Sakura's Last Chance in Time
3rd Edition
By Isaac M. Zavelsky
Chapter 4: Running silent, running deep
Above and below the ocean, the massive was is on for the one know as Sakura. Deep and far north towards the icecaps of the artic is the stealthy ship known only to a few of its own people. This ship, a powerful symbol of war slowly carts a package that is worth more then any weapon on the planet, but how do you use it?
Location: SSBN Konovalov, somewhere south of the Bering Strait.
Date: April 3rd, 2011
Time: 06:00 hrs
"Sakura, we are apart of the special mission task force that has been planning your escape for the last year" Theresa explained "I myself am personally pleased that we got away with almost everyone"
Sakura silently bowed for a minute; Chihura wasn't killed in the escape, in fact had she not died three days before the attack; it was very possible that she'd be with them now. But then Sakura remembered, the American Colonel that betrayed the general, and two members of the rescue team had been killed as well, plus the unknown amount of soldiers that diverted the attention of the marines. No, it hadn't been a successful mission. Just lucky they got what they were after out alive.
"What does whoever's in control of your armed forces want with us?"
"His reasons cannot fully disclosed yet, but he doesn't have the same intentions to use you like the Americans have" Theresa turned to Souske for a second "Sergeant, could you please wait outside, I'll be fine in here"
Souske snapped to attention and walked out of the room. Syaoran decided to sit down on the bed instead of stand; now that the armed escort was gone, Syaoran could feel relaxed. Sakura lay back on the bed and bulkhead wall. As she relaxed, Tomoyo started making a grumbling noise from her mouth. Sakura immediately turned over to see Tomoyo was starting to stir and awaken.
"Tomoyo-Chan?" Syaoran leaned over and took her pulse; Tomoyo's heart was beating normally, a significant improvement since the previous night. Syaoran was in a too awkward position to do anything. Sakura leaned over to her left and saw her friend to see her squinting her eyes open.
"Tomoyo, Tomoyo!" Sakura whispered aloud. Tomoyo attempted to speak, but her mouth felt like tar or some kind of sticky muck was covering it. Theresa stared on quietly as Sakura was starting to panic at Tomoyo's not responding,
"Sakura-Chan?" Tomoyo whispered in a muttered way.
"Tomoyo!" Sakura almost jumped out of bed, instead rolling over to hug her. Syaoran and Theresa both sighed relief when Tomoyo spoke. Tomoyo was still coughing as she started to regain consciousness,
"Syaoran-kun, get some water!" Sakura spoke. Syaoran immediately ran outside and went directly to the officer's mess. Sosuke surprised, entered the room; and saw Tomoyo coughing while Sakura and Theresa were moving her to the edge of the bed.
"What happened commander?" Souske speaking clearly,
"Tomoyo has woken up; apparently she has a build up of residue still in her mouth" Theresa quickly explaining. Syaoran then came back with a bottle with glass and bunted past Souske.
"Sakura-Chan" Syaoran handed the bottle and glass over
Tomoyo was wide awake now, but was extremely concerned in clearing her mouth first; forgetting to breathe through her nose, she was starting to suffocate unable to cough out the solid liquid in her mouth. Tomoyo noticed the glass Sakura giving to her; Tomoyo took a full swig, for a second Theresa and Sakura held there breath as Tomoyo swished into her mouth, then spat the water out onto the deck floor. Tomoyo gasped her first gush of air into her mouth and continued to cough. Sakura held onto Tomoyo as to prevent her from fall off the bunk. Theresa stood and watched on as Tomoyo kept coughing up stale air. Tomoyo took another sip of the drink and swallowed it. It was until then Souske noticed something weird about the bottle,
"Isn't that Webber's bottle of Vodka?"
Sakura and Theresa turned to Syaoran who held the bottle. It indeed was a half-wine bottle full of low grade Vodka. Sakura looked back at Tomoyo who stopped coughing. Nobody could tell if Tomoyo actually swallowed it, but it was most likely. Syaoran was just glad Sakura didn't scold him.
"Tomoyo-Chan? Are you all right?"
Tomoyo looked up at Sakura, her face was pale but Tomoyo seemed to of swallowed some, if not all of the second swig.
"I'm alright Sakura-Chan" Tomoyo speaking softly, her voice still had to recover from the accident "Owe, are you alright?"
Sakura remember that she overheard something about her nerves being damaged. This proved that she could still feel, but could she walk?
"Tomoyo, can you move your toes or anything?"
"What are you talking about?" The alcohol had obliviously take affect with extreme efficiently. Tomoyo had never had anything worse then non-alcoholic wine. It was her option that she wanted to avoid it as much has possible. Tomoyo wondered what Sakura was continued to wonder what Sakura was on about. Sakura lifted the sheets to see for herself. Tomoyo did what Sakura said to do; it felt harder to do then before. Tomoyo started to realize why Sakura was worried, it felt like the blood had been cut off for sometime and it felt hard to move. Tomoyo keep trying to move her legs, but eventually but she did it.
"You're alright!" Sakura spoke.
"I'm alright? What? Where am I?" Tomoyo asked.
"I can answer that Tomoyo-san" Theresa speaking. She straightens her uniform jacket waiting for Souske to wipe up the Vodka spilt on the floor and her chair.
"I'm Captain Theresa Testarossa-san, the executive commander of the Konovalov"
Tomoyo was always cheerful at meeting new people and responded in kind, Theresa found her quite warming to strangers; straight away she could tell that Tomoyo was very open about her feelings.
"Tomoyo-Chan, you can just call me Tessa-Chan like my friends d…did" Theresa quickly realizing something,
"Did, you mean use to?" Sakura spoke, sitting down on the bed again. Theresa didn't respond for a second before finding a way to respond. When Theresa commanded her own submarine, she allowed the crew to use such an affiliation to certain extents. But of course, that was a year ago.
"I'm sorry Sakura-san; it's just something that I keep remembering about my past"
Sakura leaned towards Theresa who looked saddened almost. Syaoran looked concern for a moment, scared that Theresa could be angry.
"I apologies if I don't understand, but what do you mean?" Sakura suddenly wished she didn't say that. Theresa looked up at Sakura who looked like she was afraid of what she said. Theresa instead smiled at her and continued to speak.
"I should be the one apologizing Sakura-san. You see; I once commanded my own submarine, the Tuathan de Danann, but I lost her when I was on land doing something else. I knew some of the crew" Theresa lied, she knew all the crew. Just as she continued, Theresa yawned for a moment and looked over at Sakura who was worried about her. Tomoyo then slowly moved over to the wall and allowed space for Theresa to rest down.
"Why don't you have a rest, this is your cabin correct?" Sakura asked politely. Theresa opened her eyes for a second to comprehend what Sakura said. The real fact was Theresa didn't have a cabin. She wasn't actually assigned to the Konovalov as a member of her crew; Theresa was still assigned to command headquarters. Theresa for a moment was confused by Sakura's offer. Their hospitality was unlike she expected.
"Tessa-Chan; why don't you rest and tell us what you mean?" Tomoyo said half tired. Sakura and Syoaran both interested. Tessa nodded and decided to take advantage of the bed offered. She didn't get a lot of sleep the previous thirty two hours because of their arrival. Theresa felt a little weird that Sakura was insisting on her to rest. She felt that it would be the opposite. Theresa slipped her shoes off. Theresa then slipped under the sheets in full uniform, having taken only her coat off. Syaoran stood up and moved over to the seat while Sakura lay back on the side of the bulkhead. Theresa then started to explain, still feeling weird by the fact what she was in the same bed with Tomoyo; who was considered a 'dangerous target' by the federal American states.
"We don't have anyway of thanking you for saving us, Tessa-Chan. But we do respect your needs" Sakura spoke. Theresa nodded; they were very kind to her, despite there status. Theresa then started explaining her history to them; she was in a way glad to be on this submarine; the Tuathan de Danann was a lot like the Konovalov, but way more. The Konovalov lacked a lot to the Tuathan de Danann in a dozen areas; speed, size, and stealth all were different by a large margin. Tuathan de Danann was also the only submarine in the resistance to have her own flight deck; thus becoming the flagship of a combined British, Russian, and Chinese navy in the north pacific fleet. Tuathan de Danann then led a stunning attack on the west coast of North America in the height of the conflict when it was demanded that the resistance attacked the home front of the federal states.
Unfortunately, the Tuathan de Danann's only major flaw was that in total, the submarine's fire power was purely for land invasions and surface strikes. The vessel was fitted with five cruise missiles and several harpoon missiles. No where the capacity of the twenty six nuclear missile Konovalov. For almost six months; the Tuathan de Danann was transferred and led a task force known as 'Red team sigma' around the pacific, destroying surface ships and submarines from America. Tuathan de Danann led by Theresaand the Russian Alfa Class Submarine Borisoglebsk both shared the team record of number of kills; seventy-five ships each. In total the task for of eight submarines managed to sink literally twenty task force groups, and in some aspect managed to curtail the war effort in a major way.
