by Kip Hartzell
Zeusticus commanded the shuttle to follow the instructions, and then they were airborne.
Poseidon’s shuttle will arrive at the new coordinates before we do,” Athene-A reported.
Zeusticus smiled. “My brothers have always tested me. Let’s see if I’m worthy,” he said, turning off the automation and putting the shuttle in a steep dive. He manually flew the craft through valleys and riverbeds, turning, climbing, and diving. The others on board tightened their straps, shook their heads and groaned. They had been on many missions with him, and knew his behavior as impulsive, bordering on reckless, but confident. They knew he would sacrifice his life quickly for anyone of them.
The Shuttle rose over a mountain top to reveal a chaotic scene. Smoke and ash covered the area where lava sprayed into the air. Steam bellowed out of nearby crevices, but it didn’t expand. The whole scene stayed in place like a lakeside landscape. Human Cousins could be seen in the distance walking toward the fiery scene. Perhaps fear had been replaced by curiosity.
“I’m not reading anything,” Hesti-A said, while working the console. “These non-readings-it’s like there’s nothing there-a void. I’ve never seen this before.”
“Look,” Athene-A said, simultaneously pointing a finger at the windscreen, “the Odyssey has crashed landed near the chasm.”
“I don’t understand why-” Zeusticus was cut off by a power loss.
The shuttle nosedived toward the other shuttle. He fought the manual controls as it rocked and bucked, while slipping sideways. He was able to right the ship just before impact, skidding to a rough halt, producing a trench of new dirt. Smoke and dust twirled about the cabin like it had no place to go. If they hadn’t been strapped in from Zeusticus’s reckless flying, there would’ve been serious injuries.
Now, investigation team Alpha was just as grounded as team Beta. A little dazed, the crew began to evaluate their situation. A few lacerations and internal injuries on impact when the gravity stabilizers shut down, nothing that wouldn’t heal within a day.
Zeusticus manually released the hatch and stepped out into the hot, dirty, dry air. Athene-A followed, and then moved further out. A striking woman with blonde hair, stepped out holding her arm. She stopped at the doorway and gave Zeusticus an evil glare. “Demeter, our healing instruments are down, we have some first aid treatments, but you’ll have to heal mostly on your own.”
“Yes, I know Father, wait until mother hears about this.”
“Lucky for me she’s still in the Temporal Storage Device.” He half smiled.
“I hope my Uncles were-lucky-too.” She moved out to help Athene-A with the shuttle.
Delphi-Apollo stuck his bruised head out of the hatch. “Tell me again why we brought a horticulturalist along?”
“Tell me again why I brought you along?”
“Because, you always need a navigation and propulsion expert when you fly, and apparently a medic, too.”
Zeusticus huffed. “Check out the shuttle, and put your expertise to some use.”
Apollo waved him off, and moved to the rear of the shuttle.
“Hephaestus, will she be alright?” Zeusticus asked, while the Minotaur emerged from the shuttle with a beautiful woman, with her arm around his neck, and his around her waist.
“I think Aphrodite-Ourani-A’s leg might be broken,” The bull man with a short snout and high curved short horns, said, as he brought her out of the shuttle.
“Any word on my sister?” Aphrodite asked, while hobbling to stand up straight.
“No, we’re still assessing the situation, we’ll know soon. Hephaestus, take her over to that burned-out tree over there, and see if Apollo can help.”
Hephaestus easily picked her up in his arms and carried her away, their E-suits appeared dark gray in the smoky haze.
Athene-A returned to Zeusticus, when Dian-A-Artemis led Dionysus out into the open.
“Will you be alright, Dionysus?” Zeusticus asked with concern.
He took his hand away from his almond shaped eyes to reveal some damage. Sweat rolled down his tan features. He brushed his dark hair out of his face, and said, “Junction conduit overloaded, the blindness is temporary, I’ll be fine.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes, an intoxicating drink.”
“I’m afraid the dispensers are inoperative.”
“Too bad.”
“Dian-A, are you injured?” Athene-A asked.
