Atlantis Rising (5 page)

“Speak,” Prasuh said.

“Great Master,” Oojoung said.
“Oojoung set up, so main reactor fail under stress.”

Prasuh raised an eyebrow, “They
have their main reactor online?”

“Yes, Great Master,” Oojoung
said.

“I told you to stall them,”
Prasuh said.

“Great Master, Oojoung tried.
“They tricked Oojoung. Made water go away. Oojoung couldn’t do anything.”

“I take it they’re repairing the
base now?” Prasuh said. He sat back in his chair and made a triangle with his
hands in front of his face. However, he kept his other arms crossed over his
chest.

Oojoung’s mouth went dry, “Yes,
Great Master. Many busy bots running all over place.”

Prasuh opened his eyes, “Have
they got their defenses online or any of their offenses?”

Oojoung shook his head, “No,
Great Master. Oojoung thinking they no know about those. But, new hoomans might
discover them.”

Prasuh narrowed his eyes, “What
do you mean new humans?”

Oojoung moaned to himself, “More
hoomans came in big shuttle.”

“How many?” Prasuh asked quietly.

“Oojoung no knows Great Master,”
Oojoung moaned.

“Guess, you little useless smear
of a being,” Prasuh growled.

Oojoung counted to himself,
twenty, he saw twenty. OK, let’s see twenty divided by two is ten. He looked up
at the scowling face of Prasuh and shuddered before he spoke, “Two or three
Great Master. Oojoung knows it was two or three.”

“Three?” Prasuh laughed. He
slapped the side of his desk in glee with the hands not crossing his chest.
“The Humans find an Advanced Military Base under water and all they bring is
three humans to help. Humans are so stupid.”

“No, Great Master stupid. Oojoung
and Humans smarter than whole Invaru Empire,” Oojoung muttered under his
breath.

“What was that,” a suddenly
serious Prasuh said.

Oojoung’s eyes widened, “Oojoung
say how right Great Master is. Oojoung and Humans stupid, Invaru so smart.”

Prasuh eyes narrowed for a
second, “Yes, Oojoung keep doing what you’re doing. Keep trying to break into
the main computer and gain control of the base. I’m ordering the fleet to 130%,
we will be there in less than two days.”

Oh boy! Two days and Oojoung gets
to see dummy Prasuh face to face. Oojoung so happy … NOT! “Yes Great Master,
Oojoung happy.” Oojoung said with a forced smile on his face.

“Don’t fail me, Oojoung,” Prasuh
said then faded from view.

Oojoung raised his hand at the
empty screen before him and slowly raised his middle finger. Then stuck his
tongue out and gave a raspberry.

Jonathan looked over the
seventeen people standing in a loose crowd before him. The base needed people
and he needed to start somewhere. The three missing people he would talk to
later, after Andie released them from Medical. He was never one for speeches,
he hated it in school, and he hated it, now.

Jonathan took a deep breath, “I’m
Commander Jonathan Hunter, Commander of Atlanta Base.”

Everyone stopped what they were
doing and turned to look at him. “Where are we?” one of them asked. Another
asked about the ship sitting in the middle of the landing bay.

Jonathan raised his hands
motioning for silence, “Please, I’ll answer questions in a minute.”

The room quieted down as everyone
stood watching him.

{Commander.} Atlanta transmitted
to him.

{Atlanta, I’m kind of in the
middle of something here.}

{I know, I wouldn’t have
interrupted if it wasn’t important.}

Jonathan sighed, {what is it?}

{Command needs you.}

{Can you give me a few minutes?}

{Yes, Sir.}

{Thanks.}

Jonathan turned his attention
back to the people before him. What could possibly be wrong now that Atlanta
needed him in Command?

He sighed again as he started
speaking, “I would like to welcome everyone to Atlanta Base you are the first
people to step foot on this base, besides us, in over 2000 years.”

That got some looks; one guy even
circled his ear.

“Right,” someone said.

“I’m serious, have you ever seen
a vessel like that?” Jonathan pointed at the shuttle.

“Have you ever seen armor like
this?” Jonathan tapped the armor he was wearing.

“What about rank insignia’s like
this?” Jonathan said as he pointed to the hologram on his chest.

“Or languages like this one
here?” Jonathan pointed to a wall that that had writing on it.

One of the women spoke up, “It
looks like a mix of Egyptian and Mayan writing.”

“Right, it’s an ancient language
known
as Eutharan,” Jonathan said. “We stumbled on this base and
we have decided to use its secrets to help Earth.”

“How many of you are there?”
someone asked.

Jonathan leveled a gaze at the
person, “Enough, but were looking to have people join us. We need serious
people who want to really help …”

A scream from one of the women
stopped him. People looked to where she was pointing, and several people
started to panic.

“STOP, AND CALM DOWN!” Jonathan
shouted.

One of the Queen Spider Bots was
making its way across the bay towards the ship storage. It stopped for a second
,
took
in the assembled people, and then continued on
its way.

“But, what the hell is that?” the
woman asked. She was pointing a shaking finger at the five-foot tall spider.

“That is a drone, we call them
spider bots. They maintain the base and vessels in the landing bays,” Jonathan
said. “They won’t hurt you as long as you don’t attack them. That one is a
Queen Drone. She commands the smaller units and directs their activities.”

“Wow,” a couple of the people
said.

“It is completely AI driven, it
makes its own choices and is
self-sufficient
,”
Jonathan said.

“Artificial intelligence?”
someone asked.

Jonathan nodded.

“Impossible,” another said.

