Fatal Thunder: A Jerry Mitchell Novel (51 page)

“You think Jain is trying to deploy his towed array?” wondered Petrov. “He’s going a little fast for that; he could snap the cable.”

“True, but he really doesn’t have much of a choice now, does he?” Samant responded.

“How long does it take to deploy the array?” asked Jerry.

“Just a few minutes. It depends on the ship’s speed,” Petrov answered.

“XO! We’re running out of time. I need that solution now!”

INS
Chakra

“Central post, new towed array contact bearing red one three zero,” Patil announced over the speaker.

Jain lunged for the intercom box and punched the button. “Sonar, you’re sure of the single bearing?” He was puzzled by the report, as towed array bearings always came in pairs, requiring another course change to resolve the ambiguity.

“Yes, sir. The other bearing points toward the mud, the ten-meter curve. The contact has to be to the north. It looks like an American
Virginia
-class attack submarine.”

The sonar chief’s report caused the color to drain from both Jain’s and Rakash’s faces. For a brief moment, they looked at each other with hushed anxiety. Finally, the first officer broke the awkward silence. “Could it be the American we fought during the war?”

“The
North Dakota
?” Jain replied cautiously. He remembered the letter that Samant had received from the American right after the Sino–Littoral Alliance War asking for a draw. His old captain was initially furious, but then, after he had calmed down, took the letter as a sign of respect. Regardless, the man had bested Samant twice, and this sent shivers down Jain’s spine. Given the complete surprise of the ambush, and the tactical skills needed to pull that off, Jain could come to no other conclusion. “I’m afraid our nemesis has returned. We won’t be able to run away from this fellow, Number One.”

“You’re not seriously thinking of engaging a frontline fourth-generation American attack submarine, are you?” whined Kirichenko. “That’s sheer madness!”

“Shut up!” fired Jain. “I don’t recall asking for your opinion,
Mister
Kirichenko! One more word out of you and I’ll have you confined to your quarters!” Pivoting back to his first officer, Jain belted out a rapid series of orders.

“Number One, deploy countermeasures! Bring tubes four and five to action state. Launch decoy, course zero five zero! Helmsman, left twenty-five, steer north! Half ahead, one hundred five revs!”

USS
North Dakota

“Possible target zig, Sierra eight seven,” said the sonar supervisor. And then almost immediately: “Countermeasures! Bearing one nine three!”

“Damn it!” snarled Jerry. “Snapshot, Sierra eight seven, tube four!”

“Solution ready,” Thigpen called out.

“Weapon ready,” followed the weapons officer.

“Ship ready,” Lymburn exclaimed.

“Shoot!” barked the fire control technician as he hit the button, followed by, “Normal launch. Torpedo course one eight five, speed five five knots!”

“Pilot, left full rudder. Steady course zero six zero,” Jerry commanded.

“Skipper, we’ll lose…” warned Thigpen.

“Understood!” Jerry shot back forcefully. He was well aware that a turn at this speed would almost certainly break the wire with the torpedo.

Sure enough, seconds later Thigpen reported, “Loss of wire continuity.”

“Close the outer door on tube four. Make tube three ready in all respects,” instructed Jerry.

“Captain!” yelled Halleck. “There are two contacts emerging from the countermeasures. One bears two zero seven, the other one nine seven. They look identical!”

Jerry quickly leaned over the supervisor’s shoulder and looked at the two contacts. Their narrowband profiles were indistinguishable, acoustic twins. Checking their speed, he saw that both contacts were at fifteen knots; there was no clear way to tell
Chakra
from the decoy she’d just launched. Surprised, Jerry turned to Samant and Petrov, who’d joined him at the sonar displays. Both men examined the side-by-side display of the two signatures. Neither one could tell them apart.

“It’s a perfect replicate,” said Samant, astonished.

“Looks like a later-model decoy, either an MG-104 or MG-114,” concluded Petrov. Turning to Samant, he remarked, “I didn’t know we had sold these to the Indian Navy.”

“I had two during the war. Never got a chance to use one, though. The signature simulation is simply amazing!”

“Senior Chief,” interrupted Jerry. “Make sure you’re recording the data. We’ll examine it more closely later.”

“Skipper,” called Thigpen. “Own ship’s unit has enabled. Slowing to forty knots. It’s searching.”

