Ester shivers. ‘That explains how Nemo covered so much distance in the books. He kept popping up all around the globe. They could never catch him. Don’t you guys feel cold?’
It feels really warm to me. Maybe that’s because I’m thinking about how much power is coursing through this engine room, and how easy it would be for the Nautilus to end its Dakkar problems once and for all with one big zap.
‘Through there –’ Luca gestures to a riveted oval door with a small porthole window at the back of the room – ‘is the cold-fusion reactor. It takes hydrogen directly from the ocean. Eternal combustion power with no waste. In case that breaks down for some reason …’ He points to an identical door on the right. ‘Nelinha, you will not believe this … the backup generator is coal-burning.’
Nelinha coughs. ‘What?’
‘That’s right!’ Luca laughs with delight. ‘Nemo skipped a century of science. He leap-frogged from steam engines to cold fusion! I’ve thought about replacing the coal-burner with something less Victorian, but –’
A creaking groan echoes through the ship.
Top barks.
I turn to Ophelia with what may or may not be an expression of sheer terror. ‘Was that …？’
‘The Nautilus acting grumpy,’ she confirms.
‘She doesn’t like talk about modifications.’ Ester studies the ceiling like she’s discovered hidden zodiac signs.
It’s customary to call any ship she, but I get the feeling Ester has picked up on something more fundamental about the Nautilus. I decide I’ll keep Ester at my side whenever I’m on board, and I’ll take her warnings seriously.
‘What does the Nautilus like?’ I ask.
Ester runs her hand across the console. ‘She appreciates being cleaned and fixed up. She likes that.’
‘Ah, you see?’ Luca raises his eyebrows at Ophelia. ‘This is why she enjoys my company so much.’
‘She tolerates you, anyway,’ Ophelia says. ‘She knows you are useful.’
‘Now, dear. Don’t be jealous.’
Nelinha continues her inspection of the control panels. She reads aloud the fancy calligraphy on each engraved bronze label: ‘Vector thrusters. Dynamic positioning. Recursive ballast control? Oh, this is incredible! Nautilus, I love you!’
The ship does not respond, but I imagine she’s thinking, Yes, I know. I am rather marvellous.
I have trouble sharing Nelinha’s enthusiasm. This is still the ship that killed my parents. I try to control my feelings. I’m doing my best to understand my ancestor’s strange, ancient, apparently living creation. But part of me wants to grab Luca’s pipe wrench and start smashing things.
I try to refocus. ‘Luca, you said there was a secret door?’
‘Yes, just here!’ Luca leads me to a hatch that’s tucked in a corner behind the giant pistons. It’s not so much a door as a service panel, maybe big enough for a child to squeeze through. There is no visible lock or handle.
‘Do you know what’s inside?’ I ask.
Luca hesitates, so Ophelia answers. ‘We’ve found several panels like this throughout the ship,’ she says. ‘We suspect they allow access to the Nautilus’s core processor … her brain, if you will. After a century and a half under the sea, her other systems required quite a lot of cleaning and repair. We suspect her core does, too, but …’
‘She is reluctant to let someone fool around in her brain,’ Luca says. ‘Understandable, of course. And I will not try to force the panels.’
‘No,’ Ester agrees. ‘That would be bad.’
‘But if we could clean out these hatches –’ Luca gives me a meaningful glance – ‘I suspect it might help all of us, especially the Nautilus.’
I get his point. For all we know, the submarine’s higher reasoning could be severely impaired. That might be why the Nautilus lashed out at my parents when they woke her up. Fixing the sub’s brain could make her friendlier and easier to deal with.
On the other hand, it could make her angrier and more dangerous …
Top sniffs the hatch. He, at least, looks eager to smell a submarine brain.
‘Ester, any advice?’ I ask.
‘Be careful,’ she suggests.
‘That’s very helpful. Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
One of Ester’s many superpowers: she is impervious to sarcasm.
I place my hand on the hatch. ‘Nautilus, we would like to clean inside here,’ I say in Bundeli. ‘We will be extremely careful not to damage you. Would that be all right?’