Chapter Twelve
My body kicks into gear and I run to the side of the ship. I know the water itself is calm but it would be freezing. I can’t imagine that she’ll last long floating around in the dark cold water with her clothes weighing her down. Tomas gets to the side of the ship at the same time I do. We fling ourselves as far over as is safe to see if we can spot Fiona. I look frantically left and right but the darkness makes everything just seem black, with no whitewash it’s like we’re floating on a black satin cloth, absolutely depthless. Tomas grabs my arm and I look over at him. He’s pointing out away from the ship with his mouth hanging open. I follow his finger and see a large vessel that is almost completely submerged. It’s only the light from the brilliant stars that reflect off the metal sides of the vessel that allow us to see it at all. It is about half the size of our ship but obviously functions completely differently. From the little light available to us I can see that it is entirely enclosed and rapidly on its way underwater. Before it disappears completely I glimpse the seam of metal panels, just like on the night Karther was killed.
“You saw it too?” Tomas asks with the air of someone who is questioning their sanity.
I am so relieved we have both seen the submersible vessel it is something that just would not be believed by the others if only I had seen it again. They already think I am a bit crazy and mixed with my recent sickness and the lateness of the hour, there is no way they would have believed me.
“Yeah, I did”, I answer Tomas still looking at the spot where the vessel disappeared.
It’s as likely to see something like that, a BAS machine in the middle of the ocean, as it is to see the sun stop shining tomorrow. Nothing seems to fit. Who is Fiona really and what was she hoping to achieve? Seeing the vessel at the same time Fiona jumped overboard could not be a coincidence. I have to assume she was either met by whoever controlled that submersible, which would mean she had a way to communicate with them or she was suicidal.
I turn away from the water when I hear fast approaching footsteps. It’s Max running towards us with Merva following closely behind.
“You have to come and have a look at something”, Max calls before he reaches us. He is already turning back the way he came assuming we would follow.
Tomas moves to follow before I do and I jog to catch up to him. We’re led directly to the control room. It has a small light that spreads across the screen and illuminates the whole room so the sight before us is unmistakable. Everything has been smashed to pieces, leaving only a shell where once stood the wall length control board. There are bits of wire, metal, plastic and all sorts of BAS parts that I can’t name collapsed in the cavity. What I assume was the offending weapon is thrown on top, I recognise it from the weapons room, it’s a long thick arrow-like object that when swung around with force could easily have inflicted the damage that is before us. Fiona has smashed the control board and fled the ship before we can catch her. I can’t reconcile the Fiona I know with the girl who I saw leap overboard. Fiona is the intuitive, resourceful, kind and calm person who I feel comfortable with, who I had let go with. Why would she do this?
“Isabella, where’s Isabella?” I ask frantically remembering I had sentry with her and she is nowhere to be seen.
“I thought she’d be with you”, Merva answers looking around the room as if Isabella would suddenly appear.
I run out of the room squishing some tiny objects under my feet as I go, I doubt even Diego and Vonteuse can fix this mess so I’m not too concerned that I might have made it worse. I run straight for the dome with someone, I’m not sure how many or who, following behind me. It takes only a few seconds to circumnavigate the dome. Isabella isn’t anywhere to be seen. I stretch the search out further, looking up and down the ship. It doesn’t occur to me that Isabella could have jumped overboard with Fiona. I saw her surprise when Fiona approached us on deck and it was genuine. I run towards the transports and cylinders, they’re the biggest obstacles on the ship besides the dome itself. About a metre from reaching the first transport I see a shoe sticking out from behind it. I freeze where I am, making sure what I think I see is right. Merva pulls up next to me, probably in response to my sudden stop. I see her head follow my gaze in my peripheral vision. Before she can react further I run towards the shoe. I round the side of the transport so I can get a full view of Isabella laying face down with her arms above her head. It is clear she has been dragged to this position. I wonder why Fiona would bother doing that when she had a quick escape route, maybe she was worried about being found out before she got the job done. I lean down next to Isabella’s head and gently brush her hair aside so I can see her face. It’s sticky and matted with what I guess is her blood. The light isn’t good enough for me to see properly. I wave my hand under her nose to see if I can feel any air flowing out and rest my other useless hand on her neck to feel for a pulse. The two broken fingers stick straight out unnaturally and I nudge her ear as I try to place my working fingers where I know to feel for a vein. The movement brings a moan from Isabella that scares the hell out of me, making me jump with a little scream. I have obviously been expecting her to be dead, it’s enough of a relief that she isn’t that I don’t feel embarrassed at my ridiculous scream in front of what is fast becoming a crowded little spot. Merva, Max and Tomas have squashed into the space where Isabella lay, making it an uncomfortable squeeze. I look around the faces for Tomas, knowing he has some healing skills and see that he is way ahead of me, pushing past Merva to get to Isabella.
