Chapter 27

Mark woke up looking at a perfect bare pink pussy with silky smooth thighs beside his cheeks. He soon felt another wet pussy engulf his cock in its warm depths.

Feeling obliged to partake of the sweet nectar in front of his lips, Mark let his tongue explore the tasty pink folds. His hands found their way around to spread open the delicious treat before him.

Annabelle was enjoying his ministrations, while Rayven was repeatedly impaling herself on Mark’s cock, getting closer and closer to her release. Rayven moaned, got off and laid down, Annabelle quickly moved around and Rayven started cumming in her mouth almost immediately.

As Annabelle continued to suck the last of Rayven’s cum out of her cock, Mark got to his knees and sank his cock deep into Annabelle’s wet pussy. It didn’t take but a minute of sliding in and out of her warm slit before he was erupting cum deep into her.

With the three of them now awake, they went to the showers and then out to meet everyone else for breakfast.

No one felt like doing the workout this morning.

Joe and Kat still looked depressed as they all sat around the table, so Mark felt compelled to apologize, “I’m truly sorry, if this was because of me.”

Joe looked at him and said, “We don’t blame you at all. We blame the short-sightedness of uneducated people with the soapboxes that everyone seems to listen to. We saw everyone’s true colours yesterday and although they have all apologized, we no longer feel welcome here. If anything else happens, I’m guessing they’ll throw the blame on us again.”

Mark said, “Remember how I said we were going to build a new Atlantis? Well, you’re welcome to relocate there and build a new ranch, obviously you won’t have boarders like you do here, at least not right away, but who knows?

The thing is, you wouldn’t really need to have much cash flow to keep the ranch running. You would be welcome to still raise the horses, offer riding lessons and do trail rides. In fact, you’d have a monopoly on the island and could go wherever you wanted!”

Joe raised his eyebrows, “That actually doesn’t sound like a bad option right now!”

Then after a pause, he asked, “So how big is the island? Is there going to be room to do trail rides?”

Mark had a big smile on his face, “Lots of room! Atlantis is about 560 kilometres from north to south and about 380 kilometres east to west! Although it may take a while until people trust us enough to visit.”

There was a collective “Whoa!” from everyone there, then Annabelle shouted, “Show us!”

Mark put down the holocube and turned it on. Atlantis truly was magnificent, especially with the statues of the kings around the perimeter, the mountains, the forests, the lakes, the rivers and, of course, the infamous Acropolis. The holocube even showed the floating terminal on the southeast side.

Joe was staring in awe at the island and Mark could see he was looking at one of the larger meadow areas on the south side of the island near the Meteor Plateau, and he said to no one in particular, “It definitely has potential!”

Mark just smiled and agreed, “Yes it does!”

With smiles on their faces, Mark and Joe went outside to do the chores.

“Can we even sell the ranch? It’s got all the alien material in it?” Joe asked as they walked to the barn.

“Maybe everyone will have learned their lesson from this? Are you sure you really want to sell all this?” Mark asked, thinking maybe Joe was overreacting.

Joe stopped and gave him a serious look, “You’ve known me a long time Mark, all I want to do is live the western lifestyle at my pace, taking care of the horses and putzing around on my ranch. This event has only proved that any friendships we thought we had, are only skin deep. Without proof, they immediately blamed us for what happened! Sure, it may be awhile before people come to Atlantis to book trail rides, but who knows ... maybe Atlanteans will want us to board horses and go on trail rides? If we can live our lifestyle in peace, I really don’t care where it is!”

“It sounds like you’ve decided. Well, then maybe think about how you want your new ranch laid out. Keep in mind, the climate will be tropical, so you probably won’t need a big heated barn!”

Joe asked again, “Can we even sell this ranch with all the alien stuff on it?”

Mark said, “I’m pretty sure Cricket or Solara could revert everything back to the way it was, before all the upgrades, sans the visitor centre since it’s now a world famous landmark. Then we’ll just need to rework the security system for just the visitor centre.”

