The tough, stocky Britisher nodded, then croaked:
'The skipper's dead?'
'No,' the surgeon said. ' He's just about holding his own.'
The seaman stared at the surgeon uncomprehendingly. 'Has he a chance, sir?' he whispered.
Hennessey nodded. ' How'd it all happen?' he asked kindly. ' It'll help us to know.'
Osgood shook his head.
'Can't remember much, sir,' he said. 'From where I was in the ops room, there was a thud, a sort of clang! below us — then another. We'd hit the sub., so we all cheered, but the bastard had fired his fish before we did…. Can't remember much after that, except that the deck sprang up at us… a bloody great explosion. We were all hurled upwards…. The skipper was groaning at our feet.
'The old ship began rearing upwards, so we hauled him out to the port side… couldn't make out what he said. It was bloody awful, sir. There weren't many of us left — most who survived the shock were trapped below or crushed between the decks and bulkheads. We were shut down for action stations…'
The surgeon lieutenant watched the man sipping at his coffee: he gazed around him, bewildered.
'We got the raft into the water… several others were jumping, but it was no use in the cold, sir. All over in minutes — she sank just like a lump of lead…. We got the skipper into the raft. The plotter and me. I tried to warm the skipper in my anorak, but it was the plotter who went first, sir. He just rolled over the side. The cold, sir, that's what it was. I reckoned our captain was dead when you picked us up.' The sailor turned and stared straight at the surgeon. His eyes were full of pain. 'Anyone else picked up, sir? How many alive?'
'Can't say yet. Come on, sailor, you'd better get some sleep.' Hennessey nodded at the medic. 'Here, Osgood, you'll feel nothing.'
They shoved in the needle and waited for him to go limp. They folded him in the blankets. The surgeon checked his other survivors then walked slowly outside to the deck. The northern lights had disappeared and darkness was closing in. He could see a blue light winking off to port, where the Commodore's ship should be. STANAVFORLANT was re-forming now that there was a gap in the screen. It had been a cruel day. The barometer was falling and Hennessey could feel the snow in the air. It was going to be a long, long night. He shivered, pulled his coat about him… and how many more nights would there be, out here, in these bitter wastes? How many more lives to be squandered before this wretched business was over? War was now inevitable, if NATO did not stand firm.
The surgeon wrenched at the steel door, and stumbled in over the coaming to the warmth and light.