Journey Through the Impossible (15 page)

All: The past?

Ox: Do you see those indistinct forms, those objects standing out
vaguely, far off in the water?

(Lines indicating vaguely the outlines of a submerged city appear in a
confused way.)

George: What's this?

Ox: Ask Captain Nemo. He'll tell you what it is. He's traveled
through these waters many times.

Volsius: Here at one time was Atlantis, the immense continent described by Plato,15 bigger than Africa and Asia combined. In a
night and a day, it disappeared under the sea, as a result of some
frightful cataclysm.

George: Atlantis?

Ox: Yes, Atlantis. This is where the famous Atlantean people lived,
who subjugated almost the whole earth, who helped the Titans in
their attempt to climb up to heaven and drive out the gods. Tell
me, now, do you want to run away at the very moment when
you're about to set foot on this continent, which no other human
being will ever see again?

George: No, no. But these are only shapeless ruins.

Ox: They are the ruins of Makhimos,16 one of the most famous capitals of Atlantis, which will revive and rise to the surface of the sea
for you.

(The scene changes)

The city square in Makhimos, capital ofAtlantis, four or five thousand years
B.C. The architecture combines Moorish, Arabic, and the style of Mexican
burial caves. The water has entirely disappeared. Beautiful sunshine lights
up the whole stage. Two Atlanteans, Ascalis17 and Ammon,'8 are walking
around among a crowd of people.

A Herald (shouts): Glory to the gods, and may they inspire the people
to raise a new king onto the throne of Atlantis.

All: Glory to the gods.

Ammon: Many days have gone by, and still we wait for a worthy successor to King Atlas.19

Ascalis: His only child is a daughter, Celena,20 who cannot succeed
him on the throne.

Ammon: Celena, the most beautiful woman in Atlantis, will not be
queen until she has married the king whom we shall choose, and
who, like this glorious sovereign, must brave the thunderbolts of
Jupiter and climb up to heaven.

The Herald (shouts): Glory to the gods. May they inspire the people
to raise a new king onto the throne of Atlantis.

All: Glory to the gods!

(Enter Electra.")

All: The prophetess!

Ammon: What is Electra about to tell us? Has she consulted the oracles? Has she read the future?

Electra: This is the day, 0 people, when the throne, left vacant by the
death of the greatest of kings, will finally be occupied.

All: Ah!

Ascalis: What mortal will be worthy to succeed him?

Electra: Listen, all of you. Atlas was vanquished by the Gods and fell
when he supported the Titans in their revolt against heaven. But
he whose coming is announced to us is no mere mortal. I have consulted the entrails of the sacrificial victims and drunk the intoxicating potion of the laurel bush. When I took my place on the
prophetic tripod of the sibyls,22 a strange man, born in a far-off
country and endowed with supernatural powers, appeared to me.

Ammon: What man is that?

Ascalis: What mystery did he reveal? Tell us.

All: Yes, tell us.

Electra: Wait. He who calls himself the messenger of destiny will
announce it himself.

Ascalis: Let him come, then.

All: Let him come.

Electra: Here he is.

(Enter Ox)

Ammon: Who are you, 0 stranger?

Ox: I am the messenger of him whom your prophecies have foretold,
of him who is to reign over Atlantis.

Ascalis: Is our race so inferior that no man worthy of the throne can
be found among us?

Ox: When you know what prodigious feats the one whom I represent
has performed in order to reach you, he will be your unanimous
choice.

Ammon: Is this a God, then, that you are bringing us?

Ox: It is a man, one whose courage has raised him above all the rest
of humanity. Neither fire, nor water, nor terrestrial abysses hold
any secrets for him. Compared to this daring man, what are the
outstanding heroes of your history? Tell me, is there a single one
of them who can be compared to him?

All: No, no.

Electra: Let him come, and by popular acclamation he will be raised
to a position of supreme power. And he will be the fortunate husband of Celena.

Ox: Celena?

Electra: The wonder of Atlantis, the incomparable daughter of King
Atlas.

Ox: Let it be done as you say. He who comes after me will be the
worthy husband of your king's daughter.

(Enter George and Eva)

Ox: Here is the man you are waiting for.

All: All hail! All hail!

George: What do they want of me?

Ox: They have heard from me of the prodigious feats you have
accomplished, and their admiration calls you to the throne of
Atlantis.

Eva: What are you saying?

George: Who? Me? I'm going to be ... ?

Ox: You're going to be king.

All: Yes, yes!

Eva: Oh God!

