Terminal Run

Zhou selected his left screen to the broadband display, the central screen to the narrowband frequency buckets, even though five minutes was not enough to integrate narrowband on one sector, they might get lucky. On the right panel he displayed the transient analyzer, a computer module that listened to the short-duration noises in the sea, and trained to recognize the sound of a slammed hatch or dropped wrench or the stomp of boots, and able to discriminate between those sounds and the click of shrimp or the blowhole venting of a whale.

After thirty seconds slow Zhou knew the sea was empty. There was nothing on broadband. The narrowband search would only hold meaning after it had percolated for the full five minutes, but the key was the transient display, which was empty. Zhou ground out his cigarette and pulled out another. While he lit it, the transient display blinked, an odd, full throated noise out there that suddenly died away.

“Deck Officer, Sonar,” the speaker rasped.

“Deck Officer,” Zhou said to his microphone.

“Sir, distant transient received, bearing one seven three, to the south just to the left of our track. Transient is unrecognized by the system.”

“Deck Officer, well received,” Zhou said, donning a headset and ordering his console to replay the transient. It was not much more than a whooshing sound that died quickly.

“Deck Officer, Sonar, no correlation on that bearing to broadband contact or narrowband bucket. Transient probable designation is biologies.”

“Deck, well received,” Zhou said, puffing the cigarette, his eyes on the transient screen. It was almost a disappointment, Zhou thought. A whale venting at the surface, most likely, and the sonar gear wasn’t calibrated for that species. “Sonar, Deck Officer, is there any chance this could be mechanical?”

“A whoosh like that, sir? We don’t have bubble sounds and there is no sign of metal-to-metal contact in the frequency analyzer. Also no pulsing sounds, so this is not a pump.”

“Any other activity at that bearing?”

“Nothing, sir. The sea is empty. I am calling it biologies.”

Zhou nodded to himself. “Keep the trace in the memory, and record latitude and longitude and time.”

“Sonar, well received.”

Zhou glanced at the intercom phone to the captain’s stateroom. By Lien’s standing orders, an unknown transient had to be reported. He considered the option of advising the captain when he woke, but decided against it. Zhou hoisted the phone to his ear and buzzed the captain. It took several minutes for Lien Hua to answer, and when he did, his words were slurred and faint.

“Captain, Deck Officer, reporting an unidentified transient.” Zhou Ping made a concise report, leaving out nothing.

“What is your recommendation?” Captain Lien asked sleepily. “Catalog the noise and continue, sir,” Zhou replied.

“Very good. Make it so,” Lien yawned. “And change my wake-up call to eight bells of the morning watch.”

“Well received, Captain.” Zhou hung up and yawned.

The chronometer’s needle passed the five-minute mark. It was time to speed back up, or else they would be overrun by the convoy, and if sonar reception was bad with them twenty miles astern, he couldn’t imagine the racket they would make ten miles closer.

“Helm Officer, ahead full speed.”

The ship sped back up to fifty percent power, surging back to her thirty-eight-knot transit speed, on the way to the Strait of Formosa. Zhou pulled out the cigarette pack and lit his last one for the night, yawning again and rubbing his eyes, waiting for the watch to end so he could get a few hours of sleep.

The Alert/Acute designation for the Mark 58 torpedo stood for Extreme Long Range Torpedo/ Ultra Quiet Torpedo, the acronym initially ELRT/UQT, but as early as the initial design stages, the DynaCorp defense contractor’s personnel had nicknamed it Alert/Acute and the name had stuck, even formalized in the technical manual. The Alert/Acute units launched from the tubes of the submarine Leopard had all detected their surface ship targets within minutes of each other, then sped up to attack velocity, a roaring fifty-nine knots.

The surface force was never warned of the attack. The ships of the task force — including the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Kaoling, two Beijing-class battle cruisers three heavy cruise missile destroyers, four antisubmarine destroyers, five antiair destroyers, four fast frigates, and several oilers and support ships — steamed southward. The fleet commander and his staff and the commanding officers of the convoy were all asleep, the clocks all showing a few minutes past three in the morning.