Battle for Atlantis

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Earhart came out the other end of the portal into the Space Between to be greeted by a splash of water from Rachel’s tail. The dolphin immediately took off and Earhart followed, moving in the Valkyrie suit after her. She saw right away where Rachel was headed — the massive Shadow sphere floated in the water directly ahead, half submerged. With the skull case firmly in hand, Earhart reached the sphere. Rachel splashed her tail once more in approval and then raced off on some other task.

Earhart knew the way now. She floated up to the top and entered the split where the petals of metal were slightly parted. Then she descended through the open top half where the Shadow had captured ships and planes during forays into her timeline. A sphere like this, maybe even this one, had captured her and her plane during her attempt to fly around the world.

She went down a tunnel to the power room. The mummified bodies of the crew of the Nautilus were grim reminders of the cost of this war as they occupied their niches around the circumference of the room. Remaining in the suit for protection, Earhart opened the case.

The skulls were still glowing as brightly as they had on the battlefield. She took them, one by one, in the claws that extended from the Valkyrie suit hands to the niches at the same level as the central power globe. As she placed the ninth in place, the glow from the skulls increased, filling the chamber. Lines of power shot from one skull to the other, then all nine linked with the power globe.

The sphere was ready.

Earhart headed for the command center.

As she enclosed herself in the pilot pod, she felt a strong presence close by.

“Dane?”

I’m here.

The voice was inside her head but Earhart automatically scanned the controls and panel on the inside of the pilot pod. There was no one else on board the sphere. “Where are you?”

I’m here. I’m still on the psychometric plane. I opened the gate for you.

“What now?” Earhart asked. She felt slightly foolish to be speaking to empty air but given all that had happened it was pretty much par for the course.

We have the power. Now we get the force.

Chamberlain was almost thrown across the cargo bay of the MH-90 as it banked hard right. He heard the excited voices of the pilots, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Stabilizing himself, he made his way to the cockpit.

It wasn’t hard to miss what had caused both the maneuver and the excitement as a large black column, over a mile wide, had appeared over what had once been the southern tip of Manhattan.

“Arm weapons,” Chamberlain ordered the pilots and then the order was relayed to all the other planes. The forty-millimeter cannon underneath the nose of the plane was · aimed at the gate and missiles under each wings were armed.

Something was coming out of the portal. It took a few seconds and then Chamberlain recognized it — a Shadow sphere. He had seen imagery of them taken during the Shadow War. It was his worst fears coming true — the Final Assault was the Shadow coming to this timeline, not them going to the Shadow.

“All elements. We will attack in echelon,” Chamberlain ordered. “I want Alpha and Bravo companies to hold in case the sphere opens, and then try to get inside and deploy. Charlie company will attack at — ”

Easy.

Chamberlain checked his command status. No one should be talking on the command frequency while he was giving orders.

“Charlie company will — ”

Easy, Colonel.

“Who is that?” Chamberlain demanded.

“Who is what?” Eddings was next to him.

“Didn’t you hear that?” The voice had to be coming Over the command net, Chamberlain knew, because he was sealed from the outside world inside his suit.

We’re here to transport you. We’re in the sphere. We’re not the Shadow. We’re from another time line the Shadow has attacked. Bring your craft on board.

“Who are you?”

Eddings turned toward Chamberlain but he signaled for her to be quiet.

My name isn’t important.

Looking through the cockpit window, Chamberlain could see that the entire sphere had emerged from the gate and was floating motionless. The gate snapped out of existence. Then the top of the sphere began to open, splitting like a bulb opening to become a flower.

Ask your Oracles.

Dane could understand the colonel’s reticence about trusting a voice that just appeared in his head, especially in connection with the arrival of a Shadow sphere. Then he sensed something below. Dane shifted his attention to the water below. He saw a half dozen large black fins sticking out of the water.

“The High Priestess says do as the voice says,” Eddings told Chamberlain.

As Chamberlain prepared to change his orders, the sphere began to move-downward. The top was still open and now he could see the large open floor bisecting the interior. An excellent landing field. He directed his craft to enter the sphere and land.

The MH-90s flitted forward, settling down on the black metal one by one, a dangerous maneuver as the sphere itself was now moving. As a commander should, Chamberlain took the last position in the line of Nighthawks heading into the top of the sphere.

As he watched his unit enter the sphere, Chamberlain realized that it was going to be a close call for his craft to land before the sphere was submerged as the bottom of the arge ball had now touched the water and it wasn’t slowing.

Inside the pilot pod, Amelia Earhart was also aware of the two rates of progress — her descent of the sphere and the landing of the military craft inside. She was following Dane’s orders, but it seemed as if he were thinking many different things at once.

The sphere was in the water and she kept it going down. Only three more of the strange planes had to land. She had to trust Dane knew what he was doing, because those planes were going to get wet very soon.

As the last one landed on the cargo deck above her, water began to pour in the opening in the top of the sphere.

‘’Everyone sealed?” Chamberlain asked as his Nighthawk was buffeted by a stream of water cascading down.

All answered in the affirmative.

Chamberlain put his helmet against Eddings. “What the hell is going on?”

“Look,” Eddings said, pointing up, through the window in the top of the cockpit.

It appeared that the sphere was no longer moving as the water level had stopped halfway up the large circular cargo bay. Just at the point where the bottom of the splits were.

A killer whale appeared, swimming in through the gap of one of the splits. Then another and another. Soon a dozen of the creatures were inside, swimming just above the parked Nighthawks. The top of the sphere began to close, each petal sealing against the one next to it until it was completely closed.

Chamberlain staggered as his mind was filled with a vision that came unbidden. A beautiful city inside a clear shield. A golden tower extending upward. In the top of the golden tower a large room filled with small golden globes all connected together.

He didn’t know where the vision came from; he’d never had one before.

“That’s the target,” Eddings said.

Chamberlain looked at her in surprise.

“I saw it too,” Eddings said. “Those globes. That’s the Shadow. That’s what we have to destroy.”

“Where now?” Earhart asked.

Straight down.