The blowing and drifting snow had erased all trace of the city, except for the low mounds they could see from the sky. Records had been found in Atlantis that told of the cities of the North, but it was hard for the crews of the squadron to accept. How could anyone have survived the bitter wastes below? Hanzan looked to his co-pilot Jerem and said, “There is no way I would have ever lived in this intense cold. Those people that did were a hardy bunch of men and women, in my mind.” His companion said, “Well, maybe it wasn’t like this ages ago. Perhaps it was warm and green, and had vast herds of animals wandering the plains. Perhaps we will find evidence of that when we begin the dig.” Hanzan replied, “I’m not looking forward to that! Even though we have two of the machines with us, I foresee no enjoyment of the days ahead.”

The cargo ship settled near the largest snow-covered mound, and Hanzan shut the systems down. Forty men and women were in the expedition, and as the starships landed and the crews debarked, the shelters were hurriedly erected  and the heaters lit. The cold invaded their very bones until they had everything set up and functioning, and that evening, after the loving his woman gave him to warm him, Captain Axil informed his work force, “Tomorrow, when the sun rises, we dig like moles. We will tunnel down into the crust, and remain under the sheet of snow and ice while we search for the items we were sent for. If, indeed, there are weapons and starships buried here, like the other areas we have explored, we will soon bring them to the surface. Stay warm, get a good rest, and leave the ladies alone. You will need all your strength in the morning.” A woman laughed and said, “What about you?” Axil laughed back, “I don’t count. I’m the boss!”

The excavating machines were driven from the holds in the cold dawn and quickly had a hole dug that was twenty feet wide and sunk nearly a hundred feet through the snowpack, allowing the crew access to side tunnels that were bored with their blasters, and by noon the first of the old structures was entered. The door was burned and Hanzan holstered his weapon, crawling over the melted slag of iron and charred wood, and he and Jerem and two others went inside. This apparently had been a warehouse for storage of food and items found on the shelves of the city’s markets, everything frozen into nearly unrecognizable trash, and after a thorough inspection, they left for another area. It was difficult to know in which direction to go, and their dig was directed by happenstance. If they found a building, they entered it. If not, they continued to dig.

Time wore on, and when they were nearly ready to quit for the day,  a man came out of a still-dripping shaft and yelled for Axil. “Come running, I have found something!” The captain and command crew entered the tunnel, expecting anything but what they saw. Inside the hollow structure was a barn that held some of the reptiles encountered on the planet by Man when he descended from the stars. They were gigantic meat-eaters that had devoured the puny Humans by the hundreds, until Man got the upper hand and tamed or destroyed them. Several of the mighty beasts wore saddles and harness, that indicated to Axil that they had served man in some fashion after the taming of them. “Wow! Wouldn’t it be fantastic to dig a few of those out of the ice! The damned aliens would foul themselves if they faced something like that, with a Man riding it! Maybe we can thaw the monsters and bring them back to life. Drag them to the surface!” There were dozens of the creatures, frozen solid, and their weight was tremendous, but with the help of the excavators they were soon packed in the holds of the cargo ships, where the temperature was gradually raised the remainder of time the crew stayed in the region.

They found frozen dead men and their loved ones, but no weaponry or starships, other than swords and various kinds of other bladed tools. It had been a farming community, deep in the wilderness, and the aliens had not killed them, but the shifting of the planet’s axis when the horrendous bombs had wreaked their havoc, and the temperature plummeted to forty below zero overnight. “You realize, of course, that if we can thaw those mighty dragons and bring them back to life, it may also be possible to do the same thing with the frozen people. Shall we attempt this? If all we find is failure, well, we can put them back into the ice.” Axil’s command crew thought about it over lunch, and came to a decision. “Axil, if you deem this to be a righteous thing, we are all in agreement. Let’s attempt it, and hope for the best. We will need all the people we can find in the coming hard times to pull through. If they can live, let them.”

They gathered all they could find of the frozen stiffs and stacked them like cordwood in the holds, alongside of the dragons that were softening as the temperature rose. Finding nothing else useful, the squadron departed to the next buried city, several hundred miles to the west. This one had a different configuration, built in a grid composed of the turrets and spires they were familiar with from the far deserts of the East such as Kasil, Fella, and the other ancient cities found in and near Amil’s kingdom. “If there are starships in the northlands, this is surely  where they are buried.” Axil made the comment to the woman who was washing his back, and she felt certain he was right. “Look! There are high platforms on some of the buildings that could only be for landing an aircraft!” She pointed several of them out to him, and he said, “Damned if you don’t have a point! We’ll try landing one of the smaller starships on one of them!” He reached for the com and said, “Hanzan! Report!” The pilot answered back immediately, “Yes sir! Hanzan here!” Axil told him what was in his mind, and the starship that Hanzan and Jerem had traded for the cargo transport dropped like a stone for the landing zone.

As he set it carefully on the ancient pad, ready to lift off quickly in case it collapsed from their weight, Jerem watched closely, and said, “It is structurally sound! We have the full weight of the starship settled, and there is no sign of weakness!” Their commander said, at a touch of the button, “Excellent! Exit your craft and see if you can gain entrance. We will stand by.” Hanzan remained at the controls just in case as Jerem climbed out upon the deck and tried the door leading into the recesses of the tall structure. It would not move, and he drew his blaster and fried his way in. After what seemed a long wait to the squadron circling above, he returned to the deck and waved, yelling, “Come on down! This place has got the goods!” They couldn’t tell what the man had said, but the hand signals were enough and they descended to the snow covered ground.

