I'm Working

Parts 2

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Some of the other kids found their tongues. “When did Atlantis sink, for starters?”

Garth’s voice was naturally soft and the students had to pay attention to hear him, but he was used to public speaking and had probably been through this story a thousand times already. “The actual date, as best as we’ve been able to determine, was August 17^th, 9047 BC, according to your calendar. What’s now known as Atlantis was largely located on an island which was destroyed when the volcano underneath it erupted violently. Most of the cities and villages on the island were completely annihilated and the majority of the population killed, but several cities had enough warning and the necessary technology to make adaptations for some of their people to survive underwater. The current nation is made up of their descendants.”

“How come it’s called Atlantis now? I mean I heard that it used to be something else.”

“Plato screwed up?” Garth had the ghost of a smile on his face. “It’s probably just a mistranslation from the Greeks. That would be my guess, anyway.”

“So you all live pretty much in the city then?”

“In one or another of them, pretty much. It’s like most people on the surface live in or near cities. It’s simply easier.”

“Wait, I’m kinda confused, there’s more than one city? I thought Atlantis was the name of a single place.”

Garth looked like he wasn’t sure if he should answer this one or not—almost everything about his country was considered classified as far as the surface was concerned, but finally gave a partial answer. “Atlantis is the surface name for the country, but there is more than one city. It’s like New York is just one city in the United States.”

“Garth?” Ballard spoke up. “After millennia of isolation, why has your government decided to allow contact now? In fact, they seem to be encouraging it. For example, not only did you two work with us landsmen, but we’re on our way to the bottom of the ocean to meet some of your people.”

“Inevitability. We knew it’s just a matter of time before surface technology makes contact unavoidable so it seemed like a better idea to initiate it ourselves. And I’ve been working with the Titans for years now, just like Arthur has been in the JLA.”

“You’re handling it this way to have more control over the interaction, then?”

“Of course.”

“So we’re part of a PR campaign to show Atlantis isn’t a threat or anything?”

Garth paused again; he seemed to consider every answer before saying anything. “No one consulted with me about this, but that would be my guess, yes. It sounds to me like the equivalent of Ping-Pong Diplomacy—a group of college students being given a personal tour. You’ll probably be impressed, or I’m sure that’s Arthur’s intention at any rate, then go back and write a series of glowing reports about how nice everyone was and the things you saw.”

“You sound a little snide about it.”

“Do I?” He gave a small, involuntary shrug then paused for a moment, considering his answer. “I don’t mean to—honestly I don’t, but it’s fairly obvious, isn’t it? In fact I’m sure you will be well treated and you will see things that haven’t been shown to anyone on the surface; everything from biologics to the architecture. The point will be to impress you with how civilized and advanced we are so that you can go home and tell your friends that we’re not a bunch of dumb fish.” The students seemed a little uncomfortable with his answer, maybe it was his attitude or simply realizing that they had been turned into political pawns and weren’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

Finally a young man who looked like a football player cleared his throat, pulling Garth back from his computer screen. “Is it true that for a long time if there was a shipwreck or something and some Atlanteans came along, they wouldn’t help?”

He half looked up, the rest of his attention still on the screen. “Until recently, there was a ‘no contact’ law which was heavily enforced. Interaction with the surface in any form was a capital offense—the penalty was death—so everyone stayed underwater unless there was some kind of pressing need to reach air. That didn’t happen too often and even when it did, the odds of seeing surfacers was small. The oceans are very large, after all.”

“Wait, you mean that if you talked to a girl on a beach or helped some poor slob whose boat capsized, you could be executed?”

Garth nodded. “Once in a while it still happened, of course, but the exceptions can be counted on one hand, and that’s all through our recorded history. We embraced xenophobia and it worked pretty well for ten thousand years. Well, except for Hans Christian Andersen, anyway.” That ghost of a smile was back.

“Wait, I’m having a problem with this. You mean that if some Atlantean ship happened by when like the Titanic was sinking, they wouldn’t do anything?”

