Captain Nemo_ The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius - Kevin J Anderson [141]
Honorine knocked on the door and quietly reminded him of the time. With a heavy sigh, Verne finished his cold tea and stood to get dressed. Once again, he had written nothing all morning, had made no progress toward creating a famous work of literature.
Instead, he spent the rest of his day at the dreary stock exchange, making and losing other people’s money.
ii
Over time, Nemo came to love Auda, his assigned wife in Rurapente.
She was a beautiful Turkish maiden with silky black hair and creamy tan skin, her sepia eyes large and catlike, her mouth full, her body lean and supple. Auda would have become part of the Sultan’s harem in Ankara, if Caliph Robur had not given her to Engineer Nemo as a reward. . . .
For more than two years now, Nemo had managed the caliph’s ambitious project to create an armored sub-marine boat. He had been given comfortable accommodations, good food, and various amenities, all of which were intended to make him forget his situation -- and he had demanded the same for every one of the captive men.
But even his beautiful wife and luxurious dwelling could not disguise the fact that he remained the Caliph’s prisoner, forced to work against his will on a terrible weapon of war. Every time he saw the dusky, exotic features of Auda, he could think only of Caroline, their stolen moments of love aboard the ship home from Africa, and in her own bedchambers on his last night before departing Paris by train to the Crimean front.
Every day, he saw Auda’s caring in her deep-brown eyes, and he felt sorry for her situation as well as his. His own guilt and longing for Caroline had made him avoid this unwanted young woman for many weeks, but Auda was patient, and loving. The only bright flower in this miserable place.
Caliph Robur would never let them leave Rurapente.
With his European comrades, Nemo had developed a plan for the sub-marine boat. In a written list to Robur, he proposed a long series of tests to determine the best method for building an underwater war vessel. Together, the men set to work, clinging to their only hope of freedom.
The boat-builder Cyrus Harding assisted with the overall concepts of a water-tight submerged boat based on what Nemo remembered of Robert Fulton’s design. The metallurgist Liedenbrock experimented with alloys to create a strong but light material for plating the hull of the vessel. Conseil strove to develop ways to contain atmospheres inside the craft, compressing air and mixing blends of oxygen and nitrogen to produce the best breathing gas for underwater explorers.
Other engineers expanded upon Nemo’s childhood idea of enclosing one’s head in a breathing sphere so as to allow a man to walk beneath the sea. Glassmakers, hydraulic engineers, and mechanics all pitched in, resigned to their fates as the years passed.
The facilities and resources of Rurapente gave them everything they requested, any necessary supplies or materials. Throughout the work, Caliph Robur scrutinized their progress, riding about on his dark stallion and keeping a watch on the smoke belching from the smelters and glass blowers’ huts. He demanded regular reports, and Nemo had long ago given up any pretense of concocting exaggerations. He let the intense man see for himself how much progress his captive experts were making.
After six months of satisfactory work, Robur had brought in a group of women and assigned them as wives to the European engineers. He seemed intent on making his pet scientists settle down and forget their former lives. Under the caliph’s watchful eye, Nemo knew they might remain trapped here in this hidden city for years. Though he pretended to cooperate, at night Nemo seethed over his stolen life, and his lost Caroline. . . .
The lovely Auda was one of twenty daughters sired