Katya's World (35 page)

“
Lukyan’s dead.
”

She stopped, staring at the hatch, willing it to slide open and Lukyan to jump through, safe and sound.

“
He gave his life to save you, Katya. You know that. The sphere was firing on him right from the moment he released you. I’ve never seen anything like it.
”
The hatch wasn’t opening. Katya thought it would probably never open again. Behind her, Kane was still talking, his voice low and intense.
“
I’m going to honour him by telling anybody who’ll listen about the bravest thing I ever saw, that I have ever even heard of. How are you going to honour him?
”

She lowered her head. Then she turned and walked down the corridor towards the docking bay.
“
By living,
”
she said quietly as she passed him.

They reached the docking bay a minute later. Kane went in first, his gun drawn in case the docking cables were set to attack. The hemisphere in the ceiling was quiet, though; it seemed the
Leviathan
had other more pressing concerns.

“
How do we get out of here without the
Leviathan
’s cooperation?
”

“
We override. This place has maintenance hatches and access panels very deliberately kept out of the areas that I had access to.
”
He examined the apparently smooth wall, found a couple of shallow indentations and dug his thumbs into them. With agonising slowness, he unscrewed a small circular hatch.

Katya was pacing up and down. It wasn’t fair that she should lose her last relative, and have him restored to her only to see him die. It wasn’t fair that her father had died in the war. It wasn’t fair that her mother had died in a stupid avoidable accident that wasn’t even her own fault.
“
It’s not fair.
”

Kane looked over his shoulder at her.
“
No,
”
he answered. He turned back to his work.
“
It isn’t. It never is.
”

“
You don’t know what it’s like.
”
She was getting angry with him, and she didn’t want to. She needed to hurt him, but she didn’t want to.

“
What you’re going through this minute? No, I don’t. I don’t know at all.
”
He twisted a release control inside the hatch fiercely and, around them, the whole chamber started to reconfigure itself. The smooth wall panels slid back to expose pipes and girders and…

“
Combat drones!
”
She waited for one or all of them to suddenly rise from their cradles and turn their destroying eyes upon Kane and her. Instead, they stayed utterly inanimate.

“
They’re inactive. I’ve put this chamber on maintenance cycle so the
Leviathan
can’t access anything in here. Now if I can find the maintenance consoles
…
oh, wait.
”
Another click and three sections of floor started to rise.
“
One of these will have launch controls. Check that one over there, would you?
”
Without waiting for confirmation, he moved to one of the control consoles still deploying itself and locking into place.

Keep myself busy, thought Katya. Plenty of time later for grief. Stay focussed. She went to the rising section Kane had indicated. It wasn’t a console at all, she discovered when she reached it, but just a cover for a viewing porthole in the
Leviathan
’s skin. She wondered briefly why it had such a thing, but then she looked out and all such questions flew from her mind.
“
Kane! Kane! Come here quickly!
”

Kane ran to her side and looked down through the port. Beneath them was not the submarine darkness of the Russalka ocean. Instead, they could see waves crashing far, far below them. A moment later, clouds came between them and the water.

The
Leviathan
was flying.

“
I hate flying,
”
said Katya Kuriakova as she watched Russalka fall rapidly away from them.
Fine
, thought Katya.
Perfect
.
“
This isn’t a submarine, is it?
”

Kane raised his index finger in admonishment.
“
Now, I never actually
said
the
Leviathan
was a submarine. Not
just
a submarine
”

Katya was only half listening.
“
This explains so much. Using lasers underwater is so incredibly inefficient. Tasya said it was a crazy way of arming the drones. Not if they were always meant to operate in the air.
”
She looked up at Kane. He looked faintly embarrassed.
“
Or space. This thing is space capable, isn’t it? It’s a starship?
”

“
How did you work that out?
”

“
Every time you talked about how you came to Russalka, you said you were inside this thing. That doesn’t really make sense unless there was no transporter starship carrying it. I actually wondered how big a ship would be needed to carry the
Leviathan
here and what happened to it after it finished its job. There’s no mention of such a large Terran ship in the war records I’ve read. So there never was such a vessel. The
Leviathan
came here under its own power.
”
She frowned.
“
Why did you never tell anybody? Why did you let everybody carry on thinking this was just a submarine?
”

