Unfathomed (The Locus Series Book 1)

by Ralph Kern

  After a few minutes, Grayson climbed out of the bin, his nose twitching from the musty scent and chlorine, and walked to the hatch. The only illumination in the room was from a single emergency light, just bright enough to be able to navigate the bins and cabinets containing the laundry.

  Pressing his ear against the hatch, he listened intently. He couldn’t hear a thing through it. Opening it slightly, he glanced out and looked around. The deck was deserted.

  Pulling it fully open, he stepped out onto the deck and walked to the rail. Far beyond in the slowly setting sun, the misty tower stood uncaring as the tiny black speck of a helicopter circled it.

  Disregarding it for the moment, he pulling out his CB. “Anyone listening in, this is Grayson. I’m still aboard this goddamn ship.”

  “Karl?” A voice he recognized, Bautista, responded.

  “Urbano, where the hell are you?”

  “I’m heading for that tower thing. The big cloud.”

  “You’re not far from the Atlantica. Can you get me extracted?”

  “The Ignatius is between us and you, there’s no way I’m taking my ship near that thing.”

  Fuck! Grayson thought. There wasn’t a chance he could swim for it.

  “You. Freeze!”

  Grayson looked around. A team of security officers were streamed through the doors leading inside Atlantica, some of them with shotguns on display.

  Turning, Grayson sprinted as fast as he could away from them toward the stern of the ship. The sound of a gunshot rang out and he heard the zip and ping as a bullet passed him close by, striking metal.

  He reached a set of automatic glass door which stubbornly refused to open. He was dimly aware it led into a videogame arcade and children’s play area.

  Grabbing a red fire extinguisher of the wall, he hefted it and slammed the base into the glass as hard as he could. The pane shattered into a million pieces. Grayson ran through, his pursuers not far behind.

  Looking left and right as he ran through the arcade, beeps and rings of the video games emanated from all around him, he saw a white service door and crashed through it. Finding himself in a stairwell, he started down.

  ***

  The Ignatius had turned to present her broadside to the pirate fleet, her Mk-45 turned to bear on them, along with a bushmaster and the CIWS. Behind her Atlantica waited, her engines were primed and ready to go to emergency dash. Save the Titan, she was the biggest, most cumbersome vessel, but once she got to full speed, she wouldn’t be stopped easily.

  From Mack’s vantage point, far over the battlefield, she could see at least two dozen frothy white Vs making their way toward the two ships. If they got much closer, they would be able to swarm even Ignatius’s myriad defenses.

  Yet the first ferry was the most curious. It had departed the fleet and was intent on making its way to the locus at full speed, diverting away from the mass of her sister ships.

  ***

  “I suggest you drop the gun.” Vaughan screwed his weapon into the side of Laurie’s head, causing her to yelp in pain.

  Jack had Vaughan’s own head neatly in his sights. He was stood in a textbook weaver stance, one foot in front of the other, already controlling his breathing, ready to take the shot.

  At this distance, he knew he stood a good chance of hitting him, as long as the weapon was zeroed properly. But that was something he couldn’t guarantee. He certainly wasn’t confident given the dilapidated appearance of the rest of the ship.

  He wasn’t willing to risk Laurie.

  But he was certainly willing to risk “selling the lie” that he would.

  “Vaughan, lower your weapon, or I will shoot. Do it now,” Jack shouted.

  Vaughan dragged Laurie in closer, his arm wrapped around her neck and shoulders, the side of his head just visible. “I don’t think so. You shoot me, you’ll hit her. Even if you get me,” Vaughan’s one visible eye flicked around the room, “the rest of my crew will take you both down.”

  Goddamn, but he’s cool. Jack thought. His options were limited; he was in a no-win scenario. He knew it, and worse, Vaughan knew it. He needed to change something and fast.

  “If you kill us, there’s nothing to stop Ignatius from destroying this ship and killing everyone on board.”

  “Jack,” Vaughan chuckled before becoming serious again. “How would they know? Besides, when the locus is found to be nothing but a pipe dream, they will know they need this ship. It’s the only source of fuel on this godforsaken sea.”

