Chapter 26

"Captain's Report to the Admiralty, Regarding Certain Actions off the Southern Coast of 'New Island'.

"After receiving intel from the Admiralty, regarding the possibility of Enemy submarine activity within my sphere of activity, I ordered Helicopter Squadron 112 (one helicopter), to deploy 50 sono-bouys in a calculated pattern, 15 miles SSW if the 'New Island'. I calculated that this was the most likely area of submarine penetration, due to the subsurface topography.

"I ordered that the helicopter be armed with 'Hellfire' air-to-surface missiles on the winglet hardpoints. I also ordered that seven Hunter/Seeker 4, Mod 1 mini-torpedoes, be mounted on the helicopter's 'belly' hardpoints.

"After 17 hours of surveillance, contact was made. ECW {Electronic Countermeasures Warfare}confirmed that it was an Enemy contact.

"I ordered helicopter 112 to attack the Enemy contact, and destroy it.

"Helicopter 112 lifted from the USS Discovery, at 1441 hours, and proceeded at maximum speed to the point of contact.

"Subsurface to Air munitions were detected by the 112's ECW officer. Evasive maneuvers and ECW actions were successful. The 112 then launched 2 Hunter/Seeker 4, Mod 1 torpedoes. The Enemy responded with multiple micro-torpedoes, destroying the 2 Hunter/Seekers.

The 112 launched 6 Hellfires at the submerged submarine, knowing they would not make contact. Into the highly disrupted water that resulted, the 112 dropped all 5 remaining Hunter/Seekers. The Enemy was able to counter 3 of them. Two Hunter/Seekers got through, though, and utterly destroyed the Enemy.

Respectfully Submitted,

Captain Ronald Clark

Captain: USS Discovery

Admiral Allen Page read the report again. Damn! The admiral read again the report on who Captain Clark was, and how he had become a freighter captain. According to the information in the Captain's file, Ronald Clark had once been a cruiser Captain.

His Cruiser had been in port going through a Sensor upgrade, at Norfolk Naval Station, Virginia, when he had been given leave for a family emergency. He had been far inland during the asteroid strike, and the subsequent loss of all Atlantic fleet ships.

Well, as far as Admiral Allen was concerned, if this captain could find and sink an enemy submarine with a freighter, then he was going to be the captain of a warship, if the admiral had to build one himself!

Steve Baron was in a geosynchronous orbit, overlooking Korea, China, and Indonesia. He had just finished placing a satellite in orbit. This satellite was dedicated to monitoring North Korea and the surrounding areas.

Having done that, Steve moved towards a low orbit. It would take him several hours, but he was going to do a flyby of the space station. Although telemetry reported nominal conditions, there was a warning indicator that tripped every once in a while.

When the last of the station personnel left, they had lowered the pressure inside, and pumped most of the air into storage bottles, leaving just a bit inside to keep the pressure seals working, and a bit of atmosphere for some of the electronics. Although why they did it the way they had, was beyond his knowledge.

While the station was using minimal power, the solar collectors had been doing their job, and the on board storage batteries were fully charged. All other systems showed nominal, except for that one glitch that showed up.

Actually Steve didn't care. He loved flying. He, his niece, and a general were the last humans to circle the moon, and would be for years to come. He didn't care if his name went into the history books, he just wanted to be in space!

Due to the difference in altitudes, Cheyenne had had to send him a program update. With the burn he would be doing to make the orbital changes, he was looking at about 18 hours 'till rendezvous. No problem. He had supplies to maintain orbit for several days, if he had to.

4 hours after the second course correction burn, the craft bucked, and alarms went off! Within 15 seconds Cheyenne was calling for a situation report.

"This is Orbital 1. I have damage alarms showing external damage. Cheyenne, this area of space is supposed to be clear of space junk, correct? Over," Steve asked.

"Thats a roger. We are going over all telemetry now. We show you have total internal integrity, is that a roger?" control asked.

"Affirmative. Damage is to external portions of the vehicle. Request permission to go EV (Extra vehicular. Means to exit the ship) and asses damage, over" Steve asked in a steady voice.

"Suggest you wait until we have ascertained what caused this problem. Cheyenne out," the voice of mission control said.

Steve ran as many checks as he could, and checked radar. He noticed that he was close to a Russian satellite. He started to get suspicious. They had threatened him, the last time he had gotten close to one of their satellites. Could they have actually fired something at him?

None of the damage was in visual range of the externally mounted cameras. Two of the problems he had, were, his cargo door indicator no longer showed locked, and the camera that showed the bottom of the ship was not working.

For 12 long minutes mission control was silent. Then they informed him of what they knew.