Phoenix Sub Zero

Within three minutes the core was in the power range, the steam headers were warm, and Quzwini had begun spinning up the turbine generators. As soon as he brought the first electrical turbine onto the grid he shot orders at Kutaiba to secure the snorting operation. The diesel engine aft shut down, the absence of its reassuring roar making the ship unnaturally quiet. There was a clunking noise as he lowered the snort mast. Quzwini continued bringing the power module up, finally putting the propulsion turbine generators online.

He turned to Sharef.

“Sir, the plant is back, propulsion AC motor is ready.”

“Dead slow ahead, dive to 500 meters,” Sharef ordered.

He left his spot behind Quzwini and turned to al-Kunis in the sensor area. “Find the submarine as soon as you can.

Weapons officer, reapply power to the Nagasaki torpedoes in tubes one through five.”

* * *

Hillsworth shook his head as he held his headset’s earphone to his skull.

“Conn, Sonar, Target One has shut down, last bearing one three eight. I still have four units between bearings one three five and one four zero, all four in reattack mode. And sir, I’m getting diesel engine noises from astern, edge of the starboard baffles.”

In the control room Daminski stared at the firing panel.

The weapons that still had their wires connected had acquired on the target, gotten close enough to go to final warhead arming, then lost the target and gone into reattack. Not one detonation. And now sonar reported a loss of the target and a diesel engine noise from astern. From behind them.

Daminski turned to look at Kristman, ideas forming themselves in his mind, all of them colliding and sparking as they swooped through his head.

The torpedoes went into reattack close to the target. Both passive and active homers. Reattack. Couldn’t find the target. Target shuts down. Diesel engine startup from the baffles.

“Cut the wires tubes three and four, shut the outer doors, drain the tubes and reload one through four!” Daminski shouted to Hackle, his voice oddly loud, as if he had become half-deaf. “Helm, right five degrees rudder, all ahead one third!”

“What is it, sir?”

“Fucker fooled us with a god damned decoy, that’s what. That’s why the units kept going into reattack. They can’t get a proximity signal on a decoy. Now that asshole is snorkeling from his launch position — must have shut down his reactor to run silent and something went wrong, tripped a battery breaker. Hackle, get those torpedoes loaded and open the outer doors, tubes one and two. Helm, steady course one four five. Attention in the firecontrol team. The diesel engine is redesignated Target Two. Target One is a decoy and will be dropped from firecontrol. Give me a two-minute leg to Target Two before we maneuver, then we’ll shoot another salvo at him. Carry on.”

“Conn, Sonar,” Hillsworth’s voice shouted, “diesel engine transients designated Target Two have shut down. Loss of Target Two, last bearing, three one five.”

“Status of the tubes. Hackle!”

“Sir, we’ve drained down and are loading a Mark 50 into tube one now, it’ll be another three minutes before we’re connected and spun up.”

“Goddamn it. Get those fish loaded.”

Daminski was furious at himself for leaving the tubes unloaded.

It would take five minutes to warm up the weapon gyros and shoot them, if he had a firecontrol solution, which he didn’t with Target Two shutting down.

“Sonar, Conn, what’s the status of Target Two?”

“Still nothing, sir.”

“Son of a bitch.”

* * *

“Regained contact on the Coalition sub, Commodore. He’s maneuvering. Towed array range is crude but workable at eight kilometers. We have the target bearing and range set into the torpedoes in one through five.”

“Status of the weapons?” Sharef asked.

“Nagasaki torpedoes warmed up, bow caps open, target solution programmed, sir.”

Sharef nodded. “Shoot tubes one through five.”

“Firing one …”

The deck trembled with the power of the tube launch.

Four more times the deckplates vibrated. Finally, Ahmed thought, Sharef was fighting back.

“Tube launches complete, tubes two through five and seven,” al-Kunis reported. “All weapons running normally.”

“Ship control, turn to three four zero, ahead sixty percent, maintain depth 500 meters.”

“Yes sir, turning to three four zero, sixty percent.”

“Shut the bow caps on one through five, warm up six and seven and flood the tubes.”

Ahmed watched, approving.