The Seawolf had come to rest facing back toward where the torpedo had come from, which was good since they could now only hear with the powerful bow mounted array covering the area in front of the submarine. Kristen settled back down, feeling the pressure upon her and the others to find their attacker before the reverse happened. She hated herself for having been asleep when they’d probably cruised right past the hidden submarine. Her logical self knew she’d been dead on her feet. In fact, she couldn’t actually remember sitting down to sleep. But she’d been so tired after exiting the minefield nothing had seemed real.
Kristen pushed the self-recriminations aside and returned to listening. The sea around them was completely devoid of anything but the normal background noises in the Persian Gulf. She could hear the manmade racket from oil platforms, normal biological sounds, and distant patrol craft, but there were almost no ships around. She spent a solid hour listening and growing accustomed to every audible noise in the sea, hoping to pick up something different.
Meanwhile, Seawolf’s damage control parties were busy sealing leaks, rerouting power systems, repairing equipment, and attending to the wounded. They were still resting on the bottom and running on the sub’s finite battery capacity. The reactor, although undamaged, had scrammed automatically when the shock wave from the explosion hit and was currently dormant. This was good since it made the Seawolf even quieter than usual. But the reactor couldn't be restarted off battery power; the batteries weren’t strong enough to provide the power necessary to reactivate it, only the diesel engine could do this. But the only way to use the diesel was to rise back up off the bottom and raise the snorkel above the surface. Even then the diesel would be noisy and alert any lurking predators to the Seawolf’s position. So they waited on the bottom, their batteries slowly draining.
Kristen methodically moved her search back and forth, identifying every sound she could find, cataloguing it by bearing and its identity. It was slow and tedious work, but necessary since whatever had surprised them was exceptionally quiet. As two hours of patient listening turned to three and it became clear their antagonist was not rushing in to finish them off, she began to worry they might be waiting for the Seawolf to make the next move. But, on her battery power alone, the Seawolf was almost crippled. The submarine’s speed would be significantly reduced, and, more importantly, they couldn’t wait forever.
She swept through the arc covered by the bow array for what felt like the thousandth time in the last few hours. At first she heard nothing new, but then she picked up something she didn’t remember hearing during previous sweeps. It was faint, so faint it was hardly a sound at all. It was more like the sensation of a sound instead of anything concrete. What’s more, it was an unexpected sound; something that didn’t belong here. But over the past few hours, Kristen had memorized every sound on every bearing, and this new sound hadn’t been there a few minutes earlier.
Kristen raised her hand to get Fabrini’s attention as she homed in on the sound. She ran it through several filters and washed it through the computer, only to have the computer tell her she was listening to a natural sound.
“The computer says it’s a biological,” Fabrini whispered.
“It isn’t a biological,” she replied as she closed her eyes and listened intently. She was sweating profusely and struggling to concentrate. With the reactor off line, the air conditioning system had been shut down to conserve power. So, over the last three hours, the sonar shack had slowly become a sauna.
To help alleviate some of the heat emanating from the equipment, Fabrini had left the door opened and through it, Brodie appeared. “What is it?” Brodie whispered after making his way back to Kristen.
“Lieutenant Whitaker picked up something she thought might be a submerged contact,” Fabrini replied. Kristen noted his hint of skepticism. “But the computer says it’s a biological; crabs probably.”
Kristen ignored him and instead focused all of her energy on the bearing she’d heard the sound come from. She then felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She glanced up and saw Brodie leaning over her. “What is it, Lieutenant?”
“It’s them,” Kristen replied softly.
“The computer said it’s a biological, Miss.” Fabrini offered again. “Snow Crabs to be exact.”
“That might be possible, Mister Fabrini,” she replied as she glanced back over her shoulder. “Except Snow Crabs aren’t found in the Persian Gulf.”
Brodie immediately rewarded her with a slight smile and a sudden glow in his eyes. “That a’girl,” Brodie said to her as his hand patted her shoulder. “Where’s the sneaky bugger?”
Kristen pointed to an intermittent thin line on her waterfall display. “Three-five-one, sir.”
He nodded, still leaning over her as the other operators began listening, trying to gain anything from the distant sound. “Any idea on the classification and range?”
“It’s not another Akula,” she explained. “And it’s no diesel electric boat I’ve ever heard.” She then added, “There are no plant noises at all, no cooling pumps… just this…”
She turned on the speaker at her station and Fabrini and Brodie listened closely. “Damn, that’s nothing but a shadow,” Fabrini said in disbelief. “How did you hear it?”
Brodie however reached up and pulled down a microphone. “Con, this is Brodie.”
A moment later Kristen heard Ryan Walcott’s voice, “Yes, Captain?”
“Have tubes one and four made ready in all respects. We may have a snapshot coming in a few minutes.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Meanwhile, Kristen was once more focused entirely on the noise. Her hands were on her headphones, her eyes closed, and motionless as if frozen in place. Around her she could almost feel every eye staring at her, but she did her best to tune all of them out as well. “New bearing,” she whispered, “three-four-eight.”
Her eyes didn’t open, nor did she hear the information transferred to the tracking parties who began working up a possible firing solution. Instead, Kristen continued to listen. The other sonar operators were on it now as well, but the computer had still not registered anything but a biological sound.
“Transients!” Hicks whispered as Kristen nodded her head, having heard the same thing.
“What was it?” Brodie asked, his voice still perfectly calm.
“It sounded like someone slamming a hatch, sir,” Hicks reported softly.
Kristen felt Brodie’s hand upon her shoulder. “Lieutenant?” he asked, wanting her opinion.
She shrugged her shoulder slightly. “It could’ve been a hatch,” she replied seeing no reason to argue over it, even though she thought it sounded more like someone jumping off a ladder and landing on a deck while wearing boots. “New bearing, three-four-zero,” she whispered and then added, “He’s very close, Captain.”
Kristen heard the contact clearly now, and she was certain it was either the Borei or the Gagarin operating on a fuel cell. All the sonar operators were picking up more transients now, including what sounded like someone speaking.
“New bearing, three-zero-five, Captain,” Kristen reported, knowing the submarine was on a course to within a few hundred yards of them. The temptation for Brodie to fire had to be enormous, but he maintained his cool despite the grueling pace of the previous few days.
“He’s passing astern of us,” she reported in a barely audible whisper. “I lost him on our port side.”
Brodie nodded but said nothing in reply. Instead, he issued orders to the control room via the microphone. “Bring her up off the bottom slowly, Spike.” Brodie then ordered the officer of the deck to prepare to bring the Seawolf around.