As the captain spoke with the helmsman, the intercom chirped loudly. “Sonar room to bridge,” Gamay Trout’s strident voice announced. “I think we have a visitor.”
The captain deferred to Kurt, who responded quickly. “What makes you say that?”
“We’ve been picking up stray images,” Gamay said. “We thought they were glitches in the side scan, but a diagnostic check ruled out any malfunction. Something has been crossing the beam close to the sonar sled, blocking it for a second and then vanishing. It’s happened three times. The screen is clear now, but I doubt it will be that way for long.”
“Reel the sled back in,” Kurt said. “We’ll search using the underwater drones.”
Joe used a console on the bridge to tap into what Paul and Gamay were seeing. The sled had cameras on board, but running dark, there was little to see in the water. Still, as they watched, something appeared in front of the lens and grew rapidly larger.
“Get it back on board.”
“I’m trying, but it’s a half mile behind us.”
Kurt looked at Joe, wondering how long that would take to reel in. “Three or four minutes,” Joe said. “We’re pulling against the ship’s wake.”
Kurt pressed the intercom button. “Get the lights on,” he told Gamay. “We need to see what’s out there.”
—
Down in the sonar room Gamay was working feverishly. She was maneuvering the sled in a back-and-forth motion while drawing it in on the cable. She put the lights on and panned the cameras.
“There,” Paul pointed out. Something gray cut through the frame from right to left. It moved too quickly to see.
Gamay swung the camera around hoping to follow it. She caught a brief glimpse of it before it vanished into the darkness. A freeze-frame showed it to be an arrow-shaped metallic object, more like a stealth fighter than any submersible she’d ever seen.
“What the heck is that?” she asked.
“Definitely not a flying fish,” Paul said.
As the camera searched for a target, another flash went by, and then a second and a third, the last two almost beyond the range of the lights.
“Three against one,” Paul said.
“Not good,” Gamay replied.
At Gamay’s touch the camera continued to swing, sweeping back and forth and ultimately detecting something directly ahead. A shape appeared out of the darkness, speeding directly at the sonar array. She pushed the controls to the side, but the towed array was designed to be stable, not maneuver like a speedboat. It turned late and slow. The approaching shape closed in. It was visible for a second before the image glitched and went blank.
“What happened?” Kurt asked over the intercom.
“Impact,” she said dejectedly. “Collision.”
“Is the sled still functioning?”
She tried a couple of commands, got no response. There was no data coming through. “The sled is down,” she announced, spitting the words in disgust. “I’m sorry. I tried to bring it in.”
“Nothing you could do,” Kurt told her. “Is it still on the line or did they break the cable?”
“We’re still pulling it in.”
“Cut it loose,” Kurt said. There was great urgency in his voice. “Cut it loose now.”
Without questioning Kurt, Gamay released the towed array into the depths. “Bye-bye, sonar system. We hardly knew you.”
—
Up on the bridge, Kurt spoke to the captain. His voice was filled with urgency. “Get the ship to full speed, turn hard south, then run flat out.”
“Why?”