Several other pilots landed their craft in the upper ramparts, but the most of them were clustered near the first of the towering buildings where Hanzan was standing on the upper deck waving at them. The lady on watch in one of the cargo ships, curiosity gaining the upper hand, placed one of hers on the hindquarters of one of the ferocious monsters they had collected, and was surprised at the soft tissue she found. “Damn. I hope it doesn’t wake up while I’m in here! Where would I run? I want out of here!” She did not want to abandon her post, but there was no way she was staying. She opened the door and jumped to the ground, and ran to the section where the crew had gathered. “Hey Axil, I think our new friends are gonna wake up pretty soon, and I am NOT going to be in there with them if they do!”

She told him of the softness, and the quiver in the cold flesh that had set her off, and , imagined or not, she just couldn’t stay in that cramped space that was beginning to smell like death. He dismissed her from that duty, telling her, “You have done your job well. I only ordered you there so that we would know if the creatures would awaken.” He then told the crew, “Drag the dragons from the hold and lay them out in the snow. If they do come to life, at least outside they will not destroy anything. Hopefully.”

Hanzan and Jerem were working their way from room to room in the upper floors, and had found a number of them that contained strange banks of machines connected by numerous coated metal wires, their blank eyes staring balefully at nothing. There was no understanding their purpose and they were ignored. This search was for weaponry and starships, and the strange they would leave unmolested. Why they had been commanded to land so high in the air was also beyond them. They were sure to find nothing of importance so high off the ground. That was when they entered the room where the old man sat at a console.

He was frozen in place, and had been for thousands of years, the pad that he had been writing on still beneath his hand. There were ten pages in the hastily scribed message, and Hanzan, a barely educated man, said, “We had better take this to the captain. He’s the only one of us that is capable of deciphering the old languages.” His partner said, “Why not leave it as it is and call him up here to see it and the old fellow? Maybe that’s why he had us land up here. This could be relevant, and I don’t want to screw anything up.” Hanzan agreed, and the pair of warriors went to find their leader. The dead eyes of the old man followed them.

Axil and seven of his men climbed the stairs to the room where the corpse sat patiently. When his body could no longer move, and he could make his hand write no more, he had become still as the dense cold settled in. His heart no longer beat and the blood had turned to ice in his frozen flesh. His mind had never stopped though. He had been trapped here for an eternity, waiting. When Axil looked into the dead face and saw the spark in the old eyes he was as scared as he had ever been, knowing that this dead man was not. He gave hurried orders to carry the man to the warmth of the nearest starship, and said, as an afterthought, “Be very gentle with him for he must be brittle as glass! Place him carefully in the cradle of your arms, and do not miss a step on the way to the ground floor!” He led the way to his own ship, for it was closest, and held the cargo pod door ajar to allow them to put the body inside. Then he climbed in and carried the old man to a bunk and wrapped the dead man in the warm blankets. The eyes seemed to follow his every action, and again the captain was spooked.

He closed the ship to retain its heat and went to the gathered crewmembers. “I am going to crap myself if all of these dead people and creatures start moving.” There were nods and clearing throats all amongst them, and they stared thoughtfully at the frozen ground. The woman who had felt the hindquarters of the beast and found softness was still curious, but outside she was unafraid as there was room to run and places to hide, so she had returned to the pile of stiff dragons and kept her eye on them. She saw that same leg twitch, and then kick, and she ran to Axil screaming, “It’s alive!”

The eighteen foot tall monster was struggling erect, it’s jaws moving weakly as it came to it’s powerful hind legs, the claws of the short front legs flexing open and closed. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” one of the women said, and Axil grinned at her. “Maybe. But if we can control the reptile, what a weapon he is!” They had muzzled all of the creatures when they were ejected from the cruisers, loosely, just enough to keep from being bitten by them, and had tied strong ropes to the legs, just in case. More of them were beginning to struggle back to life, and Axil told two of the crew to hurry and check on the frozen bodies they had rescued back in the city of dragons. If one or more of them came to life also perhaps the poor fellow could remember the commands they had taught the huge beasts, and allow them to avoid any unpleasant accidents.

Eight men were trying to hold the tyrannosaur down, but it had slept way too long and wanted to run and heat it’s blood. The muzzle had broken when the beast roared and the man it had just swallowed would stave off hunger for some time, but it was eying the other men and women, and they knew it. A crying girl said, “What damned crazy fool wanted to thaw these monsters out? He ought to be castrated!” A man standing near her said, “That big fella there catches him, he will be!” Jerem came out of the hold of one of the cargo ships leading a stumbling half frozen man they had drug out of the ice, and had a hard time telling him what was required of him, jerking the man’s arm and pointing to the dinosaur.  The man indicated he wanted a sword and was handed one. He stumbled over to the giant lizard and slapped it broadside across the ridge of it’s tail and yelled “Lay down you mangy sonofasnake!” The monster looked over it’s shoulder at him and laid down like a dog.

He walked over to it’s head and rubbed the nubs of it’s ears for a minute, and the seven foot long tongue slid out and licked his face. “I hate it when you do that!” After wiping the slime on the sleeve of his ancient shirt, the man yawned and walked over to the crew. “You got anything to eat? I’m about as hungry as Big Jaw over there! You must have fed him something, though. He’s pretty peaceful. You better find a herd of cattle or something real quick.” Axil was stunned. The skinny little guy had gone over to the other dragons that had awakened and was talking to them like old friends, patting them on their lizard heads and scratching them under the terrible jaws when they bent down to sniff him. “Hanzan!” “Yo, captain!” “Get your starship off the ground and go run that herd of mammoth we saw over the ridge down here. Now!” Hanzan and Jerem ran for the ship, yelling to two other pilots to follow them, and climbed the rungs like monkeys in their haste. The sight of their friend disappearing down the throat of the beast would give them nightmares for a long time.

