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  KRAKEN

  Eric S Brown

  Copyright 2016 by Eric S. Brown

  Prologue

  Captain Ivan Ivonava smiled as he strolled lazily along the Pleasure Bound’s deck. All around him his passengers were enjoying the sun. Husbands and wives lay sprawled in comfortable chairs, soaking up its rays. Here and there, elderly couples were busy playing shuffleboard. A teenager with headphones over her ears stood at the side railing, bopping her head to music so loud, Ivonava could make out a few notes of it as he passed by her.

  It was a beautiful day and all was right with the world. His smile grew even wider as he reached the Pleasure Bound’s bridge and found yeoman Reeves waiting on him. Reeves handed him a mug of perfectly iced ice. He took it, nodding his gratitude as he moved on to take a seat in his command chair.

  Charlton Merrick, his XO, approached him. “Everything is nominal. The lights are green and the decks are clean.”

  Ivonava chuckled at Merrick’s odd expression. It was one the man used ever since he had taken his job aboard the Pleasure Bound many years ago.

  The Pleasure Bound was one of the most luxurious and high-tech cruise liners in the world. Ivonava took great pride in being her captain. He settled in his chair, relaxed, and took a long sip of his tea.

  “Sir,” Marcus Thacker, the Pleasure Bound’s sonar officer, called to him. “I hate to bother you, sir, but…”

  Ivonava sighed and shifted in his chair to look towards Thacker at the sonar station. “Don’t tell me, let me guess, your phantom is still there?”

  Thacker nodded. “It sure is, sir. As you know, it has been with us for the last two days now.”

  “How could I possibly forget, Mr. Thacker?” Ivonava glared at the sonar tech. “You remind me every chance you get, do you not?”

  “Sir, I just…” Thacker started.

  “Stop it, Thacker,” Ivonava ordered. “I know whatever it is out there worries you, but you yourself have admitted it has to be biologic in nature. It’s not pirates or they would have made their move by now, knowing that we would have long ago detected their presence.”

  Thacker kept his mouth shut but his discontent was clear.

  Ivonava waved a hand dismissively. “Let it go, Thacker. I’d wager it’s nothing more than an overly friendly group of dolphins.”

  “But sir…” Thacker started one more time.

  “Let it go, Thacker,” Ivonava’s tone took on a sharp edge that promised retribution. “I don’t want to hear any more about our shadow out there under the waves, period. And I can promise you that if I do, you’ll find yourself demoted to the janitorial staff until we reach the next port.”

  Thacker nodded, defeated. “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, Mr. Merrick,” Ivonava turned his attention back to his XO. “What do we have on the agenda for today?”

  I

  DESRON 22 was composed of four destroyers and an odd-ball group of six frigates. Captain Wirtz stood looking out the bridge window of the USS Peterson. He was the second ranking officer of the DESRON. Only Surface Community Captain, Marcus, outranked him. Captain Marcus was aboard the USS Whiteside, the DESRON’s flag ship. This whole OP was a FUBARed dream of command’s and even Marcus wouldn’t argue with him on that one. They were far outside of normal SOPs with this exercise but the brass wanted DESRON 22 shook down and combat ready ASAP. This OP was supposed to get both the ships and their crews into proper condition for real deployment. Wirtz knew the ships and crews did need the shakedown but why so far out in the middle of nowhere, he wondered.

  The DESRON was for all intents and purposes “off the grid.” The region of ocean they were operating in contained nothing of importance and was as far from the Atlantic shipping lanes as it could get. With the rising tension between the Soviets and the US, he could understand the need for secrecy and urgency, but the way he saw things, this shakedown could have run a heck of a lot closer to home. Doing so would have minimized the risk for all involved.

  With a shrug, he admitted to himself things could have been worse. At least the weather was nice. The skies were as blue as the water and the long-range forecasts called for more of the same. He passed command of the Peterson to his XO, Charles, and left the bridge, deciding to enjoy the sun.

