“You’re a crazy, crazy man—” she laughed “—here we are in a romantic moment, and you want to know how they made my clone.”
“You’re right—” he agreed “—my timing sucks, but I can’t control when I wonder about stuff. You shouldn’t have made me talk. I told you it was nothing.”
She rolled her eyes, “I’m not complaining, just commenting on it. I suppose it’s one of the things I love about you.”
“What? You love that my timing sucks—” he eyed her strangely “—how can you love that?”
“I didn’t mean you timing silly. It’s your brain …I mean I love how you think. Well, when I can make sense of it, that is.”
“Okay, if you say so. At least that’s something I guess.”
“Well—” she thought about it for a minute “—they didn’t clone her like you are thinking. They didn’t grow her from a cell. The copied me, every cell, in a machine.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Mark—” she guffawed “—we are sitting in a motel room, for lack of a better term, under six thousand feet of ocean. There’s no visible barrier of any kind between us, and the water. We traveled through time only a few nights ago, and you’re talking about what’s impossible?”
“Okay—” he agreed “—obviously it must be possible. I believe you. It’s just going too fast for me. I’m a scientist, and I’ve always felt the need to understand how things work, and suddenly everything looks like magic. I know it’s not, but I don’t like feeling like an idiot.”
“Surely you are familiar with nanotechnology?”
“Okay—” he said, suddenly relieved “—maybe that does make sense.”
“It doesn’t to me. I’ve just heard them use the term—” she grinned “—so now maybe you can enlighten me on the subject?”
They both laughed at that. “I just told you that I thought something was impossible two minutes ago”—he gestured with his hands—“now you want me to explain it to you?”
“Well you’re the one who said it made sense.”
“Theoretically—” he cocked his head “—molecular nanotechnology is the science of building things at the molecular level, from the atom up.”
“Then you can understand how they copied me.”
“I know that they have been working on it for a while—” he shrugged “—at least since 1989, when they realized they could manipulate atoms one at a time and make them stay put.”
She stared at him, bewildered.
“Anyway, it’s complicated, but the idea is to build machines so tiny that they can operate on individual atoms. Kind of like that movie, where they shrunk a bunch of people and sent them inside a guy to do surgery on his brain. Only they wouldn’t shrink people, just build robots that tiny—” he reconsidered that “— actually a lot smaller.”
“If they’ve been able to do that since 1989, why haven’t I ever heard of it?”
“It’s more complicated than you would think. It’s a completely different world down there. The laws of physics that apply in the normal size world simply don’t work.”
“Why not?”
“If you imagine a bicycle chain turning a gear, then you have a basic machine right?”
“I guess.”
“You have to lubricate that chain, or it won’t move; each link must be able to move without friction against another piece.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” she told him.
“Now imagine that your gear is made out of just a few atoms, and so is your chain.”
“Okay.”
“How do you lubricate it?—” he asked her “—Oil molecules are made out of many atoms, so putting oil on it would be like trying to lubricate your bike chain with bricks.”
“That would certainly complicate things.” She furrowed her brow.
“Then consider the fact that some types of atoms attract each other while others repel. You have to create the perfect machine that will run without any lubrication based on the strong and weak forces of atoms and molecules. You would have to create the perfect balance between attraction and repulsion, and—” he paused for emphasis “—you have to use an electron microscope just to see your creation.”
She let out a long breath, “You think that’s how they made Dierdra?”
He started to speak, but she stopped him. “Mark, never mind, I don’t want to understand.”
“I had no idea—” he shook his head “—how can we possibly be that far along in our understanding of the technology.”
“Maybe they got the technology from this place—” she hesitated “—from Atlantis.”
“Do you really think this place is Atlantis?—” he sounded skeptical “—All the structures I’ve seen except the pyramid and the dome were built by the navy. It doesn’t seem like …I would think it would be more …I don’t know. It’s not very impressive. Well, the dome and the pyramid are … but Atlantis?”
“Does it matter?—” she asked “—It was clearly built by an ancient civilization with technology that far surpasses our own.”
“No”—he said—“I guess it doesn’t.”
There was a knock on the door. She turned to him, worry written all over her face.
“It’ll be all right.” He soothed.
“Come in,” she said hesitantly.
The door opened. It was Stewart.
Chapter 14
Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the
laws of nature. — Michael Faraday
~
Stewart shut the door behind him, wearing a matching blue jumpsuit.
Flooded with relief, Ashlyn got up and threw her arms around him. “We’ve been so worried about you.”
“You think you guys were worried—” he shook his head “—I thought you guys had been eaten by those lemon sharks.”
Mark gave Stewart a bear hug, and then said. “I’m so glad to see you. We had no way to contact you—”
“I know”—Stewart cut in—“I followed your trail. It didn’t take long to figure out that you guys had been captured.”
