From Remy, the bad news came first. “The torpedo’s through our countermeasures. Range four and a half miles. It’s active, Jake. It has us.”
A hostile weapon’s icon appeared on the chart below Jake’s nose. He grabbed a stylus, dragged it between the torpedo and the Specter, and read the outcome. Death was seven minutes away.
Henri broke an uncomfortable silence. “Do you want to launch a noise-maker?”
“No. I want the torpedo to focus on the robots. Where the hell are they, Noah?”
“Still nothing.”
“Come on, Noah. We’re only three miles from the Indiana. Get it—”
“I’ve got it! I have a response from robot twelve. It acknowledges our access codes.”
Hope washed through Jake’s bones. “Kick it up to its maximum speed and send it straight towards our track.”
The young technician tapped buttons and the Specter’s sonar system blared. “Robot twelve acknowledges the order. It’s coming to our ordered course and making turns for eleven knots, its maximum speed.”
“Can you hear it?”
“Yes. High-speed screws from robot twelve.”
“Very well. Keep calling the other robot as backup.”
“I’ve got robot eight, sir. It acknowledges.”
“Send it towards our track at maximum speed, just like robot twelve.”
The young technician hesitated before answering. “Robot eight can’t reach us in time.”
“Send it anyway.”
Noah tapped icons, and the Specter’s sonar shrieked. “Robot eight is coming towards us at eleven knots, too.”
Jake tapped an icon to propel the icons on the chart into the future. The nearer UUV collided with the torpedo and the Specter simultaneously, leaving him dead. He cursed under his breath. “Shit.”
His rider leaned into his ear. “Those robots can actually make eleven and a half knots. See how they track.”
The Specter’s commander nodded. “That’s good to know.”
Henri appeared at the table and spoke softly in French. “Do you want to prepare to abandon ship?”
Jake scoffed. “You know that Commander Martin speaks French. That’s why he’s assigned to us.”
“I know. It’s just easier to speak my native language sometimes.”
“No. I think we’re going to make it.” Tapping the screen, Jake updated the speed of the robots. “If robot twelve’s really making eleven and a half knots, we’ll make it by five hundred yards.”
Five minutes later, the control room stank of fear, and the incoming torpedo’s seeker pinged through the Specter’s hull. The toad-head looked upward. “I heard robot twelve passing us.”
Jake verified the collision course with the UUV and the hostile weapon. “Very well, Antoine. Noah, keep robot twelve on its course and speed.”
“I’ll keep robot twelve on course and speed, tracking at eleven and a half knots.”
Thirty seconds later, the tactical chart showed the imminent merging of the robot and the torpedo. Jake rose to the balls of his feet, bent his knees, and grabbed handles on the central table. “Henri, pass the word to brace for impact!”
The French mechanic’s voice rang from loudspeakers, and a tense ten seconds ticked away.
Then, the boom and the shockwave hammered the control room, and Jake held as the Specter reeled.
Breakers tripped, and the room went dark until emergency lighting invoked dim red glows.
In the silence, Jake glanced around the space. “Is everyone okay?”
Calm murmurs and affirmations confirmed his sailors’ survival.
“Everyone check yourselves and the guy next to you to make sure you’re in one piece. Henri, get a status from Claude on the engine room, and gather reports from all spaces.”
“I’m on it, Jake.”
“Slow us to three knots. It’s time to regroup and find the Indiana.”
CHAPTER 10
A harsh tug yanked Commander Causey from a dreamless sleep. When his awareness found reality, he gasped. The sloped deck plates serving as his harsh mattress vibrated with the pulsating energy of the Indiana’s power plant. His neck ached from the poor head support of the rags he’d commandeered as a de facto pillow.
His second-in-command crouched by his side. “Sorry to wake you, captain. The divers have a visual on the Goliath.”
“Good. How far are they from the Goliath?”
“About five minutes, sir.”
“How long was I down?”
“An hour and a half, sir.”
As he rolled to his side, Causey felt his tight muscles protesting. “I could sleep for a day and a half.”
The executive officer surprised him with his initiative. “I could run things for another hour if you’d like. I don’t expect we’ll be connected to the Goliath until then.”
The Indiana’s commander teased himself with the proposal, but curiosity compelled him to his knees. “No, XO. I appreciate the offer, but I want to see this.” He rubbed his eyes, stood, and then tiptoed over sleeping sailors who covered the deck in the engine room’s middle level.
His second-in-command followed him. “If you want to freshen up, sir, the Cob set up makeshift heads outboard of the condensers in lower level.”
“You mean like outhouses?”
“More or less, sir. There’s some guys carrying buckets for disposal to work off punishments.”
Causey cringed. “I hope the sailors had a choice in this?”
“Yes, sir. Two guys were on their way to you for non-judicial punishment, and I was going to recommend half-pay for three months for each. They jumped at the chance to do this instead.”
“At least someone’s making lemonade out of lemons.”
“It’s not pretty, but there’s soap, towels, and toothpaste with flowing water.”
After an unpleasant visit to the provisional toilets, Causey toured the engine room. Sailors slept, read, chatted and gave their commanding officer silent glances of cautious optimism. But the looming awareness of hidden enemy submarines and their near misses with their torpedoes curtailed the morale.
When he arrived at the upper level’s aftermost reaches, his short sonar chief aimed his mustache at two technicians who listened through earmuffs and watched displays on laptops. “It’s gone quiet, captain, except for the Goliath maneuvering behind us.”
The update agreed with Causey’s expectations. Tactical updates from the Goliath through the underwater communications system had allayed his fears of the two explosions his sonar team had heard through their towed array system. “Don’t worry about the Goliath anymore. The divers have a visual on it. Just listen for threats.”
“We’re listening, sir, but the hydrophones don’t perform so well getting dragged through the mud.”
“There’s supposedly a competent sonar team on the Goliath, but their towed array’s hanging in the mud now, too. Stay alert and do your best. Any new messages?”
The sonar supervisor responded while checking a laptop equipped with the communications software. “No, sir. The Goliath’s last communication was to maintain course and speed and to send our divers to the bridge. There’s a magnetic induction communications system they’ve got staged for our divers which supposedly allows us to send data through the windows on our watertight doors.”
“Got it. Thanks chief.” Causey walked forward, greeting tired and concerned sailors with a confident smile until he reached the engine room’s door to the tunnel.