New Atlantis

By Jane Woods

---

Chapter Nine

Tony had learned of a short cut to the shops and social areas of ring two. He just had to cut through the docking and cargo section of the outer ring to get to the sea walk the employees took that connected the two rings but did not continue on to the hub. It was much faster.

He was almost to the sea walk when suddenly the ground heaved up knocking him off his feet. He fell hard against a forklift. He lay on the ground, momentarily stunned. He saw docking bay employees rushing onto the private sub that had docked a short time ago. In their haste to escape they did not properly seal the docking bay door and sea water began to flood the area. The ground was still rolling and Tony had a hard time getting to his feet. By this time alarms were sounding and the watertight doors were automatically closing cutting this section off from the rest of the ring.

For a few minutes Tony struggled to get to the baydoor controls but the force of the water was too strong and he could not make any headway. Finally he gave up as the bay quickly filled with water. Forklifts and pallets of cargo were lifted off the ground. Smaller items were tossed around. He wasn't worried about drowning but being crushed by heavy machinery was becoming a very real possibility. He fought his way to a sheltered little alcove and braced himself as best he could. He ripped his shirt off and began breathing through his gills.

Once more the room seemed to lift up with even more force than before. The crash was bone jarring this time. Huge cracks appeared in the floor around the pylons and the water filling the room was joined by a viscous substance that was pumping into the room with even more force than the water was. It was between Tony and the baydoor. A dark cloud of it quickly engulfed him. He couldn't see through it and he desperately clawed his way into it in hopes of escape. The substance got into his gills clogging them. He tried to reach around and clear them but the stuff was too thick. It burned and the pain was agony. The goo was in his mouth and his eyes. He was becoming disoriented. He began to panic as he realized he was actually going to drown. His body screamed out for oxygen. He was about to pass out. It hurt so much he welcomed the relief that would provide. He was feeling very groggy but he was aware of something bumping into him. Something grabbed his arm. He had no strength to fight whatever it was. He just wanted to sleep. He felt a black curtain drop over him.

Lt Shan and Chief Crocker were rechecking every inch of the place for explosives. Both were security men and neither was as confident as Captain Bridger that things were safe, at least for the moment. They were in the outer ring. Lt Shan checked the deck near the pylons once more with a device not unlike a stethoscope. "These sound different than the others," he noted.

"Yeah, but they always have. That's nothing unusual," Crocker told him. "What we're looking for is ------"

Suddenly the ground thrust up knocking them both onto their keisters. They automatically covered their heads with their hands and curled up in the classic survival position. When the jolt was over they jumped to their feet and ran back to where seaQuest was docked. Several aftershocks slowed them but they kept going. They passed several dock workers running about. Most were headed for the designated shelters as instructed by the mechanical computer voice that droned on over the noise and confusion, but some headed for Rupert Channing's private sub. Crocker figured they were looking to escape not trying to protect the sub from being damaged. SeaQuest had to be protected from that, though. When they reached her they began releasing the docking mechanisms. "Most of the crew is on shore leave," Crocker said. "You help them get her outta here. I'm heading back for the hub to see what I can do. This place looks like it's shutting itself off like it's supposed to."

Shan nodded and hopped onto seaQuest as another severe jolt hit them. Only his martial arts skills made it possible for him to stay on his feet. Crocker released the last of the docking seals and they secured seaQuest's hatch.

Ford was alone on the bridge when the first shock hit. The entire boat rolled with it knocking him off his feet. He banged his head on the side of the communications console on the way down and bent his right wrist back under himself. He heard a loud pop as he landed. He felt stunned for a minute but fiery pain shot up his arm bringing him around immediately.

He was able to grab onto the conn with his left hand and ride out the second jolt. He wasn't sure what was happening but he knew his orders were to get seaQuest away if there was trouble. He'd never done this all by himself before but seaQuest was designed to be a last man bridge so theoretically it was possible for one person to run the whole boat. He went from position to position routing their function controls to the com. A wave of dizziness overtook him with the third jolt and he had to sit down in the captain's chair. He closed his eyes till they both passed. When he opened them again a pajama-clad Brody stood next to him.

"What the hell's going on?" Brody demanded clutching his left side.

"Hey, you're supposed to be in med bay. You're on sick call."

"You don't look so hot yourself," Brody told him looking at what he had done. "We're moving the boat," he surmised. He checked the docking statis. "Looks like we're clear. Release the helm to me," he said sliding into one of the helms positions. "You can't do this all by yourself."

