Panic Switch

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The panicked communication that a fire had broken out in the middle level of the forward compartment came over his headphones, since the boat was rigged-for-ultraquiet with the 1MC general announcing speakers disabled.

Lieutenant Anthony Pacino felt the hard shot of adrenalin hit his system as he selected the ship-wide circuit and barked into his boom microphone. “Fire in forward compartment middle level, fire in forward compartment middle level, casualty assistance team muster in the torpedo room! All hands, don EABs!” He could feel his thinking becoming intensely focused, one track of his mind responding automatically to repeated training for this emergency, another wondering what started the fire and how bad it was, a third thinking ahead to what this meant to the mission. The submarine force’s directive rang in his mind—save the mission, save the ship, save the reactor, then save the crew, in that order. If the fire were severe, there would be no saving this mission, he thought, glancing at the chart display for an escape route.

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