Lost Memories (Forbidden Romance) Read online

  Leon sighed, and rolled his eyes. He had no intention of opening up to the man about anything. His dad was dead, and he was on his way to comfort his step mom, and to help her through it. And none of it was anyone’s business but his.

  “Why don’t you focus on doing your job?” asked Leon. He shot the man a look that he had given many times before throughout his life.

  “Hey, fuck you kid!” yelled the man. “You better hold your tongue if you-“

  “Charles, relax,” said the boat’s captain from the helm. “Just let him be.”

  Leon barely even registered any of the exchange. At that moment, it was hard for him to think about anything, be it the weather, or his eventual destination, or all of the liquor he had drank the night before in a desperate attempt to calm his mind and forget everything that had happened.

  His father was, or had been, Max Anderson, and he was now dead. Leon had heard the news about a week ago, in a brief and concise email from his step mom, Julia. Dead of a heart attack at the age of 45, it had been almost unbelievable when he’d first read it. But Julia didn’t lie about anything, and he could tell from the brevity of the message just how badly she was hurting.

  A phone call would be nice, but as far as he knew, they didn’t have any down below, just a basic internet connection which they all shared, and which left much to be desired in bandwidth capacity. It probably meant that their beverage selection would also be limited, Leon realized. He immediately felt bad for having such a base and simple concern take the forefront of his mind.

  The relationship between Leon and his father had never been perfect. The elder Anderson had remarried almost immediately after the death of Leon’s mother when he was 12, and it had been hard for him to adjust to having Julia as a parent, though she had always tried her best.

  Three years ago, Leon had been eager to get out of the house and off to college. It had been less to do with his academic pursuits and more to do with his frustration towards his family. Julia wanted to be his mom, but she had entered Leon’s life at a time where he was just beginning to become a man. His relationship with her had never been straightforward, and the complexities concerning the way he saw her, and the way he felt towards her, were a major motivating factor in his departure.

  The speed boat seemed to hit bumpier water, and Leon had to grip the edge of the hull in order to keep himself steady. He looked over at the captain and saw the man sporting a wild grin, the type that only the saltiest of seadogs can pull off effectively.

  “We’re almost there,” he said to Leon. “You’re arriving pretty late on the scene, aren’t you? The rest of them have already been down there for a month, and the last shipment for the year is the one you’re headed down on.”

  “It’s a complicated situation,” said Leon. This much was true. Julia had told him about how difficult it was to convince the Blue Vision Company upper management to allow him to come down, even given the extenuating circumstances. As the submersible he’d be getting transport from became visible on the horizon, he began to better understand exactly why that was.

  It looked like something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie. The only thing he could compare it to in his mind was a giant military submarine, but that wasn’t quite right. The shape of the thing was similar to one of the old airships that predated planes, except it had several large spheres attached to the side of it, and one huge one that seemed to trail a short distance behind.

  “I hope you have a really good reason for heading down to that dome, kid,” said the captain. “They say on the news that a couple of the scientists are already starting to lose it.”

  Leon nodded to the man slowly. He had heard the same reports, and had gotten emails from his mom and his dad, while he was still alive, fleshing out the details behind them. While the situation was not quite as sensational as the media liked to portray it, not everything was going to plan in the undersea outpost.

  Project Cobalt, as it was called, was an experimental sustainable living and science station in the form of a gigantic dome, pressurized to regular atmospheric conditions a kilometer below the surface of the ocean. About 100 people, mostly women aside from a few male scientists and undersea excavators, were living within it, and would continue to do so for a 10 month period.

  The captain steered the speedboat over to a small loading platform on the side of the submersible. There was a crewman standing on the edge of it, and the captain threw him a line as they approached. The boat was tethered close to the platform, and Leon climbed up to it, feeling his feet adjust to the much more stable movement of the large submersible.

  “You are Leon Anderson, right?” asked the crewman. Leon nodded. “Finally, you’re over an hour late. We can’t exactly wait all day for you, kid.”

  ”Well, I guess you’re lucky that you don’t have to, then,” he replied. The captain turned the speedboat away from the larger craft after saying his goodbyes, and Leon watched him zip off into the distance.

  There was only blue on the horizon, along with a sun that was slowly beginning to set in the sky. Leon took a moment to take in the view, knowing that it would have to last him a while. It felt like he was getting ready to head off to another world, and in a practical sense, he almost was.

  “Come on, buddy,” said the crewman. “The pilot is waiting inside. We have to get moving.”

  Leon nodded, and then stepped through the hatch that the man was gesturing towards. The submersible was surprisingly cramped and claustrophobic for a vehicle that looked so large from the outside.

  “It’s mostly just a cargo transport vessel, sorry about that,” said the crewman, as if reading his mind.

  “It’s fine,” said Leon. “About how long will it take to drop down to Project Cobalt?”

  “A couple of hours,” said the crewman. “We have to go slow, this thing usually doesn’t carry this many tons of supplies.”

  Leon closed the door behind him, and twisted the handle until a resounding click let him know that it had locked into place. The crewman walked forward, and he followed him into the main section of the transport.

