Sandstorm/Part 5 plot

Part 5 of *Sandstorm*
Fire Down Below

Safia looked around, and managed to get the door open, and close it behind them.

A passage lead them down into a cavern. At the end, was a pier with a sailing ship glistened with oil. On it, a statue of the Queen of Sheba was there.
Sailing was the thing they had to do.

### 12:32 P.M.

cassandra had found Painter injured. She has him hauled up to the camp. She had heard about how the Painter's allies, the owman, had powers and were strong. Now they were gone down the ramp.
The medic tells them he will survive.

### 12:42 A.M.

Omaha wonders what the ship is to do when there is no paddles.

Soon, Safia puts her hand

Well, it had no stiff wind nor paddles to push the dhor forward.

The Hodja recommended to touch it. Safia did touch the shoulder of the satue. This allowed the ship to move forward.
It was revealed that a smell of ozone emnated from the water.
Some catalytic reaction occurred in the water that was triggered by the iron maiden, causing some propulsive force.

### 12:45 P.M.

Painter woke up with a start. He was on a bed, and was sick. He vomited and his stomach hurt. Pain occurred over his body.

Cassandra was at the foot of his bed, wearing dun-colored fatigues with a knee-length poncho, with a hat hung by a cord behind her. Two men held his shoulders. She went to business to discuss.

The action of Painter on the truck had ruined some electronics. However, she managed to recover the laptop she used. Cassandra reveals she had planted a microtranceiver, a system designed by his own hand, onto Safia al-Maaz, a signal that had disappeared when she went underground, but was changed when the wrckaged had enough sapce to put an antenna through. Now, Cassandra had tells him she clears the explosives in the wreckage so her team an commence and continue work once everything is cleaned.

### 1.52. A.M.

Safia lonnged.
They had been sailing for over an hour. A lot happened in the hour. The Rahim were mourning their dead. Kara and Omaha were asleep. Coral was at her equipment, running tests and learning.

Barak was smoking.
There was a lot of water down there. It is known since the 1950s there was more water within the Earth than can be explained by surface hydrolocal cycle of evaporation and rainfall.

Dr Novak was informative. She explains that an engineer and geologist Stephen Reiss proposed such new water is regularly formed within the Earth by the elemental combination of hydrogen and oxyge, generated in magma. That a cubic kilometer of granite, subjected to the right pressures and temperatures, has the capability of yielding eight billion gallons of water. And that such reservoirs of magmatic or Earth-generated waters are abundant under the crust, interconnected in a vast aquifer system, circling the globe. Reiss, up until he died in 1985, had over fifty years of success finding water at sites other geologists flatly predicted were impossible. Including the Eilat Wells in Israel that continue to produce enough water for a city of a hundred thousand. He did the same in Saudia Arabia and Egypt.

Coral says she tried freezing some of the water to negative 30 celsius, but still won't freeze, as if they had an unlimited amount of energy in them.
A use of the x-ray machine proved her thoughts. Antimatter annihilaton, growing stronger with each step. The magnetism in the iron is triggering some annihilation of antimatter, that is being sailed through by the dhor. It is not being annihilated with the water molecules.

The ship sailed out of the tunnel and into a vast subterranean chamber.

### 2:04 P.M.

Cassandra held the receiver of the sastellite phone tight to her left ear and listened. It was The Minister on the other end and in a digitally altered voice, making it diffulcult to hear. The heard of the Guild insisted on anonymity.
Vassandra tells him she has Painter Crowe. The minister sends more materials and supplies.
To her, she had be sure of victory, as the others posed no real threat; a hand ful of experienced fighters, but also civilians, children, and old women.
She herself went down the hole heself, ready for victory, but only to discovered the river with a stone pier. Alternate plans had to be made. Supplies would arrive in 2 hours.

### 2:06 p. m.

Kara and Safia stood at the bow of the ship. They arrived at Ubar.
As they sailed the subterranean lake, they saw.

