Week 43
Day 1
I been flying the Bubble in the absence of Major Shaw who is with her son. I also used the time to be away besides monitoring the chimps situation. The later is not moving and seems to be waiting. But the time I spent to think makes me wonder on this place.
If its true that Atlantean discovered this place, did they terraform it to looked like Earth and then planted the creatures to inhabit it here. If they can clone, then they can do the former. Assuming that, then the organization could be looking at Atlantis to changed Earth back. If they only know how to harness the power. So until they can, they may try to remove me again. I have my trusted Trident now next to me. It goes with me when I travel.
So I be safe.
The panel in the Bubbles went blank and my craft is plummeting down. I tried to pull the craft back but its not responding. I grabbed the Trident and pressed the eject button. The canopy blew upon and I was in the air and in the pilot seat. But the para-glide is not opening; its jammed. I am going down with the same speed as the craft. By instinct, I held the Trident towards the ground. It did not blast a hole but the ground split open to reveal a pond. A deep one though for me to dive in. And the water was freezing cold.
My comms is destroyed, my PH350 missing from the dive and the survival kit was on the chair. That is gone now. I have are my wet uniforms hanging by the branches and the Trident. Plus I have company of a few thousand chimps nearby and more creatures. I did tell Command Unit that I will be away for hours. That means no search party until nightfall or next morning.
I walked what maybe the direction to the city, and before I walked ten paces I saw my first danger. Its the Raptor, not one but three of them. If there are three, there should be more and there it was on my right. I took up my Trident and held it in a defensive mode. The first raptor came at me from the right and I swung the Trident on it. The raptor was hit by the Trident and the impact blow hurled the raptor across by twenty feet before it hit a tree trunk. It tried to raised it body but it failed to do so. The other three raptors looked at it and then me. It all then ran off into the jungle. I walked on past the dead raptor and into the jungle depth.
It was not long when the chimps found me. Its a small troop of over seven chimps, all dressed in red and carrying spears.
‘Aha....seven to one. Perhaps a little odd but I will take any odds. So shall we fight or sit down for more talks?’ One of the chimps started first with a hurled spear towards me. I deflect it with Trident and I swung it down to prepare for more attack. When the Trident touched the ground, it send a shockwave towards the chimps causing them to fall on the vibrations. Even the leaves on the branches came down by the droves.
‘Wow! I kind like this.’ But my chimps opponents has ran off into the jungle. I ran after them but their swinging skills are better than mine holding a Trident. I moved on and came onto a T-Rex munching on the leftover of an unidentified prey. It looked at me and I think I seen the T-Rex before. Its old Rexy and its alive. I left it alone when it growl at me.
‘We are not sharing lunch, my dear.’ I keep on walking and came to the sight of the Plateau or its should be called the Ruins now. Not the time to be emotional so I moved on. My next opponent is the Titanoaba; a massive one with a length of forty feet and a diameter of two feet. It almost got me and I thrusted the Trident at it. Its an abnormal scene for me, to see a creature vibrated to the Trident’s power. It exploded into pieces from the jaw to the tail end.
Now I need new laundry service.
That was settled as the Shuttle saw me on the clearing.
Day 2
I now know that the Trident function to my defense. Likewise the pillars. I can defend myself but what about the others. Well, I have little time to contemplate on it as the chimps are really moving now. And they have double their numbers. Okay, here are my assessments. I got unknown organization spies in the city and the Fed’s on my boundary plus some more chimps joining in the fight. I am down to twenty cannons on the city borders and small arms.
Earth Council is still sorting out the information I gave them, and they are not sending any more supplies. To them, Atlantis is still a fable and bears no significance to them.
But they are also not evacuating us.
But the land does not give us time to think; the tremors came and its not my doing. Then the rain came and it pours. It could be Zeus as he does control the skies. So be it, I got to take care of the chimps. But when I stepped into the Command Unit, I find myself facing armed personnels and colonists.
‘I guess I am in the wrong unit. Be back later.’ I turned to walked away but I find my exit blocked by Major Shaw and Margaret Welch, armed with their PH350. ‘A coup at this hour? You ladies are nuts.’
‘No, Commander. We are not. We have taken over the Command. You will taken to the Holding Cells and kept there with the rest.’ I looked at the faces in the Command Unit; Major Shaw, Margaret Welch, Sargeant McKay, Specialist Decan, Doctor Bormann, Doctor Indira and Doctor Leong and the others are colonists no know to me. They numbered about twelve here.
