3 Days: A Novel of Survival

Chapter one

The Caribbean, The Gulf of Mexico, six miles down, 1962

The conditions were bad and Captain Valentin Savinsky knew it. Blasts rocked the submarine on both sides, leaving a loud ringing in the ears of his sailors. The airflow had broken down, so the temperatures had reached 100 degrees and a toxic buildup of gases rendered parts of the submarine unlivable. Despite the chaos around him, Captain Savinsky could only stare at the Teletype with hope. Any moment, Moscow, which had not been in contact with the sub for 11 days, would send a communication telling him what to do. Should he fire upon the Americans or should he turn around and head back out to sea? All he needed was an order.

The machine was silent.

"Captain" said a voice behind him. He ignored it, just concentrating on the Teletype. Any moment.

"Captain!" shouted the voice, forcing him to turn around. It was Vasili Arkhipov, one of his senior officers, was facing him.

"What!?" Valentin hissed, "I'm waiting."

"Captain," said Vasili softly, "there is no message coming." He sighed and run his fingers through his wet curly hair. "We have to decide."

Captain Savinsky felt his throat close at the words. He did not want to launch. He did not want to be the man responsible for killing Americans. At the same time, he could not go home and face his superiors, having stared down the Americans and flinched. At best, he would be stripped of his captaincy. At worst, he would be sent to a Gulag, never to see his wife or children again. That was unacceptable to him.

"Captain," said Vasili quietly, "I don't think the Americans are trying to hurt us." Captain Savinsky turned to face his officer with an incredulous look on his face. Despite the fact that he was facing his commanding officer, Vasili refused to look intimidated. He simply looked at Captain Savinsky and spread his hands in a wide appeal.

"Think about it," said Vasili as another depth charge exploded on the left side of the hull, "if they wanted to destroy us they could do that easily"

Captain Savinsky's lower jaw trembled and he stared Vasili and then turned around and shouted, "Ready the nuclear weapon." For a moment, every sailor within ear shot of the command froze, and stared at each other. "Now!" screamed Captain Savinsky, and with that word, all sailors began scrambling.

"Captain," pleaded Vasili, "don't launch." "The Americans are not trying to hurt us."

Captain Savinsky turned on Vasili. "We haven't heard from Moscow in 11 days! "How do we know that we are not already at war?" "How do we know that everyone in Russia is not already dead?"

Vasili shook his head at the Captain's words, "We know that because the Americans haven't killed us already."

"The missile is ready, Captain" said Vadim Orlov, Vasili's 2nd in command.

"Where is Ryurki Ketov?" demanded the Captain.

"Here" said Ryurki, stepping from behind Vasili.

"Okay," said Captain Savinsky, "we are not going to hear from Moscow, so it is up to us." "I can launch, but only with the votes from all three of my officers." He faced Vasili, Vadim and Ryurki. "You are my officers, and I need you to vote – yes, we launch or no, we surface."