Turning back her eye caught a red sign on a narrow door that read “Emergency Bypass Route.” Lydia wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but figured this qualified as an emergency, so she reached out to open the door. The handle confused her for a moment, until she realized that it needed to be turned round and round to disengage the lock, similar to a door on a bank vault, or the hatch on a submarine. After half a dozen turns the lock disengaged and the door swung out into the corridor. She looked in and saw a short passage, not much bigger than a walk-in closet, ending in a similar door. Lydia now realized what “Emergency Bypass Route” referred to. It was a manual way to get around the automated watertight doors on Broadway. A red emergency light illuminated the narrow passage as she stepped into the chamber.
She moved quickly to the other door and tried to open it, but the handle wouldn’t budge. Her hopes were dashed for a moment, until she saw another sign, complete with cartoon diagram that read, “Both doors must be closed and secure before opening.” Now it made sense. This compartment was like an airlock to get around the main watertight doors. She went back and closed the door she had entered, spinning the handle to secure it. When she returned to the other door she found that the handle now turned freely. However, even when she thought it was fully unlocked, she couldn’t push it open. There was a small window mounted in each of the doors, not much bigger than a peephole. Lydia pressed her face up to it and sighed with despair. On the other side of the door she could see water churning along Broadway. It was only about waist high, but the weight of the water was keeping the bypass door firmly sealed in place. Lydia sank down to sit in the tight space with her back against the door and finally allowed her fear and frustration to escape in a series of tearful sobs.
****
Armando followed orders and headed down towards the Medical Center, but the Captain hadn’t told him what specific route to take. So Armando used his own initiative to follow the path of the flaming rock that had penetrated the ship. He used a nearby crew stairwell and came out briefly on each deck to check for signs of a major fire. Every deck had at least some smoke in the passageway, as well as evidence of recent flooding, but he didn’t encounter any of the raging fires he had feared. On deck 8 he saw a fire crew, fully suited with respirators, extinguishing a blaze in the inside cabin where Armando projected the fireball would have passed. It proved that the Captain and crew really did have a handle on this threat. That eased Armando’s worries considerably.
Between Decks 5 and 6 he encountered another crewman going up the stairs. The Asian man stopped and said, “Armando? Is that you?”
“Yes,” Armando replied. “Good to see you, Phong. I’m glad you’re okay.”
“But what happened to you, Armando? You look like you were on fire!” Phong exclaimed.
“I almost was,” Armando admitted. “It was a close call when the Sky Lounge filled with flames.”
“You were in the Sky Lounge?” Phong said in disbelief. “How on earth did you survive?”
“Just lucky,” Armando chuckled and waved it off. “But what about you and the others? How are things down below?”
“Not good,” Phong said. “Lots of stuff broken, including people’s arms, legs, and even backs and necks. Not much fire below decks, but flooding is bad some places. I was near the starboard crew life-raft station, but the Boson told us to stay inside with the steel doors closed. You should have seen those doors heat up! Paint bubbled off. Many people burned to death at passenger muster stations. Others drowned or got swept overboard by big waves. Staff Captain Stevens was one of them.”
“Oh, that’s horrible,” Armando said with sincere sorrow. Besides all the other death and destruction, he liked and respected the Staff Captain whose leadership would be missed during this crisis.
“Where you go now?” asked Phong.
“The Captain ordered me down to Medical to have these burns looked at.”
“Good idea, but many people go there now. Some badly injured. Long lines there. Some flooding too. You come with me, Armando. I put butter on those burns, ice bags too.”
“Thank you, Phong,” Armando smiled at the Taiwanese steward. “But I was ordered to go down there. I can wait while others are treated. Maybe I can even help some of them.”
“You sure?” Phong asked and Armando nodded. “Okay then, but you come to Deck 8 port side aft if you need me. I go to check on staterooms there. Big mess to clean up.” Armando smiled and nodded again as they parted ways on the stairway, knowing Phong had no idea how big a mess he would have to deal with up there. The man loved his job as a cabin steward and would be heartbroken when he saw the destruction in the balcony staterooms.