Ford wanted to argue that he could, but somehow didn't feel up to that. Brody was too bull headed. "I can't, if I release helm control it will require two operators."

"You got two," Shan said slipping into the second position.

"Who the hell are you?" Brody demanded.

A severe jolt ended all conversation and they eased the seaQuest away from the dock and away from New Atlantis. The seaQuest could ride this out in relative safety if it was not tethered to a structure that sat on the ground. They used the onboard sensors for guidance as two of the WSKRS were employed in the wide area search the captain had ordered. The other was stuck on the surface and Ford had been unable to recall it. When they were clear Ford breathed a sigh of relief.

"You'd better sit down, Commander," Shan suggested. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good," Ford admitted with out realizing it.

Just then Lt. Albright, the head nurse from med bay, entered the bridge under full steam. "There you are, Lt. Brody! You can't just run out of med bay whenever you chose...." She  was about to begin a long lecture.

"We're a little busy here, Lieutenant. Take a look at Commander Ford. He's been injured," Brody interrupted her.

Ford sat slumped in the captain's chair. He had promised himself he would close his eyes for just a minute. When his eyes were closed he heard a voice that was at once strange and familiar. 'I sail my boat away from Atlantis. My beautiful country and all of her people are gone.'

"NO!" he yelled opening his eyes.

"For Heaven sake, Commander, it's just a disinfectant." Lt. Albright was treating the cut on his head.

He hadn't realized she was there. He suddenly felt desperate and confused. "We're not deserting them. The captain ordered me to get the boat away!"

"Of course he did," she reassured him. "We can't help anybody if the boat is damaged." Since her normal acerbic disposition was not in evidence it told him she thought he was injured.

"I'm alright," he told her.

"I don't think so, Commander. You could have a concussion and I'm certain your wrist is broken."

"Just give me something to keep my head clear. This is an emergency," he commanded.

She immobilized his wrist and bandaged his bleeding temple. She gave him an injection that would help him stay on his feet but due to his head injury she could not give him a strong dose. "This will help a little," she promised. "But you'd better stay sitting. Can't have you falling and cracking your head again."

"Okay," he agreed. He was not altogether sure how long he could stay on his feet. The shot did help a little but the words of the Ancient Atlantian continued to torture him.

"Is it an earthquake?" Brody asked.

"There was a threat against the place," Shan told him. "Someone was going to blow it up but we couldn't find any explosives."

"They must have been set farther away. Lt. Albright, come sit here and hold onto this. That's right," Brody got up and went to the sensor station. He keyed the data from the WSKRS continuing wide area sweep to the sensor screen. He found what he was looking for. "Deltas!" he spat. "Let's get 'um."

"Do it," Ford agreed. He needed something to fight too. He had to do something to stop feeling so useless.

Shan reached over to the helm seat that the nurse occupied and pushed a button. "Do what I do," he told her.

"I'm a nurse not a bus driver, " Lt. Albright complained paraphrasing her favorite TV doctor. She did, however, obey.

Dagwood and Penelope had better eyesight than humans do and were able to pick their way out of the darkened movie theater. Once outside they heard mechanized female voice telling them to follow the emergency lighting to the nearest shelter. They noticed tubing in the floor with led crystal lights running through them. They went in the direction the lights indicated. It led them to a 30 person life pod. A man dressed as a shopkeeper stood in the doorway with a large flashlight.

"This way," he called. "Hurry!"

When they got inside the man closed the hatch. It was heavy and Dagwood helped him with it. Most of the occupants of the life pod were shopkeepers but a few people from the seaQuest were in there as well.

"What's happening?" Dagwood asked.

"Must be an earthquake," one of the shopkeepers surmised.

"We've been drilled in these procedures so much. We did nothing but complain about it but I guess that Crocker guy was right. I remembered exactly what to do," another admitted.

"Don't worry," a woman told them. "These life pods are just a precaution. This facility was built to withstand a quake of 8.9." She was not a shopkeeper but one of the scientists who'd been shopping.

When the first big jolt hit Ortiz, Henderson and O'Neill were thrown off the bench they had been sitting on.

"I told you!" Ortiz screamed in frustration "I told you it's not over!"

"He's really had it," Henderson said quietly to O'Neill. "His nerves are so on edge he might crack." She found herself more worried about her friend than her own safety. She put her arm around his shoulders. She could feel how tense and tight he was.

