Fathomless

by Greig Beck

  Down at the waterline, he saw that one of the thick plates was dented, and worse, a join in the panels was showing.

  “Ah, shit. The damned thing torpedoed us.”

  Cate came and leaned out, just as the spotlights came on. The second collision hammered the Slava from further down the side of the ship, and it turned the large craft in the water. Jack had to grab at Cate to stop her going over the side.

  Jack lifted her back to her feet. “We’ve got a problem.”

  “Can it smell the whale carcass?” Cate asked.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think that’s it. The Megalodon is like the Great White in that it’s highly territorial – this patch is its own. It simply thinks its defending it against a bigger adversary.”

  “This whaling ship is nearly as armor plated as a frigate. It’ll end up knocking itself out – might be our opportunity to put an exploding harpoon into it after all.” Vincent clapped and then rubbed his hands together.

  “Knock itself out?” Jack shook his head. “Unlikely; these guys have a head that’s all cartilage and muscle mass. In humans, we’re about forty per cent muscle; but in sharks it’s typically eighty-five per cent. It’s a living torpedo, with its own armor plating.” He looked over the side as another titanic blow came from directly below them, lifting them in the water.

  “Committed,” was all Valery Mironov said, as he looked from one of the windows.

  “It’s denting the plates. If it hits twice in the same area, we might get a breach.”

  “Ah, Jesus Christ.” Vincent threw his hands up, and looked skyward. “Can we get a break here?”

  Cate looked panicked. “That’s it; we’re outta here.” She spun to Sonya and then Jack. “Sorry, but this is over. If this thing starts to sink, I am not going in that water. We need to be off, now.”

  Jack grabbed her and hugged her in close to his chest. He looked over her head to Vincent. “Get that chopper in Vince – fast. Let’s at least get some of us back on dry land.”

  “Yes, now might be a good time for a mayday.” Mironov turned back to them.

  “Yep.” Vincent raced up the steps to the bridge.

  Jack held Cate back a step. “You okay?”

  She nodded and paced away, her arms wrapped around herself.

  Jack watched her for a moment and then he, Sonya and Mironov went and looked over the side. Even though the lights only seemed to reflect the black water below, they were actually seeing down quite a few fathoms. The huge torpedo shape glided underneath them, barely moving its body at all.

  “Shit,” Jack whispered. It was even bigger than he remembered. He knew sharks, and he knew their territorial instincts meant it would never give up until the Slava was gone, or laying on the sea bottom.

  It finished its pass, having rolled in the water slightly, and he had seen the absence of claspers underneath the torso – female then. But there was something else in its shape that worried him.

  “Can’t be,” he whispered. Jack exhaled and leant back. He still remembered Greg Jamison, and he damn well wasn’t going to allow Cate or himself to end up the same way. At the very periphery of the spotlight’s illumination he saw a huge lump rise from the water, to hang there, motionless.

  “Can you see that?” Jack asked, feeling his heart race in his chest. He’d spent his entire life dealing with sharks of all shapes and sizes, but at that moment, he knew fear – the Megalodon shark was looking at them – it had lifted its head from the water, and those soulless black orbs were fixed on the people, not the boat.

  “Oh yes,” Mironov responded softly. “I think it’s counting us.”

  “Shit,” Sonya breathed.

  Vincent jogged back towards them, and Cate followed. “Good and bad news; they’ll get a chopper up ASAP – that’s the good news. Bad news is we’re fifty miles out, and that again from the nearest base.” He winced. “It’ll take them at least three hours even if they hustle.” He hiked his shoulders. “I’ve given them our location; that’s all we can do.”

  “We just wait?” Cate snorted softly. “Well then, I guess we need Olander’s boat after all.”

  Jack sighed. “Better get Captain Nemo back up here. He can at least tell his people to be on guard.”

  CHAPTER 39

  On the southern horizon, a ball of rainbow light was appearing. Olander folded his arms and widened his stance. He smiled and nodded to his shipmates who whooped and glared at the crew of the Slava.

