Earth Keepers

by Jorge Alejandro Lavera

  “Look, thousands of years ago Tzedek started genetic experiments with humans and meticulously registered the changes he was making. He knew that the genes needed to change in order to achieve a hybrid birth that would have the best characteristics of the Atlanteans added to the best of the humans, besides a pile of improvements invented by him,” Juan Carlos explained to them.

  The screens showed row after row of names and relationships through colored lines. Most were dark colors, like brown or blue, but as you went down the graphic, more and more clear lines appeared.

  “Now, as you can see, Tzedek looked for pairs that could be put together and added the optimal number of genes to bring Gea back to life, which he did with no problems for Raquel and me, since between the two of us we had what was necessary. But with his obsession with looking for couples, he missed some lineages that coincidentally were accumulating changes in individuals,” he continued explaining.

  The screen kept scrolling, going through thousands of years, until it got to the present time. Now, there were many clear lines, some brighter than others. In one place, he pointed out a pair, with two white lines leading to a label that read “Sofía Navarro.”

  The problem is that since he was looking for those who had at least half of the necessary genes, he highlighted as a target all those who surpassed that fifty percent, provided that they were complemented with those of his partner. But some offspring by chance were accumulating much more than fifty. If I change the parameters...” Juan Carlos said while indicating an area of code, in which he began to change numbers.

  The majority of the white lines began to darken. After a while, all of the lines were dark, except a dozen that were between orange and yellow. Except one, a brilliant white. He concentrated on that and the system information appeared in an inset.

  Subject: Leora Shapira

  Accumulation of genetic changes: 98%

  Leora touched her belly. Juan Carlos looked at her and at Alexis, who said: “I suppose that explains it.”

  “Indeed, that resolves the mystery of Leora’s pregnancy. Her genetics are practically Atlantean, but with some important differences.”

  “What differences?” asked Alexis.

  “I don’t know yet, but the fact that she became pregnant is certainly one. That’s part of Tzedek’s personal files and there are many of them with different levels of access. Assuming that what I’m looking for is in a file. Maybe he just kept it in his head and now he’s in stasis. What I do know is that these differences were aimed at obtaining a superior progeny.”

  “Superior, how?” asked Leora, startled.

  “I don’t know that, either, but don’t be frightened,” Juan Carlos reassured her. “Whatever it is, wasn’t bad. Tzedek was looking to create a new species, better than the Atlanteans. Most of the genes incorporated by design were cerebral functions, so Tzedek knew what he was doing, and everyone assures me it was always like that. The new baby will at the least be a super genius compared to us. Maybe he’ll have capabilities like Gea’s jewels, without needing those. Look...”

  Juan Carlos fiddled with the system again, and next to Leora appeared:

  Subject: Alexis Pavilis

  Accumulation of genetic changes: 0%

  “What? But if I’m Atlantean, shouldn’t that be 100?”

  “Those are the genetic changes from the original genetic pattern. You have never been changed, you’re Atlantean from birth. Now, look at this, I entered the DNA information that Sofía got from Leora when she examined her.”

  Subject: Shapira-Pavilis

  Accumulation of genetic changes: 100%

  “That means that in this case, Tzedek reached the totality of the changes that he aspired to achieve,” Juan Carlos said.

  Alexis whistled in admiration and Leora elbowed him.

  “What? He’ll be great,” Alexis protested.

  “Maybe, but he’ll be very alone,” said Leora.

  Later that night when they all were finally tired, they decided to each go to their apartments. Sofía had decided to go live with Damaris, despite her father’s resistance.

  “I’m not sure I agree with this,” murmured Juan Carlos.

  The three women just looked at him.

  Sofía came over and hugged him.

  “Dad, have you looked at me lately?”

  Juan Carlos looked her up and down.

  “Very clearly. But you’re still fourteen years old.”

  “Papa,” said Sofía, “don’t be a male chauvinist. I’d like to live with Damaris. I like her,” she stressed.

