The anger, the pressure
You're choking down your words again
Feel the nerves set in
Unspoken frustration
They see right through you
Paper thin, like the ghost within
-Dream Theater, Paralyzed
- The depths of Tartessos, Central Africa, November 12, 1889 -
It took quite a while to pass through the dim corridor. The way was much too long, at least for Electra's liking. She tried hard to focus just on the echo of her own footsteps, however, her effort was in vain. Even if she sped up a bit, she could hear a plenty of other strange sounds, sounds she rather didn't wish to know where they were coming from and why. The soft rustle of rats running away from her felt just about natural, but the strange hum and crackling noises were rather unsettling. It had been normal back on Nautilus, but here, deep under the ruins of Tartessos it could have meant anything. A landslip or a ceiling falling apart somewhere above their heads? Or was it the defunct, but still burning and unstable engine of the spaceship they struggled so hard to find? What if their efforts within the premises of the ancient and long buried dock stirred some unexpected reaction in there? Would there be any time for them to run if some sort of disaster came? But where should they run to?
Luckily, there wasn't much of a spare time for those thoughts. Because how long exactly did they have before Gargoyle found out about the Nautilus's crew new hiding place? Or worse, before Gargoyle captured Nadia and set his plan in motion? Hard to say. But it was clear that each passing day and each hour were too precious.
Finally, thought Electra when she came to a halt a step away from a dimly-lit room, the captain's office - or some kind of makeshift headquarters they had set up here just yestreday. Was it yesterday, or the day before? Electra asked herself. Who can really tell, here in the Buried Kingdom.
"Electra?" A voice came from inside.
"Captain?"
"Come in, what are you waiting for?" the captain prompted her, his voice rough and cold.
"Of course." Said Electra and entered.
The room looked very gloomy to say the least. The walls around were covered in dirt and dust, and the dark corners were filled with old, rusty items of unknown and long gone function. In the middle there stood a makeshift table made of a few long boards laid and aligned on huge stones. The table desk was covered with the ground plans of Tartessos and its underground, all the available documentation of the corridors and shafts and also all the material that in any way mentioned the old, long closed docks and the legendary battleship Excelion. And by the table, there stood the unmoving figure of captain Nemo, leaning down over the papers. His right arm was propped against the table desk, the left one hung in the bandages that were tied up behind his neck.
Electra let her eyes linger upon the empty sleeve of Nemo's coat. And again, she couldn't stop the rush of anger, guilt and regret that suddenly built inside her. Not now, not now, not now... she repeated to herself and clenched her hands into fists as she felt tears gathering in her eyes.
"Any progress or notable outcome?" Asked Nemo, still motionless, not even bothering to look at her.
Electra swallowed and took a deep breath. "If you please, sir, we weren't successful at the docking port two, either." She spoke with a slightly shaky voice. "I mean - we hit a solid wall, the same we encountered at docking port one. However, with the currently available machinery we're unable to overcome this barrier. The chief technician doesn't want to use more power to penetrate the wall, because-"
"Because you may easily end up being buried." The captain cut in.
"Ah- yes." Electra concurred. "Before we can continue, we'll need to brace the ceiling and walls of our drift much more efficiently. According to the detectors a slight movement seems to have taken place above us, so-"
"This is nonsense! We need to stop immediately."
"But captain, the ship seems to be very close. According to the magnetic field-"
"Of course the ship is there!" Nemo nearly shouted at her. "But it's stuck in the place for over twelve thousand years! Moreover, the catastrophe of Tartessos took place above it. The ceiling of the docks collapsed and fell into pieces - and one of these pieces is very likely now standing in your way. Buildings and corrifdors fell apart up there, then came the fires, the landslides, and water flooded it all. The ship is there, but its position has most likely changed dramatically." He stated firmly and Electra suspected he might have actually looked at her.
"Now it is completely buried deep under layers of rubble and dirt with huge chunks of the dock ceiling stuck in it." Nemo continued. "Even if we had a better machinery at our disposal, it's nonsense to try to reach the Excelion through the docking ports. If you continue, sooner or later the dirt above you will give way to the fallen ceiling block that'll crush you."
