But one day, two men in loud red shirts and white pants came to visit Edwards during his school lunch hour. They were football coaches from the University of Nebraska, and they cared little that he was the son of the decorated Colonel Nathan Edwards. They were more interested in his status as an All-Nebraska state linebacker. The choice was clear, and when it came time for him to make his decision he dashed the colonel’s hopes by choosing a football scholarship at the University of Nebraska over an appointment to the academy. He had high hopes and lots of potential. As a freshman he started in three games and racked up thirty-two unassisted tackles and one interception. Things were all set for him to start in his sophomore year and he was already entertaining thoughts of a pro career when all of his dreams came to an abrupt end. That summer he tore the ligaments in his left knee playing pick-up basketball with his college roommates. He attempted several tries at rehabilitation but his knee was never the same again. He had lost his cutting ability and, with it, his edge on the field. Too stubborn to quit, he remained on the team, but his moment in the spotlight had passed, and he never played another down in a regular season game. Depressed and bewildered as to what he would do with his life, he buried his head in the books. He chose mechanical engineering as a major and eventually ended up with decent marks. But his father’s recruiting efforts never ceased, and as Edwards’ meager bank account dwindled away, the colonel’s advice started making more and more sense.
Then one day during his senior year, a navy officer wearing a dapper navy blue double-breasted suit came to speak to his engineering class. He told of a life of adventure in submarines and about learning everything there is to know about nuclear power. More importantly, he promised hard cash, and lots of it. Any engineering student accepted into the program would receive a check for four thousand dollars. Edwards could not resist the temptation and signed up that afternoon. He saw it as a way to be successful and independent from his father at the same time. The colonel met the news with mixed emotions, but Edwards felt nothing but pride the day he donned the uniform of an ensign and headed off to nuclear power school. And now sixteen years later, as a thirty-eight-year-old commander, he was at the zenith of his naval career.
He had come a long way to be a submarine commander, he thought, as he glanced casually around the control room. It hadn’t been an easy road. There had been many pitfalls along the way. But quiet mornings like these seemed to make it all worth it.
The officer of the deck suddenly ceased his typing and pretended to have just noticed him. Alan Miller was a slightly balding and pudgy lieutenant commander, but he was also the ship’s weapons officer, and a very capable one at that. Having been on watch all night, Miller still wore his seagoing uniform, a longsleeved navy blue jumpsuit-like coverall. All submariners wore the same style uniform at sea, officers and enlisted alike. All officers, commissioned and noncommissioned, wore khaki belts while the enlisted sailors wore blue belts. The only items that identified Miller as a commissioned officer were his gold dolphins and his rank insignia, in contrast to the silver dolphin insignia worn by chief petty officers and enlisted men.
“Good morning, Captain,” Miller said with a broad smile and droopy eyes. “We’re almost home.” He looked tired. He had been on watch since midnight and probably up for the last twenty-four hours.
“Good morning, Weps. How close are we to the surfacing point?”
“We’re ahead of schedule, sir. At ten knots we’ll be there within the hour.” Miller’s eyes met Edwards’ momentarily, and then shifted nervously to the tactical viewing screen on the forward bulkhead. “We’re currently at one hundred and fifty feet. We’ve come shallow to check for surface contacts. So far, all contacts are well outside twenty thousand yards. Nothing but the usual fishing and merchant traffic out there.”
Edwards knew that during the night Miller had probably exceeded the speed called out in his night orders. He would have had to for Providence to arrive ahead of schedule. But who could blame him? They all wanted to get home. Six months was too long to be away. The long deployments never really bothered Edwards, but during his extensive naval career he had learned to respect the feelings of those under him who had families waiting back home.
“Good. Maybe we’ll have a smooth run on the surface then,” Edwards said, deciding not to question the early arrival. Miller had been known to exercise his own initiative on a few too many occasions, but he was a good department head. As the head of the weapons department he had more than demonstrated his abilities to keep his men trained and well supplied during the months on station in the Red Sea. He ran a tight department and left very little for Edwards to manage, which was the way Edwards liked it.
“There is something else, Captain,” Miller said.
“What is it?”
“Last night, I gave permission to the engineering officer of the watch to cross connect the seawater cooling systems for maintenance on one of the heat exchangers. Your night orders stated that low level engineering maintenance was authorized, and so I saw no problems in conducting a simple procedure like that one.”
Edwards nodded, “Yes, go on.”
“A couple hours after I gave authorization I find out that one of the mechanics performing the maintenance operated a valve out of sequence, knocking out the whole auxiliary seawater system. It was only a temporary loss, very brief. The system was back up by the time I found out about it, so I thought to not wake you, sir.”
“Who was the watch officer in the engine room?”
Miller paused, “Ensign Yi, sir.”
Edwards knew the answer before he had asked. Ensign Yi had been having trouble of late. Of course, he was an ensign. And ensigns were prone to such things. Disasters followed them like a wake. But Yi, a very green junior officer who was still learning the ropes back in the engine room, was having an especially tough time of it. He was an anathema to the ship’s engineer, an excitable lieutenant commander named Aubrey Van Peenan, who had a reputation for being especially harsh on the junior officers in his department.
“The engineer has also been informed, sir,” Miller added with the slightest indication of a smirk on his face.
Edwards detected it and suddenly felt annoyed.
“In the future you will also inform me when such things happen, Mr. Miller. My night orders are quite clear on that point.”
Miller’s smirk evaporated. He hesitated for a moment as if he was about to dispute what was written in the night orders, and then obviously chose to exercise better judgment.
“Aye, Captain,” he said simply, then strode over to the chart table in the aft corner of the room to confer with the quartermaster.
Department heads were all alike, thought Edwards. They quietly celebrated when one of their rivals had problems, because deep underneath the open display of camaraderie they were all competing with each other. Every department head wanted to command his own boat someday, but with less than ninety submarines on the navy’s list and three eligible department heads on every boat, the odds were not in their favor. Only one out of every three would ascend to command. With competition that tight they had to be careful in everything they did. A few bad marks on an officer’s record, or even one, could sink all chances of ever reaching that coveted position. A department head had to want it. He had to be willing to make sacrifices. And, he had to be lucky.
Lately, the engineer’s luck had been running thin, and Edwards was growing concerned about him. The engineering department had failed a surprise inspection by the Department of Naval Reactors when Providence stopped in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, just before starting the journey home. The failure was a potential blow to the engineer’s career, and he hadn’t taken it very well. The man was naturally high-strung, but his anxiety since that day had been beyond anything Edwards had ever witnessed.