To Waters' End Book 4 of Gammalaw (Gammalaw, No 4) Paperback - 1999

First line

The swell of muddy water and tangled wreckage surging east from the burst Optimant dam heaved the GammaLAW upward far more effortlessly than had the tetherhook that had snatched her off Periapt.

Excerpt

The swell of muddy water and tangled wreckage surging east from the burst Optimant dam heaved the GammaLAW upward far more effortlessly than had the tetherhook that had snatched her off Periapt. The great hydrodynamic buffet canted the SWATHship's triple bows ten, then twenty, and finally twenty-five degrees into the air. Insufficiently braced despite Captain Chaz Quant's orders, people in the pilothouse were sent struggling and staggering against the aft bulkhead. Quant, clinging to the rail under the forward windows, felt the ship being hurled up the mounded face of the waters as if something alive had bucked her free of Aquamarine itself. Having had a few minutes to think through this latest crisis facing the LAW mission, he understood that even if the rising waters failed to claim his ship, other, more daunting hazards awaited her downriver.

The GammaLAW, trembling and straining, took the monster swell threatening to overcome her helm regardless of the three people fighting the wheel. Loose gear went crashing; rigging, equipment, and repair tackle overlooked in the rush to secure the decks rang and beat like rioting inmates hammering at the bars of their cells. As never before, Quant thanked the structural strengthening that had been done to reinforce the vessel for the tetherlift and transport to Aquamarine. Sewage-dark water carrying fishing boats, bodies, and everything the turbulence had stirred up from Ea's bottom broke around the bows, splashing against the pilothouse windows and wetting the very top of the signal mast.

GammaLAW groaned and thrashed like an animal resisting quicksand, but at last the bows topped out and began to depress once more, biting deep into the waves and sending more spray aloft. Quant held his course for the teeth of the flood and called for twenty knots, all ahead standard. A reassuring compliance came from the engine room telegraph, and there was a quick feeling of response as the mains sent steady power to the actuator-propellers. Quant knew it was an illusion, however, and in moments others on the bridge realized it as well.

"Navigation reports that we're making sternway, sir," Eddie Gairaszhek relayed. "True speed and direction do not correlate with relative readings of inertial tracking gear and positioning radars."

While the GammaLAW was moving at speed through the water around her, the entire volume of the descended Pontos Reservoir was moving in the opposite direction at an even greater velocity. His ship had triumphed over the initial bludgeoning of the flood and had marshaled her engines in the nick of time, but against being flung backward she was powerless. To the southern end of the lake and the land beyond she was being carried. It was there, Quant understood, that the brute physics of the contest would be played out. If the volume of water was of sufficient size and force, if Ea and the river headwaters that drained it could not divert enough of the stupendous spill, the GammaLAW probably would be washed high and dry. And hard aground--if indeed she lived through the grounding at all--she would be easy pickings for the Aquam and impossible to refloat with the limited resources left to her company.

Settling into the contest he had foreseen from the mo-ment the dam had burst, Quant called for additional turns on the actuators, racing to position the GammaLAW safely for the inevitable receding of the Pontos flood. He pitied any Aquam caught along the southern lakeshore or the river when the waters began to scour their way toward Aquamarine's single ocean, the Amnion, yet he hoped against hope that outlets downriver would provide vents for the deluge's energy and mass.

The ship was still being battered and shaken, as if fighting her way against some spring thaw in Hades, as all around her washed debris, wreckage, and drowned Aquam bodies stripped naked by the force of the waters. Quant called for ten more knots, but the GammaLAW remained trapped in the flow.

Eyewash descended slowly from the zenith. All through the long afternoon the ship fought her lonely battle, frothing the brackish, debris-laced water, while Quant stood at his post and watched out for turbulence-borne debris that could foul or damage the actuators.

Unspooling the aerostat to its maximum length had allowed him to keep an eye on the outgushing at the broken dam, but the camera failed to supply him with an adequate view of the falling water level of the Pontos Reservoir itself. A regional map suggested that the floodplain south of Lake Ea would absorb most of the vented waters. The GammaLAW would be safe there, but reaching the floodplain would require squeezing through the narrows at Fluter Delve, where the Dynast Piety IV ruled, much as Grandee 'Waretongue Rhodes did at Wall Water.

As dusk yielded to evening, the ship continued to be pushed kilometer by kilometer toward the place called the Lowdowns at Ea's southern extremity. Quant supposed that many aboard wondered why he didn't simply drop anchor or even put both hooks in the mud. Not only was the bottom treacherous, however, digging in the ship's heels would make her a target for sizable chunks of debris turned into hydro-missiles by the vicious propellant of the Pontos.

Two hours after midnight inertial tracking reported that the ship had officially crossed the demarkation of what had been Ea's shoreline only that morning. The SWATHship was still pushed deeper inland, with trees and human bodies more common in the water now. As difficult as it was to get a reading through the particulate filth and floating wreckage, it became clear that the bottom was shoaling out. Bowing to the inevitable, Quant countermanded the forebodings of engineering by ordering an increase in speed.

