“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,” Admiral Ross had said at the time. “They found out that Roy made off with an M6 and put him on house arrest, and John evaded a military police investigation and is currently AWOL. If Jerry were still alive, he might be able to help you, but...”
Jerry was his nickname for Admiral Jerome Borda, former head of the Mithril operations division. He was thought to have died in the attack on the Sydney headquarters, though the blast had been so powerful that his body had never been found.
After feeling the pain of losing her own father one year ago, Tessa had also had to suffer the loss of Admiral Borda, who had been like a second father to her. Ah, stop it... she told herself. Forget those old officers and focus on the enemy ships.
Tessa turned back to the information displayed on her front screen. The Los Angeles-class had its back to them right now, while patrolling the region in an S-formation. It was probably using a towed array sonar, so while it hadn’t spotted them yet, if the de Danaan kept moving on their current trajectory, they’d be detected sooner or later. Not even they could avoid making any noise at all when cruising along at such a high speed—fifty knots was as fast as a torpedo. To avoid enemy detection, they’d have to slow down and dive lower, which would be like going from a jog to a crawl.
With sufficient caution, they could reach Merida Island unnoticed and avoid a shootout with the US Navy. But that would also severely delay their arrival time. One hour, fifty minutes was her rough estimate, and that was the absolute minimum amount of time that diving would add to their ETA.
One hour and fifty minutes, Tessa pondered. Is that an acceptable delay?
They had a rough estimate of the Afghanistan time limit, but no information on how long it would take to activate the TAROS on Merida Island. They could only speculate based on recon satellite data, and Tessa was the only one who might even be able to hazard a guess. She wasn’t certain herself, but knew that they couldn’t have much time left. Leonard and Kalinin would have seen to that. They had to hurry.
Besides, she thought next, are the US Navy really the only ones protecting the island? Not possible; Amalgam had its own navy. The data Kaname had left them in Mexico had included information on those aquatic ASes, the Leviathans. They’d probably see some of those soon, too. This meant that the US Navy submarines were more like the dogs on a fox hunt: avoiding them would probably send the de Danaan right into the thick of an ambush.
In that case... Tessa made up her mind. “Battle stations,” she commanded succinctly.
“Aye, aye, ma’am. Battle stations!” Mardukas repeated. The sub’s AI, Dana, blared the warning throughout the vessels. The control room screens all went red and the words ‘BATTLE STATIONS’ began to scroll across them. Of course, given how few people there were on board, most of them were already where they needed to be.
Tessa gave the order. “Come left to 0-3-0. Full ahead.” She’d decided that they wouldn’t run or hide. Instead, she had ordered them to accelerate and plow right into the side of the enemy ship.
“Come left to 0-3-0,” Mardukas echoed. “Full ahead, aye.”
Sousuke, standing beside her, looked quietly stunned by the order. That was understandable, but Mardukas didn’t look surprised at all.
“Hmm?” said Tessa. “You don’t object?”
“No, ma’am,” he answered. “In chess terms, this is what we call a gambit.” A gambit was an aggressive play style that threw your pieces at the opponent with no concern for defense. “It’s my specialty, in fact. So no, I do not object,” he said, stone-faced. Tessa had thought that after all this time spent with him, she’d understood what kind of person Mardukas was, but it seemed he could still surprise her. “So, Captain,” he said. “What comes next?”
“They’ll notice us soon, I expect,” Tessa told him. “Let’s proceed on course until they do.”
Their current speed was sixty knots, which was double the standard submarine speed. They were an incredible mass moving at incredible speed: a 4400-ton submarine, barreling through the ocean at about 108 kilometers per hour. The fluid control system of the EMFC couldn’t completely cancel out the turbulence around them, and the faster the giant vessel moved, the more powerful the shaking around them became.
One of them against ten or more enemy vessels. Realizing it would likely be a difficult battle, Tessa addressed Sousuke. “Sagara-san.”
“Yes?”
“You’re dismissed,” she told him. “Stand by with Al in Elevator Zero.” She was referring to the large elevator in the hangar, which they used to convey ASes to the flight deck. Tessa was telling him to board the Laevatein and be ready to leave at any time.
“Ah...” Sousuke didn’t say ‘yes, ma’am,’ immediately. She could sense an uncertainty within him from that moment’s hesitation, as if he was asking if it was all right for him to leave so abruptly.
Tessa felt the same way, knowing that this might be his last deployment. She might never see him again. In light of all that, was her blunt order enough? Wasn’t there something else she wanted to say to him?
The enemy submarine hasn’t reacted yet, Tessa realized. I have a little time. But what to say? What do I want to say to him? After a period of silence, she finally gave him a quiet smile and said, “Give my regards to Kaname-san.”
Various complicated emotions surfaced briefly on Sousuke’s face: Gratitude, respect, caution, fear, and also guilt—they all blended together in that momentary expression, then vanished. “All right, then,” he managed to say. He added, “Goodbye,” and then left the control room.
With the rest of the crew looking, Tessa couldn’t even turn to watch him go. It would be a lie to say she didn’t feel a little heartbroken. She couldn’t say she had no regrets. They had never even been so close that she could properly say, I loved him once, yet she was sure her yearning for him had been real.
Why, then, Tessa wondered, don’t I feel any true sorrow in this moment? Well, it’s only natural, she finally told herself. It’ll come once things calm down.
Thanks to Sousuke, I was able to enjoy feeling like a real girl my age for a while, Tessa briefly reflected. Just a few years ago, she’d thought she would go her entire life never feeling this way. Thank you. Give my best to Kaname-san. That was all that she’d been able to say to him.
Less than a minute after he was gone, she received a report from her sonar technician. “Con, sonar. Mike-5 has changed course to 3-0-5 and increased speed to fifteen knots.”
For now, she reminded herself, it’s time for battle. Driving thoughts of Sousuke from her mind, Tessa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She focused, then opened her eyes.
Information began to stream across her front screen.
Teletha Testarossa was about to begin the greatest unrecorded underwater battle in history.