Major Shaw took the Command seat when I was escorted away to the Holding Cell. I found the rest of the personnels there; Major Feeley, Lieutenant ‘Doctor’ Bashir, Sargeant Keefe, Sargeant Nick, Corporal Duffy, Chengs’, Pedro, Specialist Ian, Specialist Nixon, Specialist Melon, the Jessies’ sister, Lieutenant Amy ( Shuttle ) and Specialist Rodiques. Inside with us are Doctor Tanaki, Doctor Frost, Doctor Moshe, and Doctor Sze Thing. Doctor Tanaki looked bad as he must had resisted hard. His forehead is bandaged and so is his chest.
‘What happened?’ I asked the ones in the Holdings.
‘Major Shaw and Sargeant McKay came in and shot some of us, with their PH350 during the rain. And then the rest came in and took over the place. We were bundled in here and later joined by others like you.’ Major Feeley has her left shoulder bandaged by Doctor Bashir as she speaks.’They want to takeover the city.’
But before I could ask more, I was escorted back to the Command Unit.
‘How do you operate the panel, Commander?’ It was Margaret who was doing the asking now.
‘I don’t. It respond to my thoughts. I guess I am the only one who can operates it.’ I was knock with the butt of the PH925 on my back causing me to topple over on the front. I looked back at my opponent and remembered that face. ‘Take him back to the Holding. We can do without the pillars bolts. Call in the HELI-PODs.’
The sound of explosions can be heard even inside the Holding and we are not sure who is winning. The sound gets more muffled and then died down. We were sitting anxiously in the Holding and we are lost as to what is happening out there. Then it has to happened.
‘Commander, you need to help or we will all die.’ It was Major Shaw at the doorway to our containment. I rushed out for the Command Unit. On my arrival, I can see the large screen showing me swamps of chimps on the yard. They are not breaking in but sitting around.
‘I can activate the darned bolts!’ It was Margaret sitting on the chair, and slamming her left hand on the side of the chair. I walked up to her and yank her off the chair. I sat down and looked back at the screen. There are the nine HELI-PODs but they are not firing for they fear the bolts.
‘What do we do now?’ I looked at Margaret and shook my head. ‘I don’t have a fragging idea. You tell me since you sat here earlier.’ Everyone in the unit looked at me. By then the rest of my personnels are coming in.
‘Disarm them and throw them into the Holdings. We got to figure out this battle now.’ The organization members did not pose any resistance as we disarmed them and moved them out.
‘Doctor Tanaki, talk to me.’ I looked at the bruised up man of intellect and he just shook his head. ‘Anyone can tell me please.’
No one could, and we are trapped in here. All of us no numbering four hundred and three only people of the original population. And among them are the ex-inmates who has been very helpful and shared the same responsibilities as everyone. The Holding holds forty five people including those from the Command Unit. They had executed some of the colonists or personnels who resisted them earlier but the legal tribunal will be done later.
Now I have a survival issue with over five thousand chimps out there. They must had climbed up the wall using the vines or ladders of their own design. I had the available weapons issued to everyone and all entrances are to be guarded. There are no ex-inmates or colonists; they are all officers of the Empire Forces.
Day 3
‘Doctor Bormann, I am having you here because you did do a good work here, until you decided to change employers. Now this is your chance to redeem yourself. You know more on this place than all of us. So start talking.’ I am looking at the dejected man who now faces a possible charge of treason.
‘There is a console which we can talk to the system; like a database references or query engine. It may be our only help, but it does not talk to anyone of us. Maybe to you it might.’ The doctor was looking at with his lost expression.
‘Show me’. Doctor Bormann asked me to followed him, and we took a long walk to a large unit. inside it is another large screen and a open console. He walked towards it and asked me to lay my right hand on the center of the console. I did as per his instruction.
The screen lighted up and the imprint of my palm was shown and it was scanning it. Then the words we been seeing so often on some console came up; ‘καλωσόρισμα’ or ‘welcome’ I asked Doctor Bormann to plug in his computer pad so we can interface to it.
