Ancients

on the top of the dome.'

'What?'

'National Command was wondering if we have room for some marines. Gephard is asking to stand by to assist after they get under way.'

Suddenly the Cheyenne rocked as Atlantis started to sink at a faster rate. Giant waterspouts rose into the air as supporting air pockets beneath the newly formed lava bed exploded outward.

The crust beneath the ancient continent began to heal itself and was shrugging the weight of the city from it, taking it down as the crust collapsed into its new depth and position.

As the captain watched around him, the sea rushed back into the broken ruins of the city and rocked the submarine again in a violent rolling motion as water began to lift her keel from the rocky shoreline.

'Stand by to get under way. Headway only; we'll have to wait for the elevator to come to us.'

Giant air bubbles, most the size of Manhattan, rose to the surface of the Mediterranean as the island began its descent to the bottom, almost four miles down. The survivors on the top of the dome were just happy to die outside instead of encased in a dead city at the bottom of the sea.

Everett knelt by Jack as he held Sarah in his arms. Her head rested on his chest as they slowly began their fall to the roiling ocean below.

'Hey, look at that!' Ryan yelled out.

As Everett and Jack turned their heads, four red flares rose into the sky, two from the southeast and two from the west. Then one of the SEALS who had ventured close to the extreme curvature of the dome called back to them.

'We have two subs down there, and boy do they look great!'

As huge explosions of sea and steam rose around them, every man, with the exception of Jack rose, to his feet and tried to balance himself on the rocking dome. The sea was getting closer and closer as Atlantis started to fall to the bottom as the lava and seabed beneath gave way hundreds of feet at time.

'Come on, Jack, time to get up. Let me have Sarah for a while,' Everett said as he leaned over.

'No. I ... I'll take her.' Everett looked into Jack's eyes and saw an emptiness there that would haunt him forever. He knew then that Jack had never really cared for anyone as he had for Sarah.

'You got it, buddy.' Everett helped Jack to his feet as water was now rushing at them from the interior of the dome and as it came over the curvature.

'There she is, Jack. We have to jump and swim for it.'

At that moment, as if the great ghosts of the once-proud civilization had pulled one more magic trick out of their ancient bag of wonders, Atlantis stopped moving. It was as if a giant hand had reached out and held it in place for just enough time for the men to slide off and swim for the submarine that slowly made its way closer until its sonar dome struck the last of the crystal panes above the sea.

The Cheyenne crewmen were tossing ropes to the swimming men and even the Gephard had taken three from the sea already.

Collins watched as Sarah's body was placed on a stretcher and taken in through the divers trunk in the sail. Then a horn sounded.

'All stations, prepare to dive.'

'Come on, Jack, let's go get some coffee and get the hell out of here.'

'Look at that son of a bitch!' Mendenhall shouted.

As they all turned, several sailors shouted out that there was one more man in the water.

Jack's eyes widened and the fire that burned in them took the others by surprise as he stared at the flailing arm of William Tomlinson.

'Is that who I think it is?' Ryan asked as he was being pushed toward the hatch.

Collins immediately reached down for the rope. Everett tried to stop him, but Jack elbowed him as hard as he could and sent him sprawling.

'Sorry, swabby, this fish is mine,' he said as he tossed Everett one end of the rope.

Collins dived into the water, narrowly escaping Mendenhall's lastsecond leap to try to stop him.

Jack swam out toward the dome as it suddenly started sliding beneath the surface; it was as if the gods of Atlantis had just pulled their reprieve of a moment before.

Captain Burgess appeared on the sail and ordered everyone below.

'Move it, damit! You think a ship creates suction when it goes down? Just think what this fucking thing is going to do!'

Everett angrily shook off the hands of the seamen trying to pull him into the hatch, and Mendenhall and Ryan went to his side. They were all watching as Jack caught up to Tomlinson, punched him once in the face to stop his struggling, and then started tying the rope around his waist, just under his arms.

'Now tie it on to yourself, damn you!' Everett screamed, swearing beneath his breath that he was going to kick Collins's ass as soon as they pulled him up.

The dome was close to going under when Jack pushed Tomlinson toward the Cheyenne. Then suddenly a great underwater eruption exploded out of the sea, covering Jack, Tomlinson, and the Cheyenne in a waterspout. Everett felt the bow of the sub being pulled down by the incalculable suction of Atlantis as it was pulled under the sea. When Carl looked, he couldn't see Collins or Tomlinson on the roiling surface.

'Damn you, Jack!' he screamed as he started pulling on the rope. Both Mendenhall and Ryan started pulling, too. Three seamen ran forward and waited for the two men to surface.

Captain Burgess watched as his sub was beginning to be pulled under. The water was washing around the deck and covering the remaining men outside up to their knees.

'Captain, we have a strange contact at two hundred feet and rising, coming on slow,' the squawk box reported.

Burgess looked around and saw that the Russian sub Gephard had already submerged. 'It must be the Russians, the only smart bastards around here today,' he said as he anxiously turned back to the rescue.

'But, Captain, this contact is over seven hundred feet in length; we believe it to be a submarine.'

'We can't deal with that now!'

'Captain, the submerged contact has now departed the area at ... Jesus! At over seventy knots!'

Burgess ignored the obvious mistake from down in the conn and watched the effort below as they continued to be pulled under by the sinking island.

Everett and the others strained as they wrestled with the deadweight that was being pulled away from them by the sinking island. Finally, with one last tug, Tomlinson surfaced, screaming and spitting water. Blood coursed down from his fractured nose as he was pulled to the sub. As they pulled him up, Everett realized that Collins hadn't tied himself to the rope.

'Where's the colonel?' Ryan asked in near panic.

Mendenhall pushed past the sputtering Tomlinson and through the three seamen and had to be restrained by Everett.

'No,' was all Will could utter as Everett pulled him away and then tuned him toward the hatch that was now flooding with water.

'Come on, Will,' was all he could say as the younger man held on to him and went through the hatchway without a last look back.

Ryan did look back. 'God, not both of them,' he said as he slowly turned away and followed the last of his friends through the diving trunk and pulled the hatch closed and dogged it down tightly. Ryan leaned against the cold steel and placed his head in the crook of his arm until he thought he could control himself.

The Cheyenne slowly slipped under the rough seas and all that was left on the surface was emptiness.

The earth had stopped its convulsions and Thor's Hammer would never sound again.

The Ancients would forever lie quiet in their deep and dark abyss.

Everett was in the officers' wardroom, staring blankly at the cup of coffee the mess steward had brought in. Will was sitting across from him and Ryan was pacing. The SEAL lieutenant had excused himself, having detecting the closeness of these people, and gone to for check on his men. What was left of them.