• • • • •

It took them another thirty minutes of slow cruising to reach the mouth of the Isfjorden fiord. Six kilometres wide at its narrowest point, it was a gigantic natural harbour. As the Spirit of Arcadia slipped between the barren land on either side, Jake felt like an explorer venturing into a new and undiscovered territory. The sea was calm here. The land that encircled them was low, but further from the sea it swept up into huge dark mountains. It was as if some giant hand had scooped the fjord out of the landscape.

“It’s so quiet,” Silvia said. She had remained on the bridge for the morning, enjoying the best view on board. “No birds. Why are there no birds?”

Nobody answered her. Nobody wanted to imagine why.

“We should see Barentsburg before long,” Lucya said. “To the starboard side.”

They kept looking, but didn’t see the small Russian mining community. Just ash.

Nobody mentioned it. Nobody wanted to think about where it had gone.

• • • • •

After what seemed an age, the radar indicated it was time to make the final turn for Longyearbyen. The charts showed that Svalbard airport was located on the flat piece of land to the inside of a ninety degree turn to starboard. The view from the bridge suggested otherwise. There was no trace of any airport buildings, vehicles, or aircraft. Certainly the topography was right, there was no doubt they were looking in the right direction, but there was no sign of life or civilisation.

Jake was at the helm, piloting the ship the last few kilometres to the town. Pedro was not as busy as he had expected. In the relative warmth of June there were no icy hazards floating in the fjord. He was trying to locate the harbour visually, to confirm what the radar was telling them. They had slowed to a crawl, and as they cut through the flat calm blue green water, they created virtually no wake. At this low speed the engine seemed paradoxically louder, the only sound to be heard as they glided through the valley.

“Full stop!” Jake cried automatically, then remembered he was in control. Nobody seemed to notice, they were too preoccupied with the scene outside. It was clear that they had arrived, but Longyearbyen had gone.

Where the town should have been, was ash. Not just the ash from the asteroid, but the ash of burnt buildings. The stubby charred remains of wooden houses rose out of the ground like gravestones. Where once had stood brick buildings, now there were piles of rubble and dust. From the ship they were too far to see the whole town, but nobody was in any doubt that the rest of the settlement had been destroyed too.

“I can’t see the pier,” Pedro said, sweeping the bay with his binoculars.

“It’s not very big,” Lucya called back from the map table. She had a large scale chart of the archipelago and was cross referencing it with the radar screen. “Maybe fifty meters across, tiny really.”

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?”

“There’s really no doubt. Any further and we’ll be grounded. The pier must be there. Jake, I think you’ll have to just approach sideways on. Cross your fingers until we get eyes on the pier and can guide you in properly.”

Jake nodded. He set about manipulating the controls at the helm, diverting the power from the engines to the bow thrusters. The Spirit of Arcadia was a modern cruiser, made to be easily manoeuvrable in the smallest ports. Even so, crabbing into a mooring was always a delicate operation. The ship began to crawl nearer the ruined village, slower than walking pace.

They covered several hundred metres before Pedro spotted something.

“Stop! Stop the ship!”

Jake prodded some buttons and the engine note rose as the thrusters spun up in reverse, arresting the drift coastwards. “You see the pier?” he called over to his lookout.

“Yes and no,” Pedro said. “I see some of the pier. It’s in the water. The pier is destroyed. We cannot dock here.”

Thirty-Five

OUT ON DECK, passengers and crew alike crowded against the railings. Everyone was desperate to see this strange place they had come to. What kind of town was it? Would they be able to stay here? Were there other survivors here? If there were, that meant there could be more in other places too. A glimpse of this Arctic settlement promised so many answers. Ir promised hope.

But the answers it offered were not the answers anyone wanted to hear. The town was gone, destroyed by the asteroid. The total carnage and destruction visible on the coast was the last scene from the final broadcast. The part that had never made it as far as a camera or satellite feed. The part that many had imagined, but none wanted to believe. And now there was no choice. There was no hiding from the truth. Those last bubbles of hope that perhaps, just maybe, the broadcast hadn’t been real, or that the asteroid had not caused such destruction this far north, popped out of existence. Nobody spoke. Nobody cried. The devastation, and the consequences, what it meant for the rest of the world, for the families and friends left behind, it was too much to comprehend.

• • • • •

Jake gave the order to drop the anchors. He called down to engineering. “Can we cut the engine?”

“We’re staying?” Martin asked.

“We have no choice. We stay here or out there, it doesn’t change anything. Besides, we really should take a closer look.”

“We’ll reduce revs to idle. If we don’t stay long it will be more efficient than stopping and starting up again.”

A click, and the line went dead. Jake looked at the silent receiver in his hand, replaced it slowly.

“I’m sending Stacy with you,” Melvin said. Until that moment he had remained silent.

“I didn’t say I was going,” Jake replied.

“Of course you’re going. You’re really going to delegate this?”

“I’m coming as well.” Lucya joined Jake at the helm.

“No. If I go you have to stay here. You’re next in command, we can’t both leave the ship. If anything happens to me…”

“I may be being a bit stupid,” Silvia said, “but why is anyone going over there? I mean, look. Just…look. What do you expect to find?”

“We have to keep an open mind Silvia.” Jake was trying his best to sound positive. “For one thing there could be survivors. We might be able to help them.”

“We don’t have enough food and water for the people we’ve already got!” Melvin looked unhappy. “We can’t go taking on any strays.”

“For another thing,” Jake ignored him, “there was fuel here. I know it’s a long shot, but we’ve spent nearly twenty four hours cruising time getting this far. Without fuel we are dead. If there is even the slightest, most remote possibility there is diesel here, perhaps in a shelter or basement or something, then we have to find it.”

“There’s the airport too, don’t forget,” Lucya added.

“Lucya, the airport…we didn’t see it. It must have met the same fate as….” Jake looked out over the missing town.

“Undoubtedly. But isn’t it worth checking out anyway? It’s three kilometres, you could walk there in half an hour once you’ve landed.”

“Maybe. Let’s see how we’re going to get to Longyearbyen first.”

He picked up the phone and dialled.

“Martin? Jake.”

“Look, I’ve done the math. It really is better to keep the engine idling.” He sounded irritated.

“Sure, whatever. That’s not why I’m calling. The tenders, they were badly damaged in the fires. How quickly can you get a team to repair one, get it seaworthy?”

“Some of my guys already checked on them. One is a write off, total wreck, not worth pursuing repairs. We’re cannibalising it for spares though. The other was less badly burnt. Some damage to the hull, quite a lot to the engine.”