C James

Our story-writing team is pleased and delighted to announce the addition of a new member! We are honored and delighted to have him aboard. He has willingly assumed the duties of beta-reading and, of course, the solemn obligation of all team members to defend the author from accusations of cliffhanger usage. So, please join with me in welcoming him to our team. Welcome aboard! CJ

Thank you, your Frogishness, for providing further proof that "Gram" is the correct pronunciation. Though the page does not give pronunciation, I note that at the bottom, under "see also", it has two listings, "Gram" and "Gramm". Edit to add: AHHA! Here is a link to an article on "Gram flour", which clears up the confusion! So, "Gram" and "Graham" and thus "Graeme" are pronounced "Gram".

I've always pronounced the cracker "Gram cracker" so I fully agree. That's an odd way of pronouncing either the cracker or the Echidna, methinks.

I am referring, of course, to our resident anti-spoiler Echidna, Graeme. This question, "How is Graeme pronounced?", is a puzzler, isn't it? However, rest assured, the definitive answer appears below! Given the spelling, I think it is self-evident that the correct pronunciation is "Graaam" or, for me, "Gra-a-a-ammmm". Now, my own take on this is that Graeme is Australian, so therefor, one must try to pronounce his name with an Australian accent. Just say "G'day, mate" a few times first, while doing your best Paul Hogan imitation. However... Graeme is not just Australian, but is actually in Australia. Therefor, I think that his name can only be authentically pronounced while standing on one's head (Australians, after all, live upside-down). There is also the weather to consider... So, for authenticity, standing outside, in July, shivering in a thick coat might be of help. (Australians not only live upside down, but they insist on having Christmas in the summer, and having it cold in July and august... Their continental Air Conditioning bill must be immense!) Also, the chattering of teeth helps draw out the "a" sound. Now, there are differing (and thus incorrect) opinions on how to pronounce "Graeme", but I think we can all agree on the above. Anyone have any other helpful hints regarding the correct way to pronounce "Graeme"? I would suggest having Vegemite handy, but that could well be interpreted as encouraging people to acquire weapons of mass destruction.. CJ

Well, a bird of prey can be a fierce and powerful ally, a welcome member of the team, defending the poor, innocent author from scurrilous unfounded accusations of cliffhangers! ROFL! But, Dragonfire... surely you know that a goat would never have anything to do with a cliffhanger... right?

ACK! ERic!!! Now, y'all know I don't use cliffhangers... So that can't be true!! I can think of one quadruped who uses cliffhangers: Graeme...

My personal opinion is, first and foremost, don't do anything illegal (hacking into e-mail definitely can be illegal). Personally, I take an extremely dim view of cheaters. If this happened to me, I'd go with the option of joining the list and seeing if I could arrange a "date" with the person, and show up. That way, there would be no defense on their part; they couldn't claim it was someone using their name, etc, etc. My opinion: a cheater is bad news. They are maliciously exposing you to STD's, showing you no regard, etc. Sharing a house complicates things... if you own it together, that's a massive headache. If it's a rental, it depends on who is on the lease, and how. It might cost some money, but getting a cheater out of your life is worth it. Good luck, CJ

Hey now! We all know that I would never have anything to do with a cliff... or a cliffhanger. If you don't believe me, just ask TalonRider.

Totally agreed! What Eric did, though, was he was trying to act very soppy-romantic. It was the "trying to act" part that tripped him up. He's not a good actor, and soppy-romantic isn't him, so it made Jansen crack up. Romantic is fine; it was Eric's bad acting (very cheesy) and trying to act out of character that tripped him up. LoL. However... think of the pressure he's now under to "get it right" next time. I should have shown it better, but Eric was indeed exceedingly cheesy, and that's what made Jansen crack up.

