Oceania: The Underwater City by Eliza Taye (novels for teenagers .TXT) 📕
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- Author: Eliza Taye
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“Yeah, that should be fairly easy.” Dylan turned to the control panel and began typing fiercely. “It should be pretty easy to override the system, but I don’t know how long I can refute the signal for information on our position from Oceania.”
“Let me know as soon as you’ve hacked the system. I’ll turn on the turbo drive so we can get there and leave within a matter of minutes.” Dr. Wilcox shooed me out of my seat and sat down. He, too, began typing furiously on the keyboard.
Standing behind the both of them, I watched as the submarine angled to the right and began to pick up speed. Screen after screen of coding that I understood nothing of flashed in the holograms in front of me.
Dylan swiped each one aside to make it to the next page, and then returned to his ultrafast typing. “Okay, I’ve hacked the system. We should have maybe five minutes before they lock me out.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get us there,” assured Dr. Wilcox as he shoved forward the large T-shaped green handle in the middle of the console.
Before I knew it, the underwater craft was zooming through the ocean so fast that I became worried about what would happen if we collided into a marine organism larger than a speck.
“How are we going so fast? Won’t this harm any animal that runs into it?”
“No, it won’t,” responded Dylan. “Like Oceania, this submarine is protected by a shield that creates a barrier outside of the submarine that moves slower than the sub inside it. It protects the animals outside and allows us to move faster by reducing the viscosity around the submarine.”
Although as of recently I had become a lot more interested in marine science, I was by no means a science expert. I also wouldn’t consider myself better versed in science than the average person, but some of the explanations that Dylan and Dr. Wilcox had given me since I arrived in Oceania just seemed to defy the laws of physics. Too many things confused me more than I would like to admit.
“Dr. Wilcox? Are we almost there? I don’t know how much longer I can keep out the Master Coders.”
“Yes, we’ll be there before I can finish this sentence,” responded Dr. Wilcox, pressing a button on the control panel as the sub slowed to a sudden stop that had me flying into the back of Dylan’s chair.
“Allie,” Dylan quickly stood up, “does your grandmother want permission from my parents to take me to San Francisco?”
“Yes.” I nodded once.
“I can write a program code that will allow my parents to look like they are talking to your grandmother through a holographic projection of them. I’ll write it and find a way to get it to the restricted beach by Friday morning.” Dylan ticked the days off on his fingers. “Today is Wednesday, so I’ll have two days to get it to you. Then, I’ll meet you in our typical meeting spot on Saturday morning at six a.m. You’ll probably have to sneak out of the house to meet me. Together we’ll make our way back to the house before she even wakes up. I’ll knock on the door at the appropriate time and hopefully, she’ll just assume I walked to your house.”
“Okay, it sounds like a plan.”
“Good, because you need to go, Allie. We still need to be back on course before the GPS cover slips and they are aware that we deviated from our course,” cautioned Dr. Wilcox, hurriedly.
“All right. See you Saturday, Dylan.” I climbed into the small space and the water shield covered over me. As soon as it sealed tightly, the bottom dropped and I fell into the ocean.
Chapter 17
Friday had arrived and I found myself scouring the beach for the device Dylan had promised would be there. I trudged through the sand, searching around the numerous rocks littering the sandy beach for anything out of the ordinary. I’d checked the spot where Dylan and I normally met but didn’t see anything.
Combing the sand, I continued to search to no avail. Finally, right when I was about to give up, I saw a crab dragging something resembling a black twig. Reaching down, I grabbed hold of it and went into a tug of war with the crab. Eventually, I won to the crab’s great chagrin. He angrily snapped his big claw several times at me before scurrying off.
Hurriedly, I returned to Gran’s house and found her sitting on the couch in the living room.
“Hi, Gran.” I greeted as I passed her and went into my room.
Setting my omniphone on the desk, I pressed several buttons in quick succession. The omniphone began folding out until it was the size of a computer, holographic parts filling in where the physical ones couldn’t. Finding the port, I plugged in the data stick I’d wrestled from the crab.
Fortunately, the code was compatible with the operating system I had on my omniphone. The information uploaded in a matter of milliseconds and a small window with a message of completion popped up. I checked the contents and found out I was right—the data stick had been left by Dylan. Exiting out of it, I entered the commands to make my omniphone compact once more and called Gran into my room.
“Yes, Alexandria…what is it?” Gran yawned and I felt bad that perhaps I’d awoken
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