QUOTE : Engine room fire alarm’?” Rusty said. There was a moment of confusion before it kicked in. “ENGINE ROOM FIRE ALARM?”<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />“What the hell is that sound?” Harvey Tharpe said, rubbing his eyes as he opened the cabin door.<br /><br />Being on this yacht was better than being on the lifeboat but not much. They were packed in like sardines. There was food but being woken up in the middle of the night by a blaring “Squeee! Squeee! ” was not his idea of fun.<br /><br />The former businessman had been “robust” before being cast adrift on a lifeboat in a zombie apocalypse. He still had his height and some solidity. So he was more than a bit surprised when the short, blonde skipper of the boat, wearing not much more than a camisole and panties smashed him out of the way like an NFL linebacker on her way aft.<br /><br />“MOVE PEOPLE!” the boat captain shouted, continuing to hammer her way through the crowd of refugees.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />“Fuck a freaking duck,” Sophia said, opening the door to the engine compartment. The smoke wasn’t so bad she needed a respirator but it was bad. And they were dead in the water. All the power except the shrieking alarm was out.<br /><br />She threw the main battery disconnect, then picked up one of the industrial fire extinguishers and played it over the exterior of the main breakers which were the source of the fire.<br /><br />“Skipper?” Paula said, picking another one up.<br /><br />“We need to get it open before we use them all up,” Sophia said, putting her hand on the extinguisher. “Get Rusty to get all the passengers up, out and on the sundeck.”<br /><br />She slid one hand into a rubber glove and popped open the main breaker panel. The whole thing was smoldering so she played the rest of the fire extinguisher over it until it was cold. A tick checker showed that the whole thing was electrically cold as well. Now if only the batteries hadn’t discharged their whole load into the panel and killed themselves as well.<br /><br />“What can I do, Skipper?” Patrick said groggily. The “engineer” was wearing not much more than the skipper.<br /><br />“Get a hand-held,” Sophia said. “See if there’s a sub in range. Tell them we had a major electrical fire. Fire is under control. No power at this time. May be repairable but we may need assistance. Don’t at this time but may. Got it? Do not call mayday or PON-PON. Do not.”<br /><br />“Got it, Skipper,” Patrick said.<br /><br />“And get these people the HELL OUT OF MY ENGINE COMPARTENT!