Leviathan egt-4

by David L. Golemon

  Tyler again reacted faster than anyone. He quickly raised the weapon and fired. The round grazed Farbeaux in middive. He rolled and was struck with a sudden, flaring pain in his side above the hip. Tyler quickly adjusted his aim toward Niles and brought the director to a complete stop. The sergeant wiped the blood from his temple and then stood on shaky feet. He sluggishly stepped toward the prone Farbeaux and stood over him, the weapon aimed at his head.

  "Don't… we'll not give you any more problems," Alice said, taking a step away from Virginia by the hatchway.

  Sergeant Tyler smirked and then aimed once more.

  VIRGINIA CLASS ATTACK

  SUBMARINE USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)

  The newest Virginia class fast-attack submarine in the world was honored with a very proud moniker — the USS Missouri. In fact, she was so new that she was not even scheduled to see the water until the year 2011. After the recent run of terrorism in the world, the navy had stepped up her construction, since it was clear they needed the technology at sea, not sitting in the dry docks of Groton, Connecticut. She was silent, more silent than any vessel ever built, and made to penetrate the defenses of any port city in the world.

  Captain James Jefferson, a man specifically chosen for the duty as Missouri's first commander, had fitted her out for sea with weapons delivered by supply ship from Pearl Harbor when they had rendezvoused at Midway Island. She had just finished the last leg of her sea trials, and was supposed to be headed home to Pearl, where she would officially be commissioned in three months.

  Jefferson was destined to become the first black submarine commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet (COMSUBPAC). Now however, he had his doubts if he would ever make it to that lofty position. The duty given to him at the last minute could very well be his boat's first war mission, and its last. The rumors had spread very quickly throughout the U.S. Navy, had infected the boat while in transit from Pearl, and had gotten worse with their six-hour layover at Midway. They knew they were being attached to an international line of defense, and also that they were going up against the biggest unknown in the history of the navy — a submarine with unbelievable capabilities had killed up to ten warships, and had yet to be spotted.

  Jefferson stood looking at his navigation console and shook his head.

  "That goddamn Chinese Akula is drifting on us again. Can't those bastards maintain their station? Hell, we won't need a supersub to take shots at us, we'll sink ourselves."

  Missouri's first officer turned away from the feed he was receiving from the sonar suite.

  "He's not the only one, Captain. Now we have the Russian on our starboard drifting toward us. The Leonid had reported problems with her navigation suite earlier."

  "Damn," Jefferson said as he rubbed his chin and looked closer at the line of battle. "Izzy, I want to pull out of the line and take up station to the far starboard side of this mess. The way these two Akulas are acting, the hole we leave in the line will be filled soon anyway. I'm not risking my damn boat because two captains can't keep station for a few hours."

  "Good idea, Captain. Do we report to the lead boat?"

  "No, I'm afraid it will only confuse Captain Nevelov if we did that. Besides, he'll never hear Missouri change places."

  "Hell, we can't even hear ourselves, Captain," the first officer said as the men on watch chuckled in their agreement.

  "Izzy, back us out of line, dead slow and silent as a field mouse, before we have an accident out here. Bring us to a far-right position of the battle line."

  * * *

  Alexandria Heirthall watched on the smaller holographic screen in front of her as the Missouri started to back away from the battle line. The computer-enhanced image from nine miles away was crystal clear, and just as confusing.

  "Captain, we have aspect change on the American boat," Samuels called from the control center.

  Heirthall was wondering if the Virginia class boat had possibly heard something that dictated it move out of line. She studied the picture provided by the lasers that struck each boat in the line, and enhanced it into the shape of the actual submarines. The Russian and Chinese Akulas were keeping their stations — it was only Missouri moving away. Then she smiled as her blazing blue eyes caught the reason why. The Chinese boat to her left and the Russian to her right were drifting in the swift current of the opening to the Bering Strait. She struck her intercom.

  "We'll keep the attack profile. Give me a weapons status report, Commander."

