Covenant

by James Maxey

  “Of course we have space suits,” said Simpson, leading the team into the equipment room. “Mrs. Knowbokov insists we plan for every contingency.”

  Simpson put his hand onto a pad next to a steel door at the back of the room. The door opened to reveal an even larger warehouse beyond the door, a room App had never seen. He let out a whistle as his eyes went wide.

  “This looks like James Bond’s garage,” said App, craning his neck to take in all the various bits of gear scattered around the room. “Holy cow! Are those hover bikes?”

  “They don’t really work,” said Chimpion.

  “How do you know?” asked App.

  “Yeah,” said Simpson. “How do you know? These prototypes are classified.”

  “I took one out for a test drive,” said Chimpion. “Learned the hard way that the battery pack overheats after only two miles. I had to lug the bike all the way back from the other side of the island.”

  “How the hell did you get in here?” asked Simpson. “For that matter, how the hell did you get the bike outside without triggering a thousand alarms?”

  Chimpion shrugged. “If I told you ninja magic, would you believe me?”

  “I’d believe you,” said App. “This is a day when all kinds of magic is happening. I can’t believe the whole team’s going to Mars!”

  “Well, not the whole team,” said Simpson. “I, uh, I assume you know Sarah’s not going?”

  “We kind of got that impression when she stormed out, yeah,” said Steam-Dragon.

  “Give her a few more minutes to calm down and she’ll come around,” said App. “I mean, Mars! Who says no to Mars?”

  “Sarah,” said Simpson. He scratched the back of his head and said, “Um, I’m not sure if I should tell you this, but I think she’s quit the team.”

  “No way,” said App.

  “Good riddance,” said Steam-Dragon. “Was it just me, or did she strike anyone else as snooty?”

  “I had no problems with her personally,” asked Chimpion. “But I found her blind defense of her sister disturbing. The fact that the dervishes claim to hear her voice is even more troublesome. What if she has a more sinister reason for wanting to prevent us from investigating her sister?”

  “What are you saying?” asked App.

  “What if, somehow, she’s involved?”

  “That’s crazy,” said App.

  “I don’t know, man,” said Steam-Dragon. “I mean… she’s been lying about her real identity to all of us.”

  “Sarah’s a good person,” said Servant. “But anyone could tell she wasn’t happy on the team. I was surprised she didn’t quit immediately after we defeated Sundancer and Pit Geek.”

  As they spoke, Simpson led them toward a bank of large metal containers, looking a little bit like oversized stainless steel refrigerators. He opened the door to one of them, revealing a space suit. “This one’s for App. The next locker has Chimpion’s. Servant doesn’t really need a suit. Unfortunately, we haven’t had time yet to make one for Steam-Dragon.”

  “It really wouldn’t be too tough to modify my armor to hold a pressurized atmosphere,” said Steam-Dragon. “I think I can have it ready pretty quickly if y’all have a good 3-d printer.”

  “We’ve got everything you need,” said Simpson. “I’ll assign our maker crew to help you out. App and Chimpion, we should have you try on the suits and let the techs make adjustments. Servant, even if you don’t need a suit to survive on Mars, we’ll need to upgrade the phone circuitry in your costume so you can all talk to one another on Mars. Your current gear synchs with satellites that will obviously be out of range.”

  “Don’t bother,” said Servant. “I’m not going.”

  “What?” asked App. “Dude, you have to come.”

  “I don’t think I should,” said Servant.

  “Because you’re worried you might be biased against Rail Blade?” asked App.

  He shook his head. “No. I’m more worried she’ll be biased against me. I look different now, but with her sensitivity to electromagnetic fields she’ll recognize my force field. I don’t want to put the rest of you in jeopardy if she decides to attack me.”

  “If she attacks us, I’d really like you at my side,” said App.

  “You’ll be fine without me,” said Servant. “Besides, one of us should stay on call in case there’s another dervish attack.”