Another jolt hit. O'Neill tried to shelter them both. They heard distant sirens and a flat computerized voice cut in telling them to follow the emergency lighting to the designated shelters.

"Come on, Miguel," Henderson got up and tried to pull him to his feet. "It's just like on the boat."

"I was supposed to go home tomorrow," he said miserably.

"And you will. Right now, we have to get to the shelters." She took his hand.

Tim also helped and soon they were all walking to the shelter but Ortiz seemed resigned to meet his fate and moved mechanically.

The lights led them to an area with four large pods together. The hatches to three were closed and a sign built into the lock said 'at capacity'. The hatch to the fourth was wide opened. Another shock hit.

O'Neill grabbed the hatch with one hand and Lonnie with the other. "I don't see any one else around. Get in." He had to raise his voice to be heard.

"The water is going to come now." Ortiz had an eerie calmness to his voice.

Lonnie shot Tim a worried look and pulled Ortiz inside. Tim followed them and pulled the hatch closed behind him. Lonnie sat Ortiz on one of the benches and went back to help Tim secure the hatch. "Man, he's out of it." She was scared.

"Keep him talking," Tim suggested.

"There see," Lonnie said pleasantly as they went and sat near Ortiz. "We're safe. The water can't get us in here."

"Nobody's safe!" he spat. "The water will come. Just like before. Nothing can stop it. The people will be screaming and running but they can't escape. They are going to die and Atlantis is going to be destroyed AND THEY DESERVE IT!!" He was up and pacing.

"Calm down, Miguel," O'Neill ordered in his best Lieutenant's voice but he could not yell convincingly at his friend.

"Well, they do. Look at all they've done. Taking whatever they want from whomever they want. Look at us. They have us locked here so we can't escape what's coming. But neither can they," he laughed. "They have defied the gods and now they will pay!"

"Miguel." Lonnie forced her voice to be calm even though she was afraid. His eyes were wild and unfamiliar. It was like he was someone else. "Please try and relax. We'll be alright."

"No, we won't. We are going to die! But our captors will die too. I had a sword," he told them. "I went after them. No one could stop me," he laughed. "They couldn't even get close to me. I was like a jaguar! But then ---" He suddenly became serious. Almost sad. "-there was that dart." He put his hand to his forehead like he was suddenly in pain. "There was poison. It stopped my heart." He sounded confused.

"Yes, it did," Tim suddenly realized what he was talking about. "But Wendy and Professor Abatu saved you by taking you to Atlantis."

"No. The Atlantians brought me here. They stole us. How can you not remember?" He was becoming agitated. "If they poisoned me, why do I remember how it was at the end?"

"Some poisons work very slowly," Lonnie said. "Miguel." She put her hand on his chin and forced him to look at her. "You are remembering another life. That happened a long time ago. It's not who you are now."

"I just wanted to go home but they killed me," he said quietly.

"No, Miguel, they killed him. That other person. You are fine. You will go home tomorrow."

"Evil forces working against each other brought them down," he said simply.

"Miguel. LOOK AT ME. You know me. You know Tim. Concentrate!"

He looked from one to the other. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Are you alright, now?" Tim asked him.

"I - I remembered something," he said quietly. "Something bad."

Just then the earth moved forcefully again.

"Are you sure it's not happening again?" he asked.

"This Atlantis can't be destroyed by being sunk to the bottom of the sea. It's already there," Tim reminded him.

"I guess I was acting like kind of a jerk," he guessed.

"Not at all," Lonnie said. "You were reliving a past life experience. A pretty dramatic one. You were there at the end of Atlantis."

"Yes. I was a slave. I hated them. I wanted to kill them all myself. I remember the noise. The confusion. Screams. Buildings falling. The earth heaving up. Just like it is now."

"It must have been terrifying," Lonnie said softly.

"I wasn't afraid," he argued. "I was angry. When the earth shook the first time I grabbed the sword from my guard. I was in a tunnel or a mine of some kind. No a catacomb. It was a funeral detail. I ran away but I got lost. The Earth kept shaking and skulls tumbled down from the shelves in the walls. Horrible, grinning, Atlantian skulls -- telling me I'd never be free. I'd never get home again. Then that guard shot me with the dart. It was poison. I knew I would die. The shaking lasted for days. Some of the Atlantains got away in boats. The shaking got worse and worse. I was sick. I couldn't get away. Finally the ocean swallowed everything up and it was over."

