The Prophesy: Book 4 - Armageddon

 

The call for an earthquake had taken the Atlanteans by surprise. What was the Prince talking about? But suddenly, things became very clear. The Earth shook as the Moon’s orbit was perturbed by the impact. The earthquake had been induced by the gravitational pull of the Earth’s satellite! Quite a few fell on their butt, but the damage to Thebes was nil.

«Paschal, Typhoon, Thorsten, Harp, Sitar, Enron! Report to the Bridge!» said Ian. «Nestor, to sickbay! All medical teams on duty! Inspection teams! Standby! Yamato, verify the integrity of the tubes by remote sensors! Pharaoh to Bridge!»

It took a minute for everyone to emerge to the bridge. They quickly move into their different stations and began reading the results of different sensors.

"Thorsten, initiate dome shield!" said Ian.

"Initiating dome shield!"

High above Thebes, a bluish glow became visible, as a powerful force field materialised over the sprawling city.

"Yamato! Report!"

"Sensors all report okay."

"Sickbay?"

"So far, minor bumps, nothing serious. They are being ported to the General Hospital for immediate treatment on biobeds."

"Engineering?"

"All energy flux functional."

"Structural integrity?"

"Nothing major. A few fallen tiles, that is all. The repair teams are on their way. Cleanup is in progress. I never thought we had that much dust!" said Thorsten.

"Emperor on bridge!" said a very formal Alaric.

"So, Son, what is up?" Harold said twitching somewhat at the presentation made by Alaric.

"We will begin the folding procedure, Dad. We could wait, but, somehow, I know we must not."

"All right. How long will that take?"

"Several hours, I guess. The simulations already told us it took time, but we did not have a clock to time things."

"What about the pumps?"

"That is the thing I need to verify with Paschal. Paschal, can the folding be done in such a way that the tubes and their link to Thebes are unaffected?"

"That requires changing the zero-point of the fold."

"Do it."

"I have been on it ever since you mentioned folding early. Give me an hour to do the adjustments."

"How much have we recovered so far?" asked Harold.

"It has been running for about two hours, Dad. You might as well say we have not recovered anything, barely one or two parts in five thousand forty."

"That amounts to?"

«Yamato, what is the reading?»

«The gauge says 1,984,126,084,126 tons.»

"That is in line with the model Dad," added Paschal.

"Okay. What worries me is the size of Thebes once we fold. Will we not be sticking above the atmosphere?"

"We are bound to get there even if we do not fold."

"True."

"As for the radius of Thebes once folded, I estimate it at 25 miles for the inner radius. The linear size from one end to the other of Thebes is at 157 miles. Since this is the inner circumference, it can be deduced from spherical geometry that the diameter is 50 miles, or a radius of 25 miles," said Paschal.

"What about the outer radius?"

"That is another story. I estimate each layer at 20 feet, and the biggest number I have seen while exploring the lower levels is B2700 that puts the outer radius at 44,000 feet beyond Thebes’ inner surface. This adds 20.5 miles to the diameter. And I am not sure it stops at B2700. I have not bothered searching for the data. Who cares anyway?"

"Not when it comes to these numbers. It would be cutting hair in 20, lengthwise."

«What will be the physical consequence of folding?» Yamato asked.

"There are many. One of which is the mantle will be very close to getting exposed. It is very apparent the roots of Thebes go deep, very deep. It will be like pulling a wisdom tooth."

"A big wisdom tooth, Paschal!"

"Yes."

"Dad? I am waiting for your decision."

"Ian, if you say we fold, we fold. I have learned to trust all of you with my life. Do what you think is best."

"Okay. Paschal, where are those calculations?"

"I am almost finished. I should be done shortly."

"Why is it so long?"

"The original zero point was centred. Now it moves to the extreme periphery of Thebes. I have to re-sequence the folding. Instead of starting on all branches, I have to start at the furthest and progress according to a mathematical sequence that follows a very peculiar pattern."

"Okay. I am just getting nervous."

"We all are," Enron said, as he watched another major meteor hit the Moon.

Ten minutes later, Paschal came up with his list of folds.

"I am ready to start."

"Good. Unlock from continental root!"

As each anchor slowly separated itself from the supporting continental shelf, the city, still flat on the surface, rose by mere inches from the resting position. It took hours for the process to finish, but finally, after 36 hours, the key elements were all free.

