In one smooth movement the giant wave struck and quickly wrapped itself around enveloping the entire island. Part of the island’s southern facing cliffs could be seen crumbling into giant pieces before the water engulfed everything. The total shock however, felt both from the White House and McMurdo, came when the island completely disappeared from view. Over twenty five square miles of solid rock reaching hundreds of feet high was completely destroyed in less than a minute. It was as if the top of the island had been simply wiped way.
“Oh my god!” Kathryn Lokke gasped. It was so much bigger than any of them were expecting. Her hopes of stopping this thing, even with a counter tsunami, began to melt.
In the White House, President Carr’s face, as well as the others, went completely white.
The giant wave of destruction continued its relentless push north.
A blue dome covered The Settlement as the intercontinental ballistic missile approached Tristan at over 3,000 miles per hour. Its coordinates were exact. The missile dove and detonated less than 300 feet above the south end of the island. Even with the island’s peak blocking some of the impact, the entire sky turned bright white as the incredible force of the nuclear reaction was unleashed. Much of the rocky slope instantly turned to glass and the downward impact against the giant mountain caused the structure beneath the island to shift and then buckle altogether. A line formed and cut its way across the southern slope, breaking the glass and rock into millions of giant fragments and sending them upward in every direction. A deep rumbling followed shaking the entire island violently. Then in one giant motion, a third of the island slid away from the mountain and off its underwater base, plunging straight into the ocean. The energy released in the warhead was just a fraction of that which was released when the slide displaced an enormous mass of water and pushed it forward into a second giant wave.
The wave raced southward, almost instantly washing over the smaller islands of the archipelago and taking every bit of loose soil or life form with it.
Everyone watched as two waves of unimaginable power sped towards each other. It took less than ten minutes for them to cover the distance. When they reached each other, the impact was easily visible as the dark lines on the satellite suddenly turned white. The white line of impact became thick and began to grow wider and wider, becoming a mile wide, then five miles, then ten. The pressure pushed the water into the air forming a giant white wall which rippled out almost half way across the Atlantic. The wall of water grew taller and taller reaching nearly three hundred feet above the surface before it began to slow. The wall finally stopped and dropped back toward the ocean. When it hit the surface, a giant depression was formed which was quickly covered by the incoming surge from both directions. When both sides of the surge smashed into one another, the force created another smaller wall, which itself dropped down to make another depression and one last small and final surge.
From the satellite, they could see the thick line of water begin to disperse and return to its normal bluer color.
Everyone at McMurdo screamed and jumped up and down hugging each other. Kathryn stood motionless, feeling the energy drain from her body and at the same time her eyes filling up with tears. She couldn’t believe it. She simply could not believe it. It worked, it actually worked.
In Washington, the President fell back into his chair exhausted. The rest of the men clapped wildly and Stevas, still off to the side, clapped harder than anyone. They all stared at the monitor watching the water swirl and blend back in with the rest of the ocean. Carr covered his face with his hands and just shook his head. He had no words. No words at all.
45
Clay stepped out of the portal behind Palin and into a large blue room. He looked around and realized that they were standing in a large sphere surrounded by water. The portal blinked out behind them and the room darkened, allowing his eyes to adjust. He looked at the nearby wall and walked to it. The water appeared to somehow be part of the room. Incredulous, he turned and looked back at Palin who merely smiled. Clay reached out and touched the wall. His finger went straight through into the cold water on the other side. He drew his hand back and looked at his wet finger. He tasted it, saltwater.
He looked further through the water and could see the distorted shape of the ring, giant and still. He turned back to Palin. “This is the city. Your settlement.”
“Yes.”
“We were here before, right?” Clay asked, examining the room.
Palin made a humorous expression. “Yes, but we were unconscious then.”
Clay smiled and nodded his head. He looked through the wall on the other side and could see hundreds of similar spheres. Something caught his eye and he turned to see a moving object headed their way. It looked like a tunnel forming from another sphere to theirs. In the tunnel were several people all walking toward him and Palin.
The tunnel connected to their room and a small group entered, led by a woman dressed in a deep colored blue robe. On her head was a band with stones embedded in it. She walked smoothly toward him and stopped a few steps away.
“Hello Mr. Clay.” She said with a smile. “My name is Laana.” She reached out her hand and he took it gently.
“Laana.” He replied with a slight bow.
She continued to smile as she watched him. “I want to thank you,” she said. “You have helped us greatly. Without you, I’m afraid we would not have survived.”
“Well, with all due respect, I think I was also part of the problem.”
Her blue eyes softened at the edges. “I suppose so, but there were others. Yet in the end, you were our salvation. You returned Palin in time for us to protect ourselves and the ring. Without you, both rings would have been destroyed and neither of our people would have survived.”
He accepted the compliment. “It was my pleasure.”
A loud sound reverberated behind them and Clay turned around to see the ring slowly begin turning again.
“What now?” he asked.
She motioned to the others behind her. “Now we go home.” She answered his next question before he could ask it. “We have enough water now to maintain and grow again.” Behind her, Clay noticed some of the distant spheres begin to move. They seemed to detach from the rest and float inward toward the ring. Others also began to detach until dozens were following. Clay realized that she was still holding his hand. She gave it a warm squeeze. “We are thankful that Palin found a good man to trust.”
“I have questions,” he said. “A lot of them actually.”
She smiled. “I’m sure you do.”
“Why did you tell us everything?” He looked over her shoulder at Palin. “Why reveal everything to us so easily?”
Laana tilted her head. “Palin agreed to tell you. He was in your debt. You see, the man you allowed him to save aboard your vessel…was his son.”
Clay’s eyes widened. “I had no idea.”
She smiled. “Besides, we knew we could not remain undetected for long.”
Clay contemplated his next question. He was afraid of what she would say. He took a deep breath. “Is there-” he began when Laana held up her hand and stopped him.
“As for your other questions,” she said, “your people will need to discover the answers for themselves. It can be unwise for a race to gain knowledge too quickly.”
With that, she let his hand slip from hers and took a step back. The others behind her, in similar robes, all nodded to him and turned away smoothly. One by one they left as the tunnel reappeared and traveled back in the opposite direction.