Tom Brand Escapes

7-Escapes NJ

Except for the glow from the disk, there was no light, no power. With no moon, it was barely possible to see his hand in front of his face. Brand checked his phone, his watch. Even those were dead, the good they would do him in the middle of the ocean. He felt woefully unprepared, even with Petras there. It was as if there was a blank spot in this mission, something he should have recognized but missed. It was rare for him to feel this way but Brand felt in over his head.

Kate was immediately, silently, in motion. She quickly and efficiently opened an overhead storage drawer and gave each of them a flashlight and a life jacket, as if she had trained her whole life for a strange object to land on her boat and prompt an evacuation. She then pulled from the storage seating a large black bag and sat it on the deck. As Brand and Leah put their life jackets on, Petras crouched on his haunches to more closely inspect the disk. He continued to stare at it, as its light slowly blinked and crept toward its center.

"Amazing," Petras stroked his chin, "Light enough to fly; able to transform from a seemingly solid to liquid to solid state; capability to interfere with communication and actuate explosive materials. Amazing."

"So you definitely think it will explode?" Leah asked.

"Of course," he said, "Judging by the rate of the light, we have about four minutes. Amazing."

"Petras," Brand said, "if you could stop geeking out about it for a moment - is any way to disarm it?"

"No, Tom. In fact, I think if I were to attempt it, it would explode immediately. There is not so much as a seam on it. The light looks liquid. See how as it spreads, it contacts the next section and lights it? It must use some kind of hybrid soft robotic and chemical nano-technology. Its metamorphosis reminded me of something I've seen done in human tissue repair, but this is on a much larger scale and very advanced."

Brand nodded. While he appreciated technology, he was more concerned with its applications when he could use it, not when it was about to blow him up.

"We should also address the fact that we have no way to communicate our current situation."

"True. Kate, what's the status of the VHF?" Petras asked her.

"It's dead. Even the battery backup doesn't work. I don't understand that," Kate said. She pulled out a line from the bag and tied it to the boat. She then threw the bag overboard. After it floated out a few yards she pulled the line in, releasing the emergency raft.

"The flashlights work," Leah noted.

"It's likely that when the electronics got toasted by that signal, any power source near them was damaged. If that's the case, then it's possible that anything that was off at the time is fine. Then again, a flashlight is just a simple circuit. There aren't any complicated electronics involved."

"I have an EPIRB. I'll activate it when we're all on the raft. Hopefully you're right, Petras, because if whatever that thing is fried my beacon, too, we are S.O.L. Even if it didn't, the range is only four miles," Kate said.

Brand looked out at the ocean. Lights from other vessels blinked on the horizon.

"Do you think we're close enough to them?" Leah asked Brand.

"Let's hope so. We need to go. Now."

Petras was first over the rail and helped Leah into the raft. Although Kate insisted that she leave the boat last, Brand insisted that she go ahead of him. She relented quickly when the light from the disk turned red. Brand then jumped over the rail onto the raft and cut them free. Petras immediately began to paddle them away.

Kate went to activate the beacon but Brand stopped her.

"Just wait a little bit. If the disk is still sending out a signal, it may destroy it."

With the hood of the raft around them, they could not see what was happening, but there was now a glow coming from the direction of the yacht. It was on fire. They were about fifty yards out when they heard a loud pop, like a large balloon bursting. Several smaller ones in rapid succession, like firecrackers, followed a second, louder pop. There were splashes in the water as pieces broke away from the vessel.

Petras and Brand began to paddle faster.

"Damn-it, that was such a nice craft," Kate reached her hand into the air, stroking it. She seemed to be looking at the glow through her fingers. She turned to Petras, "You owe me a boat."

"I'll see what I can do," Petras said.

They paddled a little further. There were no more sounds from the boat but the glow had grown brighter. Petras stopped again and wiped his face with his shirtsleeve.

"I think we can safely take a look," he said.

Brand unhooked the hood side closest to him and pulled it back.

Where they had been standing on the yacht was completely engulfed. Flames lapped along the sides of the stairs, rapidly climbing up toward the cockpit.

"At least it might help someone spot us if this doesn't work."

Kate pulled the small beacon from her vest and clipped it to a lanyard around her neck. Its small white light began to blink rhythmically.

"Yes, whew. That's a relief. Let's hope someone picks up the signal."

"Are we far enough away from the yacht?" Leah asked. She sat at the furthest edge from where they had opened the flap and did not seem interested in taking a look.

"I think so," Petras said, "But there's no harm in getting a little more distance."

As he and Brand touched their paddles back to the water Kate said, "That's strange. The hull is glowing the same blue color as the disk."

Brand looked at the boat again. It did appear to be glowing. Then its hull pulsed once and bulged slightly outwards.

The explosion was terrific. White flame shot upwards and the vessel splintered into pieces. The shock hit the raft and capsized it. Brand surfaced first, followed by Kate and Petras. The three looked around. Leah did not surface. Brand dove under the raft and came up underneath it. Leah was clinging inside of it.

"You all right?" he asked her. She nodded but she was shivering. While the water was not frigid it was cold enough that none of them would do well to be in it for too long.

A few seconds later Kate and Petras were next to them. Above their heads a sound like rain began hitting the raft. It grew louder.

"We should try to swim the raft as far away as possible before we flip it," Kate said, "The entire boat is falling from the sky in little splintered shards. Hopefully, nothing damages the raft."

Brand joined them, pressing his shoulder against the raft and swimming, floating it as far away from the scene of the explosion as they could. After a few minutes the pattering of debris lessened and then finally stopped.

"I thought the fire would at least draw someone's attention. Now there's nothing left to spot, other than this raft," Kate said.

"But someone must have seen that explosion," said Leah, "and we still have a chance with the beacon."

They floated along in a stunned silence, and Brand watched them as the reality of being in the water in the middle of the ocean slowly dawned on each of their faces. The only sound was the sound of the ocean as it lapped against the side of the raft. Then, from a distance, a sound reached into the cocoon of the raft. It grew louder. Brand swam out from underneath the raft. It was the sound of a motor, a boat's motor, approaching fast.

Petras, Kate and Leah popped up in turn beside him.

"That was fast," Kate said, smiling.

"Yes, it was," Petras said, frowning.

"Too fast," Brand said.