Submarine Warriors: The Enemy Beneath (6 page)

After cruising southward through the Hood Canal, the USS Alaska pulled up alongside the Delta Pier with the assistance of a tug boat.

“
Helm, all stop,” ordered the XO.

“
All stop helm, aye,” the young Helmsman replied.

With that command, a Petty Officer back in Maneuvering spun the giant wheel to the fully closed position and the Alaska’s propeller stopped. Auxiliarymen securely tied the sub to the pier.

“
Secure the Maneuvering Watch,” the Chief of the Boat announced over the 1MC.

This is the moment submariners looked forward to more than any other. Only this time, they didn’t have to wait until the end of a 70-day patrol. Almost the entire crew poured out of the sub and onto the pier to reunite with their loved ones after this short, strange trip.

Admiral Connery and the kids made their way through the crowd of sailors and families. Recognized by the crewmembers as the children of their lost shipmates, they were overwhelmed by hugs and words of condolence by this extended Navy family. When they crossed the gangplank onto the flat missile deck of the sub, they were greeted by the XO.

“
Uncle Charley!” Caroline yelled out, as she embraced the Executive Officer.

“
Caroline, this ship belonged to your father, and now I’m giving it to you,” the XO whispered in her ear. “It’s your job to make sure he gets it back.”

The XO saluted the Admiral and then shook his hands to secretly pass a folded piece of paper he’d been hiding.

“
Enjoy the tour of the sub,” the XO said aloud so that everyone in the area could hear. “I’ve got a debriefing to attend so I won’t be able to join you.” With that, the XO crossed the gangplank and walked into the crowd of people on the pier.

The Petty Officer of the Watch gave a sharp salute to the famous retired Admiral and proceeded to assist the group through the hatch. The sub was a ghost town. Once everyone was safely below, they were greeted by the Chief of the Boat.

“
Welcome aboard the Alaska, everyone,” the Chief proclaimed. “The Skipper informed me that this tour might run a little longer than usual. Excuse me while I climb up and secure the hatch above you. We wouldn’t want anyone to drop in unexpectedly.”

The Chief slammed the missile deck hatch shut and spun the wheel to seal and lock it. Upon climbing back down, he picked up a sound-powered phone.

“
Control, this is the Chief of the Boat,” he spoke. “Secure all hatches.”

“
Secure all hatches, Control, Chief of the Boat, aye,” a voice replied.

With that, hatches on the sub’s hull and sail were closed and locked so that no one from the outside could enter the giant steel cylinder.

Annie jumped at the sound of the hatches slamming shut. “I feel trapped!”

“
I’m feeling claustrophobic,” Mike chimed-in.

“
Admiral, the crew of the Alaska awaits your orders,” the Chief announced, as he stood at attention before Admiral Connery.

“
Thank you, Chief,” replied the Admiral. “I wasn’t actually sure how this was going to play out.”

“
You’re among friends,” the Chief of the Boat said to the Admiral and kids. “The XO hand-picked those of us who would remain aboard once we docked. We are loyal to him, and your dads are like brothers to us. While the officers and men on the pier would be sympathetic to your plight, they don’t know anything about this and therefore have plausible deniability. I guess the XO wanted to make sure that only a few of us end up serving jail time in Leavenworth. Since I don’t have a full section of men onboard, you kids will have to help out with some of the watch stations.”

“
I’m officially a junior Fire Control technician,” Nick interrupted the Chief’s speech. “I can plot solutions and fire torpedoes.”

“
Yeah, and Chrissie and I can drive this thing anywhere you want to go.” Annie motioned her hands in the air like she was turning a steering wheel.

“
The kids received training on diving and driving the ship this morning at TriTraFac, so they should be more of a help than a hindrance,” the Admiral remarked.

“
That’s great news,” the Chief replied. “We have a working nuclear reactor, a full complement of Mark 48 torpedoes, 24 Trident II D5 missiles, plenty of air and water, and enough food to last us a few weeks. Let’s move forward to Control so we can get underway. It won’t be long before somebody topside starts to get suspicious.”

As the group moved forward through the passageways, Mike pulled out Wi-Fi access points from his backpack and plugged them in every so often in order to stitch together a wireless network for the kids.

“
Are we really going to need this stuff?” Caroline asked as she watched Mike geek-out.

Upon reaching the Control room, the Admiral greeted the other crewmembers and then grabbed the 1MC microphone next to the periscope.

“
Station the Maneuvering Watch,” the Admiral ordered over the 1MC.

The children ran to the stations on which they’d trained earlier in the day and the Admiral sat in the Officer of the Deck’s chair.

“
Helm, ahead one-third,” commanded the Admiral.

“
Ahead one-third helm, aye,” Annie replied, as she twisted the engine order telegraph to the 1/3 position with a ring of the bell.

Back in Maneuvering, a bell rang and an indicator displayed “Ahead 1/3.” Luckily, the ship’s engineer, the Eng as he’s called, had decided to put his own naval career in jeopardy and was onboard so he could spin the large wheel one full rotation to the right. With that, the reactor’s steam drove the turbine which caused the giant propeller at the back of the sub to rotate.

“
Rudder amidships.” The Admiral barked out his next order to Annie.

“
What does that mean?” Annie asked frantically.

“
It means steer us straight,” replied Admiral Connery.

Topside on the pier, a Marine was tripped by a rope connected to the submarine as it moved forward along the dock. The large crowd of crewmembers and loved ones who hadn’t gone home yet noticed this and began to ask each other if this was planned or not. Some started following the sub down the pier and a few others made phone calls to squadron personnel.

