David Golemon - Leviathan

"Damn, the last one out of the pool."

"Captain, we can't shoot what we can't see or hear."

"I know, Izzy, I know."

Alexandria's attempt to avoid the last collision had failed and the heavy maneuvering afterward to regain control threw Niles and the others in the now closed and watertight observation lounge. Garrison Lee went down in a heap, and Alice fell on top of him. Sarah saw an opportunity. Instead of being terrified, she had gotten angry. Virginia reacted at the same time. Tyler had fallen to a knee after the last collision and was struggling to gain his feet. At that moment he was hit simultaneously by Virginia and Sarah. Virginia went high and Sarah low, grabbing for the gun as she heard voices at the hatchway. Before she knew what was happening, several shots discharged from Tyler's weapon. The rounds missed everyone and ricocheted off the titanium bulkheads, making loud pings as they did. Niles and Lee started to assist the women but were grabbed by other security men before they could.

"Fools!" Tyler said as he regained his feet. Then he lost his balance once more as everyone lost their footing. Before anyone could take advantage of Tyler's predicament, several more security men had entered and leveled their weapons.

Leviathan again rolled to their right and all of them felt her accelerate. Captain Heirthall, all doubt once more removed from her actions, was aiming for the last target in the Bering Strait — USS Missouri .

"That's it — nothing else is out there, Captain," sonar reported.

"Damn it — where are you?" Jefferson said as he closed his eyes in thought.

Outside of Missouri's hull, Leviathan was closing once more at seventy-five knots, aiming straight at the bow of the American boat.

Suddenly, thuds started penetrating their hull. The soundwaves were faint, but after the silence of the previous attacks, the strange noise seemed as loud as cannon fire. The BQQ sonar was also picking up another sound as the great submarine closed on them — the sound of water rushing over a rough surface.

"Captain, we have what sounds like possible gunfire and something else, a thousand yards to starboard!"

"Izzy — match bearings on that noise and shoot!"

In the control center of Leviathan , Samuels was reluctantly about to sound the collision warning for the last time for their final target.

"Commander, we are making noise, I can't tell from where yet, but the sound is emanating from Leviathan." The technician pushed his headphones into his ears and listened intently. "We have torpedoes in the water — we have four fish — American Mark forty-eights — they went active as soon as they left their tubes. Torpedoes have acquired Leviathan!"

"Commander, someone has discharged a weapon onboard. It has definitely affected our stealth!"

There was no response coming from the auxiliary control station in the captain's suite at the base of the conning tower. Samuels knew he had to act.

"Hard right rudder, all-ahead flank — take her down to a thousand feet!" Samuels said as calmly as he could. "Launch countermeasures!"

Alexandria had heard the gunfire from somewhere down below. She closed her eyes as Leviathan started altering her course. She started fighting her emotions as the headache was suddenly under control. She need not contact control, knowing Samuels would do what needed doing. Her senses were draining of all input except regret at what she had done.

As she stood, she stumbled down the platform, caught herself, and then slowly walked to the large round viewing port. She tried in vain to smile, now realizing it had to have been Virginia and the people from the Event Group who had given their position away. She nodded her head as Leviathan started a run for her life. As Leviathan maneuvered and "House of the Rising Sun" went into its dramatic climax, she slammed against the glass. Alexandria slid down into a heap; she closed her eyes and her body slumped. As she slid into unconsciousness, she thought she felt movement inside her head. Before going completely out, she wondered if she truly was insane.

Leviathan went deep. One of the Mark 48 torpedoes had locked onto the sound of the fast-moving sub. The water became disturbed with every turn of her giant bow planes and aft rudders, until the Mark 48 snapped its thin guidewire and the giant sub banked hard to starboard. The torpedo was seeing and targeting the now-roughened edges of the bow-plane titanium shields that had been warped during the ramming.

The first and second torpedo lost contact as the great submarine dived beneath the thermal layer. They went for the bubbling and frothing canisters that were ejected from the stern of Leviathan . However, unbeknownst to the men and women onboard the giant submarine, the last two American weapons had driven underneath a large section of one of the destroyed Chinese Akulas as it sank fast to the bottom. The first Mark 48 turned downward to the deck of Leviathan , slamming into her vertical launch tubes just aft of the conning tower. The second hit a glancing blow off her port side, then went straight down after its rebound and exploded just below the engineering compartment at the aft portion of Leviathan . The great submarine was rocked, first downward and then up, actually bending almost five degrees at her midsection.

The crew was thrown around in their seats. Water leaks sprang up in a thousand places. Her thermal-dynamic drive went offline, sending out a screeching alarm throughout the ship. The four nuclear power plants scrammed and shut down.

As her life's work shuddered around her, Alexandria's eyes fluttered open. She tried lifting herself off the carpeted deck. She failed, then tried again, finally gaining her feet. She slowly wiped blood from her lip and knew she had blood coming from her ears. She staggered to her chair and hit the intercom.

"Report, Mr. Samuels."

"We're still getting information, Captain. Power plants are offline and we have already switched to battery power. We have preliminary reports of casualties in engineering and three out of the six weapons rooms. We have a hull breach in engineering — no report as to the extent of damage. The hull has sustained damage from the strike and from our own ramming to the point we must be heard by enemy sonar. We cannot repair the bow planes or the damage to the vertical tube hatches until we can dry dock."

"Very well — get Leviathan moving out past the Strait, then take us deep; three thousand feet will do. For now, plot us a course for Saboo. We'll use the deep thermal cline to hide our noise."

"Aye, Captain — Saboo."

Alexandria steadied herself, then decided it was time to go and see how Compton and the others were, and congratulate them on a surprise move that she would have never guessed them capable of. As she wiped the blood that streamed from her left ear off the side of her face, she knew deep down she was grateful for her, and Leviathan's , first-ever failure.

Captain Jefferson was in sonar listening on a set of headphones. He shook his head.

"I'm not sure, Captain, until I run the tapes back, but I think we hit her. The detonations were too far away for our fish to have struck any debris from the Akulas. After that we picked up a high-speed whine heading due south out of the Straights. We may not have caused that boat to sink, but we caused some kind of damage to her hull. We hurt her," the supervisor in sonar said. "The Mark forty-eights had to have picked up on some previous damage to her hull after the guidewires broke. That and the damage we caused are what we heard."