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‘We had seventeen injuries,’ Ester says. ‘Mostly minor.’
‘With Franklin and Tia gone, we only have a crew of eighteen.’
‘I know,’ she agrees. ‘I was lucky. I have good balance. Also, Jupiter is fine. And Top is fine.’
Top wags his tail.Can confirm.
Ester prods my scalp with her fingers. Maybe she’s looking for holes in my head. She hates physical contact, but when I’m just a patient, she has no problem mercilessly poking.
‘Your ancestor invented super-cavitation drive,’ she says, ‘but he didn’t invent seat belts. We have three people with broken arms, two concussions and one second-degree burn.’
‘Who got burned?’
‘Kay Ramsay.’ Nelinha points behind me.
Kay is lying fast asleep in the next bed over. Her arm is bandaged from shoulder to fingertips. Poor Kay … I hope this med bay has some kind of skin-grafting technology.
I lower my voice. ‘What happened?’
‘She got thrown against a cold-fusion coil.’ Nelinha’s face tightens. ‘Those things gethot. Who knew?’
‘We might want to install body harnesses,’ Ester says. ‘Or at least give a little warning next time before we punch to cav-drive.’
I nod sheepishly. Even that motion hurts. ‘I need to get back to the bridge.’
‘Not recommended,’ Ester says. ‘You banged your headpretty good. I tried a scanner-type thingy on you, like a LOCUS for bodies –’
‘So Nemo invented MRIs and CAT scans, too?’ I shiver, hoping Ester hasn’t dosed me with ancient alt-tech radiation that will turn me into a fish.
‘I didn’t see any inflammation,’ she says. ‘Still, I’m using equipment and medicine I don’t really understand.’
I get it. She wants me to rest, which is the main thing I can’t do.
I turn to Nelinha. ‘Damage report?’
She spreads her hands. ‘I mean … we’re in one piece? Propulsion is down. The cav-drive blew a fuse or something. We’re still digging ourselves out from the Great Goo Explosion. On the other hand, we have internal power. We have air. Our depth is stable at twenty metres. The hull is intact. So we’re okay. We just won’t be going anywhere for a while.’
‘What’s our position?’
She laughs. ‘You won’t believe it. We’re in the Philippine Sea, roughly four hundred miles east of Davao.’
I blink, trying to process that. ‘You mean one punch of the cav-drive shot us –’
‘About five thousand miles,’ she confirms. ‘It took a couple of hours, mind you. You were unconscious for the whole thing, but still …’
‘That would take – what, twelve hours in a commercial flight? Six days by sea?’
‘I said you wouldn’t believe it.’
The problem is, Idobelieve it. I addsuper-cavitation driveto the list of reasons why Land Institute wants this ‘piece of junk’ submarine so badly. That kind of proprietary technology could turn the world upside down.
‘TheAronnax,’ I remember, my nerves crackling. ‘Any sign of them?’
‘None,’ Nelinha says. ‘Our course and bearing were pretty obvious. If theAronnaxhas a cav-drive, they should have been able to follow us. Since they haven’t shown up yet, I think we can assume we have the advantage there.’
I exhale. We need all the advantages we can get.
On the other hand, we’ve left Lincoln Base at the mercy of theAronnax. We’re stuck in the middle of the ocean with no propulsion, no allies and no friendly ports.
