Bermuda

by Karim Soliman

  Heather tried to focus her thoughts on Akmenios's story, but she couldn't help wondering about the technology they used to reach Earth.

  "Skip this part, Akmenios," said Heather. "We can discuss it later."

  "There were no homines when our ancestors reached Earth," said Akmenios. "The planet was inhabited by those dinosaurs, except for that huge island in the ocean; Atlantis. It means 'the new land' in our language."

  Struck by what she was listening to, Heather was unable to control her train of thought this time.

  Atlantis.

  Homines.

  Did this mean Latin was..?

  "You are a really clever hominum," said Akmenios.

  "It was your language from the beginning," Heather concluded, still astounded.

  "No way." Daniel shook his head.

  "Latin is the fruit of the crossover between our civilization and yours," said Akmenios. "Our original language wasn't much different, though."

  "You said dinosaurs?" Susan asked. "Did you witness their extinction?"

  "We did. And that was the first time we had to rebuild our civilization, when the Asteroid Interitum hit this planet. We were able to spot that rock ten solar years before its arrival. And we realized that there was no way to survive that collision if we remained on our lands."

  "So, you left?" Heather asked.

  "Not exactly. We hid in shelters floating in the outer layer of Earth's atmosphere," said Akmenios. "After two years, we returned and re-established Atlantis."

  Akmenios leaned forward, addressing Heather, "Now you realize who the real aliens here are. We know this planet better than you. We have been living on this Earth before you came from nowhere. We have no accurate information about when and how you have arrived on Earth. But we are quite sure your race has not been there before the Great Collision."

  "Is this your way to justify your presence here?" Santino curled his nose. "On our planet?"

  Akmenios looked at him for a moment. "All this time with homines, and still, I never fully understood their emotions."

  "You will never fool us with your mind games." Kenneth was encouraged to challenge the humanoid. "Even your story doesn't make any sense. If your. . . people came here before us, as you claim, then you would know when we first existed."

  "I'm aware of the bloody history of your race. . . Kenneth," Akmenios replied with his impassive creaky voice. "Your only valid claim for any land here on this planet is always based on power. You don't need me to remind you of what your ancestors did to colonize the lands of its original inhabitants."

  "Damn!" Burke muttered. "Tell me he is not referring to the Native Americans."

  "I'm afraid he is." Heather stared at the humanoid in anticipation. Referring to that example didn't bode well.

  "You have no reason to worry," said Akmenios. "Wiping out a whole race by another to replace it and take over its lands is not a notion we totally comprehend. Actually, it is one thing common between you and Shomrunks. You are a really hostile race. And from our experience with you, you prefer war to peace."

  Heather couldn't see any positive outcome from the debate about this issue. "Akmenios, can we please get back to your primary story? You said you had to rebuild your civilization in Atlantis twice. What about the second time?" A little trick that had a little chance to work with a mind-reading creature.

  "The second time was worse because we did not see it coming," said Akmenios. "It was a great flood that covered the whole planet."

  "The Flood of Noah's Day." Santino gaped at the gray humanoid.

  "And how did you, I mean your ancestors, survived that?" Daniel asked.

  "They did not." Akmenios's answer was shocking. "There was no time to escape."

  "Then how did you—?" Heather wondered.

  "We are still here thanks to six of our ancestors. They were on a mission at our safe shelters to maintain them," Akmenios replied. "When they returned, they faced a much harder time to rebuild our community than the first one. But eventually, they did it."

  Akmenios allowed a moment of silence, as if he was checking Heather and her team's reactions. "Thousands of years later," he continued, "the first homines ship arrived at our shores. They were very primitive compared to us, yet we could see their intelligence from what they constructed in their homelands."

  "Now what?" Burke muttered. "Pharaohs maybe?

  Akmenios didn't stop at Burke's comment. "We have started to follow your progress since the first encounter with your ancestors. I must say, for a race, whose age does not exceed a few thousand years, your progress is faster than ours. We took millions of years to reach what we have reached by now."

  "Thanks for the compliment." Heather smirked. "Then what?"

  "More ships came to Atlantis. But they did not seem to be from the same nation of the first ship," said Akmenios. "Those homines settled on Atlantis with us. And we had no problem to establish a shared community with them. Actually, they learned very fast, became well acquainted with our technology, and became part of the perfect Atlantean society."

  "Unbelievable." Daniel was astounded.

  "Utopia," Burke muttered. "Plato's Republic. I knew he was right about Atlantis."

  "In less than a century," Akmenios went on without any reaction to those comments, "homines became the majority of the Atlantean population—your reproduction rate is much higher than ours—and by the time, our language was affected by theirs, and eventually they became one."

  "That's why your language sounds like Latin," Heather said.

  "The homines displayed a level of creativity, beyond our expectations," said Akmenios. "The Atlantean nation was much superior to any other known homines nation at that time. And there came the part that we never understood about your race."

  Heather tried to expect the next part of Akmenios's tale.

