The rest of her crew herded by the other humanoids stopped to listen to the conversation.
"I knew it from the beginning," said Powell. "There was something fishy about this lunatic."
"I swear I have no idea what this gray freak is talking about," said Burke before he turned to the humanoid. "How do you know what I know, Longface?"
"Mouth-speak-lies," said the alien. "Mind-not-lie."
Burke curled his lip. "What does this crap mean?"
For one rare occasion, Heather found herself ahead of Burke by one step. "Longface reads your mind, it seems." She stared at the tall, slender humanoid. "Our minds."
Burke furrowed his brow. "I don't think so. Because in that case, Powell couldn't have been able to stun that humanoid in the HG-3."
"He is right," Susan seconded him.
"Maybe it was too dark there to read," Burke sneered.
Heather looked the talking humanoid in the eye. Did this humanoid really read Burke's thoughts? What did he see?
"No-all-read-minds," said the humanoid. "Few-can. I-can."
"This is stupid." Burke laughed nervously. "So you all decided to just ignore the fact he claims he is not an alien."
"He said you knew they were not," Daniel reminded him. "I guess you are the one who can explain this."
"I can make him explain if they just let me go," Powell offered. It was no secret, Burke lacked popularity among her crew.
"Bullshit," said Burke. "I can't believe how this freak has messed with your minds."
It was Burke who had messed with her mind. It was him who had made her obsessed with this island. His island. But wait. What about the alien who could read their thoughts? Could he implant ideas in their minds as well?
"I not." The humanoid startled her again by answering her unvoiced query. A creepy feeling it was to be close to someone who could read your mind with all its ugly thoughts.
"Whatever you say, I can never tell if you're lying to me." Heather shrugged. "You're the one reading minds here, Mister."
"Shomrunk-can," said the humanoid.
"Shomrunk?" Heather echoed before she shot Burke an inquisitive look.
"Oh yeah, Shomrunk! Unfortunately, I have just deleted him from my phone book," said Burke mockingly.
Heather ignored Burke and turned to the humanoid. "What or who is Shomrunk?"
The humanoid jerked his neck toward his fellows, uttering some incomprehensible words before they urged the tied crew members to resume their walk.
"What's going on?" Heather asked the humanoid, who herded her and Burke again, and this time a bit faster. They are nervous. Heather noticed that the humanoids didn't stop looking around as they resumed their march, talking in their own language—probably Latin—with their creaky voices.
Heather wondered how these humanoids saw their way in the dark while she could hardly see hers. The light coming from the capsule explosion became too faint as they were getting into the woods, away from the island shore. The humanoid's hand that kept pushing her forward was her only guide until they all reached a vast, plain, grassy area.
"Nathaniel." She looked over her shoulder, trying to spot the ancient languages expert in this darkness.
"Over here," Nathaniel, who was tied to Walter, replied, his voice coming from her left.
"What's going on?"
"We are followed," Nathaniel replied. "They have to move because somebody or something is after us."
"Oh really?" Daniel exclaimed. "Why did they stop here, then?"
Heather contemplated the dark, slender frames of their humanoid captors, who kept checking their surroundings.
"It seems they are waiting for their ride," said Powell. "Look up."
With a noise lower than Heather's car, a flying craft five times the size of the HG-3 hovered over them. The darkness made it hard for Heather to know how the craft looked like, but she could tell it had a hemispherical top. "No way. Can it be. . . ?" Her eyes widened as she watched those familiar yellow lights. That hovercraft was the same ship she saw in the ocean, wasn't it?
She couldn't help glancing at Burke every minute, wishing she had the humanoid's gift in reading minds. Burke had entered that craft before, hadn't he? What did those humanoids do to you, Burke? What do you know that you don't want us to know?
The humanoid urged her and her crew onward as the craft landed. "Oh my God! Where are they going to take us?" Linda whimpered. Heather had to admit that the sight of the craft with its open hatch was breathtaking. The notion of entering this ship would unnerve anybody, even if it was a marine like Powell.
