Galactica: Book 1 - Via Lactea

 

The Colony ship loomed ahead of Thebes. It was enormous, but still was dwarfed by the ASS Thebes. A giant cargo hood had been constructed during the 48 days it took to negotiate the Oort Cloud, including a sliding door. It was out of the question to do the same mistake the constructors of the Colony ship had done and install a swinging door. Another security aspect was the presence of a three-layered force field that allowed the hood to be pressurised while it was open to the void of space.

Enron ported into the Bridge of the Colony ship to pilot it into the hood, not really trusting indirect controls for that delicate manoeuvre. After sealing the Bridge, Enron pressurised the smallish space, waited for it to heat up to a more comfortable 80° Fahrenheit, and then began the process of docking the ancient space-ship into its new home. The docking lights came on, and observers were set all around the huge hall to make sure nothing got snagged during the entry and docking proper.

Thebes stayed several miles away from the still spinning ship.

"Engaging engines two, four, six, and eight. Angle 20° on Y and Z axis, pulse 2 seconds, 15% of nominal!"

The energy pulse slowed the rotation on the X axis by 3° per minute, a minute amount compared to the rather frantic spin that animated the huge ship. However, it allowed Thebes to calculate to total inertia of the Colony ship and give Enron instructions in reducing the spin to a more reasonable value. After following Thebes’ instructions, Enron reported there was still a residual spin and Thebes required another firing of the engines for the appropriate fine adjustments.

After adjusting the engine nozzles on engines one, two, three and four so the countered the Y axis rotation, he fired off the engines in short bursts until the rotation came to a halt. A similar process was applied to stop the Z rotation, and finally the Colony ship had a proper seating.

The Colony ship was then brought behind the axis of movement of Thebes while Thebes rotated on the Z axis to present the bay doors on its rear hemisphere. Enron saw the blinking colours of the door guides, blue on one side, green on the other, red at the bottom, and yellow at the top. This told him his seating was upside down and that he had to rotate on the X axis by 180° so the Bridge followed the gravitational field conventions set within Thebes. The process was straightforward and barely added 15 minutes to the entire hour-long docking protocol.

Once the Colony ship was aligned properly, a flashing white light told Enron that he could begin moving in. At first, the light stayed white, but then it turned red, making it clear the Colony ship was ‘below deck’. A minor trajectory adjustment brought the ship back in the proper approach path. A similarly blinking blue light told Enron he needed to adjust toward the opposite side. After several minutes, the Colony ship made its entrance into Thebes like a fledging Bird trying his first landing. As it crossed the force-field, a bluish halo appeared on its skin and the internal pressure of the hood increased slightly due to the displacement of the air by the incoming mass of the Colony ship. Enron edged the ship forward at one knot until magnetic grapplers took hold of the forward hull and began pulling it in place. Enron immediately cut off all engines. Once the arms closed and locked, a retracting dock extended to encircle the main segment of the ship while columns carrying berths extended from the floor to support the engines and the nacelles containing them.

The docking crew verified everything visually in the zero-gravity hold, and finding everything fitted perfectly, activated the gravity well progressively, bringing it to one G while continuing to monitor for signs of stress. The last step was unlocking the cargo bay door of the Colony ship, whose design had been modified during the time it took for Thebes to reach the marooned Colony ship. It now pulled in and slid on the sides, allowing for a safer door mechanism. The crew found Enron sitting on a crate waiting for them to finish their job.

"You could have opened the door, you know!" said one of the mechanics.

"And prevent you from testing the opening mechanism from the exterior? No way! Now, get the forensic experts to the cargo holds of this ship and help them recover the bodies that are frozen solid in them. Seal them in airtight containers and keep them frozen until formal identification and disposal. I am sure there is a crew roll or some sort of list. Do not forget to record everything. This is an archeological site if it is not a dig! Do not be surprised to see Spiders come in. There are some things only they can do. Do not venture out into the ship. It is not pressurised except for a single passage from the Bridge to this cargo hold. The pressurisation process will have to wait for some time, at least until we are certain there are no lurking viruses or bacteria. Who knows? Some of them might have survived even under the extreme conditions found in the Colony ship!"

The crew had wondered why they had been forced to wear biohazard suits to open a space-ship but they finally understood the reason, and were quite happy Colibri had made his orders binding under penalty of death for disobedience.

Meanwhile, Thebes began accelerating toward Colony 4, reaching Warp 5 quickly. The cargo hood doors moved back into their closed positions, sealed and locked into position.

"Verify hull integrity!" ordered the Dock Master, a young Wolf-Dragon hybrid as attested by his multi-facetted eyes and very furry hair cover that sprouted between Dragon scales.

It was becoming ever more common to see mixed species hybrids in the population of Thebes. The fad had come from Harold-Ian, the Troll-Fairy hybrid Son of Timor and Felicia. If Harold-Ian had been the true product of a genetic mix, quite a few hybrids were born from the capacity at shape-shifting now spreading like wild-fire in the Atlantean population. Someone had tested the idea of selectively activating some genes during a transformation and observed interesting results. Such was the case of the Dock Master. He was a six-foot tall Wolf-Dragon with the capacity to speak without the need to take full Humanoid form, and he liked the golden hue that transpired from the scales under his thick fur. He had kept for the day a Wolf gait but could become bipedal at a whim. It was not rare to see hybrids combining six or seven species into their favourite form.

"Integrity verified! All is sealed."

"Bound the Orichalque!"

"Orichalque crystalline structure restoration in progress! Finished!"

The bounding process made it impossible for any outsider to know there was a door as the seams disappeared and the sixteen-foot thick Orichalque area became indistinguishable from the rest of the ship’s hull.

"Relax the atmospheric force-field!"

