Somewhere in the Lost City, under the sand and debris of a destroyed civilization, there had been a water supply of enormous capacity, and now that the heavy equipment was functioning, they would soon find it, freeing twenty soldiers from their monotonous water carrying caravans to and from the oasis. Over a hundred men were now operating the heavy machines, scraping and digging huge loads of sand and carrying it up the slope where others would push it away and pile it up. Items that had been used by the ancients began turning up in the loosened sand, and Amil issued orders to take care that no artifacts were broken and irreplaceably lost. That took a little of the fun out of the dig for the drivers, but the other men became almost overjoyed by the new discoveries they constantly made, and began to stockpile the treasures as they were found, carefully packing them for removal to Amil’s kingdom.

Thousands of tons of sand had been moved by the second week at the dig, and the ancient city was becoming revealed. There were still many side streets and alleys clogged with broken rocks and wreckage amongst the sand, but work progressed rapidly. The Lost City now sat in a tremendous bowl cut from the surrounding desert, many of the structures of three and four floors. Some of the turrets and spires that had thrust up through the desert were eighty to a hundred feet high, and most of the buildings had fine balconies and terraced gardens. There were many small market areas interlaced among the dwellings and offices of the elite, and utensils of fine pottery and rotted cloth were showing up. So were the mummies and bones. In the hot sand the people who had died on their feet in the blast that had killed them had soon dried out to a point where decomposition could no longer take place, and the king called a halt to the use of the big machines. “From here on, we dig carefully, with shovels and by hand. We will respect those who fell here, and gather them for communal burial. When we are certain we have found all we can, the priests of Zun will send them to their gods.”

Sonja had found a mummy of a woman with a small child held forever in her arms, lying in a doorway of the building Dorian was clearing, and she knelt and touched the hair of the baby, that was lifting and moving with the slight breeze. “So sad, that they have lain here all those thousands of years, and no one to know or care. They must have been buried by the blast. Do you see how they are flattened somewhat? I will see personally that this woman and child are cared for, and put up a marker for them.” She cried some for them, then went off to find the king.

“Father, can you lend me the assistance of two of your soldiers? I wish to move a small family to where you decide the graves will be, and see that they are not forgotten. They have been lost long enough. What are your plans for the city, Father? Do you still intend for the people of our homeland to come here as tourists?” Amil said thoughtfully, “Yes, I believe they need to know their true history and heritage. First, I will ask for volunteers among the citizenry, to come here and try to restore the main structures and make them safe, and as time goes by, rebuild the entire site. With the three dozen troop transports and cargo ships, the journey will be swift. No longer will the caravans from our homeland take weeks and months to complete. This will become a holy place to all people from all lands when it is known, and we will control access to it, and police those who come. All artifacts will go to the museum we will construct at Fella Lake, barring the treasures and weapons and spaceships, and of course, the wonderful machines. They belong to Dorian and me.”

“What do I get?” Amil grinned, “Everything Dorian and I have, of course.” She kissed him on the cheek and went back to the mummies with her two soldiers in tow. They lifted the nearly weightless corpses tenderly and placed them in a sling on the back of one of the camels, and Sonja took the lead rope and walked up the slope to the chosen ground, where the priests of Zun were already consecrating the area. She picked a spot for the interment, and the soldiers placed them gently on the ground and began to prepare a plot for them. The girl went to her tent and found a blanket that her mother had made for her when she was a youngster, and went back and carefully wrapped the mummy mother and child, and again shed tears for them.

“I want the stone my father found, with the strange symbols, placed at the head of this grave. Will you men do that for me? So that they will never be lost again.” The tears were still in her beautiful brown eyes, and no man alive could resist her plea. “Of course, Princess! We will get it now, while you say goodbye to this sad pair.” They came back soon, carrying the heavy stone, and she showed them where she wanted it placed. “This will be their monument. It is fitting, for no one knows what it says, and no one knows who they were. They are ready for you now. You can put them in their bed. Goodbye,” she said to the mummies, and went to find Dorian.

As the days grew cooler, the hours the men worked began to change, and they worked later into the morning, glad to have the light of the sun. Working in the dark with lanterns had not been easy, but the only way to get the job done. Now the sand did not burn through the soles of their boots, as there was shade cast by the towering walls of the deep bowl and the exposed buildings, and now and then a cooling breeze blew though the structures as the withered bodies accumulated. Many of them were nothing but piles of dry bones, but there were hundreds in near perfect condition, considering the condition they were in. Amil decided, “I will take the king and queen, for they are found, back to the museum at Fella, and mount them in a gilded glass case. They are remarkably well preserved, having been inside their palace when the blast occurred. They will have a place of respect where all people can see and honor them, their ancestors.” Sonja liked the plan, and asked him to take her to them, for she had not known of their discovery.

They had suffocated as the city was buried, and knew they were about to die, and had lain down together on a divan to wait for the end, hand in hand. “That is how they will remain, forever together,” Amil said to his daughter, and the girl knelt by their side to look more closely at them. “They almost look alive, though very thin. Like they are merely sleeping.” They had been approaching middle age, and were a very handsome couple in life, with silvering hair and trim healthy bodies. She had seen some of the mummies who had been heavy when alive, and the skin had dried in bags and folds as the meat inside cured. This couple had fine tight skin, and the muscles under it, as they dried, had done so slowly, and left them closely resembling who they had been. “She looks kind of like Mother, don’t you think?” Amil replied, “I had thought the same thing when we first found them. She must have been beautiful, for she still is, these eons later.”