At Deck 6 Armando had to leave the crew stairwell because it did not continue down into the wide open public areas below. He walked to the atrium and took the main stairs down from there. On Deck 5 he began to encounter dazed passengers who had come up from the lifeboat muster stations on Deck 4. There was also more evidence of fire and flooding here. Whereas most of the damage on the higher decks was confined to balcony staterooms, here it spread through every public area where windows were broken. Thankfully many of the windows remained intact, having received glancing blows from the waves of air and water. However, swaths of fire and water damage radiated from wherever windows had broken.
Armando was gazing around at the destruction as he rounded the next flight of stairs and literally stumbled over a body sprawled on the landing. He tripped and fell next to the young woman, wincing as the burns on his hands broke his fall. Biting back the pain, Armando turned to check the woman. At first he thought she was dead, but then she moaned and clutched her side where Armando’s shoe had struck her. He was immediately remorseful and leaned over to comfort her.
“Take it easy, miss,” he said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you lying there. Let me help you up.” He could tell the young woman needed help. She had suffered some burns on her arms, legs and face. What was left of her blonde hair was wet and matted with a mixture of water and blood. It looked like she had some sort of head wound. “I’m going to the Medical Center. You should come with me. Can you stand?”
“I…. I think so,” she mumbled and made a feeble attempt to get up. Armando reached over and helped her upright. They both winced when their burns rubbed against each other. “Ouch!” she blurted. “Everything hurts and I’m a bit dizzy.”
“I know, miss,” Armando murmured. “It’s not far. We just need to go down a few decks and the Medical Center is right there.”
“Down?” she faltered. “But that’s where all the water went. Down the stairs. And the screaming. I want to go upstairs, away from all the fire and water and screaming. Do we have to go back down?”
“Yes, miss, you need to see a doctor. The fires are out and most of the water is gone. I don’t hear much screaming anymore either. I think everyone’s in shock. But it’s best if we get you to the doctor before all the people with minor burns and sprained ankles show up down there. You might have a concussion and those burns should be treated right away. Let’s go,” Armando said as he guided her down the steps.
“Thank you,” she said. “Who are you?” she added a moment later, sounding as if she was worried that she should know him but had forgotten.
“Armando the bartender. I’m one of the crew. What’s your name, miss?”
“Rachel. Rachel Murphy…. No, Rachel Brewer. I just married Brad Brewer. This is our honeymoon. Oh God,” she stopped and yelled, “Brad?! Brad?! Oh my God, no! Brad!”
“Stay calm,” Armando cautioned. “He might be fine and looking for you somewhere else. If so, he’ll come looking in the Medical Center. And if he is injured he might already be in the Medical Center. Either way, he would want you to go to the doctor.”
“He was standing with me at the lifeboat station when the room filled with fire. He threw me down and laid on top of me. He protected me with his body.” She was sobbing now and Armando saw that a horrible realization was dawning i
n her eyes. “He was in pain. I heard it in his voice. We were surrounded by fire, but he was worried about me. He kept saying, ‘Get out of here, Rachel.’ But I couldn’t leave him. Then the water came. It was like being tossed around by a big wave in Hawaii. I hit my head on something. Then I was on these stairs. Alone. The water was pouring down and it was taking other people with it. I just crawled up until I was out of the water.” She trailed off and Armando knew that she feared the worst. He had scant consolation to offer, but gave it his best shot.
“The water put out the fires,” he said. “It saved you and might have saved your husband too. If it washed him down the stairs he might already be in the Medical Center. And, if he’s there, we’ll find him.” Rachel continued to cry quietly from a combination of pain and despair as Armando helped her downstairs.
