Hell Divers (12 page)

Ash slid the mask over her face and tightened the band around her ponytail. Samson waved at the security camera and gave a thumbs-up. The door chirped and swung open.

A wave of heat rolled over them as they stepped onto the catwalk extending over the machinery. The hiss of steam and clack of parts that needed grease filled the room.

Engineers in light-blue coveralls clustered around the generators, checking displays and gauges to make sure the turbines were working properly, oblivious of the observers above them. They each had a task that, combined with the others, kept the
Hive
flying.

Samson moved to the other side of the mezzanine and pointed to a metal block, covered in white foam, on the aft starboard corner of the room. “One of the generators was destroyed,” he said. “There's no fixing it. But it's the reactors I'm most worried about.”

As they continued down the walkway, Ash imagined the thermal energy flowing from the reactors belowdecks to the generators. The steam produced by the heat turned a turbine inside as it passed, and the rotary motion created the electricity. The electric power then traveled through miles of conduit that stretched throughout the bowels of the ship, to all the places it was needed. That energy fed everything from the ship's motors to the lights above her head. The nuclear reactors were the heart of the ship, powering all its systems.

“All but one of our reactors has been damaged,” Samson said. “The pressure valves on reactors two through eight are stuck. Even if I can unstick them, they still have to be replaced.” He pointed toward the west wall. “I have a team belowdecks now, and I've already diverted power from every source I can, but it's not going to be enough.”

Ash followed Samson's pudgy finger, which pointed to an open hatch. An engineer in a space suit crawled out of the opening and dropped to the deck. Even from a distance, she could see the grease and ash that covered him. The worker removed his helmet and broke into a coughing fit. A medic wearing a red cross on his arm rushed over, pulled an oxygen mask out, and helped the injured man slide it over his face.

Ash blinked, taking it all in. The damage was beyond comprehension. Her effort to save
Ares
may well have doomed her own ship.

“My God,” she murmured.

“No,” Samson muttered. “Not even God can save us if we don't get the reactors back online. Until then, I'm requesting we shut down every noncritical system on the ship and divert that power to the turbofans, the farm, and the water treatment plant. It's time to get out the candles.”

“Are you sure that's the only way? There's been increasing unrest lately. A blackout will only make things worse. We could face another—”

“Damn it, Captain, we need to shut down the power to the lower decks. Every dwelling, every store—
everything
that's nonessential. The mechanical threats are worse than any human threat on board.”

Ash took a few seconds to consider the ramifications of Samson's request, then nodded. “I'll have Jordan put out the order to increase security on the ship. Every Militia soldier will be put on patrol and sentry duty.”

“Good,” Samson said. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his coveralls. “I've put together a list of what I need to get the reactors back online. In the meantime, the remaining gas bladders will keep us in the air—as long as we don't lose another one. We can only run on backup power for about forty-eight hours.”

Ash took the list and turned away from the railing. “I'll tell Jordan to plot us a course to the closest location for the items on your list.”

He held up his hand. “We won't make it far. The turbofans and rudders will drain the backup power faster if we try.” He paused and gave her a meaningful look. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm afraid our only option is a dive into Hades.”

The lesion in Ash's throat burned, and her gut ached. Resisting the urge to put her hand to her stomach, she clenched her jaw and looked out over the compartment. Everything had changed in the blink of an eye.
Ares
was gone. The
Hive
was dying, and she was going to have to do exactly what Captain Willis had been forced to do. She finally understood. Willis hadn't been crazy, or even foolhardy—just desperate. They had all just been trying to survive—like her, trying to save their people.

“How long can you hold off on diverting energy from the noncritical functions?” Ash asked.

“I'd like to do it ASAP,” Samson said. “But if you need time …” He glanced down at his watch. “I'd say you have nine hours, tops.”

“I'll make an announcement tomorrow morning, first thing. You stay close to the damn radio, Samson. We may be forced to turn those reactors back on. You got it?”

The engineer nodded again, his dewlaps jiggling. “I'll keep things running the best I can until then.” He pushed off the railing. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get down there with my crew.”

