Round Three of the Shipwreck Challenge. Atlantis

Robert was a marine biologist, who worked for a scientific marine life research company. Next to Robert was his girlfriend Karen an oceanographer, Paul an experienced deep-sea diver, Sam a sailor and the captain of the ship Dan.

The team from the coast of Spain, went to the Strait of Gibraltar, there would find hundreds of sunken ships, which now belonged to the sea. These boats had become habitat and refuge for hundreds of marine species.

Robert would catalog the species of fish and crustaceans that inhabited those ships, and study them. The information collected would be very useful to know the migrations and mortality of fish in the face of climate changes and temperature in the sea.

Since they started 2 years ago, the research project had collected a large amount of information, which allowed them to know how fish schools operated, at different times of the year. This information was very valuable for the fishing fleet of the companies that subsidized the research.

For Robert this would be the last trip, the project was about to finish and they had gathered all the information they needed, the whole team was excited because after a lot of work, they had successfully completed their work.

That morning they went to the wreck of a fishing boat, which sank due to a heavy storm, 40 years ago. Upon reaching the site indicated by the sonar, Paul would prepare to dive into the sea and collect samples; on the ship Robert and Karen would monitor Paul, through a camera Paul had attached to the hull.

Everything started very routinely, when Paul being near the sunken ship, he sees something strange ... He moves away from the security zone and enters through a gate into the bowels of the sunken ship ...

On the surface Robert and Karen, they lose all contact with Paul, both for the camera and for the sound, in vain nervous Robert begins to call him on the radio without receiving any response from Paul.

Paul entering the gate was sucked by a strong current, which quickly formed in a whirlpool, the centrifugal force of the whirlwind caused Paul to lose consciousness, when he awoke he found himself on the shore of a beach, surrounded by great mountains. Paul unknowingly entered a portal that reached a continent island, as described by the Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogues of Timeo and Critias, the "Atlantis".

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When no response from Paul, Robert and Karen prepared to dive and find out what had happened with Paul, because he did not answer the radio and if he was trapped inside the boat and in danger. They saw the gate through which Paul had entered before the camera signal and sound were lost. Robert entered first and behind him Karen, immediately felt the same force that sucked Paul, and were transported to Atlantis.

It had not been long since Paul had arrived at that beach, when Paul saw that the bodies of his friends were arriving on the tide, just as Paul, Karen and Robert were unconscious. Paul ran to get them out of the water and dragged them off the beach, then tried to wake them up. Once aware Karen and Robert, Paul told them that he had explored the cliff and had found a path that would get them out of there.

The three tried to find a logical explanation of what had happened to them, but there was none, they decided that they would go off the cliff, and that they would seek help. They deduced that they were on an island and that there should be inhabitants in the area. When they reached the top of the cliff they saw a wonderful city in the distance, they were amazed by its architecture, Robert could not believe his eyes, those formations of rings in the distribution of spaces and buildings had only seen it in the history books .

Karen approached Robert, and asked him where he thought they were, Robert only babbled by saying that, in Atlantis, Karen told him that that was impossible, the "Atlantis" was a legend like the "Golden", but Robert He explained that only by going to the city would they clear all their doubts.

They walked for several hours and when they arrived in the city they found it deserted, everything was clean, arranged, nothing seemed abandoned, but there was not a single human being in the surroundings, except for them. For hours Robert, Karen and Paul walked the streets, but there was no one. Robert wondered how a city that was abandoned was so neat without signs of abandonment, nothing in that place was logical. Robert decided that he should go to the most elegant and central building in the city, there was usually where the government buildings were located, and maybe he would find some clue to that strange place.

Upon arriving at the central building, they saw a large room that looked like a library, when they began to read the books that were on their shelves, they were amazed with their contents, what looked like books, they were really like a modern Tablet, their sheets were holograms.They changed the information every time you played it. The more they explored the more they realized that all the technology in that city was not of this world.

Robert, Karen and Paul were absorbed in their explorations, when they heard a voice telling them that they were welcome to Atlantis, Robert and the others rushed to find where the voice came from, when they looked up they saw on the top floor a old man with a tunic, this one under stairs that were behind the shelves, that neither Robert, nor the rest realized that it existed.

My name is Atos, I am the only remaining citizen of Atlantis, I stayed to take care of the city, and to wait for a human being to discover the portal. I know they must be confused and scared, Atlantis is not a myth, we were the most modern civilization and it thrives on earth, we tried to teach them to live in peace and harmony, but after many centuries we realized that it did not matter how much we wanted to teach them , the human defects of greed, power and envy ended in war between brothers and nations. Many centuries ago my people decided to leave the earth and return to our planet. We made them believe that the city sank due to a natural catastrophe and we erase our traces of human history. But a great teacher Plato wrote about us, and his ideal of a perfect city has awakened for centuries the human curiosity to know if we ever exist.

His arrival in this city was prophesied many centuries ago, Atos told them, you are the hope of humanity, my job is to teach you all the knowledge I have, so that you can help your people survive the catastrophes that are coming, the indolence of the nations to pollute the earth, there will be great floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines and wars. Atos embraced them and as a father told his children, the hope of humanity begins….