  Keeping his gun trained on Vaughan, Jack slowly sidestepped around, seeming to be striving to get a better angle for a shot on him. Vaughan tugged Laurie around, keeping her positioned between them.

  “That’s a fair point,” Jack said. “But they don’t need you.”

  Grabbing the mic off the console he was now next to, he pushed the button and shouted, “Fire on Titan’s bridge. Now.”

  “What the fuck?” Vaughan roared. At that moment, he stepped slightly away from Laurie, and that was all Jack needed. The shoulder of Vaughan’s arm became clearly visible as the bridge crew began sprinted for the exits.

  Jack squeezed the trigger, the gun barked, and a red bloom appeared on Vaughan’s shoulder. He spun around, both from the impact and a vain effort to flinch away from the pain.

  Vaughan fell to the floor on all fours. He scrambled up and ran for the open hatch, Laurie’s staggering figure momentarily blocking Jack’s sight just long enough for him to get away.

  Jack limped as fast as he could to Laurie and dragged her under a console.

  ***

  “Ma’am?” The weapons officer called in response to the radio call.

  “Can you hit the bridge accurately?”

  “Yes, I thin—”

  “Fire,” Slater leaned forward.

  “Ma’am, the fuel if I miss?”

  “I said fire!”

  “Shot out.”

  The Mk-45 cannon roared. The five-inch cannon shell raced up the cannon barrel, erupting from the muzzle at over twice the speed of sound. In a little over three seconds, it reached the top of its arc.

  ***

  Second five-inch projectile fired.

  Origin: USS PAUL IGNATIUS

  Target

  .....

  ..........

  ....................

  TITAN

  Time on target: six seconds

  LaWS active. Engage. Occluded. No Effect.

  ***

  The shell began to arc down, streaking toward the T-shaped bridge superstructure. The Ignatius wasn’t as accurate as when she was fully operational, but even with her much-diminished capability, she could still hit where she wanted to... roughly.

  The shell slammed into the port wing of the Titan’s bridge, burrowing through layers of metal before lancing out of the other side. The fuse, designed to detonate the explosives in the shell a fraction of a second after impact, exploded in midair behind the superstructure, flaying layers of metal at the rear of the bridge section.

  ***

  “Fire ineffective. Looks like the round passed through,” Donovan cried out.

  “Understood,” Slater acknowledged. “Adjust fire.”

  ***

  Jack shook his head, clearing it before crawling out of from underneath the console Laurie and he had hidden beneath. The port side of the bridge superstructure was wrecked, the shell having passed through from front to back. The explosion had opened a hole in the corner of the bridge, and the sea was visible rushing by below.

  A bullet pinged off the console next to him.

  “Stay down,” Jack shouted to Laurie as he lifted his weapon and fired.

  ***

  Grayson sprinted onto the muster deck he had by chance found himself on, looking left and right.

  He was gambling everything on the fact he could use one of the lifeboats to escape. The question was though, could he activate the cranes from the boats themselves?

  He saw a lifeboat that was o
pen and clambered inside. Inside he saw the ladder amidships and climbed into the turret-like cockpit. It wasn’t complicated within, and to someone with Grayson’s maritime knowledge, made sense.

  He flicked the electronics master switch and with the whirr of fans, the control computer quickly booted up. The central screen activated, showing a number of options. He tapped an icon blinking DEPLOY. The screen was replaced with two more options. CRANE ASSIST and FREEFALL.

  “Oh?” Grayson cocked his head, before giving a shrug and tapping freefall.

  ***

  “Fire adjusted, ma’am,” Donovan shouted.

  “Fire.”

  “Shot out!”

  The Mk-45 Cannon boomed again.

  ***

  From the cloud column of the locus, a gleaming white dagger-like prow raced out of the mist.

  A bulbous turret atop the prow of the strange ship whipped around. The telescope-like fixture emerging from the turret began to track the arc of the five-inch round. The shell began to glow, a visible ember streaking across the sky. With a thud, the heavy shell exploded in mid-flight.