Kane sat down on one of the
Baby
’s outrider rigs and sighed.
“
I’ve been having doubts about the Yagizba Conclaves for a while. I was in no hurry to tell them that a starfaring battleship was about to hand itself over to them. Actually, that’s not quite true. The
Leviathan
’s stardrive is slag; they only work once. Still, it can reach space. The important thing was that it would have given the Yagizban control of the planet from orbit. I wasn’t sure if they deserved that advantage.
”
He scratched his nose.
“
I wasn’t sure if anybody on this benighted planet deserves that.
”

Katya chose to ignore that last comment and looked out of the porthole again.
“
Why has it only chosen to fly now?
”

“
Because it’s hurt. Its stealth systems work well underwater, not so well in the air or space, but I think its stealth must have been damaged by the explosion. Probably its hull integrity too. It uses a forcefield to lend its hull strength.
”
He noticed Katya looking blankly at him.
“
A forcefield. It’s… well, it’s complicated. A projected energy field that exhibits some of the qualities of matter.
”
From her expression, that was not a good explanation. He gave up.
“
All you need to know is that the
Leviathan
’s skin is protected by a very powerful forcefield. It deflects attacks that actually reach it and, just as importantly, holds the hull together when it’s under stress. It allowed the
Leviathan
to rest far deeper than a conventional boat’s hull could bear. Between losing its stealth and its hull not being able to bear the same pressures, it feels vulnerable. It’s running for high ground where it knows it can’t be reached.
”

“
Taking us with it.
”

“
It has to prioritise its problems. We’re probably pretty low in the list. It will use its damage control systems to fix itself up and then, when it’s got a minute, it will kill us.
”

“
I know. We have to get out of here.
”
She looked down through the porthole. Russalka looked a long way away.
“
Any ideas?
”

Kane walked over to join her and they watched the clouds become distant.
“
In a word, no.
”
He cocked his head and admitted,
“
Well, one, but it isn’t to get us out of here. Let me show you something.
”
They walked to the console Kane had been studying.
“
The
Leviathan
uses two power sources. When it can get water, it uses simple electrolysis to break it down into oxygen and hydrogen and stores the hydrogen.
”

“
To use as fuel for a fusion power plant. Any boat much bigger than the
Baby
does that.
”

“
True, but fusion doesn’t give the large amounts of quick
I need it now
power something as big as this needs in, say, combat. Which brings us to the second power source.
”
He tapped the display where a figure read 5.56Kg.

“
So educate me. What masses 5.56 kilograms?
”

Kane looked seriously at her.
“
Antimatter. It certainly didn’t have that much when I left it. It must have been sitting at the bottom of the sea for ten years using fusion energy to make the stuff. Something else it’s not supposed to do. If it had lost power to the antimatter containment field and it had come in contact with the side of its container… Katya, do you have the faintest idea what antimatter is?
”

She shook her head.
“
I was hoping you’d tell me that.
”

Kane sighed.
“
Simply put, it’s matter’s evil twin. When matter and antimatter come in contact, they obliterate each other, right down to the subatomic level. BANG!
”
Katya jumped.
“
Total conversion into energy! The amount of the stuff the
Leviathan
is carrying would produce a staggeringly huge explosion. It would have been suicide to destroy the
Leviathan
while it was still in the ocean; it would have caused a shockwave that would have travelled around the world wreaking untold damage. At least we can prevent that.
”

Katya looked curiously at the console readings.
“
How?
”

“
By making it explode up here where it won’t do any harm. I can access the antimatter containment field from here, turn it off. A few minutes later it will decay to the point where the antimatter comes in contact with the matter wall of its container, and that will be that. The jig will be over for the
Leviathan
.
”

“
And us.
”

“
And us. Yes. What can I say? This always had the air of a suicide mission. All we can do is to try and protect Russalka.
”

Katya thought about it. Was it really such a loss, to give her life up like this? She had no family left. She had never really had any friends. It was a shame that the people down there would never know the sacrifice she made for them, but that was little enough compared to the lives that would be saved.
“
Why should you care, anyway? You’re not even Russalkin.
”

“
We’re all human,
”
said Kane simply. He gestured at the controls.
“
What do you say? Shall we?
”

Katya nodded quickly, not trusting herself to speak. Kane reached for the controls, his hands hesitated above them momentarily, his fingers twitched once, then he tapped out some instructions. It took him less than five seconds to sign their death warrants. When he was finished, he stepped back.

