| I only hope I was in time, Inquirer thinks, as she climbs down
from the statue. The pulsing of the sapphire seems strong and regular,
which must be a good sign, but I won't know for sure until I can attach
the gem to an avatar. Meanwhile, since Zerm has conveniently caused us
to come to Atlantis, there is something I need to do. I don't know just
how long we've got, but now we have no further need for the Crystallics
- once we've got Malachi Dronocis to use hers to transport everyone out
of here - the sooner we can shut down the slipgate system the better.
(Inquirer has been given a key role in the shutting down of the slipgates
because the plan they have come up with involves an item of Alliance technology,
and though it is a very simple item none of the others feels altogether
confident in using it, given how very important it is that it should be
operated correctly.)
Carefully checking for possible traps, disabling those they feel confident
they understand and dodging the more mysterious ones, the mages enter the
nearby pyramid and find the throne room that Zerm had moved into a few
days ago. There they find four beautiful yet athletic young women with
jet-black hair, in various poses but completely motionless. They do not
appear to be breathing, and their skin feels cool to the touch. As befits
statues (albeit living ones), they wear little or nothing. They could almost
pass for identical quadruplets, apart from some differences in hair styles
and the fact that one of them is several inches taller than the others.
She is probably from Astra 5's world or at least a close analog of it.
Fortunately the battle has been brief enough that the mages still have
sufficient energy left that they can use their Crystallics to nullify Zerm's
stasis spell. (Theoretically this could have been done with "conventional"
magic, but none of the mages feels confident of unravelling a spell cast
by one as powerful as Zerm.) At the same time they cast a spell that will
keep the Helenas asleep for several hours, for they have no time to spare
to answer all the questions that the four women will inevitably have when
they awake. They then use their Crystallics to clothe them and send them
to the Regent's palace.
More than one of the mages wonder briefly how well the Helenas will
manage to adapt. Their loved ones and friends will be long dead, and they
will be awakened in a world that has changed a lot over the last eighty-five
years. (Imagine someone from 1914 waking up in 1999.) A very large proportion
of those changes have occurred in the last few months, of course. Even
the clothes they have been dressed in are likely to seem strange to them.
So, after all, it was science rather than magic that was decisive,
Malachi D'Honaire muses. The Crystallics were important in a defensive
role, but no-one managed to get a real blow in on Zerm with one. Zerm may
well have chosen to come to Atlantis with the idea of preventing the Alliance's
long-range weapons being used, but in the end one of their short-range
weapons got him. (Using a nuke was out anyway, given the risk to innocent
people, not to mention the likelihood of making the slipgate collapse occur
immediately. But even conventional missiles couldn't have been used without
destroying the protective dome over Atlantis, which would have put paid
to any hope of a controlled shut-down of the slipgate system.)
If Probe and Astra 2 are all right - and the omens look good - then
our only casualties were the Oriental dragons. That is a grievous loss,
but it is far better than I had feared, especially when we failed to catch
Zerm totally by surprise.
Astra 2 groans. She has a splitting headache, and when she takes a deep
breath realises that she probably has a couple of broken ribs as well.
But
at least if I hurt then I must be alive, she thinks. And if I'm
alive, then we must have won. Pity I didn't even get a blow in at the bastard,
though. I wonder who got him in the end. I hope we didn't take too many
casualties. It was frightening to see the Oriental dragons destroyed so
quickly. And I hope the Helenas are all right.
She opens her eyes, and sees to her surprise that she is in her own
bed. They didn't waste any time in sending me home, then. Though I suppose
that for all I know I may have been out for days. A fat lot of good the
Flamebane mail did me. I suppose it must have been destroyed. A pity -
I was hoping I might be able to keep it after the battle. I wonder if there's
any chance that one of the mages will be rested enough and have time enough
to heal me whilst the Crystallics still work - assuming the slipgates haven't
been closed down already. Though I suppose an ordinary spell might be sufficient
if I have nothing worse than broken ribs.
