Pepperland - a Beatles fanfiction

Chapter 15: Sea of Science

"I'm loving this." Said Finn "We have two control panels... Thelma and the other one..."

"The other one is actually called the Base Panel y' know? It's mostly fah' manual steering n' that." Interrupted Thelma. "Anyway, I've found a route tah get to Pepperland... do you want me tah take you there?"

"Okay. Where are we going?"

"Y' know we 'ave tah go through The Sea of Science first... we're nearly there. Just press thar boost button... I've already charged 't up for yahs. T's that green one an the right of the Base Panel."

Blue laughed. "Hey Thelma, lay off a little on the Scouse - we can barely understand you!"

"Sorry."

Finn pressed the button Thelma had advised and the Submarine accelerated immediately.

"We'll be there soon" promised Thelma. The four children sat down and Finn pulled out a deck of cards. "Now." Said Blue "It's my turn to teach you a game from where I come from. This one's called Black Jack..."

They played for a good 30 minutes before Roger won. Emily had seen him sneak an ace out of his sleeve, but she didn't complain.

"Hey." Said Thelma suddenly. "Look out the porthole."

As Roger had won already, he got up and left the others to play for second place. He peered out of the porthole and was met with such a strange and confusing sight he had to look away.

Where he thought he would see a sky, there were thousands and thousands of squares. It was like the Submarine was trapped in a huge cube, the walls covered in squares. Most had a psychedelic image swirling inside it, but some just had solid colours.

The weirdest thing was that no matter how hard he stared, he couldn't focus on the walls. Sometimes it looked as if each wall was miles away from the Submarine, sometimes they appeared so close that if he could open the porthole he was certain he could touch them.

"Come and look at this!" Roger called to the others and they quietly observed the view together. It was hypnotic - there was always something new to look at. Even Thelma stayed silent.

Emily broke the silence by asking the obvious question "Where are we?" Thelma replied quietly "Sea of Science."

"What's such a challenge about passing through the Sea of Science?" Asked Finn. He stood, staring at the patterns.

"There ain't one really." Said Thelma "Not while you're in the Sub anyway. S'just when you're in the actual Sea that's the problem.

Thing is, yah see, those patterns that transfix you so much - without that glass wall between you and them - they'd pull yah in. You'd become lost in the science of it all. Never b'able tah leave again. They hypnotise yah into a state where you can't think. Or control yourself. You just drift forever in this... void. T's very boring-like."

Finn stepped away warily from the glass. He didn't quite fancy the idea of floating around in an infinite void for all eternity.

"T's okay." Assured Thelma "Watchin' the patterns won't do you no harm. We're nearly out of the Sea now. You can look out the pothole for as long as yeh like."

"No thanks." Said Roger firmly. "I have no intention of looking at this horrible death trap any longer." He abruptly turned away and started shuffling the cards.

Emily admired his willpower. She wanted to stay and watch the beautiful squares... but she supposed Roger was right. It was an evil, corrupt and a darkly addictive place.

"I sort of expected the Sea of Science to be a nice place." Murmured Blue. "With nature and life and organisation. It's actually pretty weird."

"It is rather lovely on the ground. It's not just this sky - a few hundred metres below there are loads of sciencey things. Giant periodic tables 'n that. Anyway, names are a misleading thing." Said Thelma "Never make presumptions n' that. Do Blue Meanies sound too frightnin'?"

"No." Replied Blue. "For a major bad-guy they sound kind of lame."

"Just you wait till you see 'em then"