Chapter 4: Eastern Magic Meets Western Policy
Above and below the ocean, a massive search is on for the one know as Sakura. Deep and far north towards the icecaps is the stealthy ship known only to a few of its own people. This ship, a powerful symbol of war slow carts a package that is worth more then any weapon on the planet, but how do you use it?
Date: April 5th, 2007
Location: KVN SSBN ‘Konvelov’, somewhere south of the Bering Strait.
The submarine was slowing itself down. it would be pointless if the ship, carrying something that could end this terrible war was to sink of the coast of Alaska because the enemy could hear her. The captain made the speed to 10 knots, meaning that it could take more then 24 hours to pass the strait. His major concern was noise; the reactor was the most effective of course but came with a terrible cost, a loud noise that occurred then the ship angled to port or starboard. In order for the captain to secure that, he would have to stop and manually rotate the ship to face the right direction every time they came to a turn.
Fortunately the underwater trench had only 2 port side turns and 2 starboards. But unfortunately, one was right next on top of a sonar net. This one was also hard to tell if it was active. In order for the captain to pass that one, he would have to turn his reactor off and glide around the 30 angle until he was clear, then he would turn the reactor on and hope that he doesn’t get noticed. If he did, the only option he would have was go shadow and speed off on propellers at full speed which on this boat was about 35 knots. The twin bronze propellers would certainly make a ton of noise and there cover would be blown. Then the captain would hope to get to the ice caps and float steady until his escorts got to him and not be found by a 688.
The first officer waited on the helmsmen to ready to enter the trench; all was quiet as the commanders of the ship closely monitored the forward sonar depth gauge. This gauge gave the ship one tactic advantage the 688’s or any American attack submarine didn’t have. This device was located in the bow and a backup unit was located on the bottom of the ship, halfway down. One detector faced directly forward and another eight sonar detectors rotated on a propeller like device and gave range between the ship and the rocky terrain below the surface. This device was designed to give a tactical view of the terrain almost 200 yards in front, above, below and sides. This machine was called the UTMD or Underwater Terrain Mapping Device.
In the control room, the screen would then give the commanders a simple 3D view forward of the ship underwater and mapped all the terrain outcrops in the next 50 to 200 yards. This device was the most effective thing to be invented outside the American laboratories. Against this device, the ‘Konvelov’ would simply then be able to outrun any submarine in a deep submerged trench seeing the American navy didn’t have anything that matched the system that this boat had.
The Captain looked at his watch, 6pm on the surface. The Americans on the Alaskan coast’s anti submarine bases would be too arrogant to be manning their controls right now, dinner time for some of them, others it would be time for them to sleep off the glaze they received from their 15 year old monitors. This would be the only chance he’d get to pass through the nets and the defence platforms.
The Bering Strait was the oddest point in this war in that it was the only place in the world. The borders hadn’t changed since the beginning of the war. The Bering Strait mainly acted as no-man-land and both armies were entrenched on their respective coastlines. The United states empire on the Alaskan side. The Russians, north and East Asian rebels, European survivors and other elements of former armies were entrenched on the other side. Nobody heard much about this defensive barrier, but anyone, American or Russian who wanted to travel between these two lines took a very high risk of being killed. This was only a regarded problem to surface ships and aircraft. The hundreds of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile placements on either side of the strait made sure that it could deflect thousands of missiles and destroy a incoming nuke.
The only thing lacking was good warning devices. The best stuff was either in two places. For America this was either Washington or on the western European front lines, a line that divided Germany again. This line extended from Italy all the way up to Denmark. Fighting here was still very common. It wasn’t uncommon for either side to lose ground, very much like trench warfare in World War 1. Everywhere else it was quiet and proper gates and walls were built.
A wall that surrounded Russia was the only known border left anywhere in the world. It was a 20,000 mile border that extended from Denmark, down to Libya across to Pakistan and all the way to Hong Kong, china, all in one straight line. This border separated the two countries. To Russia, which half of the country was destroyed in the first half of the war was overcrowded with people from south Asia, Africa, Europe and even as far as south America; this was the only reasonable land left to there name. But the risk they just took to capture Sakura and her friends might likely end in disaster if the captain fails his mission.
The captain proceeded with the bearings check one the first officer was relived of command duties for the time being. He like the other crewmembers was at the upmost concern when they would travel into the trench. Sakura and Tomoyo were sleeping gracefully in the cabin and the other three were being given medical checks.
Syaoran hated doctors, nobody knew why. But he hated them with a passion. Naoko and Rita came to there own conclusions, and they fortunately were right. He only hated it if there was a natural or magic solution available, and seeing his mother wasn’t around, he had to take the brunt of the 3 year old medicine. Apart from the scars he received helping Sakura out. Naoko and Rita decided to hold back and wait for Syaoran to finish up, then go to the mess room to have a decent meal.
“Syaoran, can you please stand up for a minute”
“Yes sir”
Syaoran wasn’t about to argue with the doctor, he was after all on a submarine about 1000 feet below the ocean surface and probably had about 20 sailors with guns within 10 metres of the doctors medical quarters.
“So, did you happen to give Sakura a teddy bear?” the doctor queried,
Syaoran wanted to punch his lights out, but instead blushed and gracefully nodded,
The doctor continued “I can’t see to blame you; Sakura seems to a nice and sweet young lady, not to mention what is mentioned to be her unique athletic ability, and a healthy view towards life…despite what has happened over the past two years”
“She’d change in an instant if you tell her everything that has happened in the two years that we have been locked away” Syaoran calmly explained,
Syaoran was starting to feel okay about the doctor asking questions.
“And, is it true about what the reports say?”
“What?”
“You were going to marry Sakura one day?”
Syaoran looked at him, firstly; how would he know? None of Americans asked him about that night, and surely he didn’t think they’d care.
“How did you know that?”
“We have someone in the SBD that helped us gain a better perspective on you and Sakura”
The SBD was basically the Russian equal to the Soviet Union’s KGB; it was a combined of the odd French, German and Italian secret police forces combing the Russian and British secret services. It was not really in any official base, any kind of headquarters would quickly become a target of the American CIA. The organisation was never actually known that well to the public, it simple was known as the RFSS, the Russian federations old intelligence agency before the war began.
Syaoran wondered how someone could monitor him and not bump into the Americans at the same time. Deciding not to go into any deep detail, he finished taking all the medicines and left the ward. Syaoran started on a small limp,
“Syaoran; is your leg okay?” the doctor enquired.
“It’s fine!” Syaoran spoke.
“Come here and let me see it”
Syaoran proceeded to the table and waited as the doctor applied new gloves and took from his draw a magnetic device.
“How long has your left leg been like this?”
“About 2 weeks” Syaoran responded.
“Generally, if it’s a muscle strain, I’d give you these antibiotics or tell you to stay in bed. But seeing how you also hate the medicine here, use these magnets and keep them in this case. If your leg is hurting, just rub it over the effected area. This normally helps you relieve the stress in that muscle, which I think is because by recent activity that we’ve had you take”
“Okay, makes sense”
“Anything else, please advise me. In the meantime, please go eat something so that your body can start processing the medicine I gave you earlier”
Syaoran leapt up from the table and walked out of table
“One more thing Syaoran”
Syaoran turned to the doctor,
“When you use them, use it in your cabin or somewhere not near the control room. The ships sonar and navigation gear is very fragile when it comes to magnetic force. Those magnets are strong enough to deflect the instruments by a few degrees”
Syaoran understood and kept it in a pocket in his newly acquired trousers and walked off and downstairs to the galley. Syaoran was starting to get use to the cramp conditions on the submarine. Amazing feat, considering the amount of time he had spent on one. Syaroan still lacked direction and didn’t know everything in the ship. Occasionally he ended up going in circles until a passer-by pointed him in the right direction.
The galley wasn’t the grandest room, but in comparison to the quarters and other rooms besides the missile room, it was big, one level down and forward 20 meters of the control room, this room was basically a retreat for all personal on the ship, their eating quarters and occasionally a classroom from the political officer on the ship, reminding them about what they fought for and their goal. It was in a pretty safe part of the ship, the third floor of a 4 floor high ship.
Naoko and Rita were seated alone and were looking that the food prepared. It looked okay; expect it tasted like cold roast and gravy. And Rita swore that it was more then a month old. Syaoran and the two girls’ reluctantly ate it anyway; it tasted a lot better then what they had been eating at prison. Two engineering personnel were sitting down the table bench and decided to talk with them.
“How can you eat this trash?” the first sailor asked.
“Compared to the stuff made at the prison camp, this is good” Syaoran commented.
“What did they have you eat? bugs and dirt?”
“No” Rita half grinned.
“I’ll tell you, we were berthed only a week ago; fresh supplies, clean vodka, the lot. But this cook, he can’t cook if he had a gun at his head” the second sailor spoke.
“He can’t be that bad” Naoko said.
“He put a mixture of flour and coffee in this morning’s porridge…enough said” the first Sailor returned
Syaoran could imagine the taste and automatically stopped eating. Even he had to admit, and he didn’t like too, that even Meling, Syaoran’s probably now dead cousin had better skills cooking.