  As soon as he hit the deck, he fished a smoke from the pocket of his uniform and lit up. Maybe it wasn’t proper protocol, but he needed one and the more senior members of the Peterson’s crew were long used to his bad habit.

  From where he stood, he could see the USS Whiteside ahead of the Peterson and in the center of the DESRON’s formation. Bringing up the flag ship’s other flank was the USS Arrington with Captain Holland as its CO. He couldn’t see the USS Emerson but he knew she was at the loose formation’s rear. Her captain, Davis, was like most of the personal in DESRON 22, new to the battlegroup. From what Wirtz had heard of her though, he was impressed. She graduated top of her class, rose through the ranks fast, and after only a year of her own command, already had the rep of being as tough as nails. She was the youngest of the four captains of DESRON 22 but Wirtz reminded himself not to treat her as such. He was an old sailor and often slipped when it came to things like female captains. He equally didn’t want to do anything to offend her or worse, damage either of their careers with his lack of understanding when it came to all things the world deemed “politically correct.”

  Turning his attention back to DESRON 22 itself, he frowned. DESRON 22 was overly heavy in anti-air, guided missile destroyers and lacking in anti-sub firepower. From what little he knew of DESRON 22’s post shakedown orders, that lopsidedness would come in handy but for now, if they were engaged, out here, alone, they would be more vulnerable than they should. Both the Soviets and the current day terrorists, who were the primary threats, preferred the use of subs to surface vessels.

  Wirtz sucked hard on his cigarette, letting its smoke fill up his lungs. The likelihood of any kind of attack was very small. The Soviets weren’t ready to really start the war they were threatening and most terrorist groups knew better than to pick a fight with a United States battle group. Still though, Wirtz couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was waiting for them out here.

  ****

  Lex shivered in the darkness. The sound of water dripping from the dinged piping that ran across the room’s ceiling was his only company. It held a steady, slow rhythm and almost seemed to echo off the walls around him. Lex was freezing. Somewhere beyond the room he was barricaded in, the sun was shining and the temps were warm. He imagined a bright sun beaming down on the decks of the Pleasure Bound. And that’s how things should have been. Mary had talked him into taking this cruise to escape the deadlines and pressure of his work. It cost more than they could really afford but Mary argued that if he didn’t get the time off, he would burnout and they would lose everything anyway. Lex gave a cold laugh at the thought. Burning out was always a risk for any entertainer who had to push his or herself not only to find and get work but to produce the work itself.

  Three years back, Lex had caught what he thought was the break of his lifetime. A Hollywood studio had picked up the film rights to one of his novels. He had danced around the house, singing happy songs for weeks as he waited on the contract and check to arrive. When they had and he held the check in his hands, all he could do for those first few hours was stare at it. By the standards of most folks, it wasn’t like winning the lottery but to a full time writer, it was an answer to his prayers. The check was large enough to ensure he had time to sell something else, time to land more deals, and most of all, it represented freedom for Mary who loathed her job as a social worker. The years she had spent helping others had taken a dire toll on her and the check, at least, set her free.

  The two of them squirreled it in their joint savi
ngs account and used the money to live on. The years it bought them were a paradise, but as the money in the bank grew less and less, fear of not being able to replace it and stay afloat ate at Lex. He took to doing the budget over and over again trying to find ways to stretch the money further but there was just no way. In the end, even after Mary returned to work, they were so behind it wasn’t enough to change the oblivion they were headed towards. Lex fought Mary tooth and nail over taking this cruise but that too proved to be a losing battle. They cashed out the bulk of what was left for tickets and set sail for one last romp. He knew Mary hoped it would stir his creativity again and the work would start coming in again. Lex was just beginning to lighten up and enjoy himself when everything went to Hell aboard the Pleasure Bound.

