Informal observations, such as the unit’s estimates of mission completion, estimates of unit survival, opinions of the mission, were considered just as relevant, and were also recorded into the Deck Log, differentiated somewhat from the official entries. The formal observations were recorded in machine language, other observations were written in more conventional if contracted Japanese. The dual memory traces comprised a complete record of the mission, and in the event of the loss of the ship could be useful in further development of the submarine-cybernetic system.
CHAPTER 21
NORTHWEST PACIFIC
The computer-driven, unmanned Destiny III-class Curtain of Flames rolled in the swells at mast-broach depth, watching the American task forces’ highest value target, the USS Ronald Reagan. The mission: sink the aircraft carrier.
The programming was simple — twelve Nagasaki torpedoes were to be targeted for the carrier. When they were launched, the Curtain of Flames was to ensure that the carrier sank; if it remained floating another six torpedoes would be launched, and would continue to be until the American ship was dead. The probability of the submarine’s mission being successful depended on the presence or absence of American submarines in the area, since the computer-driven submarine was not able to fight other submarines. The subroutines for sub versus sub actions were too complex to be uploaded into the mental processing suites of the Destiny III class. The programs were being worked on, but as yet Destiny Ills had continued to lose in exercises to Destiny II manned submarines. If the carrier were unescorted by American attack subs, the Curtain of Flames counted on surviving. If it were accompanied by a sub escort, all the Curtain of Flames could hope to do was get out all its torpedoes at the carrier prior to being attacked. Once engaged by an American submarine, it would be totally vulnerable.
SUV–III-987 CURTAIN OF FLAMES
OFFICIAL DECK LOG OF UNDERWAY MISSION NUMBER 118, COMMENCING 20 DECEMBER
MISSION 118
OFFICIAL DECK LOG
ENTRY 27:
Current position — thirty kilometers west of island Onaharajima, forty kilometers south of the mouth of Tokyo Bay. This unit is at mast-broach depth observing American aircraft carrier, hull number CVN-76, as it steams eastward. Task force now reduced to ships needed to protect carrier.
Other ships of task force split off to enforce blockade further around perimeter of Home Islands, the line the Americans have called exclusion zone boundary. This unit steaming at bare steerage way, five kilometers per hour, the periscope using low light enhancement to view the night steaming of carrier. Ships visible are carrier at bearing one one five, cruiser at bearing one two one, destroyer at bearing one zero eight.
Range to central ship, carrier based on periscope range marks at four kilometers. Carrier approach angle negative. The carrier is steaming away from this unit. Range can be made more accurate with use of laser periscope range. Will be done before launch of Nagasaki torpedoes nominated for carrier. To determine range now using laser range finder could give this unit away, and a destroyer would come and attack this unit. Not a satisfactory way to begin attack.
Orders received by this unit on the UHF antenna. JDA has ordered this unit attack task force with primary target identified as aircraft carrier. If aircraft carrier sinks, this unit authorized to use remaining torpedoes on the other ships of carrier task force. Other Destiny III-class submarines have been assigned those targets, so this unit will wait to see reaction of task group when coordinated attack begins. Coordinated attack to begin at time twenty-one thirty hours Tokyo time.
Event clock being reset for coordinated attack, now reading episode time minus four minutes. Time to apply power to torpedoes. Nagasaki large bore torpedoes in tubes one through twelve are warmed up, power applied to computer power supplies now. All twelve computers have satisfactorily turned on and now executing self checks. While self checks are in progress this unit is lowering periscope. Tubes being flooded so that outer doors can be opened. All twelve torpedoes report water in tubes is not causing power supply or signal feed shorts. All tubes report flooded.
This unit now risks noisiest maneuver, opening of outer doors of torpedo tubes. Outer tube doors coming open.
Unit risks look at task force. The periscope comes out of water. Water washes off lens. Unit sees task force, which continues steaming east away from this unit, range approximate at six kilometers. Not a problem. Nagasakis can run at 100 clicks, can pursue a wake for an hour putting effective range at 100 kilometers. This unit able to shoot using over the horizon targeting data from overhead Galaxy satellite. Odd thing that Americans have not shot down satellites.
