Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle a-2

by Robert Doherty

  Ragnarok cracked open his eyes to see how Tam Nok was taking all this. It had always sounded so right, so normal, when told in a Viking lodge among his own people, but telling the creation story in the land of the Saxons, to a woman from a far land, he wondered for the first time. Tam Nok was watching him, her face betraying no emotion.

  “Ymir became hungry, so he milked Audhumbia. Of course, the cow had nothing to forage on in the land of ice. Nevertheless, she licked the ice and in doing so, uncovered another creature, long buried. This was Buri the Producer. He was the grandfather of Odin, the God who rules now in Asgard.

  “Full of milk, Ymir became tired and lay down to sleep. The heat from Surtr’s sword made him sweat and from this sweat came Thrudgelmir, the six-headed giant from whom all the frost giants are descended.”

  “A six-headed giant?” Tam Nok asked. “A man?”

  Ragnarok nodded.

  “We have a legend of a seven-headed snake- the Naga,” Tam Nok said.

  Ragnarok shrugged. “The only snakes I know of in the legends are Jormungand, one of the spawn of Loki and Angrboda and the hydra. Jormungand is a most terrible creature that was cast into the ocean by Odin. It grew so long there, it eventually encircled Midgard. The hydra is a beast that fights for the darkness- six heads, not seven- and it spits poison. I have never seen one, but I talked to a man who said he encountered one in Eire Land”

  “I have never seen a real Naga either,” Tam Nok said. “It is strange how different stories can come out of perhaps the same thing, twisted over the years of telling to fit the land where they are told in.”

  “This is not a story,” Ragnarok said. “This is the way the world began.”

  “But my people have a different way the world began,” Tam Nok said. “I have traveled far and in each land I have listened to their story of the beginning of man and there are always things that are similar. The snake in the ocean is also in my culture. It is part of the story of the way the world began and the way the world ends. Please continue,” Tam Nok urged.

  Ragnarok thought for a second to remember where he had stopped his tale. “The god Buri had a son, named Bor. Who married a giantess named Bestla and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve.

  “A war started between the children of Bor and the children of the monster Thrudgelmir. They fought for many, many years in the depths of Ginnungagap.

  “Finally, Odin and his brothers were able to ambush and kill the first of the frost giants, Ymir. His boiling blood killed most of the rest of the giants. Only a few escaped on a ship, sailing on the ocean of blood, to establish a new land to the south, where they started a new race.

  “Odin, flush with victory, decided to make a world. The only thing he could use was Ymir’s body. They already had the oceans from his blood. From the flesh they created Midgard-” Ragnarok pointed down- “where we live. Ymir’s flesh is the earth, his bones the hills, his teeth the cliffs of the fjords, his hair the trees and grass, his skull the sky above.

  “One day while walking, Odin came upon two trees that had been knocked down. One was ash, one an elm. Odin breath life back into these trees, giving them a spirit and a thirst for knowledge. They were the first man and woman.” Ragnarok spread his hands. “Since then, man and the Gods have had many adventures. Too many for me to tell in one day.”

  “How does it all end?” Tam Nok asked.

  Ragnarok thumped his chest. “It ends in a great battle. A battle for which my mother named me: Ragnarok- the final conflict between the forces of light and darkness.”

  “Why did your mother give you the name of this battle that has yet to be fought?”

  “I do not know,” Ragnarok admitted.

  “Was your mother as seer? A priestess?”

  “My mother could see things-” Ragnarok paused- “but she could not see useful things. If she had, my father would still be alive.”

  “Seeing things does not mean you can change things,” Tam Nok said. “Maybe she did see what would happen, but knew there was nothing she could do about.”

  The thought had never occurred to Ragnarok.

  “Would your father have listened if your mother warned him about whatever it was that you thought she should have seen?” Tam Nok asked. “Would he have changed his actions?”

  Ragnarok reluctantly shook his head. “No, he wouldn’t have done anything different. He had too-”

  “Too much pride?” Tam Nok finished the sentence.

