Submerged, page 13
“Actually I need you to stay behind this time Theo, I think it’s time for me to go and meet Cyraeni if things are going to progress between our peoples.” Anna replied. Theo opened his mouth to reply but no sound came out and he eventually closed it again with a simple nod.
“Alright then, until tomorrow people.”
26
“Pass me the screwdriver Cal?” Charlie asked, holding the piece of the transmitter that was loose in one hand and holding out the other for the tool she needed.
“Here,” Cal replied, pressing the screwdriver into her hand and leaning on her shoulders to drop a kiss on her hair. “Need a hand?”
“No, I don’t need an engineer's training to tighten some screws,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
In the three months since they had seen their friend killed, Charlie and Callum had adjusted remarkably well to life in Atlantis. After Theo and Jamal had left to return Ria’s body to the surface, Cyraeni had offered them the chance to remain in Atlantis, to educate the people there about the surface, their history and what had happened to cause the climate disaster.
It hadn’t taken much deliberation for both of them to accept her generous offer. And then, a few weeks later, Anna Kershov arrived with the Rodriguez twins and a giant pile of radio equipment.
With Cyraeni’s permission they had built a transmitter out on the first beach where Charlie had met Kaerius and started this whole insane roller coaster in motion. Anna had stepped in to treaty with Cyraeni but unfortunately it hadn’t gotten Charlie herself off the hook. Cyraeni liked her apparently and only agreed to work with Anna if Charlie attended the meetings as well. Cal and Kaery had shared a laugh at the lagoon over that one when Charlie vented her frustrations to them during an afternoon swim.
“They’ll make a politician out of you yet Char,” Cal had said, earning himself a massive splash in the face.
Cyraeni had moved them out of the spire and given Cal and Charlie a small home of their own tucked away on a random side street within just a few minutes walk of the lagoon, something she was sure Kaerius had a hand in.
It had taken a little while to adjust to being able to just go to the market and get their food for nothing, but they soon learned the barter system in place in Atlantis that allowed for trade of more abstract things. Cyraeni made sure they had everything they needed to furnish their new home, but it was all very plain beige and white fabrics for the curtains, blankets, pillows, et cetera. Until Charlie met a young Atlantean mother who wanted her child to learn English and was also skilled at fabric dying, they had negotiated a deal which resulted in Charlie spending a few hours a week teaching the young girl English and in exchange, her mother had brightly coloured anything Charlie passed on to her.
That first tutoring session had ballooned out into a whole group of Atlantean children by now, putting Charlie on the path to being a teacher as well as reluctant political wrangler.
Cal in the meantime had leant his engineering skills to the community. It started when he attracted a crowd whilst building an awning on the front and side of the house as well as a small deck at the back. It wasn’t so much that they had never seen such structures as much as his building techniques being different than any the Atlanteans had seen before.
After the attention he had drawn, Kaerius came by one day and told them Cyraeni was interested in having him share those skills with her own engineers, and maybe he would learn something in the meantime? Cal had agreed immediately, eager to share his knowledge and have something to do while Charlie was teaching the kids English.
In the afternoons when they weren’t working with the community or on the house, they spent an inordinate amount of time swimming in the lagoon, something Charlie never got sick of. Kaery came with them most days, at first she wondered how he got so much time off his duties working for Cyraeni, but it quickly became clear that the Atlanteans highly valued leisure time and relaxation.
"Did you get it?” Cal asked, peering over her shoulder.
“Yes, I’ve got it,” she replied. “Told you I didn’t need engineering training.” Charlie brushed her hands together with satisfaction. “Although maybe we should come out here more often to check on this thing, it is pretty jerry-rigged, and this isn’t the first repair we’ve done to a piece that was practically falling off.”
“Agreed. It’s just such a pain and that sub is full of nothing but bad memories,” Cal replied.
“Well if you could breathe underwater you wouldn’t need it, “ Kaerius said from just off the shore, smirking at them.
“Yeah I’ll just sprout gils Kaery, that’ll work,” Cal replied with a chuckle as he rolled his eyes.
“It is not my fault that I am the superior species,” Kaerius replied from the water. Cal glanced at Charlie for a moment, and then took off running towards the shore, launching himself off the sand and slicing cleanly into the water.
Kaerius dove under as soon as Cal started running, flittering away and surfacing at the same time as Cal, splashing his friend and laughing before disappearing below the surface of the water again.
Charlie watched the juvenile display of the two friends with a fond smile on her face. She sank down into the sand and crossed her legs, glancing up at the blinking lights on the radio transmitter. They had a little time to kill before they were relieved by the next shift who monitored the radio for communications, and then Charlie was required at a meeting with Cyraeni, Anna and Erwyna. She intended to enjoy the quiet time on the beach as much as possible.
She thought back over everything it had taken to get them here, and then ahead to everything they still had yet to achieve. They were so far from their goal still, sure they had provided some food and plant samples for the surface. They had begun negotiations for further treaties, even exchanges of larger groups of colonists and Atlanteans might be in the works. Anna had spent far too much time here though, and she was sure her uncle was planning a coup on the surface and that was something none of them needed. In the meantime, Marinus attended fewer and fewer meetings and sessions of the Atlantean governing council, a fact that a worried Cyraeni had confided in Charlie holding her in the utmost confidence to say nothing to anyone just yet.
Three years ago she had stood in the United Governing Council chamber on the surface, listening to her colleagues bicker about how to keep the last remnants of their civilization alive. She had jumped at the chance to pilot an experimental craft into the unknown and it had led to more wonders than any of them could have imagined, but it had also opened the door to so many more problems not to mention the death of a beloved friend.
Charlie watched Cal, her teammate turned friend and then lover, goof off in the water with Kaerius, the confidant and friend she never knew she needed but couldn’t imagine her life without, and wondered how long this peacefulness would last and just what was waiting for them around the next corner.
Until then, she resolved to enjoy what they had, and stood from the sand and took off at a run, diving into the water and swimming to the where her boys were so engrossed in splashing each other they didn’t even see her coming until it was too late. She paddled quietly up to them and ambushed them both with a massive splash to the face. They turned on her, and quickly ganged up, forgetting their earlier feud.
Due to their laughter, the three friends missed the pinging of the radio transmitter trying to get a message through, eventually heading back to Atlantis and back to their respective lives.
* * *
Charlie, Kaerius and Cal will return in 2023
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emerald is a Nova Scotian author of many different story types and genres. When she’s not writing she can be found baking, reading, homeschooling her kids and trying out pretty much every craft under the sun. Follow her blog full of book release updates, and a lot of pictures of food.
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