The final process was expedited quickly and the Dock Master walked off his Eagle’s nest to go meet with Enron. He spotted the Forensic team quickly make its way toward the gaping hole opened on the side of the Colony ship, bringing with them everything from cameras to body bags and free-floating gurneys that seemed to frost over. Why not port them, wondered the curious hybrid. He also saw some biohazard guys walk in behind the Forensic team carrying huge lamps that were plugged and activated as soon as they were brought in the hold. Fuck! UV lights and not the toast to roast kind, the burn to a crisp kind! Putting on UV filtering goggles and retreating to his nest, the guy observed the developing drama. The whole hood was now bathed in an intense bluish light, and the nest’s windows had automatically darkened to filter out the most damaging of the electromagnetic radiation. Anything unprotected would get sterilised and killed. It was abundantly clear that Enron and Colibri were not taking any chances. He looked up for Enron and saw him ensconced in his FSS suit, directing the Forensic team and seeing to the installation of even more UV lamps, but inside the Colony ship.

An hour later, the first body was being moved, held to a gurney by straps and covered by a level-10 containment field. What surprised the Dock Master was the intensity of the force field enclosing the gurney and the pall-bearers. He could see the oxygen spark liberally around the team as it made its way toward the door and the hallway beyond. It was, without doubt, the highest biological security protocol he had ever witnessed.

After the initial hour-long delay, corpses began being taken out at a much brisker pace, one every five minutes. Apparently, the assessment of the scene had taken most of the first hour before anything could be moved. Then the biohazard team left and technicians began dismantling the sterilisation set-up. The Dock Master could finally leave his nest and quickly dropped to the hold deck below, intent on intercepting someone that could satisfy his curiosity. What had they found down there to warrant that amount of deployment?

He asked all around where Enron had gone, and was told he had activated his recall sequence for the FSS, thus bypassing the ship docks half an hour earlier. He probably had made his way to the Bridge or to take some rest, suggested one of the last recovery crew member left of the initial intervention team. That left the poor Hybrid on his appetite for news. Just as he was leaving the dock floor to go home, he met the Catalogue team discussing how they planned to proceed with the inventory of what could be found in the Colony ship’s cargo holds. It seemed the Officer in charge wanted the inventory to be done in-situ so they could assess what logic was followed in loading the ship in the first place. Others thought that was of little importance since they could always ask the people of Atlantis One for the information. The Dock Master decided to add his grain of salt to the already heated debate.

"I would like to remind you that we did not recover everyone on Atlantis One. There were some deaths and Prince Sitar has shortened a few bodies since the recovery to quench any rebellious attitude. Furthermore, even if they were all on the Colony ship, there is no guarantee they still are. Some may have been in the cadavers I saw leave earlier today, and some may be long dead from the colonisation of Earth. I suggest you follow the principle of precaution: collect data as you go, because it may otherwise be lost forever."

***

On the Bridge, Ian saw Enron walk in and signalled he wanted to talk to him in the Captain’s Ready Room. Enron acknowledged the request and told Colibri to release the Science station and join them along with Sitar. Sitar turned his Weapons station to Fang Chao and walked in the room.

"So, how did it go? I gather the recovery went well, since we have not had sudden decompression or collision alerts."

"Do not tease. That ship is far from manoeuvrable. Its inertia dampers are toast, and its response time is lethargic. It is not a battleship. I had to anticipate every move and neutralise the inertia using engine propulsion."

"All the better for us it was you at the helm then, Bird-Man. I was expecting you earlier?"

"I stayed on-board long enough to ensure there would be no stupid and reckless actions from the recovery crew and to monitor the Forensic and Biohazard teams’ actions until all the corpses were removed. For now they are at the morgue waiting for formal identification and comparison with the Colony ship’s crew list once we have recovered it."

"How many bodies are you talking about?"

"Not that many. We recovered 32 corpses, all frozen-dry."

"What are you and Colibri going to do with them?"

"First, we identify each corpse. Then we proceed to an autopsy. It is not that we do not know the cause of death: frozen meat. The reason is more we want to know what kind of micro-organisms they became accustomed to so we can be ready for them when we begin exploring the ship’s interior. The Spiders are busy sterilising everything they can, but there are enough nooks and crannies to have an entire ecosystem lurking in that hull."

"I heard Paschal has developed nanobots to handle these questions," Colibri intervened. "According to him, they are no bigger than bacteria and some are the size of viruses. They can be assigned the in-depth sterilisation of the Colony ship. I know they are already at work in keeping the unoccupied areas of Thebes clear of microbial stowaways. I asked him why he had done these in the first place, and he replied he had been working on them as offensive weapons should we ever need to retake a part of Thebes after an external invasion. He had come to that idea after noticing the presence of nanobots in the bones of the Dinosaurs while checking on Earth’s life history. According to him, there was already an attack on the Dinosaurs when they were cooked by the meteor, but he could never find out how or who did this. It might well be that the attack was targeted or it could have been fortuitous. After all, there were millions of smaller meteorite falls at the end of the Dinosaurs Era and one of these pieces of rocks could have carried the nanobots in its core to the Earth, getting released by fracturing upon collision with the ground. Who knows, it might even be the left-over weapon of a previous interstellar war that involved fighting another life-form and the nanobots would have been inadvertently triggered by some similarities in cellular structures. We discussed the possibilities and the risks far and wide. I suggest you talk to Paschal. Last time I talked to him, he was working on installing control mechanisms before progressing further, in case there was an accidental release of offensive nanobots in Thebes."

"It seems I am always behind on scientific advances. I shall call on Paschal for a report during the next Imperial meeting. We are now at warp 5 and should reach colony 4 in eight days’ time. Take a break, we all need it."

"What should we do about the Colonists ‘stored’ in the cryogenic pods?"

