Chapter 44
I’m translating the chapter into HTML prose and preserving the in-universe formatting rules where they apply. The key work here is keeping the narrative natural while isolating dialogue cleanly and handling any special content as styled blocks.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Supercavitating Torpedo
It was an officer from the Navy’s Maritime Operations Command who had come looking for me.
Following him, I arrived here at the naval site supervisor’s office inside Okpo Shipyard.
When the heavy security door opened, I could see the officers dispatched by the Navy sitting rigidly in their places.
The same went for the Solaris Marine staff.
They all looked stiff with tension, wrapped in a silence so dense it felt oppressive.
Without realizing it, I swallowed hard.
“This way, Executive Director.”
“Ah, yes.”
Led by the officer, I headed to the commander’s reception room at the deepest end of the supervisor’s office.
On the wall hung a large cutaway illustration of ROKS Kim Gu, just recently completed, along with its specifications. Beyond the window, the dock held the submarine itself, visible at a glance.
And standing by that window, dressed in a pure white uniform, was a general who turned toward me.
He was Chief of Naval Operations Park Geon-hyeong, with a small frame that might have stood around 165 centimeters and a lean body, but eyes sharp enough to cut.
“You’ve been through a lot, Executive Director Baek Gunwoo. I hear you resolved one problem after another during the construction of Kim Gu. I’m Park Geon-hyeong.”
The admiral came up to me and held out a hand for a handshake.
I carefully took it and bowed my head.
“I’m Baek Gunwoo.”
“Now then, let’s sit first. We’ll talk while seated.”
Since he was a man of such rank, I had expected him to take the seat of honor, but instead he went to the large table and sat opposite me.
“So, I heard you worked in Hanseo Defense’s ground equipment division. How was the submarine work?”
“Well... there were certainly unfamiliar aspects in many ways, but submarines and ground equipment are not all that different technically just because they look different on the outside, so it wasn’t especially difficult.”
“Hoho, really?”
“Yes, Admiral.”
I answered cautiously.
Admiral Park looked at me with obvious interest.
“Part of me would love to ask at length which technologies are similar and which are different, but that’s a shame. We don’t exactly have the time.”
I gave a quiet nod.
Experience told me that in moments like this, the best thing to do was simply wait silently for the next words.
About a minute passed in that brief silence.
“The truth is, I came to meet Executive Director Baek today for two reasons.”
Admiral Park continued.
“I’m listening, Admiral.”
“One is to express my gratitude. Thanks to Executive Director Baek resolving the issues with our submarine, the Chinese who came sneaking around to steal a look at the new weapon went home with their tails between their legs. Well done. You worked hard, Executive Director Baek.”
“Thank you.”
“And this isn’t just lip service. Since you’ve made such a contribution, we’ll do what we can on the intellectual property matter you requested from ADD. Also, if Hanseo Defense ever ends up doing business with our Navy, I’ll make sure it’s reviewed more favorably.”
A small smile appeared at the corners of the admiral’s mouth.
By the rulebook, he shouldn’t have been talking as if he intended to give our company special treatment.
But nothing about this would be recorded on paper, and at bottom it was only the Navy, having received real help, showing goodwill toward our capabilities.
In the world where people lived and worked, a little flexibility was part of the deal.
“Thank you, Admiral.”
“Good.”
With a nod, Admiral Park reached under the table and pulled out a black briefcase.
There was a heavy click as the metal latch was released.
What he took out was a tablet PC.
“This is the rest of the reason.”
As Admiral Park operated the screen, a video began to play.
A projectile was tearing through the water tank, so fast it seemed to rip the interior apart. A torpedo.
The gas blasting from the front was wrapping the entire body in a bubble.
A weapon that erased the water’s drag and ran at several hundred kilometers per hour.
A Supercavitation Torpedo.
“I’m sure Executive Director Baek knows this already. It’s the thing ADD and Solaris Marine have been pouring huge amounts of funding into for years at the Navy’s request.”
There was a deep fatigue in Admiral Park’s voice.
“Its propulsion is perfect. It’s beyond the Russian Shkval. But the problem starts after that.”
I watched the torpedo’s motion on the screen in silence.
It was fast.
The speed was astonishing, but the trajectory was unstable.
Looking closely, the bubble wasn’t fully enclosing the hull.
A tiny eccentricity.
The intense vibration caused by it began hammering the body.
On-screen, the torpedo lost its line and slammed into the tank wall, exploding into pieces.
