Submerged, page 8
“I am for sure yes, my family has much support for many years now.”
“Excellent,” Theo responded, clapping his hands together, taking a moment to savour the momentary triumph. “Where can we continue our negotiations, surely not out here in the streets?” He gestured obviously towards Jamal and Ria, far enough that they couldn’t hear the conversation but still much too close for his liking, and at the other Atlanteans milling about around them.
“I invite you come to my home Theo,” Marinus said, extending one arm towards him and bowing his head in what must have been some sort of formal gesture, who knew what sort of customs they had down here. “We shall eat and talk of days ahead.”
“Wonderful,” Theo replied, he was eager to have at least one meal away from Charlie and incessant nattering with the fish man who followed her everywhere nowadays. “Lead the way.”
17
Charlie settled at the table she had spent so much time at the last several weeks, first teaching Cyraeni, Kaerius and the rest how to speak English, which turned out to be much easier than she thought.
And then talking in circles trying to negotiate for food and hopefully continued access to Atlantis for at least a while going forward. Cyraeni was understandably apprehensive at the idea of keeping the doors open, so to speak. Many members of her government wanted to reseal the cave opening that Charlie and Cal had cut their way through to get in.
Charlie was painfully aware that her own people had very little to offer, and that she herself was not a diplomat or a politician. She was a good pilot and she had a charismatic personality, that was all as far as she was concerned, but it was apparently enough to thrust her into this position of chief negotiator with the actual freaking Queen of another nation.
So she found herself back here again, trying to think of something she could offer on behalf of everyone on the surface who was counting on them, without enraging Anna Kershov and overstepping her own boundaries. There was no training for this—they expected a best case scenario to be a school of fish that had adapted to filter out the pollution maybe, or an isolated plant that had survived. Coral that made it through the Great Barrier Death. Never in their wildest dreams, through years of planning for these missions, had she considered that she would be talking to a different species of human that had branched off and been living under water for thousands of years.
“Let us speak plainly Charlie,” Cyraeni began as she took her seat. Aenon and Erwyna stood when she entered the room and then took their places on either side of her across from Charlie.
“Okay. For the record I have been speaking plainly so far Cyraeni, I’ve been as honest as I can, I’m not my uncle you know. I don’t know how to do the political doublespeak crap.”
“Yes, of course, I appreciate your candor. Tell us what it is you want, in plain terms so that we may decide what we can give.” Cyraeni tented her fingers on the table and looked intently across at Charlie. She had a way of giving you her undivided attention without making you feel like you were being scrutinized, which Charlie appreciated.
“We need food, first and foremost, our people are starving. But we don’t want to come down here and farm your land. Maybe we could work out an exchange program so we could cultivate our own plant life again, or transplant a small number of fish to try and breed them ourselves?”
“I agree, we cannot allow farming of our crops by outsiders.” Cyraeni seized on the one thing they could not do, which was slightly frustrating since Charlie felt she had already made that clear. Can we move on please?
“What about allowing us to take some samples back up to the surface for our government, then I could come back down with Cal and probably Theo, but maybe some different people and continue this with qualified members of my own government?” She was grasping at any way to get herself out of this. If she could convince Cyraeni to let her bring proof back to Anna, then she would come back down herself and Charlie could go back to her job as pilot.
Cyraeni leaned back, taking her time to consider Charlie’s proposal. Or maybe she’s just trying to make me sweat.
“I think we can agree to this,” she said. Erwyna leaned over and began speaking rapid Atlantean in the queen's ear. “But, I must insist that my own scientist procure the samples.”
“That would be fine, really any evidence at this point, anything growing or swimming is going to be enough for my government.” Charlie breathed a sigh of relief to have finally reached the end of these seemingly endless meetings. She was inexplicably actually looking forward to getting back in the sub and heading home.
Erwyna spoke again, without bothering to whisper this time. Charlie suspected she had remembered that Charlie couldn’t understand what they were saying so they were free to speak plainly.
“We would also like to send one of our people with you. Erwyna has volunteered to make the journey.”
“Oh, uhm I guess that would be okay, she won’t have trouble being away from the water or anything?” Charlie asked. She wasn’t sure how her colleagues on the UGC would react to them showing up with an Atlantean, but she was absolutely sure Uncle Theo would be an ass about it in the sub.
“No, we can spend many days out of the water at a time,” Cyraeni replied. Charlie had no choice but to agree—at least she would have Cal to keep Theo in check on the way back and once they surfaced she could hand over all diplomatic duties to the actual diplomats.
“Okay well that sounds great, are we settled then?” She tried to disguise the eagerness in her voice but it was impossible, she was dying to be done with these meetings. To do something, anything else with her time in this fabulous place. She was finding herself increasingly jealous of Jamal and Ria getting to go run around the city while she was cooped up in the throne room day after day.
“It appears that we are. It will take a few days to put together the samples for you to take with you, Kaerius will keep you occupied until such time as Erwyna is ready to leave.” Cyraeni pushed back from the table at that, and Erwyna and Aenon promptly stood and followed her out of the open doorway at the back of the throne room.