Pushed stern-first toward the so-called Dales, where the ship was in real danger of being set aground, she waged her battle in good order, and within an hour she appeared to be making headway.

Quant noticed Gairaszhek on the starboard wing of the bridge, training vision enhancers on the water. Moving next to him and following his glance, Quant spotted what the lieutenant had been watching--another drowned Aquam. This one, though, was a child, its gender impossible to discern, the current quickly bearing it away.

"We came abreast and left it behind fast, sir," Gairaszhek explained with a gulp. "I, I believe we're gaining on the current. MeoTheos. Forgive me for being so happy to report that."

He was right. Meter by meter the SWATHship was forging back through the aroused waters. Ea was still rising, but with less force.

At dawn, when the ship had recrossed the now-imaginary line of the lakeshore, Dextra Haven requested a moment of Quant's time with a gratifying acknowledgment of how busy he was. Quant teleconferenced with her over their special command circuit from the port wing of the bridge.

"I know it's early to ask your conclusion, Captain," she began, "but we need to be thinking about mission contingencies. Is it all over for us on Lake Ea?"

Recalling the deep V in the dam, he answered with little hesitation. "Affirmative. For this year, at any rate. Once the flood subsides, there'll be insufficient reservoir to keep the lake levels up. Halfway through the dry season Ea will be a string of shallows dotted with sandbars and islets. We're bound to run aground if we stay."

"So it's downriver, then?"

"There'll be hundreds of kilometers of navigable water there--even in the last of the Big Sere."

"You realize that that means traversing the narrows under the Dynast Piety's stronghold?"

"It's literally unavoidable," Quant told her.

"His nephew, Knocknet, was killed during the insanity at Wall Water. The dynast may very well consider himself to be in a blood feud with us."

Quant grunted into the headset. "Then I wish you all success with diplomatic efforts, Madame Commissioner. But we'll need to move soon, the risks notwithstanding."

Haven was silent for a moment. "Captain Quant, exactly what happened to the dam?"

"Zone, madame. For my money, Colonel Zone happened to the dam."




"Why in God's name would General Delecado open fire on the dam curtain?" Quant was asking the rawboned colonel himself later that morning.

Zone was standing at the far end of the CIC conference table, looking bored by the proceedings. Shortly past dawn a rigid inflatable boat had returned him and some dozen others to the GammaLAW. Except for Delecado, Senior Captain Feelie Shumakova, and two of Zone's severalmates, it was the same group that had left for the dam the previous day aboard the general's Hellhog helo in response to a WHOAsuit beacon that had been observed in the lake.

"How many ways do you want me to say it?" Zone told Quant, Haven, Major Lod, and the rest. "We spotted a bunch of Aqs in a small floater throwing someone overboard. When Daddy D saw the Ext uniform, he snapped and went to triggers. Strafed the raft, then planted both pods of missiles into the dam. There would have been no way to stop him even if we wanted to.

"Thing was, one of the missiles went off short while we were still within burst diameter. Knocked the Hellhog out of the air just before the dam let loose. Daddy D, Captain Shumakova, Digger Taraki, and Strop never made it to the RIB. We managed to ride out the flood and conduct a search, but no bodies were recovered."

Zone didn't look bereaved or regretful, which, Quant suspected, was very canny of him, for it would have been out of character. It was too early to know how the rest of the Exts felt about the story Zone had brought back from the dam, but Dextra Haven certainly wasn't buying it.

"I want it on record that I don't believe a word of this," she told the table. "Three days ago Colonel Zone found it necessary to kill Wix Uniday, and now General Delecado is missing under dubious circumstances."

"Uniday was trying to commo with our enemies at Wall Water," Zone said, giving her a measure of his NoMan stare.

"So you've stated," Haven said, holding his gaze. "But we have no more proof of that than of General Delecado's firing on an Aquam raft."

Zone shrugged. "Ask my teammates."

Haven contorted a face that was showing more fine lines each day as a result of suspended rejuvenation treatments in the wake of the destruction of Terrible Swift Sword not a week earlier. "Wives don't often testify against their husbands, Colonel Zone. But rest assured, we will get to the bottom of this. In the meantime I want everyone concerned to fill out individual reports and have them to me no later than 1700 hours. You're dismissed."

Zone didn't move. "Begging the commissioner's pardon, but aren't you forgetting something?--With Allgrave Burning still missing and Daddy D probably sucking mud, I'm next in the Ext chain of command."

Quant realized that Zone's reminder hadn't taken Haven by surprise. After their face-off on the beach below Wall Water it was unlikely that she would ever again lower her guard in Zone's presence, and now she gave him her answering broadside.

"In the first place, Colonel, any change of command, even among the Exts, is subject to my approval. But more to the point, there's an Ext of direct lineage to a bastion family, and as such he outranks you." She looked at Lod. "Major, you are now in command."

