Three days had passed and the Atlantean ship emerged some four light-years away from where once, they esteemed, was Atlantis One, their home world. They saw a nightmare: There, invisible to all but the gravimeters and gamma and X-ray detector, was the once proud star of Atlantis, a black hole of relatively small size. The Felines had accompanied their old adoptive parents, understanding intuitively that this was an important event. They also felt the sorrow, but for them, this was only a rather strange, if somewhat impressive image on a three-dimensional projection.

"Paschal? What is stage one?" asked Harold as he eyed the sickening black sphere in the Astronomy projection room.

"Let us track back in time the evolution of the black hole to validate it is indeed Atlantis One's primary. I have already sent out sensors and the stream is coming in via AI-4. They are backtracking at 100,000 years per second. We should get information confirming it is Atlantis One's primary within 30 seconds at most. Ah, here come the first results. The spectral analysis comparison is in progress. I have ordered a slowdown of the backtracking so we do not miss anything relative to the last instants of this star."

After another heart-wrenching minute, the diagnostic fell: It was indeed Atlantis One's primary star.

"Identity is confirmed," said AI-3, charged with spectroscopic analysis. "Discrepancy! Discrepancy! This star should not have gone nova! It was a G5 class still within the main sequence!"

"What?" Harold asked as he bleached. "Validate data stream!"

A few minutes later the damning diagnostic fell.

"We confirm. Fifteen different sensors report the same results! All data concurs. Atlantis One's primary was a G5 star that had several billion years yet to live within the main sequence when it went nova. It did not even enter red giant stage!"

"Conclusion?"

"The star was detonated artificially," replied AI-6 deep rumble, a very distinct voice for an AI.

"Paschal, extend sensor grid. I want to know what made the star blow up prematurely. Do a full spectral analysis! Find any anomalous signature!"

"I am on it Dad. I have sent out more sensors. Should I start the duplicator process?"

"Yes. Feed any written, spoken, or other record for auto-indexing to AI-1, AI-2, and AI-3. AI-1 to AI-3, cross-index, and find any reference to the events just discovered! If anything pops up, forward to Bridge without delay. We go on Red Alert!"

"Should we collect life forms for the Ark and Eden projects?" asked Enron as horns blew across the space ship to signal the change of status. Atlanteans of all forms and age ran to their respective stations, and seals and bulwarks closed, while weapons passed from warm-up to operational. Sensor arrays went from passive to active, exploring space and time several light-years around the sphere.

"Yes. Collect anything, full ecosystem duplicate. Harp, what tessaracts?"

"Tessaract 30, layers 25 to 30 are available for full-planet biosphere duplicate. What about Atlanteans?"

"I need to wait! If this was a deliberate attack on Atlantis One, I may revise my prior order concerning contact and full transport of Atlantis One's population on-board."

"If we decide to do a complete transfer, I have just activated tessaract 12 from top to bottom, and compressed layer 32 by by a factor of 9.9. Robots are manufacturing additional stasis chambers, at the rate of a million per second. They are moved to layer 32 on production."

"It is your call, Harp. I have no intention of meddling in that aspect of a rescue," replied Paschal.

"All right, thank you, Harp. If we transfer Atlanteans, I want the full biosphere transfer from the rock base to the top of the atmosphere, all life forms. Can you do that?"

"Yes Dad."

"Will duplicating and transferring not create a conflict?" asked Timor.

"No, the duplicates are just that, twins. Animals are unlikely to even notice they have been duplicated."

"Wrong Dad! You just put your finger on the issue: twins know they have twins. And every life form will realise it!"

"I do not care. I believe in numbers!"

"Incoming priority message, your ears only, Harold," said Iridia.

"Put it on the speakers anyway. This is family."

A few seconds later, a strange voice was heard over the speakers.

