Alright readers, we have had Cars 1 & 2, Planes 1 &2. Now its time for Ships!

Norfolk, Virginia.

it was summer, and the air was hot and humid at the civilian docking areas.

Which meant quite a few cars, forklifts and other vehicles were out and about enjoying the water.

The superyacht Alexander Ritz, sighed as he puttered along slowly in sight of the coast but far enough out to not be a problem. He was young, only a few years old. When he'd been brought into this world, a billionaire truck had rented him as a party yacht, and as he grew to his full size, the billionaire had of course continue to pay generously while his parties got wilder.

Alexander had stopped growing at around 507 feet long. He had a helicopter pad at his stern in case his employer needed to land one there, a large crew and places to host killer parties.

But for the ship it was boring in the extreme. Listening to the music thump around his hull, hear the hollers and yells of drunk cars and feel them doing things he cared not to think about in the private rooms. He sighed again and twisted to starboard to look longingly at naval base his home was next to. He always admired the navy, and there wasn't a day that passed that he wished he'd been born a naval ship instead of a yacht.

he closed his eyes, he could do that, there was no ships around, and began to day dream to drown out the horrible rap music his employer was playing.

The large aircraft carrier in the middle of the fleet was launching its latest aircraft patrol, the destroyers surrounding it, protecting their carrier carefully while below them a submarine quietly escorted them all, its sensors reaching out into the deep ocean.

Alexander pictured himself with gray paint and a large gun on his bow while a navy helicopter sat napping secured on his landing pad. He felt his crew of forklifts moving about, doing their duties. He 'heard' an order come through and the fleet began to turn sharply, he turned with them, enjoying the sensation of being in a well drilled fleet...

"Hey-o Alex!"

The voice of his employer shocked him out of his daydream and realized he'd been actually doing the sharp maneuver he'd been imagining and corrected himself.

"Sorry Sir, won't happen again."

"Hey I know its a bit boring for you, wanna drink?" The employer asked.

"No thank you, I'm the one driving." Alexander replied and the car gave a drunk laugh and went back to schmoozing the lady car that he'd been talking to.

The superyacht glanced longing back at the naval base before he continued his slow, boring route.

Something like 7 hours later they pulled back into port and the cars drunkenly got off the ship to be driven back to their houses and hotel rooms by special tow trucks. It was dark and Alexander glanced around before darting back out and cruised quickly up till he reached a small ship repair yard. It had a nice sign on its large building saying 'Tide's Timely Repairs and Refits, "If you need it, we can do it."'

He pulled into the yard, noticing that it was empty of other ships and then carefully maneuvered into the open waterhouse. He shut the door behind him and settled down, waiting anxiously as he studied the various equipment for repairs around him.

Finally the door on land opened and a dark blue painted forklift, humming a popular tune, rolled in and shut the door. "Hey Alexander, you wanna here some good news? Its kinda expensive though, so..."

"Tell me Tide." He commanded eagerly.

"Well I've been trawling through records and sights and such and it just so happens..." Tide said, tapping the wrench he had in hand. "That I can do it. Its technically illegal, and you'll get into a lot of trouble doing it if you get caught."

"But can you modify me so I can get into the Navy?"

The forklift sighed. Ever since this yacht was little he'd badgered the forklift which he came to for repairs if he could transform him from a yacht to a ship that at least resembled a navy destroyer. And after Tide was certain he was serious, he'd actually looked into the task. Turns out the Navy didn't accept civilians in the same line of duty as warships, obviously. The most a civilian could hope for is to be a sort of right hand man for older Admiral ships and running sensative documents within US waters. That wasn't what Alexander Ritz wanted.

The yacht wanted to be in the navy, help defend his nation like the ships at Norfolk did. Ever since Dusty Crophopper had won the Wings Around the Globe race, his passion had only increased.

