EUROPABelvedere exited the hatch to a stalled midnight, stale and unrefreshing. The great whale sat gently bobbing alongside the raised craft, two larger automatons, one chunky and strong looking, one wiry, all cables and gears, each folding, as Professor Grace had stated, a decidedly thin metal cable between them.
The older man clambered out to stand atop their steed, nodded to his metallic workers, then gazed across the shallows to a sandy shore. “Good, eh?”
“I cannot believe this is France.”
“Indeed.”
“But we can’t have been more than an hour.”
“Indeed.”
“Do you know any other words?”
“Indeed,” grinned the professor and slid down the Bathyscaphe’s side into the surf and trundled up onto the wet sands. Belvedere followed to a commotion of squeaks and miniaturised cheers.
“Goodbye
