Mesler obeyed and slotted the key into the shaking slot. With a quick twist of the barrel, the panel slid open to expose three oversized levers. Stencilled above each lever was written: ACTHUNG! COMMAND MODULE DISENGAGEMENT SYSTEM. USE ONLY IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY.
‘I think our present predicament qualifies!’ Bauer said as he grabbed the first of the levers.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Konrad and Elsa reached forward to grab the tunnel’s thick grated floor as it rose up. Slowly, but surely, the Odin’s devastated stern was sinking out of orbit and as a consequence its horrible momentum was raising the bow and with it the holding-cell, until eventually, the tunnel became a deadly vertical shaft. The pipes and cables creaked and groaned, even the ship’s very walls moaned mournfully. Once the tunnel straightened, the large pack of prisoners who had earlier rushed towards the sealed door now, in a ghastly single block, tumbled back down the shaft. Fingers clawed at the grating or at the greasy walls and pipes as screaming figures tumbled past Konrad and Elsa. She closed her eyes tightly and cringed as the heavy human objects swept past her, their fingers clawing at her flesh and clothes as they flew by. Thankfully for her, their ghostly touches were mercifully brief and fleeting. In her self-imposed darkness, all she could hear were the receding screams mixing with the sound of heads cracking against walls and limbs snapping on the lattice partitions. Konrad, in contrast, refused to shirk away from the horror. He looked down and saw the prisoners disappearing into the smoke and flames which glowed eerily at the bottom of the overturned tunnel.
They climbed up the rattling walkway, pausing only to dodge more of the falling bodies, until eventually, after what seemed an age, they reached the circular hatch at the head of the tunnel.
Just below the hatch was a last partition which acted as a ledge for what remained of the prisoners. They were cramped onto the lattice structure like sailors stuck on a ship’s mast-head during a storm. Konrad eased himself up onto the partition and helped Elsa up too. Once safely there, he spotted the familiar face of Ziegler standing across the smoking gap. Ziegler waved half-heartedly, but his eyes displayed the abject desperation, the absolute helplessness he and, no doubt, the other inmates felt. But Konrad didn’t display this feeling of helplessness. Instead, he searched the small space for some means of escape. He shimmied around the partition and pounded the hatch’s glowing controls which remained stubbornly inoperative.
‘We’ve already tried that, Konrad,’ Ziegler shouted. ‘And that’s the reason why,’ he said pointing to an impotent display. ‘The explosion must have activated the ship’s emergency circuits. We’re sealed in here.’
Obviously frustrated, Konrad punched the unblinking controls. ‘And there’s no chance that the rocket jockey’s will send anyone to rescue us.’
‘Why would they? Its every man for himself now,’ Zeigler said.
‘They could all be dead for all we know,’ Elsa added.
His rage spent, Konrad backed further onto the partition and looked deep into the coiling smoke. Within its billowing body flashes of blue and yellow flashed. Peering deeper, he could see the flashing was from a seared power cable. A host of metal barbs and fibre-optics hung from the cable, their decapitated ends viciously spitting sparks.
Elsa spotted the cable too. ‘Why don’t we use the cable to hot-wire the hatch?’
Konrad looked back and forth between the spitting wires and the stubborn door, then nodded in support. ‘It’s worth a try.’
Ziegler scowled at Elsa suspiciously. Even though he didn’t say it, his thoughts betrayed him. How could this girl come up with such an idea? In his eyes, women were only fit for two purposes – sex and home making. They couldn’t come up with solutions to problems. He may have been a prisoner now, but deep down, his Nazi prejudices still remained.
Konrad pushed back a pair of cowering men and sat on the edge of the partition. He reached down for the dangling wires. They remained agonisingly just out of reach. Thinking quickly, Konrad then lowered himself from the ledge and dangled down further. The smoke swirled around him, filling his vision, and from the smoke, unnatural sounds emanated. Metal scraping against metal, beams groaning, distant machinery shifting. He tried to ignore these as he reached out for the cable. Again, at first, the wires remained out of his reach, but Konrad stretched his arm, then his fingers until he eventually grabbed the writhing plastic tubing. With a satisfied groan, he coiled the wire around his arm and prepared to pull himself back up onto the partition but another sound sprang from the smoke. It was a cry for help.
Elsa spotted Konrad hesitating below her. ‘What is it?’
‘There’s someone down there,’ he replied.
The sound turned into a mewing voice. ‘Help me!’
A shadowy shape appeared in the smoke. It clung to the wall, climbing up the cables and pipes.
‘Here!’ Konrad shouted. ‘We’re up here.’
Ziegler shouted down with a sense of urgency. ‘Hurry up, Konrad! We don’t have time for this.’
Ignoring his comrade, Konrad leaned down to his very limit, his hand stretched wide open. The shadowy figure stretched out its own hand and grabbed Konrad’s. The hand’s grip was unnaturally strong, no doubt, in Konrad’s mind, amplified by the horrific situation. The hand was bandaged. A finger was missing.
‘Thank you,’ the figure said with a familiar voice. ‘Thank you.’
The figure finally emerged and Konrad’s heart sank. He had just saved Brutus. The Kapo smiled when he saw his saviour, and if he had any intention of being contrite or humble following his rescue, it was hard to see. The smile soon turned into his customary sneer. Konrad saw Elsa’s and Ziegler’s similar facial reactions as they too saw the Kapo climbing up to join them.
‘Come on, get this fucking hatch open!’ Brutus shouted at the prisoners. It was apparent the Kapo was back in charge.
‘Do as the good man orders,’ Ziegler said sarcastically to Konrad.
‘I’ll say it before you do, Zeigler. Why didn’t I listen to you and leave him to burn?’ Konrad muttered as he uncoiled the wire from his sweat-covered arm.
Ziegler had manoeuvred himself below the hatch and started to pull open a plastic fascia. ‘That’s why you’d never make a good Nazi.’ The fascia popped open and he smiled back at Konrad. ‘You’re too sentimental for your own good!’
Konrad plunged the cable inside and with a great shower of sparks the hatch sighed open to expose a brightly lit tunnel wall. The tunnel would have been a vertical companionway before the explosion, but now the horizontal tube offered the prisoners a welcome escape route. He hoisted himself inside cautiously and looked up and down the overturned tunnel. Like the shaft, smoke hung in the air, its thin wisps illuminated by a series of blue emergency bulbs which shimmered like welcoming fairy-lights. On the tunnel wall, which was now the ceiling above Konrad, a series of signs pointed to other areas of the vessel. The one that stood out was the one that read: MAIN AIRLOCK – COMMAND MODULE.
Konrad followed the sign’s photo-luminescent arrow and pointed the way to go.
Inside the bowels of the globe, Stahl headed towards the control room. He clambered through the inverted passageways, his movements calm and unhurried. Even though the ship was literally falling to pieces around him, Stahl seemed to ignore the blinding smoke as if the noxious flames were illusions in some virtual simulation. To reach safety, he had to first pass through the chamber that housed the most precious cargo aboard the Odin – the hibernating colonists.