He starts talking to her, calling her name and asking if she can hear him. This gets an immediate groan in response, which I guess is a very good sign.
“We’ll need something to carry her down. She shouldn’t be stood up yet until I can see what damage has been done to her head and neck”, Tomas states not taking his eyes or hands off Isabella.
His hands are roaming all over her head, neck, back and sides, looking for further injuries.
“I’ll go down and get something”, I say and stand to get up only to be stopped by Tomas pulling me back down.
“No, I’ll need you here to help me”, he declares with authority.
It crosses my mind to ask what type of help I can give him in this situation with one hand out of action but I don’t question him.
“Max, you and Merva go down, there is a light-weight trundle bed folded up behind the cupboard in the common cabin. Get at least two others to come and help carry Isabella and three more to take up sentry”, Tomas orders.
This is an unexpected side to Tomas, he is confident and calm, his mind completely in the moment. Asking for sentry to be covered brings me up to where his mind is at, with the control panel out of order we have to assume we no longer have an alarm system. The very fact that Fiona was able to jump overboard without triggering it is enough to prove that theory. Now with all of us occupied with Isabella the ship and the dome are not being guarded, we’re more exposed now than we have ever been. To make it worse, Tomas and I saw what exactly we are exposed to, a BAS vessel that travelled undetected below the water. For all we know it has been following us the whole time, could still be somewhere near the ship now, waiting for the right moment to board or attack.
“Are you alright?” Tomas asks, looking across at me. He is searching my face looking for something I can’t name.
“What are we going to do? It could be out there now, right now? We need to tell the others, we need to find a way to protect ourselves quickly”, I blurt out, looking left and right as if I expect something to jump out at any moment.
“I don’t think we have anything to worry about tonight. Whoever it was must know that we’re alerted to them tonight. It would be stupid to do something now. Besides, Fiona will be reporting to them I guess, they’ll want to debrief and find out what she knows before they do anything else”, Tomas answers with certainty.
I am stunned with his response, when did he have time to think this over, only a few minutes has passed since we
came up on deck, although it feels like a life time. He makes sense though, what we saw was the vessel heading away from the ship. They were obviously expecting to be seen, or the possibility was high enough for them to retreat after collecting Fiona. It occurs to me that we assume Fiona is with them. The only proof we really have is that we saw her leap overboard and couldn’t see her anywhere, instead we saw the submersible. Of course the smashed up control room and Isabella also provide strong evidence that Fiona isn’t all she appeared to be.
“I guess you’re right, but that really only applies to tonight, we would be better off preparing for the worst than believing that we’re safe. What do you think they want?”
As I ask this question it all falls into place, I know exactly what they want, what is the most valuable thing on board? The vaccination equipment and information in the dome are probably the most important objects that exist in the world. I hear my sudden indrawn breath when I remember the conversation I had with Fiona and Mayther the other day. I thought she guessed what was in the dome but now everything points to her knowing exactly what it contained. Has she really sabotaged the ship so that people can come aboard undetected to get at the dome? I am vaguely aware of Tomas calling my name but I can’t respond to him, the implications of what I have just thought are running through my mind. If these people, whoever they are, know about the possibility for vaccination and they now have Fiona then they would know about me. Even if my immunity is just something they think is a possibility and not a certainty that would mean I am just as valuable to them as the equipment and the knowledge of how to use it.
The overwhelming feeling from this conclusion isn’t fear or concern for myself, it’s the fact that I am putting everyone else in danger, Max, Tomas, everyone. If it was just the dome these people were after it’s in plain sight, they could easily overpower a couple of inexperienced guards to get to it. The fact that they know how to operate a BAS vessel implies that they have some knowledge about how to get into the dome, but to get me they’ll have to come looking and who knows how far they will go and how many people they will hurt.
