Belladonna
by Stephen W. Cote
The sound of the great Roman Airship Taelon Roe thundering into a mass of Roman citizens was heard around the world. Thousands of voices filled the winds with terrified screams. The natives of North New Rome felt the souls twist and grind as they searched for new homes and a way out of the mortal land. Poets even went so far as to say that the skies were blackened across all of Europe.
King Paul II - Paul the Kinslayer - mounted repeated, successful defenses against the airship attacks, but felt the airship disaster was the first great triumph for the Saxons. Duke Hanley pushed for the first, nationally sponsored Underocean Shipyard contracts to build a new Navy. The Underocean vessels were marvelous displays of Saxon engineering, but lacked the necessary technology to achieve forward motion. Thus, the first Underocean vessels were nothing more than large diving bells. The bells were stationed around the Straight of Gibraltar, The English Channel, and main ports all along the coastline of Saxon Conglomerate lands. Without an engine, the Saxons could only fight a defensive battle.
In 1630, Gaius Cicero, a Roman Gladiator out of Arles, a direct descendant of Gaius and Cicero and brother to Roberta Wright, fled to the Saxon Conglomerate when Germanicus Caesar demanded that Gaius recover his family name by staging and participating in a gladiatorial game. Though a famous gladiator, Gaius felt cornered onto the political stage of the Arles amphitheatre. Close to the demigod status usually associated only the Emperor Himself, Gaius found passage by way of a Spanish Galleon to Engoland in 1637, and then to Leeds, giving up everything for a second chance. The trial of the officers responsible for the second great airship disaster, that of the Necromantia, had just concluded.
The Galleon was being used for slave transport to New Rome, and Gaius Cicero finally believed he had fallen in love. A woman close to his age, Mercedes Tacitus, a political refugee being sent to North New Rome with an officer from the Necromantia, fell deathly ill. Though not a medical doctor, Gaius knew that the Galleon would have to stop for medicinal supplies, else she would die. Gaius' brawny strength eloquently convinced the captain to stop. Mercedes received the attention she needed, though refused Gaius' subsequent marriage proposal. Gaius was crushed, though Mercedes gave him several pages from an old book, telling him to give it to the scientists in Leeds.
Two years after his arrival in Engoland, Gaius Cicero had not only received full citizenship, but his own Dukedom, and a commission into the Royal Saxon Navy on the first, combustion-engine powered Underocean vessel.
Know then it is Her Majesty's Year, Sixteen Hundred and Forty [1640]. The brave gladiator, Gaius Cicero, had escaped from Rome with the plans for a prototype Inca-Aztec combustion engine. Gaius was granted Duke Hanley's estate - who died at the hands of his wife, possessed by Shaitan - and though uneducated, proved to be a brilliant tactician and heroic leader. Gaius held court with Paul, the Kinslayer, telling him the tales as heard from Mercedes Tacitus, and what her plans may or may not be. Paul the Kinslayer ordered the greatest Underocean vessel to be built, to hallmark a new era in the Saxon Conglomeration.
The first great Saxon Underocean vessel, the HMF Belladonna, was indeed a sight. At one hundred fifty [150] fathoms in length, by fifty-one [51] fathoms in width, and sixty-nine [69] fathoms in height, the Belladonna was an impressive sight. A crew of more than one thousand served within her steel skin. Paul the Kinslayer began the Push of Sixteen Forty [1640], assigning his infantry to recover land left vacant by retreating Roman troops. In a move comparable with Rome, women were conscripted to serve on the Underocean vessels. Gaius Cicero, commanding officer of the HMF Belladonna, and Leftenant Hans Beckett were the only males on the entire vessel.
Eleonore Sterling closed the reading primer's dusty cover. A Roman photograph of her dead daughter clung to the metal skin of the diver. The picture was better than reality, at least, as long as there was a choice between truth and fantasy. Penelope's flaxen hair looked too rich and full on the crystal-mesh paper. Oh, how she longed to feel it's dull, bland color in her aging hands one more time. She cursed the Romans for taking away her daughter. She cursed them for reminding her of her precious Penelope.
The diver was no more than six feet heigh by eight feet wide, with an additional two feet below the deck for advanced mechanisms inherent to the bell. The main lift harness rose through the dark, murky waters several hundred fathoms up, connected within the Belladonna's third diving bay. A metal-mesh covered the rubber tube that fed fresh air into the bell. Three devices like it, though much larger, rose above the Belladonna, floating on the surface.
Eleonore rubbed her eyes and looked over the control panel. Numerous dials measured air level, air purity, water level, water purity, water pollution, crude sonar emissions, pressure, and battery power. Her finger pushed firmly on the polished, engraved wooden button that read in flowing, lowercase script, 'connect'. The wireless' speaker box crackled, the lights dimmed and the battery indicator dipped.
"Belladonna, power survey." She released the 'connect' button and coughed. The air was getting thicker and though the gauge didn't suggest any change, the temperature felt higher.
"Wait one, Bell Three."
Eleonore bit her lip. The voice belonged to Pauline Funk, an enlisted radio operator. Although day and night had grown to have little meaning for the Belladonna's crew, Eleonore felt irritated that, even as a higher ranking officer, she was assigned to the 'night' hours to train the newer enlisted women. She contemplated establishing the connection again. The sealskin diving suit she wore was tight on her body, and the conservative space of the Belladonna gave her little room to work out. She had watched her face and hair grow ever more haggard and gaunt, and her body had gained some weight around her buttocks, hips and legs, and lost color in her face, neck, arms and chest. She pouted and whispered to herself, "I'm becoming an oyster."