"Leave them there. I want a complete list of who was on-board, who moved down Earth-side to establish Atlantis Two, who died, and who is in cryogenic sleep and what were their family relations. We know they had ample time to run through several generations while travelling from Atlantis One to Earth, so there must have been some family bonds created along the way. I want these bonds clarified, and documented so we know whom to wake up and in what order."

"Okay."

"Sitar, I want you to look into criminal records if there are any on that ship. The last ones to be taken out of cryogenic storage will be those with criminal records. The next step I want done is a full mental scan of these accused. If found wanting for major crimes such as murder, they will not wake up; if, on the other hand, they have been wrongly accused, I want those who did the accusations to be held in the freezer until a full Imperial court can be assembled to bring the perjured persons to justice. I have had enough rub-ins with our ancestors of Atlantis One so far to know they are not above corruption and injustices."

"As long as you do not have bed-ins, I am not too worried about our justice system!" exclaimed Sitar, much to the shocked expression of the other Princes.

"Funny, very funny! Just for that, I will have you check on every Colonist’s memory for duplicity, unreported crimes, or crimes that escaped just punishment, or were overly punished."

"I shall have for years of work!"

"So? We are in no rush to expand the population."

Sitar looked at Ian glaringly, but knew better than to say a word. It would only serve to get him in deeper trouble.

***

The fourth Colony loomed into view but reserved another bad surprise to the returning Atlanteans: It was covered with an ocean that had flooded the low-lying islands the Colonists had used as footholds on the planet, and the floating settlements had all but been destroyed.

"Radar? How deep is the shallowest part?" asked Harold, whom had taken a break from managing the Empire by sitting in the Captain’s chair for once.

"The survey is incomplete," replied Greywolf. "Furthermore, the vast majority of the sea is too deep to be scanned by radar waves. We need to send down sonar equipment. We need floating equipment."

"That is Prince Williams’ expertise. Prince Williams to the Bridge!" Harold ordered via the space-ship’s communication system, unwilling to enter in telepathic exchange in case Williams was busy doing something private.

Ten minutes later, Williams walked in on the Bridge, surprised at being called.

"What can I do for you, Harold?"

"We need a few ships down on the planet that can use sonar equipment to understand what is happening below the waves. Every land mass has disappeared. There were few during the colonisation era, but now, there is none."

"What were the Colonists doing when they left?"

Harold looked at Williams, not really understanding the question. Seeing this, Williams called up on the Archives.

"Thebes, what were the Colonists doing when they were recalled?"

"Accessing data. Please wait."

A few minutes later Thebes replied.

"As of the last entry before the recall notification, they had been working in displacing a huge ice ball so it would miss their planet but hit the third planet just enough to fracture and flood the dry surface. From our passing near that planet, the iceberg missed."

"I think that explains things. They began the adjustments but never finished it before leaving for the Metropolis. The iceberg, as Thebes called it, hit this world rather than its intended target, adding just enough water to flood the islands and destroy everything the Atlanteans had made," Greywolf reasoned.

"Does that mean we can not access the Caves?"

"No, Harold, we can, but we do need to find where these islands were. I have just accessed a map of that world before the Atlanteans moved off. It shows 15 major islands, and a multitude of smaller ones. However, I can not determine the location of these land masses now."

"I wonder what was the size of that asteroid?" Sitar asked.

"I looked into it," replied Colibri from the Science station. "It was comparable to the Baby Moon’s mass and composed entirely of water. Given this planet’s area is about 1.5 times the area of the Earth, some simple calculations reveal that the sea level rose by 150 feet."

The others looked at Colibri with wide eyes.

"Oh come on! On the original Earth, the Oceans covered 70% to 75% of the area; The impact of the Baby Moon added 300 feet to the Ocean’s level, removing maybe 5% of the continental surface, if that. Now, assuming that the Earth’s continents had been as flat as these islands were according to the Colonists, then distributing the water on the whole planet would have brought the water level up by 225 feet instead of the 300 feet observed by the survivors of Atlantis Two. Then, add the impact of an area 1.5 times the Earth’s, and you end up with an ocean rising by 150 feet. Simple!"

Sitar was making puking noises from behind his desk, marking his feeling of discomfort.

"So we need to find sea depths of 150 feet or so?" asked Paschal.

"Yes!"

"No wonder radar does not give any result. Right. I can have a series of Sonar ready in a few hours. Williams? How long will it take to get a ship design?"

"It depends on what you expect of it."

"First, it will have to be completely automatic. Who says water says life, and we have no idea what kind of things lurk below the surface," Colibri noted. "I do not want to risk anyone below."

"What is the weather?" asked Dunbar.

"Very cloudy, and enough thunderstorms to power several big cities. The Coriolis winds are very strong, unhindered by any land mass. I think that the Oceanic currents will behave similarly, especially those at the surface. At the Oceanic bottom, the rises will dictate the currents’ pattern. The planet’s inclination on its axis is at 2°, making for very mild seasonal changes. Its orbit is almost perfectly circular as well. It is a bit closer to its primary than the Earth, making for an almost permanent midsummer weather. However, hurricanes must be frequent, and very powerful. I counted 17 in all, spread on both sides of the Equator in what would be considered the tropics on Earth."

"And?"

"And the storms never meeting any land mass tend to grow huge! I doubt any ship could stay afloat in 100-foot waves for long."

"I see. Williams, what we need is submarines, not ships. I suggest we port Spiders down on the oceanic bottom and get them to do the sonar game."

"That might be a good solution," nodded Williams.

"I have a much more radical solution. Let us simply land Thebes on the ocean floor, and then roll it around."

"You are always thinking big, Typhoon," said Ian.

"You know me! Big head, big wings, big solutions."

"It depends on which head you are talking about!" quipped Thorsten.

"Anyway, whatever head he uses to think is always bigger than yours, Thorsten!" replied Ian.

Harold was turning red from all the innuendo and called on Alexander.

