"Indeed? Who did we steal that from?"

The Master Shipwright laughed at that. "You don't need to know, Valentin Borissovich. Now, I have a question for you: I have heard that you did something very clever ten days ago "

Dubinin smiled. "Admiral, that is something which I cannot -"

"Yes, you can. I spoke with your squadron commander. Tell me, how close did you get to USS Nevada?"

"I think it was actually Maine," Dubinin said. The intelligence types disagreed, but he went with his instincts. "About eight thousand meters. We identified him from a mechanical transient made during an exercise, then I proceeded to stalk on the basis of a couple of wild guesses -"

"Rubbish! Humility can be overdone, Captain. Go on."

"And after tracking what we thought was our target, he confirmed it with a hull transient. I think he came up to conduct a rocket-firing drill. At that point, given our operational schedule and the tactical situation, I elected to break contact while it was possible to do so without counter-detection."

"That was your cleverest move of all." the Master Shipwright said, pointing a finger at his guest. "You could not have decided better, because the next time you go out, you will be the most quiet submarine we've ever put to sea."

"They still have the advantage over us," Dubinin pointed out honestly.

"That is true, but for once the advantage will be less than the difference between one commander and another, which is as it should be. We both studied under Marko Ramius. If only he were here to see this!"

Dubinin nodded agreement. "Yes, given current political circumstances, it is truly a game of skill, not one of malice anymore."

"Would that I were young enough to play," the Master Shipwright said.

"And the new sonar?"

"This is our design from the Severomorsk Laboratory, a large aperture array, roughly a forty-percent improvement in sensitivity. On the whole, you will be the equal of an American Los Angeles class in nearly all regimes."

Except crew, Dubinin didn't say. It would be years before his country had the ability to train men as the Western navies did, and by that time Dubinin would no longer have command at sea - BUT! In three months time he'd have the best ship that his nation had ever given one of its captains. If he were able to cajole his squadron commander into giving him a larger officer complement, he could beach the more inept of his conscripts and begin a really effective training regimen for the rest. Training and leading the crew was his job. He was the commanding officer of Admiral Lunin. He took credit for what went well, and blame for what went badly. Ramius had taught him that from the first day aboard the first submarine. His fate was in his own hands, and what man could ask for more than that?

Next year, USS Maine, when the bitterly cold storms of winter sweep across the North Pacific, we will meet again.