“As you can see, it ends up like that. It can’t overcome the speed, so it blows itself apart from vibration.”
“So the vibration control isn’t working.”
“Exactly. When I saw Executive Director Baek completely tame the damned vibration in Kim Gu, I was convinced. Our Navy desperately needs your skill.”
Admiral Park said it with force.
The admiral’s gaze seemed to burn as it fixed on me.
The supercavitating torpedo.
It was far from my specialty, but it was undoubtedly tempting.
Until now, most of the work I’d handled had focused on ground equipment.
The only things outside that were robots like Hunt-Dog, and problems inside submarines like this one.
Could I, as I was now, contribute even a little on technology that might as well have been a million kilometers away from ground equipment, like a supercavitating torpedo?
I was curious.
But separate from that curiosity, there were far too many things to worry about.
“Admiral, I sincerely appreciate your proposal. But I can’t work as if I were a mere appendage of Solaris Marine.”
“Ha ha, of course not. Executive Director Baek is still a Hanseo Defense man, after all. All you need to do is make your intentions known. We’ll handle the arrangements on our side.”
At Admiral Park’s words, I nodded.
If the Navy itself stepped in to smooth things over, there would be little for me to concern myself with.
If I were to insist on one thing...
“All rights to the technologies I develop. Please guarantee them to Hanseo Defense through joint patent rights and exclusive licensing.”
At my words, Admiral Park grinned.
“I heard you asked for something like that already with Kim Gu. We can definitely do that much. Still, we’ll need to handle this as quickly and accurately as possible. The situation isn’t ordinary.”
“...Not ordinary?”
“I’m talking about China’s movements.”
Ah.
China had been a little unsettling lately.
Looking at it that way, the development of a supercavitating torpedo, which would become one of the Navy’s powerful forms of deterrence against China, was bound to be a matter of serious concern.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Good. Make sure it succeeds.”
* * *
On the way back to the lodging, the salty smell of the night sea off Geoje Island brushed past the tip of my nose.
My steps felt strangely heavy, while at the same time one corner of my heart was beating faster.
A one-on-one meeting with the Chief of Naval Operations.
Of course, I was startled by the unexpected chance to meet such a major figure, but what sharpened my nerves even more was unquestionably the supercavitating torpedo.
A weapon that wrapped itself in a bubble underwater and flew like a missile.
Could I control that extreme eccentricity and vibration completely with my own eyes and hands?
The burden pressed on my shoulders, yet the thirst for an unknown field I had never once touched as an engineer was making my blood run hot.
Click.
Gathering my thoughts, I opened the door to the temporary lodging.
“You’re back?”
“...Huh? No, why are you here?”
The moment I opened the front door, the person I saw was Cho Yerin.
And, strangely out of place over her neat office attire, she had on a yellow apron and was setting out sushi on the table I usually used more or less as a dining table.
“I came to take care of my hardworking senior. Why are you acting so surprised? Our company’s top ace can go on a business trip too, you know.”
“You came all the way here just to take care of me?”
“You’ve been suffering all the way down in Geoje, haven’t you? Of course I should look after you. You’re living on your own now after going out and coming back, and it’s not like there’s anyone around to take care of you.”
“Well, that’s true. Still, this is touching. Really, I never expected this, kid.”
The smell in the room was excellent.
A sweet-and-tangy scent was gently pricking at my nose.
And beyond that, there was the glossy rice and the various fresh, plump slices of fish laid across it.
It was the sort of sight that made a person swallow saliva just by looking at it.
“You’re eating right away, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I feel like I’m starving.”
When I sat down at the table, Yerin handed me a pair of wooden chopsticks.
Then she dipped a piece of sushi into soy sauce and put it in her mouth.
The fish melted on her tongue with the rice, rich and savory.
“...Hah.”
“You’re such a middle-aged man. What kind of reaction is that to sushi?”
“What are you talking about? I am a middle-aged man.”
“Oh, was that so? Anyway, how was work here? The world underwater must have been pretty different.”
“It was different in a lot of ways. Interesting, too.”
I spoke flatly as I mixed wasabi into soy sauce.
A confined space called a submarine.
I gave her a light summary of the past few days’ work there: the vicious fluid vibration and resonant hum that had emerged inside it, and the effort to twist pipes and cut grooves in steel to solve the problem.
“Wow, our Executive Director Baek really can go anywhere and do his part, even if he’s thrown into water.”
As Yerin chewed on a salmon sushi, she marveled at me.
But as my explanation continued, her chopsticks gradually slowed.
