Quest for the Nautilus

by Jason Henderson

  The water was rising fast, and they hung there, waiting for the room to fill. “We need it over our heads,” Gabriel said. “Or the pressure will hurt us. We need to flood this room.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Peter said. The water came to their chests.

  Gabriel held his hand just below the iris. Water went over his head. When he felt it pass his hand, he pressed.

  The iris snapped open, and Gabriel pointed and Peter swam, actually swam, kicking his legs as he moved through the iris. Gabriel waited until he was through.

  He took another look at the bridge as the lights on the stations glowed in the water. I’m so sorry. Then he kicked and swam out into the ocean.

  “We’re out,” Gabriel said. He swept his arm to Peter, who hung in the water like a mannequin. Gabriel grabbed him by the shoulder and said, “We did the hard part. Let’s go.”

  “Hurry,” came Nerissa’s voice. “Impact to Obscure imminent.”

  They swam, ten yards, twenty. Thirty. Gabriel gripped Peter’s shoulder and spun them both in the water as the rocket slammed into the body of the Obscure, just under the nose, burying itself deep in the ship. A heavy whump shuddered through the water. Long strips of mother-of-pearl scattered from the impact site, shining as they spun in all directions.

  Gabriel saw red spouts of flame burst through the portholes as the Obscure seemed to sway and stagger in the water. And then it began to sink, sawing back and forth like a dead leaf.

  Both of them gasped, unable to say a word. Then Gabriel felt a shift in the water and a deep hum, and as he turned, a whalelike shape appeared from the shadows, the enormous ship Nebula. Gabriel let it pass before them until they saw the glowing lights of the lockout trunk. He tugged Peter’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  The lockout trunk door flew up, and Peter let go, swimming like a ragged animal. Inside, floating in the water, was Misty. She reached out her arms and grabbed him.

  The three surfaced inside the lockout trunk, and Gabriel and Misty hugged Peter. “You did it,” Gabriel said.

  Peter threw off the rebreather as he climbed up onto the walkway around the pool. “I can’t believe it.”

  “I can.” Gabriel and Misty got up on the walkway, too, and the three of them fell together in a hug. “I can believe it.”

  “Okay, well,” Peter said, his voice shaking, “Let’s not do that again.”

  Nerissa’s voice came over the intercom. “Gabriel, are you aboard?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel shouted.

  “We’re engaging them,” Nerissa said. “I saw that hit the Obscure took. You should get up here.”

  “Okay,” Gabriel said. “We’re on the way.”

  They made it up to the bridge of the Nebula as the Nebula was firing on the Gemini.

  “Negative, negative,” the weapons officer said. “Gemini deployed countermeasures.”

  “Captain,” the helmsman said. “Gemini is still pursuing the Obscure.”

  “Of course they are,” Gabriel said. “They intend to pluck the Dakkar’s Eye off the ocean floor as soon as it hits bottom.” Like grave robbers, he thought.

  “Go after them,” Nerissa said.

  On the screen, long-distance cameras showed the Gemini was closing on the Obscure even as it sank, full of holes and burning.

  How could I sacrifice my ship? But he had saved his mother. And Peter. And that had to be worth it.

  Right?

  “Onscreen,” Nerissa said. Long-range cameras showed an infrared image of the two subs, the Obscure diving and blazing hot. “That must be the Dakkar’s Eye glowing like that. But look, they’re trying to catch it.”

  “How can they?” Gabriel asked.

  “Well, you’d try to haul it,” Peter said. “But I assume they’re gonna just follow it to the bottom and salvage the prize from there.”

  Gabriel watched the Gemini pursue his sinking submarine and said, “I guess that makes sen—”

  And then an orange ball filled the screen and snarled through the twin ship Gemini as the Nemoship Obscure exploded.

  31

  THEY HUDDLED IN the inner sanctum of the Nebula as they traveled back to the school. Gabriel sat across from Peter, who was shivering with a blanket around him.

  Nerissa poked her head in. “Dad is with Mom. You want to come see them?”

