The Lotus Eaters

* * *

Bertin found himself floating, supported by an arm encircling his chest under his own arms. The two ends of his former command floated, points up, a few hundred meters away. Even as Bertin watched the bow section slipped under the waves.

'Who? What?' he asked, groggily.

'Chef Dupre,' came the answer from behind.

'How many got out?'

'Not many, mon capitaine. I see only a few heads bobbing in the water. I am taking you to one of the auto-inflating lifeboats.'

Automatically, Bertin corrected, 'We have no 'mon capitaines' in the navy. We have 'my God' and—'

'And 'my ass,' yes I know, sir,' Dupre finished.

D466 Portzmoguer, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

'All stop,' Casabianca ordered. 'Hard port rudder.' He, along with every man of the crew, was nudged in the direction of the bow and to the right, as power was cut to the propeller and the ship began a turn.

'Do you really think, Captain . . . ?' Mortain asked.

'I am betting, Lieutenant, that that supercavitator, having been fired from fairly deep, will be too far down . . .'

'She's passing underneath us,' sonar announced.

'The next few seconds will tell,' said Casabianca.

'And she's still going,' sonar amended.

The captain pointed at the weapons station.

'I am tracking, Captain. When she stops to ping . . .'

'Fire one Ulysses,' Casabianca said.

On the foredeck a boxy looking device, partitioned into six section, two of them empty, rotated to the bearing of the Balboan supercavitator. The box elevated to fifteen degree, then washed the deck with fire and smoke as its rocket took off, bearing a torpedo to intercept the other.

Casabianca watched the missile cum torpedo off, then turned his direction of view over the starboard bow where a brace of helicopters were dropping self-guiding torpedoes ahead of the known location of the enemy sub.

SdL 2, Orca, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

Quijana could read the forward screen as well as any man aboard. Orca now had not only two torpedoes in pursuit, another two had plonked in ahead and to either side.

I'd take some satisfaction in the knowledge that we took a lot a killing, he thought, except that in a few minutes I'm going to be too dead to feel anything. I do take some satisfaction in taking out two for one.

Hmmm. Confession time? Maybe so.

'Garcia?' he asked.

'Yes, skipper.'

'I've got to clear my soul on this. Pedraz booted me, I didn't jump. But I can't say I was sorry he did. I was relieved.'

The exec, Garcia, just nodded. Why not? Any man might feel the same.

'Goodbye, Miguel,' the XO said, right at the end.

SdL 1, Megalodon, Shimmering Sea, Terra Nova

Chu had the main screen focused in close on the unfolding drama. With all the torpedoes flying around the ocean, in some cases—the supercavitators—literally, it was the only way to distinguish.

About half those torpedoes fired so far had lost their prey to its uniquely stealthy characteristics. These searched the sea in spiral patterns, but too far away to be of much concern to Meg and her crew.

Hope surged for a moment as one of Orca's small defensive torpedoes took out one of its pursuers. It did so again as one of the Gallic torpedoes destroyed itself and another. Those three, however, were not enough. One of the shots dropped by helicopter found the small submarine, exploding so near the hull that Chu and company couldn't tell the difference between it and a contact hit. Another came in from the rear and likewise detonated. After that it was nothing but breakup noise as the remnants of the Orca plunged for the bottom of the ocean.

'Weapons, prepare two shots for the carrier,' Chu said, bitterness in his voice. 'Route the fire command to my chair.'

'Aye, sir.'