Taking his place at the railing, she gripped the warm metal and stared at the hatch that led down to the reactors. The injured engineer was slipping his helmet back on and preparing to reenter the tunnel. They all had jobs to do, and like the engineers below, Captain Maria Ash had to get on with hers. She had a ship to command, a riot to forestall, and over five hundred souls to protect.

X breathed hard on his way to the bridge. The slow flow of foot traffic was giving him ample time to regret the advice he had given Captain Ash about the journey to Hades. Regret was something he had lived with his entire life, but this time he feared he had helped drive the final nail into
Homo sapiens'
coffin.

That was the thing about extinction: every move became a life-or-death decision, with the fate of entire species on the line.

Emergency sirens blared from the wall-mounted speakers. Ignoring the sounds was impossible, and X didn't want to look like some milquetoast by cupping his hands over his ears. So he worked his way stoically through the crowd.

Red light bathed the frightened faces around him. He pushed through a knot of lower-deckers who had gathered outside the bridge. They yelled in their twangy accent at a pair of Militia soldiers wearing riot gear and shoving the swelling crowd back.

“Ya can't do this!” an emaciated man yelled. “We got a right to eat!”

Jordan, standing behind the soldiers, raised a hand and shouted, “Rations will be handed out in a few hours!”

No sooner had the words left the lieutenant's mouth than the furious crowd surged forward. Angry screams broke out over the sirens.

X waited for the guards to push the lower-deckers back. He scanned the faces, stopping on a man who hung back in the shadows. Even in the muted red glow, he could see the bruised face. It was Travis, the man he'd had the run-in with at the Wingman three nights ago. He had three others with him, each with a hard and hungry look on his face. A man wearing a scarf pulled up to his nose stared back at X with crazed eyes. He remembered that one, too, from the encounter in the hallway yesterday. These were the same two who had mouthed off to the Militia soldiers.

“Xavier, let's go!” Jordan shouted.

X looked Travis up and down one last time before pushing his way through the crowd. That hothead was trouble. He'd have to warn Ash to keep an eye out.

Even with the emergency lights, it was dark inside the bridge—darker still when one of the guards sealed the doors behind X. He hurried across the top landing and followed Jordan to the conference room.

The other Hell Diver team leads were already waiting inside. Ash sat at the head of the table with a disconcerting look on her face. All eyes gravitated to X as he entered. He had forgotten about the bloodstains on his uniform.

“Listen up, everyone,” Ash said. She waited for silence, then said, “
Ares
is gone and the
Hive
is in critical shape.” Her voice had a mournful tone. X imagined he would have sounded about the same.

No one replied for several seconds.

Jordan was first to speak. “Samson has shut down all the reactors, and we're running on backup power. We also lost six of the gas bladders. He's got his crews working on everything, but it's not looking good.”

“What?” Tony asked. “How the hell … ?”

Ash silenced him with a raised hand. “Doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that we get more fuel cells and pressure valves.”

“Or what?” Cruise asked.

“Or we join
Ares
on the surface,” Ash replied. “Lieutenant, fill everyone in on our current location.”

Jordan activated the console in front of him. A holographic map stretched over the table. “There are several known locations of fuel cells in the zone to the east. Unfortunately, they're all too far away. It would take us too long to get there, expending power we don't have. As I said, we're running on battery power. A journey to any of these possible locations would drain the system.”

“We're out of options,” Ash said. “We have to send you to the surface.”

Cruise slammed the table with his fist. “I told you this was a bad fucking idea! Now you expect us to give our lives for your mistake?”

X understood Cruise's anger. What he couldn't excuse, though, was his utter lack of empathy. He gave him a hard look that did little to change his tone.

“Since when did you start forgetting your duty, Commander?” Ash replied.

“Excuse me?” Cruise said. “I've
never
forgotten my duty to the
Hive
.”

“I'm talking about your duty to humankind,” Ash said.

Cruise stared at her with the resentful eyes of a man who had argued himself into a corner. “Last I checked, we're all that's left of humanity
now.
”

Ash's face hardened. “Look, I'm not going to apologize for my decision to attempt a rescue mission. I had the future of the human race in mind.”