“Amil!” Dorian called from the entrance. “Water has been found flowing in pipes under the street! Come see! Bring that good looking woman with you!” Amil laughed and said, “Which one?”  Dorian said, “The live one!” Sonja went over and took his arm, “Did you find me a bath house yet? I’m starting to smell like that camel I just led up the hill!” He sniffed at her playfully and said, “Aw you don’t smell like a camel! One of the horses, maybe…”

She slapped him lightly and stepped out into the bright sunlight. Water was gushing from the broken pipe, and running in a stream for about twenty feet before disappearing into the sand. “Will you catch some for me, dear Dorian? I really do smell bad, and feel very sticky. A bath would make you a lot easier to be near too!” He called to the men who were trying to plug the flow and asked if they would mind filling the bucket on one of the big machines with the cool water, and they quickly complied. “Well my little sweetheart, let's get on that thing and go for a ride. There’s a spot out behind the buildings here that’s nice and private, where you can get naked and hop into the bucket.” She said, “Oh, how nice! Will you get in with me?” Smiling like a young boy he said, “If I do we’ll end up splashing all the water out.” She said, “So?”

They ran up to the tent and got fresh clothes, and then took the machine for a ride, with the bucket tipped back and up to prevent the loss of their bath. Dorian parked in the deep shade behind the structure, and they helped one another peel the sweat-stained clothes off and climbed in. It was delicious! They washed each other and when they had gotten clean, did indeed splash the remaining water from the bucket.

When the sun had climbed directly overhead the temperature rose to almost a hundred and the men crawled into the cool shadows of the old structures, and would spend their day inside, exploring and sleeping the time away until nightfall. A half-wit who worked with the Weez, Sammy, was called to the chamber in the palace where the dead rulers lay, and the king told him, “I want you to find a load of boards somewhere that we can make a shipping crate from. Can you do this without hurting yourself?” Sammy mimicked Krotchner, scratching his mangy scalp in deep thought. “Boards?” Amil looked him in the eye and said, “Wood. Boards. The things you tore off the supplies that we brought here. Boards!” Sammy said, “Oh! I know where them are! You want me to bring some down?” Nearly losing his patience, Amil said, “Hey, that’s a good idea! Sammy, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t thought about bringing the boards down! Why, then I would have had to send you back out there in the heat a second time! You’re getting smarter every day!” Sammy swelled up. “Well, somebody’s got to do the thinking.”

Sammy spent two hours fetching the wood and was wrung out by the time he had carried it all down to the palace, and was sitting on the pile when Amil came looking for him. “Sammy, you carried enough wood down here to make a house! Where’s that Krotchner fellow? Most of that will have to go back outside. We will need it to crate the artifacts.” He went to the warehouse where the fleet was stored and found Weez tinkering with one of the ships. “Weez, I need your help. That Sammy has no idea of what I want done, so you are going to have to help him. The bodies of the king and queen must have a good solid crate, so we can load them on one of the ships to fly them home, but Sammy would build a barge! It needs to be just big enough to contain then, and no larger. I want it padded with horse blankets, and when you get it ready, find me.” Weez nodded and left the building.

Amil had moved into the starship he had claimed, and went there to sleep for a while. The bunk was narrow but he slept in it like a babe and had wonderful dreams of a former time in a beautiful city. He was swimming in the canal with his young friends when Krotchner came for him. Yawning, he said, “Weez, do you know where Sonja and her husband are? I would like for them to assist me in packing the king and queen. It seems fitting to me that royalty attend royalty, and I want no one else to touch the bodies.” The skinny man said, “I saw them sitting near their ship, talking head to head. I’ll get them for you.”

Nearly all the mummies had been located and carried to the consecrated plot upslope, and that night as the moon rose the ceremony was held. If more were found when the volunteers got here to begin the restoration of the city, they too would be interred with their friends and families. It was nearly time to go back to Amil’s homeland, and the ships would be taken out tonight and loaded with the tons of artifacts they had found. There were everything from children’s toys to hairbrushes, sculptures, dinnerware, gold ornaments, clothing, sandals, and false teeth. Many of the furnishings of the ancient dwellings had survived under the dry sand. All of this was to be ferried home to the proposed museum. Amil wanted to get back and begin it’s construction immediately, knowing that once the materials were exposed to humidity they were in danger. There was a lot of work ahead of them. What had gone before had been difficult, but they must still learn to fly the starships, and then get them loaded and safely home.

When full dark had arrived and the stars and moon lit up the night, the great hangar door was opened and the men, whom had been tutored by Dorian for several days, climbed into their starships and started them, and one by one floated them through the exit, and up the slope. Only one of the nervous pilots nudged the side of the door on his way through. Krotchner took over for Dorian as supervisor, and he and Sonja went to the warehouse that held the fleet. The rest of the soldiers were there waiting for them, and they had finished loading the weaponry and such into the cargo and troop transports, and left the building bare except for some few items that were damaged and useless. The wall had been breached and as the soldiers picked their cruisers and mounted them, they took off for the sandy plain above the city.

