Decipher (60 page)

Read Decipher Online

Authors: Stel Pavlou

BOOK: Decipher
12.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
It was originally discovered by Dutch physicist Hendrick Casimir in 1948. A quantum theory that dealt with virtual particles in a continuous state of flux.
The physical manifestation of this was that if two conducting plates were placed in a vacuum
uncharged
, due to quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, the plates would still be irresistibly attracted to each other despite no power being inputted to cause this.
The Casimir Effect proved the existence of zero point energy.
And the odd puzzle as a result of its mathematical proof was that this effect was plugged directly into the realm of gravity. Zero point energy was linked directly to warping effects on space-time. In other words, if the fabric of space was caused to curl up and ripple it would have an immediate effect on the ability to unleash zero point energy.
In Atlantis that meant one thing. The natural interaction between zero point energy and gravity through the fabric of space meant that the very energy source the city intended to use to save the planet, also acted as an early warning system to alert the city to an imminent gravitational attack.
Which was the signal it was receiving right now. It double-checked its command center. It had indeed completed the integration of two new units of information. The crucial prerequisites had been satisfied.
It could therefore initiate its primary response protocol. Using all manner of standing waves to effect quasicrystallization in all types of matter, it was time for Atlantis to shield earth.
Gant was close to passing out. The Golem pressed down on his windpipe and squeezed so solidly that the marine could feel his tongue being forced out between his teeth.
He was not alone. All around him he could see the others in similar predicaments. Utterly helpless. He didn't even have enough space left in his throat to choke out a warning to Hackett as the physicist blasted a Golem to atoms, oblivious to the attacker that was coming up behind.
And it was then, as Hackett's assailant grabbed him and swung him around that Gant began to realize that in the distance, all around the city, there was movement. Beyond the inner skyscrapers, out toward the suburbs of the city—past them, in fact, at the outer canal—there was a shimmering. A glistening. A kind of snake-like writhing as the entire contents
of the canal, millions of tons of water, rose up out of their confines and started to travel in a vortex-like motion around the outskirts of the city.
It was as if they all stood in the eye of a twister as chaos surrounded the city. Higher and higher the water climbed, while above their heads the energy twister was building into a maelstrom of its own.
All of this Gant could see, as blood vessels burst across his eyeballs and oxygen was cut off from his brain.
And then there was a sea change in their predicament.
The air became thick and syrupy. Motion became blurred and slow. And there was the rumble. The sensation that the surrounding area was being bombarded with a multitude of low-level and high-level sonic waves.
The result was that sound within the ordinary range of human hearing started to dull and lower itself in pitch, before finally it was replaced altogether with that hissing noise they all remembered from the glass of Coke that had undergone quasicrystallization back at CERN.
Slowly … excruciatingly slowly … everything stopped. The whole world ground to a halt and was frozen. Crystallized.
It was as if Time stood still.
 
In the middle of the South China Sea a Great White Shark was battling three dolphins that were viciously ramming into its side to warn it off when they suddenly pulled back, their sonar indicating that something massive and perfectly solid was closing in on them all. The creatures turned sharply and set about racing away, but the nemesis, whatever it was, was closing in fast.
A thousand feet below them, the six Chinese submarines that had set out to support their fleet in the Antarctic were equally surprised to encounter the same phenomenon. Ping after ping of the radar system revealed that a huge mass was approaching, like a wall that stretched from the sea bed up to the surface of the ocean and in all directions.
Suddenly, everything froze solid. The sea crystallized around them. Sea creatures and submarines were all held in suspension.
Within the lead Han Class warship, the crew cowered at
the odd shrieks from the metal hull as the stresses and strains of quasicrystallization filtered through. One crewman put his hand up against the violently vibrating metal skin and he too froze solid, the effects of quasicrystallization shooting down his arm and freezing him where he stood.
The other crewmen turned to flee in panic, but were stopped in mid-flight as standing waves of multiple frequencies were pumped throughout the cabin. Glasses of water midway through spilling, cups of coffee in midair, plates of half-eaten meals that were in the midst of shattering on impact with the deck—all were caught and held tightly. Like the sailors themselves.
It was like pausing a movie, yet more so. For this was in all three dimensions, and at every level, from the molecular to the mega.
 
This effect gradually took hold throughout the planet. The crystallization phenomenon by its very nature could not travel at the speed of light, but at the speed of sound. And the density of the material within which the standing wave was to be produced dictated the speed at which the sound would travel.
It was a complex process. But to the human eye it was instantaneous.
Oceans quickly turned into immense expanses of crystal, looking-glasses through which an entire suspended world could be studied. Rivers refused to flow. Streams ceased to babble and geysers to blast.
All across the surface of the earth there was a tremendous shuddering. A vibration that seemed to be approaching critical mass.
And then the effect swept through the air.
Birds simply hung where they were in mid-flight. Waterfalls became strings of beads. In-flight aircraft seemed to slow before coming devastatingly and abruptly to a halt. In the cabins of these craft, the effect was like smashing into a brick wall. Anything unsecured was catapulted through the air. Bodies, blankets, books and toys went hurtling forward only to suddenly become enveloped in the odd phenomenon that seemed to hold them effortlessly in the air.
On the battlefields of Antarctica, Tomahawk cruise missiles
hung a hundred feet off the ground, caught in midattack, while waves of infantrymen were caught in mid-charge—their bullets halted only feet away from where they had exploded out of the barrels of their guns.
But the effects of quasicrystallization did not end there.
 
