Chapter 3

I left late, around midnight, fortified by a few 'stor stark' not wanting to wait for the dawn. As I laid out my course I must have been somewhat inebriated as the next morning, me getting up, found me inside Estonian waters. That wasn't as dangerous as it once was when the Russians ruled, but it was still the wrong direction for me. As I came up after correcting my course I thought I saw something floating, and naturally curious as I am, I changed my course slightly taking it of 'automatic' to 'manual' to see what it was.

I know, it sounds almost like a car doesn't it, but that was the true strength of my system, making it possible for me to control my boat at all times. The weather had slowly started to change again, from being relatively windy to calm, and as I came closer I saw that it was some sort of inflatable mattress floating there. And as I came closer yet I realized that there was someone still lying on it.

I went up as close as I could winding in the sails and gliding up beside it I jumped in the water, having secured a thin but very strong line around my waist. You would be surprise how fast a boat can move even without sails, and the sight of it disappearing frankly scared the shit out of me, as well as the coldness of the water. As I got hold of the mattress I took it with me as I started to swim back. But I found that no matter how hard I swum the boat was moving faster dragging me with it.

At last I had to crawl up on the mattress holding the child, yes it was a child, against my body as I started to wind in the line roping it around me. I wished I had thought of an electric winch attached to it, and a button to press 'IN' but as it was it took me almost fifteen minutes until we were close enough to use the ladder. The only thing good with it was that the line now secured the child against my body, as I had winded it around both our bodies.

As I came down in the warmth of my cabin I freed her from the line and started to check for a pulse. She had been unconscious for the whole time and at first I thought that I had rescued a corpse. I got no life signs from her, no pulse at all, and it wasn't until I held a mirror against her mouth that I saw the weak signs of moisture proving that she still breathed,

Remembering the old lessons learned by those rescuing sailors in the Atlantic under the war I decided to just put a blanket over her stomach, letting its warmth slowly spread the warmed blood through the rest of her body. She had a full set of clothes on her which made no sense, considering the mattress she had been floating on.

I took of her wet dress and then went away to come back with a towel. After I had dried her I just sat there looking at her waiting and hoping. Yeah, the first signs of my downfall were already there.

I had put the boat back on 'Automatic' directly that I had come back, and as I sat there waiting 'Mine' was once more steering towards free water. As I checked for her pulse somewhat later she had at last gotten a very slow beat, thirty beats a minute as I counted, with her blue lips indicating that she had severe difficulties getting her oxygen.

I had bought a rather excessive first aid box, with a lot of extra equipment, and amongst them a smaller variant of an oxygen tube, similar to those the lifeguards have to be able to dive for longer stretches in rescue operations underwater.

I took it to her, opening it, and as the oxygen started to flow I put it close to her mouth hoping it would make it easier for her to breath, I don't know when I fell asleep but it was her crying that woke me up. As I turned on the cabin light I found her there, still unconscious, but crying in her sleep.

I didn't know what to do. Feeling helpless I checked her lips and they looked okay to me, and the temperature seemed more normal but with her breathing coming fast and shallow.

But taking her temperature I realized that she had a fever and also I could see that she was dehydrated so I got her some orange juice and a straw. I put the blanket over her again and then started to drop down the juice in her mouth using the straw. After a while her swallowing reflex started to function and she started to swallow a little.

She seemed semiconscious now, only partly aware of her surrounding with her eyes still closed, but as I sat her up in the bed I succeeded to get her to drink the glass, and as she started to shake and cry again I swept her in the blanket and laid myself beside her, putting one more over us both.

Then I remembered the boat and had to run up to double check the course. But 'Mine' was behaving as she should, and to be absolutely sure I decided to put her on 'Safe', increasing the radar range to get as early a warning that I could, just in case. Yeah, I felt jinxed, this was something totally outside my experience.

As I went down again I laid myself beside her with the extra blanket over us both cradling her little body in my arms. And I was scared, for the first time in my life I found myself caring for someone else than myself.

And I didn't like it a bit, frankly it scared the shit out of me knowing that she might die in my arms. I know, had I thought a little straighter I would have contacted the Swedish or Estonian authorities and they would have sent a helicopter or something, but as it was I didn't think at all.

Maybe it had a little to do with me too. I never had had that much trust in authorities, just about as much as they had in me, and somehow Estonia only made me think of ships sinking and gulags. As I realized where my errant imagination had brought me I decided that if she made the night I would go in to Copenhagen and try to leave her at a hospital, explaining her story in a nice letter, and then run as hell.

Hopefully I would escape before the cops arrived, although it had been a long time since I did that kind of stuff. And if she didn't? Well, to be honest, I didn't even want to think about that one.