“Until about twenty years or so ago, that’s right. There’s a small chance they’d call in help by radio without identifying themselves, but there wouldn’t be any direct contact, no.” The answer seemed to be a bit unsettling to the students who wondered just how different the people they’d be meeting really were. “I’ve read accounts of anonymous radio messages being sent out to help sinking ships or survivors during World War Two but not too many. The no-contact mentality was pretty ingrained.”

A flash of lights went by some of the windows, too fast to focus on, though the two divers saw it. “Did you see…?” “Wha…?” “Jesus!”

“That was a deep sea viper. They’re fairly common at this depth.” From Garth’s voice he could have been identifying a pet cat—and was about as impressed.

“Did anyone get a picture?” “Damn!” “That was a new species.”

The excitement died down enough for the conversation to resume, but the kids made a much bigger effort to pay attention to the windows after that.

The redheaded girl tried again, and she edged closer to Garth, hoping to get his personal—very personal attention. “Um, Garth? Do you still hang out with the Titans anymore?”

“Sometimes, not as much as I used to. We’re still friends, if that’s what you’re asking but we’re all busy; right Rob?” Robin just smiled

“Ohmigod, he’s so cute!”

Garth suppressed a laugh. “I’m sure he’s pleased you think so, aren’t you, Robbie?”

“Seriously, do you have a girlfriend?” She’d addressed this to Robin, three feet away but busy driving.

Garth, somehow, maintained a straight face while Robin just made some vague and half-mumbled comment about liking to keep his private life private, thanks.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” Kara couldn’t believe someone asked Garth that, just a few months after Tula had died. Fine, they probably didn’t know, but who asks personal questions of a total stranger? Garth, ever polite but clearly uncomfortable, also gave a non-answer. “And I prefer not to talk about my personal life, if you don’t mind.”

“Garth?” Ballard spoke up. “I was curious about that extended subject, myself. How does that work in Atlantis culturally and socially? Say you decided to marry one of these lovely young ladies on board with us today, could you do so? For that matter, do you marry in Atlantis?”

He seemed to mentally sigh at how basic the questions were but remained polite, barely. “Yes, we generally get married and technically I can marry anyone I want; well, anyone who’ll have me, anyway. Realistically, as a member of the royal family, I have to limit myself to someone who’s considered acceptable to the people and the government. And obviously there are practical considerations that make a marriage to a surfacer virtually impossible.”

“But you just said that you’re a king yourself, couldn’t you give yourself permission to marry anyone you wish?”

He shrugged. “I’m a king who’s refused my throne and even so I’m bound by the same laws as anyone. Unless my own council agreed to the match, I’d be acting illegally and the marriage would probably be voided.” He pushed a couple of keys on his computer. “But I can sleep with anyone I want so all’s not lost as far as that’s concerned.”

A boy in the back commented, “Marry who you’re told to and then live with who you want?”

Garth responded without looking up. “Pretty much. Ideally you marry the person you want to live with but that’s not always the case, is t?”

Ballard gave him a curious look. “Do you mind my asking why you chose to refuse a throne? I’m curious about the politics and how they could affect…”

Garth interrupted, ignoring the second part of Ballard’s question. “I can’t really go into the details, but being named King is simply something I’m not going to accept for a number of reasons, personal and otherwise.” Garth’s attention was back on his computer screen. “They think I’m their king, I don’t”; it was all the answer they were going to get but one of girls whispered a little too loudly to another about how he wasn’t just gorgeous and exotic, he was even royal and how cool was that? Annoyed by the remark, Garth pretended not to hear. Rob gave him a sympathetic glance.

One of the boys had been looking at Garth’s laptop since he’d opened the thing. It wasn’t anything like you’d fine in the campus bookshop or at CompUSA. “Is that Atlantean?”

