“Okay, so what are we here to talk about?” Langford interrupted.
“Sir, most of the video was pointing up, but the segments of video pointing below the craft are why I asked Clay to get you guys on a call.” He hesitated a moment before continuing. “The camera on the Triton is an ultrahigh definition camera which records much more detail than what it transfers over its wireless connection, which is what we saw before. With this new data, we can more clearly see the ring. The physical characteristics are more advanced than we had previously believed; for example, the width is thicker than I thought, and I believe it is moving faster than what we had calculated.”
“And what does that change?” asked Langford.
“Well, those observations do not change much of our previous assumptions. If anything, they just tell us that the ring probably requires more power than we thought. But it’s the inside of the ring that changes things.”
“Inside the ring?”
“Yes sir,” Borger continued. “We can observe details within the ring’s interior, which gives us some inference; as in a direction.”
Clay spoke up. “What does that mean?”
“I believe the assertion on our video call the other day was that these…people are planning to bring something through the ring.”
Clay and Caesare looked at each other across the table. That was not their assertion, it was Stevas’ assertion. They were sure Langford was thinking the same thing when his voice came over the phone line. “That is correct”.
“Sir, I think we have this backwards. Instead of bringing something through, it…it looks like they may be sending something out.”
There was a long silence before Langford replied. “Alright, give me some time to wake everyone up.”
Secretary of Defense Miller, Chief of Staff Mason, and National Security Advisor Stevas appeared on the video screen within thirty minutes. A few moments later, a video feed from a Pentagon war room with the four Joint Chiefs appeared. In the bottom right hand corner were Langford and Borger’s video windows which were already online along with Clay and Caesare, they were broadcasting from the NAS JAX conference room. Professors Harding and Wong appeared just as Langford began speaking.
“Gentlemen, we have some news, an update from the information recovered from the Triton submersible. Data which has been verified by both Mr. Borger as well as Professor Harding and his team at MIT. The video taken below the surface is very clear and has given us new information about the ring.” He broke just for a moment, “We may have a larger problem on our hands.”
“Larger than a global invasion?” Stevas asked sarcastically.
“I’ll let you decide,” Langford replied. “I will turn this over to Mr. Borger in a moment to speak to the details, but the bottom line is that it looks like we had the direction of the portal backwards. The issue is not about what the ring is bringing in. It’s about what it is sending out.”
“Sending out?” Miller’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean out?”
“We think this is a one way tunnel,” said Borger. “And the direction is clearly outbound, not inbound.”
Miller looked at Mason and Stevas sitting next to him and turned back to the screen. “And what exactly is that?”
“Water,” replied Borger. “It appears to be water.”
“Excuse me?”
Borger took a deep breath. “The camera on the submersible is very high quality and I am confident in what it shows, which is a massive inflow of water into the ring.” Borger considered his words before speaking the next line. “I think the dolphins were right, it’s about the water, as in taking our water.”
For a split second, Clay thought the live video feeds had malfunctioned as everyone appeared to be frozen. But when Stevas leaned forward he realized there was nothing wrong with their video transmissions, everyone had simply had the same reaction.
“Are you telling us that the purpose of this ring is in fact, to steal our water?”
Borger carefully considered Stevas’ question. “Well, there is still a lot more we do not know…but it definitely looks like the direction of the portal is one way.”
“Mr. Harding,” Miller said, “is this your assessment as well?”
Harding nodded into his camera. “I’m afraid so.”
“Is there any possibility that we are wrong?”
“Yes it is possible. As I said, there is still much we don’t know. But what we know so far, and have been able to verify…we are pretty sure of.” The screen was suddenly filled with a high definition video picture of the ring being shared from Borger’s computer. He played it in slow motion as he explained. “A strong current of water, even within the ocean creates a visual distortion which can be measured. We can then make some calculations on this distortion.” Borger then highlighted several areas within the video picture with red circles. “There are other indicators as well such as the movement patterns of the surrounding plant life and sediment, and the direction of flow within the ring. There are more subtle optical cues as well, all of which are measurable with a relatively high degree of accuracy.”
“How much water are we talking about?” Miller asked.
“We’re not sure. Professor Harding and his team are working on that, but our preliminary estimate… is a hell of a lot.”
“This just gets better and better,” Miller said shaking his head. “And we don’t know where this is going?”
Borger frowned. “Probably off planet.”
Miller was still shaking his head. “And if we are losing a ‘hell of a lot of water’ why didn’t anyone notice this out of the tens of thousands of scientists around the world, except for a couple of dolphins?”
No one answered.
Miller looked directly across his table and stared at Stevas. “Or maybe someone did notice.”
Stevas stared back but said nothing.
“Okay,” Miller said turning back to everyone on screen. “Mr. Mason will wake the President and Vice President.” He looked at his watch. “Everyone meet at JAX.” Miller looked again at Stevas. “Looks like you were right, Clay. Now before you start gloating, go find Keister.”
30
Kathryn sat on the ground, her knees raised to her chest with her head between them. The large handheld radio lay on its side in the ice next to her, silent. Tadri sat next to her with an arm wrapped around. Kathryn raised her head just long enough to wipe more tears away. She was devastated. Pierre was gone. Andrew searched for over an hour but could find no trace of him, sight nor sound. Judging from the depth of the chasm, now he was likely buried beneath twenty feet of ice if not more.
Even worse was the news from the other teams. Upon Andrew’s return they found that six others had fallen in and been lost as well. Just as he had said, all of the other guides went down after them but only two were brought back up alive. Three bodies were recovered, but four could not be found, including Pierre.
It could not have been worse, Kathryn thought to herself. It was all her fault. Seven people were dead because of her. She brought them all, practically forced them to come, and for what? All so she could show those bastards in Washington!
Andrew finished tying their gear to the snowmobiles and walked over to her and Tadri. “We’re ready.”