Daughter of the Deep(80)

‘It is,’ Halimah assures me.

‘Our cavitation shot will be two hours forty-six minutes, exit point-two kilometres south-southeast of Lincoln Base. Brace for cav-drive. Stand by battle stations. We have to expect the Aronnax will see us when we arrive.’

‘They will,’ Gem mutters. ‘The cav-drive will make us light up like an explosion.’

‘Let’s not talk about explosions,’ I say. ‘I’ll need quick targeting resolution when we arrive, Mr Twain. Watch that LOCUS.’

He gives me a faint smile, then puts one fist on his chest and bows slightly. ‘Aye, Captain.’ He turns back to his console.

Not long ago, I would have assumed Gem was making fun of me. Now, I realize he’s offering me a genuine show of respect and deference. The rest of the bridge crew smiles in turn and looks to me for orders. It’s time to go to work.

I square my shoulders. ‘Helm,’ I say, ‘set course.’

‘Course set, aye,’ says Halimah.

‘Engine room.’ I take a deep breath. ‘Punch to cav-drive.’

FOOOM!

This time I remain conscious, so I can appreciate the display. Torrents of air sheet over the prow, whiting out the windows like a blizzard. The extra G-force pushes me into my seat. The lights dim. The hull creaks and shivers, but the ship stays together.

‘Engine room, status,’ I say, gritting my teeth. ‘Any injuries?’

‘Status nominal,’ Nelinha says. ‘No injuries down here. Told you she could handle it.’

The wait that follows is the hardest part. Almost three hours at heavy G-force is not fun. I feel like I have a walrus sitting on my chest. We can’t move around or do much of anything except watch our control panels. It doesn’t help that LOCUS displays don’t work during a cav-shot, so we’re essentially blind.

‘Stay with me,’ I whisper to the Nautilus. ‘We’re going to show our enemies what you can do.’

I have to believe the Nautilus understands. She’s attuned to my voice now. She’s ready to fight. I just hope she has enough tricks in her arsenal to go up against a much newer sub. We’re going to need every advantage we can get.

After a long while, the scent of oatmeal-raisin cookies wafts from the kitchen. How is Jupiter making cookies right now? And why can’t I have one?

I make a mental note that, in the future, cookies will be distributed before punching to cav-drive. Then I start thinking about ways to install drink holders for glasses of milk …

Finally, Halimah gives me the news I’ve been waiting for: ‘Five minutes to termination.’

‘Can we please not call it that?’ Ester asks. She’s sitting at the back of the bridge next to Top, who wears a special harness in his doggy bed.

‘Destination?’ Lee-Ann suggests.

‘Good,’ Ester says. ‘Destinations are good.’

Top sighs heavily. He seems to agree that a destination would be great, because cav-drive is worse than being stuck in a kennel.

I open the comm. ‘All hands, battle stations.’

As if I need to tell them that. They’ve been stuck at their battle stations for hours. I just hope we don’t have an immediate line for the bathrooms as soon as we drop out of cav-drive.

‘One minute to – uh, destination,’ Halimah says.

I drum my fingers against the armrest controls. I imagine us overshooting our goal and slamming into the Hawaiian coast like an alt-tech bug against a windshield.

‘Five, four …’ Halimah grips her controls. ‘One.’

The blizzard of air disappears from the windows, and I’m looking at blue ocean.

The LOCUS holospheres flicker to life.

‘Weapons online,’ Gem says. ‘Scanning for targets.’

‘Evasive course,’ I say. ‘Activate camouflage. Thirty degrees starboard. Make depth –’

The ship shudders as if we’ve passed over a speed bump.

‘That was our payload deploying.’ Lee-Ann sounds relieved.

‘Is the payload okay?’ Ester asks.

I understand her concern. That was a long time at a lot of Gs, but I can see the large blip on Lee-Ann’s LOCUS, descending at a diagonal under his own power. I have to hope our large hitch-hiker isn’t carsick now as well as lovesick.

If we’re lucky, the Aronnax will be moored in the lagoon or even the cavern. That will give us time to get away from our payload and the exit point of our cav-shot – using camouflage to obscure our position.

If we’re unlucky …

‘Contact!’ yells Virgil. ‘One kilometre, twelve o’clock, depth ten metres. It’s the Aronnax. They’re right between us and Lincoln Base.’

I curse. I didn’t really expect Dev to let his guard down, even after a week. Still, the sight of that awful purple arrowhead on Gem’s tactical display makes me hesitate a millisecond too long. The second smaller blip comes out of nowhere – right in front of our prow.

‘Torpedo in the water!’ Gem shouts.

I start to yell, ‘Leidenfrost –!’

The Nautilus lurches forward, almost jolting my head from my neck.





‘Power is down!’ Halimah yells. ‘EMP blast!’

I blink spots from my eyes. The bridge is dark.