  “It’s too soon,” said App. “There’s always weeks between attacks.”

  “I wonder why?” asked Steam-Dragon. “I mean, if you can turn anyone into a suicide swordsmen from a distance, why wait between attacks? And, another question, why did our attacker only make five dervishes? Why not a whole army?”

  “We’ve been discussing that in our strategy briefings,” said Simpson. “There’s obviously some sort of cost to creating these suicide swordsman or we’d simply be overrun with them. Judging from the radioactive isotopes with found in Smith’s cellar, he apparently needed some sort of small fission reactor to power his time machine. Dr. Knowbokov’s own time machine used an experimental fusion reactor to power jumps further in time. We’re currently looking for patterns of someone drawing massive power from existing grids, or of someone purchasing all the resources they’d need to build their own power plant.”

  “We still shouldn’t have the whole team off world at once,” said Servant. “Sister Amy always tells me to trust what’s in my heart. I don’t feel like I’m meant to go to Mars.”

  “We are very different people,” said App. “Since I was a kid, I’ve dreamed of going to outer space. The most frustrating thing about losing a decade of my life as a disembodied cloud was getting put back together and finding out we still didn’t have a Mars colony. I can’t believe I didn’t think of using the space machine to get there before now.”

  “This is going to be a risky jump,” said Simpson. “Getting you there is no big deal, but we normally rely on the nanite maps of your body in order to get you back. Even if we boost your transmitters, there’s still an eighteen minute signal lag due to the distance. After you send a return signal, you’re going to have to stand completely still for a long time until we can grab you. Move more than a few inches and we might miss part of you. We’d hate to leave any limbs on Mars.”

  “Please don’t,” said Steam-Dragon. “I don’t have many left to spare.”

  By now, the technicians Simpson had summoned to help modify Steam-Dragon’s suit had arrived. Chimpion joined them, listening intently, asking questions about the suit’s construction.

  With no one watching them, App led Servant away from the others and asked, “What’s the real story?”

  “Real story?”

  “About you not going to Mars. Seriously, man, you can’t just claim it’s not in your heart and expect me to buy it.”

  “Believe what you wish,” said Servant.

  “Are you really that afraid of Rail Blade?”

  “Of course,” he said. “You should be as well. If she wants you dead, you will wind up dead.”

  “I can’t believe you’re backing down because you’re scared.”

  “My fear of Rail Blade is perfectly rational. But that’s not why I’m staying here. I’d be willing to go to Mars and fight her if I thought it was a necessary mission.”

  “So you agree with Sarah? You don’t think Rail Blade’s involved?”

  Servant shrugged. “Figuring out mysteries isn’t my strong suit. But something about going to Mars feels… wrong.”

  “Wrong how?”

  “I’ve vowed use my powers to make the world a better place,” said Servant. “This world. Our world. Detouring to Mars feels like I’d be betraying that vow.”

  “Even if there’s a threat to Earth on Mars?”

  “Rail Blade’s powerful, but I hardly think she could be coordinating these attacks from Mars,” said Servant. “If she is involved, my hunch is you’re going to get to Mars and find her dome empty.”

  “That would still be good info
rmation,” said App.

  “Information we could get by sending a drone,” said Servant. “Whether anyone will say it or not, this isn’t about getting intelligence. This is about confronting Rail Blade. She’s a bear in her den. For some reason you’re all eager to poke her with a stick.”

  “I’m not looking for a fight,” said App. “But a trip to Mars is definitely on my superhero bucket list.”

  “I hope everything goes well. But look at it this way. If we all left the planet, and the dervishes attacked here again, you could get stranded. It’s safer if I stay behind.”

  “That is a good argument. A lot better than the one about your gut. I still feel like something’s bothering you that you’re not talking about.”

  “I would hope it’s something bothering you as well,” said Servant. “Are we even a team without Sarah?”

