> “Undersea Promenade” → *Walk the Vent*
**Logline:** A vent-field EVA becomes a conversation about stewardship, inheritance, and the cost of truth.
# Beats 1. **Suit-up:** Conseil laces Aronnax into a heated exosuit; Ned checks the lifeline twice: “Trust, then verify.” 2. **Cathedral of heat:** White chimneys breathe; silica “snow” drifts; Aronnax’s visor fogs with awe. 3. **Nemo’s confession:** In a quiet alcove, Nemo admits his parent’s company prototyped **guardian swarms**—“to protect investments… or to fence off a commons.” 4. **Moral pivot:** Aronnax: “If they’re alive, they don’t need guardians.” Nemo: “If they’re code, they don’t need rights.” 5. **Small act:** Conseil pockets a sliver of ice-filament for microscopy, labels it “Choir/unknown,” and locks it in a shared evidence vault. 6. **Warning tremor:** The ridge groans; the choir’s motif ticks up in tempo—as if urging them back.
# Notes in the french version it is CHAPITRE XVI, PROMENADE EN PLAINE - https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Vingt_mille_lieues_sous_les_mers/Partie_1/Chapitre_16 wikisource]