‘I understand captain, I will do what I see fit,’ he said with a new found confidence in his voice.
Panic and chaos filled the sub. Everything that was going on was incomprehensible to me, I couldn’t believe what was happening. In all my years as a naval captain I had never faced anything like this before. I knew people were relying on me and I damn sure wasn’t going to let them down.
‘Evacuate the missile compartment!’ I ordered, ‘Yevgeny, I want you to surface!’
USS Aurora
‘Jack I don’t believe it!’ exclaimed the captain. ‘They’re going to surface!’
K219
I knew that The USS Aurora would know how bad things had got for us. They knew as well as I did that you never surface your submarine in enemy waters unless things are at breaking point. Three of my best men, Petrachkov, Kharchenko and Smaglyuk, were dead. I had no alternative. I had always wondered how I would react if one of my men died. Now I knew. I didn’t cry or shout in anger. I knew that life had been unfair but I didn’t really have time to argue with it. Now I’m not trying to say I didn’t care-because I did, those men were like family to me. It’s just that I knew the best thing I could do for them was to do my best to solve the crisis and not let their deaths have been in vain. Filled with a new motivation I began to regain control of the situation, or at least I thought I did.
‘Engineers, I want you to vent the gas but be careful I don’t want to lose anyone else. I know you won’t let me down!’ I declared as I looked each man in the eyes.
As the engineers tried to vent the gas I weighed up my options. If that nuclear missile bay explodes then the USA will feel the effects I thought to myself.
‘Vladimirov, what are our options? What are the consequences?’ I demanded.
‘Captain, we need to get rid of that gas at all costs. We could perhaps burn the shit off, however, it would burn for a minimum of 15-20 hours.’ He said in a spiritless tone.
‘We don’t have that much time!! Our oxygen supply will only take us through four hours tops!’ I cried in anguish.
I clenched my fist and looked up to the top of the tin can in which I was enclosed. I had to make a decision. Venting the gas was no longer an option as my engineers failed to open the vents. Little did I know, but as I stood there in the ruthless hurricane of despair, my decision was being made for me. Sparks from one of the cables had somehow managed to ignite the gas. The nightmare was just beginning.
USS Aurora
‘Captain, they’re on fire!’ exclaimed Jack, ‘We’ve got to contact Washington!
‘I refuse to break radio silence,’ said the captain.
‘BUT SIR! This is important! If that soviet boomer blows it’ll be the whole US east coast that suffers!’ pleaded Jack.
‘DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME FIRST TIME? I REFUSE TO BREAK RADIO SILENCE! NOW EITHER SHUT THE HELL UP OR GET OF MY SUB! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, JACK?’ boomed the captain.
‘Yes sir,’ mumbled Jack.
K219
The gas was burning with the fury of a thousand fires. All that could be seen was flame, all that could be felt was scorching heat and all that could be inhaled was smoke. The dragon seemed to have no intention of leaving us in peace. If enough sea water mixes with the missile fuel, the result could end up being a nuclear explosion, I thought to myself. I refused to accept defeat.
‘Yevgeny, take us north!’ I instructed.
I never told my crew the reason for this. The truth was, I feared the worst. I was heading for deeper waters just in case I had to scuttle the sub. There was no way I was going to be responsible for the death of innocent people, even if they were American. I was confronted with two choices. Firstly, I could abandon my vessel and get picked up by the Americans. Alternatively, we could open the missile hatches and dive in an attempt to put out the raging blaze. It was risky, but I decided to attempt the dive. We sent a message to Moscow telling them what we intended to do. I knew that if we opened our missile hatches it might appear, to the Americans, as if we were preparing to attack. However I knew that we could never contact Washington. We could never show weakness, we had trouble admitting it to our own people never mind the enemy.
WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS
‘Listen if K219 looks like it’s going to attack I want the Aurora to torpedo it and destroy those commie bastards!’ grunted naval marine Jones in his usual husky voice.
‘But we need authorisation from the president sir,’ secretary Wood said mildly.
‘THEN DAMN WELL GET IT!!’ snorted naval marine Jones.
