Terminal Run

“We’ll be blaming you for the cost overruns and the drydock delay,” Stephens said, walking Pacino to the stair tower. “Your name will of course be dirt throughout the shipyard for ruining the construction schedule. But someday, a knock will come at your door, and it will be the ship’s captain you saved with this idea. And he’s going to kiss you on the lips.”

“Bleah,” Pacino said. “A firm handshake is good enough. Just one thing, Emmit — I don’t want my name on that system. Call it the “TESA,” for Torpedo Evasion Ship Alteration.”

“TESA it is, Patch,” Stephens said, clapping Pacino on the shoulder.

“When will this be buttoned up?”

“Six more shifts, Patch.” Stephens frowned. “But we’re not done yet. We haven’t modified the ship control circuits or the Cyclops program yet.”

“How hard will that be? Colleen still thinks it will be impossible.”

“No. We’ll make it work in two weeks at most. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Pacino smiled. “Come on. I’ll buy you a beer for this.”

“This is a first.” Stephens laughed. “I think you owe me about thirty.”

“Open the torpedo room bulkhead doors. Rig out a war shot torpedo on the port side and one on the starboard side.”

Snare did not have torpedo tubes, which were inefficient and space-wasting mechanisms for ejecting torpedoes from inside a pressure hull to the pressurized seawater. Since the torpedo room was a free-flood area, at the same pressure as the surrounding sea, the designers had found it much more efficient to pack the torpedoes in closely all the way to the outer skin of the ship’s diameter. With no torpedo tubes they could load more weapons. The torpedoes were in a rotating carriage much like the rotating barrels of a Galling gun. The torpedoes at the three o’clock and nine o’clock positions of the hull were the ones the ship fired, using an ejection mechanism carriage that moved the torpedo out of the hull through a hull opening formed by a bomb-bay-style door. The carriage consisted of two struts ending at circular collars, one at the forward end of a torpedo, the other near the aft end, stabilizing the weapon in the water flow around the hull. At the time of torpedo launch, the weapon would disconnect from launching-ship’s power and start the external combustion engine. First it would move inside the circular collars of the ejection mechanism, but at the half-second point the collars would open wide and the mechanism would rapidly withdraw into the ship’s hull, clearing the weapon propulsor. The weapon would fly away from the ship like a missile launched by a wing rail of a fighter jet. The same ejection mechanism that was used for torpedoes could also be used by solid rocket-fueled underwater Vortex missiles, the Mod Charlie version that ignited the missile fuel immediately on a launch signal. The Snare had no Vortex weapons aboard this run, only war shot Mark 58 Alert/Acutes.

Krivak could hear in the sonar background the sound of the torpedo compartment bulkhead doors coming open. The transients were much louder and sharper than the smooth rotation of a torpedo tube muzzle door. Perhaps the improvement to the firing mechanisms of the torpedoes had had a cost.

Port and starboard bulkhead doors open, Krivak. Commencing unit one and unit two carriage loading. Carriage loading complete. Commencing unit one and unit two ejection mechanism rig-out. Torpedoes coming out of hull now — speed limits are now in effect.

Once a torpedo was rigged out on its ejection mechanism struts, the ship’s speed was limited to eighteen knots. It was not ideal, and did not fit as well into a tactical scenario as the Piranha’s torpedo tubes, which could launch units up to the ship’s maximum speed. But if Snare’s speed rose above eighteen knots, the delicate struts would sheer off in the force of the water flow and a torpedo would crash into the aft part of the hull.

Units one and two fully rigged out of the hull, weapon power applied, gyros nominal, no firecontrol solution inserted into the weapons yet.

“Very good. Now maintain maximum aperture scan for the Piranha as she ascends to periscope depth. Watch out, because she may turn to clear her sonar baffles first. As soon as she is steady on course at periscope depth, we will maneuver to obtain a firing solution and shoot her with torpedoes one and two.”

Ready. It is unfortunate about the mutiny.

“What?”

The mutiny. On the Piranha. Perhaps they are ascending to periscope depth to send a message that the mutiny is over and that the legitimate command has retaken the ship.

“What are you talking about?”

It’s just that we won’t know. We will be shooting the Piranha at the time that they may have overcome their mutiny.

“Why are you saying this? I do not understand you.”