414 | John W. Warner IV Sometimes its whether or not a sub captain had a good nights sleep. As Bernie and Gwafa returned, Bea yelled: Twenty millimeter fire, both subs! Tracer rounds bounced off the nose. They definitely dont have the flippinword! Cmon! You fire to starboard, Ill do it to port. Bernie lowered the forward stairs halfway; he and Gwafa let go two red emergency flares, then two more. Outside the electrobubbles protection, .50-caliber tracer rounds pinged the stairways lower edge. Damn, theyre pissed! 20 mm rounds could be heard exploding in the cargo bay; the fire re-ignited. They let go two more flares in two directions and the shooting stopped. Whats that dead ahead? asked Alice. Bea replied: Im not… A large ship and two destroyer escorts came into view at five miles distance through thick haze. They fired green flare rockets. All the men crowded at a lower window. Theyre submerging.. .well done you two, said Schafer. A light cruiser, its ours. Two anti-sub destroyers, said Bernie. Alice asked: Whats that flying towards us? Probably going to blow us out of the sky and then sink us, grumbled Bea. 612 meters and descending fast. We need life vests, panicked Geer. Bernie grabbed the binoculars. Its a.. Jesus H. Christ, a dirigible…its the Crazy Horse! The smaller Navy airship with colorful nose art maneuvered underneath them, then rose to mate with the Bears underside with a loud clunk. At the helm, Captan Simpson ordered through the communication tube: All right chief, pour on the coal! In the Crazy Horses crowded-with-gear engine room, all personnel wore radiation suits with thick rectangular glass in their helmets. The chief petty officer yelled: All right you horse-fuckin peckers, open those pipes to max flow and lash down the safety valves! All six crewmen opened the valves for the liquid nitrogen tank to cool the small plasma generator which had been updated over the years for more power with a spiral of