It took every ounce of willpower I had to not do the first thing one would instinctively do if a stranger suddenly jumped into your arms.

Drop them.

This was for a few reasons. The largest being with her arms wrapped around me as they were, I wasn't entirely sure it would be enough to dislodge her. Followed by picking up the clothes that could be spilled would prove, well, annoying.

Lastly? Despite being a stranger, she seemed, oddly familiar. Not the I've seen this person on TV familiar, but personally familiar. Yet I've never seen this lady in my life!

Was? Was she purring?

Okay, whoever she was, she was happy to see me. I scowled, gears in my brain beginning to shake off dust and cobwebs, slowly coming online. I knew her from somewhere. The ocean, I think. My sister, New Hampshire. She was with us. The convoys. Then there was the propeller and.

"South Carolina!" I gasped, mouth agape. This was the correct answer, as her bear hug only intensified. As the memory slipped into place, everything made a lot more sense. That would explain the sudden invasion of my arms.

Still. South Carolina. I didn't know she had been summoned. She was America's first dreadnought, after all.

She was our replacement. The reason we had been rendered.

Nope! I shoved that dark line of thought back into the recesses from which it came. I was not dealing with that right now. Technology advanced. Like it or not, times change. She likely had to deal with being made obsolete as well. I wasn't going to blame her for that.

"I'm so happy you remember me," her grin was like the radiant sun. No, it was bright. "People kept telling me you wouldn't, but you did."

"It's all a bit fuzzy," that wasn't entirely true. It was pretty much completely fuzzy. Outside of that nightmare, and little bits like this, it was just fog.

Plus, this was a bit awkward. What exactly is the protocol for this type of situation? Having someone just jump into my hands wasn't something I'd experienced before.

"But I kind of need to get my clothes situation dealt with," I nudged, trying my best to hint that I kind of wanted her to let go, without stating it outright. She looked at me for a second, before her mouth morphed.

"Oh. Of course," slowly, she untangled herself from around my frame, with me doing my best to guide her along. Once she was on her own two feet, I looked up at her tan face, mentally frowning. I was just getting used to being tall, damn it!

"Do you need a hand?" South Carolina extended her arm outward. I mean, it was my stuff, but if she wanted to help, I guess it shouldn't be a problem.

"Sure," I handed her a little less than half of my new clothes. Mostly out of my sense of pride. Sure, she offered to help me, and I certainly didn't want to come off as rude or insulting, but I still capable.

After all, I helped escort her home after she popped a propeller. I was supposed to aid her, not the other way around.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Vestal took a sip from her jug of coffee, before placing it back on the table. Medusa had already passed out, but given the time difference between San Diego and New York, she couldn't fault her.

Nor could she fault many of the human engineers who had either gone home or simply fell asleep at their stations. They needed the sleep more, and Vestal preferred it that way. She'd seen what happened when they didn't get the rest they needed.

Honestly, compared to this, coming up with the retrofits and rebuilds of what the Admiralty called the 'little battleships' had been simple. Increasing thickness of the armor belt while making the shape of the hull more angular, replacing boilers and engines, upgrading and adding new equipment, adding anti-air emplacements, and of course, upgrades to the main guns. Of course, that was an oversimplification of all the upgrades and modifications given, but it was the standard.

Sadly, the Connecticut's were the first pre-dreadnoughts returned. More specifically, Kansas was. Meaning they were in uncharted territory. And a battleship with a hybrid armament such as the pre-dreadnaughts leads to considerable conundrums. The twelve-inch guns found on the Alaska and Gaum had already been modified and placed on South Carolina, and almost all designs concocted thus far made use of those twelve-inch batteries.

It was just a shame that outside of the twelve-inch guns, the removal of the casement batteries, and the various internal upgrades, none of the designs had anything in common.

Even one person tried to give her a schematic that called for thinning Kansas's armor belt. He'd take someone's 'like a Battle Monitor' comment a bit too literally.

She sent him home early. He seriously needed sleep by that point.

But there was too much confusion on what exactly to do. While little battleships had been a cute nickname from some of the earliest dreadnaughts, it was still accurate. They were just smaller battleships.

But there was a reason HMS Dreadnaught changed naval warfare. Despite filling the role of a capital ship, the pre-dreadnaughts were drastically different in design, and how they functioned in combat. Quite frankly, nobody living would understand how a pre-dreadnought would have fought.

