Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle a-2

by Robert Doherty

  “A muon active area eight miles in diameter is located there,” Sin Fen said.

  “Another gate?” Dane asked.

  “Not a gate,” Sin Fen said. “An area in our world influenced by the gate.”

  Dane thought about that. “That means whatever is on the other side can pass through the gate and come into our world.”

  “Yes or send something into our world that manages to survive,” Sin Fen said.

  “That’s a change,” Dane said. “At Angkor the gate was a mixture of our two worlds. There were animals from both sides in the gate. And water stopped the creatures from their side.”

  “The creatures, yes,” Sin Fen said. “but whatever the intelligence is on the other side- and there is no doubt there is some sort of intelligence over there- it has been able to send radioactive and electromagnetic rays through the gate and take over our satellites. Who’s to say they can’t also come out in other ways? Much like astronauts exploring another planet. They definitely showed the ability to send our own equipment back at us by releasing the Scorpion and firing the Trident.

  “We think they may have developed vehicles or suits capable of coming into our world. Maybe the gates that are located in or over water on our side are located in or over water on the other side,” Sin Fen was speaking rapidly and Dane had the impression this was a matter of some conjecture on her part. “It’s even possible some of their water life can pass over and survive in our water as long as a gate encompasses the area. So water might not be a barrier to such creatures, but rather their natural environment, just as we have land and water creatures on Earth.”

  “As usual,” Dane said, “we don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

  “Several times SOSUS has picked up a bogey,” Sin Fen continued, “and each time it originates from the gate and returns there.”

  “The same bogey the Wyoming picked up?” Dane asked.

  “Yes. And the Scorpion. Something very big that moves very fast. It’s real and larger than anything we’ve ever put under the water.”

  “Does it go to the spot we’re going to?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “OK,” Dane said. “Deeplab gets you down to seventeen thousand feet. There’s still a long way to the bottom.”

  Ariana hit the button again. An elongated craft appeared, like a plane with stubby wings. The front of it was curved. Halfway back, another circle poked above and below the main body. There was also short wings at the rear along with two vertical fins. One thing Dane noted immediately was that there were no portholes or glass that he could see.

  “This is Deepflight 2. We call it a fixed wing submersible, a very radical design departure for deepsea submersibles. That’s what will get us from Deeplab to the bottom of the Milwaukee Depth.”

  “How deep is it rated for?” Dane asked.

  “Thirty-seven thousand feet,” Ariana answered. “More than enough to get the job done. It’s a four person craft- two in the forward pressure sphere-” she used a laser pointer to highlight the forward part of the craft- “and two in the rear sphere. Each sphere is made of titanium and seals separately.”

  “How does the pilot and crew see out?” Dane asked.

  “Video and imagers,” Ariana said. “To keep the pressure integrity of the craft there are only two breaches to the titanium sphere: one is the hatch, which is titanium also and basically a titanium hatch closely fitted to the rest of the sphere, and one reinforced access port for the electronics and controls.”

  “What’s the point then?” Dane asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “If we can’t see out why put people inside? Why not just use an RPV?”

  “You can see out,” Ariana said. “Using the low light level television, LLTV and other imagers such as sonar and radar, you’ll be able to 'see’ better than using your eyes. It also makes the craft less intrusive as you don’t need to light up the ocean with bright lights in order to be able to see. The Deep Flight II has conventional searchlights but it also has infrared searchlights.”

  “Will we have the ability to pick up these muon things?” Dane asked.

  “Not yet but we’re working on that,” Ariana said. She continued, using the laser to highlight the screen. “The craft is twelve meters long, by four wide, by four meters high. Each pressure sphere is three, point five meters in outside circumference, two point eight meters in inside circumference.

  “Maximum speed is six knots, descent rate is four hundred feet per minutes, ascent seven hundred feet per minute. The dual engines are powered by a series of batteries. Flight endurance is twelve hours, life support is ninety-six. Outside of the spheres it is a 'wet’ submersible which means the engine, everything other than where the crew is, will not be pressurized and will be open to the water.”

