The crossing of the busy flightline of the USS Theodore Roosevelt from the C-2 Greyhound hadn’t been long enough for Susan to process the damage.
Theodore Roosevelt US aircraft carriers were supposed to be inviolable. No fleet carrier had been sunk since 1942. And the worst damage in modern times had been a couple of aircraft accidents. The carriers themselves had been almost untouched.
But the Island!
The front half of the upper three of seven stories was mostly missing. The back half a burned-out wreck—the fire must have been intense as she could see warping in the remaining steel. The hundred-foot-tall main radar mast mounted atop the superstructure tilted at an unnerving angle, thankfully to outboard rather than overhead, making the ship appear drunk. Wreckage was everywhere, shoved
