Disclaimer - I don't own the works of Jules Verne, but I hope you enjoy this story.
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Guests.
As he sat in the saloon of the Nautilus, Captain Nemo attempted to play a tune on his organ to help him decide what he was going to do about the crisis he was facing at the moment. The Nautilus had picked up some uninvited guests, people who had been thrown overboard during the small battle with the American warship the Abraham Lincoln (Nemo wished the so-called civilised nations would not name their vessels of war after heroes of liberty, but there was little he could do about that), and they had found the Nautilus when the submarine had been sitting on the surface while the crew ran a general assessment to see if there had been any damage to the hull during the battle, but there was none after the American ship had been hit by a torpedo of high charge which had critically damaged the warship before a second torpedo had destroyed the ship, ending the American's contribution to the worldwide hunt for the so-called 'sea monster.'
Nemo felt nothing for the destruction and the sinking of the American ship; in his mind if vessels did not want to encounter him at all, then they should simply remain anchored in their harbours and leave him alone, and besides the Abraham Lincoln had attacked him and his submarine, and he had the right to defend himself. Granted, he had destroyed the Abraham Lincoln because he had wanted to send a message to the nations of the world to steer clear of the ocean and leave him alone. It wasn't a difficult lesson, and if the Americans did not heed his warning, well he would launch a devastating attack which would cripple the American war machine.
While he was playing the organ, Captain Nemo frowned as he pondered what he was going to do about the people who had been washed onto the Nautilus' hull plates, remembering how he had received the report the ship was in good repair and they were ready to return to the depths of the sea where they would travel once more, and he had given the order to submerge, but as the Nautilus was diving he had received another report, of someone shouting outside and Nemo, concerned, had ordered the dive to be canceled and he'd sent someone to look outside… only to report there were three men who were obviously from the warship they'd encountered.
Captain Nemo had ordered them brought onboard the ship despite the obvious risks of having three men from the outside world onboard his submarine mostly because they had no-where else to go, but he wasn't sure what he was going to do with them in the time being, so he had simply had them placed inside an empty room and left there for a brief spell so he could work out what he was going to do with them.
Nemo sighed when he realised he wasn't getting any inspiration through music, so he abruptly stood up from the organ and walked over to the window panels. He rested his hand on the lever which would open up the view so he could bask in the depths of the sea, tempted to let him use the view and the serenity of being beneath the surface to help him make up his mind on what to do with the castaways.
It was incredibly rare he allowed people onboard the Nautilus. While he had sworn anyone who crossed his path and ended up on board his ship would never leave it again, that was not always the case because, like everything else he had learnt over the years, especially during his time in Europe and in America where he had learnt everything from languages to engineering while he had adventures on the side, there were loopholes.
There were those castaways marooned on that desert island a year ago. I took them to New Zealand where they booked passage home, he thought to himself as he remembered how he and his men had found a small island in the Pacific in order to look for harbours to hide and house the Nautilus, and what about those Polynesians who'd been carried out to sea in a storm? So why is it I cannot make up my mind now?
The truth of the matter was, and Nemo was slow to accept it, those people who had been on the Nautilus in the past had been kindred spirits; people who had suffered a great deal. They didn't deserve to be locked up. The castaways had spent over ten years trapped on that lonely island, and the Polynesians had been innocent people who just wanted to move to their next island, and the chances of them telling anyone about his existence were virtually zero anyway.
Nemo stiffened as he considered his desire for secrecy. In many ways its was beneficial people out there believed the Nautilus was a sea monster and not an advanced submarine boat; if people realised there was a highly advanced submarine out there, they would likely put their brains into developing weapons and tactics that would definitely become a threat to the Nautilus. The only problem was he couldn't imagine them, which only made him even more concerned for the future if anyone out there learnt about the Nautilus
Even worse, the existence of the Nautilus would have people out there searching the world, tearing islands and continents to pieces as they tried to discover clues - real or imagined - about the Nautilus' history. They wouldn't find anything given how careful he had been when he had made the plans for the submarine, and he had covered his tracks when he had ordered the components for the ship, and given how most of the components were sent out to various addresses across the planet, only to be shipped off to the island in the Pacific which was both remote and yet perfectly suited for his purposes of building the ship, it was doubtful they would find anything that would give them a lead.
But the biggest thing that concerns me is the knowledge that the Nautilus exists could inspire more corrupt scientific minds to try to develop their own submarine vessel to serve as the first of a new breed of warship.
Submarine technology was easy once you had the basics. It wouldn't take long for them to develop submarines with innovative (or so they thought) engine designs. Nemo had looked into history to help him with his own research into the Nautilus; he had used Fulton's own design with some elements from the Le Plongeur and the Turtle used in the American War of Independence for extra insight, and he had used other sources to help him design the Nautilus. If he could do it, so could others. That was one of the reasons he had destroyed the Abraham Lincoln; if any member of the crew got back to harbour, they would spread the story of how their ship had been attacked, and how the monster which had been glowing in the depths of the sea, unseen to the naked eye, had been able to damage the ship from afar. It would make people ask too many questions, and so the ship had to be destroyed and sent to the bottom, with all hands.
Nemo didn't like the thought of so many sailors dying, but it had to be done.
