Disney's Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire are, of course, the two great underappreciated gems of the studio's early-2000s canon. Both are better than the box offices ever recognised. This story was co-written with the wonderful megers67, to whom I owe a great debt for her patience, advice, editorial guidance, general encyclopaedic knowledge of all things to do with both films, and more besides. It seemed to us that the two films were remarkably compatible - and we hope you agree.

Our story begins shortly after the events of the Battle at Procyon video game...

The University of Montressor was a low, ranging sprawl of shingle-roofed brick buildings. Some were red, more were grey and all were in a heavy, old-fashioned architectural style that tended towards ponderousness and solidity. As was usually the case, a light drizzle was falling and the few windows that were still lit so late at night were speckled with raindrops. The large copper observatory dome of the School of Astronomy and Astrophysics was running with countless small rivulets that pooled on the roof beneath and then trickled out of the mouths of the gargoyles. Below one of them, a light was on in an upper-floor study, the window of which was at least half-obscured by irregular piles of books and folders. Behind them, Dr. Delbert Doppler was poring over tables of data spread out on his desk. A cup of tea had long since gone cold and been relegated to a spare corner of the desk where a number of others were already stacked.

"You're working late, Dr. D."

Doppler looked up over his spectacles at the cheery face of Mrs. Smedley, the School's matronly housekeeper, who was standing in his doorway with the heavy, ribbed canvas tube of a vacuum cleaner slung over her shoulder.

"Oh. Yes." He smiled back. "Well, I've been asked to look into this as a matter of urgency, so...here I am."

"Must be important, whatever it is," said Mrs. Smedley. "I heard the Head of the School mentioning those term papers that need to be graded by the end of the week-"

"Gravitational anomalies in the Timaeus Cluster," said Doppler hurriedly, though not before he glanced guiltily at a pile of papers on a swivel chair in front of his desk. "Something's making the stars out there move strangely. Or so it seems, anyway."

"Well, I'm sure you'll work it all out." Mrs. Smedley glanced around his office. "So… I suppose I'll come back to vacuum later?"

"That would be best, yes." Doppler watched her go, towing the large, four-wheeled body of the vacuum cleaner with its rattling bellows and hydraulic pumps behind her and then leaned back in his chair, removing his glasses and rubbing his tired eyes as he glanced up at the clock on his wall, which was reading closer to midnight than he liked to see.

"Dr. D?" The housekeeper was back.

"Yes, Mrs. Smedley?" He put his glasses back on wearily.

"You have a visitor. Shall I show him in?"

"A visitor? At this hour?" Doppler frowned. "Who is it?"

"I don't know. But he says it's terribly important."

"It had better be. What is it?"

"He can only say what it is to you."

"I don't have time for games, Mrs. Smedley-"

"He said he knows." The housekeeper shrugged.

Doppler sighed. "Oh, very well. Show him in."

Mrs. Smedley bustled off again. Doppler retrieved his burgundy coat from where it had slipped off the back of his chair and pulled it on. He straightened his ascot and checked his reflection in the small piece of window he could see through the volumes stacked against it, when he saw a flicker of movement behind him.

"Thank you, Mrs. Smedley," he said, trying to sound authoritative as he turned around. "You can leave us now."

"So, uh...Delbert. I don't know if you remember me..."

It was a young voice and Doppler initially assumed it to be an errant or inquisitive student. His first glance at his visitor did little to dispel the notion – standing in his doorway was a gangly-looking young human male with a thin but boyish face, large round spectacles and a short mop of dark blonde hair. He was wearing a battered, dark green greatcoat over threadbare khaki clothes and had a much-abused leather satchel slung over one shoulder. Doppler racked his brain to try to recall any students – current or former – who fit the description.

"Er," he said, hoping to buy his memory some time.

"I mean, I get it if you don't. It's been a while, after all."

And then something clicked into place. Young as the man first seemed, the tenor of his voice and the set of his features revealed him to be somewhat older. He wasn't a student – not even one of his post-graduates. Doppler blinked and stared in astonishment.

"Milo Thatch?"