The sailor continued “Anyway, what I suppose I should give you a little secret that I use, if the food looks a little grey, add some of this”
The Sailor produced a half empty bottle of Vodka.
“Thanks…” Syaoran spoke unsettled “Why don’t I and Rita just cook ourselves?”
“You can cook?” both sailors spoke.
“Yes. Sakura, Tomoyo, Rita, Naoko and me; we all know how to cook”
“Dam, I wish we had you as cooks on this boat”
Rita gleamed at the moment and walked slowly to the kitchen. It was technically a mess, well so much that it was untidy. The deep fryer for some reason was out of service. The tables were covered in floor and coffee from this morning. Knifes and other intrsuments lay around on tables unused. Rita turned to the Sailor and spoke,
“If you can clean this all up, and fix and clean out the deep fryer, I could cook something before I leave and give your cook a few lessons”
“You have deal; I can get Yuri to fix that thing in less then a hour” the sailors looking forward to a better tasting meal.
Meanwhile in the cabin of the chief doctor, Sakura was been checked on. Now that she knew what happened and why she was here, Sakura was admissive to these strange new people. Tomoyo also was more pleased to see these people and receive aid. Sakura was sitting down on bed of the medical room on the ship. Sighing having not talked to Syaoran personally for awhile.
“So, you’re the most powerful and revered Card Mistress of the world over” the doctor spoke,
Dr Petrovie liked to communicate with the patients he treated; his feeling was that if they knew him better, they could trust him more. One a ship like the Konvelov, it was hard to forget a face. He also wanted to meet this girl, despite all the propaganda that America enforced against Sakura, a great deal of lies about this girl, portraying her as central pivot of all evil. Many people entirely doubted this story as it didn’t make any logical sense or matter. But because of the lack of information based on Sakura or any of her friends, this exaggerated version of Sakura became the accepted version of her image.
“Powerful and Revered?” Sakura recited those words,
“Yes, the Americans kept saying how powerful your magic is, they lay clam that your fly card can exceed mark 3 and beyond, that you yourself could level entire cities with only the use of your staff” the doctor explained.
“Impossible, I never remembered the fly card going that fast, I don’t think I could survive if it did, and my cards are helping cards, not destroyers of the world” Sakura mouthed back.
“But, what is true?”
Sakura looked at him for a minute, what did he want to know? It’s not like he already came to his own conclusions. Sakura then lay down on the table as the doctor ordered her to, so that he could inspect the wounds.
“Hmm, it looks like you recovering nicely, let me apply some cream that should reduce the burning feeling a bit for now” The doctor explained as her walked to a cabinet.
“What do you want to know?” Sakura kindly asked the doctor,
The doctor turned around in surprise, not expecting her to be open.
“Well. I was wondering, did you and Syaoran really have some kind of relationship?”
Sakura blushed deep red, expecting him to ask a question about the magic cards or some other thing, but nothing like that.
“Syaoran and I first met as enemies, but that changed over the course of a year when Syaoran and I were capturing the cards” Sakura explained
“Capturing cards? I thought you had them from birth”
“No, I came across the cards by accident, complete accident”
“Now that’s something I wasn’t expecting to hear”
“How is that?” Sakura asked in surprise,
“I’m guessing lies from America again, but you mean to tell me that you were probably not meant to get the cards?”
“No, I was meant to get the cards, but at first I got them by complete accident”
“I see, and these cards, what accident was involved with them?”
“I accidentally let them free…but I got them all back”
“How could nobody notice those cards? I’ve seen there appearances on the television when they attacked the Asian south coast 18 months ago”
Sakura was somewhat bemused by that last comment, the cards she knew acted entirely different to what the doctor had interspersed them as.
“I’ve never known the cards to act in such manner ever since I captured them all 6 years ago” Sakura made her thought public.
“Well, unless they need there master to heal them down from that, or they simply conned into a deal with America that they would see you again if they did stuff for them” the doctor came up with his own two conclusions “doubtfully you heard that all of them have since died”
“My cards?” Sakura spoke,
“Yes, they were completely destroyed after the invasions and America had its control on the planet, they it didn’t need them anymore”
“Kero would be furious, if he was here now” Sakura sobbed, knowing that her cards were destroyed.
“Kero? You mean a frog?”
“No” Sakura explained “Kero was my guardian, a small scale flying teddy bear, he also was a friend to me from the beginning”
“I’ve never heard of such a creature, I wonder why our intelligence has nothing on it.”
Sakura could barely remember kero, the small flying teddy bear that loved pudding.
“Anyway, I suppose that and all will be brought to attention, when we get you to the base” the doctor continued,
“What base, is this really a prison transfer?”
“No, we are taking you to a naval base in one of the large fjords on the north coast, in the meantime, we are to maintain you health until we arrive at the docks of the naval base”
Sakura nodded, despite still lying down on the table.
“When was the last time you or Tomoyo had something to eat?”
“A long time; probably the dinner at the prison before we left” Sakura spoke. “I’ll order the chef…um maybe not now…let me go down there so I can monitor the cook…just so I can add some medicine…so that the taste of the medicine doesn’t effect you too much”
The doctor had a long running disagreement about the cook’s attitude towards his health and safety history. Way to many times had he treated the crew for food poisoning on a ship where food was vital to keeping the crew healthy.
“In the meantime Sakura, I recommend that you stay rested until we bring you tea”
“Yes sir”
“Don’t call me sir, call me Petrovie, or Dr Petrovie when the captain is around as well”
Sakura understood the comments and continued allowing him to inspect the wound and change the dressing.
“Please sit on the table Sakura; I need to give you two injections before I can let you go”
Sakura positioned herself on the table and waited for the injection needles.
“Anyway Sakura, considering the amount of damage your body suffered t the fight to get you out, you seem to be recovering very well, any magical reason for that abnormity?”
“I suppose the years of training before I was captured. And all the body punishment from when I was capturing cards, I got seriously injured, but somehow managed to recover”
“Well, if you could capture 53 cards with the power to destroy a city, you can certainly survive 6 50 calibre rounds going into your stomach”
“53? I captured 52, then made 1” Sakura told him
“Interesting…”
The room’s phone rang a light bell. The doctor easy could reach the phone line.
“Dr Petrovie, are you done with the girls?” the captain spoke on the box
“No captain, I’m only done checking Sakura now, I’ve still got Tomoyo to inspect”
“That will have to wait, we are about to pass the entry marker”
“Aye sir, I’ll finish with Sakura, have the 1st officer bring some tea and mugs from the officers dinning room”
“Why not just get it from the galley”
“I prefer that I don’t have our patients killed by food poisoning, especially Sakura”
“Aye comrade, ill have my junior officer bring them to Sakura and Tomoyo’s Quarters”
The phone receiver was hung up; the doctor turned his attention to Sakura again, he went to work given Sakura two antibodies and cleaned the wound.
“Alight, rest them off, I’m coming around in 5 minutes after I check with the Captain”
“Thank you Doctor”
The Doctor didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t sir.
 
Location: Somewhere under the arctic.
Time: 21:45 local time.
The USS Bremerton was a mark 3 model 688 class attack submarine. The 688 or Los Angles class was considered the best interceptor type submarine in the world before the war began. There were Seawolf and the brand new Shapper class submarine; those units were reserved to more topical waters and waters close to the new capital mainland of the American empire.
USS Bremerton had just sailed for one straight month, after being hit by a torpedo from a Russian alpha that apparently was directly behind them. The torpedo damaged to conning tower and disabled its only nuclear weapons, which were on a mark III, were two large silos strapped on to either side. The torpedo timed and exploded right above the ship and the ‘straps’ fell off, sending two perfect missiles to the bottom of the Atlantic. The Bremerton never could return fire, the Russian alpha disappeared. The naval station in Norfolk wasn’t glad to repair the damage. But in two months, the ship was in the water heading north to seek revenge.
The captain heard about the losses at Japan and was out to seek for Sakura, but doubtful that reports came in that the helicopter was found at sea meant that she was dead, but there are two people that could do it; the united south rebels and the united Russian, European and Asian federation.
In any which matter, Sakura was still alive and well, but where? For days the submarine and aircraft carriers searched the coastal area of China, Korea and even Alaska. But that was met with Russian and Chinese MIGs shooting apart terribly old F-14s and F-18s. There lessons after the fly card and storm card in the battle of Hong Kong should remind them that they lost almost the entire air wings of several carriers. Not to mention that after the battle was first loss, the lack aircraft gave the Russian and Korean T-16 ‘backfires’ a chance to destroy the USS Ranger, USS John F Kennedy, USS America, and the 32 surface missile ships in a day. The battle of Hong Kong was a pretty long campaign to destroy the Li Family and several other targeted families. It was finally ended with 4 high blast nuclear weapons fired from both sea and space to end the siege.
“I just dunno” reported the captain looking at a screen map, “Why would you park 2 Russian alphas’ north of the Bering Strait?”
The map was an indication of movement of the two submarines, both early type Alpha’s. Effective, but not as fast as the newer ones.
