Battle For Atlantis Page 15

  The night of the 20th was an uneasy one for the more experienced men in the camp but it passed without incident.

  Already having split his force into three columns, Chelmsford compounded things early on the morning of January 21 by splitting up the center column. He sent mounted troops and sixteen companies of militia under Major Darnell of the Natal Mounted Police to scout to the southeast, searching for the Zulu. His orders were to return before darkness.

  Chelmsford himself stayed in camp, spending most of the day in his tent. In the afternoon, he rode out north, to the Nqutu escarpment. Where he saw Zulu for the first time--a half dozen warriors who immediately fled. As he rode back to camp, Chelmsford was met by a messenger from Darnell who reported encountering a large force of Zulus, somewhere between five hundred and a thousand warriors, about ten miles from camp.

  Most disturbing to Chelmsford was the addendum to the report in which Darnell stated that he was bivouacking for the night in place and requesting reinforcements. Irritated that Darnell had failed to comply to the letter of his orders. Chelmsford denied the request for reinforcements.

  That night’s sleep was Dot as restful for the commander of British Forces. He was awoken at 0130 in the morning by another messenger from Darnell. The messenger, who had left Darnell while it was still light out, had had difficulty finding his way back to the main encampment, thus the late arrival.

  The message reported that the Zulu force in front of Darnell had been reinforced and now numbered well over two thousand warriors and once more requested reinforcements.

  Chelmsford was now in a bit of dilemma. Darnell’s contingent was too small to engage the Zulu force. Yet it was large enough to be an attractive target for the Zulus to attack. Chelmsford also had his doubts about the militia element supporting Darnell and their ability to fight. On the other hand, he figured that if Darnell was in serious trouble, he would have withdrawn by now, many hours after the original message had been written.

  Tired and irritated, Chelmsford made a fateful decision in the darkness. He decided to send a relief column to Darnell. And he decided to lead it himself. So for the third time, Chelmsford was dividing his column. He split the Twenty-fourth Regiment, ordering half to come with him in the relief and half to remain at Isandlwana on the defensive. He also sent an order for more troops to come up from Rorke’s Drift to aid in the defense at Isandlwana.

  As the orders were issued, the camp at Isandlwana came to life in the middle of the night. Cursing soldiers geared up, wondering why their sleep had been interrupted. They fell in line, and Chelmsford led them out of the camp toward Darnell.

  **********

  From the Nqutu escarpment, Shakan and Cetewayo could see the activity in the British camp. Cetewayo was confused by the actions of his enemy, as they seemed to make little sense. Why had the British general sent a reconnaissance into the open ground to the east when the most dangerous terrain lay exactly where Cetewayo was, to the north? Did the general have a secret plan?

  “He is being foolish,” Shakan said, as if reading his thoughts.

  “No one is that stupid,” Cetewayo argued. He had been told that the British were fierce warriors, with an empire that stretched far and wide.

  “You can see it with your own eyes,” Shakan said.

  Cetewayo knew of Darnell’s patrol. It had run into the left horn of his formation. Since the days of Shaka, the Zulu had adopted the bull as the format for their attack. Two horns that attack on either flank and a massive center on which the enemy would be broken. There were variations to the actual tactics--sometimes the center would · be weak and pretend to break, drawing the enemy fooled weak and pretend to break, drawing the enemy foolishly forward to be swallowed by the horns; sometimes the center would be the only force that attacked while the horns kept the enemy fixed in place for eventual destruction. Cetewayo had not yet determined exactly how he would assault the British because the enemy general was acting in such an erratic and uncertain manner that Cetewayo could not predict the possible next movements.

  “You must wait another night,” Shakan said.

  “Why?”

  “The voice has told me when it should happen.”

  Cetewayo grimaced. His men were deployed. The left horn had already been discovered by the enemy. His right horn was to the west, on the Nqutu escarpment. And the center, the bulk of his forces, over twenty thousand warriors strong, was just to the north, hidden in a valley. Keeping many warriors in place for another twenty-four hours was going to be difficult even given the Zulu’s excellent discipline. Plus, he was not sure what the British had planned.

  “I will give you one day,” Cetewayo reluctantly agreed, “but only because you have been correct so far in your visions.”

  He walked away in the darkness to rejoin his warriors. Alone on the escarpment Shakan pulled her cloak tighter around her body. The voice had told her the day it was to happen. And it had told her that someone was to come to her. Someone she was to help. But who? And where were they?

  And what was going to happen on top of Isandlwana? Even this far away from the hill she felt the foreboding evil growing there.

  **********

  Down to just one company of infantry, Lieutenants Bromhead and Chard were not happy with things at Rorke’s Drift. They’d built up the compound’s defenses as best they could, using bags of millet to form walls connecting the two buildings.

  Now they waited completely unaware of what was beginning to develop less than ten miles away.

  EARTH TIMELINE--III

  Antarctica, July 2018

  “We have a second message,” Eddings informed Chamberlain.

