The World of Atlas Wiki



Welcome to the World of Atlas


The badly terraformed world, Atlas, circles an abandoned star in the cloud of the frontier worlds. Clinging to all they have known, the descendants of long ago settlers deny that they face extinction. One family has worked for decades to forge the tools to save the people, sending seven sisters each on a mission that will change everything.

The King of the Cetians, a reptilian race, is worshiped by a people who believe he is a god, wields power even among the humans, and will do anything he has to to protect both cetians and humans from the danger the seven sisters represent.

As the waters rise over the highest mountain peaks on the planet, time has run out for everyone

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World of Atlas: The Day the Cetians Left (Mostly)


What happened the day the Cetians were evacuated? Listen in as Reporter Rabonna Hawkins captures the event (and a little something else) live.



Credits

Sound Effects: All sound effects have been modified to fit script:

Birdsong by Inchadney: https://www.freesound.org/people/inchadney/sounds/19492/

Outdoor voices by Kyster: https://www.freesound.org/people/Kyster/sounds/122789/

Additional voices by Kyster: https://www.freesound.org/people/Kyster/sounds/124027/

Auditorium noise for Governor's speech  by Kankbeeld: https://www.freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/189798/

Rocket Launches by mensageirocs: https://www.freesound.org/people/mensageirocs/sounds/232680/

Toddler Crying by dobroide: https://www.freesound.org/people/dobroide/sounds/8109/

Baby talk by Mosfran: https://www.freesound.org/people/mosfran/sounds/40818/

Footsteps by Mlteenie: https://www.freesound.org/people/mlteenie/sounds/153575/

Voice Actors:

Rabonna Hawkins is played by Tina Farmer

Governor West is played by Bernard Bennett

Ferro Spencer is played by Josh Lawrence

Citizen is played by Glen Firns

Man is played by Mike Bezemek

Additional Voices: Gary Gaston, Nesby Moore, Charlotte Phelps, Dan Tabors, Ann Zeman

Seven Sisters
Alkyone has stepped into the shoes of the matriarch of the family for the first time. From an infant, she has been trained to take over as head of the clan - an honor her sisters believes is rash optimism on the part of Tethys, clan matriarch.

Alkyone is acutely aware of the vital work she must lead, as well as the critical eyes of her family. She believes she will succeed in managing the missions she will entrust her sisters with, bringing the family strategies to fruition, and setting them firmly on the path of implementing the plan that will save the people of the world.

Before the first meeting, she is attacked by cetians and all her information stolen. Her greatest fear is that the Cetian King will acquire the plans and oppose their work. This must be prevented by any means.

Alkyone's sisters, Maia, Elektra, Taygete, Kelaene, Asterope, and Merope, are dedicated to their work. They will live by their missions or die for them.

Atlas Origins


Terraformed

The thin air of Atlas was so cold they could not take off their air masks. In all his planning, Joe Sr. had not understood that one significant fact of Atlas. Its Midas touch turned all, not to gold, but to ice. Ice, snow, and blasts of frigid air assaulted Joe Sr. making him sure he would be as frozen as Atlas before another hour passed.

Joe Sr. crossed his arms across his chest and looked around at the solid field of ice that would one day be an ocean. The ice was thick enough to support the ship's freight shuttles, all of the terraforming gear, and Joe Senior's personal shuttle, a small craft with living quarters comfortable for one or two.

Joe Jr. strode up, a scowl on his face, “Are you sure we want to start in the middle of the ocean? I’ve been reading up on terraforming and all the books say…”

Joe Sr. scowled at Joe Jr., “It’s fine. I don’t know about all these modern adaptations, but when I was in school, the ocean was the way to go. It’ll get this world kicked off right and before you know it, all those seeds and auto cryo animals and fish and whatnot will start to take over.”

“Okay,” Joe Jr. said, “You’re the expert.”

Joe Sr. nodded in satisfaction. Joe Jr. was a good lad, but he fussed too much about techniques. Although Joe Senior claimed he had an advanced degree in terraforming, he had never attended university. But he knew what he knew. Everyone knew you blasted into the core in the deepest trenches of the ocean, not out on the land somewhere. The quicker they got things warmed up, the sooner they could make some money off settlers.

“When we’re finished blasting through in a bunch of places, we can head home. Maybe one of these other useless worlds is workable, too.”

Joe Jr. stared at his father. “Dad, you can’t be serious. We have to monitor and adjust. We planned for this. It’s a hundred year process, minimum.”