But it doesn’t fit, Fiona had me, she could have easily lured me over to the edge when we were on duty together and pushed me overboard, why would they risk coming aboard and face a group when they could just have me soaking wet and probably frozen into submission? Maybe I am overestimating my importance, maybe I’m not the only one with a funny history with the Sickness, or maybe there are others on board who have me in their midst already.
The thought that anyone else on board could be working with the people in the submersible, the ones who killed Karther, the ones Fiona is obviously friendly with, brings goose bumps to my skin. The faces of everyone I have lived with for the last two months runs through my head, who can I trust? Can I trust my instincts at all when they were so wrong with Fiona?
Tomas has me by the shoulders and is calling my name, he’s saying something about shock and I start shaking my head to tell him no, it isn’t shock, it is fear, fear borne of clarity. Before I can get my head together and tell him, Renka, Linton, Merva and Max rush into the now tiny space between transports. Renka takes in the scene and pushes forward, grabs my arm and spins me round to face him. He looks closely at my face and then pushs me back to arms length and searches my body up and down with his eyes. It all happens so fast but my body instantly recoils at Renka’s touch and I try to fight him off. What does he think he is doing manhandling me like this? Before I can wriggle free of his grip, Tomas swings his right hand in a low wide arc and punches Renka just below the ribs. Renka’s hold on my arms immediately loosens and I push him off. He is bent over gripping his side groaning in pain. Surely being hit for what is the third time in a few weeks would make anyone reflect on their methods of communication, but obviously not Renka. When he regains his composure, he gives Tomas a deathly stare before taking in the scene around him. He ends with a look at me that says ‘you know why this has happened’. I look away before I can give anything away in front of the others, I’m not known for my subtlety and Tomas is clearly very astute.
“We need to roll her gently onto the trundle so it will need to be tilted to take her without us having to pick her up and bend her neck or back”, Tomas is back in his healer mode, easily dismissing the incident with Renka.
It tak esa bit of maneuvering and Renka, Max and I have to leave the small area to let Linton and Tomas do the job. Linton refuses to leave Isabella’s side, even though Renka’s size would have made the job lighter work. It’s weird to see him like that, almost like seeing him naked because he is completely stripped of his usual demeanour. It’s uncomfortable and fascinating at the same time.
By the time Isabella is safely in the common cabin being looked after by Tomas, everyone has heard that something has happened. They all gather around waiting to hear all about it. I look around at their faces searching for any suspicious reactions. They all seem genuinely concerned and eager to hear what has occurred. But who am I to judge, Fiona would have been the last person I would have picked for a spy, if you can call her that. The same question has been beating its way around my head since I realised what they’re after, who are they? My head pounds to the point of explosion and I dread what is sure to be a long discussion session.
Unsurprisingly it’s Renka who stands up, obviously taking the lead again. I guess someone has to do it. The rest of us sit staring around waiting for it to happen.
“Merva, I think you should tell us what you saw first, you were the only one besides Isabella who was on deck when Fiona wrecked the control room and jumped”, Renka gets straight to the point.
I am interested in why Merva didn’t hear anything. It seems strange that Fiona could knock out Isabella, drag her across the deck and completely destroy the control room without Merva being alerted to something wrong. She is a prime candidate as a spy as far as I am concerned and my stare indicates as much as she stands up, obviously nervous. I remember her comments when I had slackened off on my sentry and Karther was killed, I wonder if she expects the same treatment.
“Um, well I saw Fiona come up on deck and talk to Pia and Isabella, then Pia ran downstairs and Fiona and Isabella took over the dome duty. I didn’t think much of it really, so I kept on ‘the rounds’. I was heading towards the bow of the ship when Fiona came up and by the time I came down the port side I didn’t see Fiona or Isabella doing a loop of the dome. I, ah… just assumed that they were sitting on the other side, chatting or something and I kept walking down towards the stern of the ship. By the time I got around the transports and cylinders and back up the starboard side I saw Max, Tomas and Pia run up from below and I followed Max into the control room. Um… and that’s all”, Merva relays uncertainly.