"My god, Miguel!" Lonnie asked "Have you always had such a clear memory of all this?"

"No. Just since I got zapped by that helmet."

"You acted it all out. There was no medical reason for your heart to be failing, but it was. That explains it. You should talk to Wendy about this."

"I'd rather think about something else. Something more upbeat."

"Anybody know any funny stories?" Lonnie asked.

"I know one," Tim said taking a notepad from his pocket and making a sketch.

Lucas and CC exploded out of Lucas' quarters and headed for the bridge after the first shock rocked the seaQuest. The rolling motion of the boat made walking nearly impossible but they persevered arriving just after the deltas had been spotted.

"Lucas," Brody ordered, "relieve me here. I'm getting on weapons."

CC followed Lucas to the sensor station. "I thought you were a civilian."

"I am but that doesn't mean I'm totally useless."

When Brody was in place Ford hailed the deltas demanding their surrender. Taking on the seaQuest was a whole lot different than attacking a shuttle. The deltas ran for it. Before long three were disabled. They chased the other two all the way to Macronesian waters. Finally the hail was answered. CC had been able to figure out the communications system and sat at that position not wishing to be totally useless either. He was astounded when the face on the vidscreen was none other than his brother's.

"CC?"

"Rupee?"

Before any more conversation could go on between the two brothers a stout man in a uniform took over the call stepping in front of Rupert Channing jr. "Attention seaQuest!" he barked. "You are in violation of Macronesian Colonial Waters. Turn about at once or it will be considered as an act of war by the UEO and appropriate measures will be taken."

Macronesian threat against seaQuest or the UEO was pretty laughable. This Macronesian colony had once been the Falkland Islands. After acid rain killed the grass it was useless even for sheep. No government frankly wanted it any more. When Macronesia annexed it as their foothold in the Atlantic in a dramatic takeover, no one had really cared at all. It was a clear cut case of the mouse that roared. Macronesia was a tiny place with delusions of grandeur. They had almost no natural resources and their dictator's main source of income was from the criminals he granted asylum to, for a price. The man in the uniform told them that Macronesia had granted Rupert Jr. political asylum also and as they did not have extradition agreements with the UEO, seaQuest was to leave their waters immediately.

Ford reluctantly agreed to do so but he warned that the deltas would be sunk on sight should they venture out of Macronesian waters for any reason. He also declared that Rupert Channing jr. was now a fugitive from UEO justice and worldwide warrants would be issued for him. Both he and his deltas were stuck in Falkland Islands. Macronesia would get no benefit from them. Rupert Channing's vast fortune was now completely out of reach for his son and the dictator who had hoped to use them for his own purposes. The fool's dream of world domination would never see the light of day. Rupert Channing jr. was confined to prison of his own making at no expense to the UEO. This was the best they could do so they settled for it and headed back to New Atlantis.

At the first rumble Kreig and Tyler held each other up as they made for the door. "The shelters are too far," Krieg told her. He pulled the heavy hatch closed. "This is a submarine. It's water tight. It's safer to stay right where we are than to get caught between here and the shelter."

"Caught by what?" Tyler hardly dared ask. The floor seemed to rise up. She lost her balance. He grabbed her and they fell down together.

"Water," he said simply. "If there's been a breach there'll be a wall of water surging down the street."

"And we're safe here?" Her voice shook a little.

"Nothing beats a submarine underwater," he told her honestly. "You suppose that's where they get the name?" he asked.

She laughed.

"That's more like it. We couldn't be stuck in a better place. We've got access to Captain Nemo's private stash. How about some more wine?"

"What else have we got to do?"

Kreig could think of something but didn't make any suggestions.

The GELFs followed the instructions to the nearest shelter. Since they were the only ones in the residential section they were the only ones in this shelter.

"What's happening?" Rachel demanded.

"Some sort of seismic activity," Benjamin said seriously.

"This place looks completely secure." Tobias, the engineer had checked the shelter out. "We can just relax."

Suddenly Lillian gasped.

"What is it?!" Elijah demanded

"Lay down on this bench, Lillian," Anna instructed. "It is merely a reaction to the change in pressure and the stress. Put your feet up and breathe as I taught you."

Soon Lillian was more relaxed. "Don't worry," she told Elijah. "Your son is not ready to be born just yet."

"That's good," Corrine teased. "Because James and William would surely have fainted."