The frozen man was fed, and when he was satisfied he asked Axil, “Did you find any of my friends? I know what happened to us. We froze to death! I don’t know how you brought me back, but thanks.” The captain said, “We carried everyone we could find out of the ice, man, woman, and lizard.” At that time one of the crew was bringing several dozens of the dazed semi-dead from the cargo hold.. He came over and nervously glanced at the guy standing by the captain and said, “Most of them came out of it but there’s a pile of them in there that ain’t ever going to.” The captain counted heads. “This is it, huh? Did all the lizards make it?” The man said, “Four of them don’t need no lunch either.” Axil looked over the group as the crew fed them and handed out warm clothes, and then at the amazingly peaceful herd of lizards.  Sixteen men and twenty three women. Thirty two of the giant flesh eating lizards. The man who had first come alive had gone back to them to keep them calm, but they were starving and wouldn’t stay that way. He heard the scream of the starship passing overhead and looked to the horizon. They had rounded up about fifty of the big wooly mammoths, and the herd had stampeded in the right direction. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. He wouldn’t forget the soldier sliding down the monster’s throat either.

“Hey Axil! That old man started squirming! You want to go see him?” The captain jogged to his ship and went through the hatch, and saw the old guy sitting up in the bunk with a blanket pulled over his head. “Hey, You all right? You going to be able to get up and take nourishment?” The blanket fell to the old boy’s shoulders. He worked his jaws a bit, moving his tongue around inside his mouth, and must have found a bad taste for he suddenly looked very ill. Axil handed him a jug of water, and the old boy nodded gratefully and polished off the whole thing, swirling the last of it around in his mouth and spitting it back into the jug, which he tried to give back to Axil. “Naw! That’s alright, uh, you keep it. Well, you feel up to talking yet?” The dead man nodded, and Axil said, “Man, I about crapped my trousers when I saw you looking at me up there! Your eyes followed me all around that room! How long have you been awake?” The dead man said, after clearing his throat, “My body froze to death, along with everyone else. But for some reason, my mind never shut down. I have been sitting in that room hoping someone would come for thirteen thousand years, eleven months, and twenty three days.” “Alive?” “Not really, but not dead. I could see, and hear, and think, and my thoughts were terrible. I was trapped!” “Can you move okay now? Want me to help you up? You’re probably ravenous with hunger!” He reached for the dead man and helped him to his feet, and slowly they made their way out of the ship. “The others of the city went to the underground shelters when the cold came, those that did not escape in the starships, but it came so fast! One day it was warm and the sun was shining. The next, fifty below, and everything in sight frozen solid. I wanted desperately to leave a message for whoever found us, and stayed too long at my task. When I finished and tried to rise, I was already stiff and never moved again.” “What was so important that you gave up life to write it down?” The old man said, “I had been working on a new reflector appliance for the starships, that would make them invulnerable to the energy beam weapons of the alien horde, bouncing them right back to their source. Just the day before the world ended I found the secret that had been eluding me for decades! All for naught.”

He got the old fellow warm and fed, and two of the young women bathed and groomed him, cutting the curling floor length hair and whiskers from him, that, when some of the troop jokingly stretched it out, was seventeen feet long. He looked much younger after the pruning and Axil was somewhat surprised when the old man said, “I was forty three when the ice came.” “Oh! I was wondering…well, I don’t want you to feel like you died for nothing, old pal. The aliens are coming back, and your reflector shield may be more important now than ever. We don’t know how much time we have, but some of our people ran into a squadron of them on Mars and became friends, if you can believe that, and one of the aliens told them to get prepared, for the end is near.” “Have you found the underground bunkers where my friends fled to?” “Not yet. The ice is deep, and we have no way of detecting them. Our equipment only works on warmth.” The dead man, whose name was Muchel, said, “There were four entryways, one at each corner of the city, and a great hangar door here.” He scratched a diagram in the snow, and Axil said, “Why, we’re practically standing on one! Thanks, Muck! We’ll get right on it. Hey, were any of them down there capable of helping build that reflector?” “All of them, if you can resurrect them.” He left Muck in the soft hands of the young women, who were massaging the kinks out of him, and putting a few back in, and rounded up the diggers.

A half dozen of the wooly mammoths had been slaughtered and fed to the raptors. They roared their pleasure, blood dripping from the many foot long teeth, and romped playfully through the snow the remainder of the day, with their old friends and handlers from before the ice ages. They had been used in the hunt, and could run any beast to ground, with the Humans riding high on their strong shoulders. From that vantage the hunters could easily slam their spears down into the prey, killing them instantly and with finesse. Axil had visions of them becoming a fighting squad, armed with blasters in place of spears, and transportable to any location at a moments notice. I’ll be famous, he thought, and grinned at the imagined terror they would inflict on an enemy.

