Leviathan (5 page)

In front of the twenty-foot-long row of computer terminals, Connor saw that the fire door was emergency sealed, solid as an anvil. But above the control panel, a long section of steel paneling had been essentially vaporized, the remaining edges molded in the shape of water pouring up at the top, down at the lower edge. Looking upward into the section, Connor also saw a broken length of 1,000-amp wiring, one end melted to the south wall, the other melted to the north wall, twenty feet between the two junctions. Unable to contain his amazement, Connor turned to Chesterton.

“How many people got killed in here?”

Chesterton shook his head.
“Just do your job, Connor. Whatever happened in here is classified.”

Connor looked back at the wall. Then he pushed down on the computer panel, testing, and leaped lightly atop it. He stood, gazing more closely into the melted section of steel before he walked to the south edge, peering at the blackened wire.

“Is this power line shut off, Chesterton?”

A solid nod.
“It's off.”

“
You sure?”

“
Yeah, Connor, it's off. I'm sure.”

“
Uh-huh.”

Connor picked up a long piece of plastic. He stood five feet away and lightly touched the wire. Nothing happened. So he stepped closer, prying less timidly with the shaft at the thick, unbending stick. The wire moved slightly. Then he took out a screwdriver, walking up. He stuck the point behind the burned end and jerked hard on the insulated section once, twice, three times until it loudly tore loose.

Chesterton shifted. “Do you have to make so much noise, Connor?”

With faint anger, Connor looked down.
“What?”

“
I said: Do you have to make so much noise?”

Connor gazed wonderingly at the empty room, down again.
“We disturbing somebody, Chesterton?”

Frowning, Chesterton focused on the fire door.
“Just do the job as quietly as possible.”

A moment of silence and Connor turned away, working at the wire until he had pulled two extra feet of its length from the wall. He turned the end in his hands, studying the wire, the steel panels. He saw that a small hole was burned in the exterior wall, the insulation blown away from the far side, of the wiring, and the closer side of the thick 1,000-amp wire was melted. He studied the combination for a long time, finally leaping from the platform.

“It's got to be spliced,” he said.

Chesterton didn't even reply.

Connor gazed back up at the wall. “You see that wire, Chesterton?'

Disagreeable.
“No.”

Carefully, Connor pointed.
“You see how the far strands of copper are blasted deep into the wire while the strands on this side are melted?”

Chesterton didn't look up.
“No, sir. And I don't care to. I've already told you. I'm not an engineer and it's not my job.”

“
Well, look closer.”

As if profoundly irritated with the dilemma of the con
versation, Chesterton glanced at the wire. “All right, Connor, I can see it. Now can you do your job?”

Connor smiled.
“Yeah, I can do it. But answer a question for me. Do you know how something like that could happen?”

Chesterton's teeth gleamed in a grimace.
“No, Connor. I don't.”

“
Then I'll tell you,” Connor said, smile fading. “It doesn't.”

Chesterton was impatient, but he didn't raise his voice. His naturally assertive nature of expressing authority had apparently been overcome by a compelling passion for quiet.
“What do you mean, 'it doesn't happen'? It happened. I'm looking at it.”

“
No, Chesterton, it doesn't happen. Not by itself.”

Chesterton's angry gaze went distant again.

Stepping closer, Connor's aspect was suddenly conspiratorial. “What have your people been doing down here, Chesterton? What happened on the other side of this fire door?”

“Nothing,” Chesterton said, shaking his head. “And your people haven't been put in danger, Connor. It was a simple accident and you need to fix it.”

With somberness, Connor nodded.
“I'm sure it was, Chesterton. But let me tell you something. If—”

“
Save it.”

A shake of his head, and Connor continued.
“Look, Chesterton, I don't know if anybody got killed in here when that wire broke, but that wire is not your problem. Whatever is on the far side of that wall is your problem. That's what caused this accident.”

“And how can you know that?”

