An unknown amount of time later, I finally began to come to my senses. I felt like I was swimming in an endless black void, and I was certain that I was dead, and trying to figure out how to cross over to the Afterlife, but then I began to feel a pain in my head.

"Hmm?" I remember thinking. "Why does my head hurt? You're not in pain when you're dead." However, the pain in my head became a dull throbbing, and then I came to myself again, and regained consciousness.

When I first opened my eyes, all I could see was dull red. Dull red, and a few splotches of black. I had no idea what I was looking at, as I was still pretty out of it, and my head was still hurting, but then I shifted ever so much, and I fell on my side. I then realized that I'd been lying face-down on the floor of Texas's bridge, and after a few more moments, I realized that I was still alive.

"Wait............I'm............I'm not dead?" I moved my hands a bit, and then rolled over onto my back. When I did, I felt something warm on my face, as well as seeing a bright light. I looked to see what was making the light, and I saw an unusual sight; sunlight. There was sunlight coming into the bridge through the porthole windows. "Wait, what? Sunlight? Why is there sunlight? There was a storm............" Then the memories all came flooding back to me. The mission to get the Texas back to Galveston, the sudden storm that blew up out of nowhere, the frantic calls for help to the US Navy and the US Coast Guard, and then the massive black wave. ".......And then I was yanked away from the wheel, thrown against the bridge wall, and then I hit the floor and blacked out."

I then looked down at myself. I was still wearing my WW2-Era US Navy uniform, though my white sailor hat was missing. I realized that it must have flown off my head when I hit the wall, and then I remembered that I wasn't alone on the bridge. Where were the others? I glanced around in a panic, and I saw the crumpled bodies of Dennis, Adam, Ted, and Captain Bob. Ted was lying on his back near the engine order telegraph, Dennis was lying on his side against the back wall of the bridge, Adam was lying face down against the back wall behind his table, with Dennis partially on top of him, and Captain Bob was lying next to the (non-functioning) radar scope on the bridge. I was afraid that all of them were dead, but then I heard groaning, and it seemed like all of them were coming around. I then looked forwards, and realized that I'd been thrown almost 5 feet away from the ship's wheel, and hit my head on the floor just shy of the front legs of Adam's table. I looked around, and soon spotted my sailor hat. I then picked it up, and put it back on my head, before attempting to stand up. I managed to do so shakily, and then went over to make sure that the other 4 were ok.

I first went over to Adam and Dennis, as they were lying partially on top of each other. I gently helped Dennis sit up, and then move off of Adam, who was also trying to get up again.

"Are you guys ok? You had a pretty nasty crash against the wall."

Dennis looked at me first. "Ugh..........what.........happened?"

I shrugged. "I don't know Dennis. As far as I can tell though, the storm is over, we're seemingly still floating, and we seem to be in the clear."

"We're...........we're still alive?" Adam said shakily as he pulled himself off the floor.

I nodded. "Yeah. At least, I don't think that you're still in minor pain when you're dead. I don't know how we survived, but we somehow did."

"Thank God." Captain Bob said quietly as he stood up, brushed off his captain's uniform, and then put his hat back on.

Finally, Ted got back up. "Well, I take it that we're alive, but the real question is, where are we?"

I shrugged. "That's a VERY good question Ted, and honestly, I don't know. I assume that we're still off the coast of Texas somewhere, though we won't know for sure until we contact the.........tug.........boats." I then looked at Bob, Dennis, Adam, and Ted. "Better question, we're still here, but are Pelican, Jupiter, and North Star? And what about the rest of our crew?"

The eyes of the others went very wide when I said that.

"Yes, those are VERY good questions Ensign Gardner. We need to find out ASAP!" Captain Bob then looked around for his radio, which had been launched across the bridge during our impact with the black wave, and once he found it, began to see if it still worked.

While he was doing that, I decided to look outside. I then walked over to the port door to the bridge, and opened it. When I did, some rainwater from somewhere above the door fell down, and more sunlight began to stream into the bridge. The light was a bit blinding for a few moments, but then I stepped out onto the port bridge wing, I was a bit surprised when I did so. For starters, the area outside the bridge was still very wet, and water was dripping down from other parts of the mast above us, so we had indeed made it through the storm. I then looked ahead, and I saw North Star still attached to the front of the ship by tow ropes, and I also saw Jupiter still attached to Texas's port side, and I heard Ted confirm that Pelican was still on Texas's starboard side. I also heard Captain Bob talking to what sounded like the crew on the tugboats, while Adam was talking to others on the Texas.

"Ok, well that's good. But now the question is, where are we?" I then looked to where I saw the sun, and to my surprise, it seemed very low in the sky, but yet was seemingly rising instead of setting. "Hmm. So it must be early in the morning." I could see that the sun was rising from our starboard side, which meant that we were most likely facing North. "Ok, so we're facing North, which means that we are off course, but hopefully not by much."

I then looked down at my watch to see what time it actually was, and when I did, my heart skipped a few beats. "No. Wait, what? How can that be?"

My watch, which was a waterproof digital Casio watch, and showed both the time and the date, said that it was 7am, on October 3rd, 2022.

"No. That can't be! We left Mobile on October 3rd, and that was BEFORE the storm picked up on the 4th! Something's wrong with my watch!" I then took it off my wrist and fiddled with it, but to my surprise, it was still working. "Still, something must be wrong." I then went back inside the bridge.

When I did so, I looked at Captain Bob. "What's the damage Captain?"