“I suppose they are waiting for someone” his first officer spoke as he stopped slipping his coffee. “There isn’t a real good reason for two alphas to use the secret gate and then come here”
“Well I suppose its good measure that we follow to them, plot a course to here, stay outside their effective range.”
 
Location: KVN ‘Konvelov’
Local Time: 18:50
The Captain waited until he heard that everyone had a meal, so to his luck found a iceberg to hide under. He decided to commence his run on the strait at 9pm that night, the Americans would be at 10pm and would be drunk off themselves, not expecting a submarine to pass through no-mans-land, it was Friday night after all. Sakura and Tomoyo sat in there quarters waiting for the doctor to come. Tomoyo was sitting up in bed after Sakura helped her up and waiting for the doctor to supply tea.
The crew were at stations and in the galley for the main meal. Thanks to some intervention and a little speeded cleaning, Rita and Naoko and Syaoran all became commissioned chefs on the Konevlov, they spent the last two hours cooking meals for 90 seamen and lower ranked officers, and a further hour cleaning the kitchen and translating some of the labels on Russian tins of food and writing down the Japanese name or picture symbols.
The crew had heard the earlier rumours at lunch and were willing to tie up the cook to get a taste of good food.. The petty officers downstairs all combined to help out with the cleaning when the two seamen were overheard talking about the food that Rita, Naoko and Syaoran could prepare. In about an hour the entire engineering department of the Konvelov knew about the rumour, it took till 3pm before the petty officers decided to test prove the theory they heard.
The head chief was thrown into a locker room and hidden away when he refused to let ‘children’ into ‘his’ kitchen. Rita and Naoko went to work preparing the vegetables and went around with one petty officer helping rename all the tins into Japanese. Syaoran and two other seamen as well as a spare electrician off duty worked on cleaning the kitchen and fixing the oven and fryer. Syaoran and Rita went to work on preparing the meal by preparing the main part of the meal while Naoko sorted and fixed vegetables for the meal.
“This must be good” spoke a petty officer to the chief engineer who moved upstairs towards the officer’s dinning cabin.
“Dinner is ready…” Syaoran told a junior ranked lieutenant.
Everyone heard that,
“Alight! There is no need to be any louder, I shall test it first, if this food is revolting; we load Boris and Yuri into the torpedo tubes and fire them at the next American submarine that comes by!”
Everyone laughed, Boris and Yuri, the two sailors who talked to the three before and started all this. The lieutenant got a fork and tasted the food that Rita, Naoko and Syaoran prepared. He took his time for his taste buds to finish it down. He then gave the longer awaited thumbs up. The crew cheered and immediately got into a cue that went out one door down as the bulkhead next to the missile room, two left turns and back again in another door on the other side, a true way of telling the size of the ship. Naoko and Syaoran quickly made to serving points while Rita escorted by a petty officer went upstairs to the officer’s cabins.
Rita went down with a small cart, trying to figure out why there was even one aboard a ship like this, the petty officer soon solved her question and problem of getting it upstairs 1½ floors and into the officer dinning room. Inside the seven officers waited for dinner.
“Sakura is obviously different, we all knew that, but the intelligence reports we stole don’t even match there attitude towards human beings” The chief doctor spoke,
“It’s true, I don’t think we know anyone that could recover from injuries like that and even smile today’ the 1st officer returned speech “Tonight, we might be killed and it’s like they don’t care”
“They are truly unusual people, Syaoran especially, he is supposable meant be self serving and only cares for himself, but unless I recall correctly; he threaten me to get to work on getting Sakura patched up” the doctor concluded.
“Well obliviously, and for now on, the characteristics of these people, we shouldn’t base our knowledge on intelligence and more from us in this room” the Political officer concluded.
“Can someone explain to me what the entire hurrah is going on downstairs in the galley? Did the cook learn to cook?”
“I haven’t seen him since 3pm” navigation officer spoke to the commanders.
The door knocked,
“Comrade Captain, dinner is served”
“We are fine with our tea, comrade”
“I think you understatement the taste of these cooks”
The most junior officer moved and opened the door. Rita then proceeded by moving in with the tray. The entire officer core just looked at her.
“Since when did this happen?” the captain demanded to know.
“3pm, we ‘convinced’ the chef to take today off and we let Syaoran, Rita and Naoko prove a bet they made”
“Are you serious?” the captain got up and walked outside, the 1st officer followed.
There were people manning the consoles, the draft computers, the engineering, but every man off duty was in the mess hall eating the meal, he line had halved since they started serving and the crowd was please with the meal, it was the best thing they ate in 2 years of war.
“Well comrade captain, it’s certainly a morale booster for the crew”
“It is” the captain returning the 1st officer’s comment.
They returned to see Rita leave with two more trays.
“Where are you taking them to?” the captain enquired the petty officer helping Rita.
“Captain, to the doctor’s quarters, to Sakura and Tomoyo” the petty officer answered.
“Have them set up in the wardroom” the captain then looked at his 1st officer “Go and retrieve Sakura and Tomoyo, remind them to dress cleanly”
“Aye comrade” both the men spoke and went off on their specific missions.
Sakura and Tomoyo were still in their quarters and waited for tea, assuming it was just a hot tea and maybe sea biscuits. Then came a knock on the door, loudly.
“Sakura, this is the 1st officer, the Captain would like to see you and Tomoyo in the wardroom for dinner, please be dressed as with Tomoyo”
“Yes…Sir, I will sir” Sakura promptly put on a jacket that she found in the closet.
She then proceeded to wake up Tomoyo and put on trousers and a shirt of similar description to that of Sakura’s. As soon as Tomoyo was up, Tomoyo was given assistance, first by Sakura and then by the first officer and they proceed to the wardroom on the other side of the room and made good time. When they entered, Sakura and Tomoyo sat together and looked scared at the 7 men around her. The captain saw they were scare and spoke in Russian for a second
“One more thing about them, they are scared like humans, they are like us”
The other 6 officers laughed. Sakura or Tomoyo didn’t understand a word they said, but they didn’t like it.
“Comrade Sakura, master of the demon cards, mightily lord of the sorcery army of the east…I present the command crew of the Rodina’s (motherland’s) ship Konevlov” the captain announced.
“Thank you for the very kind hospitality of your crew” Sakura spoke.
“But may I ask where you got the words ‘demon cards’ and the sorcery army of the east?” Tomoyo asked worried,
The officers laughed,
“My Dear Tomoyo” the captain spoke “we have much to learn about you and your friend”
Sakura let that go, as did Tomoyo, the first officer introduced the commanders in a clockwise order.
“Sakura, I’d like you to meet Commander Jonathan Sirgoly, chief engineer of the Knovelov.”
“Nice to meet you” Sakura kindly nodded to him.
“Then there is Commander Marko Worlfky, commander in charge of communications. This here is Doctor Petrovie As you have already met. Then here is Captain 1st Rank Vladimir Toupoliv, political officer on the ‘Konvelov’ , he in fact saved you Tomoyo by donating blood to keep her alive during the operation yesterday”
“Thank you very, very much Mr Toupoliv” Tomoyo replied
“Then there is me; I’m commander 2nd rank Vladimir Ramous, tactical and navigation. And this man here is Captain 1st Rank Vladimir Toupoliv, Commander in charge of the Konevlov”
Sakura nodded at the captain,
“Thank you very much for saving us from that prison, I wish I could repay the debt we now owe you”
“Your friends have quite much done that” the captain gracefully replied. The dinner they made for the crew, us and you have given as a great morale boost before we go into a difficult part of our voyage” “Did Syaoran, Rita and Naoko cook all this?”
“Yes, they just supplied my crew with their first decent meal in 3 weeks. That is something we couldn’t accomplish” Doctor Petrovie explained.
Vladimir contiuned “Anyway, we invited you here so we can learn about you, it seams the information we have on you is…”
“Completely mixed up and wrong” the Political officer summed up in one sentence.
“Exactly” the captain continued, “you see, the information we have had come from American mouth’s and you can probably guess, is completely rubbish”
“What I said before is all we are told about you” Dr Petrovie spoke “oh course; we wish to know more about your background miss Sakura”
This sounded too much like the interrogators when they first met them. Tomoyo and Sakura looked at each other, Sakura then spoke,
“I’ll answer your questions, but please first answer mine”
“Of course Sakura” the political officer spoke “we wish not to act anything like your interrogators from that base, but we are very interested in your magic abilities it is a very interesting concept that undermined us for generations”
Sakura took some time to interpret and understand it, Sakura then she spoke
“What is the purpose of this mission? You didn’t capture us just to free us, didn’t you?”
The officers looked at each other for a minute, until the captain answered,
“We captured you, to both free you and ask for your assistance in a mission. Both me and the fleet admiral 6 months ago were informed of a top secret mission called ‘mission Zulu Z-34A’ later known as ‘time of cherry blossom’. It was kept secret until 2 weeks ago when I was at sea. This mission is now underway in its third phase of a total six phases”
Both Sakura and Tomoyo were dealing okay at this revelation, it answered Sakura next 3 questions that lined up. Tomoyo then ended a short silence by speaking,
“Well captain, I suppose we should start eating the meal”
The other commanders agreed and started eating, unlike Sakura and Tomoyo.
