Chapter 6

Merlin laughed. Watching the two come back to the impromptu hanger, it had been the first time that Merlin had been truly happy since waking up after the Tlaxcala had discovered the cache of Murau machine men, and since he suspected that someone had led them to the cache. There was one person in the world who now could open a Murau cache. If she was behind all of this, what was her angle?

To add to his suspicions the priest somehow had discovered one of the last Atlantean spells. One that had gotten the entire caste in Atlantis killed save for her. The Time Pull Spells had only been used once to Merlin’s knowledge, and there was only one person left who’d even have the knowledge about the spell. Merlin suspected she was truly behind everything that had happened here recently.

The white machine knight strolled into the amphitheater which was serving as a hanger first, but it walked to a corner of the facility. Instead, the worker machine man ordered to the stairs.

“Mary, I want you to take the stairs.”

The white machine man barely had any damage, and as the cockpit open with the chest armor flinging open upwards and the inner armor sliding down to make a small platform. Merlin laughed as he recalled that was part of the training. A lowering device shifted down from the top platform.

And there was Ashton riding down the emergency hitch. Merlin walked up the stairs with two of his agents. The victory tonight had kept the teteuctin happy, but apparently several of the priests had disappeared. The six priests that had been abducted had been the ones that had been most obsessed of the nine with defeating the Aztecs.

Merlin opened the piloting chamber, and inside was a girl in a jumpsuit. “Mary, I presume. Could I see your right hand?”

Mary looked confused, but she raises her right hand, and then there was a small shock from Merlin’s hand.

“Come,” said Merlin after the small spell. “I apologize about that, but that model suit has a tracking device in the right hand.”

Mary looked confused. Ashton had gotten down from his machine man, and he was half way up the stairs.

“Mary!” he shouted as he continued running up the stairs.

Merlin enjoyed that. He wouldn’t make it awkward to give a look, but Ashton hugged Mary who didn’t seem to mind. For a man beyond his years, it was good to see young love again.

The teenagers seemed happy seeing each other again. “Mary, I didn’t think that I’d see anyone again after we got separated.”

Ashton released her, but then suddenly the boy seemed sheepish. “I am sorry.”

Mary laughed. “Don’t worry about Ashton. I didn’t mind the hug. However, I thought that you were dead as well.” She started to tear up.

“I didn’t want to think you were dead, but I guess you got found by this sage.”

Merlin laughed. “Yeah, I may be a sage, but I look pretty good for being measured in thousands of years old. Miss Mary, you can call me Merlin.”

Mary looked confused. “You don’t have a long beard.”

The silver haired man laughed. “You want me to look old.”

Mary shook her head. “I am just surprised that you don’t have a long white beard that covers your face and most of your body. Also aren’t you a myth from England?”

Merlin shook his head. “I could say the same thing that I told your friend earlier, but as I told him, I don’t want to know much about how I am perceived in the future. That’s an Atlantean concept of trying to control everything.”

Ashton nodded. “We’ll try to keep you from knowing things. I promise that I’ll do that Merlin.”

Mary nodded. “So, what are you two doing here? I heard from Joe who is one of the other guys on the Aztecs’ side that the people here brought us and his group to this time. If you don’t like time travel, why are you here?”

Merlin sighed and tapped his foot. “It’s easy. I don’t like messing with time. This would have never been much of anything if someone had not shown the Tlaxcala a cache of my people’s machine men and given them a time pulling spell.”

Mary looked shocked. “Do you know a Circe who claims to be a witch?”

Merlin chuckled. “Of course, it was her, but why here in this region of the world?”

Mary then suggested. “Do you have a better more private place to speak?”

Merlin then led the two down the stairs as his guards watched. “Come along children. Let’s discuss things in the Avalon.”

Merlin hated opening the captain’s room. However, it was the most private area of the ship Avalon.

Sitting in the white table in the captain’s room, the room seemed stuck in time. The symbols of the Murau Empire stood in the corner with the image of the world with wings around it. For Merlin, he had changed some of the rooms, but he had never changed this room. “Now that we don’t have as many people watching. Miss Mary, it is interesting that you seem to be a mix of European and the local tribes. I’d like to know what happened, but again, I hate knowing the future.”

