officers were filtering in, most with the obligatory mug of Navy coffee in
hand.
Coyote walked in the door at the back of the room and paused, looking
around. His eyes met Tombstone’s, but coldly, without recognition, before he
made his way to a seat on the far side of the compartment. Black circles
under his eyes showed that Coyote hadn’t been getting much sleep either.
What’s going on in his head? Tombstone wondered. once he’d been able to
read his friend with ease, but no more. There was more going on than pique at
being chewed out for a bad call. As a friend he wanted to help. As CAG he
felt he had to know, because one man’s personal problems could spill over and
affect every man in his squadron … or come to a head at a bad time and get
someone killed. That, he knew, was what was worrying Batman.
“Attention on deck!” someone called from the back of the room, and every
officer stood with a clatter of folding chairs.
“As you were,” Captain Brandt said as he closely followed Admiral Tarrant
in. Accompanied by several aides, they made their way down the center aisle
to the front row. Tombstone and the others sat down again as the senior
officers took their seats.
“Thank you, Admiral, Captain,” Commander Aiken said, standing at the
front of the room. A slide-projection screen had been set up against the
bulkhead behind him. “Welcome, gentlemen. Admiral Tarrant ordered this
briefing for all department heads and senior assistants. We thought you’d
like a close look at the opposition. Lights, please? First slide.” CVIC’s
overhead lights died, and a black and white image came up on the projection
screen, an overhead shot of an aircraft carrier.
Tombstone had seen those lines before, two years before when Jefferson
had deployed briefly with the Soviet carrier Kreml in the Indian Ocean.
Obviously smaller than the Jefferson, she did not have the characteristic
angled flight deck of American carriers. Like British and Indian carriers,
her bow was raised in the “sky jump” configuration, a design that helped boost
planes into the air without a catapult.
It was also clear that the ship in the photo was damaged. Though details
were fuzzy, dense smoke seemed to be hanging astern of the carrier as she
plowed through the sea. There was a scar on the flight deck, off the aft port
corner of the island, that looked like it might have been caused by a fire.
“This was taken late yesterday evening by one of our spy satellites,”
Aiken said. “We have positively identified her as the Soviet aircraft carrier
Soyuz. As you can see here, she did take some damage during our attack two
days ago, but our best guess is that flight operations were not seriously
impaired. For the past seven hours we have been tracking aircraft shuttling
in from the Kola Peninsula, probably navalized MiG-29s and Su-27s, to replace
the losses they suffered in the battle. Note, please, the significance of her
name: Soyuz, Union. She’s definitely the showpiece of the new breed of Soviet
militarists, big, mean, and powerful. We estimate sixty thousand tons or
more, and a complement of at least sixty-five aircraft. Her sister ship is
the Kreml, currently at the Leningrad naval yards in the Baltic. Next,
please.”
The Soyuz vanished from the screen, to be replaced by another shot, This
one was on a smaller scale, showing five broad wakes curving across dark
water.
“With Soyuz are four large surface vessels. We believe that these
include the Kirov and three guided-missile cruisers of either the Kresta I or
Kresta II class. Next.”
The next slide showed an oblique view of an enormous warship, broad, with
huge decks and a complex superstructure rising like a pyramid amidships.
Tombstone heard several low whistles, and a low buzz of conversation from
around the room.
“I think I should say right from the start that Kirov is a monster.
She’s designated as a battle cruiser, but she’s the largest non-carrier
warship built in the world since World War II; nuclear-powered, seven hundred
fifty-four feet long, displacing twenty-four thousand tons, and carrying a
crew of over eight hundred. There are only three others of her class: Frunze,