Chapter Seven–BEYOND THE BOUNDS

 

 

Ari and Yu donned their anti-gravity suits with the care of a mother dressing her only child. These high-tech vestments would shield them as comprehensively as a newborn in a birthing tube.

"I love this," Ari volunteered, slipping into the silvery second skin.

What he felt was akin to a techno-surfer propelling onto an anti-gravity board while teaching his child to use it. The suit left the wearer jaunty and carefree.

"When I'm wearing one of these, no matter where I am, I feel like I'm back in Yutanius. There's a feeling of deep inner balance." Yu sensed herself back in the safety and security of her childhood home.

“It’s like your father gave you a magic shield to guard you,” Ari joked with half-hidden jealousy.

“The camouflage they provide is better than any Protector’s sheltering electronic spell.”

Ari smelled the suit. It had an intimate familiarity, even though it was brand new. "I put this on and instantly attune to a universal harmony. Your Dad sure knew what he was doing. Not only do the anti-gravity particles he discovered shelter us from the elements, but these illuminated veins are biochromed blended with natural microscopic pigments that absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect others, creating a visible color that is targeted at camouflaging us everywhere. It even seems to hide worries and woes from the most troubled heart." They had programmed their destination and travel preferences into a guidance system in their suits. The suit created a vague pull in the right direction each time a decision was needed. It was like the barest of nudges from a father guiding a youngster as it stepped through a crowd. After a while it wasn't even noticeable. They simply knew they were on the right path.

"Who'd have guessed that nano-sized tubes filled with elemental particles of gravitons would have such a miraculous effect?"

Ari smiled, joking with an easy confidence the suit lent his spirit. "Your Dad did, of course!"

Yu returned Ari's radiant smile. She knew Ari shared a pride in her father, Kelan, that was far purer and simpler than his love for Nor. Yu was as glad to share her home and parents with Ari as Kelan was to share the security of his invention with those who wore them.

The combination of their magnificent adventure and the deep safety the suits provided made the two as proud as a child taking its first step into a waiting father's arms. It was as though Kelan guarded them. Even though he was far away on the other side of the island, his invention held them securely in his custody.

As much as they appreciated the suits, they were unaware of their ethereal appearance. Covered with a flickering web of micro veins, the gossamer material was as celestial as nature’s parturient glow.

As they flew the long winding thoroughfares of Atlantius, they headed into the wilderness of an uncertain future.The emotional shield the suits provided was not quite impervious to a dark pulse spurting in their imaginations.

As the suites tugged to the left, tall pyramid-shaped buildings of shiny Atlantian metals and crystals rose majestically around them. Sides slightly bowed, their huge rounded peaks glittered brightly in the early morning light. True to her kind, the aesthetic qualities of the design pleased Yu's sensual nature.

As they floated above, they could hear and smell a series of waterfalls that fell in harmony with the rising day, splashing in sun-streaked cascades down the building's steps, spilling their gurgling laughter, bubbling into the canals that paralleled the street.

Yu contemplated the water rushing on its own-charted course. “The sound of moving water is universally therapeutic. I get lost when I contemplate it. The waters of life grant tranquility and peace to even the most casual observers.”

Ari breathed more deeply. “It’s hard to feel unsettled listening to something so primal. They echo deep memories of total security.”

“The well-spring of life.”

The Lawmaker’s civic pride rose. “That’s why the city founders planned them to intermingle with our daily life.”

“Listening more than comforts me. It awakens ancestral knowledge that becomes a shield from life’s problems. A kind of circle of protection.”

The air was fresh and sweet in the long-shadowed dawn. Ari knew the moment was precious. As the suit suddenly pulled to the right, he struggled to still a part of himself that could go mad if untamed.

"Quiet your heart, Ari. All this must be carried within."

Ari gathered the safety of home deeper into himself. He nodded, affirming something profound beyond words. This last glimpse of his endangered homeland urged some bottomless expression. A fragment of song flashed through him.