Irritation won over patience and she pressed 'connect' again. "Funk, why am I waiting?"
"Sorry, ma'am, the Captain Cicero and Leftenant Beckett are here, checking over the instruments." The wireless crackled off as the connection closed.
"Some fresh air and power would be delightful, Funk."
"Wait one, Leftenant Sterling." It was Gaius' voice this time. "Leftenant, commence with shut down procedures. We're going to bring you up."
Thank you! Eleonore said to herself. Her fingers danced over the power controls, turning on the service motors. Two of the diver's arrays that had been launched were reeled in. She then shut down all of the motors and turned the main batteries off. Finally, she put the motors in neutral gearing.
"Belladonna, you may commence."
It took only minutes for the Belladonna's powerful wenches to raise the Bell. Eleonore opened an instrument box and removed a Grimillion Pressure Gauge. She measured it against the Bell's pressure Grimillion Gauge. She looked through the highest window and could see the water cascade around the sides of the bell as it was lifted out of the water. The bell started to sway, but the four woman bay crew steadied it and locked it in place. One of them connected a copper communications wire and then tapped on the thick glass port. Eleonore nodded and turned on the main batter again. She switched the communications toggle from 'wireless' to 'land line'.
"Bell three, com check." Eleonore waited several moments before Funk replied nervously.
"Com check, bell three."
Eleonore smiled to herself and could imagine that Funk would be nervous with the Captain and the Leftenant both looking over her shoulder.
"Leftenant Sterling, what's your Grimillion pressure measurement?"
Eleonore looked at the instrument panel, satisfied that the measures were correct since she had already performed a secondary test. "Nominal, sir."
"Bay crew, what is your Grimillion pressure measurement?"
"Zero point zero one, sir." They broke off then immediately reestablished a connection. "Our medical charts show that is still in the safety zone from nitrogen narcosis."
"No rapture of the deep then?" Gaius teased. "Leftenant, you might have a slow leak around the seal you would have detected, especially if you double checked your gauge before we started bringing you up. If you check the pressure now, I think you'll register the same discrepancy."
"Yes sir," Eleonore said acidly. There hadn't been an instance of nitrogen narcosis from the divers since she had been in the Royal Navy on the Belladonna, though had seen it several times with the 'skin divers'. Saxon diving skins and helmets were good to several thousand fathoms, but were impractical since the air supply wouldn't last long enough for decompressing. In addition, in order to dive out of a bell at such a depth, the bell had to be pressurized first, resulting in a rather long waiting period and several bouts of nausea.
The bay crew opened the top of the diver and Eleonore climbed out of one steel skin into another one. The bay was very small and cramped, only large enough for the diving bell, with just enough room for the bay crew to move around it. When she had pulled herself out of the bell, she sat on the lip of the hatch and inspected the seal.
"Was it leaking at all, ma'am?" one of the women asked.
Eleonore shook her head. "No, but I wasn't that deep either."
The woman nodded and went back to her duties.
Eleonore couldn't see anything wrong with the seal and started to climb down from the bell when Gaius entered.
"Wait there, Leftenant."
Eleonore nodded and climbed back up. "Bay three, we're going back down."
The women of Bay three started to prepare the bell to enter the depths again.
Eleonore looked at Gaius for a long moment with a firm glance, then slipped into the bell. She waited until Gaius had followed her in, then writhed passed him and sealed the hatch from the inside.
"I think it might have been just a fluke, sir," she said.
"I want to see it for myself, Leftenant."
Eleonore sat in the pilot's chair and Gaius sat next to her. She turned the communications over to the wireless. "Before we go down, refresh the air tanks and change over the battery. I don't want to wait for fresh air once we're outside."
"Yes ma'am."
Gaius Cicero let Eleonore Sterling command the diving bell into the water, and then had her take it down to four hundred fathoms. During the long wait, he said nothing at all, save to answer Eleonore's questions with terse replies. He could still remember Mercedes' face, the very fine lines of age that had pooled around her eyes and the corners of her mouth. He had never thought it would be possible to command a ship served almost entirely by women, but most of them had been hardened by their training and were salty from Underocean service. The Belladonna was in the middle of the Atlantic, only several hundred miles south of Iceland. His mind drifted in the eery, dark silence of the deep, back to grand days of the arena and fighting. Once, he had been one of the greatest fighters in Rome. And now, unexpectedly, and all because he did what he thought was right by helping out Mercedes when she was sick, he had come by the information that gave him everything, and then some, right back.
But it wasn't fair and he didn't much care for it. The peasants in Saxon lands may as well have been in Rome. They were poor, they were hungry, they had no hope. And he had been able, whether by means so stealthy and silent, or by chance, to throw everything he had ever known away, and regain it almost all of it back. Gaius thought it was easy to be critical of wealth when he had the opportunity to be disgusted at being wealthy. He caught himself at times dreaming of a simpler, ordinary life. Somehow, though he was the captain, the Belladonna was that life. He was surrounded by over a thousand women of every size, shape and color. And he had never had to worry about advances from them, or becoming too aroused to perform his duties with proper discretion. It had, overall, turned out to be a good life.
