Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1

by LEMPEREUR

  Charlie, on the other hand, was exhilarated. The further he went in his research, the more powerful and self-satisfied he felt. His level of concentration soon reached its peak, at which point he did not even hear the team’s questions and comments anymore. The feeling intoxicated and overwhelmed him beyond the simple pleasure of managing to accomplish something unusual. He could feel a growing thirst for power; a will to control everything, to be the one who knew, who could only ever be right all the time. His eyes were wild and his movements became more and more jerky, even rough; so much so that suddenly, the tablet’s screen cracked under the pressure of his fingers. Francisco immediately snatched the tablet from him. Charlie turned on him impulsively and gave him a stern fierce stare. He was prepared to rip the object out of his hands, but in a fraction of a second, his aggression suddenly left.

  He had just realized that his intellectual prowess was a result of convergence and that once again it was consuming him, pushing him out of himself. Was it Victor’s personality taking over or merely some sort of side-effect of the temporary expansion of his sensorial and psychological capacities? He did not know, but right now he felt uneasy. Something in him no longer belonged to him. A divide, a split was letting another personality emerge that he did not recognize. Or perhaps it was not another personality after all. Maybe it was simply his brain’s reward loop racing; bringing continual rushes of dopamine and other endogenous opioids. After all, his almost magical series of successes, in an area where he was the only competent one, could have been enough in and of itself to account for the state he had just found himself in.

  Deep down, he knew that this explanation, while plausible, was probably not sufficient. The truth was that he did not know and probably did not want to know what had really happened. This interpretation reassured him. Soon his thoughts stopped racing and the surge of emotions waned, giving way to a great void; and he began to breathe more slowly and deeply.

  “What’s the matter with you, Charlie? I worry about you. I’ve never seen you like that before. What on earth did they do to you in there?”

  “I’m sorry! I don’t know what came over me. I was so absorbed by what I was doing that I must have pressed a bit too hard on the screen. I hope I haven’t damaged the tablet too badly? I was just about to activate the magnetic road system when the screen cracked. I was concentrating so hard I didn’t even realize. It’s a good thing you interrupted me in time, Francisco.”

  Charlie was struggling to look calm, to make everyone forget his moment of confusion as quickly as possible, but Francisco still would not look at him. He only handed him the tablet again after making sure the drone was not damaged and the screen was still working, in spite of the deep cracks all over it.

  “Thank you,” said Charlie.

  “Now that the screen is cracked you will have to be a lot more careful with this device if you don’t want it to be rendered useless,” Francisco warned.

  “Don’t worry, Francisco. I think I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll be much more careful now, I assure you.”

  “I know you can’t answer me, Charlie, but you can still hear me out. That kind of attitude, that way you have of cutting yourself of from everyone, that impulsivity, that almost domineering self-assurance – it’s not like you… I find your behavior quite strange sometimes, as if you aren’t yourself anymore. I don’t know exactly what happens but be careful because people pick up on it and I don’t think Giuseppe really appreciates that sort of lapse. He mustn’t see us as some sort of threat, you understand? We’ll have to talk about this again when we’re alone together.”

  Charlie glanced briefly at his brother. His expression spoke volumes, which was enough to reassure Jacques. Then he went back to maneuvering the drone extremely gently, resisting at every moment the temptation to speed up the operation. He wanted to avoid damaging the equipment entrusted to him, and also preserve his own integrity. After close on an hour’s research, the drone’s constant to-ing and fro-ing came to an end at last and a dull noise was heard in the cave.

  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

  “What was that?” asked Mario.

  “I’ve activated the magnetic roads on all the sectors between Sector 5 and Sector 50. Now the magnetic levitation vehicles should work. I should be able to drive them if I ever find a way of accessing the on-board computer, which is also several meters off the ground.”

  “Logically speaking, they should use the same type of tactile screen as this one. We may not need to physically access it.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right, Francisco!”

