Beyond the Sea--An Event Group Thriller

by David L. Golemon

  “Ballast control, slow our ascent!”

  “Control boards have shorted out, Captain; we have no control.”

  Thorne knew he would never have the time to get an accurate fix on their target. The firing solution was being scrambled by their faster-than-normal climb toward the sky. He came to a quick decision.

  “Vertical tubes one and two, do we have a firing solution?” he asked his weapons station only eight feet away. He knew his torpedoes would be worthless at this high rate of ascent. It would now be up to his vertical launch system to send their Harpoon missile outward to avenge the death they would soon suffer from the hands of the Russian torpedoes. He had decided that Houston would kill the sub that killed it.

  “Fire solution is constant, Skipper!”

  “Torpedoes close aboard!”

  Houston was traveling straight up, a position the designers at General Dynamics Electric Boat Division had never intended. Thorne didn’t know if the speed of the vertical climb would tear the Harpoons to pieces even before they were fully ejected from their tubes.

  “Fire vertical tubes one and two!” Thorne ordered as he waited for the Russian weapons to impact his boat.

  “Firing vertical tubes one and two!” Came the answer. “Harpoons have left the tubes, running hot, straight, and normal.”

  Thorne knew that at least Houston would get in her death blow to the enemy just as they were sent to a watery grave themselves.

  “Conn, sonar, torpedoes have locked onto us, impact in five, four, three, two, one!”

  Thorne braced himself for the imminent death coming their way.

  Impact. There was a loud bang. Every man flinched, and even a few screamed out. Another hollow-sounding thung sounded throughout the boat. Houston shook and rattled as she was still speeding full bore toward the surface.

  “Conn, sonar, no warhead detonation,” came the call in a voice filled with excitement.

  Thorne realized what had happened. Houston was breaking a speed record in her uncontrolled nose-up ascent. As he looked at the speed on the readout, he saw they were at fifty-five knots and speeding up. They had risen so fast and closed the distance to their enemy at a speed so unheard of that the enemy weapons had not the time to arm themselves. The Russian torpedoes had slammed into Houston but disintegrated upon impact. No doubt they would find at least one big hole in her skin when and if they surfaced.

  “Oh, shit!” Thorne said as he studied the plot. Thorne looked also.

  “Hard right rudder, all back full!”

  Houston was heading directly at the enemy sub that had fired upon her, and Captain Thorne and XO Devers saw that their evasive orders would never be input before they surfaced right into their enemy.

  Houston was doomed. Her speed and nose-up attitude would send them directly into the bottom hull of the enemy.

  KIROV-CLASS BATTLE CRUISER SIMBIRSK

  Carl took a chance and opened fire from the fire directory two hundred feet up. He missed Salkukoff and cursed his hurried aim.

  Suddenly, gunfire erupted from several locations as Her Majesty’s Royal Marines came out of hiding.

  It was amazing how military men the world over knew exactly when to act. Upon seeing Collins and Farbeaux about to be executed along with the remaining Russian sailors, everyone in hiding broke cover to assist. Bullets were heading in all directions.

  Jack reacted without thinking as he leg-whipped the Russian colonel, sending him to the deck. Collins quickly elbowed the colonel and then reached for his fallen weapon. Henri also brought down another of the confused commandos as he ran by. He fell on the man’s back and then slammed his head face-first into the deck, successfully relieving him of his AK-47. The small battle was over in less than thirty seconds.

  Jack stood and then started kicking Salkukoff until the man rose to his feet. He smiled at Jack as he moved his right hand toward the radio and hit the transmit switch three times in quick succession. Collins quickly reached out and took the radio and tossed it overboard.

  “Too late, Colonel—we will all be dead in less than thirty seconds.”

  “What did you do, you maniac?” Henri asked angrily as he unceremoniously popped the Russian in the belly, making him bow from the pain. The Russian started to laugh.

  “Thirty seconds is all it takes for a torpedo to cover the short distance to Simbirsk.” He laughed even harder as he straightened up from Henri’s blow to his belly. “If we don’t go back home, none of us will.”