Nemo shuddered as he imagined whole new shipyards devoted to the construction and development of submarine design, working long and hard on perfecting their designs; he pictured British submarines, long whale-sized vessels chugging out explosive shells next to Chinese designs of submarine boat, dragon-shaped monsters, which fired torpedo style projectiles capable of tearing apart the hulls of ships on the surface, both military and civilian (Nemo knew he was slightly hypocritical there, but he had always done his level best to make sure the ships he had stalked and attacked on the surface were warships; he had been the indirect cause of many deaths of people whose only crime was being in the wrong place and at the wrong time, and the last thing he wanted to do now he was continuing his crusade for freedom and the abolition of war, conquest, and occupation was cause more needless death) .
But worse of all, in his fear, Nemo imagined something happening, some event which would accidentally see his Nautilus ending up in the hands of a government. They would tear his ship apart, torture his crew into discovering the secrets of the ship's operation, how the engines worked and how they drew electricity from the sea, and they would not hesitate to build more vessels based on the same technology, arming them with the same torpedo weapon Nemo himself had developed after realising those ridiculous spar torpedoes was more dangerous than practical, and the only way to provide a safe way of destroying ships was to develop torpedoes in much the same manner as those artillery rockets.
The British wouldn't show any mercy if and when they discovered his identity if they did capture him, and it would be the perfect revenge in their twisted little minds to make him watch as they used the technology he had designed and built to get him away from the civilised world being used to cause more destruction.
The fear of what could happen to his ship and every member of his crew and what the long-term consequences would be made Captain Nemo take an even longer look at his choices for the 'guests' onboard his submarine. Unfortunately his choices were limited, he knew he could take them to a deserted island, maybe the same one those original castaways had been stranded on for many years before the Nautilus had rescued them, knowing the chances of them managing to escape were remote but while the idea was tempting Nemo was unsure even he would do something like that. He could simply kill them. That was easy enough to do, and he would get away with it because on the sea, especially in hard storms, it would be easy for anyone in the sea to drown, but the moment the thought entered his mind Nemo instantly decided against it. Even he wasn't that cruel even though he was capable of such an action. It would be so easy; he would just stick them into the airlock of the Nautilus the divers used to enter or to leave the ship on underwater farming or salvage missions, or within one of the ballast chambers which were usually left empty, but occasionally the Nautilus crew filled them with water to make the vessel submerge deeper. It wouldn't take long for them to drown.
Captain Nemo sighed and rubbed his face. He was tired and he wanted to go to sleep, though he knew he could drive himself onwards; the endurance he had spent years developing on top of his will power would usually make him see through the night, but on this occasion, he wanted to firmly get the options he had in mind. While it was tempting to simply kill them and let the world continue to believe the Nautilus was a sea monster, Nemo had to admit he was tired of death and destruction. He wanted a life instead of death, especially after crippling an American warship.
Nemo cursed, wishing those castaways had just drifted somewhere else where he wouldn't have known about them. It would have made his life that much easier. He had already met the castaways, not saying a word though he could tell the multilingual Professor Pierre Arronnax could suspect he was the commander of the submarine, but Nemo had not replied because he had wanted to hear them speak so then he could make up his mind on what he planned to do, but he couldn't deny the castaways had caused him a great deal of trouble with the ethical dilemma they posed.
And I thought listening to them speak would help me make my decision, Nemo thought to himself, kicking the hard wall of the saloon with frustrated, wincing a little bit when he felt the pain, but he pushed that aside. He hadn't felt this torn since the days after his family were killed, and he was left to pick up the pieces, but at least back then Nemo had some ideas about what he could do.
Not in this case.
Finally, Nemo returned to the lever and opened the panels, his eyes adjusting slowly to the dimming of the lighting in the saloon, and he looked through the windows. Nemo silently leaned against the wall and peered through the windows; the lanterns of the ship were cutting the darkness of the sea with brilliant beams of light, but Nemo could still see the darkness of the depths, casting a brilliant mix of colours in the saloon, various shades of blue mixing with bright white-yellow from the lanterns, mingling with greens, turquoise, and purple.
Nemo couldn't see any sign of marine life, but it didn't matter. He just closed his eyes and let himself be bathed in the brilliant light from the windows, and tried to make himself relax.
He wasn't going to kill the professor or his two companions; his assistant and the harpooner, he just decided, but he didn't want them inside that cell even if keeping them in there would help. Nemo was not that cruel; he knew keeping them locked up wouldn't help as prisoners had a deserved habit of shouting and wasting valuable energy pounding on the door of the cell. But Nemo knew if he let his 'prisoners' roam freely around the Nautilus it could lead to all kinds of problems, but he would speak to his crew, make them aware of his plans and put into place precautions so the professor and his companions didn't cause any long term problems, and he would certainly have the more sensitive areas watched and security bolstered; electrical grids placed in the entrances to the bridge, the engine room, and the torpedo bays.
Nemo rubbed his face again and went to get ready for bed. He had a busy day tomorrow morning getting the arrangements put into place to get the Nautilus ready for the prisoners to be allowed out; cabins would need to be set up, the torpedo bays and the engineering levels placed under watch and security grids capable of delivering an extremely high voltage to burn the skin off of the prisoners if they made the fatal and rather stupid mistake believing they could damage or destroy the Nautilus by interfering with things they didn't understand, and lastly making sure his crew knew of the arrangements.
As he got ready for bed, Nemo glanced momentarily at the tomes the professor and other scientists had written in the study of Oceanography, and while many of the ideas were flawed, they did have some good theories, but he ignored them and got into bed. He was asleep within moments.
Until the next time...