form of such a nightmare?
Jeffrey sighed. Ilse heard him and turned and made eye contact. She smiled, and this helped him feel better.
'Ilse,' he said, 'you've done so much already, do you want to grab some rack time maybe?'
'No,' she said, 'I better stay here in the CACC. You might need me.'
'Good, thanks,' Jeffrey said, stifling a yawn. 'Sorry, it's the hour, not the company.'
'That's okay,' Ilse said. 'How's your leg doing?'
'I can hardly bend it now, hurts like hell, but I feel fine otherwise. I think I bruised the kneecap when that first torpedo hit, back in the minefield.'
'Call the corpsman?' Ilse said.
'He has more important things to do,' Jeffrey said. 'That's why we can't just sit still near the bottom for a month and wait for the Boers to forget about us and go away. We need to get the badly injured to hospitals ASAP, Monaghan and the others.'
'Sure you don't have any symptoms of the bends yourself?' Ilse said, standing and looking at Jeffrey from up close. 'Brain stroke, lungs exploding, incoherent drooling?'
'Very funny,' Jeffrey said. He saw two crewmen glance at him and Ilse, then give each other meaningful looks.
'I'm heading aft for a sec,' Ilse said. 'Let me at least get you some Advil or something.'
'Okay,' Jeffrey said. 'And, Messenger of the Watch, put up a fresh pot of coffee, please. Ask the mess management chief to send around some sandwiches and hot oatmeal. We'll do crew breakfast at modified condition
ZEBRA. I don't know about you, Ilse, but suddenly I'm starving.' Ter Horst looked up from the navigation plotting table and sighed. 'Much as it pains me to admit it, Gunther, we can't be everywhere.'
'Concur, sir,' Van Gelder said. 'If I were the Americans, I think I'd head for the Prince Edward Fracture.'
'Indeed. Why?'
'Whatever their primary mission, they know we're now at maximum alert. They may have local stealthiness, but their presence has been made known. They've lost the initiative, and sooner or later they have to try to escape from our home waters. It seems to me the best way is to get to the tectonic spreading seam as fast as they can, avoid our ASW forces as much as possible. But from what we've seen so far, sir, Challenger is clever and aggressive. The Prince Edward Islands won't deter them. If anything, they'd head there as a double bluff.'
'I said to leave the puns to me, Number One. But I concur. I just wanted to hear you say it all out loud.'
'Yes, sir,' Van Gelder said.
'Very well,' ter Horst said, 'prepare another radio buoy, Flash Double Zed priority once more.'
Van Gelder took a message pad and pen. He'd tidy up the wording and then supervise encryption in the radio room.
Ter Horst cleared his throat. 'Message reads, `Continuing pursuit USS Challenger. Voortrekker will transit to choke point at north end Prince Edward Fracture. Prince Edward Island forces stand by in support but do not, repeat do not, engage submerged contacts unless requested specifically this vessel. Ter Horst sends'…Got all that, Number One?'
'Yes, Captain.'
'Pretoria can hardly disagree with us — they've no good way to communicate. They'd be foolish if they tried, and more the fools if they ignore me.'
'Concur strongly, Captain.'
'Very well. We'll do an end-around past Challenger, try to cut her off. Helm, steer one six five.'
'Steer one six five, aye aye, sir,' the helmsman said. 'Make your depth twenty-two hundred meters.' 'Make my depth twenty-two hundred meters, aye aye, sir.'
'Engage terrain-following cruise mode.'
'Engage terrain-following cruise mode, aye aye, sir.' 'We'll head south at top quiet speed,' ter Horst said. 'Helm, half ahead, thirty knots.'
'Half ahead, thirty knots, aye aye, sir…Turbine room answers steam throttles set for half ahead, making revs for thirty knots, sir.'
'Number One,' ter Horst said, 'once you see that message buoy off, you take the conn. I want to do a walk- around inspection of our running repairs, speak to the crew in small groups as well. Then I plan to take a nap…Have me awakened in four hours and I'll relieve you. Then you get some rest yourself. Gunther, you look tired.' 12 HOURS LATER
Jeffrey's head jerked upright and he realized he'd been dozing at his console, after hours of poring through the on-line sonar technical manuals. It all came down to who would have the better first-detection range, Challenger or Voortrekker. He'd hoped for inspiration somewhere in the circuit diagrams, but Jeffrey's muse had most cruelly abandoned him.
He noticed that Commodore Morse was standing in the aisle — that must have been what woke him.
Jeffrey rubbed his eyes and looked at Bell, who had the conn. 'Any contacts?'
'Nothing, sir,' Bell said. 'We thought it best to let you sleep.' Jeffrey glanced at a chronometer. He'd been out for forty minutes. 'Boy, do I need to take a leak.'
'So do I,' Morse said. The two men headed aft. 'I just finished visiting the wounded,' Morse said.
Jeffrey chided himself. 'One more thing I didn't think of.' Morse waved dismissively. 'The men all understand. You're working very shorthanded.'
'How's the captain?'
'The corpsman let me talk to him for just a minute. I told him you're doing a great job. He said he wasn't surprised.'
'I should stop in,' Jeffrey said as they entered the empty CO state-room.
'Don't,' Morse said. 'He's out again. His brain's swollen, you know. That's what a bad concussion is — tissue abraded against the inner skull ridges. Needs time for all his neurons to get back to normal. Total rest, so let him be.'
Jeffrey noticed that Wilson's family pictures were gone from his desk, presumably moved next door to be with him. Jeffrey deferred to Morse, who used the head first. When it was Jeffrey's turn, he glanced at himself in the mirror. He needed a shave and his cheeks looked pale and jowly. He wondered if that was fatigue, or middle age coming on early. He tried to imagine how he might look with a moustache. Where did that come from? he asked himself.
When he'd done his business, he and Morse lingered in the captain's quarters.
'How's Monaghan doing?' Jeffrey said.
Morse sighed. 'As well as can be expected, they told me. He regained consciousness for a little while, was actually communicating by Morse code using his eyelashes, since they have the respirator hooked up through his trachea.'
'That's clever,' Jeffrey said. 'Who thought of Morse code?'
'Monaghan did. Took the SEAL a minute to catch on. But then he went into a coma. His blood gases don't look very good. We need to get him proper care and quickly.'
'I know,' Jeffrey said. 'He has four kids.'
'The engineering staff used spare parts to jury-rig a shock gimbal for his litter, so at least he's protected from further mechanical stress.'
'Good,' Jeffrey said. 'Lieutenant Willey's initiative always has impressed me.'
'You'll be glad to learn Ilse's friend Otto is well cared for too. COB made the arrangements, in his role as your master-at-arms. Our fiendish EPW is under guard by at least two people at all times, one officer and one enlisted.'
'Just like an atom bomb,' Jeffrey said.
'He's trussed up nice and snug so he can't harm himself.'
'Where are they keeping him?' Jeffrey said.
'A storage compartment next to the goat locker,' Morse said. Jeffrey knew that meant the chiefs' office and berthing area. 'For a while,' Morse said, 'they had him on display in the enlisted mess.'
