Authors: Jonathan L. Howard
“
Orders, sir?
”
Katya rolled over and found Petrov crouching nearby the engineer who’d asked the question. Of course, she thought
;
with Captain Zagadko dead then Petrov was the new commanding officer. As in any military hierarchy, the chain of command is never broken.
“
We’re leaving,
”
said Petrov bluntly.
“
I think the
Vodyanoi
’s crew have their hands full and don’t sound as if they’re having an easy time of it. If we stay here, whatever is killing them will exterminate us like fish in a liquidiser.
”
He stood up.
“
Everybody! We’re leaving here and heading for the second dock. This place is still well signposted, Lieutenant T
okarov? Good. Make your own way
there and don’t be afraid to take circuitous routes. Getting there quickly isn’t important, only getting there alive matters. Don’t bunch up and don’t get killed. Go!
”
He was the first to the door and, after a fast look to check that the pirates really were too involved in combat to notice them, led the way. Katya felt her uncle take her hand in his but didn’t look up at him.
“
Is he doing the right thing, uncle?
”
she asked.
“
It’s crazy to go out there. It’s suicide to stay. Yes, it’s the right thing to do. Let some more Feds go
and then we’ll take our chance
.
”
They waited in the shadows as the room thinned out by ones and twos. Katya had assumed some crewmembers were behind them so it was a shock when they found
that
they w
ere the
last ones. They crept closer to the destroyed wall and listened but could only hear the occasional crack of maser fire, now sporadic and reflexive. Lukyan squeezed her hand and they stepped out into the corridor.
Tasya the Chertovka, the She-Devil, was waiting for them, her gun levelled and ready.
“
Kane sent me to let you out. Said you deserved a chance. And here I find you scurrying into the shadows like vermin.
”
Her lips thinned and she raised the gun to aim at the ceiling.
“
Very wise.
”
“
What’s attacked?
”
demanded Katya.
“
How can the
Leviathan
reach us in here? It’s too big, it can’t possibly have got up that tunnel.
”
“
It didn’t need to. Come on, we have to get moving unless you want to end up like that.
”
She gestured casually at the floor. Katya looked down and found the pirate w
ho’d threatened her at the door -
or half of him at least. From the navel upwards he’d been vaporised. He’d been right on the other side when whatever had hit the wall had struck. He had never stood a chance.
Strangely, the sight was less horrifying than she would have thought; grotesque rather than nauseating. The stench of burnt human flesh was something else altogether, though, and she covered her mouth and nostrils with her hand until the half-corpse was behind them.
Katya and Lukyan followed Tasya into the warren of tunnels at a trot.
The emergency lighting was patchy; whole stretches of corridor were in darkness and they had to stumble along holding hands.
“
We can’t slow down,
”
hissed Tasya at one point,
“
it can see in the dark.
”
“
What is it?
”
asked Lukyan, full of frustration, but the She-Devil didn’t answer. Perhaps she just wants to get us out of the way and then abandon us, thought Katya. Or perhaps shoot us and report back to Kane that she couldn’t find us. This was the woman who’d led Terran troops through the maintenance tunnels beneath the Dory industrial complex to launch an attack on half-built warboats as they sat in their dry docks, the woman who’d murdered the yard’s supervisor in front of the workers because he wouldn’t open the hatches to the munitions stores. She was a war-criminal, a cold-blooded killer, a traitor to the Russalkin people and she was holding Katya’s hand right that minute. Katya tried to concentrate on not tripping over anything
rather than
the possibility that the last thing she’d ever know would be the Chertovka’s gun barrel being clapped to her temple. It wasn’t easy.
Then the darkness started to thin with red light leaking around the angle of the corridor ahead and Katya could see a little again. What she couldn’t see was Lukyan.
“
Where’s your uncle?
”
asked Tasya suspiciously.
“
He was holding your hand,
”
Katya snapped back.
“
What have you done?
”
“
My hand? He was holding your hand.
”
She looked back into the gloom from which they were emerging.
“
He’ll have to make his own way. Come on.
”
“
No!
”
Katya shook herself free from the Chertovka’s grip.
“
I’m going back for him!
”
“
Suit yourself.
”
The Chertovka started on ahead.
“
But you’ll never find him. We’ve passed the heads of a dozen corridors in the dark. He could have wandered down any of them. You’ve more chance of running into…
”
She paused and looked back.
“
Come on, girl. You don’t know what’s back there. I wouldn’t leave my worst enemy to that thing.
”
“
What about my uncle?
”
“
He’s a survivor. I know his type – clever and cautious. He won’t take any chances. You’ve got a rendezvous point, haven’t you?
”
Katya reluctantly nodded.
“
Then he’ll be there. You should be concentrating on reaching it too. He’ll be worried if you’re not there to meet him.
”
Katya knew she was right, but pride made her hesitate for a moment before following.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Katya asked,
“
What attacked you?
”
Tasya chuckled dryly.
