Let's Talk ...

Source

Senior Captain Zhou Wenzhe regained consciousness slowly. The last thing he remembered was a lookout calling out a torpedo inbound towards the flagship, two miles to starboard. Then there was a blinding flash, followed by oblivion.

The ship was practically on her beam ends, the pilot house windows were bereft of glass, as he looked around, there was no one else on the bridge except him. He tried to get up off of the deck and found that he could not. He was badly burned and as he looked himself over, most of his uniform was gone and his flesh was penetrated by multiple small shards of glass.

He heard a moan to his right, he managed to turn his head. An enlisted man was lying under the captain's chair, well, what was left of the captain's chair. THe upper half of the seat was gone, just smoldering bits were left of it.

"Petty Officer, can you hear me?" he managed to croak.

The moaning stopped, he watched as the man turned his head, his eyes were gone. The man's head dropped to the deck and he moaned no more.

Zhou felt himself rolling and sliding towards one side of the bridge. As the seawater swirled up and over him, he realized what had happened. He had witnessed a nuclear event.

As he slipped beneath the cold waters of the sea, he tried to scream, the salt water burned as it washed his wounds. That scream was something of a mercy, as he inhaled to scream again, the seawater filled his lungs. There was a roaring in his ears.

Then, there was nothing.

INS Chakra (originally K-152 Nekra in the Russian Navy) was something of a hard luck ship. An inadvertant triggering of a fire extinguisher system had killed twenty people and injured another 21 when she had still been in the Russian service some two decades ago. After her lease to India, she had been involved in an inport collision which had damaged her sonar dome.

She had been transferred outright to the Indian Navy shortly after the termination of the 2nd Russo-Ukraine War. The Indians had the money to pay for her, and the Russians needed the funds.

She had been preparing a second nuclear tipped torpedo, it was in the tube and armed, when a Chinese anti-submarine torpedo, fired blindly down a line of bearing, found her. Somehow the Indian torpedo had detonated in Chakra's #2 torpedo tube, obliterating Chakra and a Chinese destroyer nearby.

Satellites saw two nuclear detonations, so throughout the world everyone thought the Chinese had responded to an Indian attack in like manner. It would be months before an investigation revealed that the Chinese had never fired any nuclear ordnance. Which the Chinese had denied having onboard from the beginning.

Bill Aspinall hurried into the room where the President was meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Congressional leadership. The crisis in the Indian Ocean was the topic of the meeting.

"Mr. President, the chiefs of the Indian military are begging for our assistance. They've lost contact with their submarine in the area and they claim that the Chinese have sunk her. With nuclear weapons, Sir! We can't ignore that."

Nakagawa sighed and looked up at Aspinall, "What do you have, Bill?"

"There's a Chinese woman on the White House public line. She's claiming to be the new Premier of the Chinese People's Republic. Name's Liu."

"Anyone we have a file on?"

"Well, we do Sir, but Liu is a pretty common Chinese family name."

"Can Fort Meade trace that number back to its source?"

"The cyber folks have traced it back to Beijing, but not to any known CCP office."

Nakagawa thought for a moment, "Patch her through."

The Army Chief of Staff jumped to his feet, "Mr. President, I don't trust the Chinese, we need to support ..."

Nakagawa sighed, "Bill, escort the general from the room. Get his second in here."

Then directly to the general, "General, you are relieved. You are to return to your quarters where you will remain under house arrest. Haven't you people f**king learned that I'm not playing f**king games here? We might be standing on the brink of a nuclear war between China and India and you're already choosing sides?"

The flag officers in the room all stirred nervously. The Army general had started to protest until two men from the President's security detail took charge of him and frog marched him out of the conference room.

"Any more questions, issues, protests, or other unwanted goddamned advice?" Nakagawa snarled.

Aspinall was a little worried, the President had not been getting much rest lately, but these men and women all seemed to think it was back to "business as usual."

"Sir, I'll get the Indian government on a separate line, if you think that's a good idea." Aspinall offered.

"What assets do we have in the area, Josh?" He asked his Navy liason officer, pointedly ignoring the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jack Whalen.

"Right now, Sir, just USS Barb and USS Silversides, both of them are Virginia-class attack boats. USS Vermont and USS Colorado are playing gatekeeper on the approaches to the Gulf. We can order them to the area. But I'd advise against it."

Whalen, used to the President's temper, chimed in, "Josh is right, Sir. Might look like an escalation if they're detected. I know the captains of Barb and Silversides, they're damned good. I'd trust their judgement."

Nakagawa, seeming to calm down, nodded. "Thanks Josh, Admiral Whalen, issue the necessary orders to those boats. Observe from a safe distance, only fire if fired upon."

Whalen stood, "Will do, Mr. President."

As the Admiral left the room, Nakagawa nodded at him by way of apology. Whalen nodded back.

Aspinall came back quickly, "Prime Minister Chowdhury is on line 2."

"I'll take that, talk to Premier Liu, tell her we're confirming her identity, she should understand that. If she doesn't then she's not someone I want to deal with."

"Good afternoon, Prime Minister ..." Nakagawa listened as the Indian Prime Minister began to lecture him over the phone. As much as he wanted to slam the phone down, he listened. He also had Aspinall listen in.

"My apologies, Comrade Liu, the President's aide said they are trying to confirm your identity."

"This is an outrage, Comrade Liu, how dare they ..."

Liu turned to the general commanding the forces currently putting down unrest in the capital area, "Silence, Comrade General. The man is being cautious, as I would be if the circumstances were reversed. He, unlike some in this room, has seen combat. The man can be trusted, I think."

General Chen's face reddened, he had come up through the political officer branch of the People's Liberation Army. He had managed to avoid combat twice in his career. Liu was aware of this, she was tolerating his presence for now, and he knew it. She had more of a power base than he did. She would use it.

"Yes, Comrade, I understand, but how can we trust these running dog ..."

Liu turned to her personal bodyguard, "Wang, give me your sidearm."

That man did so without question.

Chen began to bluster as the diminutive Liu checked that Wang's pistol was loaded. He began to sweat as she switched off the safety.

"My dear Comrade Liu, shouldn't we ..."

The silence that reigned when the echo of the pistol shot faded away weighed heavily on the men and women in the room. They all looked at Chen's ruined face and realized that Liu was not someone to be taken lightly.

"We wait." was all Liu said.