Yu intuited the colors of his friend's orchestrated vibrations. Ari's musical compositions were complex designs of synesthesia. His creations were seen in the mind's eye as a clairvoyance of color and light. Yet, as Ari and Yu listened to the low hum of their suites the artwork at this moment was their immediate surroundings.

"Smell that," Yu suggested. "It's part of what the Planners designed to entrain feelings of security in us."

Ari breathed deeper. Waterfalls of magnolia scent, seemingly belonging to a sultry moonlit morning, floated from heady beds of ruffled blooms. The aroma they offered and the artistry of the vivid collage created a sense of well being so profound that it was just on the sane side of ecstasy. Ari’s multi-sensory orchestration underscored them gazing at the bower of DNA-enriched flowers as they continued out of the city.

Yu smiled, “I can’t see or smell those flowers without thinking that their symmetry suggests the orderly disciplined minds that created them.”

High and proud in the morning breeze waved a whorl of large showy flowers supported by supple stems. Shades of white, yellow, and green leaned toward the terraced beds of layered flowers climbing the embankment.

“And to think that they are maintenance free,” Ari observed.

“No one weeds the jungle either. Nature embraces what we have made, smoothing the hard edges from our efforts, leaving only beauty.”

Jogging trails, now steep, now flat, now winding, bordered the waterways. Buoyed by their suits, the friends veered around a group of Atlantians out for their morning routines. They watched them enjoy harmonious slow movements of breath and muscle that jogged them toward total health.

Ari pondered his city. "The pleasure the Planners took in wrapping us in safety shows how we have all been cared for each instant of living here."

"The heart of the maker shows as much as the hand," Yu observed. "It’s evident that they played full-heartedly at this. How sad that some Atlantians regard their pursuits as work. Joy and safety can't come from drudgery."

“So much care has gone into this.” Ari knew he might never see his city again. He paused to observe a network of paths that cris-crossed the city like strands in a web. “Atlantians care deeply about all this. We spend most of our time working on things that greatly interest us. Quantum science, energy, math, and physics---

“Music,” Yu interjected, naming Ari’s own special passion.

“And art. These studies are all games to mature minds. When we play, we feel safe.”

“True. Security comes from fulfilling your inner role."

“What makes Atlantians special is that for us the journey is its own reward. If we discover something new, that’s not as thrilling as working on it.”

“What a delicious paradox. Investing care for and care in the work creates results that are more wonderful than if they cared about the outcome in and of itself.”

Ari picked up on Yu’s word play. “They seem as if they haven’t a care in the world, precisely because they care so much for what they are doing. Your father must have toyed with these suits for hours on end."

Yu agreed, smiling with pride. "I know that as wondrous as discovery of the graviton element was, it wasn’t as thrilling for him as the years of relaxed experimentation that led to it."

“When it comes to city planning, the care taken for our citizens creates an atmosphere where the city itself takes care of us all. The unity of the design creates unity within our society.”

Yu again indicated the many crossroads. Normally the trails were pleasantly busy. Work-free health-conscious Atlantians had plenty of unencumbered time and used it well. This early morning was no exception. Many had risen to enjoy the light show the sun created. It greeted a new day by striking the crystal and gold buildings that were designed to create stunning reflections.

Ari and Yu emerged above a group crossing a transparent footbridge spanning the canal. They continued with them above and around a glittering glass tunnel under the next waterway. They didn't consider where they were going as they made their way unerringly above the network of sparkling paths.

Today when Ari and Yu programmed their suits they had selected speed as the first priority, flight as the second. In areas where solo anti-gravity suit flight was permitted, they wanted a final chance to soar. Outside the city they would be grounded like fledglings. Within it, crowds of wind-riding Atlantians masked their presence.

Just now a clutch of Atlantians flitted joyfully above, traveling in silent anti-gravity suits. Ari saw them as an example of Yu’s previous observations. “The unity of some of our people is reflected in courtesy and respect for flight rules. The departures and landings are orderly and without incident precisely because of that.” Ari continued, laughing, “except for those two over there!”