"Sir," Eleonore said, folding her hands in her lap, "we're at four hundred fathoms, two thousand four hundred feet, roughly."
Gaius nodded. "Tell the Belladonna you are going to check your wireless, then turn off the main and auxiliary batteries."
Eleonore nodded and made it so. "Yes sir." She looked somewhat perplexed, and in a way, felt helpless. Without the batteries, the diving bell lost most of its functions, even its lights.
Gaius produced a bundle of sticks that cast an eery glow. He handed several to Eleonore, then placed several about the diver.
Eleonore had never seen anything of their equal. They were beautiful, yet strange. "What is this, sir?"
Gaius smiled inwardly. "Foxfire. A fungus that feeds on decaying wood. You are holding a piece of rotten wood." He let a short smile flash, his face becoming solemn again. "You've logged more than sixteen thousand hours in the diving bells, but I wonder if you have ever actually looked - I mean really looked - at what is all around you."
Eleonore looked directly at the control panel and shrugged. "I've worked with them for more than ten years, sir."
Gaius seemed lost, gazing into the inky blackness of the deep water. He removed a gold trimmed scroll from his breast pocket and set it on the control panel. He made no move to open it, or offer it. Instead, he continued to peer through the porthole, and when he spoke, his voice was filled with mystic awe and a vibrant spirit of respect. "Unlike Rome, the Saxon Conglomeration doesn't publicize great disasters with their Underocean vessels."
"And why should they?" Eleonore exclaimed. "You would ruin the morale of the entire fleet if you knew that thousands of people, hundreds of people, even one person, died down here."
Gaius nodded. "But it has happened."
"Of course it happens," Eleonore snapped, then silenced herself. She had forgotten that Gaius had spent most of his life in Rome, and that he knew more about being a brute than a captain. Yet, she respected how he was able to contain himself. "Sir, was there something you wanted to show me down here?"
Gaius looked away from the porthole - directly at Eleonore. "More say than show, Eleonore."
She shrugged slightly, though turned to face him.
"If we continue with our present course," he paused and took one of the topographical maps out of a navigation tube that was on the bell's back wall. He unrolled it and spread it out in front of Eleonore. "We'll have traveled from here, straight from the Thames, to here, where we are now, near Iceland, and then to New Rome, where we'll find a port and get these people some room to run around."
Eleonore smiled. Gaius had always made sure that the women were given enough shore leave, even in remote areas, to get out in the sun. He had even stopped the Belladonna once in the middle of a fight to stop off at a nearby tropical island and send out foragers for fresh fruit. Though Eleonore had, at the time, thought it was for himself, as had the other women, their respect for him leaped forward from that single instance when he gave a hefty portion of it to the stokers and engineers - all of the lower enlisted women - and what little was left, he distributed amongst the lower officers. The higher officers, including himself, had none. However, she stopped smiling when she wondered why Gaius had brought her all the way down to four hundred fathoms to tell her about shore leave.
"Two days ago, Leftenant Beckett and I were monitoring a pirate wireless band. A North New Rome fishing vessel had witnessed a roman airship descend to sea level. A large swell rose from their starboard side and the ship was engulfed. We told the fishing vessel to keep it mum and that we'd be there in three days." He tapped the map with his finger. "It went down here. The fishing vessel is waiting there and set an anchored buoy out to mark it."
Eleonore swallowed. A Roman airship would be an incredible find for the Saxon Conglomeration. She found she could barely breathe.
Gaius wiped perspiration from his brow. "We established a narrow band communication with the vessel and have since learned that a slow trickle of air has been seeping up from where the ship went down. It could be that it is only the hydrogen, but we think its from the main decks."
Eleonore bit her lip. "Sir, the Romans are our enemy. I know it sounds cold, but if they crashed, so what?"
Gaius knitted his fingers together. "To destroy any notion in you that I still support Rome, if I still did, then that is where I'd still be. I had almost as much political influence as the Emperor, both from my bloodline and from being a gladiator."
"I never implied treason, sir," she defended.
Gaius shook his head. "To die in war is one thing, but like this .." He shook his head again. "And we're so close. We could save them."
"And they could very well kill us the next day."
"Leftenant, I'm not going to order you to do this. This is strictly off the record. If we fail, nobody will know. If we succeed, we'll all be heroes."
"Is that what this is? Some mad attempt to be a hero again?"
Gaius laughed bitterly. "I was more a hero in Rome than I could ever possibly be here, even if I was the King." He looked at her very soberly. "In Rome, a woman wouldn't even say something like that. I would make a suggestion, and she would run off and do it. I could have had any woman I wanted. All I had to do was just point, and she was mine. No, Eleonore, this isn't about being that kind of hero again - the kind where people lick your boots in the hopes that you will pat their back in front of their friends. This is the real kind of hero, the kind where you don't expect a reward, where you know you may die and nobody will ever know or care." He pointed out through the porthole. "Those people down there are heroes because they were brave enough to fly. You are a hero now for being down here. Will you stop being a hero out of spite?"
Eleonore rolled her eyes. "With all due respect sir, first, if you even made the hint at 'taking' me, I'd have you thrashed."
"No doubting you," Gaius laughed.
"And second, what right do you have saying who is a hero and who isn't? Do you want to send your entire crew into some of the deepest waters in search of people who are probably dead?"