The entire cavern was filled with glass bubble burined under the sands. Slag glass; molten sand that hardened. They sailed to the shore. Pillars of black glass stretched from floor to ceiling, hundres in all sizes. The thousand pillars of Ubar. As they sailed closer to shore, they see homes, while made of glass, bore adornments of silver, gold, ivory, and ceramic tile.
Once on land, Safia leads the people home. They stopped in horror.
A few yards ahead, a skeletal mummified body protruded from the street. IT was encased in glass. More bodies sprawled, half buried in the roadway.

Chapter 20
Battle under the Sand

## December 4, 3;13 P.M.Shisur

Painter stared across the makeshift medical ward. The sedatives started to wear off. Cassandra came in. Discussion start again.
She confirms the Guild pays her with 401(k)s, and etc, saying true power can be seen by those willing to break all rules and laws and regulations do nothing but bind and blind. He thought of how deep the Guild extended in Washington and the supposed origins of it.
Cassandra talks about the Guild. One time, an Mi5 operative attempted to infiltrate a guild cell in India. They found out and tortured him by scalping him with electrodes drilled into his skull, toruting him and he had broken down that he only made whimpers chalked up to the mewling of a beaten puppy. Telling Painter this meant they would force Painter to experience it himself.
Cassandra mentions that she'll leave him to the Minister. She leaves. Painter is deep in his thoughts, and realizes the possibilities. He realizes the truth in the moment of insight. He realizes who The Minister is.

### 4:04 P.M.

“This has to be the Queen's palace” Omaha said.
The citadel was there. It was a perfect duplicate, in dimensions, of the citdael on the surface.
Safia looked on. There was no question this was the queen's palace.
Omaha heads forward, intending on looking around.

On their journey up, they had come across body after mummified body buried in glass. All aro und, agnoized poses strectcedh from glass. Ubar must have had a opulation close to one thousand. The elite abeove everyone else. Anyone who had garned the favour of the queen were killed.

Although the queen never spoke of the place, some had stories. Two storries from *The Arabian Nights* , the City of Brass” and “the Petrified city” came to the mind of Safia. Both tales spoke of a city whose populatio were frozen in time, turned to brass or stone. Only the reality was much worse.

Enthusiasm ran high. For the past two hours, the group climbed through out the city, exploring every corner for clues for some answer to the tragedy. The summit, when they reached, had yielded no clue.
Coral was working with Danny at the lake. She seemed to be onto something. Before Safia and the rest left, Coral had asked for a few drops of lboood from Safia and a few of the Rahim. No answer was provided to the why.
Barak and the remaining Rahim looked around for some means to escape the tomb.
Omaha led their group into the palace courtyard.
In the center, a giant iron sphere rested on a cradle of black glass. It represented the queen. A nother pedastel stood, without statue. IT was her own statue to hide the first key, which was planted at Nabi Imran's tomb.

They wandered into a large chamber with arched halls leading deeper. A sweep of stairs curved to the right, heading to the upper levels. Everywhere about the room had sand filled with glass, creating panoramic landscapes of desert, sea, and mountains.

Everyone was amazed. When they left, they wondered, What would heppen next?

### 4.25 P.M.

Omaha obsered everyone. Kara tells him Safia still loves him. They all walked back down.

Danny brings everone down, saying Dr. Novak has discovered some intriguing findings and everyone should see.

Coral starts explaining.
Basic chemistry is explained. However, the water is a bent molecule, while normal water, is straight. When matter condenses from a gas to a liquid to a solid, it becomes more compact each time, occupying less space, denser. Not water though.

The thing is, tere are a lot of Ice is less dense than water, much less. So it floats on top of water. If it were not for this fact, there would be no life on Earth. Ice forming on the surface of lakes and oceans would constantly be sinking and crushing all life beneath it, never giving early forms of life a chance to thrive. Floating ice also insulates bodies of water, protecting life rather than destroying it.
There are also water molecules forming in Bucky balls.

