R. A. Heinlein

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 3

We met up with South Korean corvette ROKS Namwon the next morning. I was pleased to learn that it was equipped for anti-submarine duty. The ship fell in with our convoy heading south. If we now had a fleet, I guess that meant that I was the Commodore.

I knew how military news traveled, so we allowed Major Brinell to send an e-mail on burst transmission to his wife to head off any bad news she was about to get.

The TV crew hung around, seemingly frustrated that no one was willing to speak with them. Other than a basic interview, everyone was bound by operational security not to talk about what was going on. Other than “an electronic warfare operation,” they hadn’t even been told what Observation Island was doing while they were aboard.

I learned that the reporter’s name was Sally Townsend. She worked for CNN, which apparently had one of the best relationships with North Korea that a news network could have. She was apparently a fairly well known war correspondent, having covered Afghanistan in the past few years. She called the camera man Todd.

When we reached relatively secure waters, Observation Island changed course for safe port. Namwon and Heinlein turned around for another patrol up north.

The medical crew and Major Brinell weren’t in any particular hurry to leave, as the atmosphere was decidedly more relaxed than on the other ship. Before Shep took them back to Observation Island, I rolled a fifth of Jack Daniels up in Brinell’s flight suit to send back with him covertly.

I was on the phone to Washington when Shep departed. The Joint Chiefs were rather pleased with me, and I wanted to take full advantage. After the conversation was over, I went down to the galley to get something to eat. Todd was there, drinking coffee and reading a copy of the Navy Times.

I hadn’t been expecting him, and it was lucky I was still walking around on two legs. “Why weren’t you on the helicopter? I asked.

“Sally told me to stay put because she had a story.” He looked bored.

“Where is she?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t say. When she wants a camera, she’ll come back.”

I walked over to the intercom panel. “Ms. Townsend to the galley please.”

We waited. Todd went back to his newspaper. After five minutes, she didn’t show. Annoyed, I went to find Nika and explained that we had an unescorted civilian wandering around the ship.

She grabbed her assault rifle. A shootout was not something we needed in the passageways of our own ship, and I didn’t think it would be necessary. The chances of Sally Townsend being a saboteur were remote. I wouldn’t mind seeing Nika club her with the rifle, though.

After a few minutes, we found her inspecting the ammunition handling room below the fore gun.

She looked at me accusingly. “I thought this was a cargo ship.”

“It is.”

“What’s this?” She gestured to the loading mechanism.

“A sophisticated system that helps you mind your own business. Come on.” Nika and I began herding her back towards where we wanted her.

“Where is the cannon that’s attached to that?” Her eyes lit up in realization. “Oh! It must be under one of those domed things on deck. That’s also how you hide the helicopter.”

She may have been hard headed, but she wasn’t stupid. “You realize that all of this is a wartime secret?” I tried.

“Well, with what happened last night, they probably know you have weapons anyway.” She thought of something. “Did those missiles come from this ship?”

I said nothing, and she smiled to herself. “So is this some kind of wolf in sheep’s clothing? This would be a great story. Good for morale and public image.”

I stopped walking and fixed her with my stare to make sure she understood me. “If you try to tell anyone what you know about this ship, we’ll kill you.” I didn’t usually intend to carry through on threats like that, but I was decent at bluffing.

“Don’t give me that,” she said. “I’ve gotten threats before and I know the government doesn’t do things like that to people like me.”

Nika spoke, throwing a little crazy Russian accent into her voice for emphasis. “We are not from the government, and we don’t follow their rules.”

It took Ms. Townsend a few seconds to answer. “Fine,” she said, sounding exasperated.

We led her back to the galley. Todd was still there. I said, “As soon as the helicopter gets back, you will be leaving.”

“By the time the helicopter gets back,” Sally said, “the other ship will probably be too far away to make another trip.”

I realized that she was right. Neither our schedule or Observation Island’s allowed us to make changes to our respective routes. She was stuck with us.