"Yes," Gaius said simply.
Eleonore was stunned.
"Because," Gaius put in, "as you said, they are probably dead. Not dead, only probably. And that means they could be alive."
"Well," Eleonore discovered she could only whisper. "If you aren't doing this for Rome, or your ego, why do you want to do it?"
"Because it is the right thing to do," Gaius replied.
"Let me correct that, why do you want us - or even me - to do it?"
Gaius smiled. "I don't plan on sending you out there alone."
"Oh? And who will go with me? Nobody knows enough about the diving bells for such a mission."
"I would, of course."
Eleonore was stunned again. "You? Sir? You don't - with all due respect sir - you don't know anything about the diving bells."
"You're right, I don't. But we won't be able to save them from here. Somebody will have to go outside and bring extra skin dive suits. And, unfortunately, I don't think any of you are strong enough to make repeated trips." Gaius brushed his hands through his ebon locks.
"The pressure would be incredible. We couldn't open the hatch to let anyone in or out."
"Not unless the bell was pressurized to that level." Gaius smiled.
Eleonore tried to say something, but wasn't able to even make the words form a coherent sentence. Even her thoughts were incoherent. "Nobody could stay pressurized like that for very long."
"Tell that to the people who are alive down there."
"Probably alive," she corrected.
"If you don't want to do it .." He started.
"I didn't say that," Eleonore snapped.
"Then it's settled. You can take us up now, Leftenant." Gaius settled back in his chair.
Eleonore gaped, "But I.." She started, then stopped. She turned the batteries back on and used the wireless to instruct the bay crew to raise the bell.
Just before the diver entered bay three, Gaius looked through the corner of his eye at Eleonore. "Nobody has ever performed an operation like this at such depths. You would be the first to bring a diving bell and crew down that deep and back again. When we return, that," he motioned at the document on the panel, "will be waiting for you."
Eleonore looked at it and had almost forgotten about it. "Yes sir," she said quietly. She thought it was a letter of accommodation. It was all she, as a woman, would be able to receive. She was at the highest rank a woman had ever been able to receive.
Gaius smiled. "It took a lot of work to get that, Leftenant. I think you might want to take a look at it and see what awaits you when we return."
Eleonore reached for the scroll and broke the seal. Her eyes made a quick pass over the document, her face crinkled, and then she read it more carefully. Finally, she managed to look up and ask, "Captain? Of the Portobello Bell?" A wave of wonderful ecstasy passed over her, though was replaced with bitter cynicism. "A transfer to the command of a bell?" She felt crushed.
Gaius' smile never broke. "The Portobello Bell is not a bell. It is a very experimental, deep diving platform. It will have a crew of over three thousand."
Eleonore stared slack jawed. "A platform? That's never been done before. Three thousand?"
Gaius nodded and then motioned for her to put the scroll away as the bell rose out of the water. "Not a word of that. Please don't let the others know. But, hear me, it is no jest. It is sealed with the King Paul's own seal."
Eleonore tucked the precious document away. "How could you have received this so quickly? Especially if the airship only crash-landed in the past few days?"
Gaius allowed himself a short, chuckling laugh. He kissed two fingers and touched them to Eleonore's forehead. "Leftenant, no one person should be in command based on a single deed." He winced slightly at that - for no single action indeed! What had he ever done to warrant command of the Belladonna? King Paul and the rest of the Conglomeration didn't know what it was like to truly command. A single good deed could return a lifetime of riches, while people needed good deeds daily just to live.
Eleonore nodded in agreement and let the captain leave the diver. Through the filmy ports, she could make out the bay crew hustling to finish securing the bell. Her precious daughter's image returned to her thoughts and she frowned. The document the captain had given her felt hot against her body. A Roman in such power, even in the Saxon Conglomeration, still controlled her fate! How could she accept such a position, no matter how honorable, when it was undersigned by a Roman? Hadn't they already taken away the most valuable thing to her? Wasn't she serving in Her Majesty's Navy because she was, after all, single? Not a single mother, only single, without her child. Penelope's memory counted for naught to Royal Court. Only a decaying slate stone marked her daughter's grave. After all her time under the sea, she had she always been unable to return to replace that tombstone she hated so much? The tombstone of a pauper? Damn the Romans, she cursed. And damn Gaius Cicero!
The Belladonna erupted onto the surface of the ocean, sending the Native fisherman to their knees in fear that a great ocean spirit was angry with them. Hans Beckett, Gaius Cicero and Eleonore Sterling were the first out of the tower. Most of the engineers threw open the ballast silos to freshen the air and take advantage of the fables sunlight that the Underocean aquanauts hadn't seen in sometime. After several hours of peaceful negotiations with the Natives, Gaius took Beckett and Sterling to his personal quarters and reviewed the plan for the last time.
Gaius set his sextant down on a polished oak table. "The Native's buoy marks this as the location." He traced out a small circle. "Beckett?"
Hans raises his head, "Yes sir?"
"What sort of sonar reading could you obtain?" Gaius lifted his head only enough to meet Beckett's eyes.
"We know now that the airship is intact, but a good seventy fathoms north by northeast of the buoy. It is on a grade and slipping by the minute." Beckett traced out the grade on the chart with a grease pencil. He unrolled a sonagraph and placed it over the chart. "You can see that these dark lines," he followed several dark lines with the grease pencil, carefully drawing out the frame, "indicate the airship's exoskeleton. That exoskeleton is the only reason they haven't burst. Now, these white patches here," he circled the piloting deck, "here," and the main flight deck, "and here," and the aft deck, "show where the pockets of air are."