Coral explains that the buckyballs are the reason why antimatter is stable:it act as a magnetized chambers that holds a vacuum. In there the antimatter are able to survive. As it is surrounded by water molecules, the antimatter atom is held in perfect suspension in the center, unable to touch matter.
A jolt of electricity or comes in contact with a strong magnet or radiation could destabilize the balancei, and allows it to collpase, causing an explosion. It is surmised this is he reason for the explosion at the British Museum. An asteroid had hit the earth, causing Eden to become desert.

No knowledge exist of why the city came down. No evidence so far detected.

### 4:42 P.M.

Painter waited for his chance.
The storm was coming down hard. Cassandra had got her troops ready for an assault. Safia was six miles north of where they were. The transceiver in her body was continuously transmitted. The men were mad, but were on the ready to do something. He had to find a way.

### 4.45 P.M.

Cassandra is ready. She was on the Zodiac pontoon boat, ready to move.. She moved up and on.

### 4.47 P.M.

Explosions sounded very loud. Peopled simply moved. They had to move somewhere.

### 4.52 P.M.

The sandstorm was pounding the cinder-block building.
Sand, dust, and grit covered everything.

Clearly it as a rout, causing mayhem. The guard was getting water. Painter knew he had no other chance than this moment. Getting up without a squeak. He grabbed the pistol from the guard's hand, and twisted it, pumping two bullets into the guard's chest.
He quickly moved and shot the second guard, killing him. Running outside in his boxers, he ran toward where the armored tractors stopped, with the laptop that had data on the Guild, and Safia.
Reaching a tractor, he moved on. He heard shouts, knowing he got caught.
He reached the final tractor, idling.
Getting in, he got into the seat and moved the tractor and fled, noting the charred remains of Shisur. He escaped into the desert.

### 5.00P.M.

Omaha looked at the queen's palaceo. It escaped boombardment. For a mmone,t Safia and Omaha share a personal momment as Omaha says he still lovs her.

Barak walks out of the shadows. They were led by Captain al-Haffi. They had weapons.

### 5:05 P.M.

Cleanup was next for Cassandra. As much as she wanted to punish people for letting Painter escape, she had ot deal with stuff down here. Now, she hears automatic fire.

### 5:07 P.M.

Al-Haffi and his troops arrive and fire. He talks to Lu'lu and in a certain manner. He was speaking Shahra.
All of them were of the Shahra clan, people who traced their lineage to King Shaddad, the first ruler of Ubar.
He reveals that he he is a member of the Shushra clan that guarded Ubar as the Rahim. They were given this burden by the last Queen before the two lines parted ways. They divided the keys and the royal lines, each with its own secrets. They were trusted with the old path into Ubar, the one walked by the first queen and forbidden to open it until Ubar was tread again.

The vale of Remembrance was 150 steps up and the passage could be used as a shelter.

Now, they must walk the path of the old queen.

## Chapter 21 Storm Watch

### December 4, 5:30 P.M.Shisur

Painter was still escaping his captors.

Two trucks followed him. He moved around, making sand up to eliminate their sight. He had planned to get to Thirumrad air base to get into contact with people for help, but the trucks made it impossible to swing around in the correct direction. RPG fire caused an avalanche.
Stopping, Painter decides to fight wit his own RPG and destroyed one.
He checks the laptop again. Safia was still alive and moving upward. He had to get to her.

### 5:45 P.M.

Safia marched up the long stairs, otherrs trailing behind her. She hears the The hodja advises Safia to realize she loves Omaha and should consider coming hers with it.
The climbed to the top of the stairs. The opening was showing the storm. Exiting, they realize they were at a top of a rocky prominence, one of many, that poked out of the dunes. Ships of the sands were the names given by the nomadic tribes.
Beyond the mesa, Safia notices. Kara reveals it is the eye of the hurricane. A track is avaialbe for everyone to walk down, however, with the sands, it would mean “death to attempt these sands” - Lu'lu. A nisnase was blamed as the dust devil and was blamed by Lu'lu as the reason why Reginald Kensington died that day.

The storm was blowing a lot of sand, mold sand, glass around.
A radio she had had voice come through, although faint and through static. It was Painter. Static ended any communication

### 6:05 P.M.

Cassandra hid with two of her men. She had shot one of them. As he fell, the grenade launcher fell away. Sparks fell. The glass wall collapsed, sealing the wall.That was not a good sign. She checked the tracker. Safia was on the surface.

