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“This ship is amazing, Scuba!”  Elevator Girl said into the radio, looking around at the control room.  “I can’t believe your people did it so fast!”



“It had actually been in the works for some time,” the merman nicknamed Scuba said.  “But, when we found the new crevasse and realized what was in it, we expedited it to get it done.  This has been a long time coming, after all.”



“That’s true,” Elevator Girl said quietly.



“Too long,” said the woman pacing behind the teen heroine.



“Relax, Woman,” Elevator Girl said.  “We’ll be there soon.”



“I know,” the woman said.  “I know.”



The submarine designed by the merman who was a reincarnation of Super Scuba from the Super 6 was a miracle combining the technology of both surface and subsea people.  It could reach depths that no sub carrying a person had ever been able to reach.  On top of that, it had, of necessity, docking capabilities so those in it could travel to another submarine without both ships surfacing first.



“When did you find this thing you think is the ship, Scuba?” Kellie asked.



“About five days ago,” Scuba said.  “We were able to get a probe in yesterday and confirmed that it matched the configuration of the ship you’ve been looking for.  I contacted you right away.  We knew we‘d need a ship capable of supporting surface folk, since he‘s an air-breather -- assuming he‘s in there.”



Kellie nodded.  After that, she stared silently out the sub’s porthole for awhile.



Scuba swam to a safe distance in front of the sub.  He pointed to a small crevasse some distance below them.  “There it is,” he said.  “This is where I have to leave you.  The pressures below this depth are too much even for us.”



“You’ve done great, Scuba,” Elevator Girl said.  “Thanks for everything, and wish us luck.”



“You’re always welcome,” Scuba said, “and good luck.”



As the sub sank lower, Scuba looked at it diving down.  It was holding up well, and he was glad, but he also was afraid for the granddaughter of his old ally, Elevator Man.  If this was the ship she’d been looking for, would she find her long-sought love alive?  And, if he was, what would that mean for her, and for those both she and he loved?



It took most of another half-hour for the sub to reach the ship.  Elevator Girl stared at the ship, apparently made of ice, wedged into the crevasse.  “Oh, wow,” she said.  “That sure looks like the ship.”



“I know that!” snapped the woman.



“I didn’t mean it that way, Woman!” Elevator Girl said, somewhat defensively.



The woman shook her head.  “I know that,” she said.  “I’m sorry, Girl.”



Elevator Girl smiled, more in trying to calm the woman than from any emotion of her own.  “It’s OK,” she said.  She looked out at the ice ship.  “From the scanners, it’s still filled with air, and the hatch is clear and able to open.  We should be able to dock with it.”  She looked back to the woman.  “You ready for this?”



The woman stood in a shadow, her arms folded tightly across her chest just under her breasts.  She nodded.  “Do it,” she said.



Elevator Girl turned to the controls.  As she started the actions Scuba had taught her, she said, “Initiating docking.”



A strong but flexible tube projected from the hatch of the sub.  It configured itself to match the DeLorean-door shape of the hatch on the ice ship.  As it contacted the ship, a series of electronic signals was sent through the tube.  After a moment, those signals opened the ice ship’s hatch.



Elevator Girl took a moment to take a deep breath.  “Well,” she said, “Looks like docking is complete.  Woman, do you want to go first, or --”



Elevator Girl cut off her sentence when she realized the woman already was in the access tube.  The teen tilted her head.  “I guess you’re going first,” she said quietly.



When Elevator Girl got through the tube, she saw the ship’s control room.  It was exactly like the sketches she’d seen of the other one; and, there, across the room and slightly to the right of her position, was the cryogenic tube.



She tooked around.  She saw the woman beside the door, her back pressed against the wall.  Elevator Girl was surprised by the woman’s expression.  It was one she had rarely seen.  She looked terrified, afraid to simply walk across the room.



Elevator Girl walked over to the cryogenic unit and started examining.



The woman’s sounded like she nearly was hyperventilating.  “Is he … Is he …” she said.



“He’s alive,” Elevator Girl said.  “All the equipment is working.  Got to give Dekker this much credit;  she was the nastiest villain any Elevator ever faced, but her tech was top-notch.  For an ice ship to be intact down here after all this time, and under these pressures, is an accomplishment itself, and then for all the cryonics to still be functioning after all this time with no maintenance …”



“Can we … revive him?”  the woman asked.



