Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1 (20 page)

“Gentlemen, you and I all know that for many
years now you have been working hard on the construction of the
Navigator fleet, and we congratulate you for accomplishing such a
mammoth task.” She paused for a second, looking grave then went on,
“Unfortunately, our reason for assembling you here today is that we
are faced with a difficult situation. Despite all our efforts, the
work has fallen too far behind schedule. Until now, we had hoped to
be able to finish building the Navigators before the fateful day.
However, a week ago, our statisticians handed in their latest
calculations and I’m afraid they are unambiguous. We have no chance
of terminating construction of all the vessels in time. We are now
faced with some painful decisions.” A clamor rose from the crowd,
who had just realized the Exodus plan was taking a dramatic turn.
The speaker raised her voice to make herself heard.

“As you probably understand, we have decided
to focus the work on five of the nine vessels.”

On hearing this figure, the crowd erupted in
anger, literally drowning out her voice as she tried in vain to
speak over all the commotion. The atmosphere was electric. The mob
seemed on the verge of stampeding, and a number of them could no
longer contain their anger. Charlie decided to get up on the stage.
It was pointless, as he was not in any danger, but he found it
reassuring and from up there, he would be better placed to observe
the scene and hear what the speakers were saying. Eventually, one
of the workers also climbed onto the stage, uninvited and began to
speak, looking at each of the five councilors in turn.

“We cannot agree to this decision. If
necessary, we will work night and day, but we cannot resign
ourselves to sacrificing a whole portion of our people. Tell your
statisticians to recalculate their predictions, taking those new
parameters into account. Train more workers – even women and
children if necessary – but we will finish the work on time or no
one is leaving, mark my words!” He stepped down from the stage, to
thunderous applause.

The young councilor got to his feet, scanning
the workers’ faces one after the other.

“We understand your consternation and
indignation. If necessary, I am willing to give up my place on
board, but what about you? And you?” he said, pointing to them one
by one. “Are you willing to sacrifice a whole society because of
your refusal to face reality? If we don’t focus our efforts on
these five vessels, it will not be five, but only two – or at the
most three – vessels that are finished on time.”

The shocked crowd calmed down and listened
attentively to the alarming picture he was painting them.

“We would encourage you to think very
carefully. In any case, there is no alternative. I’m sorry,” he
said, taking on a compassionate air, before returning to his
seat.

The crowd remained silent for a long while,
stunned by the news that had just hit them with all the force of an
irrevocable decision. The female speaker began again, this time
being careful to choose a gentle, appeasing tone of voice.

“Gentlemen, from today, we will be
restructuring the teams in order to maximize the number of vessels
that will be operational before the impact. We share your fear and
pain. I have children of my own and if it were enough to put them
to work to resolve the issue, I would not hesitate to do so.
Unfortunately, that would be pointless. There is no other solution,
believe me! Now, I ask that you return to your posts and follow the
new orders you will be given.”

She turned around, but before returning to
her seat, she looked Charlie up and down. The little white mouse
was on her shoulder. It looked at him too, but with tenderness, as
if it wanted to draw Charlie into its net again. Apparently, they
were the only ones who could see him, and the animal was certainly
present for a reason. Without hesitating, Charlie followed her into
the midst of the official cortege. The crowd was slow to disperse
and the guards advised them to wait a while on the stage before
braving the mob again. The young councilor approached the female
speaker.

“Emma, I really appreciated the way you
managed to win over all those men while sending them back to work.
You sure know how to put your feminine touch to good use. We should
have more women on the Council, I always say.”

“Quit the flattery, Firsc. I don’t care for
your manners. You felt you had to step in just now, as if the poor
little woman desperately needed a man to handle the situation. What
a great image of me you projected to the crowd! Using fear as a
means of persuasion is an utterly masculine tactic, and yes, it
might be good to encourage women’s access to the Council.”

“Maybe. But fear brought that army of workers
ready for battle to their senses. Their leader was beginning to get
a little too cocky for my liking. His name is Pyrias, if my
information is correct. I’m going to see about meeting him
personally tomorrow. On that subject, it’s a shame Senec was not
invited to our little gathering. They tell me he is still under
house arrest. That’s a pity. He would have found it very
interesting, no doubt.”

“You don’t like him, do you? And yet, he’s a
man of conviction. He is not afraid of following through on his
commitments.”

“What are you implying, Emma?”

“I’m not implying anything. I just wonder if
you would actually be willing to give up your place to one of the
workers, as you so piously claimed just now.”

“What about you? Would you give up
yours?”

Emma did not answer. The guards invited them
to step down from the stage, now that the crowd had sufficiently
dispersed. The small group walked down the long corridor and took
their places in hover car like the one Charlie had ridden in with
Vikern and Jiec. It travelled at a sickening speed, tilting upward
until it was almost vertical. A few moments later, they entered an
enormous underground gallery, which Charlie recognized immediately.
It was hall of domes.

There were hundreds of steel domes, similar
in every way to those that housed the pavilions of the Mataiva
base. This place was identical except for a few external things;
the roads in particular, which must have been added by humans when
they fitted out the cave as a military base. The vehicle deposited
each of them in front of a different dome. Emma got out last,
accompanied by Charlie. Her pavilion was number 524. She opened the
huge steel door of the dome easily, and turned to Charlie.

“Come in. There’s no one else here.”

An astonished Charlie entered the dome. The
place seemed a lot smaller than he remembered. The cupola-shaped
ceiling was certainly high, but not as high as all that, after all.
The interior was comfortably furnished in minimalist style. It was
not really an apartment, but more of a bedroom, with a bed and a
small work-space where a desk was piled high with different colored
tablets like the ones Senec had smuggled out to inform his brother.
The contrast to what he had seen in Pavilion 28 was striking. He
realized that men were truly Lilliputians compared to these giants,
and now that he was in the skin of one of them, everything seemed
normally sized to him. He even felt a little cramped, after the
enormity of the boarding platform. He was scarcely more comfortable
here than he had been in the cell where poor Senec was locked
up.

