Atlantis City-State
Among the most beautiful and historied of the world’s seas are the warm, sometimes tempestuous waters between the Bahamas and North America—the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, the Gulf Stream. In some places, the waters are remarkably clear and shallow, the stuff of vacation dreams for so many.
In the early twenty-first century, though, a band of scientists and engineers and their families determined not simply to spend a holiday there. Instead, with equal measures of audacity, stubbornness, and wits, they built a massive, rambling artificial habitat on one of those shallow places . . . and declared it a sovereign nation: the city-state of Atlantis.
The first years were stormy ones; not a few countries objected, often loudly and at length, to the sudden appearance of this artificial island state. But the founders had sited their construction carefully, and its location in international waters left the nay-sayers with few grounds on which to base substantive arguments. The announcement of an agreement with the United States, in which that superpower guaranteed the tiny newborn’s security, muted most of the remaining complaints to mutters—the more resentful in the face of yet another example of Yankee high-handedness.
Even then, the survival of Atlantis was far from assured. Its fledgling economy was unique, one previously only theorized. A net importer of foodstuffs and most manufactured items, it could repay only with intangibles. Ideas, information, and location became the city-state’s stock in trade as it grew slowly from an outpost into a small but thriving metropolis.
Freeport, research facility, university, offshore information nexus, haven for the politically dispossessed, neutral territory for meetings large and small—whether diplomatic or business—Atlantis makes its living from being where and what it is. Along the way, criticism abated (though it did not vanish), for the new nation had not at all incidentally made itself indispensible for these functions, whether on a regional or global basis.
Then a momentous, long-awaited event arrived, and first contact was made with an extraterrestrial intelligence. The Emissaries brought with them the engineering solutions that made it possible for mankind to reach the stars, chief among them the fractal dimension-reduction device. Moreover, they showed no inclination to leave—assuming the vessel in which they had arrived was capable of doing so, which remained unclear.
So one more embassy, one more institute, one more community joined the profusion of others in the habitat. By the middle of the century, Atlantis had become a heady brew of nations and people, including not only humans and Emissaries but a sizable scattering of artificial life forms ranging from uplifted dolphins to the world’s first AI.
The Habitat
The physical structure of Atlantis has been described as a densely packed hamster habitat supported by a huge, heavy-duty Erector set. Large, squat cylinders in a profusion of sizes and shapes, containing most of the actual living and working areas, are served by pipeline-like “tunnels” winding through and around the interior of the sturdy, rugged scaffolding that gives Atlantis its approximate shape.
Atlantis is divided into seven “levels”, more for convenience than because of differences in external construction (aside from the increase in wall thickness to resist mounting water pressure as one descends). These levels are volumes of space within the outer structure rather than literal floors as in a land-bound skyscraper, and each varies from ten to thirty meters in height, depending on just where the measurement is made.
Level One: Topside
Topside contains all the facilities that require access to the open sky—Atlantis International Airport, antenna farms, meteorology station, and so on. While the airport terminals are reasonably well-appointed, even they reflect to a minor degree the no-nonsense industrial ambience of what is, after all, primarily a working level. There are, however, a few observation galleries, both sheltered and open-air, used by inhabitants and sightseers alike, making this the second most popular level with the latter.
