“Get me chest seals and gauze.”
After Ali pressed gauze over the abdomen wounds, two other paramedics carefully rolled Christine onto her side so they could assess her back.
“Get chest seals on those bullet wounds,” Ali ordered, “and get a backboard and a C-collar now!”
One of the bullet wounds was in the center of Christine’s back, and care would be needed to ensure any spinal injury wasn’t exacerbated during transit. Harrison cursed silently to himself. In his haste to stem her bleeding, he hadn’t paid attention to how close the entry wound was to her spine before turning her onto her back.
The requested equipment quickly arrived, and Christine was carefully placed atop and secured to the backboard, and a collar was fastened around her neck to immobilize her head. As she was prepared for transport, one paramedic assessed her vitals while two other paramedics inserted IVs — one for fluid and another for medication — into her veins.
“Her blood pressure’s falling,” Ali announced. “Start a norepinephrine drip now!”
The medication was quickly injected into one of the IVs, then Christine was lifted onto a stretcher and wheeled toward the warehouse exit.
Harrison followed as she was loaded into an awaiting ambulance. He wanted nothing more than to go with her, but Ali placed a hand on his chest, stopping him from entering the vehicle.
She climbed inside with Christine, and as the rear doors closed and the ambulance sped away, Harrison watched numbly until the vehicle disappeared in a distant intersection.
82
USS MICHIGAN K-571 KRASNOYARSK
On the bottom of the Persian Gulf, it was quiet in Michigan’s Control Room as Murray Wilson wondered if they had fooled Krasnoyarsk’s crew.
Standing on the Conn, bathed in yellow emergency lighting, Wilson discussed the situation with his Executive Officer, four department heads, and the Chief of the Boat. The first order of business was ensuring all noisy equipment had been secured, followed by a detailed inspection to determine what had been damaged during the less-than-graceful bottoming. The department heads departed to inspect their spaces, augmented by teams of personnel assigned and tasked by the Chief of the Boat.
Meanwhile, Wilson kept a keen eye on the Sonar display on the Conn and the tactical displays on the combat control consoles. The Weapons Officer had reported that they had lost the towed array during the bottoming, but the spherical array in the bow remained operational.
On the spherical array, they still held Krasnoyarsk via surface reflections — no direct path tonals were received — which was good news. If Michigan’s sonar could not directly see Krasnoyarsk, then the Russian submarine’s sonars could not directly see Michigan. Wilson had indeed found a depression at the bottom of the gulf deep enough to hide in, and the Russians would have to rely on surface reflections, with their weaker acoustic signals, to detect and locate Michigan if they suspected it had survived.
Without the ability to maneuver the submarine and assist the combat control algorithms, it was difficult to determine what Krasnoyarsk was up to. However, all three operators manning the combat control consoles independently estimated that the Russian submarine was headed east, which made sense. It was resuming its pursuit of Theodore Roosevelt.
More important to Wilson and his crew was the path Krasnoyarsk took as it traveled through operating area Foxtrot. Wilson had bottomed Michigan in a depression almost due east of Krasnoyarsk, which meant the Russian submarine would pass by a short distance away. This was bad news, and good news.
The bad news was that the probability that Krasnoyarsk’s crew would detect Michigan playing possum on the sea bottom increased as the Russian submarine drew nearer. The good news was that if Krasnoyarsk failed to detect and realize Michigan had survived, Wilson and his crew would be in an ideal attack position after the Russian submarine passed by.
As Wilson filled in the details of the plan forming in his mind, there was a high-pitched chirp from the Conn speaker, signaling that someone was calling the Conn over the submarine’s sound-powered phone system. Wilson had ordered his crew to refrain from using the usual communication systems, which blared reports from speakers throughout the submarine, directing them instead to use the much quieter phone system.
Wilson picked up the handset and placed it to his ear. “Captain.”
“Captain, Engineer. We’ve completed our inspection of the Engineering spaces and there is no noticeable damage.”
Wilson acknowledged the Engineer’s report, then awaited results from the rest of the submarine, which soon arrived. Aside from the towed array and the bottom Fathometer, Michigan had sustained no other damage, as far as they could tell.
Lieutenant Commander Montgomery, still in charge of the Fire Control Tracking Party, approached. “Master one will be at CPA in five minutes.”
A glance at the nearest tactical display indicated that Krasnoyarsk had remained on an eastward course and would soon reach its Closest Point of Approach. It was unclear exactly how far away the Russian submarine would pass, but the estimates being generated on the combat control consoles placed Krasnoyarsk’s CPA at between one thousand and two thousand yards.
A submarine operating normally would definitely have been detectable at that range. Whether Michigan was quiet enough, with most of its machinery deenergized, was the critical question. A single burst of noise could give Michigan away. Shutting a watertight door too forcefully or dropping a wrench onto the submarine’s metal deck plates could be heard thousands of yards away, depending on how quiet the surrounding ocean environment was.
Wilson settled into the Captain’s chair on the Conn, then ordered the Chief of the Watch, “To all stations, no one is authorized to move or touch anything, aside from console controls, until further notice.”
The order went out over the sound-powered phone system, and throughout the submarine, personnel movement ceased.
The watchstanders in the Control Room waited tensely as the Russian submarine drew closer to Michigan, with Montgomery periodically announcing the estimated distance to their adversary.
After reaching twelve hundred yards, Montgomery announced, “Master one is at CPA.”
Wilson shifted his gaze between the Sonar monitor and the tactical displays, searching for any indication that Krasnoyarsk’s crew had realized that Michigan was resting on the bottom a short distance away and hadn’t been sunk. Krasnoyarsk’s tonals and bearing changed steadily, consistent with a contact remaining on the same course and speed.
Montgomery kept reporting the distance to Krasnoyarsk as the submarine continued east, and the tension in the Control Room gradually eased. But Wilson realized they were approaching the most dangerous point, since Krasnoyarsk’s most capable sensor trailed behind the submarine.
Wilson reminded the Control Room watchstanders, “The towed array is passing by now.”
Krasnoyarsk remained steady on an eastern course as Montgomery reported the distance to the Russian submarine in one-hundred-yard intervals. When the Russian submarine opened to three thousand yards and its towed array was about two thousand yards away, with no discernible reaction from Krasnoyarsk, the tension in the Control Room began to fade.