Two and a half hours later they were standing in the frigid underground hangar, and Jerem came with the news. “Captain, the bunkers are down this passage. We found almost two hundred bodies, so cold that they have turned blue, but they must have been flash frozen, for there is no deterioration.” “Excellent! Get them to the cargo ships and turn up the heat! It worked on the others, and it ought to on this batch. Uh, you didn’t see any of them, well, looking at you, by any chance?” “What?” “Oh, nothing! Alright, get going, boy! We don’t have time to waste standing around!” He walked into the bunkers and looked anyway. At every last one of them. Nope.

They had to put the dinosaurs in the cargo holds every few hours to warm them up, and the bodies that were stacked along the sides had to be guarded, but there were enough of the rescued handlers to assure that none disappeared. Unlike Muck, this bunch had completely shut down, like the great cave bear did in the cold, and their hair and nails were much like they had been when they went into their long hibernation. Whether their minds would yet be nimble, or if they would even return, was a thing to be seen several days from then. Muchel had given Axil a detailed list of all the equipment that would be needed in the future for the reflectors, and they found sixteen starships and a troop transport at the far end of the hangar, which were loaded and removed. All that remained to be done was to figure out how to move the herd of mammoths south, so the hungry lizards would have their repast. Scouts had reported three other herds in the region, and they too would be shoved along. Axil did not want a meat shortage to occur at an inappropriate time, and the way to the Southlands was long.

They were ready to leave, after all the computing devices had been loaded, and Muck was standing in the bare room he had spent so much time in, with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “You know, while I sat there in that chair, I had nothing to do but think. I invented and perfected hundreds of devices, without ever moving a muscle, memorizing every detail. I believe the alien horde may be in for a surprise, if or when they return.” “I’ll bet you won’t miss this place though, will you?” Axil asked him, and Muck grinned, “Not too bad!” They headed for the command ship, and Axil gave the orders to head for the next snow covered mounds a few hundred miles down the frozen river valley.

The two excavators worked around the clock, and moved many tons of snow and ice from the mounds, and when they got to where the buildings should have been, found nothing but rubble. “It looks like they took a direct hit from several of the aliens bombs.” Jerem said, and Hanzan had to agree with him. “We might as well let Axil know this one is a bust, and go find another site.” Anything they might find that had been in the bombed-out areas was likely to have suffered extreme damage, and they knew from experience that there would be few if any bodies intact. That afternoon they pushed the herd of mammoths further down the valley, four of the starships herding them along, as the rest of the expedition went on ahead of them.

Late in the evening as the moon was rising over the low mountain range, Muck, who had been a resident of the area for a long time, said, “There was a fine city down there at one time. We used to go there on holiday, for the many gambling halls had tables and games from all across the world, and lounges where one could find a pretty lady for the night. It was a very rich place, if you know what I mean.” Axil looked at him closely. “Well, I don’t suppose it would hurt a thing, if we were to find a little treasure along with what we were ordered to find.” Muck’s grin matched Axil’s. “Nope. Wouldn’t hurt a thing.” They found the place with the help of the moon-glow on the towers, many of which still had glass in the windows, and landed in the deep snow drifts at their base. It was dark by then, and very cold, and the crews stayed in the warmth of their starships for the rest of the night near the heaters, not setting up camp until the sun came up. The mammoths could be heard trumpeting in the distance as morning  arrived, and the four cruisers came down from the sky, their crews tired to the bone, and ready for a long nap.

They stayed at the lost casino for several days, resting from their exertions in the deep cold of the Northlands, and giving the rejuvenated frozen people some time to gather their thoughts and become used to the fact that they really hadn’t died after all. They spent most of their time between exploring, looking for bodies, and rushing back to the warmth of the cruisers. Axil and Muck, on the other hand, recruited Hanzan and Jerem and looked for gold. They found the vault easily enough, and had found plenty of  loose coin on the floors and tables, but the vault would be a problem. It had a massive triple door, each with a different set of locks that went completely through the metal walls on each side, that could only be opened with the keys, which could not be found. “Whoever had them must have escaped in a starship as the cold came down. Maybe they took the gold with them when they left,” Hanzan said. “Naw. Why would they close and lock the vault again? It would take too much time, if they were bent on escape. It’s still in there.” Axil was convinced of that. He decided that he would have the four of them focus their blasters at each lock, and burn them off one at a time, thereby not harming the contents of the vault. When they did that, it took a very long burn, for the reinforced metal was strong, heat hardened, and nearly indestructible. The fellows were stubborn though, and, if they could become suddenly rich, why, it didn’t matter if it took days to knock the doors down. It didn’t. Their blasters did the work in less than two hours. The men had to stop often to let the weapons cool, for they burned their hands through the thick leather they got so warm. They were not meant to be cutting tools, and were designed for quick bursts, as opposed to the long steady burn.

The locks were gone, now they must pry the doors from their jamb, which was the hardest part of their labors. Once that was accomplished, Muck looked at them and said, “Boys, cross your fingers,” and led the way into the vault.

Metal shelves sagged from the weight that had sat on them for thousands of years, and rotted leather bags, tied at the tops, had split open and spilled their contents, covering the shelves and floor with a shine only gold can impart. “There must be a ton of the stuff! It’ll wear us out carrying it!” Jerem was already tired just thinking about it. “Well, the folks who ran this operation had wheeled dollies that they transported the bags on. They must be here somewhere, let’s find them,” Muck said, and they went hunting. The hunt took them to the next building along a dangerous catwalk forty feet from the ground, and the temperature was so severe that the snow crunched at every step, causing them to wonder if it was the snow or the decrepit walk they were treading. They made it with no mishap and went through the open snow drifted entry. This hall had many tables and games also and a stage where the remains of a fabulous painting of nude women was the backdrop. It was an old canvas twenty by twelve feet, and still limber. Axil said, “I’m taking that home with me! I’ve got the perfect wall for it, and I know a painter who can touch it up. Damn it’s pretty!” It took an hour of painstaking labor to get it down, with Jerem’s help, and while they were doing that Muck and Hanzan found the cart and brought it back across the catwalk. Axil would come back for the painted mural after the vault was cleaned, for he needed half a dozen men to carry the ungainly thing to the cargo ship.