Still higher overhead were Atlantians traveling longer distances. These flew in two and three-seated anti-gravity bubbles. Their silvery hulls had blue underbellies to reduce the hazard of the sun’s glare. They were as numerous by day as stars at night. “See how carefully they safely navigate above the local traffic,” added Ari. “They are such a familiar sight that we forget how elegant their interaction is. Can you imagine how many would crash if they had to depend on some external control instead of being confident that each will care for the other? Space would be a cold lonely place if we couldn’t feel safe with each other and rely on each other’s mutual care.”

"They're all going somewhere and all know where they are going, "Ari remarked, tugging at his blond hair and at the same moment being tugged to the right by his suite.

"Isn't it marvelous?”

Ari nodded in agreement. "Your Yutan class has served everyone well in their role as Protectors. I can't imagine anything they forgot when they planned this city."

"No doubt the Supreme Magistrate deserves some credit for securing the mandate that allowed their creativity free reign."

Strained though his relationship with his father often was, Ari appreciated Yu's acknowledgment of Nor’s leadership. Ari was keenly aware of that legacy as they buzzed down one of the contemplation trails bordering the canal.

Ari’s voice dropped. "I'm glad of our adventure, but I hate leaving home."

"You're lucky, Ari. You have two homes, the city of your father and your adoptive Yutanius."

Ari shivered, despite the fact that he couldn't possibly be cold in the suit Yu's father had designed. "Someone with a father shouldn't have an adoptive city. You feel safe here and at home. I never feel at home in Yutanius or Atlantius."

Yu knew her words might well have irked Ari, who seemed to visibly shrink whenever she alluded to his father. Worse yet, Ari evidently felt himself shrivel. He unconsciously brushed his hair back and shifted his position as though working to uphold his stature against something weightier than the Dark Heart and colder than the endlessly empty space through which it was flinging toward them. Facing the Dark Heart’s challenge did not crush Ari: in a small way, somehow, it strengthened him. Paradoxically, he felt his own safety, his destiny, lay in confronting danger.

Ari often felt insignificant amidst the grandeur and intrinsic science of the city. Not today! Today he took on a self-confidence that buoyed him up more than the suit. He matched Yu's light movements as he floated beyond the urban hustle and bustle. Filled with joy and anticipation for the adventure ahead, he was heedless of the fast-moving clouds scudding across the sun, sending wide swatches of shadow across the metallic spires atop the pyramids.

Ari glanced up at them. "It’s a miracle that the buildings collect solar energy even when the sun is hidden by clouds.”

“Clouds like that are often forerunners of volcanic activity. The biggest blows can displace the stalled air before them in a matter of seconds, sending out clouds of ash at over 700 kilometers per hour."

"I'd say I'm impressed with that little recitation, but your Yutan-sized head might become as big as the blow you just so accurately described."

"Gee, I didn't even remind you that the winds would peak at 1,200 kilometers per hour or that an anti-gravity bubble could easily keep us safe from a blow that size. They can out run nearly anything."

Being with Yu was often like taking an unscheduled trip to an Emersion Memory Preserve. Ari jibbed again, still good-natured, "Nothing like stating the obvious. Who'd imagine we'd need shelter from a thermoplastic blast?"

"Of course, we don't have the luxury of generating a security bubble for shelter if we are to go unobserved." As Ari and Yu floated to the end of their programmed destination, the suites slowly landed, ending one journey and beginning another.

Near the end of the street, where the green expanse of the jungle first stretched away from the paved walkways of the city, they approached a wafer dispenser. It gleamed brightly in the daylight.

“The sun is still shining. It’s unconcerned with your dire predictions. The sky knows which Yutans are full of their own hot air!”

They laughed together. It was as easy for them to replenish each other’s spirit as to replace their supply of energy wafers.

"Which flavors are you taking? I know you’re smart about everything but low in common sense.”

"High-energy wafers should be our preferred selection."

"We'll need the metabolic enzymes to enhance the vitamins and minerals."

“One lasts three days. But we better take extras.”

“We won’t have any extra days. But we’ll undoubtedly need the extra energy.”