"Report the situation below?" Ian asked

"There is minor lava seepage, but it is a lot less then what we had expected and it is cooling down. There is water infiltration, creating several vapour explosions," said Sitar.

"Begin fold! Paschal, you have command until fold is finished!"

"Acknowledged. Folding segment 65535. Align gravity!"

"Gravity aligned!" replied Harp.

"Initiate orthogonal synchronisation!"

"Orthogonal synchronisation engaged!" replied Harp.

"Fold! Set angle at -0.0055°!"

Minus 0.0055°! Mark!" replied Thorsten.

"Validate orthogonal gravity alignment!"

"Alignment orthogonal to rotation! Inclination at +0.0055°!" said Harp.

"I am glad this works as planned."

"What is this with orthogonal gravitation alignment?"

"Dad, we are creating a sphere. As we fold, we maintain the vertical in each segment so people will always have a floor to walk on. Imagine if we did not create these artificial gravitational vectors! At some point, people walking on the upper inner side of the sphere might inadvertently take a strong jump and sail right through the space, and I am talking about when we travel through space, which we are not currently doing! As each segment will rotate into place, he artificial gravity will play an ever increasing role in maintaining the local vertical to where it should be, neutralising the Earth’s gravitational well in the sphere. It will not be totally neutralised until we have closure of the sphere."

"Oh, okay."

"Just so you know, gravity is kept orthogonal to the local segment horizon."

"And it changes by that infinitely small angle as we move from segment to segment?"

"Yes."

"I understand."

"Each area is slightly bigger then 0.1183 square miles," added Paschal, always willing to feed information even if none was asked. Harold decided to tease his Son and committed the ultimate mistake!

"How did you get that number?"

"The total inner surface of the sphere will be 7,750 square miles; divide it by the number of segments, and you get 0.1183 square miles per segment."

"Will I ever be able to catch you with your pants down Paschal?"

"It is unlikely! He has not worn them ever since he stepped into Thebes," replied Sitar.

And it was true to form: Paschal was sitting on his plush control seat, nude as a newborn.

"Do not point fingers, Sitar. You sure are not wearing anything either. I do not even see your proverbial blade with you today. Come to think of it, you are pointing up!" said Paschal as he noticed Sitar’s erection.

The comment brought a blush to Sitar and a lot of jibbing both on Sitar and Paschal.

"What can I say? When I get into action, it always does that!"

"I sure hope so, or your partner might think you are not interested!" said Enron, to another furious blush from Sitar.

"It is the excitement!"

"That is made amply clear!" Harp said, grinning at Sitar’s increasing embarrassment.

"Let us get back to business. Thorsten, lock rotation!"

"Rotation lock engaging! Rotation locked!"

"Ready for rotation, segment one!"

The process continued with little interruption for eight hours. As the day shift came to a close, Paschal turned to Ian.

"I think we need a break. We have folded 1,171 segments today. We should be finished in a week. I just wish this process could be automated, but the de-centred fold has forced me to assign fold segments by hand."

"Okay Paschal. Retire to your suites guys. The evening shift is coming up, and we will continue this tomorrow during day shift. That goes for you also Yamato. Transfer the surveillance to Dunbar."

"I have to be on the Royal Bench tomorrow, Ian. You do what must."

"Okay, Dad. What is the issue?"

"Racial slurs. I will not put up with that. There is no such thing as freedom of opinion if it leads to division. A couple of Legionnaires will learn the consequences of consuming alcohol beyond reason. It will never be an excuse for misbehaving. A Centurie will be short."

***

Things continued on schedule: the folding went on, segment after segment sealing progressively the core. As the sphere climbed up in the atmosphere, the wind began exerting ever-greater pressure on it. The folding also had additional consequences: the ash and dust that had escaped the watchful eyes of the external Janitors, especially since the temperature had dropped beyond reason, began to get blown violently off the surface. As it was carried ever higher, it got caught in a vortex that sucked it into a spiral that seemed to loom about 20 miles off above their heads.

"Paschal, before the next fold, vectorise a gravity funnel from the core to the ash recovery bin!"

"Okay, Ian."

As the gravity well progressed upward, it acted like a vacuum cleaner, removing the dust off the higher atmosphere by sucking in the air down. A powerful filter system at the bottom captured the dust and ash, while recycling the air into the ever more closed-up inner sanctum of Thebes. As the air cleared, Ian declared it was enough and the task of folding resumed. By the fifth day, the fold had progressed considerably.