The part where even ADD’s chief, Director Park Jincheol, had given up on the bypass piping resonance, only for it to be defeated on the spot with nothing more than a heat gun.
“Wow...”
Yerin tilted her head.
“You’ve always had talent, Senior, but this wasn’t the kind of thing I had in mind. Since when did you turn into such a monster?”
“I was always a monster. You were the one who didn’t notice.”
“Oh, please.”
We went on talking with a laugh.
The problem was what came next.
The incident where I used the submarine’s now-silenced performance to crush the Chinese Yuan-class submarine that had crawled into the East Sea, using sonar and underwater signal flares.
When I reached the part where the Chinese submarine, unable to deal with the noise, had been forced to run at full power while screaming through the propeller’s sound just to escape...
“...What?!”
Yerin’s eyes widened as if they might pop out.
The sushi she had been about to put in her mouth dropped onto the soy sauce dish with a soft plop.
“Shh.”
I lifted my index finger to my lips.
“That’s top secret. Don’t go around talking about it.”
“R-right, of course. But you really chased off a Chinese submarine?”
“We got lucky. Oh, and there’s one more thing.”
Wiping my hands with a wet tissue, I added the rest.
“I just met the Chief of Naval Operations. There’s a state project called the supercavitating torpedo that Solaris had been working on, and he wants me to save it.”
“The Chief of Naval Operations himself?”
“Yeah. So I told him that all the technologies I come up with while solving the problem need to be transferred to our company as exclusive licensing rights.”
“...Well, that part makes sense, but a supercavitating torpedo? Solaris is going to have a fit if they hear this.”
“Yeah, probably.”
I nodded.
From Solaris Marine’s point of view, Hanseo Defense was barging into a naval weapons system they had effectively had all to themselves and taking a seat at the table.
On the other hand, for Hanseo Defense, it would mean expanding into a new field and securing a new source of income.
“Now I’m wondering how I’m supposed to report this to Chairman Cho. It’s too big to explain over the phone. Do I have to go up there in person?”
“Go up? You? A man who hasn’t even been able to rest and has just been working like crazy?”
“...Still, it’s a little awkward to handle this by phone.”
“Don’t worry, Senior. I’m here.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll call my father for a moment.”
Without even waiting for my answer, Yerin grabbed her phone and darted out onto the terrace.
I watched her through the closed glass door, phone in hand and talking rapidly, while I put a piece of flounder sushi into my mouth.
It made sense. This was difficult for me, but he was her father.
She’d be able to speak comfortably.
And come to think of it, these sushi were really good.
Where had she bought them?
A little while later, the terrace door opened and Yerin came back in, her face bright.
“My father was really pleased.”
“Of course he would be. So, did the report go well?”
“I’d already told him I was coming down to Geoje to take care of you, so I just spoke casually. I told him I was reporting what you said after meeting you.”
“Mm. Then that’s settled cleanly enough.”
I nodded and tapped the empty sushi container with my chopsticks.
“Hey, but these sushi are seriously good. Where’d you get them?”
“Right? I picked them up near Gohyeon Port. They say it’s the most famous place on Geoje Island.”
“Ah, really? No wonder the fish was so springy...”
Hm?
I had been focusing on the sushi and continuing an ordinary conversation with Yerin when I noticed something outside.
Vehicles were approaching in a line beyond the window.
At the front was a Mercedes S-Class, followed by a Genesis G80.
At the very end, even a food truck was trailing along behind them.
In the open lot in front of the lodging building, the moment the vehicles came to a stop, the rear door of the leading Mercedes opened and an old man with a lean but sturdy frame stepped out.
Even in a perfectly tailored suit, the rough, seasoned air of a man from the shop floor couldn’t be hidden.
It was Solaris Marine’s Chairman Song Tae-hwan.
“Chairman! You’re here!”
Director Go Kwangsoo and the Solaris employees who had been waiting off to one side of the yard rushed out all at once.
Chairman Song chuckled heartily and gave Kwangsoo’s shoulder a few thumps.
“Yeah. I hear everyone worked hard. They say our submarine turned out good and sturdy?”
“Oh, no, sir. It’s all thanks to the chairman sparing no support.”
“Nonsense. The people who shave steel on the line are the best. Tonight, I’m treating everyone properly!”
With Chairman Song’s hearty shout, the food trucks that had followed in the rear all opened their side doors at once.
As meat hit the steel griddles, a sizzling sound and a mouthwatering smell spread through the air.