Eleonore shook her head softly. "Can you be sure those are pockets of air, or just hydrogen pouches?"
Beckett nodded, then shook his head. "The three secrets on a Roman airship are the sail control mechanism, the engines, which we now have blueprints for, and the hydrogen-conversion process that separates oxygen and hydrogen from water. The rest of the design is straight forward. The pouches are here." He started drawing several concentric circles inside the exoskeleton frame. "You'll notice they are actually brighter than these other air pockets, but not as large."
Eleonore nodded and felt dejected. She had hoped to prevent even going down, though again she felt the document calling to her. She wanted it and needed it so very badly, even if it did come undersigned by a Roman. She could make amends for that much, but the benefits it offered far outweighed the initial cost.
Gaius placed his fingers against his lips. "How many people are down there?"
Both Beckett and Sterling looked at Gaius and shrugged. "I couldn't say, sir," Beckett replied. "As few as none, as many as all of them."
Gaius nodded. "The largest bell is that Iceland one."
Eleonore nodded absently, talking as if reading from a spec sheet. "The Iceland deep insertion bell was designed to train as many as ten aquanauts plus pilot and a-pilot as deep as one thousand fathoms."
Gaius whistled. "What about personal skin-divers?"
Eleonore looked at Beckett, not quite as familiar with the skin-dive suits.
Becket scratched his ear. "Sir, we have one deep insertion skin-dive suit. It is as heavy as creation without weights, and, no doubting your strength sir, would need a tether, and I'd recommend a safety tether. The rest of the skin-divers haven't been tested that deep."
Gaius nodded. "Really, we only need air. Air is the problem." His face became convoluted. His fist pounded the desk. "So deep and their air must be running low."
Eleonore smiled darkly, though forced it away before anyone saw it. She loathed all Romans, including Gaius, a strange duality for her, since she also deeply respected him. But, she had an idea, and felt compelled to share it. "Sir, I don't think air is a problem for them."
Gaius looked up suddenly. "Where would they get it?"
Eleonore inhaled. "If they can take the hydrogen out of water, then they must also take out oxygen. That means .."
Beckett straightened, "They could have enough air."
Gaius nodded, though became sobered again. "That doesn't mean they will have thought of it. Alright, what is our worst case scenario?"
"Nobody is alive?" Eleonore offered.
Beckett shook his head. "That is the best case. It means Gaius just returns and you two return."
Gaius nods. "No, I think you'll both agree, the worst case is if there are more people down there than we can bring to the Iceland diver, and they didn't think to switch the engine conversion process to make oxygen."
"They'd still need some carbon dioxide," Beckett said after hesitation. "Straight oxygen would make them as high as a kite and then would probably kill them all."
"Sir," Eleonore said, "how can a lighter than air ship sink?"
Beckett came close to laughing out-loud. "If they get taken over by the water, which is what happened, all the metal in that exoskeleton will bring them straight to the bottom. I'm sure several of the hydrogen pouches were punctured from the pressure."
"Could we raise the airship if the pouches were inflated?" Eleonore asked.
Gaius shook his head. "No, it would rise too fast."
"What if we brought two other divers down if there were more than ten?" Eleonore offered.
Gaius and Beckett exchanged glances. "That would do it. As long as they followed instructions, it would work," Beckett mused.
"Could you handle three bells, Eleonore?" Gaius asked.
Eleonore nodded, though refused to answer. She didn't want to help the Romans, much less give them access to the bells. But then, they couldn't go very far in them either.
Gaius returned his sextant to its case. "Leftenant Sterling, get bays one and two to prepare their divers. Have bay three switch out its diver with the Iceland model."
Eleonore nodded and left to her task.
"Beckett, get all the skin-dive suits together that you can. We can't take up space with putting a doctor in each bell, so get all the docs on active call and make sure they have a wireless at their sides. And I mean turned on, right on their body."
Beckett nodded and left.
Gaius inhaled deeply. "Oh what heavenly journeys shall you lead me on this hour?" He looked towards the dynamic sky through several inches of steel.
Gaius met Eleonore in the third bay just as she was finishing her last preparations. The deep skin-diver was, indeed, very heavy, and felt more like armor. The spherical helmet weighed almost half of what the suit did! "Is everything ready?"
Eleonore left Gaius waiting for an answer to converse with the bay crews, then returned. "The doctor for the second diver can't get his wireless to communicate with the bell. He's changing it over now."
"Let Leftenant Beckett worry about that, Sterling," Gaius said. "We need to get down as soon as possible since we'll need to pressurize to that depth, and that will take time."
Eleonore nodded and double checked her equipment. She had put on her skin-diver and was now checking the seals. Satisfied they were as good as possible, she climbed into the bell and then helped Gaius in. She took her seat in the pilot's chair and waited for Gaius to sit comfortable in the a-pilot's seat. Once the hatch was sealed and the bell was lowered, she stared glumly out the port into the water.
Gaius remained quiet, watching Eleonore gloom, and then decided to check the bottom hatch. The small door opened into the water, and if the pressurization was correct, would leave the main cabin dry. "When we start pressurizing, make sure you always double check your gauges." He waited for Eleonore to acknowledge him. "I want you in full gear before I open this door. If the pressure in here is too low, we'll be flooded out and you'll be in a world of shit if you don't have your helmet on."