“Itadakimasu!” Sakura and Tomoyo both said before they ate.
“Itad-ak-i-what?” the chief engineer asked,
“It basically means thank you for the food” Tomoyo explained after eating some food.
“I see, a formal form of grace”
“Exactly” Tomoyo spoke.
Everyone continued there meal until they were finished. Every now and then officers would talk about some form of business in relation to the submarine. Until they were done, Sakura and Tomoyo remained very quiet and cautious of their actions.
“Sakura, you seemed worried” the communications officer said.
“Not really, its just I’ve never had dinner with people like you before, I just trying to think of being a respectful as possible”
“I see” the officer responded.
“Well, we understand that your position at the moment, but you have nothing to fear from us. We are here to take you to safety and join you at where ever this thing is”
“What thing?” Sakura asked,
“Did you think we would sail around in circles for a week?” the 1st officer spoke seriously “We are taking you to a new naval base at either Novyy port or Tazovskiy, after that, not even I’m sure”
“It is in the meantime, its imperative that we act as if you have both died” The captain finishing the sentence,
“I understand”
“Captain, we must prepare to stations and begin our crossing to the Arctic Sea” the first officer reminded them.
“Alert the crew, we are going silent in 10 minutes, arm ship and turn off all unnecessary machines and lights”
“Aye comrade captain”
The officers got up from there seats and walked out in a single file and walked to their respective stations. The alert went downstairs to the crew who where leaving to there stations after a well enjoyed meal.
Syaoran, Rita and Naoko turned off the machines and let the dirty dishes and things in the washers to be cleaned later, the junior lieutenant escorted them upstairs to their quarters and thanked them again for the dinner. Sakura and Tomoyo returned to the quarters with the aid of the doctor. Tomoyo was laid down and Sakura sat in chair with to mugs of freshly brewed tea from the officers’ wardroom.
“This room is sound proof, so it’s okay for light talking, good night Sakura, Tomoyo”
“Goodnight and thank you Doctor”
The door closed, Sakura turned on the bedside light and the desk lamp then turned off the room light. Sakura sat down next to Tomoyo and started to have there tea together before they talked.
 
Location: KVN Konevlov
Time: 21:30 local time
The captain commenced the standard procedure of checking systems and sub systems for any problems. A crossing with any noisy component on a ship could render the ship useless to not being seen on sonar. Firstly the captain went to periscope depth and looked out at the coastline and the sky, stormy weather was everywhere, and a definite advantage to the captain, the bases along to coast of Alaska were not very well equipped and woul have there crews fixing themselves into storm mode, there sonar would be ineffective and make it easy to make the 12 hour run in the underwater canyons.
“Dive to 700 feet and find welcome mat 2”
This particular canyon had two entries, mat 1 and mat 2, these connected up with the canyon later, mat 2 entry was easier to go thought but provided little protection from ASW aircraft, mat 1 was almost a tunnel then a canyon, but the sonar worked over time to measure it and you could only go at 2 knots.
Konvelov started her decent to 700 feet, a sharp angle down to the depth, it was better to go down quickly at this point, even if sonar is down, surface radar could eliminate a bit into water and detect the Knovelov in a snap. Slowly the ship started scanning the surface for the entry, there are 4 entrances to this canyon, 2 go in and 2 others are dead ends. The Russian navy made a pretty good marker to look for; they sunk the American carrier USS Boxer Hill here in the first battle of the Bering straight 18 months ago.
“Sir, I can see her, flat top directly ahead and below 600 yards” the sonar operator, Gegori Lenin spoke looking at the screen. The ‘3D’ map created a box like structure lying on its starboard side near the bottom. The chief sonar operator confirmed that.
“Comrade Captain, entry mat located, Bering 357 degrees at 600 yards” the sonar officer spoke.
“Come right to 003 degrees, reduce speed to 15 knots on tunnel drive” the 1st officer spoke to the helmsmen
The mighty ship started to tilt towards the right side. Moments later;
“Commander, entry mat is now located 353 degrees at 557 yards”
“Come left to 357 degrees reduce speed to 12 knots and recompute”
The ship once again leaned, this time towards the left side and strayed until,
“Commander, Bering to target 355 degrees at 400 yards”
“Comrade Captain, ship is on course and speed is reduced to 12 knots”
“Increase speed to 18 knots and recompute, prepare timers for canyon run” the Captain interrupted.
The commander did as he did and ordered the submarine crew to do exactly that. The computers beeped and the crew examined the consoles and gears carefully each time. The Captain looked at the ship clocks and then at his watch. The crew waited the orders to go and take the route.
“Commander, commence your run on the canyon, slow and steady”
“Aye comrade captain”
The light in the ship went all out expect for some blue lights in the control room. The halls went black and cold. The engineering department also went dark, only pin lights appeared above the consoles. Only the glow of the engines reactor heat pipes lit the room. The crew were all at there stations, at least with two men backing up a person on consoles and mechanics.
Syaoran, Rita and Naoko were about to enter their cabin when the lights all went out, the scary sense of darkness chilled Naoko and Rita encouraged them to get into the cabin and lock the door. Sakura and Tomoyo who were sipping the tea noticed the lights dim in their cabin and looked at each other. The captain sat in a special chair in the command centre of the control room. The commander and two junior navigators commenced clocking the submarine course and speed once it narrowly pasted over the sunken hulk USS Bunker Hill. The Sonar officer carefully monitor the tactical and geographic sonar stations, he had 3 people to a station. The commander noted the wreckage
“Depth above wreck”
“We were 16 feet from hitting the island structure”
“Aye, new record for this ship” the political officer announced,
“The mood didn’t change the crew’s attention towards the operations they were assigned to. One slip, it would all be over in seconds.
“20 seconds to first turn, starboard side 10 degrees”
“Aye commander…turn in 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1” the junior officer on the timers and charts spoke”
“Down 5 degrees on the bow plane to starboard, course Bering to 005 degrees” the commander ordered
The helmsmen turned there wheels and adjusted the bow planes by leaning forward on wheels.
“Next turn in 30 seconds, 20 port side”
The commander looked forward to the clock and counted it down from 20
“…17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…turn flank to 345 degrees, 10 degrees on the planes, move it!”
The ship tilted on the port side as it made a sharper turn onto its new course, the vessel tilted carefully for another 300 feet before the ship turned completely and levelled out.
“Aye comrade captain, comrade commander…next turn in 3 hours, 34 minutes and 15 seconds, mark”
“Alright, commander, you take the con, call me at the next turn” the Captain spoke as he left.
The captain resided to his quarters to sleep for an hour. Meanwhile another predicament arose in the cabins with Syaoran, Rita and Naoko.
“So where do you want to sleep Syaoran-kun?” Rita asked him
Rita and Naoko beat him to the beds. Naoko and Rita were not getting out either; the heating in the ship was turned off to reduce the heat signature on sonar and night vision from the surface ships. Syaoran was looking forward to another night on the floor and desired to go next door with Sakura and Tomoyo; there bed could them all tightly. But if one was on top of the other, then it would be comfortable. He stepped out into the cold hallway and stepped slowly to the next doorway. He gently knocked on the doorway and waited.
“Who is it?” Sakura asked as she got up from the chair
“Sakura-Chan, it’s me” Syaoran spoke quietly.
Sakura paused for a second, then unlocked the door to let him in. Syaoran and Sakura then together sat down on the chairs and sat next to Tomoyo who was in bed half asleep.
“Syaoran-kun, its so nice to see you again”
“How are you feeling Tomoyo-Chan?”
“With Sakura-Chan helping me all day, I feel better, thank you”
Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other,
“You came here to be with me, didn’t you Syaoran-kun?” Sakura spoke,
It didn’t actually come to mine at first, but now that she mentioned it,
“Yes I did” Syaoran half-lied,
Sakura could see right through him to know that he didn’t really think that, but smiled anyway. Sakura hugged him and then yawned a bit.
“Why did you come here?” Sakura asked him,
“Well, I kinda needed a place to sleep tonight…Naoko-Chan and Rita-Chan need their sleep, but I can’t get in bed with either of them”
Syaoran sighed and blushed. Sakura then turned to him and hugged him again, not at all expecting that from Sakura.
“You sleep with me and Tomoyo-Chan tonight, and we will figure it out in the morning”
Tomoyo shuffled over to the other side of the bed and Sakura sat on the bed and waited for Syaoran to lie down
“Wait a second, Sakura-Chan; This bed can only fit two people, where are you going to sleep?”
“Remember in the prison cell?”
Syaoran took a long memory and remembered what she recalled. Syaoran slide under the warm blanket and helped Sakura on top of him. Sakura laid down her ear on his chest and could hear his warm heartbeat pulsating, soothing sound that helped her fall sound asleep.
“You have a gift Li-kun” Tomoyo giggled softly,
“Why is it that?” Syaoran spoke
Staying calm, he shuffled a pillow under him and turned side on to Tomoyo, still holding Sakura as she slept silently.
