Submerged, page 6
The most bizarre and yet amazingly beautiful city stretched out before them, the population of underwater people milling about everywhere, those closest stopping to stare at the sub. Charlie wasn’t sure when she had stood from her chair, but she was quickly surrounded by the rest of the crew, pressing their faces as close to the glass as they could to get a better look. Even Uncle Theo was speechless.
What looked like overgrown stalagmites stood taller than everything else, but covered with doorways, windows and other openings. Scattered in between were smaller buildings, carved out of what looked like sand or limestone. The walls weren’t smooth however, they were covered in intricate patterns, whorls and swirls that spread across the surface of each one, but none were quite the same. Most of the structures seemed to continue down below the water and the only vehicles they could see were raft type boats tied up all over.
Everything was lit with a green glow, the sand and buildings glittering in every direction, above them stalactites hanging from the stone ceiling, wrapped in more bioluminescent vines.
Somehow even more impressive than all of that was the plant life. It grew seemingly everywhere, the larger buildings covered with moss, and at the edge of the buildings were cultivated fields of some sort of tall stick-like plant that Charlie couldn’t identify. Ria was going to have a field day down here. There were large half-submerged square fields that could be rice paddies, again Charlie wasn’t sure. Tall seaweed wafted in the water all around where they had bobbed out of the water and everywhere else, along every beach and surface area, down into the depths below the city.
“Holy shit,” Charlie said finally, struggling to take it all in. “It doesn’t look real. What are the chances we’re all having a mass hallucination?”
“So you guys all see that too right?” Cal replied. “It’s not just my brain desperately making up amazing sights after so much awful?”
“No, it’s definitely there, I’m still not sure I believe it though,” Jamal chimed in with his own disbelief.
They all jumped when a light tapping sounded from outside the sub.
Kaerius must be knocking on the hull.
“Well I guess we should get out and look around,” she said, turning towards the bewildered faces of her colleagues.
“After you m’lady,” Cal said with a sweeping hand gesture that was ridiculous but had the added effect of clearing a path for her through the crush of bodies crowded around the viewscreen. She made her way to the hatch and cranked it open before hauling herself out to climb down the ladder.
Outside, Kaerius had pulled one of the rafts over to the edge of their craft and was bobbing in the water next to it holding a rope. Charlie was about to let him know that they could in fact swim when she thought better of it. Maybe don’t want to go wander around a foreign city soaking wet.
One by one they climbed down the ladder and stepped gingerly onto what was basically just a floating rectangle, but it seemed sturdy enough even if it did tip slightly when Theo stepped on. Ria came last and Jamal reached out for her hand. Despite his help, she still stumbled on the dismount right into his arms. They’re not obvious at all, Charlie thought, smiling. She was happy for them, god knew they all deserved some happiness in their lives.
Though Kaerius towed them slowly they still had to cling to each other for balance as they made their way towards the shore. There was nothing to hold onto except tall sticks that sat in holders on each side. They didn’t appear to be for balance though as they weren’t stable, more likely they were used by someone on the raft to push it along like a gondola.
Eventually they bumped up against the sand, and despite everyone’s stumble, they all managed to stay upright. They disembarked one by one and stared in awe up at the towering city around them. Kaerius spread his arms out, webbed fingers outstretched.
“Atlantis.”
12
Anna Kershov paced the long hall between her office and the meeting rooms of the UGC. It had been several weeks since Theodore Harris, Charlie McIntyre and the rest had gone under and they hadn’t heard anything beyond the initial all ok message once they had reached the designated dive depth.
She wasn’t expecting to hear from them specifically, but each day that passed weighed heavier on her mind and soul. Have I sent them to their deaths? Another set of footsteps joined her own, a set so familiar by now she didn’t have to turn around to see who it was. She struggled to hold in a sigh.
It wasn’t so much that she didn’t like Mrs. Noble, just that she didn’t have the answers the woman wanted. But that didn’t seem to stop her from coming back day after day after day to ask them. Maybe Anna herself would have behaved the same way—she’d never had any children so she had no way to relate to the other woman’s constant fear and worry.
She released the aforementioned sigh as quietly as possible and turned on her low heel. “Mrs. Noble,” she began.
“Please, it’s Tanis.”
“Okay, Tanis—”
“Have you heard anything? Anything at all?” The shorter woman cut her off before she could say anything, unsurprisingly with the same question she asked every time.
“Tanis, I’m sorry, but as I have assured you repeatedly, if I hear from them I will call you.” Anna did her best to keep her voice level and calm—she wasn’t angry with Ria’s mother, just frustrated at the constant reminders of how little progress the mission had made.
“I’m sorry Ms. Kershov, I know I’m being a bother and I should just stay home and tend to the children, but Ria was just so scared before they left…” She trailed off as her wide eyes filled tears.
Anna’s expression softened—she may not have had her own children but everyone had family, and everyone was afraid nowadays.