  Olander turned to tilt his head towards Cate and Jack. “By the time you’re next allowed out on the water, you’ll all be in wheelchairs.”

  A young bearded man stuck up a finger. “Planet rapists.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Regina walked away muttering.

  Jack looked from the approaching trimaran to Olander. “Do your people have any weapons? Anything at all?”

  “Weapons?” Olander’s lip curled in derision. “The Gaia Warrior is the fastest, cleanest thing on the water, and represents a near invisible silhouette to the environment.” He pointed down at the stained deck of the Slava. “This thing is like a brass band falling down a flight of steps… where my boat is a violin in a garden.”

  Jack grimaced as he watched the locater. “The Megalodon is leaving us.” He looked up. “Heading your people’s way – you have to warn them. How many are onboard?”

  “Uh.” Olander’s brow creased. “A dozen, no, eleven now.”

  Valery Mironov lowered his field glasses and handed them to Sonya. “The poor fools.” His eyes slid to Olander. “They have no idea of what you have just invited them into.”

  “Think man, do they have any weapons, or anything to defend the ship with?” Regina yelled now.

  Panic edged into Olander eyes as he searched the deck. He put a knuckle in his mouth and chewed on it as he moved away.

  “Well?” Jack asked, reaching out to stop his pacing.

  “Boat hooks.” Olander stood a little straighter. “Why would we need anything else? We have moral justice on our side.”

  “God help them then,” Jack said. He looked back down at the tracker. “It’s moving fast – intercept course.” He looked up slowly. “They can’t outrun it. But you can damn well get on the radio and warn them, you sonofabitch.”

  “I, ah, well I suppose I can tell them to ensure they have all loose objects secured.” He licked his lips. “It’s a triple-hull design, based on an ellipse – strongest structure in nature, you know.”

  Drago jammed the portable receiver into the front of his chest. Olander cleared his throat again. Behind him, his small group of youthful crewmembers now looked a little subdued.

  He clicked open the mic. “Captain Olander to the Gaia Warrior, over.” He held the microphone away for a moment, listening. “Olander to the Gaia Warrior, over.”

  “Hiya, captain; we have you in sight. But we also have something else on the sonar. Has the Slava sent out a boat or something to meet us? Coming at us real quick – thirty knots.”

  “I, ah, have a change of plans for you. I want you to engage the engines, and head back into the shore for a bit. Seems this large shark is a little more aggressive and dangerous than first thought. Made more so by the Slava’s crew no doubt, but…”

  “You idiot.” Jack snatched the microphone from his hand. “This is Jack Monroe, marine biologist, who am I talking to?”

  “Who is this? Where’s Olander?” the voice was heavy with confusion.

  “This is urgent. Turn your ship around and head in now. There is a massive marine predator headed your way.” Jack clicked off waiting for a response.

  “Too late,” Sonya said, holding the huge field glasses to her eyes. “It’s there.” She handed the glasses to Jack, glared at Olander for a moment, and then headed back up to the bridge.

  Jack pressed the glasses to his eyes and walked to the railing. He could see the fairy-lit boat clearly. It was a magnificent looking trimaran, and he could make out tiny figures on the deck, probably all waiting
to catch sight of their heroic captain, or maybe rain abuse down on the Slava. But then he saw what Sonya had – the monstrous fin circling them for a few seconds before submerging.

  “Jesus.” He leant forward.

  Suddenly, the Gaia Warrior looked like it had struck a reef as the ship’s three hulls lifted in the air. The larger center hull had something that looked like a giant fist wrapped around the front of it, and when it pulled away, it took a large portion of the ship with it.

  Jack wondered what the boat was made of, as it seemed thin and brittle, and was probably feather-light on the water. So much for Olander’s expensive high-tech ellipse design. It might have been able to withstand the pounding of huge swells, but it was just matchsticks against something with a jaw compression force of over forty thousand pounds.

  The beautiful boat rapidly filled with water, and immediately sat lower on the surface. Jack was riveted as he saw people now running madly over the deck. At the rear of the trimaran, he could just make out small helicopter blades beginning to turn. He spoke from the side of his mouth.

