And Atlantis had existed tomorrow, Justin Mader [snow like ashes TXT] 📗

polar region. While Azaes was militarily too powerful to accept one of my 'co-operation offers', there was also Anas, who would only make me bad, and Diaprepes was too far away from Atlantis and too close to Azaes 'sphere of influence', I could imagine an approach to Mestor.

So, I sent a messenger, no, of course, not to the respective king, but to the commander of the armed forces, or to the commander-in-chief of the Mestor palace guard. These were the chess figures on the same level of action to me.

And indeed, I got an answer from Ark Vaad, the commander of the Mestorian forces. He agreed to a meeting on neutral ground. As an absolutely neutral point, we chose the northern polar region, which was located in the northern part of the great continent, on which also Atlantis was located in the south.

 

 

When I reached this area, I regretted, having already agreed to this meeting.

 

I could tell, today was not my day, ....

 

It was extremely cold so I had to raise all the heaters to maximum power in my connecting ship. Also the thermo ribs of my heating suit had to perform heavy work after getting out. And I hated the cold. But then I could sigh with relief. The Mestors had an underground, well-heated base there. And we got there already prepared hot drinks.

Like me, Ark Vaad had just taken two bodyguards for personal protection. The three were a peculiar group. His bodyguards were obviously accustomed to the frost, for they wore no artusian heat jackets, but only blue insulating jackets with a distinctive, peculiar golden logo, reminiscent of wolf’s paws. And also, Ark Vaad looked quite odd. He had a black armored uniform with a wide black cape, a black helmet reaching up to the shoulders, and a black mask from which I could hear, apparently due to the cold, constantly whistling and rattling noises. He was very tall, but I could not see any feet under his cape. Apparently hovering on a kind of tachyon shielding field. Well, a fat lot I care.

When we had gathered at the conference, and after the first friendly, but useless words, I put my first cards on the table: "We know that your King was only forced to help in this rebellion, as he obviously was in a 'close relationship' to Queen Neith Of Azaes. But as I know from a secure source, this relationship has already ended, and your King has no further reason to support this alliance. Ahäm, I can make you a favorable generous offer, especially as regards customs restrictions and export duties So you can more than compensate your foreign trade deficit against home."

"In fact," Vaad said, laid his head crooked, "we would could do that if you would have an 'imperium', meaning a negotiating authority for this deal. But you do not have that since yesterday, as I know. You are only a simple secluded cop!"

The negotiations began to get out of my hand. He seemed to be a good player, almost as well as myself, and he was well informed. And strange, somehow now I became slowly very tired and I could not keep my eyes peeled.

"Well, the short moments of tension to Atlas, soon they will decay, and still I am the chief of the secret service of Atlantis. I allready have enough negotiating leverage and power to make you every possible offer."

"Okay," he said, "well to know," and then suddenly he pulled out an odd rack that had been stuck on his belt all the time and looked like a big silver flashlight.

"But, ... but," I stuttered with a glance to my bodyguards, "you do not want to conclude our conspiratorial meeting here with a carelessness. We could probably still agree!"

"Could we," he said, "but the conversation is slowly boring and mentally unpleasant!"

Suddenly out of his flashlight a bluish-white light beam emerged, which broke up in about two meters, that was physically totally impossible. A ray of light could not end in a Nirvana, in a nothingness at once. An electromagnetic wave would always spread indefinitely, unless it pushed against an obstacle. And there was none to be discovered. Fascinating, I looked at this strange thing and the beam that ended here in nothingness.

Then, I recognized the background story. The prepared hot drinks, my tiredness and the light sabre of Vaad. A cruel trap!

I could tell, today was not my day, ....

... and then he hit at me with the light sabre without hesitation!

 

Timeflash!

 

11.632 BP/2057 AUC Atlantis Two

Still, we were all caught by the impression of this natural spectacle of the Pillars of Heracles. The blazing white spray, the torrential floods pouring into the Black Sea in three giant columns, the contrast of the juicy tropical green slopes, and the numerous summer houses, built like swallow 's nests in the mountains. The houses of the wealthy Atlanteans that could enjoying this indescribable sight every Day.

 

 

Suddenly, we were summoned by the commander of our Bireme. He announced us that the queen wanted to see us and to thank us personally for our commitment against the Vril-Discs. A very special honor, which we were not allowed to refuse. We decided to appear in full gear uniform. Next to Tamara, Andrej, Gohunda Sodrun and myself, I took another six comrades with me. Our heap offered a quite exotic sight when we appeared in the Queen's ship, with our camouflaged uniforms, next to all the Queen's warriors equipped with silver-electrum armor cuirasses. We were all dressed in the Battlesuits of the US Navy with basic color light brown khaki and green-red-brown striped camouflage. When we entered the ship, we noticed the queen's aura all the more clearly, an unprecedented presence, which made us all dizzy. But, as I said before, we quickly got used to it, especially where the charisma was felt to be quite positive.

