The Adventures of Anna Atom. Elizabeth Wasserman

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      Chapter 20

      EXPLORING THE SHADOWY SHADES OF BLUE

      Mutt gave a high-pitched bark as the Submarine Explorer escaped from the hatch out into the open sea, and Anna felt the surge of excitement that she always experienced when she entered the world below the sea’s surface.

      “I drives, Miss Anna?” Max asked.

      “No thank you, Max. My mom had taught me how to steer the sub. But please stay with me, I need you to guide us to the wreck of the Chivonne.”

      Max activated a display with a detailed 3D map of the sea surrounding the island. A tiny flashing red ship indicated the site of Hodoul’s lost vessel.

      It was cool inside the cabin, but Anna was dressed for the beach. She fiddled with a few switches to make it slightly warmer. The Submarine Explorer was fitted with the same technology the admiral had designed for the aquabreather: panels filtered oxygen directly from the surrounding ocean. As long as the little sub kept moving, the air supply would never run out. Its engines were powered by a small brontium reactor, and Anna knew it produced enough energy for them to circle the globe approximately four times, depending on speed and cruise depth.

      What could go wrong?

      It was a fine day. The water was crystal clear, and above their heads the surface of the sea was as smooth as a bowl of jelly. A group of cuttlefish swam close to the transparent hull of the submarine, curiously looking at Anna with their big, owl-like eyes. As Anna watched, they changed their colour from transparent pink to sandy brown as they scuttled away over the sea floor.

      The sub had now reached the floor of the cove below Monpetit’s house.

      The shelter of the island acted as a giant nursery for all kinds of creatures, and soon they were surrounded by a myriad of tiny fish. Their silver bodies scattered light around the water like glitter in a snow globe.

      Slowly the sub cruised into deeper water.

      Microphones on the outside of its body transmitted sound into the cabin. As they approached the reef, Anna could hear the constant “krr-krrr” of creatures living and feeding off the coral. She spied a couple of large, colourful parrotfish chipping pieces off a coral-encrusted rock with their hard-lipped mouths. One of them ejected a cloud of sand, and she remembered her mother explaining that parrotfish grind up pieces of coral as they feed, digesting the juicy bits and excreting the rest. For thousands of years they have been contributing to the islands’ beautiful beaches.

      Each creature has its place in the world: that’s what Anna had been taught.

      A pair of stately rays glided past, taking no heed of the little sub intruding into their secluded world. A school of mullet suddenly surrounded them, sunlight glinting off them in silvery rows.

      The fish swam in formation like a regiment of soldiers, opening and closing their mouths in perfect unison.

      Mutt growled, not able to figure out this strange site. Anna giggled.

      Suddenly a pair of large, charging bodies scattered the mullet in all directions. They were dolphins, and they were chasing their breakfast. One of them passed so close to the little craft that it bobbed slightly in the dolphin’s wake.

      The mullet and the dolphins soon disappeared and the sub cruised into deeper water. Anna felt a pang of doubt as the pastel colours of the reef began to fade and the world around them deepened into shadowy shades of blue.

      “Maybe we should just go for a short cruise, and then turn back home again,” she said to Mutt.

      The wreck was still some distance away, and she wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do once they’d found it. Then she remembered that she could contact her father in the Space Ark from the Submarine Explorer, and she immediately felt better again.

      “Max!” she called. “Can you call my dad for me?”

      “Sure, Miss Anna. I be activatings the link to him right now.”

      A purple light blinked on the screen in front of Anna. When she touched it, a picture of the admiral’s space laboratory materialised.

      It was empty.

      “He’s not there, Max! Is there no other way to contact him?”

      “He was talkings to your mother from his wrist communicator a while ago,” the computer said. “He musts be somewhere else in the Space Ark. The connection was brokes a while ago, and your mother is also now trying to contacts him.”

      “Let me know as soon as you find him, please!” Anna asked.

      The map that indicated the location of the sunken ship flickered up again, displacing the image of the admiral’s empty lab. Anna had to concentrate in steering the Submarine Explorer in the right direction.

      They were now moving through huge underwater granite boulders, as big as sunken churches, that she had to manoeuvre between. This was tricky as the incoming tide was surging between the boulders, causing currents and eddies that pushed the little craft around. Anna had to accelerate the engines occasionally to steer a steady course against the current. She soon got the hang of this, and wove the little submarine expertly through the underwater maze. Vicious sea urchins clung to the steep walls of the granite cliffs. Their trembling spines were as long as Anna’s forearm, and she knew how their sting could burn.

      They disturbed a giant rock cod that was guarding its cave. The creature opened and closed its ugly upside-down mouth in disgust, as if swearing at them in some inaudible language. He watched them depart with cross yellow eyes.

      On a ledge, a row of lobsters stepped out to watch them pass by. In this weird world the noise of the coral was behind them and they were now gliding in absolute silence. Sunlight filtered from the world above in large wedges of light. The ripples on the surface above made dappled shadows that danced over the sandy sea floor below. Schools of fish swirled gracefully around them like large, shiny clouds. Anna steered around the edge of the last boulder, and suddenly they were out in the open sea.