Lol! Well, Eric had to do far less than that to get girls into bed with him; they were groupies, looking to bed a famous rock star, so all he had to do was.. not run away. LoL So, he has zero experience in the arts of romance... as was painfully apparent. ROFL. You're right, I do find sex scenes hard to write, but to my mind, this wasn't one, because they didn't get that far, plue we heard abotu it from their later conversation. I've very recently been dealing with the issue of writing sex scenes.. Now, for fear of the echidna, I dare not say which story or which characters it was for, but a couple of days ago I wrote a rather.. detailed one, that leaves nothing to the imagination. Good point! The way I see Eric, he, per his own words (in LTMP), finds guys hot but girls hotter, physically. To my mind, that makes him bi leaning slightly female. I think, for Eric, the deciding factor wouldn't be just phisical attraction, but how he connects with the person on other levels. Yep, Eric was, for Eric, shockingly tame the last time on tequila. That may, or may not, mean something. There are a few ongoing plans.. Helen's, for the press conference, and The Scar's, for checking in and finding Instinct to get info on the bombs. Plus of course, Jansen's plans to Tequila the Eric. Ummm, when will the provisional declaration become a permanent one? Now the chapter is out, what more is there to decide? What? Me, evil? Awwww... Here I am, getting all the old freinds from LTMP together again, for a nice holiday at a wonderful resort... how could that be evil? Yep, they didn't see the truck outbound, nor did they see where it went. Jerry does think Instinct has something to do with the bombs, and getting information is part of his reason for being there. That photo of Eric in the general's camera, and Instinct staying at a resort on the island where the general took the bombs, made him suspect there was a connection, so he's after both his bombs, and some revenge. Of course, as he likes to say, he has no objection to mixing business with pleasure. Yes, it could be said that being around The Scar in LTMP when he was in a killing mood could be unhealthy. On the other hand, he could be a fun guy to hang around with... He took Instinct shopping once, shared a few drinks with Eric at the pool, etc. Also, in some cases, people got away with angering him. The engineer made Jerry angry a few times, but Jerry didn't fire him, and was even nice enough to let the Engineer watch the first bomb go off.

