by Scott Todd
"They have no IDEA what kind of real firepower is on this ship," Gary retorted with a tinge of combativeness. "And little do they know exactly HOW terrified they really SHOULD be. But they are going to find out soon enough."
"And so you are going to incinerate all those civilians along with them at that base?" Terry quickly interjected, with fierce objection. The women had been monitoring all this attentively for quite some time without saying a word. Jan just glared at Gary, speechless.
Gary quickly looked at me, and then at Ben, motioning with his eyes for someone to get them out of the control area.
"No no, we're not leaving this war up to you men anymore," Jan barked. "Don't even try it. We're staying. We're staying for the women and the children. We are clearly the only hope they have at this point."
"And even THAT won't be enough," Gary mumbled as he turned away back to his instruments. "This is why war sucks for everyone. And this one WE DID NOT START. But we're GOING to finish it," he said authoritatively and with a forceful resolve. "That's for DAMN sure, if we make it to the launch point."
"Yeah, IF..." Terry said quietly. But it was the way she said it. "Come on Jan, let's leave the boys with their toys to destroy the rest of the world." She grabbed Jan by the hand and led her off the bridge. Jan kept peering backwards at us over her shoulder with some very, very troubled eyes.
"Brian, I think you're going to have to watch those two. I sense sabotage," Gary said, sounding quite concerned. There was a command in his tone as well. He kept looking at me, waiting.
"But don't you need the sonar to, umm..." I started to ask.
"I have a basic readout I can use up here. It's risky, and not comprehensive, but... But it's better than not getting to the launch point at all..." Gary retorted.
He paused for a minute, then said: "There is a holding room down by medical, and the key's in the Captain's cabin. If you feel like that is going to be the only way to..."
"I don't think we'll need to go there, but I will watch them," I interjected. "I understand the importance."
"Twenty four seven, ok? No chances," Gary asserted commandingly as I got up. My guts ached with a horrible sense of a now broken family at odds with each other in the midst of apocalypse, as I headed down after them. I didn't know what was worse- the wave on the mountain, or this. Somehow I was going to have to calm them. Or perhaps, distract them.
And now the sub was moving again. Gary and Ben were back on track, but the rest of us were going off the rails. I wasn't useful for much on that sub, but there was one thing I could try. The proverbial ice was after all- quite broken and well worn already.
Chapter 65: Only in the MC:TLSC- EXTREME Version
Chapter 66: Waypoint 'Painless Death'
So two days after insane amounts of bizarre fornication and a rather distasteful deception, I found my way back up to the bridge- while my captives remained pissed as hell at me. I really hated to lock them up, but I had to agree with Gary that we could take no chances, period.
I was aching for any news of where we were, and how far we had to go. I knew it couldn't be much further. But we were going pretty darn slow to avoid detection, so I wasn't sure.
On the bridge Ben and Gary were still busy and hard at it, with Ben manning the steering while Gary ran around from station to station like a chicken with its head cut off.
They both looked up at me with a curious look on their faces. Just one look at me and they knew right away what I had to do to keep those women distracted.
"Glad YOU'VE been getting some," Gary sneered with a slight smirk and faint smile on his face. "But still, good job. We're almost there. We're back to ultra stealth mode, so keep it quiet," he said, lowering his voice. "The water depth has dropped now to a mere 1,500 feet, and getting shallower by the minute. I could really use you over here to watch this basic sonar screen and make sure we don't run into a mountain side. Remember, we're not in 5,000 feet of water any more.
"The last several hundred miles has been pretty smooth, but Ben suspects some hills up ahead," he continued. "It could get very shallow very fast, as we near the edge of the water line. We just don't know. That's the bottom there, and you'll see if there is anything coming up to near our height level, which is that line right there," he said, pointing. "Anything within 200 feet I want to know about, well ahead of time so I can guide Ben to steer it right. Got it?"
I nodded reluctantly.
"Ok then, it's yours, but don't touch anything," he said, and moved over to another bank of instrument panels. "We're totally ready. We just have to make it there. ETA: About 12 hours to waypoint Painless Death."
"To what?" I retorted, not understanding. "Waypoint Painless Death?"
"Yes, the name I have given to the coordinates of the launch point. Painless Death because, well, suffice it to say that thousands, if not millions, are about to die very quick, painless deaths," Gary replied. "You see, they are incinerated so fast that they die before their brain can register the pain. At least, that's the working theory- cause well- dead people don't talk... At least, no that we know of."
The way he was saying this was so cold and clinical I wondered if there was any human left in him. I couldn't even respond, and went back to looking at the screen.
Ben didn't say a word, and just shook his head in silence at our exchange. Things got relatively silent for the next several hours, until I saw something on the screen that looked like an upcoming hill. It appeared that its elevation would indeed be trouble, so I called Gary over.
