Both ships were out to sea that day, forming the heart of an eight ship task force that consisted of the carriers Akagi and Kaga, with the Aegis Class Destroyer Atago, the first ship in the class that had given rise to Captain Harada’s Takami. Two older guided missile destroyers, again with famous names, Kongo and Kirishima, were nearly as powerful as Takami, with 90 VLS cells each.
They were joined by another of Japan’s newest destroyers, DD-120 the Takao, which was the second ship in the new Asahi Class. While not as powerful as the DDG class ships, it was a very capable close escort for the carriers, with 32 VLS cells firing a mix of Evolved Sea Sparrows and the RUM-139 ASROCs against subs.
The big 25,000 ton oiler and fleet replenishment ship Omi was also in attendance, for they were going a long way from home waters, and that ship was escorted by the last member of the group, the smaller 7,500 ton helicopter destroyer Kurama. That ship was included to buck up ASW defense, because the two larger carriers had gone to sea deliberately light, with just six helos each.
There was a reason for that. Akagi and Kaga had just made a secret rendezvous with a US carrier task force out of Pearl Harbor the previous day, and there they received a gift from the United States, two squadrons of the planes that would make all the difference, transforming the carriers from stolid though capable caterpillars to soaring tiger moths.
The fighter that would convert those ships to light strike and air defense carriers worth the name was the Lockheed Martin F-35B combat jet, and the US had flown in 18 Lightning IIs, nine for each of the two carriers. They were all planes that had been purchased by Japan in prior years and this was a perfectly good time to deliver on that contract, for the US would simply be bolstering a Pacific ally, and increasing overall capability in the region. The ships were also big enough to carry the USMV-22 Ospreys to allow for expanded amphibious and strike warfare missions—and they would get two of those each.
So there was a good chunk of the Japanese Maritime Naval Defense Force out to sea that day, designated the Kaijō Jieitai. They had met the Americans at a very convenient half way point between Japan and Pearl Harbor, not the island of Midway, as it was thought that would revive memories of old wounds. Instead they chose an otherwise humdrum atoll in the midst of the Pacific, a former wartime base that had been used by both sides, Eniwetok.
Chapter 3
Vice Admiral Kita was now satisfied that his nation would have all the capability it would need to return to the home waters and provide for maritime security. Unfortunately, he would never get there. His line of fate would now become entangled with the fate of one of his wayward Captains, and a ship that had been reported lost the previous day in the Sunda Strait. The Americans would have everything to do with his dilemma, for the same hand that had empowered him, would soon be raised against him, albeit in another era, another world, as he would soon come to surmise.
It had been all Hallows Eve, the 31st of October, 2021 when they heard the low rumble emanating from the sea. His task force had completed the rendezvous, receiving the much coveted F-35 strike fighters the previous day, and the American were now far to the south, bound for Guam. Before the war, he had little use for them, believing that it was high time for Japan to come out from behind the protective skirts of the US 7th Fleet. They Americans were, in his mind, a useful annoyance, though he could not fault their equipment and technology. Here they would offer Japan things that Toyota and Honda could not build, though the inverse was also true, as Japanese cards had dominated the freeways of the us for decades.
Kita had lingered just north of Eniwetok, completing refueling operations for his smaller destroyers before beginning the journey home. The real crisis point was now Taiwan, and the Americans were massing their carrier power to challenge the Chinese there. The Russian fleet was no longer deemed a threat, though there had been yet another incident involving a Russian Submarine in the Sea of Japan. It was engaged, and believe destroyed, though no one could be certain of that.
After the Senkaku incident, both Akagi and Kirishima were rushed to join his task force bound for Eniwetok. Now he was ready to take those precious F-35’s home, but Ivy Mike had other plans for him that day. There would only be one consolation for the fate that befell him, and that would be the unexpected reunion with a ship the Navy had believed lost, one of their newest and best, DDG-180, the Takami.
Otani could not believe her eyes. She had been feverishly running her diagnostic routines, testing each panel of the SPY-1D system in, and then running full integrated four panel tests to verify all was in order. She had no fault readings of any kind, and could not surmise what could have gone wrong—until it happened again. Contacts—this time on the surface, and very close!
“Con—Radar. Surface contact, bearing true north. Range…. Just 3000 meters!”
“What?” Harada did not have to ask her what in the world she was talking about. All he had to do was turn his head and look. At that same moment, Lieutenant Commander Fukada came rushing in from the weather deck.
“Captain! Ships off the starboard bow! They’re flying our colors.”
“Damnit, Otani. I thought I told you to run a full diagnostic.”
“I did, sir. Just completed it. I have no fault readings at all. My screen was clear, and then…”
“What’s out there, Fukada?”
His XO simply smiled. “Come have a look for yourself. They’re ours, all of them. Look there, that’s big fat Omi on fleet replenishment. And those have to be two Izumo class carriers! There’s our sister ship, Atago!” He gave Harada an elated look. “We’re home!”
Harada was standing dumfounded, hands on his hips, his mind almost unwilling to believe what his eyes were telling him. Yet the distinctive lines of the ships were unmistakable. It was the Akagi, and undoubtedly her sister ship Kaga, but what in the world were they doing out here? Was Fukada correct? Did they shift again? Were they home at long last?
Now the trembling vibration he had felt came to mind, the ominous low rumble that had everyone on the bridge on edge. It was much akin to the same sound they had heard when they made that impossible shift to the past. It must have happened again—who knew why—but they were home. There could be no other explanation.
Then he looked over his shoulder, thinking to see other friendly ships about, but what he saw instead stole away all his joy. There, sitting it the serene silence of the Pacific, its white shores washed by gentle surf, was the island of Elugelab.
“Number one….”
Fukada turned his way, still grinning widely.
“Are you certain about that story you told me?”
“Sir? What story?”
“About that big American H-Bomb.”
“Of course. What of it?”
“Well isn’t that the island you said the damn thing vaporized?”
Now Fukada stood and stared himself. There it was, Elugelab, but that simply could not be. That island was destroyed, pulverized, blown off the face of the earth by Ivy Mike. If they were home, then all they should be seeing there now was a deep blue hole in the sea. He looked left and right, thinking the ship must have drifted, but the familiar landforms he had seen earlier were still there, and so was Elugelab.