20,000 Years Under the Sea

"20,000 Years Under the Sea" is a Cthulhu Mythos short story featuring Captain Nemo and the Nautilus from the works of Jules Verne. It was written by Kevin J. Anderson and published in the 2015 anthology The Madness of Cthulhu: Volume Two.
This story uses the same backstory for Nemo that Anderson invented for the novel Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius. It differs considerably from Verne's own backstory for the character, as presented in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and The Mysterious Island.
==Synopsis==
After suffering considerable damage from a giant squid attack, the submarine Nautilus heads towards an island off the coast of Antarctica for repairs. The crew and the captain, Nemo, are former war prisoners who built the Nautilus for the tyrannical caliph Robur, before rebelling against and killing him. They now travel the world's oceans with no destination, sinking warships from all imperialistic nations, and fighting against all forms of oppression.
While leaving his second-in-command, Harding, in charge of repairs, Nemo explores the island and is surprised to find the ruins of a strange city, with disorienting angles, dark obelisks carved with unknown symbols, and a toppled statue of a tentacled octopoid being. He also sees images of the extinct inhabitants of the city: barrel-shaped creatures with starfish-like heads.
Back in the Nautilus, Harding tells Nemo that they found another city, this one entirely submerged and perfectly preserved. The captain and four other crewmen don their diving suits and explore the sunken city, finding that it belonged to the same species of star-headed creatures, but was also inhabited by a race of amoeboid beings that served them. Nemo sees some symbols that he finds familiar. One of the men, Louart, comments on the absence of sea-life, except for some coral and anemones growing on specific places, evidently as decoration. It looks as if someone is tending to the city, and keeping it preserved exactly as it was when inhabited. The image of the octopoid entity is also present on a large domed building, and seems to have some disruptive effect on Nemo's mind, as he becomes fascinated by the mighty alien being, and figures that it holds the power to end all wars for good.
Louart accidentally knocks down a spire and is promptly attacked by one of the amoeboid servants of the city's long-gone builders. Nemo and the others hurl their harpoons at it, but can't do any damage to the creature's amorphous flesh, and it brutally crushes Louart to death by contracting itself around him. After killing him, the creature simply swims away, ignoring Nemo and the others.
That night, after Louart's funeral, Nemo spends time in the Nautilus library and finds the symbols from the ancient city in a book he stole from the caliph: the Necronomicon, by Abdul Alhazred. There he learns that the barrel-shaped star-headed creatures are extraterrestrial beings called the Old Ones, and that their amoeboid servants are called shoggoths. Long before the rise of humanity, the Old Ones and their shoggoths fought long and arduous wars against another alien race of octopoid beings whose leader was named Cthulhu.
Harding informs Nemo that the repairs are practically complete, but the captain wants to explore the sunken city again. Despite what happened to Louart, the loyal crew neither protests nor demands explanations, and three men volunteer to go along. Nemo heads straight towards the domed building with the image of Cthulhu, hearing the creature's call inside his mind, eager to be set free and to enable him to put an end to all war. The creature's telepathy guides Nemo as he experiments with the locking mechanism of the building's entrance, until the colossal door is opened.
As soon as Cthulhu emerges from his prison, a huge number of shoggoths rush to battle it, still following the instructions of their extinct masters. They swim past the humans, paying no attention to them, and Nemo suddenly realizes the enormity of the being he's set free. One of the crewmen dies of fright, while the others escape. The myriads of shoggoths envelop Cthulhu and try to force it back to its prison. Nemo knows that a few men with harpoons and scimitars would make no difference, regardless of which side they chose to help. Terrified, he and the others return to the Nautilus and escape. Away from the danger, they recover from the shock and continue their fight against imperialism, albeit humbled by the knowledge that there are wars in the universe that dwarf all human struggle.
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Kevin J. Anderson works
Category:Crossovers