The chores were done fairly quickly and just as Joe and Mark had grabbed fresh cups of coffee in the lodge, Elisha and Gerald pulled up.

Elisha hopped out of the van before it was even stopped, sprinted to the lodge, leaped the stairs onto the porch, pulled open the door to the lodge and shouted, “You’re rebuilding Atlantis! That is so cool!” as everyone laughed.

Mark laughed, “Well, at least someone visits the website!”

Cricket then informed Mark, “Actually, the website averages over 100,000 unique visitors each day. Although last night it spiked shortly after midnight, we’ve received almost a million unique visitors in the past 8 hours!”

Elisha said, “It’s not just me, everyone is talking about it. You seriously don’t know?”

Mark shook his head, “No, I just mentioned it during the interviews last night, so I thought I would post it on the website before bed last night, to kind of drum up interest before making the official announcement.”

“Well, you’ve drummed up interest! Can I interview you for the official announcement?” Elisha asked with longing in her eyes.

Mark said, “Sure! The website is already going viral, so if the interest is that high, I’m sure, whenever this airs, it’ll go viral fast enough.”

Gerald got all setup with his camera, and after the countdown on Gerald’s fingers, Elisha started the interview.

‘This is Elisha Romanson with a Global News Special Report. I’m here with Mark Phoenix, the King of the Atlantean Federation. Mark, news has been spreading fast regarding an announcement you made on the Federation website last night. Is it true you’re going to be rebuilding Atlantis?’

‘Yes, it is true. Foreign governments have bullied the Canadian government to kick us out because they felt we were favouring Canada with our technology. If we go anywhere else, it would just appear that we are favouring them. So our solution was to reestablish our own place in the world, and what better way to do it than to rebuild our original home ... exactly the same size and location as it was when we left in 1,138 BC, although we won’t be rebuilding all the buildings and aqueducts, etc.’

‘Wasn’t it destroyed by earthquakes and volcanos or something? Why would you rebuild it where it might get destroyed again?’

‘An earthquake didn’t destroy Atlantis. From what I’ve read since I became the King, what happened was when we were leaving the planet, we tried to destroy all traces of our technology and existence to prevent others from getting it. Like just recently, when we deconstructed the office building in the city, we left no trace we were ever there. Unfortunately back then, the technology still had a few glitches, and it destabilized the island which reduced it to a quagmire of muck, until the currents spread everything around and it settled.’

‘So you know all about Atlantis then?’

‘Well, I know what I’ve read, but we know pretty much everything! It was our home and we have pretty meticulous records. When the idea of rebuilding Atlantis was proposed, I originally thought of just building a floating island, like the business hubs on Atlanterra. However, floating likely wouldn’t convey that we have come home and we are here to stay!’

‘So where was Atlantis?’

‘In all honesty, it was pretty much exactly where many people thought it was ... in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.’

‘So are most of the legends of Atlantis true, then?’

‘Some of them are, but many are fabricated. Like us going to war against the Athenians, that was just them wanting our technology, so they made up stories about us attacking them, even to the point of having their own people stage attacks on themselves to bring others over to their cause. We are peaceful and didn’t want to fight anybody, so we left, that’s when we accidentally destabilized our island.’

‘What about the circular city, is that real?’

‘Yes, Acropolis is real and we are rebuilding it, in structure anyway. We will recreate some original buildings in the central ring for tourism and history purposes, although everything will be a bit more modernized on the inside.’

‘What other features will you be recreating?’

‘Not much else, to be honest, we’re wanting to leave the island as natural as possible. About the only other ancient features we’ll be creating are the statues of the past kings that protect the island, updated for all the kings in the past 3,000 plus years.’

‘Will the rest of Earth be able to visit Atlantis?’

‘Of course! We are here to stay. We’ll have an airport, a seaport, golf courses and resorts to accommodate tourists and we’ll be relocating the embassy from orbit down to the island. It will be full Federation living on Earth. There are also a lot of citizens from other planets in the Federation that will probably come to live there too.’

‘So how soon can we go to Atlantis?’