Twenty-nine men would herd the camels and horses back across the desert, carrying what could not be fit into the ships, and Dorian, Sonja, and several of the captains would escort them in their new starships. The heavy machines were put back in the hangar. Amil did not think anyone could possibly get to the City before he came back in force with a thousand men and women. The Lost Citywould never be lost again, for he intended to populate the place with residents of his own city and lay claim to it and all the surrounding country. Sammy and a few others had taken down the tents and packed them on camels, and all the supplies were loaded before dawn. It was time to go, but care must be exercised with the starships. There had been no time for practice flights. They would learn as they went, flying low and slow.

They gathered at the consecrated plot and the priests of Zun led a final prayer for the dead, and they mounted up and left the city. After several hours of cautious experimentation, the vast majority of the new pilots had gained enough confidence in the handling of the crafts that they picked up speed and within three hours were descending on Amil’s city, with him in the lead, and the ancient king and queen in his cargo pod. He was well pleased with the abundant water supply back at the Lost City, it was clear and cold, and would make the place a fine destination out in the ruined wastes. With careful cultivation, the area would soon turn green, and be a welcome oasis to the weary traveler. Many of the buried structures were in very good shape, and could be lived in year around by the caretakers he would soon send, and the volunteers he was sure would scramble for the opportunity to go there and work to restore it from mere myth to fact.

Dorian and Sonja left the three captains to fly escort for the caravan and descended on the oasis of the old couple, scaring them badly when the starship came down to land, but they were soon over their fright when they saw who climbed down the rungs and dropped to the sand. “Hello, young friends! Again you bless us! Come into the shade and tell us of your adventures! How did you fly that strange bird? At first it looked alive, but now we see it is a machine of some sort. Did you find it at the Lost City?” Sonja took the old woman’s arm and walked with her, “Yes. We found it there, along with many others. The king, my father, is taking them and all kinds of other wonderful things home. Perhaps you would like to come visit? We will take you there and bring you back, and if you like, now that the Lost Cityis found and excavated, take you there as well. What do you say? It is a great thrill to ride in the starship, and Dorian is a fine pilot so you need not fear the ride.” The old man said, “I don’t know about her, but I’ll go! Always I have wanted to fly! And to see the source of the old legends! We haven’t been away from this oasis in nearly ten years. Yes! We’ll fly with you!” The old lady was skeptical, until Sonja told her of the fabulous treasures and many artifacts that were being taken to her home, and there installed in a fine museum for all to see. “Well, if you tell me it’s safe, dear girl, then of course I will come! To see the king and queen! You say they almost look like they are still alive? May Zun preserve me like that when I go!”

They had a fine dinner in the shade of the palms, and the young couple relayed all they could think of about the Lost Cityto the news-hungry old ones. They were anxious to start on the adventure, but Sonja said, “First, we must go to my home, for I know my mother wants to meet you and thank you for your kindness to me. There will be a nice reception and feast at the palace where you will be the guests of honor. Then, we’ll show you all of the amazing riches our ancestors left behind, and I know father will be generous with you for all your help.”

Fella City was a long week away by horse, but with Dorian at the controls they were there almost as soon as the starship left the oasis, the old ones holding tightly to one another and the armrests on their seats. Kahn had watched the earth fall away through the side glass, and he felt as though his intestines were still back under the palm trees. Quickly they flew over the long caravan of camels and horsemen, and he saw the starships that accompanied them circling far out and around them, then they were past and the next thing he knew, the starship was slowing and the ground was rushing up to meet him. “WOW! Old woman, you’ve never had a ride like that, even when I was a young man!” She looked over at him with a flushed face, “You’ve got that right! I like it!”

Sammy and Weez and four soldiers had been left to guard theLostCity, which, when the ancient king and queen were placed in their glass sarcophagus, would be renamed. When Dorian parked the cruiser near the palace, one of the guards at the gate came forward with a message from Amil and informed the youngsters that their presence was requested at the lake. Already the grounds were being turned into a final resting place for the mummified royalty and the treasures rescued from the sands. The lakeside palace had been delegated as the museum, for it was always cool and well lit from the many tall windows, and easily protected from any and all threats, within easy reach of Fella City. The small guest houses would now house the armed guards, who, with the deadly blasters found in the buried city, would be a match for any foolish enough to invade the sanctuary.

Amil had his finest craftsmen building the sarcophagus in the center of the main hall when Sonja led her man and the old couple inside. He was standing back admiring the fine case taking form when old Kahn said, “Hello, again, your highness! What’s that thing your men are hammering on? Is that where the old king and queen will sleep?” The king nodded, “Yes, it is. Good to see you! Later in the day we will install them, and hold a ceremony, which they never had when they passed. Now, I told the queen that you might come, and she is beside herself preparing a welcome for you. If you will come with me to the palace at Fella we shall get you settled in and you can freshen up before all the activities begin.” He led Kahn and Zelda from the room, and Sonja said, “I want us to be fresh too, and I’m getting very hungry, aren’t you?” Dorian agreed to both, and they went back to the ship and flew to the palace once again, parking in the same place they had been previously.

They washed one another’s backs, then got playful and washed each other’s fronts, once they were in the privacy of the bath house, and when time came for the feast to begin, they were both wearing what the queen thought were silly grins, but did not inquire as to the reason for them. She was happy her family was home, and very happy the old couple had come.

