Masters of the Broken Watches

by Razi Imam

  “Sebastian,” Nidal said, “what are you doing? We can’t take on a destroyer, not to mention the Chinese. It’s game over. We’ve come as far as we can.”

  Sebastian regarded the team one by one as he spoke. “We cannot surrender the research. All the good this nodule can do for the world will suffocate in the hands of a few powerful nations. And if the true potential of this nodule dies, the next stage of mankind’s evolution dies with it.”

  The bridge fell silent as the team took in Sebastian’s words. Moments later, Maria came to his side. “He’s right. We can’t surrender. We have to stand and protect our discovery.”

  Captain Drake’s voice came through. “Doctor Miles, I know you want what’s best, but I have my orders. If you refuse to stand down, I’m afraid I won’t be able to vouch for your safety.”

  Sebastian realized Captain Drake didn’t want things to get ugly. “We understand your position, Captain. But we cannot in good faith let you take our research. Do what you have to do.”

  Captain Drake was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. “What are our options?” He asked, turning to his XO. “I didn’t expect this level of resistance from a bunch of scientists.”

  The communication’s officer spoke up. “Sir, the Chinese captain of Luyang-I wishes to speak with you.”

  “Dammit! Put him on the speakers,” Drake responded.

  “This is Captain Zheng He of the Luyang-I. This is the sovereign territory of the People’s Republic of China. We strongly advise you to leave immediately to avoid any misunderstanding.”

  Captain Drake rolled his eyes. “This is Captain Francis Drake of the USS Bainbridge. We’re a sovereign United States naval vessel on a military mission, conducting lawful activities beyond any UN-recognized coastal waters of any state. We’re operating with due regard to international law governing these waters. We’re here to bring a group of American scientists into our protection, at which point we’ll exit the South China Sea,” Drake responded.

  “That boat and its people have attacked three of our patrol boats, recognized as an act of war against China. They must stand trial in our courts for their crimes,” Zheng stated, maintaining the same civil tone.

  Drake continued. “We cannot allow you to capture and detain American citizens. The United States government will investigate your accusations and determine the right course of action.”

  There was a moment of silence and the crackle of the microphone, followed by the Chinese captain’s voice. “We’ll allow your citizens to be taken into your custody, provided their vessel and all materials on the vessel are taken into ours, remaining the sole property of the People’s Republic of China.” Zheng then terminated the call.

  At that very moment the radar officer of the Bainbridge called out, “Captain Drake, our sensors show that the Luyang-I has launched RIBs. They’re speeding toward the Skjold.”

  “Son of a bitch, he was stalling us. Get Zheng back!” Drake shouted.

  “Sir, they’re not responding,” the communications officer said.

  The weapons officer shouted, “Sir, the Luyang-I has gone into full combat alert.”

  “XO, apprise the secretary of defense,” Drake ordered, “and request permission to engage.” He turned to his tactical action officer (TAO). “Issue general quarters, and fire a warning shot across the bow of the Luyang.”

  “Aye, Captain.” The TAO activated the targeting system, locked a spot three hundred feet from the Luyang’s bow, and fired a projectile explosive that sent a geyser of water high into the air.

  “Sir, the Americans have just fired a warning shot!” the Chinese XO yelled.

  Zheng had the schematics of the Bainbridge displayed on the monitors. He had early on made the decision that he wasn’t going to let the Skjold and all its research leave the area, especially after seeing its logic-defying capability.

  “I want a measured response, something that will send them a message. Target their auxiliary machine room. I believe they have weapons batteries there. That will neutralize them with little casualty. Do we have a lock?”

  “Aye, sir,” Zheng’s tactical officer replied. “We have a stealth ship-to-ship low impact air missile locked,” an officer replied.

  “Okay, let’s give this arrogant American a taste of Chinese weaponry. Fire!” Zheng ordered. Zheng didn’t know that, due to the earlier hack, the engineers of the Bainbridge had rerouted power. Weapons were no longer connected to batteries in the auxiliary room.