  Gabriel looked up. “How is she?”

  “She’s good. She’s … wound up and exhausted. I’ve got her in my stateroom. It’s … nice.”

  He nodded. “I’ll come see them.”

  When she was gone, Gabriel looked back at Peter while he and Misty sat in silence.

  “Peter, I’m sorry,” Gabriel said. “I never…” He searched for words and looked at Misty, who didn’t try to give him any.

  “Don’t,” Peter said. “I know what you’re saying, but don’t. Listen. The supercavitation drive was my idea. And it did damage to the ship. But it’s what we had to do.”

  “But I was pushing,” Gabriel said.

  “And yeah, you push.” Peter laughed. “But I’m not drafted, Gabe. I could have said no. For real. I could have said no. Or, by the way, I could have not been so brilliant, because again, the supercavitation drive was my idea.”

  “The ship broke because I couldn’t give up on the idea of finding the Eye,” Gabriel said. “Or really, finding the Nautilus. But when we started this, I promised you wouldn’t have to swim.”

  “Gabe?” Peter cleared his throat. “I’m afraid of water. That’s just a thing that’s true. But when I had to get out of there, you helped me, and I did. It’s done. I trust you.” He looked at Misty. “We trust you. And you have to trust us. Not just to do what the mission calls for, but to know what we’re doing.”

  Gabriel looked down. “I’m just sorry.”

  “Okay. I hear you.” Peter got up and clapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “Apology accepted. I’m sorry the Obscure didn’t make it.” They hugged, and Gabriel had never felt so much gratitude in his life.

  “Now go see your mom,” Peter said.

  Gabriel walked down that hall, and the Obscure was gone. It was strange because every thought was like that, I am walking down the hall, and the Obscure is gone. I am knocking on a door, and the Obscure is gone. He tried to push it out of his head. I am pushing the Obscure being gone out of my head, and the Obscure is gone.

  When he knocked and Nerissa opened the door, he saw his mother and remembered the reason for everything. The Obscure is gone, but Mom is safe.

  Mom and Dad were together on a love seat, shoulder to shoulder, and they both rose instantly. Again he put himself in a three-person hug and felt their warmth. Mom pushed back after a moment, looking at him, running her hand over his face. “You’re all right? Everyone is all right?”

  “Everyone is perfect,” Gabriel said. “It was scary. It was really…” He touched his own eye, blinking away a tear. “They did so well. And I’m so glad you’re here.”

  Dad hugged him again and spoke into his hair. “Thank you.”

  “It’s okay,” Gabriel said.

  “You held it together.”

  “I don’t feel that way.” Gabriel shook his head. “I’ve been … one step behind all along. I made so many mistakes. Dad, I lost … I lost the ship.”

  “No,” Dad said. “You may have lost a ship, but you held it together. You want to know the truth? You held it together better than I did. I fell backward into analyzing. You and Nerissa did that and more.”

  “Don’t…” Gabriel didn’t know how to process what his dad was saying. It was too generous and made him feel weird. He looked at Nerissa, who stood nearby. “It was hard on everybody. We all did it together.”

  Gabriel’s stomach rumbled, and it snapped him to the reality that they had been running practically on fumes. “Are you guys hungry? Mom, you’d have to be.”

  “Oh, absolutely,” Mom said.

  “You don’t even have to ask,” Nerissa said. “I’ll have something brought in. But first…” She spoke
into her headset. “Navs?”

  “Captain?”

  “Set a course.”

  “For the Institute?” Mom asked.

  “For Antarctica,” Nerissa said. “To pick up the Nautilus.”

  EPILOGUE

  TIME ENOUGH

  THE TRIP THAT the Obscure had managed in a day took the Nebula five. Gabriel spent most of that time with his parents, just taking in their presence.

  “Have you heard from the Maelstrom?” Gabriel asked as he looked out of the Nemoglass wall in the aft stairwell, which gave a panoramic view of the Pacific as they rocketed southward.

  Dad shook his head. “No. We picked up chatter from them, but there’s no sign that the Gemini made it.”