“Now,” the king began, at the long sumptuous dining table, “after the feast, the ceremony for the ancients will take place at the country palace, which we may as well start calling ‘the museum’. After the bodies are placed in their case, the people will be allowed to walk through and see them, and once that is finished, the priests of Zun will make them holy. When the shrine is well known, the sand men will come in great hordes to look upon them, and journey to the Lost City. We must be ready for them! New hotels and restaurants must be erected both here and in the Lost City, and our artisans must begin creating vast numbers of reproduced artifacts that we’ll sell to everyone who comes, as a souvenir of their pilgrimage. Tonight, Dorian, who found the Lost City, shall have the honor of giving it a name. No one alive knows what that name was, except him. Like the operation of the starships and heavy equipment back there in the sands, it came to him in a dream, and since his knowledge of those were correct, so must this be. A toast, and then we go to the ceremony!”

Kahn and Zelda had been well received by the queen, and given a grand tour of the palace by the grateful lady, before the feast. They had been put in the finest suite of rooms, and it was like a trip to the home of the gods, after living in the goat hut for the last fifty years. Zelda, frail to the point of emaciation but leather-tough, looked like a queen herself, dressed in the finery that had been bestowed on her, and Kahn was every bit as impressive. They would ride to the museum with Amil and his wife Rashel, and be escorted along with them to seats of honor at the glass case.

Every man, woman, and child that made up the procession through the museum wondered who this elderly royal couple were, but were not allowed to inquire, as the ceremony was held in silence. The sleeping king and queen were to hear nothing but the chants of the priests of Zun to pacify their tortured and terrified spirits, and put them to rest.

Sonja and her prince sat with the royals, as was their due, and Dorian was very nervous about the presentation of the name, there in the presence of the mummified king and his bride. After two hours of sitting on the hard chair, however, he just wanted to get the job done and get out of there. The last of the folk were making their way past the shrine and then outside, where they would watch from the windows and doorways, and he got up and went over to stand at it’s head, and gazed into the dead faces before him. Suddenly, he felt light-headed and thought he was about become unconscious for a moment, and he heard the voice of the dead man speak in his mind. “You are my son, the prince of my kingdom, Kasil.” The old king had said the same thing in the dream!

He leaned against the case weakly, and swore he saw a smile cross the faces beneath him, and quickly disappear. Sonja came over and took his arm, her concern showing plainly at his distress. He stood straight and dismissed her frown with a shake of his head, and together they stood, ready for the pronouncement.

The priests of Zun soon finished the chant and were kneeling face down before the case, and Dorian, glancing suspiciously at the mummies, looked at Amil and Rashel, and then the throng outside. “I name the Lost City ‘Kasil’!” Everyone broke their silence and cheered, and Amil rose and came to shake his hand. Again, he glanced nervously at the mummies, but they had not moved.

They went back to the palace and had a glass to commemorate the event, and said their good nights to the old couple and Rashel and Amil. “Dorian, I would like to explore our planet. Do you think the starship will be safe enough to do that? It is very old, after all.” The prince smiled and said, “Yes, it is very old, but it is in perfect condition. The dry dead air of the building it was sealed in allowed for no deterioration. It was new when parked, and still is. The hole I crawled into to find the starships was from that recent storm. It has been in a vacuum since the city was destroyed. We can go anywhere you like, and, if you want to fly to the stars, we can do that too.” She snuggled closer, in their soft canopied bed. “Let’s go tomorrow! I would like to see something green. The sand is so tiresome and endless, the only living things in carefully tended plots. Take me somewhere I can walk barefoot in lush grass!” He took her in his arms and transported her somewhere else right then, and they slept like children the rest of the morning. When they came down for breakfast, they were very late and the table had been cleared, but the cook saw them and called them into the scullery, and fed them. They went in search of Amil, and when they found the king and queen and the old couple, Dorian told Amil of Sonja’s desire, and that they would return in several weeks if all went well. “Don’t concern yourself over our safety. We have a nice complement of weapons on board, and the cold storage works fine, so that we can take plenty of supplies. We won’t go hungry.” Rashel said, “Where will you go?” Her new son replied, “Several years ago I sailed across a vast ocean with my companions in search of yet another lost city, and found an unknown lost empire halfway around the world. Those people had had high technological skills and built fabulous cities deep in the tropical jungles of the mainland, but the capital city, Atlantis, was on a large circular volcanic island with canals cut into the rock to facilitate shipping and other commerce. I think we may try to find that place again, and then visit some of the other cities we were told of.”

They left that afternoon. The starship handled nicely, thrusting them deep into the cushions as they left the atmosphere, and the ride was smooth at six miles above the surface, traveling at thirty thousand miles per hour. They made two circuits of the planet to get their bearings, and after the careful way he had described Atlantis to her, and the position of the long peninsula that stretched out to almost meet the island, she saw their destination and told him, “There it is! It looks like a green jewel with blue lines from the canals! There is smoke coming from the volcano, and I see sparkles of light reflecting from something.” He banked the starship and nosed it toward the planet, applying the front thrusters to brake their speed, and entered the atmosphere. Streamers of burnt air screamed from the downswept wings, and he applied more frontal thrust, and the starship slowed. The whine of the air as the wings sliced through was loud, even through the well insulated cabin, and he slowed even more. They were cruising at five thousand feet and several hundred miles an hour when she said, “Dorian, what are those long straight lines over there?” He looked at where she indicated and said, “Why, I believe they look like a nice place to land this starship! Perhaps that is their purpose! Let’s go see.”

