SSN

    Hunting two Alfas, with every passing moment increasing the odds that Cheyenne would be discovered, fifteen minutes had never seemed so long to Mack. After another eternity had passed, he heard, "Both units have acquired."

    "Conn, sonar, Master 69 is turning toward and increasing speed, cavitating heavily."

    Mack didn't have a chance to acknowledge the information. Before he could say anything sonar reported noisemakers launched by the Alfa.

    Mack nodded and ordered "steer the weapons." That would keep them from being tricked into attacking the decoys. He also ordered Cheyenne's course changed to the right by ninety degrees. He wanted accurate targeting information for the torpedoes, and for that he needed the bearings to the incoming Alfa and to the stationary noise-makers to diverge.

    It didn't take long to obtain a bearing spread. But Mack didn't have any chance to relax. The combat systems officer had just reported the torpedoes on course for intercept of Master 69, when out of the baffles came sonar contact on the second Alfa.

    "Cut the wires, shut the outer doors, and reload tubes one and two," Mack ordered. "Make tubes three and four ready in all respects, including opening the outer doors." A melee situation was rapidly developing. "Conn, sonar, we have torpedoes in the water, bearings 285, 290, 110, and 105. Both Alfas have launched weapons at us!"

    "Match sonar bearings and shoot, Master 70, as soon as tubes three and four are ready."

    It was time for Cheyenne to clear datum. It was also time for their own counter-measures to be launched. As soon as Mack received the report of tubes three and four being fired electrically, he ordered the outer doors shut and the tubes reloaded. The torpedoes they'd just fired would have to do their own thing.

    "Steady as she goes, all ahead flank. Do not cavitate. Make your depth one thousand feet." When those orders had been acknowledged, Mack added, "Rig ship for depth charge." It didn't matter that those were torpedoes coming at Cheyenne, not depth charges. The phrase had originated in the early days of the Silent Service, and it had stuck.

    Mack had done all he could for the moment. His plan now was to let the counter-measures do their own work and to try and slip away from the scene.

    Cheyenne reached flank speed, on course 015, and at one thousand feet, as the Chinese-launched, Russian-made torpedoes were entering the baffles. The counter-measures, launched from the dispensers at the stern planes' vertical struts, had worked, decoying the fish and buying time for Cheyenne.

    That was the good news. The bad news was that sonar couldn't hear Cheyenne's last two torpedoes, and couldn't tell whether they had entered their terminal homing mode at Master 70. With the guidance wires cut, the BSY-1 had no knowledge of it, either.

    The next few minutes were tense and silent. Then the sonar supervisor spoke up. "Conn, sonar, two explosions, one bearing 175 and the other coming from the baffles." Sonar didn't have enough bearing information to get both direct path and bottom bounce, so the sonar supervisor couldn't report range. Sonar also couldn't tell exactly what the torpedoes had impacted against. It could have been one or both of the Chinese Alfas, but it could also have been Chinese noisemakers, or even Cheyenne's own countermeasures. To top it off, Cheyenne had lost contact on both Alfas in the baffles.

    In short, Mack had no idea whether one or both of the AJfas were still there-and he wanted to know. That information was important to Cheyenne^s survival, and to the success of her mission.

    On his orders, Cheyenne slowed and, after proceeding above the layer, cleared her baffles to port. There was no sign of the Alfas, only reverberations from the explosions. The data did show, however, that there had been three explosions, not two. The one they'd picked up in their baffles had actually been two separate explosions.

    Mack didn't have many different ways to read this situation. The Alfas could either have surfaced or have gone to the bottom-and he didn't think they'd gone down. There had been eight separate torpedoes in the area, he knew, four from Cheyenne and two each from the Alfas. With only three explosions, it was doubtful that both Chinese submarines had been killed.

    But there just wasn't any way to tell from the available data. Not yet, anyway. The sonar tapes would have to be analyzed, a process that would take some time, and then maybe they'd have a better idea.

    Cheyenne continued on course toward the second patrol area, at seven hundred feet to keep beneath the layer, while battle stations and the rig for depth charge were secured. The usual all-officer meeting was delayed for at least thirty minutes while the captain and executive officer talked in his stateroom and the melee was reconstructed by the battle stations fire-control party.