I can imagine her cursing Fiona and Isabella for bludging when she was doing the boring rounds without stopping, if she had just had a look around when she didn’t see either of them we might not be in the mess we are in.
The extent of our problems didn’t hit me until I went to wash my face and hands in the supplies room and the water didn’t flow out of the nozzle before coming to the common cabin. The control room literally controls everything on this ship, including water supply, with it destroyed who knows what we can expect. Certainly not hot showers every day. But worse of all is the idea that maybe our course is no longer set, maybe the damage to the control board has altered our course or deleted it completely and we’re doomed to starve to death in the middle of the ocean. I look over at Vonteuse who is huddled in the corner couch. He and Diego are absolutely desolate. Renka forced them to leave the mess in the control room, Vonteuse to come down and listen to what has happened, and Diego to do ‘the rounds’. Otherwise I an imagine them curled up in a ball on the floor surrounded by the bits and pieces of what was left of the control board.
“You didn’t hear anything?” Renka asks, ignoring her obvious discomfort.
“No, I guess when Fiona was in the control room I was behind the trans
ports and cylinders, too far away to hear”, Merva answers.
“Pia, why did you leave sentry?” Renka turns abruptly to me.
I’m taken aback at the accusation in the question. I didn’t see this coming, although it’s a logical direction I guess, it was my sentry duty again when something major happened. Even so, I don’t appreciate Renka making assumptions about my ability to carryout my duties.
“I left my sentry duty in the hands of Fiona for a brief time because she told me that something was wrong in my cabin and offered to cover for me while I checked it out”, I state clearly and concisely, emphasising the point that I left only when I was covered.
The fact that the person who covered for me turned out to be some sort of crazed spy doesn’t bode well for my sense of judgment, but I’m not going to let Renka think I have to answer to him, the group maybe but not him personally.
“What did she say was wrong in your cabin?” he asks.
I don’t want to answer this question in front of everyone with Max sitting next to me. It isn’t a fair or relevant question to ask anyway.
“Just that she had heard noises coming from my cabin and I should have a look”, I respond vaguely.
At this response Renka looks fleetingly at Max and lets that line of questioning go. So he does have some tact after all.
“So what did you find when you went down to your cabin and what did you see when you came back up on deck?” Renka inquires further.
I detail exactly what happened and what I saw. Tomas and Max verify where they can and everyone wants to know more about the submersible Tomas and I saw. Tomas has bandaged Isabella’s head by this stage and declares that she has a concussion but should be all right. He’s sitting by my other side and I am eternally grateful for the support. He answers the seemingly never-ending questions about the submersible when I faulter and he clearly got a better view than I did. We both guessed it was about half the size of the ship in length but it is hard to say because it was so dark and heading underwater. Vonteuse has pulled himself out of the depressive stupor he was in in the corner and joins the group when we’re talking about the BAS vessel.
“It sounds like something that was called a submarine BAS. They were used for stealth. That there’s one out there working and someone to control it is amazing”, Vonteuse comments in awe.
How he knows these things I don’t know, maybe his dad has a secret stash of BAS books or something. I would have argued that BAS knowledge of that type was a complete waste a few months ago but recent events have proven me wrong.
“So do we assume that Fiona was somehow communicating with the people who were in the submersible… ah submarine, and got picked up by them when she jumped?” Renka asks the now close circle of us who are trying to figure out what has happened.
There is a general hum indicating that, yes that is the logical, if anything was logical about this, conclusion to come to.
“Any ideas about how she was communicating with people off the ship, then?” Renka asks the circle.
“Wouldn’t be that hard surely if they were following us unseen, a few signals thrown overboard, maybe coloured pieces of material, or even waterproof canisters with written messages in them, why not? They obviously have access to BAS equipment and know how to use it. I think it’s more important to worry about why she did it, why they’re probably following us and why they wanted to sabotage the ship so we had no way of protecting ourselves? They clearly have intentions of coming back for something”, Tomas says intensely, looking at everyone in turn.
He has thought about this while working on Isabella and his conclusions are pretty spot-on as far as I am concerned. Who cares how she communicated with ‘them’, the question really is why? Although, if I was to follow my earlier thoughts about someone else onboard being involved maybe if we knew how she communicated I could watch out for any of the others who might be doing the same thing. As much as I hate to admit it, I need to talk to Renka privately, maybe he has some ideas about what’s going on, maybe the Committee warned him something like this could happen.
