Now the pressing question was, would the torpedoes fire from their modified firing harnesses?
Along with that unknown was the all too real possibility that they might just blow up and explode when activated. They'd gotten an expatriate Russian engineer in Singapore to do the wiring of the tubes, but the man had been half drunk at the time.
Flynn pushed on a panel of decorative wood paneling off to the side of the main controls and it slid away to reveal two buttons. Holding his breath he pushed both simultaneously.
No explosions followed. He breathed in again shallowly as he noticed that both buttons now glowed red. The torpedoes had been armed successfully. Now came the tricky part of timing them so that their trajectories would be on target.
Flynn centered the Celestia's Prize to pass in between the rapidly approaching whalers. The whalers kept a distance apart from each other and looked only too pleased at Flynn's decision to go between them.
Why was that, he wandered abstractly to himself?
Whatever the reason it didn't matter now because he had committed the ship to the course of action at hand. Before he drew abreast of the two whalers he spun the Celestia's Prize hard to starboard and leading the Whaler on that side by about a boat length Flynn pressed the button to the starboard torpedo.
With an express of air the torpedo shot out of its tube to begin racing through the water for its target. Flynn pulled the wheel hard over cackling all the time at the grand time all this was.
The Celestia's Prize hung over in the water as she tacked over to a head on course once more with the other two ships. A giant harpoon plowed into the water where the Celestia's prize had just been before it had made its turn back to center.
Ortega looked back at Flynn in alarm and Flynn nodded, as he registered the threat of the harpoons.
The plan of the two Whalers then was to harpoon the Celestia's Prize and drag her to a standstill so she could be boarded. Not today!
Flynn spun the wheel hard to port with a sense of urgency. They had to get the second torpedo off before a harpoon landed.
Flynn had to almost come about as he turned in order to lead the second Whaler for the torpedo to be just right. There was a terrific explosion at Flynn's back and he registered the sound of a confirmed kill with glee, even as he hammered the other button-down.
Success would've been complete this day only the second torpedo didn't leave the tube!