Iron Lady - A Smoker Lovestory

Part 3: Iron mind

"That's bullshit", Aiko banged her hands on the table "It's suicide to take that route", she glared at Botan across from her, but he returned it with an arrogant smirk "Calm down. This is a battleship. It can handle a little storm" "A little?!" she pointed out of the big window at the dark clouds that were starting to build up on the horizon. They were eerily glowing in the purplish colour of the sky "This is going to be a hurricane. It's saver to redirect the ship", with her finger she followed the route she was thinking about on the big map laying between them. Away from the open sea and towards a group of cliffs "Behind these we will be protected" "And we will lose an entire day, if not more" came the bored reply, while the two remaining men just kept looking from one to the other without saying anything. Only the young Haru was missing since he had been on night duty and still was catching some well-deserved sleep. For the others, they didn't want to get in between the two fronts. One being the longest serving head navigator, the other being their newest member. Both had good arguments and could possibly be right with what they were saying, but none of them was willing to take a side. No one ever had opposed to Botan, but they also didn't want to team up against Aiko. After all she had done nothing but what she was thinking was the best. They remained passive and hoped that it will end soon by itself.

"Yes, we will lose time, but we will get out of this without any other damages". Like a broken ship or in the worst case some injured or dead members.
She sighed heavily and rubbed er temples where a headache was building up. The whole morning, they already did have this discussion and the whole morning, it was running in circles. While Botan was planning to go straight ahead in this upcoming gale, she was suggesting to seek shelter and wait for it to pass by. Her superior though didn't seem to take anything she had to say seriously. He was leaning against the control panels and looked at her contemptuously "Young lady, your female hysteria is not needed here. I am sure that whatever this is-", he gestured to the scene behind him without a care "-will turn out to be nothing more but a mild breeze and even if not I as a navigator who has already done this job for years am capable of handling this. You don't need to be bothered with it. We will follow the planned route"

She was baffled. With this one sentence, he had managed to insult her gender, her judgement and her abilities in this job generally. Hoping for any form of support, she turned to her colleagues, but the cowards just stared at the table or in any direction that wasn't hers. Of course, they had heard what just had been said and they also could see the risk, but Botan was a man you want to have on your good side. He had good connections and was willing to use them when finding he didn't want you anywhere near him anymore.

"You are all unbelievable!" Fuming, she stormed out of the navigation office and stomped outside for some fresh air. The cool morning air helped to calm her down at least a little but at the same time embarrassment about this whole incident rose within her. Not that she would revise her opinions, but she should have voiced them differently. Even though Botan did make it heart to react differently, she felt a stupid for having flipped like that instead of remaining calm and talking this out Her temperament had gotten to her. No wonder that no one was taken her serious as long as she was acting like this. Maybe with a little more sober tone, she might be able to get her arguments across. A big part withing her opposed vehemently to talk to this chauvinistic ass again but since shouting didn't help that might be her only chance left. Still the anger was squeezing her chest, especially with those clouds that seemed to look even more threatening by now. She knew and already had witnessed herself even something like this could dissolve before becoming a problem for them or that the storm will happen in the distance before they even had reached the spot. But was the possibility that this might happen worth the risk? If they were waiting too long, they wouldn't be able to escape this anymore and the gale would hit them anyway.

She sighed. Things like that had been so much easier back before her break but she had chosen to follow this path and now she had to bite herself through.
Determined, she turned and almost bumped into Tashigi "I apologize, Lieutenant" but the woman waved it off "Something the matter?" she wanted to know when seeing how agitated Aiko was. For a moment, it laid on her tongue to tell her about what just had happened but in the end she hesitated. It only had been a short time since she had starte her duty and she didn't already want to cause problems. Life on a ship can be pretty hard and lonely when your comrades didn't like you. She didn't want to be the tattletale and she also didn't want to need a superiors help to fight her fights. That was something she never had done.
Slowly she released her breath, then smiled sarcastically "Just the usual things that happen when too many men are in one place with a woman". She rolled her eyes and Tashigi simply nodded, knowing too well what this meant. "I just needed a few minutes of quietness and some fresh air". That was something the Lieutenant did understand all too well "Don't let them bring you down", then she smiled reassuringly but also a little shily "And come to me when you need anything. We women need to stick together". It had been a long time since she last had the chance to bond with another female marine and it would be nice to have a friend to talk to. Aiko mirrored the warm expression, "Will do, Lieutenant" yet the smallest bit of a bad consciousness was rising withing her.