Chapter Ten
‘Captain! Captain!’
‘Dammit Ben! Wake up!’
Ben came awake and alert, instantly banishing sleep from his mind and yet did not move a muscle; it was a hard-learned lesson to come awake so suddenly without alerting a possible enemy to your conscious state. Determining with ease that he was not in any immediate danger within his cabin, he extracted himself from Zhe’s sleepy embrace as she too woke from the noise. Between Duncan’s hammering on the hatch and Sophie’s cries over the comm. system, it was a miracle the entire ocean was not awake. Hitting the comm. panel to send as he yanked open the hatch he asserted that he was awake.
‘Now what’s going on, Duncan?’ he asked his friend and lieutenant, leaving the comm. line open for Sophie.
‘We’re being hunted, that’s what’s happening!’ Sophie's voice thundered through the room.
‘Hunted, Dunc?’ Ben asked, turning to grab his sabre and other effects in case of an all-out attack.
‘Yes. Not by Carrington though; it seems that Rose wasn’t too pleased with our lack of appearance.’
‘She’s dispatched a bounty hunter then?’
‘It looks that way and it looks to be Hans.’
‘Hans! Oh hell!’ Ben exclaimed. ‘What’s his position?’
‘Too far off for an attack, but closing.’
‘Soph?’ Ben asked their pilot for confirmation of this.
‘Duncan’s right. The sensors picked him up too late for us to outmanoeuvre him. Pretty good hiding spot really; it ensures that, by the time we know he is there, we can do nothing but confront him.’
‘For which he is undoubtedly prepared,’ Ben agreed.
Duncan nodded grimly at this, saying, ‘So, what’s the plan?’
‘Battle stations. Send Ash and Simon down to Blue. We’ll join you, Soph. We’ll start as if this will be an ocean-only battle, and we’ll revise if it becomes clear boarding will be needed.’ Ben gave out his orders clearly and with his reasoning, a tactic that his own history had shown worked best. ‘Any questions?’
‘No sir, I’ll alert the others,’ Sophie’s voice crackled before she switched off the comm. line.
‘Dunc?’ Ben asked his lieutenant directly.
‘All’s good.’ Duncan decided after a brief pause, confining himself merely to a look further into the cabin, specifically at Zhe.
Ben nodded briskly, acknowledging his point and dismissing him in one movement. Confident his captain would sort out this problem, Duncan hurried off to ensure that the original problem did not exacerbate itself while he was doing so.
Steeling himself with a deep breath, Ben turned back to face Zhe, who had, during the earlier exchange, banished sleep from her eyes and sat alert on the bed awaiting orders.
‘Zhe…’ Ben began uncertainly, ‘I assume you heard?’
‘Yes. The consequences of our actions are already catching up,’ Zhe stated gravely, and yet more eloquently than it would seem either of them expected.
Ben nodded his agreement with her assessment of their current predicament. ‘The thing is—’
‘I want to fight,’ Zhe cut clearly across Ben in yet another unprecedented move for her.
‘Zhe, it’s not that simple. We’ve all had training or at the very least experience of this kind of battle. It’s not a case of not believing you’re capable Zhe, but more a case of a lack of personal knowledge of how far your capabilities extend.’
‘Which is the same as not believing me capable.’ Zhe’s response did not lack fire.
‘Dammit Zhe! How can I know where to place you and what task to give you? Ah hell, I don’t even know your real name never mind your battle skills!’ Ben paused, realising that this argument was bringing up far more than just fighting abilities; it was going into carefully avoided territory.
‘Neither do I,’ Zhe said quietly in response to his exclamations over her real name.
‘Dammit all Zhe!’ Ben exploded once again before taking a deep breath and calming himself. ‘Fine. Just… get dressed and come up to the control room, okay?’
Zhe nodded her assent, still looking rather forlorn on the bed.
Ben opened his mouth as if to say more or perhaps apologise, but Sophie cut him off.
‘Are you coming or not, Captain?’ she thundered through the comm., leaving Ben to hurry out and into the control room.