  "Forward tubes one through twenty are loaded with standard Mark seventy conventional warheads, Captain. Vertical tubes are empty. We are ready to fire at your command. Captain, can you pick up the phone line please?" Samuels asked.

  Heirthall didn't respond. She only watched the simulation before her as the first drops of sweat appeared on her forehead and her temples. The tone in Commander Samuels's voice told her the first officer was in disagreement with her actions. As she felt the first pain-relieving effects of the Demerol she had taken, her pupils started to expand. She shook her head, confused by the doubt about her actions that had started to creep into her thought process. She closed her eyes, then reached for the phone at the side of the large command chair.

  "Yes, Commander?"

  "Captain, may I recommend two courses of action? We can speed by the attacking force before they even know we are here, or we can simply use our stealth and drift by."

  As if to counter the medication, a sudden pain shot from the base of her neck and deep into her brain. She winced and then slowly recovered.

  She lowered her chin as she examined the submarines on the screen. She imagined them to be nothing more than steel and machinery. There were no men on their decks, only computers and weapons. She closed her eyes and shut out the imaginary beat of more than nine hundred hearts. There were no eyes that watched the waterfall displays of their sonar stations, and there weren't men and boys planning Leviathan's death—only machines.

  "James, have the crew stand by for extreme maneuvering, and order damage-control parties standing by in all departments." Alexandria once more sat in her chair. "Keep feeding the torpedo tubes coordinates on the enemy vessels, but for now, we don't need them." The pain was fighting off the attack of the medication.

  "Captain, this is not necessary. Leviathan can slip by without those subs knowing we were ever here! We can run rings around them, even outrun their torpedoes—"

  "James, do I have to relieve you?"

  "Aye, Captain. Attack stations — collision."

  With that, the captain of Leviathan started the great ship forward and went to full ramming speed.

  As the thermal-dynamic drive on Leviathan went to flank speed, the music inside the captain's observation suite grew to a crescendo. Her eyes were wide and bright as she leaned forward in her chair, her knuckles once more growing white on the armrest controls. What she was doing was fundamentally wrong, and somewhere in her conscious mind, she was fully aware of it. This was not her — but then again, just under the surface of her wakeful mind, she knew it was.

  As she focused on the first submarine in line, her doubts faded and her determination became solid.

  Alexandria didn't know that because of the pain and medication working against one another, and her haste to attack, she had made one critical error.

  USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)

  "All stop, chief of the boat. Watch her drift, use the momentum, and let's get her bow angled for a hundred-meter drop in depth, and—"

  "Conn — sonar. We have a disturbance eight miles to the north and — it's gone now, Captain, but it was there. It sounded like an electrostatic crackling."

  Jefferson was about to respond to the sonar room when he thought of what his brief on this mission had said: "Any unusual oceanic disturbance could mean the unseen enemy is close aboard."

  "Sonar, is there any reaction from our Russian or Chinese friends?"

  "Nothing, Captain, they are still at station keeping."

  "Izzy, bring us to gen
eral quarters. Spool up tubes one through four — standard war shot."

  "Aye, chief of the boat, sound general quarters. Weapons — report on tubes one through four."

  "Take Missouri to six hundred feet and take us out of the line. All-ahead flank; get us down, Izzy," Jefferson said as he held on to the navigation stanchion.

  "Captain, at flank speed they'll hear us all the way to Pearl," Sonar called out over the com.

  "That's what I want — let everyone know something isn't right."

  Outside the hull, Missouri allowed her scimitar propeller to bite at the cold sea surrounding her, creating a water cone that echoed loudly into the earphones of every submarine in the battle line. The more experienced sub commanders on the Russian side knew immediately that the American did what he did for a reason. Three of the Russian Akulas broke line and started for deep water.

  "Sonar, I need something — anything — off our bow reported. I don't care if it's two whales screwing the hell out of each other!"

  "Aye."

