The Command

On the boiler flat the flames were closer, bigger, and a whole lot scarier. She felt the heat through her coveralls. She couldn’t tell what was on fire. It might be fuel from the gravity head tank. Even busted, though, it shouldn’t be leaking enough for a fire this big. She hoped the seams hadn’t split on the main tanks. If those let go, there was no way they were going to get out of here without getting basted and broasted like so many chicken thighs.

Helm was wrestling with the hose. She turned around and started pulling at it, too. It came free all at once and she almost fell backward off the platform through a missing section of handrail. All she could see down there was the orange flames and between them surging black water.

For some time now she’d been smelling smoke and fuel. This meant her mask wasn’t super tight, but as long as she was getting enough air to breathe, it didn’t matter. But now there was more smoke in what she was breathing and less air. She finally had to let go the hose and of Helm and stagger off and pull at her mask with both hands until it fit her face better. Then she went through the restart procedure, although she couldn’t think straight, what with breathing the smoke and not getting enough air. Bright sparklies began drifting in from the edges of her vision. She jammed her face into the rubber and sucked. The candle smell came back and her head cleared, though she still couldn’t see worth a shit.

But when she groped her way back to where she’d left the hose, she couldn’t find it. She kept running into stanchions she didn’t remember. She sure as hell didn’t want to step into any of these holes. At last she tripped over the hose. She bent and picked it up and worked her way along it till she caught up again.

Helm was silhouetted against the flames. She caught the dark bloom of the foam. He was sweeping it back and forth, blasting it where the fire glowed and roared. The hose bucked like the bull at the Daiquiri Palace. He hesitated, then went forward; paused again. The flames seemed to be backing off.

Suddenly the rubber went soft in her hands. Helm started backing out, walking back into her. She felt the hose fill once more. Then it went soft again and she knew it was no good. The flames were roaring now, harsh light glaring all around them. Lord have mercy, she wanted out. They still hadn’t found Pascual. But her mask was so fogged she couldn’t see at all. Couldn’t stop coughing. Somebody shoved her. Arms outstretched, she stumbled toward what she hoped was the ladder up.

* * *

Dan decided to stay in Central. This fight would be decided here. Besides, his neck didn’t want him to go through those scuttles again. By now Porter had number-three generator running but there were breaks and intermittents all over the ship. They’d get light or firemain pressure for a few minutes, then lose it.

Hotchkiss called down from Combat. She’d pulled everybody off the bridge and sealed topside accesses. The radiological sweep team was out checking for contamination. He told her to keep trying to get comms back. She said Radio was trying to rig an antenna. He told her to keep trying to get through to Vigilant Dragon and Sixth Fleet or at the very least to Moosbrugger so Brinegar could relay Horn was dead in the water and needed help. Beyond that he couldn’t think of anything more to do. Whether they went down or not would hinge on what happened down in the spaces.

At the moment the board showed half the firemain out of commission. It didn’t hold pressure even when they had power. That meant it was fractured or holed. Without pressure they couldn’t run the educ-tors, which were the major way to get water out of the spaces fast. They had portable pumps, but faced with the rate of flooding the teams were reporting it was a waste of time to rig them.

Danenhower said, “Main One: Fire out of control. Main space educ-tor broken and nonfunctioning. Investigating team pulled out. One soul remaining in the space.”

Porter told him, “I’m going to Halon-flood Main One as soon as the team’s clear.”

“What about the missing man?”

“If he’s still in there, he’s dead by now. There’s no breathable air.”

A chief called, “Investigators clear in Main One.”

“Very well,” Porter said. To Dan, “They report rapid flooding through what we thought was a sheared eductor. They got it closed, but that wasn’t it. It’s still flooding. So it’s more than ruptured piping. There’s a big, bad fuel leak in there feeding the fire. We have to get the fire out, then address the source of the flooding.”

He nodded, feeling both helpless and enraged. Knowing it’d kill anyone left in the space, if they were still alive and trapped down there. But not having any choice.

Danenhower said, “Aux Two reports leak located in seawater service pipes. Closed off… no, water’s still coming in from somewhere over by the sewage incinerators. Investigating now.”