To my surprise, he didn't answer right away. Adam spoke for him. "Huh? Oh. I just checked with Chief Engineer Dalton below decks, and I got a headcount from him. Thank the Heavens, all 200 of us Naval Reservists, volunteers, and engineers are still present and accounted for, and with only a few minor injuries. Everyone's still a bit groggy, but are VERY glad that the storm is over, and now they're going around trying to fully sound the ship."

I nodded. "Yeah, thank God for that. And where are we?"

Adam shrugged. "I'm not sure. I won't have a heading until I hear from Captain Bob, and he's been on the radio with the tugs for a while now. Their crews are also all still present and accounted for, but I wonder what they're talking about that's so urgent."

"And do you have the time Adam, or anyone else? I think that my watch's conked out, as it's showing the wrong date."

"Did it show that your watch says 7:02am, October 3rd, 2022?" Ted asked.

I checked my watch again, and then looked back at Ted. "Yeah."

"So does mine."

Adam checked his watch too, and then radioed down below decks for anyone who had an atomic clock in their watches. To his surprise, one of the engineers reported that it was 7:03am Central Time, October 3rd, 2022.

"But, that's impossible! YESTERDAY was October 3rd!"

"I don't know what to tell you Lieutenant Price. Atomic clocks are never wrong."

At that moment, Captain Bob finally got off the radio with the tugs. "Ok Guys, I've got good news and bad news. According to all 3 tugs, all of their crews are present and accounted for, all of their systems are functioning normally, though their engines are shut off, and will have to be restarted. They also reported that we're maybe 400 or so miles off the coast of Texas, with maybe another 50 or so miles North to Galveston. We were blown WAY off course, but we're not down yet!"

We all cheered at that, but then I asked the important question. "That's great Captain Bob, but what's the bad news? We're not sinking, are we?"

He shook his head. "No, we're not sinking, but the tugs reported that they've been unable to contact either the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, or anyone on the Mainland. Our radio signals are going out, but we haven't received any replies."

We all thought that this was pretty unusual, but then Adam and I spoke up about our watches, and the atomic clock that he'd used to verify the time and date.

Captain Bob was perplexed. "That's................I honestly don't know what to say about that Boys. It's POSSIBLE that something could have interfered with our clocks, phones, laptops and watches during the storm, but I also don't see how that would be possible."

At that exact moment though, Captain Bob got a call from Chief Engineer Dalton. "Captain? Captain! Come in right now! We've got a situation down here, and I need you to advise on how to proceed!"

We were all worried. If the ship's Chief Engineer, who had years of experience with all kinds of ships was calling the captain with panic in his voice, what could be going on down below decks?

Captain Bob grabbed his radio. "What is it CE? What's going on down there?"

"That's the thing Sir...........I............I honestly do not know how to explain this. In all of my years at sea, I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like this before! What I'm seeing right now, and with what's being reported in from other stations should be BEYOND impossible, but it's right here in front of my very eyes!"

"What are you talking about CE?"

"Captain. I.............I do not know how this is even REMOTELY possible, but somehow, someway, Texas has been fully restored!"

Captain Bob was confused. "Um, what now? I know that she's been restored CE, we just hauled her back from Mobile after her overhaul."

"Not like that Sir, I mean that she's been fully restored to full operational status! Everything works down here!"

When we heard that, our jaws slammed into the bridge floor so hard that I thought the floor was going to break.

"EVERYTHING WHAT?!?!?!?!" We all screamed together.

After we were able to pick our jaws back up, we all looked at each other in complete disbelief. We all knew how serious-minded Chief Engineer Dalton was. The guy never joked, and rarely even smiled when he wasn't working on ship components, so why would he suddenly be joking with us now?

Finally, Captain Bob mange to sputter out, "J-just............hang on. I'm..........we're coming down!" He then put down his radio, and began to leave the bridge. He told Adam and Ted to stay behind, but he took Dennis and I with him, and we went to go and see what was going on with the rest of the ship. However, Adam and Ted both went out onto the bridge wings so that they would be able to see what was going on better.

Once the 3 of us reached the main deck again, we were met by Chief Engineer Dalton, as well as a number of other really confused sailors.

"Talk to me CE, what's going on?"

Dalton just shook his head and shrugged. "Honestly Captain, I have no idea. When I came around again after that wave impact, I was still on the floor of the port side engine room. I was unhurt aside from a few bumps and bruises, but when I got back up, I quickly realized that something was different. For starters, all of the Plexiglas that used to protect all of the gauges and other instruments from being touched by guests was gone, and the instruments themselves looked almost brand new. I called several other engineers over there to look at them, and they were baffled. However, we didn't have too much time to contemplate this, as we all knew that we had to immediately fully sound the ship, and make sure that she was still watertight, and nothing was damaged."

"And this is when you radioed me?" Captain Bob asked.

"No, not quite yet Captain. However, as the engineers and I raced throughout the ship sounding everything, as well as checking on the other sailors and volunteers, we kept making bizarre discoveries. All of the barriers that used to keep guests out of certain areas were gone, equipment that shouldn't have been there was, empty supply closets were suddenly full of tools, spare parts, and other items, but most shockingly of all, machinery that was either missing, disabled, damaged, or in need of restoration was suddenly present, fully operational, and seemingly brand new! All throughout the ship we were finding the impossible. Ammunition lockers were suddenly full of ammunition, powder magazines were full of powder bags, tanks were full of either water or fuel, depending on what they originally held, and even the engines and boilers looked brand new and ready to be fired up again!"