"To the Atlantean visitor! This message was stored in a time capsule within the furthest planet of the Oort belt and will be triggered by the passage of an Atlantean within one light-year. Who I am is of little importance, but know this, Atlantis was attacked and its star detonated artificially by use of a massive injection of antimatter in its core. We believe it was the work of an unknown species of space-farers that thought us competitors for resources. They visited us in their cubic ship some 150,000 years ago and then vanished. We had forgotten their existence until we found a stream of tiny cubes falling into the star on the opposite side of Atlantis, hidden from direct view. It was pure luck one of our ships collided with one and detonated, triggering an investigation. By the time we figured out what had happened the star had grown unstable. We began plans to evacuate Atlantis but the star blew up much earlier than we had anticipated. Vengeance is yours to exact to the fullest extent of your capacity! Message out."

"Vengeance is ours!" thundered the Crew as the message finished.

"Paschal, go from duplication to transfer mode. Put everything we have, backtracking the transfer to a full rotation of the planet before they got blown up."

"What about the evacuation ship?"

"Let it be. We cannot interfere with them. Block any signal coming from Atlantis. They must stay ignorant of the recovery, lest we create a time paradox!"

"At your command, Pharaoh!"

"What about the mining colonies in the asteroid belt?" Harp asked.

"What did the colony ship find?"

"It figured there would be no survivors and left before getting too damaged," said AI-1.

"Then recover everyone. We need to look at extra-solar colonies! Find any record of them!"

"Transfer rate at 1,000,000,000 life forms per minute, the full transfer rate should reach twice that in three minutes."

"I feel we will have issues with the Imperial family, Dad," said Ian.

"We will see Son. I will remind them I hold the sceptre of power of Atlantis and have been recognised as the Pharaoh by the Throne of the Light. That should put things in perspective. I do not think they are dumb enough to want to be sent back in time to face their fate."

"You would not dare?"

"Oh yes I would. They are long dead in this time frame!"

Ian smiled at his Dad, teeth shining. Even Spare Ribs shivered at the little Prince's look.

"I wonder why only one Cube?" asked the Matriarch, who had finally mastered speech.

"Where they numerous when your home world was attacked?" asked Sitar.

"No, I do not think so."

"Maybe they were still in their infancy when they dealt with us and destroyed Atlantis."

"Dad, we have backtracked three days for porting. I preferred this since it allowed layering."

"I have no objection. What are you planning to do, Paschal?"

"Okay. Harp is busy duplicating topography as we wait on the rotation of the planet. Once the planet's topography is reproduced, the life forms are transferred with their ecosystems. Advanced life forms likely to notice a temporal anomaly are put in stasis for one rotation until they are placed in the tessaract. The last day will see the port of Atlanteans. According to the sensors, we will have four hours to port the miners."

"Good."

"The Atlanteans from Atlantis One will not notice anything until we walk in on them. Harp and Ian took care of that issue," replied Paschal.

"How is the collecting of Archives and architecture going?"

"As planned, we should finish in three days, just in time to pull the duplicators and extractors out of the way of that nova."

***

"Prince Paschal?"

"Yes, Healer?"

"Can I have a word with you?"

"Sure. Come! Let us sit there, on the fountain's rim. My feet are sore, and I need to cool them off."

The two moved to the fountain, getting copiously sprayed by the water.

"What is it you want to talk about, Healer?"

"I will be direct. We found your family. Genetic mapping has found your Mother, your Father, eight of your Brothers and Sisters, and a good 50 or so Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and other parts of your lineage. We even found one of your Grandmothers, on you Father's side, still alive."

"What can you tell me about them?"

"Your Mother and Father are out of stasis as are most of your family. The only one still in stasis is your Grandmother."

"Have they met yet?"

"No. We have held back on this until you decided when was the most opportune time, Your Highness."

"The best moment is now. We have a break in the rush. I will bring Mitsuko with me, and ask my blood Brother Harp and Sitar to accompany me. We are all free. Ian is in the Captain's chair and Dad is dealing with some minor issues."

Just as Paschal said this, Harp and Sitar popped beside him, directly in the fountain, creating quite a splash.

"The Healer has found my biological family. I wish I could consult with Dad on how to handle this, but he is busy."

