Battleship (Movie Tie-in Edition) (28 page)

There was a pause on the other end. Message sent. Message received. Message rejected. “Just scramble the jets,
Admiral
,” said the Secretary in a way that drew the divide between them in stark relief. “Circle that barrier. Find a hole in it. We need to get in there—”

“We need to get in there?”
Calm. Stay calm. He’s not one of us, he can’t understand, he answers to the President, don’t say what you’re thinking
. His mind split down the middle, one side listening to the very solid advice being presented by the other side. After listening, the other half of his mind completely ignored the first, and Shane said what he was thinking. “While you sit six thousand miles away, I’m on the enemy front line, with four hundred of my men
and my only daughter
trapped inside that dome! I am far more aware than you of the need to get inside there, but wasting lives
will not help
.” He paused, and heard the Secretary inhaling on the other end, about to speak, but the admiral steamrolled right over him. “You want me to send up another plane? I’ll do it the second you come up here and
sit your ass in the copilot seat!
”

He slammed down the phone, killing the uplink. Waves of anger radiated from him, and it was that moment he realized that Chavez was still standing there, waiting to hand him the coffee. In a fit of uncontrolled rage, he
snatched the mug from Chavez’s hand and threw it with all his strength. It shattered against the wall.

Chavez stared at the mess in shock. Shane looked directly at him, his eyes like twin thunderstorms. Chavez gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “I … I’ll get you another cup.”

He got out of there as quickly as he could.

“Dammit,” muttered Hopper as he watched the seemingly random, unpredictable movements of the remaining target.

He was still having trouble processing that somehow Sam had managed to get in touch with him. He’d always known she was resourceful, but this was beyond anything he would have thought she could have cooked up. There had to be someone there with her, out on Saddle Ridge. Maybe someone military. He hoped so. It made him feel a little better knowing that perhaps there was an experienced soldier or Navy man by her side, working to get her the hell out of there …

I wonder who it is? Should I be jealous?

Then he pushed such dead-end thoughts out of his mind. This sure as hell wasn’t the time for them.

Nagata was right next to him, seeing the same thing that Hopper was when it came to the alien vessel. “They’re learning from their mistakes.”

Hopper nodded. “We can’t hit him. Can’t lock a missile on his movement.”

“They’re smart.”

“Yeah, well we’re not exactly a bunch of dummies ourselves. If nothing else, we bloodied them up pretty good, so that bought us some time. They’re not going to come right after us.”

“Too bad,” said Nagata. “Recklessness on their part could have worked in our favor.”

Hopper hated to admit it, but Nagata was right.
Can’t be helped now, though. No sense dwelling on it. We need to focus on what’s next, not what was
. “We know a few things,” said Hopper. He ticked them off on his fingers. “If you hit them, they come after you. They value their own. So if you kill them, they seem to resent that. Agree?”

“Agree,” said Nagata.

“We also know they don’t handle light very well, and their ships are not bulletproof. They are hittable.”

“Yes, agree.”

Hopper considered all of it a moment and then picked up the radio. “CIC to engineering. Beast, give me good news.”

“We’ve shored up the port engine,” Beast’s voice came back. That alone was enough to prompt a sigh of relief from Hopper. Beast continued, “I can give you 10 knots now and 20 in ten minutes.” Then Beast’s voice suddenly became fainter and Hopper realized Beast was facing away from the radio on his end, speaking to someone else softly, thinking his voice wasn’t being heard. He was saying, “Hiroki, can you give me twenty in ten?” A second later he came back on and said, “Yeah. Definitely twenty in ten.”

Hopper smiled at that, but he didn’t let his amusement sound in his voice as he said, “I’m holding you to that.”

He clicked off the radio and glanced at the monitor. The stinger was showing no sign of slowing its movements.

“I don’t think this one is going to make the same mistakes.”

“No,” said Nagata.

His gaze drifted to the island of Oahu. His mind racing, he said, “Let’s see if we can take him somewhere he doesn’t want to go, and hit him somewhere he doesn’t want to be hit.” He looked to Nagata for approval, but Nagata just appeared puzzled. This actually pleased Hopper—he was one step ahead of Nagata. This was shaping up to be a good day after all. “Miss Raikes.”

