Hamish X Goes to Providence Rhode Island

by Sean Cullen

  The mechanical hum grew louder. After what seemed an eternity, a robot rounded the final corner. The machine was basic: a tracked vehicle with mechanical arms ending in articulated claws attached to a vague torso, making the robot vaguely anthropomorphic.54 Parveen sucked in his breath, trying to make himself as small as possible as the machine passed by him and went straight to the fan housing.

  A maintenance robot. Parveen breathed out softly. Perhaps he hadn’t been detected. The robot was doing routine upkeep on the ventilation system.

  The robot’s arms extended, telescoping out until the articulated claws could reach the housing of the fan motor. A tiny nozzle emerged from the tip of one claw. With a hiss, oily liquid sprayed out of the nozzle into a hole in the housing. Having finished its lubrication procedure, the nozzle retracted, followed by the arms. The robot’s inner workings whirred and clicked, its torso spun, and it headed back the way it came.

  As it passed Parveen, it stopped. Parveen held his breath again. The torso spun in his direction. A tiny camera irised out from the centre of the torso. For a few seconds it tried to focus on Parveen’s chest. After a number of whirs and clicks, it gave up. The camera retracted, the torso spun, and the robot trundled off up the ventilation shaft without a backwards glance.

  Parveen’s heart slowed and he breathed deeply. He would have to be careful. The suit had succeeded in hiding him again, but he would have to be very cautious from now on. With a final look out at the terrible gate, he turned and headed off after the robot to continue his investigation of the ventilation shafts. He felt better and better every step he took away from the gateway. He didn’t know how harmful the energy of the other world was to him, but he knew he didn’t want to spend more time than necessary in close proximity to the horrible apparatus.

  Already very difficult to detect in his sneaky suit, Parveen was certain he could become a veritable ghost now that he had the ventilation shafts as his own personal thoroughfare. He doubted that the Grey Agents ever entered the shafts. But he would have to be careful to avoid the little maintenance robots. He made his way by memory back to the place he had designated as his sleeping quarters. Ensconced in his hideaway, Parveen sat with his back to the wall. He reached into the hood of his suit to pluck the stub of pencil from behind his ear. Rummaging in his backpack, he found a crumpled sheet of paper. He smoothed out the paper on his knee and made a list.

  “Number One: I’m alone,” he said softly as he wrote. “Number Two: Noor is safe for the time being. Number Three: I know the Grey Agents use the older children as hosts. Hypothesis: The big apparatus in the main chamber is a huge version of the machines they use to possess their human hosts.”55 He shuddered at the thought of being possessed by one of the entities calling themselves Grey Agents. Who knew what their true nature was? Their human forms were gruesome enough. “Lucky that Noor didn’t qualify,” Parveen murmured to himself. He had no idea what the long-term effects of being used as a battery were, but they had to be better than becoming a Grey Agent. He wondered if the process of becoming an agent was reversible. Did the person possessed still exist somewhere within the unlucky body? He hoped so, for Aidan’s sake. And for Hamish X’s. The golden hue of the Grey Agents’ eyes was so like Parveen’s friend’s eyes. What did that mean? Was Hamish X doomed to be like the Grey Agents? Was he one of them deep down in his soul? Did he have the potential for their wickedness and evil? Parveen could only hope that the colour of his eyes was the only trait Hamish X shared with these entities who were bent on enslaving the Earth.

  A thought struck him: if the agents were really people who had been possessed by entities from another world, when they were killed was the human host killed as well? It was a terrible thought. He had cast a female agent from the Orphan Queen during the assault on the Hollow Mountain. Had he killed some poor human being as well as the agent? He felt a stab of guilt but ruthlessly crushed it a second later. They were at war with the ODA. The Grey Agents had to be defeated. When the war was over, there would be plenty of time for guilt and soul-searching.

  Parveen looked at his list. What he knew was very scant indeed. He had to learn more and try to find a weakness to exploit.

  “First things first,” he whispered, turning over the sheet of paper. He began to draw the beginnings of a map of the ventilation system. The very act of making a blueprint calmed him. He was not exactly happy, but he was making a plan and that was something, at least. He always felt better when he had a plan.

