The Great Escape Chapter 13, Part 7 of 8

The Great Escape
Chapter 13, Part 7 of 8

They slept soundly, and Kalyndra worked first. Just after dawn, she completely recovered. She woke Devon by getting up.

"Wake him nicely," she whispered, "but don't wear him out. I think it's going to be a busy day."

With that, Kalyndra left Devon to make good use of Ezra's morning erection and walked naked down to the sea for a wash.

The freezing night rain left a thin layer of brackish water on the ocean. Kalyndra waded a distance and then dived in, swimming fast to reach deeper water. There, she took a good breath and submerged, swimming in the warmer saltwater until, five minutes later, she broke the cold surface again, gasping for air.

Yes, she was fine. Kalyndra walked back to the beach and joined the women preparing breakfast.

Rescuing the escape pod

It was still early morning. The raft was in place, and the girls were ready at their pumps. The diving team took to the water, and the command was given to "Girl the pumps."

In the ship, Ezra, Kalyndra, and Devon, armed with a hammer, a wrench, and gas pliers from his toolkit, tackled the first job: releasing the starboard pod to make room to open the escape hatch above it.

It was hard work to bypass the electronic mechanism and do it by hand, but they finally managed to detach the escape pod from its pins, let it roll down, and lean against the port escape pod Yumi's pod, blocking the gangway.

The next stage was a logistical nightmare.

The hatch was secured with six levers. There was a four-foot hole behind the pod, but there was only an eight-inch gap to get through. Ezra got his arm into the gap but could reach only four levers. Devon and Kalyndra got further in and reached the fifth lever, but only Thalassa was thin enough with some juggling of the pod to get in and reach the sixth lever.

Sod's law said the sixth lever would be the stiffest: Thalassa wasn't strong enough to undo it.

They pushed the pod back in so Ezra could swim to the hold to find a length of metal to use as a lever to move the smaller lever. He returned with a steel tube from a vehicle and, with
Thalassa inside the gap guiding them, Kalyndra and Devon gave the recalcitrant lever a good shove. At last, the hatch sprang open and fell away, sliding down the side of the hull to the seafloor, clanging as it went, making the whole ship ring with the sound.

They pushed the escape pod out of the hatch and let it float to the surface. Then, they had to release Yumi's pod and do the same.

They were pleased to find that it came out quickly, maybe because they were now practicing or because they had more room to work.

Yumi's pod floated gently toward the ship's port side. With a gentle nudge, it was lined up with the hatch. It slipped straight through, and soon, two pods were bobbing about in the ocean under a bright sun.

The divers followed the pods through the hatch and swam after them, pushing them toward the shallow water and the beach. When they reached the shallows, the pods could be rolled.

Ezra assured them that rolling Yumi's pot wouldn't harm her. She was strapped into a seat and held securely with a harness.

After leaving the pods on the beach, the divers finished their work by releasing the raft from its moorings. Just as they did so, Ezra swam back toward the ship.

"Where are you going?" Kalyndra shouted after him.

He stopped swimming and shouted, "I've remembered something," before diving into the ship.

Kalyndra grabbed some airbags and dived in after him.

After filling the airbags at the surface, Kalyndra became buoyant and had to swim hard to the ship.

When she arrived, Ezra had already filled his lungs from the air pocket in the bridge and swum through the ship to the hold. She found him turning off the big torch and leaving it behind the door.

He gratefully accepted an airbag from her. He had something in his hand: a rectangular wooden box about ten inches long. He was grinning triumphantly and held it with exaggerated care as if it were a baby.

Kalyndra collected the other torch, and they swam out of the ship via the big hole where the pod had been and back to the shore. That was the last item salvaged for now. Back with the others, they helped haul the raft as far up the beach as possible, secured it with the paddles in the sand, and stripped it of everything moveable.

Ezra gave Tamar his precious box and told her to carry it carefully. Then, they rolled the pods up to the camp.

They dug shallow pits to rest the pods' bottoms so the wind wouldn't blow them over. Finally, the whole team rested.

"Well done, Ladies!" Ezra said. "That was good work and easier than I expected. Especially well done, Thalassa. Climbing into that confined space was very brave."

She modestly looks down, unused to praise.

"What's in the box, Ezra?" Kalyndra asked on behalf of everyone.

"Something precious."

