Shattered Trident - Страница 87

14 September 2016

1030 Local Time

Squadron Fifteen Headquarters

Guam

The summons to the squadron headquarters arrived mid-morning. Frankly, Jerry was very surprised that the call hadn’t come earlier—it had been over thirty-six hours since the VTC on Monday night. He suspected Simonis was still deeply troubled by his recommendation to the president to use nuclear weapons as a war-ending strategy. The commodore had been in a state of total disbelief when the VTC ended, and left without saying a single word. Everyone stood in amazement as he just walked out of the conference room. No ranting, no orders, nothing.

Jerry again skipped the car ride and walked to the squadron headquarters building. It was a pleasant morning and the stroll helped to clear his head. He fully expected a major blowout with Simonis, and he needed to be thinking clearly. After signing in at the quarterdeck, he collected his visitor’s badge and passed through the turnstiles, taking the left-hand passageway toward the squadron admin spaces. As he passed by one of the offices, a voice called out to him, “Commander Mitchell!”

Jerry turned to see someone poking his head out of an open door. It was Commander Walker, Simonis’s operations officer. “Do you have a minute, Captain?” he asked.

Glancing at his watch, Jerry saw he still had five minutes before his meeting with Simonis. “Yeah, sure. What can I do for you?”

Walker motioned for Jerry to come into his office, then closed the door behind him. He looked a little agitated. “The order to implement your nuke demo suggestion came in earlier this morning. We’ve been tasked to carry it out, and the commodore is not a happy camper. He’s been bubbling like a stopped-up volcano all morning. Your meeting won’t be very pleasant, I’m afraid.”

Jerry nodded. “I figured we’d get the job. I was pretty sure the air force didn’t have a weapon that could get as deep as we need to go.”

“Well, I wouldn’t admit that if I were you. It’ll only make him madder.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, although I don’t think it will matter one iota what I say. He’s not very open to people who disagree with him.”

Walker smiled wearily. “You got that right.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, though. I’ll try not to antagonize him any more than I already have.” Jerry turned to leave, but Walker spoke up again.

“Ah, Captain… I also wanted to thank you for sticking up for Warren Halsey the other day.”

Jerry pivoted to face Walker again. Confused, he said, “I wasn’t aware that Halsey needed defending. I only presented what I believed had happened.”

“Warren was a close friend,” Walker explained slowly. “He wasn’t the best submarine skipper, but he was a competent one. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough for our commodore. It didn’t help that Santa Fe was not in the best of shape. Warren and Captain Simonis had a pretty tumultuous relationship; the commodore can be brutally harsh at times. I just wanted to let you know that I appreciated someone, other than myself and the CSO, speaking up for Warren, that’s all.”

“You’re welcome,” Jerry replied. “And I’m sorry that you lost a friend. It’s never easy, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” responded Walker quietly. Jerry could see there was still pain in his eyes. Clearing his throat, he added, “If there is anything I can do for you, just let me know. I like to pay my debts.”

Initially, Jerry was going to tell Walker that wasn’t necessary. But before he could say anything, a nagging question resurfaced in his mind. “Now that you mention it, there is something I’d appreciate you looking into.”

“Name it!” Walker said eagerly.

“Can your intel shop get me any information on the current CO of the Indian Akula, INS Chakra? The guy is a certified pain in the ass, and we’re likely to run into him again. I’d like to know who I’m dealing with.”

“I’ll get the request into the system immediately and ask for an expedited response.”

Jerry thanked Walker and shook his hand. Jerry then marched quickly to the commodore’s reception area. The first-class yeoman in the outer office saw him approaching and immediately rose. “Good morning, Captain. I’ll let the commodore know you’re here.”

Jerry smiled and nodded. His eyes wandered around the outer office as he waited for the yeoman to return. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Sir, the commodore will see you now.”

Thanking the yeoman, Jerry walked smartly into Simonis’s office and snapped to attention. “Commanding Officer, USS North Dakota, reporting as ordered, sir.”

Simonis was over by his side table, refilling his coffee mug. Without even looking in Jerry’s direction he ordered, “Please close the door, Captain. Then take a seat.”

