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both the bodies down below. They’ve set up a makeshift morgue in one of the store rooms, one of those ones that are always cold because they’re below the water line and the heating never seems to work properly.”
    “How did they get them down there without being seen?”
    “I don’t think they worried about it Jake. There are hundreds of people dead. The captain and Johnny were just another couple of anonymous bodies wrapped in sheets and carried down below.”
    They walked in silence, reached the stairs, and began to climb.

Seventeen

    MAX GREETED THEM at the door, let them inside, closed and locked it behind them. Silvia had already returned with Martin, who nodded once at Jake. Everyone assembled around the map table. Jake felt all eyes were on him.
    “Right, so, erm,”
    “Jake, we’re your friends, we have every confidence in you,” Silvia said kindly.
    “Yes, yes of course, thank you Silvia. Okay, first things first, what is the state of this ship, Martin?”
    “I’ve got a couple of guys in the funnel, they’re clearing out the ash. It’s a slow job, they’re having to scoop it out with their bare hands, we don’t have the equipment to get in there and do it any quicker, our machines are just too big to get into that sort of space.”
    Silvia perked up. “Would a couple of vacuum cleaners from housekeeping help?” Her face fell again. “Oh, but there’s no electricity.”
    “No, you’re right, that’s not a bad idea Silvia. We have a few portable generators knocking around in the engine room, we could run them off those. What sort of size are we talking about? It’a a pretty tiny space.”
    “They’re about so big,” Silvia indicated the dimensions with her hands.
    “Perfect! They can get those down there, that will really save some time.”
    “Okay, so with the cleaners, how long before we can get the generator working?” Jake asked.
    “Maybe four hours? But it would make sense to clean out the exhaust for the main engine at the same time. If we start the main generator the guys are going to have to work around the hot exhaust for that, it will make the job ten times harder.”
    “So how long to clean them both?”
    “Well,” Martin pondered the question, drumming his fingers on the steel table top. “At a push we could do it in six hours, seven tops.”
    “Alright, push as hard as you can, we have to get power back as a priority. Once we do, how long can we keep the generator going?”
    “If we don’t start the main engines, and depending on which services we keep running, we’re okay for at least ten days.”
    “Right, services.” Jake paused and thought. “We need light, the passengers are really unhappy about that.”
    Silvia and Max nodded in agreement.
    “We’re going to need heat too,” Lucya said. “I’m not the only one who noticed how cold it’s getting on board, right?”
    “Yes, heat. But the minimum, Keep the temperature at sixteen degrees at the most. We’ll tell people to wear more clothes if they’re cold.”
    “Fifteen,” Max interjected. “Fifteen degrees. That’s more than enough.”
    “Okay, fifteen. But no hot water. I just took a cold shower and I feel better for it. Hot water is a luxury we can do without.”
    “Water is a whole other question,” Martin said. He was met with questioning looks from around the table. “Desalination? You all know we get our water from the sea, don’t you?”
    It was clear that this was news to everyone except Jake.
    “I thought it came out of the tanks?” Silvia asked. “We fill up tanks at every port, don’t we?”
    “Sure, but that’s really a backup supply. We use it when docked because water in the ports tends to be full of diesel and other crap,” Martin explained. “As soon as we’re a couple of miles out, we switch to water from the desalination plant. The tanks would never be enough to supply a ship this size.”
    “And the plant runs of electricity from the generator,” Jake