Frank Schatzing - The Swarm

'Keep going.'

KH-12 zoomed out further. It was now covering a hundred square kilometres. The Independence was 250 metres long, but now it looked like driftwood. They stared at the monitor with bated breath.

And then they saw it.

A thin blue glow was stretched in a vast ring round the vessel. It quivered with flashes of light.

'How big is it?' asked Peak, in a whisper.

'Four kilometres in diameter,' said the woman in front of the screen. 'No, it's bigger. It's some kind of funnel. The image that we can see here is only the opening. The whole thing stretches into the depths. And we're, uh… suspended over its jaws.'

'What's it made of?'

Johanson had appeared in the room next to Peak. 'Jelly, I should think.'

'Congratulations,' wheezed Vanderbilt 'What the hell did you send them?' he snarled at Crowe.

'We asked them to show themselves.'

'Was that wise?'

Shankar spun round angrily. 'We're supposed to be making contact, aren't we? What the hell is your problem? Don't tell me you were expecting messengers on horseback-'

'We've got a signal!'

They swivelled in the direction of the voice – it was the guy in charge of acoustic surveillance. Shankar was there in an instant. He bent over the screen.

'What is it?' Crowe called.

'From the look of the spectrogram, I'd say it was a Scratch signal.'

'An answer?'

'I don't know whether-'

'The ring! Look, it's contracting.'

Their heads jerked towards the main screen. The ring of light was creeping back slowly towards the ship. At the same time, two tiny dots sped away from her. The Cobras had started their recce. The whistling and squeaking from the speakers grew louder.

Suddenly they were all talking at once.

'Quiet!' barked Li. Her forehead creased as she listened to the dolphins. 'They've changed their signal.'

'Yes.' Delaware closed her eyes in concentration. 'Unknown creatures and…'

'Orcas!' cried Greywolf before she could finish.

'We've picked up a number of large animals approaching from below,' said a member of the sonar team. 'They're inside the tube.'

Greywolf turned to Li. 'I don't like the sound of this. We should bring the dolphins inside.'

'Why now?'

I'm not prepared to put their lives at risk. And, anyway, we need the footage from their cameras.'

Li hesitated for a moment. Then she made up her mind. 'OK. Fetch them in. I'll tell Roscovitz. Peak, go with him. Take four of your men.'

'Leon?' said Greywolf 'Licia?'

They hurried out. Rubin watched them go. He leaned towards Li and said something in a low voice. She listened, nodded and turned back to the screens. 'Wait for me!' Rubin yelled. I'm coming too.'

WELL DECK

Roscovitz, Browning and one of her technicians reached the well deck before the scientists arrived. The commander swore when he saw the broken-down Deepflight. It was floating on the surface with the pods flipped open, tethered by a single chain that stretched up to the rail overhead. 'I thought I told you to finish the job,' he snapped at Browning.

'It's more complicated than we thought,' the head technician protested, as they strode along the jetty. 'The steering system is-'

'Shit.' Roscovitz stared at the submersible. It was positioned half-way over the sluice, whose contours were partially visible in the water, four metres below. 'I don't like it there, Browning. And I especially don't like it there when we're letting the dolphins in and out.'

'With all due respect, sir, it's not in the way. Just as soon as we've repaired it, we'll hoist it back on to the rail.'

Roscovitz growled incomprehensibly and took his position at the controls. The boat was lying in front of him. From that angle it blocked his view of the sluice. He'd have to rely on the footage on the screens. He swore again, this time using juicier expressions. The Independence had been equipped in great haste – shoddily, it seemed. If things weren't going to work properly, why the hell didn't they cause problems before they were in use? What was the point of testing every last piece of hardware if his view would be blocked by a floating submersible?

Steps echoed through the hangar deck. Greywolf, Delaware, Anawak and Rubin hurried down the ramp, followed by Peak and his men. The soldiers spread out on either side of the jetty. Rubin and Peak headed towards Roscovitz while the others pulled on their wetsuits and adjusted their masks.

'Ready,' said Greywolf. He made the OK sign, forming a circle with his forefinger and thumb. 'Let's bring them in.'

Roscovitz switched on the audio recording to summon the dolphins. He saw the scientists splash down into the basin, their bodies illuminated by the underwater lights. They swam towards the sluice. One by one they dived towards the glass hatch. He opened the flaps in the hull.

DELAWARE SANK HEAD FIRST towards the display panel beside the hatch. She was still diving when the enormous steel plates jolted into action, three metres below the inverted glass turret. She watched as they swung open to reveal the water below. Two dolphins slid into the sluice. They seemed nervous, pressing their snouts against the glass. Greywolf signalled for them to wait. A third dolphin swam in.

By now the steel plates were fully open. There was a gaping chasm below the glass plug. Delaware strained to see through the darkness. No blue glow, no lightning, no orcas, and no sign of the other three dolphins. She sank lower, below the level of the deck, until her hands were touching the glass, scanning the depths for the rest of the fleet. Suddenly a fourth dolphin shot into view, banking sharply and swimming into the sluice. Greywolf nodded, and Delaware gave the OK to Roscovitz. The steel plates moved slowly together, closing with a dull thud. Inside the sluice the sensors went to work, testing the water for impurities and toxins. After a few seconds the green light came on, and the all-clear went to Roscovitz's control panel. Noiselessly the glass flaps slid open.

As soon as the gap was wide enough, the dolphins pushed into the basin, where Greywolf and Anawak were ready to receive them.

PEAK WATCHED AS Roscovitz closed the glass flaps, his eyes fixed on the monitors. Rubin was at the edge of the basin, peering down at the sluice.

'And then there were two,' Roscovitz muttered to himself.

Whistling and clicking came to them from the speakers: the dolphins left outside sounded increasingly frantic. Greywolf raised his head above the water, followed by Anawak and Delaware.

'What are they saying?' asked Peak.

'Same as before,' said Greywolf 'Unknown life-form and orcas. Anything new on the monitors?'

'No.'

'Which isn't to say that we're clear. Let's fetch the other two in.'

Peak stared. A deep blue glow was emanating from the edges of the screens.

'You'd better get a move on,' he said. 'It's coming closer.'

The scientists dived back towards the sluice. Peak dialled the CIC. 'What can you see up there?'

'The ring's still contracting.' Li's voice rasped through the speakers on the console. "The helicopters have reported that it's disappearing under water, but we can still see it clearly on the satellite footage. Seems to be trying to get under the boat. Any second now the blue light should come on.'

'It's on already. Listen, what are we dealing with? The blue cloud?'

'Sal?' That was Johanson's voice. 'I think the cloud has gone. The cells are aggregating. It's a dense funnel of jelly, and it's contracting. I don't know what's going on, but I think you'd better finish up down there.'

'We're almost done. Rosco?'

'I'm on the case,' said Roscovitz. 'The sluice is open.'

ANAWAK WAS STARING in fascination through the glass. This time things looked very different as the steel flaps swung open. Earlier they'd peered into murky green gloom. Now the depths were aglow with blue light, faint at first, but growing steadily stronger.