When Dad said that he was going to look for Atlantis, I looked at him like he was crazy. When he said that I was coming with him, I just about died right then and there. Now I'm gonna be stuck on this stupid ship for who knows how long. Don't get me wrong; I love to travel with dad. I always have since I was little. I can honestly say I have visited more distant countries and ruins of lost civilizations than I can remember. It's just…well…I don't think we should plan a trip to a lost civilization that never existed.

"You packed yet Angie?"

"Almost Dad! I'm trying to put an entire tent in a duffel bag! You do it sometime and tell me how it goes!"

"Alright but hurry up! The sub will be diving shortly."

It amazed me how Dad could put up with me so nonchalantly. I finally got the zipper all the way up and let out a long sigh.

"Time to go I guess…"

I grabbed my duffel bag and my messenger bag that Dad bought me for the trip and headed for the living room where he was waiting. He smiled and led me out. I locked the door with my key and put it in the mailbox for my neighbor to find. My house would be in good care while I was gone. Dad's new issued car sat outside to take us to the sub site.

"Dad, you sure we should go? I don't know how I'll fare on a submarine."

"Come on Angie, you've been on boats before and you don't get seasick. You'll be fine. Just follow what I say and make sure to find me in case we start to sink."

Needless to say, that didn't make me feel any better. Now, I was terrified. We got in the two front seats of the car and took off.

I looked at Dad as he concentrated on driving. He was always very enthusiastic about going on these trips with me. Last time he went somewhere, he and a team went to Iceland to get some old book. I was at home, finishing up my college degree. I took some extra years to get some more training in engineering. His looks suited him. His hair was still as gray as it had always been, and his face said that he was a confident man. A bit less with his few wrinkles he got with his age, but his square chin always balanced things out.

"Keep staring at me like that and you just might distract me long enough to crash the car." He joked.

"Sorry Dad. I'm just nervous, I guess."

"Well, just relax Angie. The crew is nice and professional, and they'll be lots to do."

I trusted him to not lie to me about something so stupid. We drove a little while longer and finally reached the ship. Dad was right to hurry me, but I wasn't about to tell him that. The ship set sail almost exactly after we got on. We went below the deck on the lift and there sat an enormous 1000-foot sub. I gaped at the sheer size of it.

"Well, your clothes and your other bags are in storage."

"On that monster of a rowboat?"

"Attention. All hands to the launch bay. Final loading in progress." said a weary, monotone woman over the speakers.

"Ah. Sounds like the boys upstairs are coming down." Dad said in an old soldier voice. I sighed as the crew came down on the lift and scattered.

"Salutations Commander!" said a cheerful voice from behind us.

It was Dad's current employer Mr. Whitmore. He was a nice old man who had funded the Iceland expedition, along with this one.

"Ah, Mr. Whitmore, good to see you before we board. This is my daughter Angela." He said, directing attention to me.

"A pleasure to meet you sir." I said formally, reaching out for a handshake.

"Ah, don't be such a stiff. Come here!" he laughed heartily, pulling me into a friendly, yet backbreaking hug. I let out a strangled cough and smiled through the pain. For an old guy, he sure was strong.

"G-got it!" I gasped as he let me go. "No Formality!"

"That's more like it!" he laughed. "It's good to meet such a prodigy of your old man! No offense to your age Commander." He joked.

"None taken." Dad laughed back.

Someone else caught his attention. It was a skinny guy in a long coat and glasses. He looked like a bookworm and completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the sub and crew. He looked a little sick too.

"Milo! Where you been? I want you to meet Commander Rourke. He led the Iceland team that brought back the journal."

"Milo Thatch. Pleasure to meet the grandson of old Thaddeus." Dad said to the guy named Milo, shaking his hand. "See you got that journal. Nice pictures, but I prefer a good western myself." Dad said like an old man.

"Pretty impressive, eh?"

"Boy, when you settle a bet, you settle a bet." said Milo.

Mr. Whitmore turned Milo to me with a strong hand and introduced us.

"Milo Thatch, this is Angela Rourke, the Commander's daughter. She's become an expert on navigation and ancient cultures, along with engineering in the last year."

"Really?" he said, exasperated.

"Heh…Guilty as charged!" I laughed nervously. Dad just looked on, proud.

"Attention all personnel. Launch will commence in 15 minutes."

"Mr. Whitmore." Dad said in parting.