  A cell phone rang and Sin Fen pulled it out of her belt. She turned her back and spoke in a low voice for several seconds, then closed the phone. “Captain Stanton and I have work to do. I’ll leave you to complete the briefing.”

  Stanton and Sin Fen left the room, leaving Dane and Ariana alone.

  “How have you been?” Dane asked before she could go back to her slides.

  “As good as can be expected,” Ariana replied.

  “Which means?”

  “Pretty crappy.” Ariana stood up and walked over to a porthole, staring out at the ocean. “We both were lied to and we both were used.”

  “And we’re both here now,” Dane noted.

  “Of course,” Ariana said. “Where else would we go? Walk away? Pretend what’s happening in the gates isn’t real? Pretend that Trident didn’t land in the Atlantic? Those bombs didn’t explode?” She turned and faced Dane. “Foreman and my father know us better than we know ourselves. They’re both experts at using people. They don’t have consciences but they know how to manipulate people who do.” She shrugged. “And besides, the threat is real. Foreman has had to do whatever he could to fight it when no one would believe him.”

  ““But not your father,” Dane noted.

  Ariana sat back down. “He’s old and he worked hard-”

  “Don’t make excuses for him,” Dane said.

  “He got you to rescue me,” Ariana noted. “I think you’re being a bit hard on him.”

  “I’m a bit hard on everyone,” Dane said. “Why are you here?” he asked. “Besides the fact that your company owns this ship.”

  “Because some of my friends were killed in the Angkor gate.” She looked up at him. “Is that good enough for you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And there’s the threat,” Ariana said. “You know about the lines of propagation along the plate tectonics?”

  Dane nodded. “But Foreman said that was just a reconnaissance. Imaging.”

  “So far,” Ariana said. “But I’d say the nuke attack went a bit further than a reconnaissance.”

  “Sin Fen said that was a test.”

  Ariana nodded. “Yes, but one hell of a test, don’t you agree? The interior of the Earth is my area of expertise and what the Shadow is doing scares me. Most people feel solid ground beneath their feet and think the Earth is a big rock with a molten core deep inside, but that’s not the way it is at all.

  “The Earth is a dynamic planet. The very outside of the planet, the crust, is called the lithosphere. It’s around a hundred kilometers thick under the land masses. And relatively cold and stable. Under the oceans, there are places where the lithosphere is only six to eight kilometers thick. That’s like a sheet of paper wrapped around a basketball. This is especially true where tectonic plates meet.” She pointed down. “Like in the Milwaukee Depth.

  “Below the lithosphere is the asthenosphere. It’s hotter, less solid and moving very slowly. Plate tectonics results from the lithosphere moving over the asthenosphere.”

  Ariana went over to the slide machine and clicked through until she came up with the same image Foreman had shown Dane- the world with lines drawn across it.

 
“There are six major plates and several minor ones. These plates move relative to each other at various speeds. Anywhere from one centimeter to twenty centimeters a year. Now that doesn’t sound like much, but given the unbelievably large masses involved and the instability of the asthenosphere below, it can produce some rather dramatic results, both long and short term.

  “Where plates are pulling away from each other, you have an opening into the asthenosphere which results in a lot of volcanic activity. Where plates converge or smash into each other, one plate usually slips beneath the other along an inclined plane known as a subduction zone. These result in mountain ranges. The Himalayas are the result of such a subduction zone where the Indian plate is sliding under the Asian plate. There is a third type of action- a transform fault where the plates are sliding against each other. The San Andreas Fault is a good example of a transform fault.”

  “What makes these plates move?” Dane asked.