  Juan Carlos brought both hands to his face, sighed, and lowered them slowly, tired. He looked down and then offered his hand to Althaea.

  “Come tomorrow to get your things, daughter,” he agreed.

  Althaea smiled and pulled him to the stairs to head to her apartment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Damaris do the same with Sofía.

  “Will you finally be more relaxed with me?” Althaea asked him.

  “It looks like another storm is coming. Now that Sofía isn’t here, will I keep sleeping on the sofa?” asked Juan Carlos, admiring the view from one of the large windows.

  “Only if you decide this isn’t worth it,” he heard in his mind from Althaea, who, while he’d been looking outside, had taken off her clothes. All of them.

  Juan Carlos turned towards her and stopped in his tracks. Althaea walked slowly towards him, circled him, and finally embraced him from behind. He turned his head to look at her and she held her cheek against his. He felt the heat of her magnificent body up against his before she started massaging his shoulders.

  He sighed and relaxed. Althaea was an excellent masseuse. He thought about the practice she must have and that tensed him up again. Althaea looked at him and shook her head.

  “Come on, you’re carrying the weight of the world in your shoulders. We’ve been through a lot these past days. Too much. Let me help you,” she offered while she took off his shirt.

  “It’s been a long time since...”

  “I’m sure you haven’t forgotten how it’s done,” she told him playfully and kissed him slowly. She pushed him little by little until she made him sit on the bed and then lie down. She sat astride him, pressing her body against his and continued kissing him. Juan Carlos, responding to her kisses, felt the heat of her breasts against his chest and the weight of her body. He embraced her and ran his hands down her body. Althaea sighed and held him tightly. He caressed her and massaged her shoulders, too, and she practically purred with contentment. She suddenly got up and with quick, precise movements, left him naked. She straddled him again, but this time with expert movements of her pelvis, guided him until they came together as one.

  Juan Carlos woke up slowly. They’d fallen asleep, still together, after making love all night. He couldn’t help but get excited again thinking about it. Althaea started to wake up, too, and looked at him with a smile. They didn’t need to say anything. They made love again until they were exhausted and fell asleep again.

  NEPHELE

  Atlantis, Year 3550 in the Reign of Gea, Day 127

  Captain Mirina arrived at the training ground with a quick, firm step, as always and glanced through the line of twenty-four Amazons who were waiting for her. The warriors greeted her. She had barely stopped in front of them, when they brought their left hands to their chest and shouted “Captain!” in unison.

  Their uniforms were impeccable, the warriors lined up by height. Armor, breastplates, helmets, shields, weapons-any discrepancy would immediately leap into view, so Nephele’s height made her nerves twitch every time she reviewed them. Being three inches shorter than the others was not a legal excuse to throw her out, though it caused all kinds of complications. The worst was that Nephele was terribly attractive, which made her nervous. And when that happened, she got irritable.

  “Alesia!” she howled to the aforementioned warrior, causing her to start. “In front!”

  Alesia turned red and mo
ved a few feet in front of the line, turning to face the other warriors.

  “Who can tell me what’s wrong with Alesia’s uniform?” asked Mirina, almost shouting.

  The other Amazons tried not to move, but most looked away or moved almost imperceptibly, because of the discomfort. Getting a partner in trouble didn’t help to keep friends they might need to trust their life with at another moment. Besides, it was well known that Mirina sometimes didn’t find anything wrong with them, but she enjoyed making them suffer in creative ways. If the uniform was perfect, anyone who pointed out a problem would be in trouble. And if they found a flaw, having to betray a companion and put her in trouble would not improve the relationship. But the captain also knew that the rage increased the adrenaline of the warriors and improved their reflexes and determination.