When the American Navy gave up and started flying their goods in the pacific. Command made a terrible decision to have Tuathan de Danann Re-fitted to include twenty nuclear missiles in the area that was used for aircraft. Theresa initially disagreed, speaking that her submarine was better for attacking at sea, not land attacks; but when she was threatened transfer, her mouth was shut. Tuathan de Danann and its team were then transferred to the Atlantic squadrons where fighting was still rapidly drawn between the British, French, German submarines and the 688 class boats from America which reigned superiority. The intention of central command was to let the Tuathan de Danann do to the Atlantic what it did to the pacific, and more.
Apon the arrival at Murmansk, Theresa was ordered that she and several key members of her team were going to camp SPARTAN for an important briefing. This meeting was of course the groundwork for operation Card Capture. Two days later Theresa was informed that she'd be in charge of the operation and her duties on the Tuathan de Danann had ended. Theresa was frustrated at the betrayal of her superiors; having promised to return to her ship in six days. Theresa intended to return on the date, but two days after her transfer, Tuathan de Danann and over a hundred other warships were completely destroyed. Murmansk having fallen and the basic force of Atlantic and pacific naval power destroyed. Theresa was saddened for months that her colleagues had been killed; but only lucky that herself and a certain sergeant and his team had gone to SPARTAN. After the attack on Murmansk, Theresa then vowed and pushed her efforts towards operation Card Capture; now was seeing the result of her hard labor.
"So you can see, the feeling of seeing you, cannot be simply explained" Theresa held in her anger at Sakura. While they were sitting around in prison; everyone in the world had their life's changed in one hit.
Sakura sat on the bed nodding and starting to understand. While she had been in prison everyone else's lives were going through the terror of all out war.
Theresa was a clear example of what had changed. Her pale skin from being inside submarines for yeas showed in her face and skin. And a slight build indicted the hours Theresa was at a desk planning and re-planning their escape from prison. The math and figures that when it came down to it, was an incredible gamble she was now living out.
"Theresa-san" Syaoran spoke "We didn't have any idea how it was on the outside, for that we're sorry"
"Then please tell me something" Theresa asked, lying down on the bed "Please tell me the story of how you became who you are?"
"Why? It's not a very interesting story" Syaoran lied,
"I don't believe so" Theresa laughed "a story that rose you to became you the master general of the magic army, and then the downfall when the Americans found out"
Sakura for a moment didn't have a clue what Theresa was on about, mainly because Sakura wasn't really aware of all the propaganda on her.
"Army of magic?" Syaoran spoke "Such a thing as not existed since 1225 AD, just after Clow Reed died"
Tomoyo, Sakura and Theresa all looked at Syaoran momentary, Syoaran realized that such a thing he had never told Sakura. Theresa then asked a question that nobody expected.
"Who is Clow Reed exactly? Was he like the general?" Theresa asked for a moment.
Syaoran and Sakura's ear's pricked up at the question Theresa asked. Tomoyo nudged at Theresa indicating that the question was important. Syaoran answered first,
"Clow Reed was not a member of any army, but it was his influence in his latter life that ended the magic wars, forever"
"He must've been very powerful"
Sakura and Syaoran again enriched power into their bodies as they heard wrong assumptions. Sakura this time answered the question.
"Clow Reed was the most powerful of his time. In fact, he was the person responsible for the creation of the Clow Cards, which now are known as the…"
"Sakura Cards? He created the magic in the first place?" Theresa shocked to learn this; Believing that Sakura all this time had created the cards by herself.
"Then how did you get them? And how did they become the Sakura Cards?" Theresa quickly erasing mentally everything she knew about Sakura. Syaoran and Tomoyo tensed up as it seamed Sakura would have to tell the story. Tomoyo personally felt it was time somebody knew, and now was a good time. Theresa decided to sit on the chair again and hear Sakura out; but ended up sitting up in the bed.
"The truth is…" Sakura breathed for a moment "…It was a accident that I found the cards"
"Albeit a very big one" Syaoran spoke up "at the time, I had been trained to capture the book since I was four. Then word reached that the Clow book had been found; I was set off to Japan to retrieve it, only to learn that the Clow book had in fact been opened, and had all the cards scattered"
Theresa finally managed to get out of bed and back onto the second chair. Sakura decided to go back to bed while Syaoran sat on the bed. Theresa quickly reached into her pocket and picked up a notepad with a bunch of scribble on it. On the top it said 'Sakura – Master of great army of magic'. Sakura then was surprised when she scribbled out the writing and wrong underneath. 'Sakura, Capturer of the cards'.
"We actually knew Sakura as 'Card Captor Sakura' most of the time" Tomoyo noted in a giggle.
"Oh?" Theresa scribbled out 'Sakura, Capturer of the cards' and wrote 'Card Captor Sakura'. Theresa then looked at Tomoyo; the records indicated she had no magic, so how did she know? Theresa had no choice but to ask.
"How did you know about Sakura's magical powers? Did she tell you?"
Tomoyo giggled as Sakura sighed, a funny statement that it was an accident. Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran then started to recount the events that led them to the first judgment at Tokyo Tower, the Second judgment with Clow Reed's incarnation, and the unexpected last judgment at the theme park. All along the way Theresa was asking question after question about them. Quickly time pasted, but Theresa was learning the truth about everything.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, North Pacific end of Bering Strait canyon, North Pacific Ocean.
Date: April 3rd, 2011
Time: 17:00 hrs
Despite having given the submarines patrolling the Japanese coast the slip, the Konovalov wasn't about to gamble running full steam into the Bering Strait in broad daylight. It had since station-keeping five hundred miles from the start of the canyon; it would be pointless if the ship, carrying something that could end this terrible war was to sink of the coast of Alaska because the enemy could hear her speeding along without interference. A storm was destined to hit the western coast of Alaska and had the strength to cause havoc along their Sonar and anti-submarine stations. The captain decided to wait until nightfall on the surface. About three hours ago Theresa had gone to sleep in the cabin where Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran were.
Sakura and Syaoran decided to go explore the ship while Tomoyo took care of Theresa. This of course was until the chief doctor called Sakura to be checked on. Now that she knew what happened and why she was here. Sakura was admissive to these strange new people. In the medical quarters; the room was a relatively big room, big enough for two operation tables. Sakura lay down as the doctor started taking her blood pressure.
"So, you're the most powerful and revered Card Mistress of the world over" Dr Petrovie spoke. Dr Petrovie liked to communicate with the patients he treated; his feeling was that if they knew him better, they could trust him more. One a ship likes the Konovalov; it was hard to forget a face. He also was curious about Sakura; despite all the propaganda that America enforced against Sakura, a great deal of lies about this girl, portraying her as central pivot of all evil. Many people entirely doubted this story as it didn't make any logical sense or matter. But because of the lack of information based on Sakura or any of her friends, this exaggerated version of Sakura became the accepted version of her image.
"Powerful and Revered?" Sakura recited those words,
"Yes, indeed it is an honour to treat your wounds".
Sakura looked at the doctor for a minute. It sounded more like he had bought the propaganda that was realised by the Americans. Sakura then lay down on the table as the doctor ordered her to, so that he could inspect the wounds.
"Hmm, it looks like you recovering nicely, let me apply some cream that should reduce the burning feeling a bit for now" The doctor explained as he walked to a cabinet. He fiddled around for a blue bottle, while he did so, he continued to ask questions.
"Well. I was wondering, did you and Syaoran really have some kind of relationship?"
Sakura blushed deep red; expecting him to ask a question about the magic cards or some other thing, but nothing like that. Sakura decided to answer,
"Syaoran and I first met as enemies, but that changed over the course of a year when Syaoran and I were capturing the cards" Sakura explained to the doctor; who became increasingly curious about her, and decided to ask a few things while she was here. Also the fact Sakura just told him something only forces his instincts to ask again.
"Capturing cards? I thought you had them from birth"
"No, I came across the cards by accident, complete accident" Sakura replied,
"Now that's something I wasn't expecting to hear"
"How is that?" Sakura asked in surprise,
"I see, and these cards, what accident was involved with them?"
"I accidentally let them free…but I got them all back"
The doctor closed the door on the cabinet; he walked over to Sakura and examined her exposed lower chest and stomach. The wound had managed to deflate the skin from the left side of Sakura's chest down to her left hip. The bullet wound obliviously leaving some impression in eighteen hours. The doctor removed the bandages on her stomach and discarded them. As the doctor started to apply the cream, he spoke again.
"Didn't anybody notice?"
Sakura was somewhat bemused by that last comment, the cards did cause havoc, but unbelievably, Sakura always got away with less then a few seconds before Sakura's magic was in eye sight of a normal person.
"We never got caught"
"Until now?"
"Until…I made the stupid mistake of using my cards for fun!" Sakura frustration took the better of her for the moment. The doctor paused
"I'm sure it wasn't your fault, it was bad timing"
Sakura understood the comments and continued allowing him to inspect the wound and change the dressing. When the new bandages were on, Sakura breathed in an out for a second; the bandages felt a lot more comfortable then the previous set, obliviously these ones were designed for a longer period of time. Dr Petrovie then retrieved a metal tray from a desk, in it were two needles. Sakura then positioned herself on the table and waited for the injection needles.
