X was waiting there and helped her up.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No.”
“You still gotta see this.” He led her to the hatch and opened it. Then he stepped back and gestured for her to go outside. The waves were still slamming the boat, but the rain had stopped.
She blinked and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the bright gray sky. Maybe she really was seeing things now.
X was suiting up behind her. She could hear the clanking of armor, but she didn’t turn. Her eyes were on the sky and the rays of gold streaking down to the surface.
The tar-colored waves had magically turned teal green—water so clear she could see through it.
The ocean wasn’t black after all.
“Is it real?” she asked.
X laughed. “I sure as hell hope so.”
“Erin…” Michael moaned. He tried to move the stump of his right arm, but pain ripped up his shoulder.
“Don’t move,” Layla said. Her voice carried strength, but Michael could tell by the worry on her face that she was close to tears. They had lost Erin and Ramon back at Red Sphere, and he was in bad shape.
It still hadn’t quite hit him that the arm was gone. But perhaps that was due to the pain.
“Where the hell are the medical supplies?” she said as she rifled drawers and cabinets throughout the room.
Edgar sat on a bed without a mattress across the medical bay, his head bowed, dreadlocks curtaining his face. Blood had dried on his armored chest and leg pads. Michael wasn’t sure how bad the injuries were, but Edgar wasn’t complaining.
“How you doin’?” Michael asked.
Edgar brushed the locks away from his face. “Ramon’s dead. He didn’t even have a chance.”
“I’m sorry, brother…” Michael let his words trail off, not knowing what else to say.
Edgar rubbed his forehead. “I can’t believe he’s gone. Just like that. I couldn’t do anything to help him.” His eyes met Michael’s.
“I’m sorry about your cousin, but there’s nothing you could have done. Just like there wasn’t anything we could do for Erin. We’re Hell Divers, and Hell Divers die. She knew the risk.” He stopped himself short of saying that Ramon had known the risks, too. Now wasn’t the time, and the pain in his shoulder made it hard to concentrate.
“I’m sorry about Erin,” Edgar said. “I know she was your friend, Commander.”
“She was a true Hell Diver,” Michael said. He wasn’t that close to Erin, not as close as Les, but he had liked her. Even after Florida, when she came back with attitude and a chip on her shoulder. Not that Michael blamed her. He had felt the same way after his father died on the surface.
He drew in a breath, blinked at the bright overhead light, and closed his eyes. Every time he did, he saw the image of the machine with the cow skull, firing a laser through his arm.
Knowing that it was still back at Red Sphere lying on the concrete stairwell was an odd feeling. A piece of him—an important piece of his body that had been with him his entire life.
Layla continued going through the cabinets on the bulkheads, cursing, opening and slamming them, and cursing some more.
“There’s nothing here,” she said. “It’s all been raided.”
Michael looked over, groaning. The pain was deep inside his arm, as if his bone marrow were on fire. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He swallowed and tried to relax on the hard bed.
The hatch squealed open, and Les ducked through the entryway, his brick-red tufts scraping the metal arch.
“Commander Everhart,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
Michael tried to hold still. He was close to hyperventilating from the pain, but he managed to nod.
“The laser cauterized the wound, fortunately,” Layla said. “But we need to find something soon to prevent infection. Same thing for Edgar. He’s got shrapnel wounds from the blast.”
“It ain’t nothin’,” Edgar said.
Layla shot him a sideways glance. “It’ll be something if it gets infected.”
“I’ll check with the others to see if they have anything in their gear,” Les said.
“Where are the others?” she replied.
“Trey and Jaideep are patrolling and searching the other decks to make sure the ship is clear. Katrina’s on the bridge.”
“How are we doing on power?” Layla said, still going through drawers. “Didn’t look good when I got the ship running earlier.”
“It’s not.” Les hesitated, scratching the red stubble on his chin. “This vessel runs off four nuclear fuel cells. Looks like they’re all around a ten percent charge. Not sure how long that will last us, and we have a major problem. The satellite uplink we were using to connect with Deliverance got left on Red Sphere in our escape.”
Layla looked up. “So we have no way of contacting Deliverance?”
“Correct.”
Michael gritted his teeth and sat up on the bed.
“So what’s Katrina’s plan?” he asked.
“She said we sail until we can break through the electrical disturbance and contact Deliverance with our helmet comms.”
Edgar gripped his belly and walked over from his bed to Michael’s bedside while Layla moved to a rack of lockers. She pulled on one of the handles, grunting. “Come on, you worthless pile of junk.”
The handle broke off in her hand, and she staggered backward. Then she gave the door a kick with her steel-toed boot, making a loud bang. The doors popped open, revealing several shelves stacked with medical supplies.
“Here we go,” she whispered.
Michael gritted his teeth through another wave of pain. This time, though, the aches seemed to be coming from the arm that was no longer there. But how could that be?
Phantom pains.
Tears stung his eyes. The dull ache was worse than anything he had experienced yet. He blinked the tears away, taking in deep breaths until he was hyperventilating.
“Hold on, Tin, I think I found something,” Layla said.
“I’ll go see if there are any med packs upstairs,” Les said.
A tall figure ducked through the hatch before he could leave. Trey walked into the room and said, “Ship is clear of life-forms and AIs, but we’re still searching the lower decks for supplies.”
“I wonder what happened to the original crew,” Layla said.
“Probably landed at Red Sphere like we did, not knowing the defectors were inside,” Les replied. “But how did the machines get there, and why didn’t they ever leave if killing humans is their purpose?”
“No humans left to kill maybe,” Layla said. “All that matters is they don’t have a way to follow us. No one saw any aircraft back there, right?”
Les shook his head. “None at all.”
“I have to get back to patrol, but I wanted to check on the commander,” Trey said. He walked over to Michael and took his left hand. “You okay, brother?”
Michael swallowed again and tried to nod.
Layla walked back to his bedside with a bottle of gel. “It’s really old, but the container is still sealed.”
Michael blinked through more tears to take a look at the bottle. The gel was the same kind they used in place of sutures to seal deep wounds and prevent infection. And it burned like hell.
She slowly unwrapped his bandage to the scent of burned flesh.
He craned his neck to look down at the wound.
“Look at me, Tin,” Layla said.
The ship groaned slightly and the overhead light flickered as they changed course. Layla put on a pair of plastic gloves and squeezed out some of the gel on a finger. “This is going to burn pretty bad, Michael. You might even black out.”