Blue Fish: The War Beneath (3 page)

In the seventh compartment, Taan Singh and Ranjit quickly set the program into the tubes.

Kamal took out the cap from torpedo launching button, and put his finger on the button, looking at Sharma pointedly.

“Re-Program torpedo to distance 150 meters, speed 10 knots, in 10 seconds." Kamal suddenly changed orders. “All stations stand by.”

The crew quickly reacted to his orders, while I kept my eye on the timer.

Taan Singh struggled to reprogram the torpedo.

Sharma was visibly upset.

"Fire in compartment 4," Kamal said.

”Clear off the fire in the fourth compartment. This is a drill,” I said through the intercom. “10 seconds up Sir.”

“Turn off the lights. Create an electric failure.”

The Engineering Officer Prathap turned the lights off, automatically switching on the emergency lights. The three crewmembers in the fourth compartment pulled the fire extinguisher out with great difficulty, this being their first time, clearly illustrating their inexperience with emergencies.

“Torpedoes task failed. Clear programming,” said Kamal.

Taking his hand off the torpedo launching button, Kamal proceeded towards Sharma.

“The crew is clearly not ready for war. Drill over, negative results. Level her,” said Kamal.

“Bring her to depth 150 metres,” concluded Sharma.

Sharma and Kamal stared each other down. I understood that Sharma had been mercilessly humiliated by Kamal, but he had no other way of getting him to realize that his offensive tactics were wrong.

Sharma made his way back to his cabin.

I was looking at the doctor treating the injured crew in the second compartment. He placed his patients on the dining table and was applying the medicines. It was uncommon for us to have medical issues in a submarine, which is why we didn’t have proper medical quarters. The doctor used the dining table as his surgery bed.

Despite the fortune of getting away with minor injuries in the spite of the drill, it really made me question a lot. I was wondering if our crew was war-ready.

Radio Operator Jayraj came to me interrupting my train of thought, and said in a plain tone "We were told that this is part of a training program. Where did this war seep in from?"

“What if a war really does break out?” Vardhan questioned.

“It will be another experience for you underwater,” Ramana said.

The crew started laughing again. This is what makes war an anomaly. Death is always around the corner, while everyone involved try to live life to the maximum every spare second.

“Will the both of you stop fooling around?” snapped the Doctor. “This is not the time to laugh; war will happen, even if we are not prepared for it.”

A strange silence curbed the mockery at hand.

Another day passed by.

DECEMBER 03
rd
, 0030 hours

Sharma entered the navigational room. He looked a bit amiss, so I walked up to him and asked if everything was alright. His silence was the answer. The silence indicated his disappointment with me because I diligently obeyed Mr. Kamal’s orders during the drill the previous day.

Mann Vijay Singh was marking certain points on the map. Sharma, Mann Vijay Singh and I were the only people there.

“These could be the possible enemy positions. And we already passed these locations,” Mann Vijay affirmed.

“How sure can you be about its specific location now?” Sharma inquired.

“Zero Sir. We need to check at these points till the sonar operator clears them. The enemy will require at least 4 days of time to get through all the marked locations.”

Sharma looking at a point on the map asked “How fast can we reach that point?”

“Three hours from now, Sir.”

Sharma checked with sonar operator Ramana if he recorded any suspicious activity on the radar in the recent past.

“Did you find any suspicious echoes?”

“No Sir.”

“Why hasn’t this data been reported?”

“Sir, they are hills nearby.”

“Hills? Did you check with navigational officer?”

“No Sir.”

“How certain were you?”

Ramana didn't respond.

“Speak up.”

“Sir, I was not sure about it.”

“What do you mean not sure? You didn't know what it could be? How did you even get this post?”

I stepped in to pacify Sharma, and to save Ramana from embarrassment. Officer Kamal joined me on my way to the sonar room.

“What happened?”

“This is what we have.” Sharma handed over the log sheet to Kamal.

I looked at Ramana to see him terrified; his legs were trembling in fear. I took the log sheet from Kamal and handed it to him.

“You will learn. Report everything back to me. Don't be silent. Now take your position,” I said.

My recurrent intrusions in the matters at hand seemingly annoyed Sharma to the extent that he would take his anger out on me. But being an officer, he somehow got a hold of himself and stomped back into his cabin, with me following. I closed the door behind me when Mr. Sharma said “We cannot take chances like this.”

“I understand Sir, but there was no point in shouting at him,” I said.

