David Golemon - Leviathan

"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.

"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 general 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."