Issue 3: "The Deep, Pt. 3"

Mariana jerked awake. She had fallen asleep in her lab station, studying the results from tests on her new samples. She removed her reading glasses and rubbed her eyes, trying to shake off the disturbing dream from which she had lurched. The doctor gathered her papers and moved lazily across the room, straightening up her unfinished work. She had been tired since being onboard her father’s submarine. The endless dark of the water rarely broken by light seemed like an unending night. She longed for the week to come when she would return to the surface.

She began to leave for her quarters, but found herself instead at the lab’s computer terminal. A few quick key strokes and she was reviewing a layout of the lower levels of the ship. She stared at the blanked out portion in the high security section of research labs, then moved her eyes over the rest of the level looking for patterns in the design. Moments later she was on a lift headed toward her destination.

Darkness.

Then a distant hum.

Slowly Aquaman opened his eyes, but it seemed like a struggle to do only that. Heat flashed on his retinas and he closed them shut. The only image he glimpsed was deep red all around. He realized the searing heat was all around him, drying him, weakening him. He hung loosely from his arms, restrained securely above his head. He made a move to stand but discovered his feet were also bound.

It’s okay. I’m here. I will try to help you.

Aquaman was surprised by the voice in his head. Who are you? Are you the one that called out to me before?

Yes. We haven’t much time. They are watching us. He means to harm you to get what he wants. The voice continued. It was a female and the sound of it was melodic in Aquaman’s mind.

Why? Who is doing this?

The large man in black.

Krell.

Yes. There was a brief pause before she continued. He is completely blind in his ambition, sire. And I am very fearful for what things he is capable.

The air shimmered in waves of heat as the front of a small, round containment room moved away. The interior glowed red and a singular, indignant figure was inside.

“Aquaman.” Krell positioned himself in front of the weakened hero. “Welcome back.” His words stabbed as disingenuous. He regards the mechanism. “You are to be commended, good Doctor. Your trap seems to have done its job nicely.” Dr. Benway crept in behind him watching Aquaman carefully, not entirely convinced.

Aquaman was able to open his eyes now and straighten himself somewhat in his restraints. “What…. are you doing…. why?”

“First things first. I told you when we last parted that we could benefit from each other’s cooperation. But if you are unwilling to offer it freely, then I am forced to take a more direct approach…. Mr. Curry.”

“What? How did you…”

“Not hard to deduce with the right resources really. A lighthouse keeper you said? Judging from your dialect I guessed you from Florida. A search of records of those in operation, say 20 or so years ago, revealed only one that was surrounded by conspicuous circumstances.” Benway had handed the Captain a document, and he read through the pages as he continued. “One Thomas Arthur Curry of Atlas Point I do believe. A quick wedding at sea to a woman with no apparent past, or so one could say from the lack of any previous record of her existence. And after her mysterious death, this man raised their child, but there seems to have been a rather sharp increase in unusual occurrences and police reports from that point on. And finally, the boy carries on after the father’s death to attend a university briefly, before incurring a police record for eco-terrorism it’s seems. Releasing dolphins from tanks was it? Destroying research labs? And then he disappears completely.” He looks up. “Any of this rings a bell?”

Aquaman stares at him flatly.

“Right. Let’s get down to business.” He hands the papers back to the Doctor, who shuffles back to observe the bio monitors hooked to Aquaman. “Now, Mr. Curry. I’m going to ask you again. Are there others like you?”

“Why are you doing this?” Aquaman reached inside for unused strength as he twisted his arm slowly, testing the cylinder-like shackles holding him in place.

“Of course, I didn’t expect this to be easy, Mr. Curry.” He moved a switch nearby. “Only through understanding will we find a common ground. So to be fair, let me show you something I think you’ll find interesting.” The entire back wall to the main chamber opened up as shuttered panels moved away, revealing a view of the ocean outside. Just outside on the abyssal plain of the ocean floor, sprawled a large structure. Several large domes, dotted and glowing with lights, were connected by tubes and support pillars. Several small submersibles buzzed around it, and other parts were in the construction process. It was a small city at the bottom of the sea.

“This.” Captain Krell strolled over to the large window with his hands clasped behind him. “Is Aquatica One.” He turned to Aquaman. “This is the future!”

“Our Doctor has been a busy man. We’ve already learned and unlocked some useful genetic information from our found subjects, and as you can see the Doctor has made a few creations of his own. I wonder what we'll discover when we study your DNA.”

