Atlantis - Return of the Nation

by Steven Cook

‘Well, let’s see if we can.’ Danny hurried over to the altar.

  ‘Zeus?’

  The voice boomed out.

  ‘THIS IS ZEUS, WHAT DO YOU REQUIRE DANIEL MOREHOUSE?’

  ‘Is it possible to control the Talos at the Temple of Poseidon from this temple?’

  ‘NO.’

  ‘I thought as much,’ said Agesilaus.

  ‘Why?’ Danny ignored him.

  ‘THE PROTOCOLS HAVE NOT BEEN ACTIVATED.’

  Danny looked up into the air.

  ‘Activate the protocols,’ he ordered

  ‘THE PROTOCOLS CAN NOT BE ACTIVATED FROM THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS.’ Zeus announced.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘THE PROTOCOLS CAN ONLY BE ACTIVATED FROM THE TEMPLE OF POSEIDON. IT WAS SET THIS WAY TO PREVENT A FOE FROM TAKING CONTROL OF THIS TEMPLE AND THEN DESTROYING ATLANTIS REMOTELY.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ said Saraph.

  Danny turned and rested against the altar.

  ‘Is it possible to control the Talos here at the Temple of Zeus from the Temple of Poseidon in Atlantis?’

  ‘THAT IS POSSIBLE.’

  ‘So a communication channel exists?’

  ‘YES.’ boomed Zeus.

  Danny turned to look down at the altar.

  ‘Show me.’

  Agesilaus looked over Danny’s shoulder as an intricate diagram appeared on the surface of the altar. His bemused expression caused several of the others to move in for a look. The Atlantians took one look at the plan then looked at each other, mirroring the priest’s look.

  Fisher, Dingo and Craig looked down as well. They comprehended a little bit more than the others, but it was still beyond them.

  ‘Zeus, show me the protocol configuration as well.’

  On the altar the display split into two. The diagram drifted to one side and shrank, whilst a list of glyphs appeared on the opposite side. After a split second the glyphs morphed into characters that Danny could decipher.

  ‘OK, now we’re talking.’

  ‘What do you plan to do?’ asked M’Varak.

  Danny looked up.

  ‘I hope to be able to reprogram the protocols her so that the interface will work as a remote session to control the Poseidon console. Then I can authenticate the console here by controlling the Poseidon console to deactivate the lock down.’

  ‘Geek.’ said Craig.

  Danny looked at the blank face staring at him.

  ‘I’m getting Zeus to ask Poseidon to let Zeus control the Talos at the Temple of Poseidon. Is that any better?’

  They shook their heads.

  ‘Never mind.’ He turned back to the altar, touched the display and started tracking through the lines of code.

  ‘Zeus, can you give me an update interface such as a keyboard?’

  The display changed again to display a keyboard. Behind Danny Hernet looked up in interest. Slowly he prowled over. Carefully folding his wings the sphinx sat and watched Danny. The rest watched for a while before being distracted by a call from the main entrance.

  ‘I’m fine, nobody worry about me.’

  Craig turned and looked to see Carl being supported by two Minoans. He looked battered and bruised and his leg was dragging.

  ‘Dingo, Eraz, help me with him.’

  The three ran to take him from the Minoans and lowered him to the ground. Darath joined them and began administering treatment.

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ said Craig.

  ‘I bounce quite well apparently,’ Carl winced.

  ‘Well you missed all the fun,’ said Craig, cringing in sympathy at the misshapen leg and the scratches and lacerations on the Petty Officers exposed skin.

  ‘What the hell’s going on?’ asked Carl.

  ‘Danny’s saved the world, but now he’s trying to figure out how to save Atlantis.’ explained Craig.

  ‘Great, can somebody please look at my leg?’ Carl asked.

  He screamed briefly and passed out as Darath and Eraz suddenly pulled his broken leg straight. Darath reached for his pack and the herbs within.

  Danny glanced up briefly to see what the commotion was before returning to the display. He smiled at Hernet who had shuffled a bit closer.