The rotted leather bags were of no use at all, and the coin was scooped into the cart loose. “This isn’t going to work,” Muck said. “It will never roll through the snow with that weight on it. We had a difficult enough time with it when it was empty. We might have to share it with the crew, just to get them to carry it to the starships. There goes the profit!” He was laughing as he spoke, but the others saw the truth in it. They would spend days and dozens of trips on their own. If the crew were brought in, there would be one mad rush and it would be done. “Alright,” Axil said. “I hate to lose all that gold, but, we can tell them that, since we four found it and got the vault open, they only get to divvy up half of it. The rest belongs to us. As long as they understand that, we won’t have any trouble.” They all thought it beat carrying it all out themselves, and went to inform the rest of the expedition of their newfound wealth.

The lizards had been fed, and their caretakers, always an ambitious people, made slings from heavy blankets and attached them to the giants. “Ain’t no sense breaking our backs when we got Big Jaw and his pals to do the work,” Clemus said, and led his work force to the casino. Everyone in the troop got their share, and that night at the huge fire they were already spending the gold, happily telling one another what he or she was going to buy when they got home. Muck was highly amused by the sight of them, and said to Axil, “All I want is a nice warm room on a sunny sandy beach, and maybe two or three of the young ladies over there.” Axil grinned. “Yeah. What more would a guy really need?”

It was time to head south, and the next morning, having thawed the remaining members of Muck’s town out and taking care of them, they lifted off. It would be a slow journey, unless the scouts found more herds running the frozen wastes. If not, food for the carnivores had to be pushed along with them, and that would put a real drag on them. The farther south they traveled the warmer it became, until the freezing point had been reached and surpassed. That took them nearly a week, and the crew was antsy to pick up speed. They could be home tomorrow if the lizards would stay calm but when they were hungry they were very dangerous. Small herds were beginning to be seen, of the smaller mastodon and large buffalo, common to the grasslands. The mammoth ruled, and they started to see vast herds of the animals, foraging in the lessening snow for spruce needles, which they favored, and which lent an interesting flavor to the meat. The dinosaurs weren’t the only ones fond of the mammoth’s flesh. When it was roasted over an open fire, it was one of the tastiest foods any of them had ever had, and beat wild hog hands down.

Moose were seen hip-deep in the meltwaters now, and the cave bear and giant grizzly often battled on the hillsides for the precious berries that still clung to the bush after the long sleep. Axil decided they had seen enough, and they would no longer push the original herd along with them. When the lizards were hungry, their handlers would take them hunting, and they would feed themselves. Still they must stop twice a day and allow them out of the starships. They could not be trained to hold their wastes and the cargo ships smelled mightily of them. With a sigh he thought, Oh well, by the end of the week we’ll be in greener pastures, and then they can run loose the rest of the way home.

Several boring days went by in this manner, and then Axil looked up Clemus and his companions when they had camped for the night. “Clem, we’re going to leave you tomorrow. I want you and your tribe to ride the lizards the rest of the way and get their strength built up. There will be plenty to eat, and the days are getting longer and warmer as we move down the side of the great lakes. Every few days one of the starships will jog back to check on you and make sure you don’t get lost. Atlantis is still two thousand miles away, and that will give you time to train your men and women for battle. I’m leaving Hanzan with you to drill your people in those arts, but you will be the commander. How does that set with you?” Clem said, “Hmm. We get blasters?” “Both hand and shoulder, and the swords you are so capable with.” “You got some kind of armor for us, when we reach Atlantis?” Axil said, “I will have custom uniforms created for your men and women that will be unique among our armed forces, that incorporate the armor into their design. With dragon-head helmets.” Clem reached for his hand and they shook on it. “You won’t let anyone pilfer our gold?” “Absolutely not! I will guarantee that, and guard it myself.” Clemus smiled. Axil said, “You can trust me!”

Clem’s mate had not made the thaw, and he had been watching one of the young women in his garrison when she walked, or rode the beasts on the road south, and at the fires at night. The starships had left them days ago, to fend for themselves, with a grumpy Hanzan for company. Every evening, following the strict orders of Axil to the letter, he trained them in hand to hand combat and the skills of the blasters. They in turn showed him the intricacies of a good sharp blade, and how to control the long toothed flesh-eaters that carried them, although Hanzan still had his starship. Every morning he scouted the way ahead of them, and every evening he too was starting to notice a particular girl among the travelers.