“Atlanta,” Jonathan said. Atlanta
appeared next to Jonathan.

“Yes, Commander?” Atlanta asked.

“This is the base’s AI entity.
She controls the main functions of the base and is a holographic projection,”
Jonathan said. He waved his hand through Atlanta to show everyone she was a
holograph.

“The Commander is correct,”
Atlanta said.

“Smoke and mirrors,” someone
said.

“As I have said, I’m not trying
to trick anyone. Atlanta is the base’s computer,” Jonathan said.

“Prove it,” someone else said.

Sometimes Jonathan wondered how
the human race ever survived. Some people made dumb people look intelligent.

“Does everyone agree that the
shuttle is empty?” Jonathan asked. “If not go inspect it and come back when
you’re happy.”

Several people went in the
shuttle and came back a few seconds later.

“Empty?” Jonathan asked one of
the returning people.

“Yes,” they answered.

“Good, Atlanta store shuttle four
and mark it for maintenance,” Jonathan said.

“Yes, Commander,” Atlanta said.

The shuttle’s rear hatch closed
as it left the floor and slowly moved to the left side of the bay. The wall
folded out as arms latched on to the shuttle and guided it into an empty
hanger.

“Okay, Atlanta return to what you
were doing. I’ll be in Command in a little bit,” Jonathan said.

Atlanta nodded and disappeared.

“I’m not joking, nor am I trying
to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. I’m offering each of you a position on
this base. We will be responding to events around the globe. We will be trying
to make the world a better place for everyone,” Jonathan said. “There are
however, stipulations if you agree to stay.”

Carla spoke up this time, “What
kind of stipulations?”

“You can never leave once you
sign up,” Jonathan said.

“And if we decide to leave?”
Carla asked.

“You can leave if that’s what you
want. I promised to take you to mainland America and I will. I will drop you
anywhere you want and never bother you again,” Jonathan said.

“What’s to stop us from telling
people about this place?” Another asked. Several people nodded in response.

“Nothing, we’re not planning on
staying hidden. But, until we show up in public, how do you think they will
view all the stories you tell them about a sunken base on the bottom of the ocean
with advanced technology? ‘Lost City of Atlantis’, anyone?” Jonathan said.

That got a few chuckles.

“I’m not going to hold anyone
hostage, but those who stay will have rules they will have to follow. We will
return weapons to those choosing to leave when we drop them off wherever they
want to go. I’m going to go talk to your three-crew members in Medical and tell
them the same thing. I’ll give you until tomorrow to make your choice,”
Jonathan said.

Jonathan turned and grabbed a box
made of some type of plastic and dropped it in front of them, “If you decide to
stay put one of these suits on. Bathrooms are over there,” he pointed off to
the right along the far wall. “I’ll have something brought down for you to
sleep on.”

Jonathan stared at the hologram
of the universe that was floating above the planning table. Just outside the
Sol System was a red triangle, which had a dotted line that intersected Earth.
Displayed next to the red triangle were
readings showing
its plotted course and
current
speed.

“So, what am I looking at?”
Jonathan asked.

“That,” Atlanta said. She pointed
to t
he
small triangle, “i
s an Invaru battle fleet on its way
to
Earth.
”

Jonathan reached up and squeezed
the bridge of his nose. This was just unbelievable, if it wasn’t one thing it
was another. What else could possibly go wrong and why was this fleet coming
now? When we started the main reactor, did the start-up alert them? Now that
the main reactor is running, are they swinging by to check on the base? Two
days! That’s not enough time to warn the people of Earth, and even if we did
warn people, we couldn’t prove it.
People
would
only laugh
at us,
or the warning might cause a mass panic across Earth. He was going to have to
come up with something and fast.

“Oh man,” Brad said. “I was just
getting settled in.”

Terri took this time to step from
the lift and come running over, a big smile on her face, “I know!” When she saw
the distressed look on her
brother’s
face
she stopped and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Jonathan looked up at her, “What do
you know?”

“I know what I want to do,” Terri
asked. “What’s this red triangle?”

“Cool, what do you want to do
Sis?” Jonathan asked. “That red triangle is a battle fleet headed to earth.”

“I want to fly …” Terri started,
and then stared at the red triangle. “Battle fleet?”

“Nice. Atlanta, rank her as a
pilot,” Jonathan said.

Atlanta nodded, “She will have to
go through training and will retain the rank of Ensign until she completes her
training.”

The background of Terri’s rank
hologram changed to a rotating shuttle. It still maintained the pulsing cyan
that denoted her as a Cypher. “The background will change as you pass your
tests.”

“Congratulations Terri. So, how
long before they reach Earth?” Jonathan asked.

“Approximately two days, give or
take a few hours,” Atlanta said.

“Man, of all the luck,” Mike
said.

“Says you, I just found something
I wanted to do,” Terri pouted.

“You’re sure they’re headed this
way?” Jonathan said.

“I have plotted their course for
the past four hours. There is a 0.01 percent chance they will pass by Earth,”
Atlanta said.

“Great,” Jonathan said.

“Hey, at least there’s a chance
right?” Brad said.

Jonathan rolled his eyes, “Fleet
composition?”

“Unknown. They’re too far out for
my sensors to pick up. I can just barely get a reading on their engine
signatures,” Atlanta said.

“So much for those sensor
drones,” Brad said.

“Well, let’s worry about it when
we can get a reading. They might just be checking to make sure the base is
dormant,” Jonathan said.

“Actually, those drones might
just be the thing then,” Brad said.

“Huh?” Jonathan said.