New Atlantis

by Jane Woods

Chapter One

"Lucas, wake up. You're having a bad dream." Dagwood shook his shoulder.

Lucas opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Dagwood's concerned face. "I'm alright," he told him but his voice was thick with sleep and didn't sound familiar even to him. He looked around trying to get a lock on reality. These dreams were always so vivid. He would have sworn they were real if they weren't so ridiculous. He looked around the cockpit of the shuttle. Brody was piloting but he was pivoted around looking at him at the moment. A smile that was almost a smirk danced on his lips. Ortiz sat in the co-pilot's seat. He wore a friendly smile but Lucas knew he wanted to laugh at him. He looked back at Dagwood. Good old Dagwood. He wouldn't pick on him.

"Why don't you tell us about it, Lucas," Dagwood suggested.

"Yeah, right," Lucas snorted. "You guys just want to laugh at my nightmares. Well, forget it, nightmares are NOT funny."

"Come on, Lucas." Ortiz looked away so he wouldn't laugh. "We love your nightmares. They're so much more imaginative than ours. Like the one about the giant plants or the time seaQuest went 200 years in the future and we had to battle giant robots."

"Or the one about the god Neptune?" Dagwood remembered.

"Hey, I liked that one. I got the girl," Ortiz countered.

"My personal favorite is the one where the giant alligator was trying to eat Ford," Brody put in.

"It was a crocodile," Lucas muttered.

"Whatever. Or the time the aliens came and no one knew it but you," Brody laughed.

"Oh, I don't like the alien ones," Ortiz told him with a shudder.

"The alien tried to eat you," Dagwood remembered with a laugh. "I had to save you."

"How about when those same aliens came back and took the whole boat to their own planet and got us to fight their war for them," Brody laughed. "Then we come back and it's ten years later and seaQuest has some other captain."

"We didn't all come back," Ortiz sulked. "Some of us got left on a planet where half the inhabitants looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the other half looked like sissy Klingons. Not much in the way of dating prospects there."

"I don't think you had to worry about dating, Miguel," Dagwood said seriously. "I think you were dead."

"Stop it!" Lucas said more forcefully than he intended. "I don't like dreaming about people dying."

"Did someone die in this dream, Lucas?" Dagwood asked kindly.

"It really might help to talk about it," Ortiz offered. "It does me. Nightmares are scary when they happen, but if you talk about them they don't seem so bad."

"Then why don't you tell us one of yours?"

"O. K. Here's one I've had more than once," Ortiz began reluctantly. "The dream starts normal enough, I'm on my way to the bridge to go on duty, but then I look down and realize I've forgotten to put my uniform on....or anything else for that matter," Ortiz finished softly and a faint blush touched his cheek.

"And everyone laughed at you?" Brody guessed with a chuckle.

"No," Ortiz complained bitterly. "No one noticed."

They all laughed at Ortiz but Lucas insisted, "my dream wasn't funny."

"Did someone die?" Dagwood asked gently.

Lucas nodded.

"It was just a dream, Lucas," Brody coached. "It wasn't real. Go ahead and tell us. What was it about?"

"Well, it was ten years in the future. There was a Captain Hudson in command of the seaQuest. Lonnie got captured by this madman and someone got killed trying to rescue her."

"It wasn't me," Ortiz complained. "I'm already dead."

"Was it one of us?" Dagwood asked.

Lucas sighed unwilling to answer.

"Was it me, Lucas?" Dagwood persisted.

Lucas shook his head.

"It was Brody?" Ortiz laughed

"It isn't funny, Chief Ortiz," Brody snarled

"Oh no, sir, Lieutenant." Ortiz forced himself to become serious. Officers seldom had much of sense of humor, he had discovered. He busied himself with his sensor screen.

"It was just a nightmare, Lucas," Brody told him.

Ortiz suddenly stiffened in his seat and leaned closer to his screen. "Oh oh. Speaking of nightmares. We got trouble."

Brody looked over his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Delta subs, the kind the pirates use."

"You sure? I haven't heard of pirate activity in these waters."

"I recognize this maneuver."

"Well there's only two of them. I think we can outrun them." Brody adjusted the throttle.

"We only see two of them," Ortiz disagreed "But unless I miss my guess - yep - there they are. Two more are hiding behind those rocks."