"Who or what is following us?" Heather asked Nathaniel.
"I'm not sure what they call it, but it sounded like At—"
An explosion just a few meters away from the craft cut Nathaniel off. "It's a missile!" Kenneth's alarmed voice came from somewhere amid this havoc, the humanoids screeching with their creaky voices.
"Oh my God!" Heather was forced to jog as the humanoids shoved her and Burke, her eyes watching the sky in alarm. "What the hell is going on?" she snapped at Burke. "Answer me. I know that you know."
"Why don't you ask your long-faced buddy?" Burke countered.
"Watch out!" Powell yelled just a second before another missile hit the ground away from the craft hatch by only a couple of meters.
"Run!" It was the English-speaking humanoid who screamed this time, his voice even scarier when he cried. As the crew was tied in pairs except for Powell, the marine had less trouble in complying with the humanoid's order. Heather almost fell as she tried to match Burke's pace. Behind her, she heard a thud together with Linda's scream and Susan's groan.
"Come on!" Daniel hollered. "We don't know where the next missile is going to hit."
The humanoid responsible for herding Susan and Linda helped them get up and screamed, "To-ship!" Though it sounded ironic, the only haven for Heather and her crew was their captors' vessel.
Heather's heart pounded vigorously when she stepped into the craft with her crew. The yellow lights of the wide hall blinded her for a moment until her eyes accommodated to the illumination inside the vessel. With Linda's entrance, the hatch slowly closed.
"Nicely done," Burke said. "A missile attack to urge us to hurry to their ship."
"Are you serious?" Heather peered at him. "We could have been killed in that attack."
"But we are alive. No one is even hurt. We were not the target, Heather."
"Then what was it? Do you think they were not in need of that attack to take us to their ship?"
"I don't know what they were in need of. I'm just impressed with the way they drove us to our cage. The ship body didn't even catch the smoke of the explosion."
Well, he wouldn't be Burke if he was less confusing.
Heather started to feel dizzy when the craft rose in the air. The worst part is yet to come. Thinking of the possibilities waiting for her and her team by the hands of those humanoids stimulated all the butterflies in her stomach. Would they dissect her body to take a sample? Or lock her in some glass-like cage to observe and study her like a lab rat? Oh please, be a nightmare! But it wasn't. That ship was real, and those humanoids were also. . .
Her forehead collided with Burke's nose when an explosion shook the flying vessel. "Damn!" Burke exclaimed. "It seems we did catch some smoke."
Heather was sick of Burke's ridiculous remarks and their ridiculous timing. "Nathaniel!" She turned to the language expert. "Who is following us, you said?"
Nathaniel seemed hesitant as he warily watched the humanoids creaking around them.
"They have more urgent matters to worry about as you see." Heather hoped those humanoids were currently too busy to notice Nathaniel's ability to understand them. "Now tell me please that a marine force is following this ship to rescue us."
"I don't think it's the marines." Nathaniel killed her hopes. "If I understand those humanoids right, they are talking about Atlanteans."
18. Akmenios
Heather rubbed her head with bot
h hands, trying to put all the puzzle pieces she had gathered so far in front of her eyes.
A mysterious island.
Writings in Ancient Egyptian, Latin, and a third unknown language.
Aliens—or humanoids, it didn't matter that much—who spoke Latin and thought of Heather and her team as aliens as well.
Burke; he knew.
And now Atlanteans. Where did they come from? Could it be possible they descended from the ancient dwellers of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis? Legendary? She inwardly mocked the word. For someone on board an alien vessel with humanoid creatures, meeting real Atlanteans shouldn't be something surprising at all. Wait, those Atlanteans could be aliens as well.
The possibilities were endless. But whether they were aliens or humans, Heather had a gut feeling that those Atlanteans were the link between all the loose threads of that expedition. It made much sense to Heather that they were the ones who wrote those lines in Burke's photo in a desperate attempt to seek help against those gray-faced humanoids.
