by M. Arcturus
Clutching the framework of the vent opening to the engine room, Juron pulled with all of his might. Some of the stiffer wires ripped at his clothes and tore at his flesh. With one last hefty pull, he was in the engine room. With a wide-open mouth, the dragon clamped down and was completely shocked and disappointed that its meal had escaped its jaws! It sniffed around the area and decided that it should wait for a moment. Its food had to come out sometime.
Juron stared at the open vent on the other side. He hated to think about it, but he knew he should really go back in there and move the cover back over the vent. Maybe from this side, the wires wouldn’t be so hard to maneuver around. Unlike last time, he wouldn’t have the framework to pull on to get himself out. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, he reentered the vent. He was right; the wires weren’t nearly as in the way as they had been last time. Plus, he didn’t have to go in as far. All he needed to do was reach the cover.
The dragon saw Juron’s hand peek out of the hole and feel around for the cover. Just as the dragon pounced, Juron found the cover and slid it back into place. Juron’s eyes went wide as the dragon did a face plant into the cover. He didn’t realize how close he came to losing his hand or other body parts for that matter.
The young dragon stepped back and shook off the face flattening experience. Glaring at Juron, it cocked its head back. Juron knew what that meant. He fumbled around until he was able to squirm his way out of the vent. Wires tore deeper into his flesh. His face winced in pain, but tiny gouges all over his body were nothing compared to what he knew was coming. A jet stream of flames chased after him. In a rush of adrenaline, he fought his way through the wires and with a sigh of relief was standing once again in the engine room. He barely escaped being charbroiled. He jumped back a few feet as a second wave of flames came at him. He could smell the burning of the wires and could hear the dragon claw at the partially melted vent cover.
Through the smoke, he gasped when he saw the engine room. He had never been to the engine room before and couldn’t believe his eyes! Though the room was dimly lit, he could see that the room was as large as a city block in width and in height, and was in the shape of a hexagon. It appeared that only one wall was attached to the body of the ship. The other five walls were exposed to the ocean depths. He wasn’t sure about the ceiling, but pretty much knew that the ocean existed far beneath his feet. The bottom half of the five walls not attached to the ship, were made of large panels of glass that were about twelve feet tall. He was amazed to think that the glass was thick enough to withstand the density of the ocean’s depth as well as the atmospheric pressure of outer space.
A sphere of blue light emanating from the center of the ceiling pierced through the darkness, revealing a massive hourglass hovering over a dark crater filled with sand. He felt like an ant compared to the hourglass towering in front of him. Groves and symbols carved in the floor swirled around the crater in circular formations. Colossal brass clock gears encircled the hourglass frozen in time, covered in dust and cobwebs.
He spotted a space distorter by the door and figured that explained the size of the room and all of the mysterious surroundings. Unlike the black fancy distorters sold in the marketplace, this one was a silver disk about an inch in width and eight inches in diameter. It wasn’t domed like the ones he knew of. Because the wall was eroding away from the distorter, he saw that the legs were not sharp and wide like the modern ones, but like long silver antennas. Juron moved closer to get a better look. The top of the disk was rusted through, showing wires. There was no way that the old distorter would be strong enough to create a room this size, and logically, there was no way that the ship was dragging a room of this magnitude behind it. Surely there was something else creating the spatial distortion.
The young dragon clawed at the door reminding him that he didn’t have much time to look around. As he backed away from the distorter, a shimmer on the wall caught his attention. Taking a closer look, it looked like gold dust covering the brown metallic walls. The texture was like a thin shaving of fish scales. It seemed familiar to him. Then it hit him. He had seen this material before. It was just like the golden mast of the Atlantean sea vessels, the ones with a scorpion tail and huge life-like eyes. As he touched the wall, it lit up and shimmered into life! As if the room was taking in a deep breath, the shimmer grew and shot up across the walls, meeting in the middle where the blue light emanated. He could almost hear the room moaning as it ignited with life, waking up from its long slumber.
The circular lights of the room activated and that’s when he saw what caused the blue light. On the single terminated point of a large black crystal hanging from the ceiling sat an orb of blue glowing energy. Barely hanging onto the ceiling, the crystal radiated with a purple glow and lit up with a deep pink center when the shimmer from the walls touched it. He could now see that there were long slender, pale pink crystals hanging from the ceiling in circular formations. They were so long that they almost touched the floor. He was a little bit concerned that the walls were rusted in spots just like the door. Not being able to do anything about it, he chose to dismiss it.
He stared at the hourglass in thought. When looking at the golden sand in the crater, his body jolted with excitement. “The Sand Keepers!” he exclaimed. “The legends must be true!”
A long time ago, it was said that the Guardians of Time, Sand Keepers, manned the ship. According to the myths, they left Atlantis with the Elders. Since then, another engine room had been created a few levels up to steer the isle through the oceans and fire up the sub boosters in times of urgency. Spotting the cryo chambers lining the walls, it gave him hope. He prayed that some of the Sand Keepers had chosen to remain on the isle frozen in the cryo chambers. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to start up the engines by himself. He could hear the dragon flame the door. With the help of the Sand Keepers, the dragons wouldn’t even have a chance.