“It’s Anna,” she said softly, placing a hand on Tanis’ arm. “And you’re not a bother, I understand you’re scared, we all are. I promise you if I hear anything you’ll be the first to know, well probably the second. I should really call the Council first.” She smiled and Tanis returned it with a watery one of her own, covering the leader’s hand with hers.
“Thank you Anna.” The two women stood for a long moment in the hallway. They were among the oldest surviving members of their colony, from two totally different walks of life but right now in this moment they were intrinsically linked through the unknown fate of five people, a fate that would determine the future of humanity.
Thundering footsteps approaching broke the spell, they let go of each other just as a remarkably similar looking pair of young people came barreling around the corner.
“Excuse me Tanis,” Anna said, inclining her head towards the approaching Rodriguez twins.
“Of course, I’ll get out of your hair, lots to do at home anyways,” Tanis replied, scurrying out of the way and off down the hall.
Camila and Matias skidded to a stop in front of Anna. “Ms. Kershov,” Camila began, but broke off due to panting for oxygen. Her brother held up a finger from his position bent over and leaning on his knees also gasping for air.
“Tell me you two weren’t running outside?” Anna asked, incredulous. It was hard enough to breathe while walking outside with the atmosphere as polluted as it was, running was out of the question unless the person doing the running was currently on fire and had to run for water. It was about the only viable reason, and since neither twin appeared to be on fire, she was flabbergasted as to why they would do that to their lungs.
“What is it, is something wrong with the other project?” she asked, anxiety bubbling up hot and fierce in her throat.
“It’s—” Mattias tried first but couldn’t finish, but thankfully his sister was there to finish the sentence for him.
“—the beacon.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yes ma’am,” Mattias replied, finally able to stand up and take in a deep lungful of clean filtered indoor air.
“And there’s a message—from the team,” Camila added.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Anna asked, and the three of them took off at a jog towards the radio tower building that housed the receiver.
It’s a shame I’m going to have to break my promise to Tanis so soon.
13
The sand around them glittered green and gold, bright enough that Callum squinted against it after weeks inside the dim interior of the sub. The city rose up around them, but that was hardly the most amazing sight—as they disembarked from the little raft a school of vibrantly coloured fish fluttered by just under the surface of the water. A whole school, such as they had only seen in books and on old documentary videos. By the time Cal, Charlie and the rest of the young members of the crew had been born, there was nothing like that left in the open ocean—or so they’d thought.
Kaerius pulled himself smoothly out of the water, seeming completely at home both on and off the shore. He padded barefoot across the beach, webbed feet leaving wide flat prints as he did. He approached Charlie, and Cal watched in fascination as they communicated with a mixture of hand signals and rudimentary English, until she turned to the rest of the group and explained.
“He wants us to go up there.” She gestured to the tallest of the spire-like buildings jutting up around them. “I think we’re going to meet some people, probably a ‘take me to your leader’ situation.”
“Sounds good,” Cal said, stepping up to stand beside Charlie and resting his hand on her shoulder, lending his support. It had the added effect of preventing Theo from muscling his way to the front of the line. He may have the most life experience and political clout—on the surface anyway—but he was clearly not the diplomat that Charlie was, and Cal wasn’t keen to get speared by some angry ocean dwellers when Theo insulted their leaders.
Thankfully, Theo seemed to realize that his brand of obnoxious bullying was not going to work with people he couldn’t communicate with and hung back, choosing to quietly converse with Jamal instead.
Kaerius led them off the beach and onto a well-trod path that led into the heart of the city. Ria hung back, glued as usual to Jamal’s side at the back of the group, as far from the strangers and the unfamiliar as she could get. Their group was effectively split in two, Charlie, Cal and Kaerius and then Theo, Jamal and Ria. The divide was not lost on Cal and he wondered how much deeper it would become the longer they spent down here, separated from everything they knew.
The further into the city they got, the more the buildings and architecture fascinated Cal. The smaller buildings were covered in intricate carvings, with symbols like letters he didn’t recognize over the doorways. He wondered if those were family names, or a religious blessing, before his attention was redirected to the sandstone steps that wrapped around the outside of the larger spires. They walked up and around for a long time, high enough that Cal stopped being comfortable looking down and tried to lean as close to the building side as he could.
Despite being distracted by the height and precariousness, he couldn’t help but notice other details. Every doorway and window opening they passed was open—there were no doors, no curtains, no barriers of any kind. Including no railings on the increasingly high spiral staircase.
Eventually, much to Cal’s relief, Kaerius pivoted and stepped through one of the open doorways, leading them into a large circular room. It looked like a throne room from an old fantasy novel, huge and round, with multicoloured fabric wall hangings in between the open windows. On the far side of the room two steps spanned the entire width in an inverse semi circle to the curve of the outer walls, effectively turning one quarter of the space into a giant raised platform with a large sandstone carved chair in the center.
There were several people arranged on the dais, one on the throne of course and one more on each side. Two were clearly female, including the one who was obviously the leader and the third was a shorter, younger looking male, who’s webbed hand gripped the back of the older woman’s chair tightly.