"Oh. Ok. My suggestion is to be direct. Do not run around the pot. You are who you are, Paschal. They are your blood family, but you are reborn Atlantean first and foremost."

"I agree with Harp's analysis. I see in your face you want to deal with this right away. Let us go as we are. The less formal the dress, the less intimidating the event."

"Given we are all nude, I doubt we can intimidate anyone. Just get your weapon of choice."

Bata and Excalibur materialised in mid-air, waiting for their respective owner to pick them up.

"Let us go, Healer. Lead the way."

The three Princes waked with the Healer into a segment of Thebes they had yet to visit.

"Thebes has called all members of your family to a meeting held in the hall of level B22 of wing X the moment you agreed to meet them. They have no knowledge of why the meeting is being called, but Thebes is guiding them to the room. It has a podium for you to occupy, and a table."

After using a porting node, the three Royals walked into the room from a side door and waited for the last arrivals. Ten minutes later, the last member of Paschal's family arrived and entered. Harp snapped his finger and the door closed behind the slowpoke. The three Princes and the Healer walked to the podium and sat at the table.

"Do the introductions, Healer," ordered Paschal.

After a few hard slaps on the table, silence fell in the noisy room.

"Please sit down in the chairs offered. The reason of this meeting will become clear shortly," began the Healer.

After some chair shuffling, things again quieted down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you certainly have recognised some members of your immediate family. Those you do not see did not make it and died before they could be rescued, or were executed for major crimes once the Mages of the Empire of Atlantis assessed their past. We regret those we could not rescue, and we acknowledge the need for Imperial Justice for those who perished under the Executioner' axe."

Taking a sip of water, the Healer continued.

"You are all members of the same family. You may not know each other given the repeated intervention of the Diviners in destroying the familial web, but rest assured that genetics does not lie. You will receive shortly a family tree. Some of you were adopted, and, unfortunately, genetics cannot trace this. Do not despair of finding other members of your loved ones."

Another sip of water served as a justification for a pause, and the Healer resumed.

"One of the Boys on this podium is part of your family. I can see from the eyes of one of the Ladies she has recognised him as her son, taken from her home by one of the Diviners. Paschal, would you please stand up?"

Paschal did as asked by the Healer.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you Prince Paschal Imhophet, Great Grand Architect of Atlantis, Designer of Thebes, Grand Master of the Blade and holder of the Blade of the Light known as Mitsuko, Grand Master Cartographer, Master of Music, Protector of the Imperial Heir, adopted Son of Thor Horus Emperor Pharaoh of Atlantis, King of Kings, Liege Lord of the Wolves, the Equines, the Elves, the Trolls, the Dwarfs, the Dragons, the Humans, the Seraphrims, the Goblins, and the Orcs, to name a few species?"

The silence was deafening, as each one saw the diminutive Paschal stand behind the table, handling nonchalantly a very impressive scabbard that apparently hid a very dangerous blade.

"To his left is Prince Harp, Great Grand Master Mage Merlin of Atlantis, founder of the College of Magic, Grand Master of the Blade and holder of the Magic Stave known as Bata, Master of Music, Protector of the Heir of Atlantis and adopted Son of the Emperor."

Harp stood, gripping a strange-looking walking stick. The Healer, feeling his throat parched, sipped another gulp from the glass and resumed his speech.

"To the right of Prince Paschal is Prince Sitar, Montue God of War of Atlantis, Great Grand Master of the Blade, holder of Excalibur, the Singing Sword, Master of Music, Protector of the Heir of Atlantis, and adopted Son of the Emperor. As for myself, I am the Healer that was tasked by the Emperor to trace Prince Paschal's family and to see to it that its members were brought back to health within the possibility offered by Atlantean technology. One person is missing in this assembly since Prince Paschal's Grandmother on his Father's side is still in stasis and should not be out for another few months. I have now done what Prince Paschal asked of me. I turn the control of this assembly to him."

The Healer sat down, draining his glass completely, and relaxing. Paschal looked at his Brothers by adoption and, receiving a nod of support from both of them began talking.

