SSN

    Make your depth one thousand feet." Mack followed this with, "Rig ship for depth charge."

    His plan was to let the countermeasures do their work while Cheyenne quietly ran away from the scene.

    Cheyenne reached flank speed, on course 085, and at one thousand feet, as the Russian torpedoes entered the baffles after the countermeasures. Sonar didn't hear Cheyenne's last two torpedoes as they entered their terminal homing modes.

    "Conn, sonar, two explosions in our baffles," But Mack couldn't slow yet, which meant he couldn't turn and determine the fate of the Akulas. There was also too much reverberation to get both direct path and bottom bounce information, so no range would be available anyway.

    A short while later, though, he knew he didn't have to turn. Sonar picked up the familiar implosions as external pressure vessels on the Russian SSNs imploded from their descent to the bottom of the northern Philippine Sea, five thousand fathoms below.

    Mack was satisfied. Seven more kills for Cheyenne, not counting the Hainan. That's what CTF 74 and CINC-PACFLT had wanted: more Akula kills. And they got two Kilo kills to boot.

    When they had run far enough that the enemy torpedoes should have run to exhaustion, the captain slowed and cleared Cheyenne's baffles to port after proceeding above the layer. Sonar reported no contact, so Mack secured from battle stations while Cheyenne took a course toward the shallow waters of the East China Sea. There Cheyenne would search the last sector around Taiwan. The TB-23 would remain deployed for the time being, at least until they started their approach to shallow water. Then the TB-16 would be deployed to the short stay.

    The atmosphere aboard Cheyenne was one of happiness, but the euphoria of victory was coupled with exhaustion. As the stress level in each man slowly sub-dHoH an unbelievable fatigue set in.

    That was the norm of submarining, when warriors returning home could sleep most of a day away. Those who did not have to continue at their watch stations crashed in their narrow bunks. There was time to sleep before they passed by the Ryukyu Islands; then it was back to being ready for anything. Even Mack finally crawled on top of his bunk, curling up to fit on the short bunk.

    The following day, as Cheyenne approached the time for coming shallow, sonar reported numerous merchant ship contacts, easily identified by their huge, slowly turning propellers. All were cavitating as if they were empty of cargo, riding high in the water.

    Mack wasn't about to be careless, however. The Japanese supertankers had drafts of over ninety feet. Cheyenne would be cautious on going to periscope depth. Biologies were once again hindering the sonar search. During one of his frequent visits to the sonar room, Mack reminded the sonar operators to conduct careful tonal searches on the bearings of the merchants and the biologies. The operators had already been doing this. They remembered the submarine they had found in the biologies of the South China Sea.

    The TB-16 towed array, having been earlier deployed in exchange for the TB-23, was ordered to short stay as Cheyenne ventured inside the one hundred fathom curve southeast of Taipei. Now at periscope depth, Mack sighted an interesting cluster of smoke over the horizon. There were four different sets of smoke patterns moving north. He ordered Cheyenne to track behind them at periscope depth in the shallow water.

    Hours later, with the sea bottom once again plummeting to over two thousand fathoms, sonar reported diesel lines on the bearings of the smoke being observed. Mack went deep to catch up for a visual, running at full for the next few hours until the water started to shoal again as they approached the one hundred fathom curve of the East China Sea. He knew the contacts could not be Akulas snorkeling, but if they were Kilos Mack wanted to know what was going on.

    Cheyenne got back to periscope depth in one hundred feet of water in time to see the four sources of the now-black smoke. Four Kilos were on the surface, on a course toward the Yellow Sea, the playing grounds of China's North Sea Fleet. Being on the surface, and apparently heading away from the battle zone of the last few days, they were no threat to Cheyenne, and Mack decided not to go after them.

    Cheyenne had done her part-for now, at least. Mack ordered the floating wire replaced. It had been flaked out in the control room, waiting to be installed.

    As the Kilos continued to the north, Mack watched them go, thinking about battles past and those yet to come. When they had steamed over the horizon, he had Cheyenne turned to the west, back toward her patrol area, and then on to Tsoying Naval Base and some well-deserved rest and recreation.

15. Special Delivery