Tug and the Holy Grail

~

I sat there looking at Maria with my mouth hanging open. She confirmed my astonishment with an inscrutable look. She said, "The Journal ends with Bertrand's arrival back in Scotland. How it got on a ship is a mystery, But the fact that it was sealed in Atlantean technology indicates that Atlanteans were involved and I owe it to my people to recover that treasure."

I said, "What do your people have to do with the Templars?"

Maria said, "Groups like the Templars are one of the ways that Atlanteans have kept our communities. The Templars evolved into the Masons. The Masons don't know their own origins. But their rituals are inherited from us; and some of their most prominent members had access to our secrets."

I recalled that a lot of the founding fathers were Masons, including Washington and Franklin. It made me wonder.

I said, "So what are you proposing?"

Maria said, "We were looking for something to do, right?" I nodded. She continued with, "Why don't we get the treasure. The location is clearly marked in the journal."

I looked at the beautiful woman sitting opposite me. She was watching me eagerly. It was probably just the result of her accelerated heart rate. But, when she gets excited her skin seems to glow. Her eyes are almost cat amber. Now they had a golden hue. I said, "What the heck. Why not??"

She stood, walked over to me, and planted a long passionate kiss on my lips. Then she took me by the hand and led me down to the privacy of our lounge, where she proceeded to show me how grateful she was.

As we were lying there in the sweaty afterglow I said, "You don't have to thank me. I thought that ransoming the software industry was exciting. But, this is more REAL adventure than I ever dreamed of." Being married to a full blooded Atlantean Princess DID have its advantages.

~

Preparation for a long sea voyage in an engine powered boat is all about fuel. If the tug had a sail, the wind would serve. But my ugly old girl would go only as far as our fuel capacity could take us. So, I did a little research and discovered a marina on Ocracoke island. That would be within practical range. The fact that we could follow the Gulf Stream northward would help.

We could run up Pamlico Sound to Albemarle and pick up the Intercoastal at Elizabeth City. Once we got to Norfolk we could move past Cape Charles and on up the east coast to Nova Scotia. The irony was that, after we cleared Cape Charles we would be on the same general course that the Templar fleet had taken 700 years earlier.

We laid in all the stores we would need for a three-week voyage, which was the time it would take. And, if we needed anything, we could pick it up as we progressed up the U.S. East Coast. It was early evening by the time we had finished fueling and provisioning. So, we decided to grab one last pint at the White Horse.

We were sitting on the deck enjoying the fish and chips; I mean seriously!!! It IS a pub. We were washing that down with a couple of Dark and Stormies, which is the signature drink of the big-boat sailors in the Newport-Bermuda race. We were having one of those moments when Maria was curled up in my head just caressing my psyche.

Her mental powers are exceptional, even for Atlanteans. It was the reason why she was being groomed to take over the role of High Priest of the Sun. Having your wife able to see into your mind would be difficult for any husband. So, it was a condition of our marriage that she stay out of my head, unless I invited her in. The Atlantean elders made that stipulation clear.

Nonetheless, she likes to curl up in there and feel my love. She's like a cat by a fireplace that way, and our psychic closeness is incredibly comforting to both of us. Suddenly I felt a blast of pure unadulterated terror. It was so strong that it was like somebody hit me over the head. It didn't hurt. But, I almost blacked out.

Maria was looking at me with alarm. She had whisked out of my mind as she delivered the blow. But I have seen her knock out a pro-football linebacker with the same kind of psychic blast. She said, "Oh my God!!!! It's an Athenian!!!"

I turned and glanced in the direction she was looking and there was an unearthly beautiful couple waiting for the hostess to seat them. They were both exceptionally tall. She was an incredible beauty, pale almost translucent skin, long thick raven hair. Which was cut across her forehead Cleopatra style.

She had uncanny ice blue eyes. Maria has golden cat eyes. This woman's eyes were the odd pale blue that you see in an Alaskan Husky. She had the same kind of perfect features as my dear wife. But this woman's perfection was the hard, remorseless cold of the arctic, rather than Maria's lush tropical warmth.

Her figure was anything but lush. Maria has exotic curves. This woman was razor thin; like one of those stick figure models that you see marching Paris haute couture runways.

