“Interesting,” Guang Xi replied.
“I thought you might find it so.”
Until now the sub had been powered by a large electric cable that rose out of a rear hatch on the top of the sub and plugged into a distribution box on the side of the canal. As the generator onboard the sub came up to speed, an electrician’s mate began reading off the phase angle between the generator and the shore power. The phase angles had to match exactly for the sub to switch from external power to its own internal power system. If not exactly the same, switching the power system over could result in a huge electrical spike which would damage the equipment.
The Captain was standing next to Guang Xi on the small platform embedded within the top of the conning tower. The Captain was wearing head phones, listening to the ready state of his submarine.
“Stable at zero degrees,” the electrician’s mate reported. His voice came through the Captain’s headphones, but was audible also through a metallic speaker mounted in the platform area.
“Bring our generator on line and disconnect from shore power,” the Captain ordered.
“Under our own power,” the electrician’s mate reported.
“Disconnect from shore power,” the Captain ordered. He pointed to the sailor standing on the side of the canal, then waved his hand across his throat in a cutting gesture. The sailor standing next to the shore power distribution box pulled down the main lever on the box, disconnecting power from the heavy cable running into the sub. He pulled the plug and walked the cable across the metal walkway as another sailor fed the cable down into the rear hatch. A small crane lifted the metal walkway into the air and swung it over onto the side of the road next to the canal. The nylon mooring lines were unwound from the large cleats on the edge of the canal and tossed to the sailors for storage in sections under the top deck of the sub. With the lines properly stored the two remaining sailors climbed down the rear hatch and closed the hatch door.
The Captain checked forward and aft to make sure everything was clear of his sub.
“Five degrees left rudder, ahead dead slow,” he ordered.
Guang Xi watched as the sub slowly started to move forward, inching away from the side of the canal. As the sub came closer to the other side of the canal the Captain ordered, “Five degrees right rudder.” The sub’s course straightened out and the Captain ordered, “Zero degrees rudder.”
The sub moved slowly past several other subs tied to the right side of the canal. The tunnel opening gradually appeared in front of them as they approached the open sea. Finally the sub emerged from the tunnel into the harbor area east of Sanya. The city lights sparkled to the right and ships moved in various directions as the busy port continued its operations. A signal light flashed in short and longer pulses from a large freighter to their left.
“That’s our cover ship,” the Captain said. He picked up a long flashlight hanging from his belt and signaled back. The freighter slowly began to move to the left. As the sub came into alignment with the back of the freighter the Captain ordered, “Fifteen degrees left rudder, come to course 090 and prepare to dive.” The Captain extended his arm to the open hatch. “Time to get below.”
Guang Xi made his way down the ladder to the first landing and then down the second ladder into the control room with the Captain behind him. The Captain closed the hatch door and spun the wheel to engage the steel fingers that held the door closed. The crew was busy operating the controls, pushing buttons and checking lights and gauges. The Captain watched the main light board as lights turned from red to green. As the last light turned green the XO standing in the middle of the control room reported, “Green board, Sir, rigged for dive.”
“Very well,” the Captain replied, “Make your depth sixty feet.”
A warning horn sounded, letting everyone on the ship know it was about to dive. “Vent main ballast,” the XO said. Even through the thick Titanium hull, Guang Xi could hear the rush of air under pressure escaping the outer tanks and the water rushing in to take its place. The sub sank down into the water and stabilized at the requested sixty-foot depth.
“Raise periscope,” the Captain said.
A sailor operated a lever and the periscope rose from the hole in the round platform where the Captain stood. As the bottom of the periscope came to chest level the Captain lowered the handles of the periscope, put his eyes to the eyepiece and turned in a circle covering the full 360 degrees around the sub.
“Care to have a look?” the Captain asked Guang Xi. “This is the last chance to see the outer world until our mission is over.”
Guang Xi hopped up on the round platform, grabbed the handles and looked through the eyepiece. Toward the front was the rear end of the freighter. High up on its mast were a set of lights, red on the far left, green on the far right and a small white light low and in the center. He swung around in a slow circle with only darkness where the open sea beckoned. Behind them the lights of the city glittered and wavered as if saying good bye. Having seen enough, Guang Xi folded the handles of the periscope up and stepped back. The Captain nodded and the sailor shifted the lever and lowered the periscope back down into its storage well. The Captain checked his watch. “American satellite coverage will resume in fifteen minutes; time to make ourselves invisible. Make your depth 300 feet and bring us directly under the freighter,” the Captain ordered.
“Making depth 300 feet, directly under the freighter, Sir,” the XO answered.
“We will be under the freighter for the next day and a half until we reach deep water, then we can go deeper and increase our speed,” the Captain said.
Guang Xi seemed puzzled. “Isn’t deeper water denser? How can we go faster in denser water?”
“Cavitation,” the Captain answered. “When the prop turns too fast in the water it creates vacuum bubbles that make a lot of noise when they collapse. The denser the water, the faster we can turn the prop without creating cavitation. At a thousand feet down, we can run at 30 knots without cavitation.”
“Good,” Guang Xi replied. “The sooner we get there, the sooner I can punish America.”
CHAPTER 29
Vice Admiral Billingsly sighed as Rod Schneider tossed the new report on the desk.
“It’s active.”
Billingsly swore under his breath. He opened the folder, read briefly, and looked up at Schneider. “They’re only using a quarter of the antenna array?”
“Infra-red scan shows it took six hours to bring the generators and transmitters online, then they started transmitting on that quarter. More generators have come on line since that time. We are estimating the entire antenna array will be active within the next 18 hours.”
“Where is it being aimed?” Billingsly asked.
“Low pressure area 500 miles southwest of Los Angeles,” Schneider replied.
“They’re building a storm,” Billingsly replied.
“Of course they are. That’s what you do with that technology. You create and steer storms.”
“That’s not the only thing you can do. This antenna array is extremely dangerous technology. It’s unbalancing the power structure in the world.”
“Then we just have to make our facility bigger to rebalance that power,” Schneider replied.
“You don’t get it,” Billingsly said. “It took us six years just to get the funding approved for what we have. There isn’t going to be any more money unless it becomes a National Emergency.”
“Well, at some point that at least gives you one card you can play.”
“Yeah,” Billingsly replied, “but by then it’ll be too late.”
Fifteen minutes later he was updating the Secretary of Defense. “We have to do something to stop China!” Billingsly insisted. “We can’t let an irresponsible country like that have such a powerful weapon. We just can’t.”
“Unless you’ve come up with a way to stop them without leaving any trace that we were behind it, I just don’t see what we can do,” the Secretary said. “Look, I’m sympathetic to your position, but as I said, we’re not starting World War Three over this. If the Chinese use this technology to attack us, then maybe — and I mean maybe — I can get something through Congress. Until then, there’s nothing I can do.”
Billingsly looked down at the floor. “I’ve been wracking my brain for the last two months and asking every expert I know. There’s no way we can do this and leave no trace.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“Yeah,” Billingsly said quietly. “We’re sitting ducks.”
“Sometimes that’s the price you pay for being a superpower. You just have to sit there and take it.”