Authors: Jonathan L. Howard
Uncle Lukyan had often spoken of the comradeship of combat. It was a universal truth, he said, that when men and women are in the thick of the fighting, it is not love of their country, their political beliefs or even of their families that drives them on.
“
Nothing makes a better cement to hold together a fighting force than looking out for your comrades. Shoulder to shoulder or back to back. You keep them alive, they keep you alive. That is what welds an army together and makes soldiers commit great acts of bravery – fear of letting your unit down. Ah, my little Katya, you look at me as if I’m sullying some great romantic ideal, but it is true. Perhaps one day, although I pray not, you will have reason to understand what I say.
”
Now she did have cause to understand him and he’d been right. He’d also been right to pray that it wouldn’t happen. But, here she was, running through tunnels trusting her life to, and willing to risk her life for, an arrogant Fed and a war criminal. It was, as her Grandfather Vanya would tell anybody who stopped near his chair for more than a few seconds, a funny life.
They were passing signs for the secondary docking area more frequently now and Katya was relieved that they had seen no sign of any further drones. It was impossible that something as large as the
Leviathan
only carried the one. It was more of a mystery why the corridors weren’t full of hovering cigar-shapes eager to evaporate any human that crossed their laser sights. The
Leviathan
was being very careful with its resources it seemed, but why? She knew they were relying on Kane having the answers. Tasya seemed confident that his knowledge was available simply for the asking, but Katya had her doubts; he’d been very cagey about everything up until now. Sometimes he behaved as if the
Leviathan
would simply go back to sleep if nobody spoke about it. Katya, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that ignorance was not safety.
They arrived at the docking area to find it apparently deserted.
“
Get up!
”
barked Tasya at the old crates lying around the staging area.
“
Do we look like a combat drone?
”
There was no reply, and then Lukyan stood up from behind a tarpaulin covered stack of cargo pallets. His face lit up when he
saw Katya and he rushed over
and gave her the second painful bear hug of the day. As she wriggled her way loose, other faces were appearing from behind cover.
“
Where’s Kane?
”
demanded Tasya.
“
Behind you.
”
They spun around to find Kane standing there with a metal cylinder in his hand.
“
I’ve been behind you for a while, in fact.
”
“
You’ve been following us?
”
said Katya.
“
In effect, but I wasn’t shadowing you, I was trying to catch up. Previous to that, I
had
been shadowing, but that was when I was following the drone. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to see you kill it. Very good work, incidentally.
”
“
Don’t patronise me, Kane,
”
said Tasya. She pointed at the cylinder.
“
What’s that?
”
“
What is it? It’s ant pheromone… a password… our golden key to the kingdom of wonders. This is why it took me so long to catch up with you. Fancy killing something like that drone and not taking a trophy. I stayed a minute to get this little beauty.
”
“
Did a rock fall on your head when you were in the mine workings?
”
asked Katya, losing patience.
Kane looked at her, disappointment on his face.
“
Oh, Kat
ya. I thought you had a poetic
heart. Very well, if you want to reduce everything to the bare bones, it’s the drone’s IFF unit.
”
Katya thought she had a vague memory of the letters from her uncle’s war stories.
“
Identify Friend or Foe?
”
she hazarded on the faint recollection.
“
Exactly. This is the best bit of luck we’ve had since that monstrosity woke up.
”
It bothered Katya when he spoke like that. She wanted some definite information. Apparently Tasya felt the same.
“
For God’s sake, Havilland, what exactly is the
Leviathan
? You talk about it as if it’s a machine one minute and a living creature the next. Which is it?
”
Kane’s expression sobered.
“
From one minute to the next, I’m not sure.
”
The docks on this side of the complex were more conventional docking bays then the extravagant moon pool on the far side. Tasya led the way to the one they’d used to dock the
Vodyanoi
and opened it. Inside the otherwise empty bay sat a small forlorn form.
“
The
Baby
!
”
cried Katya, almost as pleased to see the redoubtable vessel as she’d been to see her own uncle. Lieutenant Petrov went over to inspect the damage while Tokarov crossed his arms and looked at the little sub with a jaundiced eye.
“
This plan is insane. The
Leviathan
will sink you the instant it sees you.
”
“
Not so,
”
replied Kane, patting the IFF cylinder.