“Sir?”

“What time is sunrise?” He exchanged looks with Nagata, and this time it was clear that he was now on Hopper’s wavelength. Nagata didn’t smile—that would have been too much—but the edges of his mouth actually seemed to twitch ever so slightly.

Raikes, not sure why it was of that much relevance, checked her chronometer. “At 0553,” she said briskly.

“Okay.” He clicked back on the radio. “CIC to engineering. Beast, you said twenty minutes?”

“Yeah.”

“Fine. Meet me on the bridge in twenty-one minutes.”

“Aye, sir,” came Beast’s voice, but he sounded as confused as Raikes.

Moments later Hopper and Nagata were heading up to the bridge at a brisk pace. As they did so, Nagata startled Hopper by saying, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“You are all that your brother was and more. So why do you act as if you were so much less? Why such self-destructive behavior?”

He glanced at Nagata as they walked and then laughed softly. “Do you have any idea how many people have asked me that?”

“Not really, no.”

“It was rhetorical.” He paused and then said, as they
continued to move, “When Stone and I were kids, I was better than he was at … well, lots of things. School. Athletics. Strategic thinking. Everything. And I loved rubbing it in his face, because I was a typically obnoxious kid brother. And one day we were in the woods near our house, playing some game … I don’t even remember what it was … and he just got fed up. He stalked off and I ran after him, shouting and being snide. Suddenly the ground went right out from under me and I fell straight down a hill, which sent me tumbling into a river. Got knocked cold by a branch and the water just started carrying me downstream. I’d’ve drowned, no question. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital. Stone had jumped in and swam after me and pulled me out. And what woke me up was my father shouting at Stone. Telling him it was all his fault. That it was his job to watch out for me. And I thought,
Son of a bitch, he saved my stupid life and he’s the one getting his ass chewed
. And that was it.”

Nagata looked at him, confused. “What was it? That was what?”

“I swore I would never do anything to make Stone look bad again. That he’d be the hero of the family. Because I might have been better at all this stuff that, in the end, doesn’t matter … but he was the better person. And he deserved to have the world recognize that.”

“That is … very noble of you.”

“Thanks.”

“But I would point out that it doesn’t explain your obvious rage issues. Your tendency to solve problems with your fists. Your knack for self-destructive behavior.”

“What are you getting at?” said Hopper suspiciously.

“Simply that, at some level, you hated the decision you made. That you likely resented your brother for that decision, even though you’re the one who made it. You’re suffering from misplaced aggression. You really wanted
to lash out at your brother or your father, but since you didn’t dare, you lashed out at others … including me.”

“Yeah, well … you had it coming.”

“Fortunately, you hit like a girl.”

Hopper stopped in his tracks and stared at Nagata, who simply stood there with one eyebrow raised.

Then Hopper laughed. Nagata’s face never moved a muscle.

Hopper started walking again, Nagata falling in step behind him. “Whatever, man. Hell, the only reason I told you any of this was because we’ll probably both be dead by noon anyway.”

“That’s very comforting.”

“ ‘Rage issues.’ ‘Misplaced aggression.’ Jeez. What were you, a psychiatrist before you joined the Navy?”

“No. But my mother’s one.”

“She is?”

“Don’t get me started on my mother,” said Nagata.

Hopper didn’t.

Once on the bridge, Hopper spread out navigation charts on the wide table and started tracing a line from their present location toward the island that was the target of his developing strategy. Nagata stood to one side of the table, Beast on the other.

“When we round this point can you hold her here tight? Just off Diamond Head?” Hopper said to Beast.

Beast studied it and was obviously running calculations through his head. “It ain’t gonna be easy. There’s an ass crack of a current in there. We get on its bad side, we’re gonna need a proctologist to pull us out.”

“Then it’s elbows and assholes all around.” Hopper tapped the link and called up the CIC. “How close is the stinger to us?” he said as soon as he raised Raikes.

“Seven miles and closing fast,” her voice came back. She was trying to sound unconcerned, as if an oncoming,
swiftly approaching and seriously pissed-off alien vessel was just another day at the office.

