Chimera

When Bingde finally got up, sirens were sounding across his ship as well as the others. He noticed blood splattered across the walls of the bridge and the bodies of his bridge crew lying around, several of them writhing in pain from injuries.

He brought his hands up to his face and saw the cuts and bruises from his fall. But otherwise he was in one piece. He was still shaking from the impact but managed to grab the railing and pull himself on to his feet. That was when he realized his arm was broken from the dive he had made. The pain was somewhat numbed from the fear pumping in his arteries.

He straggled back out on the observation area and saw to his horror the ocean waters on fire. Pieces of debris from the Yulin were all around him. He never did see what happened to the Yulin…

But the Yulin was already gone.

The Frigate Changzhou was also on fire, although the missile that had hit it had done so near the stern helicopter hanger. That hanger was no more. A large column of smoke was now rising from it with intermittent licks of flame within. And Bingde noticed that the ship was moving slower now, probably because of damage to the engines…

He walked back to the bridge to see that members of his crew had rushed in and were evacuating the wounded from the bridge. Others had taken over the ship’s controls. He walked over to the ship’s intercom and picked up the phone with his good hand to ask for the damage report.

But before he could hear an answer, a bridge officer shouted another warning. He let the phone hanging and ran back outside to see the Changzhou a kilometer to the north firing more surface-to-air missiles from its bow launchers. The plumes lifted vertically and then arced back to the northeast…

“More missiles inbound! Brace for impact!” Bingde shouted and took cover behind the metal walls of the bridge. He kept his head above to observe and saw three more long tubes moving at supersonic speeds for the disabled Changzhou.

There was no hope for her.

But only one of the missiles was targeted at her. It slammed into the port side of the ship near the bridge superstructure, destroying the bridge and left the ship listing to the starboard into the sea. The fires reached the missile warheads on board and the bow of the ship exploded, creating a massive hole as water swept in, sinking the ship with it.

The two remaining missiles flew past the sinking Changzhou. One flew past its sinking bow and the other past its stern. The missiles each hit a container ship in the convoy and balls of fire rising into the sky before turning into pillars of smoke, but the ships were still floating…

Bingde was still dazed from what had just happened before his eyes. He noticed his hands shaking uncontrollably.

“Captain! Incoming radio message from the Indians!”

He stood up and took a deep breath. He shook his head to wipe the fear and told himself that his crew would need him. He walked over to the radio operator: “Let’s hear it.”

The operator opened the channel for the bridge crew:

“To all Chinese merchant and naval vessels in the vicinity: this is Vice-Admiral Surakshan, commander of the Indian fleet. You are now inside my kill zone. If you value your life and the life of your crew, you will listen to what I have to say. Try to escape and you will meet the same fate as your escorts. Surrender your ships now and you will live. Send out your intentions by changing course to the north at best speed. It gives me no pleasure to take civilian lives, but I will hardly hesitate if I have to. Do not challenge me on this. You have seen just seen a taste of the power I wield in the Indian Ocean. You have ten minutes to comply.”

Bingde looked around at the shattered bridge of his ship and saw that the bridge-crew was looking at him in silence, waiting for orders…

He could not surrender his ship. There was a war on right now, but there would be an after-the-war as well. If he and his crew surrendered this ship to the Indians, they would pay the price for it when they got back home. They would be tried for treason and then severely punished.

But ignoring the Indian threat meant that they would face oblivion just like the crews of the Changzhou and the Yulin. They had no defenses on board other than small arms, and the Indians weren’t looking to forcibly board these ships so those weapons did not matter. He picked up the phone and asked for the comms officer to patch him through to the other Captains of the three remaining ships…

A few minutes of discussion later he sent out his radio message back on the same channel as Surakshan and spoke in English:

“Indian navy commander, this is Captain Bingde of the Chinese merchant shipping vessel Aaa-Fu Yuankou. We are carrying civilian supplies to China and are unarmed. We must be allowed to pass unhindered. We will not surrender these ships!”