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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Let's Talk ...

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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.



46 comments:

  1. Well, at least people are talking. If some people had picked up their phones 110 August's ago, the world would be a much different place than it turned out to be.

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  2. I cant but imagine Lucy Liu as her namesake in the story...
    So probably most of PLAN task force is gone. Indian attack sub is gone.
    And Nakagawa has to talk both sides into stopping fire exchange.
    Anyway, would love Nakagawa having some CIA spook grilled over who the fuck is Liu.
    And still, there is Russia out there.

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    1. From what I can infer from the sale of the sub, a much diminished Russia is still out there, probably trying to deal with a recently heavily uparmed bunch of neighbors, one which includes Poland. And the Finns... Russia, post-end of Ukraine War, no matter whether they win or lose, will be greatly reduced.

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    2. Paweł - Liu is a common family name in China. But Lucy would be perfect for the part.

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    3. Beans - Russia was very diminished by the Second Russo-Ukraine war. Which has yet to occur!

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    4. Erm, Didn't Russia invade the Uke one time before the current festivities? So the current one is #2?

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    5. Stay tuned for why I call it that.

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  3. Blood splattering on your person should shut up the most vocal narcissist I would think. Time for cooler heads to step back and deliberate since employing canned sunshine is the ultimate escalation.

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    1. Seeing the guy next to you get shot is very attention getting.

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    2. Liu is a Dragon Lady. And her rictus is not a smile...

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  4. So far, the Restrained Adults in the Room are Russia and USA. Thats good. I truly hope the USA and Russia have some open coms as to prevent a 3rd party interference-agitation situation. China is in the middle of a multi side warlord "Discussion". India and China have had a nasty exchange but knowing how FAST such a situation could be well DONE AND OVER before phone calls can even be started. SOME Serious Restraint even there.

    Eagerly looking forward to what's next.

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  5. Cautious, but decisive, people talking. Except for India, which for some reason seems to like decisive and precipitous.

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    1. I spent last week with a bunch of senior Indian Naval Officers and didn't get that feeling from them, but it was only an exercise planning conference, vice combat.

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    2. Joe - There are times which call for caution, times which call for audacity. We have yet to see the reasons for the Indian Navy's action in this case.

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    3. Tuna - Everybody is calm until the fit hits the shan.

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  6. Perhaps pragmatism largely untainted by corruption can rule from here on out. Dismissing the CSA is better than the Chinese method and it looks as though the CNO will play ball. Since this fracas started at sea; that's pretty important.
    Yeah, I saw Lucy Liu too; but I saw the one from "Kill Bill"
    Boat Guy

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  7. thank you for the link to the (INS) Chakra; it's a great help
    if I may make a suggestion: perhaps links back to short resumes of people as they come up in the story
    this is perhaps the my biggest hate reading digitally; I cannot flip back thru the pages to "see" the person or review their prior hx in the story

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    1. I might do that, no guarantees though. (It's why I read paper books, not digital.)

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  8. Muse does not disappoint. I wondered yesterday if that had been Act 1, and it seems it was. So are we heading into two of three,or of five? She needs more beverages, her call.

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    1. She's getting lots of rest while I play with grandkids.

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  9. Well, that escalated quickly. Pretty much everywhere.

    The staggering thing is that it is totally believable, both the horror of a nuclear explosion of any kind as well as the taut management of personnel under stress situations (both kinds, as portrayed). People without a sense of how far to push things always think forbearance will last - until it does not.

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    1. You beat me to it- VERY quickly. Nukes tend to do that!

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    2. TB - Once the canned sunshine appears, things get very scary, very quickly if the participants aren't careful.

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    3. Tuna - Blindingly fast. Pun intended.

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  10. More surprises. The treatment of arrogant narcissist sycophants by both sides is, uh, "refreshing."

    Your Muse likes vacations, so give her more!
    Tom Clancy would be jealous.
    JB

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    1. "Refreshing" is a good word for what happened in the story, it's nice to think that calmer voices might be heard.

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    2. JB - I cannot abide those types of people.In fiction I can give them their just desserts.

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    3. Rob - Calm is very much called for at this point in time.

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  11. re General Chen...I just can't feel sorry when politicians get their due. Reminds me of the zampolit in Red October.

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  12. Glad to see the adults finally in charge on all sides. And treating the 'bad children' as needed in a proper fashion.

    As to India vs China, lots of people don't understand that there's basically a low intensity war going on between the two. Has been for decades. Just a few years back India literally beat down, via hand-to-hand combat, a PLA incursion into India. Literally slapped the ChiComs back across the border. Things are so bad that India has built a light tank, designed and built in India, specifically designed for high altitude warfare.

    And, with the ChiComs, man, about the only really good news from the Olympics is that West Taiwan lost to 'Chinese Taipei' (actual Taiwan) in Badminton. Apparently much wailing and gnashing of teeth has occurred in Chyna over said loss. Meanwhile in Taiwan people are going crazy happy over the victory.

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    1. The Chicoms love to throw their weight around, it's wonderful when they get slapped down for doing so. (Vietnam springs to mind in 1979. Apparently that went on for a number of years - Wikipedia says '91.)

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    2. Yep. Vietnam, using, a lot of times our stuff they captured from the South, fought over and over continuously against the ChiComs and spanked them.

      The ChiComs haven't won a 'foreign' war since they took over Tibet. And that was with a lot of inside help from Tibet. Pretty much lost every time they've tried to extend themselves militarily. Their military is more set up to handle internal disputes than external ones.

      The Philippines, using a few old US-built ships, has managed, so far, to stop any incursions of the PLAN. Heck, the PLAN can't even stop the Filipinos from resupplying a small crew aboard a grounded hulk.

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    3. Their military is overrated.

      Then again, thanks to Slo Jo and the Ho, so is ours.

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  13. Hope you'e not being prescient, just sayin'.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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