As I joined him, I couldn’t help but keep examining the other watercraft in the docking bay. There was simply so much to see, and I wished we could have stayed longer to observe it all.
When we reached the far wall directly from the gate, we stopped in front of a small panel next to a wide double door. Blue lights backlit the black keypad in which Dylan punched in a series of numbers. About a second after he typed in the code, a voice emitted from the panel, saying, “Dylan Baker, age 15, Class 5A, Delta clearance, you may proceed.”
“Class 5A? Delta clearance? What do those things mean?” I asked, staring at Dylan instead of the silver doors parting in front of me.
“The class is simply my school age group. I’m class five because I’m at the fifth level of my education. The numbering starts at pre-school. Since I’m in high school, I belong to class 5. The letter A signifies which school district I’m in. Clearance levels allow you access to specific places in Oceania. It also dictates which allowances you have. Sometimes, you have to take tests to achieve certain levels. Sometimes, you only need to be a particular age to obtain the clearance level.”
Oceania sounded like a very structured and complex place. Everything sounded like it was extremely regulated and I wasn’t so sure I’d like living in a place like this. “What’s the highest clearance level?”
“The highest clearance level is Zeta clearance. It’s only given to the leader of the city—the mayor. Only they are allowed to have access to all areas of Oceania. Not even the executive assistant to the mayor is given the same clearance.”
The double doors led us into a long sterile-white hall. White covered every surface—the walls, ceiling, and floor. Tube lights illuminated the path down the hallway at the end of which appeared to be an elevator. I felt like I was gazing into a tunnel that would lead us to an alien laboratory.
Dylan entered the hallway without a care and I did the same. The double doors behind us swiftly slid back into place and sealed with a booming thud. The sound startled me and I whipped my head around.
“Come on,” urged Dylan, already halfway to the elevator.
I kicked up my pace to a run and caught up to him. Together, we walked to the elevator and Dylan pressed the only button on the left. It lit up with yet another white light and we waited in silence.
At first, nothing seemed to be happening, until I heard a series of deafening bangs that sounded like a giant’s hammers colliding. Every ten seconds or so the clamor increased until it reached a crescendo. Before I could cover my ears in preparation for the next one, the doors to the elevator opened.
Lowering my hands from my head, I dropped them to my sides and entered the thankfully not white but gray elevator. Simple in design, it could have been any elevator on land except for its size. One hundred or so people could have easily fit inside it. I had no clue if such an enormous elevator existed on land, but I definitely didn’t expect one under the sea.
My eyes trailed Dylan’s hand to the right-side panel next to the door. Five different floors could be chosen. Dylan selected the fifth floor and we began moving up. For such a futuristic elevator, it moved slowly. Before ascending past each level, the thunderous sound I had heard at the arrival of the elevator resounded inside, although at a much more muted level.
“What is that noise?”
“Oh, that?” Dylan folded his arms as he answered. “It’s the sound of the locks. Each level is sealed off by a large titanium slab designed to keep out the water in the event of a leak at any of the lower levels. At this pressure down here, any leak would cause an explosion that would flood the entire city if it weren’t for those locks.”
“Boy, they sure are loud.”
“Yes, but you only hear the noise from the tunnel. The walls of the elevator are designed to muffle it.”
At long last, the elevator arrived at the fifth floor and a voice stated, “Main level, welcome home to Oceania.”
My bulging eyes stretched wide as the horizon when the elevator doors slid to the side and I was transfixed by the alien world that materialized in front of me. The towering skyscrapers I’d seen from outside the city rose ahead of me in shades of white, blue, silver, gray, and black. Each surface was sleek and as architecturally marvelous as those on land were. Craning my neck back to follow the tip of the largest building guided my eyes to the apex of the dome.
A mass of people wearing blue suits that closely resembled those of astronauts, headed for the elevators, brushing me aside on their way. Hardly caring, I continued to examine this new world I’d been exposed to. Returning my gaze to the ceiling, I saw the projection of a bright, yellow sun surrounded by a blue sky and wisps of clouds encompassing the domed roof. Sweeping my gaze down and around, more structures filled my view.
Spread out across the ground was what looked like white linoleum, but felt as sturdy as kryotyte. Walkways cut through the various sections of the city like veins on a tree trunk. Countless numbers of people hurried past me, focused on their daily goings. Dressed in all sorts of colors, many of them sported blue all-in-one suits similar to the one Dylan wore the day I first met him.
A breeze blew back my hair as a train several yards away from me passed by alarmingly close. Glancing around for any other means of transport, I failed to
