Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 13

They looked around for the rest of his ship and found it quite easily, about twenty yards further out, half-sunk in the sand. It was lying on its port side, having flipped over as it sank. The hatch through which Ezra escaped from the flooded bridge was still open. A thin layer of green algae clung to every surface and small fish darted in and out of the hatch, colonising the ship like a protective reef.

It was light enough to see through the hatch onto the bridge but not possible to explore now. Maybe Kalyndra, who could hold her breath for five minutes, would manage, but no one else. None the less, they'd found the ship. They surfaced and went back to the camp to prepare for a full day's diving tomorrow.

Five triumphant divers walked out of the sea and across the hot sand up to the camp, where they were met with blankets to dry themselves. The same dinner as yesterday was being prepared and the divers sat with the blankets around them and told what they'd seen.

"It's about one-hundred yards out and in thirty feet of water," Ezra said. "The bridge is well-lighted with a perspex dome but it's quite murky that deep and it'll be very dark further inside; so Kalyndra and I will go in and Devon and Cressi will pass us the air-bags."

"We'll pass the salvage out to them, to put in a basket, which Dagma will haul up. Thalassa will stay by the air-pipes and fill the bags for Cressi and Devon."

Thus agreed, the salvage party went to bed early in the same formation as the previous night. Although there was joy at finding the ship, the crew of the raft had worked harder than yesterday, so even Kalyndra was too tired to goad Ezra into fucking her.

Next morning, they got up early, fortified themselves with breakfast and launched the raft. Dagma, Wildchild, Carlin and Tamar waded out and got on board, taking up paddles. The divers swam beside the raft and helped push it. Megan alone stayed at the camp, taking the horses to graze and tidying up, for want of something useful to do.

When the divers found the site again, they anchored the raft to the sunken vessel with a dozen strong ropes. Then Ezra climbed aboard the raft and, with help from Dagma and the girls, fitted the two long bamboo pipes together with one more as an extension and a u-shaped end-piece, sealing the joints with gum-soaked cloth strips. Two more pipes, of about fifteen feet each, were assembled and all three were attached to bellows.

The bamboo poles were let over the side of the raft. The longest tube was hooked inside the escape hatch. The others were tied to the ropes anchoring the raft.

Wildchild, Carlin and Tamar sat by the bellows, ready to pump air down the bamboo tubes.

Ezra gave his orders.

"Wildchild, will you try pumping the bellows a few times, please? Kali, dive down to the ship and see how much air comes out."

She took a deep breath and did an elegant flip to dive underwater. Wildchild began pumping.

"Don't worry if it's too difficult," he told her, "you're pushing against a lot of water-pressure. It may not work."

However, she seemed to have no difficulty at all. As usual, Ezra was amazed at Wildchild's strength. Pleased, he dived under water and followed the tube down to the ship, checking for leaks. He met Kalyndra coming the other way. She gave him the thumbs up. They surfaced together.

"There's a good stream coming out," she said, "you can see it collecting in the roof."

Ezra hoped that Wildchild's tube would make a reservoir of air in the roof of the bridge, to be used by those in the ship.

"Good," he said, "I think we're set. ... Thalassa, Cressi?"

The girls gathered up the bags they would use to fill with air from the pipes and carry to the divers in the ship. They swam to their positions, holding the anchoring ropes, ready to submerge to the ends of the poles.

"Kalyndra, Devon?"

They also took their positions, ready to dive to the ship.

"Dagma?"

She took up the end of a strong rope that was tied at three places to the rim of a loose-woven basket. She lowered the basket over the side of the raft. It was positioned to rest on top of the ship, near the hatch.

"Ready, Ezra," she said when the basket hit bottom.

"Girls, are you ready?"

The three Woodlander girls gave him the thumbs up.

"All right, then. We're all ready."

He swam out and positioned himself to dive and gave the final order.

"Man the pumps!" he said.

Instead of starting to work the bellows, however, the girls collapsed in giggles.

"All right, what's so funny?" he asked them.

"You said man the pumps, but we're not men," Carlin explained.

"You should have said Girl the pumps!" Tamar helpfully added.

"It means Hands to the pumps," he explained.

"How does man mean hand?" Tamar asked.

"I don't know, but it does."

"I know," said Thalassa, treading water beside the raft. "It's from the Latin 'manus', which means hand. Hence manufacture and manipulate."