“Because, Sakura-Chan has been up since we left the prison, she wouldn’t sleep until you were here for her, thank you for coming”
Syaoran and Tomoyo both agreed to sleep and slept off, Sakura remaining on Syaoran’s chest that backed Tomoyo who slept on her side facing the other way. Sakura murmured a bit but overall was happy that she was back in his arms. Syaoran was the last one awake and could smell Sakura’s hair, not the same smell he remembered 2 years ago, but it was a commenting smell of cherry blossoms in her soul that made perfume on her delicate skin.
Syaoran missed this comforting smell and aroma that enlightened his love for his beloved Cherry Blossom. Tomoyo could only sleep happier, now that her friend was happier, she could sleep peacefully and relax her nerves and sleep gently in time with Sakura’s breathing.
Location: KVN Konevlov
Date: April 6th, 2007
Time: 5:00am
As Sakura and her merry band of friends slept through the night, the crew of the Konevlov were wide awake at their posts. They had been speeding through the strait at almost 27 knots. Making good use of the wild weather and the snow cover, the submarine could easily travel at a good speed and range without being detected. The Americans wouldn’t want to launch any planes, even if they did see the submarine on radar and sonar, the risk of it either being damaged to much by the ice storm or being shot down by a stray Mig on a patrol.
The captain resumed the order of silent propulsion at 16 knots near the end stages, where the Konevlov would most likely encounter either American submarines or ASW aircraft already out. Any attempt of a Russian submarine passing through this net required two tactics. The first would require any ship to power down and simply drift pass the enemy, this cause a meaning full problem in terms of current pushing the ship in any direction.
The second was simply to put on the props and pretend to be an American ship. This meant that any typhoon class submarine would stop driving on 2 props and stray with 1, normally the starboard side cause of the power needed to maintain course. This issue only affected the older typhoon classes, the Konevlov was a newer secretive model of the Typhoon class; its silent propulsion system meant it could travel almost undetected
Unfortunately, and in the submariners world; nothing can go completely undetected, the Konevlov’s tunnel drive made a very low pitched noise. But this didn’t matter; the Americans preferably wouldn’t believe anyone that said it was a submarine and not an earthquake. The entire Sonar operation core in American had a new saying; ‘if you hear it, it isn’t real; if it killed you, its real”
This was because the American government believe initially that some of its own were witches, wizards and other magical beings. This led a massive turn around of people being dobbed in, even if they were lucky at poker, they were dragged into cells until death.
The captain relieved the overworked commander and took his post on the watch. The ship was on a dead straight for the arctic sea now, no narrow turns or exits. It was another 500 miles to the escorts. The two alpha class submarines and a joining Charlie I class attack submarine, a slow but sturdy submarine that should no longer exist. The Charlie class was a noisy old rust bucket type ship that sevred the Rodina well in the early 70’s and 80’s, but the age of the engines and quarters, the reactor was in fact brand new. Its better to have as many ships out then none at all. The captain could agree with that as much as any captain in the navy. There were almost 45 attack submarines and all 34 of the secret typhoon ships making various missions around the world, acting as couriers, delivery boys, and most importantly, secret launch platforms for a nuclear stockpile to destroy all remaining life on the earth.
The commander walked to his quarters and simply dropped onto his bed, cold from not being used for several days, he hadn’t slept since the night Sakura and friends came aboard. Drifting off, his last moments of thought before sleeping were of Sakura. In the quarters of Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran; Sakura slowly awoke in the arms of still sleeping Syaoran and with Tomoyo now peacefully sleeping in the relaxing comfort of her smile.
Sakura kissed Syaoran on the cheek, and slowly moved on top of him, relaxing on his firm chest and relaxed her long legs around his. Syaoran was well aware of this, but didn’t move an inch. Sakura after all was a comfortable weight on himself and for once the floor under him was also comfortable and not made out of ice or cement. Syaoran put his arms around Sakura, as he did, he peeked through his left eye at the clock above Sakura on the small dashboard on the lowered ceiling of the bunk. 5:30am. Syaoran the open both his eyes at Sakura’s face.
“Good morning Sakura-Chan”
“But how did you?”
“My cherry blossom; that is of not importance, you are through to me”
Sakura nodded and held in for a quiet and passionate kiss. Sakura closed her eyes and relaxed her heart on Syaoran’s body. Quietly they fell asleep, unaware that Tomoyo saw it
“How romantic, so, so, so Kawaii!!!”
Tomoyo could only think of what joy Eriol brought her when she was with him, she knew that time wouldn’t come back; it would be an impossible dream too. They slept for another 3 hours or more before getting up.
“How did you sleep Tomoyo-Chan?” Sakura asked her friend who was yawning in her comfortable bed.
“Quite good now that you’re happy”
Sakura didn’t see how that made sense but lived with it. Syaoran was still in the bed with Tomoyo whilst Sakura stepped out onto the cold steel floor, when she found shoes. A light tap on the door came, Sakura then went to the door and opened it too see a petty officer offering tea and freshly toasted bread. Sakura took this breakfast in and thanked the man. She proceeded by putting it down and fixing Tomoyo’s with the right requirements, Syaoran got up and helped Sakura.
“I can remember so fondly of the predicaments we were in with you, Syaoran-kun” Tomoyo commented “Oh so long ago was it when Syaoran-kun was our enemy”
Syaoran blushed, Sakura seconded that. Tomoyo couldn’t help but giggle at them,
“We are glad that you’re happier now” Sakura commented, giving her the tea.
Tomoyo sipped her tea and breathed in the smell of warm tea.
“That’s better…” Tomoyo commented,
Syaoran sat on the Chair and began to eat the toast, or taste test it, just to be careful known that the chef was now freed from the cupboard they trapped him in. Syaoran finished quickly and began to get ready for today and what was later expected of them at night. Sakura and Tomoyo finished their breakfast to prepare and get dressed into fresh clothing and helped Tomoyo who had trouble walking, out onto the control room deck of the Konevlov.
“Good morning Captain” Sakura kindly said.
The captain who was concentration on the sonar screen turned to face Sakura and her friends, delighted to see them
“Good morning Sakura, I see you got the note to meet me in the control”
“I didn’t know about any message” Sakura said
“Hmm, then I suppose its luck that you showed up then, come sit here” pointing at the map table.
Sakura and friends clambered around the light screen table ad looked at the map, Syaoran automatically recognised it from early yesterday, they were now north of the Bering strait and coming close to two yellowish marks on the map.
“What are these yellow spots?” Tomoyo asked,
“Sharp sight Tomoyo” the captain noted “these are the two adjoining escorts that will take us to here”
“Why is all this shaded?” Syoaran asked.
“Its meant to represent the ice cover there, recently the climate conditions have changed, allowing the entire artic region to get colder and form more ice pack that now locks in with the northern coastline, its now completely solid, 40 feet of solid ice, and growing”
“The how do we get here?” Syaoran pointed at the red X mark on the port “according to this, you won’t be able to surface this submarine, let alone dock and get us off”
“Ah that is the genius of it all, you see…well it’s a will hard to explain, but one thing is for sure, the Americans can’t find us there” the captain spoke.
He stepped up and resumed his command posting at the command deck. The radio operators were scanning frequency to pick up the two Russian Alfas, the man kept at it until something was crackling on his headset.
“Comrade Captain, I’m receiving an encoded frequency on the UHF line” the radio operator continued “It’s the Novgorod Veliky and…sir the Voronezh, isn’t that a Charlie I  class”
“It is Comrade” the captain paying attention to the operator
“But where is the Borisoglebsk?””
“Aren’t we meant to have two Alfa’s? Not an Alfa and a Charlie I?” the political officer spoke,
“Let’s find out, sonar; are there any other contacts other than the Novgorod Veliky or the Voronezh”
“No comrade Captian” the sonar operator continued,
“Contact the Novgorod Veliky’s commander, tell them that the Konevlov has its package and we are ready to continue with escort”
The radio operator started tapping on a single encoder the same message that the captain ordered.
They waited 5 minutes before the radio officer picked up a message,
“Sir, receiving message from the Voronezh” the radio operator said to the captain.
The rest of control room crew watched them for news. This was quirky and tense by the crew; the commanders felt the same urgency and decided on the solution.
“Battle stations” the captain said to the political officer “prepare this ship for attack”
The alarms rang out throughout the submarine, the less familiar ringing of bells deafened Sakura and Syaoran who were wandering what was going on.
“Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo; I suggest you go to quarters for a minute until we work it out”
Sakura agreed and walked with Syaoran and Tomoyo to their cabin.
“Operator, have you figured the message”
“Yes comrade”
“Read it” the political
“Wait till we at least have torpedos loaded and locked on either ship”
“Aye comrade captain” the political officer respecting the captains’ order
“Torpedoes are loaded in tubes 2,3,6,7 armed, safeties set to activate warhead after 50 feet” the tactical operator spoke.
“Armed, sir” the 1st officer spoke
The 1st officer had just been woken by the alert; he was quick to check his consoles and the operator’s staff board before confirming the action.
“Okay, now check message”
“Konevlov, this is Voronezh, glad to see you with package, please activate to SW frequency 1092.88, will remind that Novgorod Veliky Radio receiver down for moment”
The captain sighed relief and turned off the red alert warnings
he continued “Confirm that the Borisoglebsk was destroyed with all hands by American Los Angles class attack submarine in surprise attack, Novgorod Veliky was not hit, but explosion of Borisoglebsk damaged radio tower”
“Dear god…” the political officer spoke aloud.
