Legacy of Atlantis

by John Topping

Genres: YA Science Fiction

Synopsis

The quest for the secrets of Atlantis begins on the Moon.

Uprooted after the disappearance of his parents, Charlie Thomas moves to the Moon to live with his Uncle Merl—only to discover that “Merl” is actually Merlin the Magician . . . and that Charlie is an heir to Atlantis. Reeling, Charlie must adjust to his new environs, make some friends, and connect with Rhea, a girl he really likes.

But it could never be that easy for Charlie.

On a field trip to the Lunar surface, Charlie, Rhea, and his new best friend, Jamie, uncover the body of an ancient Atlantean astronaut. And when agents from the lost land of Lemuria discover who Charlie is, he is forced to flee the Moon.

The chase takes Charlie and Merl back to Earth. There, an attack on their ship leaves Charlie alone in an old growth forest in the Pacific Northwest. Lost and not sure what to do, Charlie is rescued by AB, a pipe-smoking sasquatch whose perspective on the world is unlike any Charlie has ever encountered. But Charlie is going to need much more if he is going to fulfill a destiny he has only recently discovered.

Threats are everywhere, but Charlie must learn to control his nascent Atlantean abilities with no time to spare. For he has discovered a Lemurian plan to use an ancient Atlantean artifact to destroy most of the Earth and enslave the remnants of humanity—and Charlie and his team are the only ones with a hope of stopping them.

Bursting with adventure, spirit, and comradery, Legacy of Atlantis is a utterly new take on a legendary tale, a story both timeless and as fresh as today.

Release date: March 6, 2024

Publisher: The Story Plant

Print pages: 416

Sample

We hadn’t seen a puff of dust in over ten minutes. Unlike on Earth, you don’t see a streak in the sky since there’s no atmosphere for meteors to burn up in. Since Jamie’s oxygen was dropping and we still had to get the space-suited body we’d found back to the rover, we decided to risk going out into the open.

Jamie and Rhea bounded out across the plain. I took a couple of steps and then looked back under the overhang. Sure enough, a slight glow again outlined the doorframe. The ghost of the lady glided out of the overhang and beckoned me back toward her. I should have been scared to death, but something kept me from panicking. In fact, I wanted to turn back. Was I going crazy? Neither Jamie nor Rhea had seen a thing. I shook my head, resisted the temptation to turn back and loped after Jamie and Rhea at my top speed. They expected me to fall behind, but I was learning so I arrived just as Jamie began lifting the body.

“Piece of cake.” Jamie held the suit out in one hand. “Now, how do I carry it?”

“You don’t,” Rhea answered.

“Why not? It’s light as a feather.” Jamie lifted the body over his head with one hand. It began to slip and he just managed to grab it and lower it with both hands. I laughed.

“We’ve got about two klicks to walk and you’re low on oxygen. Even if the suit and body only weighs about fifty-five pounds on the Moon, it still has a mass of over three hundred pounds. Go ahead, throw it over your shoulder and take a few steps.”

Jamie took a few tentative steps and then began the lunar lope. After the second lope he began to lose his balance. He struggled and managed to steady himself.

Out of breath, he said, “So, what d’you have in mind?” He didn’t sound happy.

Rhea pulled a couple of Velcro straps out of her pouch. “Lay the body down.”

She lifted the legs and slipped one strip of Velcro around the ankles, made a loop and then left a three-foot strip on either side. She then did the same thing under the arms and around the chest of the astronaut.

“Hand me your multi-tools.”

She attached the Velcro to each one. I figured out what she was doing, so I picked the multi-tool up on the helmet end.

“Not so fast, Charlie.”

I lowered the astronaut. “This side’s heavier, so I thought I’d carry it.”

“Yep, but it’s also awkward with the helmet sticking out. Since I’m better at walking on the Moon, you take the feet.”

“But I can hold the helmet out.” I picked up my end and showed her.

“Yes, but that could throw your balance off. Can you dance?”

I was taken aback by the out-of-the-blue question. “Why?”

Jamie chuckled. “I can guarantee she’s not asking you out on a date!”

I was sure that Rhea had her “really” face on, but one of the problems with the reflective faceplates was not being able to see anyone’s face.

“If we’re going to move at anything faster than a slow walk, we’ll need to coordinate. I’m going to play a song over the radio. We need to take steps in time with the music. Think you can do that?” All I saw was the reflection of my spacesuit in Rhea’s mirrored faceplate.

“Sure. But if the helmet gets heavy, let me know and we can switch off.”

Rhea ignored the comment. “Jamie, stay behind us. Something might fall off the body.”

“Astronaut,” I said. “He, she or it deserves that. Body sounds so weird.”

“Ok, astronaut.”