Half of the cryo chambers were no longer in use. Their glass was broken, and he could see that they were empty. The others were covered in ice; even prying the ice off of the outside didn’t help because the glass on the inside was frosted over as well. He shook his head in dismay. The dragons had won another silent battle. Even if the chambers contained the Sand Keepers, and he could figure out how to thaw them, they probably wouldn’t wake up. With the cryo chambers frosted thick with ice on the inside, chances were they were no longer in stasis, but had frozen to death.
For a moment, the dragon at the door had stopped, making Juron forget the urgency of the situation. Walking over to the windows, he peered out into the watery underworld. He could tell that the isle was indeed on the move, drifting with the ocean currents. Juron wondered how the isle could travel with a mountain growing up through the ship. Without getting out into ocean depths, he would never know, so he tried to be content with where he was, observing the big blue from behind a big panel of glass.
It was so beautiful with all of the colorful plants and fish. He could see the engine’s boosters. They were covered in corals and barnacle growths, which usually collected on the hulls of ships. “This is why the metal is rusting. It’s from the salt water,” he spoke as if his thoughts were miles away. With all of their advanced technology, the metal that the Elders had used for their ship did not like salty water. He shrugged it off, thinking that they might not have salty water on their planet to test their technology on. Once again, he became entranced by the sea. Watching the fish swim around in circles, he almost forgot where he was until the dragon started scratching the door again.
He looked over his shoulder at the main entrance, almost feeling the heat of the dragon’s anger. There it was again, the moaning! He was shocked! Did the room moan or was it his imagination? It sounded like it was just outside the window. A large shadow engulfed his backside, but when he faced to look out into the watery world, nothing was there but the ocean scenery from before. Then, starting at the far side of the room, there came a differe
nt kind of moan, almost like the noise a ship makes when it’s sailing the crashing waves of the sea. It was as if a strong underwater current had hit the far window, wrapped around the back wall and passed the window in front of him. As he focused his eyes into the far deep blue, he saw them. Water dragons were everywhere!
One swam up to the window like a torpedo. If it weren’t for the water she displaced, he would not have seen her. She was clear just like the ocean, and she paused before the window to stare at him with a devilish grin. In the blink of an eye, she swam off, giving the illusion that she had up and disappeared. Then she took off in the other direction, causing the room to groan again just in the opposite direction. This time, the door creaked like it was buckling under pressure.
The burning wire smell had started to dissipate, leaving behind an odor that he wasn’t able to smell before. It was the odor of salty sea air. In an instant, it all came clear. The Elders, as advanced as what they were, had created the ship out of a metal alloy that over time was vulnerable to the acidic nature of salty sea water. The salty water had rusted the door, weakening it to the pressure of the ocean and the crushing weight of Mt. Caspen. If the wall connected to the ship was indeed weak, and looking at the door it probably was, then the engine room was only hanging on by a thread.
Surely the Elders must have had a better ship design. An engine room attached to the ship by only one wall would have made an easy target if the ship were to be attacked. At one time, there might have been more holding the engine room onto the ship, but knowing his luck, it probably eroded away. Now, the water dragons had spotted him, and oh were they having a field day with this predicament! Juron rushed over to the controls. The first console was too rusted, so he tried the other one. He didn’t know which lever or switch to push or pull so he pushed all of them.
Nothing happened. The dragons started to dive bomb, thumping the windows with their tails as they passed. His fear flooded him as he messed with more buttons on the consoles before him. Almost as if his prayers had been answered, he heard a humming sound. The hum grew louder. Soon, streams of energy trailed from of blue light on the black crystal, flowed through the crevasses in the ceiling, moving toward the circular disks holding the pink crystals. Markings on the disks lit up in the blue glow, and the crystals were inflamed with bright pink light. The boosters outside were starting to fire up. Clouds of sea corals and sand debris erupted, mucking up and devastating the beautiful ocean world he had just admired.
Just as quickly as he received his salvation, it was stripped from him. The burnt wires sparked furiously, the boosters powered down, and all of the brilliant streams of blue energy ceased to flow, recessing back to their source. Something must have short-circuited, yet the water dragons kept on banging away on the outside, which seemed to be taking its toll on the stability of the structure. Without warning, the black crystal tore loose from the ceiling, colliding with the hourglass. Deadly shards of glass and crystal the size of boulders, followed by an explosion of sand, bombarded the room.
From the impact of the shards, the walls were severely marred and dented with crater-like dips. Clock parts went flying everywhere. The sound from all of the commotion was deafening. With ears ringing, he hid behind the console to avoid being hit by the debris. One piece of black crystal slammed into the window behind him just above his head. He lunged out of the way as the crystal fell, smashing the console he was hiding behind into a flat pancake. Thanking his lucky stars, he had survived, and the window didn’t break, but it did leave behind a spider-web of cracks and fractures. Painfully, in a heart-wrenching second, any hope of escape had vanished. Both consoles were damaged so trying to restart the boosters wasn’t going to work, not to mention the fried wires causing a short, and he was surrounded by dragons.