"Sakura, considering the amount of damage your body suffered in the fight to get you out, you seem to be recovering very well, any magical reason for that abnormity?"
"I suppose the years of training before I was captured. And all the body punishment from when I was capturing cards, I got seriously injured, but somehow managed to recover" Sakura explaining how she managed to survive; the damage taken from falling three story buildings, getting hit by heavy things, and slammed into the steel bars on Tokyo tower.
"When was the last time you or Tomoyo had something to eat?"
"A long time; probably the dinner at the prison before we left" Sakura spoke.
"I'll order the chef…um maybe not now…let me go down there so I can monitor the cook…just so I can add some medicine…so that the taste of the medicine doesn't effect you too much"
The doctor had a long running disagreement about the cook's attitude towards his health and safety history; Way too many times had he treated the crew for food poisoning on a ship where food was vital to keeping a healthy crew.
"In the meantime Sakura, I recommend that you stay rested until we bring you tea"
"Yes sir"
"Don't call me sir, call me Petrovie, or Dr Petrovie when the captain is around"
Sakura nodded and got up from the table. As Dr Petrovie gave Sakura a new gown, the room, phone rang. The doctor easily could reach the phone line.
"Dr Petrovie, are you done with the girls?" the captain spoke on the box
"No captain, I'm only done checking Sakura now, I've still got Tomoyo to inspect"
"You won't have time for everyone; we have to start making our approach for the strait"
"Aye sir, I'll finish with Sakura. have the executive officer bring some tea and mugs from the officers dinning room"
"Why not just get it from the galley?"
"I prefer that I don't have our patients killed by food poisoning; especially after what they have been through"
"Aye comrade, ill have a junior officer bring them to Sakura and Tomoyo's Quarters"
The phone receiver was hung up; the doctor turned his attention to Sakura again.
"Alight, rest the medicine off, I'm coming around in five minutes after I check with the Captain"
"Thank you Doctor"
The Doctor didn't care, as long as it wasn't sir.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, North Pacific end of Bering Strait canyon, North Pacific Ocean.
Date: April 3rd, 2011
Time: 17:10 hrs
While Sakura was off having an inspection; Syaoran decided to look for Naoko and Rika who went missing the moment they arrived on the submarine. After some time; Syaoran found Naoko and Rita were seated alone. The galley wasn't the grandest or cleanest room, but in comparison to the quarters and other rooms besides the missile room, it was big, one level down and forward twenty meters of the control room, this room was basically a retreat for all personal on the ship, their eating quarters and occasionally a classroom from the political officer on the ship, reminding them about what they fought for and their goal. It was in a pretty safe part of the ship, the third floor of a four floor high ship.
"Syaoran-kun? Where have you been?" Rika asked,
"I was going to ask you the same question"
"What happened to us?" Naoko asked
"Well, I figured the surrounding were oblivious by now" Syaoran spoke. In front of Naoko and Rika were two trays of food; it looked okay, expect it tasted like cold roast and gravy. Rita swore that it was more then a month old. Syaoran and the two girls reluctantly ate it anyway; it tasted a lot better then what they had been eating at prison. For some strange coincidence, two of the soldiers in the rescue team were sitting at another table bench with engineering personnel. One solider was holding a bottle of whisky saw the food and decided to talk with them.
"How can you eat this trash?" the solider asked,
"Compared to the stuff made at the prison camp, this is good" Syaoran commented. Syaoran turned around to see that it was the same person he had taken a bottle of Vodka from. Syaoran remembered earlier when he gave it back with half the drink gone. If it wasn't for the female sergeant slapping him over the head; he'd guessed that Syaoran would've been killed.
"What did they have you eat? Bugs and dirt?" the second solider spoke. Syaoran instantly remembered the second solider; Melissa Mao. She and Captain Testarossa spoke to him last night when he was waiting for the result of Sakura and Tomoyo's emergency surgery.
"No" Rita half grinned.
"I'll tell you, we were berthed only two weeks ago" A sailor beside Melissa spoke "fresh supplies, clean vodka, the lot. But this chef, he can't cook if he had a gun at his head"
"He can't be that bad" Naoko said.
"He put a mixture of flour and coffee in this morning's porridge" the first solider spoke; Rika and Naoko suddenly felt sick "…enough said"
"Oh, you haven't been properly introduced" Melissa spoke "This is Sergeant Kurtz Webber"
Syaoran quickly apologised again for stealing the alcohol, and explained the reason. When Syaoran had finished explaining, Webber and Melissa laughed aloud,
"I've heard how freedom and life is sweet tasting, but that's a little too much" Melissa still enjoying the joke that Syaoran, Naoko and Rika didn't get. Syaoran looked down at the meal; even he had to admit, and he didn't like its taste. Even Meilin; Syaoran's now dead cousin had better skills at cooking.
The first sailor continued "Anyway, what I suppose I should give you a little secret that I use, if the food looks a little grey, add some of this"
The Sailor produced a half empty bottle of Vodka, the very same one Webber had on him before
"Thanks…" Syaoran spoke unsettled "Why don't I and Rita just cook ourselves?"
"You can cook?" they all said spoke.
"Yes. Rita, Naoko and me; we all know how to cook, is there a problem with that we can prove it"
"Dam, I wish we had you as cooks on this boat"
Rita gleamed at the moment and walked slowly to the kitchen. It was technically a mess, well so much that it was untidy. The deep fryer for some reason was out of service. The tables were covered in floor and coffee from this morning. Knifes and other instruments lay around on tables unused and covered in grease. Rita turned to the group and spoke,
"If you can clean this all up, and fix and clean out the deep fryer, I could cook something before I leave"
"You have deal; I can get Yuri to fix that thing in less then a hour" the people were looking forward to a better tasting meal.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, North Pacific end of Bering Strait canyon, North Pacific Ocean.
Date: April 3rd, 2005
Time: 19:30 hrs
The weather on the surface was starting to act choppy as the submarine slowly approached the strait entry marker. Ahead of them was a day trip within range of the Alaska coast's anti-submarine weapons. The Konovalov however had an advantage; with the tunnel drive system, the submarine could go to twenty knots in almost no risk of detection; making the trip only half the time. The captain's major concern with the tunnel drive though was noise, and every submariner in history hated noise; the reactor was the most effective for the tunnel drive; but came with a cost. A loud noise would occur then the ship angled to port or starboard above ten knots speed. In order for the captain to secure that, he would have to stop and manually rotate the ship to face the right direction every time they came to a turn.
Fortunately the underwater trench had only two port side turns and two starboards that made the submarine create the unwanted noise. But unfortunately; one turn was right on a sonar net point. Its was hard to tell if it was active because of its aged design; but in order for the captain to pass that one, he would have to turn his reactor off and glide around the thirty angles until he was clear, then turn the reactor on and hope that he doesn't get noticed. If he did, the only option he would have was go shadow and speed off on propellers at full speed which. Then the captain if lucky would get to the ice caps and float steady until his escorts met his submarine.
Inside the control room, the captain commenced the standard procedure of checking systems and sub systems for any problems. A crossing with any noisy component on a ship could render the ship visible on sonar.
"Dive to 700 feet and find welcome mat two" the captain spoke to the first officer. Theresa had resumed her poison on the bridge after a blissful three hour snooze.
"Aye sir, dive to 700 feet, ten degree's down angle" Theresa then went over to the navigation table and started to read the map. From the submarine's point of view, there was a fork in the road; known as doormat one and doormat one. These connected up with the canyon, but each provided different levels of protection. Doormat two would provide little protection from ASW aircraft, but allowed for speed. This was important considering that there was no ASW aircraft active for the time being. The storm by this point had struck the airbases in Alaska and would've made it pointless to send up a plane, even if it were a missile boat.
The Konovalov started her decent to 700 feet, a sharp angle down to the depth, it was better to go down quickly at this point. Slowly the ship started scanning the surface for the entry; The Russian navy made a pretty good marker to look for; they sunk the American carrier USS Boxer Hill there in the first battle of the Bering straight two years ago.
"Very Well, Activate the UTMD and prepare for course speed of seventeen knots" The captain sitting down at a chair next to the navigation. This was a close as to the captain's chair as anything. Theresa continued to stand and repeated the order
"Activate the UTMD and speed of seventeen knots"
The first officer waited on the helmsmen to ready to enter the trench; all was quiet as the commanders of the ship closely monitored the forward sonar depth gauge. This gauge gave the ship one tactic advantage the 688 attack submarine didn't have. This device was located in the bow and a backup unit was located on the bottom of the ship, halfway down. One detector faced directly forward and another eight sonar detectors rotated on a propeller like device and gave range between the ship and the rocky terrain below the surface. This device was designed to give a tactical view of the terrain almost 200 yards in front, above, below and sides. This machine was called the UTMD or Underwater Terrain Mapping Device.
