SSN

    Life aboard a submarine was often a lonely existence in which sailors had little personal space and almost zero privacy. The newest sailors were often required to "hot bunk"-sharing bunks on a rotating sleep schedule. As soon as one sailor rolled out of bed, another crewman would take his place in the same bunk. The uncomfortable feeling of climbing into an already warm bed gave rise to the term "hot bunking."

    After their most recent encounter, however, life aboard Cheyenne was anything but lonely. Every sonar contact seemed to signal an enemy, every noise from their reactor or propulsion plant threatened to expose them to the Chinese, and every incoming communication held the promise of action. Running at twenty-six knots in the same "sprint and drift" mode they had employed in their transit to Pearl, Mack wanted to reach Independence as quickly as was practically possible.

    As time passed, however, with no further encounters, the tension levels on board gradually returned to normal, and before the crew realized it they were approaching the Celebes Sea. Once through this, they would have only the Sulu Sea between them and their rendezvous in the South China Sea.

    Cheyenne had received word that Independence was on station and awaiting her arrival. Mack and his crew were currently a little over 1,200 miles from Independence's location. At flank speed, Cheyenne could be there in a little over two days, but travelling that fast could prove to be too noisy. At the slower but safer twenty-six knots, running in sprint-and-drift mode, Cheyenne would still make her rendezvous in less than four days.

    Midway through the Celebes Sea, Mack received an update. Cheyenne was instructed to use extreme caution once she passed through the Celebes and Sulu seas and into the South China Sea. Naval intelligence was reporting that mines might have been laid there, and they could pose a danger to Cheyenne.

    That was news. China typically deployed coastal and moored contact minefields-technology that certainly wasn't obsolete, but which would not seriously threaten Cheyenne. Recent intelligence reports, however, indicated that the cash-strapped Russian military had sold the Chinese an unconfirmed number of "Cluster Bay" and "Cluster Gulf antisubmarine mines, the latter of which could be used in 2,000 meters of seawater. That meant that Cheyenne would have to be on guard against the older, less advanced mines, and they would also have to watch out for the very real possibility that they might "come into contact" with these deep-water mines as well.

    Mack was not pleased with this news, and he liked the next bit of intelligence even less. An extremely large Chinese surface and submarine fleet was currently forming, and naval intelligence expected them to leave Guangzhou Naval Base sometime within the next thirty-six hours. Naval intelligence assumed-and Mack agreed-that the Chinese force's mission most probably consisted of two parts; hunting for any U.S. naval vessels in the area and, more specifically and more immediately, attempting to sink the U.S. carrier Independence.

    Once they reached the eastern entrance to the Sulu Sea, Mack cut Cheyenne's speed to ten knots. She would travel through the Sulu Sea slowly and quietly until she reached the Balabac Strait, south of the relatively tiny island of Palawan. That would be her last opportunity to listen carefully before entering hostile waters.

    As planneds Cheyenne stayed slow and listened for any danger signs before entering the South China Sea to her southwest. The recently invaded Spratly Islands lay several hundred nautical miles away in the center of the South China Sea. These were reportedly heavily guarded by a large Chinese contingent intended to prevent another invasion of the islands.

    After Cheyenne passed silently into the South China Sea, Mack ordered, "Deploy the TB-23," calling for his crew to stream their passive "thin-line" towed-array.

    Designed to detect very low-frequency noise at long distances, the TB-23 was one of the newest additions to the improved Los Angeles class submarines. Cheyenne was also one of the first submarines to receive this new system.

    The TB-23, which was reeled into the submarine's main ballast tank instead of being housed internally and running down the side of the pressure hull like the TB-16, was so long that even with Cheyenne running at twenty knots, she would still be able to detect distant sonar contacts.

    The towed-array worked beautifully, and its dozens of hydrophones detected more sounds than the submarine's computers often knew what to do with. Everything from large fish to fishing trawlers had been detected on their submarine's TB-23 since their abbreviated shakedown cruise and they were now very confident in its operation.