Kaerius took Charlie by the elbow and led her forward to stand with him right at the base of the wide steps. He held out an open hand to indicate the woman on the throne and uttered one word. “Cyraeni.”
“Cyraeni,” Charlie repeated. “She’s your leader?” She turned to Kaerius again and tipped her head to the side, a gesture Cal had seen only too often when she was curious but pretty sure she was right on the money.
“Lea-der?” Kaerius asked, mimicking Charlie’s head tilt. Cal wondered whether he had picked up the gesture from her, or if they were that attuned to each other after just a minimal conversation.
“Yes, she leads you?” Charlie combined this question with a series of hand gestures, placing one hand above the other, he assumed to indicate hierarchy. Kaerius burbled something they didn’t understand but repeated Charlie’s yes hand signal. He then pointed to the other two around Cyraeni.
“Aenon,” he said, in reference to the boy. “Of Cyraeni.” Cal didn’t need a translation for that, Aenon must’ve been Cyraeni’s child. And then the other woman. “Erwyna.”
Kaerius then placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and spoke her name in his stilted way before nodding to her and then at the others.
She smiled and turned to the rest of them, indicating each one after the other, slowly intoning their names. “Theo, Callum, Ria, Jamal.”
Cal raised his hand when she spoke his name, waving at the group assembled on the stage. Theo, somewhat predictably, scowled. Jamal looked at his feet and Ria leaned into her partner’s side, shrinking into herself in her anxiety.
Poor girl, Cal thought, she shouldn’t be down here, she’s the bravest of all of us.
14
Anna arrived breathless at the old radio station, her lungs and throat burning from the toxic air outside. So much for the wisdom of age, she thought sardonically. The very behaviours she had just internally berated the young Rodriguez twins she had gone on to emulate only minutes later. The hacking behind her alerted her to the fact that the twins had followed in her hurried footsteps and were now paying the price.
She stumbled over to a small bar-sized fridge they kept stocked in the station so that it could be manned twenty-four-seven after the sub went down, and pulled out two bottles of twice-filtered water. Camila reached for both, almost yanking them from her leaders hands and thrust one at her brother before opening and chugging back half of her own in one long desperate glug to relieve the white hot pain from breathing too much of the atmosphere outside too fast.
Anna pulled a third bottle and took a long swig of her own before taking a deep breath of freshly recirculated air. They were much safer from the pollution while inside the remaining maintained buildings that were equipped with large air exchangers and filters that removed all the toxins.
The cool liquid splashed down her throat, offering a sweet, delicious reprieve. She cocked her head back straight and caught sight of the twins once again standing upright and breathing in a much closer to normal rhythm.
“Alright, are you both feeling better?” she asked, eager to get on with hearing the message encoded by the beacon from the submarine.
“Yeah, of course,” Camila responded first.
“Momento,” Matias added, holding up one finger.
“Of course, no rush,” Anna replied, although her mind was going a mile a minute and not being able to operate the signal equipment on her own was—at this moment—making her incredibly impatient. Her fingers twitched of their own accord, itching to start punching buttons and make the message reveal itself.
Camila patted her brother on the shoulder and stepped around him to access the controls. “I got it bro,” she said as she entered a complicated series of commands into the control panel.
Static burst out of the speakers loud enough that Anna instinctively covered her ears for a moment before straining to hear if the message was embedded in the noise.
“Oops,” Camila said, fiddling with a knob to her right. “Wrong channel.” The static cleared and a familiar voice came through the speakers.
—living down here, we don’t know how many of them yet but they are different than anything we’ve ever seen. If you have a way to send more people, do it now. We could harvest, or maybe relocate our people but we have to move fast. Message repeat. We’ve found something, an underwater cave system filled with plant life and possibly animal life too. There’s other people living down here— Camila cut the broadcast off as it began to loop and stared wide eyed at the speakers.
“Did that just say what I think it said?” Matias asked.
“I don’t believe it,” Anna replied, her voice breathy with wonder. “We hoped, obviously, we wouldn’t have started the mission let alone the second project if we hadn’t, but they actually did it, they found something. The answer to our prayers, after all this time.”
“Sounds like it might not be that simple though,” Camila cut in, acting as the voice of reason and bringing the mood crashing down with her.
“Correct, can you make this message portable? I need to play it for the rest of the UGC right away,” Anna asked, her attention swiveling between the twins as she waited for an answer.
“Yeah of course, I can get it on a memory drive and you can play it on the university computers.” Matias pulled a small rectangular object out of his pocket and plugged it into a slot on the control panel, taking over for his sister.
Anna tapped one worn down dress shoe against the cracked tile, a feeble attempt to contain her impatience. Her thoughts swirled like a hurricane coming to a head inside her. A whole other civilization… Arguably what would once have been considered the greatest discovery in the history of mankind was overshadowed by their desperate situation.