The overgrown bomb-pocked runway was a mile long, and as Dorian followed it to it’s end they saw a tall pyramid with a huge crystal on the peak. “That is what I saw from the sky, sparkling like a jewel!” The jungles had overtaken all the structures at the spaceport, and though there were many people living on the island, apparently none of them knew this place. It could be seen clearly from the sky, but to someone on the ground it appeared that the buried structures were merely hills, upon which they planted their crops and built their homes. As he set the starship down at the base of the huge pyramid several people could be seen watching their approach in a fearful manner, gesticulating and shouting for others to come.

They too had legends of the old days, when the skies were filled with craft from many worlds, though history had been lost as their world burned. The thousands of years that had passed had allowed them to rebound and repopulate their world, but the knowledge of the ancients was gone. Like the priests of Zun, however, the legends were kept alive by sects of priests, and in this part of the world it was the Great Serpent that was their deity. The cone of the volcano had been carved in antiquity into the shape of a coiled rattlesnake, plainly visible from the air, it’s mouth open and spewing smoke and fire. This the people were unaware of, for it was so large that it could not be seen from their viewpoint.

The priests, in feathered cloak and head-dress, stood at the head of the assemblage, waiting for them to debark from the starship, afraid of the unknown but brave in the face of that fear, and when Sonja climbed down the rungs and stepped onto the grass covered ground the fear turned to admiration. She was dressed in her favorite outfit. The black leather pantellas and red top, with a short black leather vest, and as Dorian climbed down she walked toward the people, her beautiful midsection bare, and voluptuous body swaying with the walk of the most bewitching woman they had ever seen. Everyone standing there dropped to their knees and bowed to her, thinking she was a goddess sent to them from the heavens. Dorian took this in with a smile, and went and grasped the arm of one of the worshippers and lifted him to his feet. “Hello, Xlacchan! Don’t you remember me? Have I changed so much in four years?”

The baffled priest looked closely at him. “Cennedeigh? Hah! Who is this goddess with you? Where did you find this great eagle that has carried you here? Are there others in the huge bird?” The young adventurer grinned, “Slow down old friend. No, there is no one else with us, and the ‘great eagle’ is a starship I found in the buried ruins of a city on the far side of the world, left by our ancestors. You yourself told me of the destruction that occurred in the far past when the war broke out, and of the flying machines the old ones had. This is one of them. Somewhere on this island of yours there are bound to be remnants of them, for we are standing on their landing strip as we speak.”

The people had gathered around, listening to him and some of the others had also recognized him, but most of their attention was still on Sonja, and Dorian could not fault them for that. If they wished her to be their goddess, that was fine by him. They were escorted to a small hut near the pyramid, under a grove of palm trees, and Xlacchan said, “I apologize for the humble abode we offer you, but as you see we are a poor people. We will roast a wild boar in banana leaves, and the juices of our cultivated fruits, and dance at the fire tonight to properly welcome you.” Dorian said to the crowd, “This is my wife, Sonja, the princess of Fella,” and again they dropped to their knees.

She felt embarrassed by the attention, but liked how they honored her. “Rise dear people! You need not worship me, for I am just a girl, and not a goddess. I am as human as you all and deserve no deference. Come, get up and take my hand in friendship!” They did so slowly, each one touching her to be sure she was no spirit, and when they had all done so, the good feelings she had always caused in her own people were being enjoyed by these as well, and she was instantly loved by all.

She went inside the thatch hut and sat in a cane chair and removed her soft goatskin boots and socks, and went back out to wriggle her toes in the lush grass. The women were suddenly even more fond of her, for they had run barefoot their entire lives, and felt that she had done this to honor them. They took her into their hearts, and then led her to a deep pool in the shade of towering palms and began to undress her and themselves as well, and as they became naked dove one by one into the refreshing waters. Girls will be girls, and they frolicked there for several hours, getting to know one another and becoming dear friends.

In the meantime Xlacchan had taken Dorian to the council house, a stone structure that was very old, one of the buildings in use at the time of the devastation. There, with all of the priests in attendance, he showed Dorian a carving on the rock wall depicting a starship, and a map of the constellations. The starship was different than the one he had arrived in, the wings placed near the tail of the craft on a long slim body, and showed fire ejecting from the rear. Alongside the carving of the starship was an etching of the mighty pyramid.

“Have you never been curious as to the meaning of this? This engraving points out the possible location of the starships! Have any of you ever tried to get inside of that huge ‘hill’ right there, or dug into it? It is one of the structures of the old ones! Xlacchan, bring two of your priests, and I will take you up in the sky and show you!” Xlacchan looked at the suddenly frightened priests. “I have no fear, but it appears my comrades do! Xlitlan, you and Pechle will come with us!” They walked nervously to the starship and climbed aboard, and when their harnesses were buckled securely, Dorian brought the machine to life. They were amazed by the lights tracking across the board, and the quiet hum of the craft as it warmed up, and then petrified when the pilot lifted it from the ground and left their bellies behind. They felt as if their entire bodies had been taken from them and they were mere spirits for a brief moment, and then were quickly reunited with their flesh as the craft slowed and stopped directly above the pyramid. Dorian banked the ship so that they could circle the structure, seeing it from all sides, and the sheer size of it was breathtaking. It was five hundred feet to a side, with four distinct terraces that looked to be at least fifty feet high, and at the peak on the top terrace the huge crystal shone through the vegetation like a beacon.

