Leta's addled mind didn't question how words in a strange, archaic language were there, floating like eye floaters in her vision. Instead, she stared at them passively, curious in the way that ghosts are when watching the living pass them by.
[WARNING: ABNORMALITIES FOUND WITHIN HOST BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE]
'Uh oh.' Leta thought. 'That doesn't sound good.
[NANITES REROUTED FOR ABNORMALITY REMOVAL]
Suddenly the blinding darkness that was her world was filled with searing pain that seemed to burn her nerve endings and blister her muscles.
It was so painful that Leta could make out the feel of her own body in the blackness as her back arched, muscles locking in pain.
It felt like worms made of magma were wiggling through her body, swarming to various places and leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
Leta could hear someone shouting "She's seizing!" in Greek but couldn't feel the press of hands against her body as her muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
Her body writhed in pain as hands kept her from lashing out. Her throat felt like it had been scorched with fire, so raw did it feel that her mouth opened to scream, but nothing could come out.
They must have injected her with a sedative because she could slowly feel the tightness of her muscles relaxing.
[EARLY STAGE BREAST CANCER REMOVED]
[HEREDITARY ARTHRITIS REMOVED]
[HEREDITARY DEMENTIA REMOVED]
[NEARSIGHTEDNESS REMOVED]
[WEAK METABOLISM REMOVED]
[ABNORMALITIES REMOVED. NANITES REROUTED TO SYSTEM UPLOAD]
Leta's body relaxed into the darkness, letting it wrap around her like a warm blanket. Muscles that felt as if they were burning to cinders moments ago started to cool and unclench, letting her tired mind start to focus on stringing thoughts together.
What were these strange symbols that flashed in her minds eye and how could she understand their meaning? Why was she in so much pain earlier but now she felt fine?
She remembered the artifact under water that injected her with…something.
Was she dying? Were these symbols just delusions of a young woman on her way to the afterlife?
It seemed odd that, if she was dying, she'd feel so calm about the situation. Perhaps her weakened brain was just happy to not be in pain anymore.
In the silence of her mind, she started to hear a soft, steady beeping that grew louder and louder.
Then the smell of disinfectant and antibacterial wipes grew stronger, the feel of rough sheets and the chill of a cold hospital invading her calm darkness.
Was she in a hospital?
Soon she could perceive her own body. Her chest rising and falling rhythmically with her steady breaths, her eyelids heavy with weakness.
[SYSTEM UPLOADED SUCCESSFULLY]
[TUTORIAL OF THE ATLANTIAN SYSTEM WILL BEGIN AFTER HOST ACCLIMATION]
Leta gasped in a heavy breath, eyes going wide as if someone had kick started her heart.
A nurse who had been checking her vitals nearly dropped her clipboard in shock, fully expecting Leta to still be under.
"O Thee mou…" the nurse breathed with one hand over her heart before switching to English. "I'll get the doctor, please wait, miss."
Before Leta could make any remark, the young nurse scampered off, shouting "Dr. Kappiadis! Doctor! The young lady from the archeology team is awake."
Leta blinked, realizing that she somehow understood the nurse despite her limited knowledge of the language. Traveling all over the world, she'd gotten pretty good at picking languages up, but it took time.
While her memories from earlier were slowly coming back to her, she was positive she hadn't been fluent in Greek before.
Alone, she took stock of her surroundings. She was in a private room with an IV in her arm and oxygen tubes in her nose. Someone had cut away her wet suit and replaced it with an uncomfortable hospital gown, covering her in a thin blanket that did nothing to ward off the chill of the building.
Despite her current state, Leta felt remarkably good for surviving an apparently life threatening situation. Instead of feeling like she was on death's door, she felt like she had just had a really good nap after a long day of hard work.
The door opened and the nurse entered, accompanied by an elderly doctor in his late sixties with balding white hair and kind eyes behind his glasses.
The doctor gave her a tired but gentle smile. "Good morning, Miss Black. My name is Dr. Kappiadis." He said slowly in rough English, "You've had quite an ordeal and have been in our care recovering. Could you tell me how you are feeling?"
Leta looked down at her hands, clenching them into fists and unclenching them to see if they were stiff and was happily surprised that they weren't.
"Good…Which is odd. I don't think I should feel good right now, but I feel fine."
Dr. Kappiadis nodded as if that made all the sense in the world. "Your body was under a great deal of stress but after the first twenty four hours, you were sleeping very soundly. We would like to run some more tests and keep you here today for observation."