The man was almost my height, with the sort of strong, handsome chiseled features that Ralph Lauren likes in his models. He had the same black hair as his woman, and the same kind of odd pale complexion. But, while his companion's eyes were ice blue, his were almost opaquely black; cruel as a snake.

He was unusually slim; all wiry strength and reflexes. Looking at him I imagined a western gunfighter; not the guy with the white hat. This fellow was the one dressed all in black; with two, silver six-guns.

They both radiated ultimate arrogance and total contempt for humanity. It was an attitude that you might expect from the very rich and socially entitled. I could feel Maria shutting down her psychic transmitter. She was going as dark as she could. That was a new experience. She is usually radiating a subliminal connection to me, like a constant mental touch.

Our new companions had not noticed either of us. That was perfectly understandable since they obviously viewed everybody else in the place as the great unwashed. They were escorted to a table on the other side of the room.

As they sat Maria said, "I'll see you at the boat." Then she rose hastily and sauntered out of the pub, exuding innocence. I settled the bill and left with our dinner, in two carry-out containers. There was plenty of Goslings ginger beer and dark rum back home.

Maria was a hot-mess when I got into the lounge. She was terrified. That was a new experience. I have never seen her anything but totally serene and self-contained. Now, she was cowering in the corner of the couch, with Bastet winding herself around her like she was trying to give Maria comfort.

I came over and put my arm around Maria, shooing Bastet away. The cat snarled and retreated, to crouch just in front of us. Baster's expression told me that, as far as she was concerned it wasn't over yet.

Maria was quivering with fright. I said, "I don't know what just happened. But, whatever it was; I am with you one-hundred-percent."

She looked at me like she was in shock and said, "Those were Athenians."

I had no idea what that meant. In general, I have found Greeks to be pleasant and entertaining not terrifying. I had never been to Athens, but the place DID have a long history of philosophy and humanism.

I decided to cut to the chase. I said, "Why are you frightened of Greeks?"

Maria looked at me like I was a moron and said, "Those were Athenians, not Greeks."

I said dismissively, "Potato, potat-oh; aren't Athenians from Greece? Why are you so afraid of ATHENIANS?"

She was getting her composure back. She turned her golden eyes on me and said, "As you have probably guessed, our people come from the stars." I had assumed that. But, this was the first time she had admitted it out loud.

She said, "The sun that earth rotates around is a minor star in a distant part of the galaxy. We fled here from our world, which is the star system that you call Rigel." That was interesting.

She added, "Rigel is a double star with planets circling each sun. Our planet, which orbits around the lesser of the two, is like earth. We were a peaceful people devoted to science and studies of the mind."

She continued with, "The alpha star in our system had a planet that was much larger, but because the alpha sun was so hot it is mostly barren desert. The people on that planet mastered space flight at the same time we did. However, rather than use their newfound abilities to conduct trade, they devoted themselves to conquest."

She got a look of sadness and said, "We were a tempting target and they quickly subjugated us; we had no defenses. We didn't think we needed any. What followed was a thousand years of slavery, while the residents of the alpha sun exploited our vast natural resources."

Maria got a far-away look and said, "Finally, a pitiful few of us escaped and settled here, under the guidance of one of our great leaders. His name was, Solon."

I recognized the name from Plato. I knew where this was headed. Solon is mentioned in the Socratic dialogue, "Critias;" which is the source of the Atlantis story. Maria's voice was earnest. She said, "We searched for hundreds of years and eventually found this perfect minor planet. The environment of Earth is just like our homeland. We hid on it for millennia. But the Athenians eventually tracked us down."

She smiled with satisfaction, "We were well armed at that point and we gave a very good account of ourselves. But the Athenians used a thermal device that punctured Atlantis tectonic plate. It thinned the earth's mantle, under us; which dropped our entire continent beneath the sea in one catastrophic day and night."

She smiled with grim satisfaction and said, "Meanwhile we used our singularity weapons. The temporary black hole we created decimated the Athenian fleet; and their survivors were stranded here on earth with us."

Maria said with sadness, "From that time on, we have conducted a relentless battle of good versus evil. The Athenians are warlike and they only understand conquest. But 13,000 years of struggle has diminished their populace to a point where we thought that the Athenians might be out of our lives forever."