  Chapter 14

  MIMI

  Mimi looked up at the great dome of Atlantis. Above her, millions of tons of water and salt were restrained only by the frail crystal barrier that arched over the city where she stood.

  She was in the Great Square. She was alone. Where was everyone? Had they gone and left her here?

  A sharp rending sound drew her attention back to the dome above. With a boom like a gunshot, a crack appeared in the dome directly above her head. As she watched, terrified, the crack began to spread, radiating outwards like the web of a crazed spider. She wanted to scream but couldn’t open her mouth. She wanted to run but her feet were fused to the stone.

  Wide-eyed with terror, she watched as the first drops of water fell from above. The drip quickly became a torrent. Salty water pounded onto her upturned face. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t turn away. Her nostrils and mouth filled with brine. She was choking! She couldn’t breathe!

  She awoke in the darkness, bathed in sweat, and her dream had come true. She couldn’t breathe! Something was covering her mouth and nose. She was suffocating!

  “Mimi,” Cara hissed at her ear. “Mimi! It’s me, Cara!”

  Mimi relaxed. Cara stood over her in the gloom, the pale light of the dome washing in through the balcony doors. Cara’s right hand was pressed over Mimi’s mouth. When she saw Mimi relax, Cara took her hand away and raised a finger to her lips. “Quiet.”

  Mimi sat up, pulling the twisted sheets away from her limbs. “What’s the big idea?”

  “Shhh!” Cara said with a hushed urgency. “Xnasha woke me moments ago. She says she wants to talk.” Mimi looked over to find the Atlantean woman standing in the doorway of the bedchamber. Xnasha smiled and beckoned the girls with a wave of her hand. In her other hand she held a glowing lamp in the shape of a seashell.

  Mimi swung her legs out of bed and stood, pulling her Guards jacket on as she joined Cara. The floor was smooth and warm, but she stepped into her boots anyway. One never knew what might need a good kicking in the middle of the night. When she was ready, she nodded. Xnasha stepped back into the hallway, and when the two girls joined her, she led them through the silent house.

  Silence, of course, is relative. Xnasos’s snoring was a rumbling drone that swelled as they passed quietly by his bedchamber. Xnasha rolled her eyes and led them down the stairs and out into the square.

  The public space was empty. All the refugees had been taken into the homes of the Atlanteans. Obviously, the sea folk didn’t see the newcomers as any kind of threat because there were no guards on patrol. Most of the windows in the buildings around the square were dark. Here and there, a lamp glowed. The dome above was dim, blocking out the ocean. After the dream she’d just had, Mimi was thankful for that. The weight above seemed less oppressive when she couldn’t actually see the swarming fish and pale blue water.

  The Temple of the Crystal Fountain shone its weird blue glow and its guards stood stiff and straight. They took no notice of the little party as they passed below the great broad steps. Mimi assumed they were concerned only with what the temple held. As long as the group made no effort to approach, the guards would take no particular interest in them. Xnasha led the girls down the shadowed edge of the square, the glowing shell lamp guiding them along the stone walls until they reached an alleyway. Xnasha turned up the alleyway and increased her pace. Though she was short and stocky, the white-haired woman could certainly move at a surprising speed, which Mimi and Cara found themselves hard-pre
ssed to match.

  This part of the city was more decrepit than the area around the square. Moss grew on the damp stone walls and the air was scented with mildew and decay. Xnasha led them through a bewildering maze of narrow passages between buildings whose roofs were lost in darkness. The scuff of their feet was the only sound.

  At last, Xnasha stopped at an archway with a black metal door. She fished in a pouch that hung from a belt at her waist and pulled out a slender, delicate key. Holding the shell lamp in front of her, the Atlantean found the keyhole, inserted the key, and turned it. With a soft whoosh of trapped air, the door swung inward. Xnasha stepped back and indicated that the girls should go ahead of her through the door. After a moment of hesitation, Mimi shrugged and stepped through, followed by Cara and Xnasha, who pulled the door shut behind them.

  The lamplight illuminated only a small circle a few metres across, but Mimi felt that the room was vast, stretching out into the surrounding darkness.

