18. Trust And Doubt [Modern Warship in a Cultivation World]

“Lieutenant Sam,” Ensign Carter said, gently rousing the man with a cup of coffee. Lieutenant Sam was sitting upright, eyes closed, half-sleeping on a couch in the airwing hangar.

Lieutenant Sam took the coffee from Ensign Carter’s hand. “Oh, thank you,” he murmured, his eyes slowly focusing.

Ensign Carter, with a small smile, sat on a nearby couch. “Right now, everyone’s talking about the ASROC attack and our first encounter with the so-called Spirit Beasts.” He took a sip.

“Can you believe it?” Lieutenant Sam replied with a scoff, his frustration boiling over. “We’re already stuck in another world, and she wastes our precious, limited ammunition? That, too, an on-board Sonar missile? If someone like Officer William or Officer Nolan, with real experience to their name, were in charge, they wouldn’t have given such a hasty command.”

He finished his thought with clear disapproval directed at the Captain. “Even if it was necessary, she could have used more easily recoverable and efficient methods, like helicopter-dropped torpedoes, to counter them. We just threw away an asset we can’t replace.”

“Argh. I do believe Captain Imogen is not experienced enough, but… she must have been selected for her ability by Admiral Joseph as his vice-captain, right?” Ensign Carter remarked, finishing his sip, desperately trying to find a basis for confidence in her command. “Surely the Admiral wouldn’t risk the mission on pure luck.”

Lieutenant Sam just shook his head. “The mission is over, Ensign Carter. We're on a survival run now. And speaking of survival... I keep thinking about Leila.” Sam’s voice dropped, tinged with a deep ache. “She’s due in three months, remember? Every day we sit here waiting for a miracle is a day closer to her giving birth without me, without any word of what happened to her husband. That’s the clock I hear ticking, not the Captain’s arbitrary thirty-day countdown.”

Ensign Carter swallowed hard, his own thoughts drifting home. “I know, sir. I called Mom the day before we left port. Told her I loved her, same old routine. Now I keep wondering if that was the last time she’ll ever hear my voice. If she thinks I died in some stupid, accident.”

“That’s why we can’t wait for orders that make sense,” Lieutenant Sam insisted, his eyes hardening with resolve. “I’m counting on you, Carter. You’re the best gunner I’ve ever flown with.” He offered a supportive smile. “A pilot and his gunner should be one, right? We cover each other’s blind spots, in the cockpit and out.”

“You’re a great partner that I can brag about to all the other lieutenants at home base,” Lieutenant Sam finished, trying to get some positive energy in Ensign Carter, though his worries remained.

“But… What if… we are stuck in this world forever…?” Ensign Carter replied, looking into the void, his thoughts momentarily lost in a daze. “Why are we here? What should we be doing?”

“Beats me,” Lieutenant Sam said with a sigh. He looked at Ensign Carter for a few seconds, the familiar restlessness of a man who needed to do something returning to his eyes. Then, he stood up abruptly, the coffee forgotten. “Come with me! Let’s go out for a spin!”

“But…” Ensign Carter started to refuse, remembering the Captain’s standing orders to conserve fuel and avoid detection.

Lieutenant Sam grabbed his helmet. “I checked the readings. Apparently, there is a landmass east, just far enough that our navigation scanners can’t fully map it.” Pulling Ensign Carter up, he finished with a decisive glint in his eye. “Let’s help out the navigation department, shall we? We owe it to our families to find a way home, and that means finding out where we are. Let’s go and do a proactive observation mission.”

________

The sudden, pragmatic shift cut through the heavy atmosphere like a knife. Everyone was taken aback.

"When I followed Miss, sorry, Reporter Jessica into the kitchen," he explained, looking at the four of them, "I observed the soldiers were rationing the weird food in containers you had. So, that means supplies are your biggest concern, right?"

“That is true,” Imogen confirmed, her voice now purely focused on logistics as Officer Nolan translated. “That is our immediate, critical concern: food, water, and medical supplies, which will only last us for a limited duration.”

“Geographically, we are currently positioned near a neutral territory, one called The Sovereignties,” Lu Mingfe explained, looking out the main viewport as the night began to deepen. “Getting some essential supplies there without directly implicating yourselves in the war is entirely possible.”

He then posed a question to test his understanding of their vessel. “From what I understand, this ship does not need a bulky fuel source like coal similar to our boiler-based ones?”

Jessica nodded in confirmation.

“We would like to keep our existence completely hidden from the local powers,” Imogen stated, her directive firm as Nolan translated. “Having to deal with local politics or involvement in the war is absolutely not an option for us.”

“I have a plan for that, but we will need to discuss the details and anything else you require at length,” Lu Mingfe said with a confident smile. He knew he had leverage now that he had proven his value. “Since we have established this trust, what I would like in return is a room for myself. Can that be feasible?”

“Yes, a full tactical discussion like this needs to be conducted with everyone asking their opinion and reviewing the risks,” Imogen agreed, already moving to dismiss the three of them then to gather all the high ranking members in the morning.

Just as Imogen was about to issue the dismissal order, a shrill alarm buzzer started going off in the Command Information Center, followed instantly by a panicked voice crackling over the airwing radio line.

“Sea Fowl has disembarked to the skies! Sea Fowl has disembarked to the skies!” the voice repeated urgently.

Imogen’s face instantly darkened, an anger that could figuratively burn mountains flashing in her eyes. The Sea Fowl was the callsign for one of their advanced, reconnaissance rotary aircraft.

“That bastard!” she roared, snatching the microphone near her console. “Connect me to Lieutenant Sam’s line right now!” she yelled into the mic, her voice cutting through the suddenly terrified chatter in the CIC. The moment of diplomacy with Lu Mingfe was violently overthrown by an act of internal defiance.