Still bristling from his most recent run-in with Zone--while escorting the Manipulant Scowl-Jowl belowdecks--Lod clearly savored the moment. It was Burning's fatalistic conviction that someone eventually would have to execute Zone or fight him to the death, but just now Lod was content with humiliating him.

Dextra was giving Zone the kind of smile people choked other people for using. "As for you, Colonel, you are relieved of duty pending a full investigation into the deaths of Wix Uniday, General Delecado, and the others."

If indeed it was Haven's line drawn in the dirt, Zone decided not to cross it for the moment. When he left the CIC, Haven showed Quant a warning look to keep him from making an issue of it. He admitted to himself that she was right and dropped the matter. It took an effort to do that aboard his own ship, though he had good practice in diplomatic silences during his servitude under Hallowed Hall back when the GammaLAW had been the Matsya. Besides, there were even more important issues than Colonel Zone. "Madame Haven, I think we should satellite all other topics to the fact that we have no more than ten hours to make the passage downriver."

Haven looked at him aghast. "Ten hours? But I thought--"

"The flood surge took away most of the seasonal silt deposit that builds up at the river's headwaters. With the silt washed away, the lake's water level is declining more rapidly than originally thought. Of course, we can't be a hundred percent sure until we send in a ROVer or a submersible, but my recommendation is that we get under way immediately. Allgrave Burning, Ghost, Mason, and Dr. Zinsser, wherever they are, will undoubtedly learn what happened here and anticipate our decision to make for the floodplain."

Haven gnawed on her lower lip. "If they weren't casualties of the flood," she said, mostly to herself. "What are our options for dealing with the fortress at Fluter Delve?"

Quant laid his hand on a stack of briefing materials. "Assuming that we can navigate the narrows themselves without incident, we'll be under Dynast Piety's guns--his catapults, steam cannon, whatever he has--for approximately thirty seconds. With the loss of General Delecado's helo, we have no air strike capability, and our Close-in Weapons System was destroyed during the Nixie attack. In sum, no effective long reach outside of what the Exts can deliver in the way of boomer rounds, fireball mortars, RPGs, and so forth. However, even those arms will be of limited use against the fortress itself, since rocks and shallows will keep us outside the range of most light infantry weapons."

He gave it just a hair's-breadth pause to see if Dextra Haven was going to suggest the obvious, but she waited him out. Too smart to try to play in somebody else's arena, he told himself. Good.

"We could send the Exts ashore to create diversions, perhaps insert sapper teams, but only if you're willing to accept horrific losses. Fluter Delve has apparently been the key to the power of the grandee controlling it, and it's heavily booby-trapped and manned. There have been five major battles fought there over the years, and the ruling grandee has upgraded his defenses after each one. Our best strategy lies in trying to slip past the fortress without engaging Piety's troops. If we succeed in that much, we have a chance of reaching the floodplain without encountering anything that can do us long-range damage."

"Except the Roke," Lod muttered.

Having wiped out the mission's spies in the sky, the aliens were still dug in on the larger of Aquamarine's two moons but had yet to demonstrate that they were interested in the GammaLAW herself or indeed in venturing any closer to the surface of Aquamarine.

"We can do even less against the Roke than against Fluter Delve," Quant answered after a moment.

"And Grandee Rhodes?" someone asked.

Quant shrugged. "For all we know, he remained at Wall Water."

Dextra vouchsafed him a somber nod of agreement, then squared her shoulders.  "Captain, there's nothing we can do to bolster ourselves?"  

"Only the mutha-guns," he said, referring to the twin 240-mm naval rifles that constituted the Turret Musashi.  "They're enough to blow Fluter Delve completely off the scans, but the turret is three decks below the main deck and halfway across the ship from its barbette.  Without heavy transport gear, even a jury-rigged installation is going to take hours.  If the turret is going to be of any use, we have to begin moving it now and make it our priority.  

"Additionally, we lack the necessary propellant and live ammunition.  I've ordered every available machinist's mate to work on refitting our remaining few target-practice shells to carry explosives, but quite frankly, I don't know if they can accomplish the job in time.  Even if they do, the shells won't pack anything like the kind of power a real live round would."  Haven had brightened somewhat.  

"It seems to me, Captain, that any round would be preferable to none."  

"Without question.  But every effective aboard is going to have to bear a hand." He leaned toward Haven.  

"Your noncoms, officers, aides, and deputies will have to be drafted for labor details.  You and I will be getting our hands dirty, madame, along with those casualties who can be of use to us."  

As if to underline Quant's remark, everyone in the CIC felt the vibrations as the GammaLAW's engines were restarted after having been shut down for damage inspection.  After a moment, however, they pulsed with an irregular thrumming and then quit, leaving them all to stare at one another in doubt.  

Media reviews

"From the opening paragraph--perhaps the most skilled lead into any combat story yet written--to the conclusion, this is SF at its best."
--Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning,
   US Army (Ret.)
   Author of The Only War We Had and Inside Force Recon