Weapon of Atlantis (31 page)

“Horizon two,
resume fire. Short bursts amidships. That’s the engine compartment. Try to disable it,” he ordered.

“Yes Sir,” came the simple reply.

With the helicopter now lined up behind the spacecraft, the crew of the chase boat prepared to open fire.

Suddenly, before they could react, the spacecraft dipped below the surface. They let loose a
barrage of lead, following the craft as it descended. A moment later, Price shouted an order to cease fire.

“Horizon one, we’re still tracking the craft. It appears to be slowing its forward speed and traveling at a depth of thirty feet. Do you see it?”

“We can see its shadow under the water. I’m sure you hit it. Keep on top of them. I’m sure they’ll resurface again shortly,” Price said.

“What makes you so sure,” Hammond asked, now mildly curious.

“They punched a bunch of holes in it. It’s got to be taking on water. At some point, if they don’t come up, they’ll drown,” he responded with a wry smile.

----- ----- ----- -----

Inside the spacecraft, Jack continued to struggle with the controls. As the craft drifted lower, he pulled up hard on the digital image. He held its position steady, only to see the numbers indicate another descent.

“Shit, I don’t know how long I can keep this up. It wants to descend and I keep raising the nose higher and higher to overcome it. Pretty soon, I’ll be pointing the nose of the image straight up and we’ll still be descending. After that, there’ll be no chance of returning to the surface,” Jack warned.

“How much time do we have?” Javi asked, his face filled with fright.

Jack shook his head with uncertainty.

“I don’t know… minutes, hours. It’s hard to say,” he responded grimly.

“We need to hang on. Maybe we can resurface and pretend t
he doors won’t open,” Javi suggested.

Jack shot him a cynical stare.

“We’re going to need to do better than that old cliché. They’ll never fall for it,” he responded.

“Well, I’m all out of ideas
then,” Javi said overwhelmed.

Jack was about to respond, but noticed h
is numbers on the hologram now indicating the craft was descending. Again, he hauled back on the 3-D image. The craft climbed higher, then fell off once more. He shot Javi a worried glance, then moved the image even higher. As it stabilized, he noticed their speed beginning to slow.

“Not good. Now we’re having problems with our speed,” he said in
apprehension.

Javi watched the instruments and nodded. Desperate for an answer, Jack had an idea.

“Quickly, pull up the controls menu and search through the thruster display.”

“What am I looking for?” Javi shot back.

“It’s just a hunch, but I’m pretty sure the gravity and thrusters run on different systems. Maybe we just have a blown fuse like the one we replaced on the other craft.”

Javi nodded agreeably. He moved swiftly through the menus and located a pictorial diagram of the thrusts. He studied the information, then shook his head.

“I don’t see anything out of place, Jack,” he said disappointed.

Jack divided his attention between his hologram and Javi’s. His head shifted back and forth, studying the thruster diagram, then back to piloting the craft. Suddenly, he spotted the problem.

“That’s it!” he blurted loudly, startling Javi in his seat. “Check out the nose-cone thruster. It’s showing a flow velocity which means it’s actually pushing us backward slightly as the rear thrusters are driving us forward. That
has
to be it.”

“What do you want me to do?” Javi asked.

“Activate the thruster. A menu will come up and you can manually override the control of it. Just switch the velocity to zero. That should do it,” Jack instructed.

Javi’s finger
s moved swiftly through the menus. Seconds later, he rubbed his finger over a dial, shutting down the thruster. Instantly, the craft lunged forward, climbed up through the water and broke through the surface. Before Jack could react, they had climbed twenty feet above the water.

“Oh Shit!” Jack shouted
frantically.

He shoved hard on the 3-D image. It banked slightly left, then headed back down toward the surface. As it entered the water, they felt the blast from another rocket, violently jarring the structure as well as themselves. The craft tumbled
into the ocean and Jack fought the controls, desperately trying to right their position.

“Get ahold of it, Jack!” Javi shouted.

“Working on it!” Jack shouted in return.

He touched a button on the far side of the control panel. Slowly, the craft began to stabilize.

“Oh shit, we’re deep… two hundred feet deep,” he called out, his voice filled with panic.

He hauled back on the 3-D image barely seeing a change. He dragged his hand across his brow, wiping away his nervous sweat. As the craft inched its way higher, both men stared in quiet fear at the hologram, wonde
ring if they were going to make it.

Behind them, inside the engine compartment, a low hissing sound began to grow louder. Jack craned his head.

“Do you hear that?”

Javi listened for a moment, then said, “Yeah, it sounds like water spraying from a faucet.”

Fear swept across both men’s faces. The two glanced back into the engine room. The floor was now wet in front of the engine.

“Go back there
and check for leaks,” Jack said abruptly.

Javi sprung from his seat and rushed rearward. He shuffled around the side of the engine, then moved to the
back.

“Jack
, the rear area is pooling with water,” he shouted frantically.

“Can you see the leak?” Jack shouted back.