"What do we do now?" Martin wondered.

"Wait for further instructions," Benjamin stated simply.

"I hope Penelope and Alexander are alright," Rachel worried.

"Penelope is with Dagwood," Corrine remembered.

"Alexander is in the hub. That should be the safest place," Tobias put in.

Alexander was in the hub and hard at work on his painting. He was completely oblivious to the chaos that was happening around him as he recaptured the chaos of the cataclysm that took the original Atlantis. He never heard or obeyed any instructions to go to a shelter.

Dr. Josh Levin's lab was on the 22nd level of the complex. Much of the motion of the ocean floor had been absorbed as had been intended by the designers.

"It's happening," Jamie sobbed. "Just like before."

Wendy had to let Josh tend to her. She was being flooded with emotions. Not just sorrow but abject terror and other negative emotions. She felt light headed and drained but she fought for control. She struggled to put her wall up but pyschonics were so amplified under the sea that she could not defeat them.

"Just go with it, Wendy," Josh suggested.

"No. No we have to do something. Help people. They are going to panic," she told him. She knew panic was one of the most dangerous things mankind faced. She got up and led the way to the door. "Come on."

They followed. Wendy switched her PAL to loudspeaker mode. Scientists were milling about nervously in the hallway. She got their attention and using strong suggestion to calm them got them to listen to and follow the instructions being given by the announcements. They got them into the designated shelter and went level to level doing the same thing.

Captain Bridger and Dr. Westphalen were barely able to stay on their feet when the building suddenly jolted upwards. Bridger, in fact, nearly tumbled over the railing to the deck below. His blood was pounding so loudly in his ears that Kristin's voice sounded miles away as she demanded: "What in blazes was that?!"

Someone coming off the sea walk yelled "Earthquake!" People began to run.

"Don't panic," Kristin tried to yell above the din.

Again the complex jumped.

Bridger suddenly felt outside of this reality. All he could think of was Alexander's painting. It seemed too real. He could hear people running, even screaming. There was panic. He looked around but did not see the scientists and workers of New Atlantis. It was another place and another time. He stood on a cobble stoned street. Chunks of masonry fell from buildings. People were dressed strangely making him think of statues. He found himself running to the center of the hub city. He felt furious. They had finally done it! The two opposing powers of science and the military had locked horns. Neither side had backed down and now the destruction of civilization, as they knew it, was upon them. Why hadn't they listened to him? He had always tried to keep them in check. The two forces had worked against each other and now it was all over for everyone. He hated them all. He hated everything. He didn't mind dying. He could join his wife and son that way. He just hated losing. He'd tried to wash his hands of this endless power struggle. He should have been more diligent. The king and the prince must escape this. He had to get them to the boat. "The boat has to get away!" he yelled desperately.

"It is, Nathan, look!" Kristin grabbed his arm and pointed out the window.

Her pinch brought him back to reality. He looked up to see the seaQuest pulling away. He was completely confused by the vision that had overtaken him. Confused and even a little frightened. He'd felt that anger and disgust once before. It had something to do with the Atlantian helmet. Alexander's painting had almost stirred the memory. It had seemed like a foreboding came over him when he saw it. And a sense of helplessness. He was helpless before but not this time. He also realized that there were two forces at work this time, as well. One was Rupert Channing jr. and his explosives but it was something more. He didn't know what but one look at Rupert Channing sr. told Bridger that he knew what the other one was.

"What the hell's going on, Channing?" he demanded. "What have you brought down upon our heads?"

"I can stop it," Channing suddenly realized. "All I have to do is stop the drilling and everything should stabilize."

"What drilling?!" Kristin shrilled above the clatter.

Channing did not answer. He just rolled his way onto the sea walk. He was going against the flow of traffic but his determination made people get out of his way. Bridger and Kristin followed him all the way to the outer ring. The shocks and the damage was much greater here.

"Go back." Crocker ran up to them. "This place is losing its structural integrity. Parts of it are flooding. We have to close it off from the rest of the place or it'll all go down."

"No," Channing said. "I have to get to the Pumping Station."

"What Pumping Station?" Crocker demanded.

"The third power house. I've got to shut it down." Channing drove his motorized wheel chair past them. They followed at a run.

"What's he talking about, Cap?" Crocker asked.

"Oil, I'm afraid." Bridger was disgusted. He pointed out to the ocean. Oil that moved almost like smoke clouded the water.