  He was expecting it to look more like a submarine on the inside. It did have a good amount in common with one, but overall, the interior decorators seemed to have had employed a much more ergonomic design philosophy. There was a long, bus like corridor with lots of cozy looking seats. He settled into the one closest through the door that opened into the cockpit, feeling very odd about being the only passenger on the ship.

  “We’ll be getting underway in just a moment,” said the crewman. “Feel free to come up to the front if you want to watch through the feed of the cameras.

  Leon nodded. After a couple of minutes, the ship began to shake and creak. A loud claxon was sounding from somewhere above him, and in his mind it was almost interpreted as though it was a bell in a clock tower, announcing the beginning of a new day.

  CHAPTER 2

  Leon headed to the front of the ship, and found the crewman staring at what looked like a screen displaying the ocean outside the ship. There was also a pilot, or a captain, Leon couldn’t tell which, sitting in a chair staring at a complicated array of monitors and controls.

  It seemed like an extravagant amount of effort to put into getting him and a couple of tons of supplies down to the ocean floor. Leon had been familiar with the assets of his parent’s company for all of his childhood and adult life, but he had never seen them in action so directly.

  “This ship is still a prototype,” said the crewman. “A working one, but a prototype, none the less.”

  “How exactly is this thing going to dock with the dome?” asked Leon. He’d been thinking about it since he’d first laid eyes on the behemoth submersible.

  “Did you ever watch any science fictions movies when you were a kid? It’s a lot like that, except in high pressure instead of low pressure.”

  Leon turned his attention towards one of the screens. It almost seemed more like a window than a piece of technology.
Fish could be seen racing by the camera in massive schools, and the water had a bluish green hue to it that was slowly fading into darkness as the descended.

  Leon looked over his shoulder, and realized that there was another screen in back of him that was focused on the surface. It took him a second to recognize a small splotch of circular color in the image as the sun, reduced to nothing more than a spot in the sky.

  “It’s a different world down here, buddy,” said the crewman. “If you look into that one, you can see the dome coming into view.”

  He pointed towards another monitor. Leon could see what looked like a ring of lights in it, with half of a sphere pushing out from the center.

  “It looks so…unnatural,” he said. “I don’t know, I guess I expected it to be a little more…mundane.”

  “Yeah, it’s tough. Let me tell you, I’m glad I don’t live down there. I hope you know what you’re getting in for, kid.”

  Leon didn’t say anything. He had never been the type of guy to bemoan his own circumstances, and he wasn’t about to start right then. What he really found himself being suddenly concerned with was Julia, and her emotional state. He realized that he hadn’t even considered what had happened to his father’s body. The ship seemed to be descending gradually and deliberately, as if to give him plenty of time to get himself in the right mindset for what was to come.

  Slowly but surely the domed city began to come into view. The light from the surface was dim, and almost nonexistent. The ring of lights that he had seen before appeared to be the main illumination for the translucent structure, which was composed of pieces that interlocked into a geodesic dome shape. Several support structures at the very bottom seemed to serve as both a base and as entrances and exits.

  The captain piloted the submersible into a close docking position with the dome, and let it settle down to the ocean floor. Leon watched on one of the screens as tube extended from the side of the ship and locked into a hatch on one of the entrances.

  It took several minutes, and it was a surprisingly loud process, but a light flashing on one of the main monitors and a chiming noise similar to an elevator door signal let him know that the connection was complete. The pilot in the front stood up from his chair, and Leon walked out of the front cabin with the two men.

  “Alright, we’ve reached our destination,” said the crewman.

  “Great, thank you,” replied Leon. He felt strangely ambivalent as he walked towards the main exit hatch.

  “We’ll spend the rest of today unloading the supplies, and then we’re heading back up,” said the pilot. “You’ll be here for the next 9 months, kid. I hope you’re a fan of the scenery.”

  Leon wasn’t really listening. He waited for the crewmen to unlock the hatch and open it, and then he stepped through it into the connecting tube, ahead of the men.

  The surface of the hatch on the other side had a couple of small, flat sea barnacles attached to it. It began to click as Leon stood in front of it, and after a moment it slowly began to turn, rolling to the side and revealing a tiny, antiseptic white behind it. He walked into it, and immediately heard a voice speaking from a soundbox on the wall.

  “Welcome to Project Cobalt, please take a seat in one of the chairs provided while the entry guidelines and criteria are explained.”

  The voice was female, and clearly artificial. Leon followed its directions as it began listing off the rules of the dome, most of which he had already expected. The voice mentioned that the dome was a no smoking, and he found himself wondering if he’d be able to find a decent beer with in the circular confines of the underwater station.

  “Please enjoy your stay aboard Project Cobalt. Any further questions may be directed to the station manager on site.”

  The door in back of them closed, and then the one leading to the interior of the dome slowly began to open. Leon could see people standing directly on the other side of it, ready to greet him and the crew of the ship. His heart jumped a beat when he realized that Julia was among them.

