* * *
The Event Group felt Leviathan slow and her bow angle change as she started her climb to the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf. The waters outside of the observation windows were crystal clear as the lights started to pick up the indigenous sea life of the Antarctic Archipelago.
"Look at that," Lee said as he stepped closer to observe the giant pressure ridges on the bottom of the shelf. Upside-down mountains pointed their sharpened edges at the now diminutive Leviathan as she rose through the depths.
"According to these coordinates, we're not that far away from White Island," Everett said as he made some quick calculations on a napkin. "The closest American friendlies are a thousand miles away at McMurdo Station, on the southern tip of Ross Island."
"We have enough scientists onboard Leviathan as it is. I don't think those nerds from the weather station will be of any help," Lee quipped as he looked at Niles. "No offense, my dear boy."
"No, but if we can find a way off Leviathan, they are within rescue distance," Carl said as an explanation.
"Good to know, swabby," Jack said.
"All hands take collision stations, stand by to surface. We have unstable ice ahead," Yeoman Alvera called over the intercom.
"Well, at least we know who is in command," Collins said as he looked at the now-silent Dr. Trevor. "We need to know who-all is in on this. The crew? If not, what did they do with them?"
Outside the windows, Leviathan rose dangerously close to the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf, slowing even further as she did.
"The opening to Ice Palace is a natural fault that will allow Leviathan to rise into the ice," Samuels said, sitting next to Alexandria as she lay upon the long conference table. "I think the captain is coming around."
Heirthall's eyes blinked and she turned her head. She looked into Virginia's eyes. She smiled, reached out, and took her hand. Virginia smiled, and then slowly wiped the blood that pooled and ran from Alexandria's left ear.
"The sym inside of me is dying, Ginny. I'm afraid it's taking me with it," she said, almost silently.
"No, you're too strong for that." Virginia squeezed her friend's hand. "You did good fighting it. If you hadn't, no one on the outside would have stood a chance."
Alexandria smiled sadly. "I am not proud of myself for… allowing this thing to happen," she said, wincing as a momentary pain coursed through her head. "I didn't think the syms… were capable."
"Sometimes aggressor species hide their intent well, Alex. You were blinded by your compassion. Your entire family was."
"Help me… sit up, Ginny."
Virginia, with Alice's assistance, did as asked. More blood flowed from first the left, then the right ear. Alexandria leaned her head against Virginia's chest as Samuels came over. He tried to smile at his captain, but couldn't.
"We… were both blinded, James." She smiled and took his hand. "Nevertheless, we'll fix… it. You must understand this. Listen well, James — the young children, they are innocent. Their syms are too young… to be… a part of this."
"Yes, Captain, we will make things right, and we'll get the children off," her first officer said determined.
"The ice shelf is dying. The polar ice caps are melting; being weakened by the global warming governments say is not cyclical," she said weakly, trying to make her voice heard.
Leviathan was rising fast toward a giant pressure ridge that shot down from the shelf. It looked as if they were on a direct collision course with disaster, when suddenly the giant vessel veered right and then expertly shot between two of the larger ridges, shifting her bulk into a valley that allowed Leviathan to rise up and into the great ice shelf.
"Yeoman Alvera is quite adept at handling…. Leviathan's large bulk in tight spaces. Whenever we are gone for long periods of time, the opening…. to Ice Palace freezes over, and becomes a much tighter fit than when we left," Alexandria said, watching the view from the windows.
"All hands, this is the deck officer, surface, surface," Alvera announced. "Chief of the boat, sound the horn — all interior lighting to full illumination."
Bubbles the size of cruise ships started to rise in front of the windows as the giant submarine started emptying her ballast tanks. She rose slowly, guided by her thrusters in order to stay clear of the sharpened edges of the ice. The deck beneath their feet dipped one way and then the other as the young Alvera maneuvered her to avoid ice slicing through her composite hull.
Finally, the warning horn sounded and Leviathan broke into bright, daylike illumination. As the Event Group looked out of the observation window, they saw a natural ice cave, immense in size.