  “That’s a good question,” Ariana said. “We don’t really know for sure, but the best theory is the slow churning of mantle rock, what’s called mantle convection. That’s where mantle rock deep inside the Earth is driven toward the surface by the extreme heat of the planet’s core. As it gets higher, it cools until eventually it starts to sink back down. Sort of a very slowly boiling pot using rock instead of water. Another theory is that the weight of the plate itself is slightly tipped, causing it to move in a certain direction. This theory is called slab-pull. We’re not really sure which causes plates to move and in reality it might be a bit of both.”

  “You’re joking,” Dane said. “We don’t know what’s under our feet and how it works?”

  “I’m not joking,” Ariana said. “Up until thirty years ago, there were those who thought the Earth was solid. There were others who thought the Earth was hollow and you could get inside through entrances at either of the poles. Hell, there are still people who think the Earth is hollow and there are large cities populated by strange beings under such places as Mount Shasta in California.

  “The only way we have any idea what’s going on under our feet is through remote imaging. The deepest probe ever sent into the Earth hasn’t even come close to going a tenth of the way through the lithosphere, so everything below that is just conjecture.”

  Ariana shut of the slide projector. “What scares me, is the possibility that while we may not know much about plate tectonics, whoever’s on the other side of the gates may know exactly how they work and how to manipulate the enormous forces involved.”

  “If they do?” Dane prompted.

  “If they do, they have a whole range of options. They can bring forth volcanoes. Cause massive earthquakes. Landslides thousands of miles long. If any of those events happen underwater, then the follow-on result would be tsunamis.

  “Let me give you an idea of the threat I believe we’re facing and you’ll understand why I’m here. Have you ever heard of Krakatoa?” Ariana asked.

  Dane nodded. “A big volcano in the south-west Pacific that exploded in the 1800s?”

  “May 20th, 1883,” Ariana said. “The island, which is located in Indonesia, had been exhibiting signs of activity for several years. It lay along the meeting of the Eurasian and Pacific plates, right on the Pacific Rim.

  “On that last day, it finally erupted. At 10:02 in the morning local time, the top literally blew off the volcano. It was the largest explosion in recorded history. The biggest atomic or hydrogen bomb we’ve tested doesn’t even compare.

  “The blasts knocked down walls over two hundred kilometers away. The explosion was heard on Rodriguez Island, over four thousand six hundred kilometers from Krakatoa, a thirteenth of the world’s circumference.

  “The resulting waves were over forty meters high. They devastated shorelines thousands of miles from Krakatoa. Over a hundred and sixty-five villages were destroyed and thirty-six thousand people killed. Since the island itself was uninhabited, most of these deaths were the result of the tsunami.

  “Before the eruption, the island had been nine kilometers long by five wide. After the explosion, only a third of the island was still left above water.

  “Ash fell on Singapore eight hundred kilometers to the north. When the ash reached high altitude, winds circled the Earth, producing such vivid red sunsets that fire trucks were called out in New York City. It blocked out to the sun to the point where global temperatures fell by over a degree in the year following the eruption and took five years to get back to normal. And that was just one volcano. Think of dozens, hundreds of eruptions like that.”

  “What’s the worst case scenario?” Dane asked.

  “Worst case? If the Shadow knows how to use those nukes we gave them- which they just indicated they do- and knows exactly where to place them- which I hope they’re still working on- they can split this planet wide open. Which means the end of every living thing on the planet.”

  Chapter 8

  THE PAST

  999 AD

  The trip down the east coast of England had been uneventful. No English boat cast off to challenge them and the few fishing ships they saw quickly got out of the way when they spotted the large sail and the distinctive shape of the Viking longship. Ragnarok didn’t find that unusual. For over two hundred years, since the raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 AD, the English people had learned to fear the longships that ravaged their coast. Even one Viking ship, sailing alone, was enough to raise fear along the east coast and cause the people to hide behind their castle walls.

