Sedulity (Book One) Impact (3 page)

The Lieutenant turned to Amanda and said, “Okay, ma’am, let’s
get you two down to your lifeboat muster station.”

“No,” Amanda replied firmly. “My husband told us to go to the
lobby by the stairs and wait for him there.”

“But you heard the Captain,” Lt. Reiner protested.

“The hell with that! Kevin is the one telling him what to
expect next, isn’t he? Emily and I are going to do just what he told us to.
That lobby is far from any windows and I want to be where he expects to find us
after this is over. It’s away from windows and we’ll sit on the floor. If the
Captain says to abandon ship, we’ll go to the lifeboats, but not a second
sooner.”

Amanda’s argument seemed to convince the young officer, at
least enough not to compel her with physical force, which seemingly would have
been necessary. He accompanied them back to the stairwell and allowed Amanda to
sit down with her back to a bulkhead and her frightened daughter clutched in
her arms.

Other passengers were streaming down the stairs, following
the instructions to head for muster stations on the Promenade Deck. Members of
the crew were rushing down the corridors, checking staterooms to make sure that
all the passengers were complying. The Lieutenant flagged down the chief
steward for that deck and said, “This woman and her daughter can wait here for
her husband. He’s assisting the Captain on the Bridge.”

“If you say so, Sir,” the steward replied, glancing down at
Amanda and Emily.

“And focus on clearing the outside cabins first,” Lt. Reiner
directed. “The inside ones are not in immediate danger.”

“Yes, Sir,” the steward answered with a questioning look
before rushing off.

Turning back to Amanda, Reiner said, “I should go check on
the muster stations to make sure everyone stays away from the windows. If
something goes terribly wrong, you must come down to the Promenade deck
immediately. Just follow the illuminated evacuation arrows on the stairs,
okay?”

“Yes, Lieutenant, and thank you,” Amanda agreed before he
turned to dash downstairs. She stayed huddled against the wall, trying to calm
Emily, while worrying about Kevin.

****

Armando was scared and confused. The fireball crossing the
sky had almost made him lose control of his bladder. He was close enough to
have heard Mr. Summers yell “Asteroid strike!” before the sonic boom.  Armando
wasn’t highly educated, but he had seen enough movies to know that asteroids
hitting the Earth were very bad news.  He was in the process of ducking behind
the bar when the sonic boom hit. He was shocked to see most of the glasses and
half the bottles of beer and alcohol shatter around him. 

Armando stood there dumbfounded until the Captain started
giving orders, then it took a few more moments for him to make sense of them.
Each member of the crew had assigned fire drill stations. His was in the Sky
Lounge. He stepped out from behind the bar and ran that way. His first priority
would be to make any passengers leave the lounge and go towards their muster
stations. Then he would open up the firefighting cabinet, uncoil the hose and
grab a fire extinguisher, in case a fire started or spread into the lounge.
Fire was usually the greatest threat to any ship at sea, short of a collision with
another ship, or an iceberg, or a reef.  Those other dangers were almost
unheard of now, due to radar, depth finders and GPS, but fire remained a
constant threat that every crewmember was trained to combat.

Upon entering the Sky Lounge he was faced with an immediate
decision. Several dozen passengers were clustered by the floor to ceiling
windows overlooking the bow, staring out at the massive glow beyond the horizon
on the starboard side of the ship. Armando was also momentarily transfixed by
the scene, but his training and instructions quickly kicked in.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” he called out. “You must go down to
the Lifeboat Muster Stations! This is not a drill. It is not safe to be up here
by the windows.” As he said that he noticed that one of the giant windows was
already spider-webbed with cracks from the sonic boom. If was unlikely to
survive much more punishment. “Please clear the lounge and go below
immediately. This is for your own safety,” he implored them.