  ‘I understand the riddle,’ said the Sphinx.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I have many keys and three locks, the keys do not fit any lock but the locks can unlock themselves. What am I?’ said Hernet.

  Danny looked down at the keyboard in front of him. He smiled.

  ‘You called it a keyboard.’

  Danny nodded.

  ‘And I see there are markings for Caps Lock, Scroll Lock and Number Lock on it.’

  Danny nodded again.

  ‘I take it that the other glyphs are Keys?’

  Danny gave a noncommittal hum and continued studying the lines.

  ‘So the answer to the riddle is a keyboard.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Danny.

  Hernet sat back and began meticulously grooming, obviously pleased with himself.

  *

  Atlantis 28th May

  Ilissus was growing more and more concerned about Atlas. He hadn’t been in the front line of battle for many years, unlike his warlike adversary. To the crowd it seemed that M’Protun was toying with the King of Atlantis.

  He was consistently attacking, his axe jabbing again and again into Atlas’ hastily raised shield, stunning his arm and knocking him backwards. With each crash the Minoan crowd roared out in appreciation. The Atlantian crowd were silent.

  Once again Atlas struggled to regain his balance and peered at the Minoan over his shield edge. His eyes shone with repressed fury, as he was unable to respond to the attacks.

  With a twist of his thick torso the Minoan General slammed his axe down onto Atlas’ shield with such power that Atlas was knocked to his knees as the shield buckled. Instead of following up on the attack M’Protun stood and waited for him to rise.

  Atlas used his sword to carefully slice through the bands holding the shield to his battered arm. He let it drop to the ground and faced the Minoan with his sword only; shaking his left arm to get some feeling back into it.

  At the edge of the arena Eridanus gently nudged Ilissus.

  ‘See how Atlas stands.’ She looked then nodded in understanding.

  In the centre the two combatants squared up.

  ‘Now the fun begins.’ said M’Protun.

  ‘Indeed it does.’ muttered Atlas to himself.

  M’Protun launched his attack, jabbing the head of the axe towards Atlas. The King dropped all pretence of exhaustion and fatigue and skipped back to give himself enough room to swing his blade in a downwards vertical sweep.

  The Orichalcum blade connected with the spike at the top of the axe and effortlessly sliced through. The arena crowd were stunned into silence as the heavy lump of metal thudded to the ground.

  Unaware that he had lost part of his weapon M’Protun completed his manoeuvre with a backhanded sweep that Atlas met again with his sword. A larger lump of metal was sheared off and fell to the ground.

  M’Protun pulled back to consider his options. His weapon was now completely unbalanced and was almost useless against the sword in Atlas’ experienced hand.

  Atlas took the offensive and followed the Minoan, weaving his sword backwards and forwards. His face now set with concentration. M’Protun desperately swept the unwieldy axe at extreme range one handed. Atlas casually flicked out the sword to remove another large lump of metal.

  M’Protun pulled back the axe, now reduced to a shaft of wood with a misshapen lump of metal attached to one end. It was now more balanced, but as a weapon it had had its day.

 
The crowd held its breath. M’Lunath surreptitiously began motioning to several officers within his immediate vicinity.

  ‘Be ready. We attack soon.’ They grunted in acknowledgement and moved back to their warriors.

  In the centre of the arena M’Protun shuffled his feet to sink them into the soil to get a better grip. Atlas moved closer, preparing to end the battle.

  In a burst of motion M’Protun whipped his right foot up and around, throwing an instep covered in soil towards Atlas. In the same move he hurled his useless axe one handed directly at his opponent and charged forward, drawing his heavy knife from the sheath at his waist.

  Atlas threw up his arm to protect his face as the soil sprayed across him. The axe haft hit his arm and he lashed out with the sword, cutting it effortlessly in two. He was unable to recover before M’Protun crashed into him.

  The Atlantian crowd cried out in anger as the two combatants collided and collapsed to the floor.