"While your so big-headed Brothers are playing with each other’s heads, how about you bring Thebes down on the surface? Go slow, Son. We want to land, not boil the Ocean off. You have been wanting to land the ship on a planet and bugging us for years. Now is your chance. Enron, stay close."

"I only took it off planet, Harold. I never landed it. I am as in the dark as Alexander here. The best guide would be Rockhook."

"Hey, I crashed our ship, remember?"

"But you survived. If you walk away from a crash, it is a successful landing as far as I am concerned," said Paschal.

"Put your heads together and get that ship down!"

"A three-way? How kinky!" replied Harold-Ian from his seat off to the side of the Bridge, where he was keeping an eye on Samson’s work, eliciting an even deeper blush from Harold.

"See what you Boys are doing to my poor and pure Child!" scolded Iridia, from the Communications Station. "You are a bunch of corruptors!"

"Mom! Stop that! With all the images I got from the not so good at blocking life-forms around this ship, I think I knew from before birth what my 21^st finger could be put to use for! Innocence are for non-telepathic people, and certainly not for someone that could do it from the sixth month of pregnancy!"

Iridia blushed, but then began laughing. She had to admit she understood her Son. She had noticed herself that quite a few were exhibitionists of the mind!

Alexander took the Helm and brought Thebes into a circular orbit some 250 miles above the churning Ocean. Then, he slowed down the space-ship progressively, compensating the ever-increasing pull of gravity to keep the Thebes at its altitude. Once he had matched speed with the rotational speed of the ‘surface’ below, he let gravity pull the ship at 0.1 G, making sure the speed never exceeded 100 miles per hour. The ship made its way in the atmosphere, and Alexander compensated the ever-increasing wind and gravity, Fifty miles up, Thebes was progressively slowed down until it hovered over the Ocean’s surface, its lower part getting sprayed by the whitewash of the waves.

"We are 110 feet above sea level, Dad. What next?"

"Enron?"

"We need a deep area. Let me check the water colour."

"It is rather purplish, Enron."

"I was not expecting all algae to be bluish-green. This is not Earth after all. Let me see... The waves are somewhat shallower about 25 miles from here toward the setting Sun. I think we can say hydrodynamics will work the same everywhere, so that means the wave are not raised by a rise there. Move in that direction, Alexander. No need to do fancy rolling, like I did on the Earth."

Alexander pouted but did as asked. After five minutes, he was over the area and asked "What now?"

"Sink us to the bottom."

Again Alexander left gravity take over and Thebes began a slow descent in the water. It dropped 9.5 miles before the tips of its numerous spindles touched the seabed.

"We have touch-down."

"Sink the spindles in the crust about 200 feet, and keep compensating gravity."

After 15 minutes of slow progress, Alexander stabilised the ship, and called it done.

"We are anchored. We are not moving. The waves are breaking on us, and the ship is acting as a spherical island and breakwater."

"Dad, we are in place."

Harold nodded and looked at Williams.

"Let us wait for the waves to calm down down-wind from us. Thebes is also a wind breaker. It should take some time for the effect to manifest, but no more than six hours."

"And then?" asked Harold.

"Then we send out a Spider and try to locate the Caves. Meanwhile, let us run some studies of life in the Ocean. Colibri and Enron will probably have an orgasm out of the idea."

"We are not that bad!" exclaimed the two Boys in duo.

"No? You seem to forget you Boys are nude and I can see everything!"

"Williams! Did you need to embarrass us?" Enron exclaimed.

"Pay back is a bitch, Boys! I waited for years to get even! Swallow it! Whole!"

A dozen Spiders were readied for release to the sea bottom. Paschal, Sitar, Harp, Enron and Colibri took five, the rest being taken by Legionnaires trained in the use of the Spiders as armoured vehicles.

The Spiders were released directly on the sea bottom. The view that appeared in front of the cameras of the Spiders was desolate, composed of an extensive mud flat only made visible by the powerful xenon lights beaming ahead of the Spiders. Progress was organised in an arc with Sitar in the lead, followed by Colibri on his left side and Enron on his right side; the arc’s tips were occupied by Harp on the left and Paschal on the right, with the legionnaires distributed between them.

"Where to?" asked Sitar.

"We still need to find the Caves. Let us move ‘eastward’ to the ‘rise’ we had the impression lay below us while Alexander landed Thebes."

"You know we are at the opposite side, Colibri?" commented Sitar.

"Yes. And that will allow us to check Thebes and also see if there is any life around."

"I have not seen any from the cameras."

"Enron, would you stay around to watch a mountain fall on you?"

The Spiders made quick work of the 860 miles separating Thebes from the rise. Very little life was visible in the huge, deserted, abysmal plains. Only an occasional Shrimp or Lobster was visible, whitish, transparent, and almost invisible even in the glaring lights of the powerful lamps. Oceanic snow, telling of decomposing life falling from the surface, hindered the view as snowflakes do during a storm.

"Pelagic life must lurk somewhere!" said Colibri, "The amount of falling organic matter is astounding."

Reaching the steep edge of their target, the Boys slowed down the progress of the Spiders, trying to discern where dry land used to begin. Unfortunately, thousands of years had passed by and the edges lay buried in several inches of sediments, composed mostly of still decomposing organic matter. Yet, the nature of the occupants had barely varied, with the rare addition of a few corals, urchins, and star-fishes.

As the Atlanteans studied the undersea world, they kept pointing at different Crustaceans. Colibri summarised everyone’s thoughts when he said:

"I am always amazed at how life seems to use the same solutions across evolution. We all know these are not Earth Crustaceans, but they look so much like those on Earth. I had read in the Archives of convergence in evolution, but this goes much further. It is parallel evolution!"

After some consents from the others, he continued.

"The only way I can explain this is by the idea that similar constraints results in similar solutions. Yes, there are differences, but they are cosmetic, not fundamental."