### 6:10 P. M.

Omaha heard Captain al-Haffi tell everyone leave. They slowly moved back. One person shot a grenade, and glass broke. Fire and shoc occurred a lot.

Fiery death had returned to Ubar.

### 6:12:P.M.

Painter hurried in the tractor. The visiblity was low.
Over the radio, he hears that he had to turn back, but refuses to turn back. He heard a static of electricity and a foghorn. The sand had moved, causing he truck to stop. Now the truck is bogged, sinking the tractor.

### 6:15 P.M.

Safia gave up the radio, only to watch in horror around her. The entire desert floor had begun to churgn in one giant whirlppol, spinning around the buried bubble of Ubar. The mesa was a boulder.
They could not stay. Things changed.

### 6:16 P.M.

Cassandra realized true horror in the first time in ages.

She saw one of her men die to a lighning bolt. All across the city, fighting stopped.

Of the 50 men in the assault team, only 12 were left. The movement of people seemed to be the reason lightning bolts struck.

### 6:17 P.M.

Omaha waited at the entry way to the palace. Coral explains that the energized antimatter so olu tion is like a massive insulator supercondcutor. Glass is a great conductor. The equilibriu of energy is keepting the antimaater lake stable during the storm. The sciences being observed as wnot good for the people

### 6:19 P.M.

The explosion drew Painter's attention to the mesa.
Molten glass.

Know that things have to be done, he got out, grabbed a single pistol and a knife.
He sprinted for the other truck. The soldier got out, but Painter already had the gun pointed, shooting and killing the soldier. He ran, and got onto the flatbed of the truc. He got inside, and and found a copter sled.

### 6:22 P.M.

Safia heard the pistol fire and explosion. It was Painter Crowe.It was things that that will change.

### 6:23 P.M.

Painter lay flat in the sled. There, he caused the helicopter to fly and in the air. He had learned how to use them in special forces training. The copter landed and allowed him to pick up the people.

Safia knows a place where they can go.

## Chapter 22 Firestorm

### December 4, 645 P.m.Ubar

File:Firestorm Chapter 22.png

Safia and Captain al\_haffi looked at the base of the stairs. The Rahim lost a lot and were down to 14 adult women and 7 children.

They had to reach the palace, which is covered with sand, a great insulator. Theyu uslowly walked through the place only with sand. They had put sand in their clothing to furthuer insulate themselves. One had slipped and touched a wall but he died immediately. He was trapped in glass. They all kept moving. They managed to move to the palace.

### 7:07 P.M.

Cassandra watched the procession moved to the palace. If she moved, it would mean she would die.
She realizes lignting never strikes the same place twice nad slowly moved to greet the neighbors, arming the detonator. She held the button; instead of pressing it, all she had to do was to lift her finger.

### 7:09 P.M.

Painter stared around the crowded room. Everyone was debriefed.

Cassandra walks into the room. Evewryone could not shoot as Cassandra held the the detonator. Painter had to tell everyone that it was his design for the detonator, and Cassandra used it by planting it in Safia.
They threw their weapons away.

Coral tells everyone the place is going to blow as the place is destabilizing.

### 7:22 P.M.

Safia looked at the maelstrom.
The maelstrom was a lot stronger than the one that sealed Ubar. There is needed a plan to find a way to dissapate the energy bubble that is building up the energy. It would require destroying the glass under the lake so it can drain into the original Earth-generated water system from whence it came. It woul enable the energy to dissipate and would lessen the risk of an antimatter chain reaction.
Only hitch:they don't have a bomb big enough.
However, Safia points out the giant iron sphere resting in the glass palm.

### 7:35 P.M.

Omaha swept-ed looks at the courtyard for the sandy path out.
They created plans to blast the sphere free. Gravity would do the rest. They witness a lighning bolt strike the sphere and it tilted,, wi th hand spilled the ball on the courtyard floor.
The sphere caused a massive explosion, and shattered due to a grenade blast. It kept moving.
It moves stuff, and should move on schedule, as people hoped for the best.

