Piranha: Firing Point

“Very good.” Ko looked at his panel, noting the ship was slowing to fifteen clicks. That was slow enough that his first officer could raise the periscope without fear of shearing it off. “Mr. First, raise your scope.” “Aye, sir,” he said, then told the Second Captain to raise the mast. With a stroke on the panel Ko brought up the view out the periscope, on the main display on the right column.

“Twenty-five meters. Captain, ship’s angle flat.”

“Very good. Ship Control. Weapons,” Ko called! “Apply power to tubes 25 and 26, and open bowcap doors.”

“Aye, sir, 25 and 26 warming-up now.”

“Open bowcaps 25 and 26.”

“Opening now.”

“Enable number one and two Darkwing missile tubes for low-altitude, low-speed target.”

“Aye, sir,” from the weapons officer. Ko would target the chopper as soon as the number 25 torpedo was away, but he wanted the Darkwings ready in case the chopper detected him.

“Weapons Officer, program 25 for ultraquiet swimout mode, low-speed transit.”

“Aye, sir, programming now, bowcaps now open, 25 and 26.”

“Very good.”

The navigator spoke again, one hand on his headset.

“Sir, new ping, bearing 287, target AT-1.”

“Darkwings enabled, sir, missiles one and two,” the weapons officer called. ‘First, do you have an air search going? Train to 287.” ‘Yessir, on 287—” ‘Anything in high power?” ‘Not yet.” ‘Try high and ultrahigh power. Find that chopper.

Weps, status of 25?”

“Torpedo 25 is ready in all respects, sir, target bearing loaded in.” “Shoot 25.” “Second,” the weapons officer said, “shoot 25. Sir, tube 25 indicates weapon has cleared the tube in swimout mode.”

“Captain, bow camera indicates weapon 25 away,” the navigator said.

“Very good. First, the chopper?”

“I’ve got something. Captain. Very distant, just a jumping speck in ultrahigh power.”

“Keep on him. I want to try a laser-missile guide-in. Weps, program the Darkwing missile for a laser visual guide-in to the chopper.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Nav, torpedo 25 status?”

“Captain, 25 is running normal at bearing 274, on bearing to target WT-25.” “Keep on it,” Ko said. Calmly he reached down to the side of his seat and withdrew a thermos of tea. Pouring it into an insulated cup, he replaced the thermos and took a sip of the steaming brew.

“Chopper’s coming, sir,” Jinan Hsu reported from the periscope. The periscope display on Ko’s command console showed an image of a helicopter, the aircraft so distant that the power magnification caused it to jump around. Hadn’t these Japanese engineers figured out a way to stabilize that? Ko thought, annoyed.

“Very good. First. Keep on him until we launch the Darkwing. We’ll monitor the surface target WT-25 on sonar.” “Sir, the chopper is in range,” Jinan said. “I recommend we shoot it now, then confirm the hit on the Jones-class destroyer.”

“No, wait. If we shoot the Darkwing now, we can’t laser-guide it in. Just keep cool. First, he’s not going to hear us.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Torpedo running time, Weps?”

“Eight minutes, sir.”

“Nav, still have both the weapon and WT-25?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Nothing to do now but wait, gentlemen.”

Ko sipped his tea, watching his displays.

Robinson picked up the dipper and flew on another mile and a half. So far he’d detected nothing.

He was unaware that as the dipper sphere came out of the water, a Nagasaki torpedo had sailed into detection range. He flew within a half mile of it as he progressed farther east, sanitizing the area for the USS John Glenn.

Once he had put the dipper in, the screen immediately read something bearing west, behind him. He scanned the panel, disturbed, again missing his airman. Hurriedly he withdrew the dipper and flew back west toward the Glenn. He scanned the panel again, seeing that the frequency correlated to a highspeed water jet. It had to be a torpedo. The Glenn was under attack. He had to tell them, and the only way he could communicate with them was to fly close to the blown-out bridge and signal them to take evasive action.

The Glenn was about five miles astern, still plowing through the waves heading east. It took only three minutes to close the distance to the destroyer, and when he was only halfway there, the officer on the bridge got the message. He put the rudder over hard to the left, the ship turning hard, rolling far to starboard. The ship steadied on course north, hoping to confuse the incoming torpedo. The warning to the Glenn complete, Robinson turned back to the east to try to find where the torpedo had come from. The enemy sub must be far away, he thought, or else he would have heard it on the dipper.

He was a mile from the Glenn when he heard an explosion.

The shock wave tossed the helicopter as though it were a toy. Robinson fought for control, a sinking feeling grabbing his gut, and he almost didn’t want to look back.

The chopper came around, and in the sea a mile west, a ball of flame rose over what had once been the destroyer John Glenn. A white and orange and black mushroom cloud ascended slowly, flaming and burning.