Part 144, Chapter 2612
Chapter Two Thousand Six Hundred Twelve
15th March 1977
Black Sea, off Constanta
The NMS Vlad Dracula was making good speed as it turned on a bearing that would pass close to the hulk that was the target in the live fire drill. Louis Ferdinand Junior remembered that this had been an effective means of practicing gunnery aboard the Grindwal. Convincing the Romanian Ministry of National Defense that the crew of the Dracula would benefit from live fire drills had been a chore. If he didn’t know better, he might assume that many in Bucharest thought that the job of the Navy was to look pretty during Fleet reviews. Louis had a far different view though. A Navy ship had a tough, dangerous job to do, and the crew needed the experience to do that job.
Louis knew that comparing the Dracula’s crew to that of the Grindwal wasn’t fair. Not only had the Grindwal’s crew had more time, but they also had a firmer grounding in the traditions of the High Seas Fleet. They also were not under his command. Comandor Codrin Ciobanu, Comandor being equivalent to Kapitan-zur-See in the Romanian Navy, held that honor. He was letting Louis tag along today so that he could show off what his crew could do. Having the ships guns under local command was a part of that, getting them to act as a team when the central fire control was placed on standby.
As the hulk came into range, the 12.8cm gun in the bow opened fire. Louis saw the splash through his binoculars and listened to the Gunnery Officer shouting commands to the crew as they corrected the aim. The second shot hit the hulk as the 40mm cannons opened up. Those were the familiar Bofors 40mm/L70s that saw service in nearly every Navy in the world. Louis felt that the Dracula could use some of the Vk30 30mm autocannons used by the German Navy which could claw missiles out of the air, but there were still export controls on those. As the Dracula turned broadside to the hulk, the aft 12.8cm gun fired as it came to bear, and a large hole was blown through the hulk. Having a second main gun certainly made a statement, Louis thought to himself.
Seeing movement in the corner of his eye, Louis turned his binoculars out to sea and saw a ship in the distance. It was too far away to get a name, but the White and Blue of the Russian Naval Ensign was unmistakable. It seemed that their friends from across the Black Sea had decided to get a look at the Dracula as she was going about her paces.
Montreal, Canada
Somehow word got out that today was Marie Alexandra’s birthday as much as she wanted it to be low key. There had been calls asking if she was planning on doing anything and her grandmother had made a point of telling her that in life she often didn’t have a choice as whether or not to entertain. If she did nothing then people were going to want to know why. As much as Marie knew that she would regret caving into her grandmother, she agreed to have a small party with a few friends from McGill and Dawson. That was well and good, except Sir Malcolm insisted that she remove the large boxes from his home office which was a gift from her mother. Marie had assumed that it would be an addition to the jewelry that her mother had given her over the years. She liked it when Marie wore emeralds, which supposedly perfectly complimented her. And her parents had done that to a degree in the form of a bracelet that matched what she already had, but that had been a gift directly from her father.
Instead, Marie’s mother had done something completely unexpected and that came in the form a Z185 made by Zuse AG that came with a color monitor, something that Marie had never seen before called a mouse, and a joystick game controller. She pushed the thought of how someone must have come up with the name of that last particular piece of equipment out of her mind. There was a printer that was still in the box which Marie intended to set up as soon as she figured out where she was going to do that.
Marie had heard about the innovative microcomputer that had been intended for home use from the outset, not having lived under a rock for the last few months. Having one given to her as a birthday present was certainly a surprise and Marie suspected that it had probably been a suggestion from her older brother. He was an expert in these things. The problem was that her guests found out that she had gotten it and they were not interested in anything else because a Zuse 185 was miles better than anything similar made on this side of the Atlantic. Marie had swiftly discovered that watching other people playing computer games was quite possibly the most boring thing that she had ever done. The Japanese game was also rather incomprehensible. The player guided an Italian Plumber of all things through a maze where he was under constant attack by what looked like dinosaurs, turtles, and walking mushrooms(?)
“We can use this for our studies?” Henriette asked as Marie looked through the manual and was reading the list of programs that came stored on the hard drive.
“Word processing and spreadsheets” Marie said, happy to talk about anything other than that silly game.
“That is actually pretty good” Henriette said, “Provided you can get them to give it back.”
“I’m sure they will get bored eventually and dinner is going to be served soon” Marie replied. Food far better than they ever got at the University might just have more appeal than the newest toy.
