To Kill the Potemkin Read Online Free PDF Page A

to
turn.
They heard the whoosh of water as it began to wash over the hull, and
the
cavitation of the prop, the chunk chunk chunk of every revolution that
would be
audible until they submerged to four hundred feet. Sorensen punched
several
buttons on his console and the computer began to filter out the sounds
of Barracuda 's
machinery.
Ungainly on the surface, the ship rolled and pitched slightly as they
headed
for the channel.
    "Sonar
to
control. Do you have the
beacon on the repeater?"
    The
repeater was
the sonar console in the
control room that duplicated what the sonarmen saw and heard. Hoek sat
at the
repeater, but it was Pisaro who replied, "Control to sonar, we have
it."
    Twenty
minutes
after leaving the pier the
captain and the lookouts came down from the sail. Springfield closed
the hatch.
    "Prepare
to
dive," said the
captain. "Take her down, Leo."
    Pisaro
gave
orders to retract the radars and
systematically went through his diving panel.
    "Mark
two degrees
down bubble."
    "Mark
two degrees
down bubble,
aye."
    "Flood
forward
ballast tanks."
    "Flood
forward
ballast tanks, aye."
    "Half
speed."
    "All
ahead half,
aye."
    "Stern
planes
down three degrees."
    "Three
degrees
down, aye." Barracuda angled over and slid silently beneath the sea.

3
Chain Reaction
    Barracuda steamed through the Atlantic at twenty-four knots, four hundred feet
beneath
the surface. There was no wind, no waves, no turbulence. At four
hundred feet
the water pressure was so great there was no cavitation behind the
prop. No
bubbles, no energy lost to drag. As the screw turned, the ship moved
ahead with
maximum efficiency. Three precise inertial navigation gyroscopes
recorded every
movement of the ship in three dimensions. Without contacting the
surface, the
navigation computer determined Barracuda 's exact
position.
    The
crew settled
into the patrol routine of
repetitious drills—damage control drill, collision drill, atmosphere
systems
failure drill, weapons drill. When not practicing for calamity or
battle, they
were kept busy continuously maintaining machinery and studying
technical
journals for rating exams and promotions.
    Muzak
wafted
through the ship. Two days out
of Norfolk Cool Hand Luke was rolling in the mess.
Air conditioners
maintained a comfortable seventy-two degrees.
    From
the conning
station the captain looked
around the brilliantly illuminated control room. The green hue of
fluorescent
lighting, accented by the CRTs, gave the compartment an unearthly glow.
    Springfield
was not a religious man, but he often thought the control room had the
solemn
atmosphere of a church—an inner sanctum of high technology. Men watched
their
instruments with the faith of true-believers. Every act was a ritual
prescribed
by regulations, perfected by repetition. Barracuda represented the
highest order of human artifice, and Springfield thought it ironic that
such
engineering genius was devoted to a man-o'-war. If Barracuda resembled a
church, it was the church militant.
    "Lieutenant
Hoek," the captain was now saying to the weapons officer, "you have
the conn."
    Fred
Hoek
felt as if he had just stuck his finger into
an electric socket. As he moved his heavy frame up a step
to the
conning station, his heart was palpitating and his face was white. He
put on a
headset.
    "Aye
aye, sir. I relieve you of the conn."
    Lt.
Hoek
scanned the displays in the conning station. Sweat began to collect on
his
upper lip. He was in heaven. He was radioactive. He had the conn.
    Springfield
strolled over to the reactor displays that monitored the chain reaction
taking
place at six hundred degrees fifteen feet away. Instinctively, he
fondled his
film badge, a strip of sensitive celluloid that measured the amount of
radiation he was receiving. Like everyone else, the captain turned in
his badge
once a month to a hospital corpsman, who processed the film in the
darkroom and
determined how much radiation each crew member was receiving.
----
    In
the stern of the ship, in the