She looked solemn and said, "I have never seen an Athenian, but tonight I saw two."

I said, "Do they have your psychic powers?"

Maria said, "Yes, but not as powerful. I can shield us."

I said, "Do they have your technology?"

She said, "Their technology was far superior to ours. But they lost most of it when we destroyed their ships."

Then a horrible thought struck me. I said, "Is there any chance they might be looking to replenish their arsenal from the Templar artifacts?" Maybe they also know where Bertrand's journal was lost.

Maria got a look of absolute horror on her face and said, "That's EXACTLY why those two are here!!! We have to get out of here; before either of them connects with me and knows that there is an Atlantean in the area."

So, exactly two hours later we were rounding Saint Catherine's Beach Point, on a course heading two-seven-five. I had calculated the haul to the Atlantic barrier islands to be about four days. That is, if we manned the wheel in watches. I took the first eight hours. That gave me an opportunity to think.

What Maria had told me, blew my mind. But it also made perfect sense. In folklore, the City of Athens chose Athena as its patron goddess. Perhaps you can guess who her rival amongst the Greek gods was? Yep! Poseidon; and I bet you can also guess who Poseidon was the patron god of. You got it! Atlantis. So, since the dawn of time, the Athenian and Atlantean deities have been dueling it out in mythology.

We have satellite comm-link. It's damn expensive. But, I need the internet, even when we are at sea. As I steered, I was frantically googling to see when Athens was first settled. It turns out that the earliest evidence of human habitation on the Acropolis was in the 11th millennium BCE, which means that the war with Atlantis had taken place a mere two thousand years earlier.

Clearly the survivors of the Athenian fleet had brought their name to this new place.

That wasn't to imply that every Athenian was from the stars. It's likely that just one, or perhaps several survivors of the battle settled amongst the indigenous human population and intermarried. But, the result was an advanced City State that more-or-less dominated history for several hundred years; while it provided human civilization with fundamental concepts like democracy, mathematics, physics and medicine. I think you get the idea.

So, Maria's story not only sounded plausible, it explained a few things about humanity's past. I was wondering about the two people I saw. I could easily believe that they were not of this earth. The translucent skin and odd eyes were striking. But, it wasn't their appearance that was so strange. It was their absolute belief in their own superiority; like I might feel if I was being ushered into a room full of cockroaches.

It was more than a little upsetting to think that warlike, pale-skinned, aliens were loose in the world's population. It was even more disturbing to think that they might be after the same thing that we were seeking, which was god-like power. They were clearly on Bermuda because they knew about the Templar journal. The question was, "What would they do once they discovered that we'd found it first?"

Maria appeared in the pilot house at that point. I said, "You should get some sleep." Maria just walked up behind me and pressed her luscious body against my back, hooking her arms around my chest. She leaned her head against my shoulder and just stood there. Her psychic receiver was drawing strength from our closeness.

I only barely understood how such a spectacular woman could find a nerd like me attractive. I suppose I'm not bad looking, in a tall skinny way. But that would never attract a woman as beautiful as Maria. What attracted her was the fact of my genetics, which are just Atlantean enough to make me more like Maria than any other man in the world.

How I got to be Atlantean was irrelevant. They had obviously intermarried with Homo Sapiens as the residents of earth became more civilized. But, that would cause the Atlantean gene pool to became more-and-more attenuated over time. As a result, the presence of pure Atlanteans in day-to-day human life was more-or-less limited to visits from the New Atlantis of the past.

But there were still Atlantean genes in the human pool. My dad runs a hardware store and my mom is a housewife. They are hardly examples of a super-human species. But the combination of the two produced me, and I can father Atlantean children. So, I won the genetic lottery. That was the reason why this fabulous woman was standing with her arms around me in the darkness of the pilot house.

I said, "We'll face it together, whatever we're facing." She hugged me tighter.

Maria snuggled into my mind and said, "I know my love. It's just that you have never experienced Athenian brutality, I haven't either. But the elders told us stories about how totally ruthless they are. It frightens me."

I said soothingly, "It scares me too. But, I can face anything as long as I have you with me."

