“Ambassador Blake,” the Flip said in a timid voice, a foreign but not unpleasant lilt to her tone. “Is your delegation ready for passage?”
“Yes, thank you, Glyn,” Blake said as he fiddled with a latch on the railing that Alex hadn’t noticed before, revealing a small gate that swung inwards.
As he did so, the Flip—Glyn—bent down and ran her fingers along the vessel’s floor, and a moment later, the transparent dome over the top dissipated, leaving only the base she was standing on. With the upper barrier now gone, Blake moved through the gate and jumped down onto the invisible platform beside her, balancing his weight when it rocked slightly in the water.
“The first step’s the hardest,” he called up to them. “But this thing”—he stomped his foot on the bottom of the globe—“is as solid as a rock, so don’t be afraid.”
Alex’s frequent use of the invisible Valispath meant she wasn’t the least bit daunted at the thought of dropping barely a few feet down onto the glass-like vessel, and she did so without hesitation. Her friends followed her lead without needing more coaxing, since they too had travelled on the Eternal Path, if not as much as she had.
Blake seemed disappointed by their lack of fear, almost as if he’d been hoping for more of a dramatic reaction. Alex had to hide her smile at the thought of him experiencing the Valispath for himself and thus realising why they weren’t fazed by the sea transport.
“Is everyone ready?” Glyn asked in her timid, accented voice.
“My companions have never travelled by Airlock before,” Blake said, “and no matter how many times I make the journey, it never sits well with me. Can we trouble you for some aegon before we depart?”
Glyn tugged what looked like a strand of seaweed from her already minimalistic skirt, handing it to Blake.
“Cheers,” he said, tossing her a winning smile, to which the poor Flip appeared flustered in response and hurried to drop down and press her hand against the floor of the globe again. Instantly, the sheen of the transparent dome rematerialised over their heads, and the vessel began its descent into the water at an incredible speed.
“Chew on this,” Blake said, shredding the aegon into five pieces and handing them to Alex and her friends, keeping one for himself. “It’ll help stave off any pressure sickness.”
Alex looked dubiously at the slimy, brownish offering, not at all thrilled by the idea of putting the foreign weed in her mouth.
“The Undersea Islands are deep on the ocean floor,” Blake explained, reading her hesitation. “The cities themselves are protected by compression fields, but the journey there and back is swift enough to be taxing on the human body.” He nodded encouragingly towards the weed in her hand. “Take it, or I can guarantee you’ll experience what feels like the worst migraine imaginable once we resurface.”
Trusting him, Alex placed the aegon in her mouth, gagging at the salty flavour. She could manage barely three chews before she had to swallow the rest of it whole, but at least the deed was done.
Satisfied, Blake gave a chin jerk, gesturing for her to follow his gaze, and she did so, her eyes widening as she realised just how rapidly they were moving underwater.
Their glass-like vessel offered a crystal clear view, but since the surface was now impossibly far above them thanks to their unprecedented speed, there wasn’t much to see with such little light filtering so deep into the water. But that didn’t mean there was nothing to see, especially when they reached the ocean floor and continued along it in a stream of movement.
Flashes of sea creatures in all sizes flew past Alex’s vision, from tiny luminescent fish to large, sharp-toothed beasts she didn’t want to know the names of, let alone encounter outside of the Airlock vessel. Underwater landmarks came and went, along with large caverns rising up from and descending into the ocean floor. There were coral reefs and gaping chasms and even a long-abandoned wreck of some ginormous vessel. It was like a whole new world, and Alex was mesmerised by it.
Finally, their transport began to slow from what felt like warp speed to something much more appropriate for sightseeing as they approached a ledge in the sea shelf. When the drop-off area spanned out in front of them, all Alex could do was gape at the vision before her.
Resting on the lowered ocean floor were what looked like hundreds, maybe thousands of glass domes, all like upside-down goldfish bowls. They ranged in size from being large enough to fit a house, to large enough to fit the entire campus of Akarnae. And Alex could see this, because inside each of the spheres were softly illuminated buildings, sometimes just one or two, sometimes a whole spread of them in various shapes and sizes. All of these spheres were connected to a massive central dome by transparent, interlinking bridge-tunnels—a central dome their Airlock vessel was heading directly towards.
Flashes of architecture whirled by Alex’s vision as they sailed through the underwater city, allowing her to compare the buildings to something that might have been found in Ancient Greece; pillars and arches and enough splendour for her to liken what she was seeing as the Medoran equivalent of the mythical Atlantis.
It was, in a word, breathtaking.
“Welcome to Nialas,” Blake said, breaking into her reverie. “The capital of the Undersea Islands.”
Fifteen
“Please prepare for docking,” Glyn said, and even though her voice remained timid, it still seemed loud to Alex’s ears, so engrossed as she was by the domed city.
“This is beyond cool,” Jordan whispered, his tone reverent.
Alex looked over at her friends and noted the marvel on their faces as they took in the view all around them.
“This place… just… wow,” Bear said, unable to articulate more than that.
As for D.C., she could only nod in agreement, her eyes full of awe.
Alex turned back to watch through the glass as they made their approach for ‘docking’. The Airlock vessel slowed further as they glided towards the central dome, the speed now allowing Alex to note the figures inside the transparent spheres surrounding them. Green-skinned Flips with all different coloured tribal markings walked within the domes and along the glass tunnels between them, going about their business as if living thousands of feet underwater was a normal everyday experience. For them, it was, but even seeing it with her own eyes, Alex struggled to believe it.
Even more fascinating to watch were the Flips outside the domes, swimming through the ocean like finless merpeople, using their webbed hands and feet as easily as flippers as they moved casually between any domes that lacked connection tunnels.