Murmansk-13

“The cadets hurt, we’ll need someone onboard to keep the vessel secure,” Pettersson spoke, oblivious to the tense nimbus surrounding Nilsen and Tor. “We thought with the crew so severely diminished he was the best suited to keep guard.”

“And me?” Tor asked Nilsen, and Nilsen alone.

“We made no plans for you Tor, as Captain you would be expected to remain onboard.”

“We have no comms, what good am I on the bridge?” Tor’s stare bored holes in Nilsen’s head. His pupils were dilated and depthless. Nilsen no longer sensed anybody but he and Tor in the hall. “None of you have been over there. None of you truly know the layout or know what to expect, but I do. I know what lies within that station.”

The room was hushed the crew chilled, Nilsen knew all eyes were on this exchange but he was mesmerized by the silence of the vessel and the blackness of Tor’s gaze. Nilsen thought of returning to his bed, of abandoning his plans for salvation. “You can go with Diego and Sammy, if you are fit. But every man has to pull his weight. We can’t have stragglers.”

“You think I’ll be a straggler, Chief?” The Master’s tone was dark and hostile. “When did I become a bloody invalid in your eyes?”

Nilsen gulped but held Tor’s gaze.

“What about Dr. Smith and Tala?”

Diego’s question broke the spell between Nilsen and Tor, mutually they turned away. The screaming silence within Nilsen’s ears abated. “Dr. Smith left the Riyadh of her own volition. We can only assume she has an agenda all her own, as such if she does return to the vessel I want her apprehended, otherwise she is her own concern.

“Tala, however is an objective. Every eight hours I want both parties to convene at the junction between Central Command and District Seven,” beside him, Pettersson pointed at a red cross on the maps. “A note will be left for Tala at our entrance point to meet us there.”

Tor laughed a grim laugh. “That easy, eh Chief? We’ll just have unfettered access to that dead behemoth?”

Nilsen felt his cheeks heat. “You have information you wish to share?”

“I have information I don’t think you want to have shared. I think you’d rather have the crew head over to that station ignorant, after all, as Hernandez asked, when was my counsel sought?” Tor asked, acidly.

“As I recall you haven’t exactly been sound of mind these last couple of days, Captain.”

A darkness shrouded Tor’s face, he winced at a memory. “No, no I have not and that is because of the things I saw in that place. That station is ridden with disease and death and there death walks, it pursues and it kills. It killed Peralta and it infected Mihailov.” Tor nearly broke down, Nilsen and the crew watched shaken as the Captain fell silent, hands atop knees, legs moving like nervous pistons.

Nilsen felt his lip tremble, his mouth dry. His gambit was slipping away with the Captain’s sanity. When Nilsen spoke his voice was gruff. “What would you have us do Tor?”

“Be ready, be quiet” Tor’s fearful eyes focused, finally, on Nilsen. “And survive.”

☣☭☠

The crew donned their EVA suits in a funerary atmosphere. Nilsen and Hernandez quietly helped each man with their life support couplings, hushed whispers and instructions all that was imparted and quickly swallowed by the silent vessel. Sammy, appeared to be experiencing the most problems getting into his suit, his cheeks reddening with the effort. Stout in body but short in leg, stewards were not subject to the same level of medical requirements as other crewmen. Neither, as glorified housekeepers, were they ever required to spacewalk and as such the EVA suits were designed for more athletic physiques.

The Evac suite, the ships emergency muster point, was the only room fully lit aboard the Riyadh. The bright, sterile lights stung Aidan’s eyes as he felt the weight of the rivet gun in his hand. The gun had been juryrigged to fire without applied pressure and would be his only weapon once he assumed sole watch of the vessel. Brightly coloured and covered in instructional diagrams and warnings, the rivet gun was designed to patch shell plates in emergency situations, not as armament. As Nilsen distributed the remains of his rifle arsenal between the parties, the rivet gun would have to suffice in defence of the vessel. Aidan prayed he didn’t have to use it. He’d been warned about test firing it, so its first use, were it needed, would be an act of self defence.

After the meeting, Pettersson and Hernandez had consulted a manual largely written in Mandarin and performed running checks on all the suits to the best of their ability, the task having once been that of the radio officer. They’d found a number had been damaged in the impact with pressure leaks and warped couplings the prime ailments. There would be enough for the remaining compliment and no more. Tor then informed Nilsen that Tala’s suit had suffered a complete coupling blowout, a replacement EVA or an emergency suit was added to the list of required salvage.