CARRIER 5: MAELSTROM By Keith Douglass

survivors. Thousands of men were in the water, adrift in crowded masses of

oil-blackened humanity clutching floating debris, in lifeboats and rafts or

swimming alone, men who were no longer enemies, but fellow sailors to be

rescued from the relentless sea.

Decatur lowered lifeboats and rafts, then stood by until a small fleet of

Norwegian ASW ships, helicopters, and patrol torpedo boats could arrive from

Trondheim to take up the rescue effort.

More of Soyuz’s crew might have been saved had Jefferson and the other

members of the battle group been able to join the rescuers, but the

necessities of war and cold, common sense dictated against such a gesture.

There were Soviet subs in the area. An SH3 off the Shiloh found and sank a

Victor III less than thirty miles from the Soyuz at 0935 hours, and Winslow

scored an unconfirmed kill less than an hour later.

By now, every Soviet sub in the Norwegian Sea would be vectoring toward

the Freya Bank, searching for the Jefferson now that she was out from behind

the parapets of Romsdalfjord. An aircraft carrier’s only defense against

those silent, deadly hunters was speed … and an encircling net of ASW ships

and helos.

For her to linger might mean a few more lives rescued from the Soyuz

holocaust, but it would mean exposing the six thousand Americans aboard the

Jefferson to a similar fate. Jefferson slowed enough to extend the search for

a few hours with SH3s flown off her deck, but by the middle of the afternoon

she passed beyond the range for her rescue helos, which had given up their

melancholy quest.

The helos had had mixed success. Twenty oil-soaked Russian sailors were

plucked from the water, as were two MiG pilots downed in the dogfight with

Viper One. Miraculously, Hunter Harrison was picked up, tired, cold, and

barely conscious, still clinging to his aviator’s life raft. His TACCO, Ralph

Meade, however, was never found.

And Hard Ball, Beaver, Teejay, Coyote, and so many others were gone.

1430 hours Zulu (1530 hours Zone)

U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson

The Norwegian Sea

Coyote was gone.

Tombstone still couldn’t believe it. He’d lost friends in combat before,

but Willis E. Grant–Coyote–had been part of his Navy life almost from the

beginning, when they’d been stationed together at the San Diego Naval Air

Station … and then again after that during their first operational

deployment aboard the U.S.S. Kennedy. He thought of Julie Wilson Grant, the

girl both of them had dated and Coyote had married. He would have to write

her.

What was he going to say to her?

That he’d given the orders that put Coyote at the wrong place at the

wrong time? That he’d sent the irrepressible Coyote to his death?

It was in a decidedly somber mood, then, that Tombstone threaded his way

across Jefferson’s hangar deck.

He wore a Mickey Mouse helmet against the noise. The hangar deck was

filled with men and machines, with aircraft parked almost wingtip to wingtip,

divided only by narrow lanes made hazardous by mules and tow tractors and

plane crews scurrying about like ants among the tunnels of their nest.

Refueling and rearming operations were being carried out here to keep the deck

clear for the vertical replenishment operation, and so that Air Ops could

continue to launch and recover aircraft on CAP.

Tombstone had completed checking on reports of minor battle damage to two

of the Death Dealer Intruders and he wanted to make certain that the A6s would

not have to be down-griped. CVW20 had lost so many aircraft already, and even

though Soyuz had been destroyed, the fight for the control of the Norwegian

Sea was not over yet. There was still the Baltic Fleet to deal with, and

there was a serious sub threat, with only six S3 Vikings left of the King

Fishers’ original complement of ten. He’d completed his check and was heading

for the ship’s ladder that would take him back up to his office when he

spotted a familiar, lanky form crossing toward the port elevator.

“Batman!” he called. “Hey, Batman! Wait up!”

Batman saw Tombstone’s wave and waved back. Tombstone caught up with him