“
It will send an interrogation signal, this splendid device will reply with the correct response and the
Leviathan
will welcome home its drone with open docking hatches.
”
“
Even if we do get inside,
”
said Petrov,
“
what do we hope to accomplish? We do not know what the vessel, if it is a vessel in any conventional sense, contains. How can we formulate a plan when we are entering entirely into the unknown?
”
“
Or you could just tell us what to expect, Captain Kane,
”
said Katya. Kane looked sharply at her.
“
You’ve been hinting and dancing around the point ever since you saw that thing on the
Novgorod
’s screens. All our lives are in danger now and I’m getting sick of it. Just tell us what you know and we might stand a chance of getting out of here alive.
”
There was a short, awkward pause. Her uncle was having trouble repressing a smile at Kane’s evident discomfort, while Petrov merely raised an eyebrow. Unexpectedly, it was Tasya who nodded slightly at Katya, her approval for Katya’s outspokenness evident.
“
It’s not that easy,
”
said Kane.
“
Yes,
it is! You just say what it is; and
how we can sink it or cripple it or just put it off the idea that sinking boats is fun. It
is
that easy! It
is
that simple!
”
Kane’s eyes were flicking back and forth as he looked around him at the surviving members of the
Novgorod
and
Vodyanoi
crews. H
e suddenly looked very uneasy.
“
Very well,
”
he said finally.
“
You want to know what the
Leviathan
really is?
”
He walked to the
Baby
and sat on her starboard ballast tank housing. The crews silently formed a semi-circle around him. He sighed, and said,
“
It’s a warship. It’s a Terran warship. It was sent here as a last resort during your war of independence. If all else failed, the
Leviathan
was to engage and destroy the entire Russalkin fleet. It could do it, too.
”
“
Why wasn’t it used then?
”
rumbled Lukyan.
“
Why did the Terrans die in battle when they had this thing all along?
”
“
Because this particular devil needs a bargain made with it before it will do its worst. That bargain was never made.
”
“
No riddles,
”
snapped Tokarov,
“
just tell us the damned truth!
”
“
This is the truth, and it’s more damned than you’ll ever know. It needs a sacrifice to be made to it. The sacrifice was too great…
”
“
What does that mean? What sacrifice?
”
butted in Petrov.
“
…foul machine, it should never have been built. You don’t know what it’s like on Earth, you don’t know what they’re capable of…
”
“
How could it be worse than what it’s already doing?
”
demanded Lukyan.
“
…a generation of collapse, three generations of barbarism, one of totalitarianism, people don’t count for anything…
”
“
You said it would destroy settlements,
”
said Tasya.
“
…neither a machine or a synthetic intelligence, they made their monster and then they wanted to give it a soul…
”
“
What sacrifice?
”
persisted Petrov.
“
…silicon-woven synapses, quantum neurones, not better or worse than a human brain, just different, very different…
”
“
The sacrifice?
”
Tokarov asked.
“
…a new biology, a new life form, unknowable, a
tabula rasa
…
”
“
The sacrifice, Kane,
”
said Katya. He stopped suddenly, his eyes on her. He seemed very old suddenly, an echo of fear in his eyes.
“
Yes,
”
he said almost in a whisper,
“
the sacrifice. Kane. Me. I was the sacrifice.
”
He took a deep breath and looked at them slowly in turn.
“
The
Leviathan
is currently nothing more than a very clever robot ship. It was intended to be an extension of a human will, a Terran will. It was built to… use… a human to fire its mind, to become a living creature.
”
The others had grown very quiet.
“
A human who would become bound to it, become the
Leviathan
, even as the
Leviathan
became that human.
”
In the silence, Katya asked,
“
But, if you didn’t want to do it, if you didn’t want to become this
thing
, why would they choose you? You’d be a thousand times more dangerous. They’d choose somebody they could trust, somebody who wanted to merge with it.
”
“
Perhaps I did want that once, Katya Kuriakova,
”
he said darkly.
“
Perhaps I wanted that more than anything else. To burn and destroy all Russalkin resistance, to sink your boats and drown your cities. Perhaps I dreamed of that every night.
”
In his eyes, Katya saw he meant every word and she unconsciously took a step back.
“
But
you didn’t,
”
said Petrov in
cool tones that verged on cold.