Jerry carefully shut the door and strode quickly to the conference table. He pulled out a chair and sat down. Simonis walked slowly by his desk, and picked up a folder. He threw it onto the table and sat down. Jerry noticed the commodore hadn’t bothered to offer him any coffee this time, a bad omen.

“Congratulations, Captain, your harebrained scheme has been approved by the president,” Simonis began sarcastically. “And it gets even better. My squadron has been ordered to carry out this fool’s errand. Your ditsy buddy, Dr. Patterson, is leaving Hawaii within the hour with twelve modified Mark 48 torpedoes. She’ll arrive around 1930. Shortly thereafter we’ll begin loading three nuclear-armed torpedoes on each submarine. North Dakota will be the first to depart at 1200 tomorrow.”

Jerry was angered by Simonis’s disrespectful tone when he spoke of Joanna, but Jerry kept his response short and professional. “Understood, Commodore, we’ll be standing by to receive the weapons by 1915. Is there anything else?”

“Anything else? I would think starting a nuclear war is quite enough, don’t you, Captain?”

“I don’t believe this demonstration will trigger a nuclear exchange, Commodore,” Jerry answered tersely. “And apparently neither does the president.”

“Well, I’m sure that will be of great comfort to the survivors after a city or two is vaporized,” sniped Simonis.

Jerry had had enough. “Permission to speak frankly, sir.”

“By all means, Captain.”

“If you disagree so strongly with this course of action, why don’t you ask to be relieved?”

“Because it wouldn’t do any good. They’d just bring in someone who’d follow the orders of an asinine academic who’s trying to get reelected!” Simonis replied angrily.

“So, you’ll just sit here and badmouth the president, the deputy national security advisor, or anyone else who happens to disagree with you. Contempt of an official is a UCMJ violation, Commodore, Article 88 if I remember correctly,” Jerry shot back.

Simonis became enraged. Jumping to his feet, he howled, “HOW DARE YOU LECTURE—”

“YES, COMMODORE! I DO DARE,” shouted Jerry just as loudly. “Your behavior is unprofessional and a disgrace! IF you are so convinced these orders are a disaster in the making, then show some courage and ask to be relieved! Otherwise, stop this passive-aggressive bullshit and do your job!”

Simonis sat back down, stunned; he was unaccustomed to subordinates fighting back. His jaw was tight, his fists balled, he was visibly shaking. “And what makes you so damn sure this will work? How do you know you’re right!?” he growled through clenched teeth.

“How do I know it will work, Commodore?” replied Jerry with a lower, less adversarial tone. “Honestly, I don’t know. But in looking at the president’s likely options, it seems to be the path with the least risk.”

“Least risk!?” Simonis wailed. “You obviously don’t see the big picture, Captain. The least risk is for us to remain neutral. Stay out of the fight completely!”

“Is that really true, Commodore?” pushed Jerry. “Let’s analyze that hypothesis. Staying neutral all but ensures the fighting goes on for a whole lot longer. Eventually, China will likely win, but their economy will be down the toilet. This will cause a global economic meltdown as bad, or conceivably even worse, than the Great Depression of the 1930s, that will drag us down as well. Just look at the economic impact the war has already had on the U.S. and Europe. A collapse is unavoidable; our economies are too interconnected. Every newspaper article and official government report I’ve read all say the same thing—unprecedented unemployment, soaring poverty, and the government safety net can’t possibly catch them all.

“Politically, the U.S. will be viewed as untrustworthy. At the very least we’ll be pushed out of the Pacific Rim, because we refused to honor our treaty commitments. I know that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but the blame game isn’t exactly logical. We’ll be blamed for their loss, even though the Littoral Alliance rejected the president’s repeated attempts at mediation. This will also raise doubts with other countries as to whether we’ll honor our security agreements with them. Coupled with our own economic problems, U.S. influence will be severely compromised.

“And I haven’t even begun to address the humanitarian disaster this war will cause if it continues. Every continent will be affected, some far worse than others. Definitely China and the Littoral Alliance will suffer more civilian casualties, but the impact on developing nations following the economic collapse will be catastrophic.