“And you fucked humanity in the process,” Cruise grumbled.

“You forget yourself, Commander,” Ash said. “Now, the past is behind us. I suggest you leave it there. We have to look at the future. If you can't deal with it, get out. Now. We'll manage without you.” She was breathing heavily.

He looked at the ceiling, then back at her. “I don't have any other choice. If I don't go, we're all dead anyway, right?”

“Without your team, probably.” After letting her reply hang in the air for a moment, she said, “Lieutenant, show us Hades.”

The map flickered, and the red zone appeared over the table. Jordan leaned closer to examine a nav flag in the middle of the transparent layers.

“The fuel cells and other parts Samson has requested will be in one of the buildings outside the HQ.”

Tony tapped a finger on the table. “We don't know which one?”

Jordan shook his head.

Ash took over. “As you already know, Hades has the most severe conditions on the planet. The radiation and freezing temperatures make it, for lack of a better word, hell on earth. But this is it, gentlemen. Either we dive to Hades and bring back fuel cells and pressure valves, or we die. Pretty simple.”

All the HDs nodded, even Cruise.

“All right. What's the plan, Captain?” X asked.

“I'm breaking protocol. Instead of sending in one team, I'm sending in our remaining three. It'll give us the best chance.”

“When?” Cruise asked.

“Tomorrow.”

“I'd better get busy drinking and screwing, then,” Cruise replied. “Because it'll be my last chance.”

X started to get up and give Cruise the ass-chewing he had been saving all day, but Jordan spoke first.

“There may be one other option,” he said. “I discovered another facility outside the borders of Hades. I checked right before the meeting, and it's outside the electrical storm, too.”

X sat forward.

“I'm sorry I didn't have time to tell you yet, Captain, but you were in engineering,” Jordan added.

“Show me,” Ash said.

Jordan keyed in a string of commands on the monitor in front of him, and the topographic map expanded over the table. He punched in another command that zoomed in on a hexagonal building.

“This is an ITC factory on the outskirts of Hades. The
Hive
's computers show they produced nuclear fuel cells and parts for the ship's generators. The problem is, we don't know if it still exists.”

Ash leaned closer to the table, studying the building. “Do you think Captain Willis knew about this?”

“I'm not sure,” Jordan replied. “It took some digging to find it. Even if he knew about it, he may have abandoned the idea. As I said, I'm not sure it's even still there.”

Ash unbuttoned the top of her uniform and massaged her neck. She glanced over at X. He knew what was coming. She was about to ask him a question he couldn't answer.

“X, do you think it's worth the risk of exploring?”

“Hard to say, Captain. I've made plenty of dives to facilities that turned out to be piles of rubble or craters in the ground.”

“But this is an ITC facility,” Jordan said. “They were built to last. I think it's worth checking out. We have forty-eight hours of backup power. We can attempt this dive with one team. If they fail, we still have time to dive into Hades with the other two.”

Ash looked deep in thought. “There might end up being nothing down there, but it's worth a shot. I'd rather risk one team outside the storm than send you all down to Hades.”

“Agreed,” Cruise said. “Who you going to send?”

He was testing the waters, but X already knew who Ash was going to send. He was the best diver she had, and Murph, Sam, and Magnolia were all still fresh. They were expendable. If he were in her shoes, he would do the same thing.

“Raptor,” Ash said, staring at X. “They dive first thing tomorrow morning, once Samson stabilizes the ship.”

X immediately thought of Tin. Any chance of sitting this one out and staying with the boy vanished with the critical news. He had promised Aaron to look after Tin, but Cruise was right about one thing: if the Hell Divers didn't jump, the kid and everyone else was dead anyway.

* * * * *

Candlelight flickered through the open doors of the private mess hall. The light beckoned X and his team toward the sound of raised voices. Words and laughter blended together, tinged with both excitement and fear. The same as before every dive.

X paused outside the entrance, studying the assault rifles the two Militia soldiers held. With the
Hive
on lockdown, Ash must have ordered the big guns out. The warm light glimmered off their mirrored visors as the faceless men acknowledged Team Raptor with slight nods.

