It Means "Dragon To Be" Ch. 01

The original had two 4,000 horsepower diesel engines, but Silke had found a way to stuff more powerful ones inside. The electric motor specifications were tossed as well, and the replacements which she specified offered more muscle for even less draw on the batteries than the originals, due to advancements made in motor design over the years. Those batteries, the hidden heart of any electric submarine, were light-years from the level of technology available in the 1940s. And the screws, ... the very latest and quietest in underwater propeller design, if you please.

As a result, Silke's design was faster and quieter, both on diesel and electric power, and its range was almost triple that of a newer boat - over 15,000 nautical miles – though to be fair, most today weren't built for the same extended war patrols that the original was. His daughter had decided to keep the fuel tank structure and sizes intact to offer maximum range far from dependable sources of diesel oil.

The whole thing stretched out to almost 252 feet in length, 26 feet in width, and now sat majestically before him – a new way for the family concern to make money. Originally designed for a crew complement of 57, she could now house less than half of that, much of the space saved being given over to spaces for sensor suites and room for scientific experiments. Her peacetime passive sonar arrays were optimized for collision avoidance, biological observation and seismic study, though they would work just as well to track other submarines and surface ships.

The core operating crew was pared down to just thirteen including the captain – all of them cross-trained to handle or lend aid with other areas of the boat in a pinch, and only half of them on-duty at any one time. The vast majority of the almost constant small trim and buoyancy changes required to operate a submarine were handled by the ship's processors, all of them overseen by the main computer. Surface navigation was by GPS, and underwater positional information was by ring laser gyroscope. The whole thing was a marvel, and other than dock handling and tying off to a pier, docking could be handled by one person, as Silke was demonstrating now, though two sets of eyes would have been preferable.

She stood on the conning tower bridge with a remote pendant in her hand just in case as she docked flawlessly via her spoken commands only. She'd found her cell phone at last, and getting a strong signal now, she pressed one of the speed dial buttons.

She identified herself in German to the switchboard operator. It was a hard and unchanging rule for her company, even in today's business world. Silke demanded that there be a living person at that desk at all times. "It's a lovely day, Gretel," she smiled as she watched the boat slide backwards perfectly to line up next to the pier, "Get me Security, please." When that call was complete, Silke asked to be routed to Human Resources. As she waited for HR to pick up, Silke thought back to a day in her life like no other.