  “Uh, yeah,” said App. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I liked Sarah. But she was always standoffish. I could never really talk to her. I always got the feeling she wanted to be someplace else.”

  “That’s why I felt a bond with her,” said Servant. “I also wish I was someplace else. I keep thinking about all the good I could be doing if I weren’t part of this team.”

  “What else could you do? Have you looked in the mirror lately? With your build, your career choices were either a pro-wrestler or a superhero.”

  Servant smirked. “Sister Amy would agree with you. You’re familiar with the parable of the talents?”

  “Not so much,” said App.

  “A master gives his three servants talents, which is a type of money in the Bible. One of the servants buries his talents to keep them safe; the others invest them and double their money. The master is pleased with the two who doubled his money, but casts out the one who didn’t make use of his talent. My superpowers are God’s investment in me. I have a duty to make it pay interest.”

  “Which you’re doing by being a superhero.”

  “I tell myself that. But I feel… separated from people. Wearing my uniform and showing off my powers makes it seem as if I’m bragging. I don’t want to be seen as someone better than the people I serve.”

  “You do call yourself Servant,” said App. “That’s a pretty humble appellation.”

  “I hide my true face,” said Servant. “My public identity is a lie.”

  “You’d be slapped in jail if you showed your Ogre face,” said App. “Also, dude, you’d give children nightmares. Who needs that? You’re not living a lie. You’re protecting God’s investment in you. What good would your talents do if you were behind bars?”

  “I know it,” said Servant. “But I don’t always feel it.”

  “Don’t fight destiny. You were meant to be a superhero. Are you coming to Mars or not?”

  “Not,” said Servant. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m needed in Texas.”

  “Texas? You’re heading back to New Jerusalem? I thought you were going to stay here and guard the place.”

  “I can come back with the tap of a button. Tomorrow’s Sunday,” said Servant. “I’d hate to miss church. You should come with me some time. It might change your life.”

  “I can make the same argument about Mars,” said App.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Home

  Servant stepped from the jump room onto the flat, sun-bleached high plains of west Texas. It was late afternoon. All around him were construction vehicles, cranes, bulldozers, cement trucks. A veritable city of RVs had gathered here to house the workers. The air was thick with fumes from all the motors and churning generators.

  Though it had been only a few days since he’d last visited, he felt as if he were stepping into a place he’d never been before. New Jerusalem had grown a great deal in his absence. Since the day the old Jerusalem had been destroyed, a small band of faithful Christians had been working hard to make certain the city was rebuilt, in accordance to Biblical prophecy. Sister Amy, with her charisma and wisdom, had emerged as the leader of the movement. The necessity of building the city was never in question. There were events that had to unfold before Jesus returned, and many of these events were prophesied to take place in Jerusalem.

  At first, the rebuilders had intended for New Jerusalem to be rebuilt where it had stood. There were thousands of property owning survivors from the city. It was assumed that their legal claims to the land would be recognized. Unfortunately, when Rail Blade had ground the city to dust, she’d also ground up every last shred of paper within several miles of ground zero. It had been difficult enough to prove who owned what building in such an ancient city when there had been records and actual structures linked to them. With no records and no structures, there was no court in the world up to the task of determining who owned the land within the white zone.

  Then one night Sister Amy had a dream. In this dream, she saw a new Jerusalem rising from a white plain, and a new temple of Solomon, which would be consecrated with the blood of a red calf without flaw or blemish. She’d woke with images of the landscape fixed in her mind, and rented a bus and traveled across Texas until she found the land in her vision.

  Servant strode toward the new temple. The structure glinted white in the sunlight. The city was being built from white stone similar in color and texture to the original stone of Jerusalem. The once tan desert soil was now a glinting diamond bed of white dust.

