The Medusa Chronicles Read Online Free Page A

Embleton—there in the front row alongside the President—had told Falcon this was experimental architecture. The same technology they used to filter-mine sea water had been put to work sculpting this room, layer by layer—the room had been grown , like a sea mollusc’s shell, rather than built in the traditional fashion. Even the hidden service elements, the ducts and pipes and vents and cabling, had been planned into the carefully computer-controlled process.
    The decor meanwhile looked high Victorian to Falcon, with ­polished tables, high chairs and divans. The tables were set with expensive-­looking glasses, cutlery and porcelain crockery. But Falcon noticed the details—each item of cutlery marked with the motto MOBILIS IN MOBILI, the small flags on each table, black with a golden “N”—that gave away the true inspiration behind this place. Falcon allowed himself a smile. More than two centuries since its launch in the pages of Verne’s great novel, Captain Nemo’s Nautilus still sailed seas of imagination. Falcon ­murmured, “You’d have enjoyed this, Jules.”
    And in this elaborate setting, dressed in a crisp civilian suit, smiling at the passengers as they filed into their seats, Matt Springer looked at ease, welcoming, in control. Falcon envied the man for his human grace in this very human company, while Falcon himself skulked in the shadows.
    But he was not alone for long. Webster soon found him.
    Falcon murmured, “Buddy, if you’re looking for the water fountain, he’s the good-looking fellow in the other corner.”
    â€œVery funny.”
    â€œYou showed up in the end, then?”
    â€œTurns out I have some residual good manners. So what do you think of the Sea Lounge? Quite something, isn’t it?”
    Falcon grunted. “It’s like a huge oyster shell. And Matt Springer is the big fat pearl in the middle of it.”
    That made Webster laugh.
    With a gracious smile, Springer settled his hands on the lectern and, speaking without notes, began the show.
    *  *  *  *
    â€œMadam President, Captain Embleton, friends. Good evening. Thanks for coming. I’m here to tell you the story of Grandpa Seth—who is the reason my family came by its notoriety in the first place, and the reason I had to go all the way to Pluto to carve out a little piece of history of my own.”
    Sympathetic laughter: immediately he had them eating out of his hand. Falcon seethed.
    â€œI do need to dispel a couple of myths about him. First of all, although my family always referred to him as ‘Grandpa,’ Seth was in fact my great-great-great-great-grandfather, and he never got to meet even his owngrandchildren. But his fame extended far beyond his own lifetime, and he was always a kind of presence for the family, so ‘Grandpa’ he will always be.
    â€œAnd second, no, Sean Connery didn’t play him in the 1970s movie.” More laughter. “Connery was in the picture, but in another role. A professor from MIT. Sometimes I watch that old drama over again. Shame the science got left on the cutting room floor, but it is fun! And it was the first attempt to dramatise those extraordinary events.
    â€œWhat I’m going to show you tonight is the latest attempt to tell that story. Of course, the whole drama was recorded and heavily scrutinised at the time, and later there was a slew of books, autobiographies, technical studies. So with modern processing of the contemporary imagery, and armed with the screeds of psychological analysis of the principals that followed, we can do a pretty good job of reconstruction—we can see how it was to live through those dramatic days, and even get some sense of what the principals must have been thinking and feeling at the time.
    â€œTonight we’ll see a selection of scenes, key incidents. Just sit back and relax; the 3D should be easy on the eye. Those of