Read Online Sedulity (Book One) Impact by David Forsyth - Free Book Online

soon.
    ****
    After the Captain’s warning Lieutenant Reiner called to the
crew who were still fighting flames near the lifeboat muster stations. He
instructed them to ignore the flames and help or carry injured passengers back
into the more sheltered casino, where other surviving passenger were gathered.
Reiner wanted to save Staff Captain Stevens, but obeyed orders by dragging a
badly burned and overweight woman towards perceived safety. A final look at
Stevens convinced Reiner that the Staff Captain was probably beyond saving
anyway.
    Moments later the Sedulity hit the wave. Reiner was
knocked off his feet again and found himself and the woman he was dragging
thrown forward into the casino as massive amounts of seawater flooded into the
ship through the shattered windows of the Martini Bar. Then, as suddenly as the
water came, it retreated towards the stern of the ship and Reiner was rolling
back towards the Martini Bar. He caught a glimpse of Staff Captain Stevens, or
his body, flowing out one of the broken windows with the wave surge, destined
for a fitting burial at sea. Then he looked beyond those broken windows and saw
one of the lifeboats get torn from its damaged davit and swept away too.
    Lt. Reiner caught a handhold on the Martini Bar and pulled
himself up to stand at an odd angle. Others, passengers and crew alike, slid
past him, following the retreating water towards the stern where gravity and
inertia pulled them. He couldn’t understand it for several seconds, then he
looked out the shattered windows again and realized that the ship was climbing
an impossibly large wave. The face of the wave extended off into the distance,
wrapping over the horizon, which lengthened as the ship climbed higher and
higher.  It was a terrifying and awe inspiring sight, one that the Lieutenant
found difficult to comprehend. That the ship could even climb the face of a
wave like this was miraculous, but Reiner swiftly came to the shocking
realization that what went up must come back down. Once it crested the wave,
the ship would drop back into the trough.  He steeled himself to fight his way
back “up” into the casino, towards the screams of terrified passengers, to warn
them what to expect next.
    ****
    Kevin almost felt exhilarated as the ship climbed up the
wave. He stood at the back of the Bridge with one foot on the deck and another
on the aft bulkhead. It felt like he was in an old carnival fun-house, gazing
up, out the front windows at the crest of the wave and the star filled sky far
above.  It was hard to believe this was really happening, but all his senses
confirmed it. Glancing to the side, out the shattered windows of the Bridge
Wing, he saw the extent of the endless wave wrapping around in a gigantic arc.
It all happened in a few seconds and then they reached the crest of the wave.
    Kevin wasn’t sure what he had expected to see on the other
side, but nothing he could have imagined would have matched this sight. From
this commanding height he thought he could see all the way to the asteroid’s
glowing point of impact, although it was obscured by the solid column of
superheated steam that continued to shoot up into the stratosphere. No longer a
mushroom cloud, it had gone far beyond that. The massive steam cloud was
spreading almost as fast as the ocean wave and glowing streaks of molten
material were falling from it like a rain of fire in the night sky.  
    Kevin could discern the wide arc of the wave as they perched
briefly atop it and, worse, he could see at least two more monster waves
following this one. They were smaller, to be sure, but still towered hundreds
of feet high.   Between them were deep troughs. It was a classic sine wave
structure that Kevin should have expected. Yet it came as a shock to realize
that even after riding down the backside of this colossal wave, it would not be
over yet.
    “Dear God,” called out Mr. Crawford. “There’s more of them
coming!” This was met by groans and