Shankara

Chapter 7 - The Nautilus

At first, Edwin thought they were going to exit the Holo Deck and head for the Nautilus, so he started taking off his glasses, but Eve told him to keep them on. At that moment, what had seemed like metal alloy walls all around him started opening up, revealing behind them thick tempered glass on all sides of the room, inter-cut every 15 feet or so by 10-inch bars of the same metal alloy he had seen in his room, effectively offering them an almost unobstructed 360-degree view. As Edwin advanced and stared out the tempered glass, he gasped. He saw that they were actually high above what looked like a huge wet dock, which he had not seen before. The dock had different sorts of vessels, and people were moving in and out of them, busy loading and unloading crates and other things he could not see from this height. They must have been easily 300 feet above the water below, and he touched the windows, and he could feel their thickness reverberate through his touch. He barely had time to register the sight when the whole Holo Deck started to shake.

"Whoa there!" exclaimed Connor, "it's always a little bumpy at first," and suddenly Edwin realized they were moving. He looked up through the windows and saw a massive metallic futuristic-looking crane that had effectively grabbed the whole Holo Deck from its roof and was swiftly moving it towards the water. He realized in an instant that he had been on the Nautilus all along. As if replying to his unsaid query, Connor continued:

"We are in the command center of the Nautilus," and as he said this, 3-D generated consoles started popping up all around them.

"Oh wow," Edwin said again.

"Yup. When we designed this beast, we thought to ourselves, why have real-life consoles when you can have them in a 3-D generated environment? The cool thing," he said and started walking, "is that the consoles follow you wherever you decide to go," and he demonstrated this by walking around while pushing in some buttons and resizing others with a pinch of his fingers. In addition, he continued as if giving a grand tour: "We have computer-generated images of our surroundings inlaid on top of direct camera feeds from the outside of the ship. Layers on top of high-definition imagery and all of this projected onto our 360-degree windows." And he winked at Edwin, his pride obvious. It was as if Edwin was looking directly outside the ship, with added layers and massive data points to help him understand whatever it was he was seeing.

"These 3-D generated consoles give us much more flexibility than we could ever have from standard real-life physical consoles. And you can modify them according to whatever you desire. Chloe will actually adapt the console to your height and preferences, and the more she knows about you, the more it will feel instinctive."

"Chloe, would you bring up some massage chairs, please?" and he winked once again. Immediately, from the floor, silently popped out three what looked to Edwin like the most comfortable 'massage chairs.'

"Yes, well, it helps when your boss is one of the richest men on the planet," Connor said. "We like to be comfortable when we're going up against the unknown." And just as he finished his sentence, the crane brought the ship level with the water, gently disengaging from it and leaving it to bob peacefully like a newborn baby.

"Strap on," Eve said, and Edwin sat himself, and two very cool-looking straps automatically enveloped him, gluing him comfortably to the leather. He had rarely felt so much trepidation and comfort all at once.

"I need some of these on our boat," Edwin quipped as he caressed the leather of his new best friend.

"This wet dock can accommodate 15 different ships of all sizes. They are not all subs, as some will be brought up to the surface through the same opening we came through in with the Osprey, but most are amphibian ships able to work both on land and on the sea, and some, as you might see, double up as dual usage ships as well."