  “Maybe,” Ragnarok said. He didn’t add that he knew his mother had warned his father.

  “And who wins the final battle?” Tam Nok asked, bringing him back to their present situation.

  “Both sides lose,” Ragnarok said. “The gods and monsters pair off and fight. Thor and the large snake Jormungand fight each other. Thor kills the snake with his mighty hammer but not before the snake bites him and fills him with venom.”

  “A mighty hammer?” Tam Nok repeated. “An interesting weapon.”

  “You think that is what we are searching for?” Ragnarok asked. “Thor’s hammer?”

  “I think we are looking for a shield, but I have learned that shield’s can take many forms,” Tam Nok said.

  “Didn’t the stone tell you about the shield?”

  “Some,” Tam Nok said evasively.

  “Is our destination Thule?”

  “No. Thule is mentioned, but where we must go is here.”

  Ragnarok leaned over and looked at where her finger was pointing. It was to the west and south of Greenland. Along a far coast that stretched along the entire left edge of the metal plate. Ragnarok shifted his gaze across to the adjoining map sheet of Tam Nok’s. The location was south of the Roman Ocean on that map sheet. Ragnarok was an experienced sailor but the concept of such a long journey staggered him. Tam Nok’s finger rested on a small island in the middle of the vast ocean.

  “It will take a year to go there!”

  “I don’t have a year,” Tam Nok said.

  Ragnarok took a stick and measured the distance from Norway to Iceland. Then he measured along the coast of the strange western land down to the spot she indicated. “It depends on the winds and currents,” he finally said. “Maybe we can make it in six months. Four if all is favorable.”

  “We must be there before the year’s end,” Tam Nok said.

  Ragnarok rubbed a hand through his beard. “Seven months. We should be able to if Odin smiles on us. And if the Skraelings let us pass.”

  “Skraelings?”

  “A fierce people who live in this strange land across the ocean,” Ragnarok said. “They are said to have red skin and be very fierce. I did not believe the stories overly much but-” he shrugged- “now I have seen you and you have brown skin and come from a land in the other direction I never heard. So I think maybe there are these red people and the stories I heard were real.”

  He tapped the map sheet. “It will be difficult to find an island like this, out of sight of land.”

  “I will find it,” Tam Nok said. “We must get to the boat. Every journey begins with the first step. We will worry about red men when we see them.” She rolled the map up and put it back in the bamboo case. She slid the metal plate inside her pack.

  “There was a lot of writing on the metal,” Ragnarok noted. “What did it say?”

  “It will take me time to translate much of it. It is in a very old tongue. One I learned among many other languages. I’ve read what I need for now. I will try to translate the rest later. Then I will tell you what it says.”

  “You treat me like a child,” Ragnarok said. “Your gold can only take you so far. My crew will not want to cross the large sea for any amount. I will have to convince them to do it. But I am not sure you are worth convincing them for.”

  “It is not about me,” Tam Nok said. “We must find the weapon to fight the Valkyries and the Shadow.”

  Ragnarok shook his head. “The Valkyries are demons. We are not Gods. Why must we fight them? Why not let them fight a
mong themselves? Maybe we are interfering with something that should not be trifled with?”

  “It is my duty to-”

  “Your duty,” Ragnarok said. “Not mine. How did you know my name when we first met?”

  Tam Nok pretended to concentrate on the straps for her pack, avoiding his gaze.

  “How did you get me to run in the fjord and then again near the stones? I have never run from a battle, even when it appeared I would die. But I have run twice since I met you.”

  Tam Nok looked up, her almond eyes fixing him. “Now who is lying? You’ve run from a battle before. Once before. Did you not?”

  Ragnarok was completely still, only the skin along the left side of his face moving ever so slightly as a muscle under it jumped.

  “What do you know of my past?” he finally asked.

  “What you have let me know,” Ariana said. She reached out and placed her hand briefly on his forehead. “It is there, always there, even when you are thinking about something else. Like the bubbles on top of a kettle of boiling water.”