The nurse checked her heart rate, blood pressure, and other standard vital signs as well as drawing some of her blood.
"Any other symptoms you are feeling?" The nurse asked her.
"Uh… yes actually. I see this weird text floating in my vision. Even when I close my eyes, it's there."
The nurse gave her a quizzical look before jotting down something on her clipboard and politely exiting the room.
Then she was alone again in the room with nothing but herself and the floating text.
"Okay…" She whispered to herself, "I guess it's just you and me then."
[ASSIMILATION COMPLETE]
[WELCOME, HOST, TO THE ATLANTIAN SYSTEM]
Leta blinked as the words changed in front of her. "Atlantian system?"
[I AM GADA, YOUR SYSTEM ASSISTANT. I AM THE COLLECTIVE HIVE MIND OF YOUR NANITES]
"Nanites?" Leta asked, surprised when the words in front of her eyes changed to answer her.
[NANITES REFERENCES ATOMIC SIZED ORGANIC MACHINES WITHIN ALL HUMAN LIFEFORMS. THESE NANNITES ARE USED TO IMPROVE THE HOSTS OVERALL PHYSIOLOGY, MENTAL FORTITUDE, AND SKILLS.]
"Uh, thanks for the explanation, Gada?"
[YOU ARE MOST WELCOME. THE TUTORIAL WILL-]
"Wait, please stop." Leta interrupted. "If these nanites are in all humans, why haven't we found out about this before?"
[UNDER INSPECTION, NANITES WILL SHOW AS IRON, HYDROGEN, OXYGEN, CARBON, PHOSPHORUS, AND OTHER ATOMS WHICH MAKE UP ONES BLOOD, VIRTUALLY UNDETECTABLE OUTSIDE OF AN ATLANTIAN LABORATORY.]
"You said that before -Atlantian. Who… who's that?"
[QUESTION IDENTIFIED. WOULD YOU LIKE THE SUMMARIZED HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIAN OUTPOSTS?]
"Uh…yes."
[ATLANESOS, MORE COMMONLY KNOWN BY THE NATIVE INHABITANTS AS ATLANTIS NESOS, WAS THE LARGEST OUTPOST OF THE ATLAN RACE DURING A PERIOD OF TIME KNOWN AS THE ENLIGHTENED AGE. DURING THIS TIME, THE ATLAN RACE CREATED SEVERAL OUTPOSTS AROUND THE PLANET AS PART OF PROJECT BLACK FIRE.]
"Wait… so you're tell me that Atlantis - THE mythical Atlantis - the subject of hundreds of conspiracy theories and a severely underrated animated movie, was an outpost for an alien species?"
[IN PERSPECTIVE OF AN EARTH BORN HUMAN, YES.]
"...And, Project Black Fire was what, exactly?"
[PROJECT BLACK FIRE, THE BRAINCHILD OF DOCTOR AETES, WAS INTENDED TO CREATE A NEW HOME WORLD OPTION FOR ATLAN'S OVER POPULATED CITIES. PLANET EARTH WAS CHOSEN FOR ITS RICH METAL AND AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
[AS PART OF THE PROJECT, SYSTEMS WERE INTRODUCED TO THE HUMAN RACE, WHICH WERE ACTIVATED BY DOCTORS OF THE ATLANTIAN LABORATORIES. THESE SYSTEMS ALLOWED THE HUMAN RACE SOME PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASE AND ASSISTED WITH INCREASING THEIR OVERALL PHYSIOLOGY.
[INVENTIONS SUCH AS POTTERY, WEAVING, AGRICULTURE, SMITHING, AND ANIMAL DOMESTICATION ALL BROUGHT TO THE HUMAN RACE BY THE ATLANTIANS TO INCREASE THE HUMAN POPULATION AND QUALITY OF LIFE.
[PROGRESSIVELY, THE ATLANTIANS INTRODUCED MORE AND MORE SKILLS AND INVENTIONS. IN RETURN, THE ATLANTIANS RELIED ON THE HUMAN RACE FOR CRAFTING THEIR CITIES, HARVESTING THEIR GRAINS, AND GUARDING THEIR LABORATORIES.
[A MILLENNIA PASSED, AND THE ATLANTIANS CONTINUED THEIR MISSION, PROVIDING THE HUMAN RACE WITH MORE AND MORE TECHNOLOGY TO FURTHER THEIR EVOLUTION. A DISTRESS SIGNAL WAS RECEIVED BY THE HEAD ENGINEERS OF THE OUTPOSTS, SIGNALING THAT ALL ATLANTIANS WERE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOME WORLD.]