  “Why…” Gabriel stopped and looked out. A cloud of colorful yellow tangs and clown fish burst across the window and disappeared in the distance. “Why didn’t you tell me about the Maelstrom?”

  Dad ran his hand through his hair. “We really wanted to spare you all that. But obviously that was a mistake.”

  “What was a mistake?”

  “We wanted to spare you from knowing that there were people who wanted to keep us from doing what we do. There’s nothing worse than knowing that someone hates you. But I guess when we started the experiment—reaching out to the surface world—we owed you the information.”

  They turned and started up the stairwell with the ocean swirling in colors behind them. Dad stopped and turned, looking at Gabriel. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to have you guys in our lives, you and Nerissa and Peter and Misty?”

  Gabriel furrowed his brow. “We do our best.”

  “You succeed.”

  * * *

  Gabriel’s mom and dad came with Nerissa, Gabriel, Peter, and Misty down to where the Nautilus was submerged, just fifty feet below the surface and barely ten miles from the ice caves where they had found it. They gathered on the bridge, and Dad took forever to find words—he stood in the center, right next to the periscope, his arms extended out a little from his sides, his fingers trilling in the air exactly as Gabriel had done when he first found the salon, as though he could touch everything at once.

  “Your model was exactly right,” Peter said. They had all seen the model of the Nautilus when the adventure of the Lodgers had taken them down to Nemolab.

  Dad laughed. “I didn’t actually build that one. I built the rest. I never did really know if it would be exact. But here it is. And I had no idea about…” He stepped over, running his hand along the leather chair backs. “These chair backs, this is whale leather.” He looked up.

  “I can’t believe it,” Mom said. “Without you and your crew, this ship never would have been discovered.”

  Nerissa crouched to look at the periscope. “We’ve all been focused on the emergency, but I gotta say: This is astonishing.”

  “Here’s what’s astonishing,” Gabriel said. He let the golden pin drop onto the sonar station with a clang. It rolled to a stop. “Not only did the crew of the Nautilus make this ship disappear, but they themselves disappeared without a trace—except for Mickey Land’s journal. And I can’t guarantee he made it all the way to Antarctica. When Misty and I got here, we expected to find a ship full of skeletons, but they’re not here. And they left this clue.” He pointed at the message, ALL HANDS TO THE TIGERS. “Engraving it on the pin meant that the clue would be seen by whoever found the Nautilus and freed it. They wanted to be found.”

  Nerissa went over and picked it up, studying it. “The tigers.”

  Dad put his hands on his hips. “That could be so many things.”

  “Some more than others,” Peter said. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “That is if you want to figure it out, Dr. Nemo,” Misty said. “Do you want us to work on this?”

  “Right.” Gabriel nodded at Misty. “Do you want us to discover what really happened to Captain Nemo?”

  “Mm,” Mom said. “Sometimes people disappear for a reason. But yes. I want to know.”

  “Me too,” Dad said.

  “We have a project!” Gabriel said, clapping his hands together.

  “You have another one first,” Dad said.

  “What’s that?” Misty asked.

  “You’re gonna need a new ship.”

  All of them rocked a little when he said this, but Peter recovered first. “We’ve been working on some ideas…”

  But Gabriel shook his head. “Not yet.” He wasn’t ready. Not for a new Obscure.

  But that was okay. Right now he had the Nautilus.

  “Okay,” Nerissa said finally. “If this thing was anchored, there has to be a chain we can attach to.”

  “Attach to?” Gabriel asked.

  “For towing,” she said. “And this is a big ship, so I have a feeling it’s gonna be a slow trip.”

  “No need,” Gabriel said. He grinned as he went to the station that said MAIN POWER. He shifted the switch over, and the Nautilus began to thrum. “We have full power.”

  Dad laughed. “Of course, of course. That was how you got it out of the cave.”

  Misty was already sliding into the sonar seat. “Sonar active,” she said. “Dr. Nemo, if there’s a station you’d like to take, you’re welcome.”