“I can confirm that the American submarine was given its fair dose of revenge by both Novgorod Veliky and Voronezh, it was destroyed with all hands”
The captain paused. He just lost a valuable asset and about 50 crew with it. But he still had an Alfa, that probably didn’t know the Konevlov was in front of them, and a slow Charlie I class escort.
“Comrade Captain” the radio officer spoke,
“Yes”
“The Voronezh has acquired audio communication, I’m patching it to your phone now comrade captain”
The captain walked to the captain’s chair and picked a phone hanging off a rack from the ceiling.
“This is the Konevlov; may I know who is speaking?” spoke grimly,
“This is captain of Voronezh, we received the transmission that you just sent to the Novgorod Veliky, we understand and apologise for interfering with operations, naval control ordered us to assist the two Alfa’s with this typhoon submarine, and it seems we arrived at the right time”
“I see, so what’s the situation with the Novgorod Veliky”
“It’ll take them another hour to be back online, they have pinged us with sonar to declare they are still alive. Their firing control will take longer, but they can fix that en-route to where ever you are going. I’ve never heard of your submarine before, can somebody give me insight?”
“I will give you the operational orders meant for the Novgorod Veliky”
The captain ordered the radio officer to send the operational orders of the mission to the Voronezh. In the radio department of the ship, there were three ways of communicating between ships. The first was the SW radios, which basically was a phone service between captains and were a privatised way of converting tactical data between fights. The Second was the Morse code light system that could only be used if the ship was surfaced and using a periscope, this was the most effecting way of communicating any information without any detection or been tapped by hiding enemy submarines.
The third and last system is a fax like device that could transmit any information to anyone in the fleet, it was effective in transferring operational orders, but if required a complex coding process to avoid the enemy obtaining the same information that was being transmitted. In this case, there was no need, no American submarine captain in there right mind would even approach a Alfa, Charlie I, and a Typhoon all in the one go, the chance of surviving is not very pleasing.
“Comrade is this for real?” the captain of the Voronezh asked.
“Its real comrade, you must treat this with the up-most confidentially until he have reached the Kara Sea region, you then can tell your crew when we have confirmed that we haven’t got any ships following us that aren’t Russian or European rebel. This mission has already jeopardised the future of our country and humanity, please remember that your class of ship isn’t part of the initial plan, but we need an escort.
“Understood, can I inform the political officer on my ship”
The captain of the Konvelov sighed on the phone
“You may inform your senior officers, no more then that”
“Understood comrade captain, we will prepare to escort your ‘package’ as soon as the Novgorod Veliky has been repaired of communications and weapons.”
The captain hung up the phone and faced the entire crew on the control room, he picked up another microphone device and turned it on. This little microphone was wired to every part of the ship; he could speak to everyone, even into Sakura and Syaoran’s sound proof cabin. He breathed once and clicked the on button and held it down
“Crew of Konvelov, this is the captain, unfortunate events have caused us to postpone our progress. Until the Novgorod Veliky is able to move on its own, this ship and the Voronezh must be ready to sink and destroy any American attack submarines that’s threatens to destroy any of the Rodina’s ships while we wait for our comrades on the Novgorod Veliky. We will maintain minor battle alert and load all tubes and change codes, what’s on this ship is too valuable to lose after how much we have gravely risked to get, every man on the Konevlov must remember their duties and I promise to put this entire ship in for 1 week, 1 week comrades of shore leave to enjoy the rights gained from hard work”
The crew thought long and hard about that, a week shore leave, almost unheard of in the way the war was going. But the matter turned to protecting this ship, word spread quickly about the fate of the Borisoglebsk and the crew were more then anxious not to share the same fate. They also were querying the relativeness of the Novgorod Veliky having survived the battle, yet having no contact with them.
These sailors weren’t all experienced officers and electrical technicians, so they didn’t understand the context of the words. But they all understood the order the captain gave, that was the mos t important thing on a submarine.
Location: KVN Konevlov, en-route to Taszovkiy
Time: 2:45pm Local time
It took almost three hours, but the Novgorod Veliky finally was able to commutate with the Voronezh and Konevlov, after the ordeal of simply ordering the Novgorod Veliky to set sail, the three submarines finally set a course for there final destination via the Laptev Sea, they would still have to dodge sonar nets at the capes entering the fjords near the base.  And this was made increasingly difficult by the lagging Afla class, traiting the group at almost half its capitity, it would take weeks of repairs to bring it back to normal, but the Konevlov and the Voronezh had almost 24 hours to make it to Taszoviky. The task to even pass throught his area was difficult, but this was all going to change; the Russian navy have their own tricks in completely avoiding the enemy.
In this time of calm and orderly silence, the doctor took the opportunity to finally treat Tomoyo who need her bandages changed badly. The doctor made his way from his temporary quarters in the officer’s wardroom to Tomoyo’s cabin.
“Is Tomoyo in?” the doctor said knocking on the door,
“Yes Sir” Tomoyo said,
Sakura and Syaoran stood up; Syaroan suddenly decided to hide in the cloest on the fact that he wasn’t meant to be in here at all. Sakua never queried Syaoran’s actions lately but this was plain weird of him.
“Syaoran-kun?” Sakura whispered confused as ever,
“I need to hide, he doesn’t think I’m in here, remember?”
“Okay? I think” Sakura nodded,
Syaoran hid in the closet and shut the door just as the doctor came in the room.
“Good morning Sakura, Good Morning Tomoyo”
“Good morning” Sakura said,
“May I borrow Tomoyo? I need to do a check up on her wounds”
Tomoyo nodded and prepared to go to the medical quarters, Sakura assisted him by helping Tomoyo walk. Syaoran held his breath and waited, slowly and slowly the group departed the room and walked down the hallway. Syaoran finally hit the floor to the relief of fresh air.
“I need to be more careful about the way I move around this ship. I’m likely to get myself launched out of a torpedo tube”
He brushed himself off and sat down at the table. Nothing to do but wait for their return, preceded by his sudden disappearance until the coast is clear. Meanwhile in the medical quarters Tomoyo lay down on the table and waited for the doctor to begin his exanimation of the wound. Sakura patiently sat down near the door. Sakura sighed and hoped not to have too much blood come into her view.
“Sakura-Chan, I’m quite alright, you can go back if you want to” Tomoyo spoke,
“Alright Tomoyo-Chan, but call me if you need me here by your side” Sakura reluctantly said
“Sakura-Chan, you and Syaoran-kun need some time alone, go visit him”
Sakura nodded and walked out, she didn’t want to, but she didn’t what to see blood either. Tomoyo gulped as the scene quickly familiarised to that of the much integration that took place when she was imprisoned; Stainless steel table, cold floor and air, sharp knives and other instruments of torture lined up on other tables around her, a blight light beaming onto her from above.
“Okay Tomoyo, I want you to relax, this is going to hurt when I remove this” the doctor explained
“Can I have an antithetic?” Tomoyo enquired,
“How about a gag? I can’t give you a needle, your skin is too dry at the moment and I need more blood in your body before I can do such things”
The doctor reached into his drawer and picked out a plastic sealed mouth piece, unwrapped it, applied some cream and put it in Tomoyo’s mouth.
“Any better?”
Tomoyo nodded, seeing she now couldn’t move her jaw.
“Okay, hold still…”
The doctor got a bottle of vasial-98 and rubbed it around the edges of the bandage, Tomoyo felt it freeze her skin and nerves. It was cool and felt like ice and alluvia on her body. The bandage slowly started to peel off at the edges and the doctor started to pull slowly, careful not to rip the skin. Tomoyo cringed at the pain of it ripping micro hair, and skins off her. The doctor finally finished removing the entire bandage, the wound was recovering well, well better then the doctor was hoping to discover.
Tomoyo had suffered enough in the doctor removed the gag and placed it in the sink, Tomoyo started to breath heavily and slowly again, shivering at the cold effect of the applied cream on her chest and stomach. The doctor then to his desk and came back with another cream. Tomoyo wasn’t all to please with the pain factor, but this was nothing compared to her treatment before.
The doctor started to look at the damaged area of Tomoyo’s delicate body. The skin appeared okay. Tomoyo was a little concerned at the damage as well, but then the doctor calmed her down when he finished doing checks on the blood veins healing.
“Very seems to healing very well Tomoyo, let me place another bandage on it and I’ll start checking your other health problems” the doctor spoke,
Tomoyo was relied to hear that everything was fine and laid her head back down onto the table. The doctor produced form another sealed package a fresh soft wound bandage, and some stretch bandages to wrap around her waist. Tomoyo squinted as it was a every sensitive process as the doctor was wrapping the cover bandage on. When he was finished he made certain that it wouldn’t fall off that easily.
“Alight Tomoyo, does this feel tight at all?”
“A bit”
“Okay, you need to leave this for a week, when we arrive at base, we’ll give you the other stuff we don’t have here” the doctor continued “please sit up”
Tomoyo moved herself up from her position and swang her legs off the table and lifted her head to face the doctor. The doctor then proceeded to start a medical check up on her. Tomoyo was entirely familiar with the process and proceeded as she was asked to.
