Read Online Blood In the Water by Taylor Anderson - Free Book Online

combed the coastline itself prettythoroughly. Matt hoped for better recon soon, but for now they had to make do. That had left only
Walker
and a couple of steam frigates, or “DDs,” from
Arracca
’s screen to do the job. Matt didn’t know how many Grik ships had slipped through the ragged net, quite a few most likely, but they’d probably shattered enough to render the Grik return on their effort fairly futile before the targets started drying up. The DDs would stay out a while longer, but
Walker
was finally headed for the barn. Matt gestured again at the boiler.
    â€œCan you fix it?”
    Tabby sighed and swished her tail. “Not out here. An’ I can’t do much for number two. We outa spare tubes an’ it’ll do the same as this one, probl’y, the first time we try to fire it up again.” She nodded at number four. “An’ we
plugged
so many tubes in that one, I bet we only boilin’ two-thirds the water we should. ’Least its condenser ain’t leakin’ an’ there ain’t no saltin’—but it’s . . . tired, Skipper.” She shrugged. “Maybe when the rest o’ First Fleet gets its ass down here? They finally bringin’ that big self-movin’ dry dock down, an’ it wouldn’t hurt to stick
us
in it for a while,” she added hopefully.
    â€œWe’ll see,” Matt replied doubtfully, not liking the idea of having his ship immobilized with Grik zeppelins dropping bombs on them. But maybe they could do it at one of the islands to the north?
    â€œThen, with them two brand-new tin caans comin’ down, there oughta be spares enough to fix our boilers right,” Tabby pressed.
    Matt nodded, encouraged and a little thrilled at the thought of finally seeing the two near carbon copies of
Walker
that had been building at Baalkpan for almost a year. The first was USS
James Ellis
(DD-21), named for
Walker
’s old exec who’d gone on to commands of his own but was killed at the second Battle of Madras. Perry Brister had her, having left
Mahan
to assume command. It would be good to see Perry, Ronson, Bashear, and a bunch of the other fellows again, Matt thought. The second new destroyer was USS
Geran-Eras
(DD-23), named for the High Chief of the Home-turned-carrier
Humfra-Dar
, destroyed off Colombo. She’d been commissioned a few days after
James Ellis
, and the last
Scott
Class steam frigate had taken number 22. Cablaas-Rag-Laan had
Geran-Eras
.
    Unless something broke down, it wouldn’t take nearly as long for even more new four-stackers to join the fleet, and the first new cruiser—basically an upsized version of the destroyers—was more than three-quarterscomplete. For the first time since he came to this world, Matt had visions of a real, semimodern fleet dancing in his head. He frowned.
If we can just hold out
. He was pretty sure the Doms had shot their bolt at sea, at least in the Pacific,
but Kurokawa’s still out there somewhere and the Grik have to be building a better fleet of their own . . . somewhere else, beyond the range of our scouts. And, of course, there’s the League
. W
ho knows what they’re up to, or even what they have besides that sub we sank and the battlewagon that sat on Alex-aandra and
Donaghey
so long
.
    Matt noticed Spanky was frowning too. “What?” he asked.
    â€œYou didn’t get me, Skipper. When I said ‘she’s finished,’ I meant the ship, not just the boiler. She needs a yard. How many holes has she had shot through her, just on this campaign? She leaks . . . everywhere.
All
the boilers need work, and her gun tubes need relining bad. The number one gun’s as liable to hit the fo’c’sle as the target at max elevation.” That was an exaggeration, but not by much. Their temporary use of copper projectiles had extended the lives of their already worn 4 ″ -50 gun barrels a