Anti-Mage

Anton followed Alpha One and Bravo Two through the pressurized tube to the three-way junction and turned right. As they came down the tube there was a port that looked into the small docking bay which showed a craft unlike anything Anton had ever seen before.

Before Anton could say anything Alpha One said, “No questions until we’re underway. Also, don’t worry, before the military releases you’ll be signing the mother of all NDAs, you know a Non-Disclosure Agreement.”

Anton nodded and thought about what he’d seen. The craft he’d seen didn’t look like any submersible he knew of. Of course, with his background, he wouldn’t know if it was something new or just uncommon anyway. It looked a little like something he’d seen in one of the science fiction series he’d watched but not like a submersible. If he had to guess he’d say that the craft looked like something that had been built for speed, more than diving to high-pressure depths.

Alpha One entered the craft and sat in the pilot seat while Bravo Two took a seat behind him. There were six jump seats behind the pilot and copilot. So, they could only bring him, huh? What horseshit! Before he could voice his thoughts Alpha one raised one finger as he said.

“Odyssey, this is Sightseer 1. Request permission to detach” Alpha One called into his mike.

“Sightseer 1, this is Odyssey, you are clear to detach,” Came over the single speaker in the cab.

“Detaching,” Alpha One said as their tube released its clamps, and the vessel he was in started dropping deeper into the ocean. Anton felt a slight vibration and Sightseer 1 dove away from the Odyssey. A minute later the depth gauge read 100 feet as they leveled out and Alpha One turned to Anton as he said, “Okay, ask your questions, Mr. Thomson.”

“First, Anton is fine. As for questions, what was in the hypo you gave me?” Anton asked.

“I can’t tell you that,” Alpha One said, “I can tell you that it will help you decompress after we get back to the surface. The drug helps your body adjust to higher pressure and readjust to normal pressure when you return to the surface.”

Anton, nodded and then asked, “How long will I need to decompress when we're done?”

“Who said you’ll need to decompress? “ Bravo Two asked.

“Are you two serious?” Anton asked. Both nodded and Anton asked a different question, “Why hasn’t anyone heard about this drug before now?”

“Two words, Tactical Advantage,” Alpha One said.

“Yep, if two groups are deep below the ocean and both surface, the one with this in their system will be able to continue working without worrying about having an aneurism or other complications,” Bravo Two explained.

Anton nodded, “I guess that makes sense. So where are we going now if we’re not headed deeper.”

“We’re heading back to our submarine. From there, we’ll be going with a little bit bigger group than just the three of us. I saw you looking at the six jump seats. Yes, your two friends could have fit in here fine. Taking you along is already going to make the trip a little cramped though.” Bravo Two said.

“Oh okay, how long until we get here?”

“We’re already here,” Alpha One said as the largest submarine Anton had ever seen solidified out of the darkness. Sightseer one dipped and went along the underside until they came to a dive pool which had a good-sized submersible that had a much more familiar shape docked in it. It was longer and looked a lot sturdier than anything he’d ever seen in the civilian sector.

Anton looked at the depth gauge which put them 100 feet below the surface. The reason he hadn’t seen the submarine was that it must still be dark outside, though Anton had a feeling something else was going on. Probably some type of active camouflage. Alpha One drove their vehicle into the underwater docking lagoon of the huge submarine. A robotic arm reached down and secured Sightseer 1. The craft was lifted and placed on a cradle as both of Anton’s companions moved toward the back of the cab to the hatch and opened it.

From the top of Sightseer 1it was a simple hop down and a short walk across a gangplank until they were climbing into the hatch of the bigger submersible. Alpha One led the way with Anton second and Bravo Two pulling up the rear. Bravo 2 secured the hatch and the three of them took the last three seats right near the hatch. Unlike Sightseer 1 there were no view ports although there were monitors in strategic locations that cycled through the view outside the submersible.

Anton watched as the monitor closest to him switched to a map of the Antarctica coastline south of South America and then zoomed in until it showed their current position and the coastline. An arrow appeared and the point of view followed it to the coastline and the shelf that the tunnel they’d accessed the structure in had been found. Then the image repeated.

Anton was startled when a voice called back to him from the front, “Mr. Thomson, I’m Zulu One, please look at the monitor, is that location where we need to go?”

Anton watched the video one more time and then said, “Yes, that’s where we need to go. There’s a huge tunnel directly under the shelf that leads to a cave that leads deeper into the continent. All told it’s about three miles from the edge of the ice. One mile from the coastline of the ice shelf above.”

“Thank you, Mr. Thomson, looks like the map and coordinates from Captain James are accurate.

There was a “Thunk” sound as the submersible was released and the submarine was underway.

The trip down was quiet. Anton noted that there were a total of twelve other people in the submersible with him. From where he was, he couldn’t tell if any of them were women because they all wore tactical masks. Shoot, the masks were so comfortable that Anton had forgotten that he was still wearing one. He reached up to try to open it and Alpha One’s hand shot out and touched his.

“The only two people in this sub that know what you look like are Zulu One, Bravo Two, and me. The others don’t need to know who you are so keep the mask on,” Alpha One said.