  They were in his office, set high in the wall of the large chamber two hundred feet below the surface of Antarctica. From the windows along one wall, he could look out into the chamber that housed the bulk of his Battalion. At the current level of alert status, every man and woman was present, minus those in the infirmary.

  Eddings turned to the map tacked to the other wall. It displayed the current world’s surface, a much different view from one a hundred years ago. She tapped a spot on the North American coast.

  “We’re to move here.”

  Chamberlain walked over. He knew the spot. New York. Where one of the gates had been during the Shadow War.

  “Has a gate opened?”

  “Not yet,” Eddings said. “But the Oracles assume that if we got a message for you to move your troops there that one will.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  EARTH TIME LINE--THE PRESENT

  Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, CA

  Dane had said quick farewells to both Earhart and Ahana as they departed onboard military transport to fly back to the Devil’s Sea Gate. Then he had gone back into the Dream Land compound to prepare for his second trip into the psychometric plane.

  As the tank was being readied, Dane pulled Talbot aside. “I’ve got some questions for you.”

  “What?”

  “Where exactly am I when I go over to the psychometric plane?”

  Talbot frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Dane pointed at the tube. “My body is there. And my mind. But my thoughts, obviously, are elsewhere. But are those thoughts being generated inside my mind, or is some part of me, some essence, actually traveling?”

  Talbot nodded, understanding what Dane was trying to ask.

  “To be honest with you, we don’t really know. Going Over to the psychometric plane via Dream Land is transcending to a level that we don’t know much about. To be frank, the closest experiences recorded that are similar to it are from people who have near death experiences.”

  “The long tunnel leading to the light?” Dane asked.

  “Sort of. Floating above one’s body, looking down on it. No one really knows what those are either. If you think we don’t know much about physics, we know even less about how our mind works, which is a bizarre paradox if you think about it. We’re trying to understand some
thing that we have to use in order to understand it.

  “We’ve had some RVers panic. Even with the screening, we do beforehand. A couple of people have gone over and then become afraid they were never coming back to their bodies. We had to pull them out right away as their bodies began to respond negatively, despite all our attempts at control via the tubes.”

  “I don’t think it takes place all in my head,” Dane said. “First, I meet the dolphin.”

  “Trina, this time,” Talbot said. “Rachel’s sister.”

  “Okay. First, I meet Trina. Second, I go places I’ve never been. So either I’m going or someone or something is transmitting those images into my brain.”

  Talbot waited as Dane struggled with what he was trying to get to. “I’m getting ready to try to recon the Shadow’s timeline,” Dane said. “So I have to go there. Since the Ones Before don’t even know where their base is. So wouldn’t that prove that in some manner, I--my essence--is traveling out of my body.”

  Talbot shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “My point,” Dane said, “is what happens if something goes wrong with that essence? Do I die?”

  “Your body will still be here and alive,” Talbot said. ‘’The Structure of the brain will still be intact, so there’s no reason to believe you’d be really harmed if something happens when you are on the other side.”

  Dane didn’t buy it. ‘’There’s got to be something that makes us conscious. That makes us human. A core to our selves. The soul you might call it. And that’s what’s going out there. And if it doesn’t come back, I don’t care if you have my body in that tube, I don’t think there’s going to be anybody home.”

  **********

  Going under was as difficult, if not worse, the second time around. Part of the problem was he knew what to expect this time, especially in regard to the breathing tube and solution. Dane had always found that anticipating bad things did not lessen their effect for him.

  He bore up through the process and soon was once more in the ocean, swimming with the dolphin, whose name he had learned was Trina, Rachel’s sister. This part of the experience, at least, was pleasurable as he felt the warm water sliding against his skin as they coursed through the water. He could also pick up a strong sense of intelligence from Trina and a sense of inquisitiveness. He realized that while she had helped him go to the Ones Before, she did not know what he had learned there.

  Dane turned to Trina and focused his thoughts.

  The Shadow.

  With a flick of her tail. Trina backed up several feet, opening the gap between them.

  The Shadow.

  The fear coming off the dolphin was overwhelming. Dane noticed that the sun was no longer shining above and the water had grown cold--even just the mention of the Shadow was changing The environment their minds had constructed for the worse.

  Danger.

  The single emotion resonated from Trina through Dane’s head.

  Danger.

  In response he projected reassurance as best he could but it was futile effort. Finally he gave up on that, realizing that if he were on the other side of this, in Trina’s position, he wouldn’t be buying the reassurance angle either. He wasn’t too keen to try to go to the Shadow’s timeline either.

  He projected the images he had of the Ones Before and that finally seemed to have a slightly calming effect on Trina. Dane had no idea how much time was passing or if any time at all was passing.

  The Shadow.

  Dane’s world suddenly went dark and he lost all sensation. It was different from what he had experienced initially in the isolation tube though, because he felt like his essence was being squeezed down into a tiny space. And moved. He began to get a sensation of movement.

  Then he was in a tube, but without form. Just a dot, being moved along. Not in water. But in space. A golden tube that twisted and turned as he was borne along by some strange power through it.