George: You heard what he said. You heard him, Eva, you heard him.
King of this powerful nation, conquered long ago. What an
honor! What glory! What a triumph!

Eva (aside): Ah! So that's why he brought him here. This is the last
attack on his sanity. (Aloud) George, listen to me. Listen to my
voice. Reject this false royalty.

George: False, did you say, when I am the ruler of a whole nation that
has been restored to life for me? For me, who will unite, from this
moment on, the marvellous memories of antiquity and the glorious discoveries of the present. What power can be compared to
mine? King of this continent, which extends from the ancient
world to the present. I'm king! I'm king!

Ox: And this immense population will bow before him who has done
what no man had ever done before.

George (raving): Yes! Yes! Ah! It has come at last, the glory I have
longed for, the supremacy I have so ardently dreamed of. I, the
son of Hatteras, I am king of Atlantis!

Eva: Don't let your pride lead you on. Close your ears to these cursed
temptations.

All: All hail! All hail!

George: Listen. Don't you hear the people cheering me?

Eva: These people.... Are you forgetting that they are only an
empty recollection of the past? That this country is a short-lived
empire? That this royalty is a mirage in which your imagination
is wandering aimlessly about? George, my darling George, I'm
pleading with you. Take pity on my tears.

George: Your tears! Yes, yes, you're crying, Eva. Ah! I don't want you
to cry. Really, I don't want you to cry.

Eva: Listen to me, then. Listen carefully.

George: Go on. Go on.

Eva: George, you are walking down a fatal slope that leads to
delirium, to madness!

George: Delirium, did you say? Madness?

Eva: Yes, yes. Take my word for it. Have I ever deceived you?

George: Yes, I believe in you, and I want ... I want to struggle. Speak
to me, Eva, speak to me.

Eva (overjoyed): Ah! Our love will save him! Take courage, George,
take courage! Fight on! I fall at your knees. I am your friend, your
sister, your fiancee.

George: Wait, wait. Light is dispelling the darkness. Truth will shine
before my eyes.

Eva: And you will be saved! You will be saved, George.

Ox: (aside): Saved! (Aloud) Glory to your sovereign!

All: Glory to him! Glory to our king!

George (in a loud voice): Ah! You heard him! King! I really am king!

Electra: Come to the palace that Makhimos has erected for its sovereigns. When you return to this spot, all the assembled multitudes
will crown you with their acclaim.

Eva: No, no. Don't desert me.

All: Glory to him! Glory to him!

George: Come, all of you.

(Exit all except Eva and Ox)

Eva (uttering a final cry): Alas! It's all over!

(She is about to rush after George, but Ox motions to het; and she
stops)

Ox: One more outburst like that, one more attack on his sanity, and
he will be completely demented, his madness will be incurable.

Eva: Yes, this is where your treachery has brought him, to destroy
him.

Ox: Not to destroy him, but to win you, Eva.

Eva: To win me?

Ox: His fate is in my hands, is it not?

Eva: What does that matter?

Ox: You no longer tremble for him, then?

Eva: No!

Ox: Nor for yourself?

Eva: No!

Ox: What are you waiting for, then? What do you still hope for?

Eva: I'm waiting for a greater power to intervene on his behalf. I'm
waiting for his love to save him, or for him to die!

Ox: If he dies, at least I will have separated you.

Eva: There you are wrong. If he dies, I'll die with him.

Ox: You would die for this man who has forgotten you, who has never
loved you?

Eva: Never loved me, did you say?

Ox: Never! Because he doesn't seek his life's happiness in you, but
elsewhere. He only had to reach out his hand and grasp that happiness, but he scorned your love in order to realize his wild
dreams.

Eva: Even if George no longer loved me, I would still love him. I'll
always love him, always, do you hear?

(Enter Volsius)

Ox (beside himself): Be quiet! Be quiet! I warn you, don't drive me to
despair. Stop tormenting my soul.

Volsius: But you yourself are trying to torment her soul, are you not?

Ox: Who dares to speak to me in that tone?

Volsius (approaching): I do.

Ox: We're not aboard your vessel now, Captain Nemo, and you're not
all-powerful here. Be careful.

Volsius: I warn you, sir, that I am not easily intimidated.

Ox: That makes no difference to me. And who asked you to become
involved?

Eva: I did.

Volsius (to Eva): And your request will not go unanswered.

Ox: Captain Nemo wants to fight with me.

Volsius: I want to wrest from your hands someone whom your cursed
science would push from the intermittent delirium that now
obsesses him into a state of final and terrible madness. That is what
I want, and I will find in you yourself a weapon to use against you.