  * * *

  Leviathan was at seventy knots and closing fast. The captain had jammed her throttles too far, too fast, and created a burp in her propulsion system, a hole in the water as her jets created a cave, which was read on the Missouri's sonar. On the hologram in front of Heirthall, the submarines rushed at them so fast that she had to reach out and take the viewer off the magnification setting.

  "Now," she whispered. Her eyes closed halfway as the music blared on. She threw the control sticks for both of the massive rudders to the right and forward, automatically taking on ballast and changing the angles of the dive planes at the bow and the conning tower. The deadly plane protector, made of laser-hardened titanium, sliced the water like deadly, knifelike wings.

  Leviathan heeled to the right, almost losing the captain from her command chair. Leviathan went into such a tight turn that most modern submarines would have sheared off their planes in the fantastic stresses brought upon the hull. Soon the first line of Chinese Akulas came into view. They were in a position that was almost too perfect to believe — they had not moved one inch. They were bow-to-bow and just hovering, sitting there like three blind mice. Alexandria closed her eyes all the way and listened to the rush of water outside the glass. The music continued booming into her ears as the great submarine heeled in the opposite direction, straightening her attack angle.

  Leviathan was now at one hundred knots as she straightened for her run.

  "All hands, imminent collision — I repeat, imminent collision," Samuels called over the com system, far below in the control center.

  Alexandria finally opened her eyes. The massive headache was easing as the adrenalin shot through her body. Just then the dark gray silhouettes of the submarines took on a ghostly shape before her. She clenched her jaw muscles and did what had become a ritual with her: She prayed to her family for the strength she needed to do what needed to be done.

  As the slicing plane protector came within feet of the first Chinese boat, her mind suddenly became clear—Samuels was right, I could have gone deep and avoided this confrontation. Her reaction to this revelation made her very nearly throw her control sticks in the opposite direction, just as the sharklike bow plane of Leviathan struck the sonar dome of the first sub in line.

  Leviathan slammed into the sonar dome of the Chinese boat, shattering it like an eggshell and sending more than thirty-five men in their forward spaces to a gruesome death. Then, as Leviathan barely slowed, she hit the second sub in line; it was just a glancing blow but enough to crack her hull, sending her sliding into the depths with her power plant screaming in reverse.

  Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown inside her brain, she became aware that it was as if something had taken control of her actions. She wanted to stop this insane attack, but part of her was beyond reason as she bore down on the unsuspecting warships.

  The third boat was a Russian that had heard the collision of the first and second sub in line and had started to turn toward the disturbance. The attacking Akula was only one second from launching a spread of torpedoes when she was struck amidships by Leviathan. The collision was not meant to be in that area of the Akula's hull. Leviathan, though certainly able to withstand the blow, was still rocked as she slowed to fifty knots after the brief collision sent her rolling under the stricken submarine.

  The American and the remaining submarines used that chance to defend themselves. The Russian attack boat Leviathan had just silenced snapped into two pieces and fell to the bottom of the Strait, crushing every soul onboard.

  As the fourth Chinese submarine in line was struck, Captain Jefferson knew he had to find some sort of shelter. All hell was breaking loose, but for the life of him, his sonar team could not get a handle on it. It was as though the defensive line were getting rammed by an invisible ghost.

  "Damn it, we're blind as hell — what in God's name is out there?" Jefferson said as Missouri heeled to the port side and her bow angled steeply down. "Sonar — conn. You don't have anything on your scopes other than the destroyed subs?"

  "We get a ghosting of speed on the waterfall, then a shape as a collision happens. Then nothing, Captain — we're dealing with something that doesn't have the same hull construction as us or anything in the world. Some kind of stealth technology. We only know there are no torpedoes in the water!"

  "Damn it. Take her deeper, Izzy — deeper!"

  "Fifteen degrees down plane — all-ahead flank!" his first officer called out.

  "All noises have stopped, debris descending to our starboard and port beam, sound of bulkheads collapsing. We also have noise conducive to four subs going shallow — yes, the Dubrinin, Tolstoy, Peter the Great, and the Chinese boat Tzu-Tang—I think we're all that's left down here, Captain."

