The Pillar Of Time

The analog pressure meter’s thin arm jerked wildly, swinging from zero to the red-lined 100-meter mark and back again, slamming against the stop pin with a faint tick. A gloved finger tapped it twice: no success. How is this possible? Adel thought as he kept a steady breathing through his regulator. Unlike his watch computer, analogue systems didn’t glitch. The oscillation was simply impossible since it was strictly connected to water pressure. His right hand fumbled for the second-stage regulator, just in case. The LED on the dive computer had gone haywire since he entered the tunnel. But that he could understand; you can never rely on electronics. The tank meter joined the chaos, confused about the amount of remaining oxygen. Pressure meters don’t lie, unless… He stopped the thought. Oxygen still flowed, faint but steady. The other option: Impossible! It was then that Adel felt the urgency. His pulse quickened. He’d descended 30 meters under the lake’s surface, a tank at 150 bar, maybe 20 seconds ago. With controlled breaths, he could stretch that air to the surface, if he moved fast. Ahead, the small tunnel stretched another 15 meters according to an approximate quick math in his head. An oval hollow granite-quartz pillar at the bottom of the lake. Ancient hieroglyphics engraved on the outside, mede it look older than Adel expected. The water around it was colder. Inside there was enough space for tow bodies side by side. Man made, and old. Too old! Adel thought as he recognised a few of the engraved symbols. He was halfway when the entrance behind him dimmed, then vanished into black. Ahead, a light pulsed, brighter than it should’ve been. The walls shimmered with more carvings, symbols he half-recognised, coated in a film of microorganisms. His torch flickered out, but the tunnel stayed lit, unnaturally so. Then it hit: a low rumble vibrated inside the tunnel, and a thick ripple surged through the water, as Adel felt his body squeezed then inflated at alternate moments. He wanted to scream, but years of experience controlled his distress. What’s going on?? He asked himself as the water pressured from the outside in. The light flared white, blinding. Eyes closed, he felt a strong underwater current thrusting him. He surrounded to forces he knew he couldn’t fight. His jaw clenched the regulator between his teeth. Then he felt the sudden drop in temperature. The sudden rise in pressure. But he was free. Floating. He could breath again through the regulator. 

An half opened eye saw bubbles rising from an exhalation. He had located the surface direction. His fins kicked harshly as he gazed up. But the surface of the lagoon now seemed further than when he entered the pillar. The dive computer was still off. But the pressure meters had regained life. The arm jolted at 60 meters under. Oxygen dropped at 0. His next breaths could be water. His fins worked a little harder. His jaw didn’t dare releasing. He tried the next breath, and indeed: tank was empty. Adel knew the emergency ascending technique in this case, but he still couldn’t explain what had just happened. It was impossible for him to have miscalculated his needs for the short dive. But the fact remained that oxygen wasn’t flowing. So he had to reach surface. He knew the direction was right, so he closed his eyes. Hi heart beat louder than normal. His lungs screamed for another breath. Nothing. If there was a time to hope, this was it. Suddenly a loud rumbling sound made the waters vibrate, quickly followed by a strong shockwave that thrusted Adel’s body sideways. He lost the ascending line and tumbled underwater exhaling the little oxygen he had held. A trained state of survival rebalanced his direction. Ascending restarted. Equipments were still malfunctioning. His fins kicked tirelessly. The only way was up if he didn’t want to inhale a lungful of water. His eyes squeezed at the pain. Then a tingling sensation on his face. He surfaced, gasping for air! He was out. His eyes widened expecting the familiar sight of trees, mountains, the lagoon he dived into at night just minutes ago. Instead, only endless horizons surrounded him from all sides. Dark blue waters as far as the eye could see. No lands, no stars to be seen, just the ocean and a clouded sky. His tank hissed empty. The computer watch flickered the word ERROR. He looked terrified at the unknown surface. No sign of life, no sign of land. He took deep breaths as he floated, trying to calm his mind. Everything that happened had no explanation. The ocean? He thought as he scanned the vast waters around him. Then at great distance something only his trained eyes could spot. A small dark silhouette appeared to be floating on the surface. “A boat? too low. A body.” His eyes widened.

It was two days ago that he had decided to visit his family’s old vacation house in the mountains. He had finished an important search in the waters of Alexandria, Egypt. 5 divers, 1 month, only to find Roman vases and a chest of Roman coins. He landed on a sunny day, and as he drove back home, his phone rang. He picked up to the sound of a loud voice.

“Welcome back motherfucker.” A female voice screamed out of the speaker.

“Ahh. The lost language of ancient royalties.” he half joked. But he was happy to hear that voice.

“Whatever! You and your ancient stuff! How’s my young bro? Found any more mummies over there?”

“Mummies are not the only ancient things, you know? Real history here.” proudly defending his work.