All of us were still in utter disbelief, but once we began to see things with our own eyes, we still couldn't believe what we were seeing, but it certainly gave much more credibility to what Dalton had told us. We were looking all around the ship, and we couldn't believe our eyes. Not only were areas of the ship that had been flooding during the storm completely dry, and showing no signs of having been anywhere near water, the ship's ammunition magazines were full of ammunition for every gun on the ship, the powder magazines were also all full, all of the machinery seemed to be in perfect working order, there was hardly a speck of rust or chip of paint to be seen anywhere, the ship's gun barrels had brand new cover plugs on the ends of them that could be removed for battle (even while the ship had been in Mobile, the covers for the main guns, which had been welded on, had never been removed), and there were full reserves of food, water, uniforms and other clothing, helmets, rifles and pistols, as well as ammunition for both, the ship's medical bay was spotlessly clean, and fully stocked with brand-new WW2-era equipment, bandages, linens, and drugs, the ship's soda fountain had several varieties of frosty-cold soda, as well as ice cream, and all the toppings to go with it, the ship's little store was fully stocked, and ready for customers, the barber shop and dentist office were also fully ready for customers, the post office was ready to send out and receive mail, the bathrooms on the ship were spotlessly clean, and could be used (the Porta-Potties that we had been using before had seemingly disappeared sometime before we all woke up again), the kitchen and bakery were ready to start making food for everyone on the ship, there were shelves and shelves of dishes, cups, plates, and silverware in the scullery, as well as the big dish washing machines, the ship's pantries were fully-stocked, the crew quarters were brand new, the radar and radio equipment were all ready to go, the laundry room was ready to do the laundry for everyone on the ship, the engines and boilers, as well as the ship's generators and dynamos looked like they'd just been installed last week, and were ready to go as well.

On a hunch, an engineer with diving gear was sent over the side of the ship to check the hull, and what he found was even more astonishing. In addition to the ship's hull being completely intact (thanks to the restoration, though he was checking it for storm damage), the ship's rudder was still intact, but he also reported that both propeller shafts, as well as both propellers were present, and looked amazing.

"They're all shiny and new!" He reported once he was back onboard the Texas. "I could almost see my reflection in the propellers!"

Captain Bob was at a loss, but then came yet another report from 2 more engineers, as well as the 2 men who were in charge of the Kingfisher seaplane. Somehow, someway, the plane was fully restored to full operational status.

"It literally looks like it rolled off the assembly line yesterday!" One of the pilots reported. "I've never seen a WW2 plane, even the restored ones, be in this good of condition!"

"And the catapult!" One of the engineers added. "That thing was made from spare metal for display purposes, and now it's a fully-operational catapult, and could actually launch the plane if we wanted to!"

"I'm glad that the plane made it through the storm, as well as the catapult." Captain Bob told them. "Especially considering how the plane was lashed to Turret 3 as tightly as it could be, but somehow, it being fully restored like the rest of the ship doesn't really surprise me too much."

"It.........doesn't?" I asked quietly.

He shook his head. "With how the rest of the ship has seemingly been miraculously restored to how she looked in 1946 when she was retired, with the added bonus of seemingly being a brand new ship, not really Ensign Gardner."

"So...........what do we do now Captain?" Chief Engineer Dalton asked.

Captain Bob looked at those gathered around him, as well as fore and aft at those who were still at their duty stations. For a rare time in his life, he was truly at a loss for words. He had no idea what to say. The tugboats were reporting that there was still no contact with the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, or the US Mainland, and that those on the tugs were just as shocked as we were that the Texas was fully restored to operational status. He was the man in charge though, so he had to come up with something, and fast. He thought up an idea, however, it was a crazy one, and it might end badly, but he knew that this could be the only chance that he would ever have to go through with his plan, so he decided to go for it.

"Chief Engineer Dalton?"

"Yes Captain?"

"How many crew did the Texas have in 1945 when WW2 ended?"

"1,815 officers and men Sir."

"And how many do we have onboard?"

"200 men Sir, composed of engineers, volunteers, and Naval Reservists, some of whom are retired ex-Navy like you and me."

"And with the ship the way that it is now, and with all of the people that we have on board, do you think that we have enough for a skeleton crew to actually sail the Texas back to Texas under her own power?"

Dalton winced internally when he heard that. In all truth, he could see that the Captain's questions were leading up to this, but even though he knew what was coming, he had no idea what to say about it. In all honest truth, he wanted to do what the Captain wanted just as much as he did, however, did they have enough crew to do it, and not just crew, but also trained crew?

He sighed. "In all honesty Captain, I don't know. Yes, everything is fully restored, stocked, and ready to go, but what we lack is crew, and trained crew at that. Remember, the systems on the Texas have not been used by the US Navy in decades, and training for them is non-existent. Yes, we have engineers and naval sailors on board, but not a lot who are trained in the operation of ship engines, boilers, radar, and electrical generators like what Texas has. It's a risk, and Texas is the last ship of her kind. What if we tried to do this, and something went wrong? Right now, all of the power on the ship is still coming from our generators that we brought onboard, and there's no telling what will happen if we tried to transfer that power over to the ship's systems. Yes, it could handle what was already here, but could it also handle all the fans, ventilators, pumps, and other electronic devices that we brought on board with us?"

Captain Bob thought long and hard about that. Everything that Dalton said was the truth, but what if it could work? "Though what if we leave Texas's systems to the Texas's power generators, and all the modern stuff to the generators? Would that be any better?"

Dalton talked for a while with the other engineers to see what they thought, as well as the other volunteers who had been ex-Navy. Finally, he turned back to Captain Bob. "If you're really sure that you want to do this Captain, then yes, I think that we have enough people for a skeleton crew, as well as enough specialists to oversee the systems. If you're really sure, then yes, I think that we can at least attempt it."