Level Two: Wavetop
Wavetop caters primarily to the transient population and to the surface-tonnage seaport. It is here that the bulk of the hostelry, short-term housing, and shopping are found, as well as the diplomatic sector and some city government facilities. This is by far the busiest level in terms of human traffic, and certainly is the most popular with visitors.Level Three: Shallow
Shallow is much like Wavetop, but oriented more toward the long-term and permanent resident. Heavily residential, with some commercial and civic zones, it is markedly quieter than the “free air” levels above. In part this is because, for all the adventurousness of many tourists, most do not face the prospect of constant submergence with the same equanamity as those who live in Atlantis.Level Four: Upper Deep
Upper Deep clearly displays a transitional character, mixing some commercial and residential areas with light industry and support structures. However, if any single use can be said to dominate this level, it would have to be laboratories, classrooms, and simulators. AMRI is heavily represented, and quite a lot of space is leased by governments and businesses conducting maritime research and training programs.Level Five: Lower Deep
Lower Deep is very much a working level, devoted mostly to industry and infrastructure . . . and to a submarine pen able to dock two vessels at a time. The enclosures can completely encase boats as large as the U. S. Navy’s Seawolf-class nuclear attack submarines, something that is not lost on other nations. Protests and insinuations occasionally surface, especially since the pen is a secure facility. Yet it is also true that more and more civilian submersibles of various types are coming off the slips, and that Atlantis’ status as a free port provides a genuine incentive to provide for this increasing traffic.Level Six: Seafloor
Seafloor is essentially off-limits to anyone but authorized personnel. It contains few amenities, being much like the level above, only more so. In place of the sub pens are extensive facilities for deep-diver operations and access. Much of this level is given over to basic infrastructure such as HVAC, fire-suppression, and other support machinery.Level Seven: Foundation
Foundation’s existence is hardly a secret, but its exact arrangement and contents are kept relatively quiet for security reasons. Besides the underpinnings of the scaffolding, this level also houses—among other things—an auxiliary power plant and the physical presence of the city manager, the world’s first AI (on whom more below).The People
The long-term population of Atlantis is about fifty thousand; at any given time there are some ten thousand to fifteen thousand transients and temporary residents. Most of the former, of course, are citizens of the city-state, but several thousand permanent inhabitants are foreign nationals. Nearly a thousand are Emissaries, and many others are wealthy individuals who elected to make their homes, often with retinues of servants, in yet another picturesque, exotic locale. Most of the rest are professionals and bureaucrats representing various foreign businesses and governments.
Short-term occupants break down into a few categories: business (whether corporate or governmental), education, and pleasure. The first type is by far the most varied; in addition to contract workers and diplomatic officials, there may be marketing reps, flight crews, negotiators, and any number of other individuals and groups pursuing commercial or political goals.
The bulk of the second category is made up of students and guest faculty in the University of Atlantis and, for dependents of people working in Atlantis, the municipal school system. However, training programs run by sponsors both foreign and domestic are going on constantly, most of them taking advantage of the city-state’s unique nature, and scientific, professional, military, and even hobbyist trainees can be found enrolled in these courses.
Throughout the year, there is an ever-shifting throng of tourists visiting the city itself or people living in it. The impressive engineering of the habitat and pioneering attitude of the population combine with the subtropical climate and spectacular ocean vistas to create an irresistable draw to hundreds of thousands of people every year. The actuality, as mentioned above, sometimes proves a bit overwhelming, especially to first-time arrivals, but many others return time and again, sometimes even moving to the city permanently.
The City
Atlantis International Airport
AIA bears the dubious distinction of being one of the smallest international airports in the world. It does not possess the seemingly endless lengths of heavy-duty runways or terminals bristling with scores of jetways seen at other major facilities and, indeed, cannot handle conventional jetliner traffic. It merits international status solely because, as the only airport in Atlantis, all scheduled flights into and out of it are by definition international.
Instead, it functions like and vaguely resembles a modern “supercarrier”, and in fact was constructed largely by Newport News Shipbuilding, the firm that has built every one of the U. S. Navy’s aircraft carriers. An array of arresting wires and steam catapults, the latter seconded from USN service after being replaced by electromagnetic cats, is available for use, mostly by military and freight flights. The control tower, an observation gallery, and the small, efficiently designed terminal (with open-air gates) are atop the habitat, alongside the flight deck, which is, of course, oriented to allow take-offs and landings into the prevailing wind. Smaller aircraft and those based on naval designs can be lowered on elevators to the hangars immediately below the flight deck for service or storage.
AIA handles only V/STOL aircraft: short- and rough-field fixed-wing airplanes, tiltrotors and tiltfans, and rotary-wing aircraft ranging from long-haul conventional helicopters through ABC (advancing-blade concept) helicopters to rotorwings (like the aircraft featured in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Sixth Day). The short range of conventional helicopters limit them to the immediate Gulf-Caribbean region, but more advanced VTOL designs can reach the southeast United States, Central America, and the northern reaches of South America. Only the tried-and-true fixed-wing planes can reach farther afield, but the comparatively small models able to fly out of Atlantis are at best restricted to the western hemisphere, the Iberian Peninsula, and the northwestern edge of Africa.
A number of passenger and freight lines run flights to and from Atlantis, among them Atlantis Blue Sky Lines, the city-state’s de facto national air and sea line—which, rumor has it, aspires to becoming a space line as well. Its well-kept but motley air fleet includes a handful of freight and passenger tiltrotors for local work and, for more distant destinations, a few propjet cargo planes and medium-size passenger fanjets of various models and ages. The line’s surface tonnage, incidentally, consists of a pair of small container ships, an even smaller cruise-passenger liner, and a scattering of tugs and other boats and small ships.