  “Have you had access to other information, Charlie?” asked Giuseppe. “I’m mainly thinking of how the domes are opened, or of the energy supply system for this entire infrastructure.”

  “Yes, Giuseppe. Opening the domes shouldn’t be a problem anymore. The computer generates magnetic cards, like individual passes, which command the automatic opening of the door they are configured for. In retrospect, I remember seeing one of them being used when I was in the connection.” (Once again, Charlie was referring to his visit with Emma.) “All you need to do is get near the door for it to open.”

  “In the end, the N.H.I.’s technology doesn’t seem so very different from ours”, remarked Giuseppe. “In fact, I find it quite surprising that they were able to use the same strategies and follow the same tracks of technological development. Don’t you think, Charlie?”

  “I agree,” he replied, without elaborating. “In any case, in future you won’t need to cut through the doors with a laser anymore. I’ll just be able to generate access cards from here. We’ll have to verify that in situ but according to the central computer’s analysis everything seems to be functioning correctly. If that’s so, I think we can say that their technology has rock solid reliability and longevity. Our engineers would do well to follow their example.”

  They found what they were looking for only a short distance from the network center. This vehicle was as huge as the first. Its sleek design and perfectly rectilinear shape made it seem very imposing; almost intimidating. Solid, massive; it seemed that nothing could move that mountain of steel. There it sat on the ground, like a hunk of rock that had fallen off a cliff-face millions of years ago. And yet, as the twins got closer, holding the magnetic pass in their hands, the little group was amazed at the spectacle before them. The sight of the metal monolith rising slowly and silently several dozen centimeters from the ground seemed totally unreal.

  On its upper half, the sides, which had previously seemed massive and heavy, became gradually clearer until they were transparent. The door opened automatically, without any intervention on their part, revealing enormous synthetic leather seats. After the initial impression, Jacques quickly resumed his sense of practicality and liking for mockery.

  “Well! That’s all very impressive, but how are we supposed to get into this monster? The step is at least three meters off the ground and unfortunately, we ridiculous little humans can’t levitate – “Maybe you can?” – I guess the drone will take care of the rest. It’s a shame; I would have liked to see the landscape “live”, rather than from somewhere stuck under the driver’s seat. So, what do we do, Charlie; any ideas?”

  Francisco was not wasting any time. He had already taken out of his pack the rope, harness and magnetic handles. He soon motioned to Mario to come and join him near the vehicle, proffering him the material without further explanation. Mario knew what he had to do. He seemed quite adept at this type of exercise. After adroitly hurling the rope with one of the magnetic handles attached to the end of it, he yanked down on it with all his weight to make sure the device was firmly attached.

  Jacques watched in envy as Mario pulled himself up on the small climbing rope. The able-bodied and obviously very agile man did not seem to have any difficulty scaling the few meters from the ground to the vehicle. He moved around in the air by the strength of his arms alone, and all with disconcerting ease, in spite of his cumbersome suit. It was the sort of
thing Jacques would have loved to do if he had had the chance, but until now, Charlie had always been rather nervous when it came to taking risks or exposing their body. Things are finally going to change, he thought. But already Francisco was handing them the harness that would pull them up like dead-weights to the base of the vehicle.

  Indeed, it was not a simple maneuver. Despite their rather puny physique, they weighed a lot more than one man and had great difficulty stabilizing themselves, so that they had to start over twice before successfully completing the operation. Charlie already felt far, oh so far, from the exhilarating experiences he had just had, unlocking the mysteries of the network center, but perhaps that was a good thing after all. This was it; the story of his life, and it always would be. He was becoming his old self again; caught, stuck, dependant on the good will of his fellow team members; and that was reassuring. He even found the ludicrous situation rather amusing. Hanging there in space, like a disjointed marionette, he looked down at Clementine and smiled. Still waiting on the ground with Giuseppe, she was watching them with undisguised fondness and amusement. While Charlie was nonchalantly letting himself be carried; his brother on the other hand, was gesticulating in all directions and dishing out expert climbing advice, which only added to the situation’s burlesque, off the wall aspect.

