Survival

The waves lapped against the raft as the sun beat down; Auriel lifted her head, groaning with the effort.?Opening her eyes, she cast a quick glance around before nausea overtook her.

Seven!

That couldn’t be it, surely? ?She risked another look. ?Her first impression had been correct, including herself, the makeshift raft carried seven people. ?Involuntary tears escaped her tightly closed eyes; over three hundred people had been aboard the craft, fleeing the destruction of her homeland. ?She could only hope that the other vessels had been luckier; if not, she feared her entire civilisation could have been lost to the cataclysm.

Auriel sensed rather than heard her fellow castaways stirring and struggled into a seated position. ?Her head swam, and the nausea returned, but she fought to master the feelings. ?From the raised vantage point she was able to survey the situation in more detail. ?Two of the six other people were still motionless, their faces pale; the other four were in various stages of consciousness.

The person nearest to her, Sonarus was the name her memory supplied, emitted a low moan of pain, and his eyes flickered open. ?Auriel smiled at him encouragingly, “Take your time, if you feel anything like I did when I woke up, you’d better stay still for a few moments longer”.

His eyes rolled back into his head and he shuddered slightly, “Gods, I feel sick to my stomach and my head hurts!” Resting for a few more minutes with his eyes closed, he continued to talk.

“How many?”

“Seven, and two are still completely out of it – Talan and Meloria – I think. ?I haven’t been able to get over and check as I’ve not been awake that long myself.”

Sonarus let loose an expletive. ?“By all the Gods! ?Seven! ?We can only hope at least some of the other craft made it to safety.”

Auriel nodded her head, eyes filling again with tears. ?Her partner of many years had been on one of the other vessels, but she, as chancellor, had chosen to wait until the very last transport before leaving the doomed land. ?Now she wondered if she would ever see him again, and her heart broke a little at the thought. ?She swore she could hear it…a very quiet but distinct sound, like the snap of a dry twig. ?Pushing that aside she helped Sonarus into a sitting position.

“What do you think happened to us?” he asked.

“No idea. ?In fact, I can’t remember anything much, aside from that initially we appeared to have escaped in time. ?I think I must have hit my head in the impact,” Auriel raised a hand and gingerly touched the large bump on the side of her head. ?“I can only imagine that the eruptions, the ash cloud, affected our ship. ?The last thing I remember is the captain’s warning, then being in the water and someone hauling me onto this…whatever this is.”

“I pulled you out of the water.” A voice from across the small raft announced weakly. ?“And it’s the remains of one of the escape pods we’re in, it was ripped apart on impact, but somehow this section survived.”

Auriel looked at the man who had spoken; although she barely knew him, she recalled his name…Banov, he had been one of the medical team on that final evacuation. ?His skills were going to come in useful, she thought as she looked at the remaining four survivors.

“I thank you Banov.” She said warmly.

The young man nodded and managed to sit up, wincing slightly as he did so. ?Nodding in the direction of the others, he said, “They look like, Meloria, Lanara, Talan and Micel. ?They were all near me when we set off.”

“As were we”, Sonarus responded, indicating Auriel. “It would appear we seven happened to be in a section of the ship that retained some structural integrity.”

“We were lucky then, but now we need to work out a plan of action.” Auriel’s natural tendency to take charge surfaced. ?“Banov, check the others; see if you can rouse them. ?Sonarus, you and I should look around this floating palace,” that raised a smile, “if it is indeed an escape pod or at least part of one, there will be various storage bins built in.”

The three of them set about their tasks; Banov crawled unsteadily towards the four other passengers and quickly established that other than various scrapes and bumps, none appeared to be seriously injured.

Auriel and Sonarus meanwhile worked their way methodically over the remains of the escape pod; it appeared to have sheered in half vertically and lost the internal seating, leaving them an egg-shaped piece of floating debris approximately 5 metres long and 3 metres wide, curving into an elongated bowl. ?The shell of their “egg” was some 75cm deep, and within that casing, there were indeed storage units.

Although some of the units were difficult to open, by the end of their exploration, they had accumulated a pile of items in the centre of the pod. ?These included clothing, equipment to produce clean water, emergency food rations, and various pieces of technology, the most important of which were a comms unit and a compass. ?A small medipack containing handheld diagnostic and treatment units was an especially welcome find.

“At least we won’t starve or die of thirst…yet.” An ironic voice commented.

“Good to see you awake! ?Cheer up Micel, if it comes to it, we can always sacrifice you for the greater good. ?Plenty of meat on your bones!” Sonarus directed his words to a fresh-faced man who did appear to have a well-fleshed frame. ?Auriel chuckled to herself. ?If they were all to get through this ordeal and find dry land, they would need to find a way to unite and work together…to her way of thinking, good humour always helped the bonding process.

As the light began to fade, the team of seven had managed to process enough seawater to last them several days, rehydrated and consumed a meal, dressed in clean, dry clothes, and sent out an emergency SOS signal.

Micel, an engineer, had established their rough location, one he would be more certain of once the sun had set and the stars appeared and ascertained their current direction of travel. ?Of course, with no method of steering, nor propulsion, they were at the mercy of the sea itself, and it could be several days before they made landfall.

The small group huddled together as the golden orb of the sun dipped into the sea, plunging them into darkness. ?On the horizon they could see a dim red glow - possibly the final death throes of the huge volcano which had been the root cause of the destruction of their homeland. ?The violent eruption, and concomitant meteors which had bombarded the northern ice masses precipitating a rapid thaw and releasing millions of cubic tonnes of water into the oceans, had sealed the fate of what had been the greatest civilisation on the planet.

With barely enough warning to create a rescue plan, nevertheless, Auriel and the high council had managed to evacuate several thousand citizens on the great starships in which their ancestors had first arrived. ?But the vessels were old, very old, and it had been a risk. ?Yet a risk worth taking, for the knowledge of Atlantis had to be preserved. ?Each of the ships had a different destination programmed, one for each continent - the high council had hoped this would increase the chances of at least one landing safely and new colonies being established.

The stars began to appear, Micel scribbled some notes on one of the functioning tablet terminals Auriel and Sonarus had discovered. ?“I would say we are some 600 miles from Atlantis, or at least where it used to be. ?Given the current, we will most probably reach one of the northern lands in a week or so. ?And before you ask…I can’t tell you which one!”

“We’d best prepare for a tough journey then; we shall rest tonight as best we can and, upon the dawn, begin to create some shelter and duty rotas. ?We WILL get through this. ?I can’t promise we will see our friends and family for a while…if ever…but wherever we end up, we have the tools and the ancient knowledge - we will survive, and we will remember Atlantis and our home in the stars.” As she finished speaking, Auriel clasped the hand of the woman, Lanara, seated next to her, who then reached out to her right.

Holding hands, in a circle in the middle of the wrecked escape pod, the seven survivors of the destruction of Atlantis drew strength from each other…

They would endure.

They would preserve the ancient knowledge.

They would prevail.

? Laura Billingham 2022