  Eight years previously, in 991, Ragnarok’s ship had been one of ninety-three in Olaf Tryggvason’s fleet which conducted an extended raid of the lands they were now passing. They defeated the Saxons in battle and extracted a handsome ransom of 10,000 pounds of silver. Three years later, in 994, Ragnarok sailed with King Svein Forkbeard all the way up the Thames to London, where another large ransom, this time of 16,000 pounds of silver was handed over by the Saxons.

  After that raid, though, Ragnarok had had enough of working for someone else. The ransoms were rich indeed, but the amount that trickled down to the ship captains that made up those large fleets made it hardly worth the time or risk. The following year, Ragnarok began sailing on his own and waging trade not war. He found a lucrative business plying between Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia with a few essential goods. Not that he wasn’t averse to taking down a ship or isolated village if the opportunity presented itself.

  Ragnarok was opportunistic and meeting Tam Nok had fueled his interest. However, Ragnarok knew little more than he had two days ago when he had first met the strange woman. She kept to herself, a difficult task on such a small ship with a crew of thirty men crowded on board. But the fact that the crew viewed her as a Disir, a holy woman, helped considerably. There was also Ragnarok’s glower if any of the men came too close to the woman.

  The men were happy that they had earned more than enough for the season from Tam Nok’ gold and jewels. Ragnarok knew there were some who would not even want to make the originally planned trading trip to Iceland after they parted ways with Tam Nok. They viewed running into the Disir as a mixed blessing. Duartr had been killed, his body not given a proper burial, left for the Valkyries to feast on. And Thorlak had been taken away into the darkness- and he had been a popular shipmate. On the other side of the sword blade, they had already earned more money than they had expected for the season.

  The stakes were raised a little higher early in the morning when Tam Nok made the announcement that England was too general a destination. She needed to be escorted to a certain point- in middle of the Salisbury Plain, over thirty miles inland from the south coast of the island, due north from the Isle of Wight.

  Being on the sea was one thing, but a Viking warrior on land, far from his boat, was like a fish kept out of water too long. Tam Nok had solved Ragnarok’s hesitation with another leather purse of gold.

  In addition to the pending land journey, that act made Ragnarok’s uneasy. About half of his cre
w were old hands, men he had known for years. But the others, 16 of the 30, were men who had signed on for the first time this spring. Recruited from villages along the coast, they were outcasts simply for the fact they were willing to leave their clans and villages behind.

  The first bag of gold hand been like the scent of meat to a hungry dog. The second was blood on the snow, a trail leading them to want to slake their hunger even more. Still, Vikings respected their Gods and their women and Ragnarok hoped those dual loyalties would keep the crew in check.

  His crew, like him, were mostly men without homes. For various reasons they all had no place to go other than the ship. For some it was a case of being outlawed and banished. For others, feuds in their home villages had made staying impossible. A few, like Hrolf, Bjarni and Askell, were from the same village as Ragnarok and when he left, they went with him out of loyalty.

  Ragnarok planned to return home one day and claim what was rightfully his, but he knew that he needed more power in order to do that. Revenge burned in his heart, a simmering heat that he lit only to aid his battle-lust and tried to avoid at all other times. Betrayal and treachery had cost him everything he held dear other than his ship and his close companions and he planned to repay that treachery threefold. It was a topic he rarely spoke about, not even with those who knew what had happened to his family, but it had molded him into the leader he was, one who believed loyalty was the paramount virtue of a warrior.

  The sun was low over the land off their starboard bow, but Ragnarok planned on sailing through the night. He had let Bjarni-the-Farsighted sleep during the day and the experienced helmsman would take them through the sand bars off the southeast corner of England and past the white cliffs. Although they had only sailed through the English Channel four times before, Ragnarok trusted Bjarni to be able to do it, even in the dark. The man had an incredible memory- if he’d sailed someplace only once, he remembered it as if it were a daily route.

  There was more danger in the channel, as the Saxon pigs were better organized the further south one went. There was even a king in London who claimed much of the island as his own. The king’s ships might not be as fearful of a lone Viking wolf prowling through their waters. Another reason to continue on through the night.