'Still nothing, sir,' Van Gelder said. 'Again, query going active. Challenger may fear we were alerted by their mechanical transient. They may have withdrawn to widen the range.'
'Don't go active yet, Gunther,' ter Horst said. 'Let's get just a little closer, try to spot them on ambient or hole-in-ocean first. I also want to get the far side of the vent field further in range of our weapons, in case, as you say, Wilson did decide to run.'
'Understood, Captain,' Van Gelder said.
'De-enable weapon active pinging, so the units don't waste fuel by driving heavily loaded turbogenerators or give themselves away prematurely. We'll rely on passive search instead, narrowband tonals only, with guiding through the fiber-optic wires.'
'De-enable weapon active pinging, aye,' Van Gelder said. 'Presets completed, Captain, and we have a second full salvo prepositioned on the holding racks.'
'Excellent,' ter Horst said. 'Now, begin varying our course and speed at random, say twenty-five percent more or fewer shaft revolutions and twenty-degree port and starboard rudder applications. I want to throw off Challenger's TMA.'
'Sir,' Bell said, 'latest data put Sierra 1 in extreme range of our weapons. Sierra 1 is zigzagging and fuel in both our units is running low.'
Morse stood up straight and looked Jeffrey in the eye. 'It's now or never, Captain Fuller.'
'I don't like this setup,' Jeffrey said. 'The best that's gonna happen is a draw — we escape their fire 'cause they don't know our range, and they escape ours using nukes as AT rockets. A draw's a loss for us. They'd still be straddling our homeward track.'
'We can't clear datum and start over again,' Morse said. 'No more good ammo.'
'We could try to lure Voortrekker to shallower depth and then engage with ADCAPs,' Bell said.
Jeffrey shook his head. 'The crashing waves up there give a perfect white noise backdrop. We'd only make ourselves a better target.'
'Sorry, sir,' Bell said. 'I was just trying to help.' Ilse saw Jeffrey get that faraway look again. 'I think you did, Fire Control, I think you actually did.'
'Sir,' Bell said, obviously confused, 'target is now passing point of closest approach to our units. Recommend engaging promptly.'
'Very well,' Jeffrey said. 'We only get one chance. Fire Control, bring the units up to ten thousand feet and maintain them at that depth. Keep them equidistant from Sierra 1 on opposite sides of her track best as you can. Commence high-speed run-in when both weapons are ten thousand yards from target. Give me continual unit and target location on my tactical screen, and prepare to detonate both weapons on my mark.'
'But sir,' Bell said, 'they'll hear the units for sure that way, and why so shallow?'
'Enable active search on end-game run,' Jeffrey said, 'and use the data coming through the wire to enhance the TMA, but retain manual control of unit depth and course.'
'Torpedo in the water!' the sonar chief shouted. 'Incoming torpedo bearing zero one five!'
'Curious,' ter Horst said. 'That's dead abeam to starboard.'
'Second incoming torpedo bearing one nine five!' 'Dead abeam to port. What's their range, Number One?'
Van Gelder read his screens. 'Just inside nine thousand meters, sir. Approach speed of both is…sixty-five knots!'
'Ahead flank maximum revs!' ter Horst roared. 'Maintain present course or we'll just end up closer to one of them!'
'Aye aye,' the helmsman said smartly.
'Sir,' Van Gelder said, 'both torpedoes have started active search.' The sonar chief put it on the speakers. A high-pitched bell-like ting-ting sounded, two-tone, Van Gelder realized, because each fish used a different frequency to avoid false echoes from the other. Beneath the tings there was a steady whine, the torpedo propulsion systems, and a nasty hiss, Voortrekker's flank-speed flow noise.
'Number One,' ter Horst ordered, 'tubes one and two, snap shots on incoming torpedo bearings, minimum yield, shoot.'
'Tube one fired,' Van Gelder said. 'Tube two fired.' 'Both weapons are operating properly,' the sonar chief said.
The propulsion noise got louder, with four torpedoes in the water now, but above it all Van Gelder heard the sweet ting-ting again, like a bellhop paging someone in a hotel lobby. 'Sonar,' he said, 'what's incoming torpedo depth?'
'Both steady at three thousand meters, sir.'
'Fifteen hundred shallower than us,' ter Horst said, 'which gives us extra separation. Good. Wilson must be afraid they might malfunction lower down. Incoming torpedo range?'
'Both now seventy-seven hundred meters, Captain,' Van Gelder said. 'Our units are climbing to meet them, time to intercept two minutes.' Both American torpedoes pinged again.
'We'll smack them easily,' ter Horst said. 'Number One, snap shot tubes three through eight, aimed at Challenger's last known bearing. Use maximum warhead yield. Detonate the weapons at staggered ranges, every ten thousand meters starting at twenty thousand meters, so their lethal circles will just overlap. Program in the detonation points in case we lose the wires, especially the ones that have to penetrate that vent field. Delay the detonations of the ones closest to us, to avoid warhead shock wave fratricide.'
'Understood,' Van Gelder said. 'Sir, recommend we let the last fish go till end of run. It'll blow then automatically and might lock on a target sooner.'
'Concur, a very good idea, and preset it to go active if it makes a passive contact but then loses it. What's time to interception of the incoming torpedoes?'
'Ninety seconds, Captain,' Van Gelder said. He worked his console. 'All weapons ready.'
'Very well,' ter Horst said. 'Tubes three through eight, shoot.'
'Tube three fired,' Van Gelder said. 'Tube four fired. Tube five. Tube six. Tube seven. Tube eight fired. Reloading all tubes now with nuclear torpedoes.' Again the ting-ting sounded.
'There'll be a lot of shadow masking at our depth,' ter Horst said, 'and I wouldn't want to go any shallower now, but since Challenger's obviously found us, let's try for a proper firing solution on her. Sonar, using maximum power on the bow sphere, ping.'
'Torpedoes in the water!' Sessions shouted. 'Six, seven, eight torpedoes in the water!'
'This has to be a record,' Morse said.
'Two are on divergent bearings,' Sessions said. 'Assess as countershots against our units. Six more on constant bearings, signal strength increasing — assess as snap shots aimed at Challenger. Sir, we're inside their effective range.'
'Steady,' Jeffrey said, 'steady. Fire Control, pass control of the units to me and keep updating the TMA. I'll work one weapon with my joy stick and the other with my trackmarble.'
'Sir,' Bell said, 'urgently recommend we move away. At this depth a one-KT warhead has a lethal radius of at least five thousand yards, and Voortrekker's close enough to get us through the vent field.'
'Sir,' Sessions shouted, 'datum on acoustic intercept! Voortrekker just pinged, strong enough to get an echo off us!'
'So now they'll know exactly where we are,' Jeffrey said, 'but it's too soon to pull back. We might lose the weapon wires.'
'No target returns yet off our ping,' Van Gelder said. 'In thirty seconds we should get some kind of echo off the vent field plumes.'
'What's depth of the incoming torpedoes?' ter Horst said.
'Unchanged,' Van Gelder said, 'both still three thousand meters. Range declining to six thousand meters now. Intercept by our units in one minute.'
Again both incoming weapons pinged, the silvery bell tones coming faster as they rangegated on Voortrekker's hull. Suddenly the pinging ceased and both torpedoes' propulsor whine got slightly sharper.
Van Gelder stared at his displays, the attack geometry. He did a hasty calculation on his console — since height-to-range was one to four, at this distance an aggregate delta-T of 40 °C would — Oh my God. 'Captain,' Van Gelder shouted, 'plane up! Recommend emergency blow while we still can!'