“—I shouldn’t have left you. I forgot about the other gear. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be—” Stewart put his hand on Mark’s shoulder “—I knew it was there. I forgot about it too.”
“I thought Dierdra surely had killed you,” Ashlyn lamented.
“Yeah, what’s the deal?—” Stewart asked “—Dierdra found me sneaking around in the pyramid and then just brought me here, like I’m a guest, but wouldn’t say anything.”
“Dierdra didn’t tell you anything at all?” Mark asked.
“That’s what I said. Hey, I’m not sure how we got outside, but what’s the deal with it being dark?”
***
Stewart had eaten, and then found an infirmary where they offered him painkillers, which he sorely needed. His friends had filled him in on the missing details, and he was having a hard time assimilating the bizarre information. He could hardly believe that he was just being allowed to roam after all the three of them had been through to keep them from finding this place.
He looked all around. It seemed that no one was going to stop him from exploring. He walked further down the road that he had arrived on, past the hulking machine, which was rotating high above him, and into the darkness.
He left his dive gear in his room, but his flashlight he took. If it’s always dark here, I’m probably going to need it. He wanted answers.
He traveled for what seemed to be miles without seeing anything except for the regularly spaced light towers in the distance. Then he found something, big!
***
First thing in the morning, at least that’s what his watch said, Stewart knocked on Mark’s door. When there was no answer, he didn’t wait for an invitation—he simply walked in. Ashlyn was sitting on the bed with Mark.
“I’m sorry”—Stewart’s voice oozed discomfort—“I should have waited.”
Ashlyn spoke, �
��We were just talking.”
There were no chairs in the room, and so Stewart suggested that they go to breakfast together. “I’m starved, and I found out a lot of stuff last night while you guys were catching up on sleep.”
There were only a few people scattered around the restaurant. Mark kept prodding Stewart for the information, but he refused to talk until they had eaten.
Finally finished with breakfast, Mark demanded, “Okay now Stewart, spill it!”
He grinned and then said, “Sorry, it’s just that I’m usually the last to know anything. I’m enjoying this.”
“Okay—” Ashlyn smirked “—that’s enough gloating. You knew it first, and we are happy for you. Now, like Mark said, spill it already!”
“First, in 1959, the Navy was testing a top secret, deep-diving submarine, here, in the Tongue of the Ocean. It’s still classified—” Stewart paused for effect “—that’s when they found the dome.”
“The dome?” Ashlyn asked.
“It’s the barrier above us that is holding the ocean back.”
“Wait—” Mark stopped him “—before you go on, where did you get this information?”
“In the library”—Stewart dismissed—“but I’ll get to that later.”
Ashlyn furrowed her brow. “You’re saying they found the dome in 1959, not the pyramid? As high as the barrier looks from here, it still has to be very deep.”
“That’s the cool part,” he was becoming more animated, “They never found that entrance from the ocean before we came through it?”
“Wait a minute,” Mark interjected, “how did they get down here then?”
“For that matter”—Ashlyn added—“how could they have not found it by now, regardless of how they got in?”
Stewart turned to her. “I can’t figure that out either, it was just down one of the hallways. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Unless—” Mark shot her a look “—the door only opened from inside the room.”
“What door?” Stewart asked.
Ashlyn’s mouth opened in surprise, and then a smile curled her lips. “That’s probably it!—” For a moment, they seemed to forget that Stewart was there “—we opened the door. They probably didn’t even know that there was a room there since the doors are all invisible.”
“What do you mean invisible?” He asked.
They stared at him in disbelief. “When you were in the pyramid, didn’t you notice—” Mark asked “—that there aren’t any seams when a door is closed?”
“I must have been too preoccupied by the gun pointed at me,” Stewart scowled.
Ashlyn filled him in, “It took us a while to figure out how to open the door in the entrance room in the first place because the walls showed no sign of any opening. We thought the room was a dead end.”
He thought about it a moment. “I guess that makes sense. I mean, nothing else the Atlanteans made has seams.”
“Are you sure this place was built by the Atlanteans?” Mark asked skeptically.
“Yeah”—Stewart answered—“it says so in their writings, in the library.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you just take us there?”
“I will, but let me finish telling you the stuff I learned.”
She and Mark eyed each other. A knowing look passed between them. It was Stewart’s moment to shine. They would let him finish.
“So they actually left writings?” Mark pondered aloud—the question was rhetorical.
Stewart nodded, “And, they didn’t have any impact from the EMP down here. Kathleen didn’t even know about it.”
“I supposed they are shielded somehow—” Mark said “—who is Kathleen?”
“Oh—” an odd expression crossed Stewart’s face “—she’s the librarian, for lack of a better term.”
Ashlyn put her face in her hands and tried hard to stifle a giggle that would not stop. Then she couldn’t help it and started laughing almost to the point of tears.
Mark and Stewart both stared at her strangely. She couldn’t stop. Finally, she managed to pull herself together.
