Ascent of the Aliomenti (23 page)

“Of course I do, Arthur,” Will replied. “Yet that’s not my concern. We’re setting people up to have an attitude that’s opposed to children. We don’t have any in our village now, and when I leave with the others to start the new location, we’re going to change that.”

Arthur stepped up to Will and glared at him. “They
must
be made aware of the consequences of their choices, Will, especially the foolish ones. They must understand what they are giving up if they choose to reproduce. And that’s...
everything
.”

The argument with Arthur, so many months earlier, was still fresh in his mind as they waded ashore. The island looked more like the surface of the moon than a future home to the Aliomenti, more reminiscent of death than home to a group that would soon unleash a band of immortals upon an unsuspecting world.

David, a member of the Aliomenti for two years, glanced around. “How are we supposed to grow any crops here?”

“I’m not sure we’ll
need
to grow much, at least not right away,” Will replied. “We have the ability to trade and purchase food from coastal villages, so we’re in no danger of starving. We’re going to need to do some work, though, in order to be able to build anything on this island. Once we’re settled, we can start working to get soil suitable for growing crops.”

David, a farmer by trade, looked nervous. “I hope we’re able to do that.”

Will grinned. “With this group? Anything is possible.”

They spent the day touring the island. It was spacious, and though the terrain was predominantly rocky around the perimeter, there were plenty of trees and grassy fields further inland, where the terrain bowled down to a point well below sea-level. A few large streams fed into a lake near the center of the island. Will felt that they’d lucked out in their choice of location. The rocky shoreline and lack of apparent arable soil discouraged others from making a claim on this land, and it would suit the Aliomenti perfectly.

Will led the way toward the lake, looking around. For purposes of isolation, they could pick no more perfect location for their new community. His concern was the elevation. The valley was likely thirty feet below sea level. Even a modest storm surge would propel massive amounts of water into the valley, wiping out this community just as Adam’s fire had destroyed the original.

“We have to figure out how to protect our future shelter from the sea,” he announced. “It looks idyllic, but I suspect it’s uninhabited for a reason.”

James, a metal worker, looked puzzled. “Isn’t that what we want, though? Isn’t that why we’re building here?”

“It’s not a reason to abandon this island,” Will admitted. “But listen carefully.”

They stood in silence, hearing nothing but the rustling wind and the somewhat distant roar of crashing waves. “I don’t hear anything,” James said with a shrug.

“Exactly,” Will replied. “Shouldn’t we hear birds? Insects? The occasional sound of furry creatures in the trees? We don’t hear anything, and why? Because this valley probably floods every time there’s a major storm. Any wildlife living here has been wiped out. And with no insects to feed upon, birds have no reason to nest here. We must exercise caution, and we must figure out how to predict the flooding so that we might move to higher ground, or determine the means to minimize the effects of the flooding.”

“But that’s impossible!” David protested. “No one can predict the weather, or flooding. And we certainly can’t alter the waves of the seas.” He glanced around, nervous. “Perhaps we need to consider a different location after all.”

“We do not, at least not yet,” Will replied. “But everyone must work on their Energy skills. Until we have perfected those skills, we need to station watches throughout the day and night to look for signs that the sea is rising, and to raise an alarm telepathically. Everyone must learn teleportation, and we must find the highest ground on this island as a safe point during flood season. Those able to teleport must make their abilities known, and be prepared to aid those who have not yet progressed to that level. We will have drills to practice evacuations.”

He looked at all of them. “Our first project here is therefore determined by Nature. We must build our city above the ground,
far
above the ground, high enough to sit above the floodwaters, where we can all live in safety.”

They all nodded, eager for the challenge. Most were new recruits, and only a few were able to perform the teleportation that might one day save their lives. But they were also new enough that they’d not been part of the reconstruction of the original Aliomenti village, or the bunker and gear system that drove Aliomenti productivity and wealth. All relished the opportunity to build their own monument. The city would need to rise some forty feet into the air and withstand a storm surge from the ocean without toppling. It was a structure the likes of which the senior members at the original village had never attempted, and they were eager to prove themselves.

“We should give this place a name,” Elise, a metal worker like James, said. “Any suggestions?”

“City in the Sky?”

“Water Town?”

Many other suggestions were tossed about, as Will mused privately. He was, of course, familiar with the city of Venice, Italy, a city formed from the land of 117 tiny islands, with natural canals formed by the water flowing between the bits of dry land. He suspected that the city might be familiar to some of them as they traveled to trade, and came into contact with others who had seen Venice. They might wonder why Will, who to their knowledge was from and had never left England, would be familiar with the name of an obscure city so great a distance from home.

Yet his mind wandered elsewhere, thoughts triggered by the idea of a mysterious city on an island under a constant threat of flooding into oblivion, a city that according to legend developed into a great power before submerging beneath the waves forever. It seemed both a perfect, and ironic, fit to what they were looking to accomplish.

“Atlantis,” he said. “We’ll call this place Atlantis.”

XVIII

Terraforming

1035 A.D.

Will was concerned that the elevation, below sea level, along with the provable massive flooding, had left the soil unstable, without a bedrock that could provide the anchoring they required. Rigid anchoring was critical to the successful completion of the aggressive construction project they’d set for themselves.