“
You’ve been bursting to ask me that ever since we met in that corridor, haven’t you?
”
She sobered.
“
Some sort of robotic drone. It came out of the moon pool and opened fire before we knew it was there.
”
“
It carries a laser, doesn’t it?
”
The Chertovka paused in her walking and looked at Katya with an eyebrow raised as if examining an interesting specimen. She started walking again.
“
Havilland has quite a high opinion of you, Katya Kuriakova. I can see why. What makes you say it has a laser?
”
“
I saw what it did to the wall of the room we were being held in. A maser wouldn’t do that. I’ve read about lasers but I’ve never seen one in operation.
”
She frowned.
“
None of this makes sense.
”
“
Why not?
”
Katya noticed that Tasya had slowed her
walk, the better to look at her
. She didn’t know whether being of such interest to a wom
an like the Chertovka was a
desirable situation.
“
Look, m
asers are common sidearms because they’re great for killing people, but not so good for punching through metal and plastic
, right?
”
Tasya nodded.
Of course,
Katya thought,
she
would
know all about weapons.
“
Lasers and bullets penetrate;
that makes them bad choices. A gunfight that lets the ocean in doesn’t leave any winners.
”
“
Then we should be careful because, believe me, that drone carries a big laser.
”
Katya shook her head.
“
But that’s not the point. Why is it carrying a laser at all?
We went through all this in tech classes. High energy lasers are expensive to build, and they’d make
pathetic weapons underwater
anyway
. Even
with an X-ray laser
, water refracts the beams. That’s apart from the water boiling and then turning into plasma in front of the beam,
giving you
even worse scattering. The effective range of a laser with a range of hundreds of kilometres in air will be a few metres at most underwater.
”
“
That’s all they needed. I’ve looked at your uncle’s minisub. One of those drones sunk it with a laser bolt; same with the hole in the
Novgorod
’s salvage maw. They can get close enough, that’s a given.
”
“
But why? Why go to all the trouble when a normal torpedo with a simple explosive warhead could do the same
with none of the
cost and trouble? It makes no sense. The
Leviathan
’s drones have only shown what they’re really capable of when one has got out of the water.
”
“
And that’s your conclusion?
”
Katya hadn’t
been deliberately
working towards a conclusion, but suddenly realised
that this answered the questions that had been bothering her all along
.
“
It was never designed for submarine combat. Its drones can do the job, but its real function is to fight in the dry.
”
She imagined what would happen if it reached Lemuria, standing off while its drones patrolled the corridors, cutting down all resistance with their terrible laser cannon, not caring if they brought the ocean crashing through ruptured walls.
“
We can’t let it reach Lemuria,
”
she breathed, shaken by the terrible vision.
“
Very much what Havilland said,
”
replied Tasya,
“
but
he was short on details as to how to manage it too. One drone killed five or six of the Vodyanois before they had a chance to draw their guns
. Even when we returned fire, we
did nothing to it. Maser bolts barely register and bullets bounce off. If you’ve got any bright ideas on how we can stop it, I’d be fascinated to hear them.
”
Katya was silent.
“
Thought as much. In that case, we’ll just carry on running.
”
Two hundred metres further down the corridor, Tasya abruptly pulled Katya to one side, putting her hand over her mouth, and Katya thought she’d finally lost her patience and was going to kill her. Instead, she signalled Katya to be silent and left her crouching in the shadows while she moved ahead in utter silence, her gun drawn. She braced against the edge of an alcove where some equipment must once have stood before the base was stripped, focussed, and spun around the edge as she brought the maser pistol to bear. Katya thought she heard a gasp of surprise and terror. The Chertovka growled with exasperation and reached into the alcove with her free hand.
“
Get out of there, you worm,
”
she hissed, and dragged Suhkalev out into the open. He was whimpering so pathetically that Katya couldn’t help but feel at least a little sorry for him.
“
You’re a poor excuse for a Federal agent, aren’t you?
”
Tasya said as he sprawled on the plastic decking plates.
“
If they were all like you, life would be a lot easier for the likes of me. Stop that blubbering before I stop it for you.
”
“
Leave him alone,
”
Katya found herself saying.
“
He’s been through a lot.
”
Tasya looked at her with surprise.
“
No more than you, Katya Kuriakova, and you’re bearing up well.
”
Katya knew it was true but wasn’t going to agree. She didn’t know why she hadn’t come apart at the seams yet; she found it hard to believe it had anything to do with bravery. She didn’t feel brave and surely you felt it when you were brave? She felt scared most of the time. The only thing that seemed to keep her going was the pragmatic streak that had used to drive her friends mad whenever they wanted to
just be crazy and have some fun once in a while
.
“
I’m scared,
”
she said to Suhkalev,
“
I’m scared too. But we have to keep moving.
”
“
We’re all scared,
”
growled Tasya, exasperated. She was looking back down the corridor as if she expected the
Leviathan
’s drone to appear at any moment.