The third time the hand appeared the flesh was gone and there was just the bone with the tendons stretched tight and burned raw. Still the fingers moved, reaching bones clattering together as they closed on themselves empty-handed.
When the next bolt lit the scene, there was just the black circle and no hand. And with the third strike, the circle itself was gone.
CHAPTER 3 THE PRESENT
Since the dramatic events of 26 April, 1986, the Russians had monitored the remains of Reactor Four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Although encased in a thick layer of concrete and stone, the interior of Reactor Four had remained clear since the disaster, protected by a shield generated by the gate that had opened inside it and caused the tragic accident that evening.
The core of the reactor, the rods that provided the power, had been tapped by the Shadow. Above the core, a black triangle fifteen feet on each side and ten feet in height had appeared and remained through all the years, drawing energy from the decaying rods. It was a gate, not as large as the others, but a gate nonetheless. A probe, carried by a dying volunteer, had been sent through the gate just two days ago and helped provide information about the make-up of the gates and the connections among the portals that existed inside the gates. It had been discovered that the gates were like foyers established on Earth by the Shadow, and inside the gates were the actual doorways—portals—that led to other places.
The rods were down to less than two percent strength and still the black triangle drew the remaining power. There was quite a bit of speculation among Russian scientists about what would happen when the rods were completely spent, but it was all conjecture, as most everything thought about the gates was.
It was just before midnight when the spetsnatz—Russian special forces-- soldiers manning the monitoring station built into the concrete wall surrounding the core jumped to their feet as alarms sounded. Looking at the video screens that were linked to cameras inside the core, they saw a black, cylindrical object with four tail fins fall out of the black triangle onto the floor of the core container. There was no doubt what the object was—a bomb, but one of old design. As they watched, a half-dozen similar objects hit the floor and came to a rest.
The major in charge ordered a withdrawal before the last bomb appeared. The men unbolted the shield door leading to the outside world and dashed up the tunnel, the major taking the time to shut the door and slap one of the bolts in place, before dashing after his men.
They exited the encasement and paused, bodies tensed, waiting for the explosion. But nothing happened.
***************
The strap from Reizer’s leather bag cut so deep into the skin on Davon’s upper thigh that she couldn’t see most of it. Her hand was on the handle of the umbrella, which was attached to a knot on the strap. She had cranked the handle around several times to tighten the tourniquet, but Davon had lost a lot of blood.
She looked up at the wall of flame in front of her, feeling the heat coming off it but not as much as she expected being this close. It was as if the fire was contained between two invisible planes of glass extending up ten feet. For the first time she noted that the ground was trembling slightly.
Reizer was startled as Davon grabbed her arm. She leaned over the young man and ran a comforting hand across his sweat-soaked, pale forehead. His lips moved as he tried to speak. She leaned closer.
“What is it?” he finally managed to get out. His eyes shifted over to the wall of fire to let her know what he was talking about.
“Power into the planet,” Reizer said. “Channeled somehow.”
“The Shadow?”
Reizer shrugged, and then realized he couldn’t see the movement. “I don’t know.”
“Lines of power,” Davon said. He smiled, his lips almost drained of color. “I knew I was right.”
“You need to rest,” Reizer said, although she knew that he had scant seconds, if even a minute of life left.
A surprised look passed over Davon’s face. “I’ve seen—” he paused and the next couple of words weren’t audible—“before. The other—” his head slumped back and the eyes went vacant.
***************
“We have to destroy the portal that’s drawing the power through Nazca,” Foreman said. He and Dane were standing on the deck of the FLIP
Dane shook his head. “We don’t have a priestess to go into the gate and then the portal and stop it, like Kaia did in the Devil’s Sea. We don’t even know exactly what’s going on there,” he tapped the photo of the fiery images that he had carried out of the control center. “We’re not sure there’s a gate there and even if there was, we might have trouble finding the portal. We only managed to find the one here because of the Chernobyl probe.”
“We know more than we did,” Foreman said. “Nagoya has analyzed the data you picked up from the last trip into the gate,” Foreman nodded his head, indicating the dark wall two miles away. “He thinks there are numerous portals inside this space between our worlds. Some lead to other gates on our planet, but at least one has got to lead to the other side. To the Shadow’s world. Maybe we can stop this at the source.”
“And does he know which is which?” Dane asked.
“Not quite.”
“So what are we going to do?” Dane asked. “Try each one?”
“Nagoya has mapped the one that leads to Chernobyl by tracking the emissions from the probe the Russians sent through that Gate. He thinks we can map others doing the same thing. Send probes in, then see where the emissions come out in the space between.”
“That could take a while,” Dane said. “And we don’t have much time according to Ahana’s numbers.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Not yet.” Dane rubbed the stubble on his chin. “What about the Ones Before? Flaherty said they were on our side.”
“If we could contact them, it would help,” Foreman acknowledged. “But getting a hold of them seems as hard as fighting the Shadow.”
“They sent Flaherty into the Angkor Gate,” Dane noted.