"We discovered it thirty-five years ago. My parents… estimated that the cave was naturally formed over two hundred thousand years ago by… seismic activity from Mount Erebus to the south. It was possibly a giant air bubble the size of England that rose from the sea floor."
Leviathan gently rose to the surface of a small interior sea totally encased in ice. The water was calm as the giant submarine eased onto the surface.
"Attention, deck watch to the sail, deck watch to the sail. Riggers and security report to the docking commander. Attention, all hands, Leviathan has arrived at our destination."
The Event Group felt Leviathan shut down her engines as the great submarine settled on the surface of the inland waterway. Thrusters maneuvered her close to the center of the trapped sea.
"Welcome to the end of the world as we know it," Alexandria said, blood now lining her lips. "This is where our… journey ends. I suspect this is where Sergeant Tyler will gather whatever his… reward is, and the symbiants will make… their final… stand against mankind."
To Jack, Carl, Niles, and the others, that was an ominous announcement.
"I'm sorry, Captain Heirthall, but we're leaving this little shindig, and if we can, we're going to bring this whole place down, and Leviathan with it."
All eyes turned to Jack. Even Farbeaux set his half-finished drink down and pushed it away.
"It is about time you said something noble, Colonel. You were beginning to worry me."
19
Jack walked over and stood before Dr. Trevor. Everett joined him, quickly reached out, and again pulled the doctor to his feet. He eased the smaller man into himself and smiled.
"Captain Everett drew the short straw this time around; he gets to ask you questions. Do you have your persuaders, Captain?" Collins asked, looking from Carl to the double hatchway. He knew that any minute Tyler and his men were going to start cutting through to get at them and finish what he had to do. Jack knew Tyler was trained enough to know he couldn't leave an enemy onboard while he was ashore. He would definitely attack.
"Yes. There wasn't much to choose from, since we'll need all the bullets in the commander's pop gun, but Ryan gathered up a couple of nice persuasion instruments."
To the doctor's horror, Everett let go of him and brought up a steak knife and a shiny corkscrew.
"The corkscrew is compliments of Colonel Farbeaux."
"I don't know what I can tell you," Trevor said, looking at the ordinary kitchen implements that now held a whole new world of possibilities. "Obviously the captain forced Sergeant Tyler and Yeoman Alvera's hand earlier than they expected."
"Is the rest of the crew loyal?" Everett asked.
"I don't know who is…" Trevor screamed as Carl poked him in the ribs with the corkscrew.
"Jack, what are you doing?" Niles asked, approaching them.
Collins turned and looked at his director.
"Torturing Dr. Trevor for information," he said plainly and without humor.
"Oh. Carry on."
Any hope that Trevor might have had left with Niles Compton as he returned to the senator and Alice.
"Okay, okay… the crew is unaware of what the syms and Tyler are doing. I never knew the plan for their disposal." Tyler felt the corkscrew scrape his skin through his coverall once more. "Or if they were to be disposed of at all."
"What are the sym
s planning?"
"Tyler will take command of Leviathan. That's his reward."
"For what?" Everett asked, not needing to poke the doctor again; his eyes warned of what he was capable.
"The syms will control the sea with Leviathan at their disposal. Most of the world's navies will be destroyed in the port attacks; the rest can be picked off piecemeal by Tyler. He isn't in it for money, he's in it for power."
Jack reached out and took the steak knife from the table where Everett had laid it. He placed it to the doctor's neck.
"And your reward for assisting in mutiny?"
"The Heirthall fortune," he whimpered.
"Ah, the gold and jewels of the Monte Cristo legend."
Trevor's eyes flicked to Henri Farbeaux as he joined the trio.
"Good to see that there is old-fashioned avarice alive and well in the world — that everything isn't all idealistic nonsense."
Jack lowered the knife and turned toward Farbeaux.
"Colonel, no more drinking. We're going to need you."
Farbeaux smiled and then saluted Collins mockingly. Then he looked straight into Trevor's eyes. The mention of the Heirthall treasure interested him immensely.
