by M. Arcturus
“What are you doing with those?” She snapped trying to take the papers away.
“These are documents that can be viewed by anyone, can they not?” He stood up from his seat trying to keep her from taking them.
“You’ll hurt them!”
“Why are these schematics so important to you? They’re not yours!” Sir Anthony confronted her. “Actually, I’ve been wondering where these pages went to.” He went back to handling the few papers she couldn’t extract.
“They don’t belong to you either!”
A spark of interest gleamed in his dark eyes and the smile on his face reflected his amusement. “Then whom do these belong to? We should return them!”
His sarcasm fueled her fire. He smirked when he saw how cute she was when she was angered. “Those pages belong to the journal of a dear friend,” she sorely told him.
“Are you sure this person was just a friend? Your actions and body language speak otherwise.”
Even though she was still angry, she started to blush a bit. After taking a deep breath, she spoke, “When he first came to Atlantis, he was young, but with each visit, he just kept getting older. I wasn’t bothered by his age, but I could tell he was. Eventually, I think our age difference stopped it from advancing any further than a student-teacher relationship.”
“So, you were interested in him!” The sparkle in his eye seemed to sharpen.
“I’m glad my personal life interests you so much.” She said bitterly.
“It just suggests that I might have a chance.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. The tone of his voice and he glint in his eye had unnerved her. Though she was interested in him, she never thought it possible that he would advance too quickly and take advantage of her to suit his needs until now. She hadn’t been with anyone before, and she knew she needed someone to understand and respect that. Now she wasn’t so sure if he was the type of person who would agree to move slowly.
He watched her body language and backed off confused. “Hmm…I thought you would have figured it out by now.”
“Figured what out?” In her exhaustion, his cryptic language was starting to puzzle and annoy her; if only he would just spit it out. She could tell his own confusion was starting to hurt him and could feel the sorrow take him over.
“The riddle I left for you to solve before the conflict with the Ackrids.” His concern had taken the edge off of the situation, which made Selené relax as she thought back to their previous conversation. The concept of being a part of Atlantis’s past as well as the future seemed too abstract for her to grasp. “I thought you would have recognized the rotating wing on the top of my machine when I arrived.”
“I have seen it before! Da Vinci’s sketches!” she exclaimed. “The ribbing and the cone-shape of the fin—even the webbed vertical wings on the sides of the machine.” She thought deeply for a moment. Then, as if every thought fell into place, “You can’t be serious! There’s no way for you to be Leonardo da Vinci! Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
Anthony had to think for a moment. Out of his haste to visit Atlantis, he didn’t think about how she would react. He swallowed hard, “You don’t know what it’s like, being an old man and loving a beautiful young woman. It didn’t help that your unique looks would have drawn some attention during that time period. Were you supposed to wear a sticky horsehair wig for the rest of your life? People would have thought wrong about you if we were together. I wanted the best for you!”
Selené was taken back by surprise. Her memories brought her back to the moment when she had told Leonardo about an experience she had when she lived in Tyre. She was about five, and a girl from the village was walking around the temple. Selené didn’t know the girl was there and stepped out of her room without her scarf. The girl shrieked when she saw Selené’s sea-green hair. Selené ran back inside her bedroom terrified and quickly put on her scarf.
Before she dared leave her room, she heard a large commotion out in the hall, and three priestesses ran into her room, quickly shutting the door behind them. They swiftly shaved her hair off and slapped this sticky, sea-green horsehair wig on her head. Selené had to show the girl the wig and her bald head so that the girl would believe that she was bald since birth and had to wear a wig, and sea-green just happened to be her favorite color.
Her mother saw the event happen in a vision the day before and instructed the priestesses to make the wig. The egg-based paint on the wig was still tacky because it hadn’t finished drying yet. Even if the paint were dry, the wig would have become stiff, making it even more unbearable to wear. Her head itched just thinking about.
Selené couldn’t figure out how he would have known that unless he indeed was Leonardo da Vinci. Her mind started reeling. If he was Leonardo, how was he able to change his age and appearance? Other than aging pods, there was no other technology that she was aware of that could do that. Maybe Leonardo had written the story down in one of his books. If that was the case, there was no telling how many people knew about the embarrassing wig incident. That thought spurred on feelings of humiliation and betrayal.
She managed to calm down, realizing that her exhaustion was really wearing on her and was taking its toll on her thought process. She was able to suppress the idea that Leonardo had revealed her personal life to the world, but she wasn’t strong enough to stop the unrealistic ideas of how Anthony could be Da Vinci. She started to look at him as if he was a monster. Not thinking clearly, she blurted out her mental fuzziness, “So what are you saying? Did you steal the body of a young man to impress me? Or what is all of this?” She gestured to his entire body and stepped back in utter shock and disbelief.
Her accusations turned his shock into annoyance. “Where would you get an idea such as that? People from my time are evolved enough to remember their past lives. Heaven forbid that I remember my previous life and spent most of my time trying to find a way to come here to see if you were real! Now you think that I would steal someone else’s body? What could possibly suggest an idea like that?”
