Ice Station Nautilus by Rick Campbell Read Free Book Online Page A

stop.”
    The sixty-meter-deep ice keel would soon be between Dolgoruky and the American submarine. For Stepanov’s plan to work, the American submarine had to stay on the other side of the keel, and that depended on whether Dolgoruky ’s decoy fooled them.
    As Dolgoruky rose to seventy meters, the Hydroacoustic Party Leader made the report Stepanov hoped for. “Command Post, Hydroacoustic. Ten knot downshift in frequency from Hydroacoustic seven. Contact is slowing or turning away.”
    The American submarine had either stopped or turned ninety degrees. When the decoy passed by, the American captain would hopefully turn and follow, staying on the other side of the ice keel.
    The Steersman called out, “Depth, sixty meters, zero knots.” Dolgoruky ’s ascent slowed, and a moment later, Stepanov received another welcome report. “Command Post, Hydroacoustic. Loss of Hydroacoustic seven.”
    The ice keel was now between the two submarines, and if Dolgoruky could no longer track the American submarine, the Americans could not detect Dolgoruky .
    “On ordered depth, fifty meters,” the Steersman announced.
    Dolgoruky hung motionless beneath the ice.
    USS NORTH DAKOTA
    Tolbert watched tensely as Master One approached its CPA of two thousand yards. As the contact closed, Sonar reported a detection of Master One on the spherical array and then the port Wide Aperture Array on North Dakota ’s hull. It was quiet in the Control Room. Every watchstander realized how close the Russian submarine would come.
    The contact’s course and speed remained steady as it reached CPA, then passed by. When Master One opened to four thousand yards, Tolbert resumed trailing. “Pilot, ahead two-thirds. Left five degrees rudder. Steady course one-eight-zero.”
    North Dakota picked up speed and reversed course, and a few minutes later settled back into Dolgoruky ’s wake. Master One remained steady on course and speed, giving no indication North Dakota had been detected.
    As the tension eased from Tolbert’s body, the Sonar Supervisor spoke into his headset. “Conn, Sonar. Request the Captain at Sonar.”
    Tolbert joined Chief Bob Bush on the port side of Control.
    “We may have an issue,” Bush began. “Master One passed by at two thousand yards, but we didn’t pick up propulsion or steam-plant-related broadband. Additionally, we should have picked up other tonals, but we didn’t. We held only the fifty-Hertz tonal and Dolgoruky ’s ice-detection sonar.”
    Tolbert considered Chief Bush’s report. The contact was too clean . Nuclear-powered submarines had dozens of pumps, electrical generators, and spinning turbines creating noise. At long distances, only strong, low-frequency tonals were detected. But as the range decreased, higher-frequency tonals as well as broadband would normally be heard. Either Dolgoruky was an incredibly quiet contact, or …
    “We could be following a decoy,” Bush said.
    Tolbert was quiet. If they were following a decoy, it was no bigger than a torpedo. There was an easy way to determine whether they were following a small decoy or a large submarine—go active and measure the size of the object. But that would give away North Dakota ’s presence. However, if they were following a decoy, they needed to figure it out fast before Dolgoruky slipped away.
    “Transmit on MFA,” Tolbert ordered, “Forward sector only, five-thousand-yard range scale.”
    A moment later, North Dakota transmitted on their Mid-Frequency Active sonar and the return lit up the sonar screen; directly ahead was a small white blip. Chief Bush reported, “Contact width is less than five feet.”
    Tolbert gritted his teeth. He’d been fooled into following a decoy. The Russian captain was good. But the game wasn’t over. They hadn’t been following the decoy very long and could still regain track on Dolgoruky . Tolbert recalled the short burst of cavitation they’d detected. That must have been when the decoy was launched. An