Dragonseed

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

THE GATE TO ATLANTIS

THE MOMENT JANDRA appeared, the voices from the crystal orb Zeeky carried in the cotton satchel slung over her shoulder began to howl. She couldn't believe that everyone in the room didn't hear them. Yet, the only reaction was from Poocher, who tilted his head and fixed his eyes on the bag. He rose from sitting on his haunches and stepped away from Jeremiah, who'd been petting him. The hair along his back once more stood in bristles as he faced Jandra.

Zeeky reached out and placed a hand on his muscular shoulder. 'Not yet,' she whispered. The pig looked at her with an expression approaching pleading.

'I know,' Zeeky whispered, squatting down to his side. 'You want to see some action. I promise, you'll get your chance soon.'

As they spoke, the shower of sparks caught her eyes. A sky-dragon with a silver skull cap and starry wings stood next to Blasphet, bowing as he greeted the room. She recognized him as Vendevorex from the battle of the Free City-the dragon Jandra thought of as her father.

Bitterwood stood next to her and Jeremiah, but had his attention on Vendevorex. He grumbled, 'Doesn't anyone stay dead anymore?'

'It's a pleasure to see you as well,' said the sky-dragon.

Jandra crossed her arms. Zeeky knew this wasn't the body language of a daughter reuniting with her father. Jandra said, 'So that we can hurry things along and get back to my news, let me fill everyone in on what's happened.'

'Please do,' said Hex.

Jandra looked at Vendevorex and said, 'You died, but with your nanites already programmed to repair your wounds. Unguided after your skull cap was removed, they kept your body in a state of cellular stasis until Blasphet revived it. But he couldn't have restored your mind, could he? Somehow, he brought you back in contact with your old skull cap-the one Hex stole from me.'

'And buried here in this barn,' said Hex.

'When I brought Vendevorex to the Free City, he was a soulless shell,' Blasphet said. 'He possessed all the motions of life-he breathed on his own, and if you gave him water, he would swallow-but he was completely devoid of will. I hoped that, as my understanding of my new abilities grew, I might one day restore his mind. Yet, when I brought him into this barn, he slowly began to recover on his own. At first, he possessed no memories, but within days he was fully restored.'

Jandra nodded. 'That's because you'd brought his body into the control range of his old genie. The device possessed a map of his brain at the time of his death, and guided the nanites in reconstructing Vendevorex's personality.'

'How can you know all of this?' Hex asked Jandra.

'It's simple enough to put together,' Jandra said. 'Obvious, really.'

'Your powers of deduction are impressive,' said Vendevorex. 'I was planning to find you soon. I know that my death must have caused you a great deal of emotional stress.'

'Oh,' said Jandra, nodding. 'Totally.'

Vendevorex narrowed his eyes.

Jandra uncrossed her arms. 'Now that everybody's up to speed, let's focus on me again.' She waved her hand in the air and a flat white disk of spinning light formed before her. Quickly, the light took on the shape of a green island surrounded by a bright blue ocean. The spires of impossibly tall buildings thrust up from the greenery.

'This is Atlantis,' said Jandra. 'It's a city of six billion people, who all have the same technology used by the goddess. They made the genies Vendevorex and I -and now Blasphet- draw our powers from. These people have powers best described as godlike-but, in one special way, they possess a weakness that leaves them exceedingly vulnerable to attack.'

Blasphet craned his long black neck toward the image of the island for a better look. 'Why would you wish to attack such a place? Think of the good I've accomplished with my limited understanding of their tools. If they shared their secrets, we could end all suffering.'

'But they don't share,' said Vendevorex. 'They guard their secrets jealously. When Atlantis first came to earth, it decreed that anyone who wanted to experience its bounty would have to live upon its shores. Anyone who didn't would lose access to its miracles.'

'Why?' asked Blasphet. 'Why possess such power if you don't intend to use it?'

'At the time, the world had gone over the precipice of environmental collapse,' said Jandra. 'Vast swathes of the ocean were dead zones. The world was experiencing a mass extinction that rivaled the disappearance of the dinosaurs. The cause was human civilization. The goddess was clever enough to constrain civilization to this remote, artificial island. She allowed the continents to return to a state of wildness, or near wildness. Atlantis provided a way for her to cut out the cancer of humanity so that the body of the earth could heal itself.'

Vendevorex scowled. 'This meshes with the story I was told, though with somewhat different motivations attributed to the goddess.'

'That's because, while I was in Atlantis, I discovered you were a pawn,' Jandra said. 'You were given your genie by a woman named Cassie, who was Jazz's sister and lifelong rival. Cassie wanted you to spread the technology among dragons, so that Atlantis would regain its awareness of the outside world and wipe out dragon- kind. Cassie views dragons as biological contaminants-leftover relics of genetic engineering that don't belong in the ecosphere.'

'It's fortunate I didn't behave as expected.'

As Jandra and Vendevorex talked, Bitterwood crouched next to Zeeky. He whispered, 'Is that really Jandra?'

'It's her body,' said Zeeky. 'But not her mind. Right now, if you kill Jazz, you'll kill Jandra.'

'I'm willing to make that sacrifice,' whispered Bitterwood. 'You saw what the goddess can do.'

Zeeky shook her head. 'Jandra's still alive inside her. We can save her.'

'How?'

Zeeky motioned for Bitterwood to pay attention to Jandra/Jazz once more.

'So, here's the plan,' said Jandra. 'Hex, Bitterwood, and Blasphet: you all have a passion for breaking things. I want you to help me break Atlantis. We can steal the wonders there and share them with everyone. Vendevorex, I wasn't expecting you, but you'll be useful as well. Once I trigger the jammer, you'll be one of the few minds on earth that will be able use the Atlantean tech to its full potential.'

'So you know their weakness,' said Vendevorex.

'Yes,' said Jandra. 'This is why you had me study all those books on chemistry and physics. If I want to make an antidote to a poison, I need to understand the physical properties of the molecule I need to counteract it. I have this knowledge for the same reason you and Jazz did-I spent years with my nose buried in books memorizing a lot of boring stuff.'

'This is also why Blasphet adapted so quickly to the genie,' said Vendevorex. 'He's spent decades studying the workings of the body and the chemistry of countless poisons.'

'Unlike the Atlanteans who haven't had to study anything for the last thousand years,' said Jandra. 'They have instant access to the city mind, a repository of all shared knowledge. They don't need to memorize the chemical and physical changes needed to turn water into wine. They don't even need to remember their own names. Whenever they want to know something, they ask the city. If they were cut off from the city mind, they'd be helpless.'

'The city mind is too sophisticated for simple radio jamming, however,' said Vendevorex.

'Wrong,' said Jandra. 'The goddess developed algorithms for jamming signals that will cripple the Atlantean network. The city mind will be able to crack the code in a matter of minutes, but we aren't going to give it minutes. Are you with me?'