Clem stood and stretched his cramped muscles, and walked over to where she was tending the fire, turning the bison roast and basting it with its own juices from a nearby container warming at the fire’s edge. “That smells really good. When do you think it will be ready to eat?” She glanced sideways up at him through her ultra-long lashes, and smiled. “Soon enough.” “Well, do you mind if I wait right here? I’m pretty hungry, and besides, we haven’t had a chance to talk much. I don’t even know your name.” She smiled again and did not look at him, but off to the horizon, and said nothing. “Aren’t you going to tell me?” “Why? What are your intentions?” Clem was baffled. “Well, I’d like to get to know you.” “You do not need to know me to issue commands. I hear them and obey. Isn’t that enough?” He looked at her miserably, and said, “No! I want to know everything about you! I see you walk and ride and go about your duties and I can’t get your beautiful face out of my mind! You torment me!” She got up and walked close to him. “I know.” “You do?” “I’ve seen you watching me.” “Are you angry with me? I mean you no harm, I just can’t stop thinking about you, and the trail is long and lonesome.” She took his hand and smiled, “Yes it is. My name is Sherri. And you are Clem, as the birdmen call you.” “Birdmen?” “Those who fly the starships.” “Oh. I have not seen a man near you for long. They come up to you and you send them away. Does that mean that you have no man?” “I had one, before the freeze.” Clem was still holding onto her hand, “Yes, I also had a mate then, but she didn’t survive either.” “Let’s walk under the stars,” she said, and keeping her hand in his, led him off to stand near the bank of the slow moving river in the moonlight. They were quiet for a long time, then she said, “I hoped that you liked me and wanted to get to know me. I have been watching you, too. It’s funny isn’t it? I guess neither one of us is too brave.” He didn’t know about her, but he was feeling brave enough to try kissing her, and did so. She liked it, and kissed him back for a long time, then said, “Our meat will burn.” They ran back to the fire like children caught in an outrageous prank, laughing and tugging each other along, and ran into Hanzan and his new girlfriend along the way. They too had been out walking in the darkness, and Sherri invited them to her fire, saying, “The roast is perfect and moist, and more than enough for all of us!”

After they had dined, and were sitting there enjoying the company of good friends, Hanzan shyly asked his girl, “Wouldn’t you rather stay in the comfort of my starship, than to sleep out here in the dampness? And what about you two? There is room for all of us in the berths, where it is cozy and light and warm. You are welcome, if you want to come.” Sherri hadn’t planned on taking Clem to her bed so fast, but she thought about it, and thought about what a nice man he was, and said, “Do you want to, Clem?” “If you do.” The other girl was smiling like she had just been handed an extra bag of gold, and Hanzan led them to his starship.

They talked for a while after entering the cruiser, but talk hadn’t been what Hanzan was thinking of when he made the offer, and they soon went their separate ways. He had shown Clem and Sherri where to sleep, and he and Daleen disappeared.

Clem led her to the berth and tenderly undressed her and loved her like he had loved no other woman. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and he devoured her. She was complete, and smiled in her sleep, with her arms tight around her man.

They began staying in the starship with the other couple every night, and the foursome spent much of their time together and became great friends. Hanzan told stories of his early life in Atlantis, and tales that had been passed down through the priests of the glory of the past, when Man traveled the distant stars and battled the alien horde from a galaxy on the far side of the universe. Clem and Sherri had no such tales to tell, for there had been no priests in their small community of farmers, and the aliens had not found them when the end came. Hanzan was a good talker, and he talked.

Axil and the rest of the expedition had landed in Atlantis the day after leaving the dinosaurs behind, and Muck and his people had been put up, as Muck had hoped, in nice warm thatch beach houses, where Dorian and Xlacchan met with the inventive man who had remained awake for so long. “Axil tell us that you have some very interesting ideas, and have had the time to work all the flaws out of them.” They were impressed by the deep calm of the man, whose patience knew no end, and the priest said, “You are the only one of the ancients that did not sleep, and saw the passage of the ages since the day the aliens came down and destroyed our world. Sonja has declared you to be a holy man, and named you Elder of Atlantis. Tonight you will be honored at the pyramid, in the room at the peak under the great crystal. She told me to tell you she has a surprise for you.” Muck smiled and said, “All of life is a surprise anymore.” He told Dorian of the reflector shield he had perfected, too late to do any good, and the king said, “Well, we will get busy and install them on every starship we have. The entire city is at your disposal, and anything you need that we don’t have will be flown in, in a short time.” They left him to prepare for his evening honors, the two young ladies assigned to assist him anxious for everyone to depart. They admired him tremendously.

Clem was in love. He didn’t care if it took a year for the garrison to arrive in Atlantis, and Hanzan was no longer in a hurry either. The combat instructions went on as planned, and the garrison was becoming proficient in their new embodiment as a fighting force. The great lizards were no longer frightened by the blasters firing from their backs, and after just two weeks readily attacked in any direction with just a touch of a heel. They were well fed, the large herds of bison and deer fat and unafraid of predators. Clem’s people came across small bands of wanderers, hunters following the bison, carrying all their possessions with them on long poles drug behind them, on occasion. They were descendants of survivors of the alien invasion long ago, and walked the land as free as the breeze, owning nothing yet everything in their path. They were friendly, yet warlike, and some of them, wanting to be near the ferocious killers that the men from the north rode, followed them south.

Muck’s first night in Atlantis went as expected, as far as Dorian was concerned. In Muck’s eye it looked a little different though. First of all, he was introduced to the goddess and queen Sonja, and had the shock of his long life. He remembered the legends that she was connected to! As a child his mother had told him of the winged gods from Venus and Mars, and now one of them had hold of his hand! When he had barely gotten over that, the child was brought in, her wings proudly extended behind her head, carrying a small pillow with a many-faceted crystal on it, that she handed up to him. Sonja said, “ Elder of Atlantis, here is the symbol of your status. Use it wisely, as it will unlock the powers of the one on top of this pyramid, and the three crystals on the cone of the volcano. Only one of your unlimited knowledge can hold the key.” Meela, the little angel, took his hand and he followed her to a seat at the side of the chamber. “It is time for the surprise daddy told you about,” she said to him, and he picked the child up and set her on his lap and waited.