“What is it?” asked an elderly woman, pointing towards the
glowing horizon and over at the damaged window. “What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure, ma’am, but the Captain says it’s not over yet.
Everyone is to go below to your muster station and stay away from the windows.
Now, please, you must all leave now!” Armando was growing anxious. The ship was
listing in a hard turn to starboard and he was terrified to realize that would
put them on a direct course towards whatever the hell was happening over the
horizon. “Get out of here!” he yelled.

The passengers, mostly senior citizens, reluctantly complied
with barely restrained comments such as, “Well I never!” and “That’s a hell of
a way to treat the passengers!” Armando didn’t care. They could report him
later, but he would do what he had to do now. As soon as the last of them left
the room he moved back from the windows and went to open the Fire Locker.
Several other members of the crew should have joined him here by now, but they
were nowhere in sight. They were probably Pollywogs, still scrambling to exit
the pool or running to the crew quarters for dry clothes. Some people have a
warped sense of priorities.

With the fire hose ready to deploy and a fire extinguisher in
hand, Armando moved to the circular bar in the center of the Sky Lounge. He felt
more comfortable behind the bar. It felt safe and familiar. It would also give
him something to duck behind if anything smashed through the windows.  So he
crouched behind the forward side of the bar and peered over it while the
ominous glowing mushroom cloud grew and centered up in front of the ship.

“Hail Mary, full of grace,” he mumbled as he reached for some
Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch and took a deep swig straight from the bottle.

****

Lydia accompanied Staff Captain Stevens and a group of uniformed
crew members, some of them dripping wet, as they led the procession of
passengers from poolside down the stairs towards the lifeboat muster stations
on the Promenade Deck. Mrs. Krystos was not an official member of the crew, but
they all deferred to her status of first lady aboard the ship. She didn’t know
quite what to expect, but the fireball in the sky and the warning given by the
meteorologist convinced her that this was truly a crisis situation.

She thought about her husband’s warning to stay away from
windows. Most of the lifeboat muster stations were clustered alongside windows
facing the Promenade Deck where the lifeboats were located. Lydia was leading
close to a thousand people downstairs and suddenly realized that she might not
be taking them to the safest place to be. Inspiration struck her in an instant.
She grasped Staff Captain Stevens by the arm as they descended the stairs and
explained her concerns, as well as a suggestion for a safer place to lead the
passengers.

Staff Captain Stevens was the second highest ranking officer
on the ship, responsible for both the deck crew and the hospitality staff, as
well as the safety and comfort of all the passengers. He pondered Lydia’s
proposal for only a moment before nodding and turning to call out, “Change of
plans! Direct all the passengers forward to the main theater in the bow. There
are no windows and plenty of seats for them to ride out whatever is coming.”

“Yes, Sir,” replied a chorus of crew.

Stevens turned back to Lydia and said, “Good idea. They will
still be close to the lifeboats, if necessary, but that should put them out of
harm’s way and make them more comfortable.”

 Lydia nodded and would have smiled her appreciation, if she
wasn’t in fear for her life and those in their charge. It was a big decision
for Staff Captain Stevens to countermand her husband’s order, but she was glad
he agreed with her idea and it seemed like the right thing to do. The important
thing was to get as many passengers as possible to safety. The big theater seemed
like the safest place. Lydia could feel the ship listing into a sharp turn and
realized that her husband was bringing it about to face whatever threat was
approaching from the asteroid strike. The bow would be the first thing hit, but
it was also the toughest part of the hull. She hoped that it was strong enough
and that her suggestion wasn’t a huge mistake.

When they reached the Deck 5 landing Stevens instructed
several of the crew to direct half of the passengers forward into the balcony
sections of the theater, while the rest continued down to Deck 4 to enter the
main levels of the theater. Lydia went with the latter group and hurried
straight to the stage with Staff Captain Stevens. It was the largest room in
the ship, with seating for more than half the ship’s passengers.  She watched
hundreds of them file into the room and tried to remain calm. She knew that she
needed to appear confident, if only to keep the passengers from panicking.

