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The submarine looks timeless – as if sheliterallyexists outside of time. She doesn’t belong in the twenty-first century any more than she belonged in the nineteenth. I try to imagine how lonely that would feel, especially if my creator scuttled me at the bottom of a volcanic grotto for over a century. Would I even besaneafter all that time?
I don’t realize I’ve zoned out from Luca’s lecture until he says, ‘As I’m sure Ana would agree.’
Everybody looks at me.
‘Sorry, what?’
My classmates laugh.
‘Ana is simply proving my point,’ Luca says, giving me a good-natured smile. ‘We must stay focused at all times and take things slow. For today, our task is simple. If we can submerge theNautilusand resurface, that will be a triumph!’
‘Aww, but, Dad,’ Halimah jokes, ‘can’t we just take a short spin around the lake?’
‘I want to see what she can do in the open sea!’ Dru counters.
The others clap and whoop in approval.
‘Hold on,’ I whisper to Ester. ‘How does the sub get from here to the open sea?’
‘Luca was just saying there’s an underwater tunnel that leads out past the atoll.’ She madly jots down this information on her note cards. ‘It’s probably an old lava vent. Do you think I should writelava ventor justtunnel?’
Ophelia claps twice, loud and sharp, to get our attention. ‘Freshmen!’
The group falls silent. For the first time, I appreciate that Ophelia is an HP teacher as well as a scientist. I bet her classes would’ve been hard. Super interesting, but hard.
‘So, then,’ she continues. ‘We will take this assignmentseriously. TheNautilushas not been operated in almost two hundred years. We must give Ana, and the rest of us, time to acclimatize. It will be a bit like learning to ride a horse.’
Meadow Newman frowns. ‘The sub is still a machine, right? You make it sound like a wild animal!’
TheNautilusis not amused. The whole ship begins to hum.
Ester yells, ‘Look out!’
She hits the deck as water blasts from either side of theNautilus’s prow, arcing backwards over the top of the ship. The starboard deluge falls harmlessly into the lake, but the port-side spray soaks all of us from head to foot.
There’s a moment of stunned silence.
Meadow looks flabbergasted. ‘I’m sorry,Nautilus! You are a magnificent creature!’
The crew starts laughing. Top barks and shakes himself off. I can’t help but crack a smile. Now we know that the submarine has pride, good hearing and maybe even a sense of humour, given the fact that it didn’t try to kill us.
I’m starting to think my fears were overblown. We’re among friends. We’re safe. TheNautilusjust wants some respect. All we have to do is try one quick dive. Then we can fix whatever leaks occur, come back tomorrow and try again. We have plenty of time.
That’s when Socrates breaches in the middle of the lake. He splashes down sideways, making as much noise as possible. A moment later, his head pops up at the base of the pier. He chatters, clicks and whistles at me urgently.
‘Whoa,’ Gem says. ‘How did he find us?’
But that’s not the right question. The question iswhy.
‘Something’s wrong,’ Ester says, her water-blotted note cards forgotten in her hands.
Socrates bucks his head backwards – a signal I remember well.Let’s go! Hurry!
My insides feel like they’re plunging into the Mariana Trench. My foreboding starts to make terrible sense.
‘Everybody!’ I yell. ‘Hey!’
I don’t have Ophelia’s skill at getting the class’s attention, but the alarm in my voice makes an impression. The others turn towards me.
