Attack of the Seawolf

The emergency blow system levers were thrown upward to the BLOW position, forcing ultra-high-pressure bottled air into the ballast tanks of the Seawolf, blowing them dry of sea water. At her already shallow depth, it took only a moment to blow the tanks dry, and the sudden increase in buoyancy forced the ship toward the surface, her nose rocketing upward.

A split second before Seawolfs sonar dome broached the sea, the depth charge from the Silex missile exploded directly astern of the ship.

BOHAI HAIXIA STRAIT

Aircraft Commander Chu HuaFeng watched as the Silex missile impacted the water, the splash still phosphorescent in the bay. He flew around in a circular pattern, waiting for orders to finish off the submarine, waiting for the Silex missile’s depth charge to explode.

He watched the spot of foam for signs that the depth charge had succeeded. In a way he hoped it would fail and give him the chance to put the submarine on the bottom. He glanced at his fuel gages, saw how little fuel he had left. As he looked back down to the bay he saw a black shape coming out of the dark water. For a moment he could not believe his eyes. Half a kilometer east of the depth-charge detonation, the American submarine had surfaced, either surrendering or damaged beyond the ability to stay submerged, he decided. As the water of the depth charge explosion rained back down into the bay and its spot of foam calmed, Chu flew his Yak toward the submarine, which now bobbed in the water, no longer underway, as if it had lost its engines.

USS SEAWOLF

The deck jumped with the explosion. The bank of fluorescent lights in the overhead flickered and went out. The firecontrol displays and sonar repeater monitor winked out, then the lights came back on, illuminating the room in a red glow.

“Weps, get your firecontrol back and hurry,” Pacino said.

“Conn, Sonar, loss of sonar. We’re reinitializing.”

“Get it back up. Chief,” Pacino ordered. Two firecontrol technicians scrambled to the outboard side of the attack center consoles and began typing into a console hidden from the conn platform. The screens of the firecontrol system came back for a moment, then winked out.

“We’re doing a cold start. Captain,” Feyley reported, frowning over the technicians.

“Chief of the Watch, any damage aft?”

“No, Captain, all nominal. We’re checking aux machinery now.” He held up a finger.

“Sir, some leakage in the auxiliary seawater piping to the diesel. Otherwise, we seem okay.”

The deck rocked gently in the waves of the bay.

The depth indicator showed the ship on the surface.

The speed indicator read zero.

“Turner, get to the bridge and open the clamshells,” Pacino ordered.

“We’ll send up a white sheet for you to wave and a walkie-talkie to transmit that we surrender—” “Sir, are you really going to do this?”

Morris stepped close to Pacino as he raised the number-two periscope and looked out toward the east, centering the periscope on the approaching Udaloy and Luda destroyers.

“Pacino, submerge this ship and get us out of here,” Morris said, removing his Beretta from its holster.

“If you actually surrender I swear I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

Pacino pulled his face from the periscope and looked at Turner.

“Get the hell up to the bridge and follow my orders,” he barked, and Turner went to the upper level carrying the white sheet and walkie-talkie the phone talker had handed him.

Pacino then looked over at Morris, put his face as close to Morris’ as he could with his hand still on the grips of the periscope.

“Morris, I still have one torpedo and two main engines.

Are you reading me?”

Jack Morris stared at Pacino for a moment, then holstered the pistol.

“Attention in the firecontrol team,” Pacino called from the periscope.

“We have the Udaloy destroyer, Target fourteen, and the Luda destroyer. Target fifteen, closing in on our position. I’m betting these guys are going to try to take us alive. Status of firecontrol?”

Feyley turned to Pacino.

“Firecontrol is nominal, cold start complete. I’m configuring the positions now and I’ll be ready in a minute.”

“Sonar, Captain, status of sonar?”

“Still working on it, sir.”

“Hurry up. XO, looks like we’ll be launching by periscope observation. You ready? Observation Target fourteen. Bearing mark, range mark, four divisions in high power. Observation Target fifteen, bearing mark, range mark, three-and-a-half divisions in high power.”

Pacino lowered the scope, waited for a minute, then raised the periscope again. This time the destroyers were very close. He called out another observation, then lowered the scope.

“Sir, we have a firing solution to both targets,” Keebes said.

“Stand by for torpedo attack. Target fourteen, tube eight,” Pacino said.

“Set the Mark 50 torpedo for shallow, low speed, direct-contact mode, active snake. Disable ACR and ASH interlocks. We will fire the unit as Target fourteen approaches, then submerge and head out of the bay.”

“Sir,” Keebes said slowly, “we only have one torpedo and there are two destroyers.”

“I know,” Pacino said.