The small group looked surprised at this news, and nodded, conspiratorially.

“Okay, well, we’re going to Svalbard.”

The blank looks told Flynn he needed to elaborate.

“It’s an archipelago, a group of islands. It’s really just rock and ice, and a few abandoned mines. There’s nothing there.”

“Well what the hell are we doing going to a place like that?” someone cried. “We need to be going home!”

“I agree, honestly I do. But between you and me, the captain? He’s not up to the job. The regular captain didn’t make it, got killed by that dust cloud. Even the second in command is gone. So we’re left with this kid running the show. He’s done exams and crap like that, but he don’t know shit about running a cruise ship. ‘Scuse me,” he added. The children giggled.

“We need to do something” one the men said. He had remained silent until then.

“Hell yeah, you can’t have a kid in charge in a crisis!” said the other man.

“Oh don’t worry, we are doing something,” Flynn said, seriously. “Once we dock, and we see what’s out there—which, by the way, is probably nothing at all—then we’re going to have the captain replaced.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“The Passenger Alliance. We’re a group of passengers who aren’t happy about the way this ship has been run these last two days. We’ve had some success already. We got our top man in there on the bridge, keeping an eye on what’s going on. And honestly, if you knew some of what he’s seen? Incompetence on a scale you wouldn’t believe.”

“Oh, hey we heard him speak before, didn’t we honey?”

“That’s right. Melvin someone? But how’s that going to help? He sounds like he’s just a spy.”

“He’s much more than that,” Flynn grinned. “We have a personal assurance from the captain that there will be an election to choose someone new to run this ship. I mean, we all have a right to decide, right? We all have to live on this ship, so we should be able to choose a leader.”

“Damn right!” one of the men said. The women glared at him, but said nothing.

“So when the election comes, and it will be soon, I can count on you guys to vote for Melvin?”

“Er, I dunno.” One couple still didn’t look convinced. “How do we know he’ll be any better? I mean, this kid captain, at least he’s got some training. That’s gotta be worth something, right?”

“Yeah, but Melvin’s got experience. He’s managed big teams of people around the world. He’s worked in disaster zones, he’s been flown in to organise rescue teams and clean up operations after natural disasters. He might not have fancy certificates and all that, but he’s got experience. He can lead us out of this mess, take us home. Keep us safe.”

“Well he’s got my vote honey,” the first woman said, and the others nodded, although not with any degree if enthusiasm.

“You’re making a wise choice. Melvin is our man. Tell others too! It’s hard for me, you know, they made me wear this uniform, try and turn me into one of them. People, they don’t always like to talk to the crew. See? Just another way they are manipulating and controlling us. So tell your friends; there is an election coming, and Melvin is our man.”

Thirty-Four

THE SECOND NIGHT aboard Spirit of Arcadia following the asteroid, was as quiet as the first for the bridge crew. Jake was woken by his alarm at 2:45am, and made it back to the bridge just on time. Lucya disappeared off for some well earned sleep. Dave and Pedro returned to their posts as well. The ship had slowed considerably as it navigated the perilous waters around Prince Charles Foreland. Lucya had made the call that they shouldn’t arrive at the fjord too early, it would be safer to make that last part of the voyage during the day. Not for the added light, this far north and at this time of year it was light virtually twenty four hours a day. It was more to do with having a slightly bigger crew on hand. Going slower overnight was a cautious move, but the right one, Jake agreed.

Lucya returned at eight in the morning, just as Silvia brought up breakfast for everyone.

“Silvia, you’re an angel,” Jake said. “But you must have more important things to do than wait on the bridge crew?”

“Apart from collating the results of the census, I don’t have a lot to worry about. With the water rations, we can’t clean the cabins, so the housekeeping team are redundant. The bars and cafes are all closed, and Claude is managing the restaurants in the way only Claude can.”

“What’s Barry up to? I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning.” Jake felt a pang of guilt that he hadn’t caught up with some of the senior staff in twenty four hours.

“Barry is being amazing,” Silvia said with a twinkle in her eye. “We’ve next to no water, everything is rationed, and only the most basic services have power. Even so he’s somehow keeping a program of entertainment running. I swear that man could motivate an army single handedly. He’s got his team running events all over the ship, taking people’s minds off what lies ahead. There’s kids bingo going on in the theatre. The prizes are tours of the engine room. One of the engineers salvaged some solar panels from the burnt out tender and has hooked them up to get the projector in the cinema going. They’re showing films all day and the place is packed out. The cafes might be closed, but there’s a poker tournament running in three of them. It’s proving popular with the older passengers. And the sports instructors are running a whole host of events in the gym now that Grau has cleared out and moved back down to medical. They’re such a great team, they haven’t left me with anything to worry about.”

“Wow, it sounds almost like people are enjoying themselves,” Jake was impressed.

“Most people are, I think. There’s still the feeling that we’ve been spared, that we got away with something. I don’t know how that will change though, now we’re getting closer to land. It looks quite bleak out there.”

Jake and Silvia looked out at the approaching coastline. They were turning in, towards the gaping mouth of the fjord. The landscape was still featureless. Rocks, jagged hills streaked with snow. Or was it ash? They wouldn’t know until they got closer. No signs of life whatsoever. But that was to be expected, this far north settlements were few and far between.

As the land grew ever nearer, the atmosphere on the bridge became increasingly tense. It had only been five days since they were last docked, but it might as well have been five million years ago, so much was unknown. The answers were coming, as metre by metre they closed the distance to Svalbard.

Jake was keeping a keen eye on the terrain. He didn’t like what he saw. “Look,” he pointed ahead. Lucya and Dave followed the line of his finger. He passed the binoculars to Lucya. “It’s hard to tell on the rock, but it looks like ash. And the hills. They’re streaked with snow, but it’s weird. It’s patchy, pockmarked. You’d expect it to be smooth, nobody ever comes here.”

“You think it’s the ash?” Dave was squinting, trying to see with the naked eye.

“Yes. It looks like it’s simply melted away the snow in places. If the ash cloud passed over, it would have done that.”

“So why is there still some there? I mean, that is snow, right? It’s too white to be ash.”

“It was probably thicker in some places. The hot ash would have met the snow and cooled. Where the snow was thin, it melted away and we can see the scars.”

On the forward decks below, people were gathering outside, eagerly watching the approaching land. Before long they was passing Prince Charles Foreland, or Prinks Karls Forland as it was officially named on the nautical charts. A long, thin, black and green rocky island, it looked like the spine of a giant sea monster rising up out of the water. Jake had heard stories of the loch Ness monster in Scotland, and could imagine that the strange outcrop was a huge Nessie, petrified and turned to stone. By now, the ash on the lower lying outcrops was clear for all to see. It was only a thin dusting, but the winds whipped it up into the air, tossed it around, and made swirling grey eddies that reminded Jake of flocking starlings. Where it fell, it amassed into wavelike drifts.