"Rourke. Angie."

"It's time." Dad said to Milo and me.

"Bye Mr. Whitmore!" said Milo elatedly, running onto the ship.

"See you soon Mr. Whitmore!" I said.

"Make us proud boy!"

The enormous metal door shut and we all moved to the headroom in the sub while it prepared for the journey ahead. Dad moved up to the big platform with Helga, his lieutenant. She was a bold woman who knew when to take charge of things, and I respected her. I just hope Dad wouldn't rub her the wrong way. That was unlikely, but he could be headstrong sometimes.

"Lieutenant, take her down."

"Diving officer, submerge the ship."

The crew started with their orders, turning valves and setting depths, submerging the sub and everyone in it.

Milo stared out the window at the undersea dark in awe. I shook my head.

"Does it seem amazing?" I asked him.

"It does! We're going to Atlantis!"

"…I sure hope so. You should go find your bed before some off duty officer does. It's happened to me more than once. Oh! And you looked a little seasick earlier. Have some dry crackers and peppermint. It helps a lot."

"Thanks. I will. You've been on a lot of boats?"

"Yeah. Twenty-seven times in the last five years."

"Whoa. Well, thanks for the tips."

"Welcome."

He took the sack he had been carrying and headed for the rooms. I heaved a heavy sigh, hoping that my nervousness wouldn't portray to the rest of the crew, especially Dad.

I walked the stairs up to where the rest of the crew was. Dad met me at the top and held a hand to the lot.

"Everyone, this is my daughter Angela. She'll be joining this expedition as civil navigator of the crew.

"Nice to meet cha'. Call me Angie. Never Angela. Call me Angela, and you die."

"Nice to see you're being so polite today." Dad joked. "Okay team, introductions."

"Hey, I'm Audrey. I'm the top engineer and mechanic." said the girl with dark hair and overalls. She had a nice character about her, tough but fun. She had a Spanish accent in her voice.

"Really? I took engineering in college. Hope I'll be able to help you out sometime."

"Thanks! You won't believe the workload I've got around this place." She laughed appreciatively. I smiled back and turned to the next guy.

"I'm Joshua Sweet. Nice to meet Rourke's daughter. Good man. Have you had your physical yet?" he said in a speed-talker kind of way. He was tall and a little intimidating, but his nice kind voice shook any notion of that away.

"Nice to meet you too. Should you…know about my physical?"

"Well, yeah. I'm the ship's medical officer." he laughed.

'Oh, sorry. Just sounded like you were curious."

He laughed heartily and patted me on the shoulder.

"You're alright!"

"Thanks." I said, turning to the mustached guy.

"Who would you be?"

"He's the demolitions expert. His name is Vincenzo Santorini, but to keep our heads from exploding, we just call him Vinny." Audrey said smoothly, joking.

"I resent dat 'head esploding' ting." He said sarcastically. He had a nice Italian accent.

"It's okay. I can appreciate a good nickname. Nice to meet cha' Vinny."

He smiled and reached out his hand to shake mine. I shook it and smiled at him.

"We got a cook named, well, Cookie. Don't ever eat his food. Trust me. I've handled enough cases of Cookie-itis to know that." said Sweet.

"Note taken." I said, a little scared.

"That's Packard up there, the communications expert. Don't worry, no matter how dour she seems, she'll get to like you when least expect it." said Dad.

"I heard that." said Packard over the intercom.

"And with ears like that, I should be careful what I say." he whispered, sheepish.

"…Better."

"I hate to be the one to ask this," Audrey started. ", but where's Mole?"

"Mole?"

"Oh, don' worry. You'll know him when you see 'im." Vinny smirked.

"I'll find him and catch up later." said Sweet. He headed down the steps and into the bowels of the ship.

The crew seemed nice and friendly. They all portrayed a sense of knowing what they were doing. I felt a little inexperienced compared to them. I was pretty experienced myself, but not in any of their fields, except for engineering. That was Audery's field But then I remembered that I had skills of my own that they didn't have, and I felt a tiny bit better.

I started to daydream of what Atlantis would be like if we actually found anything. Maybe it would have a city made of bones, or fish-people, or something like that.

"Nah, I'm just thinking up weird things again."

"Bonjour." said a raspy voice.