“No, I seem to have avoided injury,” she responded, while looking herself over.
“Good,” Athene-A sounded relieved. “Your cousin, Lee-A, was my colleague and friend. I think of her still.”
“I was very young when she died in Settler’s Field.”
“Well, let’s see if we can get out of this mess.” They all turned and headed for the group.
“I doubt there’s much a Zoologist can do in situations like this,” Dian-A responded.
“We’ll see.”
A loud crash came from inside the shuttle. Zeusticus and Athene-A ran in to see a black haired, tan, typical Atlantean woman, standing at a control panel removing its cover, and dropping it on the floor.
“Themis, what are you doing?” Zeusticus asked, approaching her.
“I’m doing something...not just sitting around, like trying to find out what happened to our ship,” she said, touching juncture points.
“You’re a Council member and bureaucrat, not an engineer.”
“Well, what are you going to do to get us out of here?” she asked, half panicked.
“It’s not the ship, it’s an outside force. Come, let us go outside and figure this out.”
Her features softened and she took his hand. They exited the still smoky shuttle, and led her to the group gathered by the burned-out tree.
“Looks like we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, and use our brains and senses. The injured stay here, Apollo, see what you can do for them. The rest come with me,” Zeusticus ordered, and then started walking toward the ridge.
Athene-A pointed in the direction of the other shuttle, when she and Zeusticus came to the top of the rise and gazed down. “I hope Rhe-A, Cronus, your brothers, and the others, are alright,” Athene-A worriedly said.
“I see some movement,” Zeusticus said, as the very muscular, and exceptionally tall Atlantean moved forward. The group followed him through the scorched earth until they came to a crowd of Cousins. They were all transfixed on the lake of bubbling lava. The group moved passed them, determining they were still alive, but immobile. Any closer and the heat would surely burn them. They weaved their way through the stone still crowd to get to the Odyssey. It had been abandoned, and looked as though it had suffered the same fate as Andromeda.
Weaving their way through statuesque Cousins toward the chasm, all were staring in the same direction. They stopped to see Beta team staring into the inferno.
“Something’s really wrong,” Athene-A quietly said. “I feel something gnawing at my consciousness, something dark.”
Zeusticus turned to Dian-A-Artemis, and said, “You’re pretty good with animals and wilderness, go South and see if you can get out of this zone of impotence. Maybe you can find a Pegasus to help you get back to Chrysalis. We have to let them know what’s going on, and where we are.”
“Yes, Sir,” Dian-A said, and then took off running.
Jay’s mind was racing with confusion as he panned around, ledges were full of human Cousins, bobbing in and out of sight. Apparently, not all Cousins were affected. He broke through the crowd of shorter Cousins on his way to the edge of the chasm, where other Atlanteans stood frozen in the heat, staring into the abyss. He saw his Grandmother’s hand reach up and put it on Rhe-A’s shoulder. “Rhe-A, are you alright?”
She blinked a few times, then took a deep breath, and shook her confusion away.
“Uh, I think so, yes, don’t you hear that?”
“I feel a slight buzz at the edge on my mind.”
<
br /> Cronus turned toward Athene-A, and said, “That sound, a warm, soothing, inviting sound...,” He started to drift back into the trance.
Athene-A glanced back to see most of her own crew hypnotized. All the races seemed to be affected in one way or another. Without warning, the ground shook, people wavered, but didn’t fall. She looked in the direction of the disturbance. A ripple in the lava made small waves. The affects spread out as invisible matter whipped by her like a heat wave. The affects could only be seen by the stirring of dust and gravel. The wave dissipated a few yards after it passed the group of human statues. The immediate area became darker, as if the sun had been eclipsed. Ash caused the ground to be hotter as Athene-A stumbled backward.