“
There's a small hole melted in the steel wall,” Connor replied, a nod. “It's been sealed by the fire door. But it's there. It looks like it was done with an arc weld burning at maybe nine or ten thousand degrees. The flame punched a hole in the steel and then it hit the electrical line. The insulation was blown away from the far side, grounding out the wire, and then the circuit left the line and went through the wall. That's what knocked out the steel paneling. It depends on how much power the line was pulling at the time, but it probably looked like a bolt of lightning going through this room.”

Chesterton was angry.
“Why are you telling me this, Connor? You think we don't know all this?”

“
Because I can replace the wire, Chesterton,” Connor said, anger hardening his tone. “But I'm telling you this up front. Your military boys don't need to try any welding down here. This is a sensitive environment and sensitive equipment, and somebody can easily get killed. I don't care what kind of secrets you've got in that cavern; you need to let my people handle the construction work.”

Chesterton's jaw locked.

“Just fix it, Connor,” he said somberly. “And try to fix it so it can't happen again.”

* * *

Chapter 5

Spenser Wayne Adler, imperial and commanding in his private office near the Observation Room, turned to Frank with an indulgent aspect, smiling benignly—an aged and wise grandfather patiently enduring the foolishness of his young and unwise grandson.

“
I hope you understand my reasons for overruling you at the meeting, Dr. Frank,” he began, as if the incident were thoroughly settled and merited only the vaguest defense.

Frank shrugged. Said nothing. He still felt as if he w
as in a state of shock, and he had no compulsion to tell Adler anything at all although he knew where the conversation was going.

“
I appreciate your concerns,” Adler continued. “Truly, I do. I am not an unsympathetic man. But you must have more faith in our ability to control the beast. The incident today was an aberration.” Adler's confidence was completely unforced. “I'm certain that it won't happen again. Especially with a few additional safety measures.”

“
Well, I'm not certain that it won't happen again, Mr. Adler. I don't think you even realize what we're dealing with here. I don't think anybody does, really. Except me.”

Adler appeared unsurprised, even pleased.

“Indeed,” he smiled, “and that is the reason I summoned you, Doctor. There is no need to remind you that I have only been with this project for three months, while you have worked on it for years. I was assigned to the island only when the creature began this remarkably successful stage of development and until then Dr. Hoffman was, ah, directing the operation. And I have not altered the line of command.” He waved vaguely. “I have simply added another level of supervision. Surely such a fantastic scientific achievement as this merits as much supervisory personnel as possible, don't you agree?”

Silent, Frank waited.

“I want to know the latest data concerning Leviathan's development.” Adler smiled. “I understand computers, but I prefer personal input from the source. It is an ultimately superior method for evaluating data.”

Frank stared a moment, spoke rapidly.
“Leviathan is now sixteen feet tall and thirty-five feet long with fifteen feet of that in its tail. Its weight is approximately 12,000 pounds and it seems to have reached its maximum size. Internal resting body temperature is 326 degrees without the temperature rise ignited by kinetic energy release for—”

Adler abruptly lifted a hand.
“Excuse me, Doctor. Explain this creature's ability to release kinetic energy to me again, and the relationship of the energy release with Leviathan's body temperature. I'm still not certain that I understand it.”

A reluctant pause, and Frank spoke.
“Leviathan has vertebrae disks that continually contract, Mr. Adler, building unreleased potential chemical energy in semi-muscular non-Newtonian fluid sacs located between the vertebrae themselves. The vertebrae sacs also contain high catalyst molarity enzymes and menantinic, an enzyme that increases hemoglobin levels and euthrocytes in the blood stream. When Leviathan releases the enzymes and they are absorbed by specific muscle tissue that is already at peak tension in preparation for the event, a chemical reaction converts the tension into explosive kinetic energy where—”

“
Like a dolphin,” Adler confirmed.

“
Yeah,” Frank continued. “Like a dolphin does before he leaps from the water. A dolphin stores kinetic energy in its spine and then releases it all at once, propelling itself forward with greater force than it could have generated by simple muscular contraction.”

“
Yes, I see,” Adler gestured. “Good. Go on.”