“I tell you where you can find some. Father’s cabin in the woods? Planning to spend some time there with Mark and the kids. Why don’t you join us?” The idea scratched his mind. 20 years since he had last been there. He needed a break.

“Well, thanks for the invitation. I’ll head up already today. Perhaps I’ll spend a couple of days ditching out some of the ancient dust for you.”

“Lovely! Finally get to use your mummy diploma.”

“That bad?’ he started doubting himself.

“Noooaaahh…” followed by a yawn. “Gotta go little pharaoh, speak later. Love you!” The call ended mid yawn. It was not a bad idea after all. He would find the key at the neighbours.

Memories flickered of the time he spent there as a kid, playing in the woods and at the small lake with his sister and the local kids. Martin especially was his best friend at the time. Brave Martin. A real kid of the woods always coming up with new fun ways to get hurt, like when he built a human size nest on top of the tallest tree, until they almost broke a neck when the branch broke. They were the same age but drifted apart with time. Who knows if he’ll remember me Adel thought as he parked the car and walked towards the lagoon where his neighbours house was situated.

Almost 20 years apart, yet his stomach pinched like the first day he saw her, Nari, Martin’s little sister. Only 5 year younger than them, by the pond with flowers in her hands. She didn’t recognise him. Not until he got much closer, when she squinted her eyes at him and pronounced “Adel?” She seemed shocked.

“Indeed. Nari, right?” He replied with a half smile. She smiled back and nodded positively. “Wow. So long..” He continued

“What brought you back here?”

“Not sure… memories… nostalgia… how are you?” Adel asked.

“Well…. how can one be.” He noticed a sudden change in her smile. “I guess you haven’t heard.” She continued with a serious expression.

He matched hers. “Heard about what?”

“Martin… had an accident.” Her eyes lowered. Looked at the waters.

He wasn’t sure what she meant, but then a knife hit him as he puzzled her body language with her words. Can that be? He thought in great shock. Martin? Brave Martin? He didn’t expect to feel so much for it. “I am so sorry.” He looked at the waters too. Unable to completely process emotions and curiosity. “I just passed to get the keys. I will not ask if you don’t feel…”

“Oh no. Don’t worry. Is better to avoid incomprehension anyway. Actually I happened to have your keys attached to mine. Here.” She half smiled and took a bunch of keys out of her pocket. Started unscrewing one of them.

“I am sorry Nari. Of the many things, this is the last I would have expected to find coming up here.” The both stood there looking at the waters.

“You knew him as a kid. When something ignited his mind, there was nothing to stop him.” She released the key and handed it to him.

“An accident you say?” He picked the key from her hands.

“In this lake.”

“Here? How…”

“Two weeks ago after a bad break up, he had decided to spend time home. He thought it fun to finally find out how deep this lagoon really was. We thought it would be one of those Martin activities  you know.”

“He didn’t make it?” Adel asked with a half voice.

“Oh he did. He reach the bottom in free dive and came back. All jumpy and ecstatic. A sort of ancient column he called it, a relic buried half in sand at the bottom of the lake.”

“An ancient column?” Adel’s skin suddenly paled. His mind made the quick connection to his own tragedy occurred only 3 years back: his ex girlfriend Raja, a passionate diver like him, mentioned a sort of ancient column, relic she had discovered in their favourite sea bed in Indonesia. Adel had to leave for work when news came that she had disappeared. The last time she was see, was at the site. When Adel arrived he spent a whole month of search for her or any clues, but nothing. She had vanished in the depth of the oceans. With the void in the stomach, he snapped back to reality. Back to Nari and the Lagoon. “A ancient column here? So far up in the mountains?” He noticed his voice changed, and hoped Nari didn’t notice. “But we swam here, our whole youth.”.

“And us our whole life. But what does it matter. Whatever it was he saw. Stubborn head.”

“It’s still there?” The archaeologist in him asked that question before he could rationalise how stupid it was in this moment. But she was smart.

“Martin? Or the columns” Her gaze pierced him. He didn’t feel good about it. But she was smart. “They never found his body.”

“They dived?”

She looked at him and preceded the questions “Local authorities came, two divers went down only to come up with bad news… ask me… A cover up. They didn’t even try to look. Anyway, tomorrow more answers. The government’s big guys will bring the big toys and lift up the column. Finally  some more clarity.” 

“The government?” He asked curious.

“Yeh. Safety measures. They said the government wants to make sure this place is still swimmable.”

“Right” but something didn’t sit well with him, whose thought remained at Raja’s 3 years ago, and now at Martin’s words ‘ancient column’. “What could possibly lay here for so many years? Has this anything to do with Raja?” He pondered. Then with a sort of sudden hurry “Nari. Anything you need, I will be at the house.” He thanked her for the keys.

She smiled the same sweet smile he had printed in his memories all this years. “Somehow I feel a sense of relief seeing you here. I don’t know why. I am happy to see you Adel.” Her eyes sparked at the sunsetting.