“It’ll take some time,” Elevator Girl said, “but I think so.  Fortunately, we’ve got a long trip to the surface, and Scuba’s sub should allow us to tow this thing up there.  He should be safe to remove from the unit before we get to the surface.”



Elevator Girl stared into the tube.  “Wow!  He’s really cute,” she said of the teen inside.  She turned to the woman.  “Woman, I need you to confirm his identity, to make sure this is who we think it is.”



Elevator Girl turned toward the woman, who was simply staring at the tube.



“Woman!” Elevator Girl said.  “Elevator Woman!”



Elevator Woman still had her back pressed against the wall.  If anything, it looked like her terror was building.



Elevator Girl decided to break secret identity protocol; after all, if they weren’t safe here, where would they be?



Elevator Girl put a hand on Elevator Woman’s shoulder.  “Mom!” she said.  “Hey, Mom!”



Elevator Woman turned and looked at her daughter, somewhat blankly.



“Mom, I need you to identify him positively,” Elevator Girl said.  “I’ve only seen pictures of him.  He’s your old flame.”



Elevator Woman nodded, then slowly walked toward the cryonics tube.  She gazed through the viewing surface of the tube.  There, inside, was the perfect, 15-year-old face of Dakota Greene.



Elevator Woman took a gasping breath, then sobbed four times loudly.  She threw herself on the tube.  “Oh, Kota!” she wailed.



Her mask getting wet, Elevator Woman removed it, revealing the face of Kellie Ross Trudeau.  “Oh, my Kota!” Kellie said, her voice faint and choked with tears.  “I’ve finally found you!  I’ve finally found you!”



“I’ll take that as a positive ID,” Elevator Girl said.  Her own stomach was in knots as she saw her mother, normally stoic as Elevator Woman, collapsed in an emotional heap, but she was being the stoic one now.  Someone had to.  “Shall I start the reversal procedure on Dakota?”



Kellie stood up.  “Can I, please?” she asked.  “I’ve waited 25 years for this moment.  I’d like to be the one who hits that button.”



Elevator Girl nodded.  “Absolutely,” she said.



Kellie walked over and pushed the button she remembered from the day she’d freed her own mother from Dr. Christine Dekker.  The equipment behind her made the same hiss as she’d heard a quarter-century earlier when her mother’s resuscitation began.



Elevator Girl pointed with her thumb to the linking tube.  “I’m gonna go pilot the sub to get us back to the surface,” she said.  “What are you gonna do?”



Kellie stared at the tube.  “I’m going to stay here with Kota.”



“It’s gonna take most of the trip for him to wake up,” Elevator Girl said.  “You could join me on the sub, if you want.”



“Maybe later,” Kellie said.  “I’ve waited for 25 years to be with him again, and I’m going to take what time I can.”



“He won’t know the difference,” Elevator Girl said.



“I will,” Kellie said.



“You want me to call Dad, or Aunt Lakota?”  Elevator Girl said.



Kellie smiled.  “No,” she said.  “I ought to be the one to break the news to Lakota, so she can make arrangements for Nick and the others.  And I really need to talk to your dad.  He may not be able to hold me right now; a phone call will be the next best thing.”



Elevator Girl smiled, almost involuntarily.  The last sentence said by her mother had eased the teen’s fears about her family.  And there was something else.  As long as Elevator Girl could remember, her mother had lived with an immense weight on her shoulders: the weight of the loss of Dakota.  Now, although Elevator Girl could see that there was still the weight of what had happened to Dakota and its possible impact on him still borne by her mother and mentor, much of Elevator Woman’s burden clearly was now lifted.



The teen patted her thigh.  “Right,” she said.  “I’ll get us headed for home.”  She pivoted to return to the sub.



“April,” Kellie said.



The teen turned back.



“Thank you,” Kellie said.  “This is a big chunk of my life’s work, and I couldn’t have done it without you.”



April Trudeau bit her lip, trying to keep her composure.  “No ’blem,” she said.  “Now let’s get him the rest of the way home.”  She turned again and exited, deeply moved by her mother’s compliment.



Kellie turned back to the tube in which Dakota slept.  She collapsed beside it.  “Oh, Kota!”  she said, sobbing again.  “I’m sorry it took so long to find you!  I’m sorry!  I’m so sorry!”  She lay there, sobbing wordlessly, lost in her own grief for all that once had been and now couldn’t be again.

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