Prinz

Ch 36
Prinz Eugen watched a sea turtle swim by her bridge. She watched it swim around her fore structure gracefully. A large tiger shark drew near, stalking the sea turtle around her. She seated at the shark with one of her manipulators. Shoo! Shoo! Leave the turtle alone! She had to strike the shark to deter it, the shark snapped at her hand but got a punch to the gills for it. It swam off as fast as it came. She listened in to the radio, it was early March, in the year twenty-twelve, the man on the radio was going ballistic about how the world is ending and yada, yada, Eugen turned the channel. This one was playing some smooth jazz, the music she was familiar with, it brought back memories. Good and bad. She thought about Bismarck and Rudolph, and Irish, and E, and losing the war, being turned over to the Americans, sexually confronted by some American ships that really liked her look, their sad faces when they eventually learned she wasn’t into them, promises of retirement, the bombings, rolling over and the pain that ensued, and then she opened her eyes again. This is retirement, blissful retirement. She groomed the reefs that had grown on her hull, she always thought of it as gardening. Her retirement was being laid down along an atoll and turning into an oasis for the ocean life, she gladly accepted it; she loved the ocean and would love to be more a part of it, but they took one of her propellers in honor and remembrance of her and her fellow ships and sailors. Later in the day a dive team came down, she felt people walking on her belly above the ocean waves. They were strange, however, they felt very heavy until they placed a box down on her belly, and the divers she saw made their way to her bridge before one of them swam up to the surface. She felt like she was being pecked at with needles and felt a surge zap through her body, the diver that went up returned and nodded at the other diver. They affixed their lights to her faceplate and shone the lights at themselves. One affixed a clasp to her body and turned a switch on his belt on, a green light flashes for a few seconds before it held still.
“Hallo? Guten Nachmittag.” Prinz Eugen was amazed, shocked, she hasn’t had anyone talk to her in decades. She scrambled her mind, this was very unexpected. She answered the man.
“Hello! Hello! Oh it has been decades since someone’s talked to me.”
“Hello, I am Tobias Hagan, grandson of Rupert Hagan-”
“I remember that name.”
“Yes, he served on the Bismarck, he knew Rudolph. Anyway we are here to ask you a question.”
“Go on.” Tobias looked to the other diver and they talked, he nodded and the other diver went away.
“We are offering to raise you from the seabed and restore you to your maritime standards.” She came out of hiding, her eyes were wide and her mouth agape, she never thought anyone would do this. “If you want, it is all up to you.” She thought. “Please.., all the others said no. You’re the last resort.” She looked him in the eyes; his brown eyes agreed that what he said was truth.
“I’ll think on it. How long will you be here?”
“We’re setting up a camp on the atoll.” She never broke eye contact with him; she saw something that flooded her with memories. Memories filled with Irish and her. She saw that twinkle in his eyes, his want for her to sail again, the openness of his heart. She saw his desire for her, not anything near sexual but that he wanted to see her sail again, see her take to the seas like his grandfather did. That night after they headed ashore she thought about it long and hard. She had asked questions like what would happen to the reefs on her, they would be destroyed, the safety she gave the fish, it would disappear, and she didn’t like the answers but he did promise that they could sink a ship in her place. “That,” she decided to tell Tobias the next morning, “is the only way I’ll agree.” After some phone calls the deal was made.
Because he was the only one who knew how to use the equipment, Tobias was the only one to talk to Prinz Eugen. He kept her occupied by talking about his family history, starting with how his grandfather escaped Bismarck’s sinking, his grandfather moving to America, his family being raised and learning German through his grandfather, his own four years in the U.S. Navy, how he came across this project and how the other four ships turned down the offer. Eugen wasn’t sure if it was the lack of interaction that made her attracted to Tobias or if she genuinely felt attracted to him but either way she didn’t want him to leave and it pained her when he did. A few days later she saw the hulls of at least three ships. Those three ships were a dredge, a specialized salvage ship that was towing a huge barge, and a boat bus to haul her to port. They began by excavating various parts of her and collecting loose debris and putting them on the barge. Next they reinforced her hull with specialized metal before the final step of excavating the water took place. Because she rolled over and per-say snapped her neck her bridge was on the barge watching them pick up her hull and roll it upright before it was towed to deeper water and placed on the boat bus. With everything set she demanded to watch her replacement be sunk, it was an old Russian oil tanker from her own era. She watched as eight charges blew out the sides and the ship dropped about eight meters into the water along the atoll. Satisfied, Eugen was taken across the land to the Atlantic Ocean. She talked to Tobias, who she begged to keep her company on the voyage. He talked to her about some stuff on television that’s not on the radios and when that was exhausted he thought he’d bring up some future plans.
“We’re not really a global interest yet, but we’ll be one soon.”
“Why? Raising ships is a pretty phenomenal feat isn’t it? And what soon will make you one?”
“Well Eugen you are a pilot, if you can’t be raised and rebuilt-mind you that you’re already raised and there’s nothing new about rebuilding ships-then the countries that are interested will pull out funding. Since word that the pilot has been raised got out, the countries like Britain, France, Belgium, Norway, Japan, America, Germany, Spain, Russia, and a few other satellite countries have shown greater interest and have asked for a few ships to be tested for the grounds to be raised. The next ship that we’re looking at that was proposed is German.”
“What ship?” Not too many ships came to mind that Germany would have rightful interest in.
“A close friend to you and someone close to my grandfather.” Eugen couldn’t believe who came to mind.
“Bismarck!?” He nodded. “Why? Germany tried to bury the Nazis and all of their doings long ago! Why raise one of the symbols of their power?!” She combed the deepest parts of her mind for that reason, she saw a kind friend and a lovely woman, but she knew the world would see hate, tyranny, violence and oppression. Bismarck would be considered Auschwitz II, Eugen favored Bismarck too much to let that happen to her. She wasn’t going to let them make her friend feel like a death camp affiliated with hate and tyranny. She would try her damn hardest not to let them do that. “No! It would ruin her!”
“Hold on-”
“No! Don’t raise her to be another reason why we shouldn’t let tyranny rule! Don’t use her as an example of hate and oppression! She’s not like that at all!”
“Eugen! Stop!” She shut up; he was looking at her in the eyes. “They already know she’s alive, or at least that she once was, they don’t want to make her another Auschwitz.”
“Then what are they using her for?!” Eugen demanded. Tobias was silent, he slowly spoke again.
“They want to either make her a German maritime museum or somehow incorporate her into the navy again.”
“Why the navy again? We’ve had our time in the sun and now it’s the carrier and missile systems. And what will happen to me?”
“You’re an easy one to answer; you’ll be a nuclear museum, because of your dealings with the bombs in the pacific you’ll be affiliated with them. German and American companies are co-owners of you when we’re done.” When he said co-owners Eugen shivered, she didn’t like that term.
“Could we not refer to them as that?”
“What would you call them?”
“General Managers, X-Os, I’d like to think I still have freedom to do what I will and decide not to do anything.”
“That’s alright. But Bismarck.., I guess they’d fix her like the Americans did the Iowas. Improve her fire control-”
“Impossible.”
“-and upgrade her A-A battery, put on some missiles and missile defenses, maybe put some torpedoes on like they did to Tirpitz-hey, did you know.., Tirpitz?” He asked awkwardly, as so he doesn’t stir any emotions within her more; Tirpitz was afloat for years before she rolled over, and even after that she was intact until she was scrapped.
“No, Tobias, she wasn’t alive. Bismarck was supposed to be the flagship and thus have the best capability. How sad.”
“Yeah-how sad.” Eugen was quiet before she spoke again.
“I actually don’t know if she was alive. I never really saw her nor talked to her. Meeting Bismarck and figuring she was alive was an accident.” Tobias stirred and grabbed his gut.
“I really hope she was dead-metal.” Eugen knew why, being slowly ripped apart after drowning your only friends wouldn’t be a good way to go out. They were quiet for the rest of the day. Eugen prayed for Tirpitz, if she was once alive she prayed that she was in good company now and feeling good and resting peacefully. Eugen nearly cried thinking about it all. She was in awe of the canals, how so much had changed yet so little was really different. They rounded the Florida coast and sailed north to the Pennsylvania docks. There was already a slot ready for her and right next to it was a massive slot for Bismarck.
“Why is Bismarck going to be taken all the way over here to be restored?”
“Well, this is our place. So that’s why.” He leaned close to her and whispered something. “And besides, don’t you wanna see your friend soon?” He smirked and patted her armor.
“Why so close? Tobias?” He was caught off guard.
“What do you mean?”
“You got real close to me. Why did you touch me like that? Something deeper than most think? Huh?” He snickered about it and left. Ha! I think he likes me. She couldn’t help but smile.
He was going out to help retrieve Bismarck and he was talking to Eugen, she either wanted to go with him and nerve keep Bismarck happy or he wasn’t going, she really didn’t want to leave her only friend. Other people would talk to her in bad German or English, asking the lucky ship about her stories and she was happy to tell. Some of the vets and sea salts told their own stories and while she had friends Tobias was the only real friend that she liked. She was forced into a compromise, she would talk to him with her radio and when Bismarck came up she would join in.