“
Why not?
”
“
Th
ings change,
”
said Kane vaguely.
“
W
hen I left my home, I wanted to burn Russalka so thoroughly it would appear as a new star in Earth’s sky. By the time I arrived, I wasn’t so sure. Then I saw our troops go in, wave after battering wave. They came back, patched themselves up and dived straight back in again. Again and again and again until they were all dead or deserted. And then there was just me.
”
“
They didn’t all die, they went home,
”
said Petrov.
Kane looked at him like Petrov had laughed at a funeral.
“
Yes, that must be it,
”
he said bitterly,
“
they all went home.
”
He lowered his face.
“
So it was just me in the
Leviathan
. The power to kill you all right there in my hands. And I thought,
”
he looked up,
“
’Stuff it. I declare this war over. No more deaths.’ I should be in the history books, really. The only man to decide to stop a war unilaterally just like that. So I escaped from the
Leviathan
and took up the happy life of a rollicking pirate. And look where it’s got me. Telling fairy stories to a bunch of people I wanted to kill ten years ago who now think I’m mad.
”
“
Good enough for me,
”
said Petrov.
“
We’ll carry out this mission, Kane, and disable the
Leviathan
. You’re coming.
”
Kane blinked with mild astonishment.
“
I was under the impression it was my idea in the first place.
”
“
What internal defences does it have?
”
Kane frowned at him.
“
How would I know? I was on good terms with it.
”
“
You must have seen schematics?
”
Kane laughed humourlessly.
“
You really don’t get it, do you, lieutenant? I wasn’t along as a trained and trusted executive officer or something. I was along as potting mulch for the
Leviathan
to plant its intellect in.
”
Now it was Petrov’s turn to frown.
“
I don’t know what that means.
”
“
It means, lieutenant, that it was a suicide mission. I’d be a god, if only of war, for a few months and then I was to destroy
the
Leviathan
and
myself
, not that there’d be much difference between us by that time
. Nobody knew what the effects of being bound to a synthetic intelligence for very long would do. As I said, using the
Leviathan
was supposed to be a last resort.
”
Tasya was looking at Kane oddly.
“
Let’s get that minisub repaired and seaworthy,
”
she said in a strange, uninflected voice. Petrov looked at her, then
at Kane and
nodded.
Kane walked away without looking left or right. Katya followed him to a crate by the far wall where he sat and watched the technicians from both crews examine the
Baby
.
“
I have a feeling I know what you’re going to ask me, Katya,
”
he said, watching them work.
“
I doubt it.
”
Inexplicably, she felt herself growing angry. She couldn’t understand it; here was a man who
hadn’t
unleashed certain death on Russalka and yet she somehow found herself resenting him.
“
You said you knew your duty.
”
“
I did. I do.
”
“
Then why didn’t you… merge or interface or whatever it was you were supposed to do with that thing out there?
”
He looked at her, raising his eyebrows warily.
“
If I had, you’d probably be dead now.
”
“
Not the point. Y
ou
r duty was to Earth; to Terra and all the Grubbers. You were supposed to mop us up so they could have our world. But you didn’t.
”
“
I couldn’t.
”
“
You betrayed your own people and then turned pirate here.
”
“
Looks like I’ve got quite a death wish.
”
“
So why didn’t you fulfil it in the war like you were supposed to? Do you like letting people down?
”
Anger flickered across his face in a spasm. Katya was surprised to see it shadowed by sorrow. It gave her a small thrill of pleasure and that made her ashamed. She was getting to him.
“
You don’t know what I wanted
then
or what I want
now
.
”
“
Why didn’t you just go home? Come up with some story about the
Leviathan
malfunctioning and then just go home? Why did you stay here?
”
“
And why would I want to do that?
”
“
I don’t know. To be with your Grubber friends, with your family.
”
His face whitened and for a second she thought he was going to hit her.
“
You think I should stay with my family?
”
he said in a tight whisper that sounded nothing like his normal voice.
Katya was very aware that she’d travelled into dangerous waters.
“
I just thought…
”
“
I’m with my family, okay? I’m with them.
”
He stood up and walked quickly away, through the open air lock and into th
e complex. Katya watched him go with a sinking feeling that
she’d
just
said the most stupid thing she had ever said in her life, though she didn’t know why.