Captain Bob nodded, before readjusting his captain's hat slightly. "Very well then CE. Let's get everyone back to their stations, and then we can see about getting the Texas back online for the first time in ages." He then turned to the rest of us. "And who's ready to do this?!"

We were all screaming and cheering loudly. "WE ALL ARE SIR!!!!"

"THEN LET'S FRIGGIN' DO THIS THING!!!!"

"YEAH!!!!" We all then began to scurry back to our stations.

Once we were all ready, our first task was for the engineers to analyze the boilers, engines, electrical generators, and other key systems, just to make sure that they actually were fully restored to operational status, and not just cosmetically restored. But true to the word of whatever Cosmic Force that had caused this to happen, everything not only looked pristine, but also looked like it was going to work too. Now came the real challenge; getting ready to fire up the 6 oil-fired Bureau-Express boilers, which had been sitting cold since 1946. The boilers in question were very old, and looked a bit wonky. Each of the ship's 6 boilers were triangular-shaped, and had 8 burners.

They were clunky, ancient pieces of hardware, and no one was sure how they worked. The few engineers who had experience with steam boilers had either worked on aircraft carriers, or the Iowa-Class Battleships, the latter of which had Babcock and Wilcox oil-fired water-tube boilers. None of them knew much about the Bureau-Express boilers on the Texas, but they were certainly going to try and start them up.

"Damn." One of the engineers muttered. "These things are dinosaurs, and I served on the USS Midway CV-41!"

"Too bad we don't have a user's manual for these things." Another added. "Or even some kind of diagram."

A 3rd engineer was poking around a few storage lockers along one of the back walls of the boiler room. "Do any of you guys remember what this boiler room looked like before today? I certainly do."

The other 2 engineers winced heavily.

"Yeah, I do."

"Me too. So full of rust, grime, dirt, and decay. They restored it a little bit, but not too much."

Suddenly though, the engineer who had been looking through the storage lockers suddenly found diagrams of the boilers. "Hey! I just found some diagrams! Maybe now we can get the boilers working!"

The other 2 engineers looked, and they realized that he was right. "Yeah, maybe we finally can!"

It took a while, but after poking, prodding, opening valves, checking gauges, and using a special lighting tool, the engineers successfully lit up one of the boilers.

"Yay! We did it! We got one of the boilers working!"

"Yeah, now we just have to see about the other 5."

More poking, prodding, valve-opening, gauge checking, and using that lighting tool again, they managed to get the other 5 boilers lit up too, and began to run water into them to be turned into steam.

"CE, this is Boiler Rooms! We've got all 6 boilers in all 3 boiler rooms lit up, and they're getting hot! Everything looks good here Sir!"

Dalton grabbed his radio. "That's great Boiler Rooms! Texas is slowly coming to life again for the first time since 1946! Let me know when you have enough boiler pressure, and then we can start running steam through the engines, and then get the ship's generators and dynamos going again."

"Roger that Sir!"

By about 7:20am, the Texas's boilers finally had enough steam pressure, and at Dalton's orders, more valves were opened, allowing steam from the boilers to begin to run through pipes to the engine room. While that pressure was building up enough to run the engines, Dalton, as well as a few other engineers, and others with electrical experience were looking at the ship's generators and dynamos, as well as their switchboards.

"Gosh, even the electrical systems on this ship are old!" Dalton muttered.

"No kidding! These switches look like they're made of brass, and they have wooden handles! And look at these old electrical gauges!"

"Yes, but everything also looks brand-new. It looks like it was only made last week. It might be old, but how much do you want to bet that this old tech still works?"

"Well, considering what happened in the boiler room, I'd say that those chances are pretty high!"

Dalton then began to coordinate with several sailors who were near the generators that we'd brought on the ship, and were currently supplying all of the power.

"Are you guys ready down there?"

"Affirmative Sir! We're all ready to turn off the generators at your command!"

Dalton then sent a warning to everyone on the ship that the Texas was about to lose power. "Don't worry though, this will only be temporary. Provided of course that the ship's own generators and dynamos are able to kick into gear, the problem should be resolved quickly!"

Everyone on the ship then held their breath, and at Dalton's command, the generators were flipped off, and the Texas went dark. Then the flashlights all came on, and Dalton and the other engineers began to throw all of the switches on the electrical switchboards. There were some sparks when the switches were thrown, but slowly, the ship's switchboards began to light up, and one by one, the various rooms on the ship began to light up once again. Soon, the entire ship had power, and the power was at full capacity.

"Let there be light!" Dalton told the crew as the last lights on the ship came on. "Texas is now at full power for the first time since 1946! All of her lights are on, the generators are humming strongly, and all the switches are in!"

"And the status of the modern generators?" Captain Bob asked.

"They're off, and we'll keep them in place in case of emergencies, but now they can have a chance to rest while the ship's generators do all of the work."

"And the status of the ship's engines? And a bit off topic, but does this mean that the main 14in guns also have power now? And what about the radar, fire-control radars, and the gun directors?"

"That's what we're going to look into testing next. We'll test the radars, fire-control radars, and the gun directors, then the guns themselves, as well as their related mechanisms, and then we'll look at the engines. The boilers still need a little bit longer to finish building up sufficient pressure."

"Ok CE. Keep me posted on all updates."

"Roger that Captain."

Captain Bob then looked towards the stern of the ship from the bridge. For the first time in his life, he could see smoke rising from the Texas's smokestack.

