by Nick Cook
‘Because the Resonancy Generator is a large audio chamber and it needs air rather than water to work with as a medium.
Suddenly, what had been staring me in the face the whole time finally made sense. The curved glass floor was shaped that way for a very specific reason and bore a striking similarity to something I had plenty of previous experience of working with.
I tilted my head to one side and looked at her. ‘You’re saying that entire chamber is a bit like a scaled up version of the Lovell radio telescope back at Jodrell Bank?’
‘A perfect analogy,’ Lucy replied. ‘But in this case the Resonancy Generator has been built to transmit, rather than receive a signal, and to wake the other micro minds up with an alarm call. The bad news is that this whole facility is a one-time use device and will tear itself apart in the process. If that wasn’t enough of a problem, because of the Overseers’ actions the lives of everyone here and even Eranos herself are in serious danger.’
Eranos was nodding. ‘Back in your reality in its current timeframe, milliseconds have passed since I was able to snatch you away from certain death. The shock waves from the charges are still expanding into my energy shield and are about to overwhelm it. I am going to have to launch my micro matrix crystal now to have a chance of surviving. That should just give me time to escape the blast. When I have done that, as intended by the design of the Resonancy Generator, I will move into position to become the focal point for its parabolic bowl to transmit the signal.’
I nodded, grateful that my previous experience as a radio telescope operator meant that I could understand what she’d just said. ‘So rather than a receiver box like we had mounted above Lovell’s dish, you’ll become the transmitter yourself?’
‘Correct,’ Eranos replied.
Lucy tapped an imaginary watch. ‘Look, literally even a few milliseconds is of the essence here if we’re going to pull this off. I also need to get you up to speed with what the plan is, Lauren.’
‘Go ahead,’ I replied.
‘Back at Eden, Alice gave me permission to launch and I’m on the way right now to merge with Eranos once the Resonancy Generator has finished sending its broadcast.’
‘But what about that Zumwalt destroyer on the surface? I can’t see it sitting it out whilst a great big alien megastructure starts to power up on the seabed. ‘
‘Actually, it’s even worse than that because the Overseers have sent serious reinforcements and they’re heading towards the site in the form of three TR-3B squadrons.’
‘Damn it, that’s going to make this even more difficult. But what about the reinforcements that Niki called in?’
‘They’ll be here in five minutes in your time, but by then it may be too late. Eranos’s only hope, and the lives of everyone she is protecting, is that Ariel gets into the fight and protects her as she launches.’
‘In that case we need to get me and my team back onboard Ariel and fast.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that, but I probably understated it when I said it was going to be extremely tricky, Lauren,’ Lucy said. ‘It’s also going to be extremely dangerous.’
I crossed my arms. ‘So when has that ever stopped us? Just tell me how we can make this happen?’
My friend nodded. ‘Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you…’
If I’d known what she was about to suggest, even I would have had second thoughts. Our day was just about to go from bad to much, much worse.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The white world vanished around me and was replaced by one of thundering water roaring so loudly that it made my ears sing. I found myself standing on top of Artemis’s wrecked hull, floating on the surface of the churning water as it rose rapidly towards the roof as the chamber flooded.
The air shimmered as Jack, Mike and Ruby materialised alongside me. They stared with their mouths open at the horror show around us. But I was already scanning the chamber above, looking for any sign of the next stage of the plan kicking in.
By my own estimate we’d only been away for a few seconds, probably less. The blast of the fireball from the C4 charges around the micro mind were just fading away to the east of us. One of two remaining bathyspheres was being dragged down to the floor by the plummeting gantry that had just ploughed into it, but the underwater base had already beaten it to the bottom and had crashed through the ceiling.
Where it had broken through the roof another cascade of water was rushing in to add to the growing floodwater boiling beneath it. That wild white water now covered the entire floor and the tall crystal pillars just peeked up over the top. There was certainly no sign of any survivors from the Overseers’ people, who’d rushed for the bathyspheres but hadn’t made it in time.