****
Kevin and Chief Petty Officer Perkins went to the forward stairway as soon as they left the theater. This was the stairwell where Amanda should have been waiting, six decks above. Perhaps they were still making their way down. Kevin took a moment to call their names up the stairs, but his shouts mingled with those of others, none of which sounded like Amanda. He paused for a moment, wondering if he should go back up to look for them, but realized since he was already down here, it would be better to check all the possibilities. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if one or both of them were injured a calling for him down in the ship’s hospital.
“I’m going to the Med Center,” Kevin told the radar man.
“And I’m going with you,” Perkins replied evenly.
They descended the forward stairs past Deck 3 to Deck 2 where they encountered a foot of water in the lobby. It had clearly been higher recently, but was draining away to lower decks. This was the lowest deck of passenger accommodations. Everything below was restricted to Crew, except for the Med Center. Unsure if they could make their way aft to the central stairway leading to the Medical Center on Deck 1, they waded into the Deck 2 forward lobby and stopped short.
Bodies were floating in the corridors on either side of the lobby. Kevin suspected that most of them had been washed down the stairs by the flooding, although some may have been trapped below and drowned while trying to escape. The latter possibility seemed to be confirmed by the large percentage of crew members among them. Peering aft down a corridor they saw a waterproof fire-door blocking the passage and holding back the flood.
“We’ll have to go back up to Deck 3 and cross above this flooding,” Perkins suggested. Kevin agreed, but he paused to search the floating bodies for any sign of his wife and daughter. He didn’t want to find them like this, but his fear drove him to make sure. Eventually satisfied, thoroughly horrified, and deeply relieved, they turned back up the stairs and emerged on Deck 3. This level also showed signs of water damage, but all of it had drained below by now. They were still below the lowest balcony staterooms. The only windows on these lower decks were portholes in outside cabins and they were made of strong Plexiglas to withstand heavy seas. Therefore all the flooding here had probably come from the decks above, most of it pouring down stairwells to wash up and down these corridors when the ship rode out the massive waves.
Many of the cabins and staterooms on these lower decks were probably in pretty good shape. Sort of ironic, considering they were the least expensive accommodations on the ship and closest to sea level. That assumption was confirmed when an outside cabin door opened down the corridor and a white haired gentleman of at least 80 stepped out of it. He spotted Petty Officer Perkins and waved, saying, “Is it over? Good Lord! That gave us quite a scare. Tossed us around a bit too. What in heaven’s name happened?”
“Were you here during the entire event?” Perkins asked.
“Yes. It was terrifying.”
“Why didn’t you go to the lifeboat muster stations?” Perkins pressed.
“My wife and I were asleep. We don’t wear our hearing aids to bed, you see, so we might have missed some warnings. We woke up when the whole ship was shaking and it looked like there was fire outside our porthole. Then we heard alarms and announcements about muster stations. We were getting dressed and putting on life jackets when everything, including us, started flying around the cabin. By the time we opened this door there was water rushing down the hall. So I closed the door and we stayed here and prayed. I guess it worked, eh?”
“Yes, sir,” Perkins replied. “You and your wife are very lucky and it looks like you made the right decision. At this point, if you aren’t injured, it might be best for you to remain in your cabin until you hear additional instructions.”
“Thank you, officer, but can you tell us what happened?”
“It was an asteroid strike over the horizon,” Kevin interjected. “The ship was lucky to survive.”
“How far over the horizon,” the old man asked pointedly.
“I’m not sure, but I’d say about a hundred miles based on the time it took the effects to reach the ship,” Kevin answered.
“I see,” the old man said. “If the effects were that dramatic, it must have been a big one. This will be more than a local event.”
“Yes,” Kevin said in surprise. “May I ask how you figured that out so fast?”
“Certainly. My name is Professor Maxwell Farnsworth and I taught Earth Science and Geology at Stanford University until I retired. The implications of what you described and what we experienced here are quite alarming, young man.”
“Yes, sir, I know,” Kevin agreed. “My name’s Kevin Summers and I’m a meteorologist studying for a PHD in Climatology at Cal Tech.”