  "Damn, the last one out of the pool."

  "Captain, we can't shoot what we can't see or hear."

  "I know, Izzy, I know."

  * * *

  Alexandria's attempt to avoid the last collision had failed and the heavy maneuvering afterward to regain control threw Niles and the others in the now closed and watertight observation lounge. Garrison Lee went down in a heap, and Alice fell on top of him. Sarah saw an opportunity. Instead of being terrified, she had gotten angry. Virginia reacted at the same time. Tyler had fallen to a knee after the last collision and was struggling to gain his feet. At that moment he was hit simultaneously by Virginia and Sarah. Virginia went high and Sarah low, grabbing for the gun as she heard voices at the hatchway. Before she knew what was happening, several shots discharged from Tyler's weapon. The rounds missed everyone and ricocheted off the titanium bulkheads, making loud pings as they did. Niles and Lee started to assist the women but were grabbed by other security men before they could.

  "Fools!" Tyler said as he regained his feet. Then he lost his balance once more as everyone lost their footing. Before anyone could take advantage of Tyler's predicament, several more security men had entered and leveled their weapons.

  Leviathan again rolled to their right and all of them felt her accelerate. Captain Heirthall, all doubt once more removed from her actions, was aiming for the last target in the Bering Strait — USS Missouri.

  USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)

  "That's it — nothing else is out there, Captain," sonar reported.

  "Damn it — where are you?" Jefferson said as he closed his eyes in thought.

  Outside of Missouri's hull, Leviathan was closing once more at seventy-five knots, aiming straight at the bow of the American boat.

  Suddenly, thuds started penetrating their hull. The soundwaves were faint, but after the silence of the previous attacks, the strange noise seemed as loud as cannon fire. The BQQ sonar was also picking up another sound as the great submarine closed on them — the sound of water rushing over a rough surface.

  "Captain, we have what sounds like possible gunfire and something else, a thousand yards to starboard!"

  "Izzy — match bearings on that noise and shoot!"
/>   * * *

  In the control center of Leviathan, Samuels was reluctantly about to sound the collision warning for the last time for their final target.

  "Commander, we are making noise, I can't tell from where yet, but the sound is emanating from Leviathan." The technician pushed his headphones into his ears and listened intently. "We have torpedoes in the water — we have four fish — American Mark forty-eights — they went active as soon as they left their tubes. Torpedoes have acquired Leviathan!"

  "Commander, someone has discharged a weapon onboard. It has definitely affected our stealth!"

  There was no response coming from the auxiliary control station in the captain's suite at the base of the conning tower. Samuels knew he had to act.

  "Hard right rudder, all-ahead flank — take her down to a thousand feet!" Samuels said as calmly as he could. "Launch countermeasures!"

  * * *

  Alexandria had heard the gunfire from somewhere down below. She closed her eyes as Leviathan started altering her course. She started fighting her emotions as the headache was suddenly under control. She need not contact control, knowing Samuels would do what needed doing. Her senses were draining of all input except regret at what she had done.

  As she stood, she stumbled down the platform, caught herself, and then slowly walked to the large round viewing port. She tried in vain to smile, now realizing it had to have been Virginia and the people from the Event Group who had given their position away. She nodded her head as Leviathan started a run for her life. As Leviathan maneuvered and "House of the Rising Sun" went into its dramatic climax, she slammed against the glass. Alexandria slid down into a heap; she closed her eyes and her body slumped. As she slid into unconsciousness, she thought she felt movement inside her head. Before going completely out, she wondered if she truly was insane.

  * * *

  Leviathan went deep. One of the Mark 48 torpedoes had locked onto the sound of the fast-moving sub. The water became disturbed with every turn of her giant bow planes and aft rudders, until the Mark 48 snapped its thin guidewire and the giant sub banked hard to starboard. The torpedo was seeing and targeting the now-roughened edges of the bow-plane titanium shields that had been warped during the ramming.