Dane stirred. “The Shadow will come at us in a new way. We were lucky the first two times. They used our satellites against us the first time and our own nuclear weapons off the Wyoming the second. I think it’s obvious the Shadow learns from its mistakes.”
Ariana Michelet leaned forward. “The Shadow knows how to cause mass destruction. The loss of Iceland proves that. It used the juncture of two tectonic plates in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and gave the forces there a nudge, and look what happened.”
“I just checked, and Professor Nagoya in Japan has picked up muonic transmissions indicating the Shadow is probing out the Devil’s Sea gate off the coast of his country and measuring the Ring of Fire that surrounds the Pacific Rim. If they can do there what they did in Iceland, then half the world could be destroyed. I think Iceland was just a test.”
“The Shadow destroyed Atlantis over ten thousand years ago,” Dane said, “So we know they have the capability to do more than they did in Iceland.”
“We don’t even know what these gates are,” Ariana noted.
“Foreman answered, “They could be a door to another dimension in our own world; one that we have not been able to access yet but that coexists with the world we know. Or they could be a gateway to an alternate universe. Or they could be an attempt by an alien culture to open an interstellar gateway from their planet to ours.”
“The Russians had a theory,” Foreman continues. “In 1964 three of their scientist with backgrounds in electronic, history, and engineering published a paper in Khimiyai Zhizn; the journal of the old Soviet Academy of Sciences, titled “Is the Earth a Large Crystal?” Their theory was that a matrix of cosmic energy was built into our planet when it was formed, and these gates are at key junctures of this matrix. They divided the world into twelve pentagonal slabs. On top of those slabs they drew twenty equilateral triangles. Using this overlay, they pointed out that these lines along the edges of the triangles have had a great influence on the world in many ways: fault lines for earthquakes lie along them: magnetic anomalies exist; ancient civilizations tended to be clustered along some of them.
“The places where the triangles met they labeled Vile Vortices, which also happen to be where most of our gates are located, so they were onto something, even if some of their logic was off. They put together a mathematical formula to explain the fluctuation of the Vile Vortices based on a crystalline structure.
“I initially dismissed that theory,” Ariana said, “because the lithosphere, the upper level of our planet, has been moving for millions of years. Thus a crystal formation would not be consistent in location, but perhaps this formation is deeper than the lithosphere.
“Maybe they weren’t so far off,” Ariana continued. She turned to Dane. “When Sin Fen transformed, her head changed into a crystal to channel the energy of the pyramid?”
Dane nodded. The memory of what happened to Sin Fen on top of the underwater pyramid near the Bermuda Triangle gate was something he would never forget.
“I also did some research and found out that this isn’t the first time crystal skulls have been seen. Apparently it is quite a popular subject among New Age enthusiasts and several skulls have been found in different places.”
“Where?” Dane asked.
“South America, Russia, other places. It’s hard to pin down because most of the skulls are in private hands, and there is also quite a variety of skulls out there.”
Dane considered that. “Were they found near pyramids?”
“I don’t know,” Ariana said.
“The only thing that has worked against the gates is this ancient weapon, combining a person like Sin Fen with the pyramid and Naga staff, “Dane said. “ I think we need to track down these crystal skulls. Try to find where they came from.”
“That’s a good idea,” Ariana agreed.
“The ancient people had help fighting the Shadow,” Dane said. “We saw that by what just happened in the Bermuda Triangle gate. Whatever that temple was, I don’t think it was human technology that designed it. We should send someone to check the pyramid where Sin Fen and I were. And we need to get in contact with these Ones Before. I believe that the enemy of our enemy is our friend. My teammate Sergeant Flaherty told me that also.”
“Your teammate who disappeared over thirty years ago,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs noted, “and who reappeared to you not looking any older in Cambodia. Right.”
“I can’t explain it,” Dane said. “All I can do is tell you what happened. You saw the Scorpion and its crew. The same thing. Disappeared for decades and reappeared with everyone looking exactly the same as the day they were lost.”
“And then destroying the sub pens at Croton,” the Chairman noted. “so why should we believe your friend Flaherty?”
Dane spread his hands. “Then believe what you want. It doesn’t get us any closer to solving our problem.”
“How do we get in contact with the Ones Before?” the secretary of defense asked.
“We go into a gate,” Dane said.
“That hasn’t been very healthy,” Ariana noted.
“That’s because we only entered gates when the Shadow opened them,” Foreman noted. “And we’ve only been able to go to the part of the gate that’s on our planet, where the Shadow has extended its influence. What we have to do is go through the gate into the Shadow’s world.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Dane asked.
“Professor Nagoya is working on that. It appears that there are two phases to a gate. The fog and blackness that comes into our planet is sort of the foyer they project into our world. But somewhere inside that gate is a smaller area, which is the actual doorway to the Shadow’s side, which Nagoya calls a portal.” Foreman checked his watch. “In fact, the first phase of Nagoya’s operation is about to commence. Dr. Nagoya has discovered some muonic traces that indicate there may be another ‘graveyard’ like one you found in the Caribbean. He’s detected a larger chamber in the deepest part of the ocean — the Challenger Deep. We’ve sent a specially rigged submersible to check it out.”
“What’s that got to do with the next phase?” Dane asked.
“We want to see if there is any reaction to the submersible from the Devil’s Sea gate, which isn’t far from there,” Foreman said. “If we get activity, Nagoya can use the data he picks up to check this theory and try to pin-point in the Devil’s Sea gate.
Mount Everest could be dropped in the Challenger Deep with six thousand feet of water still between its peak and the surface. It was the deepest point on the surface of the planet, the lowest spot in the Marianas Trench, which swept in a fifteen-hundred-mile arc from just below Iwo Jima to south of Guam. It was due south of the Devil’s Sea gate, an area off the coast of Japan where mysterious disappearances of planes and boats had been recorded throughout history.
For the two members of the crew of Deepflight III, the opportunity to dive into the Challenger Deep was the equivalent of a climber given the opportunity to go up Everest. The major difference was the somber tone to the preparations as the craft was lowered over the side of its tender ship the USS Roger Reveille.
Deepflight III was a radical departure from previous submersibles. It looked more like an airplane than a submarine. The crew compartment was a titanium sphere in the center. Wings with controllable flaps extended from each side. Forward of the sphere was a specially designed beak that reduced drag when the submersible was moving forward. In the rear were two vertical fins right behind the dual propeller system.