The lava gurgled and spewed, movement caused it to slosh around. Her eyes grew wide as a splatter of lava landed on the rocky shore, more splatter, it began to coalesce and solidify as it crawled on shore. It was small at first, then grew upward. Heat ripples expanded as it rose and began to take the shape of a humanoid bipedal form. Its orange shape sprouted two arms and five fingers, which it used to drag itself toward the nearest Cousin. The glob rose up and formed legs. The red-hot biped wrapped its arms around the Cousin, and absorbed him into its body. His scream was the last thing of him. Athene-A had not known fear for a long time, but it was evident on her face, now. The creature moved to the next one, more sure of itself as it consumed. Athene-A could not tare her eyes off of the horrific sight. The creature now began to take the shape of a humanoid woman as she consumed a third Cousin.
“Stop!”
The creature did, and then looked directly at her with lava orange eyes. Its features becoming more and more detailed. Athene-A’s yell brought a few of her company out of their trance.
“We need to retreat and assess the situation, let’s go.” The small group started to move away. “Take as many as you can with you. She took Rhe-A’s arm, she was reluctant at first, but slowly began to walk with Athene-A. Leading the Atlanteans away, she stepped passed an invisible barrier where the sun shined normally, again, the air fresh and cooler. At that moment, Rhe-A came back to her senses, albeit, confused.
Athene-A noticed it immediately. “Let’s get them out of the zone of influence.” She ran back in to get more people out. She took hold of Poseidon’s muscular arm and barely budged him. She got in front of him and put both hands on his chest, and pushed. He backed up a couple of steps when she heard it again, the sound of mud slopping on a rock. She slowly turned, hoping not to see that sight again, yet there it was. Lava rolled out of the pit and consumed the nearest Cousin. It started to coalesce into a male bipedal figure as Cousin after Cousin was absorbed. It focused on Athene-A, and started slopping its way toward her. She turned back to Poseidon, and slapped him as hard as she could. His head snapped to the side, but his eyes came back into focus. “Athene-A?” he said, bringing up his own hand to his face. “What-”
“Let’s go, now!”
By the time all the Atlanteans had been pulled, or dragged, outside the hypnotizing bubble, Zeusticus’s crew from Andromeda, came down to meet them. They were all healed enough to function on their own, except Aphrodite-Ourani-A, who was still being carried by Hephaestus. He didn’t seem to mind.
Athene-A felt safe enough outside the dome of influence to take a head count. Zeusticus stood next to his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, talking feverishly with each other. Demeter and Hephaestus stood next to a kneeling Apollo, who was checking out Aphrodite-Ourani-A’s leg, and her twin sister, Aprodite-Pandemos’s arm. Why would someone name their identical twins the same name, Athene-A always wondered? Akiri-Dionysus was being fawned over by Beta team’s Themis and Thei-A. Mnemosyne, Rhe-A, Cronus, and Hyperion, stood at the edge of the invisible barrier of influence and stared stoically.
Cousins kept coming, as alert Atlanteans tried to stop them, but they would not be denied. Jay’s eyes looked up at the ridge line to see hundreds of non-affected Cousins, moving about, too scared to approach, and powerless to stop their brethren from strolling to their deaths.
“Zeusticus, do you know what this is?” Athene-A asked, while trying to push several Cousins away.
“I believe it to be a spacial rift, or tare in dimensional space. I can’t be sure without my instruments. But, I would say the Destroyers are breaking through.”
There were now four creatures that selected their way through the Cousins, like picking fruit from an orchard. Athene-A, and the others close to her, backed away as the first creature came to the edge of the spacial field and stopped. Her features were as tall as she, but much less lava-like, now, more human in color and texture. They stared at each other. Athene-A felt something at the edge of her mind, begging to get in. She knew better. A brush across her shoulder drew her attention to a female Cousin, transfixed, she held a small crying child as she walked by Athene-A. She tried to stop her, but she was like a planet being sucked in by a black hole. She managed to pull the child from her arms just before she entered the field. The Destroyer stopped the woman soon after, and ripped off her arm, and began eating it by a more conventional means. The blood dripped off of her chin as she made no facial expression. Athene-A felt bile creep up her esophagus, while the others just groaned.