The carrier looks different. It is turning to its right. It is coming around, to try to attack this unit? This unit watches, puts torpedo attack on hold as new course and speed of carrier are predicted. No torpedoes to be launched if target is wiggling or zig zagging, according to tactics files.
This unit lowers the periscope and checks status of torpedo tube outer doors. All now open, all torpedo units reading back nominal, self checks all back showing satisfactory units, gyros on all twelve units spinning at full revolutions.
At event time minus two minutes all torpedo fuel tanks are pressurized. At minus one minute fifty seconds gas generators on all tubes are armed, mechanical interlocks removed to allow tubes to fire torpedoes as soon as this unit’s software decides to shoot. Torpedoes now fully ready to fire. All that remains is to wait for event clock to come down to time zero and to ensure that carrier, the target, is on its new course so its position at future time can be calculated. The point is that torpedoes are not aimed at target. They are aimed at point in space where carrier will be in future when torpedoes and target occupy same space at same time.
Episode elapsed time minus one minute. This unit extends periscope and finds target steadied up on course southwest. Approach angle shows carrier approaching this unit. This unit watches and determines that carrier’s course remains steady. Weapon control unit is calculating torpedo launch courses and speeds and presenting to this unit’s upper functions for check. This unit reviews calculations. They are acceptable.
Episode elapsed time minus thirty seconds and this unit decides to confirm the range to the carrier with brief pulse of laser light. Light bounces back and shows carrier to be 6756 meters away. Light confirms weapon controller’s estimate of target speed.
Episode elapsed time minus ten seconds. Calculations to target are sent to each torpedo and locked in. Torpedoes know where they are going. They no longer need this unit. Signal and power feeds to units now disconnect. All twelve units now independent of this unit.
Episode elapsed time minus five seconds. Initial torpedo launch will commence with tube one’s gas generator ignition in three point five seconds. Tube two will be next after ten seconds, then three and so forth.
Episode elapsed time minus one second. Tube one’s gas generator ignition sequence is started. Gas generator lights off, pressure at aft end of tube rises to ten atmospheres, continues to rise, pressure pushes on aft end of torpedo. Fifteen atmospheres in tube, now eighteen. Pressure in tube declines hack to seawater pressure. Torpedo unit one is away.
USS RONALD REAGAN
Pacino found Admiral Donner on the bridge in his customary starboard wing V.I.P chair.
“Sir, you called.”
The ship was rigged for night wartime steaming, the nav lights out, the bridge lit only by two weak red lamps.
It was all Pacino could do to find Donner. The ship was also at full antisubmarine warfare alert, which Pacino found comical, since by itself the carrier was helpless against submarines. Only the ships of the task force could help her, and most of them had gone to the northeast or southwest to patrol the exclusion zone boundary, leaving the Ronald Reagan with a token force — the cruiser Port Royal, an AEGIS-class unit that was excellent at fighting incoming aircraft or missiles and adequate at antisubmarine warfare, the towed array sonar systems and her LAMPS helicopters the main mean
s of defense, and the destroyer John Paul Jones, the Arleigh Burke-class ship that was now refitted to handle its own LAMPS helicopter. Pacino noted that none of the helicopters was now flying. He would take that up with Donner.
It was also time to think about bringing one of the submarines back in close to act as their escort. In Pacino’s opinion, the carrier position was also too close to the islands.
“Have you heard about the Cheyenne?”
“Yes sir.”
“What do you make of it?”
“Officially, I can’t say until we can vector one other submarine to the area. I think it’s more important that the other sub, the Pasadena, be recalled to protect the carrier, even if it means leaving the Sea of Japan open for now.”
“You said officially. What do you think unofficially?”
“I think the Japanese MSDF subs put the Cheyenne on the bottom.”
“So the way you see this, you were right all along. The Japanese are fighting back.”