"Well, we're getting closer and closer to full operational status." He mused. "Only a few more steps until we might be able to move the Texas on her own. I just wish that we could contact someone on the US Mainland, or the US Navy, and US Coast Guard. Why can't we get any replies from them?" Captain Bob still had no answer for that.

While Captain Bob was still contemplating this, a few engineers, as well as sailors who had experience with radar made it to Texas's primary radar control room. Like the rest of the technology on the ship, it was a room full of relics from a bygone era, but relics that were shiny and new, just like the room that they resided in.

"Well, I'm not sure how any of this works, but if the CO and the CE want the ship's radar running, then by golly we'll get the Texas's radar up and running!"

One of the engineers looked at the sailor who had spoken. "Yeah, but how do we do that if we're not even sure how radar equipment this old even works?"

"With these!" The sailor held up what looked like a set of blueprints. "I got these from the CE, who in turn got them from one of his subordinates. These are the blueprints for the radar control systems, and if we study them hard enough, we might be able to make sense of how this all works."

The other 3 in the room with him agreed, and after setting the blueprints on a nearby table, they began to study them. It took a little while longer, but after turning the radar equipment on, flipping a number of switches, pressing a number of buttons, and turning on a few screens, soon, a white dot appeared in the middle of the screen, and a white line began to go around it in sweeping circles. 3 other white dots appeared, all of them close to the larger dot in the center.

"It works! The surface-search radar works!" One of the engineers reported to Dalton. "We've got Texas in the middle, and the other 3 tugs on the radar! It's old, but it's working Sir!"

"And what about the air-search radar? Is it working? And do you see any other ships or planes in the area?"

"Yes Sir, the air-search radar is also working, but no Sir, we don't see any other ships or planes; just the Pelican, Jupiter, and North Star. However, our radar can only see about 100 miles out. What about the tugs? Do they see anything either?"

"That's a negative. They can see land maybe 400 miles to our Northwest, but no other ships or planes at the moment. I don't understand it either."

"And what about the fire-control radars CE? Are those working?"

"I've got a few teams of guys looking at them now. As always, they're in good condition, and they're about ready to test them."

"Roger that CE."

Just then, Dalton got a radio call from Captain Bob. "Go ahead Captain."

"I heard about the regular radars, but what about the fire-control radars and the gun directors CE?"

"Everything looks good out here Sir, both with the radars and directors themselves on the conning tower, at the top of the main mast, just behind the smokestack, and on the aft mast, as well as all of their control rooms. The 3in, 5in, and 14in. guns of the Texas have full radar-control, assuming of course that they work."

"That's good news, and yes, assuming that they work. That will be the biggest test of all. Do our 14in guns work, and not only that, but also our 5in guns, 3in AA guns, the 40mm Bofors AA guns, and the 20mm Oerlikon cannons. All of them will have to be mechanically tested, though probably not fired."

"Yes. We don't want to risk an incident!"

"And will that take most of the hands on the ship to test the guns?"

"I think so Captain. It'll be a bit of a chore to test all 10 x 14in guns in 5 turrets, the 6 x 5in guns, the 10 x 3in guns, the 10 x quad 40mm Bofors, and the 44 x 20mm Oerlikon cannons. It could take a while."

"Yes, though with almost all of the 200 men on this ship working together, that might make things go faster."

Dalton agreed, though just as he was putting down his radio, he noticed that his watch was seemingly stuck at 7:30am. He shook his wrist a bit, but the watch remained stuck. "Hmm. Must need a new battery, or something." He made a note to check it later, but didn't worry about it at the time. He then went back up to the main deck, passing a clock on the wall. Dalton failed to notice that it too was stuck at 7:30am. Strange, especially for a digital clock.

Once he was up on the main deck, and was joined by Captain Bob, they assembled maybe 175 of the crew of the Texas, as well as a few guys from the tugboats, (25 crew at the minimum were needed to stay in the Texas's boiler rooms, and the engine room), and we began to check all of the guns, and made sure that they all worked. This would indeed prove to be a bit of a chore, as there were so many of them. Our first chore was to check all of the Oerlikon cannons. This was easy enough as all we had to do was grab the gun, move it around in all directions, load it, arm it, DON'T fire it, then unload it, and repeat 43 more times for all 44 Oerlikon cannons. It was pretty much the same for the 10 quad Bofors AA guns, though these took 2 people to move them around, and 2 more to load them. On one of the 5 Bofors guns on the starboard side, I was working the elevation of the guns, while Adam worked the rotation, and Ted and Dennis loaded.

"Can you guys imagine being on one of these guns in combat, especially during Iwo Jima, or Okinawa?" Ted wondered aloud.

I shook my head. "Not entirely, but I have heard stories from those who have. The heat, sweat, smoke from the battle, vibration of your gun, and all the other guns firing, the smell of the powder, not to mention being shot at, or worse, having to ward off Japanese Kamikaze planes."

"Did Texas ever have to do that?" Dennis asked.

I nodded. "Oh yes. Texas came under attack at least several times by Kamikaze planes, especially during Okinawa, but she never suffered a single hit from them. I don't remember the exact number of planes that Texas downed in her career, but it was at least a few, with a few more assisted kills."

"Assisted kills?"

I looked back at Ted. "That means that either Texas shot up an enemy plane, and while it escaped her gunners, gunners on another ship, or another plane finished it off, or they shot up a plane, and while it escaped them, it didn't escape Texas's guns."

"Oh. That makes sense."

