All rights reserved to Cressida Cowell, William Joyce, James Cameron, DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox. Special thanks to Brennan Strong for featured story concepts and ideas.
TITANIC
Prologue
New York, 1997.
A lazy afternoon sun bathed the metropolis in golden light, casting long shadows and catching dust particles as they drifted past the window glass. The apartment was painted in warm tones, which complimented the wooden furnishings and earth tones that populated the space.
Hung on the walls and crowding almost every available flat surface were framed photographs, posters and other mementos from a long life lived; that of the apartment's resident.
He is an elderly man, nearing a century in age, with long silver hair swept back over his head, a matching pair of eyebrows and a short neat beard. At that particular moment the man's brows were furrowed in concentration, whilst youthful deep green eyes were focussed on the work that lay before him. Dressed in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, brown slacks and a rich emerald waistcoat the man was hunched over a desk cluttered with mechanical parts, intricate drawings and post-it notes; the inner workings of someone still active despite the march of time.
As he continued to tinker, a much younger woman aged in her mid-thirties, was busy preparing lunch for herself and the elderly man. Her face was friendly with empathetic blue eyes, and her long blond hair was untied, falling over the right side of her face. As she moved and set the table she did her best to avoid tripping over an eager black German Shepherd that insisted on being everywhere she was. In contrast to the older man's attire, she wore a simpler combination of denim jeans and a white T-shirt.
Almost lost in all of the activity was the sound from the television on the kitchen counter, which had moments ago switched to the day's international news:
"Treasure hunter Brock Lovett is best known for finding Spanish gold in sunken galleons in the Caribbean. Now he has chartered a Russian sub to reach the most famous shipwreck in the world, the Titanic. He is with us live via satellite from the research ship Keldysh in the North Atlantic. Hello, Brock!"
"Hello Tracy!" Brock, a rugged man in his early forties with tussled brown hair greeted. "Of course everyone knows the familiar stories of Titanic, you know... the nobility of the band playing at the very end and all that. What I'm interested in are the untold stories, the secrets locked deep inside the hull of Titanic... and we're out here using robot technology to go further into the wreck than anybody's ever done before."
The old man paused, and turned in his seat. With some effort, and the help of a nearby walking stick, he stood up from the chair and carefully approached the television for a closer look.
"Your expedition is at the centre of a storm of controversy over salvage rights, and even ethics. Many are calling you a grave robber."
"Well, nobody ever called the recovery of the artefacts-"
"What is it?" the young woman asked the elderly man.
"Turn that up, dear." the man asked, pointing toward the television.
"-I have museum trained experts out here making sure that these relics are preserved and catalogued properly. Take a look at this drawing that we found just today." the camera view shifted from Brock to a yellowed sheet of paper, bathed in a tub of sea water for preservation. "A piece of paper that's been under water for eighty-four years, and my team were able to preserve it intact!" he beamed.
The elderly man peered closer at the screen, holding up a pair of glasses hung around his neck on a cord for a clearer view. The feed lingered on the drawing, revealing it to be a classically-rendered sketch, depicting a tasteful nude of a young man reclined on a chaise longue.
"Should this have remained unseen at the bottom of the ocean for eternity, when we can see it and enjoy it now?"
"I'll be go damned!" the elderly man exclaimed, much to the surprise of the younger woman.