"Cosmetic? Cosmetic! You have some very strange sense of ‘cosmetic differences’, Brother. Remember that veritable vegetal hell? Or those huge ‘mammals’? Or, again, these glass-skaters?"

"I know. But consider this: for the ‘mammals’, what is it that drove them to become giants, Enron?"

After a few blinks, Colibri continued:

"The drive behind the development of gigantic animals is competition between plant-eaters and meat-eaters: The plant-eaters grew to present more formidable opponents to the meat-eaters, whom, in turn, grew to their giant form so they could bring down their prey. Did you notice something on that planet about plants?"

"They were huge!"

"That competition also extended between plant-eaters and the plants themselves. The plants grew bigger, probably also faster, in order to be difficult to eat by the plant-eaters. At the same time, Insects had to fight their way into deeper furs, or penetrate more intense defences from the plants and grew too, creating that shockingly huge Dragonfly. Yet, there must be a limiting factor. Probably, for plants, the competition for growing place, the race to light, and limited mineral resources; for plant-eaters, it is their food supply, as each plant-eater has a specific diet and must forage for food by moving around lest it depletes its food supply. For the predators, it is the amount of killable preys, be it the young, the old, the sick. This can and does lead to cyclic population explosions and sudden collapses as, at the beginning of a growth cycle, plant X explodes because its predator collapsed, then the plant-eater population that feeds on that plant explodes, having a lot of food to eat and few predators itself, since they suffered from starvation during the previous collapse of the plant-eater population; then the predators explode because they now have enough to eat and either produce more young, or more of their young survive because of adequate food supply. Suddenly, the plants are over-grazed, their numbers plummet, the grazers fall under the maws of the meat-eaters more easily, and the meat-eaters have a huge boon while the grazer population is being eaten up and falls dramatically, then the meat-eaters end up starving and eating each other until the cycle renews itself. Each peak of a species is offset by some years relative to the peak of its food supply and you have it. The cyclic nature of food supply is one of the fundamental driving forces behind evolution. It is those that are the most apt at surviving such cycles until they can reproduce that propagate in time. What we saw everywhere was that force at play in different forms, but still the same force. We may believe we have escaped that cycle, but it is not so. It only seems so because our cycle is very long, but we still are involved in a war for resources, a war with galactic enemies, a cycle that has its length measured in millions of years instead of a few years. Consider the Soul-Eaters: the Humans were their prey, but it extended much further than that: so were the Goblins, and probably quite a few more species lost in time. This applies to the Borgs, who prey on planets and for some reason, considered Atlanteans competition and ‘decided’ to apply the same rule nature applies between competitors for a scarce resource: the one that extracts the most of the resource survives. We survived by chance, and because we gained Magic. I doubt we would have done so had it not been of this change."

"While you were putting us to shame, Colibri, we reached the plateau," said Harp. "The sea is as dark as before, which is not surprising, given how deep we are: 180 feet below sea level. There are bumps and such, but so far, the level oscillates between 160 and 190 feet below sea-level. If that was once an island, it was flatter than a pancake."

"I have begun sending sound into the ground using the forepaws of the Spider I am riding. Stay still while I get the raw data for this area," asked Paschal.

"And still no Fish?" asked Sitar, as he eyed the vast liquid emptiness.

"No. and that is surprising." Enron replied.

"I read the Colonists had intensive pisciculture farms, but apparently, the Fishes did not survive their departure. I suspect they had not taken into account a constructivist approach to ecosystem stabilisation, and forgot to build it bottom up. Once they left, everything not of origin died out," noted Colibri. "This is what happens when you put the plough before the oxen."

"Guys! I think I found something!" interrupted Paschal, as the group rounded another bump.

"What?" asked Harp.

"It is a powerful echo, much more localised than if it was a great area. It is about 29 feet below the current surface, somewhat less deep than what I had expected."

"Let me use some Magic to identify the material," said Harp, as he began to glow inside his own Spider, calling in on the local Magic reserve of the environment. After a few minutes, he returned to his normal self.

"You have it right, Paschal. This door is Mithril. I was expecting Orichalque, but who know, maybe Orichalque is too rare or was considered unneeded in this place."

"It must not be that rare, since, up to now, all doors were of that matter."

"That is true, Paschal, but for some reason, Mithril was used here. Guys, let’s establish the conditions inside the Cave. I hope it is not flooded."

The Spiders set a series of low-power depth charges and backed off a mile before detonating them in quick succession so as to create an interference pattern in time. The data was quickly recorded and sent to Thebes for the construction of a three-dimensional map of the substrate.

"How long must we wait for the result?" Enron enquired.

"I placed the task in priority 2, just after security, so it should be quick, maybe an hour," said Paschal.

The hour passed slowly as the Spiders held station. Fifteen minutes before the results were due, one of the Legionnaires fired off a powerful laser blast, surprising everyone.

"Sorry, Sir, I was getting attacked by some type of root from above. I think it was trying to drop to the sea floor and inadvertently dangled on the Spider."

"Okay. Everyone, please watch out for these roots," ordered Enron.

"I am seeing a group of them in my lights, Sir," said another Legionnaire. "It is searching the mud and grabbing some of the Starfish before retreating up."

"So, we are seeing predation of some sort. Enron to Thebes Bridge!"

"Yes?" replied Alexander from the Communications station.

"What do you see on the sea’s surface?"

"Let me ask."

After a second, the Spiders got a transfer from Thebes displaying the sea in real time around the giant space-ship. A vast area of the Ocean was noticeably less choppy than the one exposed to the wind. On the calmer area, a veritable carpet of floating plants could be seen converging and occupying the place progressively and with ever thicker density. The scene was beautiful, presenting huge flowers of infinite hues and colours, along with small flying Bats that seemed to dive in the flowers, suck sustenance and leave, covered in purplish and sticky balls.

