Redemption

Introductions (Old Version)

And finally the last person walked through the door, this one was a bit harder to place but eventually I got was able to place her as the submarine chaser Lingard, her shorter height was a drastic shift from the other two but she kept quick pace with them, her short red hair poked out and curled around the Dixie Cup she wore and her dark blue ascot hung out from underneath her collar which carried two pins, each one being the numbers 11 and 68 respectively. The rest of her apparel consisted of a tan dress suit and a similarly colored knee length skirt with white lining and on the floor boards clicked the pair of fine running shoes that she was known to wear.

She was just finishing off an apple as she joined up with the rest of us clearly having just finished off an early lunch or a late breakfast and as she took the last bite, she tossed the core in the nearby trash bin where it landed with a wet thunk which the commander immediately took notice of.

"You know it's always a pleasure to have you around, Lingard but would it kill you to simply walk on over to the waste basket to place your trash in it instead of throwing it from halfway across the room?" He asked.

She scoffed and wore a sly smile, "And why would I do that when I can just as quickly toss it in from here, besides," she said and looked directly towards, "why should you be allowed to complain about me when you were the one who called us here supposedly for something important and didn't think to disclose anything."

The commander looked a bit more embarrassed with that last statement and stammered with his words for a bit as he tried to come up with a clever answer but eventually he gave up the ghost and said, "...You do have a point there and for that, I apologize. With it though, perhaps we can get down to the reason I called you here."

"Fine with me." She replied and returned to the line in front of the desk with her hands clasped behind her.

"Right. Now, I'm sure that by now you all may have heard some rumors about a ship of some sort we currently have stationed in one of our drydocks."

North Carolina thought on it and was going to answer but was cut off by Reno who said, "Not exactly like that, but we have heard people talking about other things involving a recovered ship. Stories of rusted metal and people going stark-raving mad, is that what you mean?"

"Er, yes. I didn't know they were quite that violent but that's right, although I think you cut off miss Carolina there."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" Reno apologized and North Carolina quickly replied with, "It's quite alright, now may we please continue." and spurred on the commander.

"Alright then, now even though the extent to some of those rumors may seem a bit drastic in some places I also can't deny that most of them are probably based on fact. In truth, we did recover a ship five days ago, she sent out a distress signal and an attack occurred when they Vestal, Washington and Enterprise found her."

And he gestured to the other two still stationed to the sides of the room with Vestal near me and Washington standing near a picture of the USS Arizona that hung on the wall, the three in the middle turned their heads towards them and they waved weakly in return.

"Now it is also true that the ship recovered was very old and had been abandoned for quite some time, she was in a horrible condition when we first found her with her entire structure completely coated in rust and much of her machinery in horrible condition and even worse than that, the entire crew was found dead inside."

To me and the others this news was already familiar and as such, came as no surprise but to the three people fresh to this situation, it was one of the most shocking things they've ever heard. North Carolina's eyes went wide and her stance went rigid as she quickly tried to regain her composure, Reno clasped her hands over her face and let out a small but noticeable gasp and Lingard had her mouth agape and wore a worried expression in response to this startling revelation.