“What if we were attacked?”

Kamal entered and said, "You see Sharma, the phrase ‘what if’ opens many too many possible avenues. But the truth is we are not at war, and neither is our enemy. As Arjun rightly pointed out, shouting at that boy in sonar room out there couldn’t have served any purpose."

“Don't tell me the purpose. This is sheer negligence on his part and he deserves to be prosecuted for this."

“It’s funny that you went up to an extent of addressing ‘prosecution’ for that error. To err is human, Mr. Sharma. However, as the Chief Commanding Officer, it is at your free will to hire or fire somebody on board. But prosecuting him only shows to the rest that you are taking this beyond your professional pursuit,” Kamal posited.

Right then, the Engineering Officer Prathap entered in saying "Sir, we have received a radio message from Headquarters." He handed over a slip to Kamal.

“Open envelope seven,” Kamal read out.

Sharma took the seventh envelope out of his locker.

I looked up at Kamal, who looked like he might have an idea what the envelope contained.

“Mission cancelled, return to base," Sharma read out in despair ”How is this possible? We still have not finish the operation."

My intuition told me this was Kamal’s plan all along.

Sharma reread the message a few times.

He picked up the intercom, connected to the radio operator "When did you get this message, Jayraj?"

"10 minutes ago Sir."

"When did the head office send this?"

"Sometime yesterday Sir."

"Be precise Jayraj."

He looked through the log "Yesterday 18:00 hours IST Sir."

"Did you send any message?"

"Yes Sir."

"What was the message sent?"

"I made him send the damaged reports," Kamal interrupted the exchange.

"You caused that damage Mr. Kamal," Sharma said.

"Yes I am aware of that and that is why I have sent the report."

"You should have checked with me before sending it; I am the god damn Commanding officer of 'S21'." With the silence that followed, his undeniable authority on the boat floated in the air.

"Sharma, you are the Commanding officer but I can take decisions that are politically appropriate."

I realized that somebody should step in and stop the altercation that was about to burst. Even the doctor was about to step forward to stop them. Suddenly Ramana reported an emergency situation.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Enemy submarine detected Sir," Ramana replied.

This was the moment Sharma was waiting for. However, we had official orders to go back to the base. Sharma didn't get excited to hear about the presence of the enemy submarine.

"Okay Kamal, you want to be politically correct. You do not want to get into war. This is what your intention is. We can now confirm that the enemy is present in our waters. Mission accomplished, so we now return to base and be politically correct," Sharma sneered.

We were all waiting for further orders from Sharma.

"Arjun, turn 'S21' around back to base," Sharma ordered.

I was about to take up the order but suddenly, Ramana raised the alarm "Sir, Torpedoes in the water. One enemy torpedo is in the water." Nobody expected this to come. We all looked back towards Kamal and then to Sharma for further actions.

"Stop all engines. Dive 100 meters," Sharma gave the order without a second thought.

Steering Operator shifted two levers that controlled & brought the engines to 'Stop' state and shouted, "All engines stopped Sir."

"Making a dive 100 meters Sir," Diving officer turned the vaults with full speed.

The torpedo was quickly approaching us.

"Torpedo distance 130 meters Sir. Approaching 100 meters Sir," Ramana whispered anxiously.

We were all tense.

"Torpedo 80 meters Sir."

'S21' was not going forward as all the engines were turned off. It was just sinking down into the ocean bed.

"Torpedo 40 meters Sir... 30 meters Sir"

We looked at each other like we would never again see each other. A couple of crew members were even chanting hymns in desperation.

The torpedo just passed on top of us, the sound of which was haunting.

"Sir, it passed by and is off the range from 'S21'," Ramana said.

For a movement we all felt relieved that we were all safe. But, still the enemy was around us. Sharma looked at me. We all wanted to fight but the final call had to come from Kamal. There was a sense of rage in all of us. We all looked up at Kamal. He was feeling uncomfortable and a bit worried. I could read his mind, there were two things going in his mind - to attack or to go back to base.

"Go for it," Kamal said.

That didn’t come as a surprise to us. We knew all along that he would have stepped up.

Sharma felt Kamal’s support for the first time, as he rushed towards the intercom to pass further orders.