  She smiled at him, and a wave of unwanted emotion washed over Leon. The last time he had seen her had been right before he’d moved away from home 4 years ago, shortly after his 18th birthday. He had not been kind to either of his parents in the way he had left, and to see Julia’s soft, beautiful face and accepting, motherly eyes, made all of the memories come back in a flood.

  “Leon…” she said to him as he walked forward. “It’s been…so long.”

  “Mom, I’m sorry,” he replied. “I…I’m so sorry.”

  There were a couple of other people waiting outside the entrance, and most of them moved by him to begin unloading the ship. Leon’s mom was wearing what appeared to be standard issue for the science team women, a tight blue t-shirt that clung nicely to her large breasts, thin leggings, and a medium length white overcoat.

  He stepped forward, and Julia reached out with her arms to wrap him into a hug. Leon had been torn on accepting her affection back when they had lived under the same roof, but he forced himself to reciprocate the gesture, and pulled her against him. She was warm, and her petite body felt strangely vulnerable pushed up on his chest.

  “Thank you for coming, sweetie,” she whispered. “Your father…it’s been so tough, without him around.”

  “I’m so sorry, mom,” he said. “I just can’t believe it. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Not now. We’ll talk about that later.” Julia pulled a couple inches back and stared into his eyes. Leon could see her pain and her strength, but something else was layered on top of it, something that looked like love. Julia leaned in and surprised him with a kiss, not on the cheek as she had so many times before during his upbringing, but on his lips.

  Hot fire seemed to spread through his body as their mouths met. Julia ran her hands up his side, and Leon felt his body responding in a way that he was ashamed of. He ran his hand through her hair, and after a moment, managed to summon up the will he needed to break from the embrace.

  “I’m sorry, honey,” said Julia. “I’m just so glad to see you.”

  “It’s fine, mom, I understand,” he replied. He looked up and took around the dome, letting his eyes feast on the sight of it for the first time as a way from distracting himself from the guilty arousal his body had been stricken with.

  What he saw seemed foreign to his eyes, as though he had touched down on a new, alien landscape. The ground was a mixture of sand and clay, pale white, almost as if the color had been bleached away. It felt strangely stiff against his feet, absent of the gentle give and sink of the regular earthen surfaces he was used to.

  The dome wrapped around the science station like a physical horizon. The ring of lights he had seen on the way down were suspended in the water outside and above, and had the effect of shining light through the translucent composite shell material with a teal tint, with flowing shadows and patterns from the movement of the water and sea life being cast across the ground.

  All of this made it seem as though the tiny enclosed area was all that existed, a little island of life and civilization within a broad expanse of dark nothingness. If he had awoken there without any prior knowledge, Leon was sure that he would have thought that his body had passed into another realm, where things worked very differently and the rules of existence were fundamentally altered. He realized that for the most part, those assertions were not all that far from the truth.

  “Welcome to Project Cobalt,” said Julia.

  CHAPTER 3

  Leon followed Julia as they made their way into the area. There was a gentle hum coming from a machine installed above the entranceway he had come out through, and he assumed that it was either an air recycler or dehumidifier.

  “Let me take you on a tour,” said Julia. “It won’t take long. This dome is more of a pilot project than the finished product.”

  Leon had never seen anything quite like it. The shell of the dome stretched out high overhead, and he could see that the sides of it created a smooth seal
with the base of the ground.

  “What happens in the event of an earthquake?” he asked.

  “The dome is actually a complete sphere,” replied Julia. “It was set into a hole dug out by automated submersibles. There’s only a thin layer of ocean sand and clay on the ground, underneath that we have storage space and thermal generators.”

  She led him towards a large, industrial looking building in the center of the area. Overall, the dome was no more than maybe a kilometer across, maybe even less. Leon found himself thinking intently about the logistics of such a living situation. Julia seemed to pick up on his concern just from the expression on his face.

  “It’s not bad here,” she said. “Your father…your father and I really enjoyed it.”

  “I’m sorry Julia,” he said. “I don’t mean to stir up any bad emotions, but I have to know…dad’s body, is it…?”

  It was hard for him to even get the words out. Julia stopped and turned back towards him. He could see pain on her face, but along with it, there was something else.

  “I…I had him cremated. I was hoping you could scatter his ashes, if you wanted.” Julia pushed a strand of hair out of her face and looked deep into Leon’s eyes. “We weren’t that close, in the last few months. In the last few years, even. Leon, your father’s death hurt me, it hurt a lot…but so did what came before it.”

  He didn’t know what to say in reply to that. Instead, he just looked up at the lights above, outside of the dome. The lack of wind on the inside reminded him of the artificial nature of the set up.

  “It’s okay, mom,” he said, not knowing what else to say. Julia smiled, as though that was all she had needed, and rubbed his shoulder.

  “Come on, I want you to see the science station,” she said.

  The main building looked a little like a mixture between an observation outpost and a factory. Julia led him in through the main door, which was made of polished aluminum. Inside, about a dozen scientists wearing similar outfits to her own were hard at work.