Barracuda: Final Bearing

On the conn Scott Court, the navigator, took over the officer of the deck watch from Meritson. Their conversation was short as Meritson gave a rapid data dump in Court’s ear: “Target One confirmed Destiny II bearing two zero six on towed array narrowband’s 154 Hertz, bearing ambiguity resolved, own ship on one four five, depth eight hundred, speed all ahead two-thirds with turns for eight, ship rigged for ultraquiet, we’ve got a layer at 110 feet with a good sound channel between seven hundred and nine hundred. We’ve got weapons one through four up and warm, outer doors open, target solution programmed but weak. The Mark 50s are backups to the Vortex battery. We’ve got Vortex unit two coming up to speed now, gyro readback due in forty seconds.”

“I’ve got it, get the hell out of here. I relieve you, sir,” Court said to Meritson.

“I stand relieved, sir. Helm, Quartermaster, Commander Court has the deck and the conn.”

“This is Lieutenant Commander Court, I have the deck and the conn,” Court announced to the room, his voice quiet.

Meritson slipped into the seat at position two in the center of the attack center. He had already configured the display for dot-stack mode on Target One. He leaned back in the leather seat, looking at the upper and lower display, his fingers resting on the two circular knobs and the fixed function keys, feeling the fit of his function. He was a biological link in the submarine’s machine, the best man for this job. He was plugged into the tactical situation, the pos-two battle stations operator one of the most prestigious positions on the ship. He and the BSY computer were a two-brain team charged with finding the target, predicting exactly what he would do in five minutes’ time in the face of uncertain and conflicting data. Without his work, the captain would be helpless.

Meritson smiled to himself, his mind becoming one with the BSY system, his senses reaching out into the sea with the sonar gear, the target in the palm of his hand.

Roger Whatney, the Royal Navy lieutenant commander and executive officer, walked quickly into control, strapped on a one-eared headset and tested the phone circuit with his south-of-England accent. Whatney was the firecontrol coordinator, the owner of the “solution” to the target, the output of Meritson’s pos-two console meshed with the manual plot’s backup solution.

Whatney would function as the captain’s auxiliary brain, a sounding board, fully empowered to disagree with the commanding officer where the target’s motion was concerned although the captain could override him with a gesture.

Next to Meritson, on the console further forward, position one, Joe Katoris seated himself and put on a headset.

Katoris would back up Meritson, doing his own dance with the computer, trying to outdo Meritson’s solution, and in place to track the secondary target should another Destiny or other hostile target appear on the scene. His other function was to return the console to geographic mode so Phillips could see a God’s-eye view of the battle zone, then toggle back to his dot-stacker mode when Phillips no longer needed the geo plot.