drink is twenty lashes, which Shiro administers quite adroitly. In addition to our supplies, we look to the sea for sustenance. Those are dolphins’ livers in that ‘pork’ ragout you are devouring, and that which you assume to be fruit preserves is derived from sea anemones.” Land stopped spreading the preserves on his bread and looked at it with horror.
“Your vessel is a marvel, Captain,” Verne said. “I have a thousand questions to ask of you.”
“I have a few questions myself,” said Lucas.
“Yours shall have to wait, Mr. Priest,” said Drakov. “Mr. Verne, kindly ask anything you wish.” Verne was flustered. “I don’t know where to start! I want to know everything!”
“And so you shall,” said Drakov. “This submarine is constructed of titanium, with double hulls, and it displaces almost twenty thousand-tons. It is some five hundred sixty feet long and its hull diameter is forty-two feet. It is capable of attaining speeds over sixty knots.”
“Impossible!” said Land.
“I assure you, Mr. Land, it is not only possible, it is effortless,” said Drakov. “We submerge by means of employing water as ballast, held in tanks between the hulls. Wings or diving planes, such as those you saw on the sail, enable us to dive or to ascend. Two rudders, one above the propellers, one below, control direction. We are equipped with two periscopes which can be raised when near the surface to allow us to observe without being seen and we are capable of going more than four hundred thousand miles without refueling, which would be sixteen trips around the equator.”
“How can that be?” said Verne. “How can you maintain an air supply allowing a trip of such duration? What manner of propulsion could achieve such a feat?”
“The
Nautilus
manufactures its own oxygen from seawater,” Drakov said. “Unwanted gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are disposed of overboard. As for our propulsion, Mr. Verne, our engines are steam turbines driven by the power of the universe, a power humanity will not discover in this century.”
“I’ve not heard such nonsense in my life,” said Land.
“Then how do you explain where you find yourself, Mr. Land?” said Drakov.
“What is this power of the universe?” said Verne. He had forgotten his meal.
“It is called nuclear fission, Mr. Verne,” said Drakov. “The sun is powered by a nuclear reaction process called fusion. Nuclear fusion powers stars. Nuclear fission is similar, in a manner of speaking. It is the process by which the atom is split.”
“But . . . that’s contrary to the laws of physics!” Verne said. “There is no power on earth which can split the atom!”
“Say rather that such power has not been discovered in your time,” said Drakov. “Even the men whose work led to the discovery believed as you do. Einstein, Planck, Bohr, Fermi, even they were not sure it was possible. Or, should I say, none of them
will be
sure it is possible? For that time has not yet come. Please, Mr. Verne, do eat. Your food is growing cold.” Verne started to pick at his food. His hand was shaking. For Land, it was all incomprehensible. For Lucas, Finn and Andre, it was all familiar, yet frightening. They had become part of a temporal contamination which seemed to be beyond their ability to adjust. They could only sit and listen in mute fascination as a man born in the 19th century, but educated in the 27th, explained the concept of nuclear energy to an author who had foreseen—or would he foresee as a result of what was now happening?—the very vessel they now sailed in beneath the sea.
“Mr. Verne,” said Drakov, “you are a man of imagination to whom science is an avocation. Perhaps you will better understand when I explain to you how this discovery came about. Within a few short years, within your own lifetime, Mr. Verne, the first of two discoveries which will change the world will be made. On the eighth of November, in 1895, at the
“Your vessel is a marvel, Captain,” Verne said. “I have a thousand questions to ask of you.”
“I have a few questions myself,” said Lucas.
“Yours shall have to wait, Mr. Priest,” said Drakov. “Mr. Verne, kindly ask anything you wish.” Verne was flustered. “I don’t know where to start! I want to know everything!”
“And so you shall,” said Drakov. “This submarine is constructed of titanium, with double hulls, and it displaces almost twenty thousand-tons. It is some five hundred sixty feet long and its hull diameter is forty-two feet. It is capable of attaining speeds over sixty knots.”
“Impossible!” said Land.
“I assure you, Mr. Land, it is not only possible, it is effortless,” said Drakov. “We submerge by means of employing water as ballast, held in tanks between the hulls. Wings or diving planes, such as those you saw on the sail, enable us to dive or to ascend. Two rudders, one above the propellers, one below, control direction. We are equipped with two periscopes which can be raised when near the surface to allow us to observe without being seen and we are capable of going more than four hundred thousand miles without refueling, which would be sixteen trips around the equator.”
“How can that be?” said Verne. “How can you maintain an air supply allowing a trip of such duration? What manner of propulsion could achieve such a feat?”
“The
Nautilus
manufactures its own oxygen from seawater,” Drakov said. “Unwanted gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are disposed of overboard. As for our propulsion, Mr. Verne, our engines are steam turbines driven by the power of the universe, a power humanity will not discover in this century.”
“I’ve not heard such nonsense in my life,” said Land.
“Then how do you explain where you find yourself, Mr. Land?” said Drakov.
“What is this power of the universe?” said Verne. He had forgotten his meal.
“It is called nuclear fission, Mr. Verne,” said Drakov. “The sun is powered by a nuclear reaction process called fusion. Nuclear fusion powers stars. Nuclear fission is similar, in a manner of speaking. It is the process by which the atom is split.”
“But . . . that’s contrary to the laws of physics!” Verne said. “There is no power on earth which can split the atom!”
“Say rather that such power has not been discovered in your time,” said Drakov. “Even the men whose work led to the discovery believed as you do. Einstein, Planck, Bohr, Fermi, even they were not sure it was possible. Or, should I say, none of them
will be
sure it is possible? For that time has not yet come. Please, Mr. Verne, do eat. Your food is growing cold.” Verne started to pick at his food. His hand was shaking. For Land, it was all incomprehensible. For Lucas, Finn and Andre, it was all familiar, yet frightening. They had become part of a temporal contamination which seemed to be beyond their ability to adjust. They could only sit and listen in mute fascination as a man born in the 19th century, but educated in the 27th, explained the concept of nuclear energy to an author who had foreseen—or would he foresee as a result of what was now happening?—the very vessel they now sailed in beneath the sea.
“Mr. Verne,” said Drakov, “you are a man of imagination to whom science is an avocation. Perhaps you will better understand when I explain to you how this discovery came about. Within a few short years, within your own lifetime, Mr. Verne, the first of two discoveries which will change the world will be made. On the eighth of November, in 1895, at the
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