  Lex didn’t know if there was anyone left alive on the massive cruise liner or if he was the last. The meager backpack of food he had been able to grab during his and Mary’s wild flight below deck had run out two days ago. Hunger gnawed at him like a claw twisting in his gut. He had never been so hungry in his entire life. There was nothing for it though. The water from the pipes was all he had to drink. It tasted of metal but it did the job of keeping him alive. Lex wasn’t sure what the point of trying to stay alive was. He had no idea if the Pleasure Bound’s crew had been able to get off a distress signal or not. The things had come onto the ship so quickly, bringing chaos and death with them.

  The chill Lex felt grew colder as he remembered the ship security lady who he and Mary had passed on their way below deck. She had urged them on, moving to stand between them and the approaching monsters. Her shotgun had boomed, spitting death, as she blew one of the monsters apart in the stairwell as they poured down it towards her. Lex had risked slowing enough to glance over his shoulder back at her just in time to see her torn apart before his very eyes. Several of the creatures had dug into her at once and literally ripped her into pieces, blood spraying the walls an explosion of red.

  The Pleasure Bound’s upper decks and hallways were full of mangled corpses and dismembered limbs. There was blood everywhere—the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. The security lady, though, was the first death Lex had seen happen in front of him and God how he wished it had been the last.

  As he and Mary had finally made it into the bowels of the ship, enough to feel safe and start searching for a place to hole up until help came, their assumption that they had left the creatures behind them was proved horribly untrue. One of the things dropped from the ceiling onto Mary. Its arms entwined her as she screamed. Her flesh was pulled away from her bones in chunks as she wrestled with the thing from the depths, trying to break free of its hold. Lex watched her struggle, unable to do anything but shout her name. He had no weapon to fight the creature with and even if he had, the struggle ended in mere seconds with Mary dead and the thing’s beak-like mouth made short work of her face, leaving only the white of exposed bone in the places where it made contact.

  Lex sobbed in the darkness. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he cursed himself for being so weak. He loved Mary, owed her, but when it came his turn to save her, as she had him so many times throughout their marriage, he had failed her. It didn’t matter that the thing that killed her was an abomination that shouldn’t exist in the real world; guilt haunted him.

  Wiping his eyes with the backsides of his hands, Lex tried to collect himself together. All he really wanted to do was give up and die. With Mary gone, there wasn’t much point in living anyway. He knew Mary wouldn’t want that, though. She would want him to fight to the end. The cold and dampness of the small storage room he hid in only added to the pain caused by his hunger. Lex’s hands gripped the wall as he heaved himself to his feet. His legs were shaky beneath him but he managed to stay on his feet. He had never been an “in shape” sort of guy and the last two days had really taken a heavy toll on him. It was hard to think clearly. Lex knew he had to find a way off the ship. It belonged to the monsters now. He dared not let himself believe they had simply swept through the Pleasure Bound, eating their fill of her passengers and crew, only to return to the water. No, somehow he knew there were at least some of the things still onboard, searching for prey that might be left alive like him.

  Even if he could get off the cruise liner, that didn’t mean he would be safe. The things had come from the water and lived in it. He would need something a heck of a lot faster than a standard lifeboat if he wanted to have half a chance of escaping them. The things were faster in the water than they were out of it and he knew they had scaled the sides of the Pleasure Bound like sprinting spiders. Not even the members of the ship’s security staff in the deeper areas of the ship, who had some warning that the things were coming, were able to mount a real defense against them, despite having the time to arm themselves. Lex couldn’t fight the things. Just one of them was more than a match for him. Running and speed were the only things that might, just might, keep him alive. Finding a means to outrun such monsters though, wasn’t going to be easy, if it was even possible.

  There had been plenty of time for Lex to sort through the limited contents of the small storage room since he had locked himself inside it. There were plenty of cleaning supplies and nothing else. He wasn’t one of the characters he wrote about in his books though, so had no idea had to whip up some makeshift weapon from the chemicals and there was no “Google” from him to research how to either. Lex settled for one of the mops in the closest, breaking off its head so he could use the jagged end of the broken shaft as a spear. It wasn’t much, but it was all he had.

