Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1 (34 page)

The old man slowly opened his eyes, and
contemplated Clementine’s sweet face for a few moments. She smiled
broadly at him, fixing her large, dark, hazel-tinged eyes on him.
The veil of mist was reflected in her visor, slightly dispersed by
the recent movements of the young woman and her colleagues. In the
background, he could see the colossal façade of the dome at whose
base they had set up their make-shift camp.

“Thank you, Clementine
,
” he said
warmly.

He took the hand she offered him and got to
his feet with difficulty, slowly straightening his back, stiffened
by age. Clementine did not look like his ex-wife at all, but it had
been a long time since he had received the slightest affectionate
gesture. He could not help thinking of her again. Since she had
left, he had never been able to replace her, burying himself in his
research instead. But despite the deep love he had for his adopted
son, Francisco could not compensate for that lack – especially not
Francisco. He was incapable of showing any affection. In extreme
cases, he might just accept his father taking him in his arms to
comfort him, but that was all. There was never a word or gesture to
express his love or gratitude.

“Is everything okay, Giuseppe?” asked Mario,
who had been watching from a distance. “Leave your pack there and
come join us. I believe our long journey was not in vain! Charlie
is already deciphering the inscription Francisco found on what
looks like a gigantic computer screen. I’ve never seen anything
like it! This should interest you.”

The screen in question was in fact a
gigantic, dark-colored, glass disk, perched on top of a cylinder,
twelve meters high. Francisco was flying the small exploration
drone that he had brought with him. The video camera was sending
images directly to the screen of the tablet which Charlie held in
his hands. He was carefully observed by the little group, who were
waiting impatiently to find out more about this unusual object.

Francisco decided at last to explain to them
the discovery he had just made.

“The top of the cylinder is in the shape of a
glass disk, measuring thirteen meters in diameter. The drone’s
thermal cameras have picked up electrical circuit activity beneath
the glass surface. Several times, the electrical current has
changed when the drone has come close to it. I conclude from that,
that the screen is reacting to a change incurred by the drone’s
presence. Several different types of technology for this type of
screen exist, not counting the N.H.I.’s technology, which was
apparently slightly different to ours. Some of them react to
pressure on the surface, others to changes in electric charges or
to an object’s shadow on the screen. The most resistant, durable
screens – those generally used by the army – use infrared
technology. For now, I cannot confirm that it was reacting to the
heat given off by the drone, but that is my preferred hypothesis. I
doubt that the air pressure from the rotary blades would be
sufficient to activate a screen of this size, any more than the
drone’s shadow.”

“If I may; there doesn’t seem to be any
external light source in this cave”, ventured Charlie. “The light
seems to be coming from the metal itself. In that case, there
shouldn’t be any shadow.”

“Actually, there is. It is possible for the
drone to cast a shadow on the screen because it is made of glass
and does not generate any light. It should therefore be possible
for the metallic surfaces in the immediate environment to cast
slight shadows. However, I think that such shadows would be much
too faint to be detected by the captors under the screen.”

“So you think the disk reacts to heat.”

“That is the hypothesis I prefer, In any
case, even if I cannot be certain. What I can be sure of, is that
this surface, which resembles glass, is sensitive to the drone’s
presence and since you told us that this sector had a center for
the management and networking of the different equipment involved
in the functioning of the base, I deduce that this is some sort of
supercomputer.”

“An N.H.I.-sized computer,” added Giuseppe,
who had just joined them. “Maybe there are others in this
sector?”

“No, I don’t think so,” replied Francisco. “I
have been over this sector with a fine-toothed comb and the drone
didn’t give me any images that led me to think there were other
similar structures here. If there are any other computers here,
they are either buried, or of a very different kind.”

“Why didn’t you notice it earlier?” asked
Jacques. “The exploration drones must have mapped out the area long
ago.”

