Sarah stood unsure of what to do in an alien world with its ideas and she and grandma with their's. She felt now more then ever something less than sacred about the entirety of Undersea; as if the city had decided that being born from the hands of man had given it all the purpose is would ever need.

Sarah shuddered as she weighed her thoughts in the eternity of her heart, frozen in that moment where one decides, unable to move just yet from the heft of her mission, her learning, and her heart. As she stood she caught the rustle of movement at the top of the stone steps.

"Ah!" said a tall thin man stepping into the muted street light at the top of the stone stairs. "I thought there might be more eels to catch!" The lights brightened to daytime levels. "Tell me," he said, holding his hand out to Sarah who hung back on the street below, "what is it you find so interesting about my experiments?" There was the sound of boots crunching on the ground behind Sarah.

"Come child!" said the thin man on the stairs after eyeing Sarah more closely, "let us see if we can get to the bottom of this!"

The man spoke in a smiling tone and now bowed deeply to Sarah in a sumptuous way. There were small gold stars on his jacket, or rather small gold starfish, worn on his shoulders the way a general might. He certainly looked like one, standing on the top step looking down at Sarah: a man used to control and like many such men, not used to being kept waiting by a child.

Sarah did not move.

He cleared his throat. The smile he kept, pasted beneath a thin nose and a pair of intelligent brown eyes now impatient. His eyes flicked to the man behind Sarah. A heavy hand rested on her shoulder and eased her to the stairs. Sarah felt a tear slide down her face and she bowed her head in defeat. She was guided up to the tall man on the steps.

"It seems we have yet to be introduced," said the man holding out his hand again, the smile still on his face. "I am Dr. Octavian Salvador LaRosa, though you may call me Sir LaRosa if you please. Chief scientist of the Laboratory and a decorated member of the Council of Seven." Sir LaRosa indicated the starfish on his shoulders.

"Sarah," said Sarah.

"Sarah," repeated Sir LaRosa after a smile and a handshake. "And the old women must be...?"

"My grandma."

"Ah," said Sir LaRosa, nodding his head as if he understood, "your grandma, of course!" Sir LaRosa let half his smile droop and turned up the other half in a sort of grin. A kind of grimace remained. "No doubt you are wondering her whereabouts?"

Sarah looked up at Sir LaRosa's face.

"Have no fear child, have no fear!" She is safe with me and the experiments have been saved from tampering! Though I know not why anyone so young as you would seek to be caught up in this affair!" Sir LaRosa's mouth moved into a frown. "Surely you yourself, young Sarah, where but a naive accomplice to the raving madness of an old women?"

Sarah made no sign as to what she was.

"Ah, it is the old that often lead the young astray," said Sir LaRosa shaking his head. "I have half a mind to reunite the two of you, but I think it best you wait and see her unmasked for what she is! We've such a responsibility with our young ones", mused Sir LaRosa, "a fact I have been especially reminded of tonight. We can not afford them to be misled by the uneducated whims of the elderly who should know better." Sir LaRosa shook his head. "Ah, ah, it pains me to think on the disaster narrowly avoided tonight and on the personal disaster you narrowly avoided at the hands of that weak-minded old women! But come," he said with a sweeping motion of his hand, "it is no doubt long past the beginning of your sleep young Sarah, nay it is nearly at the time of waking! Your parents will no doubt be worried. Your grandma will be safe with us, and from herself for that matter. During her questioning she was quite adamant about a good many things strange to our ears, so we gave her something to make her sleep. In the morning I would like to invite you and your parents to a special hearing in front of the esteemed Council of Seven over which I preside. We will give your grandma her 'day in court', as the saying goes I believe, and you shall see her error, young Sarah, and the philosophies of her person shall be laid bare by the unquenchable truth that is rooted in our knowledge! For the good of the city!"

"For the good of the city", echoed the men behind Sarah.

Sir LaRosa cleared his throat and looked at Sarah when she said nothing. Her eyes where on her feet; she was thinking about a good many things just then.

With a nod Sir LaRosa dismissed Sarah and the Mariner Patrol captain placed his hand back on her shoulder. Sarah was ushered home without grandma and delivered over to her parents, who where stirred from sleep by heavy knocks on the door. Father stared sadly past the captain as he received Sarah back into the house. Mother cried and locked herself in the bedroom when she heard the news.

- - -

There was nothing to do but wait for the hearing. No one spoke in the house and Sarah could not sleep. A quiet dread settled over them as slow minutes became long hours. Father shook his head often; staring at the far wall across from where he sat, thinking his own thoughts, tightly clasped hands resting on the dinning room table, his shoulders hunched. Mother refused to be in the same house with him. She picked up Jack and stormed out one hour into the silence.

