The first symbiant to reach the glass raised a small hand and touched it as its tail kept its body in pace with the drifting Leviathan. As the Event Group watched, its deep blue eyes shrank, allowing the creature to view them through the intense light.
"Yes, Mr. Ryan, it is beautiful," Niles said as he slowly reached up to the glass. He stopped and looked at Alexandria. She nodded her head that it was all right to touch the window.
The symbiant, with blinking eyes, smiled. The clear mouth curved upward and the hands slid across the window to mimic Niles's movement. The small creature tilted its head and looked directly at Niles. The smile remained.
"Captain, what nourishment do they consume at these depths?" Everett asked the practical question.
"There are over two million lava vents that supply nutrients and animal life that the symbiants harvest. Their needs are not all that great. When we visit, we like to leave them several tons of goods on the sea floor. Vitamin-filled feed, usually reserved for cows and horses. We do the same for the small children and their adults in the Gulf of Mexico."
"I count ten in all," Jack said as he too became entranced by the legend of all legends before him. He could feel Sarah next to him take a deep breath as she took in the wondrous sight.
"There is more. We estimate this colony is down to fewer than a thousand," Samuels said as he helped Alexandria to a chair. She sat and watched the Event personnel closely. "Captain, have you noticed there are only a few here? Where are the rest?"
Heirthall counted and then recounted the syms outside the glass.
"This is strange. There should be what's left of the colony here," she said, looking concerned.
Other symbiants came to the window and examined the faces looking at them. The colors in their tails enhanced to deeper blues and brighter pinks. They crowded around the glass, seemingly looking beyond the gathering of humans, looking for something that wasn't there.
"They look like a species of jellyfish. They must use the electrical current and colors for—" Virginia started to say.
"Mating, communication, navigation; right now they are asking a question," Alexandria said, watching Niles and the others closely.
"May I guess, Captain?" Sarah asked.
"I can see you have figured it out through their body language, Lieutenant, but go ahead."
"They want to see their children," she said as she moved her gaze from the window to the captain.
Alexandria nodded once more, and Samuels nodded at Yeoman Alvera. The girl stepped to the glass, placed her hand up, and sighed. Then several other midshipmen came through the hatch. Thirty-one in all approached, looking excited and sad at the same time.
"This small group is all that is left of the Mariana Trench young," Heirthall said sadly.
The teenagers were stretching and pointing, placing their hands on the glass, trying desperately to seek out their parents. The symbiants outside the glass had become excited as their colors turned to the purest pinks and the brightest blues. Their hands reached out toward the gathered midshipmen.
Soon, even more syms had joined the grouping at the windows, and then the momentary joyfulness dissipated. The humans watching this amazing event saw that several of the adults were being assisted by other syms as they made their way to the glass. The colors and electrical discharges on these syms were dull, less vibrant.
One of them reached outward toward the glass, and that was when Niles and his people saw that its clear skin had become milky in color. Its fine black and gold hair was sparse as it looked upon the men and women inside.
Yeoman Alvera stepped over, saying nothing. She tilted her head, staring at the sickly adult.
The creature tilted its head, mimicking Alvera, and then held its small, clear hand to the glass. The colors in the adult briefly flared to life, but just as quickly faded as the yeoman watched. She held her other hand to the window, hoping that the adult would follow suit, but two creatures advanced and slowly pulled the parent away from the glass. The adult's hand, still on the window, slowly fell away — the fingertips lingering for as long as they could keep contact until the parent was assisted out of the dimmed lights of Leviathan. Then it was gone.
Yeoman Alvera watched for the longest ten seconds Jack could ever remember. When she turned away from the glass, the look in her deep-set blue eyes was terrifying as she glanced from face to face. Then she abruptly left the observation lounge.
"You see our predicament, Mr. Director?"
Niles swallowed and turned to look at Alexandria. He could only nod his head.
"Regardless of what happens next, Doctor, thank you for that."
"Now that the family reunion has been concluded, I think it's time for the doctor to explain how much trouble we are in." Everyone turned and looked at Farbeaux as he stood and made his way to the bar. He found a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a drink.
"Especially since the captain's pain medication will soon wear off, and she'll become someone other than who she really is."
Heirthall stared at Farbeaux and allowed her body to relax for the first time in months. She slowly walked to a chair and sat. She placed a hand over her face and held it there.
"Explain," Samuels demanded.
"Colonel Collins, I must say that it is fortuitous indeed for us to have you and your men aboard. We will need some of that magical escapism that you so readily apply to bad situations." He took a drink of the whiskey, exhaling when he emptied the small glass. "It seems there has been a small mutiny aboard Leviathan in the past few months." He poured another drink.
Dr. Trevor tried to get past Samuels but the commander blocked his way, pulled the small.32-caliber pistol from his pocket, and placed it against the man's chest.
"Captain, amongst your medical papers is a description of a small procedure conducted by the boat's surgeon. This will explain the symptom added to your hereditary illness that isn't listed in any medical journals. Colonel Collins was quite right; the schizophrenia is brought on by something else."