The idea of civilian going undercover as a soldier was not a new one, it media it was actually a popular way to tell a story, but in real life it was much harder to do then one would think. After all a civilian passenger plane would never fit in among transports and warcraft with guns. It had only been done once before successfully, by a wooden sailing ship by the name of Wooden Maiden. The only reason he'd been successful is because the USA's navy at the time had been so ragtag, a new edition no one remembered wasn't all that noticeable, and the ship had done such a good job protecting shipping and killing pirates that when he had been found out they'd just kept him on anyways.

"Look Alex, its going take me months to get everything right, from stripping all the civilian fancy shit out to redoing your bulkheads and rearranging your bridge. The navy is going to change your power generator to a nuclear reactor anyways so I don't have to worry about that, but your armament is going to be a problem."

"How so?"

"Well..." Tide began to pace back and forth in front of the ship. "First off the only place you have room is the front of your deck, your nose in other words. And that's going to require ammo storage space and still have space around it for all the delicate electronics. You won't be able to carry missiles and that might tip someone off that you're not what you say you are."

"You know I'm already going to claim hybrid status." Alexander argued. "Anyways, you know the armed forces prefers to keep a handle on anything that claims it a civilian/military hybrid, so they should jump at the chance of having me in the Navy."

"I know, but while I appreciate the amount of money you're giving me, it still could get us in a hell of a lot of trouble." Tide complained as he rolled out a tool set and looked it over.

Alexander took a deep breath. He really was asking a lot of Tide. "I'll do it as long as you're still willing to."

Tide looked up and grinned. "Good, then I guess I better start working! I can even have you mounted with the latest and greatest guns, just don't ask how I got them." He pushed a button and the dock began to drain of water. The forklift rolled up to his side and patted his hull, looking small next to the large yacht. "Just remember to be careful. I got your resignation letter in the mail to your employer as soon as you pulled into dock."

About 10 months later

"Hey Alexander..." A voice that sounded familiar yet far off and somewhat odd said.

Alexander blinked awake, feeling a bit nauseous, dizzy and over all a bit high in water. He finally focused his eyes forward and down and saw Tide waving at him from his bow.

And in front of a large 5 inch/54 caliber gun right behind him.

He tried to move his mouth to say something but all that came out was a groan.

"Hey now Alex, take it easy. The drugs I gave you are wearing off, but everything is in place now. Your bridge is fixed, bulkheads rearranged, gun and ammo space all carved out and ready to go. The Navy is going to have to supply you with the proper engines, power sources, electronics and such, but other then that, you're ready to go."

"Th...h...ank You." Alex managed to slur, still wondering how Tide had gotten his hands on a modern day naval armament. Well it would help his cause of getting in at least. It felt right now and he began to slowly turn the gun around and generally 'feeling' himself and the new layout of his ship.

And soon he would be where he belonged, he thought, rather then escorting around drunk rich cars.

Hello everyone author here, I have another Carsverse story out there called A Single Difference.

One of the things that caught my attention in the movie Planes and its sequel is that Dusty, a cropduster, was transformed into a racer and then a firefighter. So far, only types of vehicles that can have just about any job is the forklift and cars, seen doing things like crewing the Flysenhower, repair and maintenance, a helper of an old warplane.

When Franz says 'you are an inspiration to all of those who want to do more then what we were built for,' it really struck me because most vehicles are built for a purpose, racecars are meant to race, trucks to haul stuff around, passenger jets to ferry around passengers. I imagine in the Carserse that the feeling of 'not being what I want to be' is common, but not really addressed, even scorned upon by many, after all its kind of hard to let F-18 or battleships wander around doing whatever they want. The bigger the vehicle the harder it would be to modify them from their original purpose to fit what they want to do.

A car wants to race? Easy to fix, a large, luxury civilian ship wanting to join the navy? Not so much. I am going to explore Alexander Ritz's journey to try and be something he was not made to be. And hopefully everyone who read this will enjoy this story and the exploration of not just Alex's life, but the Carsverse military in general.