  "For ages, we have worked on optimizing the use of power, and we excelled in finding more efficient means to generate energy. But homines always excelled in something else: weaponry," said Akmenios. "First, they told us they were essential to defend our lands from external threats, and we found reason in that. Especially after what we have suffered from the Shomrunks' invasion in the past.

  "We helped them construct weapons plants, thinking this would make us safer, but we were wrong. Once you feel superior over others, you seek to control their lands and resources. Your history is full of examples. You never learned how to practice peaceful coexistence with other parties. Even from your own race." Akmenios gave Powell a long gaze. "A soldier like you understands that."

  Powell frowned, yet he kept his mouth shut. Thank God.

  "The Atlantean homines proposed an expansion campaign to us, and we rejected it because there was no need for it. For me, Shomrunks were more logical than your race—at least they had a reason to invade us. As I said, we never found an explanation for your ideology of expansionism."

  "And what happened after you rejected their plan?" Heather asked.

  Akmenios turned to Heather. "What do you expect? They waged war against us to gain total control on the island of Atlantis and to be able afterward to start their invasion campaign.

  "The war was hard on both of us. Both sides were well-equipped. Both sides suffered heavy losses. By the time, we were winning the war, and homines in turn, started to think differently out of despair. Realizing that their defeat was inevitable, they launched a prototype of the Flavi Bomb deep in the heart of Atlantis, aiming to initiate a massive earthquake in our lands. But the results were worse than they expected."

  Heather noticed how she forgot her fatigue and thirst. Despite the annoying creaky voice of Akmenios, his talk took her full attention. She was sure her team had the same feeling.

  "A few survivors passed their memories of that horrifying day to the next generations. It was not a normal earthquake. The land was collapsing under their feet and the Earth's heart was visible to the naked eye. The island sank, and literally, Atlantis was swallowed by the ocean."

>   "I can't believe I'm hearing this," said Heather. "All you narrate as events are more like myths to us."

  "Only seven of us managed to survive the colossal ocean waves," said Akmenios. "And for some reason, four homines accompanied them until they reached the very island we currently reside in, the Domus."

  "So, that was the third time to rebuild your society," Heather pointed out.

  "Not exactly," said Akmenios. "Our society was never like it was before. We spent a whole century in constructing some primitive reactors to provide us with energy. We forgot our conflicts with homines, and we stood together hand in hand to survive. Everything was fine until we started the isolation."

  "The isolation?" Heather echoed.

  "When the war between homines started all over the planet in the previous century, we had to take some critical measures to protect our last shelter from this war," said Akmenios.

  "I guess he is talking about the World War," Daniel said.

  Akmenios continued, "Using all we could gather from the remnants of our ancestors' technology, we built the Shell. It did not only block intruders, it also prevented our lands from being spotted by your radars, and afterward your satellites."

  Heather pondered what she had just heard. Was this, at last, the explanation of what became known as the Bermuda Triangle?

  So, those humanoid creatures were protecting their lands from intruders. . .

  "Wait a second, Akmenios," said Heather. "If I am getting this right, you didn't block intruders. They were swallowed into your shell, and they never came back home. What happened to them?"

  The hall grew hushed for a few seconds after Heather's question. Akmenios's impassive face did not give any impression of what he was feeling or thinking about.

  "We didn't intend to harm anybody," said Akmenios with his creaky voice. "We spared many souls as much as we could, but we couldn't rescue all."

  Even for an emotionless creature, Akmenios's transparency was shocking. Not even a hollow apology about those who died in the Triangle because of their Shell.

  "This doesn't make any sense," said Burke, addressing Akmenios. "What satellites and radars are you talking about? We have reported disappearance events from the eighteenth century. What war were you protecting your lands from?"

  That was a good point indeed. How did Heather miss that?

  "I have no idea about these events," said Akmenios. "Your information might be wrong."

  "You're lying, Longface." Burke's sharp tone should have surprised Akmenios if the humanoid had feelings. "The whole thing is about energy. The Shell; you could not maintain it for long, right?"

  Akmenios stood still like a statue.

  "What are you talking about, Burke?" Heather asked him.

  "The map of disappeared ships and planes. The red and yellow dots," said Burke. "There is a pattern, Heather. The range of the Triangle is shrinking. That shell has been consuming their energy, and who knows how long they can keep their island hidden."

  Akmenios was still silent.

  "Do you have anything to say about this conclusion?" Heather asked.

  "Wrong." Akmenios slowly walked toward Burke. "He did not conclude that." He scrutinized Burke's face when said, "He knew what he said."

  Confused, she asked, "What the hell does this mean?"

  "Your friend did not think about the issue to reach his conclusion," replied the humanoid. "He was talking as if he was there with us when all those events had occurred." He turned to Burke. "Or as if somebody has told him about our history before." He paused for a couple of seconds, his eyes still on Burke's face. "Somebody implanted these facts in his mind."

  While Heather was wondering who would do that, Akmenios continued, "A Shomrunk."

  20. Homines and Locusts

  Heather wasn't sure she got the last part right. Maybe her mind was confused as it was still processing this new version of mankind history.

  "I see some of you wondering why I am telling you all these events," said Akmenios to Heather and her crew. "Actually, you have finished your primary examination."

