“Maybe we shouldn’t even be down here,” said Austin Tretower, as he looked around the gloomy basement. “Are you sure it’s okay with your parents?”

“Of course it’s okay with them,” replied girl inventor Astrid Maxxim. “We just need to carry this crate upstairs. That’s why I called the three of you.”

Austin looked at the dusty wooden container labeled Antarctic Expedition 1928.

“This is just about the point in the conversation when The Thing explodes from the box and eats our faces.”

“There’s rope handle on each side,” Astrid pointed out. “You and I will take the sides. Toby can take the top end and Valerie the bottom. Then we’ll just carry it right up the stairs.”

The four teenagers looked at one another, nodded in agreement, and then each took their respective handle and lifted. Five minutes later, they were at the top of the stairs and set the crate down on the floor of the Maxxim family room.

Astrid Maxxim was five foot five and startlingly cute. Her strawberry blond hair was cut to shoulder length, setting off her very large blue eyes. Astrid’s friend Austin was a sandy-haired boy who seemed thoroughly average in just about every way. He had only recently moved to Maxxim City, but was already a part of Astrid’s close circle of friends. The third member of the group was Toby Bundersmith. Toby had lived next door to Astrid since she was born and embodied, at least in Astrid’s opinion, everything good about a boy. He was tall and handsome, with brown bangs cut just above his hazel eyes. Finally there was Valerie. Valerie was a robot copy of a fourteen year old girl, built by Astrid earlier that year and programmed with the memories of Astrid’s long-time friend Valerie Diaz. Robot Valerie originally had bright silver skin, but after returning from Hawaii, Astrid had covered it with a bluish metallic polycarbonate so that she would be more water resistant. Thanks to another recent upgrade, she also had bright blue shoulder length hair. She was just a bit shorter than Astrid.

“What’s in that dusty old thing anyway?” asked Valerie’s flesh-and-blood twin from where she sat on the couch, with her feet curled up under her. Though she shared the robot’s features, her raven hair and flashing brown eyes made it only too clear that she was entirely human. “It’s not The Thing, is it?”

“See, I’m not the only one,” said Austin.

“You know Valerie could have carried that upstairs all by herself. She’s very strong.”

“I don’t want to go down in that basement by myself,” said Robot Valerie. “It’s spooky.”

“All three of you are just being silly,” said Astrid. “Now, let’s get this open and you’ll see that there’s nothing in there. Well, there will be something, but not The Thing.”

A rusty hasp, with an ancient padlock in it, held down the lid of the box. The wood was so old however that the hasp and the hinges on the opposite side all pulled loose. Toby helped Astrid lift the lid and set it to the side. Nestled neatly within the box were four stacks of manilla file folders.

“Oh great,” said Austin. “It’s worse than The Thing. It’s homework.”

A little more than an hour later, Astrid and Denise were standing near the driveway as Dr. Feuillée arrived in a long black car. She rushed to shake the oceanographer’s hand as he stepped out.

“Welcome to Hawaii.”

“Thank you, Astrid. It is absolutely lovely here. May I introduce you to my daughter Océane?”

A girl about Astrid’s age stepped out behind him. She was about an inch taller than Astrid and almost as thin as Denise. Her pleasant face was framed in short black hair, cut in a cute little wedge. She stuck her hand toward Astrid, who shook it.

“Bonjour.”

“Oh-say-AHN.” Astrid rolled the unfamiliar name on her tongue. “I’m very glad to meet you. I didn’t know you had a daughter, Dr. Feuillée, but I’m not surprised you named her after the ocean.”

“It is a fairly common name in France,” he replied.

“J’aimerais prendre si un hoverbike,” said Océane.

“L’anglais, s’il vous plait,” Dr. Feuillée told his daughter. “She so wants to ride a hoverbike,” he said.

“I wish I had brought mine,” said Astrid. “Maybe you could swing by Maxxim City on the way home and try one out.”

“This is wonderful idea,” said Océane.

“Let me help you with your bags,” said the girl inventor. “You’re staying in Gardenia House with us.”

Astrid took one bag and Denise took the other, leading the way to the house where Mrs. Maxxim met them. After helping to get the Feuillées settled in their rooms, Astrid was able to spend an hour getting to know the daughter of the famous oceanographer. She found Océane to be a sweet and very smart girl, who enjoyed listening to popular music and playing soccer, or as she called it, football. She was also fascinated by hoverbikes, and asked Astrid and Denise dozens of questions about them. She was in fact, still asking questions when a familiar person stepped into the room.

“I’m home,” called Toby from the doorway.

