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I paddled around until I found the medical kit. I offered to help Qilian apply the splint and dressing, but he waved aside my assistance save for when it came time to cut the bandage. The River Volga continued to creak and groan around us, like some awesome monster in the throes of a nightmare.
“Have you see the others?”
“Uugan, Jura, and Batbayar must still be at their stations in the midship section.”
“And the pilot?”
I had only glanced at Muhu
“I don’t know, sir. It may not be good.”
“If he’s dead, we’re not going to be able to cut back into the Infrastructure.”
I saw no point in reminding Qilian that, with the ship in its present state, Muhu
“I don’t know what happened to us just before I blacked out. Did you feel the ship twist around the way I did?”
I nodded. “Muhu
Qilian finished with his dressing, inspecting the arm with a look of quiet satisfaction. “I am going to check on the others. See what you can do with the pilot, Yellow Dog.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
He pushed off with his good arm, steering an expert course through the narrow throat of the bridge co
Forcing my mind to the matter at hand, I moved to the reclined couch that held Muhu
I examined the harness, checking the various co
Equally, if a power surge had happened, it might well have fried his nervous system from the inside out with little sign of external injury. We had built safeguards into the design to prevent that kind of thing, but I had never deceived myself that they were foolproof.
“I’m sorry, Muhu
Miraculously, his lips moved. He shaped a word with a mere ghost of breath. “Ariunaa?”
I took hold of his gloved hand, squeezing it as much as the harness allowed. “I’m here. Right by you.”
“I ca
“Are you sure you can’t make some sense of the camera data?” I asked. “We only have to pass through the Infrastructure portal.”
“That would be like threading the eye of a needle from halfway around the world, Ariunaa. Besides, I think we are paralyzed. I have tried firing the steering motors, but I have received no confirmation that anything has actually happened. Have you felt the ship move?”
I thought back to all that had happened since the attack. “In the last few minutes? Nothing at all.”
“Then it must be presumed that we are truly adrift and that the control linkages have been severed.” He paused. “I am sorry; I wish the news was better.”
“Then we need help,” I said. “Are you sure there’s nothing else out there? The last time we saw it, the Mandate of Heaven was still in one piece. If she could rendezvous with us, she might be able to carry us all to the portal.”
After a moment, he said: “There is something, an object in my vicinity, about one hundred and twenty It out, but I only sense it intermittently. I would have mentioned it sooner, but I did not wish to raise your hopes.”
Whatever he intended, my hopes were rising now. “Could it be the Mandate?”
“It is something like the right size, and in something like the right position.”
“We need to find a way to signal it, to get it to come in closer. At the moment, they have no reason to assume that any of us are alive.”
“If I signal it, then the enemy will also know that some of us are still alive,” Muhu
“Broadcast what?” Qilian asked, drifting into the bridge.
I wheeled around to face him; I had not been expecting him to return so quickly. “Muhu
“Is she intact?”
“No way to tell. There’s definitely something out there that matches her signature. Problem is, Muhu
“It won’t make any difference to the enemy. They’ll be coming in to finish us off no matter what we do.
Send the signal.”
After a moment, Muhu
The only thing I can do is monitor the Mandate and see if she responds. If she has picked up our signal, then we should not have long to wait. A minute, maybe two. If we have seen nothing after that time, I believe we may safely assume the worst.”
We waited a minute, easily the longest in my life, then another. After a third, there was still no change in the faint presence Muhu
“Then we need another way of signaling her,” I said. “Maybe if we ejected some air into space…”
“Too ambiguous,” Qilian countered. “Air might vent simply because the ship was breaking up, long after we were all dead. It could easily encourage them to abandon us completely. What do we need this ship for in any case? We may as well eject the lifeboats. The Mandate of Heaven can collect them individually.”
After a instant of reflection, Muhu
There were six lifeboats, one for each of us.
“Let’s go,” Qilian replied.
“I’ll see you at the lifeboats,” I said. “I have to help Muhu
Qilian looked at me for a moment, some dark calculation working itself out behind his eyes. He nodded once. “Be quick about it, Yellow Dog. But we don’t want to lose him. He’s still a valued asset.”
With renewed strength, I hauled the both of us through the echoing labyrinth of the ship, to the section that contained the lifeboats. It was clear that the attack had wrought considerable damage on this part of the ship, buckling wall and floor plates, constricting passageways, and jamming bulkhead doors tight into their frames. We had to detour halfway to the rear before we found a clear route back to the boats. Yet although we were ready to don suits if necessary, we never encountered any loss of pressure.