  The uniform looked perfect—a sleeveless breastplate of metallic cloth that covered all of the back, chest, abdomen, reaching to the thighs, but leaving the arms uncovered and fitted with a belt which held the weapons. She also wore two shoulder pads that also protected the neck. The short shorts ended almost at the high boots, which were thick leather with metallic coating on the feet and knees. The round shields were hand-painted with the figure of a different creature on each one, but all with the symbol of the kingdom in the middle: an oval, crossed by a horizontal line from side to side and a point at the top right, outside of the oval. Lastly, the metal helmet adorned with a plume, that covered the whole head and cheeks, leaving only the eyes, nose and mouth free. There was a band on the front indicating the rank of the one wearing it. The captain had two yellow lines, all the others a single blue line.

  “Nephele!” shouted Mirina, when she was in front of her, getting close enough to almost touch her. “What’s the problem with Alesia’s uniform?”

  At times like this, Nephele hated her. She admired Mirina and wanted to be like her, but at this moment, she would have loved to leave her sitting on the ground with one punch. Worse is that she knew she could do it, but rebelling against a captain would mean getting thrown out of the army. If she didn’t respond, she’d be punished for not seeing the problem with the uniform. If she did, everyone would hate her, especially Alesia. It was so unfair! It wasn’t her fault if Alesia had made a mistake while she was getting dressed.

  Because of the difference in height, she had to throw her head back to look her in the eyes, which she hated, and which Mirina knew. She felt the breathing of her captain and her soft scent, and couldn’t help wetting her lips imperceptibly. The sun was high in the sky and she felt invigorated when the light touched her face.

  “The bow on the dagger case looks slack,” she finally answered, causing several uncomfortable movements and sideways glances.

  “Correct!” shouted Mirina in her face. Alesia put her hand to her dagger, but the captain was anticipating that and with a twist and a quick movement of her sword, she delivered a strong blow to Alesia’s hand with the flat part, before she could touch it. The warrior pressed her lips together to suppress the scream of pain.

  “And what can happen if the support of some weapon is loose, Alesia?” she asked, resting the tip of her sword on the knot of its holster.

  “The enemy will take advantage of that, Captain,” the warrior replied, turning pale.

  “I think he will!” she yelled, making the dagger and holster fly away from Alesia, with a slight movement of her sword. “Back to the row! Today you’ll practice without your dagger and hope you don’t need it.”

  Alesia ran back to her place in line, sweating from nerves. The captain’s comment made her intuit that she would surely need it, and she would be at a disadvantage.

  “You all know that a warrior must have the resources and skills minimally necessary. What good is a warrior who does not have the strength or resources to do her job? There’s a new platoon of recruits that need someone to train them and it will be one of you. If I can find one capable of it,” Mirina provoked them.

  “A promotion!” Nephele looked straight ahead but she knew, like all the others, that there would be some rigorous proof to satisfy the captain’s sadism.

  “Nephele, since you’re so observant, let’s see how you fight today. To the arena!”

  She ran to the circular space that was several yards from them, jumped inside, turned to confront them, and waited. The arena was a circle about a hundred feet in diameter, covered with sand and surrounded by a ring of stones at ground level. On the outside of the boundary a deep ditch a yard wide enclosed the area.

  “The winner stays in the arena and keeps fighting. Those who lose will pluck their own dinner...by hand! Alesia, you first,” the captain indicated, followed by a general murmur.

  Alesia hurried to the arena and placed herself in front of Nephele, on the opposite of the circle.

  “Begin!”

  At that order, both of them took out their swords. All of the Amazons in Mirina’s group were professionals, and their training weapons were combat weapons.

