“Sir!” Eboh, the communications officer, said. “We’ve got contact from the Hev ship – it’s the Response Team, they’ve got the ship working!”
Brooks breathed a sigh of relief. “Communicate to them the trajectories of the escape ships – ask if they can recover them if possible, if the Leviathan leaves after we’re gone.”
“Sending now, sir. Lieutenant Commander Caraval is asking to speak with you as well.”
“Put him through,” Brooks replied. “Put them on channel for the command bridge.”
Caraval’s voice came through – there was a strange pitch to it that he knew came from the signal bending under the gravity of the Leviathan. The computer could not clean it up perfectly.
“Caraval reporting,” he said. “The Hev ship is fully functional. Had to jettison one section that we believe came too close to the Leviathan – lost a portion of its crew, but still operational.”
“Like the shuttle, that section is now a part of the being,” Kell mused.
“Had a near-problem with one of our number, but all is well.” His tone changed. “I . . . we . . . would sure like to know why you’re moving to engage, sir.”
“The Leviathan is going to catch us no matter what,” Brooks said. “We have to buy time.”
The reply was hesitant in coming. “. . . Ah.”
“Your families are among those evacuated,” Brooks told him. “Thank you for your service. You have my commendations, Lieutenant Commander.”
“Thank you, sir.” There was relief in his voice. Caraval’s son lived with him on the ship.
“Sir,” Cutter suddenly said. “Ambassador,” addressing Kell. “When you say shuttle and Hev ship section are now ‘part of’ Leviathan – is this literal?”
Kell nodded. “Yes. They are simply parts of it – as it split in two to follow us and the shuttle both, they are addendums to its body.”
Cutter’s mandibles clicked rapidly. “Sir, if we target the Hev component – it is physical. It is not surrounded by Reality Break Shadow. We can hit it, sir. We might . . . actually be able to hurt it.”
Surprise went over Kell’s face. “I agree. Captain, target it – target it immediately.”
The idea made Brooks feel a surge of excitement, until he saw the angle. He struggled to keep the frustration from his voice. “We can’t – the Leviathan is between us and it. We’re not even sure of its edges.”
“We can!” Cutter said excitedly. “Signal from Hev ship shows us exact gravity curve – we follow trajectory of signal for shot – we can bend it around the Leviathan!”
“Even better,” Urle said. “This Hev ship has its own zerodrive, yes? If they can extend their field and launch the piece into zerospace just as it explodes, it will . . . well, I don’t think the Leviathan will like that.”
“Yes!” Kell snapped. A fury was in his voice – the most emotion they had ever seen from the being. “Captain, I swear to you, if you do this, you will hurt it, and it shall regret this moment for all its time.”
“We have twenty seconds!” Yaepanaya noted loudly. “If we’re going to do it, say so quickly!”
“Calculate it,” Brooks ordered. “Get firing solution – Caraval, are you tracking this?”
“Yes, sir! The Hev Captain is – he’s delighted by this idea.”
“If you can synch their zerodrive with our shot, we can make this perfect,” Brooks added.
“Already doing so – they can hold the charge for a ten-second window!”
“Five seconds until Shadow Break!” Yaepanaya yelled.
“Firing solutions, now! Orient the ship! We have to-“
Reality broke around them.
They heard it, a sound as the air itself around them shuddered, twisted and altered.
Brooks felt like he had been turned inside out, and he knew it had only just begun.
He could barely see, everything appeared distorted – an effect upon the synapses in his mind. Others around him staggered, even Urle. It did not matter that he was more machine than man, he was still just a being, and there was no resisting such a thing as a Leviathan.
Save for Kell.
Somehow, the being was not blurred in his mind. He saw him as clearly as he had only moments before.
No, he saw him even more. More clearly – every inch of the form of man he had taken on, and in moments he saw yet more.
He saw in ways he did not know he could see. He saw beyond the charade of a human form, to something, something else more alien than anything he had encountered in all his years in space. Something huge, something primordial, something that was innately like the Leviathan.
And yet, he realized for the first time, something that was contained. While the Leviathan viewed them as nothing and would walk over them with the anger of a being stepping on ants, Kell moved carefully. Restrained.
And he could sense something, a feeling – sorrow.
Kell was looking at him, not in his human form, but his presence.
“I am sorry,” he felt, more than heard, Kell say. They were not words, but merely an idea, conveyed to him through something other than sound.
Brooks wanted to reply, to say to Kell to finish what they had started. He could see the button on the console, near Yaepanaya, and he only had to press it. The computer could not do it – the AI of their system was experiencing what they were, in its own way.
All he had to do was press it. But he could not make himself move.
Other Terrestrial 