The Lotus Eaters

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.'