A large group of men and women in long white coats wheeled a string of computing devices into the chamber. The last time Muck had seen them was in the room he had wished he could die in. They had been refreshed by his fellow technicians on the journey from the Deadlands and were ready to go to work, once the proper power was put to them. He had access to that power, he suddenly realized, in the palm of his hand. He put the child down and got to his feet and went to the computing device he had always favored, and looked at the connections. “Well, I will have to devise a socket for the crystal to reside in, but that won’t be a problem. They were already wired into a network, so one power source could power all of them. Thank you, all of you, for getting this done, and you Sonja, for making possible the impossible. We shall be ready when the alien horde arrives!” There was loud applause that lasted for some time, then Meela again took the Elder’s hand and tugged him over to Sonja and Dorian. Sonja said, “Now, the promised surprise!” “But, I thought the computing devices were the surprise!” “No. They are a necessity. Here is your surprise! Bring it in!”

A small circular starship, no more than a dozen feet in diameter, was brought in on dollies, and alongside of it walked a beautiful young woman in a pilot’s uniform, wearing a weapons belt with a blaster and short sword, and a smile. It had a clear dome that enabled the occupants of the two seats to see in all directions, and a set of external blasters mounted front and rear. The skin gleamed like a mirror and had a blinding shine that he could see his face in, and the huge grin that was on it. “So that you never have to wait for a ride, the City of Atlantis presents you with your own, complete with full time pilot at your disposal.” He walked around it several times, his hand trailing over the smoothness of it, and said, “I’ve never had one of my very own. It’s fabulous! This will be the first one fitted with the new reflector shield. May I deserve the trust you place in me. Thank you all again!” Again came the thunderous applause, and then Amil and Rashel, Kahn, and Zelda entered the echoing chamber.

Amil too had a gift for Muchel, from the people on the other side of the world. After the introductions, and warmly shaking hands with the man who couldn’t die, Amil said, “I have been hearing of you since you were found, my friend, and am damned glad to finally meet you! Surely you are the only man on the planet that survived the aliens intact! Still alive! For the oldest living man on the planet, we, the people of Fella and Kasil, present you with this!” He took Muck’s hand that didn’t hold the crystal and placed in it a small golden object. Instantly Muck felt heat emanating from it, and looked down at what he held. It was a piece that had been found in Kasil, in the residence of the dead king, and had been locked in a metal case since the Martians had landed on Earth those eons gone. Brought to this planet for safekeeping for fear it would fall into the hands of the aliens, it had been given to the people of Eden directly from the gods, and held some of the power of them in it’s round golden orb. “It looks and feels like the Sun!” “Well, we call it Zun in our neck of the woods,” Amil apologized, and Muck was overwhelmed. “You have given me the power of the Sun! I can FEEL it coursing through me! What have I done to deserve this great honor from folks who don’t even know me?” Muck had tears running down his face from the awesome gifts that had been given to him, and Amil said, “It’s for what you WILL do. You may be the only man alive who can actually save the Human race from extinction. Sonja has said that the old gods preserved you for us, and if that be true, the relic from Mars is rightfully yours. Sonja and the child, and Dorian and Xlacchan have seen the Father, in a crypt on Mars, so we know the old gods are still with us.” A long strong linked chain was attached to the orb, of a metal not of this Earth, and Muchel draped it over his head, letting it hang where it would, which was directly beneath his heart. Sonja took his hand and said, “Welcome to Atlantis!”

Clem was stiff and sore from the fall he had taken, and Sherri was worried that she might hurt him in their bed that night, but he brushed her concern aside. “Woman, I have no pain when you are near me!” After the loving he allowed her to work the soreness from his back and told her of the nearly fatal drop from the cliff. “I should not have been out there, but the bird’s wing was broken and it was starving. Something had to be done or it would have perished.” “Most of us watching thought our commander was about to perish! The way you cradled it with your body when you fell was so heroic, and did indeed save it’s life, but you nearly ended your own, and mine in the process!” He looked deeply into her heart through her eyes and whispered, “You care that much?” She hugged him fiercely and said, “I do!”

The young eagle had had it’s broken wing set, biting the men severely several times in it’s pain, and had greedily swallowed all the raw chunks of bison placed in front of it. Clem, worried that it might not receive the attention it needed when the camp settled in for the night, had it brought to the starship and put in the berth nearest his own. He sat there looking at it long after Sherri had gone to sleep, and felt that he had done the right thing. The eagle looked right back at him and held his stare, without fear. He got up and went over and sat next to the bird, and when it didn’t try to move away, reached out and stroked the white feathers of it’s head. “Perhaps you will stay and be my friend when your wing heals, or you can fly away if that is your desire. Whatever, I will do my best to bring you back to health.” He gave the bird a final stroke and went to his bed. As he watched the eagle ruffled it’s feathers and tucked it’s head under the good wing and went to sleep.