"What do they want?" Lucas could not cloak the fear in his voice.

"They want to scuttle us. They're after our cargo."

"The supplies Kreig ordered for New Atlantis?" Lucas was incredulous. "Scientific equipment?!"

"That stuff's worth a fortune on the blackmarket." Ortiz told him. "Only the UEO is authorized to have most of those things."

"Strap yourselves in. I'm gonna try some evasive maneuvers they don't put in the training manuals."

"Why not?" Dagwood wondered.

"'Cause they're too dangerous," Brody admitted. "But our friends out there may not be familiar with them."

Tony Piccolo fumbled with the mop. Dagwood made this look so damn easy. He was fuming and swearing under his breath in two languages. He shouldn't even have to do this. This wasn't his job. Just because Dagwood was as strong as on ox and could lift a house if he had to, that was no reason to take him on a supply run. Of course, Tony had to admit, if he hadn't have mouthed off to Lt. Albright he might not be in this position. He heard someone coming and looked up. This was all he needed. He looked back down and pretended to be mopping.

Ben Kreig walked down the corridor of the seaQuest. Somehow, it was good to be back. He was dressed the way he liked to dress in a loud Hawaiian shirt and comfortable pants and shoes. No military gear because he was no longer in the military. He was a free agent working for the UEO as a civilian consultant. His expertise was procurement and he was procuring all the things Dr. Westphalen needed for her pet project - an undersea scientific research center known as New Atlantis. He personally thought it was a lot of hooey but they paid well. Kreig stopped and watched Tony work for a minute.

"You missed a spot, kid," he pointed out.

"Thank you, sir," Tony said stonily through clenched teeth.

"Just tryin' to be helpful," Krieg smiled. God! He loved being a civilian.

Cmdr. Ford approached from the other end of the corridor.

"Oh, Jonathan," Kreig sang out. "Just the guy I'm looking for."

"What is it now, Ben?" Ford bristled.

Krieg loved the reaction but pretended not to notice it. "I have this problem with my room - oh, ah quarters, as you military types say."

"What kind of problem?" Ford fought for patience.

"There's some kind of noise in the faucet - like a clanging pipe. I hardly slept a wink all night. Look into that would you?"

"Of course," Ford walked on. He had to or he'd kill that pompous fool.

"You know," Kreig commented to Tony. "I don't think he likes me."

"I wonder why," Tony stated a bit too sarcastically.

"Me, too," Kreig continued. "'Cause he sure seemed to like my wife an awful lot." Krieg walked away without bothering to look at the amazed expression he was sure the seaman wore. 'Ah, the rumor mill,' he thought pleasantly. He just loved stirring things up.

Dr. Kristin Westphalen walked out onto the observation deck on the lowermost level of New Atlantis. Most of the facility was still abuzz with workmen but this, her favorite place, was finished. The construction was finished that is. Soon scientists would be in residence and the true function of New Atlantis would begin. This entire level was made of a state of the art type of Plexiglas that was infused with whatever marvel made night vision goggles so that human eyes could see to study delicate undersea life forms without disturbing them with light. The creatures no longer even paid any attention to their new neighbors and it was reported that reef was even forming on some of their pylons. They were truly living in harmony with the sea, as it should be.

She sat down on one of the benches. She allowed herself to drop her cool, scientific facade and let her sense of wonder take over. New Atlantis had been a dream of hers as long as she could remember but humans and politics and life in general being what it was, she had put her dream on a back burner and then finally dismissed it as fantasy. The closest she figured she would ever get to her dream had been the 13 months she spent in charge of the scientific contingent onboard the seaQuest. A smile touched her lips as she remembered seaQuest and her Captain. She had to admit, all and all, it had been a pleasant experience but not an altogether scientific success. The seaQuest was, after all, a military vessel and for all of Nathan Bridger's protests to the contrary that was her primary function. They roamed the seas not merely in quest of scientific data but as a strong arm to police all the warring factions and commercial ventures under the sea. She still bristled at innumerable times she locked horns with the military on that boat but, of course, it was their submarine. Traveling through the waters as a visitor to the sea was no way to study it anyway. Now she would actually be living here in this megalithic facility that she had helped design and doing what she loved best studying the sea with no military restrictions, no political figureheads to answer to just pure science to benefit all human and marine life equally.