"I am glad to have found you, my family. I hope you will begin meeting each other and exchanging life experiences. Mother, I missed you terribly, but I now have found another Mother in Queen Annabelle. She has been there in my most excruciating trials, has supported me across blood, guts, pains and joys. I cannot, and will not renounce her. Father, you were rarely home, and most of the time, when you were, you ignored us, acting as if we were a burden. I cannot forget these past actions, even if you never hit us. You missed too many occasion to establish a bond. I have found a substitute father in the Emperor that has given me a Father figure to emulate, trust, love and respect. I know why you both acted this way: the knowledge that the Diviners would rob us from your care on our sixth birthday created a wall of indifference to our fate. It is sad, and it constitutes another reason why we hunted down members of that Order without mercy. I know it is hard to learn to love and care, especially when you have reached adulthood, but please, do try. Brothers, Sisters, members of my immediate and extended family, you are welcomed to visit me at any time in the Imperial Suite. You will always be welcomed. However, be aware that being Prince of the Empire imposes strict duties and rules of behaviour. We cannot and will not favour any of you in your endeavours. You must gain your own status by your own hard work, much like we did. In case some might have doubts, there is an Imperial training session tomorrow at prime, to be held in the Field of Mars. You are invited to watch. Learn from your own eyes that these titles were not given without cause. For now, let us mingle and talk. Let there be food! Let there be drink!"

As Paschal ordered, so Magic obeyed, and the newly reunited families began eating. In the beginning, the exchanges were limited to members within the immediate family of each group, but as they took notice of the family tree distributed to each member, that comprised a picture, type of work, birth date, and other pertinent information, things gradually warmed up.

After four hours, the Princes sat down and called the meeting to order. Paschal again took the stand.

"We must now retire to our respective duties as Princes of the Realm. We are in the next Bridge shift, and I doubt Harold would appreciate our neglecting our duties. Please continue introducing each other, and hopefully, some of you will find common grounds. Once you are done, and are ready to leave, please clean up the room. If we clean up after our mess, there is no reason for you not to do the same. The surplus food and drink can be taken home. If you do not want some of it, please put it in the Wolf bowls, and put the greenery in the recycle bin. Thank you for your cooperation."

The Boys then cleansed their table, set the chairs back in place, said good-bye to everyone and left.

"It went well, Paschal. You did not mince your words concerning duty, and that is perfect. I hope they heed your words, or they will be in trouble."

"I hope so too, Harp. If need be, I'll reduce the body length of some if the need arises."

"We know Paschal. Let us get going."

***

Three days passed, and the Atlantean spaceship stayed on station as it received life through time and space from Paschal's Collectors. The Collectors then moved from asteroid to asteroid, porting the miners into stasis chambers. The rescue teams just did not have the time to explain thing to everyone.

Half an hour before the detonation, they saw the colony ship curve its trajectory to pass behind the big planet.

"Three minutes to detonation. The Colony ship should emerge from behind that planet exactly 30 seconds after the Sun blows up. According to the Archives recovered from it on the Earth, they noticed a bright gamma burst and immediately understood what had happened so they retreated behind the planet to use it as a shield against the incoming solar mass," said Samson.

"They are out! Right on schedule! Our time relay near Atlantis burned! The solar atmosphere has destroyed Atlantis. Time to collision with the next planet, 5 minutes 29 seconds," reported AI-6.

"What? No fractions? Are you sure you do not have a couple of burned circuits?" exclaimed Ian.

"No more than you. The asteroid belt is no more. Its content is being ejected by the pressure of the star's atmosphere."

After a few more minutes, the next damning news came.

"The sixth planet is being skinned of its gaseous atmosphere by the stellar matter. The planet's surface facing the star is now exposed. The sensors monitoring that planet are within the tail of the planet's atmosphere."

AI-6's calm and tranquil voice helped the Atlanteans immensely in dealing with what was going on in history. It bothered them immensely to know this was the result of an unprovoked attack on their people.

