Submarine Warriors: The Enemy Beneath (13 page)

“
Noooooo!” screamed Caroline. “We’re not leaving you!”

She rushed up toward the open hatch and was immediately restrained by other members of the crew. She punched Petty Officer Timbers, knocking him to the deck. Finally, her father grabbed her and pulled the young warrior down the ladder as she kicked and screamed wildly.

“
You heard the Admiral,” exclaimed the Lieutenant Wyatt. “Let’s get out of here!”

With that, Admiral Connery slammed the hatch shut from the outside and turned around to face the two remaining Underworlders. He lunged toward them, firing a fatal shot at one of the creatures. As the Underworlder fell to the floor of the tube, the Admiral pointed the gun at his other foe. The lone Underworlder quickly opened his mouth and fired a stream of gauze that wrapped around the Admiral’s gun and yanked it out of his hand. Without missing a beat, the Admiral punched the Underworlder in the head, sending the humanoid falling to the floor. The Admiral quickly jumped on him trying to finish the fight. At that moment, he began to feel searing heat coming from the Underworlder’s hands as it reached up and grasped his throat. Just as the heat became too unbearable to take, they both found themselves enveloped by the icy waters of the deep ocean as water rushed into the tube.

The Underworlders’ umbilical tube ruptured as the DSRV’s turbines came to full speed, allowing the Omaha Beach to make its escape upward from the ocean floor. From the giant display screen inside, everyone could see the ongoing underwater battle between the Admiral and Underworlder behind them. A shroud of bubbles began to encase the combatants as the creature’s burning hands caused the water around them to boil.

“
We can’t leave Granddad!” Caroline cried uncontrollably as the image of the fearless Admiral became smaller and smaller. “Goodbye.”

Chapter 8 > The Escape

The ocean floor trembled violently as the crystalline pyramid rose out of the sea bottom. Within minutes, the pyramid had completely dislodged itself from the sand and started to move slowly through the water. It became apparent that the structure only looked like a pyramid when buried underground with its tip exposed above the ocean floor. In fact, this vessel looked more like a giant diamond the length of a football field. An unknown energy source emanating from the Underworlder craft generated so much heat that the seawater around it boiled uncontrollably.

“Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?” Nick asked everyone in the control room, as he stared at the diamond-shaped craft coming toward them. “Petty Officer Grant, I think we need to get the Alaska on the phone right now.”

“I’m on it,” replied the Radioman. He found the USS Alaska listed on the communications display and tapped on it with his finger to place the call.

A couple of fake ring tones later, Chrissie picked up the headset and answered the call. “Uh, hello, this is the Alaska. Chrissie speaking.”

Still distraught after watching his father perish in an undersea struggle, Captain Connery staggered over to the communications panel and put Chrissie on speaker.

“Chrissie, this is Captain Connery on the USS Omaha Beach,” the Captain announced. “What is your status?”

“Wow, you’ve been rescued,” Chrissie replied to the message with delight. “Is everything okay?”

“Far from it,” said the Captain. “We need to make a quick getaway. The Underworlders are not too happy with us at the moment, so we need to put some distance between us and them.”

“What’s an Underworlder?” Chrissie asked.

“I’ll explain later, just pull a Crazy Ivan and make your way to the surface on an easterly course at flank speed.” answered the Captain curtly.

“Sorry. I don’t know who Crazy Ivan is. Can you please send Admiral Connery back over to us so he can tell us what to do,” Chrissie replied. “We’re mostly a bunch of kids over here, so we’ll probably need his help.”

“My father didn’t make it,” replied the Captain. “He lost his life fighting off Underworlders so we could escape.”

Chrissie put her head in her hands and sobbed quietly for a moment. “The Admiral is dead,” she announced to everyone in the Alaska control room.

The Alaska crewmembers and children were stunned and looked back at Chrissie in disbelief.

Back on the Omaha Beach, a teary-eyed Caroline embraced her father.

“You’re going to have to do this on your own, Chrissie,” the Captain spoke. “There’s no more time to chat. I’m putting you in charge, so you need work with your friends and what’s left of my crew and get the Alaska moving now.”