Astrid was so excited that she was across the room and wrapping Toby in a fierce embrace before anyone could blink.

“Hey, I’ve only been gone since yesterday.” He laughed, but his face flushed with embarrassment.

“We were just worried about you,” said Denise, hugging him from the other side. Astrid was grateful for her friend’s words, because at that moment she didn’t think that she could speak.

Astrid’s mother served lunch to everyone, including Toby’s father who had arrived almost unnoticed with him. Then they all piled into one of the vans and were driven over the hill and across the bridge to dock, where they climbed into a large motorboat and headed out into Kaneohe Bay.

It wasn’t long before they could see the Toronto, and standing high up on its deck, Austin and Christopher. Next to the ship was a large floating platform with a square building right in the center of it.

“That’s the elevator down to the undersea dome,” explained Astrid.

“How do you account for high and low tide?” asked Dr. Feuillée.

“The elevator is in a single fixed position, but the platform floats. The two are connected by a set of constantly adjusting steps. At any time, you may have to go up or down the stairs to get into the elevator, depending upon whether it is high or low tide.”

“Very ingenious,” said Feuillée.

“That’s our Astrid,” said Toby.

The Hawaiian waters were crystal clear and even at a hundred feet below the surface visibility was excellent. Astrid looked down at the undersea dome, suspended on massive cables from the ship above, as she dove her mini-sub in a sweeping downward spiral. She noticed a shadow passing her just as the radio popped to life.

“Astrid!” called Toby. “Look up.”

The girl inventor leaned forward and looked up through the Plexiglas canopy of the mini-sub, to see the massive form of a humpback whale swimming above her. The great beast paused for a moment and rolled over onto its side as though giving the strange man-made devices a good once-over, and then with a kick of its great tale, it swam away.

“That makes you feel tiny, doesn’t it?” said Toby.

“It sure does. I didn’t expect to see any humpbacks. Their season is just about done.”

They continued descending until both mini-subs reached the bottom edges of the dome, which thanks to preplaced guide wires, now rested snuggly in place on its foundation. Astrid flipped on the external spotlight, even though at this depth it was still just light enough to see. Using the manipulator arms, she withdrew a large nut from a container on the foundation and threaded it onto a massive bolt sticking up from the concrete through a hole in the dome’s titanium frame. She did this twice more and then maneuvered to the next attachment point. Toby did the same thing, starting on the far side of the dome, and between them they connected all twelve points.

“This thing is huge,” said Toby over the radio.

“It does look pretty giant down here, at least from the outside. I’m wondering how big it’s going to seem from the inside.”

“All right. Shall we go on up?”

“Let’s.”

They began spiraling upward, their propellers leaving a double helix of bubbles in their wake. Halfway to the surface, a shadow passed overhead, and Astrid looked up expecting to see their humpback whale once again. It wasn’t the whale though. It was another submarine. This craft was not a huge vessel like a US Navy sub, but it wasn’t a small one man sub like Astrid’s either. It was about fifty feet long, longer than the humpback, but not quite as big around. It was painted flat black, making it difficult for anyone on the surface to see it. Suddenly as she watched, the unknown submarine tilted its bow down.

“What is that guy doing?” she said aloud.

“What was that, Astrid?” called Toby.

“Toby! Look out!”

She realized what the strange submarine was doing, but it was too late to do anything about it. The dark vessel’s turn had sent it on a collision course with Toby’s mini-sub. Astrid could hear the loud crunch as the nose of the black undersea boat smashed into the little yellow vehicle. The mini-sub flipped over as a huge cloud of bubbles burst from it and shot toward the surface.

On a massive dockside platform just outside of the Marine Air Station, several large trucks were being unloaded. Cranes lifted heavily wrapped pallets out over the water. Here the great base portion of the undersea dome floated with the aid of giant inflatable pods. Dozens of workmen on the floating base, unpacked triangular panes of transparent Astridium, fitting them together like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Others constructed an internal frame that would hold the three floors in place. Paige Liebowitz carefully oversaw the operation.

“Is everything going okay?” asked Astrid, running up to her.

“Everything is on schedule,” the wavy-haired woman replied. “We should have the floors constructed this morning and the dome assembled by this afternoon. Then tomorrow we can float it out to the site. The foundation has already been laid using hydraulic cement just north of the reef at a depth of 175 feet. So we just sink it down and bolt it in place. While that’s going on, the workmen here can assemble the Astridium elevator.”

“It’s going to have an elevator?” asked Mr. Diaz, from behind Astrid.

“Sure,” she said, turning around. “That way people can go back and forth from the surface without having to scuba dive. It also serves as an airlock, since the dome will be kept at a pressure of one atmosphere inside.”

