Thunderfunk the Superchicken - Pt 7

7. Better late than never, I suppose

“All I’m saying is if you turn it two degrees to the left, you will increase the performance by seventy percent.” Sergeant Hu rocked back on his heels, looking down at the ship’s engineers where they crouched in front of a pipe that was merely labelled “HOT” (in Japanese, of course). One of them shook his head, sighing heavily.
The chief engineer raised himself to his full height and looked down at Straw. “That IS all you are saying. You haven’t said who you are, or why you are here. You also have neglected to mention what we are turning to the left, and why it matters to us in any way at all.”
With a shrug, Straw turned and walked away. “Try to give some advice, and I just get shot down,” he muttered to himself. “What is this world coming to?” As he walked, he tried to look as though he belonged, which was difficult, considering he was the only white guy on a ship full of Japanese sailors. As he rounded a corner, he nearly ran over a harried looking ensign. Papers went flying everywhere and both men fell to the ground. Quickly bouncing to his feet, Straw reached down and helped gather the papers for the young sailor. It was a rather large stack, and once it was all gathered it nearly toppled again. Taking pity on the young man, Straw grabbed half of the pile. “Don’t want any more spills now, do we son?”
“N-no sir,” replied the ensign. He seemed to be ill at ease at the thought of a man of higher rank actually helping him out. As they walked Straw studied the young man. Extremely thin, the young man seemed to be full of a nervous energy. He was of average height, a couple inches shorter than Straw. They moved quickly through the corridors. As they walked, they talked.
“What’s your name, ensign?” Straw hadn’t noticed a nametag or anything identifying the young man, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“I am ensign Yomato, sir.” He tried to salute, nearly losing all of the papers in his arms once again, though he was puzzled by the bark of laughter that had come from the sergeant.
In reply to the young man’s quizzical look, Straw merely shrugged. “I have spent considerable time in the West, and my grasp of English is rather sophisticated,” he said truthfully enough. “Your name rhymes with the English word for ‘tomato’, a coincidence I found momentarily amusing. Do you have a problem with that?” This last was spoken in a sharper tone of voice.
“N-no sir!” Yomato looked straight ahead, and beads of sweat started to form on his forehead. This was one nervous sailor.
Straw decided it was time to probe a little deeper for information. “So what do you think of this whole mess?”
“Well sir, I think it is an honour to be able to fight for the country.”
Straw could tell immediately that he did not mean what he said. Raising an eyebrow, he turned to the ensign. “I don’t think I believe you.”
A war seemed to play out inside of the young man, his face showing highlights of the battle. Finally, with a hard swallow, Yomato stopped and turned towards Straw. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”
With a wave of his hand, Straw motioned for them to continue walking. “Always,” he replied.
“It’s just that…I wish I was on the other fleet. I don’t feel comfortable sailing down south to fight the Australians. It just doesn’t seem right.”
Straw’s mind raced. “Other fleet?” he asked casually.
“Yes sir. The one sailing towards India. I’ve never trusted the Indians, especially since they got nukes, and I would rather see us destroy them than the Aussies.”
Ensign Yomato looked closely at the sergeant, but Straw didn’t notice. He was too busy putting the pieces of the puzzle together. They had assumed that the Japanese were going to fight either the Australians or the Indians, but never had they assumed that both would be targets. This certainly complicated matters. Straw put the papers he was holding on Yomato’s pile and ran down the corridor. Ensign Yomato dropped all of the papers again and cursed. This was a bad day to be an ensign. At least he didn’t have to deal with the giant chicken. That was just creepy.