"Yes, but it must be important for you to swim back into the hold alone."

"Not important, but a secret for now."

It was fun for him to be mysterious for a change; besides, it wasn't the only secret he was keeping.

"Tamar, you're the guardian of the box," he said. "Don't let anyone open it or take what's inside. It's horrible for you and may cause headaches and nausea."

"I'll keep it safe," she vowed.

Tamar took her duties seriously and resisted all the others' requests to peek inside, yet she was caught up in the intrigue. Why would he take a risk to save something so poisonous?

Interest in the pod replaced interest in the wooden box. Kalyndra was the first to notice the change. When she went to look at Yumi, she found the Perspex dome obscured. It had turned silver-grey and blocked her view inside.

"Ezra!" she called out, "is this right?"

He came over to look.

"Yes, it's supposed to do that. The pod reacts to bright sunlight by shielding Yumi, stopping it from getting too hot inside. Also, it's recharging its fuel cell with solar collectors."

He pressed buttons on the side and brought up the readings again.

"See here. The batteries are charging, and this is the internal temperature."

Kalyndra looked at the read-out.

"So, which one's Yumi's heartbeat?"

He swiped the screen, and different numbers came up.

"This one. And this is her pulse."

The other women were just as interested in the pod and stood around him—all except Tamar, who went to hide the precious box in her tent.

"There's a flashing light on top of the pod," she said when she joined them.

Ezra stepped back to look. Sure enough, an antenna had emerged from the top of the pod, and a flashing amber light had appeared next to it, blinking every few seconds. They had been too close to see it.

"It's the emergency signal," Ezra said. I suppose it wasn't activated in the ship, but now that the pod has a reliable energy source, it can afford to send a distress signal. There will also be a radio signal, and you may see a thin laser beam, a guidance signal."

"Will it flash forever?" Carlin asked.

"So long as the fuel cell can charge in the sun, and Yumi's inside, it will flash and transmit the distress call. Shame we're so far from a communications probe," he said wistfully.

During lunch, they made plans for the next few days. Megan and Ezra were riding to Cloner City to report to the chiefs while those remaining in the camp could sort out the salvage goods.

They could lay the clothing and bedclothes out to dry and fold them neatly for storage in a tent. All except for the underwear, a new pair of trousers, and a new shirt, which Ezra had already taken, with significant relief.

They could also use Ezra's axe and Wildchild's penknife to cut wood in the forest and build a campfire. If they were prepared to tolerate Ezra's food packets, there would be plenty to eat; otherwise, Wildchild and Tamar had a horse and a sled. They could fetch provisions from the Mariner Camp or the Herder's mid-way camp.

This was news to the girls.

"We assumed Ezra would ride our horse," Tamar said. "The only other one is the big pack horse."

With a smile, Megan walked over to the sled and fetched a set of tackles, a horse blanket, and a two-person tent.

"I came prepared," she said.

"How come?" Ezra asked.

"Solange. She thinks of everything."

After the plans settled and the lunch was nicely digested, they fetched the horses from the spring, where they'd been grazing all morning, and fitted the tackle. The side panels were loaded with the tent, food, and squeezy bottles salvaged from the ship, which they filled with fresh water, Ezra's spare clothes, two towels, and his washing kit. They were ready to go.

Ezra kissed goodbye to all his bedmates and the girls, then set off in the early afternoon across the hot grassland northward to Cloner City.

"We have a choice, Ezra," Megan said when they were underway.

"Go on."

"We can head straight for the Cloner City and get there tomorrow at midday but spend the night in the tent. Or we can go via the Mariner Settlement or our Northern Camp and sleep in a hut."

"How much longer will it be if we divert?"

"A few hours."

"Then I prefer to go straight there. Do you agree?"

"Oh, yes. I was giving you the option."

They rode on all afternoon, stopping only for water and to let the horses graze a while. All the damned things seemed to do was eat, Ezra complained.

In the evening, they pitched the tent on the lead of a small hill.

After dinner, for the first time in more than a year, Ezra had the joy of using a toothbrush instead of the soft aniseed or willow bark the women of Samothea used to clean their teeth. It was a luxury. Then, it was straight to bed.

Lying on his back in his sleeping bag, he wasn't surprised when Megan leaned over and put her mouth to his.

"Hmm, what's that taste?" she asked, pulling away.


To be continued