How long had those Atlanteans been trapped with the humanoids?
And what about the disappeared planes and ships and their passengers? Were they abducted by those creatures? What happened to them?
What about Burke? Had he really come here before? Why would he lie about this? What did he hide?
"We're landing," said Powell, whose voice interrupted her thoughts. She could feel the ship losing altitude gradually.
"Here we go," Burke muttered, staring at the slowly opening hatch.
"Oh my God!" Susan exclaimed. "Lots of them."
The whole crew gazed at the dozen gray-faced humanoids waiting outside. Feeling nervous and curious at the same time, Heather knew she was on the verge of the greatest discovery in humans' history, a discovery that might reveal one of the biggest mysteries that had confounded mankind scientists for ages.
"Move," said the English-speaking humanoid.
"I'm afraid we have no many options now." Powell clenched his teeth.
The humanoids in the ship herded the crew outside, where more than thirty humanoids were waiting, all wearing the same leather attire. Yellow spotlights fixed to the gray ceiling lit the "dock" in which the ship had landed. Fifty meters high, Heather estimated. She wondered if they were currently underground.
"True," the humanoid confirmed her doubts.
"It's a whole world down there." Still tied to her, Burke seemed impressed as he looked around.
"Like you don't know." Heather gave him a hard look.
"Please, Heather, not you," said Burke.
"Not me?"
"I know that all of you have suspicions about me," said Burke. "But you have always been the only one to believe me. That's something I don't want to lose."
"I wish I could fully trust you, Burke, but I'm not sure if I can do this now."
"Yes, you can, Heather. Because those suspicions do not make any sense."
"You think? Then what do you have to say against that humanoid's claims?"
"You can't be serious. You trust a Longface more than me?"
"He gave me a reason to do that."
"What reason? His broken English?"
"He read your thoughts, Burke." Heather glared at him. "He read mine as well, so I know he doesn't lie. Do you have a stronger reason than that?"
Burke averted his eyes.
"That's what I thought." While she was expecting a clever, sarcastic remark from Burke, he remained silent as they followed the humanoids along a narrow tunnel lit by countless yellow spotlights.
"Where are we going?" Heather asked the English-speaking humanoid ahead of the line. Even if he wasn't looking at her, he must have known whom she was talking to.
"Akmenios-see-you," the humanoid replied.
"What sees me?"
"Akmenios. He-want-see-you."
So, Akmenios was someone. Some humanoid big shot, most probably. Does Burke know him too? Heather glanced at the man for whom she had risked everything to include him in the crew of the Bermuda mission.
"You think they might allow us to have some water?" Santino asked from behind her.
"And sleep as well," Linda added.
Sleep? Was that Linda's top concern at the moment? Perhaps Heather needed to remind the newly-wed that she was not on her honeymoon anymore.
Twenty minutes passed, and still, the humanoids herded them in the tunnel. A long march it was after an extremely exhausting day. Heather wondered if those humanoids ever felt tired.
"My legs are killing me," said Kenji.
"You are not alone," said Susan.
The English-speaking humanoid stopped abruptly and stared at both Susan and Kenji.
"What's wrong?" Daniel asked worriedly.
"Apparently, this Longface has misunderstood Kenji," said Burke. "The word 'killing' confused him."
The humanoid turned to Burke, who continued with a cynical smile, "Yeah, yeah. Read my mind, you gray freak. Take your time to understand what I mean."
"No-tricks," said the humanoid. "Akmenios-see-you."
"You are embarrassing me, Longface," said Burke. "Now I can't brag with your English in front of Santino."
Burke should be grateful that the humanoid didn't heed his bad sense of humor. "Move," was all the humanoid said. "Akmenios-wait-there." He pointed his four-digit hand at the visible end of the tunnel.
"Only two more minutes," Heather announced, not less eager than anybody else to get some rest. "Hang on, everybody."
The tunnel led to a vast hall with more humanoids standing in it. A hundred of them, Heather estimated. The hall itself resembled the landing area with its gray walls and yellow lights, except that its ceiling was only around ten meters high.