  “Where are we?” Cara asked, her voice throwing echoes off the hidden walls.

  Xnasha pressed a button beside the door and soft light flooded the chamber. Mimi and Cara gasped in unison as they saw what the room held.

  The room was divided in half. Where they stood, a solid stone platform housed a number of giant cranes and smaller vehicles resting on rails that allowed them to move from side to side and up and down. The cranes were meant to service the strange vehicles berthed in the piers that made up the other half of the vast chamber.

  The piers were carved of the native stone of Atlantis, jutting like fingers into inky water. The wavelets lapped against the sides of some of the most alien and beautiful vessels Mimi had ever seen. Long and sleek, they had the shape of dolphins lying at rest alongside the piers. They were made of a silvery-grey metal that shone softly under the diffused light. Mimi counted twelve of the crafts bobbing slightly in the water. Eight of them were truly huge, measuring more than two hundred metres in length, but the other four were much smaller. One vehicle was only about twenty metres long.

  “Amazing, aren’t they?” Xnasha said reverently. She walked towards the smallest vessel. “We used to rule the waves with these ships. The ancients, fearful of what their primitive minds couldn’t comprehend, called them sea monsters. We mapped the oceans of the world. We travelled the seas and dove beneath the ice of the polar caps …” She stopped speaking and gazed over the piers, sadness plain on her pale features. “Those were great days … but now they are gone.” She shook off her sadness and beckoned the girls. “Come.”

  Mimi and Cara followed the Atlantean along the ancient stone pier. Mimi couldn’t help but be awed by the amazing technology. “Submarines,” she said in a reverent whisper. “Awesome!”

  Xnasha looked pleased that Mimi was so impressed. “Yes, they are. So beautiful. They represent the most advanced technology our ancestors ever achieved. Sadly, none of us really knows how to operate these craft any more. The knowledge has been lost over time.”

  “What a waste,” Cara said.

  “Indeed, yes,” Xnasha agreed. “Thousands of years ago, we travelled the world’s oceans and explored her continents, discovering the mysteries of science and technology. We were curious, intelligent, and eager to explore. Now, however, we have turned our attention inward. We hide from the world. Our technology keeps us alive, powers the dome that protects us, increases our lifespan, but we have turned away from the world.”

  “Why?” Mimi demanded. “You have so much to offer.”

  Xnasha shook her head. “In a moment.” They had arrived at a gangplank that ran from the pier to the fore-deck of the smallest submarine. A modest console stood on a pedestal at the head of the gangplank. Xnasha reached out and tapped a triangular crystal on the console. On the deck of the submarine, a circular hatch slowly opened. “First, let’s go aboard. We have much to talk about before you face the assembly tomorrow. We can be comfortable inside.”

  She started across the gangplank. Mimi and Cara looked at each other.

  “I cain’t think of nothin’ better to do,” Mimi said.

  “After you.” Cara bowed sarcastically. Mimi snorted derisively and set off up the gangplank. Cara was only a step and a half behind her.

  Climbing into the hatch, they found the inside of the submarine even more amazing than the outside. Xnasha led them down a passage into a control centre. Elaborate banks of crystals covered the walls and the ceilings. In the centre of the space were four comfortable-looking swivel chairs. Xnasha plunked herself down in one and the two girls did likewise.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Xnasha mused, looking about her at the shining instruments. “My people built this craft thousands of years ago. I cleaned and restored this one as best I could. I’ve even managed to puzzle out the basic power systems and the propulsion unit.” She held her hands out towards a bank of crystals and they began to glow. A soft hum filled the cramped cabin. She lowered her hands and the hum ceased, the glow faded. “I think I could launch her if I had a reason to.”

  “Why don’t you?” asked Cara, flipping a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear. Somewhere she had found a comb, and it looked like she’d even had a bath. Mimi hadn’t bothered washing and had fallen straight into bed. Stuck in the tight quarters of the submarine control cabin, she sniffed her armpit and began to regret not having had a quick scrub.