In the control room, the small screen would then give the commander a simple 3D view forward of the ship underwater and mapped all the terrain outcrops in the next 50 to 200 metres. It was the most effective thing to be invented outside the American laboratories since the war broke out.
The Captain looked at his watch, 7:30pm on the surface. The Americans on the Alaskan coast's anti submarine bases would be too arrogant to be manning their controls right now, dinner time for some of them; others it would be time for them to sleep off the glaze they received from their 15 year old monitors. There also was the storm that would provide cover. This would be the only chance he'd get to pass through the nets and the defence platforms.
The Bering Strait was the oddest point in this war; in that it was the only place in the world the borders hadn't changed since the beginning of the war. The Bering Strait mainly acted as no-man-land and both armies were entrenched on their respective coastlines; The Federal States of America on the Alaskan side. The Russians, north and East Asian rebels, European armies were entrenched on the other side. Nobody heard much about this defensive barrier; because anyone, American or Russian who wanted to travel between these two lines took a very high risk of being killed.
The only thing lacking was good warning devices; the best equipment was in two places; In Washington and on the western European front lines; where a wall once again divided Germany. This wall extended from Italy to Denmark. Fighting here was still very common. It wasn't uncommon for either side to lose ground, very much like trench warfare in World War one. Everywhere else it was quiet and proper gates and walls were built.
A wall that surrounded Russia was the only known border left anywhere in the world. It was a 20,000 mile border that extended from Denmark, down to Libya across to Pakistan and all the way to Beijing, china, all in one straight line. This border separated the two countries. Russia, minus half of its habitable land was overcrowded with people from south Asia, Africa, and Europe.
"Approaching cannon entry two; one hundred metres, USS Boxer Hill thirty metres below keel" Theresa spoke
The captain looked around at Theresa and the rest of the control room's crew. He like the other crewmembers was at the upmost concern when they would travel into the trench. Sakura and Tomoyo were locked into the cabins, as a precautionary measure to secure the passengers. That what it really was, Sakura, Tomoyo, Syaoran, Rika and Naoko were; passengers on a wartime liner, the submarine was taking a risk to just taken them to the base, let alone coming out here in the first place.
"Sir, I can see her, flat top directly ahead and below 600 yards" the sonar operator named Gregory, spoke looking at the screen. The 3D 'map' showed a box like structure lying on its starboard side on the bottom.
"Comrade Captain, entry mat located, Bering 357 degrees at four hundred fifty metres" the sonar officer spoke.
"Come right to 003 degrees, reduce speed to fifteen knots on tunnel drive" Theresa spoke to the helmsmen. The submarine started to tilt towards the right side. Moments later;
"Madam Commander, entry mat is now located 353 degrees at hundred metres"
"Come left to 357 degrees, reduce speed to twelve knots and recompute" Theresa replied; Theresa started to sweat, it was her first attempt to navigate this section of terrain in a submarine. The Captain looked over at her clasping the hand rail as the Submarine once again leaned, this time towards the left side and strayed until Gregory responded,
"Madam Commander, Bering to target 357 degrees at two hundred metres"
"Good, lock course and speed and prepare for speed of…"
"Increase speed to eighteen knots and recompute, prepare timers for canyon run" the Captain interrupted.
Theresa flinched for a second as the captain gave the order; speeding in the canyon was a gamble in itself, the gamble would be too much considering their position and the passengers on board, betting here meant you needed to have nerves of steel. Theresa did and ordered the submarine crew to do exactly that.
"This your first time in a canyon run Theresa?" the captain whispered to Theresa standing next to her.
"Yes, Captain"
"Don't worry then, the ship has the best record of canyon running, one hundred times, not once have we hit a rock" The captain reassured her. The computers beeped and the crew examined the consoles and gears carefully. The Captain looked at the ship clocks and then at his watch. The crew waited the orders to go and take the route.
"Helm, commence your run on the canyon"
"Aye comrade Captain"
"All non essential lights and heaters off, rig for silent running" Theresa spoke to the crew in the control room. At a console at the near end of the room, an ensign flipped a few switches; almost immediately, the lights changed from white to blue. The lights in the living quarters went out. The engineering department went dark, only pin lights appeared above the consoles. The crew were all at their stations, at least with two men backing up a person on consoles and mechanics.
Syaoran, Rita and Naoko were about to enter their cabin when the lights all went out, the scary sense of darkness chilled Naoko and Rita encouraged them to get into the cabin, Syaoran walked in behind and locked the door. In the next cabin; Sakura and Tomoyo who were sipping the tea noticed the lights dim in their cabin and looked at each other. The Sonar officer carefully monitored the tactical and geographic sonar stations; he had three people to a station. The commander noted the wreckage
"Depth above wreck" Theresa spoke
"We were six metres from hitting the island structure" the sonar operator spoke
"Aye, new record for this ship" the political officer spoke, walking into the control room unannounced. The mood didn't change the crew's attention towards the operations they were assigned to. One slip, it would all be over in seconds.
"twenty seconds to first turn, starboard side ten degrees" Theresa spoke to the helmsman
"Aye commander…turn in 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" the junior officer at the navigation table. Ruler and stop watch in hand he slowly dotted the course of the Konovalov as it approached a slight turn.
"Down five degrees on the bow plane to starboard, course Bering to 005 degrees" Theresa ordered. The helmsmen turned there wheels and adjusted the bow planes by leaning forward on wheels. The submarine gave a slight tilt towards the right; Theresa felt a little G-Force suddenly hit her, a moment later the submarine leveled out.
"Next turn in thirty seconds, twenty degrees port side" Theresa looked forward to the clock and counted it down from twenty,
"…17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…turn flank to 345 degrees, ten degrees on the planes, move it!"
The ship tilted on the port side as it made a sharper turn onto its new course, the vessel tilted carefully for another 300 feet before the ship turned completely and levelled out.
"Aye comrade captain, comrade commander" the junior officer tapped a line out and made a calculation. Next turn in three hours, thirty minutes and five seconds, mark"
"Alright Theresa, you take the command, call me at the next turn" the Captain spoke as he left.
The captain resided to his quarters to sleep for an hour. Meanwhile another predicament arose in the cabins with Syaoran, Rita and Naoko.
"So where do you want to sleep Syaoran-kun?" Rita asked him. Rita and Naoko beat him to the beds. Naoko and Rita were not getting out either; the heating in the ship was turned off to reduce the energy output from the reactor.
"I'll just sleep on the floor; you two take priority of the beds" Syaoran sitting down on the cold steel deck plates. Naoko turned over to face Syaoran who was sitting on the floor and trying to get comfortable.
"When was the last time you got sleep?" Naoko asked,
"Before we left the prison" Syaoran spoke "but I can handle it"
Naoko sighed for a minute sat up in bed. Syaoran looked up wondering what was on her mind. Before Naoko could speak, Syaoran got up and stood next to the bed.
"Why don't we just share the bed?" Naoko suggested. "You're not going to be any use to whomever if you don't get sleep"
"I'm fine" Syaoran lying, he had been tired since yesterday, but managed to fight it for a day.
"Li-kun, please get some sleep" Naoko motioning to get on the bed.
"I think ill go get some sleep in Sakura and Tomoyo's room"
"But didn't they lock it?" Naoko spoke. Rika turned over to se what the fuss was about. Syaoran blunted at the reminder, even he wasn't aware of the security detail outside her quarters. He more preferred to go next door with Sakura and Tomoyo, their bed could fit them all tightly; but if one was on top of the other, it would be comfortable. It wasn't that he didn't trust Naoko or Rika; it was the awkward. Whatever Syaoran thought, he tried to keep his mind on the goal; protecting Sakura.
"Li-kun, Sakura-Chan wont be protected if your pass out on us"
"Fine" Syaoran giving in, he didn't want to waste energy on arguing with her. Syaoran took of his shoes and climbed into bed, still wearing the uniform he was issued when he first came aboard the Konovalov.
"Goodnight Li Syaoran-kun" Naoko, turning over to hug him from behind,
"Wait a sec!" Syaoran's body went from cool to red alert in a flash. Not amused by Naoko's actions.
"Sorry, I just wanted to do that" Naoko smiled "Sakura once said to do it, just to jump your nerves"
Naoko turned over and left Syaoran to himself, both tired and worried about what was ahead of him.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, Bering Strait canyon.
Date: April 4th, 2005
Time: 08:40 hrs
The crew of the Konovalov were making good use of the wild weather and the snow cover. They had been speeding through the strait at almost twenty knots. The submarine could easily travel at a good speed and range without being detected. The Federal Americans wouldn't want to launch any planes now; even if they did see the submarine on sonar arrays, there was the risk of it either being damaged to much by the storm or being shot down by a stray MIG on a patrol; these were the sad cases where the sonar operators could only watch, but they didn't know yet that there even was ship called 'Konovalov'. Konovalov would most likely encounter either an American submarine or ASW aircraft at this point if it were running on props. At the final stage of the canyon; there always was an American submarine on patrol.
