Authors: Jonathan L. Howard
Unless they abandoned ship immediately, they would soon be too deep for LoxPaks to save them. Then they would have no choice but to ride the stricken vessel down into the Soup, where they would be crushed in a moment.
Kane coughed.
“
If anybody’s got any bright ideas, now would be a good moment to share them.
”
Katya had an idea, but it was so stupid, she debated sharing it for a moment.
“
Blow tanks!
”
ordered Zagadko.
The hull thrummed as water was driven out of the ballast tanks.
“
That’s helping, sir,
”
reported the steerswoman
“
We’re still sinking but nowhere near as fast. The nose is heavy but we can pull it up a little on the hydroplanes.
”
“
Not enough,
”
murmured the captain, watching the depth gauge.
“
Navigator!
”
Katya looked up, but he was talking to his own navigator. Of course, thought Katya, don’t be stupid.
“
Can we make Lemuria?
”
The navigator stabbed at some controls – Katya was once again impressed by how much better the
Novgorod
’s technology was than anything she was familiar with. On the main screen, a map of the area appeared with the stricken sub in the middle.
“
At our current rate of descent, we will make it,
”
a red circle appeared on the map,
“
this far.
”
The red circle was nowhere near large enough to encompass Lemuria Station.
The captain stepped up closer to the display.
“
All right, so we can’t hope to reach Lemuria. Anything else in the area? Research bases or mining encampments? Anything?
”
The navigator checked his files and shook his head. Captain Zagadko swore under his breath.
So, that was that. They were all going to die and, it struck Katya, that even if she did make a complete idiot of herself, there would be no witnesses soon enough.
“
Captain? Does the
Novgorod
carry any ship’s vessels?
”
“
A couple of EVA pods and that’s about it. I’m afraid we don’t have enough to evacuate the whole crew.
”
Great, thought Katya, now he thinks I’m a coward and just want to grab a pod.
“
I was thinking of reconnaissance vehicles. Flying reconnaissance vehicles.
”
The captain was confused now.
“
Two CG craft, but we have to be surfaced to launch them. I don’t…
”
His eyes lit up.
“
Great gods! Yes, I do! Tokarov!
”
Lieutenant Tokarov had already seen what Katya was getting at.
“
On my way, captain!
”
As he left the bridge at a dogtrot, Zagadko said to Katya,
“
Go with him, please, Ms Kuriakov
a
. Take a flyer each.
”
Katya didn’t need a second bidding.
She caught up with Tokarov raiding a storeroom.
“
Here,
”
he said, tossing her a spool of metal tape.
“
You’ll need a crimping gun too. Ever used this stuff before?
”
She shook her head.
“
It’s very easy. The trick is to keep the stuff taut. Loaded up? Let’s go!
”
He led the way through bulkhead door after bulkhead door until they found themselves in the section directly behind the salvage maw. She’d remembered the dark shapes up in their cradles when Kane and she had been taken from the maw to the sickbay. She was glad she’d been right about what they were.
Tokarov climbed up onto the hull of the starboard contra-gravity craft. It looked like a long surface boat with heavy outriders, which she guessed contained the forward drives. They wouldn’t be needing those; only the powerful lift units. Tokarov fed a length of tape around the craft and its cradle and crimped it shut. Katya climbed onto the port craft and started doing the same.
“
These cradles have clamps on them. Won’t those be enough?
”
The lieutenant shook his head as he laid a second length of tape further down his craft’s hull.
“
They’re just to stop the flyer falling out of the cradle in harsh conditions or during extreme manoeuvres. What we’re doing is something else again. How are you doing?
”
Katya had just managed her first binding and didn’t think the crimp sealing the tape into a continuous loop looked very secure.
“
I’m doing okay,
”
she replied, promising herself that the next one would be better.
Tokarov had the benefit of experience and longer arms and had his craft almost cocooned in the silvery tape before Katya was even a quarter done. He came over and helped and soon both craft were fastened to their cradles as thoroughly as was possible without getting out welding gear. Tokarov went to the intercom had hailed the bridge.
“
We’re ready when you are, captain.
”
“
Do it now, lieutenant,
”
snapped Zagadko’s voice in reply.
“
Time is wasting.
”
The lieutenant clambered quickly up into the cockpit of the starboard craft, Katya doing likewise for the port flyer.
“
Ever flown one of these, Ms? It’s simple. Power is just like a minisub’s.
”
Katya sought and found a bank of switches like those she’d used to fire up the
Baby
just a few hours before. It seemed impossible that things could have changed so dramatically and so awfully in so little time.
“
That’s good. Lift controls are the ones under your left hand, the slide control. On my mark, move it forward
slowly
. Ready? Three, two, one, mark!
”
Katya gently slid the control forward. As it moved, the status screen showed the amount of mass the contra-gravity units were now ignoring.