Jack turned from Farbeaux to look at Trevor, who backed away from Samuels until he could sit in one of the chairs.
"You placed a symbiant in her?" he asked.
Trevor swallowed, lowered his head, and then shook it. He refused to look up.
"You son of a bitch," Samuels said, taking a menacing step toward the doctor. "That's why the captain has been aggressive, changing her own orders!"
"I suspect that she has moments of clearheadedness." Farbeaux poured one last drink, limped toward Trevor, and sat down. "The good doctor became suspicious, and had the good sense to note it in his case file." Henri patted the doctor on the knee, then looked up at Heirthall, who was looking ill and lost. "She has much more stamina than the sym she has inside of her. She's quite rational when she is exhausted, like in the early morning hours, or—"
"When she's drugged," Virginia said as she finally sat next to Alexandria and put an arm around her.
"Yes, Ms. Pollock. She must have extraordinary mind power to fight off the thoughts that course through her head. I believe she brought you here not to question you about vaults or what you knew about her. She brought you here, using her subconscious will, to help get Leviathan back and to stop what was happening. Oh, she's still crazy for her cause, but now the insanity issue can be explained," Farbeaux finished.
"God, do you know what you're saying?" Niles asked.
Collins answered for the rest, as they were coming to the same conclusion.
"It seems the kind little symbiants aren't the fuzzy little creatures the Heirthall family thought."
Before they knew what was happening, the lights flickered inside the observation lounge and then they heard the outer hatchway slam closed. Sparks started shooting through the watertight seal lining the hatch. Samuels turned and tried the wheel, but it didn't budge.
"It's dogged from the outside!"
Jack and Everett sprang forward and assisted Samuels. The wheel refused to move.
&nb
sp; "They are sealing us inside with a welding torch," Everett said.
Without a warning signal or announcement, they felt Leviathan go to full speed once more, throwing them all off their feet. Outside the viewing windows, the behemoth shot through the trench canyons as easily as a sports car on a highway. Niles watched the digital readouts on the hologram once the screens closed, and saw that they were once more traveling at one hundred and seventy knots and were headed due south.
"I think the battle for Leviathan has just begun in earnest," Farbeaux said as he gained his feet, grimacing in pain.
"Yeah, and like always, we seem to be in the wrong place and slightly outnumbered," Mendenhall said as he assisted the senator to his chair.
Jack slammed the hatch with the flat of his hand in frustration. He angrily turned and looked at Sarah. She looked back at him, and that seemed to bring Jack back to reason. He nodded his head at Sarah and then turned to the others.
"Yes, Will, outnumbered, outgunned, outsmarted." He walked up to Trevor, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up out of his chair. "But we do have a couple of advantages. We have the man who knows the plan and who's involved."
"And the other?" Everett asked, joining him at his side.
"Me."
They looked to where Alexandria Heirthall was holding herself firm against the table. She was shaking, and her face was pale. The sym inside of her was obviously reasserting itself.
"Yes, Captain, what better ally to have than the designer of Leviathan?" Jack agreed.
It was Farbeaux who brought that thought into real perspective. "Yes, but which captain are we going to get?"
"Commander Samuels, these coordinates — do you have any idea where they are taking us?" Niles asked, indicating the readout at the base of the observation windows.
Samuels stepped forward and looked at the running numbers. He looked confused to Collins. "Yes, we're making a run for home."
"Where in the hell is home?" Ryan asked.
"Ice Palace — the Ross Ice Shelf."
"What's there?" Everett asked.
"We must retake Leviathan at all costs," Alexandria said just before she collapsed to the deck, unconscious. Virginia, Mendenhall, Sarah, and Alice rushed to her aid.
"It's our base of operations," Samuels said beneath his breath, unable to say what he was thinking. "We're in the process of leaving there and going to a new base — t he ice shelf has become too unstable. There's nothing there but the Heirthall fortune and…" Samuels lowered his head.
Collins, who had released Dr. Trevor, faced him once more. He removed the pistol from Samuels's hand. He placed it against the right hand of the doctor and pressed.
"It's obviously Sergeant Tyler controlling this thing. Now, why is he going to Ice Palace?"
For the first time Trevor smiled. It was as though he was far braver now that Heirthall was unconscious.
"What's there, Colonel? Five hundred nuclear weapons — enough missiles to destroy every deepwater port on the face of the earth." His grin widened. "The symbiants are taking back their oceans, and the Heirthalls and Leviathan have helped them do it."
"Does every asshole on the planet have access to these damn weapons?" Mendenhall whispered to Ryan.
"Only the ones we run across."
18
USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)
Missouri was running at six knots on a southern line toward Antarctica, for no other reason than that was the last known direction of Leviathan as she left the area of Saboo.
First Officer Izzeringhausen handed Jefferson the full list of damages that would have to wait until they returned to Pearl for repairs.
"Not bad considering we hit more debris than a garbage truck," the captain said as he laid the report on the navigation chart he had been studying.