"Why? A millennia of growth would mean hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions."
[CORRECT. WHEN THE DISTRESS SIGNAL WAS TRANSMITTED, THE ATLANTIAN POPULATION WAS NEARING 8 MILLION INDIVIDUALS ACROSS THE PLANET. IN THAT TIME, THEY HAD SUCCEEDED IN INOCULATING THE ENTIRE HUMAN POPULATION WITH NANITES.]
Leta blinked, speechless at such a number.
"And they wanted everyone to leave?"
[PARTIALLY. IT WAS DEEMED THAT FIRST AND SECOND GENERATIONS OF HUMAN AND ATLANTIAN FAMILIES OF THE ATLAN DOCTORS AND ENGINEERS WOULD BE PERMITTED TO RETURN TO THE ATLAN HOME WORLD.]
Leta felt her heart break a little at the thought.
That was still family members that were being left behind. Grandparents, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters had been separated, obviously never to see each other again.
While that was heartbreaking, it was also terrifying to think about.
There were estimates that the world population was around 10 million at the time of the Mesopotamian civilization. That meant more than 80% of the world population had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Suddenly, the Greek dark ages was starting to make sense.
"I can't imagine that all 8 million people were happy with this." Leta mused.
[CORRECT. THE OUTPOST OF ATLANOROS REBELLED AGAINST THIS ORDER, SIGHTING A NEED FOR COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE FROM THE ATLAN HOME WORLD AND TO EXPAND THE RACE'S INFLUENCE OVER THE PLANET EARTH.
[A BRIEF CIVIL WAR TOOK PLACE, ATLANOROS WAS DESTROYED, AND THE ENGINEERS AND DOCTORS WHO LED THE REBELLION WERE EXECUTED.
[WITH ATLANOROBOS NO MORE, THE OUTPOSTS PREPARED TO REMOVE ALL TRACES OF THEIR PRESENCE. ALL TRACES OF ATLANTIAN LANGUAGE WERE REMOVED AND ALL RECORDS WERE DESTROYED.
[A TOXIN WHICH WOULD AUTOMATICALLY DEACTIVATE THE SYSTEMS EMBEDDED WITHIN THE HUMAN GENETIC MAKEUP AND FORCE THE NANITES INTO A DORMANT STATE WAS RELEASED INTO THE POPULATION. CONSEQUENTLY, THIS ALSO RESULTED IN REMOVING BUILT UP PROTECTIONS AGAINST DISEASES.
[AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES THAT HAD BEEN RELIED ON BY THE HUMAN RACE WERE NO LONGER AVAILABLE WITH THE EVACUATION OF THE ATLAN RACE.
[AS A RESULT, THE HUMAN RACE WAS DECIMATED BY PLAGUE AND FAMINE, FORCING THE POPULATION TO RELY ON SIMPLE TOOLS AND PRACTICES THAT WERE USED BEFORE THE OCCUPATION.
[IN CONCLUSION, THE HUMAN RACE WOULD RELEARN MOST SIMPLE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES, AND WORLD POPULATION NUMBERS WOULD SLOWLY RISE TO PER-EVACUATION NUMBERS IN THE FOLLOWING CENTURIES.]
Leta blinked, processing everything the story that the words in her vision had told her. And it did feel like a story. A fantastic, unbelievable tall tale invented by an active imagination and a brain lacking air.
Rubbing her eyes with the hand that didn't have an IV in it, Leta reminded herself that she's apparently having a conversation with the hive mind of atomic sized robots in her bloodstream.
Too much.
Too much information for one night.
She was too sober to deal with this.
"Let's just say," She grumbled, "for one moment of absolute madness, that I believe this. How do I know that this is true and not my poor brain trying to cope with the fact that I nearly died? Hallucinations are not out of the realm of possibility after being poisoned by millenia old toxic sludge."
[DURING THE NANITE PROGRAMMING PROCESS, A HIGHLY SPECIALIZED MECHANICAL VIRUS IS INJECTED INTO THE HOST IN ORDER TO UPLOAD NEW SPECIALIZATION PROGRAMMING ORDERS, CALLED PROGRAM CLASSES. MOST PROGRAM CLASSES WILL HAVE SPECIALIZED SOFTWARE UPLOADED DURING THE INITIATIVE.