  An explosion rocked the Bainbridge. Catching the edge of a workstation, Drake looked to the monitors displaying ship functions. Red and yellow alarm signals popped up everywhere, indicating damaged or nonfunctioning systems.

  “Why didn’t our sensors alert us sooner to the incoming missile?” he shouted at his weapons officer.

  “Sir, the Chinese have used a new weapon. I’m reconfiguring the system to detect it,” the weapons officer answered, typing on his keyboard.

  The XO ran to the phone that connected to the engine room. “Status!” he shouted.

  “It’s bad, sir!” the chief engineer yelled. “The auxiliary machine room’s been hit. It’s taking on water. The doors have sealed and we have sailors trapped inside. The bulkhead leading to the room was also taking on water, so we closed it, too. They knew exactly where to hit us.”

  The XO repeated everything to the war room. “Casualties?” he demanded.

  “Unsure, sir,” the chief engineer reported. “We’re rigging a makeshift pump to remove the water. We’re working as fast as we can. I have to go, sir!”

  “Copy that,” the XO said, hanging up the receiver.

  Captain Drake stood in the middle of the war room, looking at schematics of the Luyang-I displayed on the top two monitors. He knew where their engine room was and the batteries essential to operate their weapons.

  “Do we have weapons control?” Drake shouted.

  “Aye, sir!” the TAO responded.

  “I want a spread of three guided missiles targeting their two weapon batteries and their main engine room. Cut their fucking feet out from under them.”

  “Aye, sir!” the TAO shouted. “We have a lock!”

  “Fire!” Drake yelled.

  The Bainbridge, alarms blaring and smoke pouring from its hull, fired three guided ship-to-ship missiles at the Luyang-I. Drake and the officers watched the monitors as the three missiles made contact with their targets. The Chinese evasive counter missile measures were no match for them.

  “Captain,” the TAO said, “direct hits have been confirmed. They’re not going anywhere, and their weapon batteries are down. All three impacts are above the waterline. They’re neutralized, but aren’t in danger of sinking.”

  “Very good,” Drake responded. “Get Zheng back on the line. We’re just getting started.”

  “Captain Drake,” Zheng’s voice came over the war room speakers, alarms and commotion loud in the background, “you have committed an act of war against the People’s Republic of China. We’ll respond with nothing less than our full might.”

  “You’re in no condition to make threats, Captain,” Drake replied. “Call your boarding party back or prepare to be sunk.”

  Zheng slammed the receiver back in its cradle. None of their weapons systems were operational. The Bainbridge had neutralized them in a single retaliatory strike.

  “Contact GHQ and tell them to dispatch the two Luyang-III destroyers to support us. And tell the boarding party to stand down and return to the ship.” Looking at his XO, he asked, “Casualties?”

  “Several wounded, so far,” Zheng’s XO answered. “No casualties, all are accounted for.”

  “Good,” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Focus on the batteries. Our weapons need to be operational ASAP.”

  Wang Li was rapidly approaching the Skjold in an inflatable speedboat. He’d been asked by Zheng to join the Chinese boarding party, as he was most familiar with the capabilities of the Skjold.

  His excitement was interrup
ted when his boarding party heard explosions behind them. They turned around to see smoke billowing from both the Bainbridge and the Luyang-I. Wang Li realized that their boat had slowed down. The team lead was getting new orders. To his extreme disappointment, they started heading back to the Luyang-I.

  “Why are we returning?” Wang Li yelled at the team leader. “We’re so close! Come on, finish the operation!”

  The leader stared at him as if he were an exasperating child. Wang Li shot up from his seated position and opened his mouth to argue further, a crazed look in his eyes. Without hesitation, the team leader smacked the butt of his rifle into Li’s forehead.

  Wang Li sat down hard, rubbing his head. He couldn’t go back, he had come too close. His enemy was right there. The inflatable hadn’t gained full speed. Wang Li made a snap decision and rolled over the side, hitting the water with a splash.

  Hearing the splash, the leader’s surprise turned to disgust. “Leave him!” he yelled to the helmsman.

  Back on the Skjold, the Paramarines watched the ongoing saga as dusk settled over the sea. Nidal shot up from his chair. “I don’t believe this. The Chinese fired on the Bainbridge. And the Bainbridge has retaliated.”