“Okay, can you please place this over your heart; let’s see how you’re ticking”
Tomoyo was entirely sure with the term, but continued to put her arm under her shirt and placed the stethoscope on her chest. Tomoyo felt the quick cold pain that came with the metal rim, Tomoyo then breathed as per requested the amount of times and relaxed.
“Okay Tomoyo, now your back”
The doctor lifted the gown like shirt from the back and placed the stethoscope on the cold skin. Tomoyo breathed again, the doctor agreeing with her movements.
“Your heart seems in good condition, you must care a lot about people”
Tomoyo blushed turned to look at the doctor,
“Pardon doctor? How do you know that?”
“They say that a person with a pure and working heart is always there when there comrades or friends need them”
“How come I’ve never heard of that saying before?”
“Because it’s an old saying” The Doctor turning to the second table for some tissues and the first needle, Tomoyo waited patiently as he inserted each needle and its dosage, when he was done he put a egg timer down and set it to five minutes.
“I need you to stay seated until the egg timer goes off”
The doctor sat down on the chair and waited, silence came for a minute,
“Why don’t you ask me something” Tomoyo said “pass the time”
The doctor thought and decided to follow up on the heart one,
“Do you like Sakura? As a friend of course…” the doctor queried,
Tomoyo was confused, for once, that question hadn’t really come to mind recently. Because of Sakura, technically, none of this would have happened had Sakura never discovered the cards, but that meant that Sakura would eventually have become a distant memory. Tomoyo stood silent and then answered her only answer,
“Because Sakura made me happier”
“Oh?”
“Then she left me for Li, I liked her, I had feelings for her at the time, but eventually I overcame them and accepted that i didn’t need to be loved by Sakura to be happy, Sakura is Sakura, and she made people with stone hearts happy. Something I shared with her before the cards was a feeling that confused me a lot until Sakura realised she was destined to the Clow Cards…”
He doctor listened intrusively. Tomoyo then paused and looked at the doctor,
“Did I just say I like Sakura? Because I’m confused? Sakura made me happier when I first came to Tomoda, it was confusing for me when Li came”
The doctor decided to help answer the question, “I think you like Sakura, not in what she did for you or what she ever said, I think you like Sakura for how she made you feel”
Tomoyo paused before speaking
“Sakura made you feel happier then you could ever make yourself believe, I think that it wasn’t magic from the cards or any magic that was contained, it came from you, your depending on Sakura at the time, wanting to be in her image, but you are Tomoyo and Sakura is herself. Tomoyo, you are happy because she is your truest friend”
Tomoyo sniffed, wanting to cry. It was true, to true to handle
“Tomoyo, it isn’t a bad thing, you also made Sakura happy as well, yes?” the doctor continued,
Tomoyo nodded.
“Then she likes you too, nobody can remember what anyone said forever, and what they did, but there is one thing for certain, and that’s you and Sakura will never forget how you made each other feel”
Tomoyo looked up at the doctor and smiled. The egg timer beeped, the doctor stopped it and helped Tomoyo down.
“You go to you friend now, Tomoyo, Sakura needs you as you need her”
Tomoyo walked slowly out the door by herself and walked down the passage.
Location: KVN Konevlov, Kara Sea
Time: 7:24pm Local time
The Konevlov, flanked with the Novgorod Veliky and the Voronezh, the submarines were almost 4 hours away from the finish at there current speed. The Konevlov could at this point put on the steam and race home in 3 hours or better, but with the Novgorod Veliky needing protection, this stalled the efforts of the crew. A week of shore leave was almost at there fingertips and they just wanted to jump off and swim to the townships on the coastline, whatever remaining coastal towns there were left, most of which were either crowed with refguees from the south or were bombed into submission from the north.
The Konevlov was finally in waters it could sail at its best speed, the water around here was colded with fresh and salt water and made a muddle of American Sonar and Radar.
“Captain of Novgorod Veliky, reporting” the radio beaconed,
“This is the Konevlov, what is your reactor like?”
“Its not badly damaged, only broken glass getting into an air duct, we have cleaned it out, and the doctor is doing checks on the crew for radioactive waste, very unlikely that the reactor could go critical”
“We want to literally get Sakura and co into harbour before midnight, so as to the total amount of darkness to move her out of the naval base and to this other location”
“We can race it from here, line us up and shoot the gun”
“Understood Novgorod Veliky, Konevlov out”
The captain put the receiver unit back onto the rack and sat down, not as troublesome a voyage this time round, the end was in sight and the crew would finally get some rest. The other officers were doing a variety of tasks at once, checking the gauges over and over and seriously concerned with the fact they were only a 600 miles away from docks.
“Sir, in about 30 minutes, we will be entering the inlet near the base”
“Alright, come to 90 feet under sea level, and increase flank”
The Konevlov didn’t need to use its tunnel drive here, not American submarine would dare come within 1000 miles of these waters, it was always full of Russian submarines and other surface ships patrolling the inlets around the Kara and White seas, these were essential waters as the fish and occasional whale could feed the population which suffered greatly, lacking the supplies to feed both its population and 500 million refugees, This was the essential waterways that couldn’t be lost to America.
It was a long time, the Voronezh and Novgorod Veliky trailing their flagship in this small underwater task force, the ships waited and slowed down; a daunting task lay ahead of them that made surfacing a submarine harder. Any submariner, especially in a submarine the size of a Typhoon class feared hitting the bottom of the fjord’s river ways, the inlet was only 150 to 100 meters deep, and by the time it go to harbour, it was 25 or less.
This problem was simply accomplished but surfacing the submarine at the entry of the inlet, problem was that, the Submarine couldn’t look upwards.
It was at risk of hitting an iceberg, or even a fishing trawler which had happen once with a Victor class submarine. The main problem was some inlets had massive ice packs that blocked the inlet way, not so much as to bring the submarine less then 1 kilometre where there was icepack above them and less them 20 metres below to the sea bed.
“What is our position in the river?” the captain asked
“1.24 kilometres from cape point” the 1st officer noted from the map table.
“Risk assessment?”
“I think that we are clear of the ice pack”
“Order the Novgorod Veliky to go to periscope and report on icepack” the captain told the radio officer.
“Aye comrade Captain”
“Why are you sending the Novgorod Veliky up?” the political officer asked.
“Two reasons comrade, the Novgorod Veliky needs to surface under the fact its damaged, and in that case needs to surface for fresh air and outside repairs, secondly, the Novgorod Veliky is an Alfa class aubmarine and is quite moveable enough to dive quickly”
“Yes, but considering the attach it had?”
“I have, and if it’s been able to stay on course with us, it’s good enough”
“Radio contact, the surface is clear; the Novgorod Veliky is ready to surface”
“We’ll do the same, its faster we travel on the surface”
The Konevlov made a quiet rumble and prepared lean upwards to the surface. The crew could feel their ears reacting to pressure on them. The ship groaned as the hull compressed and moved upwards to the surface. Sakura and Tomoyo were in their quarters sleeping when the grown of the hull woke them?
“What’s happening?” Sakura spoke half asleep.
“I dunno” Syaoran interrupted from the floor “Let me go find out”
Syaoran put on an overcoat that was hung on the door and walked outside to the control room. The control room was completely lit up and the crew walking about in life jackets.
“Syaoran, you’re up already? That’s good, we are about to surface the ship”
Syaoran nodded and walked back to the quarters, inside Sakura and Tomoyo were getting ready, thinking the ship was sinking, after noticing three sailors passed their door and were carrying life jackets and dressed for the northern seas climate. Sakura stood up in the clothing they were provided and placed the overcoat on Tomoyo before she put on hers. The trio then walked out to the control room and watched the crew as they prepared all the necessary requirements.
“Surface ship, Bering 184 degrees, large and fast” the sonar officer announced,
“Is it one of ours?”
“Has to, if it’s coming from the harbour in Novyy Port, I’ve got another 14 contacts, small, just as fast thought, there around the big one.”
“The Konevlov’s conning tower is above sea level sir, let’s take a visual” the Captain spoke,
“Yes sir, comrade captain” the 1st officer spoke.
The captain and the first officer walked towards the ladder well in a small hallway just aft of the control room. Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran walked forward with them.
“We wish to go up top” Syaoran spoke,
The captain was thinking about the space on the bridge, it needed him and the 1st officer and two sailors on watch.
“Captain, the Novgorod Veliky and Voronezh are sailing aft of us. The Novgorod Veliky is sending repair crews on its deck”
“Alright, radio the Novgorod Veliky, and inform them that we launching a cable to them to relive them of some crew and give power”
“Launch cable lines!” the 1st officer spoke, “men to deck, prepare hook up cables”
Sakura and Syaoran then proceed to follow the Captain to the main deck of the Konevlov.
After a difficult climb up the ladder, Sakura and Tomoyo took their first glimpse of sky in a few days. It was a clear night, very unusual for a northern spring. Sakura looked up the moon that greeted them when they first boarded the Konevlov off the coast of Japan. Sakura and Tomoyo were greeted with the same frosty winds that met them when they struggled across the deck.