We both picked up our multi-tools and started back along the trail of footprints, with Jamie picking up the rear. Rhea chose a recent hit by a group from Athens, Georgia.

“Ready? We’ll start with short lopes.”

“Ok, you lead.”

She pushed off the surface and I followed. Her idea worked as we picked up speed. We got to the rovers in no time. Just before leaving the boulder field, the radio started working again. We picked up the radio beacon indicating that the class-4 meteor shower was over. A few texts popped up for me, but nothing major. I’d deal with them when I got back.

I wondered if Rhea or Jamie had gotten anything. Their parents probably kept far closer tabs on them than Uncle Merl did on me.

“Anybody looking for us?” I was hoping we’d be able to go back quietly without attracting attention.

“Just my mother,” Jamie answered. “I’ve already let her know that I’m fine and that I’m hanging with a few friends.”

Rhea ignored the question and continued on toward the door to Jamie’s rover. “Let’s get the body . . . astronaut, into Jamie’s rover and head back.”

She opened the door and stepped in. I lifted the astronaut up over my head as she stepped in and then carefully followed.

Rhea got out, but I stayed, looking at the space-suited figure on the floor. The reflective material persisted in keeping me from seeing what was inside. While the suit would fit a human, it could contain anything.

“Coming?” Rhea turned and looked at me.

I considered it. Were this Earth with the chance to ride in a car with her, I’d have said yes, but here it didn’t matter. I looked down at the ancient suit. “I’d like to ride with the astronaut and look over the suit.”

“Thought you might. Let’s talk about what to do on the ride back. Keep the suits on the short-range channel so nobody picks up what we’re talking about.”

Jamie climbed in and stepped around the astronaut to get to the front of the rover. “Why not just send pictures ahead? That way, Trolga and her gang can’t stop us.” I strapped in and Jamie did the same.

“Don’t be too sure of that,” Rhea replied. “They could intercept us and claim it was all a prank.”

Or worse, I thought. I looked out the front of the rover and saw Rhea’s rover swing out in front. “I think Rhea’s right. It sounds Hollywood, but helium-3’s the lifeblood of Clarksville. A bunch of people’re going to be pissed about stopping the mining in an area this rich.”

I stared down at the astronaut as we drove, trying to think. Most of Clarksville’s population was comprised of scientists and their families and people working for Dahak Mining. The scientists would be ecstatic about our find; the Dahak people would hate it. It reminded me of the story in ecology class of the huge dam being stopped by an endangered fish. They’d found a couple of the small darters in a stream that would be flooded by the dam. The huge power company building the dam had sued and lost, but that wasn’t the end of the story. One employee of the company that lost his job due to the project’s cancellation got drunk one night and dumped poison in the stream, killing off all of the endangered fish. He went to jail, but the dam ended up getting built.

If our astronaut turned out to be an alien, it would be like the rare fish; somebody would be willing to do almost anything to make it disappear. Before causing such a huge brouhaha, we needed to find out more. I didn’t know many people in Clarksville, but I did know my uncle. While eccentric, he was very smart and was one of the senior scientists in Clarksville. He’d know what to do.

“So, any thoughts on what to do?” I didn’t want to just suggest going to my uncle. The rover jostled as Jamie hit a rock.

“Let’s flood the web with those pictures that Rhea took and make sure that we’re greeted by a huge crowd.” While brilliant, sometimes Jamie lacked imagination.

“Unless we have a convenient accident before we get back. Besides, we’re only thirty minutes out and they control the hangar area. They could stop us, quarantine us and take the body, then claim the whole thing was a hoax.” Rhea again voiced one of my fears. I shuddered as I recalled the dream of the harpy-like Trolga trying to devour me. An accident seemed like a very real possibility to me.

“But you signed out the rovers. There’ll be a record.”

“Yeah, and how easy would it be for them to change that?”

“I guess Rhea’s right. Besides, I kind of fudged on signing out.” Jamie’s voice lowered as he made the admission.

“So what did you do, hack the system?” I knew the answer before I asked it.

“Well, I tried to sign out, but somebody’d already signed out the rover. So I kind of changed the reservation list. What? I had to get out here. They were about to make the area off limits!”

Jamie hit a rock and we bounced.

“Watch it.” I looked down at the astronaut. His head had bounced, but he didn’t seem to mind. His faceplate wasn’t too different from ours with its frustratingly reflective gold coating. The rest of the helmet was a faded red, made of some hard material. The suit was a flexible, dirty off-white material. A faded ram’s head serpent patch covered the left side of the chest. I popped my seatbelt off and touched the suit with my gloved hand. It appeared to be made of some high-tech fabric that was less bulky than what we used. The suit had no backpacks or other external devices. They must have used some highly efficient internal recycling system for life support. No way this was some lost Soviet cosmonaut.

