"Ma'am, could you please wait here for a moment?"

"Of course, sir."

A small smile. "I'm just an assistant here, Ma'am. Generally, I'm the one who says sir and ma'am to people. Just call me Charlie."

"...Just call me Miss, then. Ma'am makes feel old."

"Difficult when you have such a... storied history. It's intimidating, you know?"

"I only lived to be be thirteen."

"Oh? Oh. Miss it is, then. Wait here, please."

She sits down, back ramrod-stiff, and waits, watching people hurriedly run to and fro like a kicked hornet's nest. She remembers hearing so many tales of the White House, it still seems strange to be able to walk its halls.

She huffs out a humourless laugh. She's not the only one who needs to adjust to the new world, it seems.

The doors open, and Charlie leans out. "The President will see you now, Miss."

She walks into the Oval Office, her step a bit unsure. A quick march does it, though. She startles the group standing there - a man in dress blues and covered in service bars, a short man wrinkled by age, a tall woman with big eyes and a curious expression, and a few other men who turn to face her.

But facing the doors is an older, portly man, and the way he looks at her when she arrives tells her all she needs to know. There is more authority in that man's mere presence than an entire carrier group's arrival.

She stands up straight, hands along the seams of the uniform trousers she is still getting used to, and even though she is terrified of this new world and this man, she looks him straight in the eye and speaks clearly.

"USS Enterprise, CV-6. Reporting for duty, sir."

"At ease, Enterprise."

Feet shoulder-width, arms behind her back. Parade rest. She doesn't need fo think about it. There are so many things she just knows, without any explanation as to why. It bothers her.

He looks at her for a long moment, the others exchanging silent expressions that she cannot read in her peripheral vision.

"...You look much younger than I expected."

"She's thirteen, sir," Charlie throws in.

The President swivels to face him, staring widely. "Thirteen?" He turns back to face her, a question in his eyes.

"Thirteen years from the day they laid my keel to the day they decommissioned me, sir. Well, nearly thirteen, if you want a precise answer. Sir."

He keeps staring at her, before sighing and closing his eyes. "I've always had trouble with the concept of having ships... reincarnated as young women. And now we have children fighting a war of desperation against the Abyss."

"I have fought a war once already, sir. I can fight again." She shrugs. "It's what I was made for."

That doesn't seem to convey any reassurance to the formerly most powerful man in the world. He looks at her, smiles with sadness at the corner of his mouth. "Ghosts have a nasty habit of returning at unexpected times, especially when you run a country at war. I'm glad one of them was cloaked in grey, at least."

A pause as he watches her. She doesn't avert her eyes.

"...You've already done so much for your country, Enterprise. We retired you, gave you your deserved rest. But times change. Our once proud Navy is scattered, its sailors dead or dying, our allies fighting to clear the seas for us. You're not the first of your kind, but you're the first of ours."

"I know, sir. I was at Pearl."

"...We need you again." He sighs, and stands up straighter himself. "But only if you want to. I won't ask you to pay even greater sacrifices than those you have already given this country." His eyes bore into hers. "But we do need your help again."

"...Back in the day, they called me the 'Lucky E', sir." She smiles for the first time. "Guess we could all use a little more luck."

"Isn't that God's honest truth if I ever heard it." He smiles back warmly, holding out his open hand. "Good to have you back, Enterprise."

She shakes it, the firm, safe grip making her relax for the first time since Pearl Harbor died a screaming death of burning fuel, charred flesh, and twisted steel.

"...It's good to be back, sir."

Interlude: The President's Visitor

Beta Note: Thanks to Fernandel, over on SV, who wrote this interlude. We like it so very much that it's canon for GG - but then, that's no surprise, given that he also wrote On the Wings of an Eagle which is like the best Zero no Tsukaima/Assasin's Creed 2 crossover I've ever read.

And yes, for the purposes of GG, the sitting president is President Josiah Bartlett, who some may recall was on TV over a decade ago in The West Wing. ;D

And with that, I take my leave once more. GG is still on indefinite hiatus for now - I just forgot to toss this Interlude up at an earlier time. ._.

Cheers, everyone.

- WG