Frank stared a moment.
“But with Leviathan, the kinetic release of stored energy is electro-neural and chemical in nature and therefore highly exothermic. When the reaction reaches a critical stage it increases the creature's surface temperature from its normal 326 degrees to slightly over 600 degrees in the first 76 hundredths of a second.”

“
Incredible ...” Adler muttered, looking away. “Absolutely incredible.” He focused on Frank. “But how does the creature survive such an intense temperature? I don't understand this. How can its blood not boil at such intolerable heat?”

“
Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit,” Frank said, “unless it's under pressure. And the more pressure the water is under, the higher the temperature has to be before it will boil. Leviathan's blood pressure is approximately 300 over 270. So that's enough pressure to keep the water in its blood from boiling or evaporating at 326 degrees. And any blood damaged by excessive heat shock is quickly being replenished with high doses of menatopoietic in the blood stream, which is regulated by the upgraded hypothalamus in the cerebral cortex. Besides, Leviathan's mutated cellular makeup is altered sufficiently to place the heat vaporization point well outside of kinetic energy release parameters. The native cellular structure of Leviathan's vascular system is almost equal to copper or bronze in tensile strength, so the veins and tissues sustain the stress pretty easily.”

“
Absolutely incredible,” Adler repeated, amazed out of character. “But surely ... surely when the creature's internal temperature reaches 600 degrees during the ... ah ... ah ...”

“
Kinetic energy release.”

“
Yes,” Adler nodded, “during the kinetic energy release. Yes. Surely then the creature's blood would boil. It would die.”

“
No,” Frank shook his head, “Leviathan's blood doesn't boil because the internal rise in body temperature only lasts a split second. And that's not long enough to superheat its entire circulatory system. Although a split second is more than long enough for...”

Adler appeared to struggle with his enthusiasm.
“Long enough for what, Doctor?”

Frank hesitated. It seemed to him that the answer was obvious, considering the purpose of the project. Then he decided that Adler had asked the question simply so he could enjoy the answer.
“Long enough to launch an attack, Mr. Adler,” he replied. “Just like it's neurally programmed to do.”

Adler smiled.
“And what is the speed of Leviathan's attack?”

Frank felt an internal distance from the discussion.
“Normally Leviathan charges at approximately 95 miles per hour, using only its hind legs. We've timed its attacks from one end of the cavern to the other. But with the kinetic energy release, it can cover approximately 1,000 feet at 145 miles per hour on all four legs before it exhausts the catalytic enzymes and adrenaline in its bloodstream. Then it has to move at normal speed for the rest of the attack. But a peripheral danger of the kinetic energy release is that Leviathan's surface temperature of 600 degrees will cause anything in its immediate physical proximity to burst into flames. Even if it doesn't touch anything. The shock of the ambient temperature suddenly increasing to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit will cause all low grade materials to shatter instantly, creating a virtual sphere of destruction. There's just... there's just too much heat.”

Adler's eyes had widened.
“And this ... this kinetic release of energy is what caused the fire we had in the cavern this afternoon?”

“
No,” Frank responded. Adler's ignorance of the creature's true potential was almost frightening. “Today's fire was caused by Leviathan's ability to ignite the carpasioxyllelene gel.”

“
Yes!” Adler exclaimed suddenly, before settling both hands again on his chair. He nodded. “Yes. That is it. Go on, Doctor.”

Frank sighed.
“At some point in the tenth week of development,” he continued, “when I was using the nerve-input interpretative stimulus to upgrade its central neural net in the cerebral cortex with tactical data and initiating automatic reprinting of echo-memory on new brain cells, Leviathan developed gel sacs in the roof of its mouth and the front of its neck.”

“
The carpasioxyllelene,” Adler contributed.

“
Yes. One of the sacs contains carpasioxyllelene. The other sac contains another organic substance, still unknown to us, that reacts with it. Alone, each chemical is useless. But when they are misted together in an oxygen atmosphere they become highly flammable and react against each other to initiate explosive combustion. By rerouting muscles in its neck to provide pressure to the gel sacs, Leviathan can spray both chemicals at once from its mouth. Just like a pit viper sprays venom from its mouth to blind prey. And, like I said, when the chemicals mist together in an oxygen atmosphere they ignite. Explosively.”