He could barely move the next day, but the bird was hopping all over the starship, looking for a way out, when he awoke. Sherri had gone already, and he got up and caught the bird and took it outside. Once there, the bird became calm and made no attempt to escape from him, content to ride on his arm as Clem walked the campsite searching for his woman. The long legged lizards could run, and loved doing so, and they had covered nearly fifteen hundred miles and were coming into a lush green paradise of a landscape. The natives who had followed the lizard men had grown in numbers to nearly a thousand by this time, the daily sighting of the starship taking off in the morning and landing again toward the end of the day becoming something akin to a religious experience for them, and they danced wildly at their fires long into the night. So it was with wild abandon they whooped and danced the night Muck’s beautiful pilot set the saucer down in their midst and dropped to her feet in front of them. Muck’s entrance into their camp didn’t impress them half as much as she had. She was dark skinned just like them, and her long blowing black hair tied them to her like a strong rope, and they stopped the dance and dropped to their knees before her, and she just kept on smiling. Muck didn’t think they would harm her after all that, so he left her there to enjoy herself and went looking for Hanzan. He had been wondering for days of the fate of this bunch, and how their combat conditioning was progressing, and when he saw the fine muscular shape of them at the camp was impressed. The beasts were in far better form than he could have imagined, and the farmers had been transformed. They were warriors.

He knew Clem, and greeted him as an old friend, and was instantly fond of the wonderful Sherri. They had been neighbors in theNorthern Deadlands, a mere two hundred miles separating the farming community and the city, and felt like cousins. “We have taken good care of your portion of the gold, my friend, and have erected some damned fine barracks and high corrals for your garrison. The reason I dropped by was to give you a sample of your new uniforms.” He took the package from under his arm and said, “This one was made to your measurements, Clem, and I wanted you to have it, to wear in pride. A week from now I will meet you at the bay, and the boats will ferry you across to Atlantis. When you get on the boats the other uniforms will be there waiting for your people, and when you enter Atlantis the people will cheer wildly in welcome, I promise you. They all know of your overland trek and the dangers you have faced in your voluntary journey to their aid, and you have become heroes to them. The Dragon Legion is already famous all throughout the land. Here. What do you think of the helmet?”

Clem unwrapped the package and shook the two part uniform free of it’s wrinkles, and dropped the rolled weapon harness in the process. The helmet had been in the middle of the bulky package, and it too slipped from his hand, and the eagle dropped from the sky like a rock and landed square upon it, letting fly a victorious screech the like of nothing Muck had ever heard. With an embarrassed grin Clem booted the eagle from the helmet and picked it up, turning it this way and that to get the full effect. “The aliens will believe we are demons from the darkest hell they know of when they see us!” He laughed and put it on his head. Sherri had come up to them at just that time and she said, “Clem! You look just like the fiercest lizard I have ever seen! How wonderful! When do I get mine?” She loved the whole uniform. “This is amazing! They have made the cloth to resemble the mottled scales of the beast! What did they make it from?” Muck said, “Shark skin. That’s where they got the teeth for the helmets, too, I do believe.” “I love it! The black leather and silver metal is perfect! You must have had women design them! Clem, you run over behind the starship and change! I want to see you dressed like The Commander of The Dragon Legion! I’ll help you!” They trotted off, and Muck was highly pleased with himself.

His pilot was damned pleased with herself, too. She was being worshipped like a goddess from the skies, and she was eating it up. She would come to visit these people often, when they arrived in Atlantis. She was saddened at the knowledge that they would discover she was not really a goddess, but that didn’t last long, and she had the time of her life that night. She picked the tallest, handsomest man in the throng, and led him off into the darkness to show him a little magic.

Clem came out from behind the ship, the Commander of the Dragon Legion, and every man and woman under his command came running to see, and one of the girls barked, “Attention!” Well trained  and ready for whatever came their way, the jumped into position and snapped to attention, throwing a precise and perfectly coordinated salute. “Wow! Your team has come a long way, Commander. I, too, salute you!” Muck raised his arm, palm outward as the troop had done. They broke ranks and ran up to touch and admire the uniform, and all of them swelled with pride and were anxious for the long trek to be over. Sherri said, “Get up on Big Jaw and let us get the full effect, Commander,” and Clem whistled for the beast.

Once Big Jaw had crouched and allowed him to climb on, Clem whistled again and the eagle swooped down on him, landing on the raised forearm and letting loose a battle cry, which was echoed by the roar of the dinosaur. Chills shot up and down the spines of all who saw, and one of the men yelled, “The only thing that could improve on that would be some leather and chains on the beast!” Muck laughed and said, “That has been thought of my friends, and that too will be waiting for you on the boat! It will be a parade into Atlantis such as has never been seen!” Clem hopped down off his ride and came back to his woman, who again saluted smartly, and then rushed into his arms. “Oh Clem! I’m so glad you rescued the eagle now! You cannot believe how even I felt terror at the sight of the three of you! The screech, the roar, and the incredible yell that broke loose from yourself! I’m so proud to be your woman!” She started crying like her heart was ripping and Clem grabbed her. “Hey, what’s wrong?” “Nothing! I love you! I’m so happy I just HAD to cry!” “Hey. Sherri. I love you, too.” The fierce commander’s own eyes were a little moist.

Muck had gone back to the saucer after the goodbye’s, and didn’t have long to wait. He was used to the things his smiling pilot was usually up to, and knew she didn’t waste much time. She came out of the dark, leading the dazed man back to the fire, and left him standing in a trance as she climbed aboard. “Hey chief. Atlantis?” Muck, thinking of the terrifying spectacle he had just witnessed, didn’t answer right away. TheNorthern Deadlands were far away, and in all probability would never be visited again, but it’s people and creatures would never be forgotten. He looked at the smiling pilot and said, “Yes, you hungry little devil, Atlantis!”