‘Hold your horse Jones! Let’s get some aerial photos of this thing and see what the hell we’re dealing with for sure!’ Joe said with an air of calmness in his voice, which was respected by everyone sitting round the table, even the stubborn naval marine Jones.
‘WE COULD ALL BE DEAD BY THEN!’ argued naval marine Jones.
‘If that submarine gets hot enough it’s a definite possibility that the sixteen two megaton nuclear warheads could launch. The effects would be ten times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb. They are targeted on American cities,’ the nuclear expert Jean said wisely.
‘Call Moscow on the red phone!’ demanded government official Chris.
K219
The fire was spreading and raging on with utmost fury! I honestly feared the worst. I didn’t think we were going to make it.
‘Sir we’ve received a message from Moscow! Four consignments of oxygen are on their way!’ said Yuri with a sense of hope in his voice.
He handed me the buoyancy calculations that had been passed onto him from Moscow. I felt hope returning to me along with an extra portion of confidence. Maybe we’ll get by, I thought to myself.
‘Comrades! Lend me your ears. Here is our plan. As you all know we can’t take on too much water or we’ll never see the surface again, but we must take on enough to put out the fire. Moscow have calculated that we should dive to 20m with four hatches open for a time period of no longer than three minutes. To be safe we will only stay under for two!’ I said with a cocky smile, ‘I’m not going to lie to you, this has NEVER been attempted before; are you up to the challenge?’
Cheers filled the submarine. I knew that my crew were ready. To see such spirit form my comrades reminded me why I became a naval captain in the first place. We prepared to embark upon the impossible.
USS AURORA
The Aurora prepared to go into primary attack position.
‘Battle stations! This is not a drill! Battle stations!’ echoed the voice of the captain as he prepared the Aurora to fire a torpedo.
‘Cap, they’re trying to put the fire! They’re not going to launch the missile! Don’t fire!’ begged Jack.
‘Whose side are you on? Those commie bastards would never try and STOP missiles attacking American soil! Don’t you understand Jack? The lives of millions are in our hands, and I’d rather not take ANY chances.
K219
My heart contracted with the force of twenty men as we prepared for the dive. I was lost in a whirlpool of my own thoughts. I shut my eyes and hoped. The churning of my stomach told me that we were going down. I struggled, slightly, to keep myself from sliding along the smooth metallic floor as we delved further downwards. All the time I was counting in my head, thinking how long we had left. Each second seemed like a minute. Each minute seemed like an hour. All I had left was hope. I prayed. If we survived then I would be convinced that there is a God. Time was ticking away and we’d only just started to rise. My day of judgement was upon me. I slowly opened my eyes to reality. Before I knew what’d happened I was greeted with the sound of cheers!
‘We did it captain, the fire’s out!’ exclaimed Igor with great delight.
Yuri pointed joyfully to the canary which sat in its cage, happy as ever. We still had oxygen! Maybe God was watching over us all along, I thought to myself. I knew it should be simple from here onwards. I ordered for the reactor compartment to be sealed off as it was full of smoke and began the procedure to vent the ship.
USS AURORA
‘See captain they dived, all they wanted to do was put out the fire!’ said Jack.
‘ You’re wrong Jack, they’ve got some plan!’ bellowed the captain!
K219
‘Captain, captain the controls for the reactors are not responding but fission is still taking place! The cables must’ve been burned in the fire!’ Yuri said anxiously.
‘Back-ups?’ I inquired.
‘Dead,’ he replied solemnly.
‘Pumps?’ I said, a little more worried than before.
‘Failed,’ he said with an anxious expression on his face.
‘Coolant?’ I snapped in desperation.
He simply shook his head at me and looked towards his jet black shoes.
I knew that if the reactor wasn’t cooled things would get out of hand. So much for my parallax I thought to myself. If we couldn’t stop that reactor we were going to suffer a meltdown with devastating consequences. We had to shut down the control rods, by hand! Every happiness turned into despair. Every time I thought the dream was over, I was cruelly pushed back into the world of nightmares.