  “Oh my God, have we started a war?” Fabienne shouted.

  “According to my limited knowledge of these ships,” Michelangelo said, “the Chinese have hit the auxiliary room of the Bainbridge, and the Bainbridge has taken out the Luyang’s weapons batteries and engine room. Should we make a run for it and try to reach Cebrián’s coordinates?”

  Sebastian clasped his hands behind his head, thinking for a second. “No, we’re not running from this. Bainbridge appears to be seriously damaged. Shiloh can connect us to Captain Drake?”

  Captain Drake was rapidly barking orders. The XO had informed him that a team of engineers were working on reaching the trapped sailors. They would need two hours to pump the water out from the bulkhead and adjoining rooms and cut a hole through the wall to reach them.

  “What are you saying, XO?” Drake asked.

  “Sir, our men will suffocate. They’re running out of oxygen,” the XO hurriedly reported. “The rescue has to happen underwater. All the adjoining rooms are flooded.”

  “You mean to say they’re good as dead?” Drake asked.

  Just then, Sebastian’s voice came over the speakers. “Captain Drake, this is Sebastian Miles, we can see your ship has been damaged. Is there anything we can do to help? Have you suffered any casualties?” Sebastian asked.

  Drake reared back, surprised at the call. “Sebastian, we’re dealing with a serious situation. I need to go.”

  “Sir, please wait. That’s why I’m calling. Maybe we can help,” Sebastian insisted.

  Drake shook his head. “How? We have maybe a dozen sailors stuck in the auxiliary machine room with fifteen minutes of oxygen remaining. It’ll take my men two hours to get to them. If you had listened to us, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

  “Captain Drake, I know this will be hard for you to understand, but we can save your men.”

  “What? How?” Drake asked, looking at his XO to make sure he’d heard Sebastian correctly.

  “Captain,” Sebastian said, “this is why you’ve been ordered to take control of our research. We have a scientific breakthrough that would come in real handy right about now. We’ll use it to save your men. How close can you get me to them?”

  The XO jumped in. “If you’re willing to swim, the ducts can get you close.”

  “Okay,” Sebastian said. “We can rendezvous with you in just a few minutes. Allow us to board, and we’ll save your men.”

  Drake glanced at his XO, who consented by shrugging his shoulders.

  “Fine, come on over,” Drake said. “But what makes you so sure we won’t arrest you?”

  “We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Sebastian replied. “For now, let’s focus on the rescue.” Sebastian ended the call and turned to Shiloh. “Get the time warp device ready with the Rahpido slide. Michelangelo, take the helm and get us to the Bainbridge.”

  Treading in the water, Wang Li could see the Skjold a few dozen meters away. It was now fully dark, and then two large spotlights switched on, right at the waterline, and the engines started making an intense, high-pressure noise. As he treaded, unsure what was happening, the ship took off in the direction of the Bainbridge with incredible speed. Li couldn’t believe his rotten luck. He started smashing the water with his fists. With no other option, he started swimming toward the Bainbridge.

  Sebastian, Shiloh, and Nidal boarded the Bainbridge, and to their surprise, Drake and his XO were there to receive them. Nidal saluted them.

  “At ease, soldier,” Captain Drake said, after returning the salute.

  “How close can you get us to the men?” Sebastian asked, not wasting any time.

  The XO took the lead. “The bulkheads and the adjoining rooms are all flooded. If you swim through the ductwork, you can get on top of the auxiliary machine room. They only have about five minutes of oxygen left.”

  “How long is it going to take your men to break through and get to them?” Sebastian asked while following the XO through the ship.

  “My men have been cutting through the walls. We’ve gotten a break—we think we can get through to them in sixty minutes or less,” the XO answered, almost running.

  “Get me an oxygen tank,” Sebastian said. “You’ll have the full sixty minutes to get to them.”

  “In sixty minutes, they’ll be dead, remember they only have minutes of oxygen left,” the XO reminded him, radioing ahead for the tank.