"That's me." The man smiled nervously. "Look, I know I didn't call ahead or anything but I really need to speak to you."

"Of-of course. Come in. Sit down!" Doppler stood hastily and looked around his office for a spare seat, eventually just shovelling the pile of unmarked term papers off the one in front of the desk.

"Thanks." Milo closed the door behind him. "Like I said, I know it's been a while..."

"At least five years? Six?" Doppler nodded. "You resigned from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology and left on that expedition to find the lost planet of Atlantis."

"I appreciate the fact that you didn't preface the word 'expedition' with the word 'crazy'," Milo grinned. "Most people did, as I recall."

"But we thought you were dead!" Doppler sat back down. "There was no word… and only six of the expedition crew ever made it back. They said that everyone else was missing, presumed lost. They never said where, or how, though."

"They wouldn't," said Milo, taking his own seat. "They were sworn to secrecy. And so was I, for that matter, which makes my being here a little… odd, really."

"Why's that?"

Milo took a deep breath and looked across the table at Doppler.

"What if I told you… that we found Atlantis?"

Doppler stared again. "Excuse me?"

Milo laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I know, it sounds like bad fiction. A brave expedition setting off to find an ancient, legendary missing planet, finding it but only a few survivors making it back home…. It's kind of hard to believe a story like that. I don't blame you if you don't."

Doppler thought about Milo's description for a moment, and then grinned. He leaned forwards on his desk, adjusting his glasses as he cleared his throat.

"Try me," he said.

The staff common room was empty, the cracked leather couches sitting in quadrangles around the low coffee tables across which were still strewn a variety of publications. Doppler turned away from the samovar on a nearby bench, handing a steaming cup of tea to Milo, who was perched on the arm of a couch.

"It's quite a story," Milo said. "I, uh, don't really know where to start. There's so much to say I'm afraid I'm going to start rambling like a madman."

"How about the day you handed your resignation to Pro-Vice-Chancellor?" said Doppler. "That was the last anyone saw of you."

Milo chuckled. "Yeah, funny thing. I didn't actually hand him my resignation. I threatened to, if he didn't listen to my proposal. Which he didn't, of course. But I didn't go through with it because he threw me out before I could give it to him."

"Threw you out of his office?"

"His carriage." Milo grinned ruefully. "I may have been… a bit persistent in my approach. But I needed that proposal to go through. I was so sure I'd finally found the key to Atlantis."

"You were looking for...what was it called? The Shepherd's Journal?" Doppler sat forward. "That old spacer's logbook that claimed to show where Atlantis was. I remember you saying that your grandfather had been looking for it."

"That's right. But it turned out someone had already found it," said Milo. "You ever hear of Preston Whitmore?"

"The shipping magnate? Of course. He owned the biggest line in the Empire." Doppler frowned. "What about him?"

"Well, he's the one who found the journal. Turns out he and my grandpa were best friends back in the day." Milo grinned. "Strange how things turn out. He'd hired this crew of explorers, even built a ship specifically to go and find Atlantis. He offered me a job. I couldn't say no. I had to at least try to prove that grandpa had been right."

"And it turns out… he was?" Doppler looked on expectantly.

"More right than even he knew." Milo nodded. "You see, Atlantis doesn't just exist, Delbert. It lives. There's people there."

"What?" Doppler's tea slopped as he started with surprise. "But it's been missing for… thousands of years!"

"Caught us by surprise, too." Milo nodded animatedly. "You see, the city has a kind of a power source. That's what's kept it going all these years. It powers the city, preserves it and all its people. It's not like a solar sail or a steam engine, it's a kind of a-a life force. And… that's where the trouble started. Because that crew Mr. Whitmore hired turned out not to be the most trustworthy bunch."

"I think I know what you mean," said Doppler, thinking of his own misadventures with the Treasure Planet voyage.

"Turned out they just wanted to loot Atlantis for money. But when they found the Atlantean power source, they went after that instead. Even though I told them it would mean genocide. The destruction of the planet and everyone still living there." Milo's face fell. "It got… difficult. Some of them couldn't go through with it so they helped me to stop the others."

