The first thing she needed was the second captain, but the display was dark. Praying it was just in some kind of power-saving mode, she jabbed the display touch screen, but it remained dark.
“Second Captain, respond!” she shouted at it.
“Second Captain, ready,” the disembodied, cool, unworried voice replied. God, how Trusov hated that system. The ship was dying and the fucking AI system’s voice sounded like it was just another Tuesday.
“Turn on the position three display,” she shouted at it. The display lit up, but it would take too long to get the answers she needed. She’d have to deal with the AI verbally.
“Second Captain, report status of propulsion plant.”
“The reactor has undergone a group scram resulting from a shock impact. All electrical breakers have opened as a result of the same shock. All systems are offline with the exception of the second captain uninterruptible power supply batteries, but that system is at ninety-five percent and will cease to function in six hours.”
Leave it to the AI to worry about itself above all, Trusov thought.
“Second Captain, shut the battery breaker.”
“The battery breaker is shut. Battery charge indicates nine-five percent. There are no loads on the battery at this moment.”
“Shut the breaker feeding the lighting panels,” Trusov ordered. It took a moment, but the lights flashed, then held in the room. Trusov turned off her battle lantern. The smoke in the room was worse. She looked over at the captain, who was coughing and breathing. She slapped his face gently, but he was still out. She was the only one conscious in the room. The angle of the deck had become worse. They might be sinking, she thought, and with no propulsion, that situation could get worse.
“Second Captain, shift propulsion to the emergency propulsion motor.”
“Shifting propulsion to the emergency propulsion motor.”
“Report depth.”
“Watch Officer, depth indicates six-seven-nine meters.”
God, the depth of 679 meters was deeper than design crush depth, and they were still going down.
“Propulsion shifted to the emergency propulsion motor,” the AI said, calmly, as if it were just another Tuesday.
“Second Captain, engine ahead one third, twenty degrees rise on the bowplanes, make your angle up twenty degrees.”
“Engine is ahead one third, twenty degrees rise on the bowplanes, increasing ship’s angle to twenty degrees up. No depth order given. No compass course given.”
Trusov frowned. “Make your depth one hundred meters. Steer course three-zero-nine.” They’d been heading southwest to get in position to intercept the Panther before the explosion, and it occurred to Trusov that she should plot a course back to the Pacific rather than try to chase the Americans with a broken submarine, but she didn’t have time for tactical or strategic thought. She was still just trying to keep Novosibirsk alive.
“Depth order one hundred meters received.”
“Status of the reactor plant.”
“All channels of reactor protection tripped the unit on detected shock.”
“Clear the reactor protection trips, shut all inverter breakers and conduct a fast-recovery startup,” Trusov ordered.
“Reactor protection trips cleared. All inverter breakers indicate shut. Latching all control rods and commencing fast-recovery startup.”
The deck’s downward tilt flattened, then inclined upward as they rose out of the depths.
“Four hundred meters,” the AI reported. “Watch Officer, all sensors in auxiliary machinery room number two are offline. Three hundred fifty meters.”
“What do you mean they’re offline?” That was an ominous report.
“All systems in the auxiliary machinery room two show open circuits, all instrument systems off.”
That room was the heart of the ship’s atmospheric control equipment. Any problems with that room would have far-reaching implications.
“Do you have instrumentation outside the room in third compartment lower level?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a camera on the hatch to the room?”
“Yes. Displaying it now.”
The camera view came up. The porthole in the high-pressure bulkhead hatch to the room was black. The hatch seemed to be glowing a dim red.
“What’s the temperature in third compartment lower level forward?”
“Seventy degrees Celsius.”
That was broiling. There had to have been a fire in machinery two.
“Second Captain, seal auxiliary machinery room two.” The hatches needed to be shut and the pressure damper to the ventilation system locked shut to do what Trusov wanted to do.
“Auxiliary machinery room two is sealed.”
“Open the upper room vent to the third compartment. Display the camera in the space where the vent exhausts.”
The display came up on Trusov’s display, a catwalk in the reactor room. Thick black smoke was pouring into the space, presumably from the machinery room’s vent.
“Second Captain, reposition the three-way valve to machinery two’s vent to direct flow from the vent to compartment three’s bilge.”
“Vent three-way valve repositioned to exhaust to the bilge.”
“Second Captain, open the hull and backup emergency flood valves to auxiliary machinery room two.”
“Commencing emergency flood of auxiliary machinery room two.”
This was a casualty procedure memorized by every watch officer, Trusov thought, but to her knowledge, no one had ever actually had to do it.
The angle of the deck flattened again. “Ship’s depth, one hundred meters,” the second captain announced. “Bilge levels in compartment three are rising.”
“Stop the emergency flood operation.”
“Shutting hull and backup emergency flood valves,” the second captain replied. “Vent valve shut.”
“Line up to take a suction on auxiliary machinery room two with the drain pump.” Trusov brushed a lock of sweaty hair out of her eyes, thinking that she craved a shower.
“Drain pump is lined up with suction on auxiliary machinery room two. Do you want to open the vent valve?”
“Open the vent valve and start the drain pump,” Trusov ordered.
“Drain pump on.” It would only take seconds to dewater the room. “Drain pump off.”
“Very well.” Someone would have to go into the room physically, Trusov thought, to see how bad the damage was. She’d have to ventilate the ship from the surface soon, but first she needed the reactor.
“Status of the reactor?”
“Reactor is in the power range and warming up now using normal rates.”
“Increase heat-up using maximum emergency rate,” Trusov ordered. It wasn’t safe for the reactor to do that, and could blow the lid off the reactor pressure vessel, but this wasn’t a normal day at sea.
“Reactor expected to be at normal operating temperature and pressure in two minutes.”
Orlov made a sound. Lifting his head off the surface of his console, then dropping it back down. Trusov touched his forehead, lifting his face off the console, but he was still out of it. She looked around at the smoky room, and the other watchstanders were still out.