Duh. Garth nodded and turned it around so the kid could see the screen. Pushing a few buttons, he made it produce a light show, show Atlantean 3-D film, play some of their music and do a number of other tricks, all better and faster than the machines the students were used to and advanced enough that Ballard was clearly impressed. The display was child’s play for Garth and was harmless enough though he refused to answer any specific questions about how the thing actually worked with “Could you explain to me how a TV works?” Politely evasive and that was as much as they could get out of him. His friend simply pretended not to understand English enough to answer their questions, but was following everything that was said pretty closely for someone without a clue.

“But you may consider selling it to the surface? How powerful is that thing? What’s its capacity? How fast is it? What kind of stuff can it do? I mean, cripes, we don’t have anything that small with that kind of resolution and if it’s as fast as it looks, well shit—that would be awesome.”

“I thought you were here to look at the fish.” Garth changed the subject without subtlety. His friend touched his shoulder again and pointed out the window at something. The students looked, but their eyes weren’t as developed for seeing in darkness and so just saw black outside. Hitting a switch, Supergirl turned on the outside floodlights, showing a massive whale carcass laying on the bottom, seemingly alive and swarming with hagfish and deepwater sharks, crabs and whatever else feasting on the mountain of rotting flesh. It was repellant and hypnotic at the same time. The kids crowded the windows, taking pictures and video, pointing things out to one another for long minutes.

“So, you’ve refused some kind of a throne to wreck dive?”

“You’re getting on my nerves, drop it. That should serve as a feeding station for at least a year before it’s completely stripped.”

Okay. The kids were chastised enough to take the hint and Robin gave Garth a quick look—he’d never heard him actually be rude before this. “What kind of whale was that?”

“Sperm.”

“Ewww.”

“Are you married? I mean, I know it’s really none of my business or anything, but you didn’t really answer and I was just kind of wondering…” It was the redhead again, the one who seemed to have the instant crush on Garth. The other students were engrossed in the feeding outside, still taking pictures and trying to figure out what all things were eating the massive corpse and glad they couldn’t smell the thing. She had moved up right next to him and spoke softly enough that he was the only one who could hear her.

“I don’t talk about my personal life. Perhaps you weren’t listening.” Period. He spoke bluntly and with coldness, obviously resenting the question. Defeated, the girl moved away to look out one of the portholes. Feeling a little guilty and seeing that she seemed to be holding back tears at his curtness, coupled with Rob’s reproving look, Garth quietly turned to her, unnoticed by the others. “Look, I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to be rude to you or anything. I was married, well, we were going to get married soon, but—she died a couple of months ago and…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “That’s why I was out here working with Wood’s Hole; Arthur thought I should get away for a while.”

“Arthur is Aquaman?”

“And King Orin, yes. He’s the one who’s supposedly called me back to discuss something.” This was the most he’d willing said since he’d joined the students.

“But are you really a king yourself? I didn’t get that a little while ago.”

Garth was going to blow her off but then realized it didn’t really matter. It was all public record to anyone who could access it. “I was born a king—my father was king before me but died before my birth. Because of politics my mother was banished from his kingdom and I was sentenced to death to keep our family off the throne, allowing others to come to power. I didn’t die and so am still technically king; the man who usurped my father’s throne is gone now and it’s currently filled with regents ruling for me.”

She smiled, trying to understand. “But why wouldn’t you want to be a king?”

He so didn’t want to get into this. “It’s not everything the books make it out to be.”

“Well, yeah, I guess, but how can you just say you won’t do it? I thought you’d be pretty much stuck with it. Aren’t you?”

“That’s the disagreement.” He gave her a small smile while his friend gave him an exasperated look and Robin just shook his head. It looked like Garth and these guys had this conversation before.

She seemed embarrassed and at a loss for what to say to that. “My name is Blair.”

“Nice to meet you, Blair.” The rest of the students were still watching looking out the windows for sight of anything of interest when the radio crackled.

“Please follow the small craft coming along side and follow him into your assigned docking port.” The voice was accented, similar but thicker than Garth’s. They finally saw the other sub disappear to their right from where it had been tailing them, just out of human sight and the students could just see lights approaching from the lead-in ship and could barely make out the lights of the city ahead and below them.