[THESE SOFTWARES ENABLE TO HOST TO QUICKLY PERFORM ACTIONS THAT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YEARS IF NOT DECADES TO LEARN ON ONE'S OWN.
[FOR EXAMPLE, YOU RECEIVED MULTIPLE SOFTWARE UPLOADS, INCLUDING THE SOFTWARE 'TONGUES OF THE MANY', WHICH ENABLES THE HOST TO FLUENTLY UNDERSTAND, READ, AND SPEAK A LANGUAGE AFTER BEING EXPOSED TO THE LANGUAGE FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THIS IS HOW YOU ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE DOCTORS AS WELL AS MYSELF AS IF YOU WERE A NATIVE SPEAKER.]
"Okay… that's compelling evidence," Leta mumbled, thinking back to when she was able to understand Greek earlier. She'd brushed up on the language before the trip through learning apps, but was in no way fluent.
[THE HOST DOES NOT HAVE TO BELIEVE GADA AT THIS TIME. EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH WILL BE MORE PRONOUNCED AS TIME GOES ON.]
"Aaaaand now I'm slightly terrified. Awesome." Leta grumbled, swallowing. She suddenly had a deep sense of foreboding at the nanite's words.
'If Pilar was here, she'd give me a look and whisper "foreshadowing"'. She thought to herself.
"Okay, so - Gada, I think you said your name was - going with what you've said so far, why did the Atlantians leave? You said that they received a distress signal from where they came from. What was so terrible that they needed to leave when they'd been here for centuries?"
[RECORDS DO NOT LIST A CAUSE FOR THE DISTRESS SIGNAL. HOWEVER, ONE CAN HYPOTHESIZE THAT THE EVACUATION WAS DUE TO AN ATTACK ON THE ATLANTIAN HOME WORLD BY AN OUTSIDE ARMY. RECORDS INDICATE THAT A SIZABLE PORTION OF RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY THE ATLANTIAN SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS INVOLVED IMPROVEMENTS TO THE WARRIOR PROGRAM CLASS, WEAPONS, AND ARMAMENT. IN FACT, THE WARRIOR PROGRAM CLASS AND IT'S SUBCLASSES COMPOSED MORE THAT 70% OF RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY THE COLONIES.]
Leta paused as Gada gave her explanation. "Right. A technologically advanced race would be living like kings among the human race that was just getting out of the stone age. Something serious must have gone down for them to voluntarily leave, and war has always been dependable in getting people to leave fertile lands in a hurry."
Sitting down for so long in one place had made her back feel stiff, so she sat forward and stretched her sore muscles.
All things considered, she felt surprisingly good for nearly dying by genetic mutation. Her sore muscles quickly eased after a few moments of sitting forward. Leta would have dressed and left the hospital if she knew where her clothes were.
"You said the Atlantians took everything with them when they left." Leta inquired, "If that's the case, why was that nanite injector thingy still in the ruins?"
[CACHES OF IMPORTANT DATA AND MATERIALS WERE SECURED AND STORED IN SECRET LOCATIONS IN THE EVENT THAT THE ATLANTIANS RETURNED, OR TO QUICKLY REVITALIZE THE POPULATION SHOULD THE PLANET AND ITS INHABITANTS BE NEEDED IN WHATEVER EMERGENCY CAUSED THE EVACUATION.]
"So… basically I got stabbed with a backup safe of specialized virus-robots."
[CORRECT. THE HOST HAD FOUND ONE OF THE CLASSIFIED CACHES, LOCATED WITHIN THE RESEARCH LAB OF DR. PHERENIKE CHILONUS.]
Leta's love of history bubbled up at the mention of the room and its owner.
Dr. Pherenike Chilonus.
Who was she?
What did she look like?
Why did she become a scientist?
What was she researching?
So many questions raced through her head she didn't even realize she'd asked the latter.
[DR. CHILONUS WAS THE HEAD RESEARCHER AND DEVELOPER OF THE PROGRAM CLASS, MONARCH. THIS HIGHLY SPECIALIZED CLASS WAS PRODUCED TO BE THE PINNACLE OF CLASS PROGRAMS, PROVIDING COUNTLESS BENEFITS TO THE HOST AS WELL AS REMOVING SET CLASS STATUS LIMITATIONS.]
[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST. THE CROWNING JEWEL OF ATLANTIAN NANITE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT NOW RESIDES WITHIN YOUR GENETIC MAKEUP.]