With all this activity, safety is a significant concern, especially since by necessity potential hazards are much closer to one another and to the crews and passengers streaming through the airport. This, in fact, was the most important reason for contracting with Newport News Shipbuilding, whose experience with disaster-proofing supercarriers against battle damage, let alone accident or incident, was considered indispensible. As a result, AIA is liberally supplied with fire suppression systems, blast doors and bulkheads, and other physical disaster-mitigation measures. The primary line of defense, though, is a rigorous standard of training for ground and aircrews and careful attention to procedure.
Atlantis Marine Research Institute (AMRI)
University of Atlantis
The university’s central offices are located in Shallow, but the campus as a whole occupies one corner of the city habitat from top to bottom. The largest volumes are in Shallow and Upper Deep, with the amount of space devoted to the U of A tapering as one goes up or down from there. (In Foundation there is only a relatively small module packed with sensory and scientific apparatus.)
Atlantis Municipal Government
The Department of Public Safety
Needless to say, Atlantis is far too small to possess any significant military capability. As well, it lacks a distinct police force or fire department. It has instead the Department of Public Safety, which performs all these functions. Every new member of the DPS receives an introductory course of training that encompasses the bare bones of police work, disaster response, first aid, and combat. Further initial training emphasizes the individual’s chosen specialization, and throughout his or her career, refresher training, cross-training, and supplemental training are made as available as possible.
Organizationally, the DPS is broken into two bureaux, roughly equivalent to the agencies it replaces; each, in turn, comprises two divisions: peacekeeping and law enforcement in one case and disaster response and search and rescue (SAR) in the other. Additionally, the municipality and nation of Atlantis also naturally makes up two bailiwicks, one being the city proper and the other being the ocean outside the main habitat and what little construction is in it.
The best and toughest personnel are concentrated into rapid-response teams, each tasked with handling exceptionally difficult or delicate situations that fall within its specialty. These emergencies could range from rescuing survivors in a partially failed habitat module to a hostage stand-off. When not assisting their comrades in more routine duties, the RRTs train constantly, keeping their skills sharp enough to be in demand for occasional relief efforts elsewhere in the world.
Personal and heavy equipment are of generally good quality even if not always of recent vintage, and all of it is kept in excellent condition. Given the artificial nature of the habitat structure and the broad open spaces of the ocean outside it, emphasis is placed on portability and finesse. Examples include self-contained vehicle-mounted foam and inert-gas firefighting modules to supplement on-board fire-suppression systems in a ship or habitat module and, for small arms, shotguns, canister and baton dischargers, and other low-energy weapons.
The department’s vehicle pool is very unusual by landside standards, even for a port city. The only wheeled motor vehicles are a few score electric runabouts resembling European “quadricycles” and micro-vans and micro-trucks of similar scale. Air coverage is provided by a handful of elderly, but meticulously maintained, tiltfans and tiltrotors seconded from U. S. and U. K. military service. In normal operation the original weapons are dismounted but, if needed, they can be pulled from the armory and remounted quickly.
Not surprisingly, the bulk of the city’s vehicular assets are in its small fleet of boats. Size—and age—vary widely from semirigid inflatables through fast patrol boats to a selection of larger boats, including a few fire-and-rescue vessels. The patrol boats, being more likely to run afoul of armed resistance than the aircraft, generally mount one or two pintel-mounted weapons, heavy machineguns or automatic grenade launchers.
The Diplomatic Sector
Atlantis is home to a thriving, surprisingly large neighborhood of embassies and consulates for such a small nation. It is, however, generally considered impolite to mention aloud the real reasons why: the city-state’s unique location and status as a neutral free port make it an excellent site for diplomatic and political wheeling and dealing, both overt and covert. Treaties and intrigues, conferences and clandestine meetings, all occur on a daily basis.
Perhaps most intriguing of all is the fact that the Emissaries chose Atlantis as the site for their primary Earthside presence. In addition to a relatively large facility combining an embassy with a small institute devoted to studies of Earth, its people, and the FDR device, there is a small rough-and-ready skyport facility some distance from Atlantis proper, but within its jurisdiction. This is the site of the only regularly scheduled flights to and from the Emissaries’ ship-cum-space habitat; the small trans-atmospheric vehicles (TAVs) making the twice-a-day run land on and take off from the ocean surface. Ω
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