Athene-A still couldn’t tear herself away. Jay could feel her recognition of the monster. “I know that face, Zeusticus, wait, let me think.” She dug back into eons of memories and reports. “Gai-A, is that you?” The creature stopped chewing, as if recognizing her name. Athene-A passed the child off to Rhe-A, who held it while shaking off the hypnotic effects.
“Do you know her?” Zeusticus asked.
“I know who it resembles, Gai-A, just one of the many Atlanteans gone missing over the time we’ve been stranded here. We’ve always tried to find them, but a lot of them simply vanish. It seems the Destroyers now have a purpose for us.”
“Why? Why not just kill us?”
“Maybe they now have a reason to keep us alive, or maybe we have finally peaked their curiosity.”
“Do you think they can survive outside this spacial field?”
The ground shook and staggered the two crews. Then, the field expanded passed them by thirty yards. The Gai-A creature stepped toward Athene-A, who immediately began pushing and waving everyone back outside the sphere of influence.
“I don’t think they can, yet, but if this field keeps expanding, that won’t be a problem.”
The other three creatures absorbed, or ate Cousins without concern, and they too, began to coalesce into humanoids. They moved slowly toward Athene-A at the barrier. She had never seen fear in Zeusticus, but there it was.
“What do you see, Zeusticus?” Athene-A asked, trying to see what he saw.
“Those two-they-I think they look like-Nyx-A and Erebus. I presided over their union, but they vanished several thousand years ago, while studying a Medusan colony.”
“I see the pattern, who’s the fourth? I don’t recognize him-it. Do any of you?” she asked the crews.
“That thing is representing, Uranus,” Cronus said from behind them, starring through the clear wavy barrier. “My father. He’s been missing for five hundred years. What kind of sick game are they playing?”
“I don’t know, Cronus,” Athene-A said, and turned to the Cousins that kept wandering into the field. She noticed the Cousins, that weren’t affected, jumping about, screaming at their brethren to stop, while trying to keep their distance from the Atlanteans. “Why do they keep coming and volunteering themselves to these creatures?”
“They seem to need their DNA to develop,” Apollo said, as he moved up closer. “I think it’s some kind of subconscious waves projecting, or overlaying desires, perhaps psyonic, and visual in nature. I can feel them trying to get in, also.”
“We really need some technology,” Athene-A said, stopping Rhe-A from walking into the field.
Every few minutes, an Atlantean would have to stop another from walking into the barrier. Cronus, as did the others, l
ooked disgusted at the sight. He glanced around, taking in all the information he could. He focused on his pseudo-father, and a toddler sitting at his feet, crying. Its mother was half consumed by the monster. Cronus tore himself away from the sight, spotting a strong charred branch, picked it up and moved into the field before anyone could stop him. He fought back the influence and charged forward. He whacked his father impersonator as hard as he could. The branch splintered away as the thing went down solidly, it stirred and then began to heal. Cronus took the child and marched back to the others.
“What was that all about?” Poseidon asked. “A little revenge on your father.”
Cronus half smiled. “An experiment.” He passed the child off to Thei-A.
“The small children don’t seem to be affected,” Apollo remarked. “But, I can feel it constantly gnawing at my consciousness.”
People were still coming, albeit, sporadically. The beings grew even taller and bigger as the day wore on. The Atlanteans were comparing notes, and trying to devise a plan of action, while waiting on a rescue. The newly formed beings were now well over ten feet tall. They stood at the edge of the field and starred out, focusing their power on a select few. Cronus gradually moved away from the group, followed by Rhe-A, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Iapetus, Themis, along with Thei-A, carrying the child. Crius slipped quietly around with the others. Before anyone noticed, they were all in the field. Zeusticus moved to retrieve them, but it was too late, the other remaining Atlanteans stopped him.
Gai-A put her hand on Rhe-A’s head, quickly followed by a flash of white light. Another flash, as the Uranus figure did the same to Cronus. Flashes dotted the landscape as the others succumbed to the hypnotic state. One by one, they took body parts and began to eat.
“We need to get out of here, Zeusticus, before we all fall victim to-whatever this is,” Athene-A begged.