  “They’ve got a chopper – it’s taking off.”

  “That’ll be Milo,” one of Olander’s crew said, as he squinted into the dark. “What’s happening over there?”

  Jack jammed the glasses back to his eyes. The Megalodon rose from the water again, this time it came up on the stern, as if trying to attack the small helicopter before it could get away. It attacked anything it could get in its mouth. It seemed to be working itself into frenzy, and Jack saw the recognizable shaking as it sawed through the wood and synthetic materials. Once this was pulled away, the ship was sitting right down at the water line. The tiny helicopter buzzed away, and Jack could swear he saw a figure hanging onto to one of the landing struts for a few dozen feet, before falling back to the water.

  Small boats were being pushed out as the Megalodon shark surged fully up onto the deck; its massive tail flicking as it pursued the running bodies. The few remaining people not in small rafts, leapt into the water. The shark then followed.

  Jack saw the recognizable surface feeding patterns – the head thrashing, the circling, the surge waves, as it took the swimmers first, and then found the crowded rafts. He thanked god he couldn’t hear the sounds of their screams.

  The magnificent boat began to fall below the surface. He finally lowered the glasses then.

  “What… happened?” Olander’s eyes were round and confused.

  “What do you think happened?” Regina grabbed at his shoulder. “Your boat, your people… they’re all gone.”

  “They just got what you deserved.” Mironov’s mouth was turned down in disgust.

  “We have rafts. What about survivors?” Olander asked.

  Jack rubbed the back of his neck, before looking up at the man. “If there are any in the water, then they won’t be alive for long. And even if they were, we couldn’t get to them anyway – you’ve seen to that.”

  The sound of a helicopter could be heard buzzing overhead. “Clear the deck; he’s going to try and put it down,” shouted Vincent.

  Regina pushed people back and then dragged some rope coils out of the way. “Gonna be tight.”

  “Nowhere else,” Jack shouted above the din. “We’re fifty miles from shore, so it’s here or ditch it in the sea.” And he knew that would be the end for the pilot.

  People scrambled now, trying to clear enough room for the helicopter to land. “Heads up.” Vincent dragged a few more of the Gaia Warrior crew out of the way. The small helicopter only needed a small pad, but the rotors were going to find it difficult to come down without striking the gunwale, bridge deck or bow cannon. If it struck anything at all, the rotor blades would most likely shatter, sending high-velocity shards all over the deck

  “Hope they know how to fly.” Regina took cover.

  The brilliant-yellow Hughes 500 chopper circled once, and then stopped to hover over the flattest portion of the deck. The only one to stay standing at his post was Alexi, holding a flashlight and waving it over his deck mounted harpoon cannon. He was determined to keep the chopper as far from his gun as he could.

  The chopper came down hard, as if the pilot was in a hurry and cut the power from six feet. It skidded for a moment, bounced towards one of the railings, and then gravity took over, holding it in place as the rotors rapidly slowed. Only one man leapt out.

  “Hey, Milo.” Jupiter stood away from the group and waved at him. “I knew it’d be you!”

  “Did you see that?” The youth put his hands to his head. “It was a fucking monster, man.”

  Olander was first out to him. “Was there anyone else? You had a spare seat on board.”

  Milo shrugged. “No one else wanted to come, Captain.” He shook his head. “We all thought it was a whale at first, so…”

  “Big mistake, bro. It ate Annabel too,” Jupiter said.

  Milo opened his arms. “But I made it.”

  “Yeah, you made it, straight from the frying pan into our fire,” Regina growled.

  Jupiter hunched. “Yeah man, we kinda fouled the prop, and we’re stuck here. We really fucked everything up this time.”

  “Guess you did your job a little too well, huh?” Milo snorted and then turned to give Sonya an apprising once over. “Never thought I’d be saved by a whaler.”

  “Saved?” Sonya’s eyes bored into him. “You put us in this mess, and one way or another, you’re going to get us out.”

  CHAPTER 40

  The next impact made Jack’s teeth clack together. This time, it was followed by a slightly different sound from deep in the bowels of the ship. Somewhere else, an alarm went off.

