Kirov by John Schettler

have a fix on either Slava or Orel .
Mister Nikolin, hail both ships. If you do not receive an answer within five
minutes then contact Severomorsk. Advise them we have canceled the exercise.
Note that we are investigating an emergency situation, and that we have lost
position fix and contact with Orel and Slava . Asked them if these
ships have reported home.”
    He
turned to find Captain Karpov and Chief Orlov. “Gentlemen, please join me in
the briefing room.”
    The
three men proceeded to a secure room off the citadel, the eyes of the ever more
nervous bridge crew following them as they went. Once inside the Admiral closed
the door and leaned heavily on the table. “Your thoughts, Captain,” he said
following proper protocol in engaging Karpov first.
    “I
did what I thought most appropriate, sir.” Karpov defended himself immediately.
“There was clearly an explosion of some kind, and it appeared to me that it may
have been a detonation from a torpedo. I took evasive action as specified by
command procedures.”
    “That
is not what I am asking you,” said the Admiral. “Do you not find it even
passing strange that a moment ago we were sailing in rising winds and seas, and
now we're looking at calming conditions and fog? Did this explosion chase the
wind away? Where's the weather front Rodenko has been warning us about for the
last two hours? Did you notice the barometer? It was at 990 millibars and falling,
but has now risen to well over 1000.”
    “But
Admiral, we saw it, felt it!” Gennadi Orlov, the ship’s Chief of Staff seemed
to side with Karpov on the matter. ”There was a detonation of some kind.”
    “Yes,
I felt that as well. The shock wave nearly threw me against the bulkhead. My
first thought is that something had happened to Orel , and the fact that
we have no fix on her position now leads me to think Rudnikov may have had more
of a problem than he was letting on. Yet if one of his warheads went off we
should still see it well above the surface.”
    “You
think one of his missiles exploded, sir?”
    “It
has happened before,” said Admiral Volsky. “Do you forget what happened to the Kursk ?”
    “I
remember only too well what happened to the Kursk ,” said Karpov, his
voice laden with sarcasm. “It was attacked by an American submarine. Then the
families were paid off with blood money shipped over from Washington.”
    Volsky
frowned. Many in the navy knew the real reason Kursk had sunk, but few
would have been brazen enough to state it as Karpov had. The Admiral shook his
head. “That aside, what happened to the weather? I have known conditions in the
Arctic seas to change suddenly, but never like this.”
    “Clearly,
we need more information, Admiral.” Karpov folded his arms, a worried look on
his face, his eyes darting this way and that as he considered. The logic of
what the Admiral had asserted was plain to him, but it made no sense.
    “There
has to be something wrong with the ship’s sensors,” said Orlov. “This was no
ordinary explosion. It was very energetic, and we may have sustained damage. Yes,
I feel it may have been a nuclear detonation, sir. Perhaps there is nothing on
Rodenko's screen because his systems are all whacked up.”
    “Perhaps,
but I do not need the Rodenko’s radar system to tell me what the weather is
like,” said Volsky. “We will get the equipment sorted out, but for now we will
proceed to rendezvous with Slava's last known position. It may be that Orel was damaged herself, and is not able to communicate, perhaps she has even
suffered a more grievous fate. We will not know that anytime soon. But what we do know is that the cruiser Slava should be south of our position towing
targeting barges, easy enough to find.”
    “Then
why can't we see her on radar, sir?” said Karpov.
    “It's
the equipment, I tell you.” Orlov was adamant. “There was an electromagnetic
pulse of some kind. It may not have been strong enough to disable our systems,
but