  “What is there?”

  “Your anger. Your rage. It consumes you. You think it is about your father, but it is really about your mother.”

  “How do you know such things,” Ragnarok grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “You are a witch.”

  Tam Nok didn’t react. “I am a priestess. We are taught to read people.”

  “How do you know what happened to my parents?”

  “I don’t,” Tam Nok said. “I only know that whatever happened to them has shaped you, like the blacksmith shaped your new ax.” She reached up and removed his hands from her shoulders. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

  Ragnarok turned from her and sat down, elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He felt the pounding in his temples, the rage of bloodlust and revenge. His palms pressed tighter and tighter against his skull until he felt a soft pair of hands on top of his, pulling back.

  “In my land, we say the past is done. There is nothing that can be done to change it. You have to live and move on.”

  “Never!” But he allowed her to pull his hands away from his face. She gently placed hers on his temples.

  “I see betrayal.”

  Ragnarok nodded. “My father was betrayed.”

  “Tell me.” Tam Nok moved back and sat across from him.

  “He was a war leader. A man of honor. The man who all in our village turned to. The king-” Ragnarok spat- “the man who anointed himself king of the Vikings- demanded that all the villages pay him tribute and provide warriors and ships when he called for them. My father owed allegiance to no one but his people. He saw no reason to do either.

  “The king called a meeting to discuss this with those who did not readily submit. Under a flag of truce. My father went even though my mother warned him not to.”

  Ragnarok paused and shook his head. “My father was a very brave man. He went with only two men, as the king said he also would come. They met on an island off the southern coast of Norway. There were a dozen other leaders like my father there. Each with only two of their most trusted men as had been agreed.

  “The king came with ten ships full of warriors. He told them they could submit or die. My father fought even though he knew there was no chance of victory. The king’s men killed him, cut his head off and sent it back to us.”

  “And you swore revenge,” Tam Nok said.

  “Of course.”

  “But you don’t have the strength yet to attack the king,” Tam Nok said.

  “He will pay. One day-”

  “And your mother?” Tam Nok asked. “She did warn him.”

  Ragnarok stood, throwing his pack over his shoulder and holding his ax in one hand, Lailoken’s staff in the other. “It is time for us to go.”

  “Your mother told you to submit, didn’t she?” Tam Nok pressed. “To make peace and accept the future. Or else you would die futilely like your father.”

  Ragnarok walked away from the priestess. “It is time to go,” he said over his shoulder.

  Chapter 19

  THE PRESENT

  1999 AD

  “Confirming hatch sealed,” DeAngelo reached up and put his hand on the red light indicating the top hatch in the forward sphere of Deepflight was sealed. Dane knew what he was doing by touching the light- just like a jumpmaster in airborne school the eyes followed the hand to double-check.

  DeAngelo repeated the confirmation request into the small microphone on the headset he wore. “Sin Fen, please confirm rear sphere hatch sealed.”

  “Confirm hatch sealed,” Sin Fen reported from her place five meters to the rear of where Dane and the submersible’s commander were located.

  DeAngelo triple-checked that on the status board in front of him. “Hatches sealed. Deeplab, we are prepared to release.”

  Ariana’s voice came through clearly. “All secure here. I will disconnect umbilicals in ten seconds. Good luck. I’ll keep the porch light on.”

  “Thanks,” Dane said. He knew she wasn’t happy about being left behind in Deeplab, particularly left alone, but someone had to maintain the habitat.

  There was click and he knew the commo and power umbilical cords were pulled back into the habitat. They were on their own now, isolated from the rest of the world.

  DeAngelo was prone next to Dane, his hands on the controls. There were dull metal on metal sounds.

  “We’re clear of the habitat,” DeAngelo said. He pushed forward on the two levers. “Descending.”

  Dane had a slight feeling of disorientation as the submersible nosed over and headed for the depths. That feeling was on top of something deeper, more primeval.