More explosions took place as the rest of the black crystal fell from what was left of the hourglass, onto the floor, and broke into thousands of pieces. Shards were flung everywhere, destroying more clock gears and smashing the long slender pink crystals. A long sliver of the pink crystal was falling toward him. Juron was about to duck behind the other console when everything vanished, including the flying shrapnel. With the black crystal demolished, the spatial distortion ceased, taking with it the cryo chambers and the secrets of the Sand Keepers.
All that was left was an empty steel-gray hexagonal room about twelve feet in height and thirty feet in width. The mystery of why the windows only ran along the bottom half of the walls was answered; they marked the actual height of the room. Other than the flattened console and the one he had ducked behind, everything was gone. The only remnants were towering razor-sharp chunks of crystal and glass along with piles of sand. Looking at the size of the shards, he was very thankful that he wasn’t hit by one of them. His hand hurt and bled just by the thought of touching one. He noticed that the walls were more corroded than what they first appeared, and he now realized that he was caught in a death trap.
The engine room started to give way to the pounding of the water dragons, and the walls began to moan as the bolts holding the engine room pulled away from the rest of the ship. One final crack sounded as water came gushing through the top corners of the wall surrounding the door. Water surged with such force that Juron was swept off his feet, pushed along the floor, and plastered up against the windows. He struggled to stand. With one hand frantically clutching onto the console before him, he pulled himself up. In desperation, he hit some of the rusty gnarled buttons on the console, trying to remember which buttons he had pressed to activate the engine’s boosters. They started up again but quickly shut back down. Again and again, he pounded away on the buttons. Again and again, there was no response. Water rose higher and higher.
In the maintenance shaft, the water was now ankle deep. They could hear the water running rampant in the hallways long before it came near them. There was nowhere else to go, so they braced themselves for impact, but nothing could have prepared them for the force at which the water traveled. The Lady was knocked off of her feet. Sorbek grabbed her just as she was about to go under. While gripping her tightly, he stood with all of his might against the current, and the added weight of his battle gear being pulled by the water. Even his strength wasn’t enough. They were thrown back quite a few feet and were slammed up against the doorway they had just come through. The vacuum of the water flowing out the open door sucked them right on through to the other side. They quickly clutched onto the frame of the door. Pulling their way back through the door, the Lady reached for the number pad. Sorbek’s claws could not grip the metal flooring or walls, and the water was winning. One last time, the Lady reached and punched in her code. The door shut, easing the flow of the water, but the water still pounded at each of their abdomens pretty hard.
“Just wait till I get my hands on him!” she shouted over the roaring waves with spite.
“On who, milady?” asked Sorbek with loyalty.
“Juron—the little shit is at it again!” she retorted back as she took a quick breather and got her hair and some water out of her eyes. The water level was rising.
“With all due respect, are you sure this is his doing?”
“This all reeks of his stupidity,” she assured him. She looked up overhead and saw the pipes running along the ceiling. “Do you think you can boost me up there?”
“I will do my best,” Sorbek replied as he kept himself firmly pressed against the door for leverage. As he hoisted her up, his muscles strained. He could feel the pressure relieve in his arms as she grabbed the pipes. Wishing he could use the pipes too, he knew he better not. They looked too weak to hold him. For the rest of the way, she climbed the pipes, and he dug his claws into the floor and walls the best he could to not be pushed back to square one. Many times he wished he could just throw off his armor and armaments into the water, but he decided against it.
As they neared the engine room, the water had risen higher, but it didn’t flow quite as fast, so s
he got down from the pipes. They could hear a banging sound. When they turned down the last hallway, they saw a bright green dragon trying its heart out to smash its way through the door.
“He’s not worth it,” she stated flatly. The dragon turned its head and glared at her. “You’re trying to go after him, right? A big, fat, annoyingly lucky idiot with white hair that stands about yay tall?” she indicated Juron’s height with her hand. The dragon nodded and started to look at them as if they were its next meal. “I don’t think you want to eat us. I’m likely to cause indigestion. Besides, don’t you think that tracking down the baby dragons is more important? The water is getting awfully high. They’re liable to drown.”
He eyed her suspiciously. As he approached, he replied in a deep snake-like voice, “You make a good point, but for your sake, it better not be a trick or trap.”
“I can assure you that we haven’t had time to set a trap, and what would be the point? There’s nothing you have that we want. Atlantis is losing the fight, and even if we did capture you, where would we keep you?” The dragon nodded in agreement. The Lady of Avalon and Sorbek bowed their heads and backed up against the wall to clear a path for the dragon to pass. Wading in the water, the dragon kept his condemning eyes on them as he slowly trudged past. He lifted his tail high out of the water as if it was too important to get wet.
As they watched the last bit of his tail turn the corner, they both let out a sigh of relief.
“Prima donna,” grumbled Sorbek under his breath. The lady let out a giggle as she thought about how the dragon kept its tail out of the water while it meandered past them.
“Hey, I’m just glad he didn’t eat us. For a second there, I thought we were goners!” The Lady said truthfully.