“
It’s done. The
Leviathan
will try and run auxiliary power to the containment field, but I’ve put other demands on it. It will only delay the inevitable by a little while.
”

Somebody once said that the prospect of imminent death concentrates the mind. Katya looked around the chamber with all its exposed workings, units and equipment as a collection of entities for the first time instead of just a setting for her last moments.
“
What,
”
she asked slowly, an idea starting to form,
“
is the pressure in low Russalkin orbit?
”

Kane was surprised by the question.
“
The pressure? So close to zero to make little difference.
”

Katya walked over to the
Baby
and ran her hand over the hull.
“
The
Baby
’s rated down to four kilometres of ocean on her back. If she can stand that number of positive atmospheres, I’m sure she can bear
no
atmosphere
at all
.
”

Kane stood up very straight.
“
Are you suggesting we use it as an escape pod?
”
Katya nodded, but Kane shook his head.
“
Yes, we’ll get caught in Russalka’s gravity and re-enter the atmosphere, but we’d come down like a meteorite. We’d burn up.
”

“
We have to be travelling fast to burn on re-entry.
”
And she pointed at the combat drones.

Kane looked at them, understanding visibly growing in his face.
“
Use the drone’s antigravity systems to neutralise most of the
Baby
’s mass? Like your
Novgorod
gambit?
”

“
Like my
Novgorod
gambit. I’m only ever going to have one bright idea in my life; I’m trying to get as much use out of it as I can.
”

“
Don’t do yourself down. If the drone’s AG units were activated once we were inside the outer atmosphere, it would be like deploying drogue parachutes. We might just survive it.
”

“
It’s a plan. Re-energise the antimatter containment while we get this worked out and you can switch it off again when we’re about to leave.
”

Kane’s jubilant expression faded.
“
Ah,
”
he said quietly.

Katya’s own face fell.
“
You can’t.
”

“
If I could, so could the
Leviathan
. I had to lock out any attempt to re-activate it.
”
He moved quickly to the console.
“
The
Leviathan
’s doing everything it can to keep the antimatter safe, but it’s losing. We’ve got fifteen minutes at most, probably less.
”
He gestured hopelessly at the drones.
“
It would take that long to dismantle a drone to get the antigravity unit out and it would take at least two for us to stand a chance. There’s just no time. I’m sorry, Katya, it was a good idea. Fate doesn’t come much crueller.
”

Katya wasn’t listening. She was already at one of the combat drones, opening its inspection hatch.
“
We’re not finished yet. If we can’t get the unit out in time, the whole damned drone is just going to have to come with us!
”

She had the first drone’s contragravitic system’s fired up, before Kane got over his surprise.
“
I like you, Katya Kuriakova,
”
he said finally.
“
You’re mad, but I like that in moderation.
”

She was too busy wrestling the great cylinder -- rendered almost weightless but still with all its inertia, out of its cradle and over to the
Baby
-- to reply. She did notice that he wasn’t helping, though.

She looked up from working on a second drone to see him opening a locker and pulling out a one piece suit, white and helmeted.
“
What’s that?
”
She bent back to her work.

“
EVA suit. Extra-vehicular activity, that is. A spacesuit.
”
He pulled off his jacket and boots and started shrugging the suit on over the rest of his clothes.
“
Pretty good underwater, too.
”

“
Is there one for me?
”

“
No, but you won’t need one. You’ll be in the minisub.
”

She stopped and looked suspiciously at him.
“
And where will you be?
”

He pointed under the
Baby
.
“
Opening that hatch. It has to be done from the console. The chamber will have decompressed before I can get back so I’ll need an air supply. The plan is I open the hatch, run over and come in through your minisub’s dorsal airlock. You, meanwhile, sit tight in the pilot’s seat and bring the drones online slowly as we start to fall through the atmosphere. Like it?
”