“No, that can’t be right. That’s impossible…” Vardy adjusted the microscope. He stood up straight, rubbed his eyes, and bent down to take a second look.

“Apparently not,” Janice said sternly. “Or tell me, have I misinterpreted the situation? I mean, there are a lot of dead cells there. It’s like the antiviral is doing the same thing as the virus, just faster.”

“I can’t comprehend how this is possible. The vaccine is deactivated. It’s made of dead cells. Yet I cannot argue with your assessment. The effect is plain to see. I don’t understand the mechanism by which this is happening. The antiviral is mutating within the blood, turning into the very virus it is meant to destroy! We appear to have made the situation worse.” He stood up again, looking at her. “And the other sample? You checked that too?”

“Of course. It’s the same. We should never have tried this on a patient. We should have given the test samples longer, waited to see the full effect.”

“Maybe, but we were running out of time.”

“Running out of time?” Janice was raising her voice. “Running out of time? Now look where we are! We have a drug that not only doesn’t work, it makes things worse. We have to destroy the batches we’ve made so far, burn them. And then? We’re back to square one. We have no way to tackle the virus, and a deck full of people on the brink of death.”

“The batches, yes, we have to destroy the batches,” Vardy said, looking around. On the table were five small jars of antiviral, freshly out of the machine and ready to be administered. “We must mix them with bleach, then burn them in a controlled environment, it’s the safest way.”

• • •

“Jake? Captain Jake Noah? It’s Ewan, and Lucya. Where are you?”

They waited, but there was no sound, save a distant humming that seemed to be coming from a long way away.

“Are you sure this is where you left him?” Lucya was poking her head through the doors to the dormitory, office area, and kitchen of the laboratory.

“Yes, certain. I mean he was outside, in the tunnel.”

“He can’t have got far if he’s paralysed.”

“And yet, he’s not here. Come on, let’s see where this tunnel ends up.”

They left the lab and continued along the tunnel. Neither of them said it, but both were wondering if Jake had been found by someone else, someone who had been in the base all along.

It only took them a few minutes to find the first room Jake had come across.

“Wait here,” Ewan said. “We don’t know what or who is in there.” Gingerly, he pulled open the door and peered inside.

“What is it? What’s in there?”

“It’s another laboratory. Jake? Are you in here?” He called out three times, but in vain.

“Let me see,” Lucya said, and pushed past. She checked every corner of the suite, familiar with the layout from the previous laboratory. She looked in all of the smaller rooms, just as she had done minutes earlier. “He’s not here,” she said finally.

Without a word, they left the lab and carried on, deeper into the secret level.

“What’s that sound, Ewan? It sounds like the engines on the Arcadia.”

“Could be a generator. That would explain the lights.”

“You think Jake found one and started it?”

“In his condition? Unlikely. There must be someone else here, somewhere. I really wish I’d brought a gun.”

“I’m really glad you didn’t.”

As they walked on, the sound became progressively louder, until finally they came upon the door to the plant room.

“Okay, I’ll go first. Wait—” Ewan began, but before he could finish, Lucya had already opened the door and was inside.

“Jake! It’s me! Where are you?”

Ewan sprinted in after her, on high alert, eyes darting left and right, ready for danger. But there was no sign of life.

“You were right,” Lucya said. “A generator. And look, diesel reserves. We could have done with those after I crashed the ship and lost half our fuel.”

“He’s not here, Lucya. Come on, we have to keep looking. This tunnel can’t go on forever.”

Reluctantly, she left behind the noisy room and returned to the gloomy concrete passageway outside.

• • •

“Is that the last of it, Janice?”

“I think so. You’d made five batches, right?”

“Yes. And the one that was injected into Kiera and the other patient.” Vardy looked around the tables, to make sure no more of the lethal remedy remained hidden among the equipment and test tubes. “Sealing it here will keep it out of harm’s way until we have time to destroy it safely.”

Janice nodded. She was more concerned with how they were going to treat the patients upstairs than getting rid of their failed attempt at a cure. “Wait!” she exclaimed suddenly. “There are two more doses!”

“Where?”

“In the machine.”

“Shit, of course. You’re right.” Vardy pressed a red stop button on the front of the Gemini 5001. The machine complained with a series of bleeps before eventually shutting itself down. As it did so, the drawer at the front opened and it spat out the bottle of medication it had been in the process of preparing, along with the original jar of antiviral that provided the template from which it could fabricate more. He collected the two jars and added them to the collection of bottles in the box. On the lid he had already written in large letters: “Biohazard. Do Not Open.”

“There. We’ll keep this in a safe place. At least we know that nobody else is going to be treated with this stuff.”

“Right. So, where do we go from here? Because I can tell you, I have no idea how we treat this thing now.”

• • •

Ewan and Lucya didn’t see the end of the tunnel until they were almost upon it. The down-lights in the ceiling were bright, but well-spaced. They created pools of light within a small radius, but did not illuminate their surroundings, making it difficult to see far.

“There he is! Jake! It’s us!” Lucya ran to him. He was collapsed, hanging off the transport trolley, unconscious. “Ewan, help me. Let’s get him upright, back on the trolley. Jake, can you hear me? He’s breathing. I think he’s breathing.”

Ewan put his ear to Jake’s face. “Yes, I can hear him. He is breathing, but only just.”

“It’s okay, Jake,” Lucya said calmly. “I don’t know if you can hear me. We’re going to take care of you. Vardy and Janice? They succeeded. They made a cure, with the machine you found. It worked, Jake. And I’ve got some here!”

She held up the syringe she had carried with her all the way from the ship. Inside she could see the tiny dose of antiviral. A few drops of milky liquid which, she hoped, would save the life of the man she loved.

“You think it really works?” Ewan asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. I saw the effect it had on Kiera. We need to get to a vein. Can you roll up his sleeve?”

Ewan tried. He removed the glove on Jake’s hand and began to roll back the tight black neoprene. “I don’t think this is going to work,” he said, frustrated. “These aren’t like cotton shirts, they don’t roll; they’re too thick.”

“Then work something out, Ewan! Come on, we need to get this in his arm.”

Ewan stood up and looked around for something he could use to cut open the wetsuit. It was only then that he saw where they were.

“Oh…my…Lucya, look!”

“What? What is—” She looked up and saw for herself the amazing room in which the three of them found themselves. She stood slowly, staring in awe.

The space behind the door at the end of the tunnel resembled a warehouse. It was filled with row upon row of sturdy orange metal shelves. They went from floor to ceiling, a ceiling which was double the height of the tunnel outside. Clearly this room extended well beyond the other levels of the base. The shelves were packed solid with supplies. Specifically, food supplies. There were bottles, tins, and boxes. They were loaded on crates, shrink wrapped and labelled.