Chrissie reached for the 1MC and broadcasted the news of the rescue and Admiral’s death to everyone else on the sub. A mixture of somber faces, joy and outright crying erupted throughout the Alaska as everyone listened to the news.

Seconds later, she pushed the talk button on the 1MC microphone and announced:

“This is Chrissie and I’m taking command of the ship,” she spoke with a wobbly voice. “Annie, bring us right to course zero-nine-zero and give me flank speed.”

“Bringing us to course zero-nine-zero, all ahead flank, aye,” Annie repeated, steering to the starboard and twisting the engine order telegraph to flank.

Back in Maneuvering, the Eng quickly responded to the flank bell by bringing more steam from the reactor.

“Mike, start filling the ballast tanks with air and then jump into the Planesman seat to control the stern planes,” Chrissie ordered.

“High pressure air is filling the tanks and I’m jumping in your old seat,” replied Mike.

“Chief of the Boat, you have the Conn,” Chrissie announced as the Chief entered the control room. “I’m taking over as Diving Officer.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Chief replied.

The Alaska made a 180 degree turn and began to accelerate upward. The Omaha Beach tracked in behind the Alaska and followed. The crews of both subs began to feel a bit of relief as they pulled farther away from the slow-moving Underworlder vessel.

Just as everyone was settling in for a speedy evacuation, a muffled voice was heard unexpectedly over the 1MC speaker in the Alaska control room. “Hey, let me in.”

“Who is this?” Chrissie asked through her microphone.

“I’m trapped in the escape trunk. Somebody get me out of here.”

“Who knows how to operate the escape trunk?” Chrissie looked around the control room.

“I watched the Chief of the Boat help Nick and Caroline get in there,” Mike replied.

“Perfect. Annie, hold Mike’s stern planes steady while he checks it out,” ordered Chrissie.

Mike bounded out of his seat and headed down the passageway to the escape trunk. Upon arriving, Mike pushed the intercom button to communicate with whoever was inside the trunk.

“Who’s in there?”

“Please let me out,” replied the unfamiliar voice.

Mike unlocked the hatch and spun the wheel until it started to open. Suddenly, he was knocked to the deck as the occupant inside lunged out of the escape trunk. As he picked himself up off the floor, Mike came face to face with a pair of glowing, ultraviolet eyes.

“Stupid boy, you never open the door for uninvited guests.” The Underworlder dropped his scuba rebreather on the deck, raised his hand, and unleashed a wave of heat that sent Mike flying backwards down the passageway.

“Ahhhh!” Mike screamed as he slid across the deck with his sunburned skin and smoldering clothes.

Mike wasn’t the only one feeling the pain. Looking up at the Underworlder, Mike could see smoke coming off the creature’s skin. Finding the source of his discomfort, the Underworlder smashed the fluorescent light tubes above his head bringing complete darkness to the compartment.

“What’s wrong with you? Can’t handle a little light?” Mike taunted the creature.

“It’s just like a sun-worshiping Overworlder to bring the light of a burning star beneath the sea. You’ll pay for your insolence, boy.” The Underworld began walking toward Mike using his biological night vision.

Remembering the glow stick his father gave him on the Delta pier, Mike quickly pulled it out of his pocket and bent it until it snapped. The Underworlder was almost upon him when the ultraviolet light of the glow stick began shining from Mike’s outstretched hand. The creature immediately recoiled in fear and pain as its translucent skin began to sizzle.

Jumping to his feet, Mike pressed forward toward the monster using the glow stick as a torch.

“You’re a scared child and I don’t think you have what it takes to finish me off,” the Underworlder goaded Mike as he backed into a corner.

“I might have been a boy when I set foot on this sub, but I’m a Underworlder slayer now! Eat this!” Mike jammed the glow stick into the Underworlder’s mouth causing the creature to scream uncontrollably.

