“So we need a landing party?”

“Indeed we do. A small team of my men are preparing themselves right now. We are going to need some additional supplies though, in order to safely traverse this bothersome ash.”

“Such as?”

“We require diving gear. Specifically, neoprene diving gear. Vardy thinks it will provide protection against the corrosive qualities of the toxic ash.”

“Thinks? He isn’t sure?” Jake looked worried. He’d seen first-hand the horrible and painful effects the asteroid ash could inflict. Anything less than certainty seemed to him a risk too far.

“He’s fairly sure. There’s only one way to find out though! We have a couple of wetsuits on the Ambush, diving kit used for emergency hull maintenance. More would be helpful. I assume a ship like this must have some scuba enthusiasts on board?”

“Usually, yes,” Jake agreed. “But this was an Arctic cruise. We mostly see divers on the Caribbean cruises. I’ll see what we can do.”

“I’m on it,” Lucya said, pleased to have something useful to do. “The census will help; I’ve seen diving listed as a hobby on those forms.”

“They do need to be neoprene!” Coote reminded her as she left the bridge. “We’ll be needing that raft we picked up too, in the absence of anything more substantial. It should be sufficient to get three men over there.”

“Three?”

“I’m sending Eric and Ewan; they’ll get the door open. Vardy has to go as well; he’s the only one who knows where the lab is and what his machine looks like.”

“I’m going too.” The words burst out of Jake’s mouth even before he realised he had spoken them.

Coote raised his eyebrows.

“I know it makes no sense,” Jake said quickly. “I know my place is here on the ship, but I have to do something. Besides, someone from the committee should be part of the landing party. Lucya needs to look after Erica, you’re too important to the Ambush to go, and the others are all sick.” He knew his reasoning was weak, but he was determined to be part of the team. Clearly his commitment was evident, as Coote made no attempt to argue.

“As you wish, Captain,” he said. “My team will be ready within the hour.”

• • •

Jake felt ridiculous in the wetsuit. The flippers only made matters worse. As they weren’t planning on any actual swimming, the flippers had been trimmed back, and the sleeves of another wetsuit had been cut off and pulled over the stubby plastic, making him look like he was wearing enormous shoes. He was beginning to regret having been so insistent on making the trip to shore, but then caught sight of the three submariners who were similarly outfitted, and didn’t feel quite so daft any more.

“Jake, we brought a gas mask along for you,” Vardy called out from his position on the hull of the Ambush.

“What’s in the big box?” Jake asked. He was making his way across the walkway and had a good view down into the raft. Eric and Ewan were positioning a long flat crate atop two oars, which themselves were suspended between the air-filled chambers of the life raft.

“Oh, you know, just a few essential supplies.”

“I thought we were bringing stuff back, not taking it over there?”

Vardy did not reply; instead he concentrated on clambering aboard the raft. It wasn’t an easy manoeuvre, nor a graceful one as he slid down the side of the submarine and landed in the little inflatable.

A minute later, Jake followed him down, landing with a slap on the rubber floor of the tiny boat. As soon as he was in, another submariner who Jake recognised as Brian, the conning tower guard, carefully untied the rope that held the raft in position, coiled it, and threw it to Eric. Protected from the wind by the towering ship to one side of them, and the bulk of the Ambush on the other, they didn’t drift far. Jake wondered if anyone had considered the question of propulsion, but before he could voice his concerns aloud, the young navy men produced more oars, and started to paddle. Silently, the raft snuck out from its safe haven and headed for the remains of the base. Behind them, two men emerged from the submarine. They were carrying Vardy’s equipment. It had been decided that a better lab would be established on board the Spirit of Arcadia, where there was considerably more room to work.

Above, the grey sky turned darker still. They had seen no rain since the asteroid had ended almost all life more than two weeks earlier. It was as if the destruction and the blanket of ash had somehow interrupted the normal cycle of weather. Since arriving in Scotland though, there had been progressively more and more cloud. Jake shivered. The wetsuit didn’t offer much protection against the cold; he hoped they would soon be inside the base.

“Here, try this on, you’ll need to adjust the straps. Best get it done before we get too close to that ash.” Vardy handed the gas mask to Jake. “With this wind, we don’t want to take any chances of breathing that stuff in.”

“Is it just the ash that’s worrying you, Russell? Or is there anything in that lab we should know about?”

Vardy smiled, and turned to look towards the land they were slowly creeping towards.

When they had covered a little more than half the distance, the others donned their own masks. The wind chopped about their heads. It wasn’t so strong as to slow their progress, but they could see little eddies of ash swooping and dancing across the land. The ungainly footwear and diving attire began to feel rather comforting to Jake, like a security blanket.

It took a good half an hour for them to reach the shoreline. The loch was deep, and clear of any obstacles, but whilst that made for smooth passage across the water, it meant getting out of the raft would be more difficult. Eric and Ewan paddled gently, bringing them close in to where the ship lift had once stood. The remains of a concrete pillar that Jake assumed must have been one of the corners of the superstructure, stuck up out of the loch like the trunk of a giant tree. In-between it and the remnants of the concrete dock, huge chunks of rubble had piled up like stone blasted out of a quarry.

“Here,” Ewan said, pointing at the accumulation of debris, his voice muffled by the gas mask. “We can tie up here and climb over the wreckage of the lift.”

Eric nodded, and the two men picked up one end each of the carton still resting on the oars, and heaved it over the side of the raft and onto a massive and relatively flat wedge of concrete which served them well as a jetty. They clambered out too, and while they secured the raft, Jake made to follow, but Vardy held him back.

“No, we need to wait here. Let the boys clear the way.”

“I came along to help. I can’t just sit here and watch,” Jake said, feeling frustrated at not being able to participate.

“Trust me, they know what they’re doing. It’s safer here, for now.”

Jake sank back onto one of the inflatable benches and watched as the two submariners lugged their plastic cargo from one piece of broken superstructure to another, making their way up towards the land like ants crawling across pebbles. The rubble was wet. It looked like the wind had whipped up the loch before their arrival, sending waves crashing over the concrete, washing it clean of the poisonous ash that Jake so feared. By the time they reached the top though, it was a different story. The flat dock was covered in a thick layer of the evil substance.

Before stepping onto it, Eric opened the crate and extracted a large square of black material, which flapped around in the breeze. Jake understood at once that it must have been cut from the same wetsuit as the chunks of neoprene now protecting his feet. He watched as the submariner very carefully placed the rubber square on top of the ash. Nobody spoke; all eyes were on the material, waiting to see how it would react. From their position in the raft, Jake and Vardy couldn’t really see clearly enough, but they soon got confirmation that the wetsuits would provide the protection they needed when Eric emitted a muffled whoop and held his thumb aloft for all to see. Ewan retrieved the cut-out wetsuit and held it high. Ash fell away from the underside, but the material was whole and intact.