Sure, some records would prove useful on that front. But finding digital military accounts proved difficult, and while some books were written on the subject, she'd prefer reports over anything else. But given the age of such reports, the hunt was still on for anything of use.

She was one of the few ships presently in the US fleet that had been laid down before the construction of America's first dreadnought. Well, there was the Consitution, but she doubted the ship would have relevant information on how pre-dreadnought's fought.

Vestal looked at the notes provided to her about Kansas's light retrofit. The five-inch guns had integrated well, but as for their placement? There could be improvements.

What worried her was the superstructure. Or more accurately, how little superstructure there was. The conning towers were likely going to be pitched entirely, and the smokestacks were also likely to be cut in number. That gave them room to expand, even if part of it was going to be dominated by radar and other equipment.

Anti-Air was the biggest concern. The basic plan for Kansas's armaments would be fine. South Carolina provided the base for the modified Mark 8 twelve-inch, and while some alterations would have to be made to the Mark 14 eight-inch, those were well within the realm of reality.

But the small handful of twin Bofors, not even quad Bofors, was insufficient. She understood the necessity of such modifications. Kansas's Anti-Air guns wouldn't have been able to shoot down a fly, much less a modern aircraft. Given the beating Kansas took, it probably helped set her mind at ease. She did not blame the older ship for that.

Still, as was, the forty-millimeter guns did not sit well with their current emplacement. With more superstructure, they would have the space for a few quad mountings, making it safer to replace her deck Bofor's with the smaller Oerlikons.

From there, things had devolved. Some designs called for thinning the armor to increase speed. Other's realized just how unlikely it was to get an increase even close to the Kongo's, preferring to double down on an even thicker and better-designed armor belt.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Quite frankly, Vestal was more inclined on the second line of thought. She pulled up a diagram of the Connecticut's original armor scheme. Yes, it was undoubtedly an older design, in desperate need of modernization, but it wasn't awful. At its thinnest, it matched the thickest parts of a Baltimore's armor belt. A class that had a length of more than two hundred feet greater. In fact, at its thickest, it was one inch thinner than the Hood. And Hood was larger still.

For ships of their size, Connecticut's had considerably heavy armor. Leaning into the strength would be wise. Especially as Vestal was uncertain that they would be able to fully address the issue of speed. Replacing the engines would certainly help fix parts of the issue, as would making the hull more streamlined.

Even with increasing the armor belt's thickness, they might be able to squeeze out a good four additional knots, five if they crossed their fingers. Not bad. If they weren't starting at eighteen knots.

Still, that would leave the Connecticut's speed completely lacking for reasonable carrier escort. That would put them at twenty-two knots, twenty-three at absolute best.

Meaning the average fleet carrier could leave them in the dust. Even light carriers would. That left seaplane tenders, and, by extension, Langley. But the former had numerous other possible escorts and the latter.

Like her, the converted coiler was kept off the front lines. Even if Langley didn't agree with the Admiralty, Vestal did see why they didn't want her near active combat zones unless they could help it. Even the upgrade to her engines that could get her close to eighteen knots wasn't healthy for her.

Which left her awaiting conversion into a helicopter carrier, but the technology was still considerably far out in shipgirl terms.

Vestal took another swig of coffee. Her mind was starting to wonder. Rarely a good sign. She could stay awake longer. Most shipgirls could stay awake for days, if not weeks at a time. Regardless, she knew such proved to be quite unhealthy.

Perhaps it was time to retire for the night.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

IowaFan3

-Is Kathrine okay?

-Seriously, I haven't heard anything much outside of the media storm.

-Haven't seen anything this saturated since Kansas City got summoned.

-And Kathrine hasn't responded either.

FredBurger

-I've tried contacting her brother about everything. No dice.

HoRdEpRiMe

-In bf Cyron says a lack of response is a response.

Cyron

-That says a lot right there.

-Fuck.

-How do you keep doing that?

HoRdEpRiMe

-Maybe stop being so predictable?

Cyron

-*Holds out middle finger*

IowaFan3

-Stop flirting you two, this is serious.

Cyron

-I'm not wrong.

-Seriously, the fact neither confirms nor denies is confirmation all of its own.