“Admiral, I don’t form opinions so that they will confirm my earlier predictions. I’m calling it the way I see it.”
“I’m sorry. Patch. I have to say that I agree with you. I’m just worried about Warner.”
“Why? What’s the president going to do?”
“If word gets out that we lost a submarine? In exchange for a tanker? We’ll be relieved the same day.”
“Sir,” a young lieutenant commander said, coming up to the admiral, “we’ve got a detect of a laser off the starboard beam. I’m calling battlestations.”
Before the admiral could respond, the officer of the deck’s call blared out over the ship’s circuit-one announcing system.
“MAN BATTLE STATIONS. MAN BATTLE STATIONS.”
The ship’s general alarm went off while Pacino and Donner moved to the center of the room.
“I’m laying below to ASW Control,” Donner said.
Pacino nodded, deciding to remain on the bridge.
Laser detect, Pacino thought. That meant a submarine was out there. A submarine that was not a friendly.
SUV–III-987 CURTAIN OF FLAMES
OFFICIAL DECK LOG OF UNDERWAY MISSION NUMBER 118, COMMENCING 20 DECEMBER
MISSION 118
OFFICIAL DECK LOG
ENTRY 28:
Current position — thirty kilometers west of island Onaharajima, forty kilometers south of the mouth of Tokyo Bay. This unit is at mast-broach depth observing the American aircraft carrier hull number CVN-76, as it steams southwest on a pace pattern.
Episode elapsed time is plus forty-five seconds. Tubes one, two, three, four have been fired. Torpedoes one through four are on their way to the aircraft carrier the target.
Episode elapsed time plus fifty seconds. Tube five is launched, the torpedo now away. This unit keeps the periscope up.
USS RONALD REAGAN
Pacino stood on the bridge feeling helpless. The men in ASWC, the combat-information center for antisubmarine warfare, would fight the ship, fight the task force.
He stood behind a row of video consoles and watched, the ASW Control scenes of little value to him but the sound being piped in telling him the story.
Paully White appeared.
“Admiral,” he said in his high-pitched voice, “I couldn’t find you. You weren’t in ASW Control or flag plots—”
“This is as good as ASW Control. We can get the audio feed.”
“They’d better launch the Vikings and the helos or we’re in deep shit,” Paully said.
“I think they’re setting up to do that now. Looks like we’re turning to the south so we can launch aircraft. And check out the Port Royal and the Jones. Their helos are taking off now.”
“All I can say is that those choppers should have been up a long time ago.”
“Ditto.”
“They don’t listen to me. Admiral. They just tell me where to put my submarines, your submarines, and ever since they sent Pasadena and Cheyenne to the other side of the world, I’m pretty much irrelevant. I told the captain he’d better get one of the subs back but he didn’t want to hear it. Same story you got from Donuts up here.”
“Careful, Paully. Admiral Donner isn’t fond of that moniker.”
White pulled out a cigarette. “Ah, he’s a sweetheart, he just don’t know dick about submarines.”
“I’d say that’s why—”
The audio feed from ASW Control grabbed Pacino’s attention.
“Did you hear that?”
“No, sir, what?”
“They called torpedo in the water.”
SUV–III-987 CURTAIN OF FLAMES
OFFICIAL DECK LOG OF UNDERWAY MISSION NUMBER 118, COMMENCING 20 DECEMBER
MISSION 118
OFFICIAL DECK LOG
ENTRY 29:
Current position — thirty kilometers west of island Onaharajima, forty kilometers south of the mouth of Tokyo Bay. This unit is at mast-broach depth observing the American aircraft carrier hull number CVN-76, as it steams southwest on a pace pattern.
Episode elapsed time is plus three minutes. All torpedoes are away. This unit is watching to see what the target will do. It looks as if target is turning toward the south, which would correlate with target understanding it is under attack since torpedoes are chasing it that way. But carrier steadies up on what looks like a course of due south, and if it knew the torpedoes were coming it would run to the southeast. Sonar bearings to the torpedoes indicate they are tracking the target in passive mode, following the carrier as it maneuvers based on the noise it is putting out into the water.