"According to sensors, the planet protecting the colony ship is now seeing its atmosphere eaten up as well. The sixth one has no atmosphere left. All Moons have been destroyed. The planet itself is being destroyed and pushed out of orbit. The colony ship will emerge in 15 minutes from behind the planet and notice the extent of destruction."

The minutes passed and finally the huge colony ship emerged and did a scan of the star system. After a time that seemed to be eternal, but lasted for at most half an hour, it left orbit and moved toward the Oort cloud. There, it dropped a transponder on a planet that began transmitting the message the Atlantean ship had heard earlier. As the ship left the Oort cloud, the transponder went silent.

Just as the Atlanteans were ready to call back their last time sensors, a report came in.

"Hey! The fuckers are back! They did not even wait for the gases to cool down to begin eating Atlantis up!" said an infuriated Ian.

"One thing bugs me about all this, before you go off the handle Ian."

"Yes, Dad?"

"Why did the colony ship not make way to the Atlantean colonies nearby rather than cross half the Galaxy to head to Earth?"

"My Lord, I have the answer. The colonies were pulled back as impossible to defend once the issue was discovered. It was deemed preferable to pull every resource together to maximise production rather than sustain non-viable colonies."

"Oh, okay. Thank you, AI-4."

"You are welcomed."

"Paschal?"

"Yes Ian?"

"They like antimatter. Can you port an antimatter mine, containing two tons of it, directly in the master Cube, through time?

"Yes, but why?"

"We know this fleet is not unique, we met another one in our time, so they must be more numerous than what we think. Let us blow up that one."

"I disagree," said Harold. "We have no certainty this Cube fleet is not the same we saw, or a derivative of it. We cannot risk changing the past blindly."

Ian pouted, not happy at being deprived of his fireworks.

Figure 10: The Enemy Fleet Emerges from Warp Speed

"Do not look too unhappy, Ian. I noticed a signal from our outer Scouts in this time frame. The area is teeming with Cubes. They are eating up everything in sight. If you want fireworks, we can have them!" said Sitar. "Blowing them up now will not cause any paradox."

"Are you serious? Great! Vengeance is ours! Iridia, transmit in clear, on all frequencies, hyperspace!"

"What are you doing to do?" asked Harold, alarmed.

"Exact vengeance!"

"All channels open."

"To the Cubes! Ian of Atlantis speaking! Yes, you heard me right! Prepare for your demise! Vengeance is ours!"

Signalling the closure of the channels, Ian continued.

"Computer! Initiate Armageddon protocol!"

Shivers went through the spines of everyone on the Bridge.

"Paschal, activate antimatter mines! Be ready to port them at the core of the Cubes the moment they emerge from transwarp! They like antimatter? They will get indigestion of antimatter! Computer! Inventory?"

"There are 16,000 antimatter mines are available, from one micro-ounce to several tons."

"Estimate the antimatter mass to destroy the core Cube and disintegrate their fleet?"

"A Cube would require a mine of one pound."

"And how many of those do we have?"

"We have 250,000 of them."

"Estimate the quantity of antimatter required to disintegrate the black hole?"

" The estimate is 140 tons!"

"Are you nuts!" exclaimed Harold, horrified.

"No, I plan to get them blown to dust. The best is to get as many as possible within range of that black hole. I have my little idea, and believe me, their arse will burn!"

"Nothing will stop them from following us!"

"That is what you think, Sitar. If they try to follow us where I plan to go, I wish them a lot of pleasure!"

***

Figure 11: Thebes Enters Black Hole

Barely 20 minutes after the call of defiance, the first Cube emerged from transwarp. It had barely noticed the ship when its central intelligence AI noticed an object within its own core structure. Within less than one cycle it stopped existing, destroyed by the terrible antimatter explosion. The Cube, having lost all control, continued on its path and quickly fell into the black hole.