  “You mean launch her on my own?” Xnasha shook her head, rattling the many shells twined in her hair. “It’ll never happen. I’m the only one who comes down here any more, and I’m not supposed to. We’re forbidden to fiddle with the ancient technology.” Her face clouded. “The rest of us have almost forgotten these things exist.”

  “So, yer sayin’ you built this thing, but ya don’t know how it works?” Mimi threw up her hands. “That’s crazy.”

  “Tragic would be a better word.” Xnasha sighed. “My brother wouldn’t be happy if he knew I brought you here, but I thought I should show you what the people of Atlantis were once capable of. Our ancestors built this great city and now we scurry through it like mice.”

  “Why?” Cara demanded. “Surely if you all applied yourselves, you could reclaim these machines. Atlantis could rise again. Think of the gifts you could bring to the world.”

  Xnasha hung her head. “No. We can never reveal ourselves. It would be folly. They would find us and destroy us.”

  “Who? Who would find y’all?” Mimi asked.

  Xnasha raised her eyes, and they were full of fear. “The ODA. The Grey Agents. They tried to destroy us once and very nearly succeeded.”

  “You told us you’ve been down here for thousands of years,” Cara said. “The ODA arrived in our world only about a century ago—”

  “No,” Xnasha cut her off. “They returned to this world a century ago. The first time they tried to cross over into this world, we inadvertently invited them in.”

  “I don’t get it,” Cara said, confusion written clearly on her face. “What are you saying? Atlantis brought the Grey Agents here?”

  “Yes.” Xnasha nodded. “And we paid dearly for our mistake.” She held up a hand for silence as both Mimi and Cara opened their mouths. “I will give you a history lesson. I hope it will explain everything.” Cara and Mimi nodded and leaned forward in their chairs, listening eagerly as Xnasha told them the history of Atlantis.

  Chapter 15

  XNASHA’S TALE

  “Thousands of years ago, when the Egyptians had yet to build the pyramids, contenting themselves by constructing very large stone cubes instead,56 mammoths still roamed in the northern wastes—”

  “One still does,” Mimi interjected.

  “Shoosh!” Cara hissed.

  “I’m just sayin’,” Mimi grumbled but fell silent again.57

  “… and the world was greener and the sea bluer, before all the great civilizations of China, India, and Greece had risen above the Stone Age, Atlantis was already a noble and powerful nation. From our island capital in the centre of what y
ou now call the Mediterranean Sea, we travelled the world in our ships above and below the waves, mapping the world and bringing enlightenment to our benighted human relatives across the face of the globe. We taught farming and building techniques, studied medicine and science, mathematics and astronomy. There was no problem that we couldn’t bring our superb intellect and culture to bear upon. We were proud. We were confident … too confident, as it turned out. We sowed the seeds of our own destruction.

  “Our scientists began to dream of reaching other worlds, other planes of existence just beyond the surface of our own. They began to experiment with potent and dangerous technologies that might open a gateway to these other planes and perhaps contact creatures that might live there. In our defence, we believed that any intelligent creatures in these other planes would be benevolent like ourselves. Such foolishness is its own punishment.

  “High atop the highest peak on the Island of Atlantis, the Atlantean scientists constructed a vast machine. Drawing on the power of the molten core of the Earth, we opened a gateway, a rip in the fabric of space, and punched a hole into another plane of existence.”

  “You found the Grey Agents’ world,” Cara breathed.

  “Yes.” Xnasha nodded, her eyes reflecting the soft glow of the crystal instruments in the cabin. “And it was a bleak and hungry place populated by voracious, evil beings. Their world lacked life and energy. They had drained it of all its vitality. By opening a gateway to their world, we invited them into ours, and they must have thought their prayers were answered. They poured out of the gate and immediately began to possess our citizens, turning them into the kind of creatures you know as the Grey Agents.

  “The destruction they wrought upon the Earth was appalling. We Atlanteans were not a warlike people. We were not prepared for the attack. Quickly, we turned all our energies into creating weapons to combat the threat. We fought a war with the Grey Agents, and there was devastation on a scale that is impossible to imagine. Tidal waves shattered whole cities. Earthquakes altered the geography of the world. Fire rained from the skies. The moon, once a vital, living planet, was turned into a lifeless ball of dust.