Sphere (Page 72)

He couldn’t see Tina; then he saw she had been knocked down; she got to her feet, shouting something at Norman, and then she slipped and slid back into the hissing stream of water. It picked her up bodily and flung her so hard against the opposite wall that he knew at once she must be dead, and when he looked down he saw her floating face-down in the water rapidly filling the room. The back of her head was cut open; he saw the pulpy red flesh of her brain.

Norman turned and fled. Water was already trickling over the lip of the bulkhead as he slammed the heavy door shut, spun the wheel to lock it.

He couldn’t see anything in D; the smoke was worse than before. He saw dim patches of red flame, hazy through the smoke. He heard the hiss of the extinguishers. Where was his own extinguisher? He must have left it in E. Like a blind man he felt along the walls for another extinguisher, coughing in the smoke. His eyes and lungs burned, despite the mask.

And then, with a great groan of metal, the pounding started, the habitat rocking under jolts from the squid outside. He heard Fletcher on the intercom but her voice was scratchy and unclear. The pounding continued, and the horrible wrenching of metal. And Norman thought, We’re going to die. This time, we’re going to die.

He couldn’t find a fire extinguisher but his hands touched something metal on the wall and Norman felt it in the smoky darkness, wondering what it was, some kind of protrusion, and then two million volts surged through his limbs into his body and he screamed once, and fell backward.

AFTERMATH

He was staring at a bank of lights in some odd, angled perspective. He sat up, feeling a sharp pain, and looked around him. He was sitting on the floor in D Cylinder. A faint smoky haze hung in the air. The padded walls were blackened and charred in several places.

There must have been a fire here, he thought, staring at the damage in astonishment. When had this happened? Where had he been at the time?

He got slowly to one knee, and then to his feet. He turned to E Cylinder, but for some reason the bulkhead door to E was shut. He tried to spin the wheel to unlock it; it was jammed shut.

He didn’t see anybody else. Where were the others? Then he remembered something about Ted. Ted had died. The squid swinging Ted’s body in the airlock. And then Fletcher had said to get back, and she had thrown the power switch. …

It was starting to come back to him. The fire. There had been a fire in E Cylinder. He had gone into E with Tina to put out the fire. He remembered going into the room, seeing the flames lick up the side of the walls. … After that, he wasn’t sure.

Where were the others?

For an awful moment he thought he was the only survivor, but then he heard a cough in C Cyl. He moved toward the sound. He didn’t see anybody so he went to B Cyl.

Fletcher wasn’t there. There was a large streak of blood on the metal pipes, and one of her shoes on the carpet. That was all.

Another cough, from among the pipes.

"Fletcher?"

"Just a minute …"

Beth emerged, grease-streaked, from the pipes. "Good, you’re up. I’ve got most of the systems going, I think. Thank God the Navy has instructions printed on the housings. Anyway, the smoke’s clearing and the air quality is reading all right – not great, but all right – and all the vital stuff seems to be intact. We have air and water and heat and power. I’m trying to find out how much power and air we have left."

"Where’s Fletcher?"

"I can’t find her anywhere." Beth pointed to the shoe on the carpet, and the streak of blood.

"Tina?" Norman asked. He was alarmed at the prospect of being trapped down here without any Navy people at all. "Tina was with you," Beth said, frowning.

"I don’t seem to remember," Norman said.

"You probably got a jolt of current," Beth said. "That would give you retrograde amnesia. You won’t remember the last few minutes before the shock. I can’t find Tina, either, but according to the status sensors E Cyl is flooded and shut down. You were with her in E. I don’t know why it flooded."

"What about Harry?"

"He got a jolt, too, I think. You’re lucky the amperage wasn’t higher or you’d both be fried. Anyway, he’s lying on the floor in C, either sleeping or unconscious. You might want to take a look at him. I didn’t want to risk moving him, so I just left him there."

"Did he wake up? Talk to you?"

Chapter 16

"No, but he seems to be breathing comfortably. Color’s good, all that. Anyway, I thought I better get the life-support systems going." She wiped grease on her cheek. "I mean, it’s just the three of us now, Norman."

"You, me, and Harry?"

"That’s right. You, me, and Harry."

Harry was sleeping peacefully on the floor between the bunks. Norman bent down, lifted one eyelid, shone a light in Harry’s pupil. The pupil contracted.

"This can’t be heaven," Harry said.

"Why not?" Norman said. He shone the light in the other pupil; it contracted.

"Because you’re here. They don’t let psychologists into heaven." He gave a weak smile.

"Can you move your toes? Your hands?"

"I can move everything. I walked up here, Norman, from down in C. I’m okay."

Norman sat back. "I’m glad you’re okay, Harry." He meant it: he had been dreading the thought of an injury to Harry. From the beginning of the expedition, they had all relied on Harry. At every critical juncture, he had supplied the breakthrough, the necessary understanding. And even now, Norman took comfort in the thought that, if Beth couldn’t figure out the life-support systems, Harry could.

"Yeah, I’m okay." He closed his eyes again, sighed. "Who’s left?"

"Beth. Me. You."