“Then you know what this means too,” the professor nodded sadly and started to turn away.
“Professor?” Kevin said, halting the old man’s retreat. “Please, sir, as soon as the immediate crisis is under control, could you come up to the Bridge? I’m sure the Captain would appreciate your input and I’d like to discuss my own projections with an expert, such as yourself.”
“Of course,” agreed Farnsworth. “I assume the Captain has notified the proper authorities ashore of what has happened and what to expect?”
“He was trying to do just that when we left the Bridge to look for my family,” Kevin said.
“I certainly hope he succeeded,” Farnsworth said. “And I’ll be glad to discuss the situation with you and the Captain. I also wish you luck finding your family safe and sound.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Kevin said.
Perkins dipped his head and said, “I’ll be back to escort you to the Bridge soon, sir.” The old man nodded and closed the door. The two younger men continued down the hall towards the atrium and main stairs leading down to the Medical Center.
****
“It’s finally ringing Captain,” Crawford said as he started to pull the Iridium sat-phone away from his ear. Then he paused and said, “Yes, hello? This the SS Sedulity with a threat warning from mid-Pacific. Stand by for the Captain.” He held the phone out and the Captain snatched it.
“This is Captain Krystos of the cruise ship Sedulity at approximately One Minute South Latitude, 176 Degrees East Longitude reporting a massive asteroid strike approximately 100 nautical miles east of our position.” He paused to listen to the response for a moment and said, “No, wait, you don’t understand. We just encountered impact waves hundreds of feet high. The largest was over a thousand feet high. It’s a miracle the ship rode over it in one piece. You must sound an alarm for the entire Pacific Rim. These waves are spreading out at hundreds of miles per hour in every direction.” He paused again, shaking his head slowly. “No, this is not a normal Tsunami and it was not caused by an undersea quake…. I don’t care what your seismographs are telling you. This was a massive asteroid strike. Cubic miles of seawater were vaporized and even more of it displaced. We saw the asteroid hit the ocean over the horizon and the blast wave set this ship on fire. Check your mid-ocean buoys if you don’t believe me…. What? No, damn it, your buoys are not malfunctioning! If they are giving you unb
elievable readings on wave heights, you better start believing them right now! We are convinced these waves will grow even larger when they hit the coastlines of Australia, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Every second you delay will cost countless lives, although I’m afraid that millions are doomed no matter what you do…. Yes, I’ll hold.”
The Captain turned to look at the Bridge Crew while he waited. He saw looks of shocked horror on their faces and realized that he had not previously shared Mr. Summers’ dire predictions with them. None of them had been thinking beyond the survival of the ship since the disaster struck. Now they heard their Captain yell on the phone about something that sounded like the end of the world. He met their gaze with an air of calm confidence, even though his own gut was twisted with apprehension. He also felt a twinge of guilt that the root of his fear revolved around the unknown fate of his wife.
Chapter 10:
The President of the United States had been playing the eleventh hole of a championship golf course when an aid first mentioned the reports of an asteroid impact in the Central Pacific. The President nodded and said to keep him informed, but continued to complete his round of golf. His golf partners that day said he seemed annoyed to be interrupted with an update on the fifteenth hole, and again on the seventeenth. They overheard mention of tsunamis and earthquakes, but say the President was intent on completing the game of golf in which he was one shot under par. However, the President did agree that his helicopter, Marine One, should pick him up next to the 18th hole as soon as he finished his last putt.
It was more than hour after the impact before the President was whisked back to the White House for a proper briefing on the asteroid strike. By that time the islands of Kiribati were already gone and the fate of millions was firmly written in the massive walls of water marching across the Pacific. The White House did not issue any warnings or comments until after the story broke on commercial news stations and the internet. In the days and weeks that followed, the President’s critics would condemn the paralysis demonstrated by the American government during this critical stage of the global catastrophe.
Sedulity (Book One) Impact Page 11