arena but there were no more indications of MiG launches or other hostile activity from our Russian friends.
'Harassing action, just like last time,' Captain Smith announced.
'Seen it before ? it's an old Soviet standard ploy to get us to expose our hands.' 'But why now?' I asked.
Batman evidently overheard our conversation, and turned toward us and away from the screen. 'You think it has something to do with the submarine?'
I nodded. 'I don't know what they'll try, Admiral, but nothing else makes sense. Why did they launch on us? And why only four MiGs? That's not the Russian style, not the Russia I know. They deploy air assets in waves of overwhelming numbers ? you know how they are, they always have to have numerical superiority. So why just four? That's not enough to do any damage to an aircraft carrier that's on the alert. And they have to know we're on alert ? those submarines are talking to their masters, too.' The Admiral frowned. 'You may be right,' he said slowly.
'The other thing that's odd is that there's no indication that they were prepared to launch missiles, other than from the aircraft. A real Soviet-style attack would come from all quarters and from all platforms,' Smith said. 'That's why I think it was intended solely as harassment.'
'I'll keep that in mind, sir, when I debrief the pilots. See if they saw anything odd about the weapons load- out, about the formation, anything that might suggest that this was intended to distract us from the submarine problem,' I said.
Admiral Wayne nodded gravely. 'You do that, Lab Rat. And I want to know immediately what you find out. In the meantime, I'm going to keep an eye on things in here.' He turned back to the screen and studied the positions of the three submarines. They were moving with glacial slowness compared to the air contacts we'd watched fight it out just moments earlier. 'I don't like this ? I don't like this one little bit.'
'Expand the range,' Batman ordered. The TAO complied immediately.
A new chart sprang into being on the wall in front of us. I sucked in a hard breath, and realized that Batman had already suspected what we all now knew. To the south, still well inland, were four blood-red inverted V's. They were flying in sets of twos, the symbols so close together that sometimes they merged.
Behind them were three more sets of fighters, giving us a total of ten enemy aircraft inbound.
'MiG-31s by the looks of them,' Batman muttered. 'Shit. What the hell do they think they're doing?' He turned to me. 'I'm open to ideas.'
I shook my head, now fairly well at a loss. The admiral wasn't asking me what he should do about the incoming MiGs. The well-oiled machinery of the Jefferson's combat watch team was already swinging into motion, vectoring the aircraft now airborne toward the new threat and launching additional Hornets and Tomcats.
What the admiral wanted from me was something much tougher. Why? was his real question. Why were the Russians after our submarine, and why this air attack? Why now?
The compartment filled with the hard, shuddering roar of a Tomcat on the catapult. It built up, vibrating deep in our bones, until the deceptively gentle whoosh and thud of the catapult indicated that it had launched. Seconds later, another Tomcat spooled up.
'They're not going to attack, Admiral,' I said, thinking furiously.
'You're right ? not with that few aircraft. The Russians' intelligence network is almost as capable as ours, and they know they don't stand a chance with an Aegis cruiser in our battle group and with our own air support. Therefore, there's something else behind this.'
'Nuclear weapons? Maybe they're going for the EMP again,' Batman said, pulling the fire-retardant flash gear over his hands. 'Like when we were going into the Black Sea that time.'
I shook my head. 'I don't think so. Too close to their own soil.
The Russians have a real thing about ever risking exposure to radiation within their own population. Not after Chernobyl.'
'Chernobyl is exactly my point.' Batman pointed at the large-screen display. 'And their history in submarine operations. The Russians have been none too careful to make sure that their crews weren't exposed to serious radiation hazards from their own nuclear reactors onboard. And that's the only way that I can think of that they'd be able to hurt us.
Same argument,' he continued, 'against a chemical or biological attack.
We're not that far out ? too much danger of any biohazard drifting in and affecting their own population.'
'Then what are they trying to do? Send a message of some sort?'
Batman nodded. 'Probably. But like they say in the movies, ' you want to send a message, use Western Union.'' He slid into the brown leatherette chair mounted in the center of TFCC. 'My bet is they're not gonna wait around for a reply to it, either. Not with what I'm about to hit them with.
'Now, get over to SCIF and get me some warnings and indications. I want to know two seconds before those bastards light off any fire-control radar.'
I darted next door into the SCIF and pulled on the rest of my General Quarters gear. I was the last one to arrive at my General Quarters station, and the watch officer dogged down the hatch after me. So far, nothing. The sensitive electronic spy gear and national asset receivers we had were silent. The MiGs were inbound without radar, without jamming, without any electronic indication that they were doing anything besides conducting routine training operations.
Except for the submarines. And except for the fact that they were inbound on our location.
I picked up the white phone and punched in the number for TFCC.
Although they were just next door, we stayed closed up during General Quarters.
'Admiral, I think I might have it,' I offered. 'It's just an idea, but ? well, given that we're running the flying competition on the mainland with our people and theirs, maybe they're going to claim that this is just an expansion of that. There was that paragraph, you know. The one about other opportunities for training as they arise? Well, I think that's going to be their explanation for both launches.'
'So what happens when I light off a fire-control radar on the Aegis?' Batman asked when I was finished. 'We lose this game of chicken?'
'And if we don't-' I glanced forward at our own tactical display, and saw the MiGs closing to within weapons range. 'And if we don't, we're sitting ducks.' technicians shouted. The screen in the forward part of our compartment was identical to that in TFCC, and I still had the admiral on the line.
'You see that, Lab Rat?' Batman demanded. 'Talk about a game of chicken ? Jesus, I hope these people know what they're doing. Unless I have a Russian flag officer on the horn in the next two seconds, I'm giving my aircrews weapons free.'
I stared in horror and disbelief at the battle unfolding before me on the screen. The Russian submarines had increased their speed to flank, and were rapidly closing the location of our own. The MiGs were just at the edge of their firing envelope, although they were still radiating no hostile emissions. Our own Tomcats and Hornets were poised midway between the carrier and the MiGs, in combat spread, waiting and ready. They had their normal air- search radars lit off, but were not yet in targeting mode.
'Aegis has a firing solution, sir,' my electronics technician announced. 'Is the admiral going weapons free on them as well?'
I turned to face him. 'I don't know.'
'All units in the battle group, this is the Alpha Bravo.' I heard Batman speaking simultaneously over the radio-circuit speaker and the telephone. The two seconds were up. He was going to go weapons free.
But before the admiral could get the words out, the MiGs did what they'd done before ? turned away from the battle group and headed back toward Russia. Captain Smith shot me a knowing look.
11