Joe Sr. shook his head. He didn’t like the cold. He hated being in space. He would not stay here and tweak the process, taking a hundred years when he could do it fast. Either it would work or it wouldn’t and in a couple of decades, when he was ready to retire, this place could start bringing in enough proceeds to keep him in castles and caviar the rest of his days. For now, though. He just wanted to get home.

“Set and forget,” Joe Sr. said. “I’ll be inside. Let me know when your crews are finished.”

Liss Lith longed to see Iss. He sat in his living room, lonely for her. Iss’ business was at an early stage where it needed her every attention, so she was neglecting Lith to nurture it. Lith, a fine cetian fellow, closed his eyes and tried to remember her touch, her scent, and her voice. It was no good, the remembering only made him lonelier. When he was in danger of running to her office and insinuating himself into her day, he was able to divert himself to his own office where the plans for a new outpost in his trading business were waiting his perusal.

When the door to his office opened, he imagined it was Iss looking for him. A shadow eclipsed his blueprints. Lith smiled and looked up, but the smile faded.

Tall, human and intense, a man stood before him holding a large egg. Lith knew the humans had live birth, not eggs, but the egg was not of the cetian folk. Fascinated, when the man wordlessly handed him the egg, he took it and felt an immediate connection to it. It called to him. He cradled it, staring at it. When he looked up again the man had gone.

“It’s my turn to carry the egg,” Iss said. “You had it all day yesterday.”

Lith looked up at her, “You’re right.” He handed her the egg, looking at it wistfully.

Lith’s brother shook his head, “You two are crazy. Get an incubator, put it in the nursery, it isn’t even cetian. Who knows what it is.”

“We’ve thought of that,” Iss said. “We just can’t leave it. Here, you tell me if you can.”

Iss shoved the egg at Lith’s brother, who backed off from it, saying, “Seriously, I’m not touching that thing. It’s psychic or something.”

The egg began to shake. A crack appeared in its surface.

“It’s hatching,” Iss shouted. She placed it in a bassinet and the three adults stared at it.

“Maybe it’s a native ice creature from a million years ago,” Lith’s brother said, wary.

“Knock it off,” Lith said, “You’re scaring Iss. Lith was looking a little apprehensive.

The top cracked off the shell and tiny cetian hands pulled the cracked piece to a tiny cetian mouth. A baby strongly resembling Lith crunched on its egg shell, looking up at his new family.

Edict Liss was about to step through a door when Iss grabbed him and held him to her. “No, he’s old enough to stay with us,” Iss told the cryo tech. “I’m sorry,” the tech said, “but this is an emergency evacuation flight. All children under twelve must be in the pediatric section. The adult cryo tubes just aren’t set up for them.” “Then we’re staying here,” Lith said. “It’s the law,” the cryo tech told him. A security officer walked up behind Lith. He was the largest man Lith had ever seen. “Is there a problem here,” he asked. “Yes,” Iss said. “No,” Lith corrected. “We were just leaving.” The cryo tech tried to calm them, “I’m sorry, but this evacuation has been ordered by the council. Everyone must be evacuated.” Iss said, “That doesn’t make sense. The humans aren’t being evacuated.” “Their council can make their own decisions,” the guard said. “You are leaving Atlas and your child is being placed in the pediatric cryo tubes.” The guard placed his large hands under the child’s armpits and easily took him from Iss. Then he pushed Liss through the door. Lith wanted to snatch his son back from the doorway and would have if the guard had not been there. “This planet is going to flood,” the guard said, “and you are getting evacuated now, as is your six your old child, who is going to the pediatric cryo section while you go to the adult section. And if you have any more complaints, you can take them up with the captain after the flight is underway.”

Lith was in cryo sleep long before the flight left. To him, he was flash frozen on Atlas, and slowly woken on the home world. When he emerged from the cryo section, he found Iss just waking. A notice flashed along the wall, asking a list of people to follow the indicator. “That must be the way to the children,” Lith said. The others following the line were also parents of children from their neighborhood. They sat in an auditorium. An officer stood at the podium. When the doors closed, the officer spoke, and Lith’s body was flooded with fear. “Every effort was made to save the pediatric cryo section. We regret to inform you that due to a faulty circuit, that section of the ship caught fire. The cryo tubes were destroyed before the fire could be stopped. There were no survivors.” There was complete silence while everyone tried to understand what they had heard. When Iss uttered the most heartrending cry Lith had ever heard, and he understood that Liss was gone, it was like the world had ended. All feeling left him. He had no volition.

