The pod floated across the air and attached itself to a magno-hook. Los looked outside and saw the rows and columns of pods that came from the different corners of their world docked into the central Pod Yard of Elonas Square. She must've counted at least fifty thousand pods.
"Must be an important meeting", she thought.

Los and her parents walked through the crowd. "Hello brother, hello sister." Her parents would say to every stranger they came across as they courteously exchanged smiles and gestures. Remares, Los' mother, looked at her daughter with a concerned look, "Tired?" Los looked at her and smiled. Los shook her head: "No, just deep in thought..."
"You are so deep in thought that you're causing a chemical imbalance in your body. Eat a Rash darling." her mother said as they sat in a public magno-bus. Los nodded as she opened a pouch and chewed on a small pill. Remares smiled: "Much better darling." Rema took a sip from her water bottle, which was always on her belt-pouch but has been there for so long that she doesn't even notice it anymore.
Los' father was talking to another family. "A stranger, you say?" The man and woman nodded: "Yes, we have heard. An outsider. A being from another dimension." Her father shivered: "What did he look like? Was he large and had violent tendencies?" "Oh yes, yes, extremely violent we heard. So violent that a guard had to use his Plasma Rifle to subdue him, luckily, the man survived. "It was THAT extreme?!" the father exclaimed. "As far as I remember, no guard had ever aimed a rifle against anybody except as far back as... As..."
"Yes, " the other man interrupted, "the last time one of us was that bad was a hundred years ago, before we perfected Genodems and banned the research. But the worst part is, his violent reactions were generated by the mere sight of our men."

"Fear of change." Los said. It seemed that everyone suddenly stopped to look at Los.

"Fear of change?" One of them asked. Los looked at her mother: "Men feared change more than death itself. Perhaps the reason he got violent was because he saw something different and somewhere strange and he was upset by the change in his environment." Some people shook their heads: "A change in his environment? But all cities in Neo Atlantea follow the same laws and have the same technologies, where would he have come from that made all of this strange?"
Los started thinking and tried to recollect memories of her childhood again, but she couldn't. Once, she had tried to claireverate the childhood memories that she read on her own Datafilm, but when she pictured those memories, it didn't seem real. It seemed all too perfect, all too normal, all to... Surreal. In fact, what was even stranger is that no one that she'd ask could remember what happened as far back as ten years ago! People have become so accustomed on their Datafilms that tell them what they supposedly wrote back then, and believed whatever history of Atlantis it is that they are taught in the University. But who wrote history? Who wrote about the Pre and Neo-Ages? And how accurate were the recollections? And how secure where these Datafilms really?
"I've raised such a smart child." Rema said as she softly touched Los' cheek. If she only knew half the truth.
"Perhaps you will be a scientist, a blessed revelator of the Guide, and we shall be proud of you." Rema smiled at her mother: "A scientist? But mother, that's impossible. Only the best ones of us become scientists." Rema smiled: "Some people are blessed and are born with great knowledge. Perhaps The Guide has smiled upon you."

The man looked at his cut on his arm and mumbled. "Great. Just what I need." He also felt a nasty bump on his face, he touched it and it was dotted with coagulated blood. He looked at the four men that stood outside the containment capsule, each one of them carried a plasma sword. "Why have you people locked me in here? All I want to do is go back to my ship. Look mates, I'll give you the damn frequency. Do you guys have something called 'Radio', contact my ship and they'll tell you. I'm a marine biologist who was exploring strange genetic deformations in sea crabs off Bermuda. But as far as coming here, don't ask, because I don't know."
One of the men turned around at him: "The council will convene shortly and will decide on what to do with you." The guy sat back and sighed. He looked at the material that formed around the capsule. It was plasma, because it wasn't liquid nor solid nor gas, just matter that rippled and swayed randomly, another reason why he knew it was plasma was because the first time he tried to touch it, he was given the shock of his life; so he knew it was electrical matter in some sort of neutral gaseous state.

"So, where am I anyway?" The man asked.
"One of the Chambers of The First Queen's Castle." One of the guards replied.
"No, I mean, what city is this, what country, or whatever." He asked again.
"Country?" The men laughed: "There is but one country, Neo Atlantea, of course. Why what country are you from?" They laughed again.

"Atlantis? You've gotta be kidding me. God, when my therapist said too much work might make me delusional. I didn't know it was going to be this bad." The man lamented.
A man walked into the chamber, he was dressed in a shimmering green robe, the color of corals, and wore a strange looking ivory band around his head that rested on his ears like eye glasses but curled upwards at his forehead, from a distance, it looked a bit like Caesar's olive-branch crown, only reversed.
The men bowed at him: "Lord."
The man gestured for them to be at ease. "What has he said?" The man asked.
"He pretended he doesn't know he's in Atlantis. If I know my Infofilms correctly, he's suffering from a sort of primitive denial syndrome."
The man walked towards the stranger. "Tell me, do you know who I am?"
The guy looked at him straight into his eyes: "No, man. I don't."
The decorated man looked back at one of the guards: "He's not lying." The men shrugged.

"My name is Kaled Az'ar. I am the head of VioTech Corp and King of Neo Atlantea." He said.

The man nodded: "My name is Michael, I am a Marine Biologist from Australia, my ship's the Kathmerios and it's a deep-sea research vessel. You want to know my thesis?"
Kaled shook his head: "Yes, you do look like a scientist." Michael nodded, but realized that Kaled was being sarcastic, moreover, the guards seemed to be laughing at his expense. "Urth, you say? Hmm.... Wait a minute. What place did you say you were from?" Kaled suddenly asked.
"Australia." The man said.
"I've never heard of that place before, what part of Atlantis is it?" He asked.
"Atlantis? Friend, Australia's in the Pacific Ocean. In EARTH!"
The guards laughed again.
"Pacific? I heard of that before." The King said, much to the guards' surprise.
A screen materialized in front of Kaled, it paged through what seemed to be the images of several maps then stopped at one.
Kaled decrypted the text as he read aloud: "Pacific Ocean. An ocean in the Pre-Age that was, according to myth, calmed by the Trident of Poseidon." Kaled turned around at the guards and scolded: "Weren't you paying attention in Pre-History class?"
"So... The myths are true; there really is a portal in the ocean of Eirenia that connects to the pre-world... This Urth as you call it." Kaled said. "Tell me! Where is this portal?!" Kaled demanded, in a way that frightened the guards.
The scientist shook his head. "Don't know. Last thing I remember was that the deep sea pressure was getting too heavy on me... And then, I saw this strange blue hole, suspended in water, and I seemed to be pulled towards it, then suddenly, darkness. Next thing I know, I'm here."
"Didn't you log the location in your Datafilm?" The King asked.
"Datafilm?" Michael queried.
The King nodded. "Oh, but of course, we are technologically superior to that of the pre-world. And after ten thousand years, we still seem to be in the lead."
The King pointed at one of his men: "Extract the memory from his brain. I don't care if it causes an aneurism. You have one hour."

(Continued...)