"Conn, sonar, we have just picked up a very weak submerged disturbance. We believe computer says it's Leviathan."
"Did you get a bearing?" Jefferson asked with the microphone gripped tightly.
"Aye, Captain — twenty-three miles due south of the Ross Sea, heading straight for the ice shelf on a heading for White Island. Depth, over three and a half miles."
"We follow, Skipper?"
"Yes, we follow. Get in there as close as we can and hope the damn ice shelf stays intact."
Jefferson was referring to the massive shearing of thirty-three miles of ice that had recently torn free from the world's largest ice pack.
"Take us to five hundred feet and bring us up to twenty-two knots. Order the relief shift for sonar, and get the department supervisors up here. We need the best people at their stations."
"Aye, Captain. I estimate at our revised speed and depth we should arrive at the shelf in three hours."
"Ten miles out I want to slow to five knots, and we'll go to total silence from there — no unnecessary movement."
"Aye, Captain."
"Somewhere out there is the world's largest shark, and I don't want to get bitten again."
LEVIATHAN
Five decks below the control center were the crew's quarters. Just fewer than eighteen hundred off-duty men and women were enclosed in four different berthing areas. The officer's quarters were dispersed alongside the larger compartments according to specific division. The symbiant attack started at the larger crew quarters.
"Hey, what's that smell?" one of the bosun mates called out from his bunk. "Smells like someone is welding something."
Another man who was playing cards with several others looked around and thought the same thing. Then another became concerned.
Suddenly three flood valves opened to the sea, and freezing water started flowing through and into the compartment. Not one of the crew in the first compartment panicked, but several did run to one of the three hatches located in the compartment. They spun the wheel so they could get free and then isolate the flooding — but the wheel was frozen.
"What the hell!" someone called.
The water was at one foot and rising.
* * *
Outside the hatch, the three midshipmen rolled up the electrical line for the portable arc welder and then looked down upon their work, satisfied. The spot welds along the frame and on the turning wheel would make sure that every man and woman in the compartment would drown within an hour. The three had finished at the exact same moment as the other welding crews, who had just accomplished the same task on the remaining crew compartments and officers' quarters.
Leviathan's crew had been taken in less than five minutes from the time Yeoman Alvera ordered the attack to commence.
* * *
Lieutenant Kogersborg was just finishing his change-of-watch paperwork when the flooding alarm sounded. The constant electronic buzz filled the command center as the watch crew monitored their holographic stations.
"We have flooding on deck five, crews' quarters. All four compartments, and officers' cabins as well!" the damage control officer called out.
Kogersborg looked on in amazement, then reacted.
"That is ridiculous, we didn't hit anything — it has to be a computer malfunction."
"Diagnostics check out; that deck is flooding."
"Jesus," the young lieutenant said as he moved quickly from the navigation console to the damage-control station. He knew the flooding was real when Leviathan went into automatic damage control, as ordered by her computers, counterflooding to keep the submarine trimmed as they rose toward the Ross Ice Shelf.
When he saw the hologram depicting the flooding in sixteen cabins and the four large crew compartments, he came close to panicking. The second thing he saw was the computer-generated numbers of personnel estimates for the occupied areas.
"Oh my God, ninety-eight percent of the crew is on that deck!"
"Why aren't they getting out?" one technician asked.
"The computers are not counterflooding, and the pumps have not started," the damage control officer said.
"Sound general quarters — call the captain and Commander Samu
els to the conn. Manually start the pumps on deck five, now!"
"The situation is under control, Lieutenant," Tyler said from the circular stairwell leading down from the observation platform above control. The sergeant was armed, as were his men coming at the control center from the fore and aft compartments.
Kogersborg without hesitation knew his duty. He jumped for the general alarm. His hand was only inches away when Tyler deftly shot him three times in the back. The boy slowly hit the captain's pedestal and slid to the deck. The rest of the control room crew started to move to action when several more shots rang out; then the din of automatic fire filled the air. When silence came once more, thirty-five men and women of the control room watch were dead.
"Damn it!" Tyler hissed as he stepped down from the last rung of the staircase. "Call the trainees to the control center to take over the watch, and get these bodies out of here."
One of his men was leaning over two of the helmsmen.
"Sergeant, these two are still alive. Should we call the—"
Tyler, looking frustrated, walked up and fired two shots into the heads of the wounded, making his security man fall backward.
"Your men were too slow in reacting, and that made the control room crew think they could do something about this. I won't be cleaning up your mess again. Now get the midshipmen trainees up here, and get replacement modules for the damaged control systems."
"Yes, sir," the man said, with one last look at the murdered crewmen.
Tyler deftly stepped over the crumpled body of Lieutenant Kogersborg and reached out to touch the large captain's chair sitting high on its pedestal. Then he removed the ammunition clip from his handgun and replaced it with a fresh one.
"Have the second assault team meet me in front of the observation compartment — it's time to confront Captain Heirthall and her guests."
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