Vivilav wasn’t surprised. He nodded in acknowledgment, turned, and slowly walked forward. Dmolysti met him at the engine room hatch. He saw the downcast look on Vivilav’s face and asked, “Not good news?”

The captain leaned tiredly on the bulkhead. His voice was heavy with resignation when he spoke. “No, the switchboard is a complete disaster. I would say that the bus bars were not properly tightened when the shipyard was working on them. That caused a short circuit that arced into a fire. Everything inside is burned or melted. We are just lucky it did not jump to the hull insulation. We were likely within seconds of that happening.”

The first officer nodded without saying anything. As experienced submariners, both knew how close they had come to an agonizing death. Fortunate as they were, they also understood the real consequences of the disaster. Every piece of electrical equipment powered from that switchboard was now lost. They would not have any backup to run if equipment powered from the other switchboard failed. Firing their missiles would take at least twice as long as normal. More immediately important, they would need to operate the lone remaining seawater pump in fast speed. It would limit their top speed some, but more problematic was the fact that the Vipr would now be noisier as she tried to sneak down the Norwegian coast. Their chances of being detected had just ratcheted up considerably.

“Is there anything we can do?” Dmolysti inquired. “We are risking too much already.”

Vivilav scratched the graying stubble on his chin and thought for a few minutes.

“There might be a way,” he grunted. “I heard a story about one of the old Yankee missile boats back in the Cold War days. They were off the American coast when the missile fire control system lost power. They rigged jumper wires from a spare breaker on another switchboard. That bit of creative electrical work allowed them to stay on patrol instead of returning home in disgrace.”

“You think it might work?” Anistov Dmolysti asked. “Do we have anyone on board with the skill to do this work?”

“We’ll have to find out. We have no other option. There is a spare breaker available on the starboard main switchboard. We can strip wiring from the port side that we won’t need anymore. I would guess that it will take two or three days to rewire everything. Longer if we do not get to work. Every minute we run with the one pump wide-open, the more likely we are to be heard. I want the seawater pump ready before we get to the Kattegat.”

The first officer watched as his captain walked away down the narrow passageway. Somehow, Captain Vivilav was going to see that this mission did not fail. Dmolysti could not ignore the gnawing ache in the pit of his stomach as he headed off to look for someone skilled enough to do his captain’s bidding.