The wizard laughed. “Ashton keeps trying to talk about computer chips. I understand the concept of computers, but most of both Murau and Atlantean tech is based on what he described as small vacuum tubes. However, I just want to see if it possible for a mend in Atlantean and Murau blood.”

“Does that mean that I can talk about computer chips now,” said Ashton.

“No,” said matter of factly Merlin.

Ashton continuing to write things down, but Mary looked at Merlin. “His parents have a hard time keeping him from talking too much about computers or science fiction. He wants to design his own in fact.”

Merlin scratched his chin. “Interesting, but let’s get back to Circe. What has she been up to?”

Mary nodded. “Circe seems to have been orchestrating and encouraging Juan.”

Frowning Merlin looked distraught. “I figured that Juan couldn’t have come up with this plan. How Joe ended up in that group still astounds me.?”

Mary continued. “Juan has my brother Jesse with him trying to change the past. It makes little sense.”

“What about Bill?”

That was when Mary looked down. Her voice because hushed. “Bill was introduced to something that called itself Chronos, and . . . he . . . changed.”

Merlin looked at Mary. “He is not European then,” asked Merlin.

“No, Bill’s family is from I guess East Africa or maybe West Africa. I get directions off.”

Merlin looked distraught. “Chronos got awoken in the Christian Crusades, but I thought when I got him to redirected out into the middle of Atlantic, he’d be gone at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Where did he show up during the Crusades?” asked Ashton.

Merlin looked at the young man. “A group known as the Templar’s found a Chronos’ node. Along with some of their knights, we took down Chronos who had started to use his original name, Baphomet. Since becoming a machine intelligence, he used the name Chronos since he seems to think that he is eternal. He tends to use a head as a hologram.”

“He doesn’t seem to like you much, Mister Merlin,” added Mary.

Ashton then pipped in excited. “During the trials of the Templars trials in 1307 AD, the Order was accused of worshipping a disembodied head. Is it possible that this Chronos is the same being that brought down the Templars? But you said that you took them down.”

Merlin nodded. “I should have check more on them back after the Crusades, but I was nearing my latest hundred-year sleep. I figured that I had routed out the rot amongst those knights. It is around 1320 AD in Europe.”

The wizard stroked his chin which Mary laughed. “You really need a beard for that to work.”

The wizard laughed. “I just don’t like beards. It looks like a mess on me. I should have never grown it during my time at Camelot. That being said. I have spent years trying to isolate pieces of Chronos, but I suspect that all that is left of him are pieces. If he could get to one of the larger nodes, he’d be able to start to accelerate his rebuilding.”

“And if the tidbits are true of what you mentioned Ashton, the future computers might be able to create a means of Archon Baphomet to finally achieve his true desire.”

Merlin looked at Mary. “Was it in Aztec territory that you and Bill were led to where you meet that old monster?”

Mary shook her head. “I don’t think so. It seemed to be overgrown with jungle. Circe seemed to command the locals rather well, but there were few people there mostly just warriors in this pyramid. The pyramid was not like the one in Egypt, but it was slopped with floors.”

Ashton spoke up. “It’s the Mayan city of Calakmul. Something happened in the 9th Century.”

Then Merlin realized what Ashton had said. “You might be right, Ashton. I’m not omnipotent, but there was a Atlantean colony in what you call the Yucatan. It might have been possible that there existed a forgotten network nod in that city. Atlantean network nodes used neutrinos and biological components.”

“A neutron bomb situation. . .,” said Ashton.

“Indeed, Chronos has been trying to find a node to restart the system, but why Circe is helping him again is odd. And this Bill being African does not bode well either.”

Mary spoke up. “Why is it not good that Bill is East or West African?”