Deep beneath the surface crust of planet Earth lay a volatile world of molten rock. A world of density and of relentless heat measured in millions of years and manifested in pressure. It was not a place used to living by the rules of outside influences, but even so it was not left untouched by the effects of quasicrystallization.
Its reaction depended on densities—which layers of rock were more dense than others. It was a complex calculation because the conveyor-belt nature of the three-dimensional convection currents within the mantle meant rocks were constantly being shifted around. Some of the denser material was actually being propelled toward the surface rather than staying at the level at which it was created.
The quasicrystallization event therefore took the form of a repeated bombardment, pumping standing wave after standing wave at varying frequencies, deep into the hidden world until layer upon layer finally crystallized and became solid.
However, there was one feature of the earth's inner world that could not be crystallized, or stopped for that matter. Indeed, it was imperative to the workings of Atlantis that it remain in action: the solid iron inner core of the planet. This massive central feature rotated and gave rise to the earth's own magnetic field. Essentially it was a giant induction motor.
And it would have to contend with the gravity wave on its own terms.
 
Complexity was about the interconnectedness of all things. About making sense of the senseless.
Complexity was about order from chaos.
For one brief moment, order had descended on planet Earth for the first time in its long history. For that one brief moment, the earth was at peace. It was an irony then that conversely, the system in which it sat, raged around it in a state of utter destruction.
They were in high orbit over North Africa when they first saw it. The astronauts aboard the International Space Station noticed the sun appear to flicker before ultimately it seemed to brighten.
They rushed to contact Houston but there was a problem. Houston was not responding. In fact, nobody was responding. All lines of communication were dead. There was no radio, no TV. There weren't even any carrier beacons sending signals denoting the frequencies were correct even if nobody was broadcasting.
Nothing.
Which was even more problematic, for something seemed odd about the planet below, around which they were orbiting. It had turned glassy, like some giant marble. Sunlight, rather than reflecting back off the oceans, actually seemed to be reflecting back off the atmosphere …
But before anyone could even comment on this observation, events from the sun were taking a turn for the worse.
The sun was expanding. Ballooning outward.
There followed another kind of wobble and then the center portion seemed to revert back to being the sun, while the outer portion assumed the appearance of an ever-increasing halo.
The crew quickly realized that this was a fireball type of shockwave blossoming out toward them. In a minute and a half they would be on the dark side of the earth. The planet would shield them from what was approaching. A minute and a half—that's all they needed.
They did not have a minute and a half.
 
As the International Space Station glided in around the curve of the earth and headed for twilight, it was hit from behind by a wall of pure fire which ripped the craft to pieces and left twisted, burning wreckage in its wake.
As it engulfed the planet below, the outer atmosphere superheated and exploded in a much more violent manner than had occurred on Venus, but because of the quasicrystallization effect, the event did not chain react or penetrate deep into the upper atmosphere.
Instead, the resulting firestorm was sucked off and swept up into the wave of destruction from the sun and carried off into deep space.
As the gravity wave passed through the earth, the whole planet seemed to elongate and stretch before snapping back to its original shape. But due to its quasi-solid state, the effects on the planet were reasonably benign.
No earthquakes erupted or fault-lines exploded. No rivers were dislodged or oceans spilled over. On planet Earth all was quiet. All was still. All was pure.
 
On the moon it was a different story. For though there was no atmosphere to set ablaze, there was enough stellar debris caught up in the coronal ejection to smash whole new formations into existence across its scorched surface in the blink of an eye.
Fiery boulders plowed furrows deep into its dusty skin, while on the earth these would-be hammers of destruction simply rebounded.
 
Within seconds it was clear the earth had survived in the most spectacular way. And it was as the coronal ejection continued to expand and pushed outward past earth that the sunlight reflected back inward off the inner surface of the ever-increasing fireball and lit up the dark side of the planet.
For several seconds the blue-green glassy marble hung there in a section of space that knew no stars, and no night.
An oasis of calm in a sea of fury, it turned on its axis and weathered the storm. While its moon, too, was lit up from all angles, a prospect which would have excited the scientists
below.if
they were in a position to do anything about it. Because for the first time in 12,000 years the dark side of the moon was completely illuminated and revealed itself for all to see. But since all spaceborne scientific instrumentation had been destroyed, ironically its features would remain a mystery. A pity, since they would have raised some eyebrows.
And then, as long as it had taken to reach this point, it was over.
After 12,000 years of build-up, the sun settled back down
to its natural rhythmical cycle and began the process all over again.
On planet Earth, however, the story did not end there. For the Atlantis Network had one more job to perform and it must do it quickly, before the energy that had been unleashed across the planet to protect it, ended by doing as much harm as it had been intended to prevent.

Other books

Harvey Porter Does Dallas by James Bennett
Comes a Stranger by E.R. Punshon
A Want So Wicked by Suzanne Young
Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg
Amos and the Alien by Gary Paulsen
Alpha Threat by Ron Smoak