Are we alone?

Are we alone?

The sonar picked up the first indications, long before the view in the periscope showed anything. Even with the magnified view, the horizon was empty. Yet the continuous beep from the sonar demanded attention. The officer of the watch decided against a general action stations but she did call the captain.

This was the first indication they had seen that anything, other than themselves, was still active. It may be the enemy or it may be a boat load of desperate survivors, yet again it could be one of their own fleet with all its communications fried dead, during the attack.

The sea stayed calm, the gentle swell of blue green water showed no signs of the incredible forces that had been unleashed only two weeks ago. Submerged deep beneath the fire ravaged surface, the sub was untouched physically but emotional tension gripped even the well disciplined crew. No one not even the captain, not even the political officer, knew what had happened to either friend or foe. With their nuclear power which could recycle air, purify sea water and drive them along for months at a time, their only limitations were food and the self control of the crew. Navigation had been forced back to methods last used over a hundred years ago, fortunately the captain was a naval historian of distinction and still had an ancient theodolite and maps as historical curiosities and he knew how to use them. All the satellite navigation technology was now defunct, useless. The first wave of the conflict had seen all sides attack the communication systems of the others, within hours all the military fire power was literally shooting in the dark, the result had been a far more cataclysmic conflict that anyone had expected. With all the various weapon systems left under local control, with the local controllers not having any idea if their side was winning or loosing, with no one even knowing what was happening let alone attempting to control it; every rocket, every missile, every bomber, every thing was fired off, almost at random. With communications down, the control of guided missiles was compromised so everything was set on a predetermined course and fired. Death and destruction rained down as all six competing nations did the same, all those reserves of missiles were used since no one firing them had any idea if they were the last ones left standing or not. With guidance flawed, neutrality was no protection.

The captain studied the sonar screen and collected his thoughts. It had all started over a United Nations debate about pollution, the argument demanding this nation or that nation reduce their polluting practices, to save the planet; resulted in the total destruction of everything. Or was it everything? how many other submarines where still active? What was the sonar indicating? Was it survivors or a floating wreck? Were they still engaged in a conflict or not? It was ironic that in an age of instant and mass communication, an era where everyone had access to every bit of knowledge, they just did not know if they were the only living things left on earth or not. He allowed his mind to wander a little, the politicians had their deep underground bunkers. This was true in every country but it was also true that these bunkers were prime targets. Even the most advanced submarines still entailed confinement and so demanded specific personality profiles. Politicians and ego driven publicity seekers were definite non starters. They had fired their missiles in the first wave when orders still came flooding in, confused and often contradictory,but still orders to be followed. Then came the communication black out, no information came, never a single response to messages they sent out. They still had armed weapons, from undersea firing missiles to on surface machine guns, but no orders and no idea who their targets could be.

Should he fire torpedoes at the sonar image or wait? Was it an enemy anti sub ship, sent to hunt down and destroy his ship and crew? No information, he was back in the dark ages, almost as bad as Nelson and the sailing ships of Trafalgar. In some ways worse than that, they would have signal flags if in line of sight with each other; he and his crew were totally alone.

The sonar operator called out “she has stopped, all engine noise has died”. The captain made his decisions and ordered a change of course towards the signal, staying at a depth of 100 meters and at only 20 knots, they made steady progress to the point where the signals last showed powered activity. At a distance of a kilometer they slowly crept towards the surface, staying just submerged at periscope depth the captain studied the ship on the horizon. He used the auto magnifier and projected the image to the bridge screen so all those on duty there could see it for themselves. At this distance and in calm seas even the most watchful of people on the ship would never see the periscope just surfacing this darkened sea. They studied the screen, increased the magnification and studied again; nothing at all to indicate activity but some one had stopped the engines, some one must be on board. No lights showed, nothing moved. The sea was so calm, not even a swell of waves forming. They stayed at periscope depth and closed on the surface vessel, keeping a hundred meters distance they slowly circled and watched. Now, as they got closer, a few very dim flickering bluish lights could be seen from a few portholes but no moment was detected. The captain decided to wait for darkness, the rest of his officers agreed while the crew were not consulted, this a navy ship.