"True enough the technician's been talking about this, too." Electra said and showed a soft, bitter smile. "It seems as though we should let the Excelion sleep, after all. Perhaps we should think about something else."
"We don't have anything else!" Nemo spat out. "Either we unearth Excelion, or we're finished."
"So..."
"So we're going to dig it out. Literally. From above."
"What?" Electra breathed out with disbelief. "But in that case we'd have to create something like a surface mine! And where exactly are we going to relocate all the mined dirt? And how? We don't have excavators or diggers, we don't have any cranes, either. Just how are we going to remove the fallen blocks of the dock's ceiling? We'll encounter them on the way from above, too!"
"And what do you think I've been thinking about all this time, fisrt officer?" Nemo asked her coolly.
Electra let go another sigh - an angered one this time. "Have you, really? And have you figured out something yet? What should I say to the crew?"
"You won't say anything." Nemo stated resolutely and finally straightened to look Electra in the eyes. "I'll tell them myself."
...
The way to the captain's office had felt lengthy to Electra, however, the way back, walking next to him, seemed endless. To be sure, she was very much used to silence. Back on Nautilus, it hadn't been too rare that everyone on the bridge kept staring into the ocean depths or at their monitors, and remained silent for hours. But this unbearable silence when there was so much to say was painful.
Moreover, the strange, humming sound was getting gradually clearer and heavier the closer they got to the docks.
"The sound seems to have strengthened today." Electra decided to say something at last.
"Hmm." Nemo grumbled. "Indeed." He noted and fell silent again.
"Is it the ship's main engine?" Electra asked after a while.
"Undoubtedly. One more reason for us to get into the ship at all costs. If the main engine slips out of control, the outcome will be worse than letting Neo Atlantis win."
"I see." Electra aswered and thought what could it be, this dangerous force that remained inside the Excelion's main engine, so dangerous that if left unrestrained, it could have caused... Well, what exactly?
Electra was parting her lips to voice another question, but then she recalled something completely different in her mind. Something she wished to tell Nemo for some time now, but there just hadn't been any proper moment for it yet. He will certainly welcome this information. It won't help us much, but a bit of good news cannot do any harm. For a moment, she was thinking about where and how to begin, then she took a breath-
"Miss Electra!" A voice could be heard in the distance of the corridor. "Captain, sir! We're waiting for you!"
Oh, well...
...
"Are you serious?" Asked someone from the crowd.
"Absolutely." The captain stated firmly to his gathered crew. "What we're doing now is too risky. And ineffective as well. We can't do anything more here. What we have to do now is to return to the wreck of Nautilus and carry away literally everything we can. Every single engine, battery, wire, all the usable material - we'll take whole Nautilus apart if need be. Here in the city underground we'll search all the corridors and service rooms, and each time we find anything of use, we'll keep it. Most important are the energy sources. And finally, we'll move way up, above the dock's vault... and there we'll begin the mining."
"And what exactly are we going to mine, captain?"
"The Excelion, what else?" Retorted Nemo.
Whispers rustled throughout the gathering.
"I admit that the state of our machinery is temporarily quite sad, but the word "temporarily" is very important here. It will be very hard and strenuous at first, but one by one we will build all the necessary vehicles - excavators, diggers, the conveyor belt, anything we're going to need. The cranes we'll surely find in the upper corridors of the dock. They'll be probably buried and defunct, but we'll make them useful again."
"That's plain madness." said a derisive voice.
"That's true." the captain acknowledged. "And do not doubt that the reality will be much worse. But now I'm asking you, how many crazy goals have we already achieved together? Did we manage to rebuild a starship into the most advanced submarine in the world? Does it sound like madness? Certainly. But did we do it?" Nemo called out to his crew. "Did we?"
"We most certainly did." Answered the Old Man and looked at his comrades. It seemed that the thought sparked some interest among the crew to say the least.
"Precisely." Nemo continued as he descended from his elevated standpoint towards the crowd. "Those were months and years of incredibly hard work. Now it's going to be even more demanding and the time won't be on our side. But what else do we have?" He reminded as he slowly mixed in with the others. The men made way respectfully and let him stand in their middle.