"That can't have been easy." Doppler couldn't help remembering his own terror during the mutiny on the Legacy. But where he had run – admittedly under Amelia's direction – Milo seemed to have stood and fought. And won.

"Yeah, well, you do what you have to do." Milo looked away. "Anyway. Afterwards, the crew who helped me went home."

"And the crew who… didn't help you?"

"Didn't make it home."

"Oh." Doppler nodded quietly. "I understand. So you stayed behind?"

"I had to. The Atlanteans...they've survived for thousands of years but that's all. They haven't developed. In fact they've lost a lot of what they had developed. They'd forgotten so much of their own history and culture. They couldn't even read their own language any more. So I stayed behind to teach them. And besides, I met...someone there."

"Oh, yes?"

"Yeah...the, er...the princess." Milo blushed. "Her name's Kida. She and I sort of hit it off, you could say."

"I see." Doppler sought for words. "Congratulations, I suppose."

"Thanks." Milo smiled. "Though she's the queen now. Her father… well, the crew killed him while they were ransacking the place."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Doppler. "It must have been… a very trying situation."

"Yeah, you could say that." Milo ran a hand through his hair. "Anyway, the crew who helped me, they promised not to tell anybody what we'd found in case other people came looking. Turns out it's for the best that everyone thought Atlantis was a myth. And the Atlanteans… well, they were pretty happy not to be found. So they went back into hiding."

"How do you 'hide' an entire planet?" Doppler stared.

"Well, it's not really an entire planet any more," said Milo. "More like a - a piece of one with a city on top. It's kind of a long story. There are a lot of long stories about Atlantis. I don't even know if I've told you properly. There's so much to tell."

"So I can see." Doppler put his tea aside. He was paying too much attention to the story anyway.

"Anyway, they 'hide' by-by putting Atlantis into another dimension. I know it sounds crazy, and don't ask me how they do it. I'm a linguist and an anthropologist, not a physicist. But they figured out a way of putting the city into a sort of little pocket of reality where it's the only thing that exists. That's why Atlantis disappeared in the first place." Milo sighed. "It's kind of sad. They used to be this great power. Greater than the Procyons. Even greater than the Empire. Now there's just one city left. And they need our help. That's why I've come back. And I came to you because you're the one person I know who wouldn't laugh at me."

Doppler blinked. "You want me to help you to...help Atlantis?"

"That's about the size of it." Milo smiled nervously. "So… what do you say?"

"I think I'd like to know just what you're asking of me first," said Doppler. "Actually, no, first - not to be disrespectful, but - "

"You need some proof that I'm not making all this up?"

Doppler sighed. "I was trying to find a polite way to say that."

"I figured." Milo grinned and reached for his satchel. "Don't worry, Delbert, I'm not offended. You'd have to be an idiot not to ask."

He rummaged in the satchel and produced a thick book, which he placed on the table between them and opened about halfway through.

"This is the Shepherd's Journal," he said. "It's really just a spacer's log about their travels. It doesn't get interesting until about here, when they start alluding to Atlantis as a real place rather than as just a myth. Now, I've got some notes here somewhere..."

Doppler watched as Milo casually tossed various items out of his satchel – a spare set of spectacles, a pocket handkerchief, one shoe – but his eyes widened as the young man produced a small gold sphere and put it on the table as he kept rummaging.

"What is that?" He leaned forwards slowly, polishing his glasses as his eyes widened in amazement, hardly daring to believe what they saw.

"Hm? Oh, that. It's just a kind of compass the Atlanteans make." Milo picked it up casually. "It shows you where you are relative to the current position of Atlantis. Let me show you."

Doppler's eyes only widened further as Milo manipulated the little ball, until it seemed to split open along its seams, a complex pattern of lines and circles on its surface suddenly glowing brightly and emitting a cloud of sparkling particles that swirled around and formed a sphere of their own in which now hovered a shimmering starfield.

"Oh, my..."

"Pretty remarkable, isn't it?" Milo grinned and snapped it closed, extinguishing the starfield in a blink. "Here, you can have a look if you like. My notes must be all the way down the bottom of the bag..."

