The explanation was simplicity itself. Shirley was the only person on "Sundowner" who had been involved in multiple ship actions. Her discussions on t...e mind sets necessary, the preparation of individuals and of vessels, the pre-planning and exercising were detailed and thorough. Her descriptions of the chaos of battle made evident the importance of training and procedures to keep units functioning coherently despite the total breakdown of plans.Shirley stressed the importance of the CIC team. “I know. I talked to them this morning. We missed everyone at Thanksgiving,” I added.Kelly nodded. “I took your advice on keeping my distance, and am glad I did, ‘oh mighty king’,” she said.I shook my head.“Chrissy,” Kelly said to change the conversation once again, “How long are you sticking around for? I thought you were training for Mars once again.”Chrissy smiled at me before answering. “We had a little scheduling delay, so it looks like our mission is pushed back a bit. I told Paul he. His daughter hugged his arm and was chattering to him.Megan looked out of the corner of her eyes at the woman. She sat. Her face crumpling. Tears glistened in her eyes. Megan heard the whispered “Goodbye my only love.” Taking in a deep breath she let it out forcefully then looked again at the man slowly moving away from her.“Oh Donald, I have it all ...power, money, recognition in a man’s world, but I know now, without you I have nothing, nothing at all.”Megan was surprised as Elizabeth. She answered.“The twins, Contessa.” Jeanne said on the other end. “They are fussing and not going to sleep. I believe they want to hear their mother’s voice.”Helen asked Jeanne to put the phone on speaker and set it next to the crib.“Hi, Little Loves.” Helen cooed to her sons. The crying stopped for a confused moment before resuming. “Mommy’s here. Well, she’s not ‘here’ here, but she’ll be with you soon. We’ve talked about how this is gonna happen sometimes; Mommy doesn’t like it any more than.