Hopper shifted his attention back to Beast. “No kidding around. Can you do it?” asked Hopper.

“I can try,” said Beast. “Sir, I don’t get it …”

I can try
wasn’t good enough. “
Can
you
do
it?”

Beast wasn’t going to promise something he couldn’t deliver. He stared at the map, at the area of the current, and he started to mutter a string of numbers. Hopper realized Beast was running engine revolutions through his head, making calculations. Finally he nodded. “I can do it.”

Hopper wanted to sigh in relief, but he kept it to himself. Instead, he turned to Nagata. “Captain Nagata, how’s your aim?”

Nagata nodded slowly. “Excellent.”

Hopper looked back at Beast, who appeared somewhat dubious for some reason. “Problem, Beast?”

“Permission not to be the one who has to tell Raikes that Captain Nagata will be handling guns … no offense,” he added quickly to Nagata.

“We’re going to need her behind the 5-inch,” Hopper said. “I have something else planned for Captain Nagata. Now get down to CIC and get us heading in the right direction. Leave the rest to me.”

“Yes sir,” said Beast.

Nagata watched as Beast headed off. “He is not sure what you have in mind. But he does not question.”

“Of course not. That’s not his job.”

“Yes. His job is to obey you. And your job is to issue those orders.”

“Are you telling me my job, Captain Nagata?”

“No,” said Nagata mildly. “It is simply a pity that your brother is not able to see you do it.”

“Yeah,” said Hopper. “Just think. If I hadn’t made the
decision I did, it might well have been me on the
Sampson
. And Stone would still be alive.”

Nagata studied him and then said, “You are blaming yourself for your brother’s death.” When Hopper didn’t respond, Nagata continued, “That is foolishness. You did not kill your brother.” His voice hardened. “
They
killed him. And yes, I will tell you your job now. Your job is to make them all pay. Do not lose sight of that.”

“I won’t.”

“Good. As for your survival … I suspect, Alex Hopper, that you would have managed to survive the Great Flood.”

“We may yet have the chance to find out.”

The human vessel is fleeing
.

They are under the impression that they can forestall the inevitable
.

They believe that succor is possible elsewhere. They think that the Regents will allow them to flee the field of combat. They are under the impression that they have a say in when, and how, the testing will be ended
.

Foolish humans. Only the decisions of the Regents commanders—the Land Commander and the Sea Commander—matter. The test is not over until the Regents say it is over
.

How wrong they are. How greatly they will pay for their underestimation of the Regents’ resolve
.

How utterly they will be destroyed
.

The Regent ship is in pursuit. The end for them will come soon
.

Diamond Head was a volcanic tuff cone, known to the natives as Le’Ahi, since the shape of its ridgeline was similar to the dorsal fin of an ahi tuna. British sailors had come upon it in the 19th century and, mistaking the
calcite in its rocks for diamond, had dubbed it with the name it retained to this day.

The
John Paul Jones
was now making for it with such speed that one might think actual diamonds were waiting for those who could get to it the fastest.

The stinger was in pursuit and closing in as Hopper and Nagata hurriedly assembled a .50 caliber sniper rifle on the ship’s bow. Nagata glanced over his shoulder at the alien vessel as it drew nearer. “It’s not attempting to close the distance by jumping,” he observed.

“Don’t you get it?” Hopper said. “They’re testing us. Pushing our limits, seeing what we can do. They figure they have us cold, so why not see how fast we can go and how long we can sustain it?”

“Testing us because …?”

“Because they’re sending more, like Sam said. That’s got to be it. They want to see how much of a challenge we present so that they can be sure to be prepared for it.”

“And if we blow them all to hell?”

“Then maybe they’ll figure they’re overmatched and look for easier pickings, like … I don’t know, whatever planet the tribbles come from.”

Nagata’s eyebrows furrowed. “Trib … bulls?”

“Never mind. Not important.” He adjusted the sights of the sniper scope. “If I’m right, their bridge window is three feet wide. It’s inlayed a couple of feet. A 5-inch can’t take it out. Still, that doesn’t mean Raikes isn’t ready to rock.”