Doppler took the sphere gingerly and held it up to the light. There was no mistaking it, or the intricate designs that marked the surface.

"What's wrong, Delbert?" Milo looked up at him curiously. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Several, in fact," Doppler murmured. "You said this device was from Atlantis?"

"That's right. Kida insisted I take it with me when I left. Why?"

"Because I've seen something exactly like it before," Doppler looked across the table at Milo. "This is...real, isn't it?"

Milo met his eyes and nodded seriously. "Absolutely. I wouldn't lie about this."

Doppler put the sphere back on the table. "Well...you might have come to ask me a question, but you may just have answered several of mine."

"You said you'd seen something like it?" Milo sat forward. "Can I ask where? Kida's so curious about the rest of the galaxy and she'd be thrilled to know that there are still Atlantean artefacts still out there."

Doppler thought about Treasure Planet and wondered whether she'd be as excited to know the use to which at least one of them had been put.

"I think," he said, "that I should introduce you to my wife."

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Delbert?" Milo was still hesitant even as they stood in the entrance hall of the Doppler manor.

"Of course." Doppler hung his raincoat on its hook. "I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise."

"Yeah, but..." Milo scratched the back of his neck. "Atlantis is meant to be a secret. There's only seven – well, eight now – people in the whole of the Empire who know about it. Telling the military about it could just create a whole bunch of problems..."

"Amelia is more experienced with this sort of thing than you might think," Doppler said. "She's not your typical naval officer. Like I told you on the way here, she was with me on Treasure Planet. And when we found that ancient starship. I trust her. Completely."

Milo nodded. "Well… I guess I have to as well, then."

"And besides," Doppler went on. "Given what you asked me to do, we're going to need some help..."

"Whatever you say, Delbert." Milo shrugged. "Lead on."

Doppler stepped past him and made his way up the corridor to the big polished door of the living room. It was ajar and he could hear high-pitched voices. Milo caught up with him and listened in surprise.

"You have children?" he whispered.

"Four," Doppler nodded. "Er… I should probably have told you. Some of them can be a bit of a handful, so-"

"Delbert? Is that you?"

Amelia opened the door from the inside. She was wearing her blue dressing gown and had a large bundle over her shoulder which soon turned its head and broke into a smile at the sight of Doppler.

"Daddy's home!"

Doppler laughed as the blond-haired little kitten practically leapt out of her mother's arms and into his.

"Elizabeth! Hello! Yes, yes, I'm home." He grinned at Amelia. "Er… hello, darling."

"And hello to you, too." Amelia leaned on the doorframe and smiled at him before glancing at Milo. "And I assume you'll introduce me to your friend?"

"Of course." Doppler shifted Elizabeth, who was scrambling onto his shoulder in order to look at Milo. "Er. This is Dr. Milo Thatch, formerly of the University of Montressor's School of Archaeology and Anthropology. And Milo, this is Vice-Admiral Amelia, Crescentia Sector Commander."

"Despite current appearances. Dr. Thatch." Amelia held out her hand. "I assume that you're why my husband is late home tonight?"

"Er, yeah. At least in part." Milo shook her hand and tried to ignore the curious, thousand-watt emerald stare that Elizabeth was giving him over her father's shoulder. "Sorry about that. Had I known there was so much going on here to get back to…."

"And I was working back anyway on the Timaeus gravitational anomaly," said Doppler. "That was when Milo showed up."

"I'm sure you'll forgive me," Amelia looked at Milo, one eyebrow arched, "but I don't recall you. I take it that you're a colleague of Delbert's?"

"A colleague and an old friend," said Milo hurriedly. "But I've… been away for a few years."

"And we both need to talk with you, Amelia," said Doppler. "In private. And urgently."

"Can I come?" piped up Elizabeth.

Doppler looked pleadingly at Amelia, who took pity on him and hoisted the enthusiastic little felinid back. "No, kitten. I need you to stay with Mrs. Dunwoody and look after your brother and your sisters. Make sure none of them get into any trouble."