  Both Alesia and Nephele advanced towards each other in attack positions, their shields held on their left arm, and the sword pointing downward. They were both nervous after what had happened, but they only hesitated a moment. Alesia attacked first and the response was automatic and instantaneous. Sparks flew from the swords with a metallic sound. After that, there was a continuous interchange of strikes, and the sound of impacts on the shields as well as the swords, on the breastplates, and cursing from both of them. They were getting heated but still concentrating and maintaining their professionalism until Alesia tried to hit her in the shoulder, and she would have if it had been any other training partner, but in Nephele’s case the sword strike hit her hard on the helmet which protected her head. It wasn’t the first time that her height had caused problems for her. A strike to her shoulder would have been inconsequential, but on the head, it left her stunned. Nephele felt her blood boiling, and while Alesia looked scared, she let out a scream of fury, attacking with twice as much force, charging again and again, forcing her adversary back until she stumbled out of the arena and had to jump back so as not to fall in the ditch.

  Mirina gestured. Two warriors came forward and into the arena. Nephele knew that the captain’s objective was to humiliate her, but she wasn’t going to make it that easy. She’d been in real battles and there you didn’t choose the enemy you fought, nor were there fair fights with rules. It wasn’t unusual to fight against five, or six...sometimes up to ten enemies at the same time. Of course these enemies were human. And fighting them wasn’t like fighting Atlantean companions, the humans were no match for them. In spite of everything, sometimes they overcame them by the overwhelming force of quantity. The Atlanteans weren’t warlike, so the genetic development of warriors was a relatively recent event because of the need to defend themselves against the humans. The Amazon warriors didn’t reach even a thousand in number, whereas the Mycenae had tens of thousands of warriors. And they were forbidden to carry their high-tech weapons, because of the risk of them falling into enemy hands.

  Nephele knew that surprise was a good ally in battle, so without giving them time to set themselves up, she jumped at them, attacking with the sword and shield. She was shaking, and a little sweat fell into her right eye. Out of the corner of her eye she noted that a third person had jumped into the arena, behind her. She barely managed to repel the attack of one of the warriors with her shield and her fury managed to knock her out. She did not like losing. Her DNA was programmed into her sword and with a mere act of will she activated the deadliest mechanism that existed in Atlantean weapons. Her sword started to vibrate at an atomic level with such intensity that its material became something unstoppable. The first blow that hit the shield of another of the combatants, and opened it down the middle like a knife cutting paper. Without stopping, she went after the next woman, who was hard pressed to stop her with her own sword activated in the same way, making her back up from the impact. The flash of light from the swords clashing reduced everyon
e’s vision, but she could hear that the one who entered last was about to attack her, so she finished her movement in a turn that left her face to face with her new enemy, blinded by the light, sweat, and moving by pure instinct. Her intention was to hit her in the ribs, but her right arm was in the middle and the sword pierced her like a knife cutting butter. The flesh, bones, and nano-organisms couldn’t fight it off. Before she could control what she was doing, her sword followed through with the movement and hit the body armor, losing strength finally. The Amazon’s arm fell to the ground and just at that moment, Nephele noticed that her opponent was none other than the captain, who started to fall to the ground, stunned by pain.

  The adrenaline rush caused by panic made everything happen in slow motion for Nephele. She threw her weapon to one side and her shield to the other as she rushed towards Mirina, who had turned very pale. The arm was on the ground, while streams of golden blood came out of the stump. The other warriors shouted out in consternation. Alesia almost jumped for joy. “This is the end of this bitch,” she thought, “of both of them.”

  With her right hand, Nephele pressed a button on her left shoulder and concentrated in activating emergency services help. There was a medical center near there, since accidents during the Amazons’ training was common. In just a few seconds, the first observation drones arrived and began circling the area. They were only an inch or so in size and circled Mirina and Nephele transmitting what had happened from all possible angles, identifying the Amazons and analyzing the emergency situation, while she carefully removed the helmet and neck protection. In just a few seconds, with the speed of a missile, another larger drone arrived that projected a hologram from the doctor from the Ninth Kingdom next to them.

  “Nephele, hold Captain Mirina’s head and left arm still,” the hologram ordered with a voice that didn’t allow for procrastination or delay. “Captain, I detect that you are conscious. I need your authorization to take control of your nano-organisms. Say ‘yes’ aloud if you are in agreement.”