“I suppose that at the time we must have
thought it was simply a flat surface of unknown purpose. We were so
focused on trying to open the first domes that a detailed
exploration of this distant sector was put off until later. What
could we have done, anyway?” added Giuseppe. “You are the only one
capable of reading N.H.I. script, Charlie. We would not have been
able to do anything with it but damage it, without attempting to
understand how it worked.”

“That’s not all!” Francisco said suddenly.
“The glass surface looks like the surface of the graphic tablet you
managed to read, Charlie. On closer inspection I found some symbols
engraved in the glass. Perhaps they will tell us something about
how to turn it on. Here, you take a look!”

The minutes ticked by while Charlie regularly
asked Francisco, who was adept at maneuvering the little
remote-controlled craft, to move it around, exploring the disk in
minute detail. On the glass surface of the supercomputer, they
could make out a sort of grid, finely engraved around the edge of
the disk.

“There!” cried Charlie. “I’m sure that’s a
touch-sensitive on-button for the screen. Similar symbols were on
the screens and graphic tablets they used. If the screen reacts to
the drone’s presence, we should be able to turn it on.”

Francisco delicately lowered the drone onto
the area Charlie had just indicated. Instantly, the whole disk lit
up, to their astonishment.

“We did it!” cried Charlie, both amazed and
incredulous at what seemed to him to verge on the miraculous. “Now,
take it up a bit higher, Francisco. I need to be able to see the
whole screen.”

Francisco complied, placing the drone several
meters above the centre of the gigantic disk. The middle of the
screen was still only a perfectly empty, pale blue surface,
contrasting dramatically with the grid around the edge, whose
midnight blue keys showed lines of N.H.I symbols and writing.
Charlie carefully examined all of the markings, using the zoom and
enlarge functions of the little aircraft’s optical equipment to his
advantage. With Francisco’s help, he examined the different parts
of the computer one by one and fairly soon asked to take over
control of the drone himself so he could work more quickly. He knew
what he needed to do, and how to do it. The way he managed the
non-human technology amazed everyone. Only Francisco was as
impassive as a statue, not missing any of the information he could
obtain form the small miracle taking place before his eyes.

Charlie, on the other hand, was exhilarated.
The further he went in his research, the more powerful and
self-satisfied he felt. His level of concentration soon reached its
peak, at which point he did not even hear the team’s questions and
comments anymore. The feeling intoxicated and overwhelmed him
beyond the simple pleasure of managing to accomplish something
unusual. He could feel a growing thirst for power; a will to
control everything, to be the one who knew, who could only ever be
right all the time. His eyes were wild and his movements became
more and more jerky, even rough; so much so that suddenly, the
tablet’s screen cracked under the pressure of his fingers.
Francisco immediately snatched the tablet from him. Charlie turned
on him impulsively and gave him a stern fierce stare. He was
prepared to rip the object out of his hands, but in a fraction of a
second, his aggression suddenly left.

He had just realized that his intellectual
prowess was a result of convergence and that once again it was
consuming him, pushing him out of himself. Was it Victor’s
personality taking over or merely some sort of side-effect of the
temporary expansion of his sensorial and psychological capacities?
He did not know, but right now he felt uneasy. Something in him no
longer belonged to him. A divide, a split was letting another
personality emerge that he did not recognize. Or perhaps it was not
another personality after all. Maybe it was simply his brain’s
reward loop racing; bringing continual rushes of dopamine and other
endogenous opioids. After all, his almost magical series of
successes, in an area where he was the only competent one, could
have been enough in and of itself to account for the state he had
just found himself in.

Deep down, he knew that this explanation,
while plausible, was probably not sufficient. The truth was that he
did not know and probably did not want to know what had really
happened. This interpretation reassured him. Soon his thoughts
stopped racing and the surge of emotions waned, giving way to a
great void; and he began to breathe more slowly and deeply.

“
What’s the matter with you, Charlie? I
worry about you. I’ve never seen you like that before. What on
earth did they do to you in there?”