I strapped myself in. “I think we should call my uncle. After all, but for him giving me the magnetometer, we wouldn’t have found the artifact or the astronaut. He’ll know what to do.”

“My mother works for Dahak, so she’s out,” Rhea said. “Your uncle does seem to be a reasonable sort.” She paused. “Ok, do it.”

“I’ll shoot him a voice-text so we can stay off the radio.”

I used the voice activated system in the suit to compose the text to my uncle. “Uncle Merl, I’m on the way back from a trip in a rover. You around?”

I only had to wait a few seconds.

“Yes, Charlie, what’s up? I thought you were at our apartment recuperating.”

“I went out with Jamie and Rhea for a quick trip. We got stuck in the meteor shower. Fortunately, we found a ledge to duck under.”

“Glad to hear u r ok.” His text looked normal, distracted and impatient.

I had to get his attention. “Jamie found some very interesting samples with your magnetometer.”

“Really?”

“Yes, sir. We’d like you to take a look at them. One rock was in the shape of a ram’s head.” This time it took my uncle a few minutes to respond.

“I’m at my office. Can you find your way over to the university hangar?”

I paused the text feature. “Rhea, he wants us to head to the university hangar. Know how to get there?”

“No. Didn’t know there was a university hangar, but the nav computer’ll know. Follow me.”

“I’ve already got it programmed in. You follow me for a change.” Jamie accelerated the rover to get in front of Rhea. He probably expected Rhea to gun it and keep in front of him, but, having heard about her brother’s wreck, I knew she’d stay back.

“How long for us to get there?” I asked.

“The way Jamie’s driving, we may never get there.” Rhea sounded a bit put out.

“We’re fine. This is a well-traveled area. No boulders around here. Should be there in twenty.” Jamie kept pushing the rover hard.

I went back to my texts. “We’re on the way. Some of the samples are fairly large. I’m sure you’ll be interested.”

“Ok. See you soon, Charlie.”

I went back to the radio. “My uncle’s going to meet us there.”

“Good. Enough said. We’re about in radio range. Time to go radio silent.”

I leaned back against the bulkhead and closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the Earth. It looked normal, but . . . different. I didn’t recognize the continent directly above me. Despite that, it seemed familiar—like home. I recognized Tierra del Fuego and the Cape of Good Hope, but the land below them looked different. A burst of radio chatter interrupted me and I began to run in the familiar lunar lope. I was running through a boulder field that seemed very familiar. I stopped, looked up, and saw several brilliant flashes erupt over the unknown land, my home. I cursed under my breath. Radio chatter began again. Light began to sparkle above my head. My personal shield had activated. I started running harder. I turned a corner and looked toward the overhang and the entrance to our base. Safety. I might just make it. Alarms began sounding in my suit. I glanced up. The twinkling lights above me had stopped. I felt a pang of panic mixed with regret.

Jamie’s voice yanked me back to reality. “There. The hangar lights.” I banged my helmeted head against the back of the rover at the sound. Must have dozed off. I shook my head and glanced down at the astronaut. My dream had seemed so real.

The terrain abruptly changed as we drove onto the smooth floor of the university’s hangar. Jamie’s voice chimed in. “We’ve got company.”

I walked forward and looked over Jamie’s shoulder. “Probably my uncle.”

“There are two of them.” Jamie pointed.

“He probably brought somebody along.” I squinted at the figures as Jamie slowly drove closer to them. I recognized the older type of suit and the glint of blue from the small Scottish dragon patch my uncle had added to his suit. “Looks like my uncle, but I’ve got no clue who’s with him.”

Jamie pulled into an open parking spot and Rhea pulled in next to him. We popped the hatch and jumped down onto the floor of the hangar. We walked around the back of Rhea’s rover as she joined us and then toward the two suited figures.

“Uncle Merl?” I waved.

“It’s me, Charlie.” The suit I’d recognized raised its hand and waved.

“Who’d you bring with you?”

“Professor Betrys. When you mentioned the samples had set off the magnetometer I knew she’d be interested.”

I stopped just short of the two figures. Both had their faceplates set to clear. My silence registered my concern with my uncle. A smile formed on my uncle’s lips as he gave me a slight nod.

“Don’t worry, Charlie, Glenda can keep a secret.” He gave me a wink.

I headed back toward the rover. “Uncle Merl, please have the airlock ready.”

“Will do, Charlie, but what’s the . . .” He whistled loudly as we carried the body off the rover.

“Now just one minute, Merl, I didn’t sign up for anything like this.” Professor Betrys had her hands on her hips.

Uncle Merl gently grabbed Professor Betrys’s arm. “Take a harder look at that suit, Glenda. It’s old.”

Professor Betrys looked and whistled. “What have y’all found?”

“That’s what we hope you can tell us.” Rhea and I carried the ancient astronaut into the airlock.