  “Look’s like our friend is back,” Regina said, gripping a railing.

  “What’s that alarm?” Cate’s hands tightened into fists.

  Vincent spun to race up the stairs to the bridge. “Not sure, but I’d hazard a guess and say we just sprung a leak somewhere.” He called to Drago and together they armed themselves with large flashlights and headed below decks.

  Cate looked down at her feet for a moment. She laughed with little humor in it. “We’re not going to make three hours, are we?” She looked up unto Jack’s eyes.

  He smiled, trying to radiate calm and confidence. “Of course we will. You just wait and see. This old hulk will stay afloat for many hours yet. And don’t worry, when the Coast Guard chopper gets here, I’ll make sure you’re first out.”

  “Not without you.” She hugged him tight.

  “I’ll be there.” He lifted her chin.

  She looked up into his face. “Jack, but then what? We just leave this thing in the waters?”

  He shook his head. “We can’t do that. Based on fossil records, this one looks to be a good-sized animal. But it could potentially grow much larger.”

  She smiled weakly. “Well, I guess that’ll make it easier to spot then. Thank god there’s only one them.”

  Jack let her go and turned slightly. Cate must have seen something in his face, because she grabbed at him, turning him around. “What? What is it?”

  He grimaced. “There’s only one way to tell a female from a male Carcharodon, and that’s on their underside. This one had no male claspers. When it passed underneath us, I saw it just… it just looked to have a very round shape. I think it’s a pregnant female.”

  “Oh, Jesus Christ.” Cate put a hand to her head.

  “So we could end up with two of these things in a few months,” Regina said, overhearing.

  Cate straightened. “To start with.” She turned to Regina. “Sharks are able to mate with their offspring. If it has a male pup, within a few years, they’ll be a breeding pair. They dominated the global seas for twenty million years. If they return, it’ll finish shipping worldwide for anything other than a supertanker.”

  Mironov turned to Sonya. “Take a note, my dear; must invest in international airlines when we return.”

  Sonya grinned.

  “That’s a big help, Valery.
” Cate glared.

  He shrugged. “A little graveyard humor, Cate.”

  “Bottom line, we still need to kill it, somehow, some way,” Jack said. “Just maybe not this day.”

  The boat took another hit. Cate fell backwards and Jack went to his knees. When he scrambled back to his feet, he skidded sideways a few inches. “Shit, we’re tilting.”

  The hold’s door banged open, and Vincent jogged towards them, while Drago headed for Sonya and Mironov. “I don’t need to tell you this, but were taking in water. The Slava’s pumps are working at capacity, but they’re old…” Vincent wiped his slick face, and took a few steps towards the railing. The Coast Guard officer stared out over the black water for a few seconds before drawing in a deep breath. He spoke without turning. “I think we’ve got about an hour. And that’s only if we don’t split any more plates.”

  Drago was covered in perspiration as he talked animatedly to Mironov and Sonya. The woman looked like she wanted to murder something or someone. The big Russian pointed, and Valery Mironov threw his head back to laugh. They came and joined the group.

  “It seems there’s only inflatable dinghies – two of them – just enough, hmm?” Mironov half smiled. “Lucky for us, they each have oars.”

  Regina started to laugh cruelly. “That’s a fucking death sentence.”

  Jack shook his head. “We’re not there yet.” He kissed Cate’s forehead. “Check on the Coast Guard chopper; see how far out they are.”

  She nodded and headed up to the Bridge, taking Regina with her. Mironov looked out over the dark surface as the Slava settled another inch into the water. He turned to Sonya and Drago. “We best speak to our crew. When the time comes, we’ll all need to move quickly.”

  Vincent watched them go for a moment and then came and stood in front of Jack, legs planted. “So, I’m guessing this is how every shark specialist in the world wants to end it.”

  Jack grinned. “Not in a million years, my friend.” His smile fell away, and he held Vincent’s gaze. “Vince, we need to move this clunker closer to the oncoming chopper if we’re going to have any chance of surviving. That means, the propeller needs to be untangled.”