"We are seeing what I would label Bats playing the role of Bees pollinating these flowers. The plants are carnivorous, but only from the underside!" wondered Colibri.

"Did you notice the Bats seem to emerge from the flowers when they open? It is like these flowers are life-rafts for these animals."

"That is interesting, Enron. I just wonder how these Bats feed when there is no pollen to be had?"

"I heard you, Colibri. I sent out one of your test nano-robots in down, and it is crawling toward one of these Flowers. I will feed you the image as soon as it proves interesting."

"Thank you, Alexander."

Ten minutes later a secondary feed came through. It showed one of the flowers from very close, and, as the nano-robot made its way inside, the display changed to reveal a cavity able to lodge one pair of the Bats and about six smaller cocoons tied by whitish strings to the side of the nest. On the other side, separated from the main nest by a transparent membrane, was a pocket of liquid that seemed to contain a partially digested Bat.

"I think I understand what is the ecosystem involved here," said Enron. "The Bats are pollinators, but once they have done their job, the plants are merciless and recycle them. The Bats probably reproduce early in their life cycle, making these cocoons where their offspring are sheltered and safe, fed by the plant itself. The Bats use the pollination period to exchange partners and therefore genetic material. They have sex, produce the next generation of offspring and then get devoured. The plants are not as generous as one might have thought! For their feeing off the nectar, the Bats pay with their life."

"That reproduction cycle must be quick! Thebes has been on the sea bottom for less than three hours!" exclaimed Sitar. "Imagine! The Bats did the entire cycle: exchange partners, mate, produce offspring, pollinate in that short time!"

"I am not that surprised. The flowers probably collide randomly in the stormy seas, and it is the collision that triggers the cycle. Since the plants stay tied up until the sea untangles them with a powerful wave, the Bats have only that amount of time to fly off and do the deed. So, in short: a collision leads to the flowers opening and the Bats leaving the nests to find mates, insuring the pollination in the process; they mate, the cocoons are laid and the parents die, getting digested. What we are seeing is the last stage. This is so much like Salmon! The plant feeds the cocoons, and waits for the next collision to release them, covered with pollen. Note there are six cocoons, and they are very small, clearly indicating they just got deposited and bonded to the flower. That flower will feed and release six pollinators, thus insuring two things: enough pollen gets distributed to ensure progeny; and enough Bats mate to continue the cycle. What we see beyond that transparent membrane is probably the male-female couple that left these cocoons, having accomplished their work. The flower stays open just in case another couple comes by and decides to lay more cocoons, ensuring even greater spread of pollen the next time that flower opens up. Anyway, the more Bats it traps, the more it gets paid back for its effort at feeding the cocoons. It is a low-cost investment to stay open in the hope of catching another unwary pair as food!"

"Okay. Hey! What are you doing, Alexander?"

"I am pulling the robot out. It is not part of the cycle, and well, Paschal’s work is not to be left lying around to be found by unscrupulous copycats," said Alexander.

"Do not forget to sterilise the Robot before bringing it inside Thebes!"

"I do not plan to bring it inside. It will stay at the surface of the ship until we have visited the primary to sterilise Thebes’ exterior. And so will the Spiders you are currently using!"

After a few minutes, data began flowing to the Spiders, and Paschal looked at the map produced.

"This is interesting. The mud is rather thick, and the doors match in thickness what we would expect of Atlantean architecture. Beyond them, the caves seem to be filled. But I can not determine if the fill is air or water. There are also quite a few solid elements in there, probably the containers."

"Why can you not decide?" asked Sitar.

"Well, if it is water, it is fresh water instead of the 12% salinity level we see in the open; if it is gaseous, it is saturated at 100% relative humidity and its composition is a bit off with 30% carbon dioxide, 20% oxygen, and the rest nitrogen. Both compositions would explain the propagation of the sound, according to the model Thebes transferred."

"Why bother? All we need is a floor map and free space to port into. We all are wearing FSS and it is of little consequence the nature of the environment we materialise in as long as it is not solid."

"I am looking at the data, Harp. It is not easy to find some space to safely appear in given these caves were usually packed solid with stuff," replied Paschal with some grumpiness.

"Sacrifice some robots!" thundered Enron.

"And sacrifice some stuff in the cave as well?" asked Harp. "You know if we materialised some of these robots in the wrong place, we might well be blowing up the cave. Some of the stuff the Colonists left was scary."

"And what do you suggest?"

"Enron, we dig out the passage to the door, seal up the freed area and open the door. If it is filled with water, we pump it out, and then we have free access."

"Okay. Thebes? We need the following equipment: drill bits, compressors, interlocking containment walls, high-pressure pumps, hoses..." began enumerating Paschal in a list that seemed to have no end.

Several hours later, the ground over the passage was marked with thick red fluorescent tape, xenon lights flooded the intervention area so brightly Sitar wore sunglasses, and the number of Spiders on the sea-floor had risen to 36, mostly to protect the site from roots falling down from the surface flower bed.

The two giant pumps, powered by a couple of Spiders, began sucking the mud off the marked area while other Spiders erected steel walls to prevent the side of the hole being excavated from falling back in. The trick was simple: suck the mud from under the wall segment until it slid in place, repeat with the next segment, and repeat again. Once the base frame was put in place, the second layer of steel plates were bolted above the first layer, and the process was repeated. It took three layers of steel plates to bring the walls to the base rock and where the door has been detected, leaving out less than three feet sticking out over the oceanic floor.

The box was then closed on the top, leaving only the hoses sticking out from ring seals. The pumps resumed extracting the mud until the entire area was clear and then the water was removed as well.

"We are done with this part." noted Enron, "Finally! Fifteen days of messy work!"

"Did you look at the door lock?" asked Sitar.

