The call ended and Armando broke down in uncontrollable sobs of love and despair. He knelt in the lifeboat and prayed for his family, asking God to spare them with another miracle. The odds were astronomical, but his father was an experienced sailor and anything was possible, wasn’t it? Armando remained in the lifeboat until long after his home in the Philippines had been swept away and he had run out of tears. He spent all of that time picturing his family in the Bangka, his father at the tiller with a grim smile of determination, as they climbed an impossibly tall wave with no end in sight.
Armando tried to imagine them cresting the wave and sailing on across calm seas, just as he and his father had done on that same old pump boat when they challenged the surf long ago, but it was no use. His imagination always froze on the image of his family climbing the face of the wave. The same wave he had seen coming at him in the Sky Lounge. He felt pride for his father and the rest of his family. They had not run to hide in an elevator. They faced the wave head-on, just like Captain Krystos had. Armando pulled the faces of his family from his memory, placed them in the Bangka, wearing expressions of love and courage as they ascended the wave. This is how he would always remember them.
****
The ship’s theater was a scene that mixed depression with pandemonium. It had begun with shock and disbelief during the news reports, followed by deadly quiet during the Presidential Address, then the audience erupted like one of the volcanoes around the Pacific Rim. At least a hundred passengers had stormed out of the theater, pushing members of the crew aside, to see for themselves what lay beyond. Many screamed when they saw the death and destruction surrounding the lifeboat muster stations. Most returned to the theater in various states of shock, while others roamed the halls of the ship in dazed confusion.
Lieutenant Reiner didn’t regret turning on the news. The passengers and crew deserved to know what was happening, even if all the news was bad. At least it had tempered some of the complaints. The passengers were no longer demanding better service and amenities. Most of them realized that their own distress and discomfort was minor compared to millions of others whose lives were being lost around the world. Those who had been demanding answers now realized that they would have been more content in ignorant bliss. Groups of passengers gathered to speak and argue passionately about what was happening and what should be done. Others wept quietly alone or as couples. One group had gathered to pray near the stage. Their example spread and the prayer group grew quickly. Reiner wished he could join them, but duty called in the form of his radio.
“Mr. Rainer? This is the Captain. What is your status there in the theater?”
“It’s a bit unsettled, Sir. Some of the passengers forced their way out after we watched the President of the United States on TV.”
“They all saw that?”
“Yes, Sir. Once the power was restored I thought it would be a good idea to see if we could watch the news. It isn’t very good news, is it, Sir?”
“No, indeed not. Well, I suppose they had to learn about it sooner or later. What is the general reaction down there?”
“Shock, despair, grief, at least among the majority. Some of them are angry and many seem to be in denial. It’s a distressing situation, to say the least. Do you want me to try to keep them here all night?”
“I don’t see as we have much choice. Most of the staterooms are gutted by fire or flooding. I’ve ordered the stewards to inspect all the rooms and make lists of those that are habitable, but we’ll need to move most of the passengers around and probably double many of them up. Which reminds me, Mr. Reiner, can you make a list of all the surviving passengers in the theater with their names and room numbers? We’ll need that when it comes to reassigning berths. I also need an accurate head count to determine the number of casualties.”
“Yes, Sir. I’ll get on that right away. Is there anything else?”
“Yes, Lieutenant, I meant to compliment you on the way you took over down there after Captain Stevens was lost. It won’t be forgotten. You might also be interested to learn that my wife survived being washed below decks and Mr. Summers has been reunited with his family.”
“Thank you, Sir. That’s the first bit of good news I’ve heard tonight, at least since you brought the ship through those waves. We’re all alive thanks to you and I know the passengers are all anxious for news from the Bridge too.”
“That’s understandable. I’ll make an announcement soon. Carry on the good work, Mr. Reiner. Bridge out.”
The Lieutenant put the radio away and was little surprised to find Hank Donner waiting patiently to speak with him. “Yes, Mr. Donner, I’m glad to see you returned to join us. What can I do for you?”