  As Atlas fell backwards he barely caught M’Protun’s right wrist to hold off the knife. In return the Minoan grasped Atlas by his sword wrist to neutralise the weapon. Atlas twisted as they fell to avoid the full weight of the Minoan crashing onto him.

  The two were winded and took a moment to gather their wits. As soon as realisation hit they began to struggle against each other, pitting their strength against the other in an attempt to bring their respective blades to bear.

  From her position on the sidelines Ilissus saw an immediate change in the aspect of the Minoan lines.

  ‘To arms!’ she screamed as the Minoans hefted their weapons and began to advance.

  With screams of fear the non-combatant citizens of Atlantis melted back through the lines of warriors who rushed forwards. Before the Minoans had taken ten paces a ragged line of spearmen had pushed to the front and began building a hedge of wicked points.

  In the centre of the arena Atlas and M’Protun rolled about in their struggle for life. The massive Minoan was the attacker, attempting to pin down the more agile human who twisted and turned to avoid the bigger opponent from bringing his massive power advantage directly onto him.

  Neither was able to inflict damage to the others wrist. M’Protun grasped the Orichalcum bracer on Atlas’ forearm and it refused to flex, whilst Atlas was unable to do more than bruise the thick wrist of the Minoan. He was more intent on keeping the blade away from his body.

  Atlas finally managed to break the deadlock. As he rolled he brought his knee up into M’Protun’s groin. In a reactive spasm Atlas was thrown into the air to land in a heap.

  They both rolled onto their feet slowly and stared at each other. Their attention was quickly diverted by the vision of their own troops slowly advancing behind their opponent.

  Realising that the fight between them was over, they sidestepped each other in a wide circle to return to their respective sides. Slowly the two armies closed the gap, sweeping up to, and engulfing their champions.

  *

  Temple of Zeus 28th May

  Coran looked back over his shoulder towards the altar where Danny was still tapping away on its surface.

  ‘Do you want any of this Danny?’ he called, holding up a bowl of stew.

  The Minoans had broken out their supplies and shared them with the Atlantians and their allies.

  Danny ignored the call, engrossed in his attempt to find a way through the protocols. At his feet Hernet stirred from his nap and stalked towards the others and accepted a bowl.

  ‘Danny, face it, you’re not going to be able to crack some five thousand year old technology.’ Craig shouted back.

  At the altar Danny made a few more taps on the virtual keyboard and straightened up, cracking his back. Slowly he turned around and looked over to where the others were reclining on the floor of the temple.

  ‘Oh ye of little faith,’ he smiled.

  Craig slowly stood up, a grin appearing on his face.

  ‘You haven’t?’

  ‘Zeus.’

  ‘YES DANIEL MOREHOUSE?’

  ‘Enable the interface to take control of the Talos at the Temple of Poseidon.’

  ‘INITIATING INTERFACE.’ The disembodied voice boomed out.

  Behind Danny the images on the altar top began flashing through a sequence. Finally they stopped.

  Suddenly the lights surmounting the pillars blinked out, leaving the temple in twilight. A series of heavy mechanical thuds reverberated around the chamber. Slowly the twenty pillars began to sink into the ground.

  Eventually the pillars dropped so that only a foot of them remained standing up from the ground, creating small pedestals. Again the thuds were felt rather than heard.

  A split second later a beam burst from the ceiling to illuminate each of the pedestals in solid light. Danny walked towards one of the pedestals and jumped up into the beam of light.

  Instead of landing on his feet the light held him in place.

  ‘Let’s go. Get M’Varak and some of the Minoans up here. They’ll need to convince the Minoan Commanders that the war is off.’

  ‘I am ready,’ said M’Varak as he walked out of the shadows.

  Beside him he had M’Sorta and several other Minoans.

  ‘Pick a pedestal,’ invited Danny.

  M’Varak strode boldly forward and jumped into the beam of light next to Danny. He too was held in mid air. In quick succession others followed his example.

  Finally Saraph, Coran, Eraz, Fisher, Dingo, Craig, Sophia, M’Sorta and another Minoan joined Danny and M’Varak. Darath and Agesilaus stayed with Carl to monitor his injuries. Hernet lay down and took a nap under the watchful eyes of the remaining Minoans.

