See Posts Below for Chapters 1 & 2 of our SteamPunk Adventure Romance Atlantea Soulmates
Chapter Three
Chapter Three
It was dawn on the second day of the
storm. There was a brief lull in the weather but rain clouds could be seen
approaching from the stern. Helena, priestess of Apollo, stood holding on to a
rail in the shelter of the high poop deck. Her ship had been driven far off
course. She had made prayers to Poseidon promising a sacrifice of a goat from
the sacred temple herd. Her prayers and promises seemed all in vain, but
somehow the battered ship survived the night.
The exhausted, hungry and thirsty
crew were repairing the sail and trying to make the ship seaworthy again. The
ship was holding her own but could not take much more punishment. Helena heard
the captain bellowing orders, trying to attend to several matters at once.
No one noticed a huge grey and brown
Leviathan surface under the ship. With a mighty thrust the creature’s huge head
pounded devastatingly into the hull below the waterline. The ship rolled suddenly
to the port side; wood splintered. The crew fell and slid across the deck
towards the foaming cold sea. Barrels of wine and water broke loose with the
blow, rolling across the deck, crushing limbs and creating havoc.
The Leviathan turned away from the
stricken vessel and dived. Gradually the ship righted herself. Water was
pouring into the hull from some of the boards which had been sprung by the
impact. The crewmen dropped to their knees praying to Poseidon to call off his
creature of the deep. Helena raised her arms in supplication, promising
chariots of gold to the sea God; her prayers desperate to assuage the rage of
Poseidon’s minion. Suddenly the monster's mighty tail lifted swiftly high out
of the water and smashed down on the deck of the ship. The sounds of smashing
timbers and cries of agony rent the air.
The ship began to list as her hold
began to take in much water. They were doomed now. Men were throwing themselves
into the sea resigned to their fate. Then, as if ordered by some higher power,
the huge sea creature turned away from the wreckage it had created; a mighty
plume of air blew from the top of it's head then it dived into the deep.
Helena’s thoughts turned to the Lord
of the Underworld, Hades and the calm voyage across the river Styx which would
soon be their next voyage. An incredible apparition appeared on the horizon. It
was a ship like no one had ever seen before. Instead of a mast, the ship seemed
to have a tall chimney which, like a kiln, belched a black fume into the wild airs
of the storm. Her huge black hull was carving through the waves with disdain,
as if the storm waves were nothing.
Was this the vessel that would take
them all to the afterlife? Helena wondered. Is this craft Poseidon’s personal
water chariot powered by magic? Now all she could do was die with dignity.
Helena went into her cabin. Perhaps there was time for her to dress in her
priestess robes so she could die as befitted her status as an honored Priestess
of Apollo and devotee of dolphins.
***
“Ship off the starboard quarter.”
yelled a signalman. Klaus spun the view scope to that portion of the ocean.
There lay a brightly coloured Greek merchant ship listing badly, the mast
smashed, laying across her deck. Her crew staring incredulously at the big
steel ship that bore down on them with her smokestack belching black smoke.
Klaus smiled grimly, no doubt these uitlanders are thinking my ship is a work
of one of their ridiculous Gods, he thought.
The first mate ordered everyone to
action stations on deck. Grappling hooks were thrown and the small ship was
hauled alongside the battle cruiser.
***
As the wreck settled further down in
the water, wallowing as waves washed over the decks, men were running on the
decks of the black ship. The surviving crew watched as the great ship pulled
abreast of them; grapples were thrown and the wreck was hauled roughly
alongside. Two wide ramps were lowered, black uniformed men carrying long rods
with sharp knives attached ran down onto the shattered deck.
"Put your hands on your heads,
you Greek scum! Move up the ramp onto the ship!" yelled one of the
uniformed men. The bewildered crew were herded roughly up the ramps into the
black ship. One man who resisted was picked up bodily and thrown overboard. A
loud boom startled them all. A rod held by one of raiders spat fire at a
sailor, he screamed and fell bloodied and dying onto the deck.
Helena was on her knees praying for a
safe passage into the afterlife, when she was disturbed by a pounding on the
cabin door. The wooden door was no match for the force applied to it and it
splintered, crashing to the floor. Black uniformed men swarmed into the cabin.
When they saw Helena standing before them they halted their headlong rush. Her
eyes blazed defiance. She stood tall, daring them to make the next move. Their
leader shouted in a guttural form of Helena's own language. "You will come
with us now!"
Two men forced her out of the cabin.
They waded through the rising sea and flotsam on the shattered deck towards the
ramps. Bruised and bedraggled Helena was the last to leave the stricken vessel.
As she looked up at the black ship she saw the word Hieglund emblazoned in red upon the hull in unusual violent
letters. She walked forward with her head held high refusing to show any signs
of the fear and terror that possessed her.
***
To Captain Meinbach’s amazement a
blonde woman in white and gold robes appeared from the stern cabin, almost
carried across the flooded deck of the wrecked merchantman by his marines. In a
splash of sunlight which shone suddenly through the clouds her fresh white and
gold robes glowed like another sun. Her long hair was a wild tumble of blonde
curls down her back. He stared hard at her, then she was lost to view, herded
into the hold.
She truly was a remarkable looking woman,
thought Klaus. The kind of woman I have never seen the like of before.
Something compassionate stirred in his soul and he stood at the rail wondering
if he had seen her before. Was she an Atlantean noble woman captured by the
Greeks? There was something about her...
Anything of value was appropriated
from the merchant ship and then the stricken craft was cut loose. Captain
Meinbach watched expressionlessly as the wreckage promptly sank, saving his
gunners the job of sinking it. To stray into Atlantean waters had sealed the
merchantman's fate.
Now his crew would follow the
prescribed procedure for interrogation and disposal of the captives from the
stricken ship. He felt little knowing that the badly injured uitlanders would
be disposed of in the ship’s furnace after being interrogated. He knew that all
other human-like beings were merely ciphers; sub-human lookalikes to beguile
the people of Atlantea. Those young and strong enough would be kept as slaves.
Their eventual fate was to serve the Empire working in the coal mines on the
island of Erebos.
Atlantean humans were above the
mainland scum. They were genetically advanced and pure. Their fair skin, blue
eyes and dark hair set them apart from the swarthy skins of other, lesser,
humans. Like all the Greeks, Phoenicians and Persians.
The Empire possessed the supreme
inventions of steam and industry, including the recently discovered wonder of
electricity which lit the great city of Atlantis. Captured slaves would never
be permitted to return to their homelands to spread word of the great power and
technology they had experienced.
Klaus decided to go and watch the
interrogation for a while. It did not amuse him to see the uitlanders tortured
but it was his duty. To hear their cries and prayers as the political officers
pitilessly extracted information had never sat well with him. But an Atlantean
naval captain was required to be present at such things. Everything which
occurred on his ship was his responsibility.