  “Aren’t you afraid you’ll hit something?” Dane asked. All the screens showing the outer view were black as DeAngelo had both the visible and IR external lights off.

  “Like?” DeAngelo asked.

  “A whale?”

  “We’re much deeper than whales can go,” DeAngelo said. “Sperm whales can only dive down to about four thousand feet. Actually some species of seals can dive deeper than whales- about another thousand feet deeper.”

  DeAngelo pointed at the depth meter, the red numbers clicking through 22,000 feet. “This deep, the ocean is almost a desert. There’s very little life and certainly none large enough to cause us any damage if we hit it.”

  “Something’s out there,” Dane said.

  DeAngelo looked over at him. “What-” he paused as Sin Fen’s voice came through their headsets.

  “He’s right. Something is out there.”

  “And alive,” Dane added. “To the north. Near the gate.” He closed his eyes. “In the gate. It knows we’re here. It’s hungry for us.”

  “What are you talking about?” DeAngelo asked.

  Dane opened his eyes. “You are going to have to trust us. This is why we are here. To feel things others can’t feel.”

  DeAngelo flipped some switches. “I’m turning the IR lights and cameras on so we can see but not be seen.”

  Dane looked at the screens. Nothing but black with the cone of IR light shining through. He shook his head. “We’re safe for now. It can’t come out of the gate. But the gate is growing. Sin Fen,” he said, “do you sense it.”

  “It is growing,” Sin Fen agreed. “Very slowly, but it’s creeping in our direction. We do not have much time.”

  “We’ll be at the bottom of the Puerto Rican Trench in an hour and a half,” DeAngelo said. “Do you sense what is down there?”

  Dane shook his head. “Not really.” He looked up at the screen. “Sin Fen?”

  “There is a blank spot below us I cannot see into.”

  “I feel that emptiness also,” Dane said.

  “Is it dangerous?” DeAngelo asked.

  “Being in this submersible is dangerous,” Dane said. “We’ll see what is down there when we get there.”

  “Passing through twenty-four thousand feet,” DeAngelo said. “We’re in range to get
sonar images if you want. But remember, if we turn the sonar on, we’re giving our position away to anyone who is listening.”

  “Turn it on,” Dane ordered. “We’re going to have to eventually to see where we’re going.”

  DeAngelo locked down the levers in the descending spiral position and flipped a switch. Deepflight’s sonar began painting a picture of the bottom.

  Dane watched the sonar screen as an image of the Milwaukee Depth coalesced. A steep bowl shaped depression with steep sides formed. The north side of the Milwaukee Depth was almost vertical, an underwater cliff of vast dimension.

  “Do you have the location of the circle that Foreman’s people discovered?” Dane asked.

  “The computer is orienting the stored image right now,” DeAngelo said, “comparing it to what we’re picking up on sonar.”

  A green circle appeared on the screen. One edge of it touched the very bottom of the Milwaukee Depth, but the majority was off to the north, outside of the edge of depression on that side, beyond the mile high cliff.

  “That’s strange,” DeAngelo said. “If the reading is true, then this thing, whatever it is, must be under the ocean floor.”

  “Take us to the part that touches the Depth,” Dane tapped the screen.

  “Roger that.”

  Dane glanced up at the video feed to the rear sphere. Sin Fen was looking at her sonar display. Dane reached out to her mentally, but the only image he picked up was her interest in what she was seeing. They were now in the hole in the ocean floor that constituted the Milwaukee Depth.

  “Twenty-six thousand feet,” DeAngelo announced. “We’re three quarters of a mile above the bottom. I’m slowing our descent. Things are getting tighter. I’m going to find the north wall and use it to guide down.”

  On the sonar display, the north wall grew closer and closer as DeAngelo steered them toward it.

  “There!” DeAngelo said.

  Dane looked at the display that showed the outside view lit by the IR searchlights. A gray vertical wall appeared on screen. Alternating between the sonar display and the outer view, DeAngelo took them down along the flat north wall of the Milwaukee Depth.