Katya's World (23 page)

“
So, you really did stop the
Leviathan
?
”

“
Without undue modesty, yes, I did. I wish I could have done it by just pulling out a fuse or by pissing through a transformer cover but, as you saw, the
Leviathan
is very touchy about letting people near its vitals.
”
He stopped, thoughtful. Then he reached into his jacket pocket.
“
Which brings me onto
this
.
”

Before he could show Katya what he had, the communicator mounted on the wall clicked into life.
“
Kane?
”
It was Tasya’s voice, sounding distracted and puzzled.
“
Come to the bridge immediately.
”
She’d broken the connection before Kane had a chance to reply and he glared at the communicator with frustration.

“
It’s always something, isn’t it?
”
he said peevishly to Katya and his theatrical irritation made her smile.
“
Come on, you’re as much a part of all this as anyone.
”

As she followed him out of the cabin, she noticed on a bookshelf by the door the small maser pistol she’d used to hold Kane at gunpoint aboard the
Novgorod
. It felt strange and unexpected to see it abandoned like that and, acting on an impulse she barely understood, she picked it up and slipped it in her pocket.

On the bridge, Tasya was in the captain’s chair. She made no effort to relinquish it when Kane entered, but neither did he make any move towards it, instead perching on the edge of an inactive console.
“
Well, what’s so fascinating?
”

Tasya nodded at the main screen.
“
Our large lumbering friend has developed a sense of direction again.
”

Katya was already looking at the screen as Tasya spoke. The
Leviathan
had, indeed, pulled itself out of the doldrums and was travelling with a definite sense of purpose. But, she noticed, it wasn’t heading north towards Lemuria. Instead, it was heading roughly easterly, perhaps eighty degrees.
“
Where’s it going?
”

“
Not sure yet, M
s,
”
said the sensors operator.
“
Working on it.
”

Katya looked around and saw the navigator’s position was empty. She knew the
Novgorod
’s navigator had died in the pirate attack. It seemed that the pirates had lost their own to the combat drone. Without asking permission, she sat at the post and pulled on the headset. Behind her Tasya shot a glance at Kane, who just smiled slightly and shrugged.

Katya took a few moments to familiarise herself with the layout of the position’s interface and a few moments more to reorganise it to her liking. The Terran-designed interface wasn’t hugely different from its Russalkin counterpart, but that was hardly surprising. There had to be a point where the interface couldn’t be improved much further and all versions would tend towards that. The only thing she could think of that might move it on would be interfacing directly with the computer. An image of the
Leviathan
’s interface throne loomed in her mind and she pushed it away, nauseated. No, she’d stick with the sort of interface you could walk away from afterwards.

She requested the sensor data via her console and fed it to the navigational systems. It was simple stuff; she’d done far more complicated plots to get her card. When she was satis
fied she’d got it right, she issued
the data to the main screen. A relief map of Russalka sprang up upon the screen. Marked in exaggerated size was the
Vodyanoi
and, not nearly so exaggerated, the
Leviathan
, the pair hanging between the submerged mountain ranges like airships traversing a valley. Katya tapped in a command and a red line sprang out of the
Leviathan
’s prow, streaking away until it was lost off the edge of the screen. Katya pulled back the viewpoint, further and further until some objects appeared, the red line of the
Leviathan
’s projected path running neatly through the tight cluster. Katya selected them and zoomed rapidly in.

Kane slowly stood, his face grim.
“
That would make a lot of sense.
”

Tasya stood too, but her expression was in stark contrast to Kane’s. Where he seemed sanguine, she was horrified.
“
The Yagizba Conclaves!
”

Katya could see Kane’s point, but she couldn’t move herself to feel empathy with Tasya. The Yagizba Conclaves were a confederation of floating towns. The fact they spent most of their time on Russalka’s angry surface was strange enough when they could withdraw easily to the serene depths, but the Yagizban also bore reputations of arrogance and vile eccentricities. They were, however, also the production powerhouses for the whole planet. In their robot factories were built almost all the machines that the submarine communities depended upon. Yes, there were other production facilities elsewhere, but Yagizban technology was of a consistently high quality and reasonably priced. When the war against Earth had opened, their floating cities had been obvious targets, especially since the Conclaves were the only serious users of aircraft and had floating airstrips dotted around the seas. The first Terran attacks had sunk every one of the airstrips and two of the smaller towns before the others had managed to flood their ballast tanks and sink to a safe depth of their own volition and choosing.

The Yagizban had been the backbone of the resistance, supplying boats and war materiel wherever it was needed. Towards the end, however, even their resources had drawn thin. It was just as well, Katya reflected, that the Terrans’ had drawn even thinner.

The Conclaves had remained aloof from the victory celebrations when the embattled Russalkin finally realised that the Terrans had given up. They had pulled together what floating towns they had left and moved off to rebuild. Now they held their distance from the rest of the planet’s settlements, supplying technology as they had always done and being paid in resources but never going any further towards integrating themselves. Uncle Lukyan called them
a
strange people. Katya had heard others call them much worse.

