Unfathomed (The Locus Series Book 1)

by Ralph Kern

  “Please don’t equate us with those savages,” Vaughan said. “You will simply record a message saying that we wish for no further violence. If this locus happens to pan out, that is.”

  “And if they do want to shoot, every ship has hostages on board. Very civilized.”

  “Mister Vaughan, we’re getting a message from Karl.” A bridge crewman cupped his hand to the earphone.

  Vaughan darted a furious look at the crewman, who was looking intently at his radio set and missed the glare.

  “He’s asking for extraction again. What should I tell him?”

  Laurie’s face took on a confused expression. Jack lightly tapped her leg with his foot, catching her attention and shook his head slightly before Vaughan could turn back to them.

  “Tell him to wait a moment,” Vaughan said through gritted teeth.

  The crewman nodded. “Karl, we’ll have to get back to you.”

  “You two will have to excuse us.” Vaughan gestured at the guards. “Please return them to their quarters.”

  ***

  The heavy metal hatch closed with a slam, and Jack heard the sound of it being locked.

  “What was that about?” Laurie asked. The room was spacious with just the two of them in it now, yet it still smelled of stale sweat from the hundred people who had previously been packed in there. The hundred people who were now distributed throughout the fleet as human shields.

  “They’ve had someone on board the whole goddamn time,” Jack said, his voice a mix of wonder and anger. “That man who was picked up the day after we lost contact with land. His name’s Karl, Karl Grayson. Sonovabitch. This whole time he’s been working for the pirates.”

  “Jesus,” Laurie breathed. “The attack on Ignatius? He was responsible?”

  “It’s a good bet.” Jack lowered himself onto one of the cots. “And Grissom, maybe?”

  “That officer who went missing?”

  “He disappeared the day after Grayson was picked up. Maybe Grissom found out somehow?”

  “We need to tell them, before he does any more harm.”

  “Yes we do, and damn fast too.” Jack looked around the bare metal walls of the hold. Inspiration wasn’t striking him.

  ***

  “I’ve been on board this ship for three weeks, dammit,” Grayson whispered.

  “We need someone on board until we figure out this locus, Karl. Not much longer now.”

  Grayson gritted his teeth. There was always something. Some reason Vaughan was keeping him on board. He’d known this in his previous life. Those in charge always pushing for a little more. Hell, he’d been one of those doing the pushing at times.

  “Vaughan, just for the record, I’m getting seriously unhappy. Out.” Grayson finally snapped, turning the dial angrily, switching the radio off.

  Chapter 59 – Day 24

  “What the hell is that?” Bautista squinted at the strange cloud that was building ahead of them. It had coalesced into a column, stretching perfectly straight up from the sea high into the sky. Ethereal light flickered from within the dark mass.

  Standing up, he walked to the shattered window at the front of the bridge, still unrepaired after the battle of Nest Island.

  The scarred skin of his face registered the slightest of breezes. As he watched, he saw a low wave stretching across the horizon race toward the Liliana.

  In moments, it swept past the Liliana. The ship reacted with the slightest of rocking motions.

  Bautista glanced around the smashed, hastily patched together bridge. His crew looked as confused as he felt.

  The ferry rocked again, and this time the wave raced from stern to bow, heading back in the direction it had come from, back toward the column of cloud. As the ripple shrunk into the column base, a blue shaft of light speared vertically through its center .

  Bautista blindly felt for the radio, his eyes locked on the horizon. Finding the mic, he lifted it to his lips.

  “Eric? The locus. I think it’s here.”

  “We see it, Urbano.”

  Bautista looked again at his bridge crew, the men who had followed him toward the horrific meat grinder guns of the Ignatius. People who wanted to go home. Something he had sworn to himself he would do if possible.

  “Eric, we’re going to go take a look.”

  “No, hold position. You will give us away to the Ig—” Bautista cut the radio.

  “Urbano, are we going home?” the young girl, Katerina, who had the helm spoke.