INS
Chakra

“Incoming torpedo has gone active!” squawked the intercom. Chief Petty Officer Patil’s voice was strained. The acoustic intercept receiver echoed the dire report.

“Bearing drift!?” demanded Jain.

“Nearly zero!” Patil yelled.

“Number One, deploy countermeasures!” Jain then counted to ten and barked out more orders. “Helmsman, starboard twenty, steer zero four zero, full ahead. Sonar stand by to go active on the main hull array.”

*   *   *

Two more cylinders popped out from
Chakra
’s hull, and as soon as the seawater-activated batteries were brought up to power, the devices began shrieking like banshees. The Mark 48 torpedo had initially been in a quandary. It had two valid targets, one to the left, and the other to the right. Which one to home in on? Suddenly, the right-hand target disappeared behind a wall of sound. Seeing only one valid target, the torpedo veered left and began range gating, homing in on the decoy.

USS
North Dakota

“More countermeasures, Skipper. Sierra eight seven is the contact to the left, bearing two one zero,” announced the sonar supervisor.

Jerry looked down at the command display and then up at the starboard VLSD; the countermeasure symbol was blinking near
Chakra
’s last reported position. He also saw the torpedo begin tacking to the left, toward the decoy. They’d missed again.

“This is starting to get old,” he grumbled. The hull array was completely blinded by the noise from the acoustic jammers, but the towed array still had a tenuous lock. The jammer didn’t have a lot of power at the lower frequencies. He’d just switched back to the narrowband display on the command workstation when Senior Chief Halleck shouted out, “Possible target zig, Sierra eight seven. Contact has turned toward us and is increasing speed.”

Jerry wasn’t quite as fast as his leading sonarman, and it took him a few more seconds to verify that
Chakra
had indeed maneuvered again. Still, Jain’s maneuvers showed he wasn’t confident about his estimates of
North Dakota
’s position. That meant Jerry still held the advantage. An advantage he intended to exploit. “XO, get me a new firing solution, pronto!”

“Aye, aye, sir,” replied Thigpen, watching one of the displays. It was clear the Indian Akula was changing course and speed. That she was turning toward them was beyond question, but what would her final course and speed be? Recalling Jerry’s admonition, he gave the operator an initial “best guesstimate” for the computer to chew on. “Put in course zero five zero, speed thirty-three knots and see if the machine barfs.”

After a minute of data, it was apparent that the solution was off. With a few adjustments for a more northerly course, and a slightly higher speed the TMA solution seemed to hang together. The contact was closing; the range was down to about seven thousand yards.

“Skipper, I have an initial firing solution. It’s up on the starboard VLSD,” said Thigpen.

In looking at the fruits of Thigpen’s labors, Jerry became more and more perplexed.
Chakra
was pointed, more or less, in the right direction and was ramping up to high speed. “What is he doing?” whispered Jerry. Then, looking at Samant, he added, “He’s going too fast, and we’re in the towed array’s forward end fire beam. He won’t be able to track us at all!”

Samant shook his head. Jain was either impatient or afraid; he was trying to force the issue. “He’s attempting to charge into a position so he can use his active sonar to get a good solution. He doesn’t feel confident firing on the sparse towed-array data.”

“But in this water, a Skat-3 sonar will sound like a kettledrum in an empty closet. The reverberation will be horrendous,” Jerry observed.

“Agreed, Captain, but if he can get close enough, it could still work.”

Jerry pulled up the line-of-sight diagram and looked at the range rate.
Chakra
was closing, but slowly, about 330 yards every minute. Facing Samant, he pointed to the diagram and said, “Jain’s guessing. He’s not sure where we are.”

“I concur, Captain. I believe he’s trying to run down the bearing from your last torpedo, but I don’t think he’s factored in the effects of the decoy on the torpedo’s course—his estimate will be off.” Samant looked pained as he spoke; then he began to fidget. It looked like he was mentally arguing with himself. Finally, he just spit the words out. “Captain, I request that you transmit the recording I made.”

Astonished by the appeal, Jerry looked Samant straight in the eyes. “Captain, we’ve exchanged weapons fire. Do you seriously believe he’ll respond positively to your message? Assuming of course he can even hear it.”