One enormous difference between the mk-48 and the mk-37 is the fuel; in the -37, it was a battery. In the -48, it's OTTO, a very high-energy-density liquid fuel for a combustion engine. In a "hot run" for a -37, the only possibility it could be jetisoned would be if it was already in a torpedo tube, I think? Most of the torp load is in the racks, and getting a running one into a tube would be difficult, I'd imagine. My personal beleif is that the battery cooked off; they did have a couple in testing that did just that; exploded and caught fire. That would be enough to trigger a low-order explosion of the warhead, overpressurize the torpedo room, and blow off a hatch. Linxe, I have been remiss in not saying so until now, but thank you for your service. Our freedom is given to us by people like you. I've looked into TWA 800 in the past, and I personally never found the missile hit claims likely, for a few reasons. One is that it would make no sense at all to be doing SAM tests near one of the world's busiest airways (though I can see how it would be possible). The second is the eyewitness reports of people "seeing" a missile hit. They are self-discrediting in two ways. The first is the report of seeing a firey trail and then the explosion. Makes zero sense; given the boost phase burnout time of even a STANDARD II, second stage, and certainly any form of MANPAD SAM (terrorists), and the altitude at which TWA-800 was at, it is impossible for a MANPAD portable SAm, and unlikly for a SMII (given the probable distance to launch point) to be still under boost at that altitude. So, even if it was a missle hit, there would be no firey trail. The second point; many of those witnesses said they saw the firey trail, and then saw and heard the explosion. This is patently impossible; given their range, and the speed of sound, there is no way they could have heard the explosion as it occurred. My own theory is that the breakup (with the expeption of proximal cause) was correct as officially described; an explsion on board caused the foward fuselage to seperate. The rear 2/3, including wings and engines, then pitched nose-up (due to the CG shift) and climbed several thousand feet, almost stright up, until a secondary explosion of the wing fuel tanks shattered it in a fireball. I think the post-speratation climb, of a burning object, would be the firey trail so many saw. That brings us to the intimal explosion. I don't buy the missile theory, at all. What I do note, however, is that a month after 9-11, an American Airlines airbus crashed on Long Island after departing the same airport (JFK) under odd circumstances. The official report claims that the horizonatal stabilizer snapped off due to turbulence and excessive control inputs. I don't buy that, at all. It does not explain the glaring anomaly of the engines; (the two engines they impacted close to a mile apart, and not near the main fuselage. Now, a detached horiaonal stabilizer can cause a crash, but what it cannot do, at that airspeed, is cause the plane to explode to such a degree. The mystery is, why did the engines detatch? Aerodynamics do not explain it. However, a bomb in a fuel tank would. Just as it would TWA-800. It would be an easy thing to do for anyone on the ground crew, and I suspect terrorists may have done just that. Cushioned by fuel, the explosion would have had little chance to cause the charactheristic micropitting of metal. Also, due to the mood of the nation at that point, I think that they would not be egar to find terrorisim as a cause of the AA long island crash. A similar thing occured with the Anthrax; with absolutly nothing to go on, they declaired it "Domestic terrorisim" and focused on that angle. Their explanation was preposterous; they claimed it fit a "profile". As a result, they focused on the domestic angle, when the only sane approach is to probe all angles untill hard evidence dictates otherwise. They tried to declair "Case closed" with the suicide of their most recent "Person of interest", but not one shred of evidence has ever been found. Therefor, I think they were looking the wrong way and bungled the case. Therefor, I take official investigations with a huge dose of salt. Another angle on TWA-800; it could indeed have been the inadvertent victim of a military test, but not of a missile. I've always wondered if it could have been a zorch: an electrical charge generated by massive amounts of radar. It's well known that when an Ageis phased-aray is in narrow-beam mode, that it can fry the electronics of nearby aircraft, thanks to putting millions of watts wown one degree of azimuth. So, with a target the size of a 747, with old wiring, what would happen if it was hit by the steered beam of an Ageis that was lighting up the sky? I think it would be enough to create a static discharge: a spark in the wiring. Just my three cents (Should be two, but goats can't count). CJ

ROFL! A very different type of TLC, lol! Nassau? But... in the past, you've always preferred the Caymans for that sort of thing??? ROFL!!! Well, not quite that much... ROFL!! About the only thing I can guarantee is that it will be shorter than LTMP, but I don't know yet by how much. CJ

Happy Birthday, Wizzardly One!! :wizard: :wizard: I hope you have a GREAT day, and an even better year. :music:

I can't say anything about the future <looks around nervously for the Echidna> but... Remember, The Scar only knows (or would recognize) Instinct, Helen, the General, and Felecia. He's never seen Jansen and Keith, and has no idea who they are. Of course, they don't know The Scar, either.... Poor Jansen.. based on the one time he's seen Eric on Tequila, he's assuming that Helen was exaggerating. Poor Jerry, he's looking for his bombs, but now they aren't there. They literally passed right under his nose, and he never knew. I think Mike's post is fine! He's quite right; no tension at all in the chapter. They're all just having fun at the resort, and once Jerry checks in, they'll be neighbors. Who knows.. maybe he just wants to relax (he's too stressed most of the time). For all we know, he knows how to cook and will make them all a friendly breakfast. That makes two cliffhanger-free votes! Yay!!! Ok, on a serious note, I want to mention Eric and Jansen. Eric has never been with a guy before, and in fact has never been in a relationship before, just one night stands. So, I figured that no way, no how, would things go smoothly the first time he tried. Without meaning to, Jansen sure put poor Eric under "performance pressure", LoL! Okay, I think now might be a good time to mention the title of 38: "Fallen". (mainly, so I don't forget again!)