Episode elapsed time four minutes. First of twelve Nagasaki torpedoes detonates under carrier’s stern. The explosion, viewed at night, is spectacular, the ball of flame rises in large mushroom cloud above deck of the ship. Second torpedo hits twelve seconds later impact on starboard forward quarter. This explosion darker cloud, more water flying up. Third torpedo hits under ship’s control island on port side. Destroyer steaming with carrier erupts into flames, one of other unit’s torpedoes hitting it, or this unit’s with a torpedo drawn off course. This unit will count to confirm all twelve torpedoes hit carrier.
USS RONALD REAGAN
Pacino and White could only grab handholds after the first explosion rocked the ship, tossing White to the deck and Pacino into the radar console. After that they stayed away from the windows and held onto the handhold near the helmsman’s console.
“Have you still got power?” Pacino asked the officer of the deck.
“We’re slowing down.” He reached for a phone. Before it got to his ear the second torpedo exploded, forward and starboard. The ship lurched to starboard and rolled back to port. One of the bridge wing windows shattered, glass scattering onto the deck.
“We need to get to radio and see if we can get a message out to Warner—”
“Sir, it’s being taken care of,” the officer of the deck said.
The next torpedo exploded much closer, this detonation right under Pacino’s feet. He saw the aft bulkhead of the bridge coming at him in slow motion, tried to lift his hands to shield his face but wasn’t fast enough. The wall hit him in the nose, the room got dark, the sounds faded. For a fraction of a second, as Pacino sank into a dark place, he could hear alarms and shouting and glass shattering and the next explosion, but then he was slipping deeper down into a place of liquid warmth. It was almost peaceful and pleasant as the world vanished.
ARCTIC OCEAN, UNDER THE POLAR ICECAP
USS PIRANHA
The ship was now under the icepack, the groaning and creaking of the ice above, the knowledge that if they needed to come up in an emergency it would be impossible, the possibility of getting stuck between a shallow ocean bottom below and a deep raft of ice above. Navigation under the ice got steadily worse. The inertial nav systems had bugs that crept into the electronics, the system getting progressively more corrupt the longer it went without a fix from the navigation positioning satellite overhead. But there was no way to come to the su
rface to get the nav fix; the ice overhead was almost 200 feet thick. The charts here were spotty; only a few submarines had ever tried to make the passage from Atlantic to Pacific during the winter, and those that did were not in a hurry. From what Bruce Phillips had been able to read, the four ships that had made the passage all the way had had to turn around for several dead ends. The passage would consume time, and Phillips did not have time.
The BSY-2’s SHARKTOOTH under-ice sonar bleeped eerily in the corner of the room, the forward and upward-looking unit augmented by a sail-mounted camera to scan the icepack ahead in addition to a bow-mounted video unit. The ice was close here, within forty feet of the top of the sail. And the bottom was a mere fifteen fathoms under the keel. It would only take a small inverted ridge to catch the ship.
And without the ability to go to the surface above, Phillips had no idea what was going on with Operation Enlightened Curtain. For all he knew the operation was over. Or maybe Pacino needed him now, right now, and that thought sent a pulse of adrenaline into him.
“Offsa’deck, increase speed to standard.”
Joe Katoris, the main propulsion assistant, looked up from the forward-looking under-ice sonar, a scared look on his skinny face.
“But sir, we could overrun our sonar and visual. We can’t—”
“You’ll do fine, Katoris, now just increase speed. There are no state troopers down here.”
“Aye, aye, sir. Helm, all ahead standard.”
Phillips stood at the console behind Katoris, staring over his shoulder at the video displays, scanning the SHARKTOOTH sonar for ice rafts ahead. The ridge that came down ahead blocked the way. The sonar showed it just before the bow-mounted video camera picked it up. Katoris’s eyes were wide as he froze.
“Helm, back full!” Phillips shouted, feeling the deck tremble beneath his feet, the ridge ahead still looming in the sonar and video screens.
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