  “Bravo, Mario! Thank you, Francisco. You pulled that off really well!” exclaimed Jacques excitedly. Looking up, he could see the dashboard, still several meters higher up. “Now we have to do that all over again, to get ourselves up there. This is not going to be easy!” he added.

  Mario smiled understandingly at Charlie, while Francisco prepared to announce the sad news: they would not be going all the way up there, because the drone would be able to drive the vehicle – but he never got the chance. Mario spoke first.

  “You managed well, Jacques! We have a gym on the base for keeping us fit. We might be scientists but we still need to stay in good physical shape. We practice climbing and mountaineering techniques a lot because we often need to use them for taking readings and samples in the cave. If you want, you can come along next week. Would you like that?”

  “I’d love that! It’s a childhood dream of mine”, grinned Jacques.

  “Good idea!” added Charlie.

  He then turned to Francisco, who was preparing the drone for a new operation. Jacques realized then that there would be no point in playing acrobats any longer, he reasoned with himself.

  When the doors closed, the atmosphere changed somewhat. Shut in, in the half-light of this timeless strong-box, they all had the same strange feeling. Would it ever open again? The worrying thought swept over the group in the way of a shockwave sweeping through everything in its path. They felt alone in the world, trapped in time, in a vacuum which could not be accessed from the outside (unless the walls were cut through with a laser) for days on end. None of them dared to mention that aloud, however, preferring to focus their attention on the progress of the drone. It was being piloted by the only person present who was capable of operating these technological marvels, developed by the N.H.I.’s.

  The minutes went by and the expression on Charlie’s face remained closed; absorbed by the screen. Nothing moved. There was not a sound, not a word; just the high-pitched whirring of the drone’s blades. The little radio-controlled device occupied all the sound waves exclusively and with complete impunity, taking advantage of the extremely tense atmosphere. Then the long-awaited moment finally came. Lights came on inside the vehicle at last, and the mass of steel started to move gently. They all tried to take a look at the tablet’s screen so they could see pictures of the base. The images, transmitted by the drone’s cameras, showed a panoramic view of the main highway that the vehicle was travelling down at a prodigious speed. Less than a minute after leaving, the door opened again, putting an end to their apprehension once and for all. An enormous, perfectly shiny, steel door stood in front of them.

  “Here we are!” exclaimed Charlie. “Sector 24.”

  “Already?”

  “Yes, already. Barely a fifty-second trip. I can’t believe it myself. All we need to do now is get down from here.”

  38 ROSALINE

  The gigantic door opened for the first time in millions of years, revealing the naked body of Rosaline. It immediately closed behind them again with a dull, muted thud; the sound of dozens of tons of steel ramming together in a brief, precise movement. Charlie and Jacques were alone. The others had received instructions to wait outside. Even Clementine had had to resign herself to not accompanying them.

  As they drew nearer to the sleeping body, the tears flowed freely down Charlie’s face. There she was at last, right in front of him: Rosaline, this woman (or rather, this female being) resting peacefully; prostrate and connected just as Victor was, on the metal platform in the middle of the dome. He had never seen her. Victor had only told him her name, without ever describing her, and yet he felt as if he had always known her. There was not a shadow of doubt. It was her; he was sure of it.

  The skin covering her generous breasts was perfectly smooth, slightly lighter than the rest of her body. In proportion to her, the twins were merely large insects, and her feminine attributes seemed to them like huge, gray mounds, sagging slightly outwards from her sternum. If he had to compare her to a woman, Charlie thought she looked more like a mother. Rosaline was certainly no young woman. Her wide hips, heavy breasts and rounded belly gave away her age like markers of the passage of time, made even more obvious by her nudity.