The crew had about 7 people aft of the conning tower heaving a cable to the other submarine. To Sakura, all she could see was a black whale, no edges like the Konevlov, it was a smooth hull with a very small deck. Tomoyo breathed in all the sea air she could feel with her face. Syaoran proceeded to the top of the tower from the outside ladder. The rungs were freezing cold from the waterway but it brought him closely to falling off and either hitting the black deck or plunging into the frosty inlet waters.
Syaoran climbed it slowly and carefully until he reached the top of the conning tower.Up on top were the captain on the bridge and two more sailors standing on the radio tower, aft of this small section, very much the captain was alone. Syaoran walked to the station and leaned forward onto the breaker wall.
“Calm night comrade Syaoran, not usual weather for this area” The captain commented on his arrival.
“Where is it that you’re taking us too?”
“Their just off to the left is another inlet for a smaller river way, it goes on for another 200 miles before it reaches a small coastal town. From there, I don’t know, but im asked to come away from the Konevlov, and if that is so, it must be important”
“Because maybe you’re the best captain in the fleet or something?”
“There is no such thing as the best person, that person would have no flaws or emotions to whoever or whatever. A good person, now that’s what is more preferred, I’m flawed of gifts that other comrades have and I unique my own gifts”
Syaoran liked to stay silent, this of course was a wiser man to him, and older man, with better experience. Syaoran looked towards the incoming fleet of fishing boats and the large black boat,
“What ship is that?”
The captain remember suddenly of the message and looked out towards the ship, some 900 feet of the bow was the start of a small 15 ship fleet, 14 were obliviously trawlers, and the 15th ship would have to be an escort.
“I believe…that’s the Kiev, odd to have a cruiser escort trawlers” the captain reached under the control desk and reached for a phone and pressed a small button on it “1st officer, can you identify the contacts, if it’s Russian, radio to identify which ship”
“Aye comrade captain”
The captain hung up and proceeded to check with binoculars at the main ship.
“It’s the Kiev, and I can see a small destroyer behind it…good, the Kiev must be taking the ride out with this group” the captain said to himself, not acknowledging that Syaoran was still there.
Syaoran looked up at the full moon, it had been sighted at all the most important events of their lives, Sakura opening the Clow book, the final judgement at Tokyo, the day he was meant to propose to Sakura, and then when he was broken out of prison by these people.
“Live is a weird presence, we demand ourselves too much to appreciate the more eventful occasions of live, but it’s the minor and subtle ones that we need more to appreciate” Syaoran spoke,
“You have learnt many much form this experience?”
“I have, I can only hope that the lessons I leant I will apply to return your debt”
“That’s what we count on more then anyone else”
“Yes comrade”
“You remember your childhood, Syaoran?”
“I do, very well, but seldom do I remember my father, mother never spoke of him at all.”
“What memory did you have of childhood?”
“Being trained alongside with my cousin in martial arts, then I remember how much she was in love with me, but I wasn’t a love stuck person, I was cold and stone”
“Then how do you and Sakura get along?”
“It was Sakura who freed me from the emotionless greed of magic, when I first met her, I was only more then obliged to take her cards, but with patience and guidance, Sakura, along with Tomoyo taught me about love, of course it was Sakura who I fell in love with”
“You are very well bonded, something that I didn’t understand”
“Only those who understand the true intentions of Sakura’s magic will understand her truth calling of magic”
The phone rang,
“Comrade, we are approximately 100 miles to the base, Naoko and Rita just woke up and enquired for Sakura and Tomoyo, but then went back to sleep when I said they were asleep”
“That’s good to here; make sure that they wake when we are 10 miles from base”
“Aye comrade Captain”
Up ahead the three submarines slowly drifted into the left bend of the river, and into another inlet for a smaller river. Increased speed meant that they would be in harbour within 2 hours or more, depending. Sakura and Tomoyo were still standing on the main deck, counting the number of missile tube doors that lined the ship. Tomoyo was enjoying the cold air, something that made Sakura a little bewildered by her ability’s.
“Hey Sakura-Chan?”
“Yes Tomoyo-Chan?”
“I was thinking earlier, about our lives before this; do you like me for how you remember me?”
Sakura paused and then thought of an answer,
“Tomoyo-Chan, I like you now because you made me happy, and you were never willing to let me down, I couldn’t ask you to like me, you already did that, even before I was a card captor, we were friends”
Tomoyo turned to Sakura, Sakura did the same.
“That’s why I like you Sakura” Tomoyo hugged her,
Sakura did the same and sniffed,
“Come on, before we catch a cold” Tomoyo said,
Sakura heard what she knew Tomoyo said normally and headed towards the side door of the conning tower. Meanwhile, Syaoran and the Captain; Vladimir Topoliv continued,
“So what did you do as a child?” Syaoran asked intuitively,
“When I was a boy, my grandfather taught me the peaceful solitarily of fishing, in a fjord, not much like this one, he taught me the lessons that his grandfather taught him”
Ahead of the submarine and into the sky a low glow of lights could been seen over the mountain range
“We are getting nearer to base” the Captain noted “…when I was about 15, I leant about how my forefathers defended the land against the Germans and the realities of the Soviet Union under Stalin’s policy. I didn’t like being on the land, I’ve enjoyed my time better at sea. So when acceptable, I joined the navy, and learnt the lessons of the sea, like the stories my grandfather taught me when he was a seafaring commander on a small frigate in the Second World War, I learnt that my life belonged with submarines and went that way.”
“Then came this war; a war with a ending, that no man will see”
“How does that make sense?”
“World war can ravage entire nations, but a war like this one can remove all life never to see peace even for an instant. Nuclear war has no end, but will finish when its task is completely done”
“And that is?”
“To wipe of humanity and destroy all trace of it”
Syaoran gulped and then took that information down.
“As you might expect, like this war, we expect to see the ending, only that’s up to you and Sakura to accomplish”
Syaoran looked at him, but he had a feeling that it would come to him and Sakura to finish something they were held responsible for starting. It wasn’t there destiny to be running around the northern frontiers of Russia. The Captain grabbed his binoculars and looked at the lights only 50 mile ahead, split now into two different patterns, the naval base and the township. Syaoran looked on ahead,
“Welcome to the motherland Comrade Syaoran”
Syaoran nodded acceptingly,
Location: Tazovskiy Submarine Deport, Tazovskiy
Time: 12:00am local time
The Konevlov rumbled its forward trusters and propellers at the approach to its dock way, alongside a small boat; it was being guided into the barn. Tazovskiy wasn’t a major navy base, but it housed facilities capable of servicing 7 submarines. Not exactly service, but at least hide them from satellite photography. These massive ‘barns’ were limited copies of what the Germans hid there u-boats in both world wars. By no means of coincidence, was an actual German submarine in the first Barn.
The command crew were standing on the conning tower and the remaining crew and junior officers were standing on the open deck Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo who were now joined by Rita and Naoko, waited inside the conning tower for arrival. It wasn’t a difficult docking procedure, just a straight follow through to the dock way and parking into the dry-dock like compartment inside these barns
The Captain, 1st officer and political officer were standing at the bridge section of the conning tower; the business of the Novgorod Veliky was still at hand,
“Ready dockmaster to harbour the Novgorod Veliky, I want that ship for repairs immediately, its crew need to get off her” the 1st officer spoke,
“Aye comrade and our cargo?” the political officer spoke,
“Put us in the next one, number 4”
“Aye comrade Captain”
The Konevlov started a slow trudge to the number 4 docking barn; it was still empty and could easily fit a typhoon class inside. The tugboat released it and allowed the Konevlov to dock under its own power. Slowly it headed inside the docking yard and stopped at full reverse thrust when it was near the end. The Barn inside was lit up, not very well, but well enough to see the entire submarine for its true nature, a giant from the deep. It was docked and roped to the dock and the crew cheered silently. Their only concern was the shore leave that was promised, Sakura and Tomoyo stepped out onto the deck as the official saluting of the Commodore in charge and other official activates were done. The captain and his command crew proceeded out with Sakura to the front row of the Konevlov’s crew that were lined up on inspection to meet the commanders in charge of here.
“Comrade Vladimir Topoliv, Welcome back”
“Comrade Commodore Nelson”
“British?” Syaoran thought
“Comrade Commodore Nelson, I present you the crew and ship KVN Konevlov, and its cargo, Sakura Kinomoto, Tomoyo Daidouji, Syaoran Li, Rita Sasaki and Naoko Yanagisawa”
“Cargo?” Naoko thought
“Very well, Sakura, welcome to Tazovskiy Naval base, and welcome to the western world”
“Attention, all personnel of the KVN Konevlov, KVN Voronezh and KVN Novgorod Veliky have permitted right to their one week shore leave, dismissed”
The crew didn’t need to hear that twice, they started to all walk down the ramps and piled onto the waiting buses, taking the to town. The captain and command crew stayed for further orders.
“Now, gentlemen, ladies; your vehicles are this way” the commodore pointed at the large doorway near the buses. They then proceeded under guard to their next leg of their journey...


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