  "Primary examination?" Heather echoed warily.

  "This technique never fails me when I am handling more than one mind at a time," said Akmenios to Heather and her crew. "Telling you something you know reveals most of the information buried in your subconscious mind."

  Heather didn't like the idea of being manipulated. A few moments ago, she was excited about the information she had heard from Akmenios. Damn! Was he lying to them all this time?

  "I was not lying," Akmenios said. "Lying is part of homines ideology, not ours." The humanoid turned again to Burke. "Your friend's mind bears some memories that he seems to have no idea about. Memories that were hidden on purpose. And I know only one creature that can do this."

  "Don't you have the same ability?" Heather asked.

  "I extract thoughts," replied Akmenios. "I can't implant them."

  "Not necessarily you," said Heather. "Anybody else from your race."

  Akmenios paused for a moment before he said, "Not all of us can read minds, and nobody else has my ability to handle many minds at the same time."

  "What's this?" Burke smirked. "Are you trying to evoke more memories from my mind?"

  "Exactly," said Akmenios to Burke. "But it seems that we need further examination to dig deeper into the secret chambers of your mind."

  Burke chuckled nervously. "Secret chambers? You were reading Harry Potter, not my mind."

  Akmenios's face was impassive as usual when he said, "Every mind has its secret chambers. Only the Shomrunk can hide information in it."

  "I don't get it, Akmenios." Heather rubbed her forehead. "Aren't those Shomrunks supposed to be on your planet right now?"

  Akmenios looked from Heather to Burke more than once in a creepy manner that freaked her out.

  "A hundred years ago, we detected a message sent from Earth," said Akmenios. "A message sent from a Shomrunk."

  "They are here on Earth?" Heather was stunned. "What was in this message?"

  "He is only one," said Akmenios. "It is clear from his message he was sent for one mission: find a new home."

  "A new home for whom?" Heather swallowed. "For him?"

  "No," Akmenios replied with his creaky voice. "For his entire race. They must have consumed our lands. As they did before with theirs."

  From the silence that settled over the place, Heather could tell that Akmenios's bad news had stunned all the crew.

  "Oh my God!" Susan muttered. "They are like locusts."

  "He must have followed our floating safe hideouts," said Akmenios. "Since he landed on Earth, he has been trying to find our exact location."

  "So, the Shell was not to protect you from our war, Longface." Burke tilted his head.

  "I didn't lie, hominum," said Akmenios. "We built the Shell before the Shomrunk's arrival for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Actually, the Shell became a problem. It might have made the Shomrunk suspicious about the region you call Bermuda Triangle."

  Heather gestured with her hand to stop Akmenios. "You said he was looking for a home for his race. What does he want from you?"

  "The Shomrunk wants to inform his people of Earth's location," said Akmenios. "The only way to do that is to send a message from here, from the Domus."

  "But you said he had already sent a message."

  "Yes," said Akmenios. "But his message would never reach its destination. The equipment and power he had at that time were not enough for the task."

  Heather wanted to pose another question, but Burke gripped her hand firmly when he said, "Wait a second, Heather." He then addressed Akmenios, "Can you tell us how the hell he knows you have the required equipment? And if you know the answer to this question, can you tell us how you know what he knows?"

  Akmenios didn't look bothered by Burke's questions. "It is an assumption," the humanoid replied, "and I tell you something; you should hope it is right."

  Heather was trying to gather the fragme
nted pieces in her mind. "What do you mean by this, Akmenios?"

  "Think about it," said Akmenios. "If the Shomrunk finds another way to communicate with his people, he will not need to chase us. At least for now."

  Pondering the notion that those Shomrunks might find their way to Earth was horrifying.

  "How can we be sure that he hasn't found a way already?" she asked.

  "We are sure he has not," Akmenios replied. "We would have detected his message. And most probably, your current technology is not enough for the task."

  "So far, you are doing a good job in dodging pitfalls." Burke smirked. "But for some reason, I don't buy all you say. You can read my mind anyway, so no harm if I tell you this."

  "It does not matter if you believe it or not," said Akmenios. "Our priority now is to know what is hidden in your mind, hominum." He laid his hand on Burke's shoulders. "I hope your friends now understand what we are going to do with you."

  Heather started to feel worried about this part. What are they going to do with him? It was true she had some doubts about Burke who seemed to know too much. But leaving him in the hands of those creatures without knowing what was going to happen to him was a scary idea.

  "No need to worry." No surprise, Akmenios had read her thoughts. "All I am going to do is connect my mind to his. There is no pain or harm in that."

  Burke's sarcastic smile vanished. He must be really anxious when Akmenios called his fellow humanoids to untie him from Heather.

  "Where are you taking him?" Heather warily asked.

  Akmenios didn't answer her when his fellows took Burke by the arms and walked him away into a narrow corridor. Still shocked, the former professor didn't utter a word until he went out of sight.

  "You need some rest," said Akmenios to the whole crew. "The venue here is not prepared to entertain guests, but we have a chamber where you can replenish your energy and use the food you have in your bags."

  "A cell you mean." Powell gnashed his teeth.