  “Just trust me, and keep cutting until you reach them,” Sebastian said.

  They reached a boiler room with an opening in the floor and water bubbling up through it. There was an oxygen tank on the side, complete with scuba gear.

  Sebastian didn’t need the full gear, just the mask, the regulator, and the tank. The XO gave him directions to get to the opposite side of the auxiliary machine room. “Go fifteen feet right and then ten feet left. You’ll come to a submerged vent in the auxiliary room. My men are on the other side, which hasn’t completely submerged yet.”

  Sebastian nodded and jumped into the opening. It was just large enough for one person. He switched on his flashlight and swam to the vent. He set the time warp device for a 1:20 Rahpido/real time ratio and activated it. Three minutes of Rahpido relative time would give the engineers a full hour to cut through the walls.

  Shiloh had configured the time warp device in such a way that it only covered Sebastian and the men in the room, who noticed that the water and remaining air space above their heads had become a radiant blue-green.

  Outside the room, the engineers worked frantically. As they continued to cut through the steel walls, they knew it was already too late. It was now a retrieval operation, not a rescue operation. The thought sickened them, but they didn’t slow their pace.

  Cutting through the last wall they waded through the water and came into a radiant blue-green air pocket holding the sailors, still alive and looking shocked. One by one, the divers helped them swim out of the room to safety.

  The XO, Shiloh, and Nidal had been standing next to the opening for an hour. It was awkward—they didn’t know much about what Sebastian was doing. They just stood there in silence, waiting.

  The wall speaker hissed on and the chief engineer’s excited voice came through. “Attention, all hands. The rescue operation is a success. All sailors by some miracle are alive and well. They’re reporting to sick bay.”

  Pandemonium broke out across the entire ship as cheers, clapping, and whistling echoed through every corridor.

  “How—how did you guys do this?” the XO asked Shiloh and Nidal. Sebastian’s head popped out of the opening, and they helped pull him out. He stripped off the mask and regulator as Shiloh and Nidal clapped him on the back and congratulated him.

  XO glanced at Sebastian’s pressure gauge, shocked that the psi meter hadn’
t moved at all.

  Drake walked in and stuck his hand out to Sebastian. “I don’t know how you did it—okay, maybe I’ve read a few reports and know how you may have done it—but I want to say thank you.”

  Sebastian nodded and shook his hand. They were escorted back on deck and stood next to the brow that would take them to the Skjold. The group fell quiet as Sebastian asked Captain Drake, “Permission to disembark, captain?”

  “Sebastian,” Drake said, “Thank you, once again. Would you and your team do us the honor of dining with us? Our boat is under repairs, and even though we’re on high alert, the Luyang isn’t a threat. I promise this isn’t a trick to arrest you or take over your research. I owe you this.”

  Sebastian turned to Nidal and Shiloh seeking their thoughts, he paused. “Let me go back and speak with the team. The last few days have been anything but normal. I’m sure we’d all like a break.”

  “Sounds great, take your time. Radio us when you’re ready,” Captain Drake replied earnestly.

  They all shook hands and the Paramarines walked down to the Skjold. Drake and the XO could hear the excited celebration coming from the Skjold as the rest of the team heard the news of the successful rescue. Drake turned to the XO and smiled wryly. “Well, I imagine the secretary of defense has a court-martial waiting for me.”

  It took the team an hour to clean up and prepare for their evening. The Paramarines made their way to the Bainbridge, where they were met with a salute from the XO and all of the senior officers. They were then escorted to the captain’s dining room.

  “Captain Drake,” Sebastian said, “please allow me to introduce Charles, Adora, Maria, Michelangelo, Nidal, Shiloh, and Fabienne.”

  Drake met them with a big smile, welcoming them aboard the Bainbridge.

  The conversation, to no one’s surprise, focused on the nodule and the time particles. Drake and the senior officers listened raptly as the team described them, the subterranean life form, how they had discovered it using the time warp device, and how they had traveled to Sydney in a matter of minutes. Sebastian didn’t feel there was any need to hide the facts any longer. Drake had read the reports from the secretary—he already knew the broad strokes of their research.