U.S.S. Seawolf Read Online Free Page A

Linus Clarke made his way to the forward compartment, which housed the launching mechanisms for Seawolf ’s principal weapon. By the time he arrived, Chief Petty Officer Jeff Cardozo had already supervised the loading, easing the torpedoes through the massive, round hinged door. The identical door at the seaward end of the tube was of course sealed shut, not only hydraulically, but also by the gigantic pressure of the ocean 1,000 feet down.
    The really tricky part occurs next, when the air is vented out of the tube, ready for the tube’s flood valve to be opened to let seawater in. This will ultimately equalize the pressure inside the firing tube with that of the sea beyond the outer door. Chief Cardozo was on duty, eye-balling his tubes crew.
    Nineteen-year-old Seaman Recruit Kirk Sarloos from Long Beach was at his post in front of the panel of switches that controls the torpedo systems. After flooding the tubes, equalizing the pressure inside with the sea pressure outside the hull, and opening the bow shutters, the brutally powerful pressurized air turbine system will blast the torpedoes out into the ocean without leaving as much as a bubble on the surface. When the missiles have warheads fitted—not today—that procedure will spell death. For someone.
    “ Number one and number two tubes ready for flooding …”
    “ FLOOD NUMBER ONE TUBE …!”
    Kirk hit the two switches for number one tube, listening to the hiss of air forced out through the vent by the water rushing in through the flood valve. He shut bothvalves as he heard the hiss turn to a gurgling, crackling noise when the last of the air was displaced by seawater. He hit a third switch, equalizing the pressures in case she changed depth.
    “ NUMBER ONE TUBE EQUALIZED ,” he called. “ FLOOD AND VENT VALVES SHUT .”
    “ Open number one tube bow doors .”
    Again Kirk hit a switch. “ Number one bow door and shutter open .”
    Number one tube was now ready to fire.
    “ FLOOD NUMBER TWO TUBE .”
    Kirk’s eyes scanned the switchboard, and he flipped both switches. Except he hit the flood-and-vent switches for number one tube by mistake, and a steel bar of water blew clean through the open valve and caught him hard in the upper chest, the colossal force hurling him 10 feet back across the compartment into a bank of machinery. At this depth the pressure behind the water was equal to around 30 atmospheres.
    A lethal inch-wide column of ocean was blasting straight into the casing of the torpedo-loading gear, breaking up into a fine dense mist of blinding water particles. Kirk lay motionless, facedown in the deafening thunder of the incoming ocean. It was like a roar from the core of the earth, a hiss that sounded like a shriek, as the single jet dissolved into a lashing white screen of spray, completely obscuring everything. In that hell-kissed compartment, the three men couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and couldn’t be heard.
    Chief Cardozo knew where Kirk was, and he covered his eyes from the sting of the spray. With his head down he struggled through the water. It was 15 feet but seemed like 15 miles, pushing forward in the disorienting blindness of the flood. He grabbed the young seaman and somehow dragged him clear of the blast of seawater. Kirk was groggy, but he hadn’t drowned.
    Lt. Commander Clarke, unfamiliar with the sheer force of the ocean at this depth, grabbed the nearest intercom and yelled, “ WE HAVE A MAJOR LEAK FOR’ARD. BLOW ALL MAIN BALLAST AND SURFACE, CAPTAIN. FOR CHRIST’S SAKE …” He exited the torpedo room and raced up to the conn.
    Captain Crocker, surprised at the unorthodox intervention of his XO, but aware now that there was a problem, overruled his number two. “ I HAVE THE CONN. PLANESMAN…BELAY THAT ORDER…TEN UP…MAKE YOUR DEPTH TWO HUNDRED FEET …”
    Now in the conn, Lt. Commander Clarke could not believe his ears. Agitated, his ears still ringing from the shattering blast of the leak, he turned to the chief