Darkness enveloped the area, the sea stayed unnaturally calm, they surfaced at a distance of about five hundred meters off the port side of the bow of the stationary vessel. They had noted that despite the engines being shut down she did not wallow about, moved by tides and currents but stayed steady in a fixed position. A sea going version of a drone was launched, a small unmanned submersible ship controlled by the crew, they had rigged up a wire control system a since wi-fi may still be wiped out. This control was cumbersome and had obviously limited range, but better than nothing The officer of the watch used an old flare gun and fired two white signals up over the vessel. Immediately these burst into vivid light, a rocket was fired from the stationary ship straight at the descending lights. The captain ordered an immediate dive to three hundred feet, in the heat of the moment he had reverted to old ways of measuring. Because of the attachment to the drone, they dived at a shallow angle towards the strange ship. Sonar reported that the vessel had not fired up her main engines but a smaller noise was detected, an electric motor powering a thrust propeller, to push the ships bow round towards where they had been when the signal flares were fired. The drone was guided at walking pace towards the stern of its target. It was surfaced right under the curve of the vessels hull, just forward of the huge main propeller, if this started the drone would be mangled junk within seconds but nothing moved. The tension in the submarine grew, everyone had questions but no one had answers. The operator guided the drone to just gently kiss the hull, only a meter under the water line, a microphone was extended from the drone and magnetically fixed to the hull. The drone was moved under the ship and forward so that another microphone could be attached near the bow. The drone was guided down to a depth of fifty meters below the target and again captain and crew waited. Nothing. No sound from the microphones, nothing. More drastic action was needed. The drone was directed to surface twenty meters from the bow and turn on its underwater search light. Immediately a rocket was fired from the vessel and obliterated the drone, but no other activity was detected.

A council of war was held in the submarines ward room, the general consensus was that this was some automated vessel controlled by artificial intelligence and that any humans on it were either dead or at least incapable of activity. The big question was, is this a friendly autonomous ship or and enemy one? The second question was, we what the hell do we do about it? Sinking it would be easy but they could be destroying their last chance of long tern survival, they could not spend the next 20 years in the sub.

They needed to board and take control but there was uncertainty about the defenses on the surface ship, the very fact that it automatically fired on any light source, indicated that its main safety protocols had been compromised, probably by the electromagnetic bombardment that had destroyed all communications on earth.

A team was assembled from the crew, those with any black ops experience were given tactical command, they studied all the information they had on their target, which was not a lot but did show the dimensions of the hull and superstructure. Weapons were issued including EMP grenades. These would stop any automated robotic attack on themselves but could render the whole vessel uncontrollable even once they took over completely.

There was no moon light, they waited till an hour after sunset, surfaced and launched an inflatable with the 6 person attack team. Even in the dark they could distinguish the bulk of the silent ship, from the sea around it. The sub descended again and surfaced the oppose side of the target. They fired more flares this time aimed away from the vessel, they immediately dived and passed back under the target ship. Even as they dived the silent ship fired at the flares. The boarding party reached the target and attached their magnetic scaling ladders, climbed up and pulled themselves over the guard rail then they fanned out to search; they found the ship was devoid of humans. They used the cargo hatches and gained entry to the control systems. It did not take long to disable the electrical power supply to the robots but rigging up their own physical control took twenty four hours. The whole thing was one giant robot. The defense systems were all programmed to fight off South East Asian style pirates, those who attacked in small boats. She was nuclear powered and seemed to have come to a rest simply because there were no orders to move any further. The sub surfaced and more of the crew transferred. They now had other problems, one was that the ship they had captured had no human food on board and the biggest questions still needed an answer. What next? Was there a port to sail to? Were there any friends or foes left?