“I thought it was going to be down deeper,” said Mr. Brown.

“The Astridium can withstand the pressure up to a depth of 300 feet,” explained Astrid. “I chose 175 feet for two reasons, one being safely. This is a test after all. Plus, I want the people in the dome to be able to see without a lot of external lighting. At 300 feet, it gets pretty dark.”

“We have a construction ship coming on site tomorrow. It has cables to guide the dome down, and a crane to lower the elevator shaft,” explained Paige. “We’ll attach it to the dome and then pump out the water.”

“What’s in all those crates?” Mr. Diaz asked, pointing to a truck just pulling up.

“Equipment for inside and furniture,” replied Astrid.

“And that is my cue,” said Mr. Brown. “I’ve got to make sure that my chairs and lounges are set up properly.”

“Martin and I are going to roll up our sleeves and do some manual labor,” said Mr. Harris, as he and Toby’s father joined the workmen assembling the dome.

“Sound like fun,” said Dr. Maxxim.

Over the next several hours, Astrid watched as her dome slowly took shape, rising first to form a ring and then growing up until it became a geodesic dome—a half sphere fifty feet tall and one hundred feet in diameter. She moved from spot to spot around the dome, checking the Astridium panes and double-checking the fastenings. The three scientist/engineers who had taken on jobs as workmen had a great time, but Astrid was sure that they had actually increased the construction time by at least an hour. Mr. Brown however had successfully loaded all the furniture and equipment on board, and had overseen the installation of all the vital mechanisms.

“I’m starving,” said Dr. Maxxim, exiting out of the open emergency airlock along with Mr. Harris and Mr. Bundersmith, all three of them looking exhausted and happy.

Mr. Diaz, who had been working with a liaison from the Marine Corps all morning, guided them toward the van.

“I’m told there’s a pizza shop right around the corner,” he said.

“Pizza doesn’t sound very Hawaiian,” said Mr. Harris.

“Hawaiian Pizza,” replied Mr. Diaz.

The music thumped so loudly as they walked into Epicenter, that Astrid thought she could feel her internal organs bouncing around. The vast nightclub was filled with hundreds of teen-aged boys and girls, bouncing up and down to the throbbing beat. Strobe lights inside mimicked the spotlights outside. A few small tables and chairs sat around the perimeter of the dancers and a vast bar stretched across the back of the room, right below a metal catwalk which was just as full of twisting teens as was the dance floor.

“Come on!” shouted Penelope over the din. “Let’s dance.”

She grabbed Astrid’s hand and pulled her along through the gyrating crowd to the center of the club. Turning to face her niece, she threw her arms over her head and tossed her black hair, dancing in perfect time with the now louder-than-ever music. Astrid copied her as best she could.

“I don’t usually dance with girls!” Astrid shouted to make herself heard.

“What?” shouted back Penelope.

“You’re a great dancer!”

“What?”

Astrid gave up trying to communicate and waited until the space between songs to talk. There was no space between songs though. The throbbing beat continued on right into a different track—this one the girl inventor recognized from her own MX-360 favorites list. She kept dancing and by the end of the second song, began to feel well-exercised. Though the thumping baseline continued, the next song was slightly less loud.

“I don’t usually dance with girls!” Astrid repeated.

She was loud enough this time that several other dancers around her laughed.

“I’m just chumming the waters,” said Penelope. “Look around. You have plenty of boys waiting to dance with you.”

The young inventor glanced around and sure enough, there were half a dozen boys forming a circle around her.

“How do I pick one to dance with?” she asked, but Penelope was already moving away through the crowd. A tall, dark-haired boy took her place as another song thrummed into existence. Without a word, he started dancing. Astrid followed along.

She couldn’t have said how long she had been dancing, but after seven or eight dance partners, Astrid was exhausted and dripping with perspiration. She waved off a disappointed-looking and rather short boy with blond hair and started through the crowd toward the bar. The counter was two or three patrons thick all along its extent. Apparently a lot of others had the same idea that she did. Reaching forward, she waved for one of the servers.

“Here, have a drink,” said a voice right beside her.

Astrid turned and found herself nose to nose with one of the boys she had danced with. He was handsome and about sixteen years old, with brown hair and green eyes. He pushed a tall glass with a red straw toward her.

“No thanks.”

“They don’t serve alcohol here,” he said. “All the drinks are just soda.”

“I don’t know you though,” said Astrid. “I don’t take drinks from anyone I don’t know.”

“Sorry,” she called to him, as he turned with a frown and melted into the crowd.