"I didn't know that," Ezra admitted. "Thanks. How come you know it?"

"Mum studied the medical book at the Cloner City. It's got lots of Latin in it."

"Well, there you have it, girls. I've come two-thousand light-years to get a lesson on a dead Earth language. So now will you man the pumps?"

They still found it funny and, because he wanted to get some work out of them, he had to relent.

"Girl the pumps!" he said with a sigh. Grinning to each other, the girls began pumping and so the salvage operation at last got underway.

3 Salvaging begins

The sunken ship lay on its side, a yellow and silver tube with a small bulbous front (the bridge, covered by a perspex dome), a fat middle (the hold) and the hyperspace drive at the rear, its concentric silver rings sticking out of the sand like the ribs of a drowned and decayed whale. A long tear along the hull showed where the rocket motor and its supporting strut were sheared off by the impact with the sea.

Built in space and never intended to land on a big planet, the spaceship bulged out where necessary, regardless of aerodynamics or aesthetics. But it was of sound construction and very strong. It seemed to have survived the impact with most parts intact.

Ezra and Kalyndra entered through the hatch on the bridge. Everything was covered with a thin film of green algae. Small fish darted out of their way as they looked around the dormant consoles and lifeless buttons.

Kalyndra was fascinated. She'd never seen inside a spaceship or seen so much metal in one place. She wanted to touch everything: walls, consoles, buttons, his pilot's chair.

Devon and Cressi, taking turns to ferry bags of air from the pipes outside the hatch to the divers inside, were equally fascinated. They took a good look inside.

The divers used the leather air-bags by breathing out first and then pushing their faces upward into the bag, taking two or three breaths, then handing back the empty bag.

A good stream of air bubbled up from Wildchild's pipe and collected in the dome of the bridge. With the expelled air from the bags, there would soon be a few inches of air up there - useful in an emergency.

Ezra first looked for the torch that was usually secured magnetically beneath the navigation console. It was there and, luckily, still worked, though it could do with re-charging in the sun. Its meagre light would help for the moment, adding to the diffuse sunlight that made it through the water onto the bridge.

Ezra also picked up the first piece of salvage. It was a computer pad that linked to the ship's computer but might work on its own. He handed it to Devon, who swapped it for a full air-bag and took it to the basket outside.

He gave the torch to Kalyndra. After taking a few good breaths from the bags, they collected fresh air-bags and swam further into the ship.

The ship was in five parts, separated by four bulkheads. Through the first bulkhead beyond the bridge were two emergency escape pods, one on each side. Given the ship's current orientation, the port one was on the floor and the starboard pod was on the ceiling.

Here the natural light ended and the section of the ship that was through the second bulkhead was picked out in ghostly yellow torchlight. It was the galley, equipped with a stove, larder, cupboards and drawers.

Through the third bulkhead was the living quarters. Here Ezra found another torch. He laid it on the floor to light the passageway. The living quarters had a collapsible bed stowed in one wall and a shower and toilet in the opposite wall. Ezra signalled Kalyndra not to open the toilet door.

The fourth bulkhead led into the hold. This was completely dark and they had run out of air-bags, so Kalyndra went back to the bridge to bring fresh ones. Here Ezra grabbed a third torch from just inside the hold. It was a large one that made a floodlight beam. He took a good look around.

His heavy machinery was still firmly secured and wasn't ripped apart nor shaken to pieces. That was good news, especially because nothing heavy was lying on his tool boxes. It was encouraging.

With Kalyndra back, he swapped their torches and got her to shine a wide beam from the doorway while he swam in to start gathering his tools.

It was slow-going, bringing one or two tools out at a time and grabbing a few breaths, but eventually Ezra made a large pile against the toilet door while Kalyndra swapped tools for air-bags with the other divers. The last item Ezra brought out was a small metal tool-box. Everything else in the hold was too large to salvage easily. He also left behind, hidden and secure, his projectile gun and the powerful plasma cutter that could also be used as a weapon.

By now, the first basket was full and Cressi gave a tug on the rope, signalling Dagma to haul it up. It was heavy, but not too heavy. Soon two baskets of tools were stowed on the raft and drying out in the sun.

The salvage plan was working fine. Sacks of air were coming down and baskets were going up. Ezra and Kalyndra moved into the next section of the ship. They rescued personal stuff from his washing cubicle - towels, toothbrush, a comb and, the most desired item of all, his shaver. These began the third basket.

Sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and a whole bunch of clothes salvaged from the living quarters completed the third basket and easily filled a fourth.

They had nearly finished salvaging the living quarters when the large torch died. The torch on the floor of the gangway had already failed and Ezra had turned his off to preserve it. He turned it back on to guide them out.

They took only the empty air bags and the torches. As they swam out to the bridge, they met Cressi bringing down more bags. They took breaths and made for the hatch, signalling that it was time to take a break. All five divers to the raft and clambered aboard for a rest.

"Well done everyone!" Ezra said after catching his breath. "You're all doing brilliant work. How are your arms, girls?"

"They're fine," said Carlin.

"They hurt," said Tamar.

Wildchild merely smiled. She actually kept on pumping until Ezra told her she ought to rest a little. He had something for her. He looked for his toolbox in one of the baskets, opened it and brought out a laser pen-knife, just like the one he'd lost from his pocket and Juniel, the attentive Mariner girl, had found washed up on the beach.

He gave it to Wildchild. She was overwhelmed.

"Thank you," she said, gracing him with two of her rare spoken words.

"No, thank you, Wildchild." He kissed her forehead.

Tamar and Carlin came over to share in Wildchild's joy. She showed it to them. Wildchild opened its solar panel to charge it up.

Ezra likewise opened the torches to charge their fuel cells in the sun. As the Mariner divers lay on the raft resting, they talked about the ship.

"What's it like?" Dagma asked.

Kalyndra gave her impressions of the strange vessel and the things inside it.

"The living space is really cramped and there's no bed," she said.

"It's in the wall," Ezra explained. "The mechanism is electronic; which is a shame because I'd like to salvage the mattress."

"The cooking area is also small and I didn't see a fire," Kalyndra went on.

"It's called a 'galley'," Ezra explained. "There is a fire but it's inside the oven and it works by a really strong light. Otherwise, I have food packets that heat themselves."

"There was a door that Ezra told me not to open. ... What was that for, Ezra?"

"The 'head' .. the crapper."

"Ew!" said Tamar and Carlin, who thought of the crapper that Ezra has built in the Woodlander Camp.

"It's not like the earth closet in the forest," he explained, "it's got rather intimate attachments to be used in zero gravity and everything ought still to be sealed up against spillage; but just in case, Kali, we shouldn't open that door."

"Can we also go inside for a look?" Cressi asked on behalf of the other divers.

"Of course you can. Sorry I didn't think of suggesting it. We'll do that first when we go back."

After half-an-hour, the torches were charged up enough for another session. The Mariners slipped over the edge of the raft into the water.

"It's good work you've done with the baskets, Dagma," Ezra said. "Were they very heavy?"

"Not at all. Keep them coming."

He smiled his thanks and, taking two torches, dived into the sea.

The girls took turns to be given a quick tour of the ship, including a peek into the hold. What seemed most fascinating to them was his living quarters; but Thalassa was intrigued by the bridge. She swam around looking in wonder at all the buttons and the blank screens. Then they set to work again.

The rest of his clothing was salvaged, then the other personal items from his living quarters, notably his books and two more computer pads.

After this, Ezra and Kalyndra cleared his kitchen of the sealed cooking pots, squeezable cups with lids and cutlery made of an unglamorous ferromagnetic material for use in zero-gravity. The larder was emptied of its store of processed food-kits. They filled a basket with packets of nutrient-rich pap.

After the galley was done, the only things left were the medical bags stored in drawers in the emergency escape pods. It would take a few minutes to liberate them manually, so he signalled Kalyndra to follow him and they surfaced to get some air. The other drivers came with.

"What is it?" Dagma called. She had just pulled up the eighth basket, the one with the food-kits.

"Just getting some air," he said. "We're almost done, for now."

They trod water for a few minutes, then dived back down. There was now more than six inches of air in the roof of the bridge. Ezra took a lungful and swam through the bulkhead to the emergency pods.

The spherical pods were about eight feet in diameter. Opaque underneath, clear perspex on top, they were covered in slimy algae.

Kalyndra held the torch, lighting his work. Devon ferried the airbags to them and Cressi stayed at the hatch.

