Rodger helped Magnolia to her feet. Two turrets on the bow rained machine-gun fire into the water, punching into the flesh of the biggest living beast Magnolia had ever seen.
The bullets seemed only to peck at the thick flesh covered in orange barnacles and scars from what looked like tentacles. The creature slipped back under. On the way down, it slapped the weather deck with a tail fluke, crushing one of the turrets like an old-world beverage can.
Santiago yelled something—a curse, no doubt—at the whale. He turned to one of his men and shouted more orders. Then he looked at Magnolia and Rodger and again waved them off the bridge.
This time, Magnolia obeyed. She pulled on Rodger and ran outside with him and Sofia. A ladder took them back to the deck where the Sea Wolf was secured to a davit.
Another missile streaked through the sky and hit the water on the port side. This time, she saw the geyser of water. And this time, no bits of flesh or blood rained down on the ship. Discovery had missed.
Not entirely, she realized. The missile had angered the giant cetacean. She braced herself as the beast speared toward them, its barnacled back above the surface.
“Incoming!” Sofia yelled.
Magnolia reached out to Rodger just before they both went flying through the air. She lost her grip on Rodger’s hand and saw him slam into the rail, but she kept flying.
Right over the side of the ship.
She hit the water on her back, and darkness rushed around her.
Panic gripped her as she tried to move, and for a moment, she simply sank into the ocean. She could see the rusty hull of the ship cruising past.
Then she snapped alert and managed to bring her body vertical. She kicked toward the surface and pulled with her hands, all the while watching Star Grazer sail away.
Her heart skipped at the sight of the giant twin screws. They churned the water in front of her as the warship passed, and she went cartwheeling away into the depths.
Habits learned from years of Hell Diving kicked in, and she forced herself to relax. At last, she stopped spinning. After getting her bearings, she started kicking and pulling toward the surface.
Not being able to see her surroundings fed her fear, but the only thing that mattered right now was getting to the surface. She could then radio Star Grazer or Discovery to come pick her up before one of the whales spotted her and swallowed her for an appetizer.
She broke through the waves, pulling herself up while treading water. The armor made it tough, but she was well rested, and the fall hadn’t injured her.
Turning in the water, she looked for the warship.
She spotted it to the west, but it continued to plow ahead. The one machine gun still operational rained lead into the ocean, piercing the vast surface with an audible shick, shick, shick.
Magnolia slipped back under the water and kicked back up, only to get slapped in the helmet by a wave. She fought back above the surface and glimpsed motion in the dark sky. A sudden beam shot away from the clouds as Discovery lowered.
The light covered the area off the ship’s starboard side, where the whale had sounded. Magnolia bumped on her chin pad.
“Captain Mitchells, do you copy? It’s Magnolia. I’ve fallen overboard!”
The only response was static.
Magnolia watched in horror as the monstrous sperm whale surfaced off Star Grazer’s port beam. A rising wake followed the creature as it swam toward the bow. She could hear the crunch that was the beginning of the end for the warship.
Star Grazer swung around from the collision, giving Magnolia a view of the starboard side. Several boats were already being lowered from their davits. One snapped loose and fell into the water.
She hit her chin pad again, opening a line to Rodger.
“Rodger, do you copy?” she said.
White noise crackled in her ear. Then a voice. “Mags…”
“Rodger!” she yelled.
She slipped under the water but could still hear his faint response. He sounded hurt.
She kicked back up over the waves in time to see the warship begin to founder. Soon, the compartments would fill with enough water that it would drop like an anchor.
Discovery hovered over the sinking vessel, and another missile streaked away from the launch tubes. The blast sent a red-tinted geyser into the air. Les had found his target.
“Target destroyed,” came a voice over the channel. “Magnolia, do you copy?”
“I’m here!” she yelled, raising her arms toward the sky. “South side of the ship, off the stern, a quarter-mile out.”
Discovery rotated over Star Grazer, its frontal beam flitting back and forth across the surface. Several rowboats moved away from the warship. As it dipped, she saw that the Sea Wolf was still on the deck.
“Get the Sea Wolf first!” she yelled.
She wasn’t sure there was time to save the boat, but it looked as if Les was going to try. Cables lowered from the belly of the airship.
“Rodger, where are you?” Magnolia said.
Panic whispered inside her as she treaded water, watching helplessly as Discovery tried to save the Sea Wolf before it sank with the warship.
She pulled herself into a front crawl, fighting the weight of her armor to keep above the waves. At least, she didn’t have to worry about swallowing any water.
“Rodger,” she said again. “Do you copy?”
“Mags,” came a reply. “Sofia… she has me… where…”
About halfway to the rowboats, Magnolia rolled onto her back to rest her muscles. She couldn’t make much sense of what Rodger was saying, only that he was with Sofia.
Seeing that Discovery had cables lowered and attached to the Sea Wolf also helped calm her thumping heart. She rolled over and began a front crawl when an expanse of warty, barnacled flesh slid through the water in front of her.
What in the wastes?
She flip-turned out of the crawl and kicked backward, away from the creature. What she saw under the surface was nowhere near the size of the whale that sank Star Grazer. The animal swimming parallel to her was the calf of one of the mutant sperm whales. It swam in a circle, coming back around.
Though much smaller than its parents, it was still big enough to swallow her whole. She didn’t have her laser rifle, and she had lost her blaster in the fall.
She pulled herself back above the surface, where she again treaded water as she reached over her back. Her two sickle-shaped blades were still sheathed. She grabbed the hilt of one and pulled it out. Then she ducked under the water to look for the creature.
The calf continued circling her, studying her with one huge eye. Magnolia tried to guess where in that bomb-shaped body she should thrust her blade, and waited for her moment.
The beast opened a long jaw of conical teeth and gave a long, clicking sigh that she could easily hear underwater.
This wasn’t the snarl of a predator. It was the sound of a baby that had just lost its mother. The orphan calf finally turned and swam away into the depths.
Magnolia kicked back up to the surface and sheathed her blade. She turned just in time to see the massive screw propellers of Star Grazer disappear below the surface.
A beam hit her from above. In the glow, she saw the hull of Sea Wolf locked against the belly of Discovery.
“Get me out of here!” she yelled.