Undersea

Chapter 13: Sub City

"You must continue your work with the professor," said Beamer to Sarah as she and Zenith sat with him in the house they lived. "You don't have a responsibility to sit here. I will be paralyzed the rest of my life."

The way Beamer spoke, in such a forward tone, brought tears to Sarah's eyes. Zenith's too. They did not want to give up hope Beamer would walk again; it had only been a few days since the incident. Neither wanted to surrender to the idea that Beamer would never stroll with them through Fish Town or anywhere else again.

"I'll be alright here," Beamer was saying, "I won't let you girls put your lives on hold for me. We have to move foward, even though circumstances have changed. If I choose to be bitter about what happened, I might miss out on an opportunity!"

"But Beamer," said Zenith, "we're the only family you have now, let us take care of you! Besides, what can you do? You can't work."

"I didn't say abandon me," said Beamer with a smile, "I can still contribute and I am learning how to get around by myself. The little board with wheels Shafer made for me helps, though I might make some tweaks to it. I'll be scootin' all around this place in no time!"

"You won't be get bored or lonely being by yourself all day?" asked Sarah.

"I'll be okay. I won't get in to much mischief!" said Beamer with a laugh, "besides, I got "board" right here!" Beamer nodded to the wheeled board Shafer had made him. Heavy eye rolls from the girls. "I just get the sense," said Beamer seriously, "that it's so important to keep doing what we're doing in the places that we are. Besides, I have a few ideas of what I want to do with the time."

The next several weeks Beamer was absorbed with the printing press. Vi and Zenith continued to work at the fish factory and Sarah went with them half the days. The rest of the time she was back in the pools and pens of Undersea with Safer and his crew gathering samples. She did not let herself focus on the events of Beamer's accident. She was more determined then ever to continue the work despite any danger there might be. It had been a sort of chance incident as it were-what had happened to Beamer. Now all the mesh walls of the pens were inspected regularly to prevent sixgills from getting in again. Still, working at depth had it's perils.

Whenever the professor stopped by he thanked Sarah profusely for the work she did in the face of those dangers. He would always make it a point to talk to Beamer as well to see how he was doing. The professor continually came away impressed at Beamer's ingenuity and attitude. "Where do you get such an encouraging outlook on life?" the professor had asked him one day. Beamer just smiled and handed him a printed copy of grandma's old book. "Hot off the press!" said Beamer.

- - -

Sarah worked closer with the professor now that they had plenty of samples from the pens.

"Much of the fish we eat comes from the farmed stock," the professor had said one day, "but we catch a large amount from the open ocean. It is there we must now go. Come, I think it is time I show you the field lab and the preparations I've made for further research. Meet me bright and early tomorrow in the Old City near the gates. The ones in the outer wall."

"Those old gates," said Sarah, "why there? They don't open anymore and if they did the ocean would flood in and swallow Undersea! Didn't those gates ceased to operate after their water lock system was dismantled, after the founders moved into the Old City from the subs? How are we going to collect samples from there?"

"You shall see," said the professor with a knowing smile.

The next day while the lamps were yet dim, Sarah stood at the gates in the outer wall of the Old City with her lunch pail and backpack; uncertain as to what the professor had up his sleeve. The gates frowned before her. They were large double doors some twenty feet high that could swing inward to create a thirty foot opening, back when they were in use. But behind those thick metal doors was now the sea, and Sarah shuddered thinking of the great weight piled up against them. Sarah looked closer at the gates and wondered why they had not been welded shut or sealed over with solid stone. There did seem to be locking mechanisms in place, controlled by a fortified gearbox that ran on generator power. This was housed in a booth sized building also connected to the power grid by cables running along the outer wall of Undersea in both directions.