"Is that what the Roman's say?" Eleonore asked darkly.
"That's what I'm saying, Leftenant," Gaius replied, thick skinned to her sarcasms.
The Belladonna disappeared above as the bell was lowered. The water became dark quickly, and Gaius' ears hurt, knowing that the pressure was slowly being increased in the bell. He would have to wait several hours down at the bottom for the bell's pressure to match the outside. Gaius' fingers curled together, feeling light headed and a severe pressure at his temples at the same time. The bell continued to fall.
"I think this is the deepest I've ever been," Eleonore commented.
"The Portobello Bell will be able to go this deep," Gaius said under some strain of maintaining lucid thought.
Eleonore nodded again. Her coherency was fueled with her hatred for the Romans, and that hatred was slowly directed completely at Gaius.
Gaius tapped the window. "Is that the bottom already?"
"Already? It's been over three hours." Eleonore couldn't believe that time had passed so quickly. She wondered if she had blacked out.
Gaius rubbed the sides of his head again. "How long before we fully pressurize to match the outside?"
Eleonore looked at her instruments and then at a chronometer. "Too long," she whispered.
"If you want, suit up and keep as much pressure off your head as possible." Gaius reached for his helmet. "Can you fasten this down?"
"Yes sir." She reached over and fastened down all of the helmet's clamps onto the neck ring. She tapped the faceplate when she had finished, wondering why she had tightened all of them down and not left one or two loose in the hopes that .. But she wasn't a murderer.
Time suddenly slowed down, and Eleonore could only watch the gauges. Gaius double and then triple checked the wireless to the bell and to the Belladonna. Beckett cut in that he should be able to see the airship, but there was only inky darkness and a pain behind his eyes.
"Sir," Eleonore whispered into the wireless inside her helmet. When Gaius raised his head .. his movements were so very slow .. she felt pity, then realized that her movements were also very sluggish. She wiped her hand over the port that had become hazed with condensation and a dark mass loomed. Her fingers were also slow to find the switches to the outside lights. The lime lights burned brightly, but the light became ghostly as it cut into the dark and illuminated the airship.
Gaius was taken back. The airships were the pride of Rome. And now it looked so bleak. Sitting on a steep grade, waiting to slip into a darker abyss.
Eleonore watched the pressure gause slightly sway around the desired mark. She swallowed and wondered how long it had been there. Had she been watching it for an hour and not noticed it? What was happening to her!? She shook Gaius' shoulder and indicated the gauge.
Gaius nodded and stood up, swayed and almost fell, caught himself, and then walked to the bottom hatch. He looked up at Eleonore and then unsealed the hatch. Water gushed in around the edges and flooded into the bell, filling it with a foot of water. Gaius stumbled back and started to close the hatch, but then stopped and watched as the water settled. He didn't realize how cold it would be either. He switched on his air supply and then attached two tethers to his belt.
"I'm going to take three suits with me." He waited to make sure his wireless was audible to Eleonore. When she nodded, he continued. "I'll pick out the three strongest, get them suitded up, and then bring them back to help bring more suits. We have," he tried to count, then gave up. He just couldn't remember how many suits he had packed away and was sure he had counted them several times not, how long had it been now? He wasn't sure.
Eleonore nodded again and suddenly felt nauseous. The pressure was too great. She wanted to stand up and throw a genuine fit, but the suit felt too heavy and she felt too weak.
Gaius took a bundle of three skin-divers and dropped them into the water, then stepped in after them. And then, in the same amount of time, he was gone.
Left alone in the dark, Eleonore opened communications with the Belladonna. The polished wood button felt oily under her fingers, and the voices were so far away, she thought they must have only been whispers.
"Belladonna," she said loudly, suddenly aware she was screaming and her own ears were the source of the deafness. They had been ringing horribly for sometime and she hadn't noticed. The pain in her temples, behind her eyes, and the upper curves of her cranium continued to pulse and ache.
"Leftenant, what is your status?" There was a jumble of words that Eleonore couldn't make out. "Leftenant, put the Captain on."
"Gaius is out at the moment." Eleonore bit her lip, quite unaware at her casual candor. "The pressure down here is off the Macmillion gauge." She tried to locate Gaius through the porthole, but couldn't remember how long he had been out, much less see anything in the darkness. The foxfire's glow provided enough light for despairing shadows within the bell.
"Leftenant," a new voice cut in. "This is Leftenant Beckett. What are your symptoms?"
Eleonore's head lolled. "Sir, I'm experiencing a loss of time."
"Your chronometer is malfunctioning?"
Eleonore shook her head, adding emphasis to her words, an empty emphasis over the com. "No sir, I can't keep track of it. I don't think the Captain could either. I keep looking at the chronometer and it says we've been down here for over twelve hours, but that can't be right. It seems like we have been down here no more than three."
There was a pause, and then Beckett's voice returned with a sharp crackle. "It has been twelve hours, fourteen minutes, Leftenant. Are you experiencing any physical abnormalities?"
"One bloody headache from hell," Eleonore said slowly.
Beckett walked her through a series of questions, recording the new data for future reference. Though he was in contact with the bell for more than thirty minutes, Eleonore thought the conversation lasted a brief five minutes at best.