“
Approaching parity,
”
she reported. It was a phase she’d heard some pilot use in a drama about the war once. She guessed it meant that the craft now effectively weighed nothing. It sounded calm and professional and, if she’d got it wrong, at least Tokarov had the decency not to laugh at her.
“
Check,
”
he replied.
“
Keep going. Watch the tolerance meter. You want that to go through yellow into a deep orange. Not red or this has all been for nothing.
”
Katya pushed the control slowly further still. Now her craft weighed less than nothing. She noticed the tapes running across the flyer’s predatory nose growing taut as it tried to lift from the cradle. The tolerance meter was changing colour so achingly slowly that she wasn’t sure what it was from moment to moment. What if it changed so subtly that what she thought was a very deep orange was actually red? What if she fried the flyer’s CG units because she couldn’t tell?
“
I’m pulling four gravities and that’s as far as I dare take it. What are you up to?
”
asked Tokarov.
Ah, blessed numbers, Katya sighed with relief. Numbers were nice and reliable and unambiguous.
“
Three point seven, eight, nine… four gees!
”
She locked off the controls without being told to and climbed out. Tokarov jumped from his craft’s cockpit and landed in front of her.
“
Will it be enough?
”
she asked him.
“
Only one way to find out,
”
he said.
“
Come on.
”
The bridge was still quiet and Zagadko was grim.
“
Good work,
”
he said.
“
Good idea, Ms Kuriakova. Effectively cancelling out the reconnaissance flyer’s weight and giving us more buoyancy to boot has reduced the rate of descent significantly.
”
“
But we’re still sinking, sir?
”
asked Tokarov, his disappointment evident.
“
We’re still sinking. You’ve bought us some more time, though, and that’s bought us more range.
”
He pointed to the screen and the new larger red circle showing how far the
Novgorod
could go before hitting the bottom.
“
At least we’ll clear that Soup lake. No chance of making Lemuria, still.
”
“
Captain, if I might make a suggestion?
”
said Kane. He was still standing at the hatchway. He wouldn’t enter the bridge without being invited and the captain seemed adamant that he wouldn’t get such an invitation. Katya
fumed inwardly
; grown men behaving like children. She wished Uncle Lukyan were here. He’d have banged their heads and made them work together.
The captain clearly didn’t want to hear it, but under the circumstances had little choice.
“
What is it, Mr Kane?
”
he asked in a tone of deep disinterest.
“
Over there on that mountain,
”
he pointed vaguely.
Zagadko glared at him.
“
Get on
the
bridge, man, and point it out properly.
”
“
Thank you so much,
”
said Kane with politeness so perfect, it was deeply insulting. He walked over to the screen.
“
This mountain, there’s a mining base in it.
”
Zagadko shot a glance at his navigator who was already checking his files again.
“
There’s no base listed, sir,
”
he said finally.
“
You won’t find it on the active base lists,
”
explained Kane.
“
It was decommissioned five years ago. The miners have long since gone.
”
“
With no crew there, how are
we
supposed to negotiate the locks? Blast our way in?
”
“
You can if it makes you happy, captain, but it really isn’t necessary. It has a moon pool.
”
Katya could see the captain considering. A moon pool was a harbour inside a base, the water kept at bay by air pressure. A boat need only swim along a short submerged tunnel and surface at the quayside. No locks needed to keep the ocean out, no crew needed to man the locks.
“
How big?
”
asked Zagadko.
“
Big enough. It used to handle ore carriers at least as large as this boat.
”
“
Good enough. Navigation, set a course for the abandoned mining station.
”
He turned back to Kane.
“
Thank you, Mr Kane,
”
he said
with evident distaste.
“
Always pleased to help the FMA in its little troubles,
”
said Kane, and smiled back with at least as much feeling.
With her course set, her engines running at full power and the contra-gravity units of the two reconnaissance craft holding up well, there was little to do but wait and think.
Petty Officer Deliav had finally got to hand over the data he’d removed from the
Baby
’s distress buoy; the little boat’s last half an hour of instrumentation readings and control settings. Captain Zagadko and lieutenants Petrov and Tokarov watched the recreation of the events on the
Novgorod
’s computer while Katya talked them through it.
“
There seems little doubt that this huge ore deposit that so mysteriously vanished was actually the vessel that then went on to attack you,
”
said Petrov.
“
Its stealth capabilities are astonishing. I wonder why it had them all deactivated when you first detected it lying on the seabed?
”
“
We don’t
know
it is a vessel,
”
said Tokarov.
“
It doesn’t behave like any submarine I’ve ever encountered or heard of.
”
“
Of course it’s a vessel,
”
scoffed Petrov,
“
what else could it be? Or are you suggesting it’s some sort of sea monster?
”
“
Leviathan,
”
said Katya to herself.
“
What was that, Ms Kuriakov
a
?
