‘Sorry, what?’
My classmates laugh.
‘Ana is simply proving my point,’ Luca says, giving me a good-natured smile. ‘We must stay focused at all times and take things slow. For today, our task is simple. If we can submerge the Nautilus and resurface, that will be a triumph!’
‘Aww, but, Dad,’ Halimah jokes, ‘can’t we just take a short spin around the lake?’
‘I want to see what she can do in the open sea!’ Dru counters.
The others clap and whoop in approval.
‘Hold on,’ I whisper to Ester. ‘How does the sub get from here to the open sea?’
‘Luca was just saying there’s an underwater tunnel that leads out past the atoll.’ She madly jots down this information on her note cards. ‘It’s probably an old lava vent. Do you think I should write lava vent or just tunnel?’
Ophelia claps twice, loud and sharp, to get our attention. ‘Freshmen!’
The group falls silent. For the first time, I appreciate that Ophelia is an HP teacher as well as a scientist. I bet her classes would’ve been hard. Super interesting, but hard.
‘So, then,’ she continues. ‘We will take this assignment seriously. The Nautilus has not been operated in almost two hundred years. We must give Ana, and the rest of us, time to acclimatize. It will be a bit like learning to ride a horse.’
Meadow Newman frowns. ‘The sub is still a machine, right? You make it sound like a wild animal!’
The Nautilus is not amused. The whole ship begins to hum.
Ester yells, ‘Look out!’
She hits the deck as water blasts from either side of the Nautilus’s prow, arcing backwards over the top of the ship. The starboard deluge falls harmlessly into the lake, but the port-side spray soaks all of us from head to foot.
There’s a moment of stunned silence.
Meadow looks flabbergasted. ‘I’m sorry, Nautilus! You are a magnificent creature!’
The crew starts laughing. Top barks and shakes himself off. I can’t help but crack a smile. Now we know that the submarine has pride, good hearing and maybe even a sense of humour, given the fact that it didn’t try to kill us.
I’m starting to think my fears were overblown. We’re among friends. We’re safe. The Nautilus just wants some respect. All we have to do is try one quick dive. Then we can fix whatever leaks occur, come back tomorrow and try again. We have plenty of time.
That’s when Socrates breaches in the middle of the lake. He splashes down sideways, making as much noise as possible. A moment later, his head pops up at the base of the pier. He chatters, clicks and whistles at me urgently.
‘Whoa,’ Gem says. ‘How did he find us?’
But that’s not the right question. The question is why.
‘Something’s wrong,’ Ester says, her water-blotted note cards forgotten in her hands.
Socrates bucks his head backwards – a signal I remember well. Let’s go! Hurry!
My insides feel like they’re plunging into the Mariana Trench. My foreboding starts to make terrible sense.
‘Everybody!’ I yell. ‘Hey!’
I don’t have Ophelia’s skill at getting the class’s attention, but the alarm in my voice makes an impression. The others turn towards me.
Nelinha frowns at the dolphin, then at me.
‘What’s going on?’ she asks. ‘You okay?’
My hands are shaking. ‘None of us are okay. I think the Aronnax has found us.’
My announcement douses the class’s spirits more effectively than the Nautilus’s hose-down.
For a few chaotic moments, the entire class mills around asking ‘What? What?’ while I try to explain why I’m so sure we’ve been found. For some reason, ‘The dolphin is telling me so’ doesn’t clear up the confusion. Meanwhile, Ester and Top try to interview Socrates, but that isn’t going well. The dolphin is highly agitated. Judging from his body language, his only message is Leave now.
Finally, Ophelia restores order. She gives each house a different assignment: Sharks to check the island’s defensive grid; Cephalopods to send out drone reconnaissance; Orcas to monitor communications and LOCUS; Dolphins to sweep the Varuna one more time for tracking devices.
‘And the four prefects,’ Ophelia says, ‘stay with Luca and me.’
Our hosts lead Franklin, Tia, Gem and me aboard the Nautilus.
This time, the bridge controls light up as soon as I step into the room. Luca strides over to the comm station and manipulates the LOCUS sphere. He’s able to turn it just by holding his hands on either side. Three days using LOCUS aboard the Varuna and I never even thought to try that.