Through Glass Darkly: Episode Two Read Online Free Page B

get the patient specific details from Dr Zimmerman, and had then asked to speak to the Captain in order to direct us to the specific area of the hospital grounds where we could lower the cradles in order to transfer the men. Along the way it had also been decided by Platt that the rest of the search teams should also alight at the hospital for a quick check-up following their ordeal.
    I was half expecting I’d be forced to join the rest of the men for a check-up, but I wasn’t going to volunteer to join them, so when nobody asked me to go with them I just stayed at my post, and acted as though there were no reason for me to be anywhere else.
    The doctor also alighted with the men from the search teams in order to try and help out at the hospital in the treatment of the priority cases.
    Moments later and we were rising effortlessly back up into the heavens in order to head back to our temporary mooring in the park. Despite not having much experience at the helm, I couldn’t help but notice that the ship seemed to be far more responsive than it had been on our brief voyage down 7 th Avenue, which I commented on to the Captain as we flew.
     
    ‘I think you’re right Ashton,’ he replied almost absently. ‘Though the credit must go to Mr Hughes here and his engineer Mr Bradbury, who seems to be working wonders. There was a time when I felt certain the Khan was dead in the water, but now, it really feels as though she’s regained her old spark of life.’
    As we soared back up into the golden light that flooded the ship’s bridge with its warmth, it was difficult to imagine the Khan as anything other than a vibrant and living thing.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 21 – SUSPICIONS
     
    Getting back to the park and our temporary berth was the closest thing we had to a home at the moment, and once the ship was properly secured I realised that for the first time in almost a week I’d be able to spend the night aboard, in my own cabin and my own bunk, which oddly I’d started to miss.
    It was early evening by the time we got the ship secured with the engines off, by which time the light which had bathed the ship as we’d flown across the city had turned from golden to a deep orange. This made the park and surrounding buildings look even more beautiful than they had earlier on that morning when we’d left with the ill-fated search teams.
    In other circumstances the warm and summery dusk would’ve been relaxing, but there was a part of me which suspected things were far from resolved, so relaxation was simply not an option.
    Captain Platt had requested we all meet in the new command centre in the boat house next to the lake to fully debrief after the day’s activities, but he wanted a few minutes before-hand to check up on his injured men and no doubt to provide an initial update to his superiors. I suspected he’d also have a long evening of travelling around the city to visit the families of the dead men in order to inform them personally of the tragedy that had occurred. So while we waited I decided to have a walk around the small lake and enjoy the evening air.
    Hughes ran into me just as I was about to set off and asked if he might join me, which I was happy to agree to.
    We walked in silence for a moment or two, until as we passed one of the mooring hawsers from the ship, where he bent down to examine the end of it.
    It was one of the hawsers that appeared to have been cut incredibly cleanly, which he showed to me before speaking.
     
    ‘Still a perfect mirror finish,’ he indicated, running his thumb over the unnaturally smooth cable end.
    ‘I had one of my men go and have a look at the buildings on 7th Avenue where your ship had originally appeared over the city, and where several of the cables had fused with the concrete of the buildings.’
    ‘And what did he find?’ I asked with genuine curiosity.
    ‘Well it was a difficult job to get to some of the anchor points,’ Hughes replied, as