‘Use some translation program for me to talk to it.’ The doctor plugged in the unit in some slot on the side and started running his computer. It was then he noticed that the computer started processing on itself, and data was transferred between the computer and the console. On the screen are pages of computer language and bytes of data being shown. Doctor Bormann tried to pull it out and he got thrown back by an electrical charge. That downloading or uploading went on for a while before it stopped. Then the screen started displaying glimpses of images and documents from the doctor’s computer. Doctor Bormann reached again for the computer and he did managed to pull the pad’s connector off. But the screen is still processing the information it may had taken from the computer.
And then it went blank.
‘Willkommen, Doktor Bormann‘ was on the screen.
‘Darned it. Its speaks German now.‘ I cursed at the console for translating a language which I know a little bit of the common syllable only.
‘Then its welcome, Doctor Bormann.’ We all looked at it and was lost for words.
‘It does speak English.’ I remarked at the surprising wonderment of how this technology works.
‘I read the information from your console, and it has a translator built in, plus a fair library of english terms and phases. So I adapt to the communication mode so that we can understand each other. Before you continued, allow myself to introduce myself. I am ALPHA; the console that can communicate with you about Atlantis as you named it.’
‘ALPHA, my name is Commander Scott Bent. Doctor Bormann is my colleague who was trying to help me get you to talk to me.’
‘Commander; a military rank used by the sea faring armies also known as the Navies. Te rank originated in the 18th century for officers who commanded certain size of ships of war and the commander is also appropriately designated as the master of the ship. However over the last hundred years, the rank has been taken to mean more than just a ship but a rank equivalent to a very senior ranking officer. ‘
‘So Commander Bent, how may I assist you?’ It continued in its monotonous voice. ‘Wait, the analysis of the name has sprung up new data. You are the chosen one worthy to hold the Trident. The scan on the console has shown the connectivity of yourself to the Trident. Bravo......oops, pardon me. That was a program error.’
‘Its okay, ALPHA. As I was about to say, please tell me the status of the city now?’
‘Your request is being processed.’ The console hummed its sound of working or analyzing my request and the display showed me what it did processed.
‘Do you want all the reports as there are over three thousand of it with thousand more of its attachment. Should we just focus on the one which needs immediate attention? As in your language, cut the crap and get on the job.’ I am sure I can hear it sniggler.
‘Ok, I need to know the status of the chimps first outside the dome.’
‘Chimps or Chimpanzees; members from the Hominidae family, along with gorillas, humans, and orangutans. Chimpanzees .....’
‘Forget that, and tell me what are they doing?’ I had to interrupt it or it will be telling a whole array of notes on the primates.
‘The chimps are actually sitting and defecating in the yard. I think they are waiting for you to come out. We encountered them before in the last war. Shall I remove them for you?’ That was the answer I wanted to hear.
‘How are you going do that? Zap them or bolt them out.’ I do not want something which will caused more damages to the city.
‘I am going to deploy action procedure A45 on them.’
‘A45? What’s that?’ I beginning to get concerned on the functionality of this intelligent computer.
The screen showed the chimps and they are doing what ALPHA listed down. Bloody shameful acts in public. But then something happened; the water in the moats starts to rise and over flow onto the yard. The water surging in gets higher and the chimps saw that. They started running for the jungle again, over lapping or stomping on their peers.
‘ALPHA what did you do? Or what is A45?’
‘I lowered the city down by two feet so the water from the moat will flow in. Chimps hates water. And it also washed the mucks off the flooring. A45 are some of the defenses which are programmed in, and its does not do harm unless the offenders harm the city. Then its initiating procedure X series like X101.’
‘X101?’ I am just curious to know.
‘That the lightning bolts from the Titans’ pillar. In your terms, we toast’em off.’
Day 6
For three long days, ALPHA was able to guide the doctors and myself onto many open units and it does give you a lot of info. But we found out more of our new home.
The city was build by the people we know as Atlantean s. They were space travelers or space explorers; they moved to lived on different worlds to expand their knowledge and influence. They first came to this world twenty one thousand years ago, from their departure from their last inhabited planet in the Milky Way in their fleet of ships. It was not disclosed why they left the last city or world but they did then with a population of ten thousand people. When they first landed here, this continent was not the same as now. It was barren and there was hardly any life forms here. The environment was not suitable for the the Atlantean s but they terraform it to be close to their previous world. They wanted it to be abundant with life creatures and flora. Hence the cloning of the creatures to fulfill that prophesy of theirs, just as they clone the plants and replicate the terrain. They wanted to create a land before man came into existence. Even though the creatures were wild and could had devoured them, it did not deter them in developing it as to them, they wanted to study the evolution of the creatures.