After her tour on seaQuest she had published the results of the noble experiment warts and all. She was nothing if not honest. She half expected a storm of controversy to erupt from her papers. But she did not expect what she got. She was contacted by Rupert Channing himself. Rupert Channing was the head of Channing Oil and Exploration one of the biggest looters the sea has ever known. He wanted to meet with her. Naturally, she agreed. She relished the opportunity give this fool a piece of her mind. She hated him. She'd hated him for years. Not only because of his squandering of our greatest natural resource for profit but because he, above all people knew better than that. He was not merely a rich capitalist chasing the bottom line, he was or had been a scientist himself and a damn good one. She had admired him in college. More than admired him.

She remembered entering his office/palace like it was yesterday. Everything was so clean it was practically sterile and so ultra modern it was almost alien. It would be easy to lose touch with reality in such a place but she would not lose touch with it. She knew she was on his turf but she wouldn't let that sway her. This meeting was too long in coming.

A receptionist who looked like a walking Barbie doll showed her into his office. The girl regarded her as a hungry cat would eye a mouse. Well, this was no mouse she was dealing with and Kristin had returned her steely gaze causing the girl to look away. She intended to deal with her boss in like manner. The inside of the office was dominated by the largest desk she'd even seen. Knowing Rupert it had probably been made from one of the last remaining redwoods. Channing raped the land as well as the sea. He looked up when she entered and he smiled. That smile. That face. That charm. It looked as if time had not even touched him in twenty-five years. Thank the surgeon's skill for that, she told herself and once more prepared for battle. She was not a naive 18 year old any more. She knew what he truly was.

"Kristin," he beamed. "How good of you to come. How long has it been. 10 years? 15? You haven't changed a bit."

Inwardly she raged. 'How good of you to come' - like they were about to organize some sort of charity raffle. What manner of fool was he used to dealing with these days? This would be easier than she thought. Still, she would hold back till he laid his cards on the table. He wanted something. Rupert Channing always wanted something.

"Not so," she said evenly "And I've earned every gray hair and wrinkle."

"I don't see any gray hairs or wrinkles. Please sit down. Pardon me for not standing. Would you like anything? A drink perhaps?" He motioned to the extensive bar across the room.

"A bit early in the day for me, thank you."

"You always were so practical," he laughed. That laugh. "How about some coffee then. We have all kinds. I'm sure Sylvia here would be delighted to serve you." He indicated the receptionist.

"Oh I'm sure," Kristin said icily as another glaring contest took place between the two women completely unbeknownst to Channing. Again Sylvia looked away first. "But I really didn't come for a social visit."

"Straightforward and direct," Channing laughed. "I like that in a woman."

"No you don't," she countered.

"Touché, Kristin. So you do remember me after all."

"With all the crimes you've committed over the last twenty-five years you'd be a little hard not to remember."

"Now, Kristin. Everything I've ever done was completely legal. I've got a whole colony of lawyers to make sure of that."

"Come off it, Rupert. You know very well what I mean."

"That will be all, Sylvia." Channing dismissed her.

"What's this all about, Rupert?" she asked when the receptionist had left.

He became serious. He slipped a scientific journal from the middle drawer of his desk and laid it out where she could see it. This was where she had published the results of her time on seaQuest.

"Pretty cut and dry reading for the likes of you."

"Kristin, have you forgotten? I AM a scientist."

"You've forgotten that, Rupert. You're an entrepreneur now."

"And a highly successful one," he agreed smugly "I make no apologies for my wealth."

"How about for the way you got it?"

"By beating the other oil companies at their own game? Someone was going to harvest the sea, Kristin. If it hadn't have been me it would have been someone else. That's just the nature of man."

"And a fine nature it is," she remarked snidely.

"Kristin, I didn't ask you to come here to get into that old debate of nurture vs. nature. That won't change anything."

"Why did you summon me here to your palace?"

Again he laughed which only served to infuriate her farther. But time had taught her to hold her tongue till she knew exactly what she fought against. When he was finished laughing he became serious. He quickly glanced around the office as if he expected spies to pop out of the artificial plants. "Take it easy, Kris. For once, we're on the same side."

"What side is that?" she demanded.

"I read your paper," he said simply.

She looked him in the eye and waited for him to continue. 'Don't trust him.' she warned herself.