15th March 1977
Black Sea, off Constanta
The NMS Vlad Dracula was making good speed as it turned on a bearing that would pass close to the hulk that was the target in the live fire drill. Louis Ferdinand Junior remembered that this had been an effective means of practicing gunnery aboard the Grindwal. Convincing the Romanian Ministry of National Defense that the crew of the Dracula would benefit from live fire drills had been a chore. If he didn’t know better, he might assume that many in Bucharest thought that the job of the Navy was to look pretty during Fleet reviews. Louis had a far different view though. A Navy ship had a tough, dangerous job to do, and the crew needed the experience to do that job.
Louis knew that comparing the Dracula’s crew to that of the Grindwal wasn’t fair. Not only had the Grindwal’s crew had more time, but they also had a firmer grounding in the traditions of the High Seas Fleet. They also were not under his command. Comandor Codrin Ciobanu, Comandor being equivalent to Kapitan-zur-See in the Romanian Navy, held that honor. He was letting Louis tag along today so that he could show off what his crew could do. Having the ships guns under local command was a part of that, getting them to act as a team when the central fire control was placed on standby.
As the hulk came into range, the 12.8cm gun in the bow opened fire. Louis saw the splash through his binoculars and listened to the Gunnery Officer shouting commands to the crew as they corrected the aim. The second shot hit the hulk as the 40mm cannons opened up. Those were the familiar Bofors 40mm/L70s that saw service in nearly every Navy in the world. Louis felt that the Dracula could use some of the Vk30 30mm autocannons used by the German Navy which could claw missiles out of the air, but there were still export controls on those. As the Dracula turned broadside to the hulk, the aft 12.8cm gun fired as it came to bear, and a large hole was blown through the hulk. Having a second main gun certainly made a statement, Louis thought to himself.
Seeing movement in the corner of his eye, Louis turned his binoculars out to sea and saw a ship in the distance. It was too far away to get a name, but the White and Blue of the Russian Naval Ensign was unmistakable. It seemed that their friends from across the Black Sea had decided to get a look at the Dracula as she was going about her paces.
Montreal, Canada
Somehow word got out that today was Marie Alexandra’s birthday as much as she wanted it to be low key. There had been calls asking if she was planning on doing anything and her grandmother had made a point of telling her that in life she often didn’t have a choice as whether or not to entertain. If she did nothing then people were going to want to know why. As much as Marie knew that she would regret caving into her grandmother, she agreed to have a small party with a few friends from McGill and Dawson. That was well and good, except Sir Malcolm insisted that she remove the large boxes from his home office which was a gift from her mother. Marie had assumed that it would be an addition to the jewelry that her mother had given her over the years. She liked it when Marie wore emeralds, which supposedly perfectly complimented her. And her parents had done that to a degree in the form of a bracelet that matched what she already had, but that had been a gift directly from her father.
Instead, Marie’s mother had done something completely unexpected and that came in the form a Z185 made by Zuse AG that came with a color monitor, something that Marie had never seen before called a mouse, and a joystick game controller. She pushed the thought of how someone must have come up with the name of that last particular piece of equipment out of her mind. There was a printer that was still in the box which Marie intended to set up as soon as she figured out where she was going to do that.
Marie had heard about the innovative microcomputer that had been intended for home use from the outset, not having lived under a rock for the last few months. Having one given to her as a birthday present was certainly a surprise and Marie suspected that it had probably been a suggestion from her older brother. He was an expert in these things. The problem was that her guests found out that she had gotten it and they were not interested in anything else because a Zuse 185 was miles better than anything similar made on this side of the Atlantic. Marie had swiftly discovered that watching other people playing computer games was quite possibly the most boring thing that she had ever done. The Japanese game was also rather incomprehensible. The player guided an Italian Plumber of all things through a maze where he was under constant attack by what looked like dinosaurs, turtles, and walking mushrooms(?)
“We can use this for our studies?” Henriette asked as Marie looked through the manual and was reading the list of programs that came stored on the hard drive.
“Word processing and spreadsheets” Marie said, happy to talk about anything other than that silly game.
“That is actually pretty good” Henriette said, “Provided you can get them to give it back.”
“I’m sure they will get bored eventually and dinner is going to be served soon” Marie replied. Food far better than they ever got at the University might just have more appeal than the newest toy.