‘Why the hell are we back here?’ Ruby said, spinning round to confront me. ‘We’re all going to be drowned at any damned moment!’
‘We’re here because that’s where we need to be to protect that micro mind when she launches,’ I replied. ‘Several squadrons of TR-3Bs are about to arrive, not to mention that bloody Zumwalt that’s bound to open fire the moment it spots her.’
‘Her? Did you meet the AI when you vanished just now?’ Jack asked.
‘Yes, and Lucy too; we put together a plan.’
Their expressions grew wider, especially Mike who threw me a what the heck look.
‘Look, I haven’t got time to explain all the details, you’re just going to have to trust me,’ I said.
Jack gave me a sharp nod. ‘We always do, don’t we Lauren?’
Ruby and Mike nodded too, which brought a lump to my throat and I so didn’t have time for that right now. But yes, we were definitely a tight knit team even when we were caught in the middle of an unfolding disaster.
Far above us the domed roof had finished opening to reveal a massive round hole that was easily a kilometre wide. Far above that, on the distance surface of the ocean the tiny speck of the Zumwalt was still visible. Getting Eranos past that ship intact was going to be a major problem, let alone whatever was waiting for us in the air above it by the time we reached it. But I also needed to remind myself that help was on the way in the form of the Pangolin squadron and Lucy herself. We just needed to keep Eranos alive long enough for her to merge with the AI. Everything else was secondary to that, including our own lives.
I could see just one bathysphere rising fast towards the surface. Knowing the nine lives that a certain Overseer colonel had, I fully expected Alvarez to be onboard it.
The water was rising faster now, pushing Artemis towards what remained of the glass ceiling. To make matters worse, our ride was also starting to list to one side as the water rushed in through the large missing section of the hull beneath the waterline. She was probably only floating at all because of the pockets of air still trapped inside the broken cockpit.
With a roar of steam, the last of the fireball was extinguished by the waterfall thundering down into what remained of the quarry. But despite the detonation of the C4 charges that had wiped out the forcefield, Eranos’s tetrahedron crystal was still glowing fiercely blue even as its protection started to fail. The crystal began to rise up towards the top of the shield as the seawater smashed down onto it.
Lucy had been right that the timing would be down to the millisecond. At the last moment, as the shield completely failed, Eranos accelerated fast, straight up into the waterfall and for a moment we lost sight of her in the maelstrom.
I knew that everything that happened next depended on her pulling off this very precise manoeuvre and I didn’t even realise that I was crushing Jack’s hand until he squeezed mine back.
But then a surge of relief passed through me as I spotted Eranos again, a glowing gemstone rising quickly through the water and out into the main cavern.
My tense shoulders relaxed a fraction. ‘Oh thank God, she’s made it. Now all the lives of the people in her stasis field in E8, including Raúl, will be safe.’
‘Not wanting to doubt you, but what about saving our l
ives too in this cunning plan of yours?’ Mike said, starting to look more than a little bit apprehensive as Artemis began to slowly sink into the frothing water.
’Hopefully, any moment now,’ I said, my eyes searching the ocean directly above us for another critical part of this plan.
Then I saw something speeding straight down into the chamber through the vast hole in the ceiling. The identity of the craft was given away by bubbles trailing off the surface of its saucer shape.
Jack, who’d spotted it too, stared at me. ‘Is that Ariel?’
‘I bloody hope so because a huge part of this plan depends on it, and Erin’s flying skills,’ I said. ‘So get ready for a fast boarding everyone. Lucy is going to extend a gravity bubble and we need to get onboard fast when Ariel arrives. Then we need to get clear of the chamber before the earthquake hits.
Everyone stared at me.
‘Earthquake?’ Ruby said, even her professional calm looking visibly shaken.
‘Another detail for the debriefing later,’ I said.
‘Right…’ Jack said, shaking his head.