Elizabeth nodded. "Aye, aye."

Amelia chuckled. "There's a good spacer. I'll be with you shortly, gentlemen."

Doppler poked his head through the door to watch as Amelia returned Elizabeth to the care of his housekeeper, whose multiple independent arms were quite the blessing when it came to ministering to four small children, who were playing on the mat around her. He smiled at the sight of his family and looked up as Amelia rejoined them.

"Now, then," she said. "What could possibly be so important?"

The lights in Doppler's private study cast a warm, golden glow as if of candles. A large star chart had been unrolled on the desk as they talked. To Milo's surprise, Amelia hadn't spoken when he first mentioned Atlantis, merely casting an inquiring glance to Doppler, who had nodded. And that seemed to be enough to convince her to hear the rest of his extraordinary tale.

"So you're telling me that the race we knew as the Forefathers, who built Treasure Planet, are in fact alive and well and living on the lost planet of Atlantis?" she finally asked.

"Well… yes." Doppler nodded, noting the tone of scepticism in her voice. "I mean, the evidence is incontrovertible, I'd say. That compass of Milo's alone-"

"Ah, yes. And just where is Atlantis supposed to be, Dr. Thatch?" Amelia turned to Milo.

"Er," Milo fumbled with his compass, navigating through the three-dimensional starfield it projected. "Just here. For now."

"In the Timaeus Cluster," said Doppler. "Which I imagine explains the anomalous gravitational behaviour I've been studying in the stars there."

"So it just...popped back into existence?"

"Well, it's always existed," said Doppler. "It's just a question of where."

"The city can't stay hidden forever," Milo explained. "It has to come back into this reality periodically to recharge the Heart of Atlantis. That's why fresh references to Atlantis have kept cropping up over the centuries that the myths have been around. It comes back, a few spacers see it, they talk or write about it, word gets about. But it's always gone by the time anyone gets to looking for it. And so the legend lives on."

"Legend indeed," said Amelia wryly. "Just how many lost, legendary planets are there out there?"

"What? Oh. Well, it's a little hard to say. The basic element of the story's actually very common among spacefaring races," Milo scratched his head. "Of course, a lot of them actually share the same roots – Atlantis is a good example of that; it crops up in canons across the galaxy – so you'd have to do a lot of cross-referencing to be sure-"

"The question was purely rhetorical, Dr. Thatch," Amelia grinned. "Though I must congratulate you on educating me, as up until now I'd assumed my husband's field to be the most impenetrable of the sciences. I see it has very little on anthropology for the uninitiated."

"I just meant-"

Amelia held up a hand. "Do calm down, doctor. I meant no offence. But I would like to know just what I'm supposed to do with this information."

"They need our help," said Milo. "The Heart of Atlantis – the power source – needs recharging. That's why Atlantis came back. The only thing is...it takes a certain kind of star to power the Heart. And the one they've been tapping for thousands of years has burned out. So they sent me to find someone who might be able to find another one."

"Ah." Amelia nodded to Doppler. "I was wondering where you came into this, dear."

"From what Milo described, they need a special type of blue dwarf star," said Doppler. "Unfortunately it's a very rare variant, so they're not easy to find."

Amelia grinned with understanding. "So you're telling me… you need a ship to go and find one?"

"Well… yes," Doppler admitted. "I know it's asking a lot on a very flimsy pretext, but-"

Amelia cut him off. "Lucky for you, then, that the Admiralty has ordered that matters relating to the Forefather civilisation be given high priority. I think the discovery of the Forefather civilisation itself counts in that category."

Doppler exhaled with relief. "So… you'll authorise an expedition?"

"I'll do better than that. I'll lead it myself." Amelia smiled fondly at her husband. "You know, I have a distinct memory of a previous time you approached me to arrange an expedition to go and chase down a legend."

Doppler smiled back. "The similarities haven't escaped me, either. But this time, you'll be picking the crew."

"Damned right." Amelia winked. "So you needn't worry about mutiny or treachery this time, Dr. Thatch. I'll be bringing Battlefleet Crescentia's best."