I shrugged. “All right. When the helicopter gets back, I’ll have you taken over to Namwon and put in the brig. Until then, you’re going to stay here.” I opened the door to the pantry and gestured inside.

“Are you kidding me?” said Sally. Nika pulled the rifle off her back and pointed it at the reporter. After another moment, she rolled her eyes and walked in. I looked at Todd. He drained his coffee cup and walked after her. I shut the door and positioned a chair under the knob.

“That was mean,” said Nika quietly, so it couldn’t be heard through the door.

I sighed. “I know. Maybe the stress of fighting a war is getting to me.”

She kissed me on the cheek. “I understand.”

When I saw Andy later, I discussed with him the idea of setting up cameras in the passageways. Having another unauthorized person wandering around seemed unlikely, but we could also use the cameras to get a better idea of the problem if we ever took battle damage.

I also told him that we had prisoners locked up. “Hawker did a few BDSM shots. She knows her knots if you need restraints,” he said helpfully.

Hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary, but we agreed that it would be entertaining. I left him in the CIC and went up to the bridge. Penny was there. She had also been keeping a low profile, using the magical artifact the same way I did.

Having been raised on Earth and around people, I was proably a little more comfortable pretending to be one. Since joining up with us, however, Penny had learned the value of deception and went along with it.

I picked up a pair of binoculars and used them to scan the horizon while I told her what I had told Andy. Being on constant lookout was especially important since we were once again running blacked out with no radar. Ahead of us, Namwon scouted for submarines, sweeping side to side to cover a larger area while we held steady at a constant pace.

If it came down to a fight, the South Koreans on the little corvette could hold their own. Our guns were bigger, but the maximum range was similar to theirs. They, too, had Harpoon missiles, although not as many. Namwon did have the advantage of a secondary battery of 40mm guns with torpedoes and depth charges on board, plus the ship was a lot smaller target than Heinlein. We had decent missile defenses, and they could protect us from submarines.

I wasn’t clear yet why we were going north this time. I had barely heard from Hanley since the Joint Chiefs had gotten a hold of me, but they believed in need-to-know as much as the CIA.

We would eventually have to think about letting the news crew out to eat and use the restroom, but for the moment that could wait. I began getting things ready for the night shift, which is to say, I took a nap.

Shortly after midnight, I was awakened by the battle stations alarm. As I got out of my rack, I heard a rocket motor light up on the aft deck. I figured it was a Harpoon because it sounded a lot bigger than a RAM.

I ran to the CIC. Hawker was there.

“Unknown contact that we blundered into,” she said. “They fired first.” Andy showed up a second later. I left for the bridge.

Jeff was at the helm, face looking tense, but businesslike. “Small size contact running without radar,” he told me. “It’s making fifteen knots. The fired guns at us, and we responded with a Harpoon.” As if to punctuate his words, there was an explosion out in the darkness.

I nodded. “Very well.” Glancing over at the radar screen, I saw the contact was about nine miles away. “Keep guns trained on them and cautiously approach. Have we heard from Namwon?

“They’re fine. They’re going to sweep the area and make sure our target is alone.”

We advanced to the burning wreck by a slightly roundabout route, making sure we could keep both guns trained on them at all times. The missile had hit the hull directly in the center. It hadn’t broken the ship in half, but a lot of the superstructure was wrecked and burning fuel spread out on top of the water. I consulted my recognition charts. In the light of the flames, it looked like it might have been a Sariwon-class corvette. It displaced 650 tons, supposedly. It seemed a shame to waste a missile on it from such sort range, but we had to be careful.

It would have been nice to pack enough weapons to run the radar and full communications with impunity, but unfortunately we didn’t have that luxury. We couldn’t afford to stop and pick up the survivors from the wrecked ship, either. I didn’t know if the North Koreans packed life rafts or not, but that was their tough luck. We had neither the room nor the manpower to hold prisoners. Well, not any more than we already had, anyway.

