Bernardo’s breathing was rapid. The young man leaned closer to the console.
“Petty Officer Keyland, did you read or hear about this?” Agazzi asked.
Keyland shook his head. “No, but every ‘why’ has an answer.”
“Maybe they weren’t torpedoes,” Gentron said.
Everyone looked at the young seaman manning the second UUV console.
“What do you mean?” MacPherson asked.
“What if the submarines never intended to fire on us, they just wanted to make sure we knew they could if they wanted? What if what we thought were torpedoes were no more than sophisticated practice or decoy torpedoes?”
“And what if they are still alive like Elvis…” MacPherson added.
“Don’t call me Elvis,” Keyland rebuked.
“This time I’m talking about the real Elvis,” MacPherson continued, waving the Leading Petty Officer off. “But what if Petty Officer Keyland is right? What if those torpedoes are out there waiting for us to relax our guard; then they’ll rev back up and hit us before we could do anything.”
Gentron shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense.”
“Why?” Keyland asked.
“The database said they were YU-6 torpedoes,” Bernardo said. “We couldn’t have done anything anyway if they had been live torpedoes. If they have gone quiet like Petty Officer Keyland offers, then what they’ve done is give us time to get UUVs and decoys out in front of them.”
“It also gives us time to mount a counterattack,” MacPher-son added.
Agazzi’s eyes widened. “Gentron’s right. While we’re sitting here arguing about what happened, we have to assume the worst case. Worst case is Petty Officer Keyland’s. Petty Officer MacPherson, how far away are we from having another UUV in the water?”
MacPherson looked at his console. “We can launch a second one in two minutes.”
“Tell Taylor that we are going to launch six more.”
“Six! Senior Chief, Gentron and I have never handled more than two. You want us to handle six?”
“I want eight. One for each torpedo. Now, get busy doing it.” He looked at Gentron. “Seaman Gentron, you’re doing a hell of a job, sailor.”
The man blushed. “Thanks.”
“Senior Chief, Combat?” Keyland asked.
“Calvins, you been passing this along to Combat?” Agazzi asked, looking at their youngest sailor who was encumbered inside the sound-powered telephone apparatus.
Calvins shook his head. “Didn’t know what to tell them other than we’d lost the torpedoes.”
Agazzi took a couple of steps to the right, his back to the consoles. He grabbed the rails of the ladder, and in three steps was at the upper level. He pushed the MC button for Combat, and in seconds was talking to the TAO, Commander Stapler.
“Captain, Admiral Holman is on secure voice, sir,” the First Class Operations Specialist said, handing the telephone to Garcia.
Garcia uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. He had been in the Captain’s chair in Combat since GQ had been sounded minutes ago. He had also asked himself about two minutes into it why the venerable hero of the Mediterranean hadn’t called to offer his advice.
“Hank, Admiral Holman here.”
For the next few minutes, the two men exchanged information on what was going on. With eight torpedoes heading toward Sea Base, when did they expect impact? It had been nearly fifteen minutes since they were detected. The two senior officers decided the torpedoes were fired too far away and most likely would run out of fuel before they arrived. Both knew they were trying to assure each other of a scenario neither believed.
Stapler ran over and tapped Garcia on the arm. “Captain! It’s important.”
“Wait one, Admiral.” He looked at Stapler and raised his eyebrows.
“Sonar reports the torpedoes have disappeared. They aren’t sure why.”
“All eight?”
“That’s what they said.”
“And the submarines?”
“They still have them. They are concerned—”
“Later, Commander; let me finish with the admiral.” “But—”
Garcia smiled, slid the handset back to his mouth. “Thanks, Commander Stapler.”
“But there’s more.”
Garcia waved him away. “Looks as if you are right, Admiral, once again. Sonar reports every one of the torpedoes has disappeared from the scope. They’ve lost them. They still have the submarines, but not the torpedoes.”
“Good. I have our two destroyers, USS Gearing and USS Stripling, launching their SH-36 helicopters along with torpedoes. Since they fired on us, the field is open. I want to put our forces in place to take them out. I don’t want them to close their range to us. How stupid can they have been to fire so far away?” Holman chuckled. “A Third World nation in a First World ocean.” “That’s good news, Admiral. I don’t know how Sea Base would survive eight torpedoes.”
“Hank, Sea Base wouldn’t survive a well-placed lone torpedo, much less eight.”
Agazzi hung up the handset. “Commander said they were going to remain at General Quarters for the time being. He wanted to know how far out the torpedoes were when they disappeared. Told him that passive sonar doesn’t give us that ability. He wanted to know why we don’t go active. Told him we didn’t have an active capability through all this metal floating around us.”
“I still think they were decoys. They were meant as a warning for us to stand clear of Taiwan,” Gentron said.
“It would be nice to know how we can be sure you’re right,” Keyland said.
“Second UUV in the water!” MacPherson announced. He leaned over to Gentron. “You got it?”
“Got it.”
“Where to, Senior Chief?”
“Give me the location of the first one again.”
“First UUV is heading toward the contact along bearing 225 degrees.”
“What’s your recommendation for this one?”
“I’d recommend,” MacPherson said, pausing. He bit his lower lip.
“I’d recommend sending this UUV against the target at
010,” Bernardo interrupted.
“Why?” Keyland asked.
“It’s going to be the easiest one to get the UUV against. Gentron is going to have to drive out the stern area of Sea Base, which is pointed in that direction. Plus both it and the contact at 080 are on the open-ocean side. To return to Mainland China, they have to cross our wake. That transit is going to be their most vulnerable.”
“But we are heading toward the two targets at 210 and 240 degrees,” Keyland argued.
“You mean Sea Base?” MacPherson asked, shaking his head. “We’re only doing eight or nine knots — that’s not like we’re going to run over them. We have a UUV traveling in that direction.”
“Only one?” Bernardo asked with slight sarcasm.
“Petty Officer Bernardo is right,” Agazzi said, surprising the young AN/SQR-25 operator, who was trying to figure out what he said that was right. Agazzi continued. “We only have two UUVs available for the next few minutes. Put one in each sector. If the UUVs don’t do anything else other than keep the contacts busy trying to avoid them while we work to get six more UUVs in the water, then it’s worth our time.”
“010 it is, Senior Chief,” Gentron said. “Plus, if we have to beat feet for the open ocean, those two stand in our way.” Quiet descended on the ASW Operations Center while everyone watched and waited as Seaman Gentron eased the UUV through the underwater maze of sea anchors and dipping sonars until it emerged free into the open ocean.
“I have UUV Two on course 010, Senior Chief,” Gentron announced.
“I still show four contacts remaining on same lines of bearings,” Bernardo added. “010, 080, 210, and 240.”
“I can answer your question now, Petty Officer Keyland,” Gentron offered.