"Paschal, can we activate the outer shield? I am uncomfortable leaving the upper part of Thebes exposed outside of the atmosphere. I have been using Magic to shield it, but there are limits!"

"Let me check, Sitar."

After a few minutes, Paschal came back with a decision.

"Shield the area above the atmosphere, and 2° below. It will ionise the atmosphere in the immediate area but it is not that critical."

Sitar did as asked and a very strange ring of ionised oxygen could be seen crowning the now almost closed sphere.

"I did not know a city could have an aura!" exclaimed Enron as he watched the phenomenon.

"Everything is possible," replied Typhoon. "Oh! Oh! That piece of junk is rather big. Sitar! Acquire the target! We need to blow it up before it hits the top of Thebes. Shield or no shield, that thing could damage the outer shell!"

"On it! Azimuth: 12.232°, elevation 83.2°, distance 68,000 miles, speed 25,000 miles per hour, set objective at azimuth 12.3° elevation 83.1° rotate by -0.04° azimuth and drop elevation by -0.05° every second, fire on my mark!"

Typhoon activated the powerful battery of lasers, which were ready to fire almost instantly.

"Ready to fire."

Two seconds later, Paschal gave the order:

"Fire! Five blasts!"

A salvo of five beams of light, each carrying two Terajoules of energy left the laser batteries from the surface of the still not completed sphere, and hit the incoming meteor, fracturing it and deviating its course enough to prevent immediate impact with the atmosphere.

"Keep the lasers powered up, Typhoon. Rotate guns as the sphere folds!" decided Ian. "Estimate trajectory of fragments!"

"The giant one will pass slightly behind the earth. The other one will skim the atmosphere and probably fall into a long elliptic orbit with the Earth as a focal point. There are two minor fragments that are headed for the Moon. A speckle of dust is currently falling in the atmosphere, the biggest piece measuring about 50 feet in diameter."

"Nature of meteorite?"

"Dissociated loose carbon blocks. Technically, it should fracture completely as it undergoes the perihelion orbital stress and become a long string of blocks."

"Will we see the giant one again?"

"It has a short orbit, but given the situation out there, it may meet its fate before coming back. According to the sensors, it is like a billiard table after split-up! And I cannot see behind the Earth. Another piece of junk just hit the Moon. The orbit of the Moon is getting more perturbed."

"We still got almost seven months before it falls on this planet. Let us not panic."

"When you say seven months, Harp, you are thinking the bulk of the Moon. There may be chunks that will come haunt us before then!" said Enron.

"Nothing can be as simple as a simulation, can it?"

"Never, little Brother, if only because we do not have all variables at hand, however hard we try to get them."

"The evening shift is coming in to take its turn. Paschal, with the delays the previous incidents caused, what is our situation on the timetable for folding?"

"We are still within tolerance."

"Okay. Yamato? Progress report!"

"Still according to curve, Ian. The external atmospheric pressure has dropped by 9.82 millibars according to sensors left on the collection sites. The pumps are working like a charm."

"Okay. Let us hope this continues."

***

"Ian, I have to work on fixing the Matriarch. I do not think you need me for a while?"

"No, Harp. The folding will be completed in two days, and has been going on without a glitch for the last five days; and then I will team up with Paschal set the final bulwark and we will be all set."

"Okay."

"How long will you need to reconstruct the Matriarch’s neural pathways?"

"A minimum of a month. I have finally figured out what was done and it will require a rewrite of about 5% of her genetic material. The good thing is the genetic material was simply encrypted so it became unreadable. I have found the key within her own genome."

"Ah, I see. Is that why you spent so much time in Pyramid number six?"

"Yes. The simulator was put to intensive use in modelising the entire genetic material of the Seraphrim Matriarch. Paschal had just finished creating the stasis chamber for her when you called on us to do the folding."

"Why is it so slow?"

"It is almost instantaneous if you consider the Matriarch’s life span. And also consider her basic composition: silica is not carbon. It is the same problem we have with Typhoon’s Father. It could have taken 25 years too, you know."

"I forgot about him! Could we apply the same speeding-up procedure for the Dragon?"

"We are looking into it. So far, it is not promising. They may both be silica-based but that is about all they have in common."

"Anyway, go ahead with the Matriarch. I am sure setting up the process will not take a month! I would like you around when we finally close in the last fold."

"Are you expecting trouble?"

