Chapter 7

The camp had become a hive of activity. Everyone was involved in building the new settlement. Poseidon and Hades with half the robots and all the cutting equipment were working at the quarry. They looked for faults in the stone, then aimed the cutting bea

ms at the strategic point and sliced great chunks out of the mountainside. These were then cut into more manageable pieces and finally shaped according to the plans laid out by Hephaestus. The new building would fit together like a jigsaw.

Back at the camp, the foundations had been laid and men and robots were erecting the huge supporting columns. Everyone except Demeter and Hestia was working on the site. Even Hera, who had kept herself aloof from the activity, had suddenly taken an interest and begun to order people about.

Demeter's priority was the food planting. "I'll worry about the building when we've got enough planted for next season," she said, "I am so looking forward to fresh fruit and vegetables."

Hestia had suddenly revealed a hitherto unsuspected talent for designing houses. "It's what I used to do at Home," she said. "I designed houses for rich people. I designed your father's house."

Athena was transfixed. "So what are you doing here? How did you end up being the ship's cook?"

Hestia gave her an old-fashioned look. "Why, don't you think my cooking's good enough?"

Athena laughed. "You know I don't mean that. It's just it isn't much like being an architect."

Hestia shrugged. "I spent my days designing houses for rich people ? beautiful houses set in open countryside with many rooms and great gardens and then I went home to my poky little apartment in a multi-storey complex where I lived all by myself but surrounded by strangers and I thought, Is this it? Is this all there is to life?

For a moment she stared straight ahead, a pensive look on her face.

Athena could not imagine being surrounded by strangers. She didn't really understand what a stranger was. How could you not know all the people around you?

"And then, while I was working on your father's house, he told me about the Atlantis Expedition. And I asked if there could be a place for me. He laughed at first. He said he couldn't think of any skill less useful on a scientific expedition than house design. But I persuaded him. Technically, I'm not just a cook, you know."

Athena raised her eyebrows.

"I look after all the supplies and logistics and make sure the domestic side of the ship is running perfectly. You know, laundry, cleaning, heating and air supply working. My official title is 'Domestic Controller'. In essence, I keep the home fires burning."

Athena had never seen a fire in real life but she was familiar with the phrase. It meant keeping everything nice for people to come home to. But why fires?

"Why fires?" she asked.

"What? Oh, it's how people used to heat their houses in the old days. They used to cook on fires as well. Before we had power."

"Good grief! What a pain that must have been. It must have been hard to control. And so dangerous!"

"Oh, I imagine they had it all under control," Hestia said airily. "Do you want to see some of the houses I'm designing for us?" She reached for her pad.

~*~

Prometheus was momentarily blinded by the darkness in the cave after the brightness of the sun but he could make out the glow of the sacred fire, and when his eyes adjusted he could see the paraphernalia of the Mother hanging from the wall. Her sacred staff with the carved serpent and the mushroom motif was leaning beneath. The Mother herself was right at the back of the cave with her back turned towards him. She was wearing the fur and feather cloak of the Goddess and he drew in a sharp breath. For a moment he had seen his own dead mother standing there, but this, of course, was the new Mother. She turned and saw him and he almost screamed. It was Pandora!

"Prometheus, where have you been? We've looked everywhere for you."

Shifting nervously from one foot to another, he told Pandora what had happened with Atlas. It seemed peculiar and wrong talking to her now she was the Mother and all the time he was speaking he was thinking miserably that he had lost her. She had become the Mother and was no longer the innocent girl he had loved for so long. Why did it have to be her? There were at least five eligible girls. Why had they chosen the girl he wanted? Now he had no choice but to try to win the foot race. Atlas was going to kill him literally.

Pandora listened as Prometheus poured out all his anguish. "It is not a true thing, what he said," he cried. "I would never dishonour the Mother. He means to be King. That is why"

Pandora cut across him with a wave of her hand and when she spoke it was in the voice of the Mother, low and filled with power. "I know these things already," she said. "Tell me of the other happenings. Tell me of the sacred mushroom."

Trembling, Prometheus threw himself to the floor. Suddenly Pandora had changed. She seemed taller and she stared straight ahead, her eyes wide and unfocussed as if in a trance. She was the Mother and she was terrifying. For a moment he could not speak.

"Rise, Prometheus, and speak."

He straightened and found the power to stand. "There was a great star that fell from the sky" he began.

He told the Mother of the star that was a million stars, of the silver fish that flew through the sky, of the lights on the mountain at night, of the great thunderbolt that sounded like the stamp of a giant's foot and of the appearance of the sacred mushroom. At some point he heard a clamour outside as the men and dogs returned from the hunt but no-one came into the cave and he went on speaking, transfixed by the Mother's expressionless face. At last he fell silent.

"I too heard the giant's foot and saw the sacred mushroom in the sky," said the Mother. "It is a sign. You will take me to the place on the mountain. I wish to see these beings."

Prometheus was aghast. What about the Tribe? The Mother could not leave the Tribe.

"The Tribe will come too," said the Mother, just as if he had voiced his thought.