Thinking of that, I went back to the CIC and got Andy. He brought along a shotgun, and we let Sally Townsend and Todd out to use the restroom and to eat. Namwon had refused to take the pair, which I couldn’t really blame them for. I’d talked to Hanley about it, and he’d dodged the issue by telling me that he would leave it to my judgment.

“What was that noise I heard earlier?” asked Sally.

“Business.”

“When are you going to let us go?”

“Whenever we can. It’s hard to get a taxi to send you away in the middle of a war zone. Until then, your choices are either confinement or walk the plank.”

"Are you going to tell me your name?"

"No." I made sure to give her a look that conveyed what an idiot I'd be if I did.

She didn’t say much after that.

I was just about to go back to sleep when Namwon pounced on a submarine. I went back to the bridge and helped guide us clear so the corvette could play with it.

It was apparently some kind of midget sub. It wasn’t very fast, and carried only two torpedoes. That didn’t make it any less dangerous, but it gave the ship quite a bit of advantage. As long as they could guess where the submarine was pointed, the South Koreans could keep it at arm’s length before going in for the kill.

It took a while, but they finally maneuvered the ship on a straight run over the sub and dropped a depth charge. It seemed a shame to waste a whole torpedo on such a small submarine, and depth charges were also a lot cheaper.

We cleared the area and continued north. Before I knew it, it was my turn to be back on duty, despite me already being there. It wasn’t morning yet, but it felt like it was going to be a long day.

Our first indication that things were going to be an uphill battle came when Namwon hit a mine. That sucked for them, but it meant that we might also be in a minefield. I set the controls to pump out the ballast tanks to lift the ship out of the water as much as possible. I also made sure whoever was on the bridge knew not to try and move the ship until it was light enough to spot mines.

Between the azimuth thrusters and the bow thruster, we were able to keep the ship on station despite the wind and waves. It was a delicate operation that required a deft touch on the helm controls and a direct readout of GPS coordinates.

After a few minutes, Namwon reported that they would probably be able to keep themselves afloat. We came alongside and tied up so that we could help keep them from drifting into another mine.

There we sat for two hours. I took a short nap and went to the CIC to monitor the electronic conditions.

There were several radars operating out there, none of them looking friendly. A few appeared southwest of our location, perhaps searching for the ship and submarine we’d sunk. A couple of times, I thought that they might be getting close to detection values, but the North Koreans either didn’t spot us or ignored us because they weren’t expecting a stationary contact.

Someone eventually did get curious, though, and turned their ship towards our location. We could attack, but that would mark our position. Once they knew where we were, we would be sitting ducks.

Abruptly, the closest radar went offline. Others began turning towards it. Had the ship had some kind of problem and its friends were coming to rescue it? I didn’t have long to wait for an answer.

Two more radars disappeared from our receiver screen. The rest appeared to be turning around. It looked like we had a friend out there.

A while passed. We received a low power radio transmission that the direction finder said came from our west. “Stationary vessel, please identify.”

I couldn’t see anything out there, but I picked up the microphone. “This is privateer R.A. Heinlein. Who am I talking to?”

“This is USS Oklahoma City. We have you on our starboard bow. Do you require assistance?” A US submarine was just what we needed. I couldn’t believe our good luck. It was one of the older Los Angeles-class, but it packed Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, plus a whole lot of torpedoes. Even for a sub it was probably better armed than we were.

“Do not approach closer,” I said to the radio. “We are sitting in the middle of a mine field. Repeat, we are in a mine field. We have the ability to remain stationary, but we have to stay here until we have daylight to navigate. We’re tied up to a South Korean Navy ship that hit a mine and are holding it steady.”

“We have mine sonar and can clear you a path. Stand by.”

This just got better and better. I went to the CIC and plugged some headphones into our passive sonar array. It wasn’t the best system, but it allowed me to catch faint sounds coming from the sub. It nosed around for a while before getting back on the radio.

