Not wanting to be further humiliated in front of his crew, Novikov decided to accept Orlov’s insistent proposal with grace.
“Fine, Yuri, but the same goes for you. Don’t you shoot northward unless you have a damned good data package on the targets. Preferably, hit them with active sonar before you shoot — or after, and wire-guide steer the weapons to the targets.”
“Leave the tactics to me, Boris. After I and my crew destroy these targets, we’ll allow you to claim victory with us.”
Novikov frowned. Orlov was being even more of an asshole than he was face-to-face. He supposed Orlov blamed Novikov for Natalia leaving and eventually forming a relationship with Novikov, but there had been almost a year between the ending of one relationship and the beginning of another. Novikov had not stolen the woman, only accepted her affection much later when offered it. Was that morally wrong? Perhaps it would have been if the other man had been a friend, but Orlov had hated Novikov ever since the torpedo incident of their youth. Besides, it was moot point now, because Natalia had left Novikov and moved on. Novikov shook his head. The sooner they ended this call, the better. Then the rest of the mission he could forget about Orlov.
“So, Boris, I’ve calculated my intercept course, speed and waiting time for the probability oval to reach me. I’ve bracketed the speed of the target, using an initial assumption of a six knot transit, but I also laid in a nine knot transit in case Panther decides to speed up when he’s underway on nuclear power. If Panther transits at six knots for eighteen hours on his batteries, then speeds up to eighteen knots for six hours while charging his batteries, his overall speed-of-advance is nine knots, so we accounted for that. I plan on using a speed of twenty-eight knots, enough to be swift while still remaining silent in natural circulation reactor loops. That gives me a course of three-zero-nine and a transit time of eleven hours and a waiting time-on-station of seven hours if the target is transiting at six knots, and a wait of one hour if he’s going an average of nine knots with a sprint-and-drift tactic. That means contact time is somewhere between twelve hours and eighteen hours from now. Moscow time, that’s somewhere between eighteen hundred and midnight tonight. By the early hours of tomorrow, Boris, we will be writing the after-action reports to the Admiralty.”
Novikov nodded. Orlov continued.
“Now, Boris, you should do the same kind of calculations to place yourselves sufficiently close to the tail of the probability oval so that you cross the oval’s north end at eighteen hundred hours today. You have the shorter distance to travel, so you can approach slower than twenty-eight knots. You will be more stealthy than we will be. When you get to the northern envelope of the probability oval, you should transit into it heading south at a speed of nineteen knots — this will be faster than a possible Panther sprint speed, and is still stealthy with natural circulation. You should have your AI calculate contact time based on that — if it is earlier than midnight, trail in stealth until then, and at midnight, open fire. That will give Panther time to drive into our barrier search, and we can attack in coordination. Is all that understood? Are we in agreement?”
“No, we are not in agreement,” Novikov said, “If I have a solid detect on Panther at a time before you’re on-station, I’m taking my shot. I’m firing at him. You’re the one who wanted to go south for the glory position and left me with the low-probability tail-chase of the northern approach zone. It’s entirely possible, Yuri, that your entry into this battle will start with you detecting the sound of my torpedoes exploding and the target sinking. So, is all that understood?”
Orlov pursed his lips. “Fine. Then good luck to us both.”
“Wait,” Novikov said. “We need an emergency distress signal.”
“Use four loud, three-second low-frequency pulses from the MGK’s spherical array active. It’s not stealthy, but I assume such a situation of distress would dispense with stealth. If possible, launch a coded radio buoy out the countermeasure ejector.”
“Agreed,” Novikov replied. “And I also agree — good luck to us both. Anything else from you or your crew, Captain Orlov?”
“Nothing from our side, Captain Novikov. Good hunting.”
The screen winked out. Novikov smirked at Lukashenko, relieved that the confrontational meeting with Orlov was finally over. He picked up the phone handset from its cradle bolted to the underside of the table and punched the button for central control on the handset.
“Watch Officer,” Novikov said, “depart periscope depth and proceed to three hundred meters, course west, speed twenty. You’ll get new sailing orders from the navigator in a few minutes.”
Novikov replaced the phone handset and looked at Lukashenko. “Luke, calculate the approach vector to get us in position on the north.”
Lukashenko input the geometry problem into the second captain. “Sir, it comes out that we need to decide which speed the target is traveling. If he’s going six knots, we would steer course two-eight-nine with a speed of twenty-four knots. If he’s making an average of nine knots, we’d steer course two-nine-six. With oval-entry at eighteen hundred, turning south at nineteen knots, we have three different scenarios, Captain.” Lukashenko frowned. “If Panther is going six knots, time-on-contact for the center of the oval is midnight. If he’s going nine knots, contact time is zero two hundred hours. But if he’s going eighteen knots on a sprint, it would take us four days to catch up with the center of the oval at nineteen knots approach speed.” Lukashenko tapped his pen. “This is bad, Captain. We’ll be much later to the battle than Novosibirsk. They’ll take down Panther before we’re even anywhere near being on-station.”
“Tail-chases are almost always futile, Luke,” Novikov said, leaning over Lukashenko’s pad computer. “That’s why the northern position is a loser. So, recalculate with new assumptions. Absolute maximum speed run to the oval north boundary, thirty-five knots.”
“But, Captain, that will mean departing natural circulation and shifting reactor circulation pumps to fast speed.”
“So be it, Luke. We speed to the oval, then turn south, and slow down to twenty knots to get closer to the oval’s center. We’ll drift five minutes out of every fifteen at four knots as we approach the oval’s center. Now, with that set of assumptions, recalculate time-on-target.”
Lukashenko went back to work with the second captain. “So, Captain, assuming a maximum speed run at thirty-five knots, that gets us to the northern boundary of the oval a bit under eight hours from now, slightly before fourteen hundred hours — four hours before the earliest time the Novosibirsk could start detecting the Panther. Then we’d commence our sprint-and-drift search. There’s a good chance that in those four hours, we’d detect Panther first.” He slid his pad computer over, showing the calculation and the resulting course to the probability circle’s northern boundary.
“Excellent,” Novikov said, finding the phone under the table and calling central again. Into the phone, he said, “Watch Officer, change course to two-eight-eight and increase speed to thirty-five knots, and yes, I realize that means fast speed reactor circulation pumps. After seven hours and thirty-six minutes, slow to four knots and turn due south.”
The phone crackled with the watch officer’s response, and the deck tilted as the Voronezh sped up. The deck began to tremble violently as the speed increased, and four loud booming noises sounded in the sea as her reactor coolant pumps sped up to fast speed, the check valves in the piping loops slamming thunderous noises into the sea. Novikov turned and reached for the tea service and poured himself another cup, smiling. This would be a good watch, he thought. And the afternoon watch promised to be even better. Perhaps they should roll out a gourmet meal for lunch to celebrate, but then he thought it would be bad luck to celebrate before the kill.