"Expect the unexpected."

"True."

The Matriarch was surprised to get a visit from Harp. She was well aware of the folding process, and did not expect him to show up.

«Is the folding process completed?» she asked.

«Not yet, two days still until it finishes. I am here for another reason. You mentioned you wanted to recover what was lost. We are ready if you are.»

«I am. What will be required of me?»

«Follow me to the nest of healing, and I will explain as we proceed.»

«What about my eggs?»

«We have a team of Elves watching them already, as you noticed. They studied your behaviour and have asked you numerous questions, thus learning how to care for them. I think you knew this was the reason of all the effort.»

«Indeed, they have even helped me fix some issues I had with a couple of eggs. The last group of eggs seemed to have suffered in the previous nest and they were showing signs of external infection of the shell. The brushing has helped the embryos develop with a better gas exchange, and they have caught up with the others.»

«Have you lost any?»

«Not since we moved. I had lost some in the old nest, and disposed of them. Some were also infertile.»

Harp understood it was not something the Matriarch wanted to talk about, so he came back to the reason of his visit.

«I have found how to fix your neural pathways. I thought I would have to leave it to the slow method we are using for the Dragon Patriarch, but your structure is sufficiently different to allow what I plan. It will be a three-phase approach. Once you have been put under and the stasis chamber is filled with sustaining fluids, the primary process is to unlock the genetic sequence that creates the neural pathways for the optic system.»

«Why do you need this stasis chamber? And what do you mean by get me under?»

«Let us deal with the second question. When your people did the Sacrifice, it was the next generation that paid it, not those that lived when the offer was made. I could do the exact reverse sequence, and it would be the Children of your Children that would see the Light. However, I promised you that you would see it and your Children as well. You are the first to undergo the procedure. The Children were born blind. But the process I will undertake will restore your eyes, and that would be extremely painful for you, so I will do it while I put you to sleep.»

«I see. And how do you plan to do this?»

«I plan to use a gas, 2-bromo-2-chloro-1-1-1-fluoro-silithane, or, in short, halosilithane, a special, and, unfortunately, very unstable gas in an oxygen-rich atmosphere. This is why it will be diffused through a silicon-gel mask to your mouth and nose. It has a similar structure to halothane, with a substitution of the carbon atoms by silicon atoms to fit your physiology. I was thinking of using neural suppressors, like we did with the Dragon, but your treatment is radically different, and will require rewiring your brain completely. Neural suppressors would have been in the way. You do benefit from the enormous efforts we have put in re-sequencing genetic material we have gained while working with other species, including the Goblins and Humans. We are learning daily how to do things faster, a lot faster.»

Taking a breath, Harp continued his explanations.

«Once you are asleep, the stasis chamber will be filled with a liquid, in this case a combination of SiH4 and Si2H6 brought to a low temperature, so they are liquid. This will let our nanobots process your outer shell as well as move freely in and out of your organism. Oxygen supply will be restricted and supplied directly to your lungs via a special tube. SiH4 and Si2H6 are highly explosive in the presence of oxygen, so we have to keep the two gases from ever mixing. This is why we use the breathing tube. I will personally insert the breathing tube, since it cannot be automated due to your structure. You have four lungs to our two, and I had to design a special tube that will split into four tuberoles, or thin tubes, to feed your lungs. These tuberoles will also have pressure monitors so we do not feed too much oxygen to your body. Excessive pressure might damage your oxygen regulator valves.»

«How does the other gas behave with all that?»

«Halosilithane has the characteristic of liquefying well before oxygen and the other two silicon-based gases. We expect it will penetrate your lungs by liquid state diffusion. The oxygen will never meet it outside of both being dissolved in your body, thus preventing violent reactions.»

«You have mentioned there were three stages?»

«Oh yes. Once you are intubated, the first stage begins. Your genetic material is deciphered, re-sequenced and stabilised cell-by-cell. That is the most complex part. The next phase is activating the expression of the genes in the proper order so we get a functional optical system. It is in effect redoing what normally happens in your embryonic stage, at a much-accelerated speed. After all we cannot wait 1,000 years! The final stage is removing the locks. We could leave them in place but deactivated. It is up to you. However, I recommend you have them removed. It would simplify your genome, and reduce the possibility of an accidental reactivation to zero.»

«How much time will it take to remove the locks?»

«Genetic clipping is rather easy, especially since the beginning and end of the locks were clearly delimited by a specific pattern of bases. It will add two days to the process.»