“Many people were created to be castes in Atlantis. Circe is a mocha color, and she’d probably pass for many different people. However, the people who were the ancestors of some of the sub-Saharan Africans were bred for their ability to be vessels for the Archons’ will, and I am sure looking at the Olmec heads that some might have survived and became a leadership caste. The people of this region were originally created as shock troops by the Atlanteans.”

That shocked the two younger people. Merlin continued. “My people were against what Atlantis was trying to do, but after the Great War that we fought against the Great Enemy. My people were tired. Atlantis began to discourage their pagan religion, and they started to create different peoples and a means for their elites to become immortal. My people didn’t realize what was going on as we prepared to fight a reprisal on the Great Enemy.”

Ashton asked a question. “Who is the Great Enemy?”

Merlin looked away. “They never returned, and as I explained earlier, our fleet probably ended their home world. I just have no idea if the fleet survived. I just know most of the home fleet of Murau didn’t survive the destruction of Atlantis. The Nagas if they are still out there are not making many signs of it.”

Mary then interrupted. “But what does this have to do with Bill?”

Merlin nodded. “The truth is that Bill has become a vessel for Chronos. Whatever you knew about Bill before is gone? He has had his personality changed.”

Mary looked disturbed while Ashton felt nothing.

“But Bill was so sweet. Sure, he my brother’s henchman, but he tried his best to be better than Jesse’s bully ways.”

Ashton probably was chuckling under his breath. For him, Bill had been just as bad as Jesse. One of his childhood bullies was gone, and he no longer had to worry about him. Though in the back of his mind, he worried if this new Bill was more dangerous now. His mind could not fathom a dangerous Bill- it just never made sense.

Merlin smiled. “I am sorry child, but the Bill you knew is gone.”

Ashton then wanted to get this conversation out of the question of Bill. “So, what are we going to do with the additional machine man?”

Merlin nodded. “To the point, Ashton. My thoughts are that it should be upgraded. No doubt, Miss Mary has felt the problems with using a construction unit for combat.”

She nodded. “That crown thing always felt like it was going to fall off at any moment.”

Merlin smiled. “The good news is that my ship can upgrade the machine man without much trouble. It will just take a day or three to pull off.”

Looking at Ashton, Merlin looked sternly at the lad. “You will need to be on alert as well. Plus, you must train Mary in how to fight in a machine man. Your machine knight is already being called Quetzalcoatl by the people of this city along with the Aztecs who heard the cheering. I do not want you to use the transformation sequence as much as possible. I already have too many headaches with six priests disappearing.”

“Six priests disappeared?” asked Ashton.

Merlin nodded. “During your battle, six priests all of whom had been part of the group who somehow learned a spell to time pull from the future disappeared. They were meeting in a building when some sort of struggle occurred. Now that I know that Circe is here, I know that she probably grabbed them.”

Merlin nodded. “Well then we will need to train for things and prepare for the future then.”

The wizard smiled. “I am going to program the systems on the Avalon to start the modification process on Miss Mary’s working machine man. We will need to walk the Machine Man into the water.”

Mary groaned.

“Ashton, you are going to need to walk the machine into the water. Mary, we need to give you proper training, but that can wait for in the morning. There is ample room in the Avalon. Thankfully this underground water reserve leads to an ancient channel for water. I’ll probably get rid of it when I leave.”

Mary looked relieved.

Soon after, Ashton sat in the machine man as he got it ready. “This control crown doesn’t even sit exactly on the head of the user. What’s the idea, Merlin.”

The ancient laughed. “Well, they were never intended to be used like machine knights, but they can be modified. Besides, it can easily be replaced. You could say that it is plug and play.”

Merlin pulled a different control crown from his robe. “This should be easier to fit on your head,” said Merlin as he tried it on Mary.

Ashton looked surprised.

“That looks a tad small for my head,” said Ashton.

Merlin laughed. “It is indeed a tad small for your head, but we must endeavor to make sure that you do not get a big head Master Ashton.”

The teenager rolled his eyes as he nodded with the worker control crown. Merlin laughed. “The more important thing is that Juan and Joe those ungrateful roughens didn’t listen when I explained how to adjust the crowns.”