More and more Cubes emerged, and the Atlanteans continued dispensing death with the regularity of a metronome. The Atlantean space ship entered a dance of battle unseen before. Under the firm hands of Enron, it spun, skipped, ported, rolled, and moved in such a way its motion was reminiscent of a very dynamic dance, a saraband where changes of direction and speed were so swift they put to the test the damper field. Those who looked outside were getting transport sickness from the constant change in the star field flow that revealed the constant trajectory changes imposed on the space ship. Timor and Sitar fired away in a blaze of light using all the guns, torpedo tubes and other impediments of a starship in battle. Thebes seemed to shine like a newborn star, radiating energy and projecting power while skimming the ever-numerous Cubes. Meanwhile Harp ported antimatter mines within the Cube cores. Finally, the number of mines dwindled and yet still more Cubes emerged from warp.

"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile!"

"Shove it where no light ever shines!" replied Ian on all frequencies.

"Now is the time to pull your Rabbit out of the hat, Son!" said Harold, as he watched the sky turn even blacker by constant apparition of Cubes.

"Okay. Enron, I need the helm."

"Sure," replied a shaky King of the Elves.

"Timor, ready that super-mine. Let it fall on the black hole by gravity alone. On my mark."

Harp wondered what his little Brother had in mind, but he was sure he would not have had the guts this would require!

"AI-1, full shields! All non-essential energy derived to shields. Paschal, transfer engine control direct to helm!"

"Done!" said Paschal squeakily.

"Timor, on my mark! Mark!"

Just as the mine left the Atlantean ship, Ian put the ship in hyper-drive and dove directly at the black hole, entering it at the North Pole. The Atlantean ship shook violently as Ian travelled through the wormhole created by the magnetic torsade of an object rotating at the speed of light and piloted the ship with an iron hand, in full trance, enveloped in a bright light that extended to the entire ship. At the same time, strings of infinite density and tensile strength travelled the galaxy, gripping every Cube like a fishhook and pulling them toward the black hole at warp 10, making every single Cube occupy every point in space yet none. Torn from space and time, the Cubes' AI had barely the time to realise they were omniscient they found themselves dragged into the wormhole behind the Atlantean ship, shredded to their component Planck strings.

Figure 12: Magic Strings Visible Inside the Worm Hole

"What do we see?" wondered Harold as he watched the main screen.

"The Magic strings and nodes are made visible by the extreme conditions of the worm hole," explained Harp, as the Atlanteans watched the strings twist and rotate, stretch and contract continuously.

Finally, the Atlantean ship emerged from the other side of the wormhole, ejected in a cascade of light that could match a quasar in brightness. The wormhole collapsed violently just as the ship continued on its trajectory at warp 9.999999, in an explosion worthy of Armageddon, which dispersed the Cubes' energy into a ball of light so intense that it matched the entire output of the Milky Way over 1,000 years. Some 2,000,000 years in the future, life on Andromeda would see the night become day for an instant!

Figure 13: Thebes Ejected by the Detonating Worm Hole

"The black hole at the other end of this wormhole is no more. The total energy accrued by the wormhole and its associated black hole dispersed in space at speeds in excess of transwarp. Anything within 5,000 light-years, both in transwarp, warp and normal space, will be destroyed. Vengeance is fulfilled!" said Ian in an icy voice. Then, with sorrow in his voice, he added: "Sekhmet is no more."

Silence received Ian's verdict.

"According to the space map, we have travelled right across the Milky way, some 100,000 light-years overall." AI-6 informed them.

"Warp nine! Let us go where no Atlanteans have gone before!"

"Heading?"

"Any! Universe! Surprise me!"

Figure 14: Thebes in Space

"Viva! Viva Ian! Viva Atlantis!" resonated on all frequencies, be they telepathic, radio, sub-space or hyper-space, as the Atlanteans rejoiced over the victory over the enemy of all life. Harp, Ian, Paschal, Sitar and Enron took out their violins, cello and other string instruments, while Timor, Thorsten, and Tarik took to the drums and began playing a rock version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, accompanied by Tom, Jerry and Yousef drumming in perfect harmony to the music on their lap.

Viva!