«Do so.»

«Okay, The final stage is bringing you out of sleep. That will take some careful planning. We will remove the liquid in the stasis chamber, and progressively bring your body temperature to the current room temperature. When this is done, I will siphon the lungs clear of any residual silicate gas and remove the tubing. There should be none, but I prefer making sure. Once the tube is out, the gas mask diffuser will be removed. You should be out of sleep within 15 minutes.»

«That is interesting. What follows?»

«We will have moved you into a dark, light-less room. Over the next few days, light will be gradually increased to our current level, so your optic system grows accustomed to the information. The genetic code only supplies the basic circuitry schematics for the optical system, Matriarch. Your eyes will need to be trained. In order for the pathway to build its circuitry properly, you will be exposed to gradually more complex stimuli, and finally to movement, both local object movement and global corporal movement. This stage will take a few months to complete, and, initially, I expect you will have issues coordinating eye and motor activity. It is typical of all life forms acquiring senses, even seeing animals.»

«That seems to be complicated.»

«It will be for you, since you are an adult. For those freshly hatched, they will simply learn by trial and error what they see. Adults want success at every try and have a hard time living with the Philosophy of if you fail, try again.»

«How do you plan to fix my young ones?»

«They are 100 years off hatching. We will use a slower approach for them. The re-sequencing will be done while still in the egg, and they will be born with a fully functional optical system. However, like most young, they will be born blind. Do not panic, this is natural. It will take them about a week to open their eyes for the first time, and then their activity and their exposure to environmental stimuli will train the optical pathways. The blind week is to allow completion of the construction of the Autonomous Analysis System, which will eventually extract object out of lines.»

«Oh. Will they need to be brought into a stasis chamber?»

«No. In their case, Paschal has started the production of biobots that will carry the nanobots to the eggs. The nanobots are small enough to travel through the shell breathing pores, and the biobots will be feeding the nanobots with the requisite material to produce the changes. Once the changes are done, the nanobots retire to the biobots and it leaves the eggs alone to continue the development. The biobots care for 100 eggs apiece, and the entire re-sequencing takes a day, because your young ones contain a lot less cells to process.»

«And how long will it take to do all my eggs?»

«At slightly below 1,000,000 per week, we are estimating the duration at slightly below a year. We will start with the first room and progress forward, following your laying sequence.»

«It is acceptable. How many of these biobots are we talking about?»

«I think that Paschal made 1,374 biobots. Knowing him, he did the maths to minimise resource consumption. We can wait until you are out of treatment or start right away.»

After some thinking, the Matriarch decided to trust the Atlanteans. After all they were the descendants of the people that had saved her species in the first place and had fought side by side with them the Enemy, sacrificing themselves in the process.

«Start right away.»

«Are you sure?»

«Honestly? No. But I must begin to trust. It is hard for me, because I feel compelled to protect my eggs against any intrusion at all costs. However, your people have proven themselves over and over, and you trust us. I must overcome my fears and accept that, in the long run, the destiny of my people reside in your hands, Prince of Magic.»

«Then it will be so. I will begin to implement the changes in three days. The fold will be completed in two days, and Ian asked for my presence during that day. Then we will take a day of rest and after that, Paschal, Ian, Thorsten, Typhoon, and I will begin the process, dividing the task into five teams. Once the process begins, the biobots are able to do it to the end of a room without our intervention. It takes around 14.5 days to process a room.»

The Matriarch and Harp had reached a special room, with a very complicated structure. Around the walls were cooling systems, ventilation systems, a canister of compacted nanobots, and, in the middle, a rather impressive stasis chamber.

«You are lucky, Matriarch! It is a private room just for you. Even Lord Greywolf had to share his with 1,000 of his kind the when he came here to regenerate a hind leg.»

«It does feel strange.»

«Move toward the noise I am making. You will find yourself at the top of a ramp that will let you walk into the stasis chamber. Go slow. The ramp is designed to prevent you from slipping.»

The Matriarch made her way to where Harp kept gently tapping to the ground, and he then guided her down using the same method. Once the Matriarch had reached the bottom, her head was slightly above the rim of the chamber.

«I will remove the ramp, Matriarch. Then I will put on straps to support you while you sleep until the fluids are in place. It is not that you can fall, but, unless you have knee locks like the Equines, once you sleep, you will crumple.»