‘Well, unlike our previous construction demonstrations, this one is being done slowly and carefully, to minimize the impact on the underwater ecosystem in that area of the ocean. To protect the construction process, we’ll broadcast a construction zone perimeter around the island and we’ll be patrolling the 200 nautical miles zone around the island, making sure ships and submarines steer clear until they update their navigation charts, but I think the island will be ready for occupancy within a week.’

‘You said you will patrol, does that mean you are going to have a military on the island then?’

‘The Federation doesn’t have a military, but we will have security permanently stationed there.’

‘So if you are here to stay, what kinds of things are you planning to do as a country?’

‘We’ll be self-sufficient and it might take a while until we’re fully integrated and accepted in the world, but we have much to offer this planet—especially regarding caring for the planet and reducing pollution. We’re obviously going to have the companies providing services around the globe and it’s not likely going to take very long for our population to reach a point where we can be competitive in sports and we will probably have a lot of tourism ... both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial.’

‘That’s all we have time for today. Obviously, you have much to do! King Phoenix, thank you for speaking with us today. I look forward to visiting Atlantis soon! This is Elisha Romanson from Global News.’

Throughout the day, Cricket had been monitoring the Atlantis area and when there were no ships in the area, she had activated a holographic fog that surrounded the island and included 150 nautical miles around it. The drones were hovering 25 metres above the water at the 200 nautical mile perimeter, so they had 50 nautical miles to communicate with ships and instruct them to avoid the area.

That night on the evening news, there were already reports coming in from vessels claiming they heard voices from the heavens, telling them to avoid the area and reports from airplanes saying they could see an unnatural, unmoving fog in the middle of the ocean.

There was even a report from an environmentalist ship that tried to go into the construction zone. They mentioned that they had heard voices and when they didn’t change their course, a giant sea monster picked their ship up out of the water, turned them around and warned them not to come back.

Mark asked, “Cricket, what is this sea monster they are talking about?”

“Remember that blue pod? When I looked into some legends Earth had about Atlantis, some of them mentioned a sea monster called the Kraken. So when you asked me to come up with some sort of defence system against submarines and boats, that could EMP against their hull, I figured I could try making one of their legends come true. A giant octopus is perfect for wrapping around a vessel to emit an EMP directly against the hull.”

“Oh, I like it!”

When Mark turned and looked at everyone, Annabelle asked, “What did Cricket say about the sea monster?”

Mark smiled, “One of my worries was having a nuclear submarine sneak right up to our doorstep to attack. So I told Cricket to look into some sort of underwater security system that can do an EMP right against the hull, bypassing the insulating effect of salt water. Cricket found an ancient legend that mentioned a Kraken, so she created a mechanical one.”

Joe laughed, “That is an awesome security system! Not that I was too worried to begin with, but I have a feeling once Atlantis exists, some superpowers may not like losing their superpower status, or you get some upstart wannabe, like North Korea, that attacks just to make a name for themselves.”

Mark just smiled, “Joe, I’m hoping they will realize we are here to stay and that they should learn to get along with us. I’m also hoping they realize the futility of trying to use inferior technology against us, but as you have said frequently ... never underestimate the extent of human stupidity! I already have numerous plans in motion, that can be executed immediately, should any country do anything stupid. All of it non-lethal, and some of it could be quite the spectacle to see!”

As they went to bed that night, Mark was talking to Cricket, “We know the locations of every submarine in the oceans, don’t we?”

Cricket replied, “That question cannot be answered, if we haven’t detected it then we wouldn’t know about it!”

He laughed at her response, “Touché, but we THINK we know where every submarine in the world is, don’t we?”

“Yes.”

“Do we know what country owns each of those subs?”

“I’m 98% certain for all the nuclear submarines, but less than 50% certain for the older diesel submarines. They may have been manufactured by one country and then sold to another when the nuclear models went into service.”

“If it’s possible, I’d love to get some smaller versions or variants of the Kraken and have them swim around and take a picture of every sub’s identification markings and then attach themselves to the hulls. It would make them easier to track and, if we had to act, we could EMP them on demand.”