”
Zagadko’s hearing was apparently as sharp as his intellect.
“
Oh, uh… nothing,
”
she replied, flustered.
“
Just a name I heard. My father once told me that Russalka has no myths or legends yet, but it would grow them because people needed them. He told me that Earth’s history had been full of monster legends and we’d follow suit.
”
“
Fond of Earth, is he?
”
asked Petrov tartly.
“
He died in the Battle of Lyonesse, fighting the Terran marines.
”
Tokarov shot Petrov a dirty look. Petrov bit his lip.
“
I hardly remember him. Just little things. He taught me the names of the Terran monsters and I remembered them at first because they were fun to say. Then I remembered them because they reminded me of that day.
”
She spoke the names softly like a prayer.
“
Kraken. Scylla.
Leviathan
.
”
Zagadko broke the uneasy silence that followed.
“
Ms
Kuriakova
, what do you think we’re facing?
”
She realised with a small shock that the captain of one of the most powerful warboats on the planet was asking
her
opinion. Petrov still seemed embarrassed by his gaff, but Tokarov also seemed interested in her
views
. She thought carefully and said,
“
I think it’s a machine. But I don’t think it’s a submarine, at least no sort of boat that has ever come out of our shipyards, and I don’t know how it got here. Maybe it was here all along.
”
“
Aliens?
”
said Petrov, but he wasn’t scoffing now. Humanity had always half hoped and half feared to discover other intelligent life out among the stars. Up to now it had been half disappointed and half relieved to find none.
“
Maybe,
”
she conceded,
“
but then, wouldn’t
we
be the aliens?
”
“
No, that’s not possible,
”
said Petrov.
“
No signs of intelligent life having been here before
us
has ever been found.
”
“
But the whole planet hasn’t been fully mapped,
”
pointed out Zagadko.
“
We have no idea what lies beneath the Soup. Sonar just bounces off it.
”
Katya remembered how close to a Soup lake they’d detected the
“
ore
”
deposit. In her mind’s eye, she could see that great bulk now crawling from the lake, slowly, painfully, until it had collapsed exhausted in the middle of the Weft. Then along they’d come and…
“
It was defending itself!
”
she said suddenly.
“
Of course, I’ve been so stupid.
”
She looked at the officers.
“
We shot a probe at it. How was it to know we weren’t attacking? It cloaked itself somehow and fell off our sensors, killed the probe and retaliated.
”
The realisation only served to depress her. Uncle Lukyan was dead because of a misunderstanding.
“
That may be so,
”
said the captain slowly as he weighed up the implications,
“
but it doesn’t account for its attack on the
Novgorod
. We didn’t attack it. We didn’t even see it.
”
“
Besides,
”
said Tokarov, studying the
Baby
’s frantic last seconds on the computer log,
“
its tactics are completely different. Look at this. There are four or five small contacts out there and the hull damage report issued to the distress buoy’s memory in the last moment before it was launched show multiple breaches. Hmmm, still no explosions on the hydrophones. Against us, there was one contact and damage control reports one, possibly two holes in the salvage maw and that’s it, the limit of the attack on us. It doesn’t make sense.
”
“
It makes perfect sense.
”
Zagadko whirled in irritation towards Kane, who had spoken.
“
If you’re going to join the conversation then kindly do so, Mr Kane. I, for one, find your habit of hanging around at the edges deeply annoying.
”
“
Very well.
”
Kane got up from the seat he’d taken without permission and stepped closer to them.
“
I said it makes perfect sense.
”
When he was sure he had their attention, he continued,
“
The
Baby
was destroyed quickly because it was perceived to be a threat. This vessel, entity, whatever you want to call it,
Leviathan
is as good a name as any, thought it was being attacked and defended itself. Now, it punches a couple of holes in a much larger boat and then runs away. Why? Any ideas?
”
“
It didn’t intend to sink us,
”
said Tokarov.
“
You’re quick. That’s right. Why didn’t it want to sink the
Novgorod
?
”
Katya thought Kane sounded like a maniac teacher. Who knew why the Leviathan – the more she used the name, the more fitting it seemed – had only damaged them? They’d just limp off to drydock, get fixed up and come straight back out, looking for a fight. What could it possibly gain? Then Katya thought through that sequence again and suddenly knew.
“
It wanted to see where we’d run. It wanted to know where the
Novgorod
called home.
”
“
Lemuria.
”
Zagadko was grim.
“
It wanted us to lead it right to Lemuria so it could… God’s teeth, if it hadn’t hurt us more than it had intended, we’d have led it right there. What would it have done?
”
“
I think we can make a pretty good guess,
”
said Kane.
“
That thing against an almost undefended base
..
. They wouldn’t have stood a chance.
”
“
But that means,
”
said Petrov,
“
it’s out there, right now, tracking us.
”