“I am happy to hear that.” He locked eyes.

“Right. I better go. I will let my parents know you are here. Perhaps you can come over.”

“Sure I would love to.” He smiled. The two parted ways.

Adel headed back to the car. Somehow the idea of Martin sinking at the bottom of the lagoon didn’t square up. The Martin he knew would always find a way. Plus the connection with Raja was too strange. Sure that had happened on the other side of the world, but… a sparked was awaken in him. A spark that had been switched off long ago. A faint feeling of coincidences with no clear foundation, but a gut sensitivity that he could only shake off by digging further. He unloaded his bags, and most importantly, his equipment. He knew if he had a chance to see what Martin saw down there, it was to be tonight. Before the government would bring their men. Maybe he would even find his old friend. Perhaps something bigger.

Adel could finally breath. He reset the gear; the analog pressure-meters had both re-gained functions showing oxygen at 50bar, depth 1atm, surface normal. The electronic dive computer had stopped working completely. He took a deep breath and submerged his face. His gaze swallowed by deep waters. The old pillar was nowhere to be seen. He scanned further until a huge shadow not so far, was sinking towards the ocean floor, leaving a trail of bubbles and debris. Something had caused the shockwave that tumbled him earlier. He couldn’t recognise the blurred image getting fainter, but whatever it was, it didn’t survive. He surrendered at the idea of being lost, he inflated the buoyancy jacket and floated, giving himself time to think. Rescue was the only choice. This was a real ocean, but luckily for him a calm one that day. Or so he thought. He decided to swim cautiously towards the floating figure in the distance. A body. Upside down, face in the water. Adel hooked an arm under him, propping him in a rescue hold, turned the man to discover what he had feared and suspected: Martin! His childhood friend! What circumstances to meet after 15 years. “I am here, my friend.” Adel thought. Checked for a pulse. Faint. Alive, just barely. He put the body in a rescue position and assessed the situation. Deflating the jacket slightly he dived in deeper. As he imagined, a colder current moved in one direction. He needed to take action. A gut feeling more than a rational choice. But that must stand for something here. At least better than staying put. He needed to gamble, so he followed the current.

The sky above him flashed a yellow ish light. He looked up as he pushed the body of his friend forward. The clouds covered the action, as they dimmed back to grey, when a shadow patch grew darker on the left side. The clouds broke, revealing a craft falling fast through them. Smoke followed behind. Adel quickly submerged and pulled his friend down with him. Only an instant later, the same shockwave he heard before, but this time he could see what had caused it. The craft crashed in the water like solid rock. It did not disintegrate in 100 pieces, instead it was a compact mass of dark matter, like a sharp volcanic rock the size of an aircraft. The shockwave came, but Adel was prepared and the thrust pushed  the two just two meters further. Adel followed the craft with his gaze as it sunk surrendering to the ocean waters. He submerged again. His heartbeat increased drastically. He gasped for air wondering once more “Where did you bring me Martin?”. He quickly found the current once more and followed it.

Twenty years of diving experience across the world, yet he couldn’t explain the mysterious ways he had ended up in this situation. Above all, not one familiar sight around or under him gave a hint of a known location. Explosions followed by mysterious looking crafts falling from the skies. Was this a battlefield? He needed to move if he wanted a chance of surviving. He continued towing his friend through the current as his mind drifted in mystery thoughts. A mystery his brain couldn’t solve with logic… and maybe logic was not the answer. Two decades of experience in what his sister always demised as boring ‘ancient stuff’, had taught him to seek different ways of thinking. Archaeologists, historians and even scientists had to accept that, time and new discoveries will eventually disprove your current beliefs. It had always happened until then. He was aware of most non-mainstream theories about ancient history, and there were things which puzzled contemporary knowledge. Things even government kept hidden. Of course the story told to the public had to differ from a simple ‘we have no idea how this is possible’. He recollected short memories of the pillar he had just seen, the strange symbols engraved, its material, its oval shape. The humming vibrations as he passed through it. Martin probably had gone through the same. But being in Free dive, he couldn’t handle the shock wave. Only now he could consider that, the equipment not working was a sign that bigger forces were bending physics inside the pillar. He had to finally acknowledge the fact that… he might have passed through a portal, perhaps even traveled in time. To enter an ancient pillar in the bed of a small lake in the remote mountains, and to end up in the open ocean, was stuff of legends and bed time stories. But where? When? How? He couldn’t know until an encounter with… other beings. That happened sooner than he had imagined.