  Spear in hand, he took a deep breath and opened the storage room’s door as quietly as he could. He expected one of the things to be waiting on its other side for him, but there was nothing that he could see outside the door through the crack except the corridor it led into and the eerie, red glow of the ship’s emergency lights.

  Ever so cautiously, Lex stepped into the corridor, his eyes darting from one end of the corridor to the other and finally back up to sweep over the ceiling. He knew all too well that the things could move across it just as easily as they could the floor. It was “do or die trying” time as Lex stumbled along the corridor, heading for the stairwell that led up to the Pleasure Bound’s upper decks.

  ****

  Commander Derrick Spraker stood on the bridge of the Peart. She was one of the six frigates that were a part of DESRON 22. Captain Marcus, the DESRON’s CO, had ordered all of the frigates out on recon patrols as part of the shakedown the battle group was running. Spraker was glad to be away from the main body of the DESRON. He ran a pretty loose and laid-back ship. He liked it that way. Captain Marcus was as “by the book” as COs came and the two of them had butted heads several times already since DESRON 22 had formed up. Spraker wished that Captain Wirtz were in overall command. The old guy was pretty laid back too in the areas where it counted. Wirtz was the type of captain you could have an off-duty drink with and shoot the breeze. Spraker knew because they had done just that before. The old guy had some pretty amazing stories to tell. In Wirtz’s years in the service, he had seen plenty of action, a lot more than Spraker. Oh, Spraker had lived through an engagement or two during his own time, but nothing like what Wirtz had. He enjoyed the old timer’s tales of the navy before everything had become so politically correct and on edge. Spraker couldn’t imagine what having a drink with Marcus would be like, but it would surely be anything other than a good time. Marcus had the rule book shoved up his butt so far that regulations vomited out of his mouth in an unending stream. If you thought outside of the box at all, under Marcus’s command, you were going to pay for it, regardless of whatever results that kind of thinking brought. You could likely save the entire DESRON with a gutsy move and still find yourself facing court martial.

  Spraker grunted and turned to Arron, his first mate. “How you holding up?”

  “Bored, sir,” Arron grinned.

  Spraker chuckled. “Part of the job. You’ll get used to it.”

  “You haven’t,
” Arron reminded him.

  “Good point,” Spraker admitted. “Let’s see what we can do to make things a bit more interesting. Helm, aim west and put the pedal down.”

  The Peart’s bridge crew erupted into laughter as Philips, his helmsman, shouted, “Yes, sir. Westward bound and pedal to the metal.”

  Spraker felt pride surging inside him at how well his crew functioned, despite the easy atmosphere in which he ran things, as the Peart came about smoothly and picked up her speed.

  Leaving Arron where he stood, Spraker walked to the joint radar/sonar station where Luke sat. The young man beamed at him as he approached.

  “What’s out there for us today?” Spraker asked.

  “Running a full sweep now, sir,” Luke answered, diving into his work.

  Luke’s happy expression quickly turned into one of utter confusion.

  “What?” Spraker prompted him.

  “Sir,” Luke said, his face turning beet red. “I have a surface contact, two miles out.”

  “One of the other frigates from DESRON 22?” Spraker asked, hiding his own unease and knowing that no one else was supposed to be anywhere near the location where the DESRON was operating.

  “Maybe Commander Cordova has decided to take a little joy ride of his own?” Arron suggested with a wry grin. Cordova was a maverick like Spraker too, albeit a much less competent and controlled one.

  “I don’t think so, sir,” Luke said nervously. “Whatever is out there is huge.”

  “Military?” Spraker asked, leaning over Luke to look at the screen for himself.

  “Negative, sir. She seems to be civilian in nature. Her AIS pegs her as the Pleasure Bound.”

  “The Pleasure Bound?” Spraker read the name aloud himself.

  “What the devil?” Arron blurted, scurrying over to join Spraker and Luke at the radar/sonar station. “That doesn’t make any sense.”