And the tube was marvelous, a white tunnel that went down into the water. Curving, oval-shaped transparent windows in the sialon allowed him to see the underside of the Pod, and as he went lower, the water lapping around the tube. Then, underwater, he could see the reef, with all the living creatures and plants beneath the silverish patterns of the waves. Sunlight filtered through the water, shooting magical rays of light that glowed on the colorful creatures swimming around out there.

“Zambo!” he cried, staring up in awe.

“Wait ‘till you see the bottom,” Sheena pushed past him. “C’mon.”

She led the way, hopping down, step by step, to the pressure hatch at the bottom. Again, she entered a code. 5-3-3-5 this time. It took both of them to pull the latching dog around, and the heavy door let them into the pressure lock.

“Got to close the hatch behind us,” Sheena told him in her authoritative tone. “It’s going to hurt your ears as the lock pressurizes. See, the air pressure keeps the water out of the Underwater Bay.”

“I know that,” he retorted. “Like the escape module hatch on Ashanti.”

“That’s in space where air rushes out into vacuum. But this is underwater, otherwise the ocean would flood the Underwater Bay.”

With the first door closed, Sheena stood on tiptoes to press the big red glowing button.

A whooshing sound filled the air lock, and Felix made a face as his eardrums compressed. And then the button turned green. Sheena threw her weight against the dogging latch and managed to pull it to the open position.

Felix followed her out into a large room; his nose filled with the odor of salt and water. The walls were white, covered with equipment, lockers, monitors, benches with tools, diving suits, and helmets. The big yellow submarines rested on rolling cradles in the middle of the floor, their transparent round noses pointed at the water. In the glare of overhead lights, the curved sides gleamed with their bulbous tanks and pipes and frame-mounted lights. In front of the submarines was what looked like a square pool of water that opened to the sea. A line of UUVs rested on racks all the way to the far wall. Both the submarines and UUVs could be rolled forward on tracks and lowered into the water. Felix walked past the submarine’s clear nose and looked down through the still water, seeing the reef bottom below sloping away into a darker and translucent blue.

“Zambo!”

“They picked this place because the reef drops off. Like this.” Sheena had a serious look on her face as she held her hand vertically and made a slashing motion downward. “It goes way, way down really fast.”

Felix could believe it. He saw something long and thin flash through the depths. Thought it looked kind of like a big, pointed tube. And then it was gone.

“Okay, liar. Where’s the algae?”