Adel submerged once more to make sure he was still swimming in the  direction of the current. He was. Back on the surface he cleared his goggles, and that’s when he noticed a glint far in the horizon. Martin’s body twisted sideways as Adel changed towing direction. He had to swim towards it if he wanted a chance of safety. But the idea of not knowing who or what he was going to meet was both thrilling and creeping. The light grew bigger. It was coming his way. He confirmed the sight of a ship, he could make up the faint shape. It approached steadily without disturbing the waters. As it neared, Adel gasped at the incredible sight. The vessel cut the waters like a sharp knife with its metal shining front. Its frame resembled that of an ancient small boat, but this was anything but a small craft. Slim and long. Its bow and hull was made from a 1 whole piece of shiny red-gold metal that perfectly mirrored the outside world. Shaped to perfection and stretched all the way to the back. The upper deck was wood, but seemingly also made of 1 whole piece, which of course was impossible. He admitted the craftsmanship was sublime. Out of his time. The wood however was not slick. Instead it was carved and sculpted with decorative swirls and leaf like shapes that made it look like a feather gently floating the waters. He imagined how poets and philosophers would describe such a sight, and how he could never make justice to the feeling he got as the imposing vessel silently neared in front of him. Then he felt it again. A strong humming vibration resonating his body and skull as the vessel got closer. It seemed to come from underwater, and the water got colder again. He compared the feeling to that of the pulse in the tunnel, when he had jolted out of it. Whatever powered the pillar back at the lagoon, was powering the giant vessel in front of him. He was now close enough to touch it, and even though he couldn’t tell anymore if this was a dream, the chance was in front of him, and he didn’t waste it. To the skin it felt like warm metal. The water didn’t stick to the surface, always keeping it pristine with no drops. Half submerged, the ship itself had no vibration, just the air around it emitted the power Adel felt. Astonished by the sight and trying to manoeuvre his friend’s body out of the way, the vessel stopped effortlessly and Adel didn’t notice the tall figure peaking at him from the top. 

A clear voice reached Adel. So close that at first, he thought it coming from Martin. But it pronounced words he didn’t understand, yet heard very clearly. It was speaking in a different language. His reply slipped out automatically. “We need help!”

The man atop the ledge vanished. Moments later, a few more figures appeared. They dropped something: a rope. Adel grabbed it immediately. Woven of white silk and golden filaments. It felt cool and fresh to the touch, with a circular loop at its end. Without wasting time, he secured it around Martin’s waist and gave a firm tug, trusting it as a universal signal. It was. The rope tightened around his friend and pulled Martin’s body upward. Adel swam back to give it space, then glanced up. One of the men was handling the rope calmly, his arms moving with no sign of strain. The strong man lifted Martin like it was lifting a small fish. Only when his friend’s body reached close the figures on deck, Adel could distinguish the shocking difference in size: they appeared double the size of Martin. There was no way back! Nowhere to go. Adel submitted to fate. When the rope descended again, he looped it around his own waist, clinching it against his scuba gear. The pull came once more, steady and gentle, like that of an electric winch, lifting him and his diving gears without a hint of discomfort. There was no winch. The man was pulling with his arms again. Halfway through his ascent, a sudden flash of light caught everyones attention in the far distance. Everyone looked. Adel couldn’t make up what it was, then the rope pulled faster once more upwards.

The abnormally tall man grabbed Adel, who landed on what felt to him like a marble floor, and crouched above him. Adel thought it all so strange, until a rumbling sound of explosion overwhelmed everyone. It was the loudest low sounding vibration he had ever heard. The vessel rose up and pushed slightly from the forming wave. For an instant he felt stoned by the sound. But his senses quickly regained normal functions. That flash he had just seen must have been a bigger explosion. The man had stood up and spoke to others from the crew in the same language he had heard just earlier. He found it rough yet melodic, like a blend of Latin and Greek. Adel stayed kneeling and looked at the deck. Though the vessel bore hints of more decorative design, its craftsmanship was unlike anything he had ever seen before. This vessel must have been a royal one. But the astonishment came right as he lifted his gaze upwards: the men in front of him were at least 2.5 meters tall figures in white ropes, and tight translucent bodysuits, refined with more golden details on their wrists, necks and even crown like jewelleries. The voice spoke once more in the same foreign language, to which Adel signalled a clear ‘no’ shaking his head side to side. Again hoping it as common sign, followed by “I cannot understand.” Then he looked up at the man whose voice belonged. “Who are you? Where am I?” But the man had the features of a young guy. Clean shaved, long hair. Adel noticed the gentle and calm ways of their doing, even though their figures appeared strangely ready for any type of danger and attack. The explosion didn’t faze them. It looked odd to him that they didn’t show any sign of defence against him. What if he was a pirate or madman? Maybe the size difference made for their safety. Then another voice, younger, spoke to him again calmly. He could not understand the words, but the man seemed trying to explain something. 

“My friend needs help.” Adel pointed at Martin, laying just a little further away. “He is alive but he seems unconscious.” He spoke, hoping the words would reach someone. Then the youngest of them got close and bend down to Adel’s level who was still kneeled taking off his gear. The others strangely made respectful space for him. “He must be the leader.” Adel thought.

