by Edward Aubry
Harrison smiled sympathetically. "Carpe diem, Claude," he said.
"Amen, brother."
"Why don't you and Alec see if you can get us underway," Harrison suggested. "Maybe we can get your quiche back." She looked at Jake, who had gotten to his feet.
"He'll be all right," said Jeannette. She held out her hand to Hadley, who handed her the curled-up pixie. Glimmer had not moved during the entire melee. "Come on, you," said Jeannette softly. "Let's see if we can find you a throw pillow."
Claudia rubbed Jake's arm, then went up to the cockpit with Alec.
"I don't understand," said Hadley. "They have us outnumbered. Why are they running?" He, Apryl, and Harrison were the only ones watching the Ptolemy sail away.
"We can't let them get away," said Apryl.
"I know," Harrison replied. He watched his ship dwindle further, thinking about the cargo it carried. "At least we know we can outrun them."
"Not so much, actually," said Claudia. She and Alec descended from the cockpit.
Harrison tensed. "What's wrong?"
"We're dead in the water," said Alec. "Those bastards took the liberty of dumping the fuel. They must have been getting ready to leave when we caught up with them."
Harrison turned to watch the Ptolemy sailing at top speed. "Oh God," he said.
"That makes no sense," said Hadley. "Why would they run now? We're sitting ducks."
Harrison shook his head. "Scott must know what happened. He's not taking any chances. He'll be back with a fleet."
"So, what?" said Claudia. "What? We just drift here waiting for him? What happens now?"
Harrison stood silently for some time. This could not possibly be what happened next. For what they had been through, and lost, they could not be done now. He turned to face his crew.
"What happens now is that we get our damn ship back," he said. "Does this thing have any other means of propulsion?" He was talking to Alec now, who shook his head.
"This appears to be an ordinary ship. From 2003."
Harrison's hopes that he was sitting on another technological treasure chest were snuffed. Terrible luck. Almost nothing material had survived from their actual year of origin. That they were stuck on one of the few such artifacts added to their helplessness. He was reminded of the fact that coincidence was working against them. Which reminded him that they still had untapped resources.
"Apryl," he said slowly, "will you come with me to the cockpit? I'd like to try something." She nodded, but it was an uncertain response.
They climbed up to the small room. Alec and Claudia had been up here just minutes before, trying unsuccessfully to get the ship moving. Harrison and Apryl each took a seat.
"I want you to try to start the engines," said Harrison.
Apryl stared at him. "With no fuel?"
"That's right."
"All right," said Apryl. She was not exactly impatient, but she treated this request without humor. "How do I do that?"
Harrison stared at the panels in front of him. The reading on the fuel gauge, EMPTY, was hard to misinterpret. "I have no idea," he said.
She sighed. And waited.
"Look," he said, "this is a shot in the dark, but you have a power, and I think your power is, well, Power." It stood to reason. Their abilities were all linked to their birth dates. It would be apropos for the Three Mile Island person to be a power source.
"The thing I did to your gizmo? And the wand?" She looked confused. "I thought that was a one-time-only thing."
"Maybe it was," he said. "Maybe not, though. Have you tried using it on anything else since then?"
"I would have told you."
"Then we really don't know if it was or not. What if it wasn't just about the tools? What if you can power up other things, too? If you've got a line into some sort of energy source, and if we can use it to get this thing up to speed, we might still be able to catch the Ptolemy."
Apryl was looking more and more uncertain. Harrison thought he saw the beginnings of fear in her eyes. He silently scolded himself for not seeing that coming. She had not tried to use the power-the Power-since then, probably because she didn't want to use it. She probably did not even want to have it. He remembered how it had felt to discover that he had this freak ability. It was a rush, but at least as much of the adrenaline came from fear as from excitement.
"Apryl," he started again, "if we don't get that ship back, we won't be able to save the world." It sounded dumb, even to him, but it was the most direct argument he could think of. "Please try."
