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Concerned, Nemo took the bouquet from her trembling hand -- perhaps she was afraid for him on this trial journey? But Auda had not shown such fear on his other test voyages. Why now?

Impatient, Robur gestured for him to climb through the hatch into the vessel, then rapidly followed, scrambling down the metal rungs. The hatch clanged shut with a sound like a coffin lid closing.

The Nautilus’s front chamber consisted of a raised bridge deck made of anodized metal plates. Corrugated steel steps dropped down to the main control deck where workers manned the apparatus. Wide plate-glass portholes showed a forward view, as if through the eyes of a fish; side windows also looked out upon the undersea world.

Within the main body of the sub-marine boat, private cabins for Nemo and the crew members lined the hull. A large sitting room and salon -- which Robur intended to use as his throne room -- filled the central section of the Nautilus. On the lower deck were supply closets and a dressing room complete with undersea suits and brass helmets, as well as a double-lock door to allow egress beneath the water. The engine room, with propulsion screws and pounding pistons, was crowded into the narrow aft chambers.

Nemo deposited Auda’s flowers on the table in his cabin and hurried back to complete preparations for submerging. By now, his European crew was well-practiced, and he merely gave the orders to reassure them. He took his formal place at the bridge controls. Robur stood next to him, domineering, as if he meant to take the helm as soon as he had observed Nemo’s piloting skills.

The sub-marine’s engines started. Electricity pulsed through the motors; the crew tested the rudders. Finally, the ballast tanks were opened as the Nautilus drifted free of the dock.

The metal deck hummed beneath them. Solid and sturdy, the undersea vessel showed no distress as water filled the tanks, and the ocean rose above the porthole windows until it swallowed the ridged upper hull. The Nautilus sank, and then moved forward.

Away from direct sunlight, the bridge deck darkened. “Lights,” Nemo said. Brilliant cones of white illumination stabbed into the water as they proceeded through the mouth of the cove into the Mediterranean.

Robur gasped with childlike glee at the new world beyond the thick portholes. He saw confused fish swimming about, rocky outcroppings far below on the ocean bed, waving tendrils of seaweed.

“Marvelous, Engineer.” Robur startled him by clapping a firm hand on Nemo’s shoulder. “My ambitious dream has come true.”

Nemo considered guiding them down the Turkish coast to where they would find the rusted wreckage of the gigantic cannon Columbiad -- just to show the caliph evidence of his hubris and his technological folly.

“You need never have doubted us,” he answered, trying hard to keep the vindictive tone out of his voice. The round, terrified face of slain Conseil swam in front of him.

The caliph and two guards observed Nemo closely, studying the man’s every movement to learn how to pilot the Nautilus. Nemo wondered how soon the caliph would consider his crew obsolete -- and what Robur would do to them then.

They traveled all day, covering many leagues under the sea faster than any sailing ship. Propelled by the Nautilus’s powerful engines and ignoring the vagaries of wind or water currents, they could choose their own direction.

The muscular guards eventually relaxed. After all, where could Nemo and his men go? They could never escape. Robur soon insisted that he take the helm on his own, giving Nemo no choice but to relinquish command. He pretended to do so willingly, feigning weariness. “I’ll retire for a while and rest, Caliph.”

In his cabin Nemo sat down, his thoughts in a turmoil. He stared at the bouquet Auda had insisted on giving him. He smiled at the thought of his wife and their boy Jules, fastening on the one shred of pleasure remaining to him. Although he had never surrendered the place in his heart he would always hold for Caroline, his first love, he adored Auda