“True, and that makes our job very easy. The thing I don’t like about this scenario is that most of her crew will still be asleep. Now you can call me twisted or anything else you want, but I don’t like the fact that that these bastards are going to die in their sleep. I’d rather they die all tensed up.”
“I am with you on that one, XO. Either you’re not twisted or we both are!”
“Good man, MacKenzie.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“Have you ever heard of thumping someone?”
“No, sir.”
“Well it’s a fighter-pilot practical joke, and it goes something like this. Many times when flying off the carrier, a fighter — we’ll just call him Mad Dog — has to conserve fuel in order to stay airborne until his designated landing time. To conserve fuel he slows down and flies at max conserve airspeed — let’s just say about two hundred and fifty knots.”
“Okay.”
“Now when one of Mad Dog’s buddies with plenty of fuel looks down from above and spots him flying at max conserve airspeed, he decides, ‘Hey, there’s Mad Dog down there at max conserve. I gonna go thump him!’ The buddy then dives from high and behind poor Mad Dog to achieve five hundred knots or more, and he flies directly under Mad Dog — just a few feet below him. Once past the nose of Mad Dog’s aircraft, the buddy pulls back hard on the stick, blasting up in front of Mad Dog just in front of his windscreen. Mad Dog, flying along at max boredom, suddenly sees nothing but jet for an instant and then flies through his buddy’s jet wash and gets tossed around in his cockpit. He just got thumped!”
“That’s cool! So what do you have in mind, XO?”
“I want to do something that will wake up everybody on the
Yunes and give the OOD a heart attack. And then I want to kill them all.”
The captain climbed up through the hatch and joined the OOD and lookout on the bridge. In the east, the dawn, rosy fingered, was upon them. In the increasing light, the stars were disappearing and the horizon was becoming visible.
“All is well, Captain. We have not spotted any traffic this night. In fact, no traffic has been seen since we passed the Kermandec Islands yesterday.”
“Good. We should be able to make this passage undetected, Allah willing. It is now time to make preparations to dive. I have the conn.”
“Yes, Captain.” The OOD called below, “The captain has the conn.”
“You two go ahead and start down, I will follow.”
The lookout started down when suddenly, there was a tremendous roar! Just beyond the bow of the submarine an object arose from the depths at tremendous speed and flew into the air! A jet of water spewed from its tail deafening the captain and the OOD. As the object nosed over and reentered the water, the waterjet blasted the bridge, knocking the astonished captain and OOD off their feet!
Regaining his composure, the captain grabbed the nearest headset and shouted, “General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations!”
Alarms began ringing throughout the Yunes.
“Get below!” the captain ordered the dazed OOD, who immediately scrambled down the ladder.
“Dive! Dive! Emergency dive!” the captain yelled into the headset. He scanned the sea around the Yunes, but there was no sign of the roaring object that had blasted its way into their otherwise boring morning. The captain closed the hatch to the sail and climbed down the ladder to the control room.
When the captain arrived below, the control room was in total chaos! In a state of panic, the OOD was excitedly telling everyone Allah had cursed this mission and had sent a giant dragon from the deep to destroy them.
“Believe me,” the OOD was telling them. “I saw it with my own eyes. It spewed us with water and knocked us down!”
People shouted, “The vengeance of Allah is upon us!” and dropped to the deck in submission.
“Stop! Listen to me!” the captain shouted. “It was not a dragon. It was a machine. It was an enemy submarine contrived by the infidels. We must dive and attack it. Everyone get to your battle stations!”
The crew began to rise and return to their stations.
“No!” yelled the OOD. “It was not like a submarine. It was too small for a submarine and it was too fast. And it flew through the air! Submarines do not fly! It was evil and it will destroy us! Allah is angry!”
Once again the crew began to panic. The captain reached under his foul weather jacket and pulled out the pistol he always carried. Taking aim, he shot the OOD through the heart!
The chaos and panic immediately stopped.
“We are on a mission ordained by Allah. That does not mean there will not be obstacles. We have an enemy to defeat. Man your battle stations and we will defeat the infidels.”
Solemnly, the crew returned to their battle stations, stepping over the lifeless body of the OOD.
“Dive! Dive!” the captain ordered.
The Yunes began to submerge.
“Load torpedo tubes one and two.”
“Passing two hundred feet, Captain,” reported the diving officer.
The Yunes shuddered as an explosion was heard aft.
“Damage Control, report!” yelled the captain.
“Flooding in the battery compartment, port side!” came the answer.
“Damage control team to the battery compartment!” ordered the captain.
The XO turned to the captain. “Shall we continue our dive, Captain? If the batteries become flooded we will have no power. We should return to the surface so that we can use the diesels.”
The captain was uncertain. Continuing the dive could be fatal, but returning to the surface would make them useless against the enemy submarine.
The Yunes shuddered again as another explosion was heard aft.
This time, the call came without asking. “Flooding in the battery compartment, starboard side!”
“Surface!” yelled the captain.
“We have lost power to the engines, Captain! The batteries have shorted out!” reported the XO.
“Blow emergency ballast!”
“The port and starboard ballast tanks have been destroyed!”
A tremendous explosion in the control room knocked everyone to the deck. Once again, there was total panic. Water blasted in through a gaping hole on the starboard side. The lights went out.
Chapter 44
The Louisiana ran north along the eastern side of the Kermandec Islands.
“Captain,” the Navigator reported, “We’re abeam the ninth island.”
“Very well. Helm, come left heading two-seven-zero. All ahead one-third. Make your depth, periscope depth.”
“Aye-aye, sir.”
“Rig the ship for silent running.”
“Aye-aye, sir. Level at periscope depth, sir.”
“Very well. Raise scope.”
Once the scope broke the water, Captain Adams made a rapid 360-degree sweep in all directions. Having satisfied himself they were in no immediate danger from undetected surface targets, he focused his search on the northern coast of the island. A solitary cargo ship was anchored there. The Nuku’alofa was a typical, small, interisland cargo ship — the type used for transporting mail, spare parts, and machinery from New Zealand up to American Samoa and the other inhabited islands. Proportionally, she had a rather large hull compared to her small superstructure, which made her look more like a barge than an oceangoing cargo ship. Rust stains ran down her sides over the faded green and white paint.
“Raise the UHF antenna.”