Eleonore wasn't sure how long Gaius had been gone, or what exactly transpired, but as suddenly as he was gone, a helmet erupted from the hatch when she cut off the communications link, and it wasn't Gaius!
Eleonore's head cleared and she stood up, felt extremely woozy, but found she could stand and helped the person out of the water. A worn, tired, and very Roman face peered out from the face plate at her. But the expression wasn't of war, or of hate. How she did hate the Romans! But this Roman tried her best to smile, gray and blond hair gathered around her mouth. She actually smiled to Eleonore with something that resembled thanks and then reached for more diving suits and handed them down into the water.
Gaius pulled himself out of the water and hung over the rail of the hatch, looking at Eleonore with weary eyes. His suit was taxing him severely of his energy, and the distance between the third bell was farther than he would have liked. They had caught the airship in a very crippled state, even under its present circumstances.
Mary Ellen Barnes, Julia Pila Norman, and Agatha Ann Albert had been the strongest, or so he had gathered from his initial impression. His initial impression was all he had time to use. He had found a hole in the airship and entered the aft deck. Most of the officers probably still didn't even know a rescue attempt was underway. The Roman Airship had no wireless system, and their brass horns were flooded with water. Now, after helping three of what he thought must have been twenty total, he felt too tired to continue. But he thought that when he was already half way back to the airship's remains. The foxfire offered only a dim glow that did nothing more than distract him and he wondered if it would be best to extinguish it and work in sheer blackness.
But the foxfire kept the blackness out, and there were times, especially as he helped ferry people to and from the bells, that it was the only thing he saw. Somewhere in time, the Iceland bell was filled, and then the second and first bells were filled. He didn't become lucid, a panic fraught lucidity, until he returned to the Iceland bell and found the hatch shut. The wireless system in his skin diver must have shorted out since he didn't remember ever having contact with Eleonore or the Belladonna. He chided himself as he thought of his lack of communications with them for not communicating with the Belladonna when had been back in the bell. He rose to the window to see many faces, some he knew, and Eleonore.
Eleonore's spine was fused. She watched Gaius through the glass and felt absolutely cold. She wasn't sure why she had closed the hatch, or why she now didn't open it. She hated Romans. But they were all around her now, and they were all waiting for her to say something. She couldn't move to even turn her head and face the others.
"Are you mad, Saxon? He can't take that pressure much longer!" one of them said.
But he's a Roman! Eleonore screamed in her mind. He's Roman and he killed my daughter when you bombed our lovely home. She crumpled against the control panel. You killed her! And the tears fell from her eyes onto the inside of the faceplate.
"Leftenant!" Gaius' voice crackled on the wireless. "Open the hatch!" Gaius's head ached furiously. Why had the wireless not worked before? Was the range severely impacted by the extreme depth?
One of the Roman's prodded Eleonore's shoulder. Her voice emerged around a wave of static on the wireless. "Are you daft? Open the hatch."
Why shouldn't you die out there in the deep, dark cold, Roman? Didn't you kill my daughter? Eleonore curled her fingers and was aware she could move again. "No," she whispered. Many of the Romans stared and her, but she stood and held her peace. You didn't kill her. None of you did. She rose and went to the hatch and opened it. She connected the wireless. "Sorry, sir, I wanted to make sure the seal held up under the pressure."
Several of the Romans looked at her, seeing through the lie, but then nodded, almost as if understanding. Eleonore hurried to the hatch and opened the latches. When Gaius' head rose from the water, she reached down to lift him up. He was heavy, tired, and in a lot of misery.
Gaius didn't say anything to Eleonore about the hatch being shut. He quickly removed the suit that had become a severe burden and stood in the center of the bell, surrounded by weak, placid faces of Roman women. "Eleonore, connect us to the Belladonna."
Eleonore obliged him.
"Belladonna, this is Captain Cicero. Commence depresurrization." He reached over Eleonore's shoulder and cut off the Belladonna, though connected the other bells to his communications line. "Attention Roman refugees. This is Captain Gaius Cicero of the Underocean vessel, Belladonna. You are now on Saxon grounds. You will be treated as guests on the Belladonna for the duration of your stay. For you, the War has been put on pause." He cut the communication and then nodded to Eleonore. "Bell one looked like it was leaking." His face became very grim. "I don't think the seals will hold."
"You're going to let them die?" one of the Roman woman asked angrily. "Why don't you take us up now?"
Eleonore let Gaius take care of the Romans and quickly connected back with the Belladonna and the other bells. She coordinated the doctors and instructed the Romans in the other bells how to open the communications link. She learned soon enough that Bell one was leaking very badly and was already flooded with a foot of water.
Gaius knelt down on the Bell's metal floor and looked somberly at the women. "Ladies, we are several thousand fathoms down." As he spoke, his voice was soothing, comforting, and filled with an energy that came straight from his heart. "In your airship, if you are too high, you will start to get dizzy. You can always just drop to a lower altitude. Down here, you were lucky because your airship miraculously was pressurized to sea-level. Once you left it, though, your bodies were subjected to the weight of all that water above you. That extreme pressure is matched inside these bells. We will slowly depressurize to sea-level again, but if we go any faster, we will come down with what we call rapture of the deep."
"Rubbish," one of the woman spat.