«Will you not have problems getting out of this place?»

«I will port out.»

Once the ramp had been removed, Harp installed support straps that passed under the Matriarch’s belly. Each end was tied to an eye that was itself incorporated into a hydraulic mechanism that let Harp drop or raise the straps until a certain tension was reached. He then raised the tension to the selected value.

«You are now supported entirely by the straps. I am checking the positioning mechanism.»

Satisfied with the result, Harp placed the diffusion gel mask over the Matriarch’s face, verifying with he that the gaseous exchanges were working fine. Once he was reassured, he informed her that he was going to put on her monitoring sensors so that the Atlanteans would know her condition at all time. It included oxygen consumption, body temperature, breathing rate, depth of breathing, and heart rate, to name a few.

«Okay, I am putting you under, Matriarch. It is your last chance to back out of this. Once you lose consciousness, I doubt I will be able to maintain contact.»

«Proceed.»

Harp triggered the diffusion of the halosilithane anaesthetic. Monitoring the consciousness level of the Matriarch, the Prince of Magic noticed it took 15 minutes to put the Matriarch to sleep. He inserted the breathing tube, and closed the lid on the stasis chamber. The initial step was done. Cooling the chamber, Harp then replaced the atmosphere with nitrogen, and then flooded the chamber with SiH4 and Si2H6. The flooding completed, he lowered the straps halfway, thus maintaining the Seraphrim in position while leaving her to float in the liquid. The last preliminary step was done. The next step was upon Harp: he injected through an interface on the side of the stasis chamber the 60,000,000,000 nanobots that would begin repairing their customer.

Initially, the nanobots, a greenish soup, diffused itself uniformly in the liquid, but as Harp started the repair program, they coalesced around the Matriarch, penetrating her body from every cell. The task had begun.

"I wish you luck, Matriarch. Nothing is certain in this world. I hope you are aware of this. I will visit things daily, and the stasis chamber is programmed to monitor you continuously and alert me if anything wrong develops."

Harp then left the room, locking it with Magic to prevent any exterior intervention. The task was complicated enough already without so-called specialists come and make a blunder. He had enough of would-be Francesca and other know-it-all.

***

The next day, Harp reported early on the Bridge, even before his shift was to begin.

"What is the situation?"

"We are six hours from closure," reported Timor. "I just receive reports from the pumps, we are at 33 millibars below standard atmospheric pressure and dropping. By the end of the day, we should be almost at -34 millibars. That too follows the predicted linear curve. I wonder how these pumps will work under almost void conditions?"

"I asked Paschal the same question. His answer was laconic. They will not. The task is to recover as much as we can, not all of it. That is why they are located in deep trenches. I asked him why we did not put them in oceanic trenches marking the limits of the tectonic plates, and his reply was simple: Do you want to spend months putting in tubes to reach these places? We do not have the time to do it."

"At what pressure will they stop working?"

"Around 100 millibars."

"That is pretty close to void. And given the number of meteorites we have been tracking, you might still gain enough water from them to complement the missing atmosphere with water vapour. After all, water is a good portion of oxygen!"

"Ah, I think I see Ian coming out of the portal. I will be going to relieve Greywolf at the science station."

"Captain on the Bridge!" hollered a Sergeant, as Ian walked in.

"Hey, Timor, how was the last shift?"

"Busy with a couple of big meteorites coming close, they changed trajectory and skimmed the atmosphere. And we finally found the one that passed in front of the face of the Moon on your birthday It is a big one, and should be back in seven months almost to the day. I have asked for an orbital calculation, but it is difficult because it passes through the asteroid belt at a relatively slow speed and seems to change orbit as it meets some rather massive objects."

"Have you identified them?"

"The Ancients had an obsession: name everything or it does not exist! Let me see: Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Hygiea, and a train of others It seemed to have visited just about every big fellow in the belt and perturbed their orbit enough they are now headed toward us. It is going to be quite a show if all this comes in behind the comet."

"To change these orbits, it must be massive."

"Actually, it is not that massive, but it passed right at the place where it should not, that is, grazing them from behind, in effect slowing them down just enough to start them on their way toward the Sun, and therefore, our orbit! It passed so close to Ceres it changed orbit itself, and has shortened its orbital period to seven months. That is what caused us so much trouble. We were looking out and forgot to look closer. It has played havoc with the asteroid belt and the consequences are unpredictable. Just changing the orbit of Ceres by a few tenths of a degree was enough for the planetoid to enter in collision repeatedly with a considerable amount of matter and it has been putting the brakes ever since."