A series of Atlantian characters embedded in the sleek metal face of the dispenser indicated the variety of wafers offered. Selections made, the dispenser momentarily hummed. It was the result of generations of Atlantian technological refinement. Even this mundane apparatus evidenced great care.

“I almost envy this machine.” Ari was not quite kidding. “Its purpose in life is so evident and easily fulfilled. The dispenser dispenses.”

As each munched on a wafer, Ari, ever curious, plumbed his friends' technical expertise. "Are there any new developments in the wafer?"

Yu swelled, pleased at the opportunity to expound. "I understand that potent super enzymes will soon inhibit the aging process more effectively."

"Imagine, people 800 years old will only be middle aged."

“And there are other benefits!” Yu exclaimed. Now we don't even have vestigial organs for excretion. We have designed our bodies as easily as our ancient ancestors designed clothes. Ari, remember in school, the course ancient biology?"

“How awful it must have been to have excretory organs!”

The young explorers wrinkled their noses at the thought.

The two were exchanging grins again, when a familiar facial skull form appeared reflected on the flat side of the dispenser unit. It was their friend Face. He floated easily toward them, then grounded himself and walked up to the dispenser.

Although they had not noticed his arrival at first, neither one was surprised that he was there. In fact, they would have been astounded had he not joined them. The two took little notice of Face's physical form. Friends for longer than they could remember, they found nothing remarkable about the incongruities Face had chosen for his physical self. His head bore its bony face on the outside like a mask. The exoskeleton blended into the expansive chest of a body builder. Yet, built into this epitome of health and physical perfection was superiority marked by a slight limp.

Face had chosen the skull to show his dark sense of humor. He was ready to accompany them on their hike overland. He moved so lightly he might have been taken for a mirage. As a Super-Intelligent Crystal (SIC), he chose whatever shape he wanted. His quantum silicon body was the supremely superb creation of Atlantian technology. Science itself was his author. The contributions of inventor after inventor begot ever more elegant complex concepts. Each of these in turn sired new inspirations that became the ancestors of still more forefathers, all bearing fruit. This ongoing procreation was so explosive that SIC's could never be claimed by any one founder or even an identifiable collection of originators. Like all SIC's, Face took pride in having a Progenitor so vast that his Creator was beyond naming or even having a point from which he could be said to originate. Each SIC was a complex configuration of 100 billion crystal neurons. Given their ability to link with each other, their capabilities were staggering.

“I hope this trip won't be too exhausting," he said in a flat monotone. His metallic voice echoed after each word. As his own originator, he also had selected it for himself. It seemed a good match for Face’s current form.

“You exhausted?” Ari grinned. “I'm sure you'll do just fine. No sweat!”

Face grimaced at the joke, knowing full well he did not, could not sweat.

There was nothing left but the future. At once the youths set out, stepping into a wild and untamed jungle.

"And you thought you had this big secret," Face teased, as they passed the first trail marker.

Yu joked back. "We know you have a security clearance that comes straight from Nor. Level 4, if I recall. That you would know about this trip is so evident, it's as transparent as you are."

"I'm glad Face is coming along," Ari said, starting a new joke by talking as if Face weren't present.

Yu nodded. "Yes, good old sarcastic Face."

Ari grinned. "You'd think he'd be more appreciative."

Yu's response was more serious. "That’s true. After all, if it hadn't been for your help, Face and his clan would still be second-class Atlantian citizens, virtually slaves. Your nine-hour filibuster is still lauded at Council."

"I was only eighteen at the time," Ari noted. "My idealism outweighed my brains."

"I know Face appreciates that remark, wherever he is."

"That's me," Face acknowledged, ignoring them ignoring him. "Transparent, no sweat, and a brain that is as small as the thoughts it originates are large."

Ari's defense of the Crystal Intelligence clan stood legendary in Atlantian history. Eight years earlier, Ari had brilliantly and successfully argued for first-class citizenship for the 123,000 members of the crystal clan. As super life forms, the Crystal Intelligence had developed out of the best of Atlantian technology, but had independently evolved far beyond their artificial conception. Ari was one of the first to recognize that.