Javi studied the area, but saw nothing obvious.

“I don’t see anything. Must be buried behind the wall,” he shouted.

He rushed forward and took his seat.

“What do we do now?” he asked
in fearful tone.

“H
ead for the surface,” Jack said simply.

“But they’ll kill us,” Javi implored.

“Pick your poison: it’s either that or drowning,” he said, now fighting the controls once more.

Javi stared grimly at Jack. With a simple nod, he accepted his fate.

----- ----- ----- -----

Two hundred miles west of the conflict…

Flying at ten thousand feet, two Royal Australian Air force, Boeing
F/A-18F Super Hornets, raced across the ocean from Manila in the Philippines. Even at their top speed of thirteen hundred miles an hour, their arrival in time to save the two men in distress, would be doubtful.

Minutes after receiving the call,
Inspector DiApopolus of the Hellenic Police force in Greece, phoned the Grecian consulate in Australia. His dire plea for help for his two friends, as well as the discovery of the now infamous stolen alien spacecraft, prompted immediate action from the Australian Air Force. Minutes later, the two F/A-18’s were scrambled.

Col.
Benjamin Taylor scanned the data on his heads-up display. Pushing the aircraft to the limits of its abilities, he closely monitored the engine instruments. Although they seemed slightly elevated, he knew the condition would be only temporary. Satisfied with the operation of the aircraft, he next moved onto the flight characteristics. He skimmed over his heading, altimeter and navigation system. Everything appeared on target.

Seated behind him,
Weapons Systems Officer, Maj. Callum Addison studied his radar platform. At the far edge of his screen, he began to detect their targets.

“Sir, I’m picking them up, two hundred miles ahead. I should have a visual on them in eight minutes,” he sa
id coolly.

“Roger that. I’ll maintain altitude, speed and heading until visual,” Col. Taylor responded simply.

“Sir, I have the AIM-120’s standing by,” the major added.

“Arm when ready,” Col. Taylor ordered.

One hundred feet away, flying as Col. Taylor’s wingman, Col. Patrick Martin monitored his own instruments. Seated behind him, Weapons Systems Officer, Maj. Jarod Cooper focused on his radar and weapons. Just like Maj. Addison, Maj Cooper was also picking up the targets. Now only five minutes away, he armed their AIM-120 missiles.

Minutes later, less than a hundred miles from their targets, Colonel’s Taylor and Martin began to slow their aircraft. As they
decelerated through three hundred miles an hour, both weapons officers now had visual contact with the targets.

“Sir, I have three targets in sight and one target submerged,” Maj. Addison announced.

“Dammit, we’re too late. The submerged target’s got to be the spacecraft,” Col. Taylor responded.

“Yes Sir. I see a helicopter and chase boat paralleling each other and I can just make out the container ship a hundred miles east of their location.”

Col. Taylor realized their position. He pursed his lips in frustration.

“We can’t fire on them. There’s no hostilities down there. We’d create an international incident,” he said.

“I suggest a low pass. Maybe they’ll scare and fire on us,” Col. Martin suggested, following close behind the lead aircraft.

“Agreed,” Col. Taylor responded. “We’ll bring ‘em in low and fast. Maybe we can knock their hats off and they’ll give us the finger… a hostile act in my book.”

Col. Martin grinned.

“It’s pract
ically a death threat,” he said humorously.

“Low and fast it is,” Col. Taylor ordered.

----- ----- ----- -----

“Horizon one, target is slowing dramatically. I’m reading their ascent as a few feet per minute. We got ‘em,” the Mark-V pilot reported.

“Good work, Horizon two. We can see their shadow. How close to the surface are they?” Price asked.

“Twenty feet, Sir. Close enough for the fifty cal. Should we pump a few rounds into them?” he asked.

Price glanced to Hammond for consideration. Hammond shook his head.

“We can still recover the craft,” he said to Price.

Price nodded, then keyed his mic.

“Negative, Horizon two. Prepare to assist recovery team,” he responded.

“Yes Sir, my team is standing by,” Horizon two replied.

----- ----- ----- -----

Inside the spacecraft, a desperate struggle ensued. Water rushed in from the rear, filling the floor of the craft to the men’s knees. As it sloshed inside, tiny waves kicked up, and began to spill over onto the hologram platform.

Jack held the 3-D image of the craft in his hand, pointing the nose nearly vertical. Beads of sweat dripped from his face, not from exertion, but from fear. With twenty feet to go before reaching the surface and very little upward ascent, he knew their time had almost run out.

“Jack, we’re almost stopped and the water’s rushing in faster by the minute. Even if we can somehow float to the top, I don’t think we’ll be able to get out before drowning,” Javi said anxiously.

Jack ignored his frightened friend and concentrated on keeping the craft pointed higher. Fighting a tenuous line, if he forced the nose of the craft too high, the controls became unresponsive and the craft would sink. If he held the nose at a neutral position, the added weight of the on-rushing water would also cause the craft to sink. Finding the right balance drew every bit of his concentration.