  Slowly, the white ship revealed itself further as it cleared the base of the cloud column. It was sleek, beautiful, with long graceful tapering lines, only marred by equipment that seemed unceremoniously bolted on. A much bigger radar mast than seemed right sat atop the bridge. Four box-like missile launchers and storage containers covered every available piece of deck area.

  Over Maritime Channel 16, a firm voice announced, “All ships. Cease combat operations. Any further fire will be met with deadly force.”

  To emphasize the voice’s point, one box launcher swung and faced Ignatius, the other the direction of the approaching pirate fleet.

  ***

  “What the hell is that?” Mack called out.

  She yawed the Seahawk around, bleeding off altitude. The locus cloud swung into view. At the base she could see a huge yacht.

  ***

  Kendricks and Reynolds stood, looking over the strange vista before them. Ignatius defiantly stood between them and the pirate fleet. They were confused at this new player, the strange yacht sailing out of the cloud-column and the firm, mysterious voice that had spoken over Channel 16.

  “Sir, we have a deployment on Lifeboat 12,” Maine shouted.

  “What the hell?” Kendricks said, snapping his attention to the bridge officer. “Override!”

  Maine looked up. “I can’t. It’s controlled locally, Captain.”

  Kendricks glanced at Reynolds and growled, “Grayson.”

  ***

  With a rumble, the arms of the crane extended out from the side of the ship, the lifeboat swinging in the dolly beneath.

  “Fasten harnesses, ejection 10 seconds. Mark.” A female voice called out loudly.

  Grayson struggled into the harness as the crane slammed to a halt. Outside the cockpit, he could see the security officers gathering on the muster deck. One of them pointed a handgun at him and fired. He flinched as the round starred the window.

  The arm of the crane attached to the front of the lifeboat gave another push, extending out a little further. leaving the lifeboat pointed thirty degrees out from the hull. With a lurch the whole dolly tilted forward and Grayson felt himself suspended in the harness.

  “3... 2... 1. Deploy.”

  Grayson felt his stomach rise into his chest, as if he was on a roller coaster. With a cry of “Oh shit!” the lifeboat slid out of the harness and plunged the twenty meters to the water.

  With a huge splash, the mega lifeboat submerged. The view before Grayson was a cloud of bubbles. Within seconds the lifeboat surfaced and began bobbing in the water.

  “Jesus,” Grayson muttered, the only pause he was going to give himself. Looking over the controls, he activated the engine and began pulling away from the bulk of Atlantica.

  ***

  “What happened to our shell, Mister Donovan?” Slater called out.

  “Some kind of misfire, ma’am.”

  Slater gritted her teeth and stood, staring intently at the CIC master screen which was focused on the mysterious vessel.

  Chapter 63 – Day 24

  “LaWS is still on auto engage, anything that comes our way will be taken out. We have our Harpoons all locked on the Ignatius and the significant assets in the opposing fleet. Say the word and they’re all going to the bottom of the sea.”

  “Thank you, Richard,” Conrad Wakefield replied. The bridge of the Osiris would have made Atlantica’s appear primitive. The crew were seated on grey leather chairs facing black glass touchscreen displays.

  No expense had been spared. Even before she had been modified for her current purpose, she was one of the fastest vessels for her size with defenses which would give a warship pause. Now, she was immeasurably more lethal and capable.

  Sleek, beautiful, and at one hundred and forty meters long, she wouldn’t have looked amiss in any billionaire superyacht harbor. Which was fitting, as that was what she was originally designed for. Except now she was equipped with nearly as many weapons as the Ignatius. On her flanks were boxy missile launchers containing a mix of lethal Harpoon anti-ship missiles, devastating Tomahawk cruise missiles, and an array of lighter anti-aircraft missiles. On her superstructure there was a CIWS, just as capable as the Ignatius’s.

  It was what was on her bow that tilted the advantage in the Osiris’s favor, a LaWS —a Laser Weapon System. A turret-mounted weapon capable of targeting and destroying anything that came the her way with its 200kW beam. Quite the coup for the Osiris’s owner to obtain.