Anton put his hand back down and got comfortable. “Fine, I’m going to take a short nap while we’re headed down. It’ll be about an hour before we get to the shelf,” Anton said as Alpha One nodded and also made himself comfortable. An hour later Anton woke when he was slightly nudged by Alpha One. Anton woke up, looked around, and remembered where he was before he looked at the monitor to verify their location.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find the entrance to the underground structure?” Alpha One asked as Anton glanced over at him.

“Dumb luck really. We happened to be in our submersible trying to get an ice sample from the bottom of the glacier when some ice dislodged and came floating up from below us. Since there wasn’t supposed to be anything that deep we went to investigate and found a circular tube in the foundation of the continent”

“The hole was covered with ice? Sonar should still have been able to tell ice from a rock wall.”

“The ice was incredibly thick. Unless the sonar pulse was coming at the entrance from a horizontal angle it would have looked like another depression in the canyon wall. It’s not surprising civilian and military vessels missed the tunnel,” Anton said.

“Any idea why the ice came free?” Alpha One asked.

“Yep, Climate change,”

“Why do you scientists use that excuse for everything?”

“Well in this case it happens to be true. The water behind the iced tunnel warmed and expanded which put pressure on the ice cork, for lack of a better term, and it popped free. I’m not one of those activists. Warm water expands, so the answer is climate change”, Anton said.

“We were wondering why we’d never noticed it before because we have operated in this area before with active sonar and no one ever reported any anomalies,” Alpha One said.

“As I said, not their fault. That ice was very thick and one thing about ice is if there are air bubbles in it, remember, only low-frequency sound can go through the air. High frequencies tend to attenuate and reflect which makes the readings look like a wall.”

Alpha One looked puzzled for a moment before he said, “Anton, we looked into your background, how do you know so much about sonar?”

“Not sonar, sound. Also, we use sonar on our submersibles so I thought I should learn about sound and how sonar actually works. I watched some YouTube videos on ultrasound and sonar.” Anton said. His attention was drawn back to the monitor as it showed a sonar image of the entrance to the tunnel.

“Mr. Thomson,” Zulu One called from the front, “How old would you say the structure you found yesterday is?”

“Considering that the location the structure is located on the surface is covered by ice from the last ice age. If it was built when the continent was ice-free, at least 100 million years. If the facility was built after someone dug this hole to that location before ice covered the hole it’s at least 10,000 years old up to the 100 million I already stated, though it could have been built any time before 10,000 years ago. At least that’s what Bethenny said, and she has the Ph.D. in the subject,” Anton said.

“Did she say how the facility would continue to exist accounting for continental drift, earthquakes, and such?” Zulu One asked.

“She did not, though she said that if the facility was not built to withstand those factors that would indicate that it was built closer to 10,000 years as everything still appeared pristine. She said that right after we found the Pillar in the room with the clear floor.

“Clear floor?” Alpha One asked.

“Yeah, right after we enter the facility there’s a hallway to a room with a Pillar in the center of it that extends into the floor and down as far as the eye can see. The Floor there is not the glass and it’s clear, you can see right through it. There was ice there when we arrived but that all melted off after the energy surge,” Anton explained.

“Back to this tunnel, is there anything we should know?” Zulu one asked.

“Nope, it's just a flooded tunnel that extends about 2 miles into the continent. The depth stays about the same at 1,000 feet below the current sea level,” Anton said.

“How would they build something that can survive at his depth, is there an airlock of some sort?” Alpha One asked.

“No airlock, the tunnel ends in an underground lagoon which is lighted by something in the roof, which we weren’t able to reach. It must be airtight because the pressure of the ocean does not push the water up into the cave. Also, the air was breathable, and some mechanism was replacing the air because Boris said there was no change in carbon dioxide levels while we were out of the submersible. It’s one of the reasons we left him inside, just in case the air went bad, and we couldn’t get back.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about that, the mask you’re wearing has a rebreather in it. It has about an hour of air and automatically switches to outside air if available. It’s why we’re all wearing them,” Alpha One said.

“I thought It was so I wouldn’t be able to identify you later if we see each other on the road,” Anton quipped back.

“That too, of course,” Alpha One said.

“Back to the tunnel, the other thing we noticed is that it is perfectly circular,” Anton said.

“Perfectly Circular?” Alpha One asked.

“That's what we’re seeing up here,” Zulu one said. 30 feet, or 10 meters in diameter. A little tight for this submersible. How big is the lagoon at the end Mr. Thomson?”

“I want to say the lagoon looked to be about the size of a football field, so 100 yards long, give or take.”

“And the width,” Zulu One asked.

“Probably a little more than half that,” Anton said.

“Should be plenty of room to turn around,” one of the soldiers next to Zulu One said.

“Alright, we’re head in, unless there’s any sharp turns we need to worry about?”

“No sharp turns, it’s a straight, two-mile tunnel,” Anton said.

“Very well, we’re headed in,” Zulu One said as everyone watched the monitors as the submarine entered the tunnel.

