Chuck jumped onto the platform with a rope and secured them. Dante was helped off first, and the others followed.

“Come with me, I’ll take you down to medical. Grau is going to need to look at this,” Kiera said, and disappeared off with Dante.

“Reeve, what’s the situation? Any immediate danger to the ship?” Max asked.

“No sir. I believe we are safe here. But the environment on land is extremely dangerous.” He outlined what had happened with the ash, and the fate of Stacey and Horace. Max was clearly shaken, but he was a professional and hardly let it show.

“Max, you should get back to patrolling, keep an eye out.” Jake said, scrambling to the platform. “Who knows who saw what, or what rumours are going to spread. Things could turn nasty. We’ll talk about the guns later.”

“I sought authorisation, Captain” Max said defensively.

“I’m sure you did. Like I said, we’ll talk about it later. Can I borrow Reeve for a bit?”

Max nodded. He turned and headed off, one hand on the rifle slung over his shoulder.

“What do you want me to do with the raft Captain?” Chuck asked.

“Leave it tied up for now. We might need it.” Jake couldn’t immediately think of any reason why that should be, but he thought it best to keep his options open. “Reeve, I think you’d better come to the bridge with me.” He turned to Chuck. “Thank you sailor, you did a good job there.”

Reeve and Jake started on the long walk up the stairs towards deck ten.

• • • • •

“Where’s Stacey?” Melvin asked, as soon as Jake had shut the door to the bridge behind Reeve.

“Jake! How are you? What happened? Are you okay? Max said it was dangerous!” Lucya threw her arms around him, then remembered his rank and the fact there were others present, and stepped back.

“I’m fine. What happened to the ship? We heard a sound, like…” Jake wasn’t sure what it was like.

“I asked you where Stacey is?”

“Lucya?” Jake said, ignoring Melvin.

“I screwed up, that’s what happened.” She looked away, embarrassed. “I ordered Pedro to take us in closer. I thought the raft would get to you quicker. But we must have hit one of those submerged bits of concrete pier. Shit, I’m sorry Jake, it was my fault, I take full responsibility.”

“Do we know the extent of the damage?”

“Martin is on his way up here. He said it’s pretty bad, but under control.”

“Captain Noah, are you going to tell me where Stacey is?” Melvin stepped between Jake and Lucya, making himself impossible to ignore any longer.

“Melvin, you should…perhaps you should sit down,” Jake sighed.

“Why? What’s happened?”

“There was an accident. Well, not so much an accident. It’s more that we didn’t know about the ash. But Stacey went off without the rest of us, she should have waited and…”

“What are you saying man? Pull yourself together and give me a coherent explanation. Where is Stacey?”

“She’s dead Melvin, okay? She’s dead!” Jake shouted. “And so is Horace. He tried to save her, and now he’s dead too.”

“Oh my God!” Lucya’s hand flew to cover her open mouth.

“You absolute…!” Melvin flew forwards, wrapping his hands around Jake’s neck and squeezing. “I’ll kill you! You bastard, do you hear me? I’ll kill you!”

“No! Stop! Get off him!” Lucya screamed, looked around, panicked. “Somebody stop him!”

But Reeve was already there, pulling Melvin away from Jake’s neck. The instant the two men were separated Melvin’s hand curled into a fist and powered into Reeve’s belly. The two men were of a similar size, but Reeve was fitter and stronger. He was winded, but far from beaten. He locked a powerful hand around Melvin’s wrist, twisted it up and around behind him. With his free hand he pushed on his shoulder, sending him to his knees. Jake was staggering backwards, still clutching at his throat. Lucya ran to him once more, but he backed away from her, trying to shake his head.

Someone hammered on the door. Nobody moved. Reeve had Melvin pinned to the floor, Jake was still recovering, Pedro and Dave were looking on in stunned silence, and Lucya seemed to be in shock. More banging, and the sound of someone shouting snapped her out of it. She undid the security bolt and let Martin in. His face was thunder. Seeing Melvin on the floor didn’t seem to worry him in the slightest.

“You’ve really done it now Jakey boy. Oh you have gone and royally screwed us. Leaving her in charge,” he almost spat the words out, “while you fuck off on your jolly. One incompetent leaves another to run the show. And oh, what a performance she puts on. Crashing, Jake. Crashing the ship and rupturing the hull.”

“Oh Jesus,” Lucya whispered.

“I don’t think Jesus is around love. Or if he was, he would have obliterated our sorry arses with that asteroid, because that would have been kinder. Now we’re doomed to die on this boat because, and get this because it’s great, it’s abso-fucking-lutely marvellous, she not only ruptured the hull, but she took out the fuel line. Oh yes, you heard me right. Fuel tank four is, right now, spurting its contents into the fjord. The fjord is returning the favour by filling the tank room with water.”

Having got his rant out, Martin deflated somewhat. He found a chair and collapsed into it, covering his face with his hands.

“If I understand you correctly, we’ve lost one fifth of our fuel?” Jake croaked, recovering slowly. “We have five tanks on board, no?”

Melvin had stopped struggling and was now listening intently to the engineer.

“No Jake. No, we didn’t lose one fifth. Two tanks were empty. Two are now leaking out through the broken pipe. We have one tank left. The tank we’ve been running on the last two days. Our fuel is at less than twenty percent.”

• • • • •

In a dark corner of the casino, a group of passengers were talking in hushed voices.

“What’s happening? What did they find over there?”

“I heard that the asteroid turned everyone into zombies, that they ran into a load of Norwegians who had become the walking dead.”

“That’s stupid. But they definitely found something bad. The security men were running round in a panic. And we saw them come back in a life raft. What happened to their boat?”

“My wife said a security guard told her the land was toxic, that it makes your skin melt.”

“That’s as stupid as the zombie thing!”

“Well whatever happened, I don’t reckon we’ll be getting off any time soon.”

“If you ask me, it’s time for that election.”

“What election?”

“Apparently the captain promised an election if it turned out there are no other survivors.”

“I reckon I should stand.”

“That Melvin guy is going to stand. He sounds amazing, he led a mutiny and got them to let him stay on the bridge. He’s looking out for all of us, because otherwise they want to control us.”

“Yeah, enslave us.”

“We have to vote for Melvin. Pass the word on.”

On every deck, the same whispered conversations were taking place.

• • • • •

“If he let’s you go, are you going to behave?” Jake asked Melvin.

“I ought to kill you.”

“I take it that’s a no then. Reeve, you’re going to have to tie him up.”

“No! Wait. Think about Tania Bloom. If you tie me up then the others will know. When I don’t make contact, they’ll kill her. Do you want more blood on your hands today Captain?”

Jake groaned. He knew his hands were tied, therefore Melvin’s never could be.

“Okay, let him go. But if he tries anything, we’re rounding up all his cronies and searching this ship top to bottom for Tania.”

“You’ll never find her,” Melvin said, getting to his feet as Reeve released his grip. “You couldn’t find her during the census, you won’t find her now. We’re not dumb.”

Melvin walked towards the door.

“Where are you going now?” Jake asked.

“To check in with my friends. And to find someone to take over the second watch. You might have killed Stacey, but we’re going to damn well make sure we keep a presence up here.”