"Okay. I get the picture."

"Oh no you do not. Ceres is not headed for us; it is headed for the Moon. Whatever the result of that collision, it will be messy. We all thought the comet was going to collide with the Moon, but Ceres is a few orders of magnitude bigger. The numeric models need refinement. I have sent Iridia to the simulator to integrate the last stream of data and see what she can come up with."

"Okay. I will wait on her report."

"I am transferring command to you Ian. I will go to the Pyramid to join her. She has been at it for six hours already."

"Okay. Keep in touch."

Timor ported to the Pyramid immediately, joined there by his Dragon bonded. He found Iridia working hard on a model of the solar system showing thousands of orbits.

***

"Paschal, how long before closure?"

"An hour. We are almost there."

"Okay. How are the seals holding?"

"We are fine. Sitar just shot down another piece of junk. It was mostly water, so the laser melted it into gaseous state that immediately solidified into ice particles. It is falling on the Earth."

"Harp! Activate the magnetic shield; there is a major solar eruption that should reach us in an hour and a half," Thorsten said.

"Okay, the shield is up except in the immediate vicinity of closure. I cannot activate it until it is closed and locked."

"Anything else?" asked Ian, as he came back to sit on the Captain’s chair after taking a pee break.

"Nothing worthy," replied Sitar.

"Emperor on Bridge!" said the same Sergeant that had announced Ian’s arrival just as Harold walked out of the portal.

"I wonder what is the obsession with that title?" asked Harold as he took his own seat and observed the bridge below him.

"It is nothing Dad. Do not sweat it."

"We are 30 minutes to closure. So far, all seems to work as planned. The only issue is the crosswind the sphere has to put up with. It is not really designed for atmospheric conditions," Paschal replied. "Enron has been compensating the gusts to prevent us from tearing the pipe. The issue should attenuate with time."

As the minutes ticked by, the Atlanteans watched the last segment get ever closer to its final resting place.

"What is te pressure on segment?" enquired Paschal.

"Nominal at 6,000,000 tons per square inch," reported Sitar.

"What is the angle of insertion?"

"It is at 0.98° and closing. We are 10 minutes off closure!" Enron reported.

"What is the angular speed?"

"Angular speed at 0.1° per minute," answered Enron.

"Trigger electromagnetic heating!" ordered Paschal.

"Triggering electromagnetic heating. Socket expanding by 1/10 of an inch," acknowledged Sitar.

"Two minutes to closure!"

"Maintain heating!"

"We are one minute to closure!" Enron informed the others.

"The tension is rising," noted Harp.

"Inject more heat!"

"Injecting 20 megawatts. Temperature rising. Expansion at 0.2 inches."

"The tension is dropping," confirmed Harp.

Paschal began the final countdown.

"Thirty seconds to closure!"

"Twenty seconds to closure!"

"Countdown at 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0! Closure!"

"Lock and secure! Seal!" ordered Paschal.

"The seal is in place!" confirmed Enron.

"Shut down heating! Consolidate magnetic shield! Consolidate antimatter force field!" ordered Paschal.

"That is a big step, Ian," commented Harold.

"Yes Dad, but I will keep the shift. We cannot believe everything is cosy. Our next challenge is to check what happens when the solar wind hits the electromagnetic shield. It will be vital for us to know how this behaves. After all, some weapons are electromagnetic in nature."

Sitar nodded, and began monitoring the flux in more detail.

***

The arrival of the solar particles was spectacular. As the atmosphere showed a superb show of northern and southern lights near the pole, a new addition appeared. Above the Sphere of Thebes, a Crown of light shone, showing a cascade of variable colours as the particles were arrested by the magnetic field and spent their energy in different, transient states of excitation before releasing their energy in the form of photons of differing wavelengths.

"This is a beautiful sight!" said Typhoon, as he watched the ephemeral phenomenon on the monitors.

"Yes, but very deadly as well. Harp, what is the surface radiation reading?"

"It is at zero ever since we started the electromagnetic shield and has not changed since."

"Paschal, see if you can recover the energy?"

"Okay."

After a few minutes, Paschal came back with the diagnostic.

"The peak recoverable flux is 49 terawatts, with a minimum of 21 terawatts."

"Store it. Energy is a commodity, like water," decided Harold.