Emma put her portable safe down near the desk
and invited Charlie to sit on the only chair in the room. He
complied, while she sat opposite him, on the edge of the bed.
Despite the androgynous look that her smooth, hairless scalp gave
her, she had a certain beauty about her and knew how to carry
herself in a way that emphasized her femininity. The mouse was
still sitting on her shoulder, but she seemed unaware of it, which
greatly intrigued Charlie.

“Should I call you Emma, or Victor?” Charlie
asked.

She did not answer.

“I had seen you sitting on the stage for
quite a while. At first I thought you were a worker, but nobody
else seemed to see you except me.”

“You’re not Victor?”

“
You’re
Victor! You’re Senec’s
brother. Don’t you remember me?”

Charlie was literally paralyzed with fear at
her words, but his only option was to continue the conversation,
accepting this new identity which she had just revealed to him. He
realized that the effects of convergence had just surpassed his
wildest imaginings. From now on, he and Victor were one and the
same. He was no longer a simple traveler lost in the memories of
another being. He had become that other being. He was no longer
exploring Victor’s reality. They were both developing it together
from the data contained in Victor’s subconscious memories. After a
brief pause, he replied weakly, “You’re probably right, Emma, but
I’m not really sure where I’m at. I think I’ve partly lost my
memory. I’ve even forgotten who I am.”

“What’s happened, Victor? What did you come
here to find?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. Help me, Emma.
I’m lost.”

Emma’s expression suddenly softened. She
obviously felt compassion for this powerless man who was entrusting
himself to her care. She took his hands and answered him in a soft
voice, “Don’t worry, Victor. Everything’s going to work out, I’m
sure. Get some rest. I don’t sleep much and I have some files to
finish by tomorrow morning. You can stay here until you feel
yourself again.”

Charlie lay down on the bed and fell into the
deepest of sleeps almost immediately. It was dreamless sleep that
would see him through till dawn without interruption.

26 ESCAPE

The next morning, Charlie awoke to an empty
room. There was a hand-written message on the desk from Emma,
informing him that she had gone to the Council room. She asked him
to wait until she came back at midday and invited him to take a
look at the contents of a graphic tablet which she had left out on
the night stand. Charlie lay down on the bed again and picked up
the tablet. As soon as he placed his hand on it a three-dimensional
screen appeared. After that, he needed to do nothing more. The
images, diagrams and text scrolled by as he read them. It was as if
the tablet adapted its speed and contents to his capacity to take
in the information. The scroll speed adjusted with meticulous
precision according to his reading speed.

Charlie remained captivated for hours,
hypnotized by the screeds of information unfolding before him. When
the door opened he jumped, surprised to see Emma back so soon, as
it seemed to him that she had only just left.

“Hello Victor. I see you found my message. I
hope I haven’t been away too long?”

“To be honest, I didn’t even notice the time
go by.”

“I brought us something to eat. I was
supposed to have lunch with the Councilors, but I found an excuse
to get away. I didn’t want to leave you on your own too long. Did
you have time to familiarize yourself with the contents of the
graphic tablet?”

“Yes, most of it. At least, I think so.”

Emma cleared off a corner of the desk and put
down a tray covered with a sort of metal dome.

“Help yourself – you must be starving!”

Charlie approached the desk, but he had no
idea how the object, which he supposed was a meal-tray, actually
worked. He searched all around its edges for some sort of notch
that could open it, but found nothing of the sort.

“Oh, yes – sorry! You haven’t seen this model
before. They’re trays our engineers have just finished developing.
Soon the whole Navigator fleet will be equipped with them. Look,
you just press down lightly on the cover. That starts the food
cooking and when it’s done it will open automatically.”

Charlie followed her instructions and a few
moments later the cover opened, revealing a steaming tray with a
sort of strange-smelling cube on it.

“Try it. It’s a protein cube with added
vitamins. I think these ones taste like meat. If you don’t like it,
there’s a plate of raw fruit and vegetables on the side.”

Charlie tried all the dishes. The flavor was
not so bad after all. He told himself that it was as good as what
he had eaten at the canteen with Mario. Anyway, this food and its
taste were merely virtual. He wondered for a moment whether Jacques
was experiencing any of this too.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything, Emma?”

“No, go ahead. You can have it all. I’m not
hungry.”

Charlie finished the whole tray without being
able to tell if it was enough to satisfy his appetite. Then he
asked Emma what he should do with it.

“Leave it there. I’ll take it back to the
central kitchen. Let’s talk about what you just read.”

“Well, I’m not sure I understand all the
details, but I gather it’s about a construction project for an
underground city in some secret location. However, what I don’t
understand is the reason for the secrecy. Senec told me about this
type of project, but he said they were run by the Council itself.
He talked about underground caverns where a whole section of the
population could be placed in hibernation while awaiting rescue,
but this project is a little different. It’s about an actual city
with all the right conditions for a population to live
self-sufficiently for an indefinite period of time, until
conditions are suitable for them to return to the surface.”

“Senec didn’t lie to you. These subterranean
bases do exist. Actually, the space center is built on one of them.
The pavilion where we are now is located more than 1,000 meters
underground. Maybe you didn’t notice because the new hover cars
that we use are extremely fast. This base has two huge separate
residential galleries. For now the pavilions are used to house
personnel working on building the vessels, but later, they will be
converted into hibernation domes.”