SSN

    Mack decided it was time for some active sonar practice-forward of the beam in sector searches. This would alert the Romeo, but that's what Mack wanted. With luck, the Chinese captain would be smart enough to "pull up his pants and go home," as the old saying went. Besides, it was better than two quiet submarines running into each other.

    Within minutes of going active, sonar reported contact on a submarine based on the elevation angle of the returning energy. Range 1,850 yards and on the same bearing of the twelve-cylinder diesels' platform, which also was being painted by the BSY-1.

    Mack wanted to make tube one ready for a snap shot, but he couldn't. His orders prevented him. He could only fire first at an Akula, not at a Romeo.

    Moments later, though, Mack realized that he wasn't going to need to fire. He knew that when sonar reported the submerged contact blowing ballast and increasing speed, two shafts, four blades each, and squawking on his underwater telephone to the Hainan.

    The Chinese Romeo's captain had indeed decided to get away from the famous Cheyenne, but he had panicked, remembering too late that the Hainan was above him. He ordered the main ballast tank vents opened, but it was too late to stop his ascent. His full rudder turn didn't help either, because the Hainan turned in the same direction.

    Moments later, the Romeo's sail sliced through the thin Hainan hull, right at the engine room. The Hainan diesels sputtered and died, their hot engine blocks cracked by the much cooler seawater. Its captain ordered his men to abandon ship as the seawater continued rushing in, helping to put out the fires but causing the tiny craft to sink beneath.

    The Romeo was undamaged, but its mission was over. It was going to be busy rescuing the survivors from the diesel fuel-slicked grasp of the sea.

    Mack grinned and made another quick decision. He decided to save the torpedoes after ail and not use them as off-board sensors. Using their active sonar had given them a pretty good idea where the minefield was, so he ordered a notice-to-mariners message drafted and loaded into an SSIXS buoy. This notice would be transmitted to CTF 74 once the buoy reached the surface and unfurled its tiny satellite antenna. After repeating the transmission four times, the buoy would scuttle itself.

    Mack was pleased with his decision. He saved his Mk 48s. He didn't have to go to periscope depth near where the rescue efforts were taking place. And he was able to proceed upon his mission right away.

    But there was a downside to his plan, one which Mack hadn't considered. By not being at periscope depth, Cheyenne's WLR-8(V) antenna was not able to detect a radio transmission from the Romeo, a transmission in which the Romeo's captain reported Cheyenne's presence in the area.

    This information was picked up and put on the Chinese South Sea Fleet and East Sea Fleet broadcasts. Hours later, with Mack unaware of any of this, General Yu's Akulas and also some Kilos were closing on the datum reported by the Romeo. Three Akulas were closing from the southwest at a comfortable twenty-five knots, while two slower Kilos were making an end around northeast of Taiwan, running on their batteries at eight knots so that they would not have to recharge their batteries before getting on station east of the big island.

    By supper time, Cheyenne had arrived in her first search area and slowed to one-third speed to launch several SSXBTs, but Mack rescinded the SSXBT order after the OOD reported that sonar had weak tonals from an Akula to the south. These were the same tonals that had been detected on the last Akula that supposedly sank after the Typhoon hunt. Sonar also detected a loud shaft rub, which easily allowed them to determine the Akula's twenty-five knot speed.

    Mack realized that they must have only damaged the Akula's shafting. With a word of caution to his officers about their returning adversary, Mack ordered battle stations torpedo manned.

    This was a Russian-crewed Akula. Captain Mackey was aware of this, and knew it was dangerous. He also knew that this could be a repeat of a previous hornets' nest, when quieter Akulas popped up out of nowhere. But he didn't expect two hornets' nests.

    When the Akula's range closed to 25,000 yards, the shaft rub stopped. The Akula had slowed to determine where his counterparts were. The two other Akulas, manned by Chinese who had only recently completed their training in the North Fleet, lost contact on their leader, so they also slowed.

    One lesson the Chinese had learned during their training was not to communicate over underwater telephone. Instead, they had come up with a technique to determine range without using the underwater telephone- a technique that no seasoned submariner would ever employ, but these two Chinese captains were far from seasoned.