“Well, the dome is the obvious answer isn’t it? They were probably the same ones who got to Karther and we assumed it was the dome they were after then, why not now? The only difference between then and now, to stop them straight-out attacking is the alarm we have, they would have a fight on their hands if they boarded and we knew they were here, and they’d know it if Fiona had been communicating about our drills practice and how sentry worked”, Mayther says.
I look purposely at Renka who avoids my stare but shakes his head ever so slightly to indicate I keep quiet. When will it be time to tell them? Their life could be at risk now, surely they have a right to know what it is they are protecting and why. I’m surprised that they continue to feel it is important to guard something they have no understanding of, even when their safety is at risk. Don’t they question what they are doing it for? Why are they so willing to blindly follow an order, I just don’t understand.
“Was the alarm, not is. The control room is destroyed. There won’t be an alarm anymore, that was the reason Fiona did it, to open us up to attack without warning. The alarm won’t be the only thing we’ve lost either”, Tomas says intensely.
“He’s right. The control board operates everything on this ship”, Vonteuse backs Tomas up with this doomsday statement.
“The water isn’t working in the supplies room anymore, or wasn’t when I tried to use it about an hour ago”, I add.
Why not choose that moment to throw the dying of dehydration theory out there?
Mayther stands up and looks around looking for some solution to this newest problem as general panic sets in among the group. Linton, who has sat by Isabella throughout the whole conversation, walks over and joins the circle of distressed expressions.
“That doesn’t mean there is no working tap in any area of the ship, it could be that one section of the ship works and another one doesn’t. I don’t know how the control panel was programmed. It might have different units controlling different areas of the ship, instead of one unit controlling all water supplies. The only way we can be sure would be to systematically check every tap”, Vonteuse states steadily, bringing calm to the group.
“The biggest problem as far as I see hasn’t even been discussed. Weren’t the coordinates to the docking port inserted into the control panel? How do we know if we’re still heading in the right direction, we could start doing loops of the one area or head back the way we came for all we know”, I add, throwing another log on the panic fire.
The truth is that between dehydration, violent attacks from the outside, sabotage from the inside and being lost eternally at sea there really isn’t much hope for the ‘Great Quest of the Volunteers’. We could add to that list, potential starvation, - maybe self-imposed after an extended diet of dried biscuits and fish with a dash of dried seaweed on the side - and the inevitable Age-Sickness. We would probably be begging for it to take us after a few more months of this.
This claim really gets everyone going, even Max grabs hold of my arm and squeezes a little. I feel a bit guilty for being so dramatic and causing him distress but it does need to be considered. Linton starts to babble nonsensically that that isn’t possible, we can’t be stuck out here forever doing loops, someone would come and save us. I almost laugh at the prospect. It is unbelievable that there is a working BAS ship out there besides the one we’re on, let alone a spare one sitting back waiting for rescue missions to come up. Unbelievable but not impossible in light of the recent events though. Even stony-faced Renka has a reaction to this. He lets out an agonised groan and puts his head in his hands rocking back and forth. I am surprised to see him show any form of emotional display.
Tomas looks at Vonteuse who is staring at nothing in particular, thinking this latest bit of information through.
“What do you think, Vonteuse? Is it possible? Could the coordinates have been changed or erased completely and how would we know?” Tomas
asks him.
“The short answer is we can’t know. I don’t think that destroying the control board would erase or change the coordinates because they would have many layers of protection being very important information and the physical destruction of the control board shouldn’t affect that. But the truth is we will never know, unless we stop entirely or do an obvious turn, even then how do we know it wasn’t supposed to happen. The only thing we can do as I see it is count down the days until we’re supposed to get to the docking port, I’m sure we’re all doing that anyway and we’ll deal with it if the time comes and goes without us seeing land”, Vonteuse answers thoughtfully.
It is a logical approach to a situation that is out of our control. The water and the possible, or inevitable, attack from outside the ship are the most important problems to deal with for now. The water thing is a problem but I think we can stave off dehydration because the cylinders hold large containers of water for the trek across the ruins. We aren’t supposed to delve into the cylinders while we’re on board because there are such limited supplies all around, but in this case we’;; have to make an exception. Besides, the chances of finding water when we leave the ship are pretty high, even a bit of rain is likely given the cooler turn in the weather.