 

 

We were led into a great throne room, at the end of where the Queen was sitting on a somewhat elevated potest. The hall looked bigger than it actually was. Visually, you could see a hall of at least 20 meters in height and 50 meters wide, surrounded by the typical black-silver spiral columns, which were connected to the sky with gravo-like cross-ribbed vaults. I was not able to say with what technical tricks this visual impression was formed. For we knew, of course, that the ship was not more than eight meters wide and ten meters high. While all the others bowed deeply at the sight of the Queen, we were only nodding in their direction. Which almost cost the artusian master of ceremonies a nervous breakdown. But we were here in our last stand, so we had to show strength and individualism.

The Queen rose after she became aware of us, and noticed our individual digs with a pleasant smile.

"We would like to thank our new allies sincerely for their dedication and their fresh enthusiasm. We would never have thought to fire on these targets with simple chemical weapons. But they have saved us all by their new unconventional ideas. Our barbaric friends are highly innovative and we will therefore include them in our personal bodyguard."

A quick glance from me to Tamara and her nod convinced me that the queen meant this so seriously, so without hinds as she said it. The queen clapped her hands, and then ten strange instruments were brought in, and placed before each one of us. We do know it, that were facial astrolabs.

"These special astrolabs will introduce you to all your duties, and allow you to act in the service of the Queen. Take them and put them into your faces. Do not worry, during the beginning of the process a short pain will flood you."

We looked at each other and my eyes twitched aside, "Pretend as if you have not the slightest idea!"

So we picked up the Astrolabe, pressed them into our faces, and suddenly we were connected with the commanding intelligence of the royal ship.

Then we heard a very pleasant female voice, a very different one, as Schliemann and my grandfather had to hear then.

"Authorization sequence gamma delta two nine four zero is retrieved. Reentry for zeta five four four, from now on. Confirmation for zeta five four four absolutely necessary!"

I could see that the queen personally pressed a few keys and inserted some electrum platelets into the console next to her throne.

"Confirmation sequence for zeta five four four will be accepted, biometrics will be recorded. You will have ten seconds to do sign in."

A stylized hand and then a flashing light appeared middle in the air of the room and we pretended we did not know what to do with it. The master of ceremonies gave us a superior smile and instructed us in the completion of the formalities. "Well, these barbarians do not know what an astrolabe is, we are so intellectually superior to you!", He glanced out of his eyes. I had to buck up strong, not to cast a superior smile on my own lips.

But my high-spirits should not last long. Because now the individual imposition of the authorization license should begin, which worked fine without problems by my nine comrades, like I noticed this at their short flinch. For me, on the other hand, a bloodcurdling squeaking penetrated through my brain, an alarm.

"Error, Error! Authorization license Beta eight five three two zero cannot be assigned! Error, Error! Authorization license beta eight five three two zero cannot be allocated! Branch to subprogramroutine Omega five four nine! ..."

"Caution, caution, authorization license Beta eight five three two zero cannot be allocated, because already authorization license Omega one four was assigned and was biologically structured!"

That was a shock, what had happened? I already have an authorization license? Perhaps because I had worn such astrolab thing once in our training camp on Mars, but the others had been trained with this thing as well. This could have nothing to do with it, but .... what was the authorization license? Omega one four? Was not that exactly that license what my grandfather had got with Schliemann on the Gallipoli peninsula at Çanakkale Bolayir? Had not he obtained this license? But why? ... maybe this license was ..., I breathed heavily, ... was genetically inheritable? However, I did not have time to think about it, because the voice kept on and on and demanded my full concentration.

"Analyzed by subroutine Omega five four-nine: 'Conflict of interest', 'Conflict of interest'. The decision has to be transferred to biological unit! ..."

"...Ten seconds are allowed for this decision! If no decision is made by this unit, a fall back to a higher authority is intended."

"Selection menu:

If you want to replace authorization license Omega one four by authorization license Beta eight five three two zero, then choose now YES,

If you do not want to replace Omega one four authorization license by authorization license Beta eight five three two zero, then choose now NO,

If you want to keep both authorization licenses, choose now CANCEL!"

I was confused. What decision he just let me do? The seconds crawled forward inexorably. A clock running before my mind's eye showed me only nine, then eight seconds of the decision.

What should I choose? Which license