Chapter 4

The next uncomfortable meeting for Hiro was a remote conference with Fleet Admiral Tucker, the Chief of Naval Operations for CENTCOM. Commodore Howell begged off on participating claiming he was busy with other duties, much to Hiro’s astonishment. Hiro wouldn’t try to shirk this duty, as much as he might like to, as it would display a lack of courage and character. He would face this.

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.

Admiral Tucker appeared on the display in his study looking much more relaxed than Hiro had expected.

“Colonel Yakazuki, your new ship been quite the topic of discussion lately,” he said, getting right to the point. “A lot of people don’t know what to make of it and I was hoping you might be able to fill in some gaps I had.”

“I would be honored, Fleet Admiral” Hiro answered.

“I’m not ignorant of naval history, so I understand what a Japanese torpedo-focused destroyer is all about. They’re pretty interesting from a historical perspective, but I don’t know if that concept fits in well with what we’re doing out here. What were you thinking when you came up with this?”

Hiro was relieved. “Sir, there is a game that Americans play that is called ‘rock, paper, scissors’. In Japan, we have the something similar, called kitsune-ken. Are you familiar with it?”

“Of course. I think everyone is.”

“During this war we have been trying to match ‘rock’ with ‘rock’. It is a difficult thing to try to achieve victory fighting in such a way. We now put our strength directly against the enemy’s strength, and that results in death that we cannot afford to bear. We do not have the resources to fight this way.”

“That’s the method of Clausewitz, and yes, it is an expensive although familiar way to fight a war,” Admiral Tucker agreed.

“The way to beat ‘rock’ is with ‘paper’ in your game. You do not meet the enemy at their strength there, you meet the enemy weakness with your strength. Of course you cannot have strength everywhere, so you must choose between doing everything poorly, or one thing well. Ships are not so different. You have many ships that can engage the enemy in the same way the enemy engages you. What you do not have yet is a ship that engages the enemy in a way they cannot, but to do so, you must sacrifice.”

“That sounds good in theory, but we don’t have a ‘paper’ to cover something like a Vesta battleship with out there. I don’t see how this Shimakaze does that,” Tucker replied.

Hiro felt he had no choice but to reveal the “purple blossoms,” at least in part. “Indeed you do not. Are you familiar with what you call the “long lance” torpedo?”

“Yeah, that was a major pain in the butt to American forces in World War Two. They beat up a bunch of ships with those things,” Tucker answered.

“If such a torpedo was available to the Confederacy, that would be what you call a ‘game changer’ like paper to a Vesta, would it not?” Hiro rebutted.

“Perhaps, but we don’t have anything like that in our inventory, nor a good delivery platform for those other than the Archerfish, which doesn’t have the capacity to really take on a fleet.”

“We may soon have such a thing, courtesy of my former colleagues at Mitsubishi. With a platform such as a Shimakaze to employ them, the result may be as powerful as the Japanese destroyers in many naval actions in the Pacific.”

“Well, if we were going to have a history debate I might argue with some of that. Those Japanese torpedo boats got torn to pieces by aircraft and didn’t fare well against their American counterparts. They did have an impact, but it wasn’t anything decisive. But we’re not having a history debate here, we’re talking about right here and right now. You’re gambling on an untested and unproven weapons system and developed a platform that is largely useless unless those new weapons systems can deliver. Whoever runs that ship is in a really risky position.”

“That is true, but we shall never know until we try,” Hiro responded.

“But you’re gambling with people’s lives here, people you don’t even know,” Tucker observed.

“I would be honored to see myself or any of my colleagues accept this task, but I am told that is not possible. All that wish to participate are told they may not, and so many that might, do not wish to. It is most distressing.”

“That’s for sure. Look, I’m not going to stop the class leader from getting built, but those ship trials are going to be critical in whether we continue this. I’m glad I could talk to you and get an idea of what’s behind all this, but do me a favor and let’s not pull any more surprises on the fleet, alright?”

“It is not my intent to surprise anyone, Fleet Admiral. We only wish to do our best.”