  As each jumped into the light they found themselves surrounded by strange images. Danny gave them a quick introduction.

  ‘Your movements will be transmitted to the Talos as if it were you. What you see ahead of you is what the Talos can see. On the edge of what you can see are marks that signify the direction of the other Talos marked as blue flecks, and other life forms as red. There are quite a lot so it appears if the temple plaza is crowded.

  ‘Familiarise yourself with the screen. I’ll send the command to transfer control to us in a minute.’

  Hernet raised his head to briefly watch the figures waggling their arms and legs in midair before settling down and closing his eyes. He would never understand humans.

  ‘Is everybody ready?’ Danny asked aloud.

  He was answered by a number of grunts and other signs of affirmation.

  ‘Zeus, transfer control of the Talos at the Temple of Poseidon to here.’

  ‘INITIATING TRANSFER.’ The deep bass voice echoed through the chamber.

  *

  Temple of Poseidon 28th May

  General Clartus looked back over the ranks of Atlantian warriors standing at ease in their ranks in front of the Temple of Poseidon. Idly he slowly turned to look towards the bridge that led to the outer rings of the city. His head snapped around as he detected some movement in his peripheral vision.

  His mouth dropped open as he stared at the Temple. The nearest warriors exchanged quizzical glances before looking back over their shoulders to look in the same direction.

  On the left side of the main temple door the massive carving of one of the Lords of Atlantis built into the walls was detaching itself from its age-old position. Clartus pushed through the lines of warriors to stand at their front. The statue carefully stepped out into the plaza. As the warriors slowly backed away from Clartus and the statue an amazing transformation began to take place.

  Slowly the faces and clothing of the lord melted back into their bodies. For a few seconds the Talos became a featureless mannequin before it warped and took the features and clothing of the person controlling it.

  Clartus looked up at the bronze coloured statue to see a young man wearing a strange overa
ll belted at the waist. The statue retained the large sword and shield that the Lord had been holding.

  The statue looked down at the gathered warriors.

  ‘WHERE IS THE FRONT LINE?’ boomed Danny

  Clartus waved to catch the thirty-foot high creations attention.

  ‘My Lord, they are undertaking individual challenges in the Outer Seventh Realm.’

  ‘THANK YOU.’ The massive statue turned to where the others had appeared from around the temple.

  ‘SARAPH, LEAD THE WAY.’

  Clartus was shocked to see that one of the statues had taken on the aspect of Saraph of the Fifth Realm. What shocked him even more were the four Minoan shaped statues that had also appeared.

  The one that looked like Saraph turned its head to gain its bearings then strode off. It was immediately followed by the remaining statues. For such large creatures the statues moved with surprising speed. Clartus was barely able to track their progress as they flashed across the plaza and out of sight.

  The augmented senses and time distortion provided by Poseidon and Zeus enabled the Talos to sprint through the city at speeds of nearly one hundred miles an hour without loosing control. The speeding Talos caused the inhabitants of the city to stop what they were doing as the pounding feet alerted them to the approach.

  In the crowded areas the Talos barely slowed as they picked their way through, miraculously not injuring anybody.

  In the lead position Saraph used the enhanced senses of the Talos to listen and look. Almost without thinking a small zoom area appeared as he willed the vision to see further ahead. As they charged across one of the outer bridges the elevation gave him a clear view of the area where the armies had gathered for combat.

  Ignoring the narrow streets Saraph tested the limits of the Talos by leaping to the top of a nearby building. The machine easily made it to the top of the three-storey building and began charging across the rooftops. In a flash the rest followed his example.

  Saraph lead the Talos in a charge to the flanks of the opposing armies, aiming at the narrowing space between them. As the armies took a final pause to dress their lines before charging Saraph leapt into the air.

  The massive Talos landed with a mighty thump, throwing a cloud of dust and earth into the air. The warriors and Minoans in the immediate vicinity took an involuntary step back.