"I did. I used the surrounding water to clear the mud off as best I could. We are ready to try and open it whenever we want," replied Harp.

"How do you plan to proceed?"

"Telekinesis should do the work. I shall be inside the Spider. I trust the FSS, but why take risks?"

"Okay. We shall join you in the Spider shortly."

Enron, Sitar, Paschal and Colibri popped inside the Spider and tied up in the seats.

"Ready when you are!" said Colibri.

Harp slowly made the different keys to the astronomical puzzle move and brought them in the proper alignment. The door opened violently, suddenly released from its seals, and billions of tons of water fell into the huge cavity. Harp immediately restarted the pumps.

"There you go, Paschal. It was water," said Colibri as the water cascaded around the Spider thunderously.

"I wonder how long it will take for the pumps to evacuate that water?"

"Probably a few days, if the cave is as extensive as the others, Sitar," replied Paschal.

"And we need to pressurise the area with a viable atmosphere afterward," added Colibri.

"No. I do not plan to go in there without a FSS. And porting the stuff to Thebes does not require an atmosphere," replied Harp. "In fact, I want the stuff placed in a vacuum on-board Thebes. Who knows what is lurking in there? We have a lot of Tessaracts that are still complete vacuums and can act as safe storage until we have fully sterilised the contents of the stuff we recover here."

"Okay. Let us anchor the Spider in place and port to Thebes’ FSS release deck. I am starved."

The Princes followed Colibri’s example and activated the FSS recall sequence, with Harp being the last to leave after locking the Spider in place.

It took five days to actually evacuate the water out of the cave, surprising Paschal considerably.

"You know, it is the first change in cave design I see. That cave had to be at least three times the normal size to contain that much water."

"We shall figure it out once we reach the mapping area of the Cave, assuming the mechanism is still functional."

"Oh, it is, Harp. I noticed that all controls were sealed in the other caves. There is no reason why it would be different in that one. Let us get to FSS deck one and put on our suits. We should be joining the morning shift replacing the night crew on the Spiders."

The five Princes quickly made their way to the Spider left inside the containment shell and Harp brought it to the entrance to have a look with its powerful beams.

"This place is more packed than a can of fish! We will have to port out of the Spider."

"Harp, if we combine our Magic, we can easily clear a path to the control room. We already decided to move everything into a tessaract, so there is no need to inventory the material as we do the move," said Colibri. "Once we reach the control room, since you have the finest magical control of us all, you do the honours and activate the system diagnostics."

The suggestion was retained, and the porting began. The Boys merged and could see clearly the tessaract being filled by the still dripping boxes and pellets. The water boiled off explosively as each pellet was ported into the Tessaract.

"What..." Sitar asked as he watched one box’s surface water boil off.

"It is clear that the vacuum in the Tessaract is more complete than in the cave, Sitar. The Surface Vapour Pressure is too low and the residual water boils off. I doubt this will change any time soon. In fact, I am glad this occurs. It will be a great help in sterilising the contents of the cave by killing any life that might be hooked on the boxes or pellets," explained Paschal. "Anything alive will literally explode if it has not done so yet when we removed the water from the cave."

Half an hour later, the Spiders reached the control desk located right in the middle of the cave. Harp activated the diagnostics, and received some alerts related to excessive humidity, but nothing else.

"Map the caves," asked Sitar.

"I want to map this one first."

The map appeared. It revealed three caves linked together by long tunnels and set in a triangular fashion.

"Do you think the Spiders will be able to travel the tunnels?" Enron asked.

"Yes, without any issue. The cross-section of the tunnels is the same size as the main doors we just used," replied Harp after studying the ground plan.

"Next, get the diagnostics for the other caves," requested Sitar.

There, many surprises awaited the explorers. All caves were filled by water. The disposition of caves seemed to change, albeit a common theme seemed to govern these changes: all caves formed regular geometric figures, from triangles to dodecagons. Finally, the number of these groupings was limited and seemed to be organised randomly.

"The obsession with regularity displayed by our ancestors verges on the pathologic!" exclaimed Sitar.

"I agree," replied Harp. "However there seems to be a breakdown?"

"The islands were natural, and nature, even if it too suffers from obsessive-compulsive behaviour, does break symmetry. Let me get the map of the Planet made by our ancestors."

Colibri overlaid the map with the location of the caves and, after some adjustments, managed to get the two to match quite nicely.

"That makes sense. The Colonists always build the caves first. It was practical to build them on the islands. Notice that the more complex figures are matched with the biggest islands. They had the stuff to fill in so many caves, but had fewer islands than the number of caves required, so they resorted to these complex multi-cave structures."

"Okay, that makes sense," replied Harp. "I am activating the pumps to evacuate the water in the other caves."

"Pumps?" asked a surprised Enron.

"Yes. I was wondering if the water was due to leaks or some badly selected rock type, but I spotted the word ‘high-pressure water evacuation pump’ on the control desk. And here is says ‘local’, ‘selective override’, ‘global override’. I selected ‘global override’ so we can start evacuating the water from all caves. There it goes. All pumps are functional and doing their work."

"That means the water in the caves was let in intentionally," said Paschal.

"I think so too. And it would be a very effective means of protecting the material from unintended users."

"Let us go back to Thebes and call in a Centurie of Mages to do the porting. I see no reason we should be doing that work," suggested Sitar. "A Centurie can do the job more effectively than us. And they need to work their arses off some, they are again growing lazy. Ferriday is always complaining of the lack of practical work for his new crop of Mages."

After a few snickers, the Princes moved back to Thebes and Paschal ported an additional 50 three-seat Command Spiders for use as work stations by Mages. The task was explained to the hastily assembled Mage Centurie and the half - Centurie of Armoured Legionnaires that were to handle the Spiders while the Mages ported the stuff to the Tessaract.