She was immediately silenced with a short word from another who appeared to be a superior rank. "Sir," she said, "you have our thanks for your rescue. We've been breathing bad air and have had little food for over a day. And to be saved by Saxons, sir, well, I don't think you would know what that feeling is like."
Gaius raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't I, though? Have you never heard of Gaius Cicero, the Emperor's gladiator out of Arles?"
Many of the women looked up in shock and awe. "The one who left Rome on a Spanish galley?"
Gaius nodded. "The same. I, too, was born a Roman. Now, I am a Saxon." He narrowed his eyes. "I won't betray this country for any birthright, ladies. But, I assure you, you will not come to any harm by my hand."
"We've got a problem," Eleonore cut in, turning in her seat to face Gaius. "Bell one needs to go up now."
Gaius touched his fingers to his lips. "We can't take them out of that Bell."
"Pressurize the fourth bell and transfer them when they get to the Belladonna?" Eleonore offered.
Gaius nodded. "Once they start rising, their inside pressure will put more stress on the bell. It won't be equalized. They'll flood faster."
"They're flooding bloody well fast as it is, sir."
Gaius frowned. He opened communications with the Belladonna. "Beckett .."
"Yes sir!" Leftenant Beckett said.
"Pressurize Bell four, the one we switched out for this one, to our current Grimillion measure. Continue with the depressurization of Bell three and two, but Bell one is on emergency status. Start bringing them up at full speed." He let go of the connection switch.
Beckett confirmed the order and then disconnected.
A woman sitting against the back said quietly. "What will happen to the crew, sir?"
Gaius looked directly at the woman, a raven haired, older lady with lines around her eyes and forehead, gray gathering in her hair. "The officers will be questioned on what happened. The rest of your crew will be inspected by our doctors, and then issued a uniform of no rank for the remainder of your voyage. The entire crew, officers and enlisted, will be transported to Engoland, where you will be turned over directly to King Paul II."
"How can we be sure you are telling us the truth?" she asked after a moment's hesitation.
Gaius started to say something, then looked at Eleonore. "You can't. I am the Captain of the Belladonna. I am your rescuer. You would have died a cruel and horrible death as your air slowly ran out and the pressure started to build within. The Belladonna is not a war vessel, though, and our mission guidelines make no special mention for underocean recovery of persons, live or dead, or equipment of Roman origin."
Eleonore listened over a private communication line to the events of the first Bell. It arrived safely, almost completely flooded with water, though the Romans were still alive, and transferred to the other bell for depressurization.
When depressurization was completely and everyone was safely inside the Belladonna, Gaius called Eleonore to his quarters. There, he sat in a comfortable arm chair, sipping at hot tea, and peering into the heavenly blue of water just below the surface.
"Leftenant," he said when she entered, "would you care to tell me what happened down there with the hatch?"
Eleonore paused, finding herself thinking of grand schemes to distract the truth. Finally, the truth seemed like the best answer. "Sir," she started, and then stopped. She sat down next to Gaius and looked over him. "A person shouldn't be judged on a single event. I had my doubts about you, sir. A Roman killed my daughter. A Roman burned down my home. That Roman ruined my life. You are a Roman who has lead an extraordinary life. From a famous gladiator to an underocean vessel captain. By what right or reason did God have to give these things to you, but take the things I treasured most away from me? When we were travelling down, all I could think about was how much I hated Romans. But when you saved them, and when I saw you through the porthole, I wasn't thinking about hating Romans anymore, but about the new life that I was given because of what the Roman did."
Gaius nodded and then placed his hand on her knee. "Respect is a loaded word, Leftenant. We all want to be respected, but I don't believe we truly respect the ones who have obtained, by their own definition, respect. We are envious of the life they have, and are blind to the life we lead. While I was a famous gladiator, I had no family. While I am now an underocean vessel captain, I have no home. I am too old to have a family, so some have told me, and I find that at certain times, I dislike Saxons for having what I can never have."
"What will you do now, sir?" Eleonore asked. "I am eager to begin my command of the Portobello Bell, but I find I am intrigued by where you're life will lead."
Gaius smiled. "Perhaps I will petition to have the Belladonna refitted for more scientific exploits than its vanilla fittings allow it to be right now."
"Do you think the Romans have grown from this tragedy, sir?"
Gaius' smile faded. "I am content to know that my crew has grown considerably, Leftenant. However, most of the Roman crew is still down there in a watery grave. I don't think that there is much room to grow from this experience for them. A tragedy isn't supposed to help you" He cocked his head, staring into the distance of water through the porthole. "I pity them, Leftenant. They will have no lives when they return to Rome. Women are severely oppressed there. These women will have a lot to explain. The loss of their airship and crew, and their rescue from such depths."
"Will they be put to death when they return?" Eleonore asked in horror.
Gaius mused for quite some time. "If they return, the outlook for them is dire. If they return. I will ask Paul to offer them citizenship in the Conglomeration."
Eleonore smiled curiously. "Do you think they would accept that though?"
Gaius shrugged. "I honestly can't say, Leftenant. Whatever has happened to them so far hasn't been that bad compared with the decisions they will each have to make when they are back in Engoland."
Eleonore left Gaius with a strange, comforted smile on her face. She had travelled to a new place that had never been visited before. And in the liquidy depths, had found that the only thing that mattered wasn't murder of her daughter, but the incandescent memory.
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Last Updated: March 29, 1996