“Honestly, I do not know. But it’s something we haven’t tried yet. You have his complete and undivided attention, and a little time before you have to shoot another weapon. I’m just asking that you try.” Samant’s face and voice were strained with emotion. He desperately wanted to try anything that could save his crew. Glancing over at Petrov, Jerry saw him nod in agreement.

Rubbing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Jerry weighed Samant’s plea. He was right, they had a little time, but it also meant transmitting—putting a string of strong acoustic pulses into the water. But even if the Indian crew couldn’t understand what was being said, they’d sure as hell get a good bearing. Jerry would be voluntarily giving up his advantage. Sighing loudly, he turned his head toward the sonar watchstanders and said, “Senior Chief, transmit Captain Samant’s message over the main active array. Point it directly at
Chakra
.”

The sonar supervisor initially balked as he struggled to comprehend the order. But a quick look at his CO’s face removed any doubt. “Aye, aye, sir. Transmit Captain Samant’s message.” Halleck’s fingers worked hesitantly over the keyboard, and after a brief moment, he hit the last one and reported, “Transmitting.”

Jerry saw Thigpen’s disbelieving expression and raised his hand, signaling his XO to wait. Thigpen turned back toward the fire control consoles, whispering softly, “This will get interesting.”

INS
Chakra

“Central post. I’m picking up what sounds like a UWC transmission, bearing red zero one zero. It’s in the direction of the American submarine,” Patil declared, not quite convinced that he had heard correctly.

Jain and Rakash looked at each other with utter bewilderment. Why would the American be trying to contact them? He’d already fired three torpedoes at them, what purpose could there be in attempting to communicate? Before Jain could respond, Patil’s voice came over the intercom again.

“Central post. The transmission is in Hindi!”

Now Jain was really curious. He acknowledged the bizarre report and then went to the sonar shack; he had to hear this transmission for himself.

Patil was waiting with a set of headphones in his right hand. “It appears to be a recorded message, sir, as it is being repeated.”

Jain put on the headphones and listened. The reception was extremely poor, owing to
Chakra
’s high speed and the shallow water, but the voice was most definitely speaking in Hindi. He couldn’t understand much of the transmission, it warbled and broke up often, but he did make out the words “Dhankhar,” “illegal,” and “return.” The voice also sounded strangely familiar, but the distortion made it difficult to pin down.

The Indian captain pulled the headset off and handed it back to the sonar chief. He struggled to understand the message and its meaning. Then Jain remembered Vice Admiral Dhankhar warning him that several foreign governments had discovered the plan. Could the United States be one of them? Were they trying to deceive him now, as they seemed unable to sink him? Then Jain recalled his orders; the attack on the Chinese ports was the first act in an elaborate strategy by the Indian military to defeat Pakistan once and for all.
Chakra
’s pivotal role in the plan stiffened his resolve.

While Jain was trying to make heads or tails of the transmission, Patil hit him with an unthinkable question: “Sir, didn’t that voice sound like Captain Samant’s?”

Anger suddenly flooded Jain. The very thought of their former captain cooperating with India’s enemies was blasphemous. “Mind your bearing, Chief! I will not tolerate any insult of our old CO. Lash that bearing with the main hull array and get me something to shoot on!”

Still seething, Jain returned to central post. Rakash could see something was dreadfully wrong, but before he could even ask the speaker squawked again. “Central post, weak return bearing red zero zero six, range five thousand two hundred meters.”

“Stand by for torpedo attack. Open bow caps on tubes four and five,” thundered Jain. Rakash moved quickly to follow his captain’s orders.

Leaning over Lieutenant Kirit’s shoulders, Jain blurted, “We’ll bracket the bearing! Set tube four to course zero two five, and tube five to zero four zero! High speed, minimal enable run!”

“Bow caps on tubes four and five are open, sir,” cried Rakash.

“Torpedo course set,” Kirit called out.

Jain stood with an unwavering air, paused for a few seconds, and then shouted, “Fire!”

USS
North Dakota

The WLY-1 acoustic intercept receiver’s chirping beat Senior Chief Halleck’s warning by a second or two. “Sierra eight seven has gone active. Skat-3 transmissions bearing two one five.”

“Secure transmissions,” Jerry ordered. Then, looking at Samant, he said, “I’m sorry, Captain. Jain’s made his choice.” The Indian’s face was burdened with pain, his only response a slight nod.