“You told me that we’d be able to use our own power in case of emergency,” Jake said, agitated. He knew how touchy his chief engineer could be when others questioned anything technical.

“That’s the plan, Jake, the future plan. We’re not there yet. We’ve had other things on our plate, like getting the shared navigation systems working. Until then we’re totally reliant on their nuclear reactor. If they want to dive and try and enter this underwater base of theirs, we’re going to have to pull out the lines and go cold for as long as they are away.”

“Half the ship is down with this virus, and we’ve got no food. Jake, if we cut the power, we could have a riot on our hands!” Lucya said.

Jake paced around the map table, both hands on top of his head, fingers interlinked. “And if we don’t disconnect,” he said, “we’re as good as dead. This isn’t a choice, it’s not something we are debating. We have to enter that base if we want to beat this virus, you understand? The equipment we need is in there, and the entrance is underwater. Martin, liaise with the Ambush and get us cut off. I’ll make the call, let the ship know what’s happening.”

• • •

“Mummy, why are the lights off?”

“You heard the captain, Chloe. The submarine that makes all the electricity is going away for a bit. Only a little while.” Martine tried to speak as naturally as possible. She didn’t want her children to see how much pain she was in.

“Don’t they like us any more?”

“Of course they like us, darling. But they need to go and get some medicine, to help Mummy get better, and the other people who are sick too.”

“Cool! Can we go with them? I wanna go in the submarine!” Oliver leapt onto the bed, his expression bright and full of life.

“Me too! Oh, but we have to stay and look after Mummy.” Chloe’s face fell.

“They don’t have space for passengers on the submarine. But when they are back, and everyone is better, we’ll ask the captain if you can visit, okay?”

“Yay! Thanks Mum!” Oliver leapt off the bed and proceeded to pretend he was under the water, exploring the sea bed and scaring the fish.

“I’m hungry, Mummy. When are we going to get some food?”

“When they come back with the medicine. Then you can go to the restaurant.”

“But I want to go now! I’m starving.”

“Me too!” Oliver popped his head above the level of the bed on which his mother and sister were lying.

“It’s better you two stay here. If you go out there, there’s more chance you’ll get sick like me. Besides, Mummy needs you. You have to look after me, okay?”

“Okaaaay, but if I don’t eat soon, it won’t matter about being ill because I’ll already be dead from hunger!”

• • •

“How long have they been gone?” Lucya asked.

“It’s been almost an hour,” Jake said, checking his watch.

“That’s good, right? I mean, we haven’t heard anything, so they must be in the base. That’s good,” she repeated, trying to convince herself as much as anyone.

“I hope so, I really do.” Jake took her to one side and lowered his voice to a whisper. “When are we going to tell her about her father? She has to know, she’s only going to keep asking to see him.” He peered over Lucya’s shoulder. He could see Erica talking to Chuck. He had sat her in the captain’s chair and was showing her what some of the controls were for.

“I don’t know, Jake, how do we even tell her a thing like that? She seems happy. It’s going to tear her world apart when she finds out. I don’t know if I can do that to her! Wouldn’t it be better to wait, until, you know…” she left the words hanging in the air.

“You want to wait until she gets sick? Lucya, that’s hardly the time to tell her!”

“No, but maybe, if she’s sick, she won’t be thinking about him. We might never have to tell her at all.”

Jake looked incredulous. “You’re hoping she’ll die? That she’ll never find out? How can you be so cruel?”

“Is it cruel, Jake? Look at her! She’s enjoying herself. Is it so bad if she spends her last days or hours believing her father is being looked after? Surely that’s better than spending them mourning him?”

Jake was lost for words. He couldn’t fault Lucya’s logic, yet there seemed something terribly wrong about hiding the truth from the child.

“If Vardy is right, if he makes a vaccine and it works, then we tell her, what do you say, Jake? But not before. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

“If the vaccine works, it’s going to hit her even harder. She might be young, but she’s a bright kid. When she sees others getting better, or rather, if she sees them getting better, then she’s going to want to know why her dad isn’t better too.”

Lucya said nothing, but she didn’t need to, Jake could read her thoughts in her eyes. He looked at the girl again. She was laughing and smiling. In any other circumstances it would have been a pleasure to watch her, he thought. But this still seemed wrong to him. “As soon as the vaccine shows the first sign of working, we tell her. I’ll do it; it’s my duty as captain.”

Lucya opened her mouth to speak, but she was cut off by the radio crackling into life.

“Spirit of Arcadia, Ambush, do you copy?”

She lifted her headset into place hastily. “Ambush, Spirit of Arcadia, loud and clear.”

“We are aborting the mission. I repeat, aborting the mission. We will be surfacing shortly. Suggest you standby to reconnect your systems as soon as we are back. It must be getting cold up there.”

“He’s not wrong about that,” Jake said, shivering.

• • •

Captain Coote wasted no time in coming aboard the cruiser as soon as the walkway was reinstated. By the time he had reached the bridge the electrical connections were still being made and only the most essential systems remained powered up, running on the emergency backup batteries.

“Jake,” he said solemnly in greeting. He nodded curtly to Lucya and the others on the bridge.

“What happened?” Jake asked. “Is the base destroyed?”

“No. Or rather, not in as much as we can tell. The problem is one of access. The deep-water dock is protected by a gate. We don’t want all and sundry waltzing into our bases, you know. The Ambush and her sister ships transmit a coded signal when approaching the base. The gate should automatically open when the signal is in close proximity, but that has not happened.”

“Because there’s no power to the base?”

“That is the most likely explanation, yes. There should be an emergency battery backup system for the submarine entrance though. There were generators too, but those were housed on the surface. All gone now.”

“If the battery backup isn’t working, doesn’t that suggest serious damage to the base?” Lucya asked.

“That is a possibility. Quite likely, even. But there are other possibilities. The backup system could have been switched off prior to the asteroid, as a safety precaution.”

“Isn’t there some way to override the system? Can’t you send a diver to open the door manually?”

“This isn’t like a garage door, old boy, it’s a hefty piece of kit. High security, designed to withstand a direct hit by a torpedo. Even a team of divers wouldn’t be able to move it.”

“So we’re screwed? If there’s no way in, Vardy can’t get his machine!”

“Well, we are not entirely lost. There is another way in. That gate is the entrance for submarines, but the people who worked in the base had their own access. The Admiralty may have many faults, but they don’t expect everyone to swim to work, you know.”

“Why didn’t we try that first then? Why cut off our power supply by trying to get the Ambush in there if you could just go in through the front door?”

“Calm down, old chap,” Coote said softly. “As with every aspect of this mission, it is not that simple. For one thing, the entrance is on the base, the base which as we have all seen, has been flattened and is now covered in toxic ash. And for another thing, the entrance, if it remains intact, is a high-security affair. It is, however, easier to penetrate than the deep-water gate.”