Leviathan

"In case you're wondering, and if you'll excuse me, I'm beginning to understand how you think, the captain has earned the right to wear that rank. She served as a trainee and midshipman under her own parents. She has taken the final exams of both the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Her scores have never been equaled. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, duty calls."

Samuels took an offered glass from a midshipman.

"Captain, it is an honor to salute you and your ancestors on this yearly day of days," Samuels said aloud as the middy stewards passed around trays of something that resembled green Kool-Aid in champagne flutes. Once everyone had a glass: "Captain, to the great god of the seas--to Roderick Deveroux Heirthall, and to the creator of Leviathan, past and present, his son, Octavian, upon his birthday!"

"Roderick Deveroux--Octavian Heirthall!" the crew members repeated loudly.

Sarah and Alice looked at Niles and the senator. Lee deferred by raising his eyebrow over his patch to the director; thus it fell on Compton, who nodded his head to toast a great man and his son.

Henri Farbeaux smiled, finally agreeing with Compton, turned his glass flute upward, and drank heavily.

"Absolutely the most despicable liquid I have ever tasted." He took another drink, as did the others. "Yet, somehow it grows on you," Farbeaux said, still grimacing.

"I see you like our sparkling wine?"

They looked up to see Alexandria Heirthall standing before them. She nodded toward the Frenchman. Her eyes were normal, and with them she carried an air of aggressiveness in her look.

"No, I find it vulgar in the extreme ... but somehow--how do I say-- compelling?"

"Well, wesay the fermented poison sac of the silver-spined sea urchin."

A questioning look crossed the features of the Frenchman.

"The drink, Colonel; it's the fermented squeezings of the poison sacs of small sea creatures that make up what we call Jonah's Ambrosia."

"Sea urchins? You go from the world's rarest wine to sea urchins? I believe you need to speak with your chef," Farbeaux said as he took another glass from a passing steward.

"There will be wine for dinner," she said as she took his arm.

As Niles watched her leave arm in arm with Henri, he looked at each person around him.

"She's living in another world. Birthday parties for fictitious characters, the whole Nemo thing, she's far beyond what I even thought," Lee said, watching the captain's back.

Compton didn't respond. He was busy studying the captain's movements. Her stride and demeanor seemed measured and precise as she made her way through the crowd of adoring crew members.

"Whether she's mad or not is irrelevant. Let's examine her achievements. Even if we don't take her at face value as far as her sanity is concerned, we better take seriously the toys her family invented, and the ones she plays with," Sarah said, nodding her head that they should join the rest at the long table that had been set up in front of the viewing glass. "Because insane or not, that woman holds one powerful hand of cards."

As the hundred officers and crew made their way to their places, a group of children, no older than twelve to fourteen, filed in and stood in front of the observation glass at the bow.

As an officer next to her seated Sarah, she saw the boys and girls were dressed in shorts and white shirts. They smiled as an instructor stepped in front of them, and then turned and bowed at the captain, who nodded. Soon the most harmonious song Sarah or the others had ever heard came flowing from the mouths of the children--it was slow, melodious, and sent chills through them. Sarah looked toward the head of the long table and saw that the captain, though Farbeaux was speaking to her, was looking directly at her.

Sarah nodded her head and the captain smiled. It was as though the woman had some great secret she held at arm's length about Sarah that was hers alone to know.

Outside the viewing windows, the cold Arctic Sea flowed by as Leviathankept course for the gap between the Aleutians and Russia--what was known in naval terminology as a choke point.

Leviathanwould soon learn there was good reason for that term.

THE EVENT GROUP COMPLEX,

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA

The president listened to the story that Jack told him. After Europa and their investigative teams found out the name of the family they were dealing with, diaries and other government paperwork from history started flowing into the Group's lap.

The president understood that almost sixty percent of what he was hearing was conjecture, but given what the president had learned in his very short time of knowing these people in Nevada, he knew to throw out the percentages. Their guesswork was a better percentage risk than most agencies' facts.