It took only a few moments for the action consoles to regain their holographic imagery.

"Lieutenant Ryan, bring in the remainder of my crew, please. We have very little time."

"Aye, ma'am."

Heirthall looked down at the deck as her crew removed the dead midshipmen. Virginia could clearly see the tears as they streaked down her cheeks.

Jack pulled Virginia aside as the crew started up their consoles and awaited orders.

"You did well, Doc. That was one hell of a wiring job you did, rigging those consoles."

"I killed children, Jack. I don't know--"

"You did what you had to do, Virginia, just as we all do. And in answer to your next question, no, you never learn to live with it."

Virginia watched as Collins walked by a shocked Tyler and sat next to the weapons control station.

Sergeant Tyler knew for a fact he was a dead man. As Collins sat down, with lightning speed Tyler turned and elbowed Mendenhall in the stomach, then leaped at the weapons console, slamming his palm down on the launch button. The plastic cover smashed under the blow, and the red blinking button slammed home. Then he quickly turned and escaped through the hatch leading to the forward compartments.

Collins cursed and started to pursue Tyler. Everett started after Jack.

"Keep your station, Captain, and assist in Leviathan'sdefense," Collins called out as he vanished from control.

Everett stopped his pursuit of Jack and Tyler, slamming his hand against the bulkhead.

"He really does have a death wish," Everett said with clenched teeth. 'Well, don't just stand there, damn it. Go after him!"

Ryan and Mendenhall grabbed two weapons and went after their boss.

" Vertical launch in one minute,"came the computerized warning.

"Helm, are we getting answering bells ... on the console?" Alexandria asked, becoming weaker.

"Yes, Captain, Leviathanis answering all commands."

"Very well," she said calmly. "We need to turn the boat one hundred and eighty degrees. Bring our speed up to a hundred knots and blow ballast. Take her up to the ice."

"Alex, are you sure you want to do that? You'll box Leviathanagainst the ice."

"Ginny, we are caught between a rock.... and a hard place, as the saying goes. We cannot stop the launch of those missiles; on the other hand, Missourihas made our running away impossible. I can only be at one place at any given moment-- Leviathanwill die today no matter what I do."

"Do what you need to do," Virginia said.

"Ginny, Ginny, give me some credit, I fully intend to take the lesser of the two evils. The high ... road, you might say."

" Thirty seconds to launch," the computer announced. "Obstacle at launch coordinates detected. Launch in twenty seconds."

"Conn, sonar, we have thirty-five miles of broken ice and pressure ridges dead ahead. Ten seconds until we have limited open sea."

"Maintain speed and rudder, helm."

"Aye, ma'am, maintain heading."

"Sonar, how thick is the ice?"

"We are currently ranging from one quarter to half a mile of ice."

"Thank you," Alex said as calmly as if she were just ordering dinner.

" Launch in ten, nine, eight, seven--"

"Leviathanhas just gone under the ice."

" Three, two, one--vertical tubes one through thirty successfully launched."

The computerized voice prepared all hands for the minute jolt as compressed air shot thirty missiles from their tubes.

"Helm, evasive maneuvering, take Leviathandown forty degrees. Dive the boat ... deep and fast," Heirthall ordered, allowing her head to droop onto her chest.

As Leviathanshed the missiles, she started a steep dive for the seafloor, three and a half miles down.

At six hundred feet, the specially designed missiles fired a solid rocket booster that would carry them to the surface of the sea. Unfortunately, they weren't near the surface. There was a half-mile-thick ice sheet above them. As they approached at more than a hundred miles per hour, the conical-shaped weapons slammed into the blue bottom pressure ridges of the dying Ross Ice Shelf, smashing them to oblivion and sending the warheads to the bottom of the sea.

"Captain, we have Missouri'storpedo closing at sixty knots. She is still acquiring our sound signature--it must be locked onto our damage. Estimate impact in one minute."

"Very well, maintain course and speed. Ballast control; stand by to blow all tanks."

"We dodged one nuclear disaster, but we'll never avoid this one," Everett said as he and Virginia took a handhold. The blip on the hologram became one with Leviathan.

Collins hit the winding staircase that led down three decks to the engineering level. The captain had sealed off the elevators, and Jack knew that Tyler had no choice but to go down.

The massive engineering room contained the reactors. They were starting to scream at 115 percent power as the main water jet of Leviathantried desperately to push her forward-flooded sections down through the sea. The operational stations were all empty as every available crewman was in control or battling flooding on the other decks. The smell of burning rubber and hot steam permeated the air. Jack rounded a console and was taken aback when Tyler made his final stand. He grabbed Collins by the leg and pulled him to the deck.

Jack slammed against the rubber decking and bounced into the reactor control station. Tyler was trying to gain his feet, hitting Jack three times in quick succession as he rose. Collins shrugged off the blows and then lashed out with his boot, catching the larger Irishman in his right knee, producing a satisfactory, and sickening, crunch as the blow cracked the shin and tore ligaments in the sergeant's knee. He still maintained his footing, but with very great effort. He steadied himself on the bad leg, raised his left, and tried to bring it down onto Jack's neck, but Collins rolled free just as the boot struck the rubber matting.

Collins jumped to his feet and struck Tyler three times in his side, making the security man cough and grimace in great pain. Instead of going down, he collected himself faster than Jack realized he could and swung backward, hitting Collins in the chest and driving him back against the bulkhead. Collins bounced off, but he used the rebound action off the hull to his advantage. He came forward and caught Tyler with three straight, powerful blows to the face. Tyler reeled and spun away just as the pitch of the electric motors changed, screaming at even more power than before. Then the world changed as Leviathanstarted heading straight down, sending both Collins and Tyler sliding down the deck as if they were on a giant, very precarious slide.

Jack never had a chance to end the fight with Tyler. The Missouri's nuclear torpedo struck, and the world went dark.

"Okay, give me ninety-degrees dive on the planes. Increase ballast in the forward tanks to one hundred percent," Alexandria said calmly, closing her eyes to think, but still with her head lowered.

She was ticking off the seconds until detonation. When the American torpedo's computer detected the change in the angle of attack, the weapon would detonate as a preprogrammed precaution against losing contact with its target. This was exactly what she had hoped for. Alexandria suddenly opened her eyes and leaned forward in her chair.