“I’m sorry! I don’t know what came over me. I
was so absorbed by what I was doing that I must have pressed a bit
too hard on the screen. I hope I haven’t damaged the tablet too
badly? I was just about to activate the magnetic road system when
the screen cracked. I was concentrating so hard I didn’t even
realize. It’s a good thing you interrupted me in time,
Francisco.”

Charlie was struggling to look calm, to make
everyone forget his moment of confusion as quickly as possible, but
Francisco still would not look at him. He only handed him the
tablet again after making sure the drone was not damaged and the
screen was still working, in spite of the deep cracks all over
it.

“Thank you,” said Charlie.

“Now that the screen is cracked you will have
to be a lot more careful with this device if you don’t want it to
be rendered useless,” Francisco warned.

“Don’t worry, Francisco. I think I’ve learned
my lesson. I’ll be much more careful now, I assure you.”

“
I know you can’t answer me, Charlie, but
you can still hear me out. That kind of attitude, that way you have
of cutting yourself of from everyone, that impulsivity, that almost
domineering self-assurance – it’s not like you… I find your
behavior quite strange sometimes, as if you aren’t yourself
anymore. I don’t know exactly what happens but be careful because
people pick up on it and I don’t think Giuseppe really appreciates
that sort of lapse. He mustn’t see us as some sort of threat, you
understand? We’ll have to talk about this again when we’re alone
together.”

Charlie glanced briefly at his brother. His
expression spoke volumes, which was enough to reassure Jacques.
Then he went back to maneuvering the drone extremely gently,
resisting at every moment the temptation to speed up the operation.
He wanted to avoid damaging the equipment entrusted to him, and
also preserve his own integrity. After close on an hour’s research,
the drone’s constant to-ing and fro-ing came to an end at last and
a dull noise was heard in the cave.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

“What was that?” asked Mario.

“I’ve activated the magnetic roads on all the
sectors between Sector 5 and Sector 50. Now the magnetic levitation
vehicles should work. I should be able to drive them if I ever find
a way of accessing the on-board computer, which is also several
meters off the ground.”

“Logically speaking, they should use the same
type of tactile screen as this one. We may not need to physically
access it.”

“Let’s hope you’re right, Francisco!”

“Have you had access to other information,
Charlie?” asked Giuseppe. “I’m mainly thinking of how the domes are
opened, or of the energy supply system for this entire
infrastructure.”

“Yes, Giuseppe. Opening the domes shouldn’t
be a problem anymore. The computer generates magnetic cards, like
individual passes, which command the automatic opening of the door
they are configured for. In retrospect, I remember seeing one of
them being used when I was in the connection.” (Once again, Charlie
was referring to his visit with Emma.) “All you need to do is get
near the door for it to open.”

“In the end, the N.H.I.’s technology doesn’t
seem so very different from ours”, remarked Giuseppe. “In fact, I
find it quite surprising that they were able to use the same
strategies and follow the same tracks of technological development.
Don’t you think, Charlie?”

“I agree,” he replied, without elaborating.
“In any case, in future you won’t need to cut through the doors
with a laser anymore. I’ll just be able to generate access cards
from here. We’ll have to verify that in situ but according to the
central computer’s analysis everything seems to be functioning
correctly. If that’s so, I think we can say that their technology
has rock solid reliability and longevity. Our engineers would do
well to follow their example.”

They found what they were looking for only a
short distance from the network center. This vehicle was as huge as
the first. Its sleek design and perfectly rectilinear shape made it
seem very imposing; almost intimidating. Solid, massive; it seemed
that nothing could move that mountain of steel. There it sat on the
ground, like a hunk of rock that had fallen off a cliff-face
millions of years ago. And yet, as the twins got closer, holding
the magnetic pass in their hands, the little group was amazed at
the spectacle before them. The sight of the metal monolith rising
slowly and silently several dozen centimeters from the ground
seemed totally unreal.