Face made his voice echo metallically. “We recreated ourselves so thoroughly, that we became a new life form. So, we created ourselves. We are our own offspring, not someone else’s intellectual property. As new citizens, we can now choose our own life work.”

“Many SIC’s kept their old jobs,” Ari commented.

Yu cut to the relevant part. “Change is more significant than stasis. Some twenty-percent left Atlantian service to seek knowledge on their own.”

“I’m glad Face is one such entity.” Ari turned in the direction of his friend’s transparent body. “Yu and I always welcome your help.”

"Let's see," Yu calculated, "Face's clan now numbers about 183,000. Atlantius holds 21,000 people and Yutanius 20,600. That's how many thousands they outnumber us by?"

"Besides having been the morally correct thing, it is always strategically correct to acknowledge the rights of those who outnumber you. Especially when they are as skilled at variation as our friend here."

Ari marveled as Face's transparency glowed with blue and yellow energy waves. It was only a slight flicker of the immense energies Face could beget. By this subtle flash, Ari and Yu knew Face had his bio-isomer set to mask his energy frequency. The color that resulted was ideal jungle camouflage, a delicate tracery of green lacings.

Face and his clan had the option of using quantum vitreous silica as the substance of their bodies. It was strong and so flexible that it could be shaped by choice. Face simply liked the bodybuilder look with ribbed muscles and the cut of a super hero. He chose that appearance as one expression of himself.

Other SI Crystals preferred to work as parts in a whole and never took individual form. Some lived out their lives as crystal chips in Spatial Emersion Systems or in similar works. Others took form as Atlantian citizens or common objects. When in the form of an Atlantian body, they could move their legs just as any biped would or float about with the help of anti-gravity technology. That was why as he initially approached the two, Face had stopped gliding and moved on foot. Although his energy signature was not measurable, he knew he must not project too much of it.

Face chided Ari. "You're staring at me."

"Was I? I guess I'm turning green with envy so I can match the blended tones of your yellow and blue. I was drawn in by your hypnotic personality. The way you look with the bio-isomer turned on makes you absolutely mesmeric."

"I agree," added Yu. "You should remember that setting, even when you don't have to use it. That guise is quite fetching. It nearly conceals that skull mask of yours. You can cast it on yourself next time there's a female around and hide that bony shield of yours."

"Indeed," Ari teased, "Drom could model her makeup on that pattern."

Face didn't rise to the bait. "The only thing I need to disguise is my energy levels, thank you. I've no need to veil this form itself. If I wanted to conceal myself, I'd simply pick another body."

"You sure picked yourself a true rib!" Ari thumped the sculptural ridges of Face's upper abs.

"Stop ribbing me!" Face exclaimed.

Ari doubled over groaning in exaggerated exasperation at the pun. Face accepted this tribute as his due. His wit was legendary — at least his friends thought so!

The joking had helped the three make the transition from the structured security of the city to the wilderness. Magnolias had blended into wild flowers, which in turn became lost in dense foliage.

"Even lower life forms who can’t cover themselves with flesh and bone of their own choosing, build shields." Face bent and pulled a small snail off the trail to illustrate his point. "See how even this fellow shrouds himself in nature."

Yu tapped one finger gently on the small creature's shell and then lightly drummed his fingers on Face's chin bone. "Do you think he gave thought to the form his shell takes? His father engineered him without a suspicion of what DNA is. Whereas a bastard like you chose a mask to hide a form you can choose and change. What a riddle you are!"

Instead of taking offense at the unaccustomed vulgarity, Face let innocence flow from him like fragrance wafting from a magnolia. "I'll bear the cost of my romantic choices on this trek, thank you."

Face exaggerated his limp comically to make his point. He walked so gracefully and powerfully that this joke might have been a dance step. Face was skilled at taking what others saw as imperfections and making them seem special. It was a lesson that he had felt the need to literally incorporate in himself.

He limped again, sparkling humor as he conveyed that his chosen imperfection was not a functional problem for him. "If you ask me, our world is sometimes too perfect. Flaws are part of uniqueness."