  “Yes,” Bautista lowered himself into his chair. “Yes, we are. Full speed ahead.”

  With a roar, the engines of the Liliana began pushing the ferry toward the column of cloud in the distance.

  ***

  “What the fuck is he doing?” Vaughan shouted. “Get him back on the radio, now!”

  “He’s not responding,” the radio operator called.

  Vaughan stood and walked to the grimy window on the front of the bridge. The long length of the supertanker, marred by the bolted-on storage tanks and processing units of the refinery, stretched far in front, pointed straight at the strange column ahead.

  “Boss, our position is blown,” Titan’s captain murmured. “We need to go or retreat.”

  Vaughan closed his eyes. Everyone they had from their small community was aboard the ships of the fleet. Men, women, and children. If they backed off, they would lose every piece if initiative they had. And all because of that bastard Bautista.

  Vaughan opened his eyes again.

  “Forward,” he said decisively.

  ***

  “Report,” Slater called as she paced into the CIC. Her hair was wet and down around her shoulders, her dishevelment a rare sight for the crew.

  “We have some kind of atmospheric event occurring dead ahead, Captain.” Donovan stared intently at his console. “It... doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before.”

  “The locus?” She leaned over him, looking at the camera image of the cloud column, an unnatural light coursing up through it.

  “Unknown.”

  “Very well.” Slater finished buttoning up her uniform and pulled the mic off the console. She switched to the 1MC. “General quarters. All hands to general quarters.”

  Hooking the mic back on the side of the console, Slater stared at the column on the main screen. It didn’t appear to be moving, more a solid bank of cloud. From the base, where it touched the sea, there came a series of ripples, and then even more strangely, a reverse effect, like the water was being drawn back in. The pulsing affect repeating over and over.

  “Get our Seahawk up. Tell them to go take a closer look.”

  “Aye aye, ma’am.”

  “And get me Atlantica.”

  Chapter 60 – Day 24

  With a lurch, the Seahawk lifted of the pad. Clearing high over the Ignatius, Mack yawed the aircraft around, dipped the nose, and raced toward the column.

  “I’m getting no sense of abnormal wind or weather conditions,” Mack began her commentary and looked up. “I can’t tell how high this thing is, but it looks like it goes a fair way up.”

  Wearily, the Seahawk began circling around the phenomena, keeping its distance. Deep within the cloud, the light began to pulse rhythmically.

  “This is pretty goddamn X-Files,” the copilot murmured. “I fucking knew it was aliens who brought us here.”

  “Yeah, I’m beginning to believe it,” Mack responded.

  Steadily, Mack kept the helicopter spiraling upward, climbing around and around the phenomena. Glancing around, in the distance, she saw a collection of dark specs on the horizon.

  “Shit. Ignatius Actual, the goddamn pirates are here.”

  ***

  “Liam, I mean Captain, we’re picking up radar returns. Many ships,” Maine shouted.

  “Ignatius has been informed,” the radio operator called across the bridge. “She’s moving to interdict.”

  Kendricks glanced at Reynolds, the tenseness which had aged his face see
med to wash out of the old man, replaced by a zen-like calm.

  “Admiral, do you want the bridge?” Kendricks asked.

  “Not at all, my boy,” Reynolds replied with a reassuring smile. “Commanding a single ship at battle is below my pay grade, at least when I used to serve. But I stand ready to assist with whatever pearls of wisdom I can offer.”

  “Very well.” Kendricks nodded. Strangely, he drew strength from the retired admiral’s calm. “Helm, bring us about, and keep Ignatius between us and the pirates.”

  Pulling his phone out, he dialed Farelly. “Tricia, get up here. I’m going to need you on the radar piping through fire control information to the Ignatius.”

  Placing the phone down on the console in front of him, Kendricks looked around at the bridge crew.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, whatever happens, we are charged with protecting the passengers on board this vessel. We will do whatever it takes. And we will succeed. Understood?”

