Silvia rushed over and tried to support him, but he brushed her away.

“No no, it’s nothing, don’t fuss. I’ve seen much worse,” he said. And he had.

The assembled crew arranged themselves around the map table. Jake found a chair for Lister. The table was high and the medical man could only just see over it from his perch.

“So, what on earth do we do now?” Hollen asked, looking around the table. “I can’t work out if we’re the lucky ones or not. We survived, but for what? I mean, where do we go?”

“We don’t go anywhere!” Silvia piped up. “Why is that your first question? We need to get this ship secure, assess damage, and most importantly make sure the people aboard are all safe. Those still alive, anyway.”

“With respect Silvia, and I know the wellbeing of passengers is your job, we can’t stay here, we’ll freeze. Visiting the Arctic circle is all well and good when you have a nice heated ship to retreat into, but with out generator out, we don’t have that luxury.” Hollen gestured towards Oakley, who nodded in agreement. “Starting the main engine will provide us with heat and power, and we can head for warmer waters. That doesn’t stop you getting the people aboard organised en route.”

“Staff Captain,” when Lister spoke, all at the table automatically turned to look at him. He was the oldest person present, and his clipped German accent gave him an air of authority. “You speak of warmer waters. Just how warm are you thinking?”

Hollen raised an eyebrow in response to the question.

“I ask,” Lister continued, “because we have witnessed first hand the devastating ash tail that followed that extra terrestrial rock. We were lucky, we caught only the end of it as it disappeared into the sky. Further south though, we don’t know what that ash has done to the sea. In more significant quantities it could have cooled, lumped together, formed lava rocks. Do you want to sail into these unknown dangers?”

“Rocks sink. I don’t see the problem?”

“Lava rocks are light, full of air pockets. They may float,” Lister said.

“If they are light enough to float then they are no danger to this ship.”

“And if the ash has formed into a carpet of molten rock, floating on the surface of the ocean?” Lister wasn’t giving up his position.

“Grau’s right, we don’t know what’s out there.” Jake was surprised to hear himself speak up. “Martin, how much fuel are we carrying?”

“About three thousand tonnes, give or take. We’re good for nine days cruising, ten at a push.”

“Once that fuel is gone, we have no electricity. No heat, no light, no fresh water if we can’t operate the desalination plant. No sanitation. What could still be out there that’s worth risking all that on?” Jake rubbed his eyes, the gravity of the situation sinking in.

“Or to put it another way,” Hollen said, “we stay here for what, a month? Running just the generator. And then what? In a month we have no heat, light, water, and certainly by then no food, and no prospect of finding any elsewhere, because we can’t start the engines!”

Martin pulled a face.

“Problem?” Hollen asked him.

“Maybe. Probably. Not sure yet. It’s just, well we may not be able to start the engines yet anyway.”

Hollen remained silent, waited for the engineer to explain further.

“We had to cut the generator because the exhaust is blocked with ash in the funnel. There’s a good chance the exhaust for the main engines will be blocked in the same way. I found one of my guys when I was on my way up here, I’ve sent him to gather together a small crew and go and assess the damage, and start repairs if they can.”

“Listen, personally I don’t care whether we stay here or move, I think we’re dead either way,” Max interjected. All eyes turned to the security chief, who had until now remained silent. “But whatever happens, we need to talk to the passengers and we need to do it fast. If we don’t show some leadership, let them know we’re still here running this boat, we’re going to have riots on our hands before long.”

“We’ve already had riots breaking out, everyone thought the world was about to end,” Hollen said.

“No, Max is right, things are already starting to get heated out there,” a voice said from the doorway.

“Lucya!” Jake felt a wave of relief wash over him. As she joined the others at the table, he caught sight of her hand. “What happened? Are you ok?”

“It’s fine, a bit painful, but I’ll live.”

“Two of my nurses are getting medical back into working order. It is not easy without electricity, but we have a lot of wounded to treat. I suggest you get yourself down there as soon as we are done here.” Lister nodded at the radio officer.

“There are others who need help more than me,” Lucya said.

“This is true, but we need you more than we need some others. Get yourself a patch on that, it won’t take long.”

“Have you seen the captain, Lucya?” Hollen asked?

“No.”

“Make an announcement Johnny, let the passengers know we’re in control. We can’t wait around for Isben to turn up and do it. We don’t even know if he’s still alive.” Max looked serious.

“Okay,” Hollen banged both his palms on the table, brought the focus back to himself. Jake, you and I need to get out there and try and find the captain. You take decks six to thirteen, I’ll check his quarters and the lower decks. I can’t call for him over the PA, it won’t look good to the passengers that we’ve lost him. Lucya, get your hand sorted and then come back here, get on the radios and see if you can find out what’s happening out there. We don’t know what damage that asteroid did between the satellite feed going off and now. The situation might not be as bad as we think. Martin, you can get power to the comms console, right?”

Martin nodded.

“Great. Do it, then help Jake look for the captain. Grau, you need to get back to medical and do what you can for the wounded. Max, we’ve still got fires burning on the main pool deck, probably up on deck thirteen too, that ash burnt right through the roof. Get some of the crew together if you can, organise putting those fires out and getting this ship safe. If you can’t find crew, use passengers. Some of them are already out there doing the job. Silvia, you and your team are our public face. You need to reassure the passengers that we know what we’re doing here. Brief as many of your people as you can, tell them everything is under control, and get that message out as far and as fast as possible. The longer we can keep everyone calm the better. We’ll all meet back here in an hour, hopefully with the captain, and we’ll take it from there.” Hollen looked around at his tiny crew. “Well come on then, get to it!”

Lucya helped Grau up from his chair, placed his arm around her shoulder, and supported him as he hobbled off. Everyone else headed for the door. Once they’d gone, Hollen returned to his position at the front of the bridge, picked up a telephone handset, flicked a button to activate the emergency PA, and closed his eyes.

Nine

EILEEN BAKEMAN WAS curled up in the middle of the bed when her husband came back into the cabin. She had taken a handful of headache tablets and cried herself to sleep. She had missed the end of the world.

Flynn rocked her gently by the shoulder, whispering in her ear.

“Eileen, wake up Eileen. Something wonderful has happened.”

She made a whimpering sound, her eyes squinted opened, she looked around, disoriented. When she saw Flynn she instinctively pulled away. He put his arm around her to reassure her.

“We’re alive my love. You were right! It wasn’t our time to die.”

“What do you mean, alive?” Slowly, memories of her last hour awake trickled back. “Flynn? The asteroid!” She sat bolt upright, looked at him, then flung her arms around him, hugging him tight, sobbing once again.