Dark Transit
- Автор: DiMercurio Michael
- Серия: Anthony Pacino #1
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Crossroad Press
- ISBN: 9781637899199
- Жанр: Триллеры
Электронная книга - «Dark Transit». Краткое содержание книги:
After Vermont misses the mark on an easy mission, there are questions asked about her ability to conduct the next mission, one that is vital to the security of the United States and the future of the submarine force. Vermont is tasked with stealing a revolutionary submarine that the Russians are testing with an Iranian crew because it's too risky to use Russian sailors. It's a high-stakes gamble for all involved, with the losers vanishing if things go wrong, the winners validating a world-changing technology.
Pacino is part of the mission to steal the submarine, but the toughest obstacle is a wolf-pack of Russians coming to the defense of the Iranian submarine. Getting it back to the United States for evaluation becomes secondary to surviving an exchange of missiles and torpedoes in an underwater battle that threatens to let the final genie out of the bottle.
Engineer Yevgeny Montorov had been in the nuclear control room, where alarms started blaring as broiling hot black smoke and flames suddenly filled the room. He’d lunged for the phone and fell off his elevated seat behind the reactor control panel as he did. He never made it off the deck.
In the sonar equipment space, off-watch Senior Lieutenant Svetomir Albescu had been looking into a panel and checking on a malfunctioning control board when there was a faint thump from aft and the ventilation duct suddenly spilled freakishly hot black smoke into the room, filling it in seconds. He coughed and fell to the deck and died within a minute of the explosion.
In the central command post, the second captain system’s displays flashed red on the notification screens, but no one was reacting.
Within minutes of the hydrogen leak, the entire crew of the Russian Republic Northern Fleet’s submarine Voronezh was dead, leaving only one sentient entity alive.
The onboard AI. The second captain.
27
K-579 Second Captain History Module Deck Log:
0830M: Recap of recent events follows.
At time 0815M, This Unit detected one primary explosion and a much larger secondary explosion from auxiliary machinery room number two.
At time 0820M, This Unit detected atmospheric alarms in all compartments on all levels.
At time 0825M, This Unit had no input or commands from human operators of the crew of K-579 except for two extremely garbled exclamations in the central command post. This Unit checked interior camera views of all rooms, all compartments. All cameras show only blackness. Either because the atmosphere is so filled with smoke, or because the lenses are covered with soot. Or both. This Unit verified that power was applied to all lighting circuits and obtained satisfactory continuity, so the darkness is definitely smoke or soot.
At time 0827M, This Unit attempted to rouse human crewmembers using the collision alarm and selective spraying of the firefighting sprinkler valves in areas away from electronic cabinets.
At time 0829M, there were no signs of life from the human operators of the crew. This Unit suspended all attempts to rouse the crew, shutting off the selected sprinklers and turning off the collision alarm.
At time 0830M, This Unit made the decision to shut the watertight strength damper of the air induction box leading from auxiliary machinery room number two.
At time 0831M, This Unit made the decision to flood auxiliary machinery room number two. Upper vent valve ordered open and indicated open. Lower hull and backup hydraulic valves of auxiliary seawater emergency flooding system opened. Water level in the room rose to level of the vent valves. Water level rose in the bilges of compartment three, where the floodwater from auxiliary machinery room number two was directed out of the upper room’s vent valve.
At time 0837M, this Unit shut the hull and backup emergency flood valves and opened the room’s bilge drain valve. This Unit lined up the drain pump to take a suction on the bilge of auxiliary machinery room two and drained the room to sea with the vent valve open, then took a suction on the compartment three bilge and drained it to sea. This Unit shut down the drain pump and shut the vent valve of auxiliary machinery room two. This Unit then opened the watertight damper of the suction air box of the fan distribution system.
At time 0839M, This Unit proceeded to periscope depth with a stern clearance maneuver to ensure no surface traffic above. There were no surface ship contacts. This Unit reached periscope depth at time 0840M.
That brings This Unit to the present moment at periscope depth with the periscope extended. There are no surface ship contacts.
0841M: This Unit raises the induction mast that is intended to bring fresh air into the ship. The induction mast’s head valve was enabled to be open provided the head valve indicates dry. The induction mast’s main and backup drain valves were opened to drain the induction mast to the bilges of the second compartment. The head valve opened and remained open and the induction mast became fully drained.
0843M: This Unit starts the low-pressure blower contained in auxiliary machinery room number one. The LP blower is taking a suction on the atmosphere in the submarine and exhausts it out the exhaust plenum located aft in the conning tower. Air comes into the submarine from the induction mast, passes into the ship in auxiliary machinery room number one and is blown by the blower through the ventilation system. This Unit opens ventilation dampers to auxiliary machinery two and lines up the air suction in the room and begins to evacuate the contaminated atmosphere in the room and exhausts it to the outside through the plenum exhaust.
0850M: The LP blower has been operating for seven minutes.
0855M: The LP blower has been operating for twelve minutes.
0900M: The atmosphere in the ship is improving based on the analyzers intact in auxiliary machinery room number one. The interior cameras are now showing visible images, though clouded by what has to be soot on their lenses. There is no way for these to be cleaned off without human crewmembers.
0910M: This Unit shuts down the LP blower and lowers the induction mast. The blower was very loud. The ship is more stealthy now.
0915M: This Unit contemplates sending a message to the Admiralty telling them what happened aboard.
0930M: This Unit raises the multifrequency high gain MFHG antenna and transmits the following message:
060722-0930M
IMMEDIATE
FM SSN K-579 VERONEZH
TO ADMIRALTY; CDR PAC FLEET; CDR NORTHERN FLEET
CC K-573
SUBJ OPERATION NEPTUNE SHEPHERD / CASUALTY AND STATUS REPORT
MOST SECRET // NEPTUNE SHEPHERD
1. K-579 POSITION LATITUDE TWENTY DEGREES, TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES NORTH, LONGITUDE SIXTY-EIGHT DEGREES, FIFTY MINUTES EAST.
2. K-579 EXPERIENCED CATASTROPHIC EXPLOSION AND FIRE IN AUX MACH RM 2. ALL COMPONENTS DESTROYED IN CASUALTY. FLAMES, SMOKE AND TOXIC GAS FROM FIRE FILLED SUBMARINE. ALL CREWMEMBERS BELIEVED DEAD.
3. K-579 ONBOARD AI SYSTEM, “SECOND CAPTAIN,” TOOK CONTROL OF SUBMARINE, FLOODED AUX MACH RM 2, THEN DRAINED IT, THEN PROCEEDED TO PERISCOPE DEPTH, STARTED LP BLOWER, EMERGENCY VENTILATED SHIP.
4. MISSION OF K-579 CONTINUES.
5. K-579 SECOND CAPTAIN SENDS.
0935M: This Unit lowers the multifrequency high gain MFHG antenna and the periscope and goes deep back to transit depth at 300 meters, increased speed to maximum. This Unit is making 35 knots through the water. Inertial navigation unit shows This Unit making 35.3 knots speed-over-ground. This Unit continues the transit to the intercept point of the northern branch of the probability ellipse for the target submarine.
CIA Director Margo Allende switched on the bedside lamp and sat on the guest bedroom’s bed. National Security Director Michael Pacino opened his eyes and blinked.