  The exposure of this naked, completely immobile body was somehow obscene or indecent. It was completely different to how Charlie had experienced his own nakedness in the connection. He would have liked to cover her up, give her some clothing, to preserve her dignity, her privacy, but he could do nothing. He had not felt the same compassion or embarrassment when they had seen Victor for the first time, although he was completely naked, too. At that point, he had been nothing more than a monster to them; a giant straight out of the bowels of the Earth; a headless beast – with a vaguely human appearance, it is true – but a beast nonetheless. This was completely different. He was seeing her with new eyes. She was one of their own, unless it was the other way around. He was no longer completely human, even if he was reminded of his clumsy body all too often. He was part of their world and was working for them, of his own volition, whatever it may cost him.

  “Look, Charlie! She seems to have some sort of medallion around her neck.”

  Jacques was right. Lost in thought, Charlie had not noticed that perfectly obvious detail, even more visible since she wore nothing else on her naked body, which was free of any embellishment. Rosaline did indeed have a finely chiseled, metal necklace around her neck. The metal it was made of looked entirely different to any they were used to seeing on the base. In view of its slightly pinkish gold color, it was probably a metal that was precious to the N.H.I.’s. It could have been gold, or perhaps another alloy of their making which closely resembled it. In any case, it was something perfectly resistant to the effects of time and oxidation. The medallion on the necklace was a small, golden sphere which glinted slightly, despite the very dim lighting inside the dome.

  “I absolutely must find a way to get a closer look at that.”

  “Do you think it could be significant? Is that why you came here?”

  “No! I came to see Rosaline. I had to make sure she was still alive. Victor asked me to; she’s his wife.”

  “I know that already, Charlie! But why are you interested in her necklace?”

  “I don’t know, Jacques. I didn’t even know it existed until you pointed it out. It’s as if I’ve always known this woman; as if I were used to seeing her wear this jewel – which I wouldn’t have even noticed if it weren’t for you. Now I feel as if I know something deep down. That object surely holds vital information; information that Victor wanted me to find in coming here.”

  “From down here it just looks like a simple, metal sphere.”

&n
bsp; “We’ll have to climb up onto her body, Jacques. I must admit; the idea hardly appeals, but we have to. There’s no other solution if we want to get closer to it.”

  “Why don’t we go out there and ask Francisco to let us come back with the drone? We could use it to film all over the medallion. We would probably never be able to cut through that metal, anyway.”

  “No! I don’t want to draw attention to the necklace; not until I have a more precise idea of the secret it holds.”

  “Let’s do it, Charlie! I feel I have what it takes to be a climber today. At least she’s not made of metal; her skin should provide us with a few holds.”

  “The necklace, Jacques!”

  “What about the necklace?”

  “You said yourself that it was too solid to cut through. We can use it like a rope and pull ourselves up onto her chest.”

  “We can always try.”

  This time Jacques and his brother were alone, faced with a sporting challenge that he had been craving for a very long time. They only had two or three meters to climb in order to reach the medallion, which seemed feasible, but if they fell, nobody would come to their aid for a long while. The heavy door would remain closed for days; an impenetrable wall to all who did not have the magnetic pass that opened it. They both clambered up, clinging on with all their strength to the long metal cable that linked them to the mysterious treasure. To their great surprise, they ascended quickly, with Charlie making every effort to follow his brother’s instructions to the letter. They were soon up on the giant’s chest. Exhausted by the brief but demanding endeavor, they sank down gently and leaned back against Rosaline’s generous breast while getting their breath back.

  “You see! We’ve finally done it. We should have tried that kind of activity long ago. It’s at times like this that I feel truly alive. Who cares if we seem ridiculous compared to others; compared to able-bodied people? Promise me that we won’t let ourselves be shut up in an apartment like helpless woodlice again! After what we’ve experienced lately, there’s no way I’m going back. For the first time in ages, I’m happy, Charlie! Happy, you hear?”