Now the unwanted shock lay in her court. She knew that whatever was said next would either make or break the possibility of something more ever happening between them. Just before she was about to speak, she heard someone snicker. She turned her head in the direction of the noise. Anthony didn’t hear the snicker, but turned his head to see what she was looking at, “I would suggest you come out right now!” Her violet eyes hardened as she eyed the bookshelves.
“Are you pretending that someone is here to avoid me? That’s so nice of you!” His stated bitterly. Resentment was starting to well up inside of him. He began to question what he ever saw in her. Then it happened. Another snicker was released, and this time he heard it too. They both ran toward the noise and found Icarus on the floor covering his mouth with his hand, all red in the face from holding the laughter in.
“At first, I was angry, and then upset, but my angel did it to herself this time. You took care of the situation all by yourself with your childish logic, the idea of one stealing another’s body!” He busted up laughing even harder, “You will always be my angel!”
Anthony looked at Selené, as her face became as hard as a stone and it softened his anger due to pity.
“You have interfered with my life for the last time!” Selené yelled at Icarus.
“Interfered—I don’t understand?” he asked with such a genuine blank stare that she wanted to punch him in the face.
Selené was outraged. How could he honestly not know?
“What do I have to do to get through to you?! I’m not interested in you! My interest lies elsewhere,” she informed him as annoyance seeped into her words. “You think my logic is childish? Was that comment supposed to increase my feelings for you? Get out of my face and get out of my sanctuary!” Selené began to soften, but her breaths were still heavy, “As for you!” She turned towar
d Anthony. He stepped back not knowing what was about to come flying his way. “I loved Leonardo with everything that I had and to drop news like this, the way you did, makes it a little hard for me to believe it. I’m exhausted, confused and completely nerve-racked. Please give me time to absorb and digest. And Icarus—” she turned back to the man on the floor, “—I guess I didn’t make myself clear. Get OUT!” Icarus jumped up on his feet and ran out of the archive.
Slowly she walked over to the nearest table, completely spent physically, mentally, and emotionally, and she plopped down heavily into the chair. After a moment of hesitation, Anthony joined her. She looked up at him with weary eyes, “I’m so sorry about my accusation. That was very stupid of me to suggest. I’m not thinking clearly. Was there something else you wanted to talk about?”
Her question caught him off guard, but he managed to remember what he needed to talk to her about. Adjusting in his seat so he could pull the object from his pocket, he showed her a small piece of gold about an inch in length and a half an inch in width, yet the object was fairly thin. Her mind reflected back to the trials when something gold flashed in Juron’s hand.
“What is that?”
“I found it on the steps by the Council room. I was hoping you could tell me!”
She observed the tiny artifact, the convex curve on the topside and the concave curve on the other. “It’s definitely a part of a much larger piece. I wonder what it’s made out of? It looks like gold, but I don’t think that’s what it is.” She started to look tired as she took her first yawn of the evening. He shot her a look of concern. Almost as if she read his mind, “I’m starting to get tired. All of the emotional unrest just now with Icarus took the last bit of energy I had left.”
“I’m sure I didn’t help any.”
Selené gave a faint smile, “Do you mind if we meet up in the morning? I’ll be able to think of experiments to perform on this substance by then.”
“I understand. Where would you like to store this in the meantime?”
“I can’t think of a safer place than in your pocket,” she blushed at what she said when he cracked a smile, knowing he had taken it to a much lower level of thought. “I mean, with you, of course,” she added trying to correct what she had just uttered.
“No use in covering up what has already been said,” he replied beaming devilishly at her. “Where do you want to meet and what time?”
“Let’s just meet here after breakfast.”
“What time is breakfast? I don’t know how you Atlanteans deal with time.”
“Offhand, I would have to say, the old way,” she said. He looked at her a little confused, so she continued, “Do you remember a time when people did service for one another? Before technology took over.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to spell this one out for me.”
She let out a small sigh, “During my research, I learned that there is or was a time when people would fill up and wipe down someone’s car at a gas station. A time when elevator buttons were pressed for you or when people would ring a bell to let someone know dinner was ready.”
“So, someone walks the halls ringing a bell.” He responded with slight sarcasm.
“Not exactly, we have a palace attendant who goes around knocking on your door letting you know when breakfast is ready.”
“Sounds like I better fall asleep dressed,” he started to smile again.
“Well, they usually knock on your door before it is ready to serve, so you have time to get dressed,” she giggled at him and realized how he must feel when her own naiveté makes an appearance.
“Thank you for the long-winded answer to my question,” he thought his comment was funny, but Selené took it the wrong way.
“Gee, thanks,” she added sarcastically.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” he added with a grin. “I just thought you were trying to spend more time with me before I returned you to your quarters. It was more romantic than anything.” She blushed, so he knew his job was done. “Tomorrow then,” he added as he stood up.
