The White Singularity: A Choose Your Own Adventure

Chapter 14: The Praetor

You lift both your hands, palm facing forward, signaling your unconditional surrender and to show you're unarmed.  You know that at this point, gestures will convey more than words that probably wouldn't be understood anyway.  Zell shoots a glance at you, then does the same thing.

The strangers follow your example, but what the woman does next completely floors you. 

"Can you understand me?" She asks in strangely accented but completely understandable English.

All thoughts fly from your head, and you start to babble like a simpleton. "Wha—? How—? Who are you? What is this place? How can you speak—"

The woman smiles at your bewilderment. She points to her right earring, which is blinking slowly, and you realize it's not just a piece of jewelry but probably a universal translator. "My name is Eco. I am the Praetor or the equivalent of your country's president.  And this is the city that you once called Atlantis."

Zell gasps beside you. "The legends are true?"

"Yes, this is where we hid after a great tidal wave almost destroyed our civilization thousands of years ago," Eco continues. "Fortunately, our structures were adapted for submergence, and our people were already semi-aquatic.  It was no great feat to find this pocket of air under the crust where we could live in peace and security.  We took many rare plants and animals with us, which was a good decision, as several of them have become extinct in your world.  " She looks at you with a disapproving frown as if you poached some of those animals yourself.

"We are scientists," you hasten to reassure you. "We work for the conservation of all life and the furtherance of knowledge. We have never knowingly hurt another living being.  We mean you no harm."

"That's what you say." Eco walks toward you and stretches out a hand toward your face. You start to shy away, but Zell puts a calming hand on your shoulder, and you stand still. Eco clasps your cheek and closes her eyes. You close your eyes as well, feeling a deep sense of peace. You can feel another presence gently probing your thoughts, but somehow, you don't feel violated.  You know that Eco only wants to verify that your statement is true.  After a few minutes, she steps back and smiles, more genuinely this time. 

"I sense that your intentions are pure," she says, much to your relief. "But that does not mean you will not cause harm if you go back. Your ship has been collecting information about Atlantis since you arrived. If you bring this knowledge back with you, you will unleash the secret of our existence back to the outside world with unpredictable consequences for both of our peoples."

You'd expected something like this. "Don't you have a memory modifier or something?" You ask desperately. "We want to go home."

"Why would you want to?" Eco asks. You can sense that she is genuinely baffled.  "This is the best place you can ever hope to find. It is a utopia. We have no hunger, no crime. There is knowledge here beyond imagining. Being invited to Atlantis is a privilege, not a punishment."

You think furiously. "But this is not our world. We would be out of place here."

"You would adjust in time," Eco says serenely. "After all, we have been able to lengthen human life here for much longer than was once thought possible. You would have 300 years to get used to this new life."

You and Zell look at each other in disbelief. 300 years? That's more than three times the average life expectancy under the best circumstances.

"Um, there's another reason," your wife says after a moment. She takes Eco's hand and touches it to her abdomen. Eco tilts her head to one side as if listening to something. After a minute, she steps back.

"Female. Brown eyes. Artistic talents. A genius-level IQ."

Zell looks thrilled. You look at the two of them in confusion. Somehow, they seem to be communicating at a level that's entirely beyond you.  "What are the two of you talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing." The two women share a feminine, conspiratorial look that transcends thousands of years of separate evolution.

"Although," Eco says to Zell as if continuing a conversation that they had been having telepathically, "this would be the perfect place to raise an intellect."

"Yes, I realize that," your wife replies, looking out the porthole and chewing her lip. "I'm confused now."

"Will someone please enlighten me?" you plead, feeling completely lost.

Eco laughs, taking pity on you. "We are talking about your options. First, I allow you to leave, but I will scrub your ship's storage banks from the time you entered the entrance hidden in the crevice. I will rewrite the logs and make it appear that you decided to return to the surface because of the earthquake. Your memories and discoveries about the Mariana Trench itself will be intact, so your mission will still be considered a success; however, I will also implant a subconscious command in your minds that will suppress all your memories of this place."

This sounds like what you had suggested in the first place, but somehow, the thought of knowing about Atlantis but being unable to discuss it with anyone makes you sad. "What are the other options?"

"You can stay here, just as I offered, and raise your family here, where you will all be safe and healthy forever," Eco says. "You can teach us about the world above, and we will teach you everything about this place. You can join our team of scientists and concentrate on any field you wish. Your resources would be virtually limitless. The only condition would be that you never try to leave."

"Ouch," Zell says, wincing. "All or nothing."

"Can't there be a compromise?" You ask. "How about this? You show us around so we can have more information before making up our minds. If we decide it's in our best interests to stay, we'll stay. If not, you can scrub our storage banks and memories so we won't remember that we were ever here."

Eco sighs. "I'm sorry.  Emotion is deeply tied to the success of the memory suppression.  If you see too much of Atlantis and decide--however subconsciously--that you want to remember most of it, then the mental command to forget would not hold.  You would remember everything after a few years. The risk to Atlantis is too great. That's why if you are to leave at all, it would be better to leave now while you have only seen a small part of it."

She gestures at you and Zell.  "Leave now or stay forever."

You hesitate. This is a life-changing decision, one that can't be made lightly. Ideally, you should have days to think about it, but you know that's out of the question.   "Could you give us five minutes to talk privately?"

"Of course." The Praetor gestures at her bodyguards, and they walk to one corner of the Singularity to talk amongst themselves in an unintelligible but beautiful language that you would love to record and translate if only it were possible.  

You face Zell.  "You seem to have a better understanding of the situation than I do.  What do you think?"

She leans against the wall.  "It's tempting, of course.  Just imagine--virtual immortality with perfect health in a society with no crime.  The freedom to pursue any field of study or research with unlimited resources.  Access to technology light years beyond our own, not to mention flora and fauna that have been thought extinct for millennia.  It's something most people can only dream of."

"I know." You chew your lip. "But if we stay here...just imagine the anguish and chaos we'll leave back home.  Our loved ones and colleagues will never find out what happened to us.  We will be given up for dead.  Our various projects will be abandoned and shelved.  I don't mean to be arrogant, but I believe we would leave our world a poorer place if we never returned.  We still have so much to offer."

"That's true, too."  Zell takes your hand.  "You make the choice.  I'll support whatever you decide."

It's up to you.