Intro: The Okinawa Incident - The New Age Part 1?
Nuclear Engineer Aaron Dexter wakes up to an alarm telling him and his crew mates that their submarine is about to lose power, and on top of that nuclear missiles were just launched by a crumbling and desperate North Korea aiming to wipe out a large amount of the military power of the Asian region by destroying all of the major military stations, including Okinawa, the largest military station in the whole of the pacific theater. What could go wrong?
I awoke to the blaring of a Power Plant Casualty Alarm, a sound often likened to the siren of a police car. Startled, I glanced at my 24 hour watch. The time was 5:38 AM JST (Japan Standard Time) on January 9th, 2022. Another day in this over sized submersible tin can, I thought to myself. I quickly slid out of the bunk and dressed into the standard coverall uniform that was just put into full utility a few years back. Once ready I grabbed my notes from my locker and struck out for the reactor room. “All Nukes, to general quarters, reactor has gone sub-critical", stated the Commanding Officer over the 1MC, the main communications channel. “One step ahead, Skipper." I said to him and saluted with my right hand, as I jogged past him through the control room.
I arrived at the bulkhead of the reactor room, and I acknowledged the guardsmen standing by the door as they saluted to me and moved behind me to block the path to anyone else as I opened the hatch and stepped through. It was a large compartment about twenty feet square with the reactor in the middle, shaped a bit like a massive pop can but with some additional equipment hooked up to it. I closed the hatch behind me. “Good Morning, Ensign Dexter." said a tall lean man in greeting as he followed with a sharp salute. He had blond hair and blue eyes, in general he was sharp and talented man, and it showed in his mannerisms and posture. He was much like me, though I was not as tall and my eyes were duller. “Likewise, Petty Officer Finical, so what seems to be the problem?" I replied, moving to the readout panel to see if an issue could be immediately diagnosed. “The primary coolant is losing pressure, so the power output is starting to drop and there hasn't been any radiation leakage so I can't determine the source of the leak!", he replied. “Odd, there should be a detectable amount of radiation if it was the primary coolant, maybe the problem is elsewhere…hey Finical, the pressure is low on this compressor readout, are there any leaks on it?" “I'll check right now, Officer" Finical walked around to one side of the reactor and reached for the compressor to feel for any leakages “FINICAL!" I yelled. Startled, he backed away from the compressor. “Did they teach you anything at Nuclear Prototype? If there was a leak there on that side, you would have just lost your damn fingers!" He looked at me in surprise, but moved to face me at attention, making no eye contact and said, “Belay my last actions Ensign Dexter, it will not happen again." I sighed “At Ease, Petty Officer Finical, just watch out for yourself in the future, that could have been the end of your career. Use that broom handle instead." “Understood, Officer.". He visibly relaxed and walked across to the port-side of the compartment to grab the broom and unscrewed the handle. He then made his way back to the compressor and deftly moved the broom around the compressor. “No leaks, Officer.", “Well I think that leaves only one thing that would cause a pressure drop then, get me the sonar-scope." I requested.
He handed the tool to me in silence, I took it from his hands and for a moment I just sat there trying to go through the possibilities in my head. I looked down at the sonar-scope, it was essentially a stethoscope that doctors used, but with a smaller end shaped more like the sharpened part of a pencil. I stood up, walked over to the compressor, and put both earpieces in either ear. I looked at the compressor, it was shaped like the pi symbol, only flipped upside down with each tail making up the chamber for the pistons. I pressed the device against the left piston housing, and then the right. I could hear the droning of the motor, but also the repetitive clicking of the electronic valves, nothing odd there. Next I placed the end on the left side next to the motor on the bearing housing, I could again hear the droning of the motor, as well as the whirring of the bearing, there was no irregularity in the sound of it's rotation. I moved on to the other side of the crankshaft opposite the motor and placed it on the housing, Immediately I could hear what sounded like a clothes dryer that someone threw bricks into. “Hey, Finical, we've got a bad bearing on the front side of the compressor housing. I think the part should be labeled 45-FCHB" I said, reading out the part number in the phonetic alphabet. Finical strode to the other side of the room and looked through the shelves. “Uh, we have none in stock, Officer." he said in disbelief. “Say again?" “We do not have any, Officer, the slot is empty." he repeated. “Ah, shit, are you serious?" “I would not joke about this, Officer." he stated blandly. “Son of a-"
I was interrupted by the deafening sound of the general alarm bell. It repeated 14 times and then the captain spoke on the 1MC, “General quarters, man battle stations missile, unidentified ballistic missile on sonar. I repeat, general quarters, man battle stations missile, unidentified ballistic missile on sonar, standby for emergency surface." I thought for a short moment, then quickly stood up, “We need to get this fixed now, get on the comms and tell auxiliary to start the backup diesels, I have an idea." I opened the door and bolted for the mess hall and grabbed the vacuum cleaner, I then turned around and sprinted back to the reactor room and placed the vacuum on the other side and stepped through. “Backup on standby" advised Finical. “Switch it now.", I quickly shut off the compressor and shifted the secondary coolant into repair cooling and then grabbed the vacuum cleaner and started taking it apart. “Finical, I need you to take that bearing out now, and fast, we can't intercept anything on auxiliary power." “Understood." he quickly grabbed some tools, depressurized the chamber and then removed the collar off the housing. He took the bearing and slid it off the shaft. He handed me the bearing and I pried off the seals. I set it down and grabbed the bearing from the vacuum cleaner. “Damn, I hope this works." I said hurriedly. I took the bearing seals off and pressed out some of the steel ball bearings and replaced the ones in the other bearing with those. I quickly snapped the seals back on placed it back in the housing and put the collar on. “Finical, turn on the compressor." I commanded as I relocated to the readout, “Compressor on." I looked at the readout, the pressure was climbing rapidly… and it finally stabilized. My heart found it's way out of my throat and I took a deep breath. I rerouted the secondary coolant back and waited for output to stabilize, then I called the auxiliary and had them shut the backups down, I grabbed the vacuum and moved it aft with me as I quickly sat down on a seat and buckled down, followed closely by Finical, just in time for a klaxon to blast three times followed by “Surface, Surface, Surface, brace for ascent." the submarine took on a sharp incline of about 45 degrees as I was pressed into my seat. We waited in silence for a few seconds until the sub broke the surface by half of its length like a majestic whale and as it came down we felt weightless in our seats until it crashed back down on to the waves and leveled out. This was followed shortly by the captain over the 1MC “Surface breach, missile crew standby for launch.", and a few seconds later followed by a missile emergency alarm and a dull thud accompanied by a rock of the ship and a missile thruster lighting up. “All officers come to the bridge ASAP." said the captain over the comm. I turned to face Finical, “Petty Officer First Class Jonathan Finical, I leave you in charge of the post." he looked at me straight in the eyes at attention and saluted sharply, “Understood, Ensign Dexter." I made it to the bridge on top of the sub to watch the tomahawk chase the missile, we then all turned away as there was a silent, bright flash, later accompanied by a loud bang and a pressure wave. Cool guys never look at explosions.
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~TPhoenix