Ari couldn't resist another round of badinage. "As a Lawmaker, I agree. We are reaching the point where difference is nearly unflawful."

It was Face's turn to double over in mock pain. "You reached beyond the point that time. That was totally flawful!"

"A flawful old bastard like you ought to know," Ari quipped.

Suddenly Face was totally serious. "Don't call me that!"

"What? Yu just called you a bastard and you took it as a compliment!"

"From Yu it is homage to SIC's being beyond having any sire. When you say that, it is colored with emotion."

Ari quickly changed the subject. "The bio-isomer is coloring you a particularly vivid chartreuse right now. Do you feel the color when it changes?"

"No. I don't even feel a difference between the bio-isomer being turned on or off. It's not at all like blushing. You Atlantians are the only species on the planet that still has that capacity or need of it."

Ari knew that Face was confronting him, so he masked it with a return to word play. "Get out of my face, Face."

"Trust me, Ari, if there is anyone in existence you can take at Face value it's me."

Ari kept walking down the path, but changed his mental direction abruptly. "I wish we could take everything as much at face value as you my friend."

"I'm only a level four," Face reminded him. "I don't know any more about this than you do."

"Ah, but you do think there is more to this than it seems?" Ari, urged him.

"More than a monumentally large asteroid threatening total destruction? Yes, I think there is something even larger than the Dark Heart at stake."

Face's jungle green seemed more vivid for an instant. Ari's mind clouded over with the thought of not seeing Drom.

Through that mist, Ari still heard Face as he continued. "The Administrator is no more likely to share a top secret with me than you two."

Face paused, his leg lifted in mid-limp. "You are staring at me again."

"I can't stare at you. I can only stare through you."

"You may see the jungle through me, but you were staring at me. Perhaps the frequency of these yellow and blue waves is too hypnotic."

Yu observed Ari. "Perhaps your joke about being green with envy wasn't just a joke."

Ari tried to hold a thought he could not quite form. "It is something about that green."

"I can adjust the frequency slightly and still not be detected," Face offered obligingly.

"No, leave it as it is. Something about it catches my attention. It isn't just a biological reaction to the pattern. It reminds me of something."

"Perhaps something from your time spent with the whales when you were composing sea songs with them," Yu suggested.

Ari felt a shiver that had nothing to so with temperature. He flipped his hair back. A fragment of memory flickered through his consciousness. "The whales? Yes. Something about them. But not the sea, nor the songs. Something about them, but not of them."

"I was there," Yu declared flatly. "I can't place it either, but I sense I was part of it."

Ari looked into his friend's wide brown eyes as if trying to see what they had once beheld. Yu's thought vein pulsed madly.

"Be careful, old friend," Ari observed. "That thought will literally burst through your mind if you focus any harder."

"That's it!" Yu and Ari exclaimed in unison.

"That's what?" Face asked.

"I don't know," Ari replied, looking at Yu hopefully.

"Neither do I. I don't know what it is, but that is definitely it.”

"So," Face recounted factually, "you know there is something you both saw about the whales that is green and has to do with a mind bursting?"

"Exactly," Ari agreed. "You put it better than we could have. We’re too caught in the image’s power to separate its elements."

"Did my isolation of those thoughts help you see the image?"

Both shook their heads regretfully.

"Just stay that particular shade of green," Ari requested. "There’s something about it we must remember. Something that could shake the foundations of Atlantian government."

 

 

Chapter Eight—POWER HUNTERS

 

 

Nine-hundred million kilometers away, a propulsion system powered a perfectly-pointed teardrop-shaped ship back to Junos. The skulking fugitives it carried were sealed in a larger 1,200 meter long Atlantian inspiration. Inside this spaceship, a fatal shadow hooded the wide eyes of the robed Yutan leader. His death-grip willpower concealed his thoughts as easily as his notions made a chair melt upward from the bare metallic blue floor. It formed around him in detailed response to his phantasmic whims.

