SSN

    "Yes, sir, Captain," answered the voice of the NSG QIC. "It's an Alfa. We've seen him, this particular one, in the North Fleet numerous times. No mistaking it, sir. He's well registered in our computer database."

    "Executive officer," spoke the captain calmly as he turned to the executive officer standing aft in the darkness of the rig for black. "Are you back there?"

    "Yes, Captain. Should I draft a message report on the Alfa?"

    "Please do so. Release it when ready. We need to find out what gives." The Alfa was designated Master 31, the Han Master 32, and the three Kilos Masters 33, 34, and 35.

    In less than half an hour, Cheyenne's flash message report had been sent and answered by the communicators at CTF 74 headquarters in Yokosuka.

    Mack read the CTF message and filled in his executive officer on what he'd learned. "ESM is right. It seems the 'friendly' Russians have sold a North Fleet Alfa to the Chinese," he said, "who then crewed it and overhauled it, apparently at Cuarteron Reef. How many more Alfas are being transferred to China is anybody's guess at this time. Naval intelligence is working on the problem.

    They're paying special attention to the recent lack of openness of the Russian submarine bases at Vladivostok and Petropavlosk."

    Mack chose this method of informing his executive officer, rather than filling him in during a private briefing, because he'd made a policy of ensuring that all his crewmen were knowledgeable about any enemy they were likely to encounter.

    Because of this, the messenger of the watch-who had heard the initial ESM report but not the follow up- knew, or thought he knew, the implication of an Alfa, a Russian submarine, in the immediate area, The messenger of the watch quickly spread the word through the crew's mess as he stood there with his red goggles on, drawing coffee for the control room watch slanders. The movie operator even shut down the movie and turned on the lights so they could all discuss the new information.

    But for all Mack's openness, the crew was never as well informed as the officers. In this case, because the messenger of the watch had been sent for coffee before hearing Mack's final report, none of the crew on board Cheyenne knew that the Alfa was manned not by Russians but by Chinese sailors.

    The captain called for an immediate meeting of all officers in the wardroom to share with them the new intelligence on the Alfa, manned by Chinese, and its current exodus with a Han and three Kilo SSKs. He expected the SSNs to wait for deep water before diving, but anticipated the Kilos would dive in twenty fathoms.

    That was as far as Mack got before the OOD called him on the sound-powered phones, allowing the mess specialist to sneak out of the wardroom galley and pass the word on the Chinese crew to the already buzzing crew's mess.

    "Captain, ESM reports the Kilo radars and the Han radar have shut down. They were drawing left while the Alfa radar is still drawing right."

    "Okay, men. We have our work cut out for us. The three Kilos and the Han have probably submerged. Ana the Alfa may be trying to do an end around to get behind us. It's time to man battle stations."

    Mack's reading of the situation was correct. Sonar had just finished reporting tonals from the Han SSN to the conn as the captain arrived and ordered the OOD to man battle stations torpedo. There was still nothing from the Kilos acoustically, but the Alfa had also shut down its radar-last bearing due south of Cheyenne.

    As directed by the captain, who was now the conning officer, the executive officer, in his role as the fire control coordinator, passed the order to the torpedo room over the sound-powered phones, "Torpedo room, fire control, make tubes one and two ready in all respects, including opening the outer doors." He wanted to get the tubes ready as early as possible and as far from the enemy submarines as possible.

    The order from the captain, carried by the open microphone at the periscope stand, alerted the sonar operators that noisy evolutions would be taking place near the BSY-) spherical array so they could attenuate the sound level reaching their sensitive ears.

    The torpedo room crew acknowledged the order. "Make tubes one and two ready in all respects, including opening the outer doors, fire control, torpedo room, aye." Moments later, the torpedo room reported completing the ordered evolution with the torpedo tubes. The executive officer relayed the information to Mack. "Captain, tubes one and two are ready in all respects. Both outer doors are open."

    "Very well, fire control," answered the captain. The Han was drawing left and closing. It was not quiet by any means, and was easily tracked by the TB-16, spherical, and conformal arrays at the same time. The inputs to the three BSY-1 computers made the solution a snap for the fire-control party.