He pulled a lever on the starboard escape pod. It opened a drawer above them, a thin crack in the metal base of the pod. He slipped his fingers into the crack and pulled out the drawer. A white medical bag with a red cross on it fell out. He handed it to Kalyndra, who passed it to Devon.

Ezra took a few bagfuls of air, put his torch on the floor and lay down to work on the port-side escape pod. He pulled the lever. It moved and seemed to be working but nothing happened. It wasn't just that the drawer was stiff. It seemed locked. While he puzzled about it, the light from Kalyndra's torch wavered. Then the torch dropped past him.

He looked up to see Kalyndra clutching her throat, thrashing and panicking.

Ezra swam up to grab her. He tried to stop her thrashing but she was choking and unfocussed. He pulled her to him, rolled her over and held her by the chin, lying under her. Then he pushed off hard from the pod and glided straight through the bulkhead making for the roof of the bridge. He pushed her face up into the pocket of air but she only gasped and flailed around.

Staving off his own panic, Ezra took a big breath and manhandled her out of the hatch. Pushing past Devon and Cressi, he swam hard for the surface.

On the way, Kalyndra stopped thrashing and went limp in his arms.

Gasping for air as they broke the surface, he threw Kalyndra as hard as he could over the edge of the raft. She started to slip back into the water but Dagma's strong hands grabbed her arms and dragged her on board. Ezra quickly scrambled up. Ignoring all questions, he knelt down by her and laid her on her front. He pulled her arms out from under her chest, pushed her face to one side and opened her mouth; then he put his hands on her back and leant heavily on her chest.

Sea-water erupted from her mouth and nose.

He pushed down hard on her again. There was another gush of water.

One more hard push and he'd cleared her lungs but she wasn't breathing. He turned her over, held her nose, put his mouth against hers and blew hard. Her chest lifted. He took a deep breath and blew hard again. She coughed, tried to breathe in, choked and gasped. He turned her on all fours. She tried to breathe again and then threw up. He held her around the waist and got her to breathe slowly.

Few things hurt more than swallowing sea-water into the lungs. Her throat, nose and chest burned. Her breaths were short and painful. She snorted horrible salt-water out of her nose. But at least she was breathing. The danger was over.

Thalassa was there now. The slight gentle girl forced her way through the ring of women, carrying her medical box. She wiped Kalyndra's face with a wet rag, cleaning away the vomit and tears.

"Breathe slowly, Kalyndra," she said. "It'll get easier."

She was right. It burned less with every breath.

Thalassa offered her fresh water. Kalyndra sat up and tried to drink a mouthful. She tasted sea-water as the fresh water went down and leaned to one side to retch again. She drank another mouthful and that stayed down.

"Thanks," she said in a croaking voice.

"What was it Kali?" Ezra asked. "What happened?"

"I ..." She choked for a second and swallowed more water. "I saw a dead body ... in the pod."

"A dead body?"

"You were trying to open the drawer. ... I wiped away the green stuff on the pod and looked inside. ... There was something. I shone the torch and it was a face ... a dead face. ... I panicked and water got up my nose ..."

Ezra sat back, puzzled, though an answer was forming in his mind.

"Girls, do you mind coming back down another time?" he asked. "Devon, will you come into the ship with me?"

"I'm coming!" said Kalyndra, getting up.

Ezra looked at her. She held his gaze calmly.

"Breathe," he said.

She tried and coughed.

"Again!"

She breathed in deeply and exhaled without coughing.

"Once more."

She pulled in a big lungful and held it. Three minutes later, she slowly released.

Ezra glanced at Thalassa. She nodded.

"All right," he said. "If it's what I think, then we can all help. ... Ready?"

The divers got back in the water.

"Girl the pumps!"

They all dived down again. Devon came into the ship again with Kalyndra and Ezra. He picked a torch off the floor and looked in the escape pod.

There was definitely a body in there, pale and motionless in the restraining harness; eyes closed, not breathing. He nodded to himself and took a look at an instrument panel in the middle of the pod. He wiped away the algae and pressed a button. Lights glowed on the panel. He nodded again.

Signalling Kalyndra to come over, he gave her the thumbs up, hoping she'd understood that everything was all right and not be panicked again. He shone his torch into the pod and let her get a good look at its occupant. There was no shock this time and no panic. Kalyndra looked carefully. Then he showed her the instrument panel. He made a line with his finger under a red number, indicating that she should look at it. Then he touched her forehead.