Mike grimaced as he watched the Underworlder’s head turn into glowing cinders and then flake away as ashes on to the floor. Still in shock from what had just transpired, Mike was suddenly jolted back to reality as he heard the announcement over the 1MC speakers.

“Conn, sonar, the towed array is telling me that the large object to our stern is increasing speed and closing the distance between us.” The intense heat of the diamond-shaped vessel propelled it ever more quickly toward the fleeing submarines.

Mike scrambled back to the control room as Chrissie ordered the Chief of the Boat to communicate this news to the Omaha Beach via their underwater messaging link.

Sonarman Timbers on the Omaha Beach replied to the Alaska through his headset. “Alaska, thanks for the heads-up. We’ve got our own sonar suite and it looks like our luck is going south. I’m picking up thirty surface contacts and three submerged ones in front of us. My computer has classified the three submerged contacts as Seawolf-class submarines and they’re heading in our direction with their torpedo tube outer doors open.”

In all the excitement of rescuing their fathers from the clutches of the Underworlders, the pre-teen crew of the Alaska and Omaha Beach had forgotten that they were fugitives from the United States Navy. The Abraham Lincoln battle group had arrived at the scene after following the source of the underwater explosion. Their intelligence officers had also been monitoring some of the message traffic between the Alaska and the Omaha Beach.

“Conn, Sonar, I hate to say it, but things have just gone from bad to worse,” announced the Alaska Sonarman. “I’m now picking up twenty-four Mark-48 torpedoes heading our way from the three submerged contacts. Our own submarine fleet is here to destroy us.”

“Sonar, Conn, how long do we have until impact?” Chrissie asked.

“About thirty seconds,” replied the Sonarman.

“Omaha Beach, we’re all about to be clobbered by two dozen torpedoes in less than thirty seconds,” Chrissie announced over the open communications link with the Omaha Beach.

“You’re going to get hit before we do, so I suggest you brace for impact,” Sonarman Timbers replied.

As if things weren’t bad enough, the tip of the Underworlder craft began to split open and a gauze-like substance streamed out of it toward the Omaha Beach. Everyone onboard the DSRV felt a jolt as the gauze wrapped itself around the propellers.

“I’m getting a warning light on the propulsion system,” Nick said, staring at the control panel. “The propellers have stopped but the turbines are still trying to spin them.”

“Kill the steam to the turbines so we don’t burn out the system,” replied the Captain.

Nick took the steam from the nuclear reactor offline and the Omaha Beach began to fall backward as the Underworlder craft reeled it into its large mouth-like opening.

“Alaska, we’re in big trouble back here,” the Captain communicated. “It looks like the Underworlder pyramid is going to pull us inside. I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

“Skipper, I don’t think any of us are going to make it,” replied the Alaska Chief of the Boat. “We’re just seconds away from torpedo impact.”

Crewmembers on the Alaska and Omaha Beach braced themselves against nearby bulkheads, said quiet prayers, and plugged their ears with their fingers. All those aboard the Omaha Beach watched the large display in shock as twenty-four dots closed on their position from one direction while their DSRV was being pulled in the opposite direction.

“Chief of the Boat, sound the collision alarm,” Chrissie ordered on the Alaska.

As the alarm went off, everyone onboard the Alaska closed their eyes for what seemed like an eternity. After ten seconds of silence, the Sonarman opened his eyes and looked at his waterfall sonar display. “Conn, Sonar, the torpedoes swam right by us!” he exclaimed. “Chrissie, it looks like they’re heading for the Omaha Beach and the Underworlder ship behind us.”

Underworlder Pyramid

Onboard the Underworlder vessel, the Navigator’s glowing eyes gazed upon her computer display with grave concern. “Captain, in addition to the two Overworlder subs that are trying to escape, I’m seeing three subs heading for us and two dozen smaller projectiles that look like they’re only seconds away from reaching us.”

“Bring the Heat,” the Underworlder Captain commanded.

Invisible fingers of intense heat reached out from the Underworlder craft toward the incoming torpedoes. The tremendous heat confused the closest torpedoes and caused them to veer off-course. Other torpedoes began to melt.