SSN

    Mack needn't have worried-at the moment, anyway. The Chinese patrol craft knew nothing of Cheyenne's transit north. They had gone active to test out their equipment, not because they suspected there was a U.S. SSN in the area. The Chinese craft, built in the early 1960s, had recently been fitted with a new active sonar and their captains often enjoyed using this during training exercises. Their upcoming mission, however, was anything but a training exercise. The two Chinese Hainan class fast attack craft had been fully loaded with twelve mines, and when they reached their assigned location they would begin deploying these naval mines from their mine rails. After they had evaluated their new sonars, the Chinese captains would continue on their assigned mission.

    After fifteen minutes of tracking the Hainan attack craft, Cheyenne's sonars lost contact with the two Chinese boats. They reacquired the two patrol craft as Cheyenne began to enter the strait.

    Mack had gone back to the sonar room. After reporting the contacts to the OOD, the sonar supervisor said, "Captain, we've just acquired the two Chinese craft again. They must have gone up the eastern coast of China. Bearing is 355."

    Mack went back to the control room. "Do you have the range to the Chinese active sonars yet?" Mack asked. "Not yet, Captain, but we should have it ready soon," the OOD answered. He had worked hard with his section fire-control tracking party, perfecting their technique, and he was proud of them.

    Less than a minute later the section fire-control tracking party had an answer to Mack's question. "Range is 68,000 yards, Captain." "Conn, sonar, our Chinese contacts have stopped pinging, sir," the sonar supervisor said. "I'll bet that they're laying mines."

    The two Chinese craft were nearly forty miles to the north of Cheyenne. One by one their Russian-designed MAG moored contact mines were pushed over and dropped into the water via the mine rails aboard the small craft. These mines were based on technology that was nearly one hundred years old, but they still presented a serious threat to Cheyenne.

    "Mark that area as a minefield," Mack said, pointing to the area on the plotting table where they believed the Chinese ships to be operating. "If at all possible, we want to stay clear of that zone."

    "Aye, Captain," said the auxiliary electrician forward as he looked up from his plot. He was the plotter for his watch section, and, like all the sailors on board Cheyenne, he took pride in his performance and his professionalism.

    Mack did not know what types of mines were being laid in the Formosa Strait, but he did know that even the most basic, least expensive underwater pressure-sensitive mines could limit his operation. He hated to think that the Chinese could be laying some of the more advanced bottom-moored influence and acoustic mines by the U.S. Navy.

    For now at least, although Mack didn't know it, the Chinese preferred the low-cost mines to the high-tech, expensive ones, and the two Chinese craft were laying only pressure-sensitive types. These were perhaps the lowest-technology and least expensive naval mines a nation could buy. The MAG was a standard Soviet mine that was supplied to the Chinese throughout the early 1960s. One of the benefits of the MAG mine, however, was that it could be laid in water up to about 1,500 feet deep. This made them perfect for attacking submarines such as the American Los Angeles class SSNs.

    As Cheyenne approached the southern entrance to the Formosa Strait, the communicator came to the control room to deliver a message to Mack.

    "Captain, we just received an ELF message from Nimitz asking us to come to communications depth to receive a message from them over SSIXS."

    "Very well," Mack said. "Come to periscope depth," he ordered the OOD.

    As Cheyenne ascended slowly, Mack hoped that the message would contain some good news.

    Mack had decided to come to periscope depth in case the incoming message from Nimitz required an answer. He couldn't use the floating wire to transmit a message back to the fleet. He also wasn't sure if the message was on the VLF broadcast yet.

    With Cheyenne at periscope depth, Mack decided to have a quick look around with the Type 2 attack periscope. After raising his periscope, Mack made a quick circular motion in order to get a complete 360-degree picture of the surface, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

    As the message was received, it was automatically deciphered by the SSIXS transceiver and brought to Mack. He read it, then handed it to the navigator.

    "Take a look at this," Mack said. "Several of Nimitz's aircraft, operating from the Pacific, have been monitoring Chinese naval activities in the Formosa Strait for the past week, and they have determined that we are headed straight for a minefield."