It took a little while longer, but all 10 of the quad Bofors AA guns were declared to be in perfect working order, as were the 10 x 3in guns, which were also used for AA defense. This just left us to check the 5in guns, as well as the main 14in guns. As we were making our way back up to the lower deck where the 6 x 5in guns were, Adam noticed something.

"Hey guys?"

Dennis looked at him. "Yeah Adam?"

"Anyone got the time? My watch is stuck at 7:30am, and the sun isn't moving."

Dennis, Ted, and I all looked back at him like he was crazy. "What? What do you mean that the sun isn't moving?"

"Just what I said. It's still seemingly at the exact same height it was when they first fired up the boilers, and that was what, almost 2 hours ago?"

I looked at my watch, and sure enough, it seemed to be stuck at 7:30am, and like Adam had said, the sun seemed to be in the exact same place where it had been what seemed to have been 2 hours ago. "Something is really wrong here. Our watches and clocks all keep stopping, or turning back time, and now the sun seems to be stuck too. What on God's green Earth is going on around here?!"

"Maybe the Universe is waiting for something." Ted said softly.

We all looked at him like he was crazy. "What was that Ted?"

He sighed. "Maybe the Universe is waiting on us to get the Texas moving again, and She's just giving us time to get there."

Neither Adam, Dennis, or even myself knew what to say to that. Ted was one to joke, but he sure didn't seem to be joking right now. And none of us had any answers at all to how we'd survived the storm, how it was still October 3rd at all, where the heck we even were, why we couldn't get any responses from anyone in the US, or the Navy and Coast Guard, how the Texas was suddenly fully restored to operating condition, or why our watches and clocks, not to mention the sun, were frozen at 7:30am. Ted's statement seemed so far-fetched, but at the same time, we had no other answers, so we rolled with it for the time being.

Soon enough, we all reached the deck with the 5in guns. There were 6 of them on the Texas in total; 3 on each side. These guns were unique, as they weren't in a turret, nor were they controlled electronically. Just like the AA guns that we'd just worked with, the Mark 8 5in guns also ran under manual operation, even though they had their own gun-director.

Since there were only 6 of them, they only needed a fraction of the almost 200 crew to operate, so while some of us were still assigned to them, others were instructed to start heading towards the real prize, Texas's 5 main gun turrets, containing her 10 x 14in guns. After a number of rounds of rock, paper, scissors, as well as flipping coins, Adam and I stayed with the 1st 5in gun on the port side, while Dennis and Ted left to get orders from Dalton, and learn which 14in turret they would be helping with.

"What were the ranges on these things Pump?" Adam asked me while we were loading the gun with ammunition that had been brought up from one of the 5in shell magazines with the aid of a few other crewmen.

I winced, but put up with my unfortunate nickname. "Just 'David' will do Adam, or Pump if you insist. Anyway, if I recall correctly, Texas's 5in guns had an effective range of about 17,000 yards, and a maximum range of about 20,142 yards. That does fall short of the range of the 14in guns, but still, a 5in shell coming at you from that range? That's definitely nothing to sneeze at!"

Adam, as well as the other sailors agreed. "Yeah, no kidding Pump......David! I've seen pictures of craters caused by 5in shell impacts, and I would NOT like to be anywhere nearby when one came down!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" We soon unloaded the gun again after fully testing it (short of actually firing it), and the other 5 guns were given similar green lights from their gun crews. Now all that was left to be done was to test the main 14in guns, as well as the turrets that housed them.

"It's all coming together Captain!" Dalton informed Captain Bob over his radio. "The 5in guns are all good, and that only leaves us with the 14in guns, as well as their turrets. Once those are tested, then we can finally see where we stand on the engines."

"Ok, copy that CE. And the boys and I up here just tested the small radar scope on the bridge, and it works too. Still no other planes or ships, but it does work."

"That's good to know that it works Captain. And now the tests for the 14in guns!"

"Copy that CE!" Captain Bob then left the bridge again, and headed up to the flag platform on top of it, so that he could have the best view for watching the 14in gun tests.

Everyone was eagerly awaiting the outcome of the 14in gun tests. We all knew that they were going to work, but yet there was always that little bit of doubt in the backs of our minds. Thanks to keys provided by Dalton, and a few other engineers, the hatches on the backs of the undersides main gun turrets were opened, and while a few climbed inside (the interiors were actually VERY small and cramped, despite what they appear on the outside), others inspected the exterior of the turrets, as well as all of the machinery underneath them, including the lifts used to bring the powder bags, and the 14in shells up from their respective magazines. I was standing on top of Turret 2 checking the rubber skirts (the coverings where the guns go outside the turrets, or where the turret stops, and the guns continue outwards), as well as the turret's armored roof between the 2 rows of 3 Oerlikon cannons. As I was expecting, the skirts, while still slightly damp from the storm, were still in remarkably good condition, and seemed almost brand-new.

"The rubber skirts are looking good, and so does the actual armor on the turret. How do those gun caps look Dennis?"

He looked back at me from where he was sitting at the end of the left barrel of Turret 2. "Well, like I was hoping, the metal covers that they welded on are gone, and replaced with proper, removable gun caps. Yes, they're on right now, but they can easily be removed."

Around this same time, reports were coming from inside the turret that all systems were operational, all of the metal and Plexiglas barriers that had been used to keep guests out of all but the back of the turrets were gone, though it was still stuffy and hot inside. From below decks, reports were coming in from the area below the turrets, as well as the primary and secondary battery plotting rooms that everything was fully operational, and could be controlled. All 5 turrets, as well as all 10 x 14in guns were all ready to go, but now came the real tests; actually moving both the gun barrels, and the turrets themselves.