Sarah was in the bedroom she and grandma shared crying into her pillow. Why oh why had she let grandma talk her into this? She should have said no, she should have gotten mother and told her grandma's plan. "It all could have been avoided," thought Sarah, "if I had just not gotten involved. Everything would still be safe and life would still be normal." Sarah looked at the old blanket on her bed grandma had sown for her. It was well contrived for what it was: a blanket made of scrap material, yet frayed from years of use. Sarah did not want to look at it just then; she did not want to look at anything connected to grandma, and she flung the blanket across the room.

"Useless old rag!" she muttered and tears came again.

Presently Sarah looked over at the blanket now laying on grandma's bed feeling sorry for what she had said. There on grandma's bed lay several of the books she and grandma read and anger came back.

"A lot of help you've been," said Sarah, glaring at the bound literature. The volumes held their peace beneath the hot gaze of their accuser, and Sarah felt like throwing something else. Deep guttural sobs, helpless and hateful, shook Sarah's small chest as she languished there between her fears and the frustrations of her hopes.

After a while the hurricane blew itself out and sitting on her bed Sarah felt an odd thing. In a time where she could find no peace on her own she suddenly had it. The ocean of rage became calm, as if a warm blanket had been cast over her shoulders to shelter her from the chill of the world. She went over to grandma's bed, wrapped herself in grandma's blanket, and picked up grandma's favorite book.

A knock at the door brought Sarah back from the pages.

"It's time Sarah," said father in a tired voice.

"In a minute!" said Sarah. For some reason she felt a strong need to take the book with her. Mother would have none of it if she knew; "that book is the cause of our troubles," she would have said. It was quite possible she would throw it in the shredding box with the garbage, or worse yet turn it over to the authorities. Father might be more understanding about letting Sarah take the book, but he had the sound of a man about to crack. Sarah looked down at the worn volume in her hands. These words were true, she felt, truer then the things she could see in the room before her.

"Trust only your eyes and you'll only trust lies," Sarah thought. She closed her eyes and breathed slow and deep, as if in search of strength. She went over to her school bag and put the book into it. Next she put in writing tablets of pressed seaweed paper and some writing charcoals, making sure grandma's book was buried beneath them.

"Let's go Sarah!" said the rapid knocking on the bedroom door.

"Coming!" yelled Sarah. She took the other books grandma had and placed them under grandma's pillow. She did not know why she did that.

Outside the house in the well lit streets stood a Mariner Patrol captain with six men. Father, mother, and Jack were with them. Sarah soon joined.

"We are here to escort you to the hearing at the Lab," the captain announced. "In the meantime, Sir LaRosa thought it prudent to search the house for evidence of the old women's ideas." He cast his eyes upon the small family. "Books, papers, literature: anything suggestive of her babblings."

The captain smirked at the tired family gathered before him and nodded to his men. Four of them entered the house and set about the place, overturning property and possession in an unconcerned, haphazard search. Mother picked up Jack who began to whimper and the captain smiled at father's balled up fists.

"This way please," the captain said without warmth. He stopped and looked at Sarah's school bag and reached to take it from her.

"It has my writing tablets and charcoals in it," said Sarah looking up at him.

"Maybe Sarah wants to take notes?" cut in father, "there is a lot one can learn from the Council of Seven."

"Indeed," said the captain, unsure. Behind them in the house there was a loud crash and the crunch of boots on something broken.

"This way," said the captain turning.

Flanked by two of the captain's men the family was paraded through their neighborhood in full view of all who lived there. Most who saw hurried on their way. Some glared, arms crossed; a few looked concerned. Several young boys, some of them in Sarah's school, laughed and taunted the beleaguered family, running along behind them.

"Uplanders, outlanders, stupid as salamanders!" sang the boys. "Uplanders, outlanders, dumber than a flock of ganders!" sang the boys. They laughed again and Sarah's eyes fell and blurred with tears. She felt her father put his arm around her shoulder.

After they were led through the neighborhood Sarah's family was loaded into a vehicle.

"We can't after all keep the Council of Seven waiting," said the captain with a sarcastic grin. He looked at his watch and climbed in after Sarah's family. The vehicle moved out and leaving the neighborhood behind turned onto one of the main thoroughfares of the city. No one spoke as they and rumbled along the stone streets of Undersea.

The vehicle arrived near a back entrance to the Lab. Sarah and her family were ushered towards it by the Mariner Patrol. In the daylight of the street lamps the Lab loomed even larger, an impressive massif of hard dark stone that stood before them like an unbreakable pillar. It frowned upon them and soon Sarah's family was inside a long dim corridor leading to an entryway guarded by two massive wooden doors carved in a rich motif of starfish and coral. The doors where shut.

"Wait here," said the captain and he entered.

Sarah's family stood. As the minutes ticked by young Jack grew restless and began to run up and down the corridor, his steps echoing off the stone walls as he went. Since there was nothing to sit on father spread his jacket on the hard floor and sat there with mother in cold silence near the doors.