“Heinlein, proceeding due west should take you out of the mines.”

“Thank you. The South Koreans are sending a ship after this damaged one. We’re going to stay in the area until they get here.”

“Sounds good. We’ll be here if you need us.”

Having a submarine on our side was a tremendous help. Not only could it better attack enemy subs, but it could remain undetected from ships and aircraft.

Despite finding a new friend, it still seemed like the night was going to last forever. There was still all kinds of North Korean electronic activity going on, and I felt sure something was going to happen before too long.

Towards dawn, the eastern horizon began to get lighter. Oklahoma City had gone off to the north to investigate a possible contact. We had taken Namwon under tow to get out of the mine field, and now were sailing in circles with just enough speed to keep the tow cable tight.

We had advised the military of our situation. Their response was to send a ship to take care of Namwon, and to shift an E-3 Sentry AWACS surveilance plane a bit north to give us a little radar coverage.

The AWACS was primarily an air-to-air radar system, but it made us feel better. The airplane itself was actually well over the horizon and could only just barely see the airspace above us. It wasn’t much, but they picked up a faint contact that faded in and out.

I had a tough call to make. Stay quiet and hope it went away, or turn on the radar to track it, thus guaranteeing that everyone in the area knew we were here. It would take a while for an enemy ship to get close to us, and we could probably handle any new threats from the air. Plus we had the submarine to help us. I didn’t know what the South Koreans were sending after Namwon, but they’d be stupid to bring it up here without weapons of its own. I decided to take a chance.

Flipping on the radar, I immediately regretted my decision. It was a large, slow moving aerial contact that wasn’t very near us. It also appeared not to have any radar sensors, and kept flying as if we weren’t there. Unfortunately, every other North Korean in the area suddenly noticed us.

We still had the advantage that it was dark, and it would take time for any of them to get within range. I queried the AWACS about the origin of the flying contact. They traced back through their logs and found that it had definitely come from somewhere inside North Korea. That was good enough for me. I activated the ESSM system.

The Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles were a derivative of a system that had been around since the 1960s. It was reliable and accurate. With the commands entered into the control system, the box launcher on the foredeck swiveled to the target and fired.

The distance to the airplane was pushing the limit of ESSM range, but the Mach 4 speed of the missile quickly converged with the target.

The radar contact wobbled and the display cluttered slightly as pieces fell off the airplane. It began a slow turn back towards land but never made it. Something major broke, and the airplane tumbled out of the sky.

I reflected for a moment what the sonar operator aboard Oklahoma City must have thought about the sound of an airplane crash, but didn’t have time to dwell on it. The other contacts on radar were getting too close for comfort.

I talked to the captain of Namwon to explain the situation, although I didn’t mention how I regretted getting into it. Now, as I looked back through the predawn gloom, I saw work going on to get the ship ready. It seemed likely that we might sustain some damage this time, and it was best to be prepared.

I didn’t have any way of contacting the US submarine. It was on the other side of us from the incoming North Koreans and was likely out of sonar contact with them.

I didn’t think that it was a good idea to start launching Harpoons indiscriminately, but I wanted to keep the North Koreans as far away as possible. Depending on the exact model, they could be carrying anti-ship missiles with longer ranges than the missiles we had.

As nice as over-the-horizon warfare could be, it had an entirely different kind of anxiety associated with it. You had to wait and watch the sensors. At least with close in fighting, you could actually see the enemy.

The first incoming missile was launched at almost eighty miles. We had perhaps eight or ten minutes before it would reach us. It was very hard to do, but we were forced to sit and wait for the North Korean ships to come closer.

As the range closed, I set up the ESSM to run in its programmed automatic mode. It would fire when it was ready. Sure enough, a missile leaped out of the box launcher on its own and streaked towards the incoming enemy weapon a short time later.