“Well, actually I was hoping it would be the other way around,” Hank replied. “I was rude to you earlier. I let my mouth and boots do more of my thinking than I should. You were right. It’s a mess out there. And now that I’ve seen the news on TV, well, I guess I should have been thanking you and the rest of the crew instead of making more trouble for you. So I wanted to see if there’s anything I can do to help you now?”
“Thank you, Mr. Donner,” Reiner said with a genuine smile. “I’ll keep your offer in mind. For now it would really help if you support our efforts to keep these passengers calm and safe here in the theater. The crew are bringing other survivors here too. You’ve seen what it’s like out in the rest of the public areas and I understand most of the staterooms are damaged too. So this is the best place for the passengers to stay tonight while the crew works to make the ship habitable.”
“I understand. Y’all got a lot of cleaning up to do,” Hank said, not realizing that he sounded like a pampered passenger again. “I think this bunch will calm down soon. Now that they can watch the news it’s not as bad as being kept in the dark, even if the news is downright awful. I’ll do whatever I can to help you keep the herd calm.”
“We’ll do our best to keep you and the other passengers comfortable and informed. The crisis isn’t over yet, but the people here are better off than millions of others along the shore of this ocean. Their homes won’t float over the waves the way this ship did.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Hank said. “I can’t think of a better place to ride out the end of the world.” Hank smiled and walked back to the First Class section.
Lt. Reiner watched him go and started thinking about what would happen after the initial crisis passed. He realized that Mr. Donner had not extended his offer of help to include “cleaning up” the mess. If things were as bad as they looked in the rest of the world, a lot of things would be changing aboard the Sedulity. If the passengers were no longer the source of wealth to operate the ship, they would soon become more of a liability than an asset. The focus of the crew would necessarily shift from catering to the guests to caring for the ship. Unless they found a safe port to unload these people soon, the passengers would have to start pulling their own weight. That thought made Reiner smile slightly. He could foresee a rude awakening in store for Mr. Donner and some of the other esteemed guests.
****
After the President’s address Amanda asked for somewhere that she could put Emily to bed and the Captain suggested that the Summers and Farnsworths take up residence in Staff Captain Stevens Suite on the other side of the Bridge, as it was now vacant. It had a similar layout to the Captain’s suite, although slightly smaller in order to fit First Officer Crawford’s stateroom into the same overall space on the blueprints. The Staff Captain’s suite included an identical dayroom and master bedroom, but it lacked the combination private dining and conference room found on the other side of the bedroom in Captain Krystos’ suite. The Professor and his wife were happy to reserve the sofa bed in the Staff Captain’s dayroom, leaving the late Staff Captain’s bedroom to the Summers family. It was much more than they could have asked for. The Captain insisted that it was the least he could do and explained that he wanted to keep Kevin and the Professor close to the Bridge in their capacity
as advisors.
Kevin carried his sleeping daughter into the other suite and Amanda said she wanted to stay and cuddle with Emily in bed. Kevin didn’t blame her. There was nothing he wanted more than to hold and cherish his family, but he knew there would be no sleep for him that night. He had to watch the news and keep track of the path of destruction, but he was glad that Amanda would be spared the rest of the overt carnage. She had already seen enough to know that their world would never be the same. There was no need for her to watch their home and millions of others be swept into oblivion on television. Kevin kissed both of them and returned to watch the news with the Captain and Professor.
“The cat is out of the bag,” said the Captain when Kevin walked back into the other dayroom to find the TV on mute. “One of my officers showed the GNN news and the President’s address to the passengers and crew in the theater. I don’t blame him and it’s only fair that everyone has access to the facts. However, this adds a new human dynamic to the crisis aboard this ship. People are even less predictable than the weather.”
Kevin had to agree and knew that even the weather was less predictable most people wanted to believe. It only took him a moment to grasp what the Captain was implying. “Are you worried about mutiny?”
