But worrying about collision was a waste of time, Lewinsky thought, and yet another worry for him to consciously leave behind.
Commander Jeremiah Quinnivan appeared to Lewinsky’s right at the command console. “How you doin, lad?”
Lewinsky nodded at the XO. “I’m runnin’ hot, straight and normal, XO. You?”
“Most groovy,” Quinnivan said, turning to peer over Ralston’s shoulder at the attack center console.
“Speed seven knots, sir,” Nygard called.
“Very well, Pilot, make your depth six five feet, smartly, all ahead one third, turns for six knots.”
Nygard acknowledged the string of orders and the deck tilted upward again. Lewinsky changed his command console display to the output of the number two scope, which was black. He opened the panel to reveal the hydraulic control switches for the periscope and actuated the number one scope’s raising hydraulics.
“Raising number one scope.” The large flatscreen in the starboard forward corner of the room came on, and it and the command console display showed a blurry black that gradually got lighter.
“One hundred feet, sir,” Nygard reported, the deck becoming more level. “Nine zero feet.”
“Very well,” Lewinsky said, his screen starting to get lighter still until he could see a shimmer from high above, the moonlight shining down from the waves. Lewinsky maneuvered the scope in a circle, making a full revolution in a few seconds.
“Eight zero feet.”
“No shapes or shadows,” Lewinsky called, holding his breath, and hoping there was nothing up there. No doubt, a close, fully-loaded supertanker barreling in at twelve knots could ruin the whole day. Lewinsky continued rotating the scope through full revolutions, looking upward at first, then leveling the view to see farther away, looking for the shadow formed by an incoming surface ship hull, but there was nothing. They were safe, at least so far.
“Seven five.”
The undersides of the waves came into focus, the sea state above heavy. The deck had taken on a roll to port, holding there tilted for a moment, then rolling back to starboard and hanging up there, then returning to port.
“Seven zero.”
“Scope’s breaking.” A frothy blast obscured the view, the clear focus lost as there was nothing but bubbles and foam in the viewscreen. The foaming continued. “Scope’s breaking. Get us up, Pilot.”
“Six nine feet.”
“Scope’s clear,” Lewinsky called, making three fast circles in the periscope, the features of the surface above blurred by the motion. There was nothing to see but the tall waves of the sea, the horizon and the crescent moon. “No close contacts.” Lewinsky slowed the periscope revolutions to make a slow search around them, the magnification set to low power. The sea was empty. He increased the magnification to 4x and started a slow surface search, taking a full thirty seconds for each twenty degrees of arc. Still no lights or shapes out there, just the waves and the moon above.
“Report bearing to the Panther,” he called.
“Panther bears one-two-seven,” Ralston said.
Lewinsky trained the scope to 127 degrees and zoomed the magnification to 8x, but didn’t see anything in the view. He hit the infrared, but still nothing. The periscope of Panther, and her radio antenna, if she were using it, were the same temperature as the sea, or colder from having been freezing in the deep.
“What’s your range?”
“Thirty-five hundred, but it’s rough. If you’ll drive us across the line-of-sight, I can do better.”
“Pilot, left fifteen degrees rudder, steady course zero five zero, all ahead two thirds, turns for nine knots.”
Vermont turned toward the Panther, swinging around to the northeast, attempting to drive the bearing to the target right and improve the range calculation.
“Sir,” the radioman of the watch said to Lewinsky, showing up from behind him on his right. “We have flash traffic aboard.” Radio messages were classified by their urgency, ranging from routine, priority, immediate and flash. A flash message had to be read within seconds, as it would contain information crucial to the survival of the addressee. Lewinsky had never before seen a flash message. What in holy hell was it?
“I’ll take it,” Quinnivan said. “Send it to my machine.” Quinnivan scanned the message, then reread it, stroking his beard. It was a mix of good news and bad, but the bad news was very bad indeed.
01155Z10JUN22
FLASH / FLASH / FLASH / FLASH / FLASH
FM B-902 PANTHER
TO USS VERMONT SSN-792
CC NATSECADV / NSC; COMSUBCOM
SUBJ SITREP // OPERATION PANTHER
TOP SECRET FRACTAL CHAOS // TOP SECRET FRACTAL CHAOS // TOP SECRET FRACTAL CHAOS
//BT//
1. (TS) PANTHER CHANGE-OF-COMMAND CEREMONY SUCCESSFUL.
2. (TS) PANTHER TRANSITED WITHOUT INCIDENT THROUGH GULF OF OMAN AND IS STEAMING SOUTHEAST IN THE ARABIAN SEA, PRESENTLY THREE HUNDRED FIFTY (350) NAUTICAL MILES SOUTH OF KARACHI, PAKISTAN. ORIGINAL PLAN OF TRANSIT ALONG COASTLINE OF INDIA DISCARDED AS BEING DISCERNIBLE BY OPPOSITION FORCE. PANTHER CURRENTLY PURSUING RANDOM ZIG-ZAG COURSE SOUTHWARD TOWARD ANTARCTIC COAST.
3. (S) PANTHER CREW CONSISTS OF:
OIC LT. D. DANKLEFF, USN
AOIC LT. A. PACINO, USN
OPS LT. M. VARNEY, USN
AI FTC(SS) N. KIM, USN
ST STC(SS) T. ALBANESE, USN
RM RMC(SS) B. GORELIKI, USN
TF80 CDR. E FISHMAN, USN
TF80 LTJG E. AQUATONG, USN
TF80 SOSC R. TUCKER-SANTOS, USN
TF80 SO1 H. ONEIDA, USN
902 CDR. R. AHMADI, IRANIAN NAVY
RR ENGR. A. ABAKUMOV, RUSSIAN REPUBLIC
4. (TS) RUSSIAN ENGINEER ABAKUMOV REPORTED TWO (2) RUSSIAN REPUBLIC ATTACK SUBMARINES INBOUND, BOTH YASEN-M-CLASS UNITS, BOTH DELAYED EN ROUTE.
5. (TS) RECOMMEND PAST RECENT HISTORY OF SATELLITE IMAGES BE SEARCHED FOR YASEN-M SUBMARINES TRANSITING TOWARD GULF OF OMAN. ANY INTEL ON YASEN-M POSITIONS URGENTLY REQUESTED. YASEN-M UNITS SUSPECTED TO BE HOSTILE COMBATANTS AND MAY FIRE ON DETECTION OF PANTHER AND / OR USS VERMONT.
6. (TS) PANTHER COMMISSIONED AND TESTED FAST REACTOR AND ASSOCIATED PROPULSION SYSTEMS, TEST SAT, MAXIMUM SPEED RUN AT THIRTY-ONE (31) KNOTS ATTAINED FOR THIRTY (30) MINUTES. FAST REACTOR SHUT DOWN AND PANTHER STEAMING ON BATTERIES FOR STEALTH. WILL START FAST REACTOR NIGHTLY TO CHARGE BATTERIES.
7. (TS) SHIP’S FORCE ABOARD PANTHER WORKING WITH FORMER COMMANDER OF PANTHER, WHO IS COOPERATIVE, AND RUSSIAN TEST ENGINEER, ALSO COOPERATING.
8. (TS) PANTHER SHIP’S FORCE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE PANTHER FIRECONTROL AND WEAPONS SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL FOR POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT AS A CONTINGENCY.
9. (TS) PANTHER CREW THANKS USS VERMONT FOR THE ESCORT.
10. (S) THE FIRST ROUND FOR USS VERMONT CREW AT DESTINATION IS ON PANTHER.
(U) LT. D. DANKLEFF SENDS.
//BT//