  Jack pulled the laughing Salkukoff toward the railing and shook him. Everett joined them after his hurried climb back to the main deck. The Royal Marines were shepherding the remaining commandos into a small group. They only had six of them left, as the rest had been dispatched nicely by Her Majesty’s forces.

  “Say good-bye to your friends and the Simbirsk, Colonel Collins, as I prepare to greet my own in that other place we all dream about.”

  Jack cursed their luck as he faced the enemy submarine as it readied to end their lives.

  Before anyone realized what was happening, a giant water slug broke the surface of the violet seas. The two Harpoon missiles rose three hundred feet into the darkening skies, and then the large weapons rolled over and dove straight down after shedding their outer protective casings. The impact struck the Rostov-on-Don dead center just aft of her sloped conning tower. The large 215-pound warheads of the two UGM-84 Harpoon missiles broke through the heavy steel plate of the submarine and detonated close by the vertical launch tubes with their missiles still inside. Ten other warheads along with the American missiles blew the Rostov-on-Don into two pieces. Water, steel, and other debris shot skyward.

  Jack and the others were again thrown from their feet as the amazing rescue of their lives decimated the enemy sub. Salkukoff was shocked to see the Rostov-on-Don disintegrate right before his eyes. Jack hurriedly stood as the wave created by the two halves of the Russian sub struck them. The Simbirsk rolled over, knocking everyone again from their feet. The destruction of Salkukoff’s main asset tossed the seas to the extreme.

  * * *

  In the lower spaces of Simbirsk, something else was reacting to the roll of the giant ship. Europa Jr. was monitoring the phase shift engine to keep it from ramping back up, but as the giant wave of destruction hit Simbirsk, the laptop was thrown from the table and smashed onto the deck. Her lights went out just as the phase shift capacitors began to ramp up. The phase shift engine was once more breathing.

  * * *

  As every man crowded around the railing to see what had just happened, another sight caught their attention. In the middle of the debris-filled spot where the Russian sub had vanished, the ocean shot straight into the air as the seas erupted. The sonar dome of the USS Houston broke the surface and rose into the sky. The black-hulled submarine looked as if it had been shot out of a cannon. She shot up until her weight and gravity brought her back. Houston’s bow slammed back into the sea, and another large wake slammed into the battle cruiser. The attack boat quickly settled into the remains of the Rostov-on-Don. All the world became silent until the eruption of cheers from the Russian sailors and British Marines drowned out the noise of the encroaching storm. Jack looked at Henri and Carl and shook his head.

  “I guess we have confirmation on Houston’s whereabouts. It looks like she came along for our little excursion.”

  Cheers erupted again as men saw the crew of Houston come into view as they took their stations on the upper conning tower.

  Jack smiled as he turned and faced Salkukoff and his look of utter bewilderment.

  “Looks like you weren’t the only ones to have a navy out here, huh?”

  “I … I … don’t understand.”

  “Welcome to the club, asshole; we never understand our luck either, but there you have it,” Carl said as he intentionally slapped Salkukoff on the back as hard as he could, sending the Russian colonel into the top rung of the railing. Then Carl leaned into Jack. “I’ll never, ever curse the submarine servi
ce again.”

  “I hear that, brother.”

  24

  Second Captain Dishlakov was the last crewman to be removed from Peter the Great. The amazing thing was the fact that he was escorted off and into a rubber Zodiac by none other than Captain Johnson. As Dishlakov dove feetfirst into the churning sea, it was Johnson who gave him his hand and assisted him into the last boat. The two men faced each other and, having no words to say, just shook hands.

  A tremendous explosion inside the sinking Peter the Great sent debris skyward. The great warship finally broke her back, and the stern section twisted to the right and started heading for the bottom of a sea so far from home that most of the survivors could not begin to fathom it.

  The Zodiac carrying the last of the Russian crew to depart watched helplessly as the magnificently raked bow of the missile cruiser rose high into the air just as the stern had done, and then slowly start sliding down to her watery grave. Second Captain Dishlakov watched his life vanish before him. Johnson placed a hand on the man’s shoulder as the Zodiac turned and sped away.