Being tied to the other ship like we were made maneuvering difficult. We couldn’t reach our top speed and couldn’t stop suddenly or it would run into us. All we could do was put our faith in Raytheon, who had made both the ESSM and RAM, although as a defense contractor myself, I was slightly conflicted that a competitor’s product had to be counted on to save my life.

The ESSM found its target and destroyed the incoming missile. Meanwhile, the ship that had fired it was just barely inside the Harpoon range. I pressed the firing button. We would have to wait another eight minutes or so for our missile to reach them. That would give them all kinds of time to return fire.

And sure enough, they did. With three more missiles. Feeling the beginnings of panic, I activated the RAM and set it to automatic. It was an agonizing few minutes watching the radar blips creep closer.

The ESSM and the RAM both fired twice. Either one of our missiles missed or the systems just wanted to be sure of a kill. The last incoming missile was destroyed uncomfortably close. I didn’t see it, as I had dropped flat on the deck of the bridge, but I distinctly heard a few fragments of metal tinkle against the polycarbonate bridge windows.

I got to my feet. The ship wasn’t damaged, we were still towing Namwon in circles, and our missile was on track. The enemy ship was still on course, perhaps trying to figure out if we were damaged and wanting to get closer to finish the job. At first, I had thought that it was a small missile boat that had expended its weapons. It might be more than that.

The Harpoon had just enough fuel to reach the target, and from what I could tell from the radar screen, it scored a solid hit. The ship, incredibly, didn’t stop. I waited for a minute to see if it was in its death throes, but it appeared unwavering. Well, we could fix that.

Another two Harpoons leaped out of the tubes. I was trying to think what kind of ship it might be. The only thing that carried four anti ship missiles and might be able to stand more than one Harpoon hit would probably be their lone Soho-class frigate. At 1640 tons, it was one of the largest ships in North Korea’s navy.

When our missiles struck it, the ship did finally stop speeding towards us. Over the course of a few minutes, it disappeared from radar.

Personally, I was a little angry that the Harpoons appeared so ineffective with their 300-pound warheads. The Soviet-engineered weapons that North Korea seemed fond of tended to carry much more punch.

The rest of the radar contacts milled about for a while out of range. Then, a new radar lit up to the south and appeared to be heading directly for the enemy ships. They turned tail again and headed north. I hoped they would run into the submarine.

The newcomer turned out to be ROKS Sejong the Great, a South Korean destroyer of a type comparable to the United States’ Arleigh Burke class. It could hold its own with just about any threat from under, on, or above the waves. With it was an ocean tug.

As the sun came up, the tug prepared to take Namwon under tow. We exchanged pleasantries with Sejong the Great. It was unfortunate that they couldn’t stay, because we could really have used the kind of firepower they were carrying. They did agree to let the news crew come aboard.

I gave them back their cameras but threw the memory cards overboard. I apologized somewhat sincerely for having to keep them in captivity.

Sally Townsend fixed me with a glare. “I’m going to find out what it is that you do aboard this ship. It’s just a matter of time.” She walked away to the small boat that was waiting to ferry her and Todd over to the destroyer.

I was a little wary. I had done my best my whole life to keep a low profile, and part of that involved avoiding reporters. I didn’t know what one war correspondent could do, but it might help to protect myself.

I called my lawyer and all around go-to guy David Goldstein and explained the situation to him. He said that he would look into it. Then, uncharacteristically for him, he asked how I was doing.

“Well…it’s war, you know? I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life, but luckily we’re fighting an enemy with crap for a navy.” Talking to him about personal matters reminded me that I needed to call my psychiatrist.

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

Sail just cannot stop pissing folks off. As an aside it's really hard to tell when he's human or pony.

[Riverwing]

You know that comment I made on Traveler about forgetting that Sail was a pony sometimes? It's kinda relevant now that he has the capacity to change his shape.
Still, it's been a long time since I've read a good war story, and I am very much enjoying it, especially from the view point of a "pirate" like Sail.