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I’d never felt sovulnerable. The ocean closed above me, swallowing the shuttle into a suffocating vastness that made me itch to claw at the 360-degree windows. Obviously, that would have been useless, but it was hard to turn away from the unending view. So I hugged myself in an attempt to stifle my panicked urges and found a seat in the circular back-to-back rows of the luxury pod.
Not only were there thousands upon thousands of tons of water pressing in on us, but now that it was too late to change my mind, a million reasons not to go raced through my brain. The faster we accelerated toward the bottom, the less convincing my reasons for coming felt. The engineer in me studied every rivet, weld, and seal and found them flawless—beautifully designed actually—but that did little to sooth my near-panicked emotional state.
The other fifty people onboard crowded close to the impossibly thin AC glass, gawking and chattering like they were viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time and not an endless darkness illuminated by the blue glow that caught the occasional school of silver herring. The new technology that allowed such a thin barrier had been thoroughly tested over the years, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Proven or not, I couldn’t help but long for the days when glass for underwater vessels had been four to six inches thick. My father and Jackson stood front and center with the other sheeple, smiling like they hadn’t a care in the world, like we didn’t just leave Mom, weak and battered by chemo, all alone on the surface.
Her unnaturally thin face was all I saw behind her smile, the smooth skin of her scalp visible through the woven texture of her large brimmed hat.
“I need you to go,” she’d said for the fourteenth time, framed by the sun like an angel with a halo.
She’d finally convinced me with her crazy, characteristically unselfish wish that I play nice with Dad and the woman he’d cheated on her with.
“Excuse me, Miss Meadows, but you look a bit peaked.”
I stared up into the plastic face of Dr. Candice Lawry, chief operating officer and artificial intelligence guru of Bennet Systems. Wonderful.
Candice always looked like she swallowed something horrible but was trying to smile through it and not let on. I suspected it had something to do with being as high ranking as one can get inside Bennet Systems, yet not being a complete insider, aka literal part of the disfunction that was the Bennet family.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the hydropod she held out to me in the hopes it would be enough to send her on her way.
“Your profile shows you are at an increased risk for DSI,” she said, sitting on the edge of the seat beside me and crossing her long legs.
“Depth sensitivity illness is a made-up term to excuse the psychological effects of being crushed beneath a million tons of ocean water,” I said, taking a sip from the malleable pod she’d handed me. A genius invention, the bubble-shaped object held the perfect amount of electrolyte-enhanced water, and when it was finished the thin skin remaining could be swallowed as well.
She smirked. “I’ll let that comment go, considering the symptoms include lowered inhibitions and heightened anger.”
I took another swig, not wanting to feed into it. She leaned in, elbows perched on knees, glassy green eyes unnervingly close as she tapped her thumb and finger together like she had an invisible castanet.
“Let’s not have any issues that might spoil this demo trip for anyone. If you feel like you can’t control yourself, there’s always the option of stasis until it’s time to leave.”
Did she just threaten to put me to sleep for a month in a box if I didn’t behave?
She rose while I remained speechless and cleared her throat to get the attention of the fourteen other families. Bennet Systems, or BS as I lovingly referred to them, was all about family. Frankly, to me, it was more like a cult that kept everyone close enough to monitor. As Candice warned, those who misbehaved were dealt with.
“Welcome!” she chirped in a fake voice that sounded like an animatronic gone wild. “And congratulations on reaching this milestone. You will be the first people to enjoy the new luxury resort, Paradise Atlantis.”
She paused for applause.
“We at Bennet Systems are thrilled to be able to offer our very own employees and their families this opportunity before opening our doors to the public. You’ve worked hard to make this happen, and we extend all the finest luxury to each of you in thanks. You will experience AI like never before as all of your needs are met, and hopefully exceeded, by our artificial staff members. If there’s anything you need, just press one of the silver call buttons located throughout the grounds and buildings, and you will be showered with assistance. Enjoy the ride, we should be docking in less than an hour.”
Everyone erupted into more applause and chatter as Candice waited, clearly not finished.
“One last surprise. We are not the only ones spending a month on Paradise Atlantis.”
A hush fell over the shuttle as people began to pay attention.
“The Bennets have decided to join us. Mrs. Bennet wants you to know that you are all part of her extended family.”
With this information, Miss COO disappeared into the crowd, which seemed to swallow her whole.
The entire Bennet clan? For a month? Trapped down beneath the waves with us? My mind immediately went to the only Bennet I’d ever been interested in meeting, Mason. My mouth dried up despite my hydropod. I’d never been able to string two words together around him. One look at his sparkling eyes or glorious physique, and I was destined to become a tongue-tied adolescent all over again.
Pull it together, Sam, I told myself, tightening my ponytail. I needed to focus, for shit’s sake. I was twenty-six years old and had a master’s of engineering in Artificial Intelligence from MIT. I’d be starting work on my doctorate once Mom was healthy again. Not only did I not have time for a man, Adonis-like or not, but I did not have time for frivolities while Mom suffered.
I would simply tour the gallery as often as possible, inspect what I could about the engineering while avoiding certain people, and stay in my room the rest of the time. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, seeing no reason to keep them open and stare at the dark beyond. Planning would keep me focused on the right things.
“At least somebody here isn’t ogling a window with a view of nothing,” said a deep voice to my right.
