Beyond The Glowing Whirlpool

Chapter 4: ATLANTIS

 After she unpacked and rested for a bit, she met up with the captain in the chamber he was using for headquarters or a conference room.

-Miss Macklay, this is Melinda Bay, commanding officer of our military tactics here, Alice Park our main shuttle pilot. Tony Caruso that you met earlier today and Frank Traversi our weaponry specialists. - He introduced her to a few other crew members that gathered for a meeting.

Melinda was an athletic woman who seemed to be the same age as Janice, with blond, curly hair and hazel eyes. Alice was also athletic-looking, she was of Asian descent, with a short a-line haircut that was dyed amber color, and looked like she was about Stacie's age. Tony was the guy who took her to the infirmary. He was a good-looking young man, either Latino or black and white mix, she couldn't tell. She noticed he had a striking, most unique golden eye color. And Frank was an obvious stud, with a very built body, nice beach-ready tan, dark wild hair, and piercing platinum-gray eyes and spoke with an Italian accent. 

"Dang... He's hot..." thought Stacie, as she felt a slight flutter in her chest when their eyes met.

-Hello. - Replied Stacie - It's a pleasure to be working with you all from now on.

-Likewise. - Replied Alice, with a warm smile.

-Choose a seat, Miss Maclay. Anywhere. - He pointed to a row of empty chairs at a long "s" shaped table - We have gathered here for a meeting to discuss their upcoming expedition to the island, and I thought it'd be perfect timing for you to learn a little about this place. - Said the captain, taking a seat at the head of the table.

He turned on a peculiar-looking device that was in front of him, and it flickered to life with bluish light. 

"That's definitely not our technology!" thought Stacie with eyes wide, as a three-dimensional, holographic image appeared above it. 

The image showed a certain solar system.

-This is where we are right now. - Explained Captain - We call it the "Pegasus Galaxy". Hence the name; "Pegasus Operation". See this planet? - He showed to a very small planet that was maybe slightly bigger than Earth's moon and had two tiny moons of its own. The planet was at a perfect distance from the sun, which would be ideal for a life support environment. - This planet is called Asuris. - He enlarged it for a better view - As you can see, it is completely covered with water. And it's all fresh. It has only one continent. Here it is. - He rotated the image to show Stacie the land - It's no bigger than Taxes state, so we just call it Island. And this planet is the home of Atlantis. Yes, this is where we are right now. According to the local dwellers of this part of the universe, long ago, this planet was occupied by an ancient race of people, that was far superior even to the mighty Satterans. - Explained captain - They possessed the ultimate knowledge, and intellect and their technology were most advanced and very powerful. Locals refer to them as the "transcendent beings". They were the ones who build the stargates and installed them throughout the Pegasus galaxy for easy travel between their planets. Since no one knows what to call them for sure, we refer to them as the "ancients".

-I see. And who are "Satterans" sir? - Asked Stacie curiously.

-Satterans, are the most powerful and superior race that dwells in this galaxy today. They are the most advanced in technology and weapons. And they are after the Atlantis as well.

-Are they a threat to us?

-Well, they are stuck up, arrogant and superior in every way, and look down on us, but they're not our enemy. - Replied Melinda.

-We are working with them. - Added Alice - Turns out, in this galaxy, everyone knew about Atlantis, and many were after it. But Satterans were the only ones to actually find it, but they couldn't get inside, since the only way in, is through a stargate portal, that we have on earth.

-Yeah, so, they made a deal with us. - Tony put in - They will provide us with protection, and their military expertise, since our own is not a match for this part of the universe, and we will share with them all Atlantis's data that we would uncover here. I think it's a pretty good deal. We can't afford to be exposed out here, and to have a powerful race such as them, turn on us.

-I don't like it. - Said Frank - I don't trust those aliens. Who knows what they're plotting behind our backs.

-Neither do I. - Said Melinda - But Tony's right. There's not much of a choice for us if we want to keep our heads attached to our bodies. We better off cooperating with them than go against them. Even if we bring earth's entire military force from every country in every part of our planet, we'd still be no match even for any other civilization out here, let alone those guys. So, as you can see, our hands are pretty much tied.

-Well, so far, they haven't shown any signs of hostility towards us. All they do for now, just observe us, and everything we do here.

-Even if it is a very condescending observation. - Retorted Frank folding his arms, and kicking back on his chair.

-How do you guys communicate with them? - Asked Stacie curiously - Do you use some sort of translating device? Or is there an interpreter here?

-Well... By now, they can speak English. - Replied captain.

-They can? - Stacie's eyes flickered with surprise.