Charlie sank into her chair and exhaled louder than necessary, a moment of total relaxation before Kaerius came in and offered to take her to the dining area for lunch.
“Yes please,” she said, following him out and smiling to herself that while she may not have wanted it she had just brokered the first successful international treaty since the formation of the UGC.
Cal was already seated when Charlie and Kaerius made their way into the dining room to join him, Ria and Jamal close behind from the other doorway.
“How’s everyone’s day been so far?” he asked as they settled around the table and waited for the food to be delivered. Cyraeni had assigned a few of her personal staff to cook for them at each mealtime, it was an extravagance of the kind none of them had ever been afforded their whole lives and it had taken quite a few days for all of them to get used to it. Charlie kept offering to wash the dishes, Ria insisted on cooking for themselves, Jamal jumped up every time the cooks came in with the food and took it out of their hands. Cal himself sat, uncomfortably trying to suppress his loud stomach when the delicious smell came wafting in.
The only one of them who seemed happy to be waited on was Theo, naturally, though it didn’t appear he would be joining them for this meal. Which was a nice break, but Cal wondered where he had gotten to.
“Ours was great!” Ria gushed, with more enthusiasm than she had shown in the entire two years they had worked together on the submarine project. She had really blossomed down here. Cal wasn’t sure if it was the steady stream of food or the excitement of finding tons of living plant life in the wild—or more likely, a combination of both—but she was glowing and effusive, a far cry from the withdrawn, quiet, emaciated woman she had been when they arrived.
“Oh yeah?” Charlie leaned across the table towards her friend, a bright smile lighting up her face. “What did you find today?”
“Whole schools of bass, salmon, possibly a few really huge tuna, and some other fish that we couldn’t identify so Jamal is just assigning them numbers for now until we can ask someone what they are called.”
“I bet Kaery could help you with that.” Charlie turned to Kaerius. “Right?”
“Of course Ria, I am happy to help,” he said with a polite nod in her direction.
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of lunch, they all thanked the cooks profusely while they placed platters of steaming fish, kelp salad and fresh flatbreads on the table.
“Thanks again,” Charlie called as the Atlanteans left them alone to eat.
“You do not have to say thank you so much,” Kaerius said, serving himself fish and flatbread while he shook his head smiling at Charlie.
“We’re just—”
“Not used to it. You have said.” Kaerius cut her off with a chuckle before she could finish what they had all told him over and over, despite his continued insistence that everyone knew how grateful they were by now.
“Anyways, I had an interesting morning,” she continued, elbowing Kaerius lightly and scooping a pile of salad and fish into her plate.
“What happened Char?” Cal asked, a forkful of food halfway to his mouth.
“I think…we may have reached a negotiation breakthrough with Cyraeni!” The table erupted around her as everyone began firing questions off at once.
“What’s next then?”
“Do we have to leave?”
“Are they going to trade with us?”
“Whoa, guys!” Cal held his arms out across the table. “How about we let her finish talking eh?”
“Thanks Cal.” She shot him a bright smile that warmed him from the inside out. “Well, Cyraeni decided we can take some samples back to Anna and then bring back proper diplomats or negotiators to continue working on a treaty from there. Oh and she wants Erwyna to come with us.”
“That’s great Char, well done!”
“Do we all have to go back?” Jamal asked. “I’m not done with my cataloguing, I’d hate to present Anna with incomplete work.”
“Oh.” Charlie’s face fell. “I’m not sure, I didn’t ask. To be honest I was just so glad to be done with negotiating. I almost miss the sub, I kinda wanna take it for a joy ride just to flex my piloting muscles.”
“But we’re not leaving tomorrow or anything right?” Ria’s expression mirrored Charlie’s.
“Oh no no, she said it was gonna take a few days at least to put together the samples, I can ask if you guys can stay if you want?”
“That would be great Charlie, thanks.” Jamal looked relieved and dug back into his food. Cal watched the others around the table, Ria was pushing her food around her plate and Kaerius was peering at Charlie instead of eating. Charlie was frowning at her rapidly cooling fish, the wind clearly taken out of her sails.
“Hey.” Cal nudged her calf with his foot under the table to get her attention. “You did great, and you should be proud. I can come with you to the next meeting if you want and help you hammer out the details?”
“That would be awesome Cal, thank you.” She smiled, a sad shadow of her former bright smile, but at least she continued piling fish and salad on her fork.
Cal continued his own meal and wondered what they were going to do next, and what the negotiations Charlie had started would mean for everyone, most importantly how he could help her so he didn’t have to see her make that dejected expression ever again.
18
From the first time Charlie mentioned going swimming, Kaerius knew the exact place he wanted to take her. The lagoon was small, but off the beaten path, and very rarely used except occasionally by groups of young ones looking for a private place away from the prying eyes of parents.
“Kaery,” she said, his nickname rolling off her tongue as naturally as anyone else’s in her life, even he was surprised how fast the connection had happened between them.