"Yes, correct. Water is at 1,100 feet now, and we have been heading steadily upward for the last several hours," he said. "I'll take this from here thanks."
He proceeded to coordinate with Ben as they steered the sub around the problem.
"I better check on them," I said, and started towards the lower decks.
"Be sure to tell them that we are painfully sorry and that they will be free in a matter of hours," Ben asked. "But we have to do what we have to do."
I nodded and went below. I stopped by the kitchen and took them some refreshments and sandwiches. They glared at me like wild demon cats, but finally accepted the food. I told them what Ben said, and tried hard to mean it.
"Yeah well, the blood is not on OUR hands," Terry hissed. Jan just kept her head down and ate with a sad, sad look on her face. This was really, really bothering her what we were about to do.
And I had no consolation words. It sucked all the way around. Gary had also directed me to some heavy duty plastic wire ties, and I used them to bind their hands and lead them to the bathroom one at a time.
"It will be over soon," is all I could say. "Please try and understand. Please?" I begged.
"You think the children will understand?" Jan said back in a debilitating voice.
I had no answer, and I begged Jan with my eyes no to go there on me. No one understands death, other than the fact that it happens to every single one of us sooner, or later. I finally said "At least it will be painless." And that drew horrified stares of disbelief and accusation.
Man! I had to go.
So completing my mission, I locked the door once again, noticing the sound proofing on the walls, floor and ceiling Gary had told me about. It wouldn't be the first time there was trouble on board- the kind that had to be muted, lest the sub be detected due to unsavory noises of any kind.
Finally arriving back on the bridge feeling like total shit, I collapsed into the nearest chair I could find. This was heavy. And I was going to witness the very buttons being pushed.
I glanced over and saw a newly lit panel, with a lot of red lights on it. Gary saw me looking at it, and got a bit testy. "Whatever you do, stay the hell away from that," he warned.
I just looked at him, wondering if he had a soul- cause mine had left me somewhere back on the mountain. Once you die that many times, there is just very little left.
"800 feet," he said, sounding more anxious. "We fire at 500 feet water depth. Remember we climb to periscope dep
th first, check radar, and maintain zero knots Ben. I have gang-grouped all the missile firing operations onto one button. It will take a few minutes to complete the firing sequence, and then I will advise you when to dive," Gary reiterated.
"Yes, I am clear on it," Ben reassured him, but his wobbly voice betrayed his attempts to sound like he was in total control.
"ETA to PD waypoint: 1.5 hours now," Gary updated out loud, but softly.
"You guys want something to eat?" I asked, knowing food was scarce with Jan all locked up, and trying to keep my voice down.
"I'm too nervous to eat," Ben whispered.
"Me too," Gary said softly. "Just go watch the screen over there if you wouldn't mind. I'm triple checking everything over here now, making sure everything is correct."
So I took a seat back on sonar. The terrain looked a bit hilly, but nothing was in our way that I could see.
"650 feet" Gary whispered, some minutes later. I spotted that number on the screen, realizing finally what it was. Time was starting to fly. I only wish I could have stopped the clock and not had to live them. I was shaking knowing what was about to happen, and Ben was visibly upset, tossing and turning in his seat.
Within 20 minutes after that, we were at 575 feet, and Gary started counting down.
"Ok, you clear on the exit route?" Gary asked Ben. "Stay focused on that please, and don't let any noises distract you. Run through what you are going to do as we talked about it in your head again. 550 feet."
"I have. A hundred times," Ben remarked softly, sounding a bit annoyed.
"Ok, ok, sorry," Gary said. "525 feet. Initiate climb to periscope depth... NOW." Ben obliged and I felt the sub ease upwards.
Gary hit a couple of buttons and then I saw his whole panel light up and a long bank of big red buttons turn solid red. But there was one flashing at the end of them.
"500 feet, and target waypoint PD 300 yards ahead," Gary whispered. "Periscope depth in 3...2...1... ACHIEVED. Level and slow her down to zero knots, Ben. That's it. Ok, good. Now hold her right there. Checking periscope and activating radar. Brian, you know where the radar screen is, please. Advise if anything comes up."
I barely heard him as a swirl of menacing emotions was consuming me. Perhaps it was the countless souls of those about to experience annihilation nagging me in advance. Nonetheless, I manned the radar screen.
I didn't have to advise, because the beeps were immediate, loud and clear. Gary came running over to look. Three different dots were on the screen, and Gary looked scared. It was the first time I truly saw unbridled fear on his face since he had a fresh bullet in his shoulder.
"Shit, shit, shit!" he whispered about as low as you can say it. "Ok wait. Let me get their bearings... Ok got it. Downing periscope. That can yield an image on the latest radars. Ok, so we are going to have to wait a while until they clear the area. Running trajectory calculations, and estimating all clear time. Got it. We need 14 minutes. We sit quiet and wait. Don't anyone move. If a plane flies over us at this depth and happens to be looking, we are screwed."