Passing through here required one of two tactics; the first would require any ship to power down and simply drift pass the enemy, this cause a meaning full problem in terms of current pushing the ship in any direction. The second was simply to put on the props and pretend to be an American ship. This meant that any typhoon class submarine would stop driving on two props and stray with one, but steering would be hopeless in maintaining course. Unfortunately, and in the submariners world; nothing can go completely undetected, the Konovalov's tunnel drive made a very low pitched noise that up the Americans fortunately wouldn't believe was a submarine.
The captain entered the control room and relieved the overworked commander. The ship was on a dead straight for the arctic sea now, the canyon run had been finished and the Americans unaware of their trespassing. It was another four hundred miles to the escorts. The two alpha class submarines and a joining Charlie I class attack submarine were waiting for the Konovalov to steam into the area. The Charlie I Class was a slow but sturdy submarine; it was in compassion to the Alfa; a noisy old rust bucket, the design ship severed the country well in the early 80's, but despite the age of the hull and weapons; the reactor was brand new. After the fall of Murmansk;
Every spare ship was required to defend the remaining ports. The captain could agree with that as much as any captain in the navy. There were almost forty five attack submarines and all twelve secret typhoon ships; these ships like the Konovalov were assigned to making various missions around the world, acting as couriers, passenger transport, and most importantly; secret launch platforms for a rebel nuclear stockpile to destroy an advancing enemy.
Theresa walked out of the control room and towards the quarters at the moment belonging to Sakura and Tomoyo. She dismissed the guard and walked inside the quarters and sat on the chair beside the bed. Sakura and Tomoyo were quietly asleep, waiting the trip ahead. Despite the chaos that came from the last twelve hours, Theresa could quietly be happy with her progress in her mission; that mission being bringing Sakura and company to the rebel's side. A vent started to rumble then the sound of a fan rotating hummed for a second; the captain had disabled the silent running order and restored heating. Theresa relaxed as she took off her coat and tried to get comfortable as she attempted to sleep on the chair, Tomoyo and Sakura started to wake up.
"Oh, I didn't mean to wake you mistress Sakura" Theresa apologizing to the still half-tired Sakura. Tomoyo was the first to sit up in bed; rubbing her eyes and trying to gain focus. Sakura finally understood what as going on and replied,
"Is it time to swap places?" Sakura joked,
"No mistress Sakura-san, I've just..."
"Don't worry, I slept well and so did Tomoyo-Chan" Sakura spoke, then Tomoyo nodding. Sakura uncovered herself and got out of the bed. Tomoyo shifted slowly to the side and waited for a minute.
"Something wrong?" Theresa said to Tomoyo,
"No, it's just that I haven't walked since the escape" Tomoyo for a moment was scared of walking; her muscles probably didn't fully recover since. Sakura noticed and thought for a moment. The decided on a solution,
"I carry you out, and if I have to, ill get Syaoran-kun to help"
"Thank you" Tomoyo swung her legs over the side while Sakura looked around for a coat.
"Commander Testarossa-san; is there a coat I could use, to cover Tomoyo-Chan?" Sakura spoke. Theresa looked around until she remembered something about that issue. Theresa stood up and opened a locker cabinet near the door, inside was a suit bag with the names 'Sakura' and 'Tomoyo' written on them.
"Sakura-san, there is something you could wear, it's actually meant for you to wear" Theresa handed Sakura and Tomoyo the bags, Sakura opened hers, inside was a maroon and grey-brown uniform. Some insignia was attached to the collar, indication for a major in the Russian army. Tomoyo open hers; inside was the same style uniform, but with insignia for a captain in the army.
"Because of your positions, and some certain influence on your behalf, you were given ranks for commissioned officers" Theresa tired to let off the impact as much as possible. Sakura and Tomoyo suddenly felt wide awake, without any notice, they somehow joined the army.
"I suggest going talk to the captain about it, Major Sakura-san"
Sakura and Tomoyo agreed; there was no fuss in arguing with Theresa, she didn't mean to do this; it was oblivious from the look on her face that Theresa didn't like the idea of making Sakura and Tomoyo, as well as Syaoran, Rika and Naoko army personnel. Once Sakura dressed herself; she slowly changed Tomoyo's drab outfit with the uniform. Once they were done; Tomoyo decided to test the strength in her legs.
"You shouldn't try it Tomoyo-san, it's not worth breaking your legs over" Theresa advised before Tomoyo made her first attempt. Sakura was on her immediate left side waiting to catch her if she fell. Tomoyo slowly stood up; with a stumble, Tomoyo was able to stand normally. Sakura still saw the need to simply hold onto her. The two girls then started to make there way out of the cabin and towards the control room. Theresa finally was relived of all her duties, went to have some blissful sleep. Inside the control room; the captain was concentration on the sonar screen, it was only a matter of time before the Konovalov would run into its escort group, which in theory wasn't necessary anymore, the Konovalov would be traveling in safe waters, but the probability of running into a 688 was pretty high. As Sakura approached the navigation table; the Captain turned to face Sakura Tomoyo.
"Did you call us?" Sakura spoke
"Good morning Sakura-san, I see you got the note to meet me in the control" the Captain sitting at he navigation table fiddling with a pen. On the table was a map readout showing the current course of his ship. Sakura, while striding with Tomoyo, approached the table.
"Yes sir"
Sakura looked at the map; Sakura couldn't recognise it. But the Konovalov was now north of the Bering Strait and coming close to two yellowish marks on the map.
"What is this?" Sakura spoke, never seeing a map before of this type before.
"Oceanographic survey maps, and this our course" the captain pointing to a red line that had been drawn "I'm aware that your not familiar with a lot of things on the Konovalov, or for that matter; anything in relation to the military"
"What are these yellow spots?" Tomoyo asked curiously. On the map they had the simple scribble and the course of the submarine, just above the 'current position' was a dotted line that lead to some scribbled numbers in yellow
"VK 45, VK 34. What is a VK?" Sakura starred on section in yellow
"This represents the submarines Novgorod Veliky and Borisoglebsk; they are waiting for us at this point to escort us to here" the captain pointed at the red X mark on the land area near the town of Tazovskiy. Sakura pondered over the details for a moment; before she could ask why he wanted to see her; a red alarm went off. The Captain stepped up and resumed his command posting at the command deck. The radio operators were scanning frequency to pick up the single
"Comrade Captain, I'm receiving an emergency call from the Borisoglebsk" the radio operator starred to switch the radio transmission to his headset. The captain rushed over to the console and picked up a headset. It usually was best not to let the whole control room hear emergency transmissions. For about one minute, the captain was listening to the radio on the headset. Sakura and Tomoyo just stayed at the navigation table to hear what would happen. Then the captain took his head off and slammed it against the bench, he turned and went to the centre of the control room.
"Rig for Battle stations" the Captain ordered
The control room immediately went from white and blue. Seconds later; alarms sounded on all the decks of the submarine. The Captain went to his chair and picked up a phone from its hook. He pressed firmly on the speaker button
"All hands this is the Captain, prepare for engagement, all hands to battle posts. Fire control load torpedoes one to eight, rig all nuclear missiles for impact secure" the captain hung up the phone and proceeded to Sakura and Tomoyo "I apologies to ask you, but can you and Tomoyo, please remain in your cabin, until further notice.
Sakura nodded and walked off with Tomoyo towards their cabin. As they left, Theresa entered the control room, without her shoes off and her blouse and jacket half on.
"I'm Sorry about the uniform sir; I'll be ready in a second" Theresa buttoning her jacket. The captain ignored his 1st officer's state. The captain looked around as every station was quickly manned with people and all the senior officers reported in on and activated the consoles for tactical and firing control. The captain looked at his charts, it would take another hour to get to the fight, but at least he was ready.
"Helm and engineering; use conventional props, full speed, Bering 350" the captain yelled as he looked at the maps, Theresa didn't argue and relayed the order,
"Engineering, deactivate tunnel drive and switch to conventional props. Helm, prepare for full flank at 350"
"Aye madam, full speed now"
The engines of the Konovalov pause for a minute, and then suddenly the dull roar of the two bronze propellers starts to rumble to life. Theresa finished dressing up her uniform; her ash blonde hair was still a mess and not put in as it usually was. She left that part of herself undignified as it didn't really matter now.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, Last known position of the VK Borisoglebsk, Arctic Sea.
Date: April 4th, 2011
Time: 10:45 hrs
The captain was frustrated at the possibility; upon arrival of the Konovalov an hour ago, the Borisoglebsk or Novgorod Veliky were nowhere to be seen. Left naked and waiting; the Konovalov risked being shot to pieces by the enemy of 688's that probably wiped out the two submarines. The Borisoglebsk and Novgorod Veliky were both the latest Alfa's to enter service, they also were the last built, after they left dry-dock, Murmansk Naval yards was destroyed. The captain sat down while the female 1st officer manned the radio consoles; she had a unique gift in detecting some transmission, which probably was hidden from them.
