Free Scorpion in the Sea by P.T. Deutermann

surface in a pond is not where the fish actually is. The layer effect could thus be used to mask an object that was able to maneuver to keep the layer between itself and a searching sonar. With two layers, they were safe, and would be even safer once they merged with the vertical sidewall of the Gulf Stream, where there would be vertical thermal gradients as well as the two horizontal ones.
    He pursed his lips. Maybe then they would slip back, and take a look at this destroyer. He had an urge to see who his pursuer was, if indeed he was being hunted at all. It was risky, but in these sonar conditions even the active sonar up there would be blind beyond a few thousand meters. The sound conditions were impossible. He made his decision. They would listen for a while. Keep their distance from the destroyer, and remain invisible in the swirling layers on the edge of the great ocean current. If they could find another
surface contact to mask the radar image of their periscope, he would drift back, staying east of the destroyer, close to the shield of the turbulent Gulf Stream, and take a look. Practice; yes, it would be practice for the day when the Coral Sea came home. Practice makes perfect. Even the Americans believed in that.
    He saw that the Deputy was watching him carefully. The Musaid had taken up his station in the control room, as he had promised. The Captain decided to leave the control room, to let the word be spread.
    “I will be in my cabin,” he announced. “I will have supper in my cabin. Begin passive bearing analysis; I want to know his range. Call me if the pinging appears to be closing, or if there is sustained doppler.”
    “Yes, Captain,” responded the watch officer.
    “You have placed her well, Yassir,” he said to the watch officer.
    “Thank you, Captain.”

SIX
    USS Goldsborough, Mayport Fleet operating areas; 2000, 10 April “Captain’s in Combat,” sang out a chorus of voices, as Mike stepped through the door into the darkened Combat Information Center. The ASW team was in place around the central plotting table, where the search plan had been laid out for the night’s operations. He walked over to the table. The Weapons officer, who was the Evaluator, greeted him.
    “Evening, Cap’n, Sir. We’re at twelve knots, on the fourth leg of the expanding square search.” He pointed to a spot of light that was projected from underneath the glass top of the plotting table. The spot marked the Goldsborough’s true position relative to the search plan track that had been traced out on the sheet of plotting paper taped to the top of the table.
    “Sensors status?”
    “SPS-10 surface search is in radiate; SPS-40 air search is
in standby, TACAN is in standby, all fire control radars are in standby, the sonar is active, the fathometer is off, and the Pathfinder radar is radiating.”
    “Very well. What are the sonar conditions?”
    “Piss poor and getting worse,” said the Evaluator, with a wry grin. “All we’re doing out here is pissing off a million snapping shrimp, and probably energizing a few acres of bioluminescence around the bow.”
    “Don’t sugar-coat it, now, Weps. Tell it to me straight.”
    The Weapons Officer shook his head as the plotters grinned around the table. He pointed to the raypath diagrams glimmering on the screen of a PC set up next to the table.
    “We’ve got a layer at 80 feet, and another layer at around 240 feet. To the east, about ten miles by our navi-guesser’s best estimate, is the western edge of the Gulf Stream. Injection temperature is still holding at around 76 degrees, but we get an occasional whiff of 82 degree water, so we’re right on the edge of the boundary layer. That means vertical layering. The sonar girls tell us we’re getting max reverberation.”
    The Captain pulled a three legged stool over to the table, and sat down, his large frame perched precariously. The rest of Combat was quiet, as the watch team concentrated on the ASW picture. The