“We will take good care of him too. He must rest.” The voice spoke in a low tone.

“You speak English?” Adel looked at him.

“I speak many languages. Please accept my most generous welcome. We are most happy to see you. My father is waiting for us at the Temple Dome. I am tasked to feed you and make you replenish your energies, before we reach the temple.”

“Your father…? You are expecting me?” Adel was confused. But he sensed the hurry in the young many.

“In due time you will have knowledge of this, and more. But first, please join me, we don’t have time to formalise.” The young man helped him get up. Then signalled to the others to take Martin’s body.

“You knew I was coming?” Adel asked in puzzlement as he looked at the guards taking his unconscious friend. He started taking off the heavy tank.

“It is more correct to say, I was… hoping you would.” The man gave sign to the other men to help with his gears.

“Wait! I need these.” He pulled the dive jacket from one of the guard’s hands. The guard didn’t fight back.

“I will make sure they stay safe and always with us. You will need these for your return trip. Now please I must insist that you follow me.” Adel’s incredulity at hearing impossibly giant humans claiming they were waiting for him, played with his mind like solving a riddle and maze at the same time. What do they know? The lagoon? The Pillar? The man seemed to have been prepared for the meeting.

“Where are you taking him?” Adel suddenly asked as he saw Martin’s body being towed inside.

“He will need a lot of rest. But he will also wake up in due time.” The man made a sign to follow him. “I need your trust. We need to cover some waters. Time must not be wasted.” The young man’s face turned serious.

Adel obeyed, pleased not to be alone in open waters anymore. But the gut feeling grew bigger, and he knew he had to play along if he wanted to know if this place had any connections with Raja. Like he had any choice… still part of him was truly intrigued. Wherever he was, he didn’t want to go home so quick. So he followed the young man through a big golden door on the deck. Surprise to discover the interior of the vessel was nothing less than its exterior. The decorative patterns thickened and became more intricate indoors. Wood became the main element and the red-gold material continued raining the details. At the centre of the room, a marble table was prepared with all sorts of colourful fruits and vegetables.

“This should be good for you. Please replenish.” The man offered as he continued in another room. He seemed busy. Some waiters faded inside another door. Adel scanned the table and grabbed a strawberry out of respect. Then he felt the gentle tug of the craft moving. But he couldn’t tell the speed. He remembered its way of skimming the water surface, avoiding friction and he thought that must have made it impossible for its carriers to perceive great amount of speed changes. Then it was time for more answers.

“You seem to know so many things about me. Us. Can’t you tell me who you are, and where is this place? What are those explosions?” The man hesitated like he needed to keep a secret. But then his thought changed.

“Well. You are still on the same planet you are used to live. Just… much more time before your days. That sound you heard was…” His English seemed newly learned.

Adel stopped him “In the past?? You mean I…” He asked, afraid he knew the answer.

“Travelled through time… yes. The pillar you passed through. The builders finished crafting it just instants ago.” And he pointed at 2 of the men he had seen before. Only now he noticed the slight different coloured uniform. But his mind still cold’t make up for the time slippage.

“If this is true, then this must be… many many years before my time!” Adel didn’t dare guessing, for he knew time travel was not even possible. He secretly refrained from believing the young man, yet a strange feeling grew and he needed to know more. But if this was impossible theories becoming reality… as a great student of history, tall men like this, in boats like this, weren’t depicted anywhere except…

“We are Atlanteans.” The young man replied like he had answered Adel’s thoughts. “My name is Thot. My father is the high Thothme. Highest King and Wise Priest of Atlantis.”

“Atlan….” Adel couldn’t finish the word. He couldn’t believe the words coming out of the young man’s mouth. Only now he could connect the familiar symbols engraved on the pillar before he went in. He had recognised them as language of a lost civilisation. “This is impossible…” Adel tried logic and rational thoughts.  His mind traveled back at his countless swims at Raja’s location. Then at the lagoon next to his house. “Perhaps there is more than one pillar.” But the man didn’t hesitate long, and spoke as if this was common conversations for him.

“I shouldn’t reveal this but… the Time Pillar you used, is a direct bridge to the future. A call for help if you may.” Then turned around to receive words from subordinates. Adel froze at the last phrase. Call for Help? He thought. Then connected the explosions he had just heard, when suddenly daylight changed again. But this time it gradually turned darker. Adel began crouching on the marble floor covering his ears, preparing for a huge impact. But the young Atlantean didn’t move. Instead he smiled noticing Adel’s fear.

“We are not in danger here. We have arrived!”

Adel felt a little embarrassed. He stood up slowly. “Arrived? Where?”