“Worried? No,” Captain Krystos said with a sad smile. “But this is the first time in all my years at sea that I have even considered the possibility. You actually brought up the thought when you mentioned that most of the passengers are from the USA and would prefer to return. You might remember me suggesting the possibility that we could make it to the Mediterranean Sea and my own homeland in Greece. Then I thought about the homelands of my crew. They are from dozens of countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia, but especially Southeast Asia and the Philippines, which are not that far away. Will they all want to go home, even if that home is no longer there? What will they do when we decide on another destination?”
Kevin didn’t have an answer to those questions, but they struck a chord. He certainly hoped to be able to go home, but had already seen Los Angeles crippled by earthquakes and fully expected to see it swept away by tsunamis in a few more hours. After this cruise ended he seriously doubted that he would have a home or job to return to. Other passengers would be more anxious to go home, especially the couples who had left children and grandchildren behind while they escaped on an exotic vacation. But the crew? He hadn’t given them much thought. Now he realized that they were the key to the Sedulity reaching any destination. Their job had been to cater to the needs of pampered and paying guests. Current events were about to make that business model obsolete. Kevin’s eyes widened as they met those of the Captain and understood that he had realized the same thing.
Breaking eye contact with the Captain, Kevin noticed a new member of the strategy group. A man of medium height and build with dark hair and green eyes was observing Kevin from the couch. The Captain must have noticed the two men eying each other because he said, “Mr. Summers, allow me to introduce my Chief of Security, Mr. Elijah Cohn. Mr. Summers is the weatherman I was telling you about, Elijah. He was the one who suggested testing the rain for radioactivity.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Summers. You sure put a fright into us, and I can’t say I enjoyed going out in a boiling downpour to get the samples, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. The professor here was just explaining that the levels of radiation we recorded in the rain are not especially dangerous.”
“Yes, Kevin,” Farnsworth said. “His test results show ten or twenty times normal background radiation, but that is still a long way from harmful levels, at least in the short-term. I should expect the levels to fall further once all of the ejecta is flushed out of the rain.”
“That’s good to know,” Kevin said, forcing a smile. His mind was still fixed on the threat of mutiny and the Security Officer seemed like someone to discuss it with. “It’s good to meet you too, Mr. Cohn. What are your thoughts on the human dynamic that the Captain mentioned, if you don’t mind me asking? I mean what should we do if some of the passengers or crew don’t agree with the course the Captain decides on?”
Mr. Cohn looked askance at the Captain, received a nod, and replied, “I can vouch for my security team and I know the Captain can count on the loyalty of a majority of the crew, but the passengers are less predictable. Most of them, along with most of the crew, will be looking to the Captain for guidance and leadership. I’m sure they’ll find it too. Everyone is, or soon will be, aware that only the Captain’s skill and good judgment have kept us alive and afloat this far. I don’t foresee any challenge to his authority in the near term.” He paused and exchanged glances with the Captain before continuing.
“It’s the long-term that worries me. Once the extent of global destruction becomes clear, everyone will adjust their priorities, including their loyalties. Some people will be willing to do almost anything to get home to friends and family. That will be true even, or especially, if they fear that their homes have been destroyed. Obviously we will not set course for ports that are no longer safe, or operational, so the people who still want to go there will become problematic. Another concern is how to integrate the passengers and crew, or do we simply put the passengers off at whatever port we sail to? I can assure you that while the crew will probably remain loyal to the ship and Captain, they will not be happy to cater to passengers once their pay checks stop coming.”
“Well said, Elijah,” the Captain agreed. “It is my duty to protect and serve the passengers while ensuring the safety of the ship and her crew. It will probably serve all those goals to set course for a port where the passengers can disembark and arrange commercial flights home.”