  The tube actually felt familiar, and it took Dane a little while to come to the shocking realization that he was inside one of the strands of the sphere map. No. That wasn’t right, he knew as soon as he had the thought. He was actually inside a portal line, the real thing.

  And then he was slowing, the golden walls not flashing by as quickly. A bad feeling began to overwhelm him. He came to a halt in the tube. The wall opposite him was flickering, with blue mixed in with gold. Whatever the wall was made of was actually pulsing.

  Dane remained still for a while, Dot sure if he was supposed to do something or if the force that had been propelling him would take another action. He knew that force was Trina, as he could feel a strong connection with the dolphin even though she was nowhere in sight.

  Nothing. Except Dane realizing the bad feeling was rising and falling in rhythm with the pulsing of the wall in front of him.

  I He had thought the small golden sphere just a map, but he was beginning to realize that perhaps it was a literal representation on a small scale of what the portals actually were. And he now knew what was on the other side of the wall in front of him--another portal strand. But one that led to the Shadow world.

  This was the way in. Slipping from one portal strand to another, avoiding going through the Space Between. And it could only be done by him. Here. Now.

  Dane moved forward. When his essence touched the wall, he recoiled from the sheer evilness that hit him. There was no doubt he was next to the Shadow portal. It · was the same feeling he’d experienced before when entering a gate the Shadow used, except magnified. This had to lead to their timeline. And he was beyond whatever blocks they’d put in to keep invaders out.

  Dane pressed forward. The wall of the portal he was in seemed to wrap around him, smothering. He had to force himself to accept that his body was back at Dream Land and this was just a thought he was experiencing. It worked. Partially. He was completely wrapped in flickering gold.

  Then he was through, into another portal. A wide one, so large he could barely see the other side. As he floated there a large black sphere rushed by--one of the Shadow’s crafts. Coming or going? Dane wondered.

  Coming, he knew in an instant simply by turning in the direction of the stronger evil sensation. Dane rushed after the sphere. Without form he had no clue how he was moving, he just was.

  And the link to Trina was gone. Dane missed her as he · moved forward. He’d been a loner all his life and the connection with her, even though she was another species, was stronger than most of the bonds he’d had in his life. There had been his Special Forces team; his dog, Chelsea; and Sin Fen.

  Concentrate, Dane reminded himself.

  There was something red ahead, silhouetting the massive black sphere. Dane paused as the image was disturbed, as if the sphere were the pupil of a large evil eye. Then the sphere was gone, and all he saw was a large red circle.

  Dane came out of the portal through a gate into Timeline I.

  The Space Between

  “Are you ready?” Earhart asked Ahana. They were in the Space Between having traveled there from the FLIP via submersible. Now they were on top of the submersible, looking at the two Valkyrie suits they’d brought with them to use. The suits were split wide open, an invitation for them to enter, but neither felt particularly anxious to do so. Rachel splashed water with her tail, soaking both women.

  “Take it easy,” Earhart muttered.

  “How do we know--” Ahana began, but Earhart cut her off.

  “We follow Rachel,” Earhart said. “This is so far beyond us.” She shook her head. “We’re pieces on the board being moved. We just have to do our part.”

  “I’m not really sure what my part is,” Ahana said.

  “You’ll figure it out.” Earhart lifted a large plastic case in which the nine depleted crystal skulls were set.

  Ahana had her own plastic case, which she had packed on board the FLIP. It contained an array of sensors along with her laptop. Since she wasn’t sure exactly how she was supposed to find the back door or even what
timeline she would be going to or time.

  “At least you know when you’re going to.” Ahana said.

  “Right in the middle of a battle,” Earhart said. “The largest battle ever fought on American soil.” She’d brushed up on her knowledge of the climactic battle of Gettysburg on the flight to the FLIP. “You’ve got to be going somewhere better than that.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  EARTH TIME LINE--VIII

  Pennsylvania, 2 July 1863

  “It is like a great fishhook,” Meade said, as he looked at the map of the terrain his senior engineer had just finished sketching.

  Meade had arrived at Gettysburg in the dark, around 3:30 A.M., and had immediately been briefed by the senior generals who had fought the previous day’s battle. He had already decided on the trip up to hold in place, regardless of terrain. At the very least he was between Lee and Washington, and he planned on keeping it that way. He’d issued orders from the saddle, directing every unit under his command to converge on Gettysburg with all possible haste.

  Then, as it began to grow light, he’d ridden the length of the Union line with his generals and senior engineer, getting a feel for the land. At the very south. Beyond the Union left flank were a pair of hills, Little and Big Round Top. Both were currently unoccupied by either Union or Rebel troops. They would be the eye of the large fishhook. Then Cemetery Ridge extended for two miles north, the shank, Cemetery Hill was the curve in the hook and Culp’s Hill on the Union right was the barb. The actual town of Gettysburg lay just to the north and west and was currently occupied by the Confederates.

  Meade felt a thrill of excitement from the morning ride. It was a good place to defend. He had the high ground with good fields of fire toward the Rebels. He also had short lines of communication given that his flanks curved back. That meant he could resupply his army with relative ease and also move reinforcements quickly.