Chu hadn't taken his eyes from the screen lately. He saw the Gallic submarine reappear as his target "Five" (because Meg, being under the layer, didn't have as clear a picture of the surface as Orca did.
"This shit has just gotten way too serious," was Chu's pronouncement. "Quijana," he whispered, "I think we've already proved our point. You can turn around and go home any time now."
Auletti said, "Sir, the Orca's stopped . . . or maybe just turned off its clicker. I think they must have heard the tubes being flooded."
Chu shook his head. "No, they didn't turn off their clicker. Quijana's the literal sort. His orders were to use his clicker continuously while moving under power. He'll do that right up to the point where it means self destruction . . . and maybe past that point. Maybe he'll be clever and stop for a bit.
"Continue on course for the Gallic battle group."
SdL Orca, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova
"All stop," Quijana ordered, as soon as he was informed that the Gallic submarine was arming itself. The clicker was electronically, although not mechanically, tied in to the drive system, to the extent that it would stop clicking if the jet pumps stopped, or increase or slow its rate of clicking if the sub's speed went up or down.
And now what? They're nuclear, with maybe two or three months rations aboard. I'm not; I can't replenish my air anything like that long; and we'd all starve long before he does. Fuck.
Garcia walked over to stand next to Quijana's command chair. "If it comes to it, skipper," the Exec whispered, "The bitch is already in line with our rear tubes. At this range"—the main screen indicated the Gallic sub was less than a kilometer astern—"she'd hardly know what hit her if we use the supercavitating torpedo we've got back there."
"Ten seconds is long enough to press a firing button," Quijana answered.
"Yes, sir," Garcia agreed. "Yes, sir, it is. But if the sub's destroyed, and there's no one to provide guidance to the torpedo, we've got a much better chance."
"You want to start a war, XO?"
"No, sir. But I don't want to die right now, either."
Neither do I, Quijana silently agreed. But . . ."I will press on with my Cazador mission, though I be the last man standing."
"Yes, sir," Garcia agreed. "We all went to the school, too."
"The thing that bugs me, Dario," Quijana said, "is that frog captain. Flooding tubes is not a minor step. Either he's got a crappy attitude or he's got orders to engage. I wish I knew which it was."
"Maybe not," Garcia answered. "Maybe we just make him nervous."
"We don't get nervous that easily," Quijana said.
"We aren't responsible for guarding a multi-billion drachma nuclear carrier either, skipper."
"I'm not sure that makes things any better." Quijana considered, and compromised. "Weapons, stand by to fire number fourteen at the Gaul. My command only."
"Aye, sir."
S806 Diamant, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova
"The enemy's stopped," the deck officer informed the captain. This was the first time that anyone aboard the Diamant had actually referred to the Balboan sub as "the enemy." It was, perhaps, an unfortunate choice of words.
The captain really didn't notice the word choice; he'd long since classified the Balboan as an enemy. He attached no particular emotion to the word.
For the rest of the bridge crew, however, the use of the word went through the men like an electronic shock. Not a one of them, no moreso the captain, had ever fired a shot in anger. To actually classify someone as "the enemy" was unheard of outside of a lecture room, a motion picture, or a history book. Indeed, the bureaucrats who actually ran the Tauran Union had a semi-official policy of not considering or permitting anyone to be considered an "enemy."
Tension on the bridge, already high, shot upward.
From a chest pocket the captain took out a handkerchief and began dobbing at the sweat building up around his neck, discoloring his uniform collar.
"What now, sir?" the deck officer asked.
"Now we wait. Once the fleet has passed out of range, I'll order our tubes unloaded and allow the Balboan to leave."
"And if he won't wait for that?"
The captain sighed. Yes, he'd long since classified the Balboan as an enemy, yet he still had no great desire to destroy that enemy.
"Pray he does," the captain said.
SdL Orca, Shimmering Sea
"We can't sit here forever," Quijana announced, folding the piece of paper on which his orders were written and sliding it into a pocket. "I'm going to try something."
"Skipper?" asked Aleman.
"Start letting the rubbers in the ballast tanks chill. We'll liquefy the ammonia and sink. As we sink I want to use the dive planes to glide."
"But our orders are to use the clicker when we move?"
Quijana smiled. "No, actually, our orders were to use the clicker whenever moving under engine power. We won't be . . . mostly . . . just enough jet to keep us gliding."
* * *
The process of boiling the ammonia to expand the "condom" to force water out of the tanks made a little noise, though less than a normal submarine made pumping air in or out. Chilling the ammonia, on the other hand, made virtually none, since the only process used was to cut the flow of power to the heating elements. This cut, they cooled. With them cooling, the ammonia naturally reverted to a liquid state. With that, the "condoms" collapsed under the water pressure, letting the tanks flood. The sub began to sink, in utter silence.
It began to pass through the thermal layer to the ocean level in which rode the Diamant. The Gallic sub took no notice. Continuing on downward, through the layer, the Orca twisted her dive planes in opposite direction and began to turn back in the direction from which it had come. Because it was natural to drive, fly or dive forward, it also moved closer to the Charlemagne, even as it made its very slow turn. As it did, just before it's turn became noticeable, one of its dive planes aligned at right angles, briefly, with the sonar from the hunting helicopter's sonobuoy.
S806 Diamant, Shimmering Sea
The captain's face went white and his eyes opened wide at the news from the underwater telephone. "Dear God, she's still closing on the carrier and we didn't hear a thing." The captain was torn with indecision. Still, he was by trade a hunter and a killer, even if that hunting and killing had, so far, been purely theoretical. His indecision lasted but a moment.
"Ping the enemy vessel now. Continuous. Weapons, as soon as you have a firing solution open fire. Kill that sub."
Under the sonar barrage of Diamant, closer to the same ocean level, very powerful, and much more discriminating, Orca stood out clearly.
"Target is found, captain," said sonar.
"Range and bearing to target entered."
Weapons was only a few moments slower in reporting, "Fire control. Firing solution is ready. Torpedoes are ready, one programmed to go direct, the other three to bracket the target and veer inward."
"All tubes in sequence: Shoot!"
"Unit One away. Running straight and normal. Good wire."
SdL Megalodon, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova
Charlemagne was just ahead, five kilometers. They couldn't hear it through the hull, not at this depth, but Auletti had it firm on the sonar. At the current speed of the carrier it would pass almost directly overhead within the next six minutes.