  The bridge crew looked at each other uncertainly. Finally, Reynolds said loudly and firmly, “We all understand.”

  One after another, the officers chorused their agreement.

  ***

  “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie,” Kendricks’s voice called from the speakers. “Passengers of the Atlantica, we have sighted the enemy. Everyone please make their way below decks to the promenade area.”

  Grayson turned from gazing at the strange column a few miles off Atlantica’s starboard side. All around him were people running for the deck entrance where their security watchdogs waved them frantically through.

  Smiling faintly to himself, Grayson joined the milling throng heading toward the safety of the interior. As he started to be swept along, he saw his opportunity.

  He twisted his way into an alcove in which a service door was recessed. Pulling it open, he saw it was an area used to store towels for the sun loungers.

  Glancing around the small room, he saw a dirty laundry bin, half full. With a grimace, he climbed inside and covered himself in a mass of damp, chlorine-smelling towels.

  ***

  Solberg slouched in his armchair staring out at the sea through the open sliding door of his stateroom. His dressing gown had fallen open, revealing he was wearing nothing but underwear underneath.

  “I say again, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie,” Kendricks announced over the PA.

  Solberg took a sip on the glass of scotch he had been nursing.

  ***

  “You’re coming with us,” The guard bellowed from the hatch.

  Jack and Laurie released each other’s hands. At some point, unconsciously, they had sought that small physical comfort with each other.

  Standing up, Jack moved forward. “Where are you taking us?”

  “Back to the bridge. Now move it.” The guard unclipped the black leather strap on his sidearm holster to emphasize his point.

  “Lead the way.”

  ***

  The Ignatius surged forward, placing herself between her charge and the pirate fleet which was thundering toward them, led by the Liliana. To one side of the colliding forces, the column lanced out of the water, high into the air; the three elements forming a triangle on the watery battlefield.

  At the base of the column, hidden by the swirling mist, something arrived. Something physical. And with keen interest, it began to watch the unfolding events.

  Chapter 61 – Day 24

  “Confirm we’re getting the fire control feed from Atlantica?” Slater crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, her demeanor one of composed confidence.

  Donovan, hunched over the laptop set on his console, nodded. “Aye, ma’am.”

  “Excellent, let’s see if they’re willing to talk, shall we? Give me Channel 16, if you please.”

  “You have the channel,” the coms operator called.

  “Pirate fleet, this is the USS Paul Ignatius,” Slater’s voice was as composed and confident as her appearance. “Your organization has taken a number of hostages. I want them back. You will disembark them from your vessels onto a lifeboat or other such small craft and withdraw.”

  The speaker was silent for long moments. Just as Slater was starting to wonder whether anyone was actually monitoring the channel, a voice spoke.

  “Ignatius. This is Titan. I’m afraid we will not be dictated to by you. I’m sure you appreciate that we are more than aware of your superior firepower. Our... guests negate that advantage. Please withdraw from the locus.”

  “It seems we have a feisty one here,” Slater murmured with a raised eyebrow. Around the CIC, the officers and crew smiled at her dry tone.

  “Titan, for the avoidance of doubt—I may want those hostages back, but I will not let their presence on your vessels stop me from defending this ship and Atlantica with all of the rather formidable weaponry I have at my disposal. You will disembark your hostages and withdraw. I am in no mood to negotiate. Weps, give me a warning shot over the lead ship.” Slater didn’t break the radio link as she issued the order.

  “Shot out.”

  The Mk 45 boomed. The shell erupted from the barrel in a cloud of smoke at over eight hundred meters a second. It whistled in a parabolic arc up and over before slamming into water close enough to the racing Liliana that the ferry was doused in spray.

  “Right where I wanted it, ma’am.”

  “Titan, as you can see, since our last encounter we’ve worked through some of the issues stemming from a little incident that occurred on my ship. I say again, release your hostages and withdraw.”

  Again, there was a long pause.

  “No.”

  ***

  Bautista felt a sickening sensation in his stomach as he heard the dreaded whistling herald of an incoming shell.

