Chapter Four
Decision Made
I waited till we were two days at sea, before I disclosed what we were after. The only one of the crew not shocked was Big Jim. I don’t think anything could ever truly shock him.
I watched Ortega’s and Flynn’s eyes light up like Christmas lights at the sound of Atlantis. Serena looked worried, while Christina actually looked a little excited.
I didn’t tell them about possible encounters with giants upon our arrival to the core of the Earth or that we could possibly discover our deaths in boiling hot magma. That would all come in time. For right now all I had to do was figure out how to get there, which I had no clue how to accomplish.
I designated that chore to Matt. He had the job of figuring out the crystal and the metallic petals and how they could be used as a navigational guide, while I took us along the general path that the fleet would’ve had to of taken, at least, initially.
Three long days later saw Matt no closer to solving the riddle of the Orlanis Star. I was in a thunderous mood and I kept to myself to avoid lashing out at anybody. Ortega made the mistake of approaching once and I wasn’t nice.
I had a very bad temper and this endless sailing around, while precious time wasted away, was doing me no good. I left the bridge and went to my cabin to be in seclusion, only there was nothing to do.
I craved peace of any kind, but there wasn’t any to be found. I glanced at the drawer of my desk and contemplated its contents for a moment. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
I went to the desk and ripped the drawer open and took out the worn Bible and lay down on my cot and began to read in Psalms. I found a measure of peace as I went through psalm after psalm, as if I’d found an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
I jumped out of my cot startled and the Bible that had been lying open on my chest went flying, but I caught it before it hit the floor. I set it down on the desk as I went to the door. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but apparently I had.
I opened the door to see a nervous looking Christina cower back from me slightly. I focused on looking calm as I didn’t like the fact that she saw something in me to be scared of, “What’s the matter?” I asked.
She pointed upwards and said, “Matt thinks he solved it.”
I quickly moved past her and went topside. I found Matt in the wheelhouse and strangely for someone who had just solved an ancient riddle he looked rather low-key even perhaps depressed.
Apprehension rose up in me as I asked, “What is it Matt? What’s wrong?”
He shrugged expressively, “Well I’ve solved it, I think.”
I stepped up beside him to see that the petals of the star were slightly glowing. I hadn’t seen them do that before. Matt picked up the crystal centerpiece and brought it out over open space and let it go. The piece hovered in midair.
Four of the five petals rose up off the chart table and hovered out to fan around the central hovering crystal. Matt picked up the fifth pedal, which was slightly different than the others, another thing of which I hadn’t noticed before.
He brought it near to the metallic outer ring of the central crystal and it snapped to the side of it magnetically. He pointed to the four outward petals that floated a foot away from the central crystal.
“These four stand for North, East, South, and West. The fifth petal is your navigational heading indicator, which I’m assuming to be targeted on Atlantis.”
Matt leaned close to the central crystal and spoke one word definitively, “Atlantis!”
The central crystal lit up at the spoken name and scrollwork letters lit up in the metallic alloy surrounding the crystal. The text was different than the text etched in scrollwork on the petals.
“The writing is from a later time period, but still of very early Babylonian origin. I was able to translate it roughly.” Matt said sounding for all the world as if he was thoroughly unexcited about what was a monumental discovery.
He handed me a tablet and cautiously I took it not understanding the level of reserve that he was manifesting. The words leapt off the page at me as I read them aloud,
“To lovers of wisdom and seekers of the hidden things, I welcome you to the halls of enlightenment. Once they were proud and full of those who sought the wisdom of the angels, who rebelled so that they might come and live among us sharing what it was meant for us to know, but was kept from us by a petty and jealous God, who would have us live our lives out in ignorance and fail to attain the immortal knowledge of the first angelic rebel, who saved the world from a corrupt power-hungry dictator of a God. The halls are no longer proud, because of the actions of a jealous God, but wisdom is still to be found as well as power. Power to become a god of your own making. Listen to one who became mighty against God and king over all the Earth. Adopt the ways of the seed of the first rebel and you like me will be enabled to make great effort in our common war against God so that we might be free and constrained no more and able to kill even the very concept of one God as we all will become gods of our own making and thus free to choose our own way. Our ally in this fight for freedom and quest for knowledge is Satan and all his angelic host along with the spirits of those mighty ones who came before. Pledge your soul to him as a fitting sacrifice and we shall win as we reject God’s authority over us. I, Nimrod, mightiest upon the Earth and greatest of all kings have spoken. Bind yourself to the path of knowledgeable enlightenment and the sea lanes will be opened up unto you, even as they were to me and I became great and if you are worthy so can you.”
I glanced up from the written words to meet Matt’s eyes. He met my gaze and shook his head negatively as he said, “I can’t agree to do that and I want no part of such an unholy agreement, but your Captain of the ship.”
There was silence for a moment which was broken by Big Jim who spoke up deeply, “They should be thrown into the sea! I no serve darkness anymore, because my Jesus saved me!”
He pointed at me and said, “I work for you for free! I no need the money!”
The big man had spoken and he’d said a lot.
“He’s right Captain!” Serena said chiming in.
I glanced at Flynn and Ortega and both surprisingly nodded in agreement. I hadn’t given either of them that much credit in terms of moral religious virtue.
I glanced from the crew around me to the pieces of the Orlanis Star hovering in the air before me.
I would lose everything.
Sometimes it didn’t matter and this was one of those times. I grabbed the central crystal piece with its blasphemous wording and chucked it out the open wheelhouse door and into the sea. The other pieces soon followed.
“Take us back to port Serena.” I said roughly before leaving the silent wheelhouse.
I made my way down the ladder quickly towards my quarters needing to be alone, as I was embarrassed as a Captain for my inability to provide for my crew just as a father would have been to see his children go hungry or go without what they needed.
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The pieces of the Orlanis Star splashed into the water heavily, but only for a moment did the pieces begin to sink. As one the pieces boomeranged backward toward the Celestia’s Prize’s hull under the water.
They chased through the water after the ship, as she turned around and motored for port. With loud audible snaps they magnetically clicked onto the metal plating near the propeller shaft just above the waterline.
Christina stepped backward from the railing completely creeped out by what she had just seen. What power had driven the pieces of the star to attach themselves to the ship the way they had just done?
Everything going on was just too weird and she was scared. She didn’t say anything to anyone. She just wanted this whole ill begotten experience to be over with and be back on land again so she could get on with her life and apologize to her mother for being a brat.
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I sat down on my cot and held my head in my hands as all the what if’s and negative possibilities began to run through my mind as to how bleak my future now seemed and how it was about to become my reality. I grew weary in the attempt to remain positive about the future.
I had made the right decision poor excuse of a Christian that I still was. It didn’t seem to matter though as my mind was filled with negative doubts and fears that were becoming realized.
I pressed hard on my temples and groaned out, “God make it stop!”
I fell back on the bed feeling like my fight for survival was over. My quest to remain in control of my fate and sanity was out of my hands. I felt raw, open, and exposed.
Tears came and I whispered into the stillness of the room, “God help me, because no one else can!” Strangely then I fell asleep and I dreamed.