Ariel tore down towards one of the large blast holes in the glass ceiling to the west of our position. Her chameleon cloak flickered off just before she entered the chamber, something that I’d already agreed with Lucy, as it was going to make this manoeuvre a hell of a lot easier if we could actually see what we were leaping onto.
The X103’s thrusters were fighting hard to maintain Ariel’s course as she tore down through the column of water and into the flood. Then in one of the near impossible right hand turns that our craft was capable of, she switched direction and came surging underwater straight towards Artemis.
It felt like an eternity but was probably just a few seconds by the time Ariel slowed to a stop to one side of the other craft. The water had risen to our knees and a tentacle of clear air was extending up from Ariel’s top hatch like a giant, transparent, elephant’s trunk. It broke the surface of the frothing water less than a few metres from our sinking craft and expanded into a vertical air corridor.
‘Okay, go, go, go!’ I shouted.
Without hesitating, Ruby leapt first, dropping down through the air tunnel and landing cleanly next to Ariel’s hatch.
Mike went next but slipped on the surface of the hull as he landed. Ruby reacted with lightning reflexes, grabbing onto him before he fell through the gravity shield.
Two down and two to go. Now it was our turn.
The water surged as Artemis submerged beneath Jack and I. As the boiling flood rose to our hips it began pummelling into my legs, threatening to sweep me away into the torrent. As the smell of brine filled my nostrils, Jack grabbed my hand. Together we half-jumped, half-swam through the freezing water and dropped in through the gravity corridor to land next to Ariel’s hatch, Ruby and Mike grabbing on to steady us. At that same moment, Artemis started to tip towards Ariel as the craft sank, carried towards our own ship by the current.
But Erin was obviously on the case, deftly moving Ariel out of the way. The hull shifted beneath us as the water surged past the gravity passageway, starting to break through it. We all dived for the hatch and began to clamber down the ladder into the safety of the cockpit. Jack slammed the hatch shut behind him just as the gravity tunnel collapsed and water surged over the hull.
The others were already in their flight seats as we rushed to ours and strapped in. Even with the protection of the gravity shield Ariel seemed to be buffeted from every side, making the self-levelling gimbal mechanism for the flight deck whine as it fought to keep it level.
My gaze snapped to the virtual cockpit screen. On it I could see Eranos’s micro mind still rising up through the main Resonancy Generator chamber as the giant tree structures pulsed faster around her with increasingly strong bursts of rippling light.
‘Get after that micro mind and stick to it like glue, Erin,’ I said, locking my harness into its buckle.
‘You can count on me, Commander,’ she replied.
Erin pushed the throttle lever far forward and Ariel shook as her thrusters fought to drive us through the surging current towards the hole in the roof after the micro mind.
‘Jesus, are our thrusters going to be powerful enough to get us out of here?’ Jack asked.
‘They just need to get us to an opening in the glass roof, then I’ll use the main REV drive to lift us out,’ Erin said, chewing her lip.
‘You’ve got this,’ I said.
‘All I know is that is no end of flying experience can quite prepare you for something this crazy,’ she replied.
‘You mean the part where your flying saucer is turned into a submarine trapped in an underwater cavern?’ Jack asked with a wry smile.
‘Along with everything else they never mention in the job description,’ Mike added.
‘Yeah precisely that,’ Erin replied, but at least the banter had raised a smile from her, hopefully enough to ease some of the panic she was no doubt feeling, just as I would be in her shoes.
The hole in the roof was crawling towards us way too slowly for my liking as we were buffeted from every side by the surging water.
‘Come on, baby, you can do this,’ Erin murmured.
The drumming sound of the waterfall slamming onto the hull echoed throughout the cockpit as we entered the wild vortex of water pouring through the roof. But despite everything it was throwing at her, with fine corrections on the controls Erin brought us into precise alignment with the ragged hole roof in the roof.
‘Here goes nothing,’ she said as she pushed the throttle forward.
