Abe Danilov experienced a feeling of warmth coursing through his body. It was a pleasant sensation and he attributed it to the fact that his hunt was over. The culmination of his efforts was the destruction of Imperator, which would be final in the next few moments. Lozak had run a picture-perfect attack… and now there were four torpedoes racing for the American submarine. There was still a chance that he would be home in time…
“Torpedoes in the water, Captain. They’re locked on. Four of them…” Imperator’s sonar officer shouted into the control room.
Snow let the defense stations take individual action. Decoys would already have been fired. They would be followed by the tiny ATMs. Anything that got through would still have to survive the laser.
“How’s your solution?” Imperator was turning to face her enemy.
“Target closing at three nine zero zero yards, broad on our beam now… she’s still picking up speed. We have a solution… just need to get the bow around faster so we have the right firing angle.”
“Engineering, give us all you’ve got. We’re not turning fast enough.” More than twelve hundred feet of submarine… more speed…
A voice from sonar pierced the control room. “Torpedoes are in a three-second ping interval… antitorpedo missiles deploying…” There was a pause and then, in a higher voice, sonar added, “That submarine is coming right at us at flank speed, Captain… following those torpedoes like they were dogs in heat… like he was going to ram us.”
Carol Petersen’s voice came over the speaker. “Captain, computer equipment room’s a mess. The main unit next door is okay, but it’s going to take more than an hour to cross-patch some of these cables just to get back in working order—”
Snow depressed the switch to cut her off. “Can it. Save it till we’re finished up here. We’re under attack.” He had no use for a computer now.
“Almost there,” the XO called out. He was peering over the weapons officer’s shoulder. “Another ten degrees and we’re clear to fire.”
“Still coming at us?” Snow yelled.
“No change… flank speed. He’s no more than a thousand yards behind his fish… ATMs are almost on top of them and… bing… scratch one fish… scratch two.”
“Ship is in position,” the XO called out.
“Match generated bearings and shoot!” Snow’s voice rose over the other sounds in the control room.
The weapons officer’s voice echoed Snow’s as each torpedo left the tubes. He counted them off, “One… two… standby three and four… Christ, right down the throat. He can’t be more than two thousand yards away… there’s hardly time for them to finish the enabling run and arm the way he’s closing.” There was a pause, then, “Three and four clear…”
“Right full rudder,” Snow called. “Six hundred feet — use a thirty-degree down angle.” It seemed the only choice if the Russian really intended to ram them… but it took so much longer to put twelve hundred feet of submarine into a steep dive. He could still catch the after section… possibly.
“All our torpedoes are running properly. Two of his got through the ATM barrage… too little time. Stand by lasers…” The weapons officer was ready to employ his last resort when he noticed the bow angle on Imperator. “We’re swinging away from him too fast. We can’t use the lasers, Captain.”
Oh, my God, Snow muttered to himself. Caesar would have picked that up! The lasers were trainable only on a limited azimuth. When he threw his rudder over, he’d forgotten that he was pulling his lasers away from the closing torpedoes. “Shift your rudder.” Caesar… Caesar would never have done that. Another shudder…
“Two Soviet fish at eight hundred yards… closing. I’ve got a wall of decoys out there… don’t know if it’s going to—” His voice was interrupted by an explosion close enough to shake the control room. “That’s one of them… second one’s through… coming right up our port quarter.”
Caesar and his systems had been designed to survive heavy casualties to the ship. It had been automatically assumed that Imperator could take a certain number of torpedoes, experience flooding and power loss, and still regain almost total capabilities within a reasonable amount of time. The computer contained residual backup systems to compensate for loss of ship’s power so that Caesar could go back on-line at the exact stage required.
Smoke damage affected only the external elements: instruments, display units, and the giant screen. The only casualty that could critically damage Caesar would be water, and Carol was more aware than ever of the water rising ever so slowly. She called for one of the damage control party to help her.
Together they covered the compartment inch by inch until the water source was located. Carol was the first to discover the tiny bubbles welling up from a crack in the bulkhead near the deck in one comer of the space. The sailor found the other, in the same location on the opposite end of the bulkhead. It was the same type of weld. Sometime during the construction of this compartment, there had been a welder who was having a bad day — he had made the same mistake twice. Now his error was endangering the heart of the ship — Caesar. But of even greater concern was the adjoining space, a void between the compartment and the hull. Somehow water was seeping through the hull into the ship from that last torpedo, enough to build pressure in the void and force water into the adjoining compartment.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the sailor explained. “I have to seal off this compartment again — just in case…” His voice trailed off. The just-in-case was the possibility of another torpedo exploding nearby. If the hull was weakened that much more, this space might also flood. It had to be sealed to protect the rest of the ship.
Carol understood immediately, but time was precious. Snow needed the computer. “That’s all right. After you seal it, let control know I’m still here.”
The harsh sound as the hatch was sealed from the outside sent a chill down her spine. Its resonance was transmitted by the metal, then magnified into a dirge as she noted the water lapping around her feet. Had the depth increased some more? Or perhaps there was no change from last time. Knock it off, she commanded herself silently — no time for such thoughts.
But it was hard to think of anything else as she went through the mechanical procedures that she knew she could complete if she were blind. The last she remembered before leaving the control room was that the Russian was closing — he would be shooting at them anytime. It could be minutes… maybe just seconds. The defense systems would have to be activated manually until she had Caesar back on-line.
There! She wasn’t imagining things. There was no water around her feet. But it was a short-lived reprieve, because she saw that it was now all in the forward section of the compartment. Of course… they were diving! But, at an angle like that, Imperator must be evading — a torpedo!
This time it was fear that mastered the tingling sensation running down her spine. How many torpedoes? She tried to remember the design of the Russian Alfa. Four — it had to be four! She thought she remembered that there were four tubes forward in the Alfa. To attack Imperator, Danilov would be insane not to use four torpedoes. She knew she must hurry. Snow needed Caesar so badly at this stage. The entire battle-station team in the control room was qualified to operate each of the defense mechanisms. But, she knew, one mistake — just one mistake — and Imperator could be hit. One torpedo wouldn’t be fatal to a ship of this magnitude… but she could imagine how—