“A few thousand?” Foreman cursed. “They’re destroying entire timelines? Killing billions to keep just a few thousand alive?”
Dane knew Foreman had lost his brother in a gate. He himself had lost his Special Forces team in Cambodia through the Angkor Kol Ker Gate more than thirty years ago. Millions more had died since then in the war against the Shadow in this timeline alone. He sympathized with Foreman but he knew they had to accept the reality of the situation.
“The Ones Before have helped Atlanteans in our timeline in their battle against the Shadow. I’ve seen how the minds of special people, people like me, can redirect power, although the cost is high, resulting in transformation into a pure crystalline skull.
“Our timeline Atlanteans fought a war that spread around the globe until the very existence of life was threatened. And in the climactic battle, the Atlantean priestesses and warriors with the aid of the Ones Before stopped the Shadow, but the price was high. Their home of Atlantis was destroyed. The resulting tsunamis touched every shore on the planet with such devastation that the legend of the Great Flood was written both in the Tibetan Book of the Dead and in the scriptures of the Jewish people on the other side of the world.
“There were survivors in a handful of ships, which scattered and planted the seeds for future civilizations to arise thousands years later. What we call the modem world. The Atlanteans stopped the Shadow but lost their civilization and their home in the process.
“We know that since the destruction of Atlantis, the Shadow has kept a presence on our planet via the gates. Sometimes these gates expand, such as when the capital city of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia was swallowed up by such a gate-the one at Kol Ker which you” — he glanced at Foreman — “sent me into. Sometimes the gates grew larger.”
Dane turned to Ahana. “You said something once about the multiverse?”
Ahana nodded. “There are scientists who theorize that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, existing side by side, so to speak. What is called the multiverse. The problem with trying to understand the universe is that we don’t really know how it started. If you view time as a line, and we are currently at the right-hand end of it, the universe began at the left hand end and that formation may rely on cosmological evolution that is outside the scope of even the deepest theory we can come up with.”
“We have to recon the Shadow timeline,” Dane said. “and pinpoint where their base is. Second, we need to power up the sphere. Which means powering up the crystal skulls. Third, we need to get the sphere to the timeline where this force is. Fourth, we then need to get the sphere to the Shadow’s world. And, five, at the same time, we need to cut the current power source that the Shadow is tapping.”
“Is that it?” Earhart asked. “Just five things?”
Dane had to laugh at the tone of her voice. “Yeah. And even those aren’t straightforward. The Shadow guards the portal to their world very closely. So we have to get there in a way they won’t expect. That’s the bad news. The good news is we’ve got help out there” — Dane gestured vaguely — “in other timelines.”
Dane pointed at Earhart: “You’re in charge of getting the skulls powered up.” At Ahana: “You’re in charge of the power flowing to the Shadow’s world.” Then at himself: “I’m going to do the recon.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Earhart asked.
“I’m going to the Shadow world the same way I went to the Ones Before. Via Dream Land.”
“And how am I going to charge the skulls?” Earhart pressed.
“At a place called Gettysburg,” Dane said.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Confederates came up Chambersburg Pike and the surrounding fields just as General Buford had predicted: at first light and in force. The first shot of the battle that would be named after the town was fired from a Sharp breech-loading rifle by a Union horse soldier. The incoming Confederate division deployed, sending a line of skirmishers in, while one brigade wheeled to the left and one to the right of the pike.
Outnumbered, Buford’s men fought fiercely for over an hour, holding their ground, until finally the sheer weight of the oncoming Confederates forced them to withdraw back toward the town. At the same time, General Reynolds. the commander of the Union corps came up and immediately saw what Buford had realized the previous day-this was a good place to defend. And. like Buford, he sent word back for all units to come as quickly as possible.
On the other side, the unexpected stiff defense by the · Union cavalry turned a raiding party looking for shoes into a full-fledged attack, and caused the Confederate division commander to send a request for more troops to his own rear.
As Napoleon had said earlier in the century, armies should march to the sound of the guns and as the sun rose on the morning of July 1, every division from both sides within bearing distance of Gettysburg turned toward the town.
Neither side was able to coordinate the events that transpired throughout the morning, as reinforcements rushed in from both North and South and were thrown penmen into the battle. The Union suffered the first setbacks as General Reynolds was shot out of the saddle, and the Confederates were able to drive the temporarily disorganized Federal troops out of the town to the heights to the south and east.
Union forces counterattacked and smashed the Confederates back, only to be attacked in turn by fresh Southern divisions. Through midday, the battle swung back and forth.
Then Lee arrived at 2:30 P.M. With Ewell’s corps already embroiled in the first, Lee rolled the dice and immediately threw then next corps in line, A. P. Hill’s into the fight. The Union forces fell back to Seminary Ridge in disarray.
The Union’s Iron Brigade from Wisconsin saved the day from becoming a rout by holding their positions, but with an appalling casualty rate of almost 70 percent. Despite their efforts, the Union forces were thrown off of Seminary Ridge, back through the town once more, onto Cemetery Ridge. Here, luck and good leadership played into Union hands as a division had been left on the Ridge since early morning to act as a reserve. The commander had put his men to work building breastworks, although the men, who saw the battle being waged to the north and west, complained.
Those breastworks came in handy, as fleeing Union troops hid behind them and slowly reconsolidated.
From his position on Seminary Ridge, Lee could see the Union position on Cemetery Ridge, and his forces in between. He had been in this sort of position before, with Union forces on the retreat to his front, and he knew what was needed. He sent orders to A. P. Hill to press the assault Just as Longstreet came riding up at the head of his corps. He ended the short note with the polite words “if practicable.”
“How goes it, General?” Longstreet inquired as he surveyed the terrain ahead through his binoculars.
Lee told Longstreet of the orders he had sent to Hill.
They were still discussing the situation when a rider came galloping back from Hill’s headquarters with the corps commander’s response to Lee’s order. Lee read the note and handed it to Longstreet without comment.
“He’s been in the fight all day,” Longstreet said, trying to explain Hill’s response that his men were exhausted and about out of ammunition, and he would not be able to press the assault as ordered — with greatest regrets.
Lee was already scribbling on another piece of paper, which he gave to a rider — the same order, with the same polite ending, this time to Ewell. “We must take that height,” he said to Longstreet, indicating Cemetery Ridge and the hasty stonewall that snaked across its crest.