The Bear

The Baltic Sea

“Commander, flash traffic on ELF.”

“Take her up slowly, Flip. Let’s see what the message is.”

“Aye sir.”

“Captain to the conn.” The boat’s XO placed the mic back in its clip. He knew the captain would be in shortly. “Flip, let me know when we have it.”

The USS Columbus rose slowly in the dark waters of the Baltic Sea. The hum of the communications mast was barely audible within the conn as the shaft broke the surface of the water. They were up and down in less than five minutes, the boat riding near the surface in the relatively shallow sea. The captain of the boat walked into the conn as Ensign ‘Flip’ Morse handed the communication to the XO.

“What’s it say, Tull?”

“Good evening sir.” The XO looked up as the captain made the scope. “I guess we know why we’re here now,” Tull said as he handed the message over. “We’re to move up the coast, standby and prepare for support of an ongoing mission within Russia. And we’re to stay covert.”

“No shit,” Captain Dawson replied. “I wonder what the hell is going on?” He looked at the waterfall display to see their position. He’d been asleep for a couple hours. He felt slightly better, but this cold was still hanging on. “We’re not all that far from the Polish coast,” Dawson wondered aloud. “I wonder if we’re to get as close to Russia as possible? That would mean near the Gulf of Riga.” Dawson looked down at the message again before handing it to his XO. “Make these coordinates, Commander.”

“Aye sir.” Tull turned to issue the order. “Conn, make your heading zero two zero.” Tull looked at the sounding below the hull. It was deeper here than anywhere they had been coming through the Belt. “Make your depth one hundred feet. All ahead one-third. Let’s not hit anything on the bottom if we don’t have to.”

“New heading zero two zero, dive planes down five degrees, come to depth one hundred feet, conn aye.”

Dawson nodded, giving Tull a quick ‘thumbs up’. His young XO had the boat for another two hours. He would take the conn at the headwaters of the gulf. He turned and headed back out the opening. Time for something to eat.