A tone on Garth’s computer chimed, indicating that he had a message. Opening the thing and pushing a couple of buttons, he read whatever was on the screen, looked annoyed and nodded to his companion who didn’t seem at all surprised by Garth’s annoyance. They spoke quickly in their own language, Garth finally just giving the man a dirty look and nodding to something he clearly didn’t want to do.

“Everything okay?” Robin didn’t know what was going on, but suspected it wasn’t going to be good for Garth.

Garth just shook his head. “Stay with me, will you? Arthur will be less likely to try anything if there are outside witnesses.” Rob nodded; Arthur was nuts, no question.

Their ship approached and docked in some kind of landing bay, the engine was shut down and some kind of magnet setup held the vessel in place instead of ropes. The kids inside could hear air being pressurized outside as the water outside the portholes got lower and finally disappeared below their view. The hatch popped to reveal a well lit and very large hanger looking space. Six guard looking people stood lining the exit as a man who seemed to be some kind of an officer entered, ignored the students and half nodded, half bowed to Garth who seemed resigned to having to do whatever they wanted. He got up, Robin next to him every step of the way, and simply led the man out as the other guards formed ranks behind them as they disappeared into a doorway which closed behind as they passed through, guards in place on either side of the portal.  His Atlantean friend was left behind, seemingly at something of a loss as to what he should do now, finally giving the kids a small smile, “Your guides are waiting for you on the dock, if you’d like to exit. Your luggage, if you have any, will be taken care of for you. We’ve been informed hat you’ll be assigned to guest quarters while you’re here.” With that he also left the ship, walking through a different door than Garth had used and was gone.

“What was that about?” Blair asked Supergirl.

“Garth was just ordered to present himself to the King, but I’ve no idea why.” Okay, that wasn’t exactly true. Garth was being grilled by Arthur to try to make him accept his throne and go along with Arthur in any votes affecting the nation. With two kings taking a stand together they would be tough to fight against.

“Will he be okay? I mean he didn’t seem too happy about that and isn’t Aquaman a king down here?” Blair was still a little giddy that she had just spoken to not just a former Titan and a major hunk, but to a king as well. It was pretty way cool.

“He’s a king, too. He should be fine. He may not be happy, but they won’t hurt him or anything.” Well, probably not. “Garth’s pretty tough.”

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“And this next tapestry shows the rebuilding of the first city after the sinking. Any questions”

“How did you make a dome strong enough to withstand the pressure? I mean we’re like a mile underwater, right?”

“It’s a synthetic but I’m really not at liberty to discuss the details. Anything else before we move on?”

“How large is your population? I mean, this looks like a pretty big city and if there are others like it, man—how many of you are there?”

“I apologize, but I’m afraid that that’s not something I’m allowed to address. Now if you’ll all come with me, I’ll show you some of the architectural features of the palace…”

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“But it’s advantageous to both of our cities, Garth, surely you see that. If we unite, we make a stronger stand. We hold more power together than separate.”

“But you miss the point that I don’t want power, Arthur. I’m not you.”

“No, you’re not, but you’re still a king, whether that galls you or not and the longer you choose to hide yourself in a cave of coral the longer your city will be nothing. The surfacers want what we have to offer—if we negotiate as a single body, we present a united front.”

“Dealings with the surface is inevitable, we all know that but Shayeris doesn’t share the same agenda that Poseidonis does. We have no desire to bully our allies, Arthur and…”

“You want to negotiate from a position of weakness, then that’s up to you but that makes you a fool and a weak king—your people would be better off without you.”

“We’ll see, Arthur. If there’s nothing else?” Garth knew Arthur was just trying to bait him, just as he knew it wouldn’t work. “No? Good afternoon, Your Majesty.” The last was said with just enough sarcasm to infuriate Arthur but not enough to do anything about. Garth turned and left the chamber, Robin trailing behind. Outside with the doors closed and away from the guards Rob asked, “So that’s not the end of it, was it?”

“Of course not. That was just the first skirmish.”

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