Everyone on the outside of the turrets all scrambled clear of the turrets, though those inside and underneath remained where they were, as they were needed to operate the turrets.

"Moving Turret 1!" Someone shouted. Then, after an alarm sounded, with a rumble, and the sound of greased metal moving, Turret 1 slowly began to rotate to the right 90 degrees, before coming to a stop, facing the starboard side of the ship.

"Moving Turret 2!"

"Moving Turret 3!"

Moving Turret 4!"

Moving Turret 5!" The other 4 turrets also began to move, and rotated 90 degrees to the right before coming to a stop, also facing the Texas's starboard side.

"All turrets, elevate the barrels up 20 degrees!" Dalton yelled over his radio.

"Gun barrels coming up Sir!" The barrels all then moved upwards 20 degrees. (The barrels are incapable of moving independently like on later battleships, and have to move as a pair).

After that, the barrels were lowered to their default positions, and all 5 turrets were then turned towards the port side of the ship. Once they stopped moving, there were more tests with the gun barrels, and once again, the turrets all performed as expected. They were even loaded and unloaded to perfection before being returned to their default positions; Turrets 1 and 2 facing towards the bow, and Turrets 3-5 facing towards the stern.

"Excellent work Boys! I'm proud of all of you!" Captain Bob commended us.

"Thank you Sir!"

"All gun turrets, and all of their components are fully operational Sir!" Dalton reported. "And after running a few more tests on the Kingfisher Seaplane, the engineers who inspected it, as well as the 2 pilots, have confirmed that the plane could be fired up and launched if we so desired, as well as being retrieved by the ship's cranes, and then locked back into place in her catapult on top of Turret 3. That's just about everything tested Sir. Now though comes the real test, and another important decision. Do we fire up Texas's engines and sail her back to Texas? Or do we let the tugs tow us back to Texas instead?"

"Would that be possible to do CE? I mean, I'd give the order to do it if we could. What's the status of the engines, and their controls in the engine rooms?"

"From what I've seen so far, the engines and their controls look good, but we'll have to look at them a bit more. I'll keep you posted Sir."

"Ok, roger that CE." Captain Bob then put down his radio. He then looked down at his watch, which was still stuck at 7:30am. He also looked out at the sun, which still hadn't moved from the position that it was in when he saw it earlier that morning. He'd heard what others had been saying about Time seeming to be at a complete standstill for some unknown reason, and he didn't know what to think. He tried to think logically, but yet, he didn't have a logical explanation either.

Down below in the Texas's engine rooms, Dalton and others were looking over the blueprints for the Texas's 2 massive triple-expansion engines. These engines themselves were among, if not the last known triple-expansion steam engines that still existed, and had been declared a National Engineering Landmark while the Texas was a museum in San Jacinto.

At this same time, others were looking at the engines themselves, as well as their control systems. All of them seemed to be in perfect condition, as well as in full working order.

Dalton was hoping that everything was going to be good, but he was still waiting on the word from the engineers that everything was good. Eventually, he got the answers that he was waiting for.

"The Port Engine Room looks good CE! Everything is where it's supposed to be, and is in good working order! "

"The Starboard Engine Room also looks good CE! I don't know how it's possible, but everything looks like it was just installed earlier this week, and is waiting for its first test-run!"

Other reports also came in that all barriers that used to keep guests out of certain areas, as well as keeping them from touching the controls, gauges and valve wheels were all gone, and no traces of them could be found.

"It's as if they were never even there Captain." Dalton reported. "The barriers and protectors are all gone."

"And is everything in both of the engine rooms all good to go?"

"Affirmative Captain! At your orders, we can get to work on firing up both engines, and then getting the ship moving again!"

"That's..........that's great news CE! And are the other engineers all ready down there?"

"We will be soon Sir. And what's the status of the 3 tugs? Are they still attached to the ship?"

"Yes, and as soon as everyone is back to their stations, I'll give the orders for the tugs to release their ropes from the Texas, and give us enough space to start moving if we do, but yet still be close enough to immediately assist if anything goes wrong."

"Ok, Roger that Captain. Just let me know when everything is ok up there."

"Roger that CE".

Once Captain Bob was done talking to Dalton, he switched frequencies, and got in contact with the captains of the North Star, Pelican, and Jupiter. He informed them of the situation, and they said that while it was risky, they said that they couldn't wait to see the Texas move under her own power for the first time since 1946.

"We've all got our cameras ready, so just give us the word, and we'll bring in our lines for the time being."

"Ok, roger that. I'll give you the word as soon as I hear from the guys I'm sending to the bollards to detach the lines."

"Ok, We'll wait Captain Bob."

Soon though, Bob heard from those that were sent to detach the lines. "We're ready to detach the lines Sir! Just give us the word!"

"You have it. Detach the Texas from the 3 tugs!"

"Roger that Sir!"

One by one, the lines that connected Texas to first the North Star, then the Jupiter, and then the Pelican were detached from the ship, and dropped into the water between the 4 vessels, before the crew of the tugs were given the order from their captains to haul the lines back in. After this, the 3 tugs pulled out, and moved to spots about 30 yards off to the side of the Texas so that she would have room to maneuver once she was moving. Once the tugs were clear, and everyone was at their stations, Captain Bob radioed down to Dalton again.

"The tugs are clear, and everyone is at their stations Dalton. Are you guys all ready down there?"

"Affirmative Captain! We're all ready down here! We're just waiting for the order."

"You have it CE. Fire up the engines!"

"Firing up the engines!"

There were some loud rumblings coming from deep within the Texas as steam was directed from the boilers to the engines. The engines were coming alive again, but Texas was still not moving yet.