Foreman’s SATPhone buzzed and he flipped it open. He listened for a half minute then shut it. “There’s another problem.”
“Great.”
Foreman turned for the control center, Dane following, waiting for the further bad news.
“A half-dozen World War II era five hundred pound bombs were sent out of the Chernobyl gate into the remains of the reactor core,” Foreman said over his shoulder.
“Did they explode?”
“No. The monitoring personnel evacuated, but when nothing happened, they went back in. The bombs are just sitting there.”
They entered and Ahana spoke before Foreman could. “The super-kamiokande in Japan tracked a burst of muonic activity at Chernobyl.”
Foreman told her and Nagoya about the bombs.
Dane had been considering this new development. “Do you think the Shadow could have backtracked the probe we sent through Chernobyl?”
“Possibly,” Foreman allowed.
“Chekov once wrote that a playwright shouldn’t introduce a gun in act one unless it was fired by act three,” Dane noted.
Foreman frowned at the arcane reference. “And?”
“The Shadow sent those bombs through for a reason,” Dane said. “They will be detonated.”
“We assume that also,” Foreman said. “The Russians are rigging a remote controlled robot to go in and remove the fuses.”
“I’ve been in contact with Professor Kolkov,” Nagoya said. “He has done some rough calculations and he believes that the Tower Four containment wall will hold even if all six bombs are detonated.”
Dane turned to the old Japanese scientist. “And what about the gates?”
“We have learned much,” Nagoya said. “We have a good idea now how the gates work on our planet. The gate that we see on the surface—” he nodded toward the bulkhead beyond which lay the Devil’s Sea gate-- “is like a foothold established on our planet. It
appears that all the gates lead to one place via portals inside of them. That place is where the two of you were,” he said, looking at Foreman, then Ahana. “For lack of a better term, we will use what you say Amelia Earhart called it-- the space-between.
“Time here,” Nagoya pointed down, indicating Earth, “is linear and relatively fixed. But as you know, there are people in the space-between who are from many different time periods— Viking warriors, Romans legionnaires, people from varying times who appear to not have aged from the time they disappeared, such as you claim Ms. Amelia Earhart appeared.”
Dane bristled at the word choice but said nothing, knowing Nagoya meant no insult but was simply speaking as a scientist who had not seen the famed aviatrix with his own eyes.
“Inside the space-between,” Nagoya continued, “time appears to be a variable. Indeed, it must be, because the space-between is connected via portals to various times in our planet’s history as recent events have shown. Such as when the Roman legion came to your aid inside the space-between and gave you time to escape.”
Although he knew what Nagoya was saying was true, Dane found it confusing. As if sensing this, Ahana spoke. She was a young Japanese woman, a brilliant scientist who was Nagoya’s primary assistant. She had accompanied Dane through the Devil’s Sea gate and met Amelia Earhart—along with thirteenth century samurai warriors who had accompanied the aviatrix.
“I think the best way to envision this,” Ahana said, “is to view time like you view locations. You can travel five miles and you are in a different place. Via the portals, you can travel to a different time.”
“Can we go forward in time?” Dane asked.
Nagoya frowned. “I have not thought about that.”
“The crew of the Scorpion went forward from their time to our time,” Dane noted. He was trying to think this through the current situation. “Maybe we could go forward and see what we should do, then come back and do it?”
“That makes no sense,” Foreman said.
“None of this makes sense,” Dane said. “Or maybe we could go back in time and do something different?” He felt a spark of excitement. “Perhaps we could save Ariana, and others?”
Nagoya shook his head. “I think we are stuck with our present. If we go back and change something in our past, it would already be changed and we would not have our present. There are the traditional paradoxes associated with time travel. I do not think the space-between is time travel, but rather a timeless place.”
Dane found it all quite confusing and he had a feeling that Nagoya was overwhelmed also by the implications, but not willing to admit his lack of knowledge.
“Can we get to the Shadow’s world and stop the power drain from our planet?” Foreman asked, bringing the conversation back to the beginning.
“At least one of the portals inside the space-between must lead to the Shadow’s world,” Nagoya said. “That is the portal we must find if we are to be successful in taking the war to the other side. The power drain must also go through that portal.”
“Why do you say that?” Dane asked.
“I think the major purpose of what is going on is to get power, like the Shadow did from Chernobyl all those year,” Ahana said. “The destruction of our world is just a by-product of that.”
“And if we find it?” Dane asked. “What then?” When there was no immediate answer, he shifted in his seat so that he was facing Foreman. “I know you have a plan. Why not let me in on it beforehand this time?”
Foreman evaded a direct answer as was his wont. “We’re working on several things.”
“I assume you want me to go back in the Devil’s Sea gate with Rachel to search for this portal,” Dane didn’t make it a question. “I’m not going unless you tell me what options you’ve worked up and what their implementation priority is.”
