Armageddon?? Read Free Page B

cross-bearings
would give her the range data she needed.
    Twenty
minutes later, Astute dropped back down to her four knot observation speed. The
sonar team dropped their relaxed air and immediately got down to work, trying
to re-acquire the anomalous signature. That didn’t take much effort, they knew
where to look and the weird flow noise was distinctive enough.
    “Got
it Sir. Range 18,000 meters.” On the tactical display, a second long oval
appeared. The computers eliminated the time delay that had taken place and then
superimposed the two sets of reading. What had once been long, thin ovals now
crossed and gave a single precise point. Then the screen blinked again as the
computers applied the range data they had just calculated to the bearing
figures already on file. A single green line now appeared on the tactical
display, one that gave both range and bearing. All that was, in fact, needed
for an attack.
    Phillips
thought quickly. “Stream towed array, sonar team check on passive for any
emissions, anything at all. Every frequency band you can think of, whatever
we’re tracking doesn’t have to be using what we are.”
    It
took a few more minutes but the result was worth waiting for. “Got him Sir.
Active emission, very high frequency, much higher than ours.” Atkins’ voice was
triumphant. “It’s like a biological, well more like a bat really, but it isn’t.
Power too high. I’d guess it’s a navigational or mine avoidance sonar but its
nothing like anything we have on the books. That’s why the computer didn’t call
it.”
    “Very
good. Helm take us up to periscope deck, sensors prepare to extend radio mast.
We’d better call this in.” Phillips disappeared into the radio room for several
minutes. When he came back, his face was a mixture of grimness and elation.
    “Word
direct from DOps.” A stir went around the control room, when Directorate of
Operations gave the orders, things were happening. “The situation is breaking
loose. The Spams shot down four Baldricks a few hours ago. Been a few other
similar incidents around the world. The old stories be damned, the Baldricks
are not invulnerable and we aren’t going down without a fight. There’s nothing
friendly out here so we can presume that any unidentifiable target we’re
tracking is hostile. Torpedo room, load two Spearfish, tubes one and two. Load
sub-Harpoon into three and four. Helm, take her down to two hundred feet, make
speed 34 knots, course one-six-three.”
    Helm
punched the figure into the computers. The tactical display flickered again,
the green track turning to red and a blue line superimposed on it. That gave
the relative position of Astute and the target. Phillips looked at the
position. “Make that 35 knots and one-six-one.” A tiny refinement that would
put Astute into a perfect position for a torpedo attack.
    Phillips
watched the display as the carat marking Astute’s position moved along the blue
projected course line. Mentally, he was calculating angles and ranges, the
computer could actually do that for him but he preferred to do his own check.
“Drop speed to four knots, say again, to four knots. Bring bows to oh-one-oh.
Open bow doors, tubes one and two. Sonar, hit that thing with a low-frequency
pulse to check range. One pulse.” Phillips took his authorization card from
around his neck and inserted it into a slot in the sonar control console. By
using active sonar, Astute was announcing her presence and position to the
world at large, That was why using active sonar required the Captain’s explicit
authorization. One the card was in place, the BA-WHOOM from the sonar array in
the submarine’s bows could be heard throughout the boat.
    Ralaraspanathsis
was swimming quietly through the ocean of this strange planet, his great tail
swinging from side to side as it drove . As one of the Corps of Diabolical
Heralds, his job was quite simple, he had to go to the designated place where
the humans gathered and give