Even though Anton told them it was a straight shot, they made their way carefully down the tunnel. Just under 15 minutes later the sub exited the tunnel into the lagoon and the pilot brought it to the surface where the monitors showed the docking station Anton had just left less than a day ago. After a little bit, they pulled up beside the docking port and Bravo Two opened the hatch and climbed out. Anto watched as another soldier followed him out of the submarine and they disconnected a plank from the top and made a walkway onto the docking structure.

“Lock her down, then everyone out. Mr. Anton if you’d wait for everyone except Alpha One and then follow. Alpha One, follow Mr. Anton out the hatch and lock her down please.”

“Yes, Sir!” Alpha One said.

Anton watched as everyone deployed out of the submarine, onto the dock, and then onto the shelf that led to the tunnel that went into the structure. They were in a standard two by two formation by the time Anton and Alpha One pulled up the rear. Anton watched Zulu One make a hand gesture then everyone headed up the ramp into the structure. They had their submachine guns ready and made their way forward.

For Anton, there were no surprises. The ramp led up about 50 feet above the lagoon water level, leveled off for about 30 feet, and then some steps dropped down about 20 feet leveled off for 20 feet, and then more steps back up 20 feet. A simple air lock that was meant to trap water if it ever flooded this far the water would fill this depression and stop, as long as there was no pressure leakage further in of course.

After the basic water lock feature a tunnel went on for 50 feet into the pillar room. This time, time, however, something was different. As he was climbing the steps Anton heard a buzzing sound and noticed a bright light at the top of the stairs.

Anton turned to Alpha One, “That buzzing is new. It wasn’t bright before either.”

A moment later Zulu One’s hand came up and everyone took up a defensive position along each wall. Slowly the group moved down the tunnel until it opened onto the transparent floor. Anton watched as the men entered the chamber and then kept to the wall as they went right and left. When he finally made it to the entrance of the room he had Alpha One beside. Zulu One and five other soldiers were off to his right while Bravo Two, who was right next to him, and four other soldiers were off to his left. Wait, that meant thirteen of them were in the room. A feeling of dread washed over Anton.

Anton was born on September 13th, 2013, which happened to be on Friday the 13th. Yesterday was Thursday, April 12th, 2040, which made today April 13th, 2040, another Friday the 13th. Whenever there was a conjunction of 13s, especially on Friday the 13th, bad shit always happened to him. The last time had been right after he’d turned 13. A couple of months later on November 13th, 2026 both of his parents had been in a car accident and died. As the only living child and no relatives to speak of he’d been dropped into foster care and without going into detail, he’d been in one shithole after another.

Anton had refused to give up his last name, and though his first name was Anthony, a nickname one of the foster kids he’d lived with had given him stuck. He’d hoped that adopting the nickname would change his luck, though after this recent turn of events he was thinking the answer to that question was no. He had thought himself extremely lucky to have been added to this expedition at the last second. He’d been with Bethenny when the discovery had been made and she hadn’t wanted him talking to anyone so she asked him to come with her when she went down to explore the cave which turned out to be a tunnel. She hadn’t had any nefarious plans as far as he could tell. She’d just thought that bringing him along would interest him. Anton thought she’d brought him along to make sure he didn’t tell anyone about her discovery, which he wouldn’t have, he liked Bethenny, plus she was cute. Of course, that was just wishful thinking, especially after he touched the Pillar.

Anton’s thoughts were drawn back to the present as he looked over to the Pillar and saw someone standing next to it. He could tell that there was some kind of holographic digital control panel next to the person, no it was a female. It was a beautiful female with black hair and red eyes who was pushing buttons on the holographic display. Anton watched as without looking up she called out something that he couldn’t understand.

Zulu One responded by aiming his weapon at the woman and calling out, “I cannot understand you. Please step away from the glowing panel. This is your only warning.”

The woman paused for a moment, moved her fingers, and touched her forehead. She cocked her head to the side as if listening to something then said in accented English, “Leave now and rejoice, The Entropy Shield will be activated momentarily, and the Chosen will continue forever.”

Zulu One switched on his laser sight which put a green dot on the woman’s body as the other eleven soldiers did the same. There was a grouping of green dots that he could see directly over her heart. Anton watched as the women sneered and began to turn back toward the council. Zulu One must have been one of those men that didn’t fuck because as soon as she decided to turn away he pulled his trigger and a 3-round burst sped toward the woman.

Anton watched as nothing happened to the women though he heard the sound of bullets ricocheting and bouncing all around him and the others.

One of the soldiers to his left grunted as he said, “Ricochet,” as blood started dripping from his upper arm.

Anton hadn’t even seen what repelled the bullets.

Without looking up, the woman called out “Leave Now, you cannot get through my Force Barrier?

Zulu One pointed to a soldier who moved forward until he was ten feet away from the Pillar and the women and he ran into something. Anton watched as he looked like he was feeling for a door and then a wall flattened his hand. He thought the soldier was acting until he stepped back and jumped into the air which stopped him cold. He landed on his feet lightly.

“Anything?” Zulu One asked the soldier.

“Nothing, Sir! It stopped me in my tracks, whatever it was. It doesn’t feel like glass, aluminum, or anything else I’ve ever come across.

“That’s because it's not,” the woman sneered, “It’s magic!”