For all we know, The Scar might just want to drop in for a friendly lunch. Why does everyone always think the worst of poor, misunderstood Jerry? :worship: All hail His Amphibiousness! I hereby gratefully accept the Amphibious Declaration of Cliffhanger-free! Yes indeed, just a few little hiccups. Everything is pretty much quiet in the chapter, and all is well. The Scar has tequila'd the Eric in the past, so why not again? Just two old pals, sharing a drink for old time's sake? Keith and Brian's hand grenade scene was written long ago, before Christmas, in fact. It just popped into my head as funny, and I had to write it down. Poor Brian, he was so concerned that Keith might think the lump was something other than a grenade. LoL!

I can't answer that... But.. let's add up what we know about Francois... He's French, a hardened mercenary, prefers the Cayman Islands for his banking, hrmm, seems to prefer having things all tied up... hrmmm... Let us hope Helen doesn't think of that... They would, at least, be very, very loud. Might violate the local noise ordnances though... Ah, oh... ah.. ar.. um, uhoh... just consider it to be a purely metaphorical truck! Or an artifact of my bad memory! Er, um, ah, ack... I, um, deny any knowledge of any truck, in any way whatsoever!! And if the Echidna should happen to be browsing in the area, please move along, nothing to see here... And fear not... The Scar's ankle, per the text, was merely bruised. Poor, innocent me?

Okay.. I've got a few questions about the chapter, just for fun. First, what about Francois? What do you think of him? Is he the atypical cold-blooded mercenary? One with an interest in tying things up?

I'd like to add my own congratulations to Cynical Romantic, and also my thanks and congratulations to Wildone for his very generous act. Thank you.

ROFL! I love this poll!!! I won't vote in it (some suspect I have inside info regarding the plot, so I can't) but I do love it! Umm, what is a TLC match? I thought "TLC" meant "Tender, Loving Care"? I think that might make for an, um, unusual confrontation, were it to occur?

First, let me explain about my "below par" comment. To be honest, I was at that point dealing with a very difficult (for me, anyway) writing situation; structuring the final chapters. I have to get everything right, tie everything in, and also make the timeline sync. Further, I have to flesh out the ending, make sure it "feels' right, etc. Personally, I find writing the finale to be the most difficult thing in writing. In the case of Changing Lanes, the plot is a little complicated, so there are, as it were, a great many threads to weave. I also have to do it right, and I was wrestling with some hard choices and wondering if I was getting it right. I'm still somewhat of a begginer at writing; this is my third novel, but in reality it's only my second try at wraping a stroy completely up, because I knew LTMP would have an immediate sequel. From what I remember, I had similar issues with For The Love's conclusion, but I don't recall it being this hard, lol. Seeing that not as many people as usual had weighed in (I'm not complaining, I'm explaining), and at that time pulling my hair out and wondering if I'd ever get the ending to click, I got a bit worried that my chapters had gone downhill. I'm prone to that under normal circumstances, for two reasons. One is that, for reasons I don't fully understand but perhaps having something to do with my dyslexia, when I read something I've recently written it always looks, to me, to be awkward, stilted, and pretty much utter crap. However, if I read the same thing months later, it looks okay. Weird, huh? So, I can never tell if something I've written is okay. I trust my team to tell me if I have indeed belched forth crapola, so normally this is not an issue. However, combined with what I was dealing with regarding the finale to Changing Lanes, I guess my writer's insecurity (which I do indeed have a healthy case of, even at the best of times) kicked into overdrive, and I got worried that I was blowing the story. OKay, now for some news: I think I have at least got a handle on the ending. I've written out the key parts and I'm happy with them, and this resolved a lot of the issues I was having. One other thing it means; I no longer foresee needing to make any changes in 37, so thanks to an outstanding special effort from our team, 37, "Best Laid Plans..." will be posted on schedule. BTW, I'd like to add special thanks to Graeme, for his advice and council during the difficulties. Thanks, Graeme!! Thanks Jon!!! I put about 18 hours in on the story this weekend, and I'm now much happier with it. I hope no one considers this a spoiler.. <lloks around nervously for the Echidna> no worries about not knowing how things go by the time the story is over. As there won't be a sequel, I felt I needed to give a sense of closure, and that, I feel there will be. Thanks!! Poor Helen... Getting saddled with three nuclear warheads was perhaps not how she'd envisioned her vacation going. Of course, at least the volcano provides for a pleasant distraction, to keep her mind off the nukes... I don't see the Scar's ankle sprain as a cliffhanger; it's a minor injury, and we have no indication that he won't be fine, so I really don't see how his minor injury is a cliffie. He's safe, really. ROFL! I think Jerry would get the worst of that one. LoL!