  Leaning back in his chair, Wakefield spoke, seemingly into the air, “All vessels stand down. We are more than capable of sinking every last one of you. Oh, and Atlantica, our analysis suggests you are acting as fire control for that warship. Shut down your radar or I’ll shut it down for you.”

  ***

  “Can they do that?” Kendricks looked at Reynolds.

  The retired admiral was looking through a pair of binoculars at the column of cloud which had started to lean over in a direction dictated by the wind. Streamers of mist poured off it. At the rate it was dispersing, within minutes it would disappear.

  “I... don’t know,” Reynolds said slowly. “That ship seems to have advanced capabilities. They took out Ignatius’s shells in mid-flight. That’s very high-end military technology. As of when I retired, the Royal Navy was only just getting there and we had years of work before it would become operational.”

  “If we shut down the radar, Slater will be blind. She won’t be able to fight back against that thing,” Kendricks said.

  “Without her VLS, she would struggle anyway.”

  ***

  “We are not going to be the first U.S. warship to surrender since the USS Pueblo,” Slater growled. “What precisely are we looking at here?”

  The weapon systems operator looked intently at his console, trying to divine meaning from the information washing across it.

  “I’m hamstrung, ma’am. We’ve got some kind of EM hitting us. But without the AN/SLQ, I can’t tell if it’s a weather scanner or an attack radar, but it’s strong and focused. I’d go with the latter.”

  “And what took out our shells?”

  The officer could only shrug. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say a LaWS. It’s the only thing in the inventory that could.”

  “Can we defeat it?”

  “I...” The officer shrugged again. “We can try saturating it with cannon fire. It seemed to take a second or two to cook off a round but...”

  We have seventeen rounds left in the cannon feed before we have to reload, but we can only fire every three seconds. They can pick off the rounds as we fire them, unless there’s some kind of limit on them cycling the LaWS, Slater calculated furiously.

  “I said, shut down the radar. You have five seconds to comply.”

  Keying her console, Slater said, “Atlantica, shut down your radar. We have an attack solution.”

  “Okay, H
eather. I’m closing it down,” Kendricks’s voice replied.

  “Give me Channel 16,” Slater said. “If I call for it, empty our damn cannon at them, but hold till I do.”

  “Aye aye, ma’am. You have Channel 16... now.”

  “Unidentified vessel, this is Captain Heather Slater of the USS Paul Ignatius. At this time, I am unwilling to cease defense of this vessel or the M/S Atlantica. I am however willing to talk if the pirate fleet heaves to.”

  The silence over the radio extended for a long moment. “Captain Slater, that sounds reasonable. All vessels, cease maneuvering.”

  ***

  The round pinged off the console Jack and Laurie were hidden behind. The pirates were attempting to take back their bridge, and were firing from both of the entrances.

  “Jack, are you hearing this?” Laurie shouted.

  Jack popped his head over the console and returned fire at one of the pirates who had darted into the room. With a clunk, the slide on the handgun locked back. He was empty.

  “I’m out, Laurie.”

  “There’s someone new speaking on the radio. He got Ignatius to stop firing.”

  “Great,” Jack muttered. “Just when this can’t get any worse.”

  Jack looked at his handgun, then at Laurie. She was scared, that much was certain from the wideness of her eyes, the slight tremble to her lips—but what was also certain was the set of her jaw showing her strength.

  “So... any plans, Jack?”

  “Something’s changed out there, Laurie. I’m beginning to think we need to see how this is going to play out.”

  Laurie nodded. “I think so, too.”

  Jack reached across and squeezed Laurie’s hand. “It’s that or go down in a blaze of glory.”

  “As much as I like the song... no thanks.” Laurie smiled. “Would it be to cliché to ask for a kiss at last?”

  “Yes it would,” Jack said. “But clichés are clichés for a reason.”

  Jack leaned in and kissed Laurie hungrily. Within moments, Jack pulled back.

  “Let’s do this.” Raising his voice, Jack shouted, “We surrender. But before you come in shooting. Something has changed. The locus has arrived.”