Adam followed the Captain through the narrow corridors. Not as bad as the submarines Adam had seen on TV but one could tell it was made for combat, not comfort. Many sections had exposed pipes and valves. They met quite a few of the crew heading in the opposite direction. It was normal for the others but Adam couldn’t help but to apologize and making himself as small as possible every time it happened.

“Normally you wouldn’t get your own room like this, but since we have plenty of space these days…” The Captain explained.

“We will set off tomorrow so just rest and think of this as a small vacation. I will station someone outside your room to guide you around the ship.”

A guide? No, that’s a guard isn’t it? Adam thought to himself.

“We are commonly referred as a ‘city at sea’, and for good reasons too. We have anything you might need. Dentists, doctors, barbers, gym, you name it. You can eat in the mess hall whenever you want.

Anyway, here we are. This is your room. Number 14. Just ask the gua-, I mean guide, outside if you want to go somewhere.” He stopped by a white painted metal door with rounded edges. A small number ‘14’ was painted in black on it.

Adam looked around in his room. It was small, with only a bed, desk, clock on the wall and a bathroom. But it was private, a luxury most of the crew didn’t have.

“Your bag, sir.”

“Oh right, thank you.” Adam took the bag and put it down on his desk.

“Well, I have to return to my other duties now. Good bye.” The Captain and his men left, only leaving one behind as the guide.

Adam suddenly felt very tired. He had been travelling for hours and while he had been too excited at first, now it all came back to him. He closed the door, and locked it with the spinning wheel.

He laid down on his bed, with his clothes still on. Resting his eyes for a moment. However, he quickly realized that he forgot to do something.

“Damn, forgot to turn off the light.”

Adam liked to sleep in complete darkness, and thankfully there was no window in his room. He crawled up from the bed and turned off the light. Since he already got up he changed his clothes.

As he laid down on the bed again he couldn't help but to think back on his day so far. A car ride, an exciting helicopter ride and now he was on an aircraft carrier. What will come next? As he was imagining his next adventure, he drifted off into sleep and continued to dream about his next adventure. Adam had never been much of an adventure type person before. He mainly spent his time by the computer, so he was quite excited to finally experience something different.

A bit after noon Adam woke up again.

After some stretching and yawning in bed he got up and thirty minutes later he was ready to head out to get something to eat.

As he left his room, he asked the guide to take him to the mess hall.

The mess hall had a dozen tables of different sizes and shapes with simple wooden chairs next to them. There was a long food counter where you could pick your food, buffet style. The kitchen was next door and the chefs ran back and forth constantly refilling the food counter.

Today’s meal was meatloaf, potato and brown sauce. Bread, soy beans, shredded cabbage and carrots, plus a few other vegetables were standard side dishes.

The mess hall was currently about half full. When Adam entered the eating stopped, complete silence ensued. He was after all dressed very different from everyone else. But the trained soldiers were only distracted for a few seconds before resuming their previous activities.

The smell of cooking entered Adam’s nose and made him even more hungry so he quickly walked over to the food counter and grabbed a tray, plate, eating utensils and a glass. He took a bit of each item on the menu.

“Hey, what’s in the meatloaf? I mean is there any difference between these two?” Adam asked one of the kitchen staff.

“There are two kinds. Pure beef and a mix of pork and beef. They have onions, red lentils and oat flakes added to them.”

Adam thanked her for the reply and took one piece of each. In the end his plate had a mountain of food. He picked two 250cl milk packages to drink.

Adam sat down at the end of one of the long tables, away from the crew. He didn’t feel like talking with them and he was sure the feeling was mutual. He started buttering his piece of bread. It was a dark rye bread filled with seeds. He poured the milk into his glass. One package filled it up. He looked down at his mountain of food.

Where should I start?, Adam thought.

He spinned the plate around a few times, looking for a good angle to attack the food, but in the end he just stabbed down the fork randomly.

Just as he put the food in his mouth, someone suddenly sat down in front of him. It was his guide.

Oh right, forgot about him. Guess he wanted to eat now too.

Adam hadn’t looked closely at him before but now as they were seated in front of each other he couldn’t help but take a closer look. Green eyes, brown hair, and around thirty or so. He was surprisingly eating a vegetarian meal.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Not only because they didn’t feel like talking but they were both very hungry and were constantly shuffling food in their mouths, making any conversation impossible.

As they were about to finish another one of the crew sat down.

“Hey man! Hmm, who is this?” The newcomer said, looking at Adam.

“Ah, someone I’m babysitting. Captain’s orders.”

The term ‘babysitting’ caused Adam’s eyebrow to twitch slightly in irritation but he quickly got over it. He wasn’t wrong after all.

“Hmmm, I heard we were going to taxi a few people… But anyway, I was just going to invite you to the shooting range. Me and some of the boys have a nice competition going on. The prize is free beer for one night. As much as you can drink! Of course, the winner can’t share it with others. But if you are busy… another time then, Steven!” She got up and walked away with a quick turn, causing her blond braided ponytail to swing wildly under her blue navy cap.

“Yeah, another time, Jane.” Steven said, loud enough to let her hear it.

“So, your name is Steven? I’m Adam.” Adam said. Since the silence was already broken he thought this was a good point to introduce himself properly.

“Yep. Nice to meet you. Sorry for my choice of words before. Meant no ill will.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s true, in a way.” Adam said with a wave of his hand.