“Why, it’s been right in the midst of us all this time! Who could have known? One must be able to fly to see. Look! There are many strange shapes down there! Could all of them have been structures? Broad avenues! Raised platforms! More of the stepped pyramids! We are living in our own past unaware!” The priests were so excited their agitated movements were rocking the ship, and Dorian said, “All right. Now we know, and we’ll go back down and see what comes of it. We may find more indications of what lies beneath the jungle when we look at other exposed stone buildings.” With that he banked the starship and dropped from the sky, again leaving the bodies of the priests briefly behind, only catching up with them when the ship slowed to land.

Nearly a hundred of the natives lived in the thatch village, and more of the small towns were scattered around the perimeter of the island, giving it a population of over a thousand, though no count had ever been taken. At it’s prime, the island of Atlantis boasted a population of thirty thousand, and was in control of the entire continent to the west, though the truth of that would never have been found if Sonja had not had the desire to run barefoot through the lush grass of a tropical island far from home.

They had set a dozen of the wild hogs to roast, and the celebration was about to commence when the priests climbed down the rungs. “Will you tell the people about what we have seen?” Dorian asked Xlacchan as they walked toward the clean, nice smelling women of the island. They were dressed in colorful short skirts of a woven cloth, and bare breasted, many of them wearing flowers in their shining black hair, and all of them smiling and happy. In their midst was a fabulous creature, dressed as they were, bare breasted and beautiful. Sonja.

“Yes. I feel they deserve to know as much as we. Perhaps we no longer must live as savages, and will find our true heritage. We will prune the jungle from the island! Once again, Atlantis will regain her place in the world! Dorian, you shall be our king and Sonja our goddess and queen!” Dorian looked him in the eye and said, “Now wait a minute! I never wanted to be a king!” The weak feeling that had swept over him on the far side of the world came over him, and he heard the dead voice say again, “You are my son, prince of my kingdom!” He shook his head to dispel the short trance, and looked thoughtfully at the priests. “Well, perhaps it is meant to be. If Sonja wishes, we will accept the honor, and try our best to lead you into a better life.”

Runners were sent to every village, and canoes headed for different parts of the mainland to carry the news and bring the people. Within a week there were fifteen thousand people erecting temporary shelters all over the island, and roadways were being cut through the dense growth to connect the sprouting towns. The priest’s word was law to them and the new king and queen were accepted with no question or doubt, and work began in earnest to resurrect their glorious homeland. The drums telegraphed the message from one end of the continent to the other, and was taken as truth, and the city began to emerge as more and more came to help in the return to glory. They found the mighty pyramid to be hollow, filled with treasures beyond the imagination, and score upon score of the starships and tools of a vast technologically superior civilization, and clues to the whereabouts of more of the same. Unlike the folk on the far side of the world, the priests here could read and understand the glyphs of a bygone age, and the discoveries progressed rapidly. Every structure that was exposed was covered with these glyphs, and the history of the people began to emerge.

For seven hundred years Atlantis had been the hub of this part of the world, as Kasil had been on the other side. Ruled by members, related by blood, the entire world had been one family, and had prospered until the advent of the alien horde from across the galaxies. They thought they had escaped the wrath of those aliens by coming to this planet, but had been wrong, and the aliens found them, and the battles for survival had again commenced, this time on the far side of the star system from their ancestral home world, Mars. For a hundred years the battles raged, and tales of the destruction and death were carved in the stones, but as the buildings and monuments were cleared, it became apparent that there was no end to the story. When the war was over, there were none but scattered bands of survivors, and the carvings in the rock stopped.

Destruction was not total, as the aliens had hoped for. Certainly they had bombed and buried the cities, but, in many places those buried ruins acted as vaults, preserving their contents that were now being found. Plans for the finding of the cities were flashed through the jungle by the drums, descriptions of the mounds and shapes to search for, and the people went hunting for their legacy. The king, Dorian, and his queen, toured the continent, and were received by all as their rulers at the dawn of a new world; a return to the old.

The aliens, knowing there was a possibility that there would be some survivors, had left monitors at a base on the moon that would detect any craft that moved through the heavy atmosphere of Earth. At first sign of the movement of Dorian and Sonja’s starship across the wide ocean when they left Kasil, the coded message was sent to the aliens. It would not be received for ten long years, for the distance it must travel through the deeps of space was immense, but they would receive the message, and they would be back to finish the job. The alien horde had not tried to colonize Earth when they had won their great victory over Man because they could not breathe the heavy air, the differing gasses poisonous to them, and had gone back to their own universe in triumph. Their civilization too had suffered down the long line of time that had passed since the invasion, the worlds they had conquered rebelling, and they had fought a constant war to remain in control. Their numbers had been greatly reduced, but they were still a major threat to any foe.

A young alien, Baen, was attending military school at the time the signal was sent from the moon outpost, and was soon to graduate with honors. She was highly intelligent, and her teachers had singled her out for a leadership position in the fleet. She would work her way up to command, and when the signal arrived, she was the one who would bring the fleet back to Earth. She had no human emotions, for she was not human but something else, though she was structurally similar, down to the growth of body hair. Her skin was green, soft to the touch, patterned with a scale effect, which, on her, was beautiful in an unearthly way. Her face was, in the classical alien sense, also beautiful, with the high cheekbones and short tipped-up nose, and her pouting lower lip made many an alien male want to bite her. The bright red waves of her cascading hair often hung over her eyes, which were a deep shade of violet and possessed the longest lashes possible among her race. She was very young, by alien standards, to have advanced so rapidly, but excelled in her duties to such a point that her rise through the ranks was phenomenal. She had no thoughts of romance or related things to distract her, and turned away all young males that were attracted to her, feeling there was a higher purpose to her life.