***
‘Hmph, finally decided to show up then,’ Sophie muttered murderously as her captain appeared in the control room; her short fuse of a temper shortened even more by current events.
Ben knew, through years of experience and knowing his pilot, to leave that comment well alone and therefore turned to his first mate on his arrival. ‘Dunc?’
‘No real change, Captain. We’re closing, but Hans seems to have slowed somewhat; he’s still on intercept course, though,’ Duncan reported efficiently.
‘Weapons con. report,’ Ben demanded through the comm.
‘All good to go, Captain: weapons ready and locked,’ Blue’s succinct reply crackled through the tension in the control room.
‘Await my signal.’
‘Aye Captain.’
Tension- and adrenaline-filled silence permeated the control room following that most practical of exchanges. All three crew members stared at the monitors, ready to hurl themselves into battle given the smallest sign.
On walking into this atmosphere, Zhe suddenly comprehended the meaning of Ben’s words to her only minutes before. They had survived because he knew what they could do and what they couldn’t, as individuals and as a crew. That knowledge allowed him to plan and react. He couldn’t plan and react for her. He didn’t know her. She didn’t know her.
In this moment of revelation, Ben looked directly at her; something must have shown on her face because he went over to her and simply laid his hand on her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she nodded to him; revelations can wait till later, the set of her jaw said. Now is the time to fight.
‘Why didn’t he just…’ Ash’s voice drifted into the control room from the comm. speaker, breaking the stillness.
‘Why didn’t he just what, Ash?’ Dunc asked.
The pause before Ash answered was significant. ‘…send a hail of torpedoes at us? Why did he wait?’ He finished the thought aloud, that had been niggling at him inside his head.
‘We were too far away,’ Sophie answered as if Ash was stupid.
But Ash’s puzzling had a more profound impact on the captain and his first mate; they turned to each other and in a mere moment had an entire conversation.
‘He could have waited where he was hiding and we wouldn’t have seen him till too late; he chose to let us see him!’ Duncan growled with dread.
‘Ash! Simon! Prepare to repel boarders!’ Ben bellowed into the comm. as he and Dunc stepped up to the second and third station consoles.
‘Sophie scan the area on all sides,’ Ben ordered as he began typing.
‘Captain, he’s right in front of us,’ Sophie said in confusion, although she still obeyed her captain’s orders.
‘That sub is no longer our primary focus!’
‘Dunc?’ Ben called over to Duncan who was furiously typing away.
‘Nothing yet.’
‘Ben – there! Three points abaft the port beam! The forward sub is a decoy!’
‘Blue, you got that?’
‘Three points abaft the port beam, aye!’ Blue’s response was clear and crisp.
Then all hell broke loose before a shot could be fired.
‘Contact, Captain!’ Sophie yelled, fighting to keep the Coelacanth from rolling as she lurched to starboard.
‘Yeah, I think I got that one, Soph,’ Ben responded dryly as he struggled to remain on his feet.
‘Simon! Ash! Port-beam hatch!’ Ben ordere
d into the comm.
Zhe watched amid this commotion as though she herself were not part of it. Ben and Duncan moved swiftly about the control room, from station to station, giving out commands and arming themselves from the weapons lockers.
‘Here,’ Ben snapped her out of her reverie, thrusting two pistols into her hands. ‘I sure as hell hope you know how to use these.’
Zhe reacted as if on autopilot, grasping one of the pistols she chambered a round and cocked the gun before holding it out – arm stretched with elbow slightly bent – ready to fire.
The weight of Ben's appraising look brought her back to herself; she lowered her arm to give him a half shrug. Now really wasn’t the time to go into the whys and wherefores of this new development.
Ben appeared to share her thoughts, for he nodded sharply once and turned back to Sophie. The whole exchange had taken no more than ten seconds, yet, to Zhe, it felt as if the whole ocean had suddenly stopped moving around her, for it only to furiously start again, but to a completely alien rhythm. Zhe was not given much time to think on her new-found abilities, or on the feeling of being lost and set adrift that accompanied them, as she was thrown from her feet into the third console.
‘He rammed us again, Captain!’ Sophie shouted as she once more fought the roll of the sub. ‘Shit! Ben!’
‘Dammit!’ Ben cursed, as he dived for the co-pilot’s controls to help Sophie keep the Coelacanth upright.
‘What the hell is he playing at?’ Ash’s voice thundered over the comm.
‘He’s lost the element of surprise, so he’s trying to do enough damage without engaging us directly,’ Ben growled in response.
‘Breach!’ Blue’s bellow cut across any discussion on tactics.
‘Shit, you see it Blue?’
‘The monitors show on deck three, engine room, aft quarter we’ve got the entire ocean trying to get in through a tear half a metre long,’ Blue replied from the weapons console (con.). Being the weapons expert as well as the engineer meant Blue had set up a secondary engine-control station on the weapons con. Whoever designed the Coelacanth had obviously envisaged there being two separate people doing his job – two people who wouldn’t get along, judging by the fact that, the weapons con. was at the bow and the engine room took up two decks at the stern, Blue thought dryly.
‘Shit. Ash, Simon – repair detail. Dunc, run scans for further weaknesses and dammit, Soph, get us away from the trench wall before we’re impaled on it,’ he ordered.
‘Too many more hits like that and we’re sunk; we’ve got to move and we’ll have to present our stern to one of ’em to do it, Ben.’ Duncan counselled, checking his readings.
Ben nodded in agreement. ‘Blue, you got a lock on that first sub?’
‘She’s still out of range, Captain; firing won’t do you no good.’
‘I can close that gap enough in less than a minute,’ Sophie told him.
‘No good, Soph. A minute’s more than enough time to lock and fire on us from astern.’ Ben shook his head.
‘And yet it’s not enough for us to turn, deal with the second and then defend against the first,’ Duncan thought aloud; privately admitting to himself that Hans was a master tactician, if not entirely sane.
‘No,’ Ben muttered, ‘We need more time.’ There was a mere moment’s pause, before that comment seemed to galvanise Ben into action. He moved quickly from one console to the other, checking information and typing furiously in turn.
‘Blue, you see that outcropping, three fathoms from the first sub and four points off the port bow?’
‘I see it, Captain.’
‘But can you hit it? Urgh! That damn sub is pissing me off,’ Ben growled as once again the Coelacanth lurched sideways.
‘Hull integrity’s down to sixty percent, and if there’s another hit to the port-beam hatch, there won’t be any hatch left,’ Duncan announced.
‘Well now, anyone would think they’re trying to sink us,’ Ben commented.
‘Well, aren’t they?’ Simon’s voice crackled over the comm.
‘I was kind of hoping they’d want the disks… in one piece and preferably not waterlogged,’ Ben replied.
‘Hmph, I don’t think they agree on that particular strategy,’ Ash commented.
‘Blue, the outcropping – can you hit it?’ Ben asked again as the question had seemed to be lost during the hit.
‘Got a lock on it already.’
‘Good. Sophie, as soon as Blue fires, turn hard to port. I want this sub where I can fire at it.’
‘Aye Captain.’
‘Engine room, how’s the patch holding?’
‘It’s on; there’s minimal leakage, which should be good till Blue can fix it permanently,’ Ash responded; he was the temporary fix, Blue was the real welder on the crew.
‘Good enough, as long as it holds. Now move up to Blue’s position, we’re going to need all the guns we’ve got for this.’
‘Aye Captain, moving now.’
‘Blue, don’t wait on them, when you’re ready.’
‘Right you are, Captain. Soph, three, two, one!’
The control room was silent for a moment following Blue’s countdown; the Coelacanth banked to port as they watched the monitors for the result. As planned, the volley of fire crashed into the outcropping, causing a hefty chunk to breakaway and shower down directly in front of the forward sub. Her pilot showed his inexperience by banking hard away from the debris, which wouldn’t have reached it anyway. A brief cheer went up in the control room – between the debris and their foolish pilot they had the time they needed.