Staff Captain Stevens stepped up onto the stage and turned to
address the passengers in a loud and confident voice. “Ladies and gentlemen!
Please take a seat and remain calm. There are no windows in the theater and the
bow is the strongest part of the ship. We should all be safe here. However, if
it becomes necessary to move to the lifeboat stations you will all go calmly
out the exits and make your way directly to your assigned muster station. We
don’t know quite what to expect, but I can assure you that Captain Krystos is
doing everything possible to ensure your safety and the safety of this ship.”

His voice had a calming effect on the crowd, but Lydia could
tell that they were frightened and confused. It was clear that many of them
didn’t like the idea of being cooped up in a room without windows, where they
couldn’t see what was happening outside, even if it was safer. The crew would
need to be diplomatic, but insistent, to keep them all in their seats.

Staff Captain Stevens turned to Lydia and, in a low voice,
said, “I must go to the muster stations and oversea the evacuation of the rest
of the passengers. I need you to stay here and keep these people calm.” He
paused and Lydia gave a forced nod of assent. “I’m not sure what is coming, but
you’re probably correct that this is the safest place to be. Just be ready to
evacuate to the lifeboats, if things go badly.”  Lydia nodded again, feeling
naked and alone in the crowded theater when Staff Captain Stevens stepped off
the stage, leaving her to face the fearful crowd.

****

   The bow was coming around nicely when Captain Krystos
finished his emergency announcement. He returned to stand next to Kevin,
staring at the horizon, and asked, “What should we expect?”

“I can’t say for certain,” Kevin replied. “Too many
variables. How big was the asteroid?  How far away did it hit? The point of
impact must be at least a hundred miles away, or the blast wave would already
be here.”

“A hundred miles? And it still fills the sky like that?”
Captain Krystos sounded shocked.

“Yes, and that indicates a very large strike. Even at this
distance we could experience supersonic winds and overpressures similar to a
nuclear bomb. And that doesn’t even take into account the thermal effects.”

“Thermal effects?” the Captain queried.

“Heat. A massive wave of heat traveling with the blast wave.
It could ignite anything flammable that’s exposed to it. So you were wise to
send everyone inside, away from windows, and order the crew to their fire drill
stations. By the way, what is Condition Epsilon?”

“It’s the highest level of general emergency, where the whole
crew prepares to fight fire and conduct damage control everywhere on the ship.”

“Good,” Kevin said. “Let’s hope it’s not that bad.” Both men
nodded and said their own silent prayers.

“Captain!” a sailor called out. “Radar contact!”

“Where?” Captain Krystos asked.

“Everywhere! The whole eastern horizon. It’s on the weather
radar, Sir. A massive front, fifty miles out and moving unbelievably fast! Forty-seven
miles now and closing! It looks like a solid wall on the scope. Forty-five
miles… Oh my God….”

“Stand fast,” the Captain said. “Mr. Jennings, send out a
distress signal with our position and report a mid-ocean asteroid strike. Warn
all vessels and land stations in the region to expect blast effects. Helmsman?
What’s our heading?”

“Steadying out at 90 degrees true, Sir,” relied the helmsman.

“Good work,” Captain Krystos said. “Sound the collision alarm
and tell everyone to brace for impact.”

Everyone on the Bridge was silent except for Mr. Crawford who
relayed the warning over the PA to the rest of the ship and sounded the klaxon
again. Another crewman triggered a continuous blast from the ship’s mighty
horn, as if to challenge the approaching juggernaut.  Kevin and the Captain
stood staring at the horizon. Kevin saw it first. “There it is!” he exclaimed
and pointed at a shimmering mass that bore down on them from the east. It did
look like a solid wall moving at incredible speed. As it got to within fifteen
miles they could see a white line of foaming water at its base, rushing
headlong towards them.

“I think we should clear the Bridge,” said the Captain.