Sarah's eyes widened with fear and then narrowed with determination, "Lieutenant! I need you to head topside next!"
"With all due respect ma'am," replied Lt. Barrow as he walked towards Sarah, "I think it's better that I stay down here and help out the best I can."
"No. I need you to go up and inform them of what is happening and to begin evacuation of the camp."
Alex decided that he needed to make one last attempt to get inside The Obelisk. He raced over started pressing the same sequence he initially used to open the artifact. It failed to open. He next tried the reverse sequence with no avail. He then tried the four remaining combinations, none of which succeeded in opening the door. In desperation he started doing random combinations but quickly realized the futility of it. If it was possible to open the door it might require a lengthy combination, but more likely it was permanently locked. He pounded the door in frustration.
The elevator clanged hard behind him and he heard Sarah shout, "Lieutenant, go!"
Alex's frustration gave way to alarm. After he pounded the door he leaned against it, he could feel that The Obelisk was warmer to the touch. He walked back to where Sarah and now Fenske were standing.
"Does The Obelisk not look as black as before?" Alex asked.
Both Sarah and Fenske looked at each other; Sarah nodded, "What does that mean?"
Alex didn't answer; he was distracted by a blinking light. He looked over and saw that the spectroscope was operational. He went over to it, "How come this thing is still working?"
"It would be a very poor spectroscope if a simple EMP knocked it out," answered Fenske.
Alex studied it. It was an unusual design, attached to it was a sophisticated display screen, similar in size and shape to that of a smart phone. Next to the screen were a bunch of buttons labeled with acronyms that he had trouble understanding. He motioned to Fenske, "Can you show me how to work this?"
Fenske looked back to the elevator shaft, then back to Alex and finally walked over with an air of resignation. He quickly went into presentation mode explaining the basics of the machine before Alex stopped him, "Perhaps it would be quicker if you just punched up a graph of the entire EM spectrum, preferably as a bar graph."
Fenske's fingers moved quickly over the controls and the required graph appeared.
"Now how do you scale it up and down?"
"You press x and use the arrow keys," explained Fenske, "For the y axis you…"
"That's okay; I just need the x axis."
The elevator clanged, "Okay Adrian, you're next, go!" shouted Sarah.
Fenske turned and ran for the elevator. As he closed the gate he shouted over to Alex, "You know, I don't have a Doctor Who costume…here," and with that he speedily rose up out of sight.
Alex just stared at the graph while adjusting the scale. He took a quick look at his watch but it no longer functioned, he then took out his smart phone and it similarly was non-functioning. Alex cursed under his breath.
Morton peered over Alex's shoulder at the display, "I don't need a Ph.D. in astrophysics to know what that means."
Sarah overhearing that remark let out an alarmed shout of, "What? What's wrong?"
"The Obelisk is spewing out energy across the whole spectrum, including ultraviolet and x-ray radiation," said Alex grimly.
"If we stay here, we're going to be parboiled," added Morton.
"How long do we have?"
Instead of answering Sarah, Alex held up a finger to tell her to wait a minute. In the absence of effective timekeeping devices, he had to resort to counting by 'mississippis'. He wasn't happy with result, "The energy level is increasing exponentially. It's doubling every 25 to 30 seconds. For how long we can survive this, I have no idea. Not my field of expertise."
The elevator clanged again. Morton and Kraus locked eyes. Kraus spoke, "You go, I want to try to retrieve some of these remains."
"Okay Professor, go!" ordered Sarah, "John, you have 45 seconds to finish up!"
Morton entered the cage, and pushed the button to signal he was ready, and ascended. Kraus meanwhile grumbled at Sarah, "Well I could use some help, if you're not too busy."
Sarah quickly joined Kraus. Together they feverishly started to remove remains from the entombing limestone, taking seconds when normally it would take minutes, using brute force when normally it would require finesse.
Alex meanwhile continued to study the graph, continuing counting and continuing getting the same results. The Obelisk was no longer black, but now appeared a deep indigo. He was getting more and more disquieted about the direction this was heading.
The elevator clanged again. Kraus and Sarah quickly wrapped up the bones they were able to retrieve in burlap and hurried to the cage. Kraus entered with his prize, and signaled to the surface. As he lifted up he shouted to Sarah, "Please don't stay down here longer than you have to." With that, he was gone.
Sarah walked over to Alex, "Okay, you're next."
"No."
"Look, you can't stay…"
"I have no intention of staying," interrupted Alex, "but you need me to stay as long as I can monitoring this energy build up. Besides, you have a husband and two kids who still need their mom, I don't have that. You need to go."
Sarah was about to open her mouth for rebuttal but one quick look from Alex caused her to close it again. They remained in silence until the elevator returned.
"Quickly Sarah, go!"
She quickly rushed to the cage. Once she was in and signaled, she turned around. Alex could see she had tears in her eyes. As the elevator rose, he shouted after her, "Don't take too long sending it back, I might still want children some day!" He was now alone.
He looked at The Obelisk. It had now shifted from indigo to a dark blue, its colour changes now apparent to the naked eye. He hoped he still had a minute. He hoped he wasn't already a dead man walking. He started working out the energy release of a potential explosion of the artifact. The numbers were mind-boggling, even if the majority of it was released extra-dimensionally…
Alex realized he was sweating, and promptly took off his jacket. The cave was starting to heat up. The Obelisk was becoming a brighter and brighter blue. He knew he didn't have much time. His skin didn't feel hot to the touch yet, which he took to be a good sign, but he knew he only had seconds, not minutes.
The elevator clanged. Alex raced for it, entered, closed the gate and feverishly pushed the signal button. He rose up, very quickly, his knees almost buckled from the sudden acceleration. It certainly moved faster than from when he first descended. He was happy that he was leaving, even though it felt like a futile effort. His only hope now was that his math was very, very wrong.