“Charlie,” he replied quickly, “ where are your friends today?”
“Well, Theo, Ria and Jamal are off wandering as they have been lately. Ria is even more eager since it sounds like we’ll be heading back soon. Cal is around but I’m sure he hasn’t gone far, he never does.”
“True, true,” Kaerius replied. It would have been impossible for anyone spending time with Charlie to fail to notice Callum’s incessant need to be near her as much as possible, he hovered like a constant blonde haired blue eyed bodyguard.
“What’s on the docket today?” Charlie asked.
“Docket?” Kaerius, tipped his head to one side and peered questioningly at her.
“Oh, sorry it means like ‘what’s the plan’ or ‘what’s on the schedule’,” she clarified for him.
“Ah well, there is no docket today,” he replied.
“Close enough.” Cal chuckled as he joined them at the breakfast table they were lingering around.
“Nothing really? No tours, no meetings? Nothing?” Charlie asked, her voice pitch rose with each repeated question, her excitement was evident to both men.
“Nothing,” Kaerius confirmed, sharing a smile with Cal.
“Can we go then?” Charlie clapped her hands together
“Go where?” Cal asked, but his grin was unmistakable.
“You guys are screwing with me! You know where!” she cried out with a laugh, reaching out a slender arm to smack Cal’s bicep.
Shortly after their arrival and once they had settled in Charlie had begun pestering Kaerius and the others to take her swimming. While she had explained that swim training was mandatory—and had been since the ocean’s rose and coastal flooding became a real concern turned catastrophe—it wasn’t really something they did for leisure, it was lumped in with CPR training, first aid skills, everything they needed to know to survive the harshness of the surface. But she told Kaerius about movies and pictures of people swimming for fun, splashing in crystal clear lakes and competing in fierce competitions in deep pools of clean water.
The allure of being able to swim in clean water, with real fish and live plants under your feet, was too much for Charlie to resist, and she had been asking about every chance she got. Kaerius felt bad saying no all the time but their schedule had simply been too busy to allow for it so far.
Cal finally gave in to her pleas and tossed some fabric at her that he’d been hiding behind his back, that Kaerius had given him earlier, they had been planning this excursion between them for a while. She held up a tight-fitting slick sleeveless garment with a high neck that came down just an inch or two on her thighs.
“How do I?” she started and then turned the bathing suit around and found an intricate set of laces running up the back. “Ah, nevermind. Um, little privacy boys?”
Cal and Kaerius quickly turned their backs and listened to the sounds of her stripping out of her day clothes and pulling on the swim suit.
“Ok now I’m going to need a hand, or maybe two,” she said, the back of the suit and the woven laces hanging open against her bare back. She turned and lifted her short hair off her shoulders, standing very still while Cal stepped up to lace her in.
“Alright,” she said, spinning around and rubbing her hands together with excitement. “Where are we going?”
Tucked away in a secluded corner off the edges of the agro district, he led Charlie and Cal through the streets until they reached a tall thicket of water grass and bamboo shoots. Their trip across town was not unnoticed—it was virtually impossible to go anywhere with the surface dwellers and not be the subject of blatant staring and strange looks. They were both quite good at maintaining poise and decorum even under intense scrutiny, a lesson that Kaerius fervently wished they would be able to teach to the one called Theodore.
He reached out and parted the flora, stepping into ankle deep water as they made their way forward. Charlie hesitated for a moment before joining him, but Cal had no such qualms and splashed quickly off the boardwalk and through the grass and shoots. He admired in Cal all the traits that made the two of them so different, where Cal was tall and muscular, Kaerius was lean and on the shorter side. Cal was loud, boisterous and not afraid to put himself directly in the center of a conflict. Where Kaerius was quiet and unassuming, though quite deadly if it was necessary.
It was these contradictory personality traits that had won him his position as bodyguard to the royal family, and how he found himself now as official escort to Charlie during her time with them.
Cyraeni had been quite plain with her instructions, whether Charlie wanted it or not she had come to be viewed as leader of the surface folk and as such she would need extra protection. “There is no one I would trust with this job more than you Kaerius,” she had said on that first day he had brought them into the throne room.
And so he had done as she’d asked, escorting Charlie to every meeting and language lesson, staying by her side and observing her for weeks. After all that time he was glad to take a break, and to offer her one—they had both earned it.
Now, he took her hand and led her through the rushes until they emerged on the other side. As he’d hoped, they were so deep in that the city was visible only by the largest spires towering over the other buildings that were hidden behind the plant growth. Before them was a semi-circular lagoon surrounded by cave walls that were covered in glowstick vines—this was not the proper name for them, but it was what Charlie had dubbed them on the second or third day. Kaerius had decided it was amusing and easier than trying to teach her to pronounce the proper name in his native tongue.
The water was crystal clear and dropped off deep in the center, below the surface other caves wound away from this one, allowing for schools of fish to flitter in and out to feed or lay eggs as needed.
Kaerius led them to a flat rock ledge that stuck out over the water.