Tears of anger, hurt and frustration burned at Kristin's eyes. Once again she'd fallen for Rupert Channing's beautiful words and once again she'd been horribly betrayed.

Katie Hitchcock stood in the cargo area of the Recovery with Captain Hudson. They were looking at the mural that was painted on the piece of bridge tower they'd scavenged from the Carlton.

"That's quite a picture," Hudson commented.

"Yeah, but not much of a career," Katie said sadly.

"Funny, you don't strike me as a quitter."

"Quitter?!" Katie's voice reached a pitch one octave below what only dogs could hear. "I'm no quitter. I'm sure I can find some other meaningful thing I can do with my life."

"There's always the Navy."

"I may re-enlist," she ceded.

"The X O position on this boat will be open soon."

"You think I could get it?!"

"I could put in a request. One of the great things about being irascible is that people would rather go along with you than cross you."

She threw her arms around him with joy. Then she suddenly realized what she was doing. "Oh." she blushed "I'm sorry, sir."

"I'm not," he admitted.

"Captain Hudson," Fredricks interrupted over the intercom.

"What is it, Fred?"

"We're picking up an emergency distress call from New Atlantis. They are having an earthquake."

"A what?"

"That's what they say. Parts of it are breaking up."

"They're playing our song," Hudson said. "Lock in the coordinates for New Atlantis. All ahead full."

"Already done."

"I'm on my way."

The intercom clicked as Fredricks turned it off. "Doesn't she have her eye on the X O job?" Katie asked.

"Fredricks? Hell no. She's not interested in command and she's not disciplined enough for it. She's a full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes speeder jockey. She lives to be "flying" one of these vehicles. She'd have been a top gun pilot 25 years ago. She's the best there is in a dogfight underwater as well. That's her challenge - her dream - what puts the fire in her belly. We all do our own thing."

"Yours is rescue?"

"You've been on both sides of a rescue situation. Have you ever been more alive or more in need? Have you ever known anything more important?"

"No," she suddenly realized. "I haven't."

"Being there for people who really need you. Cheating death. Giving people their lives back. What could be better?"

"Certainly NOT hauling oil."

"Yeah and less than 1/5 the salary to pay taxes on."

"The pipeline was already in place when the Conservation Concordance came into being and put the kibosh on my operation," Channing was explaining once they got to the pumping station that had been secreted inside the power house. "I finally figured out a way to get back at the conservationists using the new, improved, nearly silent and pollution free drilling methods they made us develop. Kind of poetic justice, huh?"

"So all this was nothing more than an elaborate oil rig?!" Kristen shook with anger.

Bridger put his arms on hers to calm her but he shared her anger.

"No, no, Kris, everything I told you was true. You can see for yourself I was right. New Atlantis is just what you wanted it to be."

"No it isn't. It's a sham just like Tyler thought it was."

"Tyler?"

"She never trusted you."

"She's just like her mother. Who says pretty girls can't be smart?"

"I wish I had seen through your lies."

"They weren't lies. I did want New Atlantis to be a learning and scientific center - just like we tried to get those fools to see all those years ago."

"You wanted to get the last laugh on everyone. The Concordance and the Scientific Community. You just had to get your way!"

"I'm afraid, you're right. I guess I couldn't accept my own mortality and instead of dealing with that I put all my energy into beating the few systems that ever beat me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that my own son would bring my grand scheme crashing to the ground."

"Maybe this place should come crashing down," Kristin said bitterly.

"Don't say that. Once I saw this place I realized what a mistake I made. This was of far greater importance than the oil it was sitting on. You probably won't believe this. I wouldn't blame you if didn't, but I was going to have the system shut down gradually, safely. Now I'll have to chance doing it all at once."

"How do you know ----" Bridger began.

"I'm a geologist. Putting the oil back to help absorb the shocks is the only thing that will stop the chain reaction the explosions set off. I'm going to shut it down and then reverse it."

"Rupert," Kristin gasped, "the pressure will ---"

"Kill me? Yes, I know."

"We're not going to let a crippled man ---" Crocker began.

"Yes, you are. Let me do one decent thing in my life. I'd rather go like this than as a vegetable. That's how I'll end up, isn't it, Kris?"

"Your disease is will progressively continue to debilitate you," she agreed.

"Besides I have the most to lose if this goes under."

"Your reputation?" Bridger guessed

"Your money?" Crocker asked

"Your pride?" Kristin wondered.