“I wish it could be that simple,” Kevin replied. “Even if we reach a surviving port near an international airport, I highly doubt there will be any overseas flights departing in the foreseeable future. I’m predicting massive weather events that will result in disruption of international travel and trade. I’m afraid we are looking at the trigger for long-term climate change too. It’s something that we should take into account before committing to a destination.”
“What sort of climate change?” Mr. Cohn asked with keen interest.
“It will get colder and in the beginning it will be wetter as all of this vaporized seawater encircles the globe,” Kevin gestured at the rain beating against the windows of the dayroom. “All this moisture will also generate monster storms that must already be forming on both sides of the equator. I’m afraid that when they spread out into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres these storms will be big enough to disrupt any remaining intercontinental air travel, as will all of the volcanic ash from the eruptions being reported. If these conditions last as long as I think they could, then we are looking at the beginning of the next Ice Age.”
Professor Farnsworth nodded sagely in sad agreement with Kevin’s dire prediction and said, “I’m afraid he’s right. You will need to factor that into your decision before setting a new course, Captain.”
“How do I factor that in?” asked the Captain. “I mean how does it affect our options?”
“We’ll want to remain in the tropics, or subtropics, even though we can expect fierce tropical storms,” Farnsworth suggested. “The temperate zones may not remain so for long. However, a larger concern might be the social conditions wherever we end up. Resources will be short almost everywhere. Not many ports or nations will welcome thousands of extra mouths to feed and I’m not sure how much of our personal wealth, stored digitally in bank accounts thousands of miles away, will be available or useful either.”
“You don’t paint a pretty picture, do you?” Captain Krystos said with a sigh. His thoughts were interrupted when Mr. Jennings, the Third Officer, entered the dayroom with more news.
“Sorry to interrupt, Sir,” Jennings said in a way indicating he wasn’t. “We were able to rig a shortwave antenna and made brief contact with the Australian Navy. They gave me a satellite phone number and asked for our Cap
tain to call it as soon as possible.”
“Very well, Jennings,” Captain Krystos replied. “Make the call and hand me the phone when you get through.” There was still strength of command in his voice, but even a casual observer would detect the pressure and fatigue he felt at that moment.
****
Amanda couldn’t sleep. She held Emily close until she was sure her daughter was fast asleep and wished she could join her in slumber. She couldn’t. Her world had literally been thrown upside down and back again that night, with no end to the convulsions in sight. After making certain that Emily was sleeping soundly, Amanda reached for the television remote control and turned on the news.
“…simply adds to the growing list of locations struck by earthquakes today. Japanese television reports major damage in Tokyo and surrounding areas. Rail service has been suspended and there is growing alarm as it becomes clear that it will not be possible to evacuate everyone to higher ground before the arrival of the tsunamis later today. Some residents say they will evacuate up into high rise structures that have survived the earthquake, hoping that they will also withstand the force of the monster waves. Experts are withholding judgment on the wisdom of that decision, admitting only that it might be better than being caught in a traffic jam.
“Closer to home, we have reestablished contact with Fox Rusher at GNN headquarters in Los Angeles. Fox? We’re all glad that you made it through that monster quake! What can you tell us about conditions there and your experiences since we lost contact?”
“It was a truly terrifying experience. I thought the whole building would collapse. It was quite traumatizing! We rode it out here in the studio. I got under the anchor desk and I must say it reminded me of hiding under a table in Baghdad when bombs started to fall during the first Gulf War. But I can tell you that the current pandemonium out on the streets of Los Angeles is worse than any war zone I ever covered. Our news helicopter was in the air at the time and continues to transmit scenes of devastation across a wide portion of Los Angeles and beyond. Southern California is a disaster zone and, if what we are hearing about incoming tsunamis is accurate, this could be a truly apocalyptic scenario, at least locally. Freeway overpasses have collapsed. Buildings have fallen across roads and highways. It’s total gridlock out there. Even the first responders are frozen in place. I have no idea how millions of local residents will be able to evacuate to higher ground before the waves arrive.”
Sedulity (Book One) Impact Page 20