With all I had been through to that point, I had still not wet my pants. But it was getting damn hard to hold it.
"We've got to raise the periscope and check radar once more before we fire," Gary whispered. "And regardless, we still run the risk of those planes spotting the missiles as they take off in various directions. If they spot just one before it reaches the turn up point, they will have our position back traced in minutes."
Finally when the nail-biting 14 minutes was up, Gary still stalled, saying that because one of the planes was heading north, and was too close to the decoy missile trajectory path, that he wanted to wait another ten minutes.
Once again he raised the periscope, and this time radar was silent. "We fire if all remains clear in eight minutes," he whispered in a trembling, quivering voice.
"Six minutes... Three minutes..." he counted down. "Ok, all clear, so I am sending a kill order to the satellite now. It will immediately destroy any other pre-targeted enemy satellites in orbit on the same side of the planet it can see. And that will cause a meltdown in military communications for both Russia and China. It will be very difficult for them to detect our missile launches without those key satellites. By the time they realize what is happening, they will be staring at our missiles about to impact- much less have any time at all to respond."
Ben finally looked at me with the most regretful look I have ever seen on anyone's face. It tore me up, and I felt what he was feeling- he made sure of that.
"10 seconds... 5...4...3...2...1... FIRING!" Gary said, and reached out to the flashing red button. He hesitated just an instant, but push it he finally did.
Within seconds, we heard the sub repeat over and over all the noises that are made during missile launches. The fact that we might be detected because of those noises crossed my mind. After several minutes, I counted a total of 16 separate launches- and remembered that each one carried multiple warheads that would separate and speed off to their own targets at a later point in the flight. Then Gary surprised us when they finally stopped.
"Ok, we have to surface to launch two more special missiles... I've got it Ben." He slid into Ben's seat and raised the sub until we surfaced. Then he was back at his control panel, and this time with several video screens on. Once again he pushed two more buttons and we heard the sub launch twice more.
Then he immediately dove us back down to a moderate depth and gave it back to Ben.
"Ok Ben, commence escape plan," he whispered. "In a few minutes a couple of video feeds will be active. These top secret missiles deploy special, hardened miniature drones before they hit their targets, with very high resolution cameras about 10,000 feet above the blast area. We fly them in after the blast for immediate damage assessments.
I took note of the joysticks near the screens, and it started to make sense. After some ten minutes, one screen lit up, and the image was startling. The camera immediately focused downward and for just a split second we saw the rear of the missile heading down towards the ground target. About a minute later, Gary had to dim the screen when it went totally bright white for several seconds at impact. And a bit after that the video became all jumbled for a minute as the drone itself took the impact from the massive shockwave.
"That's where we had trouble... On impact... But we perfected it through careful simulated testing," Gary said- again, sounding detached and clinical. I mean never mind that thousands of souls had just met their maker.
"Now watch this," he said as he flew the drone in carefully, around the mushroom cloud and zoomed in on the ground. What we saw was no less than utter, total destruction as far as the camera could see. Fires all over, blackened earth, remnants of flattened buildings, and not one living thing.
"That was that base we saw in the photos," he said. "They won't be waging any more war. Or nuking any more mountain tops."
The second video appeared and we basically repeated the same thing all over again. "The ones without video are far larger than what you saw with these. But the net effect is the same: Total destruction," he said, and this time he sounded somewhat sad. He put his head down for a minute, and then looked up at us with watery eyes.
"Checkmate," he muttered with a gloomy finality. Then he totally collapsed in his chair, receding into his own contemplation.
Revenge was bitter-sweet. Sweet that we killed the enemy, but bitter when we had to take thousands of innocent lives with them just to kill the actual enemy. The debate over whether those "innocent" lives were truly innocent or not will likely rage on until the end of time. Some will argue that populations are guilty by association and support, and therefore that a population is targetable as well as the military enemy it spawns.
What a twisted world it is... Or WAS. I kept wondering how "painless" any survivors on the far reaches of the blast perimeters were feeling.
Gary recovered and flew the drones around for several more hours, recording all the video, and then finally
popped up a couple of covered panel switches and flicked them. "Self destruction after the video is taken," he said. The screens went blank again. "Well, mission complete so far. I guess we can unlock the women now."
I promptly handed him the key, and oh boy... You should have seen the look on his face. I took what was left of my sorry ass straight to bed, hoping I wasn't murdered in my sleep by a couple of infuriated women... Or... By a bomb that managed to make it through the mayhem like we did... and find its target.
Chapter 67: Seeking A Secret
When I next awoke, the familiar sound of near silence permeated the air. But something was slightly different. I could feel and barely hear the sub's engine a little more- just a little. It seemed to be working harder, and I immediately thought we were probably going much faster than before.