"Sonar report in" the captain started his check of consoles
"No contacts, Comrade Captain"
"Firing control"
"All tubes are still loaded, outer doors closed, computer ready to lock and fire enemy at first sight, Sir"
"Radio Commutations, Commander Testarossa?"
"No…wait" Theresa heard something in her headset. The captain and the entire control room froze for a minute. Then the Sonar officer almost jumped out of his seat when something pinging in his headset.
"Comrade Captain, two contacts, unknown description"
"What's their range and Bering?"
"One thousand meters, Bering is…035"
The captain stood still and silently cursed himself, the Bering pointed them straight to Canada; those contacts unmistakably would be two American 688's. He turned to Theresa who was still listening to the static breakup of the contacts. The on sonar, the ring expanded from the contact. It took almost five seconds but suddenly a loud noise hit the hull, it created a echoing noise like a pipe or bell being hit. The noise was coined as a ping, in naval terms; it identified the target's range, but gave away the attacking ship's position. As the Captain quickly thought of a battle tactic to defend him; Theresa was closely listening to the radio, then suddenly raised her hand.
"Comrade Captain, I'm receiving an encoded frequency on the UHF line"
The captain jerked his head towards Theresa who was quickly tuning the digital board for the radio frequency
"It's the Voronezh" Theresa spoke and looked at the captain "isn't that a Charlie I class?"
"It is Commander" the captain quickly trying to solve the mystery. Theresa got up from radio and gave it back to the radio operator. She rushed over to the Sonar stations and grabbed a headset. She quickly thought for a few seconds and then responded.
"Comrade Captain, those two contacts are the Voronezh and Novgorod Veliky"
The captain quickly turned to the fire control and cancelled the targeting order he gave.
"But where is the Borisoglebsk?" the political officer finally entered the control room; he had been in the forward missile bay checking on the crew and equipment "Aren't we meant to have two Alfa's? Not an Alfa and a Charlie I?"
"Let's find out" the captain looked over to Theresa who was at the sonar station sonar "are there any other contacts other than the Novgorod Veliky or the Voronezh"
"No comrade Captain" Theresa replied,
"Contact the Novgorod Veliky and her commander"
The radio operator started tapping on a single encoder. They waited 5 minutes before the radio officer picked up a message,
"Sir, receiving message from the Voronezh" the radio operator said to the captain.
The rest of control room crew watched them for news. This was quirky and tense by the crew; the commanders felt the same urgency and decided on the solution. In the radio department of the Konovalov, there were three ways of communicating between ships. The first was the SW radios, which basically was a phone service between captains and were a privatised way of converting tactical data between fights. The Second was the Morse code light system that could only be used if the ship was surfaced and using a periscope, this was the most effecting way of communicating any information without any detection or been tapped by hiding enemy submarines.
The third and last system is a fax like device that could transmit any information to anyone in the fleet, it was effective in transferring operational orders, but if required a complex coding process to avoid the enemy obtaining the same information that was being transmitted. In this case, there was no need, no American submarine captain in there right mind would even approach a Alfa, Charlie I, and a Typhoon all in the one go, the chance of surviving is not very pleasing.
"Okay, now check message" Theresa spoke. The radio operator checked the number code against a code book and went up to Theresa with the message, she started to examine the first paragraph, the finally spoke.
"Konovalov, this is Voronezh, glad to see you, please activate to SW frequency 'Captains frequency' 1092.88, Novgorod Veliky Radio receiver down for moment, unable to commutate" as Theresa reading the message; the captain sighed relief for the moment. Theresa continued to scan the next paragraph and then looked back at the radio operator, who nodded his head and took his cap off.
"Unfortunate to confirm that the Borisoglebsk was destroyed with all hands by Federal American 688 class attack submarine, Novgorod Veliky was damaged in fight"
"Dear god…" the political officer spoke in his breath, Theresa continued reading
"Can confirm that the American submarine was destroyed with all hands"
The captain sat down and assessed the situation for minute. The Borisoglebsk was destroyed, the Novgorod Veliky badly damaged; probably unaware that the Konovalov was in front of them and the only attack submarine ready to fight was a slow Charlie I class.
"Comrade Captain" the radio officer spoke "The Voronezh has opened the channel and is patching it through to us and the Novgorod Veliky, if they can hear us"
"Alright, Captain Putin and Commander Testarossa to officer mess quarters, Commander Testarossa; go and get Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo, tactical chief, I leave you in command"
"Aye Comrade Captain" Theresa turned and walked down the deck towards Sakura's quarters. While the Captain and political officer went to he officers mess quarters, Theresa went to Sakura and Tomoyo. She opened to door to see Sakura and Tomoyo taking off the uniforms.
"We need you in the officers meeting room Sakura-san"
"Why?" Sakura confused,
"Because you're important in this matter, and officially, you're an officer now"
Sakura agreed, but was still confuse. Without arguing or asking questions, Sakura and Tomoyo grabbed their jackets they just took off down the hall with Theresa towards the officers mess quarters. Sakura was slowed down by the weight of Tomoyo; who still required assistance walking places. Although Tomoyo could walk, her legs were still in bad shape. Sakura then saw Theresa knocking on the other door were Syaoran was, inside he had been wearing his uniform for the last day. Sakura continued with Tomoyo into the officers mess room were the political officer and the captain was already seated. Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran sat down on one side of a table and the political officer, Captain and Theresa sat on the other side.
"The Voronezh has acquired communication security, I'm patching it to your phone now comrade captain" the radio officer spoke. The phone switched through to a small device on the table. It was in these cases that the officer quarter's was sometimes used as a private room for comminations
"This is the Commanding officer Konovalov, may I know who is speaking?" spoke the Captain grimly; Sakura and Syaoran looked each other down and noticed both had the rank of major. Tomoyo just listened in to the conversation.
"This is captain of Voronezh, we received transmission from the Novgorod Veliky three hours ago about an attack, the commander of the Borisoglebsk insisted that we left the area, I didn't understand why though, two hours ago the Commander of the Novgorod Veliky said we had to turn around and come back here. He said it was a priority importance or something, apparently he was right"
"I see" Theresa spoke "what's the situation with the Novgorod Veliky"
"It'll take them another hour to get there normal radio online and they have is their encoder messengers. Their firing control will take longer, but they can fix that en-route to where ever you are going" the cracked voice continued on "I've never heard of your submarine before?"
The captain looked at Theresa for a moment; she responded by slowly nodded her head. As Theresa was head of this operation, it was her responsibility over the secrecy of the mission to other sections of the army. Theresa decided to speak first,
"We will give you the operational orders meant for the Novgorod Veliky"
Theresa stood up form the table and walked towards the door and exited. A few minutes later ordered the radio officer to send the operational orders of the mission to the Voronezh via the ships 'fax machine'. When she returned, the radio officer had started the sending process.
On the Voronezh; Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin was watching the dot-matrix type writer, quickly print the details out. As each line typed out, he couldn't believe his eyes. This quickly had him being thankful for listening to the request of the Novgorod Veliky to return here.
"Captain of Konovalov, is this for real, not a dummy order?" Vasily asked.
"Its real comrade, you must treat this with the up-most confidentially until he have reached the Kara Sea region, you then can tell your crew when we have confirmed that we haven't got any ships following us that aren't Russian or European rebel. This mission has already jeopardised the future of our country and humanity, please remember that your class of ship isn't part of the initial plan, but we need an escort.
"Understood, can I inform the political officer on my ship?"
The captain of the Konovalov sighed, if the political officer knew, everyone including the Americans would end up knowing. Theresa continued on behalf for the captain,
"You may not inform your senior officers, you are to proceed with us until we get to the naval yards in Tazovskiy"
"Understood comrade captain, we will prepare to escort your 'package' as soon as the Novgorod Veliky has been repaired of communications and weapons." Vasily continued,
"Not enough time, they will have to repair their equipment en-route, prepare course 270 and follow our lead"
The captain ended the converstation by pressing the button to disconnect. The Captain and the political officer headed outside of the room to address the crew in the control room. The picked the microphone speaker and turned it on.
"Crew of Konovalov, this is the captain, unfortunate events have caused us to postpone our progress Until the Novgorod Veliky is able defend itself; this ship and the Voronezh must be ready to sink and destroy any Americans that threatens to destroy any of our ships. We will maintain battle alert until we are safe. What's on this ship is too valuable to lose after how much we have gravely risked to get; every man on the Konovalov must remember their duties and I promise to put this entire ship in for one week, one week comrades…of shore leave to enjoy the rights gained from hard work"
The crew thought long and hard about that, a week shore leave, almost unheard of in the way the war was going. But the matter turned to protecting this ship, word spread quickly about the fate of the Borisoglebsk and the crew were more then anxious not to share the same fate. They also were querying the relativeness of the Novgorod Veliky having survived the battle, yet having no contact with them.
These sailors weren't all experienced officers and electrical technicians, so they didn't understand the context of the words. But they all understood the order the captain gave, that was the most important thing on a submarine.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, Laptev Sea, en-route to Tazovskiy.