The leader’s hermetic knowledge was focused on something more elusive than the propulsion system. Yet the mind and the machine were both making something seemingly out of nothing. As in all Atlantian ships, the power that allowed the ship to escape gravity, suddenly dodge lethally obstacles, and flee into or from oblivion was based on receiving quantum gravity and quantum electromagnetism from dark matter fields. It used the energy from planets, dark matter, cosmic strings, quasars, supernovas and black holes to elude entropy.

The crew of traitors restlessly paced within the shell of cold mirror-like Atlantian metal. Perhaps they wanted to escape their own reflections. They tread their traitorous steps near a three-meter tall, two-meter thick window of pale gray crystal. Wrapping the 333 meter circumference of the ship, the floor-to-ceiling pane did much more than give each room a stunning stellar view. It gathered and amplified dark matter and electromagnetism from celestial bodies and dark space with the help of the dark matter and dark energy drives.

The leader barked out, “What is the temporal report?”

“Magnetic permeability zero,” a breath stealer responded.

Another request was snarled, “Gravitational force?”

A blood vassal replied, “Reducing to meters.”

“Junos in sight,” called out a notorious assassin, proud of his star craft.

The leader’s command was that of a bellowing fiend. “dark energy drives disengage.”

Another one of the hive of horde hunters responded. “Electrical permittivity zero.”

Panels appeared and disappeared from the mirrored walls according to the orders. The traitors used their command frequencies with surges of strength suited to war-makers. All of them knew the walls were made from a special alloy of exclusive Atlantian metal and fused crystal embedded with gravitons elements. It did not matter that the craft acted like an Amplified Quantum Gravity Lens. In doing so, the ship automatically took small amounts of dark energy and produced amplified gravity and electromagnetic fields within space. The lens would analyze, sample, store and augment dark energy by finding dark matter. The craft could travel just over the speed of light.

The second mode was the Iridium drive. To work, the Iridium crystal merged with the dark energy producing the controlled power of an exploding star. This drive produced inter-dimensional space travel by connecting two points in space-time. A space-time connection was created by controlling and manipulating supercharged dark energy fields. The iridium crystal activated an artificial apparent horizon from amplified dark matter. These amplified energy fields had the power to curve space and time. Iridium crystals were only recently used in Atlantian ships. They were provided by trading with the Ancient Ones and at times the price could be dire.

The iridium crystals helped create this apparent horizon empowering a protective portal curving space-time. These inter-dimensional fields formed dimensional bridges, protective rips in space-time, masking mass and allowing travel to distant universes and galaxies in minutes. Creating an apparent horizon was like flinging open the gates to eternity while moving around space and time without end.

These Atlantian ships were self-sustaining and linked to certain brain frequencies of their owners. Thought was enough to control them. Panels generated, operated, and morphed back into the alloy from which they sprang without any need for the user to learn the system. You could depart, launch into flight, and skip through the universe with no engineering ability. With the right brain frequency, if you could pilot one Atlantian ship, you could fly any of them. The small version five-person ship or a large transport and cargo ship, all operated alike.

Obvious to these design miracles, the leader leered into infernal darkness. “Look for any ships. Anyone reading gravitational waves?”

“Gravitational lensing detected. Energy oscillations seventy-five degrees north of Junos.”

The leader’s intuition was timely. A blue-white flash rent the night. The brief blinding light heralded a gravitational wave opening a space-time door. The Ancient One's spacecraft blinked, followed by three more crafts bursting of energy, with the speed of ancient ancestors desperate to break out from the malignant face of evil.

The Ancient One’s lightship was very different from the Atlantian ships. Created of mysterious unknown materials, it had ridged ovals, not teardrops, and very different quantum signatures. Its four-ridge design flowed and decreased in size as it moved toward the back of the ships.

As the traitorous crew looked for more ancient lightships, they felt inside their brain a penetrating message, a light, like the haze of a near-death experience, settle over them. The Ancient Ones telepathically reached out. Without a word, the Ancient Ones arranged a meeting with the traitors near a odd shaped bolder on the scared surface of Junos.