She hesitated, then without speaking, placed her hands on the wheel and closed her eyes.
Nothing happened.
Harrison waited for almost half a minute. Her expression didn't change. Finally, "Damn! Damn. Well, it was worth trying. Thanks for being a good spo-"
The force of the ship lurching forward threw him out of his seat. His head slammed on the floor, hard enough to disorient him. As he struggled to get up, he wrestled with the idea that they must have been hit by something. No way could a ship that size accelerate that fast. He clawed his way back to his seat.
Apryl was screaming. Her eyes were wide open, and she was clutching the wheel so hard her hands were turning purple.
He put his hand on her shoulder. "Apryl!" he shouted over the sound of her howls. "It's okay! Try to calm down!"
He had no idea if it was really okay, and he knew from experience that telling people to calm down usually just upset them further, but he had no idea what else to say. Somehow, at least part of it got through, because she stopped screaming. She looked at him and said, "Harrison," and then the ship shuddered again. He heard a loud metal clang from somewhere aft. He hoped it wasn't them hitting something, then realized that the sound would come from the front if they had. Something must have happened to the engine.
"Harrison!" he heard Jeannette shout from below. "Get down here!"
He clambered down. "What happened?"
Jeannette was frantic. "Claudia fell overboard! What the hell were you doing up there?"
Panic, panic, panic, shouted his flight response. He ignored it. "Where's Alec?"
"He jumped in right after her! We have to turn around!"
Among the many things that raced through his mind at that moment were the desperate hope that the clang he heard was not two of his people being sucked into the ship's propellers, the fact that Jeannette's request to turn around was quite likely impossible to accommodate, and that it turned out Apryl's power did have other useful applications, but that they still had no idea what they might be, because this sure as hell wasn't one of them. He was able to think these thoughts fast enough that they did not get in the way of his immediately shouting, "Hadley! Hard about!"
"Aye, Cap'n!" Hadley was already in the cockpit.
"Come!" Harrison shouted. Instantly, Gizmo appeared in his hand, returned from its distant orbit. They had no propulsion at the moment, but their momentum was more than sufficient for them to turn the ship around. It described a wide arc, and as they gradually came about, Harrison scanned the ocean with Gizmo. The marble was glowing bright green, and the remote was cycling through icons. It was a shot in the dark. He had no idea if the device had any usefulness here, but after about two minutes, he declared, "I've got them!"
Jeannette was impressed. "You found them with that?"
"Yes," said Harrison. "But I meant that I've got them. Look!"
Harrison was unable to point, as he was concentrating on his remote, and clutching it with both hands. Jeannette looked in the direction of his gaze. A long way off, the tiny forms of Alec and Claudia were visible. Alec was supporting Claudia from behind, and it was impossible to tell if she was still conscious. Both were visible from head to feet.
"Uhhh, is he walking on the ocean?" Jeannette asked.
Harrison shook his head, then realized she wasn't looking at him. "No," he said. "I'm levitating him. Them. I'm levitating them both." His forehead was sweating. "The wand has a levitate fu
nction that's pretty easy to use, but I've never tried it on so much mass. I keep repeating, 'size matters not' in my head. It seems to be working." He grunted a little. "I think."
"Can you pull them in?"
"What the fuck do you think I'm doing right now?" He grunted again.
Jeannette said nothing else. She walked away. Harrison decided that he would feel like a jerk later. Right now, his hostility was helping him stay focused. Levitating two bodies was seriously hard work. A few minutes later, Jeannette came back.
"They'll need blankets and dry clothes," she said. "Blankets were no problem, but all I could find for clothes were those blue uniforms."
"Thank you," he said. His head was starting to hurt.
It took almost twenty minutes to bring them to the side of the ship, at which point Jake and Jeannette hauled them aboard. Claudia was conscious, it turned out. Jeannette immediately went to work relieving them of their wet clothes and wrapping them both in bedspreads. Harrison slumped against the rail.