Foreman steepled his fingers just below his chin. “I briefed the President via secure SATCOM link. The plan is simple. We find the Shadow portal. We send through a muonic transmitter. If we can lock in the portal to the other side—the Shadow’s world-- then our first option for attack is the first one readily available. We send through cruise missiles armed with nuclear weapons. Twenty four missiles and warheads are being modified as we speak to survive the trip through the gate.”
Dane saw a big problem with that plan. “So you’re hoping the missiles will function once they go to the other side even though nothing else electromagnetic has worked inside a gate?”
“We are hoping that electromagnetic devices can be shut down while traversing the gate and portals and then function on the other side. The Shadow has to have electromagnetic capability on their world.”
“That could be a fatal assumption,” Dane said. “And how will you get the cruise missiles through the portal when their rockets won’t work in the gates?”
Foreman’s answer was succinct. “By hand.”
It was the answer Dane had known was coming.
**************
The voice echoed in the small cabin, bouncing off the steel walls. “The mission of the United States Naval Academy is to develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to provide graduates who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government."
Captain Tom Stokes hit the mute button on the remote control and the TV went silent. The video was a recruiting pitch from the Naval Academy. On the screen, a panoramic view of the Naval Academy at Annapolis was displayed. Seeing the granite buildings, Stokes felt the familiar ache in the pit of his stomach. Part ingrained fear, part pride, part amazement even after all these years.
Stokes had been assigned as an instructor to the Academy up until six months ago when he’d received his new orders bringing him to this small room, the Captain’s quarters on board the Navy’s most modern submarine, the USS Connecticut. It wasn’t because of that recent assignment, though, that had caused him to pull the video out of his desk, but rather the report that lay open on his desk—the findings of a board that had been commissioned to examined the loss of the USS Seawolf, the Connecticut’s sister ship, and the first Seawolf class submarine commissioned.
The Seawolf class was the Navy’s most expensive and deadly submarine, the end result of over a billion dollars in research and development before the keel of the first boat was laid down. As an attack submarine, a Seawolf class ship had one primary mission: kill other submarines.
The Seawolf had indeed destroyed another submarine, but been destroyed in the process. It had been lost in the Bermuda Triangle gate stopping the captured USS Wyoming from launching the remainder of its missiles. The Wyoming’s first MIRV missile had destroyed Iceland and the Seawolf had barely stopped a second launching, which would have split the meeting of the tectonic plates in the center of the Atlantic and devastated America’s eastern seaboard and Europe’s western coast.
It appeared from the report, that the captain of the Seawolf had accomplished this mission in a most drastic way—by detonating one of his sub’s own nuclear weapons while it was less than three miles from the Wyoming, destroying both subs in the process.
The report noted that it had been a rather extreme command decision by the Seawolf’s captain, Joe McCallum, but surmised it had been his only choice given the lack of time and the strange effects of the gates on electro-magnetic systems, which had most likely negated using most of the Seawolf’s weapons in their normal mode against the Wyoming.
Costing over two billion dollars to build, a Seawolf attack submarine incorporated every advance in underwater warfare ever developed. It had Mark-48 torpedoes, along with Tomahawk cruise missiles. And it packed that punch in a surprisingly small size, bucking the recent trend of making submarines larger. At 353 feet long, the Seawolf was not much longer than the first US Navy sub given that name during World War II. However, its fo
rty-foot beam was almost twice the diameter of those earlier vessels.
The rear two-thirds of the submarine were taken up with the nuclear power plant, engine room and environmental control systems. Stokes’ cabin and the rest of the living and working areas were in the forward third. Stokes commanded thirteen other officers and one hundred and twenty enlisted men.
At the present moment, the Connecticut was five miles due east of the Devil’s Sea gate, so the report on the Seawolf encounter near the Bermuda Triangle gate held great interest for Stokes. More importantly, on a personal note, though, was the fact that the commander of the Seawolf, Captain McCallum, had been a classmate of Stokes at the Academy. His eyes went back up to the view of the Academy. The camera was panning by the chapel and he could visualize McCallum’s wedding, two days after they had graduated twenty-one years ago. Stokes had been best man and McCallum had returned the favor on the next day.
Over the years that followed the two had crossed paths in their careers often, making their way up the ranks. McCallum getting command of the Seawolf had been considered a plum assignment and Stokes had to admit he’d been jealous until the board had chosen him to take command of the second Seawolf class to be commissioned.
And now McCallum—and his crew—were gone. Stokes looked down, noting that the fingers of his right hand were twisting the large gold ring on his left. The setting was black hematite, the exact same that McCallum had gotten. On one side was their class crest and year of graduation and on the other the Academy Crest, a shield, with a trident running behind it, two fasces on the side and the motto: Ex Scientia Tridens. Out of knowledge sea power. But the report on the death of his friend gave Stokes little knowledge and raised more questions than it answered.
What the Shadow was, how the gates were formed, most importantly why this strange force seemed bent on destroying the world, all were unknowns. Stokes orders were to monitor this side of the gate. He knew that the destroyer USS Thorn was with the FLIP on the south side. On the west side, a Los Angeles class attack submarine held post, while on the north, the destroyer USS Fife.
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