Date: April 4th, 2011
Time: 17:45 hrs
It took almost six hours, but the Novgorod Veliky finally was able to commutate with the Konovalov and Voronezh, the three submarines finally able to set a speed course for their final destination. They had managed to dodge the sonar nets at the capes entering Laptev Sea. This was made increasingly difficult by the lagging Alfa class, trailing the group at almost half its speed and noise. The Konovalov however was making good time and would be in Tazovskiy in almost a day's time. The task to even pass thought his area was difficult, which only experienced naval men knew
In this time of calm and orderly silence, the doctor took the opportunity to finally treat Tomoyo who need her bandages changed before she arrived at Tazovskiy. The doctor made his way from his temporary quarters to Sakura and Tomoyo's cabin.
"Is Tomoyo in?" the doctor said knocking on the door,
"Yes Sir" Sakura replied, looking at Tomoyo who was lying down on the bed. Syaoran suddenly panicked. He suddenly realised that he wasn't meant to be in here at all. He looked around and noticed the closet,
"Syaoran-kun?" Sakura whispered confused as Syaoran hid in the closet and shut the door just as the doctor came in the room.
"Good afternoon Sakura, Tomoyo"
"Good afternoon" Sakura spoke, still thinking about Syaoran in the closest.
"May I borrow Tomoyo? I need to do a check up on her wounds"
Tomoyo nodded and prepared to go to the medical quarters, Sakura assisted her by helping Tomoyo walk. Syaoran held his breath and waited, slowly and slowly the group departed the room and walked down the hallway. Syaoran finally hit the floor to the relief of fresh air.
"I need to be more careful about the way I move around this ship. I'm likely to get myself launched out of a torpedo tube" Syaoran brushed off of dust and sat down at the table. With nothing to do but wait for their return; he had hoped to talk to Sakura, but that might come later on; which would be proceeded by his sudden disappearance until the it was clear. In the medical quarters; Tomoyo lay down on the table and waited for the doctor to begin his exanimation of the wound. Sakura patiently sat down near the door. Sakura sighed and hoped not to have too much blood come into her view.
"Sakura-Chan, I'm quite alright, you can go back if you want to" Tomoyo spoke,
Sakura nodded her head to respond, not wishing to go.
"I'm Alright Tomoyo-Chan" Sakura reluctantly said,
"Sakura-Chan, you and Syaoran-kun need some time alone, go visit him"
"I'll do that later on, I don't know where he is at the moment" Sakura replied. Tomoyo nodded in agreement the actual reason was that Sakura was confused about something. Tomoyo gulped as the scene quickly familiarised to that of the much integration that took place when she was imprisoned; Stainless steel table, cold floor and air, sharp knives and other instruments of torture lined up on other tables around her, a blight light beaming onto her from above. Sakura took Tomoyo's shirt and because of the need to access the wound on her stomach and upper legs.
"Okay Tomoyo, I want you to relax, this is going to hurt a bit" the doctor explained,
"Can I have an antithetic?" Tomoyo enquired,
"I can't give you a needle; you need more blood in your body before I can do such things. How about a gag?" Tomoyo nodded approval. The doctor reached into his drawer and picked out a plastic sealed mouth piece, unwrapped it, applied some cream and put it in Tomoyo's mouth.
"Any better?"
Tomoyo nodded, seeing she now couldn't move her jaw. The doctor got a bottle of vasial-98 and rubbed it around the edges of the bandage, Tomoyo felt it freeze her skin and nerves. It was cool and felt like ice on her body.
"Okay, hold still…" the doctor started to pull slowly, careful not to rip the skin. Tomoyo cringed at the pain of it ripping micro hairs and skin off her. The doctor finally finished removing the entire bandage. The wound was recovering well, well better then the doctor was hoping to discover.
Tomoyo had suffered enough in the doctor removed the gag and placed it in the sink, Tomoyo started to breath heavily and slowly again, shivering at the cold effect of the applied cream on her chest and stomach. The doctor then went to his desk and came back with another cream; Tomoyo wasn't all to pleased with the pain; but this was nothing compared to her treatment before.
The doctor started to look at the damaged area of Tomoyo's delicate body. The skin appeared okay. Tomoyo was a little concerned at the damage as well, but then the doctor calmed her down when he finished doing checks on the blood veins healing.
"Very seems to healing very well Tomoyo, let me place another bandage on it and I'll start checking your other health problems" the doctor spoke,
Tomoyo was relived to hear that everything was fine and laid her head back down onto the table. Sakura was a little sick for a moment; she never could stand the sight of gross injuries. The doctor produced form another sealed package a fresh soft wound bandage, and some stretch bandages to wrap around her waist. Tomoyo squinted; as it normally was a every sensitive process as the doctor was wrapping the cover bandage on. When he was finished he made certain that it wouldn't fall off that easily.
"Alight Tomoyo, does this feel tight at all?"
"A bit" Tomoyo replied. Sakura was glad to hear all of this news about Tomoyo; it didn't seem to bad now that she had proper care. Sakura handed back Tomoyo's uniform shirt to wear, the room was cold, and Tomoyo was freezing cold from the metal table.
"Okay, you need to leave this for a week, when we arrive at base, we'll give you the other stuff we don't have here" the doctor continued "please sit up"
Tomoyo moved herself up from her position and swung her legs off the table and lifted her head to face the doctor. The doctor then proceeded to start a medical check up on her. Tomoyo was entirely familiar with the process and proceeded as she was asked to.
"Okay, can you please place this over your heart; let's see how you're ticking" the doctor handing her the stethoscope. Tomoyo was entirely sure with the term he said, but continued to put her arm under her shirt and placed the stethoscope on her chest. Tomoyo felt the quick cold pain that came with the metal rim on this device, Tomoyo then breathed as per requested the amount of times and relaxed.
"Okay Tomoyo, now your back" Tomoyo turned around as the doctor lifted her shirt and placed the stethoscope on Tomoyo's back, "Your heart seems in good condition, you must care a lot about people"
Tomoyo blushed turned to look at the doctor; Sakura also flinched and looked at the doctor.
"Pardon doctor?"
"They say that a person with a pure and working heart is always there when their friends need them"
"How come I've never heard of that saying before?"
"Because it's an old saying" The Doctor spoke. Sakura thought about that for a minute; it was a true in a way, the years that Tomoyo held on, despite the worst happening. Tomoyo never seemed to not change face on Sakura. The Doctor turned to the second table for some tissues and the first needle, Tomoyo waited patiently as he inserted each needle and its dosage, when he was done he put an egg timer down and set it to five minutes.
"I need you to stay seated until the egg timer goes off"
The doctor sat down on the chair and waited, silence came for a minute,
"Why don't you ask me something" Tomoyo said "passes the time"
The doctor thought and decided to remain silent, he wanted to ask a certain question, but with Sakura in front of her, it would be difficult and extremely difficult. For the next five minutes, It was absolute silence, only broken by the buzzing noise of the egg timer.
Location: SSBN Konovalov, an inlet on the Kara Sea
Date: April 4th, 2011
Time: 19:24hrs
The Konovalov, flanked with the Novgorod Veliky and the Voronezh, were almost four hours away from the finish at there current speed. The Konovalov at this point could put the props and race home in three hours or better; but with the Novgorod Veliky needing protection, this stalled the efforts of the crew. A week of shore leave was almost at there fingertips and they just wanted to jump off and swim to whatever few remaining townships on the coastline; most of which were either crowed with refugees from the south or were bombed into submission from the north. As the Konovalov, was now safely in the inlet, it could use props at its best speed; the water around here was mixed with fresh and salt water from the fjord and made American Sonar useless.
Inside the control room the crew were working quietly, looking forward to the arrival on land. Theresa was busy packing her bag to take with her; while Melissa was briefing Souske and Webber were being briefed. The captain was looking through the periscope to see the white caps of the fjords, it wasn't a beautiful sight, but it was as close to safe as possible.
"Captain of Novgorod Veliky reporting, Comrade Captain" the radio officer spoke. The captain retrieved the phone from the hook and started listening
"This is the Konovalov, what is your Status?"
"The reactor has been cleared of the broken glass; we can proceed at forty knots"
"We want to literally get Sakura into harbour before midnight, so as to the total amount of darkness to move her out of the naval base and to this other location" Theresa walked into the control room. The captain looked at her and then spoke to the captain.
"Surface in ten minutes, Go to maximum possible speed, we can race it from here"
"Understood Comrade Captain" the phone hung up. The captain put the receiver unit back onto the rack and sat down, not as troublesome a voyage this time round, the end was in sight and the crew would finally get some rest. The other officers were doing a variety of tasks at once, checking the gauges over and over and seriously concerned with the fact they were only three hundred miles away from docks.
"Sir, in about ten minutes, we will be surfacing, in form the Voronezh to do as well, we need to get into the harbor before midnight"
"Come to ninety feet under sea level, and increase flank to two thirds" Theresa relayed the order.