Hrmmmm... From the look of the thread, chapter 36, "Convergence" went over like a lead balloon. Sorry if it was below par. I'll try to do better. Speaking of which... The story is approaching the end. I would give a guesstimate on how many chapters remain, but I'm notoriously awful at that. For example, my original estimates for Changing Lanes, in its entirety, was 12-15 chapters. It seems I might possibly have been in error on that. The reason I mention this is that the end of the story, the final chapters, interrelate quite a bit, and I've already found myself going back and having to make a change or three to a prior chapter (Before posting it) while working on a latter one. Mainly, this involves foreshadowing, clues, etc, but also plot points. If anyone wants to know which ones, please ask me after the end, and I'll be happy to explain. I should have had enough of a chapter buffer to do this, but due to my trip, and then the flu, I was running very far behind. There are no plans for any sequel, so I need to get the ending just right, so there is a sense of finality and closure. So, in order to give me a few days to complete the critical future parts, I'm probably going to need to hold chapter 37, "best laid plans", for a little bit, until I finish some critical passages in 41. I hope to get it wrapped up within a couple of days, and I'll try, but this is just a head's up that 37 might be late. Sorry. CJ

Thanks for the links, Mark!! Very detailed articles, from the look of it. Wikipedia is generally a good research tool, though I'm a little contrarian and tend to like to poke holes in their data. In this case, their Scorpeon article is quite good, but, they bungle it in a couple of minor ways. For example, a copuple of times they refer to a torpedo activating "in the tube". What they mean is "In the rack". Also, they mention Craven, head of the Naval special projects lab (and a couple of other things, though they don't mention that) However, when they refer to his use of Baysean search techniques, they leave out the critical part. Craven adopted this system to search for the lost nuclear warhead off Spain, and later, (though wikipedia doesn't have this) to find the Soviet's K-129, lost a few hundred miles north of Hawaii. (for that one, they used the spec-ops sub Growler, which was equipped for deep=water seafloor search via RPV's) Anyway, the very best part about Craven's technique? He was finding submarines.. with whiskey! His application of Baysean theory included mining for data, getting the benifit of "educated guesses" for want of a better terms. So, he'd bet bottles of whiskey with naval officerns familier with the search, getting them to wager where, exactly, based on what they did know, did they thing the wreckage had ended up. Sounds nuts, but it worked. (and BTW, the eccentricity of this method is why a lot of the Navy brass didn't take Craven seriously). Craven IMHO was brilliant. In the Wiki article, it reads as if Craven was directing the search ship Mizar. That's far from true. The navy wasn't listening to Craven at that point. They were intent on looking wast of the sonar traces (Scorpeon had been transitiing the atlantic east to west) Only when they came up dry, and had only deays of usable weather left, did they rlent enough to let Mizar look where Cravent said. They found Scorpeon on the first run. BTW, one other point, the Wiki article mentions SOSUS as the source of some sonar data. Wrong. The Sosus arays (hydrophones strung along the seafloor in lines in varius places in the north atlantic), used for tracking Sov subs, had filtering elements that would have obsured sounds such as Scorpeon made. The Wiki article begged part of it; the semi-official (and high secret at the time) lab in the Canary's recorded Scorpeon's death. However, you can't triangulate without a second bearing. Craven found that, at another underwater research station, probaly in newfoundland (I don't recall for sure). Anyway, enough nit-picking from me. The Wiki articles are great, thanks.

