The last adventures with Prinz Eugen. Volume 3.

No. 11 Chapter 5

Knocking on the door of Friedrichs office the captain waited anxiously for the battleship to allow him entry. He was not sure but he could have sworn a quiet melody had been playing in the room behind the door he was standing at. The second he had knocked it was gone. Moments passed before the door was opened from the inside and the warm yet eerie smile and alien presence of Friedrich der Große greeted the captain. "Good morning once again my child. Please enter." She greeted him and with an old fashioned gesture of her hand she beckoned the captain to enter her office. Doing as she asked of him, he entered the dimly lit office. The battleship had turned off the lights and only multiple candles were burning. The sight of what the former engineer saw in front of him made him feel out of place. The battleship had redecorated her office in a weird mix of what was essentially a baroque saloon and a modern command center. Her desk and the walls to its side and behind her were filled with screens, papers, maps and plans while the rest of the office was lavishly decorated with ornamented furniture with fine flourishes in almost every piece of wood. In the middle of the room stood a single stand holding multiple candles and papers with music notes on them. On the tray of the bronze colored stand was a small leather skinned box placed and the shine of the candles reflected on the polished metal of the flute embedded in its cushioning inside it. "Something I share with my namesake. I do love the flute as well." Ffriedrich explained as she observed what the captain took in. He now had his confirmation that the battleship was the source of the quiet music he had heard before. "It sounded very nice." He tried to compliment her. The battleship smiled her satisfied smile as she passed him gracefully and flipped a couple of pages bag to the beginning of the piece she had been playing. "Perhaps I can give you a concert once you have returned from your mission." She offered an opportunity to hear her play.

"How did you know I was going to say yes to that mission you proposed?" He asked her instead to focus on the current issue. Friedrich sat down in a delicately made chair, crossing her legs while answering the captain's question with a chuckle. "Because I would not have asked you to do things from which I would not already know you would accept to do them." She added bemused in a motherly tone. "The opportunity to not only figure out what is going on in the Royal Navy but to also do good and be useful are far too strong motivators for you to not indulge them. Not to mention your unhealthy urge to step in for your friends." She added with a knowing smile that showed the captain just how open of a book he was to the battleship. "Don't worry. I would not abuse you to your detriment for that you are far too good of a friend to me and the other Ironbloods." She assured him upon seeing the miniscule changes in his posture despite his effort to hide his uncomfortable realization. "You and our dear friend Eugen are quite similar in that matter. To most she is an enigma but to those that have been taught in the same school she is an open book. Would you not agree?" She asked him. "I am not quite sure what you mean by that." The captain admitted upon which the battleship laughed her beautiful yet villainess like laughter. "Don't worry, I think you know exactly what I mean. You will be fine though. But I may suggest the same advice I gave her for the sake of both of your futures, to be honest and on the spot about things that are important to you. Soon things will transpire that will not give you two the opportunity to be." She explained while her index fingers played with each other. "But to come back to your assignment. I won't tell you much not because I don't trust you. I doubt that you would spill any details of plans that you would know of. But I want to be sure of the matter when things come down to the wire." She added before the captain could ask any question. "But I am rambling on again. This setting and music do that to me." She mused as she stood up and walked over to her desk. "Your assignment is quite open and up to you how you fulfill it. The ploy of you getting sent as a spy is only an excuse we made up to get past the intelligence services and naval high commands watchful eye. You can do as you like as long as you manage to do do what I will ask of you. After you have done so and satisfied your curiosity you will find your way out through another person you won't have any issue of identifying. But before you do so I have to complete the real task that is paramount and most important to your mission." Friedrich announced and finally came to the true reason he was going to be sent off. "You will have to talk to the little queen, alone. And you will need to make your case that she should accept her invitation to Swelkie Point when the time has come. You don't need to know more and you don't need to tell her more. If she is half the leader she pretends to be, she will understand the gesture." Friedrich summed up. "Given your talent and abilities to become friends with most of us I doubt that there will be any trouble waiting for you. But do let me know what route you take so I can inform the right contacts to assist you if you need it." She added and looked at her subordinate with a waiting expression. "I take it you have a plan to get to the islands yourself by now?" She asked him not waiting for any answers or comments from the captain.