Then her gaze swings round, and she sees Fred 2 sitting by the foot
of the bed. "Good, you're awake. How are you feeling?" he asks her. "Hurting
in various places, but happy to be alive." "You came round briefly before
you were shipped out from Atlantis, but you were concussed and probably
don't remember that. We feared at first that you might have had a fractured
skull, but fortunately that wasn't the case." "We Thessamars have hard
skulls," Astra says, managing a grin. "When I was eight I fell eight feet
out of a tree I was climbing, and landed on my head with no ill effects.
So, what happened after I lost consciousness?"
Fred gives Astra a quick summary of events. One thing staggers her.
"Probe did that for me?" she asks. "Well, not just for you,"
replies Fred. "After all, the aim was to kill Zerm at almost any cost.
But whether Probe would have done what he did if you hadn't been in extreme
danger, I don't know. Hopefully you will have the chance to ask him that
yourself before too long, if Inquirer's idea has worked." "I do hope so,"
says Astra. "I want to thank him. And if by any mischance he has perished,
I shall always feel guilty that I was the cause." "There's no need for
that," Fred points out. "Nobody could have predicted that the Flamebane
mail would prove so ineffective."
Inquirer makes her way to the slipgate nexus, not too far from where
the battle with Zerm had taken place not long before, using the map she
has been provided with. She checks for one last time that everyone else
has left Atlantis, teleported out by Malachi Dronocis's Crystallic. She
places her Crystallic on the floor, and next to it places a CD player attached
to a timer. The timer is set for a delay of twenty minutes just in case
of any unforeseen complications - such as discovering that there is someone
who hasn't been pulled out yet after all. She starts the timer, then contacts
Malachi and says: "OK, the count-down has started. You can pull me out
now."
Astra 3's babies suddenly begin to cry in unison for no apparent reason.
She gets out of her chair to comfort them, and notices something odd. She
feels very heavy, like the feeling she remembers getting after a swim when
she pulls herself out of the water. It isn't her enlarged breasts; she
has long ago become accustomed to the extra fifteen pounds or so that they
represent. She looks over at the device called a gravitometer that she
and other leaders have been provided with by Probe and Inquirer. The normal
reading is 1.0 but it now shows 1.4. As she watches it jumps to 1.5 and
she feels noticeably heavier still. It is a tribute to the design of her
bra that it takes the strain. Then the reading plummets to 0.8, and the
contrast is such that she almost feels like she is floating.
The Alliance fleet is already in a much higher orbit than the geostationary
one it would ordinarily adopt, as a precaution against just such gravitational
fluctuations occurring. Now warning sirens go off, and the ships put on
full thrust away from Terra, both because maintaining a stable orbit would
be impossible in these conditions and because if the worst should happen,
and Terra either explodes or becomes a black hole, they want to be as far
away as possible. They will return if and when their sensors tell them
that normality has been restored.
Fortunately the dome that the Alliance constructed over Atlantis, to
replace its damaged magical one, was designed with the possibility of gravitational
fluctuations in mind. Thus even the increased pressure of water with up
to 1.5 times its normal weight does not cause it to buckle. (Not all structures
on land are so solidly constructed, and a number of buildings collapse,
but happily human casualties are minimal. A large number of birds perish,
however.)
At the slipgate nexus, the timer countdown finishes, and playback begins
of the message that had been recorded some days earlier in preparation
for this moment. This Crystallic does not welcome being told to destroy
itself, but it understands the need for it. Something is wrong with the
slipgate system, and its explosion will shut it down safely, albeit at
the cost of destroying Atlantis. In any case, it is a valid and unambiguous
order (though it is only valid because the Crystallic is at this precise
location), and under the Rules it has no choice but to obey it. (Fortunately
the Rules never envisaged the possibility of a recorded message, and so
make no distinction.)
When the Crystallic explodes, a number of things happen. The magical
energy that powers the slipgate system vanishes, shutting down the system.
As a result, gravity returns to normal. Atlantis, and its protective dome,
are destroyed by the explosion. The great inrush of water causes a tidal
wave that causes some damage to coastal towns and loss of shipping. The
other Crystallics become inert lumps of quartz with no magical powers.
-
 As the read-outs
on gravitometers return to 1.0, those privileged enough to have one let
out sighs of relief.
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