‘All weapons are locked on the second sub. I want her sunk,’ Ben ordered.
‘Aye Captain,’ the crew chorused, more than eager to obey.
‘Duncan, eyes on the first; I don’t want her creeping up on us,’ Ben ordered, as their main focus shifted to the second sub as Sophie swung around to face her and Blue let loose the first volley, taking out their main gun.
‘Simon, target their engines. Blue, stay with the weapons. And, Ash, I reckon that sub'd look a lot better with a hole in the side, so see what you can do.’
‘Aye!’
‘Well played,’ Zhe spoke up from next to Ben her voice soft, almost hidden under the sounds of the crew and the battle.
‘We’re not clear yet, little darling.’ Ben smiled ruefully, slinging an arm around her shoulders.
As if to mark his words, there was a sudden thud against the Coelacanth’s hull.
‘What the hell? Dunc?’ Ben called out to his second.
‘She’s not moved, Ben! Not a fathom!’ Dunc replied incredulously.
‘Then what the hell just hit my boat?’ Ben yelled. ‘Soph, full external sweep; I want to know what’s going on out there,’ he demanded, as he turned to the third console to check the readings himself.
‘Captain, attack successful!’ Blue announced over the comm. as Simon cheered.
‘She’s going down!’ Ash crowed.
‘Not too cocky now, Ash; Hans is still out there,’ Ben cautioned as the Coelacanth rocked sideways. ‘Dunc?’
‘Hans is making waves, he fired a volley into the trench wall,’ Duncan reported. ‘No originality left,’ he muttered dryly.
‘Keep eyes on him, Dunc. Sophie, I need to know what’s—’
‘Dive bay breach!’ Sophie cut across him.
‘Shit! Ash, Simon, dive bay! Move! Blue, target the main sub,’ Ben yelled. ‘Dunc, where’s Hans at?’
‘Just started to move into attack position.’
‘Blue, as soon as you get a shot, take him out,’ Ben ordered, orchestrating everything from the control room. ‘And just what the hell breached the dive bay?’ Ben demanded.
‘Not sure, Captain.’
‘Simon, Ash, report? What’s down there?’
‘A bunch of crazy-arse mercenaries, Captain!’ Ash yelled, as burst of gunfire came over the comm. as the Coelacanth shook again from another of Hans’ blasts.
‘Shit!’ Ben banged his fists against the console. ‘Divers! Why the hell didn’t we watch for divers?’
Duncan looked across the control room at him; he knew the situation wasn’t great. Attacks on both fronts, Hans closing in, an unknown number of hostiles on board and the Coelacanth weakened – not the best odds.
‘Simon, what’s the score?’
‘They’ve taken the mess, but we’re holding them back from the central access ladder and…’ He tailed off as gunfire echoed through the comm. system.
‘Simon! Ash!’ Ben hollered into the comm.
‘Dunc, get down there,’ Ben ordered after a beat, with no reply from the lower deck. ‘Go through the engine room,’ he added as an afterthought, realising that the central access ladder would put him right in the cross fire.
‘We’re good, Captain; though Dunc’s assistance would definitely be appreciated,’ Ash coughed through the comm. after several tense moments.
‘Hans is closing in, Ben,’ Duncan warned his captain as he rushed out into the main body of the sub. Ben nodded his acknowledgement before turning to assess the situation.
‘Blue, anything to shoot yet?’
‘No target yet, Captain. He’s a cagey bastard with longer range weapons than us. Sorry Ben.’
‘Zhe, guard that hatch; if anything you don’t recognise comes through, shoot it.’
Zhe gave a terse nod, not trusting her newly found voice to say anything; especially after her earlier optimistic comments seemed to have heralded disaster.
‘Can we change it up a bit, Soph?’
‘How do you mean, Captain? I can move us around more, but I can’t get us in range without giving him an easy target.’ Sophie’s frustration with the situation was becoming more obvious with every word.
‘Keep us moving; don’t make it easy for the bastard,’ Ben told her as he worked on at the third station, while the fight below raged over the comm.
Within the Water Page 9