-Yeah, they learned it pretty quickly. It was creepy how fast they picked up on our language. - Said, Tony.

-What, all of them?

-No, just a few that's been around us most of the time. But before that, they were using some strange earpieces that were some sort of... universal translators.

-That's incredible. - Replied Stacie - They are THAT intelligent, huh?

-Oh yeah! They are pretty scary alright. - Said Alice jokingly - I would advise you to stay out of their way if you happen to run into them around here.

-Are there many of them here? - Asked Stacie, wondering if she'd be crossing any of them in the hallways. She now was really curious about them.

-None of the Satterans are staying here. - Replied captain. They just leave us to ourselves most of the time and come by to check on us every few days. However, there's one of their spaceships stationed practically above our heads, as protection from roaming rogues, outcast drifters, we call them pirates that threaten us here.

-But I was told that this city is protected by its electro-magnetic forcefield. - She looked at the captain questionably.

-It was. - Captain replied - But the forcefield was burning up far too much of its power, and since Atlantis wasn't fueled for many hundreds of years, it's running on its last bit. We had to disable it, to preserve the power. It lasted a year so far, but who knows how much longer we have left. So, we are desperately searching for any information on how to fuel the city. We already starting to experience slight fluctuations here and there.

-What happens, if the power burns out completely?

-The city will sink. - Answered Melinda.

-Oooh!... - Exclaimed Stacie with concern.

-So you see miss Maclay, with your skills in deciphering and translation, we're hoping you'll be able to help us with that.

-I'll do my very best sir. How much have you found so far?

-Not much, really... - Alice started to say.

-Nothing. - Frank interrupted her - In a whole year we've been here, we found absolutely NADA in this forsaken place.

-What do you mean? - Asked Stacie with surprise, shifting confused glances between Frank, Alice, and Captain.

-There's no treasure. No data, records, weapons, nothing. Anything of value, or that contains any sort of information, is gone.

-Oh, I see. Do you think that all that property has already been taken by someone?

-Can't have been. - Replied Melinda - This city was hidden underwater, with a forcefield protecting it, so there was no way an intruder could get in.

-Actually, we suspect that the ancients themselves gathered it all, and hid it somewhere so that it won't get into the wrong hands, in case their city did get invaded. Think of it, they developed the most powerful weapons and all sorts of experiments. If any of that stuff falls into the hands of someone who has bad intentions, what do you think will happen? - Said, Tony.

-Well, it kind of makes sense. So, what do you think happened to those people?

-We don't know for sure, but according to the records in the archives located on the Navoy planet, the theory is, that they were working on some kind of very dangerous experiment, and it didn't go so well. It backfired and became a great threat as a result. So they tried to stop it before it became a threat to other civilizations as well, but it was too much for them to handle. They did manage to bring it under control but at a great cost. It cost them half of their own population, and left them completely defenseless and exposed. So, suddenly, they vanished from the face of their universe, along with the city. Locals are puzzled to this day what happened to them, but we found clues indicating they fled to Earth through the Stargate.

-Our planet Sir? But how did they find it?

-Well, they were the first space explorers. So it's possible that they discovered earth on one of their space voyages, several hundreds of years ago. And since no one else knew about the earth in their part of the universe, they build a stargate there and evacuated the city. There on earth, they spread out and blended with humans. Most likely, they looked very much like us, so no one suspected a thing. That's why the appearance of unknown beings, has never been recorded in our history, besides the circulating legend of a mythical city. Which they most likely started themselves, in order to keep their origin alive somehow. Our planet was probably around the medieval era when this happened if not earlier, cause that's how far back the stargate that's there, dates. - Explained Captain - But before they left, they installed and activated a protective forcefield over the city to keep any living thing, and water out, and submerged it under the sea in order to hide it from sight. When we came on board, we activated Atlantis's main power source, and the city resurfaced again. So you see, we are completely out in the open, with no forcefield, and no means of protection, we're pretty much sitting ducks out here.

-But as you have said, those Satterans are protecting us. Right?

-Are they? - Replied Frank skeptically - How can we be sure they are not just using us to gain access to Atlantis? And how can we be sure they won't decide to get rid of us at any given moment? That's why we need to lay low and play the part of a useful henchman until we figure out how to power the city, and reactivate the forcefield. That's our only strategy right now.

-Anyway, we need to discuss the trip. - Said the captain, changing the subject - You don't have to stay for this part miss Maclay, so you are dismissed and free to go familiarize yourself with the base and the rest of the crew.

-Thank you, captain. - Replied Stacie, getting up from her spot - It was an honor getting to know you all.

-And you too. - Answered Alice - See you around. - She saluted her with a wink.