Red Tide, стр. 93
***
Lieutenant Jev Jing and about thirty members of the Sea Dragon’s bedraggled crew were sitting on the beach waiting for someone to give orders. No one did.
An Allied patrol boat was speeding south, and getting smaller with each passing moment. How? How was such a thing possible?
“Look,” a sailor said, “It’s Chief Engineer Hong!” And it was Hong who marched up out of the water with a body cradled in his arms.
And as Hong came closer Jing saw that the body was that of Captain Ko. The man who loved his ship. And his crew. Would the functionaries in Beijing blame Ko for losing the Sea Dragon? Of course, they would. A suitable proverb came to mind: “He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.”
***
Aboard the Allied transport Agger, in Manado Harbor, Indonesia
Two weeks had passed since the Allied victory at the Battle of Taiwan. A conflict that raged for three days, and resulted in the sinking of ships on both sides, but most tellingly the loss of the nuclear-powered carrier Zhongguo Liming (Chinese Dawn).
That, plus the much-publicized destruction of the raider Sea Dragon, lifted spirits all around the world. And did something to offset losses in Europe and the Middle East.
Ryson’s time had been spent writing letters, dozens of them, to the families of crew members lost. He tried to make each one special, and evocative of the man or woman who had died, but it was difficult. The effort often called for multiple drafts. He was working on one for Sub Lieutenant Lewis when a knock came at the door.
Ryson said, “Enter!” and turned to see Lieutenant Commander, soon to be Commander, Linda Vos RAN (Royal Australian Navy) enter the room.
After a short search, the Rockhampton had been able to join company with the tanker which had the Cumulus in tow. Fortunately, Vos had survived uninjured. “Linda! Come in, and congratulations! I hear you’re getting a bump to commander, plus a ship.”
Vos sat on the neighboring couch. She looked very professional in her summer whites. “Yes, thanks to you.”
Ryson shook his head. “Not so. I wrote you up, that’s for sure … But you earned it. So, when do you leave? Is there time for a dinner ashore?”
“There is,” Vos assured him. “And I would enjoy that. I’m taking a bit of leave before I report to my command. I hear you’ve been summoned to Washington D.C.”
“True,” Ryson replied. “I was. But I asked them to put the medal in the mail. The squadron needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. And I don’t care for D.C.”
“What about leave?” Vos inquired. “Surely you have some on the books.”
“I do,” Ryson admitted. “But where would I go?”
Vos smiled. “Can you ride a horse?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Would you like to learn?”
Ryson looked at her. Vos was a pretty woman. The kind that doesn’t think of herself that way but is. The lines around her eyes had been earned while staring into the sea-glare. And her mouth was what? Kissable? Yes. “I would like to learn,” Ryson told her. “Theoretically anyway.”
Vos laughed. “I own a cattle station back home. A neighbor runs it for me. We could spend a couple of weeks there.”
Ryson liked the look in her eyes. “Would the beer be cold?”
“Ice cold.”
“Would people shoot at me?”
“No.”
“Then I’m in.”
“Good,” Vos said as she stood. “I’ll make a dinner reservation for tonight. We can discuss the details then.” The door clicked behind her.
Ryson stared at it for a moment before returning to work. He felt better than he had in months. The war would continue. But something good was about to happen.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
As usual, I played fast and loose with some things, and was factual about others.
The Sea Dragon doesn’t exist. But the possibility of such a ship does. If you run a search using the terms “Arsenal Ship,” “Semi-submersible naval vessel,” and “Railgun” you’ll come up with some very interesting articles. The Sea Dragon qualifies as both an arsenal ship and a semisubmersible. Plus, she’s armed with a railgun.
Chinese politics are pretty opaque, but tensions between China’s top two leaders do exist, and could be a problem. Read the Wall Street Journal article “Discord Between China’s Top Two Leaders Spills into the Open” to get an inkling of what’s possible.
The Yulin Naval Base is very real, and capable of handling twenty nuclear submarines.
The Chinese list their surnames first. But, to avoid confusion for my western readers, I chose to put given names first.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet controls the Black Sea for all practical purposes, and occasionally sends ships into the Mediterranean.
In the sort of WWIII scenario imagined in my Winds of War books, the Allies would have no choice but to attack the Russian Fleet in order to protect countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine.
Plus, even though Turkey is a member of NATO, some people feel their present government can’t be trusted. I’m one of them. But I hope things will improve someday. I’ve been to Turkey and like the country.
Pegasus class hydrofoils were employed by the U.S. Navy from 1977 through 1993. The PHMs (Patrol, Hydrofoil, Missile) boats featured in this book are “next generation” PHMs as conceived of by me and the team of Pegasus experts listed under “Acknowledgements.”
As a group we had fun imagining what “Peg 2s” would be like, which is to say very similar to the originals—but with some improvements regarding size, speed, and technology.
I’m of the opinion that the United States should bring this class of vessel back for a wide variety of missions including those depicted in this book.
Samir island is a product of my imagination, but is similar in many ways to the very real atoll called Mischief Reef, which is presently occupied by the Chinese—and fictionally located north of Samir. (See map.)
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