Meltzer had to veer right to evade the avalanche; rubble pelted the hull. Deutschland gained a hundred yards of precious separation. Bell destroyed the last incoming 65's, but now was down to the last of Challenger's rockets. Deutschland fired more AT rockets, and intercepted Challenger's latest ADCAP.
There were no more torpedo engine sounds. The high-explosive skirmish was over, a draw. Meltzer held Challenger in Deutschland's baffles; their utmost speeds were almost perfectly matched. Still both ships charged northwest.
ON DEUTSCHLAND
Ernst Beck watched his screens as data poured in from Weapons and Sonar. 'Last conventional sixty-five destroyed by enemy AT rockets.'
Beck glanced at Kurt Eberhard. Even in the rig for black, he knew his captain was livid.
'We're out of high-explosive torpedoes, and we're stuck in a high-speed stern chase. Fuller is too close for me to use atomic warheads, even if the verdammt Axis ROEs would let us now. We've no choice but-to get well away from Sweden as fast as we can.
…And he has no choice but to stay with us, or we'll get adequate separation to open fire first, before he's far enough away from Norway to shoot back.'
'Concur, sir,' Beck said. This whole situation was an accident of geography — but as always in war the geography, and the rules of engagement, were real. Axis ROEs did not protect occupied countries from fallout; Allied ROEs did.
Eberhard palmed the intercom mike with a feral grin. 'Time for competitive speed trials, Einzvo. Let's see if we can outrun Fuller. Engine Room, Captain, push the reactor to one hundred fifteen percent.'
Beck watched his speed log. Slowly the ship sped up, then held at 53.3 knots. The ride was surprisingly smooth, except for the usual fishtailing.
'Sir,' Beck said. 'Allied nuclear torpedo warhead yields are smaller than ours. Challenger's can be set as low as one-one-hundredth kiloton. If we draw apart too late, when we're far enough from Norway, they'll gain adequate separation for a shot at us before we can shoot back.'
'Don't you think I know that?'
Beck studied the large-scale nautical chart. The Trough followed the Norwegian coast, north-northwest and then north, for two hundred fifty miles. Only then would Deutschland and Challenger reach open, truly deep water: the Norwegian Sea.
'Einzvo, I intend to follow the left-most safe corridor in the Trough. We need strong echoes from the escarpment wall, with short time delay, to keep an eye on Challenger astern.'
'Concur, Captain.' This was no time or place for a towed array. 'Sir, enemy appears to have ceased firing.'
'Out of conventional ammo, just like us…. Einzvo, what's enemy speed?'
'Fifty-three and one tenth knots.'
'Separation?'
'Their bow dome to our pump-jet, eighteen hundred meters.'
'With a speed difference of one-fifth knot, it'll be hours before either of us can open fire without a self- kill.'
Beck nodded. 'At least our close proximity discourages surface forces from interfering.' Eberhard pounded his console in undisguised anger. 'It's an outrage our weaponry is so limited. Our Sea Lions are all nuclear, and the yields are much too large!'
'Captain, no one envisioned a scenario like this.'
'The torpedo designers should be court-martialed and shot. When we return to base, I'll make sure that's what happens.'
Beck shuddered. Eberhard would do it, too. Then Beck realized something. 'Sir, Challenger may have more high-explosive torpedoes, saving them for some contin, gency'
'If so, Fuller's smarter than I thought. But he's not smart enough to get them past our antitorpedo rockets.'
TWO HOURS LATER, ON CHALLENGER
Jeffrey sat at the command console, starting on another mug half full of coffee. The vibrations at 53.1 knots were so extreme, a full cup would've splashed. Jeffrey glanced around the CACC. His dark-adapted eyes showed some console seats were empty; the crew was having breakfast, or grabbing catnaps, or using the head, in shifts, of sheer necessity.
On the tactical plot, Deutschland raced through the Trough ahead of Challenger. Eberhard's ship was everso-slightly faster, and the separation grew to twenty-eight hundred yards. The enemy was in the sweet spot of Challenger's bow sphere — advanced signal processors filtered out the own-ship flank speed flow noise. Jeffrey could see from the tonals and broadband how hard Deutschland's power plant was working. He could see from his status screens the strain on Challenger's systems, too.
'Captain,' Sessions said. 'Advise we are two hundred nautical miles from Sweden.'
'Very well, Nay.'
If we have a propulsion failure now, it's all over.
This was the moment Jeffrey feared. He turned to Bell, and tried to study the other man's face by the glow from the screens. 'Here Eberhard can go atomic anytime he likes.' Bell shook his head. 'We're too close behind him, sir. With a tenth-KT warhead, he'll want eight thousand yards between, at least, or he'd suffer serious damage.'
'It's not that simple, XO. He could loop a weapon back behind us, outside our AT rocket range, then catch us from astern, more or less right now. We'd be in the lethal envelope; he wouldn't be.' AT rockets only reached out to one thousand yards.
'Er, concur, sir. Sorry, I wasn't thinking…. But wait, it's not that simple either, Captain. A loop-around shot, set to come at us from behind, would have a long run to detonate, and a net overtaking speed of only twenty-some knots. He'd give us too much time to think, and we might fire a nuke right up his stern, and kill him for sure.'
'You're right. Against our tenth-KT max-yield warhead, he'd be a goner. Even if he fired a nuclear torpedo to try to smash ours, with these geometries his own blast would take him with it… And if we tried to loop a unit ahead, to catch him from off his bow; he'd have plenty of time to turn back at us and we'd just waste the weapon, we'd have to safe and abandon it.'
Jeffrey took a deep breath. ROEs, geometries, geography, and tactics. It was mindbending, an unforgiving mental and physical marathon that could have at most one winner. This was undersea — warfare at its best and worst.
'Hmmm,' Bell said. Jeffrey could see he was thinking hard. 'Are you suggesting, sir, we take Eberhard with us if he does shoot now?'
'Consider the alternative, XO. We die, he lives. The U.S. is left with no ceramic-hulled nuclear submarine. With the new SSGN they're building, and Deutschland, Germany has two.'
'Captain, would you take him with us now? I'd have to strongly object. We're barely thirty miles from Stavanger, and the gale is blowing toward the city. The population is fifty thousand Norwegians. The fallout—'
'I know, XO. I'd never ask you to concur and launch a weapon here.' It would be in blatant violation of the ROEs.
'In another hour we draw abreast of Bergen, sir. The population there is a quartermillion-plus.'
'I know, XO. I know'
There was no choice but to continue the desperate stern chase, and try to stay as close to Deutschland as possible, for as long as it took to get far away from Norway, and pray Eberhard couldn't open fire till Jeffrey could