"Er, a military expedition?" Milo raised a hesitant finger. "Only I'm not sure the Atlanteans will like that. They're kind of… opposed to the whole idea of a military, really."

"I'm not proposing to mobilise my entire fleet, Dr. Thatch – it'll be no bigger than it needs to be. But if what you're telling me is true," said Amelia firmly, "a civilisation so powerful that it was able to harness the stars themselves as an energy source has just reappeared in Imperial space. The civilisation that built a network of portals enabling instant travel to any point in the galaxy. The consequences for the galactic balance of power are incalculable. And then there are my orders from the Admiralty. Signed under the hand of the First Star Lord himself. So yes, this is very much a military matter. And besides, if I may be flippant, if you didn't want military assistance you shouldn't have approached a military officer."

"That part was my idea," Doppler raised a hand.

"The Atlanteans don't want to stay here" said Milo quickly. "They just want to recharge the Heart and then they'll be off again for another few centuries or so. They don't want to upset the balance of power or whatever it is you're worried about."

"I'm pleased to hear it," said Amelia. "Nevertheless. This is how it must be. We can keep it as low-profile as possible. But it's my responsibility to safeguard the interests and welfare of every sentient being in this sector, doctor. I will not take chances with that. You're thinking of your world, and that's fine. But I have a sector to think of. Dozens of worlds and colonies to protect, with an empire of more than a hundred billion souls beyond that."

Milo sighed. "Well… I suppose I can explain it all to Kida. But it'll have to be very diplomatically handled. If you guys turn up waving guns around after what happened last time, things could get very… edgy."

"Then it's a good thing we'll have you along with us, isn't it?" Amelia smiled. "Aside from anything else, we'll need that device of yours to tell us where to go."

"When can we leave?" Doppler tried not to sound too eager, and failed spectacularly.

"It'll take some time to make the necessary arrangements," said Amelia, containing her amusement at his evident excitement. "Half of my fleet is still undergoing repairs after the Ironclad War and the armistice terms with the Procyons are still being implemented. But yes. I can hardly ignore this."

"Then… thank you, Admiral." Milo nodded. "We'll be saving lives. The Atlanteans are counting on us."

"Please don't take offence when I say that that's not necessarily my primary concern, doctor," said Amelia politely. "Nevertheless, if Atlantis is what you say it is...I can assure you that the Empire has no designs upon her."

"I'm glad to hear it." Milo sat in silence for a moment. "And can I make a suggestion? For the expedition, I mean."

"Of course," Amelia raised an eyebrow curiously.

"My friends… from the first expedition, I mean." Milo scratched his head. "Do you think we could contact them? I mean, they're the only other people in the galaxy who've been to Atlantis. And I'm sure they'd be a great help to us. Well, most of them. Some of them. One or two of them, at least."

Amelia shrugged. "We can try," she said. "Though it'd have to be done quietly. The last thing we need is to set rumours running about all this. It'll have to be handled with discretion."

"Whatever you need to do, Amelia," said Doppler.

"And of course, I can't promise results," Amelia looked at Milo. "For all I know, your companions are scattered all across the Empire. We may not even be able to find them all in time, let alone send and receive a reply."

"I understand, Admiral," Milo nodded and yawned. "Oh… pardon me…."

"No, no, it's alright." Doppler stood up. "You've had a long journey, no doubt. We can put you up in the guest bedroom on the ground floor if that's all right."

"Anything sounds good right now. Thanks, Delbert." Milo smiled and stood wearily. "I, er, suppose I'll see you tomorrow, Ame – Admiral?"

"Count upon it," Amelia smiled. "Good night, Dr. Thatch."

She watched Doppler escort Milo out of the room, and chuckled to herself when he looked back over his shoulder to silently mouth thank you to her. She sat for a moment longer, looking out of the window at the night sky, where a few stars were now visible through a break in the clouds, wondering just what it was with bespectacled eccentrics and the mysteries of the universe.

"Here we go again," she murmured wryly. Then she stood, tied her dressing gown tighter about herself, and strode from the room. If her husband's friend was right, there was much to be done.