Protector A frightening push from the big guard’s hand and Liss was through a door and riding along a track that led into the bottom of the ship. The room he emerged into was not a cryo chamber. It was a large hold full of children. The older children had been paired with younger ones.

“Get in line,” a cruel voice ordered him. Liss had seen people who spoke this way. His father had told him they meant to intimidate the weak and were to be avoided. The guardian said they were the easiest to be used, and to keep them in mind when he needed an unpleasant task done.

In the line, Liss saw that the children were crying for their parents. He walked along the line, calling each child by name – he knew them all, had studied them all. Reassurance and instructions in equal measure, he told them he would find out what was going on and let them know what to do.

“I’m the representative,” he said to the cruel man at the door.

The man looked down at him, the puzzled expression was funny to Liss, but he knew the man was serious.

“What,” the man finally asked?

“I’m the representative,” Liss said. “I will find out what is going to happen to us and give the children instructions so it all goes smoothly.”

Surprised by the man’s look of compassion, Liss looked around when the man did. Only children were nearby. No one else was in the room.

The man leaned down and spoke in a low voice so only Liss could hear him, “When they open the doors, walk quickly to the trees. Once the doors close again, the engines will ignite and anyone still around will be burned to death.”

Liss inhaled sharply and nodded twice. He walked back to the line and whispered instructions to each of the older children in the line. He heard the whispers as he went down the line. They thought they would be reunited with their parents once they'd gotten to the woods. Resolutely, he went to the end of the line to ensure no children would stumble and be burned to death.

Seconds later, the wrench of the rusty hatch screeched open. The younger children cried in terror, but the older ones stepped quickly from the hold, and walked toward the trees.

Behind him, as he followed the long line of children, he could hear the anxiety in the man’s voice behind him as he whispered loudly “Hurry, hurry, hurry.”

As he stepped off the ramp, it was retracted, and the metal scream of the doors closing lent speed to his feet. Several of the children stumbled as he chivied them along toward the tree line, anticipating the fires of ignition engulfing him at any moment.

Inside the trees, the cetian children vanished into the hands of large creatures waiting for them. Liss held back until he recognized the guardian and other humans from the settlement. Safe inside the trees, he looked back and could feel the force of the rocket engines starting. The guardian pulled him back into the trees and they walked along a path behind the human adults and their cetian charges.

He was frightened at the outraged shouts of the humans. "I didn't believe it!" "Monsters!" "That captain should get spaced." "Spacing's too good for him!"

Graphic descriptions of what they'd like to happen to the captain floated back to them as Liss and the Guardian fell further behind the group.

The guardian was his mentor. He would fix everything when he understood that Liss’ people were leaving. The guardian had placed him, Liss, in protection over his people. He could not protect them if they were gone.

“One of the crew was drunk last night,” the guardian said. “He told the barman that the children on the ship he served were to be ejected once the ship was in space. No one the wiser, he said, but he couldn’t live with it and didn’t know what to do.”

Liss asked, “When can I go to my parents?”

The guardian continued, “In the end, he said he’d get the children to the trees if we could take them in.”

“Yes, that’s very kind of him,” Liss said, “but the other ships didn’t lose their children. When will they come back for us?”

"The humans didn't believe the man," the Guardian said. "They could not believe in that kind of evil."

"But the angry man told us to run to the woods," Liss said. "Everyone's all right."

“All for money,” the guardian said. “The captain was ordered to install pediatric cryo chambers. He was given the funds to do so, but did not have them installed.”

“When we report the captain, they’ll come back for us, then,” Liss said, sure he was right.

“He’s going to tell the parents that all children were lost in an accident on board. There was nothing they could do to save them,” the guardian said.

Liss stopped. A moment later, the guardian stopped and looked back at him.

“And now we’re going to report that captain and they’re going to send another ship to pick us all up and take us to our parents,” Liss said.

“I’m so sorry,” the guardian told him. “You’re going to be adopted by a human family. The governor said, and I quote, 'It's nonsense. No children are going to be sacrificed. It's just some drunken cargo mover mouthing off.'

" I told him he and his botanist wife could adopt one of the children. They must apprentice the child, taking him to their workplaces and teaching him all they could. He didn't answer me.

"It's the perfect new home for you.”

“What about my people?”

“Your people are the people of this world, Liss. The ones that just left are no longer your people. You are still obligated to protect and guide your people, the ones that remain, cetian and human. This placement is the best of all possible homes. You will learn all you need to to protect your people as you grow into the type of man you need to be.”





