SSN

    In talking with Area's officer-in-charge, Mack learned that Arco had managed to off-load some Navy Construction Battalion equipment and a small contingent of Seabees at a pleasure boat launch ramp near the Cubi airfields. That would have been very good news if they were on a longer timetable. As it was, repair of the runways would probably be too late for Cheyenne to count on any air support in her upcoming missions. Besides, Mack thought, deciding to forget about having to coordinate operations with aircraft, even if the Seabees got the runways repaired, it wouldn't do much good. The supporting infrastructure that had once been at the airfield, as well as the air-traffic controllers and radars, had been spread to other airfields around the world.

    Which was fine with Mack. This was a submarine war; it was Cheyenne's submarine war. He did appreciate, however, that Arco had brought a replacement screw for Cheyenne. She didn't need it yet, but there was always the outside chance that Chinese torpedo shrapnel would get close enough to cause damage to the screw. The "singing" screw that could develop from that would limit Cheyenne's speed, and that was worse than a SUB-SAFE depth restriction to one-half test depth. Singing screws were a condition that could not be tolerated even in peacetime.

    Arco also had brought the "ship's key," the huge wrench needed to remove and replace the screw's hub nut.

    The following morning, McKee arrived in Subic Bay under the cover of darkness. She didn't moor at the sea wall, but instead moored outboard of Arco at the SRF (ship repair facility) just down the street from the old Naval Forces headquarters building. Mack knew that the captain of McKee would consider moving his ship after Cheyenne's departure, and after his men were able to assess the safety of the previously normal berth for large ships like McKee. Those berths had been unattended for nearly five years, and he would want to be sure of the sea wall's status, including the mooring bollards, before he felt comfortable enough to moor there for the duration of the war.

    There was another good reason for that choice. As Mack knew, the sea wall was located across the relatively narrow channel from the aircraft carrier mooring at Cubi Point, and tending submarines there had never been done before. In the old days, when the United States was maintaining and operating this base, submarine upkeeps always had been conducted within the SRF gates both for security purposes and because it was near the SRF shops and weapons-storage areas.

    At daylight, McKee slacked its mooring lines to Arco for the flooding down of the drydock and the "dead stick" move of Cheyenne to outboard of McKee. For safety reasons, the two captains agreed not to load weapons while Cheyenne was still inside the drydock.

    When the drydock was flooded and seawater systems were once again flooded and vented of any entrapped air, Cheyenne received the word "prepare to snorkel" and passed it along, internally, over the 1MC. With no current to contend with, this move went smoothly and safely. Cheyenne's diesel generator provided power to the emergency propulsion motor (EPM) and to the ship's vital electrical loads, which remained energized during "rig ship for reduced electrical power." Had this been done in San Diego, without Cheyenne's reactor power and steam in the engineering spaces, it would have required at least one tug, and maybe two if Cheyenne had needed to make the move at other than slack tide.

    When Cheyenne was positioned properly, the combat systems officer, engineer officer, and their other division officers remained on board Cheyenne to take care of the weapons loading and reactor start-up preparations. Captain Mackey, along with his executive officer, operations officer, and navigator, proceeded to McKee's war room for their pre-underway briefing.

    There was a new face at this meeting: the CSS 11 commodore was present-which, Mack knew, could mean major changes, or it could mean nothing. Either way, he'd know soon enough.

    Once the formalities were out of the way, the briefing officer again took control of the meeting. He informed Mack and the other officers of Cheyenne that, with McKee no longer requiring air protection from the Carrier Battle Group, CINCPACFLT had decided to move Independence and his other surface forces to an area west of the Spratly Islands. USCINCPAC, with JCS approval, had concurred. Which meant that there would be a change in the location of Cheyenne's next patrol.

    Mack's earlier orders had been to patrol south of the islands, but those orders were no longer valid. His new orders were for Cheyenne to transit to a patrol area located about four hundred nautical miles to the north- deep waters with which Cheyenne was now familiar. However, the briefing officer went on, if the inbound Akulas were detected heading for the Paracels, Cheyenne was expected to cut them off before the three Akulas from the North Fleet could resupply.