  “No…,” Dad said. He put his arm around Mom. “I want to take it all in.”

  “Engines online,” Peter said. “You guys want to see what this thing can do?”

  “Where would you like to go?” Gabriel asked, smiling wide. “Hawaii?”

  “That’s like a couple hundred hours,” Peter said. “And I think school would tell us we don’t have a couple hundred hours unless we’re using them to get home. Right?”

  Mom nodded with a smile. “I think it’s time to get back.”

  Gabriel laughed. “California, then. Dad?”

  Dad was looking at the periscope in something like reverential wonder when he seemed to come awake. “Hm?”

  “Would you like to give the order?”

  “Oh.” Dad’s eyes glistened. “Um. Take us out.”

  The vast ship began to rumble and then calm and move.

  And once more the mighty Nautilus took to the sea.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Here we are at the end of another Young Captain Nemo adventure. I can’t begin to explain what an honor it has been to explore the depths again and get to know these characters a little more. These books are a reflection of the kind of thing I have always loved to read—a little adventure, a little science fiction. I want to write them so that when you’re reading, you can just follow the story, or you can stop to look something up and go: Huh! That really exists. So of course I need to tell you: Some of the things in this book don’t exist. The geography of Antarctica is a mere shadow of its real self, and while the Weddell Sea exists, there is no Gilbert Trench. But the Gilbert Islands, part of what is now called Kiribati, are really there. And Ned Land really was a character in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, though there was no mention of Mickey. Also if there are really massive cousins of the moray eels under the ice at the bottom of the world, I don’t want to meet them, but right now it’s a guess. I am also not really sure how to break into a submarine, and if you know, don’t tell me. Assembling a book is not one man’s accomplishment—to put this book together took grueling hours from my editor, Holly West, and some extraordinarily patient copy editors (Hayley Jozwiak and Josh Berlowitz). I am so indebted to them. Also I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have the help of the people who make these books look as marvelous as they do: art director Katie Klimowicz and artist Eric Hibbeler, whose paintings you see on the covers. I also have to thank my agent, Moe Ferrara, who never runs out of patience.

  Finally I have to thank Julia, Julia Sophia, and Katarina—you guys are the ones who have to hear me rehashing plots as I pace around the house, and I love you for inspiring me to get down to writing it.

  See you all soon,

  Jason Henderson

  Thank you for
reading this Feiwel & Friends book.

  The friends who made THE QUEST FOR THE NAUTILUS possible are:

  JEAN FEIWEL PUBLISHER

  LIZ SZABLA ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

  RICH DEAS SENIOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR

  HOLLY WEST SENIOR EDITOR

  ANNA ROBERTO SENIOR EDITOR

  KAT BRZOZOWSKI SENIOR EDITOR

  EMILY SETTLE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

  ERIN SIU ASSOCIATE EDITOR

  ALEXEI ESIKOFF SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

  KIM WAYMER SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER

  KATIE KLIMOWICZ SENIOR DESIGNER

  HAYLEY JOZWIAK MANAGING EDITOR

  FOYINSI ADEGBONMIRE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

  RACHEL DIEBEL ASSISTANT EDITOR

  Follow us on Facebook or visit us online at mackids.com

  OUR BOOKS ARE FRIENDS FOR LIFE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jason Henderson, author of Young Captain Nemo, is a regular speaker on media and entertainment. His popular podcasts Castle Talk and Castle of Horror feature interviews and discussion panels made up of bestselling writers and artists from all genres. His young adult series, Alex Van Helsing, was named by the Texas Library Association to the 2011 Lone Star Reading List. He also writes for games and comics. Henderson earned his BA from University of Dallas in 1993 and his JD from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC, in 1996. Henderson lives in Colorado with his wife and two daughters. You can sign up for email updates here.

  Thank you for buying this

  Feiwel and Friends ebook.

  To receive special offers, bonus content,

  and info on new releases and other great reads,

  sign up for our newsletters.

  Or visit us online at

  us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

  For email updates on the author, click here.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice