Aria found Leo laying in bed, reading a book. To her mild surprise, it wasn’t a technical journal or a sci-fi novel, or anything he’d usually mine for ideas on where to go next with his science. It was a historical drama, about Reformation figure Thomas Cromwell. More surprising, he wasn’t aggressively consuming it, but taking his time. He was… relaxing.
She laid a hand on his shoulder, and leaned down. “I’m very proud of you.”
Leo switched the book from two hands to one, and used his now-free hand to rest on hers gently. “I promised.”
Aria frowned slightly, and took the hand in hers, pulling him up to a sitting position. “Come on. This is going to mess with your peace, and I’m sorry, but I have to talk about this.”
Surprised but willing, Leo followed her lead to the next room.
The laptop was frozen on a video ad. Aria restarted the ad from the beginning. Together, they watched it through to the end.
“New Tomorrow City?” Leo asked at last.
“This is a R-Rook spinoff,” she explained. “Jason and Alycia have been looking into it. This is them t-taking over everything. Somehow, in all the confusion during the invasion, they got ownership of so much of the city.”
Leo was still taking in what he’d seen, and nodded in understanding. Hearing the quaver in her voice led his hand to seek hers, and hold on gently.
“I can’t deal with this,” Aria said. She plopped down into the desk chair in front of the laptop, and Leo knelt down to match her height. “I can’t live and work in a city where this is happening. So I’ve started designing a new one.”
Aria had been researching urban planning when she’d come across a page with the video. She had other windows open, in which Leo saw the skeleton of a city emerging from her mind.
“This is what you submitted to NU,” he realized. “Underwater city, international waters, mobile in emergencies. Super-Leviathans connected together.”
“That proposal had some serious flaws,” Aria admitted. She tapped her head gently. “Your gift helped me spot those. This won’t be perfect. But it’s a foundation, something we can build from.”
“This is a pretty big space.” Leo looked at the outline. “You’ve got room for thousands of people. You expecting to throw a lot of parties?”
Aria smiled gently. “You don’t know, do you, silly.”
Leo turned in surprise. “Know what?”
“Word got around, among Atlantis’ human captives, among the Blood, even some of those True Atlanteans. The way you, an outsider, came to Atlantis, impressed the Emperor, rescued the human hostages, fought for their freedom. Your sacrifices. Your fight with Saito. You’ve become something of a legend. So naturally, when I asked some of the Atlantean refugees about underwater living - I expect they’d know, better than anyone - and your name came up, thousands of them expressed an interest in helping. They want to live there.”
“Th-thousands?” Leo asked in shocked surprise. “But how are we going to–”
“Shhh.” Aria laid a soothing hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t your problem to solve.”
Leo acceded with only a bit of grumpiness. “Okay. I’m gonna trust the logistics will be handled. And the security angles. And–” He caught a disapproving glance from his new bride, and smiled sheepishly. “I’ll trust you.”
Aria smiled, satisfied. “Good. You should. Because I’m doing what you say to do in times of need. I’m connecting with people. We’re going to be self-sufficient down there. But we are not going to be isolated. We’re going to be an alternative to this Rex Tyran and his ‘New Tomorrow’. We’re going to be better.”
“Have a name for this place yet?” Leo asked.
Aria beamed. “For an underwater shelter? There’s only one good name. Safe Harbor.”