SSN

    During dinner in his wardroom-a dinner they all ate quickly-Mack addressed his officers. "We have our work cut out for us again. With quiet Akulas and the Typhoon staring us in the face, we'll need to be even more innovative in our attacks than we were when we went up against the seven Akulas. We'll have to flush out both the Akulas and the Typhoon."

    They had gotten a break earlier. Sonar had reported weak tonals from an Akula to the south, the same tonals as had been detected on the only Akula to have gotten away from her in the Paracels. Apparently, running out of assets, the Chinese had been able to do nothing else but assign that one and the remaining inter-fleet transfer ones to the Typhoon's protection.

    This was fine with Mack. Not only did it give him a second shot at that Akula, but this one was a dead giveaway, if the Typhoon were nearby.

    The initial range had been established at roughly 80,000 yards in the third convergence zone by the section fire-control tracking party. This time. Mack would wait until he ordered the OOD to man battle stations, torpedo. There was still nothing from the other Akulas or the Typhoon. Just the lone set of low-frequency tonals. These were coming from the same one with sound shorts to its turbine generator.

    Just in case the other Russian submarines were somewhere nearby, Mack passed the order for the torpedo room to "Make tubes one and two ready in all respects, including opening the outer doors."

    A short while later, the OOD reported to the captain, "Tubes one and two are ready in all respects. Both outer doors are open." Cheyenne was getting so good that they were taking liberties with the battle stations versus the section fire-control parties.

    "Very well, officer of the deck," answered Mack. Fortunately, the Akula was not tracking on any particular course. This meant he was loitering in the vicinity of the Typhoon, as Mack had hoped. This also allowed Cheyenne to close the range while the Akula did the maneuvering to allow the three BS Y-1 computers to compute the fire-control solution before the Akula could detect the launch of Cheyenne's Mk 48s. The other Akulas and the Typhoon remained silent.

    Other than the signature obtained earlier, the Akula was quiet. Cheyenne was not able to detect it with either her spherical or conformal arrays. The course changes and the TB-23 inputs to the sonar consoles and to the three BSY-1 computer consoles made the solution possible for the section fire-control tracking party. When the BSY-1 operators and the section fire-control coordinator were satisfied with the TMA (target motion analysis) solution, Mack ordered battle stations manned.

    As was routine for Cheyenne, Captain Mackey ordered, "Firing point procedures, Master 124."

    The combat systems officer at the weapons control console reported the target course as random, speed three, and range 15,780 yards.

    "Sonar, conn, stand by."

    "Conn, sonar, standing by."

    "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two."

    "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two, aye."

    "Tubes one and two fired electrically," the combat systems officer reported.

    "Conn, sonar, units from tubes one and two running hot, straight, and normal," came the report from the sonar supervisor as the two torpedoes executed their wire clearance maneuvers and accelerated to medium speed for the inbound run.

    "Very well, sonar," responded Mack.

    The next report wasn't long in coming.

    "Conn, sonar, the weapons are accelerating." This was confirmed by the combat systems officer, who reported acquisition by both units. Cheyenne had detected a second Akula when it accelerated to fiee the situation, but there was still no sign of the Typhoon.

    The captain of the Typhoon, a capital ship of the former-and, perhaps, future-Soviet Union, was not about to give up his hovering. He hovered quietly with main engines secured and his two pressurized water reactors at the lowest possible power in order to generate as little steam-flow noise as possible. He had even secured the spinners, allowing his ship to swing with the current. This particular Russian captain intended to make admiral, following in the footsteps of his father.

    The two Mk 48s from Cheyenne continued on course for their targets, but only the torpedo from tube one had targeted the original, noisy Akula, old Master 74. Mack had retargeted the other Mk 48 at the second Akula as soon as it sped up, allowing Cheyenne's sonars to detect it. Sending the second torpedo toward this Russian submarine was merely Mack's way of welcoming it to PACFLT.

    "Conn, sonar, explosions bearing 195 and 178." Mack was hoping that the loss of two of his Akula escorts would rattle the Typhoon captain, but he maintained his posture, quiet as a titmouse in a church. Mack knew the Typhoon was out there, but he hadn't flushed it yet.