Prologue
TSS Vella Gulf, Naval Space Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, VA, June 26
Calvin was beat. Closing the door to his stateroom, he fell heavily onto his bunk without taking off his flight suit. Stiffening, he rolled back over and looked toward one of the empty corners of his small cabin. Sighing, he interlaced his fingers behind his head and asked, “How long do you intend to watch me?”
Arges dropped his shield and came into view. “It is interesting that you can do that,” he said. “Did you know I was here or were you just guessing?”
“I’ve always had the ability to tell when someone close by was watching me,” said Calvin.
“Interesting,” answered Arges. “You are the closest to Awareness.”
“What does that mean?” asked Calvin.
“Before Atlantis fell,” replied Arges, “all humans were able to talk telepathically with each other.”
“Wait,” said Calvin. “What do you mean, ‘before Atlantis fell’?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Arges, “but suffice it to say, the things that you believe in, the things that you ‘know’ to be the truth, are often not the truth. In fact, many of the things that humans attribute to mythology, old wives’ tales, and to science fiction and fantasy, are in reality things that happened long ago and, although not completely forgotten, have been so distorted by oral tradition as to not retain most of their original truth.”
This didn’t help explain things. If anything, it only confused Calvin further. “Why don’t you want to talk about it?”
“I am not a warrior,” said Arges, “and Atlantis’ fall was traumatic to me. It is literally too painful to talk about.”
“Wait, you were there?” asked Calvin. “How old are you?”
“We are each somewhat over 5,000 of your years old, give or take a few centuries. We long ago figured out how to preserve our bodies, extending our lives nearly indefinitely. And, as you have long suspected, we are telepaths...just like you.”
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