“Please wear this.” Two servants came closer with fresh robe and a suit that looked like that of the Atlantean’s. “It will fit you.” The servant pointed at another small door. Adel entered. The new room was significantly smaller,  fully white with a window towards the water. The window was just a very thin layer of marble, reflecting the water shapes on the whole room. Adel wore the body suit which indeed, fitted him perfectly. He felt the coldness of its light fabric on his skin, and a strange tingling sensation where the red-golden ornaments touched the bare body part. Then exited with the robe in his hands. The waiter didn’t hesitate to help put it on. The new clothes were not really comfortable.

Again Adel thought how he hadn’t felt the boat slowing down. How could they have covered so much space in such little time? He had seen nothing on the far horizon. Any near point should have taken more time than that. He followed the man outside the big door, and was surprised to realise, they had entered inside a giant cave. That explained the light dimming. As his eyes adjusted, the cave turned out not to be a cave after all, but a building. A dome. A man made dome of a sheer size that would make ones head spin when looking upward. It resembled an enormous rounded cave with a pyramidal building rising mighty at its centre: The temple. A blue-white temple with golden structures that must have taken centuries to build. As he lowered the gaze, he noticed the staggering place surrounded by dozens bridges launching like arrows from the centre. Alongside the bridges countless vessels were parked. More giant men loaded and unloaded in a hurry.

Adel couldn’t comprehend what he was looking at. What are those crafts, and why so many here at a temple? His vessel sided one of the long bridges right at the same height of the deck. An opening appeared on the side of the craft and the young man walked out and onto the temple jetty, it too made of marble. The giant 2 and half meters Atlanteans walked next to Adel, and the young man leader paced just a little in front of him. At the end of the bridge, the flat surface turned into a staircase. Then Adel remembered something. Someone.

“Wait! My friend?” He stopped. The young man turned around.

“Your friend is lucky to be alive, but here in this time, he will remain unconscious, only until he walks back through the same tunnel, to his times.” He explained. Reality then hit Adel.

“When will we go back?”

“In due time!” An older voice replied from atop the staircase. The young man turned. The figure stood tall and powerful at the top of the staircase. “Just not as soon as you might want to.” He stated firmly. “Come join me. We have no time to waste.”

Adel stood still. The temple, the dome, the sight. The king? The boundaries built by logic were shattering one by one. Then the young man turned to him.

“Don’t try to understand. There is reasons for everything. I will see you soon.” The old man was waiting at the stairs top. The young man made sign for Adel to continue alone.

Alone Adel walked up the wide and tall staircase. The new clothes and the astonishing sight, he felt like he fitted perfectly. He had surrendered to the part, even if rationality stopped him from truly buying into the happening. Dreams don’t feel so vivid. He thought. But one single thought motivated everything he was doing. Raja.

The old man was tall, but shorter than the younger guys on the vessel. Yet his presence generated a different impact on Adel. As soon as their arms touched, he felt a calming sense of elation taking over his whole body. Like he had finally felt a sense of purpose here. But he couldn’t stop himself.

“Sir… You might be aware of my confusion. Time traveling, Atlantis, everything here is so far beyond my comprehension. You… were expecting me?”

“Being projected more than 13000 years in the past, in a fraction of a moment, can have a certain effect on anyone. The Time Pillars are a rare technology. We wouldn’t use them unless we had to.” Adel suddenly noticed how the old man mentioned Pillars… plural.

“There exist more of those Pillars?” He asked in a hurry.

“Yes. Theoretically. In reality we have only built two.” Adel felt another world opening in front of him. Coincidence?

“So another person from the future has traveled here?” 

“Well. We were attacked right when had finished building the first Pillar, 3 solar years ago. We lost it. So we had to build another on. The one you came from.” Adel took one step closer to the old man. Another instinctive question.

“Surely you must know if someone has used it!” 

“There is no way to know unless you see someone appearing. That’s why we placed yours in the middle of the ocean, as far away from the war. And that is why we are happy to see you.”

The old man started walking, signalling to Adel to follow him. He seemed in a hurry. “Time is running out here. Of course a strange sentence to hear in the future.”

They entered the temple. Adel could only listen and elaborate his theory now. More answers would follow. The twists and twirls of marble, crystal and gold was still mind bending to him. Then an opening on the ceiling appeared, from which one could see the sky. Sort of like the Roman Pantheon, but much much larger. If this was real Atlantis, the stories he had heard made no justice.

“I always imagined Atlanteans lived in peace.”

“We did for thousands of years. You arrive at our last moments.” The man led him towards a platform that seemed to be floating.

“Who are you battling?”

“Ours is only but a vast stretch of land and islands in the middle of the ocean. We share this world. Other sides of the planet belong to other civilisations.”

They entered the platform. Adel tried to recall more knowledge from books and theories. But the man continued. “Anything your imagination will tell you, will not be enough for you to fully understand our reality. And there is no time unfortunately.”

“Why only 2 Pillars in 3 years?”

