slightly in relief. I did not want to be the one to tell Sara that either her sister was one of these monsters...or that they were using her form. On the other hand, it confirmed what I had feared in the first place. That the similarities to the attack on Pearl weren't just similarities. It had been an air attack, perhaps more than one. Carriers attacking the Marianas...

And for all we knew, that carrier was still out there...somewhere.

"If you have any pictures, I might be able to tell you what it was, exactly," I sucked down a breath while saying that, in an attempt to steady my nerves. This was so very out of my experience...but I had to move forward. No other choice. "That aside...how many people are still alive? Were the cities hit?"

Colonel Mann still looked at me with narrowed eyes, but the old Marine sighed softly nonetheless. His hands fell down on the desk he sat behind, the older wood creaking with the motion.

"We have pictures of that bitch, yeah." Mann practically spat those words out, his fingers clenched tightly against the desk. "And yes, the cities were hit. Bastards hit them right after our last fighter was shot down. They didn't do much damage, but we still lost most of the military personnel on the island. Probably a few hundred civilians too. We're still combing the cities to see how many died."

My heart dropped into my stomach, shoulders slumping completely. "Oh god..."

"God ain't got nothing to do with this, Captain. Now, I don't much care where you got that carrier. But I want to know if you can get your crew down here and help us search the cities."

"I..." Shaking my head, I turned my eyes on the old Marine, staring directly into his own. This wasn't going to be an easy thing to explain... "I don't have a crew."

"What?" Mann's voice was flat and cold, his eyes narrowed to flint.

"I don't have a crew." I repeated, my gaze flicking to the doorway where I knew Sara was. "It...it'll take a bit to explain."

And wasn't that an understatement.

---

For the first time since she had returned, Sara found herself alone. Her Captain, her dear Captain, was talking with the Colonel in charge of the survivors. Lena had gone off in search of food. And that had left her, standing on the steps of the ruined building, looking out at the distant harbor. And for all that it was clothed in smoke, at her hull. It was...it was a very strange feeling being this far from her hull. Leaving it at all, in fact.

It was almost like looking at her body, despite knowing that her body was the arm pointing out at her hull. She still couldn't shake the feeling that the large stacks, so very distinctive as her and Lex's, were what she should be. The long, lean lines of her battlecruiser hull. Not the thin arm or powerful legs of her body. It was...hard to disassociate herself from her hull.

So very hard...

"Oh Captain...I don't even know what to feel..." Sara sighed softly, her arm dropping back to her side, even as her left rose to gently comb through her strawberry-blonde hair.

It was sad, but she wanted to talk to her Captain. Their talks had always been so informative...so different. For someone who had never talked to another soul save for her fellow warships- Lexie... -it was a very strange feeling. But a nice one.

And talking with him helped her learn what it was like to be something other than a ship.

Letting out another melancholic sigh, the old carrier began to turn away from the distant harbor...

Only to run smack into a small body.

"I'm sorry!" A tiny voice cried, an equally small body flinching back from Sara's towering form. "I was just going to ask if you wanted any water miss..."

Sara blinked slowly, looking down on a young boy. No older than ten, his bright blue eyes stared up at her curiously. And she stared back just as curiously, wondering where he had come from.

"It's alright," still, Sara smiled softly, crouching down to look the boy in the eyes at his level. "And thank you, but I don't need any water right now."

"Are you sure?" The boy shuffled slightly, wide eyes staring at the carrier.

"I'm sure." Sara nodded, though part of her...

Well, part of her couldn't help but wonder if turning the water down was a bad thing. The boy had come out here to bring it to her, despite the fact his clothes were dirty. There was a small bandage across his cheek even. And his smile had faded slightly...

"I guess I can bring it back to Mama then." The boy sighed himself, tucking the bright blue water-bottle under his arm. "But, what's your name, miss? So I can find you again?"

Small smile crossing her face, Sara replied, "I'm...Sara."

"Just Sara?"

"Just Sara." The carrier confirmed, voice quiet.

She couldn't very well tell him she was Saratoga, could she? Though part of her wondered if saying that would even mean anything to the boy. Her Captain...well, it was easy to forget when talking to him that he knew more than anyone. How many people even knew she existed, leave alone what her name was? Not many, and even she knew that. She had known it when she rested in that isle.

Sara knew it even more now, with what her dear officer had told her. And maybe, just a little...it saddened her. To be forgotten like that.

"Well, I'm Barry," the pale little boy held out his free hand, holding it at Sara. "Nice to meet you!"

Smile remaining in place, Sara hesitantly reached out and took the hand. Barry shook it up and down, a wide grin on his own face, despite it tugging on the bandage on his cheek.

"Nice to meet you too," the old carrier let her hand fall away from the boy's, her voice taking on a little curiosity in its tone, "Your mother is here too?"

"Yup!" Barry brightly replied...but it quickly faded, a small frown replacing the grin on his face. "Um...we were going to visit my brother. But we...we haven't found him yet. Not since the attack..."

A spike of pain jammed into Sara's heart when she heard that, her breath catching in her throat, "I...I'm sorry to hear that."

And she truly was. Sara knew what it was like...to hear that your sibling was gone. She knew that pain all too well, no matter how very many years had passed. The open sore in her heart where Lex had once been had never quite faded. Not even with the place Lexie had taken up in her heart. So...

Yes, despite everything, Sara could understand at least that much.

"It's fine." Barry put on a brave front though, shaking his head with a small grin crossing his face again. "Bro's a tough guy, I'm sure he's fine! 'sides, we've got help now! You came in on that big boat, right?"

"Ship, not a boat," Sara pushed a smile of her own on her face, recognizing a topic change. She may not know exactly what it meant to be human yet...but she knew that much, at the very least. "A boat is much smaller, trust me."

Barry tilted his head, "It is?"

"Yes. To be more specific, I...she is an aircraft carrier."

If the child noticed her slip-up, he didn't show it. The little boy's gaze moved past the carrier, and towards her hull in the distance. Even shrouded in smoke as it was, Sara knew he could see everything. If there was any one thing that could be said about her ship-body it was the fact that she was...large. She was the largest carrier- ship -in the world for the longest time, and she knew that. So Sara knew the boy could see her.

But she wasn't expecting him to turn from the ship, to her. With a small frown on his face, as he tapped his foot on the cracked stairway they both stood upon.

"A carrier? Bro told me what those are, they carry the fighter jets," Barry nodded with the sort of childish confidence only a young boy could produce. Confidence in what his brother had told him. "But they're a lot bigger than that. And they have that angle!"

"Well, my ship is a bit older than that," Sara's smile was a bit more brittle now, but she hid it well. Angle? Bigger?

"Oh...do you think Mom and I can come visit later?"

"I don't see why not, but you'd have to ask the Captain."

Before Sara could react, Barry had run forward and flung his arms around her torso, squeezing tightly, "Thanks Sara! That's so cool! I've never been on a bo...ship like that before!"

"I...it's no problem."

"Let me go ask Mom, and I'll be right back!"

Even as he said that, the boy let go of the carrier, and sprinted back into the building with a second glance back. Leaving a confused girl behind, holding a hand to her heart.

I...is this...

Sara squeezed the soft fabric of her uniform, her heart beating fast underneath her hand. Was this what it was like, to...talk with someone? Without any baggage, just as one human to another? Barry had no idea she was a warship. He just saw her as another woman, maybe one dressed a bit odd...but nothing special. And...part of her...

Liked that. Liked the idea that she could talk to someone, without any worry about what they would think of her.

Captain...can we talk like that?