Jabo glanced quickly at the bearing repeater indicator and saw that all was in order. They were going five knots, along the course that matched his best guess for
“You think we’ll hear her?” said Van, almost whispering.
“We keep hearing that pinging, whatever it is. It’s happened the last two mornings about the same time. So that’s what I’m hoping. If I’m wrong, I guess I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the engine room this patrol.”
“Anything but that,” said Van, laughing anxiously.
Jabo could see that Van was nervous around him, he had clearly tagged him as adult supervision. He felt a little bad about it. If for no other reason, he was worried that the young officer might not be completely forthcoming, for fear of fucking up. Fear of fucking up could lead to paralysis, even though it was a behavior that permeated some parts of the officer corps.
“You hear anything?” said Jabo. “Sonar got anything out in front of us?”
Van nodded vigorously. “No — nothing at all.”
“You excited?”
Van looked at him, smiling, afraid it was a trick question. “Yeah, of course.”
“You should be. This is going to be fun.”
“Can I ask a question?” said Van, nervousness in his voice.
“Of course.”
“Can I get a head break? My bladder is about to explode.”
“Of course,” said Jabo. “It’s about time I did something useful up here.”
He and Van exchanged course, heading, and depth, and then Jabo said, “I relieve you.”
“I stand relieved.”
Jabo turned to the watchsection and announced, “This is Lieutenant Jabo. I have the Deck and the Conn.”
It was the first time he’d said those words in three years, and it felt really good.
Jabo stayed in the control room when Van came back, gave him the watch back for a couple of hours, and then took it back again for good. V-12 came up about 0500, also too excited to sleep.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning, glad you could make it.”
“Wouldn’t miss it. Ready to give up the conn?”
“In a few minutes, let’s go to battle stations first.”
“Aye,” said V-12. He wandered over to study the chart.
At 0525 the captain came to control, his eyes alive with excitement. “You find her yet?”
“Not yet sir.”
“I knew this plan was bullshit.”
“Wait until 0600,” said Jabo. “That’s the pattern.”
The captain looked at his watch. “You ready for battle stations?” Jabo waited for the few seconds to tick by until it was exactly 0530. Then he picked up the 1MC microphone and announced to the crew, “Battle Stations!”
“Chief of the watch, sound the general alarm.”
“Sound the general alarm, aye sir,” he responded, and then sounded the clanging alarm. Outside control he heard feet on the deck, running in every direction.
“Christ, the alarm sounds loud,” he said.
“Good,” said the captain. “In this case, we want her to hear us coming.”
The Damage Control Assistant, or DCA, showed up and started taking reports and checking off boxes on his dry erase board. Within minutes he announced, “Sir all stations have reported. We’re at battle stations and fully rigged.”
“That’s got to be a record,” said the captain. “I think some people were cheating and not actually sleeping.”
It was 0535.
Jabo fought the temptation to look at his watch. He regretted calling away battle stations so early, because in that state, there was none of the routine business to distract him from the slow passage of the next thirty minutes. No tags to approve, no drills to run, no maneuvers to order. Just the undetectable motion of their ship through the ocean, and the
Five minutes had gone by.
In maneuvering, Lieutenant Bannick looked over his panels one last time, and then signed himself into the EOOW’s log.
“Lieutenant Bannick is the engineering office of the watch.”
Each of the three enlisted watchstanders acknowledged in turn.
“Welcome back to the engine room, sir,” said Brady, the reactor operator directly in front of him.
“It’s good to be back,” said Bannick, and he wasn’t lying.