From their ship, the renegades discussed their turncoat strategy, without considering that the Ancient Ones could still lurk attuned to their thoughts. In an age of clairvoyance, words were denser and less detectable than pure thought.

“The Ancient Ones can stop the asteroid. Be certain of that.

The bending of space and time is nothing to them. They can avoid its evil.” The Leader reiterated the premise that had brought the conspirators together. “We can run Atlantis better than any Supreme Magistrate and his band of bureaucrats ever has. This is our opportunity for deliverance.”

“You’re right,” the leader confirmed. “The Ancient Ones will do and say anything for the DNA. They’re in a blood lust, and the Administrators fear the lifeblood of Atlantis will soon die. They think the entire planet is at risk. They will desert their home.”

The Leader thought him a dangerous apprentice. This mind ripper was a mercenary marauder who would sell even an enchantress, a maiden of paradise, to a common cutthroat. He was no fanatic bound by higher principles. The Leader held him in contempt, suspecting that cowardice lay just beneath a thin veneer of bravado. If the apprentice felt himself at risk, he would inflict creeping death on friend and foe alike to save himself. No engineered plague was more lethal than greed for power.

The Leader’s hood slipped off, revealing a pulsating head covered by a bubbled life support. The bubble was a visual life support system that could shield him from the elements. Each member of the conspiracy wore one. Ironically, even in the harsh unsafe atmosphere of Junos, they would be protected by the society they plotted to conquer.

The Leader was cunning. Intimidation was his forte. His perceptions sprang from his coiled personality. “We’ve been lured like prey by their promise of power. It may be a trap.”

The Leader shook off the suspicion. “They have more to lose than we do.”

 

--

 

The cadaverous smell of sulfur was the only scent on this dead cold rock. The caustic carrion odor suited this convocation of corrupt discordant spirits. A meeting for the sale of state secrets was convened.

Nickel ore that had not yielded to solar mining lay beneath rust-colored rocks underfoot. Drifting in gaseous form, the Ancient Ones stirred a blizzard of red dust in the air like torrid storms from the gulf of ages. It cloaked their conspiracy. The insidious fog spoke with infinite authority. “You have something for us.”

The Leader stood so that the light reflected off his bubble towards his adversary. It was a minor power play meant to magnify his authority when he needed to annihilate an opponent. His cohorts mimicked his stance. The cold blaze of a blasted landscape reflected uselessly on their matching bubbles.

They struggled to control their frantic hearts. Breaking, beating chambers instinctively raced from doomsday. Their strategy was to blind their enemy with fear. But the mist was a beast without eyes, seeking orbital portals to the enemy’s soul, they confronted only its devouring spirit. The traitors found themselves lost, unsafe, in caverns of despair. The fog cast a dizzying gaze in which the traitors felt the theft of dreams.

The Leader held his bleak and rocky ground. “The right bioisomer deflector frequency would be worth more to you than all the iridium in the universe.”

They all understood that bioisomer deflectors masked any biorhythms, disguising the wearers. Access to someone’s frequency stripped them of their cloak of invisibility.

The plural voice threw down the gauntlet of might. “The wrong frequency would be your ruination, the decimation of your cause.”

The Leader realized they would need to try more than one frequency code. He knew someone had programmed the bioisomer to rotate frequencies. He bluffed. This prodigal sorcerer was a master of persuasion. “We cracked the encoding. Its range and pattern are ours.”

The seething fog was silent. The Leader felt it scour his mind with a deep mind stab. He closed off just in time, misdirecting them with further enticements. “You must harvest the seeds of innocence for their pattern of rebirth. We can narrow the possibilities significantly.”

“You must be certain of secrecy.” The great voice of the fog was a seismic assault, a fit of rage insinuating the reckless spite it could inflict.

“We demand specific names and pinpoint locations for Atlantian citizens who won’t be missed as you did before.”

The fog flashed a fire oath. The forbidden ritual was complete. The fog and the traitors forged a parasitic bond. The dark pact was sealed with a blood oath. One that would find and fulfill both their destinies.