### 7:43 P.M.

Safia stood on the balcony. Everyone argued thigns. Safia noticed she kept her finger on the transmitter, indicating she can focus.
Coral says they need someone to give it a push, and someone like the Rahim could do it. Since she studied their blood, and determined that the buckyballs in the blood could help.

Coral mentions that the Tunguska event caused mutations in the flora and fauna with the Evenk tribe deloping genetic abnormalities in their blood, the Rh factors, all caused by the gamma radiation from antimatter annihalition. Someone here developed a mutation in their cellular michondria, whose DNA is only passed through female to a child, and the Rahim inherited it. It caused a buckyball to match the energy there and allowed the woman to possess the ability to affect magnetic fields. This had a side effect of a self-fertilized egg: asxeual rperoduction.
If a woman could alter her manetic f orce to match the electromagnetic detecting f ield, and allow her to walk through safely. Lu'lu volunteered, sensing the truth. Coral points out that, the amount of buckyballs are too weak in her and thus not strong enough, as purity is not good. Safia, onthe other hand, possesses 10x more and would allow her to walk through; this was due to hybrid vigor produces offspring of two differnt lines that are stronger than crossing the same line over and over again.

Safia says she will walk through the storm.

### 8:07 P.M.

Omaha watched Sfia stand outside. She listened and stayed attuned. The hodja tells to to take them off and coul dinterfere. Yeahs of panic attacks prepared her for the moment of courage.
She inahled and glanced forward. She walked Safia through the lower city.

Painter and Coral were worried about the lake below and the storm above. Safia walks up to an sphere. She moves and shoved, reeling fromt he electrical shock that shot into her.

Omaha decides to run and reach Safia. The rest of the people watch the sphere bounce. It rolled toward the lake.
The sphere took a final hop and landed int he water with a splash.
Omaha reaches Safia nad carries her away into a buildin.

Out on the lake, a patch of black water glowed a ruddy crimson. It was not a reflection. The glow came from deep below. A fire under the lake. In just the half second it took to look, the crimson blasted out in all directions.
A deep sonorous whump sounded.
The entire lake lifted a few feet and dropped.

Cassandra, Painter, Kara, Danny, and Coral were the final five people on the balcony as the others left. The lake was collapsing and destabilizing. They needed to get out of the place as the palace was coming down. Pillars broke and toppled downward into the city or lake. The balcony collapsed, but after they left.
Painter sees Cassandra ahd not been blowen through the doorway, but had been shoved back. Painter went back, although she still had the detonator. A bolt charge struck her feet and the glass melted underfood. She dropped into the pool, thigh-deep before glass solidified.
She gave him the detonator dying.
She opened her eyes, met his. Her lips moved, a whisper. “I wish you could’ve saved me.”

Painter realizes it was for the time at the casino, not here.

Safia wakes up in Omaha's arms, and it was a good time.
They got into the courtyard. The was drining into a subterranean cistern. The discharging was ove and no worries are needed. Painter had deactived the detonator and turne dit off.

The group had survived the firestorm, with plenty of bruises, scrapes, and burns. Everyone survived.

A whoosing geyser erupted. The source of this must have ben a newly ruptured Earth-generated springs.
From fire to water.

Everyone climbed out. Freedom. The mesa proved to be a relief. Everyone continued into the desert. Behind them, water fountained from the ruins of the mesa. The declivity slowly filled with water.
There was one side effect. Lu'lu tells everyone that the gifts are gone. It was a fragile gift that was easily damaged. The magnetic pulse destabilized the buckballs, and collapsed them. The gifts,w hen taken a way, are gone.
Now, a new life could happen for Safia and the Rahim.

afia gazed across the moonlit waters.
She pictured the Arabia lost to the past, before Ubar, before the meteor strike, a land of vast savannahs, verdant forests, meandering rivers, and plentiful life. She watched the flow of water across the parched sands of her home, the past and present overlapping.