Questions

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Roadell Hickman

Commander Riley O'Bannon was watching the COB¹ as he checked the systems on the computer screen in front of him. The COB had a great poker face, there was no telling what was going through his mind by watching him, it could be great news, it could be terrible news, but O'Bannon had learned to wait for MMCM² Charlie Vickers' reports, he was nearly always dead on.

Vickers turned and looked at his Captain, "We're good Cap'n, all systems are up and running, including comms."

"Thanks COB. Sonar, Conn, are we clear?"

"Conn, Sonar, one passive contact at 227 relative, very weak, keeps fading in and out."

"Jenkins, let's get the mast up and see if anyone is around."

"Clear all around Cap'n, no contacts."

"OOD, you have the Conn, I'm going down to the Comms shack."

"Aye, OOD has the Conn, Captain is off the Conn.³"

CDR O'Bannon looked over the message he had written out for the Comms operator on duty. It looked good, it explained succinctly what was going on with his boat and what he made of the situation around his position in the Sea of Japan roughly a hundred miles south-southeast of the Russian port of Vladivostok.

They'd been lying low for two weeks repairing the damage they had sustained when they had had a near miss by a torpedo which had been on top of them so fast that they had had little time to react. O'Bannon was convinced that they had had an encounter with a Shkval or some variant of that Russian torpedo. Thing was incredibly fast, thank God it wasn't that maneuverable.

Now he had his top sonar guys going over the recordings leading up to the encounter. They had detected nothing until the torpedo had been less than ten minutes out. Was it Russian, or did the Chinese have a copy of that damned thing?

He really needed to know.

"Colonel, good news." MACS Sorge handed Colonel Tanaka a message flimsy.

Tanaka opened it, read the brief message than shouted over at Harry Fairchild, who was asleep on the office couch, "Harry! Gudgeon is alive!"

Fairchild snapped awake, a habit he had learned in his many years at sea, and grunted out, "Damn that's good news. Do we have a report from the captain?"

Sorge answered, "Still being decoded Sir. First message just said, 'Gudgeon alive, repeat, Gudgeon alive. Details to follow.' The second message is pretty long Sir."

Tanaka nodded and before he could speak, Sorge told him, "They'll have it to you as soon as possible, Sir."

Jack Bishop woke up, he swore he could smell coffee, real coffee, and, damn, was that bacon? Rolling off the cot he'd slept on he felt a twinge in his lower back, reminding him that he wasn't getting any younger.

"Mornin' Major." Sgt. Jefferson had taken to calling Bishop "Major" when she had learned from Ida Kasparian that Bishop had been medically retired from the Army as a major. He'd served "only" twelve years before being badly wounded in Ukraine, badly enough that he had been forcibly  retired from active duty.

"Sarge, is that real coffee? And bacon, where did we get bacon?"

Sgt. Jefferson smiled and said, "Don't ask," nodding over at Billy Kasparian.

Billy saw the exchange and said, "Hey, Mr. Washington 'found' a pig, I knew how to turn said pig into bacon, I mean come on, I am a farmer."

Bobby Washington came in with an armload of firewood and put it down near the fire. "Yeah, I found a pig, sounds better than 'I stole a pig' I guess."

As Bishop loaded his plate with bacon, he smiled and said, "Wherever and whatever Mr. Washington, this is good stuff. Thanks. What's on the agenda for today?"

Washington nodded at Pablo Mendoza and said, "Pablo heard a rumor that there's a few gangbangers in his old neighborhood. We think it's high time we drove 'em out."

"Are they armed?" Bishop asked.

"They sure are, do you think they'll hang around once you open up on 'em with automatic weapons? All they've got, according to Pablo's neighbors, are pistols and a couple of shotguns. They think they've got it made since the police up and quit." Washington said.

Billy Kasparian looked up from his breakfast, "The cops quit?"

"Sure did," Washington explained, "wouldn't you if they stopped paying you and released the criminals you brought in?"

"Seriously?"

"Serious as a heart attack, Mr. K."

Tanaka read the decoded message from USS Gudgeon again, looking up at Harry Fairchild he asked, "A Shkval torpedo?"

"It's Russian for 'squall,' damned things are really fast, but you have to hit dead on as they don't turn worth a damn." Fairchild answered.

"But it is a Russian torpedo, for sure."

"Nope, could be Chinese. Before all this nonsense started we had intel indicating that the Chinese stole the design and actually made some improvements to the reliability of the beast. The chief sonarman aboard Gudgeon analyzed the recordings they had, system does that automatically, and he said it didn't look like the Russian version of the thing. Could be a new variant, but it's 'probably' Chinese, not Russian." Fairchild looked around the room.

"But it's fishy, the Russians are sheltering the Vice President, who is suspected of treason, and now this. It could be the Russians, or it could be the Chinese. But Gudgeon is alive, so is her crew, that's the important thing right now. Which raises the question, what's our next move Colonel?"

"Did Gudgeon ever penetrate Russian territorial waters?" Tanaka asked, his face said 'don't you dare bullshit me.'

Fairchild looked at the floor then back up at the colonel, "It's possible, we do it a lot. Usually our boats get in and out without anyone being the wiser, I've done it myself on more than one occasion."

"So it could be a Chinese attack or it could be self-defense, sort of, on the Russians' part?"

"Yup, I can't think of a third possibility."

"Where's Gudgeon headed now?"

"Yokosuka. We'll have a full report when she pulls in, couple of days probably."

Tanaka nodded then said, "So we wait."

"Major?"

"What's up Sarn't Jefferson?"

"We're getting low on ammo, Sir. We need to get back to base. I think Mr. Washington and his team have things under control here."

Bishop nodded, they had moved into Pablo Mendoza's old neighborhood and driven the gangbangers out of the buildings they were holed up in. Once in the open they had tried to surrender, Mendoza's neighbors weren't having it. All of the 'bangers had died. Bishop had counted twenty-seven dead, among them three women. He felt sick but the locals were jubilant.

The downside was that they couldn't stay, they had expended a lot of ammunition in the brief firefight. The intention had been to overawe the gangbangers, which they had. Now they had to restock their ammo, he had asked, but there was no ammunition available within twenty miles of Albany. So back to base.

"All right, let's mount up people. Mr. Washington, you gonna be okay?"

"I think so," he stuck his hand out, "thanks for the help, Major."

Bishop shook Washington's hand, "I wish there was some way you could contact us if you need us again."

"Unless the Chinese come back, I think we'll be okay. Drug dealers just want to sell drugs and make money, fightin' wars ain't what they're about, least not when the other side is organized and shoots back."

"Good luck Sir." Bishop left to climb into the MRAP, he'd let Ida drive this time. She was better at it anyway.

¹ Chief of the Boat - The senior enlisted sailor aboard a U.S. submarine.

² Machinist's Mate Master Chief Petty Officer

³ I probably have the verbiage wrong, anyone care to correct?