"This is your Commanding Officer speaking. We are at war. I repeat we are at war. We could face our enemy now or we could go back. I have taken the decision to fight. I know we have the courage in us. We will destroy the enemy, and secure our waters. We do not have orders, and for this we might be stripped of our ranks and posts. Our purpose is to serve our country, if we make it back to the base in one piece. we may not be recognized as naval officers for not following Head Quarter's orders. You can be part of it or you may withdraw your service and just be part of this 'S21' as a spectator. I am following my heart and I will be responsible for everything. West Pakistan has attacked us. No sacrifice should be too much for us. Let us write a new chapter in the history of Indian Navy. This is not a drill, there are no second chances."

Sharma looked at us as he waited for the response from other compartments.

"Compartment one, we are with you Sir," came the first response.

"Compartment four, men are ready.”

"Compartment five and six, we will fight till our last breath."

"Compartment seven, ready Sir, You order us."

Sharma’s eyes gleamed with pride.

"We will die fighting Sir, but let's not show our backs to enemy," I said.

"Sir, I think the enemy has spotted us, they are coming closer to us," said Ramana.

The crew in the third compartment took their positions. We all were dead focused on our job.

"Complete silence. Make port 10
0
," Sharma said.

The echo sound amplified gradually as Ramana listened through his headset. It indicated that the enemy submarine was inching closer to us.

"Prepare to program torpedoes," Sharma ordered Taan Singh through the intercom.

“Yes, Sir.”

"Any contact, Ramana?" Sharma said.

"Sir, enemy at distance 150 meters, straight ahead."

"Taan Singh, program torpedo to 150 meters and speed 6 knots," Sharma said.

We had a clear shot to hit the enemy. It was an achievable attack in our minds. But we didn’t realize that the torpedo programming unit had been damaged during the earlier drill. It was only now after Taan Singh tried to program the torpedo, we realized that the programming unit was malfunctioning.

Sharma ordered Taan Singh to go to the first compartment and prepare to launch torpedoes from there.

Meanwhile, the Sonar Operator Ramana kept concentrating on every movement of the enemy submarine.

"Sir, they are 250 meters away, with speed 16 knots," Ramana said.

"Make depth 200 meters," Sharma said.

We were under major trouble as the torpedoes in the seventh compartment were dysfunctional and now we had to depend only on the first compartment torpedoes.

We had to plan our strategy carefully now; in the navigational room - Sharma drew a plan on paper by drawing the positions that we should be in, so that we could easily attack the enemy.

"Sir, Two enemy torpedoes in water," Ramana said.

As we all came out of the navigational room, Taan Singh approached us.

"Taan Singh, Do not fail me. You are the front end warriors. Everything depends on you and make your country proud," Sharma said.

"Full Speed ahead. Dive 50 meters," Sharma said.

The diving officer and steering operator quickly changed the gears.

"Enemy torpedoes 150 meters Sir, closing now 100 meters Sir," Ramana said.

"We need to make 'S21' turn full 180 degrees," I said.

We were all anxious and were eagerly waiting for 'S21' to make a complete turn so that the torpedoes in the first compartment line up with the enemy submarine.

"Enemy torpedoes 30 Meters... 20 Meters..." Ramana said.

The enemy torpedoes again just passed by from the side of 'S21', with huge sounds.

"They missed us Sir," Ramana said.

"How far is the enemy now?" Sharma asked.

"400 meters, Depth 110 meters Sir."

Sharma went to the intercom and asked if the torpedoes were ready in the tube.

None of the torpedoes were placed in the tubes; Taan Singh tried to load one by one. 3 more crew members from the third compartment rushed towards the first compartment to help in loading torpedoes.

"Two more enemy torpedoes in water fired Sir," Ramana said.

It was exasperating for us, as the enemy was attacking us continuously and we were still trying to fix the torpedoes.

I rushed into the first compartment and helped them to lift the torpedoes and load them into the tubes.

"Torpedoes loaded Sir," I said.

"Prepare to program it," Sharma said.

"Enemy 200 meters away Sir, in range," Ramana said anxiously.

"Program torpedo distance 200 meters with speed 8 knots," Sharma muttered through intercom.

Taan Singh quickly set up. Ramana reaffirmed the target to be in range; Sharma made his way to the torpedo launching unit and pressed the button.

Our first torpedo was fired. This was like a first aggressive move on a chess board by a relatively defensive player. I felt a surge of pride within me.

"200 meters for impact... Enemy torpedo 150 meters," Ramana said.

"Load another torpedo," Sharma whispered into the intercom.

Prathap, Taan Singh and I along with 2 more crew members in the first compartment were quickly setting up the other torpedoes into their respective tubes.