“Very well. Nice speaking with you, Colonel,” Tucker said before signing off.

Hiro called for a meeting of the Mitsubishi technical team leaders along with Michael Bugyo and Tim Akira. The first part of the integration effort was done, the major systems installations, and the only scheduled task for that team was to complete the final fits before the ship was ready for trials.

After the usual pleasantries, Hiro got to the heart of the matter.

“My honored colleagues, I have interesting news about the Shimakaze. The assignment of a crew for that ship has been delayed, but ship trials must proceed. I wish to assign Bugyo-kun as the one in charge of conducting those trials, Akira-kun as his first assistant, and have your teams operate the ship as we validate that the construction has been completed correctly and that the ship is ready for delivery. I leave it up to Bugyo-kun to determine what staff may be required for this effort.”

“It will be important for all of you to make use of the sleep training system that you have available in your homes to prepare you for this task. Operating a ship is quite different than building one, so we have much to learn if we are to ensure that the Shimakaze will meet with our customer’s approval. I wish for you to do your utmost to ensure that everything works perfectly according to the way the navy wishes to use it and ensure that we deliver a flawless product.”

Cries of “hai“ echoed in the room.

“Then I shall leave you to your important work. Temporary Captain Bugyo, this meeting is now yours.”

Hiro had spoken with both Michael and Tim beforehand so they would be prepared for this. With Kinpei and Kajuki working diligently on their training prerequisites for their imminent training course and Hiro assigning Tomozo the task of sorting out logistics, Michael and Tim were the only staff available for this important task. Their previous experience would be of great use to them, and it was this experience that had shielded them from Hiro assigning them the duties which he had given the others.

In the event that this technical crew for ship trials somehow became the operational crew for the ship, he wanted to make sure he had the best people he could find for the job. It was not a likely outcome, but it was possible.

The most critical task assigned to Tomozo was the delivery and storage of the new Type 93 torpedoes. A Fleet Auxiliary transport would pick them up from Mitsubishi and deliver them, still within their storage containers, to a warehousing space in the shipyard in four days. So much could go wrong here, but between the efforts of Chuichi Yushida and his team Hiro was hopeful that the delivery would be considered mundane and unremarkable.

Most of that deception effort would fall on Chuichi. If the loading was accomplished without issue, most likely the delivery would as well.

To ease his disquiet Hiro retired in the evening to his dojo to work on calligraphy, not to compose a secret message, but simply to clear his mind. He found these past days a challenge for him to maintain his spiritual balance, and the days ahead would require a clear mind and spirit.

He must prepare himself.

The construction effort on the Shimakaze proceeded without delay, as Hiro expected. The internal systems had been installed and now the Mitsubishi team was waiting for the opportunity to start working on the external systems such as the CIWS now that the replicator was finishing the outer hull, and to have access to the internal spaces to perform their final finishing to make the ship ready. Michael Bugyo was keeping a close eye on the completion. It would be ready for trials soon.

Commodore Howell had largely been ignoring the team for the past several days, which left Hiro with some unusual free time in his schedule. He did not feel that his relationship with Howell had become too damaged, but it certainly wasn’t friendly at this point. That was not much of a concern. It was not Hiro’s plan to be tethered to the Earthat system for long, working under the auspices of CENTCOM unless his presence was vital to maintaining the link between Mitsubishi and whatever the colony of Kuniumi turned out to be. He would rather be with the colony. He was certain he would be more valuable there.

Hiro spent an afternoon with his boys, happy for the opportunity to finally see their father given the grueling work schedule he usually maintained. He used that time to share stories with them and help them with their own calligraphy work, patiently pointing out what was right and what was not and why such precision of spirit and hand was so important. Perhaps they could find the art as much as a spiritual solace as he did some day, but he feared they viewed it just as annoying and useless as he did at their age. It took time not to just begin to master the art, but to appreciate the reason why one might do so.

Hiro sat in his study watching the video feed of a small transport vessel docking at the port. It carried six containers that were offloaded and brought to the ordnance depot storage facility by maintenance bots. The activity looked entirely routine.