"I stabilised the flux at mean value by cascading down the wattage into distinct streams. I am pushing it into condensers to regulate the output flux and then transferring the output to micro-crystal accumulators. That way, they will be portable and usable anywhere we need them."

"How many are you charging?"

"At current, 20 micro-crystals. As each is charged to capacity, the charge gets shunned to the next crystal. Each crystal is able to supply 500 terawatts for an hour."

"Are you not afraid to melt the crystals?" Sitar asked.

"If they were at room temperature, yes! They are kept at -40° Fahrenheit."

"How many do you expect to charge?" Ian asked.

"All depends on the duration of that solar storm."

"The Ancients said they could last up to 72 hours," Typhoon said.

"If it is the case, we will have a few million micro-crystals ready for use. I have been crystallising them from raw orichalque for the past year, and there is a huge quantity waiting for charging."

"I thought they could only charge Magic?" wondered Thorsten.

"Oh no. They are multiphase accumulators. Magic is only one of their phases. They can charge electromagnetic energy as well," intervened Harp.

"These crystals will always amaze me. And we have not even talked about that other element "

Noticing that Typhoon could not find the name, Harp suggested, smiling, "Mithril?"

"Yes!"

"It is less versatile. We have a lot of it; it is a lot more common then orichalque, but it does not offer the multitude of crystal forms, amorphous state, and multiphase absorption orichalque offers. And orichalque, as Thorsten certainly noticed, is tougher then diamond or any alloy known to Man."

"Are there other known magical metals?"

"Probably, but they are not likely to be found on Earth or are so rare it is not worth the trouble to mine them. We did research in the Atlantean Archives, and they mention that magical metals are part of a family that is hidden in the periodic table of elements. They mentioned that apart from orichalque and mithril, the others were so dense they would probably sink right to the core of a planet. The first of these super heavy metals was Adamentium, but they mentioned others. In all, three super heavy Magic metals were found: Adamentium, Illithium, and Zanthium, in order of increasing atomic mass."

"I wonder why they considered them super heavy?"

"Because a single atom of Zanthium is 573 times the mass of Uranium235."

"Wow. And what did you mean they were hidden in the Table of Elements?"

"The magical metals are a series of metals that, for all intents and purposes, are within a specific range of atomic structure called the hyper-stable post-uranium range. It is so far off the normal Periodic table that it is in effect dissociated from it."

Everyone had been listening to Harp’s complicated explanation about magical metals.

"Ian, Paschal, Thorsten, and Typhoon, I will be needing your help in two days. I am beginning the restructuring of the Seraphrim embryos. Can you be free?"

Everyone nodded.

"I suggest we all take a day off tomorrow. Request substitutes for your stations for the next two days. Dad, I suggest Annabelle take your seat, so you can rest as well."

"It is a good idea. I am sure she is looking for something to do."

"Can I join you?" asked Enron.

"Sure. Who will sit at the helm?"

"I have been training Jefferson. The little Devil is pretty good and will do nicely. And Rockhook is already well-versed in the issue due to flying their spaceship."

"Okay."

***

Two days later, after a quick passage to look at the reports on the Matriarch’s progress, the six Atlanteans moved to the Seraphrims’ nest. Following them was an Army of biobots.

The cave was divided into squares, and each biobot was assigned a segment to process. Once each biobot had been programmed with its specific rows and lines, the real task began under the watchful eyes of the Atlanteans.

The process consisted in covering the egg’s left side with a cupola, then to saturate the interstice between the cupola and the eggshell with nanobots. Once the proper concentration was reached, the nanobots penetrated the shell, and, under the guidance program, began modifying the genetic structure of the Seraphrims. Once the genes were completely modified, the neural pathway was built, tested, and then the genome was clipped to remove the locks permanently. Once the process was completed, the nanobots returned to the cupola, and were siphoned into the biobot’s arm for disinfection. The process was extremely quick, and left nothing to chance. Once the process was completed, vitals were taken and monitoring devices installed on the shell surface, just in case an unexpected issue arose.

After a hard day’s work, the Atlanteans retired.

"We need to be back in 15 days for the next room."

"Okay. I just hope we will not have timetable conflicts. Things are picking up speed."

"I do not think so. If we miss a day, the biobots will simply stay on idle."

"Okay, Paschal. Let us get out of here, I have a severe back pain, and a stay in a hot Jacuzzi is what the Doctor ordered!"