  It splashed into the water next to the ferry, spraying water over the Liliana’s flank.

  Taking a deep breath and calming himself, he shouted at his crew. “It was a warning shot. Keep going. We must reach the locus.”

  He realized he was gambling everything. Maybe once the Liliana reached the base of the cloud column, they would be magically transported home. Maybe they wouldn’t, but he believed it, he hoped it. And if he could show it was the way out of this region that had caused nothing but misery, the madness would stop.

  “Urbano, Titan is still trying to get us to come back.”

  “Ignore them.”

  The Liliana carried on racing forward, desperately striving toward the locus.

  ***

  “That little shit, fuck him,” Vaughan growled. “We’re cutting him off.”

  “Boss,” Titan’s captain gestured at the entrance where Jack and Laurie stood, watched over by the guards.

  “You two,” Vaughan stood and gestured angrily toward the radio set. “No more dicking around, send a message to the Ignatius, tell them we have distributed the hostages throughout the fleet. Every ship has at least a couple. If they don’t want their deaths on their conscience they are to stand down.”

  Laurie stepped forward. “Very well, I’ll do it. To save lives.”

  “Good,” Vaughan said. “We’re on the same wavelength then. Now get to it.”

  Laurie walked to the radio and the crewman stood, making space for her. She lowered herself slowly to the chair and hesitantly picked the mic up and examined it, finding the push button on the side.

  “Captain Slater, Captain Solberg. If you can hear me, they have split the hostages up among the fleet. If you hit any of the ships, you will kill them.”

  There was a moment’s silence, then Reynold’s cultured tones were heard, “Your message is received.”

  Like Jack had told her, Laurie fought every instinct to refer to him as her father. It would just give the pirates more ammunition. She closed her eyes briefly, fighting it. She longed to be told that everything was going to be okay by her father. Opening them, she glanced at Jack before saying into the mic as clearly as she could. “Karl Grayson is a pirate. He’s one of them. He is—”

  Vaugha
n reached across, snatching the mic out of her hand, and gave her a savage backhanded slap, knocking her off the chair.

  Jack turned and punched the guard with all of his strength in the mouth. The guard reeled back, momentarily dazed. Jack followed it with a second punch, then a third, and the guard’s nose flattened under the blow and he fell to the floor.

  Jack fumbled for the guard’s sidearm, drawing it out of the holster. He turned, bringing the weapon to bear on the pirate leader.

  Vaughan was standing, Laurie before him, with the barrel of a gun jammed into the side of her head.

  ***

  “Karl Grayson is a pirate. He’s one of them. He is—”

  The radio cut off and Reynolds stared at it for a moment before gently placing it down.

  Kendricks gently squeezed the old man’s shoulder. “She’ll be okay. She’s a valuable resource to them. They won’t do anything to her. They clearly know the value of having hostages.”

  “Stupid girl,” Reynolds murmured. “Stupid, brave bloody girl.”

  “Admiral, take a moment please, but I’ve got to get back to business.”

  Like the fact Karl Grayson, that ungrateful bastard, has been playing us all along.

  Grabbing his phone, he dialed the acting head of security. “Karl Grayson, the man we picked up from that yacht... yeah him. Find him and detain him... yes, now. And be careful, he’s dangerous.”

  Chapter 62 – Day 24

  “Permission to engage, Ignatius.” Mack yawed the helicopter around, keeping out of range of the battered white ferry that had lanced ahead of the main pirate fleet.

  “Negative at this time, we have possible hostages on board the enemy vessels. Continue reconnaissance mission.”

  “Dammit,” Mack muttered.

  The weather phenomena was on her left, the huge mysterious tower of grey mist dominating the seas. Mack couldn’t help glancing at it - then gave a double take. The light was gone. She couldn’t decide if it was ominous, or a sign of hope.

  ***

  Someone had briefly come into the towel room, presumably looking to see if anyone was within, and then left.