A Solaris employee lifted a megaphone and shouted.
“Everyone, thank you for your hard work! Tonight’s dinner is unlimited steak and fried rice! It’s on the chairman, so please enjoy yourselves!”
“Woooo!”
The cheers of exhausted employees split the night sky.
The yard transformed in an instant into a noisy festival ground.
I leaned against the terrace window and looked down at the scene.
“They went big. Even brought a food truck.”
“We should go down and at least say hello.”
Yerin came up beside me as she spoke.
She wasn’t wrong.
After all, we had been working on someone else’s project, so if the owner had come, it would be proper to show our faces.
“Yeah. Let’s go down.”
I stepped outside with Yerin.
As we made our way through the boisterous crowd, Chairman Song, who had been encouraging the employees, turned his head toward us.
His sharp eyes swept over me from head to toe.
Director Go hurried over and whispered in his ear.
“Chairman. That young man is Executive Director Baek from Hanseo. The one who tamed the vibration.”
“Oh-ho, really?”
Chairman Song strode over.
“So you’re Executive Director Baek Gunwoo! You’re the one who made the Yuan-class go blind, huh? Good job. Really good job!”
His rough, blunt hand came down on my back with a series of loud thumps.
The force behind it made my bones ring.
“You worked hard, so this is my little token of appreciation. Take it.”
As if he had prepared it in advance, Chairman Song produced a thick envelope stuffed with cash from his chest pocket and placed it in my hand.
Just by feel, it was quite heavy.
There was no reason to refuse money given freely.
“I’ll gratefully accept it, Chairman.”
As I gave a light bow, Chairman Song’s gaze turned to Cho Yerin standing beside me.
His eyes narrowed in an oddly knowing way.
“Hm? Yerin, what brings you here?”
“Hello, Chairman. It’s been a while.”
Yerin greeted him lightly with a friendly smile.
The world of business was a small one.
If he had watched her grow up, there was no way they wouldn’t know each other.
“Executive Director Baek is one of the most important people in our company, so I came to take care of him personally.”
“Hah, is that so? Chairman Cho must spoil him terribly. Well, I suppose leaving such a treasure alone down in the provinces would make anyone nervous. You’re very commendable.”
Chairman Song laughed heartily and tossed out the joke.
It was a warm, easy conversation.
The smell of grilling steak and the sound of people laughing mixed together pleasantly.
It was peace itself, the kind of after-work gathering everyone wished for.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
But that peace did not last long.
The harsh beat of helicopter rotors split the sky over Geoje.
At first everyone looked up, thinking it was just a Navy helicopter in training.
The roar, sharp enough to tear the eardrums, drew closer and closer, until the giant aircraft began descending toward a broad open area far from the lodging.
Thanks to that, we could see it.
The logo clearly marked on the side of the aircraft, followed by the words Hanseo Defense.
The broad smile on Chairman Song’s face vanished at once.
“Why the hell is a helicopter coming from Hanseo all of a sudden? Did something urgent come up that you need to go back for?”
He turned to Yerin with a dissatisfied look, but before the question had even finished...
The helicopter settled fully onto the landing spot, and someone stepped out through the gale of the rotor wash.
It was Chairman Cho Seunghyun in a suit.
Instantly, the air around us seemed to freeze.
Chairman Song narrowed his eyes.
“Why the hell is that old bastard here?”
Watching Chairman Cho approach, Song said in a voice thick with annoyance.
Was it only a minute later?
Chairman Cho, having disembarked from the stopped helicopter and walked over here, spotted Chairman Song and grinned.
“Ah, so you were here. Long time no see.”
“This is my front yard. What business do you have here, Chairman Cho?”
“One of my people is here. That’s why I came. Surely that’s not your concern, is it?”
Chairman Cho came closer with an easy laugh.
Then he laid a hand on my shoulder and spoke.
“My boy has caused quite a stir in somebody else’s waters. As his father, I can’t just stand by.”
“A stir? What nonsense are you spouting?”
“I’ve been handed full authority over the supercavitating torpedo by the Chief of Naval Operations. So I came down to get the seal stamped before the ink on the contract even has a chance to dry.”
Chairman Cho’s voice was calm.
But to Chairman Song and Solaris Marine, the meaning was no different from a nuclear bomb.
It was a notification that Hanseo Defense, a rival company, had just placed a perfect spoon into the supercavitating torpedo they had spent the past several years and enormous sums developing.
“...What?!”
Chairman Song’s face flushed hot all at once, turning bright red.