“I’m sorry, hasn’t that ever happened to either of you guys?—” she asked “—you start laughing because you are under severe stress, and something little blows a hole in you like a volcano. Then the stress comes out that way?”
“Sorry,” Stewart said, and he shook his head. She looked to Mark, who just shrugged.
She cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes unbelievingly. “Honestly, this whole thing is so insane, I just can’t help it!” She started laughing all over again.
Mark had been pulling her leg; he knew exactly what she meant, and after a moment, he smiled. “I’m only teasing. I know exactly what you mean.”
“I don’t—” Stewart sat back and folded his arms across his chest “—just let me know when the eruption is over, and I will continue.”
Curiosity seemed to pull them both back into line, and Ashlyn apologized. A small snicker escape again, but she stopped held it together.
“Where was I?” Stewart asked.
“I think you were talking about the librarian.” Ashlyn stifled another giggle.
“Are you drunk Ashlyn?” Stewart asked only halfway joking.
“No, I’m not drunk”—she thought about it for a second and added—“but I wish I was. This is all too much, too fast.”
Mark agreed, “I can’t argue with that—” he turned to Stewart “—you were telling us how they found this place.”
“Okay, like I said, the Navy discovered the dome in 1959, with a top secret, deep-diving submarine.”
“How far could it go down?” Mark asked seriously.
“Uh,” Stewart was embarrassed, “I didn’t get that detail, but at least as far down as the dome.”
“It looks as high as the sky to me,” she interjected.
“Okay, I guess that isn’t the important part of the story so go ahead,” Mark suggested.
“They couldn’t figure out what it was at first. It apparently extends for a lot of miles; don’t ask the amount—” Stewart answered the inevitable question preemptively “—I didn’t get that detail either.”
Ashlyn and Mark sat quietly.
“It’s some very hard material, all they could tell was that it was transparent and that there were some light coming from beneath it. They tried cutting into it, but everything they used just broke or burned up. So they decided to dig a tunnel”—he motioned expansively—“down through the bottom of the sea. All the way down through a lot of rock and sediment, so that they could come up under the dome.”
“You’re kidding—” she said “—that’s amazing! How did they do that in 1959?” She turned to Mark for an explanation.
He shrugged.
“That blew me away too—” Stewart continued “—anyway they built some kind of structure under the water all the way from the surface to the sea floor, and then sucked out the water. It apparently took them an entire year to dig the first seventy-five feet.”
Ashlyn started to laugh, and he scowled at her. “I’m sorry Stewart. It’s not like before. I was just thinking how funny that sounds considering the way we got down that same distance.”
“I guess you have a point”—he smiled—“but they didn’t even know about the pyramid we came through until they ran into it during the digging process. They couldn’t cut through it, so they had to dig around at an angle until they found an entrance.”
“Why didn’t we see the top of the elevator shaft when we were diving?” she asked.
“I’m sure they have it hidden somehow,” Mark answered.
“I’m surprised they wanted to have Dierdra kill you—” Ashlyn said to Mark “—I mean, we only found the tip of a pyramid, and they didn’t know there was an entrance.”
“Yeah”—he motioned with his hands—“well, imagine trying to keep this top secret place a secret if I announced to the world that there was a pyramid under the water and could give the ex
act coordinates. Especially when you consider the fact that it was emitting electromagnetic energy from the tip.”
“Oh—” she thought about it “—I guess when you put it that way it makes a lot of sense, but—”
Impatiently, Stewart interrupted, “The pyramid re-circulates its air.”
“What do you mean, like a HEPA filter?” she asked.
“No”—he said—“like an air scrubber on a spaceship, or the rebreathers that Mark has. You can be locked in a room for good in there and never run out of breathable air because it removes the carbon dioxide.”
“But my re-breather requires a small oxygen tank to replace what I use up. It only scrubs out the bad gases—” Mark’s thoughts drifted “—man, I would love to have something like that.”
“Maybe they take the needed oxygen from the water?” Stewart suggested.
“You mean like a fish?” she asked.
“I guess so”—he looked to Mark for conformation—“they must do something like that to keep the air clean down here too.”
Mark nodded but didn’t say anything.
Ashlyn cringed, “this conversation is making me feel claustrophobic.”
“Sorry Ashlyn”—Stewart grinned and took a deep breath—“I’m missing some of the details, but when they finally got under the dome, they were shocked to find that there was no water down here.”
“They did all that digging, thinking it was full of water”—she asked puzzled—“why?”
“Probably because of the lights”—Mark threw in—“they wouldn’t have seemed natural.” He was thinking about how evenly spaced they had appeared on their way to the base.”
Stewart thought about it and then nodded. “That makes sense”—he said and then went on—“once they were down here, they started doing research on the things they found, and they built this base, but they had no idea what the dome was made of until the breakthroughs began on nanotechnology.”
“Okay”—Mark nodded—“now we’re getting somewhere.”
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