It took more than a year to remove the vegetation and debris from the city of Atlantis, and while this was ongoing, the cities buried in the jungles of the mainland were also excavated, and the roadways cleared, and people were once again living in their confines. All throughout the upper and lower continents the people were rejoicing; they were not savages as they had been led to believe, but remnants of a superior race from another world, and would soon regain that glory. Every city that was rejuvenated had the mighty pyramids and majestic temples. Some were built of stone, some with baked mud brick, some constructed of earthen mounds, but all wondrous and laid out in accordance with a master plan.

Pechle was installed as mayor in the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan, where major discoveries were taking place. It was the largest city on the continent, where nearly a quarter million people had once thrived, and as the jungle was cut away, the Great Avenue leading to the incredibly huge pyramids was the scene of nightly campfires and throngs of happy folk eager to find their past. The city had been robbed of much of it’s wealth by unknown thieves at some point in time, but the underground warehouses that held the starships and tools they were searching for was found.

Amil and Rashel, with their adopted grandparents Kahn and Zelda, had been successful in their venture to resurrect Kasil, and the booming tourist trade was bringing the sand men from thousands of miles away to worship at the feet of the huge statue that Amil had erected of the dead king and queen. Many new hotels and dining facilities, and shops that were in use before the devastation, were open daily to serve their needs, and the permanent population of Kasil was approaching four thousand. The many artifacts that had been found here had been faithfully reproduced and were sold by the thousands to the unsuspecting as true relics. Amil felt no guilt over this, for they were exact copies, and had he allowed the originals to be sold, soon they would be gone. They would remain housed in the museum, under armed guard, forever. The pumps had been repaired and the broken pipes replaced, and the city and surrounding areas had bloomed, and were nearly as lush as the murals in the treasury had depicted that first time Amil had seen them.

Many of the tourists came by caravan in the old way, riding and walking across the dunes to reach their destination, on camels and horses, but the troop transports and cargo haulers made several trips a day from Fella ferrying those that would pay, and Amil had to construct a new treasury in the basement of his palace. Kahn had sold his oasis to a young entrepreneur who was getting rich quick from the tourist trade, and he and Zelda had a small palace next to the museum erected, where they would live in comfort and luxury the rest of their days. The dead king and queen slept on.

“Dorian, do you think our ancestors really came here from another world? I know the old legends tell us this, but it seems so hard to believe! That would mean that we could go to other worlds still!” Dorian took his darlin’s hand, and led her to a storage compartment behind their small sleeping quarters on the starship, and opened the panel. “There are the suits that enabled them to survive in the depths of outer space. Would you like to go for a ride?” She grinned, “Where would you take me?” He said. “Things are going well, and our presence is not required to keep them that way. I propose a trip to the world from which we came.” She was a little skeptical of their ability to get to Mars and said so. “Well, we’ll never know if we don’t try. Let’s fill the coolers and cargo pod with provisions, and give it a shot. What do you say?” He had been gently holding both her hands as they talked, and she pulled him close to her and kissed him. “Yes. I’m game. Wherever you go. Always.”

Smoked hindquarters of wild hog and loaves of bread and many kinds of fruit and vegetables were stocked in the coolers and quickly frozen, and the water canisters filled. They took several changes of clothes and warm blankets, and checked the medical cabinet. “Well, sweetheart, go say goodbye to the ladies, and I’ll tell Xlacchan what’s going on. He never asked a question while we were loading the ship, but I could see in his eyes that he thought we were abandoning the people. Maybe he and his wife would like to go with us. Should I ask?”  She thought about the possible loneliness of their journey and said, “Yes, do. Though I will never tire of your company, it would be nice to have another girl along, and Xlacchan is your good friend.” He broke away from her clinging arms and went to talk to the priest of his new plan. Xlacchan grew tremendously excited. “Really? You would take us along? Let me run and fetch Xita!” As has been noted, the priest’s word was law. She packed a few belongings and came quietly.

Baen had been placed in command of a squadron by this time, and issued orders to go on a long patrol that would take her on a path that had not been traversed for centuries, a loop through space that wound through Earth’s solar system on the last leg of her journey, though she would not venture to Earth itself, because of the poisonous atmosphere. Making their presence known had been all it took to keep the captured planets in line, historically, as just the sight of the passing fleet inspired dread. Communication across the galaxies was difficult in the extreme, and very slow, the senders and receivers of such a magnitude that none could be carried on small starships, so she would remain unaware of the new activity on Earth. She and her companions had been in deep space for three months and had traveled countless millions of light years when the Red Planet came into view.

Xita and Xlacchan, and Sonja too, were very frightened when the full thrust of the starship leaving Earth left their bodies briefly behind, and Dorian couldn’t help laughing. He hadn’t felt such a magnificent jolt of adrenaline since he had been a pilot in another lifetime, thousands of years before. Once the gravitational field of the planet was behind them the craft shot through space with blinding speed, and when the correct velocity had been broached, blurred it’s way toward the stars. Mars, at that time, was in it’s farthest path away from Earth, and it would take two days to get there traveling at that speed, quicker than light passed from star to star.

