Chapter Twenty-eight

Pain

So the plans begin to form as the boys and young men figure out what they need to do to perfect their master plan. First thing to figure out is mode of transportation. That one is easy. They'll take a submarine. The next thing is they form a list of what they'll need on the sub, assuming that the sub will become their permanent home. The list includes: dive gear, weapons, food, medical supplies, room for their own personal belongings, and the like. Third is to find out what parts they need to build the submarine. That last task will take the longest. Everything else they can figure out after the sub is built and they are ready to depart.

The weekends are spent locating the parts they need. Of course being who they are- all city bred- they have no idea what to look for. So instead they check out other subs to gain inspiration of what they have to build. Richard finds out that Rex, the older man in the home has a way with subs. Whenever one of the subs breaks down, Rex is on the job. Richard offers to help and Rex accepts the offer.

"Ever worked on a sub before?" Rex asks as he pulls out his toolbox.

Sadly, Richard shakes his head.

Rex only smiles and waves Richard over to where he stands with the toolbox. "I won't be fixing these rust buckets forever," he says. "It's about time one of you younger fellows learned how."

The next few hours are spent working on the sub, making sure everything is running well and at optimal level. Richard is grateful for the time spent on the machine. To him, machines are easier to understand. The parts all work together. Humans are much more complicated. They have emotions which can flip-flop all the time. Machines don't have emotions and are therefore easier to understand. He hopes that one day they will have enough knowledge to build a sub using a cheap scrapper that they will have to purchase from somewhere. It's not much but it's a start.

That is what the weekends are like. The boys learn about the internal structure of a submarine and how to make it run smoothly and efficiently. They have to make sure that the sub they are going to pilot is completely silent when it glides through the water. That way they can take their victims by surprise. That means they'll have to find an engine system that gives them the ability to glide through the water. Sea creatures glide through the water. Their movements are so swift and silent. Nobody will be able to detect them if their sub mimics the ways of a sea creature. That is when Trevor showed his idea to Richard.

Trevor is actually a bright but misunderstood boy. He's smart in academics and can usually answer any questions given to him. The world of math and science makes sense to him. People don't. That's how he ended up in Seablite. Being the bright and misunderstood boy he is, the boys at the boarding home he lived in and the ones at school felt inferior to his brain superiority; well that is what he thought. This often resulted in Trevor ending up in fights. One particularly bad one left one kid ending up in the hospital and Trevor being sent to Seablite. He was an angry boy and at times still is. But instead of lashing out, he keeps his rage inside. That's what Seablite taught him, that no one really cares about you anymore. You are all alone in this world and cannot rise above what you are, a street rat with no future.

Trevor has been looking at different types of subs that sometimes dock near the home. All of them have their own unique signature, stating where they were made. While the owners of the sub are off conducting business (usually with Karen since she is the only big name, business woman on this Trade Station), Trevor snoops around the subs, checking them out for ideas. The basic framework is simple, something with rounded edges that can cut through water with little resistance. That is their end goal. It has to be big enough to house all seven of them so somehow that has to work its way into the design.

After he gathers all of this vital information, Trevor stats to draw the design of what their future home should look like. He starts out with the most basic design of a sub he can think of. It's round like all the others with two sections, one above for sleeping and one below for everything else. So far that's what he thinks it should look like. It's a basic design. Now personality has to be added to it.

They all want it to be fearsome looking. They want people to tremble when they see their sub gliding past. Trevor racks his brain to think of the most terrifying sea creature in the ocean. He thinks of a giant squid, but when he sees it on paper, he realizes that the design would be too complicated to build. So he moves onto types of fish and finally stumbles upon what he thinks is the perfect design for the sub: a great white shark.

After this is done, Richard is approached by the boy one night as he lounges on the couch in the lounge area of the home. Everyone else is already in their rooms for the night so it makes it the perfect time for both of them to talk about their plans. This way no one knows what they're planning.

Richard is nearly asleep when Trevor decides to drop by, nearly making Richard jump out of his skin when the younger boy sits down on the couch.

"Don't do that again," Richard says wearily as his heartbeat begins to slow.

"Sorry," Trevor mumbles. "I, uh, I thought you'd like to see this." He gives Richard a piece of paper upon which lies a drawing of what Trevor thinks their future home will and should look like.

He looks down at the piece of paper for quite some time. The drawing is really well-done. It shows measurements and labels of where things could possibly go. It has two levels. The top is where they will sleep and keep their belongings. The bottom level is where their day-to-day activities will be conducted. Then he takes in the structure of the sub. It's in the shape of a shark, a great white shark to be exact. The mouth of the shark is slightly open with what appears to be a big bubble lodged in its mouth.

"That's where the bridge would be," Trevor says. "It'll be tinted so that no one can see inside."

"How does it propel itself?" Richard asks.

"That's what got me thinking of a different type of system that doesn't use propellers or any of that type of stuff you would see on a normal sub." Trevor produces a notepad and flips it open, showing Richard his drawings for the propulsion system of their sub. "It's a system of artificial muscles that would be put in between the inner and outer hull of the tail end of the sub here-" he points to the tail of the sub. "Now, the muscles would vibrate against the water. It would be a system of vibrations that would move from beginning to end and continue that pattern. The vibrations would cause the water to move around the sub and force it to move forward through the water. For turning the sub a series of connections would force the tail to move from side to side. The vibrations would change and respond to the movement, turning the sub in the direction it's being directed to go to."

"And you think this will work?"

Trevor shrugs. "I can test it using some of the gear in the shop, but it makes sense, to me anyways. What do you think of it?"

Richard hands back the notepad and the sketch. "I think it's a good idea. It has everything we need. I think the others will like it."

"It's the best way," Trevor says. "It shouldn't be too hard to build."

Richard shakes his head. "It shouldn't be. All we have to do is find something we can build off of."

"And then we can attach the muscles to the framework. I'll work on the designs some more once we have the body of the sub to work off. When do you think we'll get the sub?"

Richard rubs his eyes and groans. Sometimes this whole matter is just too much for Richard to handle. "We can try on the weekend; hit some of the bigger Trade Stations out there. It might take a while."

Trevor nods. "That's all I have to show you I guess."

Richard nods as well. "We'll head out then once the work week is up. We'll pool our money together and see if that's enough to buy a scrapper."

"That should be good enough," he mutters and stands. "See you in the morning." He wanders off to the stairs.

Richard stays up for a while longer. The added stress of figuring out how to bring all the parts of the plan together to make it work is slowly killing him. He'll be happy when it's all over and they're on their way again.

He goes down to his room and flops down on his bed. Eventually his foot connects with the door and he kicks it shut. He heaves himself further onto the bedcovers and slides down underneath them. It's time to get some sleep. But a floor below him two people are far from sleeping.

Eli walks up to Peter's room and knocks on the door softly. A few minutes later Peter does answer. Obviously he isn't happy being woken up after needing to get some sleep. But since Eli is here, looking quite distressed he can't obviously ignore it.

"What do you want?" he asks.

Eli folds his arms over his chest. "I want you to make me forget."

"Forget what?"

"The pain," Eli replies. "I want you to make me forget the pain."

Peter stretches and yawns. He doesn't want to do this. He doesn't even know if he'll be able to do this. But he has to try for Eli's sake. Finally Peter nods and allows Eli to step in. "I'll see what I can do."