But what they created became a bane to their existence; the creatures are evolving too fast and wide. The species became their own in some and intelligence levels differ from the original donors. That was one major species which became dominant; the chimps. They evolved too fast and became more humanlike. Then it was found that one of their team actually incorporate human DNA traits into the chimps. The DNA structured changed and the chimps became superior intellects and grew faster. Where once man holds the uno species; here the chimps came in ranked first. When once the chimps was servants, not they are rebels for equality. The Atlantean s saw the threat and removed them from the city. They were banished on the grounds of humanity; a trait which the Atlantean regretted picking up on the previous world.
But the chimps did not dwindled or sink into extinction. Instead they grew and the Atlantean’s had to fight them off the land. It was a fierce war and the Atlantean s won. The chimps were banished to the far boundaries, and not allowed to return. The large predators was their deterrent to come back but they did; a hundred years later with bigger numbers and brandishing weapons; manlike weapons. Again they were beaten back but they came one more time in greater numbers. In the end, a hundred and fifty years ago, the Atlantean s took a vote to go again. The council of Twelve; the highest council in the Atlantean s wanted to destroy the city but it was the vote of the thousands who asked that they keep it. Just in case they want to come back here again. So it was decided that the city be kept but it will be hidden from the chimps. That was how the Monolith came to existence. A force field was to cover the city while earth soils was move onto it. Eventually the soil will hardened and it will become a canopy over the city. We have just discovered only one fifth of the whole city; the rest are still buried under the Monolith. But ALPHA will not tell us how to get to the other parts of the city. Its not in its program.
On the Trident, its real as the Trident is the weapon wield by the warriors of Atlantis. It does vibrate the ground if its like a sonar tool. There are two classes of the trident; the dark one is for the warriors and the silver is for the royals like the council of Twelve. Its power is triple fold and it can caused the ground to split or raised the water like a geyser. But it can only be wield by the chosen ones; or the ones which are linked by genealogy to the old council members of the past. ALPHA said I could be a descendant of one of the earlier council of Twelve members. That was why I could swim the depth to get the Trident; as the city system recognised my genes. It adjusted the water pressure for me to dive in. Its also attached the Trident to me. And the chair was also for the council members,and it was how I could activate the bolts.
I asked about the Lizard men, and it went silent for a while. Then ALPHA told me about the lizard men. They are not Lizard men but Serpents Headed Helmets worn by man. They are a splinter of the Atlantean s who chose to go separately during the last world. They went on to worship or claim another as their idol; Seth, the God of confusion, represents chaos and disorder; and also creates destructive forces of nature: the howling storms, thunder and the rain. He is Zeus near equivalent in hey days. But Seth is not really evil: he did murder his his brother Osiris, but it was the same act that allowed Osiris to fulfill his destiny as the God of the dead. Without that, there would not have been reincarnation. Upon his brother’s death, Seth did claimed his brother’s position. But in the end , he gave it up to Horus, Osiris’s son. The splinter group did not believe in the Olympians’ as their idol, so they resurrect Seth as one. Due to that, they waged war on the Atlantean for the right of New Pangaea. But they were defeated in the last three wars, and not seen since then. They are there and not really defeated.
So we know a lot more but the threat of the chimps and lizard men are still out there. And the Organization.
But which will come next?
‘Who could do this and how?’ I am looking at the corpse of forty five including Margaret Welch and Major Shaw. They are laying on the floor in the Holding Unit, next to the water dispenser.
‘Hydrogen Cyanide poisoning. It was in their drink. They all drink from there. Someone has given that without our knowledge.’ Doctor Bashir was examining the blood sample in his lab when I saw him. ‘But cyanide is a very old poison; we have more better ones but why cyanide. But this one is from the plant extract. Cyanogenic glycoside can be extracted from plants like Cassava or Sorghum. I think I seen the former on the plateau or look like it. Whoever knows their plant can re-produce the cyanide. Someone like a zoologist or botanist. Or even a doctor like me.’ I looked at Doctor Bashir with a frown on my expression. He is just telling the facts and not implying anything at all.
‘So its a suicide pact then. There are such groups on Earth, and you are telling these are too.’ I hate suicide driven groups; too unpredictable.But Doctor has nodded to my last statement. If they are all dead, then there will be none around. But my instinct tells me I am wrong.
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