Baen and her crew were inspecting the old ruins near the equator, where the temperature rose enough during the daylight hours to allow them to exit the ships, enjoying the weak sunlight and delighting in the thin air. Though brisk, it was a pleasant day on Mars, and the ruins were as interesting as anything she had ever seen. There were broken statues and monuments peeking from the deep dust of the planet among the nearly buried structures and she studied them closely. The statues were of their enemy,Man.“So. That is what he looked like! Not so different from us, Arrella. Look; our bodies are nearly the same. Their faces, too, are quite similar.” Arrella had to agree, “Yes. I wonder now why we had to destroy them. They could have been our brothers.” The other girl sat at the foot of the statue near her and said after a short silence, “He was so handsome!” Baen had never really thought about a male’s good looks before, and took a closer view. “Yes, I suppose so, though they were of a different race. I wonder if we can find a statue of a woman, so that we can more closely compare ourselves to them. Why were we never told of this resemblance to the Humans? I begin to suspect treachery somewhere back in time.”

They continued their exploration until the sun began to sink over the horizon and the deep chill settled in. “The nights are very cold here, but I suppose that fault is our own, for our ancestors destroyed this world. What a wonderful place it must have been! Those old structures are much prettier than the ruins on our own world. I wish I could have seen it before it was doomed.” Arrella, though not a Human girl, was terribly sad of a sudden, for the lost people of this world. Baen looked at her and said, “Why concern yourself? They meant nothing to us then, and I see no reason they should now.” The other girl thought about her conflicting feelings. “I don’t know, it’s just something in here that’s tugging at me.” She tapped her chest and walked to their starship.

Dorian placed the starship in orbit above the Red Planet and they looked down upon it in wonder. “There. I see what looks like a city on the horizon, just where the sun is casting the deep shadows. Do you see it?” Xlacchan quickly spotted the same features, and the ladies did too. “Yes. The home of the Human Race! Can we go down there for a closer look?” the priest begged, and Dorian took the controls in hand. “We may need to put our spacesuits on, for there may be no air here, and there are many pockets of ice and snow in the areas of weakest sunlight. It might be too cold to get out of the starship, but I hope not! I want to walk on that world again!” Xlacchan glanced at him strangely. “What do you mean, ‘again’?”

Dorian let that slide, and took the craft down through the thin cold atmosphere, reducing speed as they dropped to seven hundred miles an hour, and they could see the buildings thrusting up through the burnt sands the nearer they came. Dunes covered much of the planet, and there were huge craters, from the ancient bombs and the many meteors and asteroids that had plowed into it, some so wide and deep they could see no bottom, with the ripples from the impacts spreading for many miles.

They approached the ancient city at three hundred miles an hour, and there ahead of them they could see the remains of large pyramidal structures with many rectangular and circular buildings surrounding them, with broken turrets and spires like the ones on Earth at Kasil only much larger and more magnificent, though suffering from total destruction. “I think I saw a group of starships parked back there! Turn and go back!” The priest was reaching for the gun controls at the side of his seat as he spoke, and the pilot said, “Wait! We don’t know who they are yet. Let’s find out if they are potential enemies before we blast them! We’ll try landing near them, and if they fire on us, then we’ll fry them!”

Baen and Arrella had been notified of the approach of the strange starship, and were watching closely to see what the intentions of the newcomers were, ready to man their guns in an instant if trouble came. “That ship resembles nothing in our fleet. What manner of being do you suppose could be on it? It looks kind of like the old starships of the Humans they showed us pictures of in school, but they were all destroyed!” Arrella got very excited. “What if it is a Human? Please, Baen, if it is, don’t destroy them out of hand! Wait and see!”  Baen grinned and said, “I believe you are growing away from the traditional beliefs of our people, Arrella! They are, after all, a race that refused to be subjugated, and that is what brought about their destruction. They could still be living on this world, if they could have been pacified, you know.” Arrella said, “I know our history as well as you, Baen! But that was a long, long time ago. I don’t have to feel the way the old ones did, or hate just because I’m told to, and neither do you! This is another time, and what happened thousands of pans ago should not matter to us now.” “Your rebellious speech could border on treason if other ears than mine heard what you are saying, girl. Calm yourself. I have no intention to blast them out of existence just yet. I too am very curious about the Humans, and hope that is who are coming. Look, they are getting ready to land now, and have shown no signs of enmity. Let’s go and meet who or whatever is on that starship.”

Her red hair blowing in the cool morning breeze, Baen stood proudly erect and watched them land. Arrella was nervously patting her own hair into place and holding it with one hand, wanting to look her best, as the canopy rose on the starship and a man got out and climbed down the rungs, followed closely by another, and then two beautiful females of the species. Dorian had trusted the instruments on the starship that told him there was enough oxygen in the thin air for them to be allowed to breathe, and the temperature, though only around fifty degrees, was sufficient enough that no suits were needed. He put his feet on the planet and felt a thrill that almost transcended his lovemaking with Sonja. Almost.

 Then she was standing beside him. Baen looked at her in awe. She was so fabulously pretty! The Human girl smiled at the beautiful alien, and Baen found herself smiling back, and went to her and they stretched their hands out to one another. Arrella was instantly so happy she could not speak, and she too went to Sonja and took her other hand, and a bond was formed. Xita walked over to the girls from different worlds, enemies throughout time, and smiled and put her hands on theirs, and their friendship began to grow. Dorian and Xlacchan, cautiously, walked over to the group of aliens that were, cautiously, watching them and the girls in wonder, and Dorian extended his hand. Filem, the captain under Baen thought, why not, and shook hands with his sworn enemy.