"Ferriday, assign someone to make sure the task is done properly. Rotate the Mage teams every two hours, so everyone in this year’s promotion gets a chance to work on a real task. Yamato? I heard some of the Armoured Cavalry Legionnaires complain about lack of work. Well, there is some work! They are to act as baby-sitters for the Mages that will do the porting. If I hear any back-talking about baby-sitting useless Mages, I shall personally kick raw some Legionnaire butts!" said Harp.

Yamato smiled, eyes sparkling, and knew just whom to send to the task: those that had big mouths and were never happy. He was planning to watch the workout these constant pains in the rear end would get from Harp. Harp saw the bright smile and knew without a doubt that some sport was coming his way.

***

As Harp and his team made their way to the Bridge, Ian called up to them.

"Hey guys! I was wondering when we would begin defrosting the cold cuts in the Colony ship?"

"I am still waiting on the report about family structures, the crew complement, and where everyone’s Magic core is power-wise."

"Greywolf found the registry of births and deaths in one of the computer files Thebes managed to fix. The result shows there was a lot of incestuous relations, a vast number of defective birth defects, and a high level of infanticide to keep the resulting disaster to a manageable level. What we have in the freezers is the last crop, the result of an eugenics process that filtered out the majority of defects of the original population. The crew complement was limited to about 150 active members in rotation. From the data we managed to recover, the arrival in Earth orbit had the crew trigger a phased release cycle, called the ‘initial landing party’ numbering 150,000 Atlanteans."

"And what about those husks?"

"The lost ones were few. They were tasked with preparing the load for the last shuttle and flying it down. Had things gone according to plan, there was to be six rotations of the shuttle. Only four occurred. The first down were the construction teams, and their equipment to build a bridge-head. The next three cycles were loaded to the brim with material to establish a viable colony. The accident, according to the logs, occurred during the fourth cycle, as a shuttle left the ship. The shuttle’s command deck was hit by a debris just as it accelerated and it decompressed violently, killing the crew instantly, and slamming the massive shuttle into the open door, tearing it off."

"How did you find that out?"

"The Captain’s Logs, Harp. We found them. The Captain was on the Colony ship’s Bridge when it happened, and he recorded the event. He then told those below to stay planet-side because the cargo hold was no longer accessible. He then retreated to one of the hibernation Pods. He is still alive, by the way."

"Did the Captain’s Logs shed any light into the events that marked their trip?"

"Yes. Quite a few Captains are recorded in that log. There were some hard decisions to take. One of these was passing through the Galactic bar; it was taken by a Captain in order to escape a pursuing Cube."

"What about the development of Magic?"

"There are reports of ‘incidents’ but no one ever thought of associating them to a common factor or even considered the notion of Magic. Strangely, the number of abnormal incidents kept increasing and literally exploded while they passed through the Galactic Bar, but the successive Captains attributed these incidents to the high level of radiation, not to any other cause. The number of deaths was also very high, and the radiation levels filtered out the non-magical or low-magical Atlanteans, leaving behind those that had the highest magical potential. By the time they left the area, they had become magical, but they did not know it. The only comment we found about something strange was from the ship’s Doctor."

"What did the Doctor have to say?"

"The Captain at the time reports the Doctor informed him he had done a statistical study and was surprised the number of defective births was not higher than it was given the length of time they were spending in the Galactic Bar. The Doctor reported that the number of genetic defects was not only abnormally low, but was dropping as time passed, something that did not fit with the ever-increasing radiation levels they were encountering. I studied the Navigation Logs and they were effectively still only a quarter of the way through the Bar when the Doctor talked to the Captain. They were getting close to a series of freshly born White Giants, and the radiation level was increasing by the mile. By the time they reached the other side of the Bar, that Captain and Doctor were long dead, and their Logs forgotten."

"So, Atlanteans developed functional Magical cores because the Borgs tried to intercept the Colony ship and the Captains decided to escape by entering an area where the Borgs themselves could not go. I wonder if we should not send a thank you note to the Borgs?"

Ian looked at Harp with crossed eyes, not really taking the joke too well.

"What about magical levels?"

After a few snorts, Ian continued his report.

"As I said earlier, the number of magical incidents exploded during the travel through the Galactic Bar, and remained high thereafter. As for the level of Magic, it was more or less around L8, but as the Atlanteans intermingled, more and more of them gained strength. The Core began increasing its storage capacity, its collection capacity, and its energy flow management. By the time the Colony ship reached the Earth, there were numerous level 3, 2, and 1 Mages, but the organisation and classification was erratic. In fact, it was unofficial, and quite a few Atlanteans scoffed the idea of Magic. Those that offered the most resistance to the idea were those that had the most to lose to admitting to its existence."

"But what about those in the freezers?"

"They are mostly L5 and up, but untrained. There are a few L1, but no L0 whatsoever, so our family remains the only one with that level of Magic."

"Okay. I suggest we bring out of the iceboxes those with the lowest magical capabilities and train them. What is the interaction between magical levels and family structure?"

"Parents are the lowest Magic-wise, the Children have the highest levels. So, your idea of taking the left-overs out of the iceboxes from the weakest to the strongest fits with the notion that we need to release those that have been in stasis the longest first."

"Set up a team to deal with the left-overs, Ian. I shall inform Ferriday of the influx of untrained adult Mages to expect at the College. Hopefully, the Parents will be ready to help once we begin releasing their Kids."

"Maybe it would be a good idea to create a College campus for Adults so they do not feel ridiculed by the performance of our youngsters."

"That is a good idea, Timor. I can just imagine their faces when one of our young strapping stallion outperforms them in class. They might not like it one bit."

"Put Nestor in charge of that campus. He is feeling bored."

"That is another fine idea, Silver Moon. Go get the old man out of his crass and bring him to the Bridge for me?"

"Sure. I shall be right back."