She stood up, and he escorted her out of the archive. As they closed the massive doors behind them, the large illuminated map on the opposite wall confronted them. Selené walked over and was about to turn it off when Anthony stopped her and moved in closer for observation. His brow wrinkled as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“It’s not as complicated as what it appears,” she said as she walked up beside him. “The lower levels of the palace used to be a ship, and this was their navigation system. As far as the actual volcano is concerned, I don’t know if it’s real or synthetic.”
“How did a spaceship end up inside of a volcano?”
“I’m not sure exactly. There are a few possibilities though. Please keep in mind; I’m more of a researcher than a scientist. From what I gather, this ship was built by a race known as the Elders. I think they came to Earth billions of years ago.” Anthony knew all too well about the Elders. He just didn’t know this ship was one of theirs. Once he knew the origins of the ship, everything fell into place. He gave her a nod as a means to dismiss the topic. Selené mistook his nod as a sign of understanding of what she was saying. She continued, and Anthony was way too deep in his thoughts to stop her. “They could have crash-landed in the heart of a volcano or the volcano formed after the ship was here, but personally, I’m beginning to think that they landed safely, and they created the volcano. I’m pretty sure they used this map to see the evolution of the planet.” As if lightning struck her with inspiration, she took off and ran back inside the archive. Once Anthony realized she wasn’t going to come back out for a while, he went back in to see what she was up to.
She was running around gathering scrolls and metal tablets that looked familiar to Anthony. After placing them all in a pile on a table, she started rummaging through them.
“I didn’t understand until now. The Lady talked to me after the war, I didn’t understand the relevance at the time, but it all makes sense.”
She was talking so fast Anthony had a hard time following her. “I’ve been looking through these scrolls and trying to read these alien tablets for centuries! The Elders must have viewed the evolution of Earth with their advanced map system and tried to improve the human species. Look at this!” She pointed to a detailed drawing of Atlantis. “They created Atlantis to act as a bio-dome! The plants, the volcano, they built it all to hide their ship! That explains the documentation I’ve found on alien abductions throughout human history. They brought humans here to experiment on them to see why they evolved the way they did. I guess these tablets talk about their findings and the scrolls are the responses and experiences from the humans. And according to this scroll, they were trying to engineer humans genetically, but it didn’t work. The humans were afraid of them, and it started to hurt them psychologically. Plus, their bodies couldn’t handle it. I may not know what these tablets say, but I do recognize the word ‘Kough-ka.’ Shadow told me that ‘Kough-ka’ means Forefather, but I just don’t get it.”
“I do,” said Anthony with a big heavy sigh. He sat and looked at the table in serious contemplation. He picked up one of the rectangular gray metallic tablets. Swiping his finger across the surface, the writing lit up. Selené obviously had no clue that the tablets lit up for she jumped when the words illuminated. “During the 22nd century, humans had their first public encounter with aliens. After all was said and done, we found out that they had come to apologize to us. They were a race called the Drei, but when they referenced themselves, they used the term Forefathers. They told us about their experimentations. In their youth, when they called themselves ‘the Elders’ they thought tampering with us would help our technological advancement. As their kind evolved, they sent another group to Earth to stop the experiments, and the aged Forefathers suggested that their station on Earth would serve best if it were only to exchange ideas and tech
nology.
“The tablets talk of Akashic Record agreements, a type of contract that is signed before a person is born or reincarnated. Only a small group of individuals, hand picked by the Elders, sign the contract and come here to Atlantis to partake in the exchange of knowledge. I guess I’m one of them, but I don’t remember signing an agreement with them. After they started to utilize the Akashic Record agreements, they made their people leave Earth in hopes that our species would no longer be traumatized by their presence.”
For a moment she was speechless. She had completely forgotten to ask him about the agreements, and she was thankful that he told her everything she wanted to know. After a brief pause, she gathered her thoughts and continued, “Just to clarify. The Drei are known as the Elders and as the Forefathers. Originally, they called themselves the Elders and came here to genetically alter us to speed up evolution. Their aging technology, which keeps us from aging, must have kept them from aging and evolving as well. The Drei on their home world continued to evolve and started calling themselves the Forefathers. In their evolved state, they realized that the experiments were harming humans. So, they came back to Earth to stop the experiments, and devised another way to help us evolve by speeding up our technological and spiritual advancements.”
“Yes,” Anthony confirmed, “And these tablets were given to us, so we could understand their findings and grow from their lessons and mistakes. It worked; our civilization functions completely different now. We accept differences, our currency works for us and not against us, but most importantly, we slowed down and let humanity catch up with our technology. We’re no longer focused on bills and survival. We take the time to care for one another. The funny thing is we have spent decades trying to find their ship that served as a station. They never told us that it was Atlantis.
“Through using and reading the tables, that’s how I learned to speak your language. It’s Coptic, an early form of the Egyptian language. I didn’t know it was Atlantean until now. Though I’m only able to speak it at a basic level, I’m glad I don’t need to rely on some type of translating device as much as the others. I do feel sorry for the other human reps, having to use them continually.”