“We’re dealing with immense pressure from the water that will rise and probably cover this island, and will certainly have the opportunity to flood this valley,” he explained. “We can’t trust that our city will remain standing, because the water will push relentlessly. There are a few ways we can counteract that, but anything we do will require that we put strong piers of concrete and metal into the ground that can hold the tower in one place.”

They got to work, openly using Energy to accelerate their efforts, no longer concerned with the possibility that outsiders would walk by and observe them. Seeing Will and the more senior Aliomenti work their Energy on the project motivated the others to focus with greater intensity on building their own Energy. They wanted to be able to contribute as their more senior counterparts did.

Their first step involved burrowing deep into the island soil and bedrock, which would lock the piers in place and give them a firm foundation for construction of the towers. That, of course, meant they’d need to find sufficient rock below the surface to hold those piers steady. Will and others used Energy to both loosen and remove rock and soil in the area where they’d build; thankfully, the soil was rocky just below the surface.

The carpenters and metal smiths worked on rigging up a gear-based mechanism they’d use to stir the concrete mix in huge containers being built by the potters. They did not spend time trying to figure out how to create water wheels, for the small streams lacked both the water volume or speed to turn the wheels with sufficient force to mix the concrete. Instead, they created cranks to turn the wheels which formed the gears. With the correct combination of wheel sizes, they minimized the effort required to turn the crank, yet still maximized the speed of the concrete mixer.

They worked methodically over the course of two weeks, generating a half-dozen evenly spaced piers drilled into the ground, piers that would provide the anchoring needed to build an incredibly stable tower for their elevated city.

During the evening hours, they went out in teams, scouting the island for any animal life or edible vegetation they might use for sustenance. They found none. It meant they’d need to travel once per day to one of the nearby coastal towns to purchase sufficient provisions for the thirty-five residents. David the farmer, thus far unable to provide specific expertise to move the building project forward, led the daily food shopping efforts, ensuring that they procured both a sufficient quantity and variety of food for the hard-working villagers. He used his background, expertise, and Energy skills to ensure that he got the best possible prices.

James and Elise, their best metal workers, were the primary duo planning the actual construction of the towers. They realized that a series of freestanding towers would not provide the strength necessary to support the weight of the city, and they conceived a flat-topped pyramid to serve as the base instead. The height would make it impossible to build simple wooden forms they could use to contain and shape the concrete as they’d done in the original village. They would first create inclined walls roughly in the shape of a pyramid, one that was wide and flat at the top. The structure would be hollow on the inside, an interior they’d use to store finished goods or excess provisions secured from the mainland.

After several months of effort, they were able to complete the base pyramid and the flat top of the structure. The top was sufficiently elevated that it would remain above any future flood that might arise. They’d next work on a more ambitious project: a large, wide floor seated on top of the pyramid base. It would serve as the “ground” for their elevated city, and it was there that they’d construct homes, workshops, and storage for goods they’d use for future trade.

As they’d worked on the construction of the massive pyramid base, they’d also looked for safe shelters in the event the first bit of flooding occurred before the “ground floor” was complete. The ideal solution was to locate a system of caves above sea level, which would provide them both elevation and shelter from any storms, along with a modest degree of certainty they wouldn’t be swept away in any flood that began in the middle of the night. They were able to locate a large cave on the western edge of the island, of a sufficient size to hold their entire population. Though it was cramped, it was preferable to exposure. If they were spending time in that cave, comfort would not be their top priority; survival would be the only concern.

They also had to work on their water supply, for it had taken them little time to discover solid proof that the ocean waters overran the inland surface of the island on a regular basis. The water in the large streams and inland lake were salty, not quite to the degree of the sea itself, but enough to make the water undrinkable.

“Now what?” James wondered aloud.

David, the farmer, finally had a project he could lead up. He’d learned in his youth to boil water, and with the help of the metal workers was able to set up a small scale system to purify the water they’d need for drinking.

Will realized that while the system worked as designed and produced fresh water, the quantities would be insufficient for what they needed, and the system might not be a practical one at the scale they required. They needed water sufficient for drinking, bathing, and future farming efforts. The brackish water would be of little use for any of those activities.

They decided that they needed to move water automatically and continuously through a system that could purify water for their purposes in the quantities they’d require. After purification, they’d funnel the water up to the top of the platform, where it would be accessible to them in their elevated homes.

“The primary concern here,” Will noted, “is that this system needs to work even if the island is flooded, even if the base of our living space is essentially floating on the top of the sea. We cannot rely on pulling water out of the streams, for example. What if they’re buried under thirty feet of sea water?”

“So how do we get a system that does this regardless of where the water is pulled from?” David asked.

“We can’t pull purified water from the surface up to the city floor,” Will realized. “We should put the purifying system at the city level; otherwise, it will get flooded and possibly destroyed each time the sea rises. Our system needs to gather salty water from whatever depth necessary and bring it up to us for purification and usage.”

A small group mocked up a sample of the water purification system, even as the bulk of the Aliomenti completed the base of the pyramid and started to build a flat surface atop the base to serve as the new ground level of their city. Their prototype used a series of aqueducts, in which brackish water moved over rocks that naturally attracted the salt in the ocean water along with other impurities, and emerge fresh on the other end. They would rebuild it at full scale at the new city level, near where they’d construct the stores, shops, and residential areas. The fresh water would be distributed in the manner used back in the original village. On Atlantis, they simply faced a greater challenge in getting a source of fresh water. But it was a challenge they could meet.