Aquaman held back his rage. He couldn’t stand to see his marine animals treated in this way. And the mermaid! Krell had far overstepped his boundaries. “You’re sick.”

“For the greater good, Mr. Curry. There are so many resources that will be needed for life under the sea: food sources, beasts of burden, and if need be, foot soldiers… But you might know something about that I’m guessing.”

He walked the floor in front of his prisoner. “I’ve been watching you for awhile, ‘Aquaman’. Your exploits and adventures while helping ships, boats, and their seafarers have been widely reported. Many articles have been written over the last few years of the ‘Man from Atlantis’, or so the press started referring to you after an off-comment you made to a sailor. Taken as a joke by the media, but I think there’s something to it.” Krell stopped between Aquaman and the tank containing the mermaid. Worry was on her face from seeing her king in such a state. Her long brown hair shimmered and waved about her. Her long tail glimmered in the interior light.

“Now. One last time. Are there others? And I’ll have you know before you answer that nothing displeases me more than being lied to!” Krell’s own anger had began to bubble to the surface.

“Then stop asking the wrong questions.” Aquaman stated as a challenge.

“Wrong!!” Krell barked and then made a motion to Benway, standing at the ready. Benway grinned a long, dark smile and pushed a button. Suddenly, a massive volts of electricity surged through Aquaman’s bonds and his body arched forward. He closed his eyes tight and grimaced, trying not to cry out. It stopped as suddenly as it began and the Sea King slumped down.

“The mermaid is a beautiful creature isn’t she?” Krell turned his attention on a dime, after regaining his composure. “Wonderful and impossible, but there she is. And it does beg the question, where did she come from?”

Aquaman was breathing heavily, dehydrated and powerless. “I… just thought…. of something…” He fought to pull himself up. “You… planned this. All of it. This device. Taking the trident. The attack by the cave.” Another thought passed. “The octopus. You took her eggs. That’s why she attacked Mariana’s pod. You put your own daughter in harm’s way to capture me!”

Mariana listened, a dread feeling growing in her stomach and tears forming in her eyes.

“Practically a coincidence, really. It was an opportunity for her to continue her work.” The Captain’s voice lowered, betraying his own conscience. “And we had tracked you in the vicinity. She was never truly in danger. We had pods close by, watching the event as it unfolded. I do what I have to do, Mr. Curry. As I said, chances must be taken to achieve any worthwhile goal.”

“You’re obsessed!” Aquaman flexed his muscles inward, straining with every remaining ounce of strength he had left, until another surge of electricity shot through him.

Aquaman kneeled on the floor, holding Mariana in his arms. Watered spilled from the hole in the tank behind him flooding the floor. Krell walked to her slowly, a look of terrible dread on his face as he fell to his knees in front of the pair. He took his daughter into his arms with a crushing sorrow. “I’m so sorry.” The words escaped quickly from his lips. “Mariana… I…”

She looked at him, her face growing ghastly pale. “Dad….”

“What, dearest? What?”

“It… it’s your fault. Mother was right... you are a... terrible man...” She fought for each word. The front of her gray uniform was soaked with blood now and mixing into the water on the floor.

“No…” Krell was aghast.

She turned meekly to Aquaman. “Thank you…. for being…. my… hero…” And her eyes closed forever.

Krell raised, his daughter’s body in his arms and walked back to the entrance. “You will pay.” He said, facing Aquaman again. “You will pay with everything I can take from you, Aquaman!” His expression then turned to one of pure vengeance. “To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee!”

Aquaman felt the water renew him as he stood tall to face the men. The sound of the tank glass splintering behind him. “Get out. Tell your men to evacuate the ship.” He outstretched his hand and the Trident rose from the table, glowing with power. He grabbed the long staff as it floated to him and raised it above his shoulder. "Now!!"

Krell retreated with his guards and door slammed behind them. Aquaman wheeled with his Trident and speared it through the outer window, and the room exploded with ocean water. The change of pressure shattered the tanks and the strange creatures fled the vessel with their king. Once clear Aquaman swerved the trident about and unleashed its crackling power on the Leviathan’s propeller screws. He sent another quick blast across the bottom of the giant submarine piercing it enough to cause it to take on water.

He watched grimly as the vessel began its descent to the ocean floor.

When Aquaman released the small octopi, they swam to encircle their mother. The large octopus was overcome with a sensation of joy. Aquaman closed his eyes for a moment and then spoke aloud to her.

“You’re welcome, Topo.” He turned to Lori.

"Let's go home."