Katei no koe broke the silence.

<Yakazuki-san, you are requested to report to the ordnance office regarding the arrival of a shipment from a base on Luna.>

“Thank you. Please have Tomozo join us. I believe this concerns him as well.”

<Hai.>

The presence of two Marines along with the senior officers for logistics and ordnance certainly looked like a bad omen, but Hiro and Tomozo kept a practiced neutral expression. They bowed as they entered, which wasn’t Confederacy protocol, but certainly a familiar ritual for the Japanese that helped them calm their nerves.

“My honored colleagues, how may I be of assistance?” Hiro said in greeting.

A Colonel spoke up without bothering to introduce himself. “The AI is informing us there are nuclear materials in that shipment. We didn’t grant clearance for that. I need to know what is in those containers you brought in. Are those nukes?”

Tomozo answered for the two of them. “Those are the Type 93 missiles that were contracted with Mitsubishi. I am not aware of any nuclear warheads. That was not specified in the contract.”

“Mitsubishi was to include a small quantity of plutonium waste in hopes we could use it as raw materials in the replicators. Mitsubishi does not have adequate replicator technology to conduct such an experiment. As partial payment for their shipment, they requested our engineers conduct a test to see if replicators could be used to refine waste plutonium into weapons-grade. This would be of great importance in their efforts to deal with a grave problem in Japan and be of great help to the Confederacy. This was all documented in the contract.”

“Dammit, we never approved shipping nuclear waste here!” He turned to another officer. “John, can we safely store that stuff and do this?”

The other officer, John, answered uncertainly “Well, I don’t see why not. We do have some areas reserved for hazardous materials work, but I don’t have anyone qualified to work with radioactive materials, unless some of the new arrivals have experience in that stuff. If this works, some plutonium might be pretty useful to us, though.”

John asked the AI if any base personnel had experience handling nuclear materials. The AI informed him there were six individuals with relevant experience from Japan Nuclear Fuels, Ltd. The officer in charge of the inquisition shook his head.

“OK, let’s do this: Get those six over here and outfitted with whatever protective equipment they need. Set up that HAZMAT area to safely store this stuff and we’ll work out with the AI how this test can be done without killing a bunch of people and irradiating the whole damned base. If the AI approves the safety measures, we can proceed.”

“Yes, sir.”

“AI, what’s the damage from having this stuff show up like this?”

<There is no contamination risk to the base or personnel. Radiation is detected in the containers but the levels are not hazardous. The radioactive material appears to be stored in shielded containers but may require additional safety measures before further handling or storage.>

He turned to Hiro. “You two need to learn that you just can’t have stuff arrive here without proper clearances or obligate this base to perform unapproved science experiments. It’s more of a hassle to have this stuff sent back than to work with what we’ve got, but if this happens again you two are going to spend the rest of your careers swabbing out toilets with a toothbrush. Understand me?”

“Yes, sir, we shall do our best not to upset you in the future. We are deeply regretful of how we have failed you,” Hiro apologized. Being the senior of the two, it was his job to take the blame.

“Now get out of my office. You’ve added a lot of work for me to get through today and I don’t have extra hours in the day.”

As Hiro left he and Tomozo shared a look that barely showed their smiles in their eyes.

Hiro thought about the observations Chuichi had made about gardening. Yes, the Confederacy was not a good gardener. It had pulled up an obvious weed, but left the less obvious ones in place. With each storage container somewhat contaminated by the radiation signature of the nuclear waste, no detection system would suspect that the small amount of radiation remaining in the containers was coming from a different source, rather than being a residual of the waste.

Michael Bugyo was very honored to give Hiro a tour of the newly-completed Shimakaze. The interior was small and efficient with a vast array of manual controls scattered around all the workspaces. Hiro was quite happy with his decision not to change his height above his modest size, as anyone with a ‘standard Marine package’ would be forced to walk or stand bent-over throughout most of the ship’s spaces.