Mesler nodded. ‘It looks that way, Admiral. At least, we still have power from the batteries. We can draw power for what systems we have left from them for a few days. After that…’
‘In that case, you’ll have to power up that reactor as soon as possible. Make that your number one priority, Mesler. Without power we can’t run the heaters. Without power we can’t run the atmosphere processors. Without power we’re all dead men,’ Bauer said as a bolt of pain shot through him.
‘I’ll stay and find Doctor Blomberg. He needs to look at your arm,’ a concerned Mesler said.
‘No,’ Bauer growled. ‘If he’s still alive, let him help the crew first. I can wait. Just you power up that damned reactor. Go!’
But despite the orders, Mesler still hesitated. He could clearly see the pain etched upon the Admiral’s face.
‘Do as I say!’ the Admiral insisted through gritted teeth.
This time Mesler obeyed.
Deep within the bowels of the module, wreckage, both human and mechanical, filled every chamber. The main airlock was no exception. A carpet of human debris had buried Konrad after the crash, and like Admiral Bauer, it had been the taste of blood that had drew him to his senses. In this case, the blood belonged to the dead bodies. In the moments that followed the module’s abrupt arrival upon Vanaheim, unlike the chaos of the control room, silence ruled the airlock. All Konrad remembered as he clawed his way out from under the dead prisoners was the thunderous sound of his own breathing as he struggled to disentangle himself from the arms and legs. All around him, the emergency lighting flickered on and off. Deep, forbidding shadows danced amongst the wreckage, distorting the jagged shapes into nightmarish images. The crash had fused metal, flesh, blood and oil together.
As Konrad wondered through this macabre diorama, his thoughts soon turned towards locating Elsa. He wiped the foreign blood from his face and slowly started to roll the bodies over looking for his friend. He exposed motionless faces, some miraculously intact, some smashed beyond recognition, but none, thankfully, belonged to Elsa. His search was eventually interrupted by a groan from the shadows.
Konrad headed straight to its source. He stepped over the buckled decking, smashed helmets and shredded space-suits and found a body wedged within the landing-struts of one of the intact space-craft. More groans emanated from the body as it shifted in the shadows, its movements painful and stiff. Konrad leaned in and pulled the moaning body out to reveal it to be Ziegler.
‘Have you seen Elsa?’ Konrad immediately asked.
Ziegler, his mind inevitably focussed upon his own safety and well-being, checked his face and limbs for any injuries. ‘I’m fine, Konrad, thank you for asking,’ he sarcastically said. ‘Your compassion for your fellow man is most gratifying.’
‘You obviously survived with all your faculties intact,’ Konrad replied. ‘That being the case, you can now get up off your arse and you can help me find Elsa.’ He helped his fellow prisoner to his feet.
Ziegler looked around the airlock. His blood froze at the sight of the devastation. It was a miracle that he survived, let alone anybody else. ‘Konrad, you’d do well to forget about that female. She’s probably dead along with all these others.’
Konrad scowled at his companion. ‘I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.’
‘And so will I,’ Elsa said as she suddenly appeared from the debris.
Konrad embraced her like a husband seeing his wife after a long journey. She clung tightly to him, as if reluctant to let him go.
‘I must have bounced off every wall before I came to a rest,’ Elsa said with a weary note. ‘I ended up on the far side next to Klein here.’ She gestured to the prisoner next to her. The middle-aged prisoner smiled at his new companions. ‘We then heard Ziegler here bleating like a lamb. Any idea what happened?’ she asked.
Konrad shook his head. ‘All I know is that we’ve come to a rest. Where, god only knows.’
‘Perhaps it’s Hell,’ Zeigler said.
‘It’s possible, but I can’t imagine Hell being any worse than this!’ Konrad nodded.
‘I wonder what happened to the rest of the ship.’ Klein said. ‘That was some explosion that hit us. It’s a wonder anybody survived.’
‘Perhaps it’s still up there in orbit,’ Elsa added.
‘I don’t think so,’ Konrad said. ‘I imagine that the module we’re inside is some sort of elaborate lifeboat.’
‘In that case, what happened to all the Nazis?’ Elsa then asked. ‘Are they all dead too?’
The prisoners all looked at one another, daring not to utter their hope that Elsa’s statement was true.
‘I suppose there’s only way to find out.’ Konrad turned his gaze towards the airlock’s exit. He then turned to Ziegler. ‘Let’s go.’
Ziegler rolled his eyes in frustration. ‘I just knew you were going to ask me to come. Why not leave me here to look after these waif and strays. That would be the gallant thing to do before we find out if we’re alone in this god-forsaken ship on some god-forsaken planet lights years from Germany.’
‘You’re coming with me,’ Konrad insisted. ‘Do you really think I’m going out there into the wreck on my own? I need you to hold my hand,’ he said sarcastically.
Ziegler huffed like a petulant child as he stooped and picked up a rod of metal as a makeshift weapon. ‘Come on then, if we’re going.’
Konrad patted Ziegler on the shoulder. ‘Just think of our expedition as another proud chapter in the military history of the Third Reich.’ He pushed on with Ziegler following close behind, whose lack of enthusiasm was embarrassingly apparent.
They stepped before the buckled hatchway and peered into the dark passageway beyond. Once again, only silence drifted from the corridor, but along with the airlock it had returned to its proper upright orientation. Using the metal bar that Zeigler had brought along, together they heaved the hatch to one side. Konrad stepped into the corridor first, followed by his reluctant comrade.
‘Hello!’ Konrad shouted.
Ziegler restrained his companion. ‘Be careful!’ His voice, unlike Konrad’s stayed at the level of a whisper. ‘Anything could be waiting for us down here.’
‘I thought you of all people wouldn’t be bewitched by a fear of the dark.’
‘You’d be surprised of what scares me, my friend. There’s a very good reason why we humans have been blessed with a fear of the night and the darkness. You’d do well to heed that instinct too, Konrad.’
‘Perhaps I should have asked Elsa to accompany me,’ Konrad said. ‘If I knew you were that superstitious, I would have…’ He suddenly stopped.
What is it?’ Ziegler also felt Konrad’s unease. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘I don’t think we’re alone.’
‘You’re not!’ a voice suddenly cried.
At that second the module’s lighting system flickered into life. The light exposed Mesler standing in the corridor, his gun drawn and aimed at the two prisoners.
‘I told you we should have stayed in the airlock,’ Ziegler muttered.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Stahl drifted into the control room and sat like a robot amongst the debris. His thoughts and actions so far merely served to bring him back from the hibernation chamber to safety. And as his thoughts returned to some sort of equilibrium, he began to wonder why the entity he had encountered had taken such a keen interest in the colonists, and in particular, him. He looked at his injured hand. At the centre of his palm, right where the ribbon of energy had touched him, was a small circular blister. A ring of angry blood vessels encircled the wound and, at first, Stahl was reluctant to touch it, but he soon overcame his trepidation and gently pressed the soft mound of burnt flesh. He expected a sharp pain to follow, but there was no pain at all, instead, a strange sense of pleasure took hold of him as if he had taken a powerful narcotic. This unexpected reaction made him think that perhaps, in his mind, he had been blessed by the strange entity. It was a powerful conclusion to make, and the Nazi became even more convinced as he fingered the wound once again. He continued to ponder this as he closed his hand and rose from the deck.