She zoomed in still further until the mapping image resolved into a cluster of five main domes and perhaps eight smaller ones. The red line ran unerringly right through the middle of the group.
“
It means to destroy our main means of production.
”

“
It would seem so.
”
Despite his words, Kane seemed unconvinced.
“
Lemuria can breathe easy, at least for the moment.
”
He rubbed his chin and stared at the screen, deep in thought.

“
If it attacks them, we’ve lost before we start,
”
said Tasya. Her face was taut with some emotion. Concern? Indecision? Fear? Katya couldn’t identify it, but she would never have expected it on the Chertovka’s face, whatever it was. Even from their brief acquaintance, Tasya had only ever seemed to run from grim determination to grim humour.
“
We have to warn them.
”

“
We can’t, Tasya,
”
said Kane gently.
“
You know we can’t.
”

“
Why not?
”
said Katya.

Kane turned and spoke abruptly, angered at her breaking into his conversation.
“
Because we don’t carry a long wave array. Who would we want to talk to? And if we use a narrow-beam submarine transmission, it will go straight past the
Leviathan
who will certainly intercept it and probably jam it. If we’re lucky, that’s all it would do.
”

Katya decided not to ask what might happen if they were unlucky. Instead, she turned back to her console, trying to hide the fact that her cheeks had turned red. Kane had been right to bark at her, she knew; butting in like that had just made her look like a big-mouthed kid.

She busied herself with the navigational data, trying to take her mind off what an idiot she was. She concentrated on plotting and replotting the
Leviathan
’s course, on the small chance that she had made some sort of childish mistake in her earlier plots, but no. Every time she went through the stages, the red line still struck neatly through the middle of the Conclaves. It was a sharp piece of navigating on the part of the
Leviathan
, she thought. Considering that the Yagizba Conclaves weren’t even permanently anchored…

A horrible thought occurred to her.
The Yagizba Conclaves weren’t permanently anchored
. Ten years ago, they’d been in an entirely different part of the Russalkin ocean.

“
Hail the
Leviathan
.
”
Kane’s sudden order cut across her train of thought and she looked up at him in confusion.

“
What?
”
Lukyan roused himself from where he’d been leaning against the wall looking over the sensor officer’s shoulder.
“
Are you mad? You’ve said yourself that monstrosity is trigger-happy. If an active sonar ping is enough to put it on the warpath, what will it make of a tight-beam transmission right up its baffles?
”

Kane looked seriously at him.
“
I am very much afraid,
very
much afraid that the situation has changed, and not for the better. Communications, hail the
Leviathan
.
”

The communications officer looked at him uncertainly and looked back at Tasya for confirmation. She seemed worried herself, not the confident and commanding personality Katya was used to at all. Finally she nodded quickly, as if wanting the act over and done with.

With obvious misgivings, the communications officer opened a channel.
“
Leviathan
from
Vodyanoi
,
Leviathan
from
Vodyanoi
. Come in, please.
”

“
Put it on the speakers,
”
ordered Kane. Immediately the bridge was filled with the gentle hiss of an empty communications channel, rising and falling slowly. They listened in silence for almost a minute before Kane ordered another hail.

No happier than last time, the communications officer complied.
“
Leviathan
from
Vodyanoi
,
Leviathan
from
Vodyanoi
. Are you receiving, please?
”

Silence was the only reply. Kane waited impatiently. After a minute there was still no response.
“
Sensors, any change in the
Leviathan
’s speed and heading?
”
The sensors officer shook his head without looking away from his instruments. On Katya’s console, the red line never wavered. Kane grunted with frustration.
“
Hail it again.
”

The communications officer looked beseechingly at Tasya, but she only nodded curtly. For the third time, he sent a hail.

This time,
Leviathan
spoke.

“
This is… is Leviath…
”
The rest of the sentence seemed to fade away. They waited for a moment, but nothing more came.

“
Hail it again,
”
said Kane slowly, brooking no argument.

“
Leviathan
from
Vodyanoi
,
Leviathan
from…
”

“
This… is… Lev… i… a…
”
Every syllable seemed to be a gargantuan effort. Katya listened to it with a mixture of trepidation and hope. Perhaps Tokarov had somehow managed to sabotage it. Even its voice, so controlled and sterile before, seemed shot through now with uncertainty and, what was that? Fear? Fear; now she realised it had been fear on Tasya’s face. How odd. But not as odd as a machine showing fear. That was so…

“
Oh
no,
”
she said out loud.
“
Oh no!
”

The voice of the
Leviathan
continued, still halting, but becoming stronger now.
“
This is… Leviath… This… This… is…
I
… I
am
…
”

Katya couldn’t speak anymore. Her hands were over her mouth in revulsion and terror and in pity. Kane’s eyes were shut as he awaited the inevitable.