"It reminded me of -- Kris, do you remember New Atlantis?"

"It was a pipe dream," she spat more angrily than she intended.

"No, Kris. It was a great dream." Suddenly the years melted away. She was an 18 year old college freshmen listening to her professor expound away on the possibility of man actually living in harmony in the sea. Of having a place that belonged to no country or coalition where all men and women would be free to follow intellectual pursuits without the dictates of small-minded bureaucrats getting in the way. Without the threat of weapons or war. And of gently harvesting the wealth of the sea in terms of food and medicine to the betterment of all. We could use our knowledge and technology to help the sea and in return the sea could nurture us as it once did. For a moment she was once more caught up in the dream. For a moment and then reality came crashing back.

"That's rich coming from you."

"Don't give up on the dream, Kris."

"Me give up?! Look around you. "Gently harvesting the sea" went out the window wouldn't you say?"

"I'll be the first to admit it. I made some mistakes and I even lost track of my real purpose a few times."

"Your real purpose?" She let the doubt resound clearly in her voice.

"Kris, you know what happened when I tried to get funding for New Atlantis. I became the laughing stock of the entire scientific community."

"Not all of it," she said quietly.

"That's right, Kris. You stuck by me as I pounded my head against the proverbial wall again and again. I've never forgotten that."

"I was young and foolish and thought I was in love. When you sold out to the oil companies my eyes opened fast enough."

"But it wasn't like that, Kris. At least, not at first. Sure I explored the ocean for them - found them their precious oil fields under the naive assumption that my recommendations for environmentally safe drilling would take place. And they double crossed me but I also double crossed them by not letting them know about even richer fields."

"You kept those to exploit yourself."

"As it turned out, sadly, yes."

"I can see you cried all the way to the bank," she scoffed.

"Making money is addictive. Do you realize that every hour of the day and night I make more than I did in a year as a college professor?"

"How nice for you."

"How nice for you too, as it turns out."

"I beg your pardon."

"Kris, I have more money than God. I can now build New Atlantis. Make it what we always knew it could be!"

"Are you drunk?"

"I might be. Drunk on the dream. Kris, when I read this article it all came flooding back to me. I've been thinking about this. I know we can do it."

"What's in it for you?"

"Satisfaction. A chance to prove them all wrong all those years ago. And a chance to give back for all the years I've taken," he added quietly.

"I can't believe you've suddenly become so noble."

"Neither can I," he laughed.

"What brought about this change?"

"Look around you, Kristin. What do you see? Opulence in its most disgusting form. I have everything a man could ever want and yet all I see is a hollow emptiness that threatens to consume me - all I ever was. All I ever will be." He looked at her.

"Shouldn't there be violin music?"

He laughed. "God, Kristin. Why didn't I marry you? That caustic wit of yours might have kept me honest."

"I turned you down," she reminded him.

"You saw through me before I even saw through myself," he told her. "And you were right. Kristin, I've got three ex-wives and three kids all hoping to inherit all this." He waved his arm around his office.

"One day, in the far flung future, I suppose they will. Is it not their birthright?"

"What about the birthright of the rest of the planet?"

"Why so philosophical, Rupert?" she asked impatiently. "Suppose we cut to the chase."

"Okay, Kristin, here it is. I'm dying." He wheeled out from behind the huge desk. She was astounded to discover what she thought was a luxurious leather desk chair was a wheel chair.

"What's wrong?"

"Being an MD you'd know better than I but suffice it to say, a disease I can't even pronounce has gotten a hold of me. Modern medicine can keep the wolf at bay for a while but the end is inevitable. I'm not even sure how long I have. That's why I'm in such a hurry. Call it vanity if you will but I'd like to be remembered for more that all this. I guess that's why Nobel set up the prizes after giving the world the most explosive device it had to date. I want to give something back, too. I want to see New Atlantis, Kris. I don't need their pitiful funding any more. I can do this. We can do this!"

"What do you need me for?"

"I've sullied myself beyond redemption wth the scientific community. They would never co-operate with me."

"That's a fair bet."

"But you haven't, Kristin. You're still pure in their eyes. You're the leading expert in the field. That's why the UEO chose you to head up this SeaQuest Project. They trust you. They respect you."

"You want me to lay my hard earned reputation on the line for you and your pet project!"

