Even though it seemed obvious, I couldn’t help asking, “Is that what I think it is?”
Dylan nodded without looking back. “Yep, that’s Oceania.”
Chapter 5
My eyes widened as the large domed structure housing the city of Oceania drew closer. The dome itself appeared to be about half a mile high and made of a translucent material, allowing me to see everything inside. Towering high and centered above the dome seemed to be a series of what looked like solar panels reaching farther than I could see. Looking inside, skyscrapers rose up in random intervals throughout the city, with many other behemoth buildings surrounding them. For all it was worth, it truly appeared to be a city that had been plucked from land and placed underwater.
As the distance between the city and us diminished, I noticed our trajectory declined towards the rocky base it sat on.
“I’ll have to use my identification to get us in. Once inside the city, you’ll have to be careful. Although no one thinks there’s an above human world, your clothes and speech are different from ours. You’ll stick out like a brightly colored angelfish in an eagle ray migration colony.”
“Okay,” I muttered. I was rendered speechless by the enormity of this underwater structure. Nothing I had ever seen about undersea exploration on the Discovery Channel prepared me for this. The entire city seemed to be straight out of a sci-fi novel. I could hardly believe it was real.
Arriving at the rocky base of the city, Dylan steered the seamobile towards the center of what appeared to be a large, solid gate. Two horizontal sliding doors slowly separated, water rushing inside and sucking us in along with it. In seconds, we were surrounded by darkness. A couple seconds later, blue lights illuminated the underwater room we were in. Surveying the massive docking bay, I could see it was easily wide enough to fit ten 747 jet engines wingtip to wingtip and long enough to fit six of them nose to tail. The place reminded me of the aircraft hangar museum my mom once took me to in California.
The lights in the bay turned red and I heard a whooshing sound as the water began to drain back out into the sea. The water retreated slowly, giving me time to examine the area further. Sea crafts of different types were parked in rows on each side of the hangar. Rising to our right was a huge vessel so tall that the top barely grazed the ceiling. At least four to five stories high, it reminded me more of a small cruise ship than an underwater vehicle. One continuous window adorned the center of the front curvature of the vessel. On both the port and starboard sides were circular windows large enough to fit a typical car through. The ship rested in a deep groove with heavy-looking chains anchoring it to the floor. To my left, there were several other vessels about half the size of the one to my right. Mostly identical, their largest windows were located at the bow but had various designs. Past those vessels, a line of seamobiles stretched farther than I could see. Every vehicle was anchored down by chains and rested in grooves on the floor.
Finally, all of the water receded and the lights changed to white, lighting up the entire hangar in a nearly blinding light.
“It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” asked Dylan, smiling at me as he pressed the button that removed the outer waterproof shell of the seamobile.
“Yes, it is. How exactly does it work?” I asked as I got off the seamobile and stepped onto the steel-gray floor impervious to water.
“A hydraulic system is used to expel the water in the hangar through a series of drains attached all along the walls. Pressure to run the hydraulic system comes from the 12,000 feet of water above us. Through a series of processes that I don’t fully understand, the water is de-ionized, distilled, and then used as hydraulic fluid to make this place void of water. The water collected through the tubes is then sent back into the ocean through several drainage tubes able to withstand the pressure exerted by the ocean at this depth.”
“How do you know all of this?” His words were gibberish to me, so I decided to ask a question instead.
“They teach it to us in school. Many of our elementary school years are spent learning everything about Oceania and life here.” Dylan set the seamobile to hover and started guiding it towards the line of seamobiles.
Following him, I peered over to view the opposite side of the ginormous vessel almost the height of the ceiling. Lined in a row like the seamobiles, were perfectly cylindrical-shaped pods that appeared large enough for only four to six people. Beyond those were torpedo-shaped vessels so hydrodynamic that they made me wonder if they were the underwater equivalent of speedboats. Farther down the row, other types of vessels of varying shapes and sizes spread on into the distance. Those vessels broke the silver-covered norm of the larger vessels and had colors of bright yellows, greens, oranges, purples, and reds.
“Come on, we have to get out of this room before someone else needs to come in, then this place will flash warning lights. If we don’t exit within a few minutes after the lights start flashing, security will be alerted and I’ll have to explain why you don’t have an identification code.” Dylan stretched the last securing chain onto the rungs I’d failed to notice on the