Before Everett could continue, there were noises coming from the hatchway, then a sudden shower of sparks.
"I guess our time's up," Everett said.
"Okay, get the captain behind a table. Ryan, Mendenhall, get us a barricade set up, a thick one."
Everyone started moving, tipping tables and piling chairs.
"One pistol, Jack. All we're going to do is maybe hurt someone and make them mad at us," Everett said as he tossed Trevor to the floor and dumped part of the conference table in front of him.
Before anyone could react, a locked access door above the observation glass sprang open. All they saw was a man drop into the compartment and dive for cover.
The attack on the observation deck had begun, and it came from a surprising front.
* * *
Tyler was watching his security team cut through the same hatchway they had sealed an hour earlier when he was approached from behind by Alvera and three of the sym midshipmen. She watched the progress on the hatch without comment for a moment. Her startling blue eyes did not waver from the bright torch. "The crew and officers were successfully taken in their quarters?" she asked Tyler without turning to face him.
"Yes." Tyler turned to her, annoyed. "Shouldn't you go back to your station on the bridge?"
Alvera stopped watching the men cutting through the hatchway. She turned briefly to the midshipmen accompanying her. Then she turned and looked more closely at Tyler, and actually took a menacing step toward him. He tried not to show his fear of the young woman, but failed, as his eyes could not hold her intensity.
"Explain to me again, since you have seized control of the most powerful vessel in the history of your world, how you can be trusted? A man willing to kill millions of his own species is also a man capable of betraying the partners who assisted him in achieving that great power. Why should we trust you?"
"Because the only ally you'll have after the death of Captain Heirthall is me and the members of my security team. I need you, and you need me. Your kind will live, and I will have Leviathan. You'll have control of the sea, and I'll have control of the one thing that guarantees it for you."
Alvera looked more closely into Tyler's face. Her blue eyes intensified as she gazed, trying to uncover the lie that she suspected was just under the surface of his features.
Tyler swallowed, but held his ground.
"You acted too quickly. The captain still has the launch codes in her head. Without those codes, we can't act against the naval powers of the world. Thus far your judgment is not quite adequate to wield the power of Leviathan, Sergeant."
"Obviously I had to act sooner than planned because Heirthall was being entertained by the men and women she brought aboard, despite your implanted sym. She was in far more control than you ever believed, Yeoman. Act is what I did, to cover for your errors in judgment." He swallowed. "Now, I have a question for you," he said, forcing himself to continue. "Are you prepared to do what you have to do? Can you kill more than eighteen hundred loyal members of Leviathan's crew — men and women you have worked with for years? More importantly, can you do what you have to do in regard to the children? They are just as loyal to the captain as her crew."
Alvera turned her back on Tyler and paced to the elevator where the midshipmen were holding the doors for her. Before she entered, Alvera turned with a small grin. "The bulk of the crew will be dead within the hour. As for the children, they are part of the gulf colony, and mean absolutely nothing to me and the others."
"Then I ask you the same question: How can you be trusted if you can kill off an entire colony of syms, especially when there are so few of your kind to begin with?"
"Simple, Sergeant," she said, stepping into the elevator. "They are young. They would fight to save the captain. They have none of the aggressiveness of the older sym colonies. They don't yet realize we are on the short end of a losing war. We must live—not because we are allowed to, but because we have the right to." She looked with distaste at Tyler. "We hate humankind — we despise them. Somehow, some way, we must secure the seas, even if we have to strike at every man, woman, and child on the planet."
Alvera stopped the doors from closing.
"I am sending you some special help to ensure you take this compartment. Be sure not to get in their way. If I were you, I would let… us handle them…. The people inside that observation lounge are exceptional at what they do, and as long as the captain draws breath, she's dangerous." She smiled as if she had just heard the punch line to a private joke. "Be careful, Sergeant; we would hate to lose you now."
The closing elevator doors finally blocked Alvera's hate-filled eyes.
Tyler turned back to the cutting. He then turned back to the now-closed doors of the elevator.
"The only way you can do that, you little bitch, is to have Leviathan do it for you." He thought, then smiled. "The only thing you must do is join the young syms in the fate you have planned for them."
