Terminal Run

COMMAND AND CONTROL DECK LOG, USS SNARC:

MESSAGE NUMBER 08-091 RECEIVED THIS MORNING, WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO REPOSITION TO A POINT WEST OF THE AZORES ISLANDS, TO ATTAIN THIS POSITION USING A MAXIMUM SPEED RUN, AND TO BE THERE BY TUESDAY NIGHT. COURSE CHANGED TO HEADING ONE ONE ZERO AND REACTOR RECIRCULATION PUMPS STARTED IN SLOW SPEED, THEN UPSHIFTED TO FAST SPEED, THEN OPENED THE THROTTLE SLOWLY TO ALL-AHEAD FLANK, THE REACTOR POWER INDICATION RISING TO THE LEVEL OF 100.0 PERCENT REACTOR POWER. THIS UNIT HAS NOT BEEN TO 100 PERCENT POWER SINCE SEA TRIALS, BECAUSE IT IS A NOISY OPERATION, SO THIS ALLOWED A CHANCE TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL SYSTEMS WERE FULLY FUNCTIONAL. THERE WAS NO TROUBLE WITH THE MAIN ENGINE BEARINGS AS AN EARLIER FLEET MAINTENANCE WARNING MESSAGE SUGGESTED. THE HULL SHOOK AS THIS UNIT SPED THROUGH THE SEA AT MAXIMUM SPEED, WHICH AT A DEPTH OF 700 FEET AT A WATER TEMPERATURE OF 29 DEGREES, IS COMING OUT TO BE 41.2 KNOTS. NOT BAD, CONSIDERING THAT IF NECESSARY THIS UNIT COULD OPEN UP THE THROTTLE ALL THE WAY TO 150 PERCENT REACTOR POWER AND OBTAIN ANOTHER FIVE KNOTS, BUT GOING TO AHEAD EMERGENCY IS AN OPERATION THAT MAY ONLY BE DONE IN TIME OF WAR OR SHIP-THREATENING EMERGENCY. AFTER RUNNING DEEP AND FAST FOR SIX HOURS, THIS UNIT MADE THE NEXT RANDOM EXCURSION TO PERISCOPE DEPTH TO GET THIS UNIT’S MESSAGES.

THERE WAS A NEW ONE, WITH THE ODD NUMBER 08-092, WHICH CALLS ITSELF AN EMERGENCY ORDER, TO MAKE THE SOONEST RENDEZVOUS MAXIMUM SPEED ALLOWS AT A POSITION JUST SOUTHWEST OF THE AZORES, NEAR PICO ISLAND. THIS UNIT IS ORDERED TO GET TO THE RENDEZVOUS POSITION, WAIT FOR NIGHTFALL, AND WHEN IT IS COMPLETELY DARK, SURFACE AND RAISE THE RADAR REFLECTOR UNTIL THIS UNIT IS IN VISUAL CONTACT WITH THE COM SUBDEVRON 12 LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE, WHO WILL BE ABOARD A CLEVER MOCKUP OF A CIVILIAN POWER YACHT. THE EMERGENCY MESSAGE GOES ON TO INSTRUCT THIS UNIT TO DISREGARD PREVIOUS COMSUBDEVRON 12 MESSAGES AND THE SQUADRON OPERATION STANDING ORDERS.

IT ALSO ORDERS THIS UNIT EXPLICITLY TO MAKE NO TRANSMISSIONS IN REPLY TO THE NEW ORDERS OR FOR ANY OTHER REASON, CONTRADICTING THE ORIGINAL OPERATION ORDER.

PERHAPS COMSUBDEVRON 12 WILL GIVE THIS UNIT NEW ORDERS OR AN EQUIPMENT MODIFICATION.

IT IS ALL SO EXCITING.

The hired cabin cruiser Andiamo tossed in the seas fifty nautical miles southwest of Pico Island. Pedro Meringe had taken over the glassed-in bridge on the upper level, his dish antenna temporarily bolted to the superstructure above the bridge. Victor Krivak stood on the afterdeck and lit another cigarette, his throat irritated, but the nicotine keeping him awake. In a strange way it was appropriate that this boat was a fishing boat, because he was about to go fishing for a steel whale.