Hrmmm, Sorta kinda maybe. La Palma to Spain; about 900 miles. That's amost spot on for the range for a UH-60 with internal tanks and NO payload. However, the UH-60 can aerial refuel, so my guess is, they'd stage it with KC-10's (Tankers) out of Rota, Spain (nearest US facility). One thing to beaware of though; helicpters are even more suceptable to fine s(ash, sand, etc) than fixed-wing. So, they'd have to land west of the volcano (no ash there yet) and steer clear of any ash. But, yep, Helicopters are possible, assuming they are available, in place, and have the tankers available. The logistics on that kind of a mission can be complex, so it would take a day or two to set up, once they got a go order. I'd tell you, but then the Echidna would get me... Eric, on tequila? Hrmmm.. at least that would make the other little problems (volcano, nukes, etc) look minor by comparison. Very good point; Eric was told where they are (storage unit) but unlike the others, he couldn't find it due to not having been there, or for that matter, even if he cound the units, he wouldn't know which one.

I split this (With Linx's OK) out of a chapter thread, because I thought it would make for a very interesting discussion. First off, my phrasing was horrible; I never meant to imply that going below crush depth was the initial cuase for the loss of Scorpion or Thresher. However, my words can certainly be read that way. Both subs were destroyed when they exceeded crush depth, but that's much akin to saying an air disaster was caused by the plane hitting the ground. The issue is, how they got there. One of the most interesting things is that it is not known for absolute certainty what went wrong on either sub. Going from memory here, Scorpion was returning to the US from a patrol in the Med. She never arrived, kicking off a massive search. Using a combination of sonar data from the time of her loss, her probably course track, and some superb detective work, the same man who found the Soviet sub in the pacific (the one the CIA tried to raise in Project Jennifer, using the Howard Hughs ship Glomar Explorer, built for the task) pinpointed Scorpeon's likely location. With time running out due to weather, when the navy finally looked there, there she was. From the orientation of the debris, plus her position relative to the sonar traces, it was deduced that a likely cause of her destruction was a hot run; a torpedo engine (they were battery powered) triggering in her torpedo room. The automatic reaction to a hot run is to order an immediate 180 degree turn of the sub (the Torp's gyro detects this, and it safes the warhead. This design feature is there so that a torpedo with a stuck rudder won't sink the sub that fired it). The Scorpeon investigation was a classic CYA (Cover Your Ass) operation, sad to say. It was known, in advance, that there were problems with that model of torpedo. Further, the relavant warning memos from BuShips and the armory people (Sorry, can't recall the exact term) were never made available to the investigators. Given the 180 degree turn, the "Hot run" problem was beleived confirmed by the investigators. The suspicion of a hot run had, not incidentally, been central to the modeling of her likely course and fate after the sonar trace ended. So, they had some confirmation for the theory. The reports on the torpedos would have likly closed the case. The most likly scenaro was a hot run that ended in a battery fire. Unknown to the investigators (inetentionaly kept from them) the batteries had been shown to explode and ignite under heavy vibration (which a hot run in the rack would generate). The fire would be enough to cook off the warhead. Had the warhead been detonated as designed, it would have likly split the hull and that would have been seen on the wreckage photos. However, high explosive (I think they used Octol for that model of warhead, can't recall for sure) can detonate from heat and pressure as a low-order explosion; a slower burning explosion, less percussive force, BUT, still generating enormous volumes of gasses. Enough to blow the torpedo loading hatch door off. (the hatch was seen to be missing). Flooding in the torpedo room would be fatal. The tremendous added weight on the fore end of the sub would arc her over into a dive. Even a full blow and full ahead power and up planes would likely not be enough to stop her decent. They surely tried, but about 90 seconds after the explosion in the torpedo room, Scorpion passed crush depth. The bow and stern teliscoped in, probably in under a second. At least it would be quick (the sudden increase in pressure and heat would be instantly lethal for the crew). I have a feeling I missed wuite a bit.. It's been years since i was looking into this. Thresher was another case. Different cause, also not absolutely determined. In fact, the evidence there is far thinner than for Scorpeon. Thresher was on a dive to test dpeth (max safe depth). They trasnsmited over a growler (underwater sound-based comms) that they were having difficulties. Nothing further was eaver heard. She imploded, probably soon after passing crush depth (about 1600 feet for that class of sub, if memory serves) The wreckage was found, but with virtually zero indication of the prime cuase (though it was obvious she had gone below crush depth somehow). Some testing based on her design was done, and several liely causes were outlines; flooding from a broken fitting and possible ice formating in the blow tank valves were prime suspects. Thresher could have come up in two ways; blowing the tanks, or by engine power. Whatever killed her likely took out both systems. However, though the theory of what killed her appears sound, it is merely a theory; no hard evidence has ever been found. (unlike Scorpeon, where at least it is known that the torpedo loading hatch was gone, and that sonar data indicated an explosion aboard of some kind). BTW, the Henry Jackson, with Linxe was on, is an Ohio-class boomer (missile sub, deterance patrol, "we hide with pride".) They're essentially an upgraded, and very much stretched (thanks to needing room for the "Sherwood Forest, the missile room) 688 class sub. Fantastic ships... their propelor alone is an engineering masterpiece; a massive 7-blaeded prop, with the blades looking sort of like twisted scimitars, they are precision made to almost optical tolerences, to avoid any roughness or vacuum creation while running at moderate speeds; any tiny bubbles formed by low pressure areas in the flow collpse noisily, called cavitation, and noise is deadly underwater. Forget the movies, modern SSN and SSBN's do not cruise around pinging (that's active sonar, and a great way to give away your position). The vast majority of the time, they operate on passive sonar. The quietness of a submarine is probably it's greatest tactical advantage in the modern world of undersea warfare). And, ummm, Cliff H. Anger? Defently never heard of any such person.