"It was your pet project too, Kris. Back before I became the big bad wolf. I wasn't always a bad guy. That guy just got lost somewhere. Help him to find his way back. I'd like to get to know him again before I die. Help me make up for....for all the mistakes I've made. Suspect my motives all you want but think with that scientific mind of yours. You, above all people, know what a facility like this could mean to the world at large. This is bigger than we are, Kris. We've always known this needed to be done. Now we can do it!"

"Rupert, I......"

"Just hear me out, Kris, that's all I ask. I always could count on your good sense. I've been surrounded with yesmen for so long I can't even trust my own judgment any more. But I could always trust yours. Let me tell you my ideas and then if you still think I'm full of shit, you'll tell and we'll just forget the whole thing. Deal?"

"Everything always was a deal with you, Rupert," she reminded herself as much as him but she knew she was hooked at least for the spiel he had in mind. Still she'd take everything he said with more that one grain of salt. "But, please. Do go on."

"Atta girl!" He grinned with the enthusiasm of a teenage boy.

'Hold your tongue, Kristin,' she cautioned herself.

He pressed a button on a hidden panel on his desktop. A screen slid down from the ceiling and sparked to life. A detailed topographical map of the Atlantic Ocean appeared. He zeroed in on a spot equidistant between Bermuda and the Azores and just east of the Atlantic Ridge. "Do you know what this is, Kris?"

"Yes I do, Rupert. This is one of those oil rich spots you neglected to tell the oil companies who employed you about but came back to once you had your own company to stake a claim."

"I had investors in those days, Kris. The facility I built would have siphoned off just enough oil to get them off my back - but that was it, the spot in all the world's oceans I found that was perfect for New Atlantis, coincidentally it happens to be the exact spot where some people believe the original Atlantis once stood."

"There's no proof the original Atlantis ever stood anywhere," she scoffed "And even less proof you ever intended to do anything but exploit that area for anything but more oil and more wealth for you and your investors! "

"I don't have any investors any more. I control everything."

"Not everything, thank the Lord," she said smugly. "The Conservation Concordance that originally kept you from drilling in that area is still in effect. No one can place any permanent structures there for any reason."

"That was to protect the oil. Anyone drilling in that oil rich area would soon achieve world dominance and upset the balance of power. Don't let those politicians fool you into thinking they care one whit for the environment. But all the UEO, who now enforces the Concordance has to do is retain drilling rights that way the oil stays safely out of any body's reach. If they can be persuaded to allow the building of a center that is freely accessible to all nations and all confederations for purely scientific endeavors for university but NOT military research - think what a boon it would be to the world - all overseen by the UEO, of course. This could be a true university. A place for the free exchange of ideas and information and an experiment in political as well as scientific cooperation for the common good, much as Antarctica once was. It worked there. Men and women working together to tame a hostile environment for the common good."

"Rupert, Antarctica is now a commercial resort. A cruise destination. Is that what your really want an undersea theme park?!"

"NO! That's why I want the UEO to oversee the operation so no money grubbing entrepreneur, like myself, can ever step in and do that. I can keep the place perpetually funded. There will be no government cutbacks that will allow the commercial sector to get a foothold. I'm deathly serious about this, Kristin. I want my legacy to remain pure. I want you in complete control. You're above reproach. You'll see it's done right. I want to sign my complete fortune over to New Atlantis."

"What about your wives and children?"

"I've set up small trust funds for them. I've seen to their education. They have the wherewithal to support themselves. It's about time they did it. I've left myself with enough to be comfortable and pay my medical bills but the bulk of it is yours, Kristin. That is, it's New Atlantis'. You'll be completely in charge. You and the UEO, I guess I should say. They wouldn't trust me and frankly I don't blame them but they trust you, Kristin, and so do I."

And now here it was less than a year later and the facility was nearing completion. It was amazing what vast amounts of wealth could accomplish. Supplies were arriving daily the most important of which were on their way on board the seaQuest. She had the sudden need to speak with her friend Nathan Bridger. She got up and made her way to her office. Over her objections, it had been made nearly as grand as Rupert Channing's own. Well, New Atlantis was his legacy she could forgive him some vanity, she supposed.

To be continued......

Screen captures courtesy Patt. Be sure to check out her great website seaQuest screen captures & sound files

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