Sarah sat on the floor too, close to the doors. She could not help but gaze at the carvings, so detailed and decadent they seemed. Wood was hard to come by under the ocean and Sarah tried to remember the smooth feel of wooden panels. She remembered long ago the cool touch of a wooden dinner table. She closed her eyes and remembered the look of its grain as it swirled around dark knots on its surface.

Sarah got up and approached the doors wanting a better look; desiring to reach out and touch the carved starfish and coral while her eyes took in the intricate detail. She traced the shapes with her fingers and breathed in the faint smell of things that grew in the world above. For a moment she forgot why she was there.

"Sarah don't touch!" hissed the frantic voice of mother down the corridor. Father wrapped an arm around mother who, weeping, buried her face in his chest. Sarah dropped her eyes from the door and not knowing what to do sat on the floor near her parents.

Chin in hands Sarah thought about grandma and her books and all the things seen and heard in the past few days. She took off her backpack and set it next to her, wondering what she was going to face on the other side of the doors. She dug into her backpack for a piece of kelp candy and touched the book at the bottom.

- - -

It was a long wait in the corridor. Jack grew tired and wanted to sit next to mother, so father gave up his spot and came over to Sarah.

"It's been awhile since I've seen something like that," said father, nodding to the doors as he sat next to Sarah. "The wood carvings I mean, faaancy!"

Sarah smiled and put away her reading.

"I almost forgot what it smells like," said Sarah, "wood panels. It's cedar I think."

They sat awhile.

"What do you think will happen?" asked Sarah.

She felt father's arm around her shoulder.

"Sarah," he said.

"What?"

"I love you."

Tears gathered in Sarah's eyes and father hugged tighter.

"Grandma has told you many things," said father, "hasn't she?"

Sarah nodded.

"Good."

"I..."

The wooden doors were flung open with an echoing boom, startling father and Sarah. The captain marched out, unconcerned that father and Sarah had nearly been hit by the sudden opening of them.

"Your presence is now requested," the captain announced. Sarah's family gathered before him. "This way," he ordered.

They entered at the top a cavernous room that sank into the earth before them like a bowl. A long flight of stairs led down to a well-lit stage below and there a large table stood. Seven people in high backed chairs sat behind it. Sarah thought she recognized the one sitting in the middle.

"Welcome Sarah!" boomed Sir LaRosa from a plush chair adorned with rich carvings. Sir LaRosa rose from his lordly seat and raised his hand in greeting like a bard about to give a lengthy orration. "Welcome!" he said again and his voice carried throughout the empty room. They were in fact standing in the main lecture hall of the Lab. It looked like it could seat thousands. There was no one it it but them.

Sarah and her family were led down to Sir LaRosa, passing row upon row of unoccupied seats while Sir LaRosa remained standing until Sarah and her family reached the first row.

"Let us please be seated!" said Sir LaRosa, motioning Sarah and her family to the front rank of pews.

Sarah took a spot next to father. Before her upon the stage sat Octavian Salvador LaRosa in full dress jacket; his tall slender frame poking above his fellow council members like a proud nail, starfish gleaming on his shoulders. He held himself ramrod straight, and everything about him, from the way he cleared his throat to the way he tidied the papers before him declared to all that he was in fact the hammer. His eyes swept the first row of seats and found Sarah. He gave her a solemn nod and a confident wink.

"Bring forth the old women," said Sir LaRosa and grandma was led, leaning heavily on the Mariner Patrol capatin, to a special chair prepared for her before the Council of Seven.

"And now to buisness," said LaRosa. "This is an inquiry of sorts," he announced to grandma, "an opportunity for you to share your...scholarship." He said the word "scholarship" as if he had bitten into something unsavory. "'Your day in court', I believe was the old expression. We brought you here as a good will gesture, a sort of homage to a bygone era as it were. Although it remains to be seen if what you say will hold water, as they say. Or rather in our case," added Sir LaRosa with a dour smile as he glanced at the stone walls of the room; walls that reminded him of those that held back oceans, "if your ideas are strong enough to repel water."

"I know of the world above," began Sir LaRosa again, looking at grandma. "I too was from there once. Many of us were," he said, motioning to the seated council. "But that was what was. We have made better. Today it seems all that's left to do is to shake off some rather old ideas or "truths" as you keep calling them. We have better ideas you know. Much better." Sir LaRosa glanced at Sarah's family. "It is my hope, our hope, that today you will cast off from yourselves any foolish things of the past and see with the full force of reason and logic that futile arguments about poorly recorded and or fabricated ancient history, arguments that science trumps in every way, is not the hope of man! Bad ideas need to be 'nipped in the bud,' as the old saying goes." Sir LaRosa nodded to grandma. "Now, tell us one more time in the hearing of this esteemed council and your very own family, why you tried to feed the experiments, why you sing lies in public, and what this has to do with what you believe?"

Grandma sat before the council in silence and it seemed to Sarah that she trembled. Was it fear? Grandma closed her eyes.

"Let's maybe start with an easier question then," said Sir LaRosa with some distain. "What exactly is it you believe?"