“So, you want to do something after this? We are setting out tomorrow so the ship will be alot busier then. Now is a good time to do some sightseeing.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Can we check out the hangar bay?”

“Eh, why not. A warning though, it’s not what it used to be.”

They finished up their meals and left the mess hall.

They arrived at the hangar bay shortly after. The smell of oil and fuel was thick in the air. It had many empty spaces. But it still had two dozen fighters, a few larger bombers and transports. A few people were busy with routine checkups on different parts of the planes.

Steven led Adam into the hangar.

“This is it.” Steven shrugged. “It used to be more busy. You know, when we actually had things to bomb and stuff.”

“Yeah. Guess not everyone is happy about the new world peace.” Adam scratched his chin. “Personally I’m glad we have no more wars.”

“Hmph, don’t misunderstand. Everyone is happy about that. It’s just… it was too sudden. One day you fight for you country, the next you spend your time doing.... Haah, nevermind.”

“...”

“Anyway, how about you take a look in the planes. You can try to sit in a fighter.” Steven didn’t wait for a reply, and walked over to the nearest plane.

“Cmon, I’ll help you up.” Steven stood next to the plane, waving Adam over.

“Wait, aren’t those super tight and made to fit smaller people?”

“Eh, that’s all in the past. These days, unless you are really oddly made you can get in. Don’t worry about accidentally shooting off any missiles. It only works when it’s on.”

“...”

“No, we are not turning it on either.”

“Hehe, okay. How do I get in? Climb on the wing or what? You got any ladders?”

“Yep, let me go grab it.” Steven rolled over the ladder used to enter the planes.

“You know what the plane is called?” Steven asked while Adam climbed the ladder.

“Hmm, it’s the Hornet, no Super Hornet right?” Adam said.

“Indeed. Now, stop staring at it and get it.”

After some hesitation Adam got in the plane and found it to be reasonably comfortable.

He played around with the joystick and pressed the buttons for a few minutes.

“I can see why people miss flying around in these. They are pretty fun to sit in, I can’t imagine how it’s to actually fly in them.”

“Indeed. I’m not a pilot myself but I have been in the backseat once in another plane. There is nothing like it.”

“Shall we continue? I can show you the transport plane.”

Adam nodded and with great effort managed to get out of the plane again.

“Hey, can’t I see those fancy ones?”

“The F-35 are brand new so, no. No civilian can touch those. Now come with me, and see this huge C-130 Hercules. We are currently preparing it for it’s trip in a few days. You might want to pay special attention.” Steven said with a laugh.

However, Adam didn’t pay much attention to what Steven was talking about. His focus was currently on the F-35.

The guided tour continued for about one hour. Steven showed Adam many other things, some that were interesting and some that were not.

“Okey, hangar is done. Now what?”

“Hmm, I want to see that tower on the flight deck.”

“That’s- well I guess you can take a peek inside. Maybe. Remember, this is still a military ship and you are a civilian. Some things are not for your eyes.”

As they walked through the ship Steven talked about the different section and how it worked.

“Almost there now. We call it an island, not a tower by the way.”

However, as Steven suspected, Adam was not allowed inside. He could only look through the windows. Which in turn caused everyone inside to stare back at him, wondering what he was doing. Adam quickly left, slightly embarrassed.

“It was unfortunate you couldn’t get in, but you still got a peek inside.” Steven said, pretending to be sad. Afterall it was less work for him.

“Yeah, but how about you show the power plant and propulsion system. I’m afterall a electrician by trade.”

“Yeah… that’s not going to happen. Sorry.”

In the end, they decided to end the tour there.

“Hmm, before we part. Do you know why the peace suddenly came? And why the military was so quickly dismantled?” Adam asked. He had almost forgot his main objective.

“Huh? No? I’m just a guy following orders. Maybe the captain knows, but he hasn’t told anyone. Maybe someone finally found a magic genie or something and wished for world peace.”

“Yeah, maybe…”

Adam didn’t say anything else and just gave Steven a nod and walked back towards his room. He got lost, but thankfully Steven found him again.

“Haha, I forgot I’m supposed to guide you around here. Just because the tour ended doesn’t mean I’m leaving you alone. Seems it was needed since you are on the other side of the ship now.”

“Haha, yep. I kinda got lost. Didn’t think it was so hard to find my way back but these narrow corridors are kinda confusing after a while.”

With Steven’s help they got back to Adam’s room.

“Well, thank you for everything. I’m going into my room now.” Adam said.

“I will be outside if you need me.” Steven said.

Adam closed and locked the door. It was time to update his story.

Today I had an amazing adventure. First they picked me up late in the night, or morning depending on your POV. A car ride later and I actually got to ride a helicopter. First time flying for me. It was very fun to see the world from above. Then after a while, we arrived at our destination. Can you guess it? An aircraft carrier. Not just any, the biggest in the world. Sadly, even the biggest and most powerful aircraft carrier in the world had its budget cut by a great deal. The captain greeted me himself, which was unexpected, and I got my own room. Later that day I got a guided tour. I even got to sit in a plane! Sadly not in the latest version. I wanted to check out the big tower on the flight deck but was denied. I was also denied access to the power and propulsion systems. I asked a few of the military members if they knew about the reason for all the odd things happening but they didn’t know. It didn’t seem like they were lying either, not that I can tell if someone is though.

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