The wizard leaned in, and he pulled a strap that seemed to be attached to the worker’s control crown. “The one that they killed listened which was Francis. Probably wasn’t good Frankish folk, but he at the least listened.”

Ashton pulled his chin through the strap, and he readied himself to jump in the pond by the hanger. “And we are absolutely sure that it will sink in that water?”

Merlin laughed. “Like a rock.”

Ashton asked one more question. “And the Avalon will pick me up?”

Mary laughed. “The Wizard has assured you several times that it will be like clockwork that it will pick you up. It’s like my uncle Jake’s garage when they send out a tow truck.”

Ashton laughed. “I don’t have to worry about a tow truck older than Rome as I plunge into water.”

Mary nodded. “Well, my uncle’s tow truck is less reliable than probably roman stuff.”

Merlin finished his preparations. “Have some faith, Ashton.”

And with a moment’s notice, Merlin and Mary left Ashton in the less sophisticated cockpit. Lights started to turn on, and there was an unusual smell as the air conditioning started.

Ashton coughed as he began to breath the odd air. “Mary, you did better than I expected. Wow, this air smells terribly.”

As the screens came on, Ashton noticed that the cockpit only had front screens unlike the machine that he had used with its spherical screen system. Looking at the screens, the controls were similar, but they were not as sophisticated as the ones in the machine knight.

A thought passed Ashton’s head as he looked at the machine knight that he usually piloted. ‘Perhaps, I should call it Quetzalcoatl even if Merlin doesn’t want to. It’s a name that fits.’

Pushing the idea to the back of his mind as he started to push back from the stairs that he had told Mary to use. More than likely, he’d have to move Quetzalcoatl back to the stairs of stone.

When this was over, Ashton wondered what would happen to Quetzalcoatl. It was too dangerous to be out here in this time sometime in the 14th Century. It was a strange era. He did not really know what year it was, but he knew the Crusades had started and probably ended in Europe and the Holy Land.

Moving the machine man, a notion crossed his mind. He could go to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and protect it. Hell with the machine knight, he could march to Mecca. He could be a great hero, but that would change so much. To his knowledge now, he was safe from the grandfather paradox. Mary might not be as safe, but he was safe from that horrid time travel principal that could erase him.

He had used small steps with the machine man, but it was obvious that the spots in the camera thanks to the mud head caused problems. It wasn’t as easy to stride with the disruption to see, but after walking through the opening of the hanger, he found the pit that led to a pool of water.

“Nothing ventured. Nothing gained,” said Ashton.

And with a minor push, he pushes the controls forward into the pit and water. The machine man indeed did sink like a rock the minute that it hit the water. It quickly sank. The machine started to sink with sounds indicating that it was dropping in water.

Ashton for now was grateful that the machine hadn’t turned upside down. The depths began to get black which made Ashton turned on the lights. The lights quickly made everything easily seen.

Ashton quickly saw the Avalon. It appeared to be almost swan shaped. It had a long section where bridge probably sat. The wider middle section had the wings folded next to it. Ashton assumed the engines were in the back.

“I wonder how it moves through the air,” said Ashton to no one.

And then from doors on the bottom of the ship that were probably an eighth of the size of the midsection, it opened. Then segmented arms came out of the doors. Ashton let the controls go, but the first to attach to the machine man jerked it around that left it turned around.

Ashton felt like it got pulled back at that moment. Ashton wanted to scream, but he allowed it to happen. It was not a feeling that he liked.

Pulled into the Avalon, the machine man ached as the sound of the pressure in the depths. The doors of the ancient warship closed. Waters surrounded the machine man, but the water started to drain.

Ashton kept breathing. This was frightening, but it would soon be over. And then air started to pump into the chamber. Merlin and Mary soon arrive.

Looking down at them, Ashton noticed that something had already torn off the arms and legs.

Then the cockpit opened, and Merlin walked up to him on a ladder.

“Don’t worry. I know what I am doing. When you are done with moving the machine knight- it’s probably time for sleep.”

And with that, they got Ashton down.