The Konovalov didn't need to use its tunnel drive here; no American submarine would dare come within one thousand miles of these waters, it was always full of Russian submarines and other surface ships patrolling the inlets around the Kara and White seas. These were essential waters as the fish and occasional whale could feed the population which suffered greatly. It was a long ten minutes the Voronezh and Novgorod Veliky trailed their flagship, as the Konovalov slowly came to the surface.
"Radio contact, the surface is clear; the Novgorod Veliky has surfaced"
"We'll do the same, prepare to surface"
The Konovalov made a quiet rumble and prepared lean upwards to the surface; the submarine groaned as the hull decompressed and moved upwards to the surface. Sakura and Tomoyo were in their quarters sleeping when the noise of the hull woke them.
"What's happening?" Sakura spoke half asleep on the chair. Tomoyo lying on the bed got up and looked. Sakura looked at what a device Theresa pointed out before, the gauge read zero one zero.
"We've surfaced; I think were almost at the dock. Sakura and Tomoyo decided to get ready if that was the case. Sakura and Tomoyo left their room for the last time and walked down to the control room where, Syaoran Naoko and Rika were already at the foot of one of the ladders.
"Sakura-san?" Rika hadn't seen Sakura ever since they arrived on the Konovalov, amazing considering the size and space of the submarine. Naoko and Rika hugged Tomoyo and Sakura for a moment while Syoaran remanded pre-occupied with the activities in the control room.
"Surface ship, Bering 184 degrees, large and fast" the sonar officer announced,
"Is it one of ours?" Theresa spoke,
"Has to, if it's coming from the harbour in Novyy Port, I've got another fourteen contacts, small, just as fast thought, there around the big one." Theresa made her way down to the conning ladder with the captain when Syaoran walked to her,
"We wish to go up top" Syaoran spoke,
"I'm not sure, it's dangerous with the bow break, and we are only fifty kilometres from docks. With that word, Melissa, Sousuke and Kurz were walking down to the ladder towards the ladder well. After a quick agreement and a difficult climb up the ladder, Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo took their first glimpse of sky in a few days. It was a clear night, very unusual for a northern spring. Sakura looked up the moon that greeted them when they first boarded the Konovalov, off the coast of Japan. Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo also were greeted with the same frosty winds that met them when they struggled across the deck.
Tomoyo breathed in all the sea air she could feel with her face. Syaoran proceeded to the look out towards the lights clearly visible on the horizon; the docks didn't look big, only enough for five submarines and a few surface boats.
"I believe…that's the Kiev, odd to have a cruiser escort trawlers" Melissa spoke behind Sakura and everyone else. Syaoran then remembered the conversation Theresa with the Sonar officer. He gazed over towards the group of ships. From the height Syaoran was at, he wouldn't be able to get a decent view of the ships.Syaoran looked up at the full moon, it had been sighted at all the most important events of their lives, Sakura opening the Clow book, the final judgement at Tokyo, the day he was meant to propose to Sakura, and then when he was broken out of prison by these people.
Up ahead the three submarines slowly slowed as they started to make their approach into the harbour way into another inlet for a smaller river. Increased speed meant that they would be in harbour within 30 minute. Sakura and Tomoyo were still standing on the main deck, counting the number of missile tube doors that lined the ship. Tomoyo was enjoying the cold air, something that made Sakura a little bewildered by her abilities.
"Hey Sakura-Chan?"
"Yes Tomoyo-Chan?"
"I was thinking earlier, about our lives before this; do you think we'll ever be able to get back to normal, even with this war"
Sakura paused and then thought of an answer,
"I don't think we'll ever get be normal again, everything we know has been taken away from us, but I'm sure that something will always help us feel better, and I'm going to make sure you find it" Sakura trying to make it sound as less important as possible where it had the opposite effect;
"That's why I never leave you" Tomoyo hugged her, Sakura replied did the same,
"Come on, before we catch a cold" Tomoyo said,
Sakura and Tomoyo and headed towards the side door of the conning tower. While Syaoran and Melissa continued to talk.
"I heard the meal you, Rika and Naoko cooked yesterday was great"
"Thank you Melissa"
"Hey, that's got to be the first time you didn't call me madam, you learn fast kid" Melissa Chuckled, Behind her, Sousuke and Kurz were watching over their commanding officer. Ahead of the submarine and into the sky a low glow of lights could been seen over the mountain range
"Welcome to the motherland Syaoran-kun" Melissa spoke,
Syaoran nodded acceptingly,
Location: Tazovskiy Submarine Deport, Tazovskiy
Time: 23:00 hrs
The Konovalov rumbled its forward trusters and propellers at the approach to its dock way, alongside a small boat; it was being guided into the barn. Tazovskiy wasn't a major navy base, but it housed facilities capable of servicing five submarines. Not exactly service, but at least hide them from satellite photography. These massive 'barns' were copies of what the Germans hid their u-boats in the first two world wars. As a tributed coincidence, a actual German attack submarined in the next Barn to the Konovalov
The command crew were standing on the conning tower and the remaining crew and junior officers were standing on the open deck Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo who were now joined by Rita and Naoko, waited inside the conning tower for arrival. It wasn't a difficult docking procedure, just a straight follow through to the dock way and parking into the dry-dock like inside these barns
The Captain, Theresa and political officer were standing at the bridge section of the conning tower as the Konovalov started a slow trudge to the number four docking barn. It was large enough to easily fit an advanced typhoon class submarine. The tugboat released it and allowed the Konovalov to dock under its own power. Slowly it headed inside the docking yard and stopped at full reverse thrust when it was near the end. The Barn inside was lit up very well, enough to see the entire submarine for its true nature, a black giant from the deep. It finally was docked and roped to the dock and the crew cheered silently; they were home.
Their only concern now was the shore leave that was promised by the commander. The captain and his command crew proceeded out with Sakura to the front row of the Konovalov crew that were lined up on inspection on the dockside, the crew of the Voronezh and Novgorod Veliky were also lining up beside the crew of Konovalov. A luxury car parked in front the assembled, crews pf these submarines submarines, mostly trucks to take the tired crew to Tazovskiy. Approached and stopped to a gangplank that had been put out to meet with the submarine. The remainder crew of Voronezh finished lining up when a man climbed out of the car and started his way down the long line of officers; returning salute to them. Eventually, he approached the Captain. Sakura started to worry and straightened her jacket. The man approached the Captain and looked at him for a second.
"Comrade Captain 1st rank, Vladimir Tupolev" the man starts to shake his hand "Welcome back"
"Commodore Nelson, it's nice to be home, thank you"
"A British Commodore?" Syaoran thought to himself.
"Comrade Commodore Nelson, I present you the crew and ballistic missile submarine VK Konovalov and its crew, agonized with VK Voronezh and VK Novgorod Veliky" the Captain left his position in the line and followed the Commodore down towards Sakura. "May I also introduce you, this here is the mistress herself, Sakura Kinomoto; her friends Tomoyo Daidouji, Syaoran Li, Rita Sasaki and Naoko Yanagisawa"
"Mistress Sakura; welcome to Tazovskiy Naval base"
Theresa stepped forward and addressed the Commodore
"Commander Theresa Testarossa, I am the leader of 'Card Capture', reporting in duty, sir"
"It's nice to see you again Theresa" Commodore Nelson shook her hand and bowed slightly. The person being accustomed to Theresa obliviously shown,
"As Commodore, I will permit the shore leave request" the Commodore walked out and spoke.
"Attention, as of 23:15hrs, all personnel of the VK Konovalov, VK Voronezh and VK Novgorod Veliky have permitted right to their one week shore leave, dismissed" The crew didn't need to hear that twice, they started to all walk down and piled onto the waiting buses taking them to town. The captain and command crew stayed for further orders.
When the crowd died down, the officers of the Konovalov remained with Theresa and Sakura's group. Theresa went off to say goodbye to the crew with Sakura while Syaoran and everyone else headed to the trucks lied up ready to go to the base.
"It been an honor to be under your command, Sir" Theresa saluted her commanding officer
"As the same Ms Testarossa; I hope you do well in the future, good luck with Sakura and the operation"
"Thank you" Theresa shook his hand and then waited for Sakura to say goodbye,
"I'll just like to thank you for everything you've done or us, sir"
"It was an honor to meet to Sakura, good luck"
Sakura shook his hand, for the first time feeling his bear like grip as she shook her hand. The captain stepped backwards and saluted; Sakura returning the salute. Theresa and Sakura walked down to the truck and got on board. The trucks started up and started driving down the cement towards the exit, Sakura glimpse out the back and had one last look at the VK Konovalov; knowing it be the very last time she'd see it. Sakura then turned around to see Syaoran also looking back at the submarine, it was a long shot, but it helped them remember what was at stake now. Sakura looked around more to see, Tomoyo and Theresa sitting down rugged up in blankets. Sousuke sat alone cleaning his assault rifle again. Sakura the relaxed and waited for them to go wherever next. Sakura gazed out the back again and took the scenery in again, and remember of a better time.