“We had just learned how to do it. But it takes a very long time to build and fully charge one.” Taken by the conversation, Adel hadn’t realised the platform had lifted them to the top of the temple. He looked down at the young man and guards preparing to board the golden ships, from what would be the equivalent of a skyscraper height. The lift aligned with a platform terrace protluberating outside behind the dome. There. As he walked outside, Adel saw the extent of Atlantis stretching in front of him, all the way fading far in the horizon. The Atlantis he had read in Plato, in books and in other depictions. Land and water, green and blue connected by bridges as far as the eye could see. Nothing seemed ancient. Yet nothing looked remotely like modern technology. The noise of water surfs and winds. Only the far horizon flashed lights of the war he was told about. Adel was struck at the sight of crafts lifting and taking off silently, crossing the lands. Vessels like the one he was rescued on, cruising the canals and rivers. Tall white buildings resembled marble and granite castles, always with tallest towers at the centre. But it wasn’t just marble. A translucent quartz like material seemed to be blended in the walls. He saw the harmony the book spoke about: it wasn’t just people social living together. It was the harmonious blend with nature. Then the idea. Maybe Raja is here somewhere.

“Soon nothing will remain of all you see.” The old man let a loud thought.

“Surely you seem to know the future. Can’t you do anything to change it?” Adel tried to reason. The old man hinted at a smile, making Adel feel silly for what he said. Of course a civilisation like this must have thought about it.

“The single fact that you are here, it’s proof that future can’t be changed.” The man pointed at a flying vessel that landed in front of them. Another majestic sight of a craft that should have rumbling jet engines, yet landed like gravity didn’t even exist. Adel had to accept everything he had never seen before nor couldn’t imagine. That was the only way he could find answers. Answers he believed  to be in the old man, and this trip. 

“Where are we going?” Adel asked noticing the structure and material that made the craft.

“You need to see, so you can find your answer.”

“Answer to what?”

“To why you are here.”

Adel stopped. He felt lost.

“You don’t know what brought me here?”

“The Time Pillar brought you here. We just don’t know why.”

“If the Time Pillar’s your call for help to the future, it means I am here to help you…” Adel felt he was starting to unravel the complicated mechanics. The man nodded but puzzled.

“Correct. Yet we both don’t know how you can help us. Do you? Why you exactly? There is no means for me to know you, what life you have lived. We built a Time Pillar to call the future indeed. And you answered.”

“Not really.” Adel realised. “My friend was the first to pass the tunnel.”

“True, but he didn’t make it.” Adel thought about the possibility that Raja might have not made it also.

“Like the one from the first pillar?”

“Extremely curious about that pillar are you? That was a mistake we were not prepared for. When a bridge through time is opened, is like fixing a door to a specific time and place. The time pillars don’t bring anywhere anytime. They link the exact moment they were activated, to an exact moment in the future. The place remains the same.”

“The ocean I was in when you found me… will be the location where I will find the pillar in the future?” Adel though at the lagoon.

“Correct. A call for an entity who will help the callers.”

“To help you with the war?” He didn’t dare a guess.

“Oh we will lose the war.”

“What? Then why…” but he couldn’t finish.

“This is why you must see. Come.” Adel did as instructed.

He needed a system. A system to track all the new information and yet be able still to elaborate possibilities. In his stories Atlantis indeed shared the planet with other theoretical civilisation. Common knowledge deemed these civilisations erased by a catastrophic event that reset the world. The cause was either attributed to the hit of a large Meteorite, or from a sudden Solar activity that melted the glacier. And I am here to prevent that from happening? Adel felt the inadequacy of the task. We will lose the war… the old man had said. The craft took off, and flew over the vast lands of Atlantis. Under him Plato’s story unraveled. He saw the harmony that always described this place. He saw his descendant from which human being came from. Since the first encounter in the ocean he noticed the connection between the materials used to build everything and what powered them. If Tesla could have seen this himself. Adel thought and smiled. Atlantis was known to harvest its energy from earth vibrations. Quartz, lime stone and granite were extremely good natural conductors. In his time, stories of Tesla wanting to ionise the stratosphere giving people free energy, was as close as it got to what the Atlanteans weer doing 13000 years before. This was all laid out in front of Adel: harmony. The word kept intruding. Harmony connects all living things. Nature being harvested. Not exploited. He thought. Just being here feels different. I feel… light.  Harmony was the key word. He didn’t just understand it. He felt it. A simple man with a degree in ancient history and cartography, from a time, where its people brutally exploit energy at the expense of the planet itself. I have no knowledge of how to win a war, how to make civilisation survive a catastrophe. The riddle grew in his head, with no answer in the horizon. The pressure of the hero had never suited him, one reason why he had chosen diving. He looked outside and wished the coincidence of facts was real. That 3 years ago Raja had passed the first Time Pillar and ended up here. That he would find her. He wished he cold stop here more years, learn the ways of the people living in these islands. He noticed the lush green forests, gardens, the waters interweaving land like blood veins suppling necessary oxygen and nutrients for life. Harmony here had been cultivated through millennia.  Then he noticed the land becoming smaller and smaller.  Getting further and further. We are going up he thought. The earth was zooming out for him, and he had a bigger view of things. The Time Pillars might not be so exact as they believe. Adel thought. They surely made a mistake. But then, ascending became steeper, the old man had reentered the room and said something that changed Adel’s perspective.