"We've all chosen this fate on our own. And each one of us had enough chances to leave. However, we've chosen to stay and endure, and now we're here. Our Nautilus was destroyed and Gargoyle is winning, but there's still one step left until his final victory. This is not the end, not yet. We are the only ones who can stop him, and ours is the advantage of surprise. So we have two options now - either we accept this one final challenge, or we surrender to the Neo Atlantis. To be sure, the second option wouldn't be as laborious-"
"No it wouldn't." One of the gathered men cut in. It was Eiko Villan, the sonar operator, now leaning against a shovel. His face and clothes were dirty with mud and dust. "But it would suck anyway." He added.
"My words exactly, Mr. Villan!" The captain agreed, which stirred some quiet laughter among the crew. "And therefore I ask you now," Nemo continued, "who's with me?"
"I am." Electra raised her hand and tried to ignore all the scornfull gazes around her. "I'm with you."
"Yeah, and I. Either I get a chance to stand on the bridge of Excelion, or I die trying. All better than letting Gargoyle win." Eiko claimed after a short moment, and raised his hand, too.
"And I, of course." Said the Old Man firmly.
"And I." The Doctor joined them.
"And I, and I!" Ikoline, Doctor's daughter and the nurse, shouted.
And at that moment, all the other hands were raised, too.
...
"Captain?" Electra asked carefully as she stood before Nemo's office.
"Something of a great importance, I hope..." Sounded from the inside.
"Well..." Electra answered and smiled softly.
"Well, what?" Nemo spat out nervously, "I'm afraid I am way too busy for this."
"I just wanted to inform you that we've received an automated encrypted signal this morning." Electra revealed hastily.
"Please, come in." Nemo growled. "What signal? Where from?" He asked and looked up to Electra as she stopped by the desk next to him.
"From your separated cabin, sir. Here are the coordinates. It's located at the shore of a small island. We're aware of it's existence and location, but officially it is unknown." She explained and handed down her notes and a small map.
The captain accepted the items and inspected the map shortly. Nearly three thousand kilometers from the east coast of Australia there was highlighted a little dot. "Here you are." He sighed.
"They'll manage." Electra decided to speak eventually.
"If they're still alive." He objected, full of doubt.
"Captain, sir, I'm sure they are. Jean would not let anything happen to Nadia or Marie. I'm certain they are safe and sound."
"Safe and sound is a very relative concept." Nemo replied and motioned the map and the notes back to Electra. "As long as Gargoyle lives, my daughter isn't safe anywhere in this world." He claimed and returned to his documents.
"I'm afraid you're right." Electra agreed, almost whispering, and folded her materials under her arm. "If it's all, captain," she spoke after a silent moment, "I'll say goodbye for today."
"Thank you, first officer. For everything." Came quite a surprising answer.
"You're welcome, captain." She smiled. She hesitated for a moment, but then walked to the door. Before she left the room, she stopped. "Oh, and please, sir, have a rest."
"You know where we can rest, Electra."
"Sure. In our grave. However, I dare to remind you that you're not the one who should be headed this way, sir."
"Well, then you should be happy that I do not intend to have a rest yet." Said Nemo as he stood up from the table and shook off his coat.
Electra observed him, and the sudden view of his injured arm felt like a knife through the heart to her. All at once the memories flooded her consciousness. Suddenly they were back again at the bridge of Nautilus, water wildly pouring in from each direction. The captain was holding his shot arm, his unyielding stare piercing through her. And she, Electra the Traitor, was holding the weapon, ready to fire again.
And again, tears came unbidden to her eyes.
"Captain," She managed with a weak, trembling voice. "I just wanted to say that I-"
"That'll be all, first officer." Nemo seethed at her. His eyes were just as wild, adamant and menacing as she remembered them. "Go to sleep. Good night."
Author's note: I must apologize that I couldn't find the names of some of the characters, so I had to improvise a bit. That being said, should you, dear readers, have any more information about this, feel free to share with me, either in the reviews or via private messaging. Any other comments and remarks are welcome, too! Lastly I should also say that I'm not a native speaker, so I'm sorry for any mistakes in phrasing, grammar or spelling. Feel free to point out the errors to me if you find some.
