Read Online Sedulity 2: Aftershock (Sedulity Saga) by David Forsyth - Free Book Online

previous night. The pain was proof that her nightmarish
memory of being sucked into the bowels of the ship by flooding had not been a
dream. Lydia offered a silent prayer for the poor souls who had not been
fortunate enough to live through the night, shuddering at the memory of
fighting her way up a flooded stairwell choked with dead bodies. Her depression
deepened when she pondered the fate of the rest of the world. The news had been
anything but good when she and her husband, Captain Krystos, crawled into bed a
few hours previously.
    Lydia wasn’t surprised that the bed next to her was empty now.
She knew that her husband would have gotten up as soon as he awoke, if he had
even been able to get any sleep at all. Although the situation aboard ship
seemed to have stabilized late last night, there were a million things in need
of prompt attention. The captain had a heavy burden to shoulder in the wake of
this disaster, not the least of which was the continued safety of the ship and
all aboard her. Lydia knew that her husband also harbored guilt for the
hundreds of lives already lost. She had struggled to convince him that none of
it was his fault, that he had saved many more lives by guiding the ship through
the blast wave and tsunamis in one piece, but she knew him too well to believe
that he could accept logical arguments over his grief and misplaced guilt. He
would be driven to prove himself worthy of command by shepherding the survivors
through this crisis. She was thankful that he had taken a short nap before
meeting the challenges that would face him today.
    Today? Lydia glanced at the clock and confirmed that it was
indeed morning. Well, it should be. Where she expected to see the glow of
sunrise beyond the balcony was only a dark and heavy downpour. Rain fell
incessantly as the ship rocked and shuddered to the beat of pounding swells. Lydia
pulled her sore body out of bed and took a few steps to the balcony window. The
view was not encouraging. Lights from the ship’s Resort Deck flooded down
towards the sea, but failed to do much more than illuminate the deluge of rain
descending in solid sheets from the sky. What little illumination reached sea
level only revealed the crests of waves streaming by faster than the ship was
moving. It was a major change of weather from the day before, totally unlike
the forecast she had seen prior to the asteroid strike, but nowhere near as
disturbing as the total absence of sunlight this morning. Lydia shivered as the
word apocalypse crept through her
mind.
    Was this the end of the world? If so, she didn’t want to face
it in her nightgown, let alone in bed. She moved stiffly to her wardrobe and
donned her foul weather gear. She knew that even the interior of the ship would
be wet today, considering how many windows had been broken and the extent of
the flooding. She had been dressed in her goddess of the sea costume and slathered
in makeup when disaster struck last night. Today she would prepare for the
worst, hope for the best, and try to help her husband display an image of
confidence and control. She knew how easily the passengers and even the crew
could lose hope in a situation like this. In fact, it was only her
determination to provide hope to others that kept Lydia from approaching the
abyss of despair herself.
    Before leaving the captain’s quarters she walked back to the
balcony and opened the sliding glass door. Hot rain drops and spray pelted her yellow
slicker and flew past her into the lavish stateroom. Ignoring the wind and
rain, Lydia stepped out onto the balcony. The strong wind was blowing from the
stern, instead of the bow. The rain was hotter than a shower where it splashed
on her exposed hands, which she raised to shield her eyes and stare back down
the length of the ship. What she saw was disturbing, to say the least. The
beautiful white hull and superstructure of the Sedulity was scorched black and even distorted in places. Half the
lifeboats were missing or