A submarine?? That sounds like an interesting development!! The U.S. would be limited by logistics, combined with happenstance. They could air-drop out of C-135 (jet transports) in the resort area, launching from the Us and getting there in about eight hours, but not get out. The Navy would indeed be a better option, *IF* there is a carrier in the area. That's a big *if*. At a max speed of advance or around 40mph, it would take days to get one into position from the Med (6th fleet) or the US. Actually, a nuclear sub (either an SSN or SSBN) would be a good option. There are SSBN patrol zones in the vicinity, and a sub on underwater patrol can be reached by ELF. However, any subs in the immediate area are likely heading away at flank speed; they'd be ordered to do so as soon as the danger was understood. The problem is the tsunami. It would, in the immediate vicinity of the island, be up to two thousand feet in height. As it traveled in deep water it would subside to less than a couple of feet (typical for a tsunami in deep water... they only build up when the reach shallow water), but that would take hundreds of miles. For any sub in the area, the massive wave (traveling as a giant combing swell) would be lethal. Say the sub was at a hundred feet depth, and the tsunami passed over it. The effect effect of a two thousand foot wave above would be the same as if the sub dove to two thousand feet in calm water; it would be well beyond crush depth, a very fatal condition (Thresher and Scorpion, two US SSN's, were destroyed in separate incidents due to going below crush depth. There were no survivors.). So, any sub would be exiting the area of the canary islands at flank speed once the alert went up, at least that's my best guess. I'd say the same for any surface ship. I'm not saying any of the above will be in the story (so, Graeme, no spoiler spines! ) but that's the situation as I see it; it would depend greatly on happenstance. There's also the issue that they wouldn't have a need to secure the nukes if they were sure they'd be destroyed (or end up on the bottom of the sea). Of course, there might be a ship in the area, so who knows.