Ariel shot straight upwards and it was then that I realised not only just how good our new pilot was, but the updated REV drive too. With not so much of a punch of G-force, Ariel cleared the blast hole in the roof with barely a metre to clear, up into a fountain of bubbles. We could all see the micro mind, now a shining beacon of light in the main chamber and rising fast through the roof.
‘Nice flying, Erin, although technically I guess that isn’t quite the right description for what you just pulled off,’ Jack said.
‘Oh, thanks for the compliment.’
But suddenly a vibration ran through the ship and I shot Erin a questioning look. ‘Please don’t tell me we’ve developed a problem?’
‘That’s nothing to do with Ariel, Commander,’ she replied. ‘According to our sensors that vibration is coming from outside.’
Mike, who’d been peering at his Sky Wire, which had become active again thanks to Ariel’s quantum radio system, nodded. ‘Yes, I’m seeing seismic monowave readings right across Cuba. According to the data, we’re sitting right at the epicentre of it.’
‘Sound like that earthquake you mentioned, Lauren?’ Jack asked.
‘Yes, but this is just the opening act,’ I said. ‘Eranos, the micro mind, said the quake was literally going to tear this place apart.’
‘Now you tell us,’ Jack said.
‘As I said, there is a lot to talk about and not a lot of time to do it in,’ I replied.
The tree structures were strobing with an almost constant brilliance now as a humming sound grew stronger from beyond the hull of our ship.
‘Bloody hell, the quake has already got a reading of a constant two on the Richter scale,’ Mike said, looking at his screen.
‘I think it’s going to get much worse,’ I replied. ‘Time to get us out of this chamber, Erin.’
‘On it, increasing power to REV drive.’
We hurtled straight up towards Eranos, who’d come to a dead stop about a thousand metres above the Angelus megastructure in the open sea.
As Ariel cleared the chamber we rose past the pyramid structures that were now all blazing with intense light, casting sharp elongated shadows across the surrounding seabed. Every so often one of the tall towers let out a whip line of superheated plasma that instantly boiled the water around it into bubbles, marking the underwater lightning’s zigzag passage before fading away.
Much to my relief I not
iced that the whale pods that had been circling the facility had obviously got the memo that something bad was about to kick off and were nowhere to be seen.
Tremors rippled across the seabed in increasingly rapid succession, making the surface undulate as though it had been turned to jelly. But even more significant than that, I could see spinning columns of water around the edges of the chamber beneath us, beginning to merge in the middle.
‘Crap, a torpedo has just launched from that damned Zumwalt destroyer and they seem to be targeting the micro mind,’ Ruby said.
‘Then take it out now!’ I shouted.
Ruby nodded and grabbed hold of her weapon system’s joystick. With a whine we heard the miniguns spool up and then a torrent of flechette rounds tore away from Ariel. Like a swarm of silver fish they sped past the micro mind straight into the path of the torpedo streaking down towards it. The torpedo smashed into the flechettes and instantly detonated. A moment later its stern section, propeller still spinning, corkscrewed past the micro mind, which had remained stationary in the water during the whole engagement.
I pressed the comms button on my seat arm. ‘Niki, we need air support urgently!’
‘Roger that, coming in with weapons hot.’
Above the surface of the sea, I saw something streaking through the sky before glancing off the invisible ship.
At once an answering laser lanced out from it into the sky.
‘Taking incoming fire and our shields are down to twenty percent. We can’t handle more of this,’ Niki said. ‘Oh shit…’
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
‘Sixteen TR-3Bs are just two minutes out and according to our sensors three of them have those damned new laser turrets too. This is going to get messy fast.’
‘ETA on our reinforcements, Niki?’ Jack asked.
‘Five minutes out. Lucy is gaining fast and is about another minute behind them.’
‘We just need to keep the micro mind alive long enough to merge with Lucy,’ I said.
I turned to Erin. ‘Get us in front of that micro mind to protect her. If it comes to it we sacrifice ourselves to protect that AI.’