Battle for Atlantis

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

This was what Ahana and Nagoya had speculated might be the case, Dane realized as he took in the immensity of both the diamond crystal and the power it was receiving, transforming and then emitting. Even before the two Japanese scientists, the Russians had speculated that such a thing existed at the very center of the planet.

The Russians had labeled the places where the gates were occasionally active as Vile Vortices. They claimed these spots were external manifestations of power surges from inside the planet, part of a matrix of cosmic energy that had been built into the planet at the time of its formation.

Ahana had told him that if it existed, this crystal held its power from the birth of the planet, hard as it was for Dane to believe. Its initial power began when the loose · collection of rocks that was pre-earth, was bombarded by leased from these impacts melted everything, and the planet slowly began to cool from the outside in. The immense temperatures, gravitational pressure and sheer weight of what was on top formed this crystal, allowing it to absorb all that power being directed inward. Only one material could sustain such forces and that was diamond. And that was what the crystal was made of.

Dane realized he was looking at the inner core of the planet, something scientists in his day had only been able to speculate about. While man had traveled to the moon, he had barely scratched the surface of his own planet. Apparently the Atlanteans had done considerably more than scratch.

Dane became aware of something else as some time went by. The planet was moving, revolving, but not the crystal. Dane tried to recall what Ahana had said about that, knowing it was important. He knew that the Shadow had demonstrated an ability to tap into the power coming out of the splits between the tectonic plates. He wondered why this tap was where it was, wherever that was.

Realizing the location of the tap and tunnel would be important, Dane reversed course and raced up the tunnel. When he reached the chamber underneath the granite slab, he continued on the same vector. Passing into the stone was disconcerting and he concentrated on trying to stay in a straight line.

He came out into pitch-black water, the only difference from the stone, being the element that surrounding him.

Where was he? What had this place been before the deluge?

Dane moved up, toward the surface. He burst up out of the water and halted, searching in all directions. There was something above the water to one side and he headed over there.

Land. Above the waves. He saw a rock wall rising barely thirty feet above the water out the place sparked some memory. He moved closer. The top of the rocks were scoured clean of life. And the land to west of them sloped down into the water again.

Where had he seen similar rock? He knew the context was all wrong, given the water level. He added a few hundred feet to the rock, envisioning cliffs.

Dane knew where he was. The rocks were the very top of the Palisades. And the Core tunnel had been dug underneath what was New York City in his timeline. If the tunnel existed here, it might exist in other timelines, the key issue being when the Atlanteans had dug it.

Dane stayed in place, trying to think this through. He was here for a reason. He had to trust the Ones Before. He, a man who had never trusted anyone other than the men he’d gone into combat with in Vietnam. He realized that he’d gone into combat with the Ones Before many times in the past year.

Why was he here?

There was power below. More power than any of the other timelines had ever tapped. It was what had both destroyed the Shadow and kept it going.

Did he need his body?

The thought was startling to Dane. He’d thought earlier that he could not redirect power without his body, but was that true? Sin Fen had told him he was the step beyond what she was. He was the warrior-priest.

It was time to go back, Dane knew. Time for all the pieces to come together.