“Maybe I’ll meet Rudolph.”
“You haven’t met him? I thought you would have at least talked once.”
“Oh no I talk to him, too. I meant I would see him and shake his hand so to say. He’s a nice guy. I hope he’s still alright.”
“My grandfather feels responsible to this day about it, he says it’s like the scar that is always there, tormenting your conscious and making you believe that you’ll burn in hell and that you rightfully earned it. I think he just needs closure, he never really knew what happened to him.”
“Is your grandfather still alive?”
“Yes he was walking without a cane last week but, his health turned for the worst recently, I don’t want him to die yet. I want to find him some closure first.” He leaned against her freshly cleaned wall and sighed. Some tears formed in his eyes. “I really don’t want him to die.” Eugen knew he was starting to sob, her external arms were pinned under her bridge but her internal arms could comfort him. She opened the door to the bridge and led him inside.
“Tobey, what if I told you that Rudolph and Bismarck are still alive?” He stopped sobbing and listened, one of her cleaner and more functioning arms picked up his chin. “Ever since she sank all those decades ago we have been talking, talking with our radios. I haven’t heard from them in a month but they’re still there. If he can hold out for maybe a few days I could help him talk to Rudolph.” Tobias perked up; he rubbed his eyes and got up.
“He’ll pull through, he’s gotten through worse. I’ll tell him we should have Bismarck here by the end of next month.”
“There you go!” He started to walk out of the bridge, he paused at the door.
“Did you call me Tobey?” Eugen thought.
“Did I?”
“You did.” She apologized. “No, no, it’s fine.” He left for the day, the next day his little fleet of ships sailed off to get Bismarck. Eugen watched in distress as they left. Later her radio sparked to life.
“Hello? Eugen you still there!?” It was Bismarck. Eugen rejuvenated at the sound of her friend.
“Bismarck! You’ll never guess what’s going to happen to you!”
“What? I’m going to guess another movie is being made. Rudolph what do you think is going to happen to us?” – “Uhhhh.., a memorial or something like they did to the Titanic? I don’t know, honey.”
“You are being raised from the bottom!” There was a long pause on their end.
“Eugen, are.., are you alright?” Bismarck thought that Eugen had gone mad. After Eugen had assured Bismarck and Rudolph that she had not gone mad they talked in denial again. “Yeah, they also said that they’d raise the Titanic with ping-pong balls but that hasn’t happened.”
“No-no-no-no-no! Trust me; I’m sitting in a dock in Pennsylvania because they raised me! They have a plan to get you guys, too!” Eugen paused. “Well, my hull is. My bridge is sitting along the slipway.” Bismarck laughed a little bit.
“Well if you really are sitting there, why are they doing that and what did they do?” Eugen told them everything she knew they did. By the time she finished her explanation Bismarck and Rudolph were excited so much.
“We’ll finally sail again!”
“We could actually hold each other!”
“I’ve longed so much to see the sun again!”
“Oh it’s been so long I almost forgot what it looked like!”
“We could finally have kids!”
“We could see our friends again!” Rudolph stopped, he only had a few people he considered friends. They were Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, and Hansel Walter. He thought about how long it’s been, how the war still ravaged for so long, the dangers Germany went through after the war, he sat down on Bismarck’s bridge deck and leaned against her. He spoke solemnly. “We could see Eugen again, that is.”
“Don’t feel down, my little reindeer, I’m sure he’s still out there.” She massaged his shoulders-they both knew deep down that she was wrong.

December, 1944
Hansel jumped awake. He was breathing heavily and looking around, he was confused. Marion felt him stir and wrapped arms around him. She picked up his blanket and tucked him in his sleeping mat again. He was lying on her engine deck for the night, right above her warm engine vents. She laid her arms on his body and asked what he dreamt about.
“I-I don’t know. I saw a sunken ship that was raised up, and there was the ocean, and then that ship talked to another one, also sunk. Then I saw a bigger ship, a German one, and the sky was white and bright and the ocean was flat and blue, and I saw an old friend. They thought I was dead.” Marion lulled him back to sleep; they had much to do the next day. While Hansel drifted to sleep he thought, whenever dreams were that real to him they always came true, always. From his car to the war to being a tanker, even meeting Marion, they all came true. He didn’t want this one to happen, he wanted to prove this one wrong, he wanted to prove Rudolph and.., Bismarck, prove them wrong and be there. Through and through he was going to get through it all, he’ll get through it with Marion. That was his promise to his friend.
Fin Ch 36