“
How long can it sustain this combustion?”

Frank hesitated, as if the question had never occurred to him.
“I ... don't really know for certain. Today is the first time Leviathan ever did it. And I wasn't even sure that it could. I don't even think it knew that it could until it tried. And I've been a little busy since then, so I haven't run any computations.” He squinted. “But ... it looked like Leviathan sprayed the gel approximately 300 feet with a temperature of maybe ... 12,000 degrees. More than enough to melt steel if it's focused for a few seconds.”

Motionless, Adler stared.
“Surely you overestimate.”

Frank leaned back. An apocalyptic vision of hellish flames exploding against the Plexiglas shield passed before him.

“Look, Mr. Adler, you really need to understand what we're dealing with here. This type of chemical combustion is similar only to plasma arc welding. It produces extremely high temperatures. Sometimes as much as 18,000 to 20,000 degrees. It's a type of welding used on high nitrogen metals that are innately resistant to ionization.”

Not appearing to notice the slight, Adler continued,
“And do you think that the creature can sustain the combustion long enough to melt steel? Or titanium? Or even a niobium-titanium alloy?”

Frank shook his head.
“It can't melt niobium-titanium alloy. Niobium-titanium doesn't even have a melting point because it's created in a magnetic matrix where the molecules are electromagnetically converged to form a high nitrogen content. But 12,000 degrees can certainly melt steel. Leviathan has a capacity for about twenty gallons in each individual sac. With both sacs combined, that's forty gallons of gel that it can utilize. That much gel will probably allow it to sustain a significant level of combustion at a twenty percent oxygenated atmosphere for as long as five minutes. But then the sacs would be exhausted and Leviathan would need time to regenerate carpasioxyllelene pressure. “

“
How much time?”

“
A couple of hours, probably.”

Pacing, Adler turned away.
“This is absolutely incredible. Truly, this is something completely unknown to science.”

“
No,” Frank replied, finding some pleasure in taking a little wind out of Adler's sails. “It's not unknown to science at all. The bombardier beetle in South America does the same thing. It sprays two chemicals that mist together to create quinine. And the quinine bursts into flames upon contact with oxygen. The beetle can fire about twenty bursts before exhausting itself, and scientists have known about it for years. It's just that we've never seen the same external combustion process on this scale.”

Adler walked to the side. He cupped his chin before turning back.
“And is there any possibility that the creature will melt the vault of the Containment Chamber?” he asked.

“
No.”

“
But can it break down the doors? Is that possible?”

Strangely, Adler seemed more concerned for the creature than for the staff. Frank was struck by the sensation.
“Yes,” he replied, staring, “it's possible that it could break them down. We never counted on having to contain anything like this.”

“
But we are taking precautions?”

Frank nodded.

For a moment Adler stared. “Yes? Can you continue, Doctor?”

“
I've replaced the oxygen in the cavern with nitrogen. Leviathan will sleep as long as it's in a nitrogen atmosphere.”

Turning fully, Adler dropped his hand to his side.
“But... but will the creature not suffocate? Does it not need oxygen to breathe?”

“
No, Mr. Adler, Leviathan won't suffocate. Leviathan has a lung capacity of 270 liters, almost equal to that of a killer whale. And it filled itself with oxygen as soon as it sensed the presence of the nitrogen. Just like it's neurally programmed to do. Right now it's gone into something like hibernation where it'll stay until its epidermic sensors detect the presence of an oxygen atmosphere again.”

“
And how long can it survive in hibernation?”

“
We don't know.”

Adler tilted his head.

“GEO calculates that it can go at least eight weeks,” Frank responded wearily. “But it can probably go a lot longer. Maybe as long as eight months. There's no way to know because I've never had to put Leviathan to sleep in a nitrogen atmosphere before. But it will survive for quite a while. And, by the way, Mr. Adler, this brings me to something I wanted to tell you.”

Adler looked unconcerned.
“Yes, Doctor?”