“We have acquired a deep knowledge of life itself in this planet. Both spiritually and material. There is no difference between the two, and that’s the secret to fully make use of the power of this place. But knowledge is a powerful weapon. In the worst care it better be destroyed, rather than handing it in the wrong hands.” It was then that Adel notice the brightness and colours changing in the sky and the craft. He had understood the destination. What the old man wanted him to see. He was too taken by the sight of Atlantis and the thought of his mission, to notice. But humming rumbles and low sound explosions rippled the craft and his body. He wants me to see this.

The spectacle unfolded in front of his eyes, making everything he had experience until now seem like a dream. The sky shifted in shades of colours. Ripples of air distorted the views. The number of crafts was impossible to count, and extended far upwards in the cosmic horizon. Adel squinted his eyes.

“Who are you really fighting against?” 

“What are we fighting for, you might better ask.” The man smiled. Adel looked at him in curios distress. He wanted to know. “Survival. For the human kind. Ours. Yours.” Surreal was not enough to describe what was happening, and part of him hoped he would suddenly wake up in his bed, up in the lagoon house, to the voice of his sister and nephews. No Raja in that life. But he will meet Martin and Nari and lunch with them. This time traveling had no means of existing in his mind, Martin, his purpose, exhausted him, yet in front of him the most sought after ancient civilisation was alive and prosperous on the same earth he will inhabit hundred of thousands of years in the future. Something didn’t add up.

“If I am here, that means you succeeded at surviving.” The old man made to leave then stopped.

“Indeed. But you still need to tell us how.” Then left the room.

“Why don’t you use the pillars to hide in the future, or in other timelines?”

The man place a hand on Adel’s shoulder. It felt reassuring. Trusting. It felt eternal. “Please take some rest. I will make sure this craft will stay out of battle until we solve the puzzle.”

“What if I never do?”

“Then I would have met a good friend. And I will bring you back to your pillar before is too late.” The old man smiled, then turned and left the room, in the same calm state all the Atlanteans he had met went by. The war didn’t faze him.

Adel was left alone. He turned towards the windows once more, and he understood why Thothme never revealed to him who they are fighting against. But the old man showed him. His throat tightened, and his stomach burned at the sight of the gigantic battle in the far cosmic sky. Technological and scientific advancement in our times seems to be only taking a longer way to get to their reality. Yet we keep calling it ancient, and obsolete. I think we are the ancient civilisation, in the far future. He turned away in lack of air. He wanted to lay on the floor somewhere so he scanned the room. On the corner of the other side he notices something he hadn’t seen before. A half sphere was enclosed in the wall. It seemed moving. He walked towards it and recognised a map of the earth. Atlanteans had mapped the world? He thought. Of course… dismissing himself after another low sounding explosion rumbled in. He pinned the marble sphere but he couldn’t recognise any layouts. The earth must look so different now. The continents were differently laid out. Then he smiled. It made him chuckle the idea that in the future he will have visited most archaeological sites around this world depicting the past. Some even this past. His mind recalled his expeditions, as he tried to connect findings to clues of Atlantis and the catastrophe while spinning the marble sphere he didn’t recognise. His finger graced gently the spinning sphere. Somewhere there was the location where Raja was last seen. You are here. I feel you. He thought as he pinned the globe again, this time the words of the old king resonated in his brain. knowledge is a powerful weapon. In the worst case it better be destroyed, rather than handing it in the wrong hands. A knowledge so vast, in 13000 years we will still be infants in compare. He thought about the sad contrast of his present days, where science and technology were seen as pushing forward civilization, but archaeological discoveries, Pyramids, temples and texts were seen as ‘ancient stuff.’ But then the sudden realization bloomed. His eyes widened and his stomach void turned into a whole. Of course! He thought. He turned and run to the other room.

Thothme entered.

“You will inevitably lose this war. But you will save humanity. You said it yourself.”

“How?”

“By saving all this knowledge, and pass it to us so we can recreate what you have achieved here.”

“Have we done that?”

“Well… not yet in my time. But in the future, they will. They will listen to the clues.”

“How do we do that?”

“I have visited and uncovered countless relics and ancient items. We live our lives next to buildings and ruins dating thousands of years before us. All in stone.”

“So we will leave our knowledge in stone? I am sure someone will be decoding it.”

“Not if you spread it. Across the world. Across different cultures, races, styles, methods.”