  The temple looked like a stark stone structure from ancient times, a distant age of blood sacrifice and prophet-kings. At the same time it looked fresh, a new temple for a new age, the physical embodiment of the Lord’s covenant with mankind. Ancient or young, it looked timeless, not so much a thing built by man as a thing that had grown from the earth, a place that had always stood and always would stand. It looked, beneath the pale white sky, like heaven come to earth.

  Sister Amy walked down the broad front steps of the temple, her arms spread wide, her smile halving her face. “Brother Clint! So good to have you back!”

  “It’s good to be back, Sister,” said Servant. “I wish I hadn’t been taken away with the temple so close to completion. There’s so much I could do here.”

  “Anything you can do here can be done by other,” said Sister Amy. “The world has an abundance of carpenters and bricklayers. It has very few men who can match the speed and ferocity of these terrible dervishes.”

  “I know,” said Servant. “But I still want to be of service.”

  “You will be of great service, I assure you,” said Sister Amy, embracing him. “I dare say that the entire success of this project depends upon you, my brother.”

  “How so?” he said, as she stepped back from him.

  “The Covenant, they trust you, even though they know your past?”

  “Yes. No one in the Covenant has had an easy past.” His voice grew soft. “They… they keep secrets, just as I keep secrets. I wonder, sometimes, if we shouldn’t just confess our pasts to the world. Repent of what we’ve done, and move forward.”

  “Perhaps one day,” said Sister Amy. “For now, I think it’s more important that you do what good you can without the distraction of a scandal. It’s good that you have a shared bond with your teammates. How about the technicians? Do you have a good relationship with them?”

  “A good working relationship, I suppose. I’m somewhat of the odd man out among the team at the Knowbokov Foundation. There are a handful of believers, but most of the people I work with are agnostic or outright atheists. My proposal for a moment of prayer to start all meetings didn’t go over well. Still, for the most part, religion isn’t discussed at work, despite my best attempts to bring up the subject. I think the team respects me for what I can do, at least.”

  “Excellent,” said Sister Amy. “Though they don’t know it yet, they are going to help us complete our ultimate goal.”

  “Finishing the temple?” asked Servant. “Why would they be of any help at all?”

  “Not finishing the temple,” said Sister Amy. “Moving it. Nothing can stand in the wa
y of prophecy. The Lord provides a path for all who seek it. We’re going to build the temple here, where it’s safe to work. When the time comes to consecrate it, well, according to the Bible, the temple must be in Jerusalem.”

  “Which is why we’ve built New Jerusalem,” said Servant.

  Sister Amy shook her head. “You think God can’t tell the difference between Israel and Texas? When the time comes, we’ll do this right. And the key to the whole thing is the space machine. With your help, we’ll instantaneously move the whole temple into its proper place. You’ll help us with that, won’t you Brother Clint?”

  He stared at her. “I… I’ll… I really feel like this is something I need to think about.”

  “Think about it, yes,” she said. “And feel about it! Search your heart. You’ll know what’s right.”

  “You tell me that again and again,” he said, smiling weakly. “I don’t know. Maybe other people listen to their heart and hear a way forward. I listen to my heart, and, sometimes, I’m listening only to silence.”

  “Everything happens for a reason, Brother Clint,” said Sister Amy. “Your powers, your membership with the Covenant. Even your three years in a private hell, which gave you the scare you needed to stop fighting God’s will and start following it.”

  “I want to believe that,” he said.

  “Then do,” she said. “It’s not something you need to decide immediately. The genetically engineered red calf born without flaw or blemish won’t be arriving for a little while yet.”

  “Good,” he said. “There’s a lot on my mind. I… I may not be able to stay here long. Skyrider… she’s left the team. And my other teammates, they… well, they’ll be travelling. I’m not sure when they’ll be back. I could be called away at any second.”

  “If so, we’ll understand, like always,” said Sister Amy. “We’re proud of your service, Brother Clint. Hopefully, things will stay quiet until the rest of your team gets back from Mars. Now, come with me. I want to give you a tour of the progress we’ve made while you’ve been gone.”