Phoenix Sub Zero

Schramford looked up from the aft sector of the conn, where he’d been peering over the tactical plot. “Captain, I think I can give you an extra six minutes. That would be an other four miles down the line, maybe enough to make this torpedo run on fumes.”

“Another six minutes, Eng? What’re you talking about?”

“We’ll take the core to the design limit, maybe further. I might get another couple thousand horsepower at the screw. We’ll overpower the core, take average temperature to 530 or 540, pick up the grid on the battery—”

“Don’t waste time telling me, for God’s sake,” Kane said.

He’d skipped the engineer tour, serving as a weapons officer and navigator, thinking of himself as more a tactician and a leader and a seaman than a technocrat, privately referring to all things related to the mysterious reactor plant as “neutron shit.”

“You’re the engineer, get back there. I relieve you of the deck. Get Houser up here to replace you.”

Schramford was gone, announcing that the captain had the deck and the conn. Kane now thought about Daminski’s last message. The fleet commander would need to know that the enemy might be trying to break out into the Atlantic, and if the worst happened — the admiral would need to know.

“Get a slot buoy ready, XO. Copy this for coding into the buoy.”

Mcdonne spoke on his mike to radio, then looked up at Kane. “Addressee, cdmcnavforcemed. Priority, flash. Subject, contact report.” Mcdonne’s pen flashed over his clipboard.

“Message: “One, position approximate at—’ “

Mike Jensen, the navigator, spoke up from the port plotting table: “Two miles east of the narrows at Gibraltar.”

“Copy that, XO? “Two, USS Phoenix detected single incoming Nagasaki torpedo from the east at long range on faint broadband, no tonals. Estimated time of torpedo intercepting Phoenix, 2130 zulu. Am now attempting to outrun UIF weapon. Three, request ASW aircraft vectored to this position to ensure Destiny does not break out of Med enroute Atlantic. Four, due to suspicion that Destiny unit is westbound, intend to mine exit of Gibraltar with salvo of Mark 50 torpedoes in circular passive patterns, ceiling settings set to avoid damage to surface shipping. Five, Phoenix reports negative, repeat negative acoustic advantage against Destiny class. If we survive Nagasaki and if passive circle Mark 50s fail to hit Destiny, intend to clear datum for Faslane, Scotland and reload. Six, Commander D. Kane sends.’ Got it? Code it in, flood and launch.”

“Weapons officer, status of the Mark 50s in one and two?”

“Ready in all respects, sir,” Lieutenant Commander Chris Follicus intoned from the weapons-control panel at the end of the line of fire control consoles. Follicus, a chunky man with thick eyeglass lenses that made his eyes appear large and liquid, was sharp and quick, some would say glib. Kane had started to think of the weapons officer as something of a bullshit artist.

“Set both for medium-speed run to enable, passive low-speed circular search patterns, ceiling one five zero feet, search depth 400 feet, active homing on acquisition. Tube one unit will orbit 5,000 yards from launch at bearing zero eight five, tube two 10,500. And make tubes three and four ready in all respects.”

Kane waited for Follicus to make the presets, then climbed the steps to the conn platform.

“Attention in the firecontrol team,” Kane announced, two dozen pairs of eyes locking onto him. “We’re sprinting away from a torpedo launched by the Destiny submarine, but confidence is high that we can outrun this thing.” Right, he thought. Until it speeds up to seventy knots and cuts us to pieces. “While we’re running I intend to put out some weapons of our own. We don’t know where the Destiny is, except that it’s east of us in the Med’s western basin. I believe this torpedo shot is an attempt to get by us and break out into the Atlantic.” God knows why, he thought, and how would he prove it if asked by the admiral? He had no answer. “So to counter the Destiny’s outchop we’re going to fill the gap at Gibraltar with Mark 50 torpedoes set for circular searches. If he comes out while the Mark 50s are still alive he’ll get hurt bad. On the plots, I want the orbit points and shutdown times of these weapons plotted and kept up to date so we can plan the weapon deployment. That’s all, carry on.”