"None of those things are worth a hill of beans. My kids are here. Don't let anything happen to them. Promise me that, Kris?"

She nodded.

"Give me a boost," he told Bridger and Crocker. They lifted him out of his wheel chair up onto a platform in front of a large flywheel. He steadied himself by leaning against the wheel.

"The power is shut down in here. Can you do this manually?" Crocker wondered.

"I only use the motor on this thing when I'm in a hurry. In the last year and a half I've developed a tremendous amount of upper body strength. Now, get out of here. I won't turn this till I see you in the inner ring. I designed each part of this place to be independent of one another. Get yourselves to a shelter. When I reverse the oil, this whole ring could go and that might affect the inner ring as well."

"Rupert I," Kristin began.

"Time has run out, Kris. Go. Get her out of here."

Another big tremor shook the place. Bridger and Crocker each took one of her arms and made their way to the sea walk as fast as they could. The sea walk was rolling like a rope bridge and it was all they could do to stay on their feet and keep moving. Sections of the glass encasing the sea walk bowed in dangerously. When they got to the inner ring Crocker sealed the sea walk just as another shock slammed into it ripping it free.

"Shelters are this way." Crocker led them to one that had the door standing open. They dove inside and sealed the hatch. A nearby explosion knocked them all to the ground. The shelters were the only places in New Atlantis that were not glassed in. They couldn't tell what was happening on the other side of the hatch.

Inside the pumping station Rupert Channing peered out the porthole in the door. He saw Bridger and Crocker run down the corridor with Kristin between them. He had never intended that she find out about this. He really had wanted New Atlantis to be beyond reproach not just to hide the truth about the oil drilling but because it really was a great idea. An idea that the world needed. More than it needed oil even. The oil supplies would run out, not just here but everywhere. The potential that New Atlantis had was far greater than the mere oil supplies it sat upon. It had to be saved.

He finally saw them on the sea walk. They were almost safe.

Another pitch of the Earth hit them all. He held onto the large flywheel before him. When he looked back out the porthole he could no longer see them. He hoped they had made it to the shelter. The weight of his body had turned the wheel. The process of shutting the pumping station down had begun. He had no choice now but to see it through. Using all of his upper body strength he pulled on the wheel again. There was a clanking sound as medal rubbed against medal. Slowly the pumps were grinding to a halt. The actual pumping apparatus had an independent power supply to avoid suspicion. It was located elsewhere and was unaffected by what was happening here. He could feel the mighty pumps slow and then stop.

As quickly as he could, he set all the gears and mechanisms in reverse. The pumps and the rest of the systems should have had at least 24 hours to cool and readjust before he reversed the flow of the oil. He didn't have 24 hours. New Atlantis would not survive if this powerful seismic activity did not stop. The momentum far below them had begun. Replacing the oil should cushion the force of the shocks. Nature had put this oil here for a reason.

He yanked with all his might and the wheel began to turn the opposite way. He heard the medal screaming in protest. He smelled the smoke as the friction of medal on medal built up to a dangerous level. He felt a shudder as the mechanism began to buck in protest. The pressure and the noise were building up but he kept turning the wheel in the direction that reversed the flow of the oil. He knew it would eventually blow but he kept the flow going. It was a real battle. Sweat broke out on his brow and ran into his eyes. The muscles in his arms strained to the breaking point.

Finally he felt it. A huge lurch deep beneath him told him that inertia had taken over and the oil was once more flowing into the caverns under the complex.

He let his muscles relax and he leaned against the wheel. He knew what the obvious conclusion was to this maneuver. The pressure was searching for a way to be released. It would take the path of least resistance. That was not through the cavern system that was now being replenished with oil. It would follow the shaft upward right to this pumping station. He felt the wheel begin to tremble slightly. "Good-bye, Kris," he murmured. The vibration grew stronger. His chair was several feet away. He never would have made it if he tried to crawl to it. Besides, Rupert Channing did not crawl. He grasped the wheel with both hands enabling himself to stand up and looked death in the face.

The explosion that ripped the pumping station off its foundation and blew it into a million pieces was the most fierce jolt they had yet experienced. It lasted for ninety seconds and then it was over. The aftershocks that followed each lessened in intensity and the complex itself seemed to breath a sigh of relief as everyone came to realize it was finally over.

To be continued......

Screen captures courtesy Patt. Be sure to check out her great website seaQuest screen captures & sound files

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