At that, Maria moved around to the front of me, grabbed the back of my head and dragged me down to one of her patented kisses. We broke and I looked at her shining amber eyes. There was pure lust in them.

Maria is an extremely sexual woman. Meaning, she gets horny when her emotions are riled. It isn't just fear that does it. An exciting football game, a beautifully played concerto, or watching "Old Yeller" will do the same thing.

I put the wheel on autopilot, as she dropped her jeans and panties. She put her hands on the chart table. She widened her stance and looked back at me with urgency. She has the kind of ass that guys dream about, very round and full, not skinny, or flat. At the same time, there isn't an ounce of fat on those big muscular buns.

I had dropped my own jeans as she was getting rid of hers. I grabbed each side of her taut hips and slid into the hottest, wettest pussy she had ever presented to me. I think the experience of being so close to the Athenians had turned her on. Whatever it was, she was so well lubricated that I immediately slid to the top.

My wife let out an unearthly groan. THAT sent Bastet fleeing down the pilot house steps. Maria tossed her head back her hair flying all around. Then she began to whip it back and forth as she moved. It was Maria fucking me. I took ahold of the compass binnacle to steady myself, as she began to frantically push back, moaning loudly.

I slapped one of those incredible buns and she let out a hiss. It sounded like Bastet. Her back arched with hunger and her hips elevated, as she tried to get me further inside her. I grabbed her by her hair. That really got her going.

She let out a low growl of pure unadulterated lust and added a round-and-round motion to her rapid and frantic pushing back. The smell of aroused female was getting me to my destination a lot faster than I wanted. She was wilder than usual; whining with need, while making rapid-fire ugh-ugh-ughs. I just hung on for dear life, rhythmically slapping her butt. It was like I was a cowboy on a bucking bronco.

Thank God Maria finished first. She let out an unearthly shriek. Then she shoved herself back violently. She stayed frozen, with me to buried to the hilt in her; making loud, animal growling noises as the contractions passed through her.

That sent me over the edge into a bottomless nirvana of sexual pleasure. Maria slumped to the floor like somebody had cut her strings. I slumped backwards into the steersman's chair, breathless. All you could hear in the dark pilot house was frantic panting.

It wasn't hard to understand that what we had done was life affirming. It was our way of reassuring ourselves, through intimate connection, that we would never be apart. Both of us knew that.

~

The trip up the U.S. east coast, around Cape Canso, and through the Canso Canal into Saint George's Bay, took almost a month. We didn't have a plan, as much as an intention. Hence, there was no time schedule. We just made our way slowly north, and fucked the night away everyplace we anchored.

Thanks to Bertrand's journal, we knew that the entrance to the vault was on a mountain near the village of Pictou, in Nova Scotia. Of course, I confirmed the location as best I could on the internet.

Bertrand had noted in his journal that, "We saw in the distance a great hill that poured forth smoke." There is only place on the coast of North America that has deposits that would produce smoke like that. Those are the stellarite pitch deposits that are found in Pictou County. In fact, the name Pictou in Micmac means "explosive place."

As we pulled into the Pictou inlet, I could visualize why Sinclair had chosen it. He had dug up the treasure at the mouth of the Saguenay and sailed back around the Gaspe looking for a safe location to hide it. He was seeking a place that was relatively inaccessible; and which had a landmark. The peak we now call Dalhousie Mountain is the tallest in the Cobequid range. So, it would have drawn him there.

Henry might have stopped first in Bai Verte. But, Prince Edward Island would have looked like more of the Gaspe landmass to him. So, he sailed a little further down the Northumberland Strait seeking a sheltered bay. The inlet at Pictou was exactly as Bertrand described it.

Henry was reputed to be very clever. He would not make the location of the treasure apparent. But he DID need a place to stay while the construction of the vault was taking place. So, he built a lodging for himself and his men 60 miles further south and called it the Castle at the Cross.

The remains of that place are still visible.

That location is almost half-way between the treasure vault and the second shaft on Oak Island. Sinclair's men must have conducted both digs simultaneously, while he coordinated the work from his home base, halfway between the two. That fact was further confirmation of the accuracy of Bertrand's journal, as well as Henry's organization skills.