“
We’ve got unauthorized movement of one of our submarines!” A Lieutenant yelled into his walkie-talkie as he walked briskly along the pier.

The Petty Officer of the Watch who had previously ushered the group of kids inside the sub had already begun running up and down the length of the 560-foot submarine when each of the hatches had slammed shut. He made calls to the ship’s radio room but got no answer. When he saw the propeller spinning, his heightened sense of panic caused him to pull out his gun; he then sounded the alarm and called the Commander of Submarine Squadron 17.

“
Admiral Cunningham, this is Petty Officer Jimenez,” the Petty Officer said frantically through his headset. “The USS Alaska has been sealed shut and is underway westward along the Delta pier.”

“
Who’s onboard the ship right now?” Admiral Cunningham asked.

“
According to my log, we have a small skeleton crew, which isn’t too unusual in the first moments after we arrive home,” replied Petty Officer Jimenez. “We also had a pre-arranged tour of the sub for Admiral Connery and the group of kids whose fathers all died. They came through the missile deck hatch that I’ve been guarding.”

“
What about the other hatches that you haven’t been guarding?” the Admiral pressed.

“
There’s been a lot of commotion since we docked at the pier so it’s possible, but not likely, that someone could’ve entered through one of the other hatches,” the Petty Officer replied timidly.

“
You idiot!” The Admiral screamed into the phone. “For all I know, terrorists or agents of a foreign government could be stealing the Alaska right now with all those innocent children onboard. I don’t need this. Phone down to the boat to make sure that this isn’t a big misunderstanding before I call in the cavalry.”

“
I’ve tried, sir,” responded Jimenez. “The sound-powered phone lines are cut and I get nothing but static when trying to contact the radio room. No one from the Alaska has tried to contact me so I have no idea what’s going on inside.”

“
I’ve heard enough,” Admiral Cunningham barked through the phone. “I’m going to end this right now.”

Fewer than thirty seconds passed before a squadron of Marines arrived on the scene in their Humvees and started firing machine guns at the submarine. Hearing the bullets hit the hull, the kids inside started to scream.

“
They’re going to kill us!” Mike shouted in the control room.

“
Hold your fire!” One of the Naval Officers on the pier yelled out to the Marines. “There’s still a Petty Officer topside on the missile deck and I don’t think your bullets are going to make a dent in the HY-180 steel submarine hull either.”

The giant vessel started to pull away from the pier. When the long ropes that kept the sub tied to the cleats became taut, it was unable to move any further. A loud, groaning sound echoed down the pier as the metal cleats began to bend. Onlookers started backing away from over-stretched ropes holding the Alaska in place.

“
Helm, all-ahead flank,” commanded the Admiral. “We need to break free of the pier.”

“
All-ahead flank, aye,” Annie repeated.

Back in Maneuvering, the Eng turned the giant wheel until all the steam the reactor could make was pushing the turbine to spin the propeller faster than ever. The churning water sprayed everyone on the dock with icy-cold salt water.

After straining to the breaking point, all of the ropes snapped and the submarine broke free. The cleats holding the lines ripped from the pier and smashed into the Humvee, narrowly missing the heads of the Marines. With nothing holding it back now, the sub lunged forward and everyone inside fell over.

Petty Officer Jimenez found himself thrown from the top of the sub and into the water.

“
Reduce your speed to ahead 1/3 and come right to heading 000,” ordered the Admiral.

“
Reducing my speed to ahead 1/3 and coming right to heading 000, aye,” Annie replied nervously to the Admiral.

Back in the Squadron 17 building on the Delta pier, the Squadron Commander looked out the window at the chaos below and dropped his head into his hands. He watched people running frantically to get away from a sparking power cable that just snapped free from the departing sub.

“
This can’t be happening!” the Commander yelled out in his empty office. Noticing the phone on his desk, he quickly picked it up to call the tugboat that had previously guided the Alaska to the pier.

“
This is Admiral Cunningham,” the Squadron Commander announced through the phone. “I want you to tell your tug pilot to block the Alaska’s path so it can’t make it north up the Hood Canal.”

“
I’m not interested in putting my boat in that kind of danger Commander,” replied the pilot. “I don’t care what you’re interested in!” the Commander shot back. “Block that sub or the only thing you’ll be piloting is a rubber duck in your bathtub!”

The tugboat gunned its engines and set an intercept course for the Alaska.

Back on the Alaska, Admiral Connery was looking through the periscope and could see the approaching vessel.

“
Helm, all-ahead full,” he ordered. “I don’t want that tug to crack our sonar dome.”

The big ballistic missile sub came to life and raced ahead up the canal. By the time the two vessels intersected, the tug was no longer able to block the Alaska and crashed midway into its starboard hull. The sub shook violently but the tug got the bad end of the deal as it bounced off and started taking on water, its engines quickly flooded, forcing the tug out of action. With that, the Alaska made its way north towards its next obstacle, the Hood Canal Bridge.

Fulfilling their part of the mission, an SUV containing Mike’s and Chrissie’s moms headed northwest out of Poulsbo toward the Hood Canal Bridge at a high rate of speed.

“
I hope we don’t get pulled over by the cops,” Chrissie’s mom Ashley spoke frantically.

“
Don’t sweat the small stuff,” replied Mike’s mom Michelle. “Our husbands might be alive, our kids are heading into danger on a stolen submarine, and the Marines are shooting at them.”