Sea of Shadows

Ensign Cooper stabbed at the mike button. “USWE, aye! Break!

Bridge — USWE. Crack the whip! We have in-bound hostile torpedoes. I say again — crack the whip!”

“Bridge, aye!”

The whine of the gas turbines increased in pitch and volume as the engines wound up to maximum rpm.

The Officer of the Deck’s voice came over the 1-MC. “All hands stand by for heavy rolls while performing high-speed evasive maneuvers.”

The deck tilted sharply to port as the ship veered into the first evasive turn.

* * *

USS Benfold:

Captain Vargas punched the button that patched her comm-set into the 1MC. “This is the Captain speaking from CIC,” she said. “The bridge has been knocked out by a missile hit. I need a damage control team and medical personnel on the bridge now. CCS take rudder and engine controls. Engineering Officer of the Watch, establish communications with CIC on Net One Zero, and stand by for maneuvering orders. Get to it people! That is all.” She released the mike button.

The TAO’s console lost power. He was about to report the failure when the call came in.

“TAO — Weapons Control. Aegis is down hard!”

“What the hell happened?” the TAO snapped.

“We lost primary and alternate power to the computers, sir. Probably one of the automatic bus-tie transfers, since they’re about the only pieces of gear common to both primary and alternate legs of power. The Combat Systems Officer of the Watch says his people are checking prints and chasing cables now. As soon as they find the bad ABT, they can rig casualty power.”

“TAO, aye. What’s your estimated time of repair?”

“The CSOOW is calling for ten minutes, sir. They might be able to cut that in half, if they get lucky and find the bad ABT quickly.”

“We don’t have ten minutes,” Captain Vargas said. She looked up at the darkened Aegis display screens. “We don’t even have five minutes.”

The TAO nodded. “I know that, ma’am.” He keyed his mike.

“Weapons Control — TAO. With Aegis down, two-thirds of your consoles are dead. Send your unused operators down to assist the CSOOW’s crew on chasing cables. Let’s try to speed this up.”

“Weapons Control, aye.”

Captain Vargas looked at the TAO. “Go out to SAU Commander on Navy Red. Tell him we’ve taken a hit to the bridge, and we’ve lost Aegis.

We will not be able to make the backup VLA shots he ordered.”

The TAO nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” He punched in to the secure radio channel and started his report.

* * *

USS Ingraham:

Captain Culkins gritted his teeth as Benfold’s status report came over the speaker. “Well, ain’t this a pretty picture,” he said quietly.

Ingraham’s CIC was about half as well equipped as the ones on her more powerful sister ships. But her crew was well trained, and the gear they did have was good, even if it wasn’t quite state-of- the-art. She might not have the most impressive weapons and sensors in the Search Attack Unit, but at least her combat systems hadn’t crapped out in the middle of the battle.

Captain Culkins allowed himself a tiny, humorless smile. Okay, maybe that last bit had been a bit below the belt. Benfold had just taken a missile hit right in the face; some equipment was bound to be knocked off-line. It was just a hell of a time to lose Aegis, the heart of the destroyer’s combat system.

Culkins shook his head and keyed into Navy Red. “SAU Commander, this is Ingraham. Request permission to break formation and close Benfold’s position. We can provide missile defense coverage until Benfold gets her Aegis system back on line, over.”

“Ingraham, this is SAU Commander. Roger. You are cleared to break formation. Keep an ear in the water, though. Those subs are still out there.”

“You don’t hear that every day,” Ingraham’s Tactical Action Officer said. “A frigate providing missile coverage for a destroyer. My, my, how the mighty have fallen.”

“Don’t enjoy it too much,” Captain Culkins said. “Those are our people dying over there.”

“Of course, sir,” the TAO said. All traces of mockery were gone from his voice. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean …”

“Don’t sweat it,” the captain said. “It’s an honest mistake. I went down that road myself, for a couple of seconds.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

USS Towers:

“USWE — Sonar. Hostile torpedo number one has broken acquisition.

Looks like we fooled it.”

On the CDRT, Chief McPherson watched the symbol for one of the enemy torpedoes go astray. She keyed her mike. “Sonar — USWE. What’s the status of the second torpedo?”

“Still closing, Chief. It’s sticking to us like peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth.”

“USWE, aye. Break. TAO — USWE. We have evaded the first torpedo, but the second torpedo is still locked on. We’re not going to shake this one, sir.”

“TAO, aye.” Lieutenant Nylander looked at the captain. “Any ideas, sir?”

“One,” the captain said. “A crazy idea that one of my academy buddies came up with about a hundred years ago. I have no idea if it’ll work, but it’s not like we’ve got a lot to lose.” He looked up at the Aegis display screens. “The torpedo is coming dead up our stern, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“All right,” the captain said. He keyed his mike. “Bridge — Captain.

Come right thirty degrees and steady up.”

“Bridge, aye. Coming right thirty degrees.”

The ship began to turn.

“The idea,” the captain said, “is to get the torpedo to come in from your quarter, about thirty degrees off your stern.”

The TAO watched the tactical displays. “What does that do for us, sir?”

“Nothing, by itself,” the captain said. “But we know the torpedo is programmed to dive under our hull and detonate. So we have to give him as little hull as possible at the critical moment. It won’t eliminate the damage, but — with a little luck — it might keep this fucking torpedo from blowing us in half.”

“Captain — Bridge. We are steadied up on new course zero-six-five.”

“Captain, aye. Stand by for my orders. When I give the command hard to starboard, I want you to throw the rudder over hard to starboard, then go all-ahead flank on the port engine, and all-back on the starboard engine. Got that?”

“Bridge, aye. Copy all, sir. Standing by for your order.”

“Good,” the captain said. He keyed his mike again. “USWE — Captain. I need to know when that torpedo is going to hit us. I know you can’t give me an exact answer, but I want Sonar’s best guess, based on signal strength and elapsed run-time. Understand?”

“Uh … I think so, sir. That is, yes, sir. Do you want us to give you a countdown?”

“That’s an excellent idea,” the captain said.

* * *

USS Ingraham:

“TAO — Air. I’ve got three missile pop-ups! Bearing two-seven-five!”

The Electronics Warfare Technician confirmed the report a few seconds later. “TAO — EW, standing by on chaff. I have active H-band seekers on all three missiles. Classification: Exocet SM-39s, ‘November Variants.’”

“TAO, aye. Break. Weapons Control — TAO. Let me know the second you get fire control lock on those