I jumped a little in surprise. There was a short man with a dirty coat and a strange head device with a tiny lamp on it. He had heavy shadow on his face and a tiny moustache. He was smiling strangely, showing large front teeth, and dirt fell from him as he moved around ever so slightly.

"…Mole, I presume?"

"Oui! Who are you, mon cheri?" he said in a toothy, flirty grin.

"Careful Mole. She's Rourke's daughter. She outranks you, and I'm sure her father won't appreciate any flirting." Audrey laughed.

"That I won't." Dad said casually, diverting from a conversation with Helga for a moment.

Mole's grin evaporated into thin air and he slunk into a corner, grumbling to himself.

"Don' mind Mole. He always tries to get in pretty girls faces." Vinny, sighed, shaking his head at the creepy little man.

I felt a little weird being called pretty, but I let the feeling pass when I saw Milo coming. I wondered what job he had on the ship.

Dad must've seen him coming too.

"Welcome to the bridge Mister Thatch." Dad said, getting everyone to look. "Okay everybody, I want you to give Mister Thatch your undivided attention."

"Good afternoon." said Milo nervously. "Can everyone h-hear me okay?"

Audrey's gum pop was the only sound in the awkward silence.

"Heh…okay how…how 'bout some slides?"

Everyone just looked at each other, probably thinking the same thing by the looks on their faces. 'What a dork.' I just watched him, wondering if he would trip or something.

"The…The first slide is a depiction of a creature." Milo announced, rifling through his slides. "A creature so frightening, that sailors were said to be driven MAD by the mere sight of it!" he yelled, really selling his performance.

It seemed he accidentally put a slide on the projector of himself in an embarrassing swim number, dangling a newly caught fish for a fluffy cat.

"Hubbub hubbub" joked Packard over the intercom in a monotone.

"Uh sorry, that's…wrong…"

"Geez. I used to take lunch money from guys like this." Audrey said haughtily to Vinny. He chuckled slightly.

"Anyway, this…uh THIS is an illustration of the Leviathan; the creature guarding the entrance to Atlantis."

"With someting like dat, I would have white wine, I tink." Vinny said for a laugh. Audrey just rolled her eyes somewhat amused. I laughed a little at his joke, but kept listening to Milo.

"He's a mythical sea serpent. It's described in the book of Job. The-The Bible says 'out of his mouth go burning lights, sparks of fire shoot out, but more likely it's a carving or a sculpture to frighten the superstitious."

"So we find this masterpiece, then what?" Dad asked.

"WHEN do we DIG?!" Mole shouted coming out of nowhere.

"Actually we don't have to dig." he said, taking out a piece of charcoal and drawing on the projector screen. "You see, according to the journal, the path to Atlantis will take us down a tunnel t the bottom of the ocean, and we'll come up a curve, into an air pocket, right here, where we'll find the remnants to an ancient highway that will lead us to Atlantis. Kind of like the grease trap in your sink."

"Cartographer, Linguist, Plumber; hard to believe he's still single…" said Helga sarcastically. Dad just smirked.

"You said there would be digging…" Mole grumbled, tugging at Helga's sleeve.

"Go away mole."

"So Angie, does all this sound plausible?" Dad asked. Everyone looked to me.

I thought about it for a minute, and then I replied.

"Well, it seems possible…We should have the air pocket thing down…and HOPEFULLY we don't run into any sea monsters, the only thing I'm concerned about is this curve."

"Why's that? Milo asked. Dad and everyone looked on expectantly.

"Well…This sub is considerably big…What if we can't fit it through? We can't just leave it underwater; the pressure could make it explode. Then, we'll have no way back. On the other hand, if we leave enough crew members on the ship and take the smaller ships to the air pocket, they could take it back up to the surface momentarily and reset the course from the previous dive…but then we'll be short-staffed for what we could encounter on the highway…"

Everyone seemed impressed with my quick analysis, but it did put that question in the air.

"Well…We'll have to see about all that when we see the curve for ourselves." Dad said with a strong tone of leadership. I admired him for that. I always had.

"Captain, you better come look at this sir!" shouted the sailor at the wheel.

"Okay, class dismissed. Give me exterior lights."

He, Milo and Helga went up to the platform while the others and I stayed down below. I didn't listen to their conversation, or Milo's translations, or Packard's repeating of Dad's corporal name. I just leaned over the railing and hoped everything went as planned. The last thing that all of us needed was one thing screwing everything up.