“Sounds like Silvia. World’s ending, better lock up. Come with me.” Martin opened the door through which he had just come, and disappeared back through it, with Jake a step behind.
“Where does this go? I thought I knew this ship, but I never even noticed this door before,” he said.
“Yeah, well, us engineering boys like to keep a few secrets. Here, quick way down. Let’s go.”
Martin promptly disappeared.
Jake looked round, his eyes adjusting to the dimmer light. He was in a tiny room, little more than a cupboard. There was no natural light, just a glow coming up through a hole in the floor. Also protruding through the hole was a metal ladder. Jake peered down to see the chief engineer sliding down it at high speed.
“Come on!” Martin called up. “Not scared are you?”
Jake didn’t have time to be scared. He wrapped his hands around the tubular sides of the ladder, put his feet either side, released his grip slightly, and felt himself plunge into the depths of the cruise ship. The descent was exhilarating, and terrifying. It lasted only about fifteen seconds, and he arrived with a considerable thud, his knees buckling under the heavy landing. He found himself standing in front of an open door, and he instantly recognised what lay on the other side; the engine room. Martin had already gone in. Jake followed.
“Here, use this.” The engineer was pointing at a box on the wall. It was labelled “Emergency Address System”.
Jake flipped up a protective plastic cover, paused for a second to compose himself, and then pressed down the button marked “Talk”
Four
THE VOICE BOOMED out throughout the ship. It rang out in the theatre, now empty. It echoed through the casino, heard by only a few souls who had come in to collapse on the comfortable chairs. It reverberated through every deck, inside and out.
“This is First Officer Jake Noah. This is an emergency. I repeat, this is an emergency! The dust cloud that follows the asteroid is headed for this ship. All passengers and crew must get inside now. The cloud is molten rock and will burn anyone and anything it touches. I repeat, everyone must take shelter inside the ship now. Please proceed in an orderly fashion to the nearest exit and get back in the ship.”
He let go of the button, thought for a moment, then added: “Deck thirteen may not be safe from the dust. Try and get to the lower decks for protection.”
Outside there was a stunned silence. Heads and eyes turned to scan the sea. Somebody somewhere screamed. It was as if a touch paper had been ignited, the scream quickly spread, and with it, panic. There was a stampede as hundreds of people tried to pile through small single doorways. Some fell, and were trampled upon without a second thought. Many made it inside, but just as many weren’t quick enough. The dust cloud had already arrived.
At first it looked like snow. Dark grey flakes, floating lazily in the air. It was pretty, in a way. Pretty, but deadly.
Maisie Warwick was the furthest from a door, and so the first passenger to feel the force of the asteroid’s poisonous payload. The recently divorced mother of two had come on the cruise to celebrate her newfound freedom. Years of physical and verbal abuse from her ex-husband were at an end. This trip marked her new beginning, a new life. She looked at the scrum of people pushing, kicking, and fighting their way to the door and knew she would never make it. Turning to look at the first flakes of dust as they glided gently towards her on the breeze, she smiled. A flake landed on her forehead, burning through the skin instantly. As it cooled, it embedded itself into the bone of her skull. She didn’t have a chance to scream, as more flakes dusted her, burning holes through her clothes, and through her flesh. She was dead within seconds, a pile of charred flesh and bone on the wooden deck.
Then the full force of the cloud hit the ship.
• • • • •
Deep in the engine room, Jake and Martin were oblivious to the carnage being wreaked on the outer decks. They were spared the smell of burning bodies. They were saved from hearing the terrible screams.
On the bridge, Lucya wasn’t so lucky. She had made it back just as Jake had finished putting out his emergency call. The place was nearly deserted. The ship had dropped anchor as the news of the asteroid broke. A skeleton crew were supposed to be present at all times no matter what, company regulations were very clear about that. Such rules were of little concern now though, and every last crew member had abandoned their post, gone in search of a television screen to see the horrific events unfold. The theatre, the casino, the crew bar, anywhere with a live feed and some space.
Lucya walked onto the bridge just as the dust cloud hit. It came from the rear. The prevailing wind had until then been in the opposite direction. Had that not been the case, Lucya would have been killed instantly as the bridge windows blew in. As it was, only those windows that wrapped around the deck to provide rearwards visibility were hit. Small in number they may have been, but they still sprayed an impressive amount of glass across the room as they exploded with the force of the wind and dust. Lucya instinctively threw herself to the floor. Searing heat roared into the room. It lasted ten, maybe twenty seconds, and it stopped as abruptly as it had arrived.
When she was sure it had passed over, she got to her feet and made her way to the front of the bridge. Looking out over the decks below she saw destruction and devastation. Most of the lifeboats were on fire, and smaller fires were burning on most levels. The pristine white paintwork of the Spirit of Arcadia, the flagship of Pelagios Line was blackened and charred, making her look more like a navy vessel than a luxury cruise liner. Bodies littered the decks. Some were on fire, some were still moving, but barely. She couldn’t bare to look, there was nothing to be done to save them. Instead she took a deep breath, and assessed what needed to be done most urgently. The burning lifeboats represented the greatest hazard. The smaller deck fires were blowing themselves out, but the lifeboat fires could spread. She ran over to a control desk and quickly located the release button. Hesitating for only a second, she hit it with the full force of the palm of her hand.
Nothing happened. It was only then that she realised that the usual blinking lights of the console and the whirring and chattering noises of the radar were absent. The bridge was devoid not just of crew, but of its own mechanical and electrical life. Everything lay still. Motionless, and silent.
• • • • •
The Spirit of Arcadia was equipped with three gigantic diesel engines. Two were used for propulsion, and lay idle. With the anchor down there was no use wasting fuel keeping the motors ticking over. The other, smaller engine drove the electrical generator that kept the ship’s systems running. A life support machine for the three thousand people aboard. Something was clearly very wrong with this engine though. Within a few seconds of the dust cloud hitting, it started to emit an earsplitting whine. To begin with it sounded like a washing machine gearing up to run a spin cycle. The noise quickly increased in intensity though, and then it began to vibrate.
“What the hell?” Jake looked around anxiously.
“Sounds like the exhaust is blocked. We have to shut this thing down, now!” Matin said, sprinting to to the other side of the room. He fiddled with chunky black plastic knobs, twisted graduated rotary dials, then stepped back and scratched his head.
“Problem?” Jake walked over to join him.