"Why aren't we moving yet CE?" Captain Bob asked him.

"Well, we haven't been given the order yet Captain!"

"You have it CE. Get the Texas moving!"

"Negative Captain, we don't have it. By our engine-order indicators, the telegraph still says 'Stop'. We don't know which way the Texas is supposed to move, or how fast!"

Captain Bob could detect more than a hint of sarcasm in Dalton's voice, but he knew what he was referring to. Captain Bob then turned to Ted. "Ensign Walker?"

"Yes Sir?"

"All ahead Slow. We need to take this slowly at first."

Ted saluted. "Yes Sir!" He then grabbed the engine order telegraph, and moved the levers from "Stop", to "Slow Ahead". "All Ahead Slow Sir!"

Down in the engine rooms, the engine order telegraphs there moved from "Stop", to "Slow Ahead".

"All ahead Slow!" Dalton called to the other engineers, before moving the engine order telegraph to "Slow Ahead" to match what the bridge wanted.

"All Ahead Slow!" Other engineers called back.

They all then began to pull levers, flip switches, open valves, and watch gauges as the engines of the Texas slowly began to move. With a rumble, and a bit of a roar, as well as multiple releases of steam, the 2 mighty engines of the Texas came to life once again. A few sailors at the stern of the ship saw that the water above where the propellers were began to churn, and white foam was soon visible. Then, with a bit of a heave, the Texas began to move forwards under her own power.

"All ahead Slow Captain!" Dalton reported.

"Roger that CE!" Captain Bob then looked to Adam. "Lieutenant Price?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Chart our course to Galveston. I need the fastest route there."

"Charting a course now Sir." Adam then looked at his maps, and soon had a course charted. "Course charted Sir. We're still about 400 miles off the coast of Texas, and 50 miles north of where we make landfall is Galveston if we head there in a straight line. We need to turn to port about 85 degrees, and then we'll be pointing Northwest, and on course for the Texas coastline."

"Excellent work Lieutenant." Captain Bob then turned to Dennis, who was at the wheel at the time. "Ensign Weaver?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Hard to port about 85 degrees. We need to get to our new heading."

"Yes Sir. Hard to port!" He then began to turn the wheel to the left, and the Texas began to turn. Due to only having one large rudder, she didn't have a very small turning radius, and she wasn't going very fast at the time, but she was turning slowly to port. Once the ship reached the proper point, Dennis turned the wheel to the right to straighten the rudder out again, and the Texas began to move in a straight line again, followed closely by the 3 tugs. "We're on course now Sir!"

"Excellent! Hold her steady Ensign Weaver."

"Yes Sir."

"Ensign Gardner?"

I then looked at him. "Yes Sir?"

"Contact the 2 lookouts up in the mast. I want their status."

"Yes Sir." I then grabbed my own radio, and checked on the 2 lookouts. "Lookouts report everything nominal Captain. The sea is clear, the skies have a few clouds, and no ships or planes in sight visually. Should I check the radar scope here on the bridge?"

Captain Bob shook his head. "No need. I already checked it. You can watch from the bridge wings though to keep watch from there. Once we get closer to Texas, you can relieve Ensign Weaver at the wheel."

I saluted. "Yes Sir." I then stepped out of the bridge, and out onto the port-wide wing.

Once I was out there, and Captain Bob had checked with Dalton to make sure that everything was ok in the engine rooms, he instructed Ted to move the engine order telegraph from "Slow Ahead", to "Half". Once Texas had run for a while at half speed, Captain Bob told Ted to move the engine order telegraph to "Full Ahead". Soon, Texas's engines were running at full steam, pushing the ship slightly past her design speed of 19.72 knots (22.7mph), to 21 knots (24.16mph).

"21 knots Captain!" Dalton reported. "We've exceeded her design speed by about 1 1/4 knots!"

"That's great CE, though even at top speed, it'll still take about 16 hours to get to Galveston, and that's assuming that nothing goes wrong."

"Yeah, so let's pray that nothing goes wrong Captain."

"Yes, let's. Keep me informed CE."

"Yes Sir."

Captain Bob then put down his radio. On a hunch, he then looked down at his watch. To his surprise, the time was now 7:32am, meaning that Time had started moving again. "Well, at least Time is moving again." He thought to himself. "I don't know why it suddenly decided to start moving again, but I'm glad that it did. Now let's just hope that we can make it back to Galveston without any more issues." Captain Bob then went back to looking out of the porthole windows at the front of the bridge.

Author's Note

And, that was Chapter 2

So now the crew of the USS Texas, and the crews of the North Star, Pelican, and Jupiter are still alive and well, and have survived the storm. However, the USS Texas is now fully restored to operating condition, and all of her machinery, despite how old it is, looks like it was just made last week! And now that they have the ship fully running again, they're heading off on what they believe is the 400 miles to the coast of Texas, but the question is, is it? Are they still in the Gulf of Mexico like they believe that they are? Why are they unable to contact anyone in the US Navy, US Coast Guard, or anyone on the US Mainland? Why haven't they been able to see any ships or planes on their radars? And a better question, why did Time stand still for so long? Was the Universe waiting for the crew of the Texas to fully get the ship up and running again, or was it something else? And is Time back to normal again, or is it still running slow for some reason? When will there be actual Ponies in this story? And how will they react to the appearance of the USS Texas? And what could possibly happen next? Well, you know the drill, stay tuned and I'll tell you!

In the meantime, as always, comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story are always appreciated, and I'll see you all again in Chapter 3!

ScarFox out for now!