Beneath Tyler's forced bravado, just where he could ignore it for moments at a time, was the fact that he was terrified of Alvera and her midshipmen. They were capable of anything, even eliminating him and his men from their equation.
* * *
Jack and Everett were the first to move toward the darkened threat that fell from the access hatch. Collins had the small handgun and Everett the steak knife. Ryan and Mendenhall took up station on the far side and awaited Jack's orders. They knew their job; they would be the distraction while Collins and Everett advanced on the enemy.
At the front hatchway, the cutting continued.
Collins rose above one of the upturned tables, took aim at the approximate position where the threat had landed, and waited.
"Hold your fire!" a frightened voice shouted.
Everett looked at Jack and shook his head. "That you, Doc?" he called out.
"Stand up!" Carl shouted.
As they watched, first hands and then the arms rose above one of the tables.
"Don't shoot me," Robbins said as he stood with arms raised.
Niles, the closest to Gene Robbins, quickly went over and searched him. Then the director spied a bag at Robbins's feet.
"It's not much. I took them from the captain's cabin."
"We have four nine-millimeter handguns here," Niles counted, "and four extra clips of ammunition."
Everett and Collins advanced on their new ally.
"Noble of you, Doc," Everett said as he took the bag from Robbins, who couldn't hold Everett's gaze and so just looked at the floor.
"Can we get out the same way you came in?" Collins asked.
"We'll have to find a way up from the deck above. I nearly broke both of my ankles falling from that height," Robbins said, looking from Jack to the director. "Niles, I—"
Compton turned away and
faced Samuels. "Can we get up there?"
"Yes, follow me."
As Jack motioned for Carl, Mendenhall, and Ryan to follow, he tossed Farbeaux and Senator Lee each one of the handguns and two clips of ammunition.
"Blast anything that comes through that door," he said as he followed the others up the stairs.
"And what are you going to do?" Farbeaux asked, making sure there was a round chambered in the handgun.
"We'll try and get behind the assault force."
"Wonderful. In the meantime, the senator and I will occupy them by collecting their bullets until you achieve your goal," Farbeaux said as he lowered himself and faced the hatchway.
The five men rushed up the spiral staircase to the small deck above the observation floor. They watched as Samuels reached the open access panel Robbins had come through. He gestured to Collins, who tossed him the nine-millimeter he was holding. The commander quickly stepped underneath the panel and held the gun up, pointing into the blackness beyond. He stepped back and looked at the others.
"Clear so far. Give me a leg up."
Ryan and Mendenhall stooped so Samuels could place his foot in their hands; they lifted. As the commander gabbed hold of the frame, he started kicking wildly and screaming. Ryan and Will pulled frantically at Samuels's legs, trying desperately to yank him from the access hatch. Suddenly they were sprayed with blood. Shocked, they continued to pull at the commander's legs. Then without warning, they fell to the floor, and to their horror they saw that only the bottom half of Samuels came with them.
"Jesus!" Everett said as he reacted quickly, stepping over the commander's still-kicking legs and opening fire into the open hatchway.
Collins joined Everett and added his fire to the darkness beyond. They heard a mewling sound, as if a large cat had been hurt. Then something fell from the hatch, and before they knew what was happening, the thing rose and jumped on Carl.
Mendenhall saw what it was first, and tried to pull the gelatinous thing from the captain. Ryan joined in, and Jack did the same. The symbiant raised its head, its small hands pinning Everett to the deck, and hissed, showing its clear teeth and deep blue eyes. Without realizing it, all three men released the creature and jumped back. Collins caught his foot on the lower half of Commander Samuels's body and fell back. As he did he brought the nine-millimeter up and fired directly into the symbiant's head. The animal jerked, then faced Collins and angrily swiped at him, releasing one of Everett's arms. The captain quickly fired his gun straight up into the symbiant's chin. Three quick shots sent bluish-pink jelly upward. Everett felt the sym go lax, and he pushed it off.
Leviathan egt-4 Page 34