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 Samuels 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.”

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.”