"Where's Apryl?" he asked, once he felt the burden of this task finally drain away.
"She went inside to lie down," said Hadley. "She said she was exhausted."
Harrison felt the hair on his neck tingle. He hoped this wasn't a symptom of something. If he had somehow jeopardized her health by having her try that stupid stunt with the engines, he would have a hard time reconciling it. "Is she all right?" he asked, trying not to sound overly concerned.
"I think so," Hadley said. "She said it came on suddenly. It was just after I turned the ship around. Would you like to go check on her?"
"Yeah." He pulled himself upright. Alec and Claudia looked shaken, but undamaged. He would get to apologize to them soon enough, but that could wait until they were in a frame of mind to hear it. He went below.
He had no idea which stateroom Apryl had gone to. He didn't think of that until he was already on the lower deck. He tried the first two he saw. No one there. He was about to go up and ask Jake if he knew, when he felt, then heard, something go squish under his shoe. For an instant, he was afraid that he had wandered too close to their cell, and that he was stepping in blood that had flowed out the door. He looked down. No blood. Besides, he remembered, their cell had been at the other end of this hall, so that would not be possible anyway. It was just a wet spot on the carpet. After his relief faded, he began to wonder why there would be a wet spot on the carpet. Then he saw that it wasn't a spot, but a trail leading the whole way down the corridor to the stern. He bent down and touched it with his finger. It came away wet and smelling of brine. He squeezed his eyes shut.
He found Apryl in the fifth room he checked. She was fast asleep on a bed, sleeping diagonally right on top of the blanket. He woke her gently.
"Mmm?" she asked.
"Mmm yourself."
She opened her eyes. "How long was I down?"
"Not long," he said. "Half hour maybe. You okay?"
"Mm hm. Just really tired all of a sudden. Sorry."
"No problem," he said. Then, cautiously, "Was it right after you started the engine?"
"Mmm," she said again. "No, I don't think so. It was after Hadley started steering. You were down on the deck. I wanted to tell you I was going down for a nap, but you were pretty busy."
"I was levitating Alec and Claudia. It wasn't easy."
"Oh. Wow," she said. Hearing their names perked her up. "Are they all right?"
"They're fine. Listen, we need to get you up now."
"Okay," she said. She rubbed her eyes. "What's going on?"
"Not much," he said, "but we have a little dilemma."
"Did I break the engine?" she guessed.
"No," he said. "Actually, the engine is fine. I think you put a crack in the hull, though."
"A what?" She sat up quickly.
"A crack," he said. "We're taking on some water."
She processed this as well as she could. "How fast?"
"Fast enough."
Chapter Forty:
Big Fish
"This sucks," Claudia groused as she watched the last visible portion of the yacht bob up and down and then get slurped under the waves. On balance, Harrison found the experience of watching a ship sink much less exciting than he had previously imagined. It had taken hours for enough water to accumulate to drag the main deck below the ocean surface. This had given the crew plenty of time to pile every scrap of food and drinkable water they could find into a lifeboat. The boat easily sat eight, especially if one of the eight was a pixie. There were several boats on board, but Harrison ruled they would be better off if they did not get separated.
"You said that already," Harrison muttered.
"It sucked before, too."
She made a penetrating argument, and Harrison found he could not fault her logic. She had been trying to get herself dried off when Harrison had announced that they had to abandon ship. She and Alec now wore matching blue jumpsuits, the standard issue uniform in whatever para-navy Scott commanded. Hers was big on her. And it itched.
"The good news," Harrison said, "is that it should only take us a few days to make it to dry land."
"A few days?" Claudia sounded shocked. "How far are we from shore?"
"A little over two hundred miles from the coast of South America." He was reading a map projected into the space above Gizmo. "And over a thousand miles to Africa. Which is unfortunate, because that's where I think we should go." He raised his hand in response to several horrified looks. "Obviously, we're not going to Africa from here. We don't have enough food or water to get there, and even if we did, the first stop is the Sahara, so we'd basically be screwed once we landed."