Tomas then suggests we all go in pairs and check the taps on the ship and report back in twenty minutes. Everyone agrees and we divide the ship up into sections. Mayther and Linton are going to do the deck and let the others on sentry know what has been said. Tomas and Renka, an unlikely pair after the incident on deck, go to check the cabins on the opposite side of the hall and the storage rooms on the lower level, if there are any taps down there, I can’t remember seeing any. I go with Max to our cabin and the cabins on our side of the hall, including Fiona’s, and the supplies room again just to make sure. We check first the shower and the basin tap in each cabin with no success. I can’t help but have a look around Fiona’s room, unsurprisingly there is very little in the way of personal items. Her cabin was kept just as tidy and efficient as her personal appearance. It is irritating to me because I wanted to find clues that led to why she would do something like this, or maybe indicate someone else on the ship as being involved with the people in the submarine too.
When we meet back in the common cabin the adrenalin from all the drama has worn off and I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. My hand is aching and pulsing agonisingly up the length of my forearm and I can’t stop rubbing it to try and ease the pain. I’m not the only one who is finding it hard to stay focussed and awake, Vonteuse is drooping in his chair and Max’s head is slowing leaning against my shoulder. Not one tap or shower is working on board, so we have no running water and discussion turns to where we can get it from. There is talk of collecting rain water, which would be great if we could guarantee it would rain at least every second day, given that the water we were using before this happened was just recycled sea water there are no big water storage tanks to hold heaps of water so we would have to collect it regularly. Mayther comes up with a pretty ingenious system where we could set up plastic sheets on deck that would collect condensation over night, then when the sun comes up it would drip into buckets under the plastic if we have a dip in the centre of the plastic sheet. I can see it working but we’d need so much plastic and it would have to cover large parts of the deck probably for very little water. Using a bit of Mayther’s idea, Tomas suggests that we might be able to just get the seawater and boil it continually collecting the steam that rises out of the pot because it should just be water without the salt. Both ideas are pretty ingenious but I can’t see either of them providing enough water for the ten of us, not unless we work all day and night to collect the steam, and that would be thirst invoking labour, probably defeating the purpose in the end.
“We could just break into the cylinders and get a few containers of water. I know we’re not supposed to but that would be a stupid rule to follow if we all end up dead from dehydration. I’m sure we’ll be able to find fresh water when we reach land anyway”, I argue, adding ‘if we reach land’ mentally, I’m not so sure we will at this rate, how many things can go wrong?
Tomas looks at me and laughs. I don’t know what to make of this reaction and feel a bit offended that he doesn’t respect me enough to at least pretend that my suggestions aren’t ridiculous to him. I look around the circle of tired faces and se smiles forming on their lips too and even a few shaking shoulders. I start to say something about respecting everyone’s suggestions but am stopped by Tomas pulling me into a quick hug. I feel a little flare up of the fire in my belly at this sudden contact and stop what I was about to say.
“Here we all are coming up with ridiculously complicated ways of collecting water and you suggest the very simple one that’s staring us in the face. You’re great, Pia”, Tomas says in between chuckles of laughter.
I am stunned that it hasn’t occurred to anyone else really. I thought they were avoiding the land supplies like we’d been told to, just like they blindly follow the order to guard the dome, although I have found out that that was for a good cause. Maybe if we do reach land I will regret ever suggesting we break into the water supplies, but I wasn’t going to worry about that now.
The meeting breaks up after that, we just can’t stay awake any longer. Renka, Mayther and Vonteuse agree to take over for the others on sentry and we are all going to meet in the common cabin again in the morning to talk about what we would do about the submarine people. I hope we aren’t being lax about an attack occurring tonight, I have to trust Tomas’ idea that they would want to gather information and make it a surprise attack so we are safe for the time being. But if they are getting prepared they must know that we will be too, it makes me think that they have something special that makes them confident they would succeed in their task, whatever that is. I can’t think about it anymore, my brain is slowly shutting down and I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow with Max sleeping alongside me instead of on his mattress on the floor.