"What are all these humanoids doing?" Daniel asked warily.
"They look like an army," said Powell.
"They make sure our energy reactors are working."
Heather wasn't the only one startled by this creaky voice. Another English-speaking humanoid, yet more fluent. And a bit taller.
"Damn! That was good," Burke scoffed. "At least if compared to our friendly Longface."
"Not all have the same ability to learn," said the taller humanoid.
"Akmenios?" Heather asked hesitantly.
The tall humanoid turned, contemplating her for a while. "Clever hominum. It is me."
"Hominum?" Heather echoed quizzically.
"It's 'human' in Latin," Burke whispered.
So, Burke knew Latin; an interesting fact to know at this very moment. While she was wondering if he hid more things about himself, she was eager to find answers for those questions bugging her head. Aside from the invisible island, the humanoids, and those. . . Atlanteans, there was one urgent question: what were those humanoids going to do with her and her crew?
"So many questions," said Akmenios with his impassive creaky voice.
"You read minds too?" Heather asked.
"Not only yours," Akmenios replied. "All the minds of homines here."
"So perhaps, you know now we are tired and we need some rest," said Santino.
"And thirsty too," said Akmenios.
"What about these?" Heather raised her hand, which was tied to Burke's.
"From what I see in the thoughts of some of you," said Akmenios, "I cannot untie you."
Not a promising start at all. "So, we are prisoners?" Heather wondered.
"Until we find the Shomrunk," said Akmenios. "After that, you will eat and sleep."
Heather turned to the other English-speaking humanoid who had mentioned that Shomrunk once to her.
"I see you heard about it," said Akmenios.
Having a conversation with someone who could read her mind was still an awkward experience. What if she wanted to hide something from him?
"You cannot hide anything from me," said Akmenios. "But the Shomrunk can. That is why we have to make sure he is not one of you."
"I think it is pointless to ask," said Heather. "You already know my ne
xt questions."
"Which are so many," said Akmenios. "Anyhow, one particular topic will answer the rest."
From her team members' silence, Heather could tell that she wasn't the only one on her toes here.
"The Shomrunk," said Akmenios. "This is how everything had started. Millions of solar years ago."
"Millions?" Heather didn't mean to utter that out loud, but her astonishment was too hard to conceal. If that humanoid was telling the truth, then he could possibly have records of the ancient history of the universe, way before the existence of mankind.
"We do have records," Akmenios confirmed. "And they are accurate, unlike yours."
"You say I'm going to hear an untold part of history."
Akmenios gazed at her with his narrow eyes. "A different version of history, I would say."
19. History Retold
The humanoids' creaking voice was too annoying to hear. But in Akmenios's case, Heather was ready to make an exception.
"Millions of years ago, we shared the same planet with the Shomrunks, but they had their own lands to live on, separated from ours by one huge ocean," said Akmenios. "They established a great nation, like ours, but the cost was huge. For ages, the Shomrunks haven't learned how to use their resources wisely—unlike us. They consumed their lands until they depleted their resources, and the only salvation for them became our lands.
"A war started, but we were not ready for it. We were a peaceful race, and we used our knowledge only to build, not to destroy."
Heather found some difficulties in believing the last part; she had already seen the spheroidal weapon that turned their life capsule into ashes in seconds.
"Of course, we are not the peaceful community we used to be; we have seen enough from homines—your people." Akmenios peered at her. "I will come to that."
Heather did not want to interrupt Akmenios with her thoughts, but it was nearly impossible for her to control what crossed her mind.
"I know it is too hard for you," said Akmenios.
"Don't mind me, please go on." Heather was growing impatient.
"It is not correct to describe what happened between us and the Shomrunks as a war; it was annihilation," said Akmenios. "Only twenty of us survived. They escaped the Shomrunks' massacre and abandoned the planet that became dominated by Shomrunks. Nobody knows how many years they spent travelling in space until they found Earth."
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