"So why even bring it up?"
"Because our goal is still that island in the Indian Ocean," he said. "We're going to have to start from scratch, building another counterbomb. But this," he held Gizmo up, "should help."
"Shouldn't we be focusing on survival first?"
Harrison could see that Claudia was becoming exasperated. Too late, he now decided that the best time to discuss continuing their mission would be when they were safe on land instead of right after he had dumped them all into a rowboat in the middle of the Atlantic. He was about to apologize, but Alec cut him off.
"No," the former Director said. "He's right. The mission's not over until we accomplish our objective. That's why we have to survive. It's not about us." He was looking directly at Claudia, who lowered her eyes. The others were painfully silent.
"It's all right," said Harrison. "We probably shouldn't get ahead of ourselves."
No one argued about that.
* * *
Harrison took the first shift rowing. He felt he owed his crew a chance to rest, especially after putting them here in the first place. Claudia and Apryl took the opportunity to sleep. Harrison hoped Alec and Hadley would do the same. They would need someone rowing on night shift, and he would need that person to be well rested.
"Stroke," said Glimmer.
Harrison pulled hard on the oars and exhaled. "I really don't need you to do that, you know."
She nodded. "Stroke."
Jake looked up from his seat. "Let me know when you want to be relieved, Cap'm," he said.
Harrison smiled and pulled on the oars again. Somehow, against all reasonable predictions, Jake was still enjoying himself. He was even offering to take his shift rowing, with a right hand wrapped in bandages.
"Whoa," the boy suddenly said. He sat up straighter. He was staring at something behind Harrison.
"What?" Harrison said.
"I don't know."
"Dolphin breaching," Alec said. "Whale, maybe. Too far away to see it properly."
"Switch," said Harrison, pulling the oars in. Jake looked disappointed, but Harrison wasn't about to miss seeing a whale. He turned around as Jake took the oars, but the boy sat with his head turned instead of rowing. Harrison did not begrudge him this. They waited.
After a minute or two, Alec said, "There," and pointed. Harrison cou
ld see something break the surface, then flop back over with a crash.
"Whale," he said.
Alec squinted. "Really? Why?"
"A dolphin would jump, wouldn't it?" Harrison wasn't altogether sure, but he had seen enough dolphin shows at the Boston Aquarium to have memorized the sight of a dolphin gracefully taking flight. He had only ever seen a whale breaching on TV, but they always looked like they were just stretching. Like they were trying to reach the ceiling, but couldn't quite make it, and then they would fall on their asses.
"Keep the oars in, Jake," said Alec. Jake had no apparent intention of doing anything else, but he was glad for the permission. "We're coasting right for it," Alec added. We might get a better view if it doesn't see us coming."
The whale came up again. They were slightly closer now, but distance and the angle of the whale's breach made it look odd. Harrison tried to do the math to determine what he was seeing. The whale strained to touch the ceiling, then fell on its ass.
Harrison whistled. "That's a big fish."
"They're not fish," said Glimmer. She was perched on the edge of the boat, and Harrison had a moment of anxiety that she would fall winglessly into the ocean. Then he assured himself that her agility was unaffected by her flightlessness.
"I was making a joke," he said. "I know they're mammals." He stared, waiting for the next leap. "I've never been able to get my brain around the idea of a mammal that drinks salt water, though."
"They're not mammals," she said.
Everyone looked at the pixie. She wasn't smiling, but her odd jokes were often delivered without expression. It was impossible to tell where she thought she was going with this.
"Yes, they are," said Jeannette.
Glimmer shook her head. "They're reptiles."
Harrison rolled his eyes. "Whales are reptiles?" he said, taking whatever bait she was offering.
The pixie stood up. "That's not a whale," she said.
Everyone froze. Suddenly, Alec's suggestion that they try not to be seen seemed much more urgent.
"Glimmer?" said Harrison cautiously after quite a bit of silence. "What is it?"
