“Take Linde and his bubbles of spacetime foam,” Nagoya didn’t even seem to be aware Ahana was listening. “He says we are in one of those bubbles. That each bubble has its own physical laws, randomly selected from an infinite set. So perhaps these gates are where another bubble touches ours? And the quantum physics in that bubble is ruled by very different laws. So different that even time is different?
“Hawking, on the other hand, says there is only one set of physical laws. That time is an arrow, the direction of which coincides with thermodynamic law. But it is a theory that is incomplete, that does not explain data we have in our hands- data we have picked up in this very chamber.
“Then throw into this mixture the development of intelligent life. Not just us, but now we know there is other intelligent life, on the other side of the gates. Tipler postulated intelligence developing to de Chardin’s Omega Point. Where all life that existed will be contained in intelligent information processing. That would require different pockets of intelligent life to interact, even if in a destructive way, because ultimately it would not be destructive at the Omega Point.”
Nagoya shook his head. “But that is far beyond us right now and a case for the philosopher. What concerns us is the make-up of the gates. And if the gates have their own physical laws, different from our own, then means we must abandon our own rationality. We must abandon the linear thinking we hold so dear.” Nagoya raised his voice so everyone in the operations center could hear him. “Iceland has been destroyed. A quarter million people dead. Please remember that our own country lies next to a fault even more fragile than the fault that just consumed Iceland. We will be next.
“I want you to reexamine all the data we have. I want you to make time a variable, not a constant. Throw all the rules out. Turns things backwards, sideways, upside down. Any way you can imagine, no matter how strange. We need answers about what the gates are and then we have to figure out how to shut those gates. Let’s get to work!”
“Range one thousand meters and closing,” Captain Stanton’s voice was tight. “It’s dark. Not fog- the edge approaching is too straight, moving too methodically.”
Ariana could see the same thing underwater- a straight line on the sonar coming steadily toward Deeplab: the edge of the Bermuda Triangle gate.
“Five hundred meters.”
“Recommend we shut down all systems now,” Ariana said.
“We’re going to drift,” Stanton repeated his protest to that plan of action. “If Deepflight can’t use its equipment, it won’t be able to find us.”
“There’ll be nothing to find if we don’t shut down,” Ariana said.
“I back her plan,” Foreman’s voice was filled with static, the gate already affecting satellite communications with the Glomar.
“Three hundred meters,” Stanton said. “I’m going to keep this line open to Deeplab. It’s a passive system.”
“All right,” Ariana said, “but let’s shut down. Now!”
“Roger that,” Stanton said. “Shutting down.”
Ariana began turning off the habitat’s systems for the second time, this time with a little more care. She left the emergency battery-powered lights on and the link to the surface.
Soon she was sitting in a dim red glow. “One hundred meters,” Stanton’s voice broke the silence.
“Fifty. I don’t like this at all,” Stanton said. “I can sense something. This is not good.”
Ariana could feel the same thing- an overwhelming sense of dread, like a heavy wool blanket draped over her body and mind. She had the feeling of being trapped, exacerbated by being inside the small sphere of Deeplab’s communication center.
“Can’t see more than twenty meters,” Stanton said. “I can’t see the top of the derrick. We’ve got no communications with the outside world any more. You’re going to get some oscillation as we’ve shut down the dampener. The sea’s mild though- almost dead. So that’s-” there was a crackle of static, then in the background, Ariana could hear a scream of sheer terror. Then several more as the first one was abruptly cut off.
“It’s coming from the pool,” Stanton said. He barked out orders to other men on the bridge, then came back on the intercom. “We can’t see a damn thing.”
A new scream, one that Ariana knew couldn’t have come from a human mouth echoed out of the intercom.
“Sweet Jesus,” Stanton was leaving the mike open. “What the hell is that? It’s in the air, port side. I can’t see it, but that’s where the noise is coming from.”
The scream came again.
“It’s closer.” There were more human yells of fear and pain in the background. “I’m getting reports from the pool. Something’s coming out of the water. Giant squid. Something like that. But-” there was a statacco noise, then the inhuman scream.
“Oh, God. I can see it. Hovering in the air. White face. Red eyes. Long hair. Robes. It’s some kind of demon. Just watching.”
There was a burst of an automatic weapon firing.
“I can see one now. It’s climbing out of the pool, just forward of the derrick. God, it’s awful. Red body. A dozen arms at least. It’s big. Sixty feet long. There’s another. Another. There’re dozens of them. They’re coming over the side of the ship.
“And that thing. It’s just watching. It’s-” the sound of glass shattering blanked out whatever Stanton was saying. “They’re here! They’re here!”
The intercom went dead.
Ariana sat perfectly still, as if by moving she could bring down whatever had taken over the Glomar three miles above head. Only her eyes moved, shifting around to the walls that surrounded her, that suddenly didn’t feel very thick or secure at all.
Chapter 26
Eleven men were gone. Some of the warriors whom Ragnarok had known since they were boys playing at war with wooden swords. He felt Hrolf’s eyes upon him as he made his mental roll call. The old warrior was slumped against the tiller, as Askell the Healer sowed up a jagged cut on the side of his face where one of the tentacle mouths had slashed home. Ragnarok coiled the rope that had connected to the ship and put it back in place at the base of the mast.
Tam Nok was in the bow, mesmerized by the temple that dominated the view in that direction. Ragnarok found the temple impressive but not enough to distract him from the state of his crew and ship. Half the remaining men were wounded, and Ragnarok could sense the shock brought on by the dual assault from the Valkyries and kraken, followed by transit through the black circle to their present strange location.
“The sun is wrong,” Bjarni had his hands on the tiller even though they weren’t moving. He had not moved through it all, standing fast at his duty place.
Ragnarok squinted at the sky. He realized what the helmsman meant- the sun was higher in the sky than he had ever seen, even at the summer solstice.
“We are far south,” Bjarni said. “I have never been this far south.”
“Where are we?” Ragnarok asked Tam Nok.
The Khmer priestess was startled, broken out of her semi-trance. “This is- this is here. The place we have been searching for.”
“Where is the weapon?” Ragnarok demanded.
Tam Nok nodded toward shore. “We must land.”
“The weapon,” Ragnarok repeated.
Tam Nok held up the staff with one hand, the amulet around her neck with the other. “These- and the map- they are the pieces of the weapon.” She pointed with the staff toward the top of the pyramid. “They go there.” The staff moved, pointing now to the north. “See? The Shadow comes closer.”