  As men assisted the survivors aboard the Simbirsk, all attention was now focused on saving USS Shiloh from suffering the same fate as Peter the Great. Her stern was a wreck. The Russian weaponry had managed to punch a hole near her engine spaces, and she was down at the fantail. Her crew was fighting gallantly to save their ship, but from Jack’s perspective, she was fighting a losing battle. Even with damage control crewmen from Houston assisting, Shiloh was going to lose that fight. Collins came to a conclusion that no one was going to like. He turned to Everett.

  “Swabby, we can’t take a chance that when we make the attempt to get home, Shiloh won’t break in two during the phase shift. She couldn’t stand the pounding. But you know more about what these cruisers are made up of more than I do. What do you think?”

  Carl assisted one of the crewmen from Peter the Great over the railing and then wiped sweat from his brow. He shook his head.

  “I say pile everyone on board Simbirsk and Houston and we get the hell out of here.”

  Jack concurred. He didn’t look forward to telling Captain Johnson that he was going to have to scuttle his ship. “Get on the horn and inform Captains Dishlakov, Johnson, and Thorne what the plan is.”

  Everett nodded and then went to deliver the worst news any commander could ever hear: abandon your efforts to save your ship.

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Charlie Ellenshaw as he stepped onto the deck of Simbirsk. He watched as Ellenshaw accepted the children saved from the island. Jenks was last to come aboard with the ten marines. He quietly thanked God that none of the landing team was lost. Not that Jenks and Charlie weren’t in trouble anyway, but that would wait for a better time. Jack approached, and Charlie held up a hand before the colonel could speak.

  “It was my idea, Colonel.”

  “Bullshit, Chuck. It was me,” Jenks countered.

  “No, sir, I take full responsibility,” said the lance corporal as he saluted Jack.

  Collins only shook his head. He then looked at the six frightened children crowded around Jenks. They were holding his legs as if to keep him from running away. Jack’s anger evaporated as quickly as it came on.

  “We’ll discuss this later. Jenks, I need you and Charlie to get below and monitor that phase shift equipment.” He looked around and saw the strange weather pattern that was rapidly developing. The heavy clouds were starting to circle in a most unfamiliar pattern. “And take this ass-hat with you,” he said as he lightly kicked at the man sitting at his feet. Salkukoff said nothing as he was lifted from his feet by two of the American marines. “Chain him up down there, because if anyone survives this thing, I want it to be him. I’m sure his testimony will be rather informative when we get back home.”

  “Personally, I think we should leave the bastard here with his fish-faced pirate friends,” Jenks said as he unceremoniously lifted Salkukoff from the deck. The children, with their natural instincts, moved away from Salkukoff and went to Charlie for their protection.

  “Charlie, get the children to the empty armory; that will provide them with the best protection when and if this thing goes off.”

  Charlie started herding the children away as Jenks pushed Salkukoff toward the hatchway. The Russian stopped and with manacled wrists shook off Jenks’s hold and turned and faced Jack.

  “Even if you manage to control the phase shift, do you think bringing me back in chains will do anything to stop our movement?”

  Jack smiled as he watched the caged rat before him. “We have some pretty dedicated people from both sides of the Atlantic that will do just that. These men are pretty good at exposing things. I guess we’ll just have to see how your countrymen feel about it when this whole thing goes public.” Jack turned away and then stopped and faced Salkukoff once more. “That is if your own sailors don’t string you up first.”

  Salkukoff was about to say something when he noticed the men of his own nation’s navy were staring at him. They had murderous eyes, and their intent was clear. Salkukoff decided to stay quiet. He was pulled into the hatchway by Jenks.

  “You know, someday our luck is going to run for cover the way we push it,” Ryan said as he joined Jack.

  “Commander, I think our luck ran out when we lost so many during Overlord. I think we’re due a break where luck is concerned.”

  “You have a point.”

  Farbeaux joined them, and Jack saw the pistol in Henri’s right hand. He charged the weapon as he fixed Collins with that glare that was quickly becoming famous. He could see that the Frenchman was ready to fulfill the task he had been given by the American president and the head of MI6.