“Sounds like we're late to dinner,” Murph said. He pulled his goggles down over his forehead and ran a hand through his fiery-red hair.

“What the hell are they celebrating inside?” Magnolia asked. “Our impending deaths?”

X sighed. “It's tradition. You know that. The night before a dive, all of us get together. Drink. Eat. Some of us fu …”

Magnolia chuckled at his slip as the team walked into the mess hall together. The soldiers sealed the doors behind them. Large candles burned on the two rows of tables, which were littered with empty mugs and plates. Teams Apollo and Angel had gotten a head start. The divers sat intermingled on the benches. They weren't separate teams tonight. Tonight, they were the same.

Tony and Cruise both stood unsteadily to greet X. They had a head start on him in more than just the food. Well beyond buzzed, they were fast moving toward falling-down drunk. And from the looks of it, so were half the other divers.

“Glad you finally made it,” Cruise said. He stumbled slightly, beer sloshing out of his mug.

Tony called out to Katrina, who was getting refills for her team. “A round for everyone on Raptor!”

She grabbed three full mugs and a glass of 'shine. X watched her move across the room. A smile dimpled her flushed cheeks as she handed him the 'shine.

“Thanks,” he said.

Katrina winked and returned to her seat.

When everyone had a drink, Tony said, “Well, what the hell is everybody waiting for? The fat lady's already sung nekkid. So let's toast.”

“To what?” Magnolia asked.

“To life,” Tony said.

“And all those who lost theirs,” X said, raising his glass. He thought of Aaron, Will, Rodney, and all of the others as the 'shine burned a path from his throat to his belly.

He found an empty seat and motioned for his team to join him. A feast awaited them. Bowls of steaming noodles. Plates packed high with squash, spinach, and tomatoes. There were even apples. For a moment, X recalled the hungry, pinched faces of the lower-deckers. None of them had ever eaten this well, not once in all their lives. Meanwhile, he and the other divers were treated to a feast like this one before every dive. It didn't seem fair.

“This seat taken?” Murph asked.

X bit off the end of a carrot, relishing the sweetish crunch, and scooted over. Sam took a seat across the table, next to Magnolia. Her jaw moved as if she was holding back words; then her shoulders sagged.

After a swig of 'shine, X told her, “Just say it.”

Spreading both hands on the table before her, Magnolia said, “Okay. You all know I was sentenced to prison. Stealing, mostly. When Lieutenant Jordan gave me the choice, I thought
anything
would be better than rotting in a cell not much bigger than this table.”

“This goin' somewhere, kid?” X asked.

“At first, it did occur to me that I had traded a prison sentence for a death sentence. Bad trade …” She paused to down the rest of her mug, then wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “Look, what I'm sayin' is, I know I've been a real bitch. But the truth is, we all gotta die sooner or later. And if it's gotta be sooner, well, I'll be proud to have done one worthwhile thing with my life first.”

X sat back in his chair, studying Magnolia thoughtfully.

“I guess I just want to say sorry for the way I've acted,” she said. “I hope you don't hate me.”

X caught a glimpse of Katrina, watching from her seat at the other table.

“No need to apologize,” he said. “Just don't fuck it up tomorrow, and we're good.”

Magnolia smiled and took another drink. “Shit, this is really good beer. Where they been hidin' it? Makes me wonder what else we've missed out on.”

“I often wonder that, too,” Murph said, banging his empty mug down on the table.

Magnolia played nervously with a lock of purple hair. “Sometimes, I think about all the things we'll never know about. Foods we'll never taste, places we'll never see. Things from the books, like waterfalls and forests.”

“And Sirens,” Cruise called out from the other table, laughing.

Magnolia scowled at him, then winked as she reached for another beer.

“That's why Captain Ash is looking for a new home,” Sam added, his face serious and stern. “So that someday, our children, and
their
children, will grow up with all the things Magnolia mentioned.”

X set his empty glass down on the table and scratched his chin, considering his next words carefully. As a younger man, he, too, had longed to see the things Magnolia described. He knew better now, of course, and he also knew that grasping on to false hope was worse than facing reality head-on.