CARRIER 5: MAELSTROM By Keith Douglass

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,

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