HoRdEpRiMe

-If they denied it, you'd take that as confirmation as well.

Cyron

-Again, I'm not wrong.

-Given how bad things went, the Navy's going to want to make sure all its ducks are in a row.

-I expect someone's losing a job over the next few days.

FredBurger

-I mean, have you guys seen the pictures?

-Cyron's right. If that is Kathrine, then things went south, fast.

-Someone messed up somewhere along the line, and their head will likely be on a pike.

-Too high profile for any other response.

IowaFan3

-So they can't just brush it under the rug?

Cyron

-At best this individual (whether or not she's Kathrine is still out) went out without, or even ignoring orders. Which would be on them.

-At worst?

-Someone ordered an untrained and underage shipgirl into the field, nearly getting them killed and wasting a valuable asset in the process.

-An event that could only be attributed to blistering incompetence or complete malicious intent.

-The Navy doesn't like either of those things.

-Especially when it comes to shipgirls.

IronSights

-Well, I'm convinced at this point.

-158009.jepg

-This was circling in one of the tabloids. The Navy might have gotten some of the mainstream to back off a bit.

IowaFan3

-That isn't Kathrine.

-Kathrine is nowhere near that tall.

HoRdEpRiMe

-You should look at the redhead standing next to her.

Cyron

-Could be edited.

-Though that does look like Kathrine's mom.

FredBurger

-What's with those little kids?

IronSights

-Destroyer screen.

-Duh.

Cryon

-Regardless, the whole shipgirl thing makes sense in hindsight.

IowaFan3

-What do you mean "in hindsight"?

FredBurger

-She likes to swim, for starters.

-But dunking her head underwater will result in the offending individual getting judo thrown.

-Isn't shipgirls hate being submerged a big give away?

-Unless you're a submarine?

Cyron

-Didn't forget that.

-But I was thinking of those night terrors.

-Remember that one time at D&D?

HoRdEpRiMe

-God, that was awful.

-That almost made me feel sick.

IronSights

-Yep. That. Wasn't pleasant to witness.

-On a more light-hearted note, which ship do you guys think she is?

HoRdEpRiMe

-Anything less than a Tillmen would be disappointing.

-Imagine, the look on the Navy's face if they managed to summon one of those.

Cyron

-It'd be the look of 'how dare that bastard shit on our plate again. He's supposed to be dead'.

-But in all seriousness?

-With that turret layout we've seen?

-Either an early era dreadnought, maybe even a pre-dreadnought.

IronSights

-Ouch.

-Kathrine sometimes seemed like she had an old soul, but I didn't think it was that old.

FredBurger

-*Spits drink out of mouth*

-Someone's sassy today.

IowaFan3

-Really? Is this where we're going to go?

Cyron

-I understand your concern, but she's likely fine at this point.

-If Ironsight's picture is of Kathrine, then she's completely healed up and likely not to see combat operation for some time.

-If it isn't, then the media may have misidentified her in the first place.

-Break will be ending soon. We'll find out one way or another shortly.

IowaFan3

-But what about?

HoRdEpRiMe

-You do realize whether or not Kathrine is now a shipgirl does not affect her being able to carry your around, right?

Cyron

-To be fair, that goes for everyone else besides me.

FredBurger

-Dear God, I just finished wiping off my screen.

-Please, stop.

-It's not waterproof.

IowaFan3

-YOU GUYS ARE IMPOSSIBLE!

*IowaFan3 Signs Out*

IronSights

-You guys should stop teasing her so much.

-Especially you, HoRdEpRiMe.

-She lives five minutes away from your house and knows what room you sleep in.

Cyron

-It'd watch out for spiders if I were you.

HoRdEpRiMe

-She can't put spiders in my bed if I don't sleep!

FredBurger

-...

-How many monsters have you had, exactly?

HoRdEpRiMe

-ALL OF THEM!

-I must do research.

-All the research!

Cyron

-The greatest advantage of having a shipgirl in our friend group is that we'll have someone that can restrain him when he's had too much caffeine, isn't it?

IronSights

-You're just now figuring this out?

-Still, disappointed that the tranquilizer was a waste of money.

Cyron

-What?

FredBurger

-I was making a joke!

-Why?

-We don't tranquilize our friends!

IronSights

-I know you were joking.

-I wasn't.