“I understand. Commander, the captain has asked if you would be willing to survey a few locations, naval bases that he thinks would be viable locations for us to begin afresh from. Is that feasible for you right now?” Emily wasn’t sure how the commander was going to react to her request, it felt odd to Emily asking someone who was doomed to certain death to help them find a place to live.
But Mulligan did not hesitate. “Of course I can do that,” she said. “What are the coordinates?”
Emily read the list of six candidates to her.
“It’s going to take a full twenty-four hours for us to hit all of those locations but I don’t see a problem. Now, Emily, I have a question of you, well, actually it’s more of a request for Captain Constantine.”
“Of course,” Emily replied. “What is it?”
A long silence settled over the link, and Emily began to suspect the connection had been dropped.
“We have a way off this coffin,” Commander Mulligan said eventually, her voice surprisingly calm for the news she delivered, “and we need the Vengeance and its crew to pick us up when we splash down.”
For the first time in forever, Emily Baxter found herself speechless.
“Let me explain,” Mulligan said and began to tell Emily of her plan.
“My God,” Captain Constantine said after Emily relayed the news Commander Mulligan had passed on to her. “But they only have the one Soyuz escape vehicle? So just three of the crew will be able to make it off the station?… My God!”
“They drew straws,” Emily said. “The commander says that they are confident that between the adjusted programming of the Soyuz’s navigation computer and the craft’s manual controls they can pretty much put the escape craft down anywhere they need to. The problem comes once they land; it has to be a sea landing, so they will need to be picked up within a couple of hours.”
“And that’s where we come in,” said MacAlister, matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” said Emily. “The commander has requested that you rendezvous with the Soyuz and pick them up.”
Captain Constantine looked squarely at MacAlister. “It’s a risk,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s an exceptional one. If the commander can navigate the escape craft close to whichever of the new destinations we pick, then I think it’s feasible. Yes, I think it is very feasible. Tell the commander it’s a go. We’ll await her instructions.”
“I’ll tell her,” said Emily, her face wearing the biggest smile she thought it had ever had. “And Captain… thank you.”
Despite the space station being several hundred miles above her head, Emily thought the sigh of relief she heard from Commander Mulligan was palpable enough that she could feel it all the way down here on the ground.
Her call to the ISS was a hurried one, the connection between the Stockton station and the space station seemed to have noticeably deteriorated over just the past few hours.
“Wonderful, wonderful news, Emily,” the commander said. “Please thank the captain on behalf of myself and my crew. I don’t know how I can ever repay him or you.”
“You can thank him yourself when you meet him. As for me? I already owe you my life so, please, think nothing of it.”
“Listen, as much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I’ve made some progress on the search for a new home for you. It’s not good I’m afraid.”
Two of the six potential locations were completely overrun by the creeping red vegetation she’d seen moving across the land, Commander Mulligan explained. The new plant life was spreading at an unprecedented rate. And if this was any indication of how bad the infestation was elsewhere, then the plan might have to change dramatically.
“I’m sorry, Emily. I’ll keep looking until we know for certain, you have my word.”
“I know you will, Commander. Thank you, and please be safe,” Emily said by way of a sign-off.
“You too, Emily. You too.”
And with that final comment, the commander’s voice vanished back into the ether.
CHAPTER 9
The news was better the next morning.
“Point Loma, California,” Commander Mulligan told Emily excitedly. “That’s where you need to go. There’s a large incursion of the red vegetation in the surrounding areas and into the base itself, but the main structures in the area seem to be more or less free. Of course, at the rate this plant life seems to be spreading, I can’t guarantee that it will remain that way for very long.”
The naval base at Point Loma, from what Captain Constantine and MacAlister had explained to Emily, was a collection of naval support groups, training facilities, and berthing for several submarines, among other things. Located on a peninsula of land across a bay from San Diego, it seemed like the perfect place to pitch their tent.
“Commander, we really can’t thank you enough. I know the crew will be ecstatic to hear this news.”
“Just convince them to move quickly, Emily. Time is of the essence for all of us.”
Once Emily notified Captain Constantine of Point Loma’s viability, things moved at a breakneck pace and, within a seemingly impossibly short time, their refuge at the Stockton Islands was stripped bare and emptied of all salvageable material and supplies, which in turn were transported to the Vengeance, waiting offshore.
And in just under two hours from the time Emily first passed on the information, she found herself standing on the snow-cleared pathway just outside the building she had called home since arriving at the Stocktons, waiting as two sailors carried Jacob out into the still-freezing air.
“This is so surreal,” Jacob said to himself. “So very surreal.” A plastic supermarket bag was clutched tightly to his chest, and Emily could make out what she was sure was the outline of a whisky bottle within it.
“It’s for the best,” she said as he was carried past her, not sure if she actually believed her own words.
But what else was there to say? They were giving up the safety of this place for the unknown, yet again, and more uncertainty. She looked back at the building and deserted camp one final time then took Rhiannon’s hand in one hand and Thor’s leash in the other and started after Jacob.
RED WORLD
CHAPTER 10
The Vengeance cut silently through the Pacific Ocean, heading south just twenty miles off the west coast of North America. As the submarine pushed ever closer to the equator, the temperature of the water surrounding it gradually climbed, echoing the growing excitement of the crew as they drew, mile by mile, nearer to their destination.
Just over three thousand nautical miles separated the Stockton Islands off northern Alaska from Point Loma, California. At an average speed of twenty knots it was going to take the crew of the Vengeance just under a week to cruise down the West Coast.
Life onboard the submarine was incongruous for Emily. The crew, safe in their familiar surroundings and with the familiarity of routine to take their minds off the almost uncountable variables that were at play around them, carried on as if all was normal.
Rhiannon too had settled into a routine of reading from a collection of old paperback novels—Emily supposed every book was now old—and watching British TV shows on the sub’s entertainment system; typical teenage stuff and Emily did not begrudge her this brief period of normalcy. It was a chance for the kid to just float along on the current of life for a little while, buoyed by the friendly faces and the easy pleasures of life that come with being thirteen and possessing few skills other than being young.