  “I don’t know if you gentlemen have noticed, but we seem to have developed a rather strange weather pattern in the last half hour.”

  Jack and Ryan looked around them and saw that vapor was rising from the sea and going straight up into the air. Before Jack could comment, he got a call on his radio. It was Captain Thorne. Collins lifted his radio and then turned and saw Thorne atop the Houston’s conning tower.

  “Collins,” he said.

  “Colonel, we are picking up a rise in ambient water temperature. Electrostatic discharge is increasing. From your brief, these look like the same readings we got the last time that shipwreck started to speak.”

  Jack looked into the sky and saw that the rate of darkness was increasing. “As of right now, we believe the phase shift engine is disabled. We should know more in the next few minutes. Captain, is Houston capable of diving?”

  “Negative. We shot our wad just getting up here. Houston’s diving days are done for now.”

  “Captain, we need to get Houston tied down to Simbirsk. When this thing pops, it could crush your boat with her expanding wave of electromagnetic discharge.”

  “That doesn’t sound fun. I agree. We can’t take another shot like the first one. This time around she’ll just buckle.”

  “How many survivors can you take on from Peter the Great and Shiloh?”

  “Hell, we can fit two hundred if we have to. We’re not diving, and our fighting days are done. Too much damage to our systems. We can shove survivors into torpedo tubes if need be.”

  “Good. We’ll start transferring men over in the next few minutes. We can’t have everyone in one basket. No personnel above decks or near bulkheads when the phase shift happens.”

  “Roger, we’ll be here. Thorne out.”

  Jack lowered the radio and saw Captain Johnson approach. Everett was shaking his head as he brought up the rear.

  “Why did I just have to order my crew off Shiloh?” Johnson asked. “We can still save her.”

  “Captain, I appreciate your position. I know your ship is just as important to you as was Peter the Great to Second Captain Dishlakov, but she would never be able to stand the pounding of the shift. You’ll lose her. We already have a sub that can’t dive that may be blown apart by the power of this engine.”

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p; “But—”

  “Sorry, Captain, but this is my call. No more is to be risked.”

  “I have one request, Colonel Collins,” Dishlakov said, breaking into the objections by Johnson. Jack waited. “My men and I will take full responsibility, but we cannot allow that man to return with us.”

  “By ‘that man,’ I suppose you mean Salkukoff?”

  “Yes,” came the blunt and angry answer.

  “He’s needed back home, Captain.”

  Dishlakov was angered, but his objection was interrupted by Charlie as he broke from the hatchway. He was gesturing wildly as he ran toward the officers.

  “Get everyone below!”

  “Doc, calm down,” Carl said as he took hold of Ellenshaw.

  “Europa was smashed during the battle, and she’s not in control of the phase shift engine. The master chief says she’s about to blow her top. She’s getting ready to transition again.”

  “Damn it,” Jack said as he raised the radio and handed it to Johnson. “Order Shiloh abandoned, now.”

  Johnson saw the fear in the colonel’s eyes and accepted the radio and started giving orders. Then he handed the radio back, and he and Dishlakov ran to expedite the order themselves.

  “Captain Thorne, this thing is about to blast off, and we are nowhere near ready. Do you have a working torpedo?”

  “One and one only. We lost the ability to get air pressure into the tubes on our latest ascent. But yes, we do.”

  “As soon as the all clear is given, put one into Shiloh.”

  The silence from Thorne was long. Jack knew the captain was having a hard time coming to grips with scuttling the proud missile cruiser.

  “I wish you had given me any order but that one.” Again, silence for thirty seconds. “Will do. Awaiting signal.”

  A streak of lightning illuminated the darkening skies. As they watched, the clouds began circling at a much faster rate.

  “Jesus!” Ryan yelled as he quickly removed his hands from the steel railing. “Electricity is coursing through this ship.”

  “We don’t have the time we need,” Jack said as he faced Everett and Henri. “Get everyone belowdecks.” He raised the radio. “Plans have changed, Captain. Get your crew belowdecks and into the most protected areas you can. Captain Thorne, abort the plan; Shiloh has to ride out the storm.”