The Pathfinder Trilogy

by Todd Stockert

  Something about the unexpected ambush just didn’t seem right.

  Four attackers remained standing. Thomas picked up the lead two – one with each hand. Then he threw them as hard as he dared into the men behind them. Bodies crashed to the dust-covered stony ground in a myriad flailing of arms and legs. Suddenly and astonishingly, silence reigned temporarily across the small battlefield. Of the ten attackers, most of them were too battered and bruised to rise and the others were bleeding from multiple wounds from Fika’s teeth and claws. Working swiftly while they were still stunned and disoriented, Thomas raced back and forth, gathering up their weapons and placing them in a pile. He turned just in time to see a filthy, hate-filled face screaming at him as one of the attackers managed to regain his feet and charge him. Adam dropped down from above, having removed the Roman shield from his back. He hit Thomas’ assailant so hard that the man somersaulted backwards and landed awkwardly, already unconscious.

  “Why the hell didn’t the implants detect these bozos sooner?” Adam inquired, breathing heavily from the unexpected, prolonged exertion. “They’re supposed to be able to detect life forms even through obstructions as solid as these rocky hills.”

  “The low power levels we have been experiencing means motion detection only kicks in,” said Thomas shakily, watching for more signs of attack. “Same situation as when Fika showed up at our camp. Didn’t I tell you?”

  “No, you didn’t. Thanks much for that.”

  Eight of their opponents were back on their feet, all except two. Three were nursing deep bleeding wounds obviously inflicted by Fika, who now stood right next to the brothers and barked ferociously at the enemy men. In an unexpected move that showed a lot of promise for Thomas’ future potential, he mentally attenuated his defensive shield, gradually adding visible light until he glowed with a bright blue aura. From the perspective of desert people living in the Anno Domini era, the effect appeared to them as though Thomas was somehow building up some sort of magical power. Howling angrily and with understandable frustration, Adam’s younger brother ran straight at their opponents. Fika ran with him, continuing to bark repeatedly.

  The desert thieves shrieked in terror and then turned and ran as fast as their feet would carry them.

  Laughing darkly at Thomas’ creative idea, Adam walked slowly over to the other two men, both of whom were lying perfectly still. One of them was dead, his throat obviously torn open by Fika. The dog had demonstrated a significantly less compassionate nature during battle. The other bandit was suffering from severe blood loss caused by a similar attack and was also well on his way toward entering the hereafter. Noting that there was nothing he could do for the man and that only minutes of life were left to him, Adam simply turned and left him where he was. Inside him a furious rage was building as some of the pieces of the puzzle he was trying to solve finally fell into place.

  “Are you all right?” Thomas asked him curiously. “Are you injured?”

  Adam cast an irritated glance at his brother in response. “It’s time we settle a few things,” he declared.

  “What do you mean? What’s going on?”

  Thomas watched his brother walk steadily across the rocky ground leading between the rocky hills and their caves. When he reached the Samaritan he stopped and simply glared harshly at the man. “Would you care to explain what just happened to us?” he asked, infuriated. “I would really like to know!”

  “I… I don’t know,” the Samaritan stammered, appearing confused. His gaze shifted back and forth between the brothers. “Thank you for saving my life… again!”

  “Right about now I’m finding myself wondering just how you managed to stay alive without us after all your time in the desert. It seems you get attacked by brutal killers on a regular basis. Why is that do you think?”

  “Adam,” said Thomas softly. “What are you doing?”

  The elder Roh responded by spinning around and pointing toward the hill he had climbed earlier. “If you doubt my conclusions, just climb up there and take a look,” he suggested, struggling to maintain his calm. “Those caves contain the remnants of campfires and the personal effects of those desert people. They didn’t plan out an ambush and wait for us. This ‘Samaritan’ we’ve been following led us right into the center of their home. Is that some sort of mind-blowing coincidence or was it deliberate?”

  Thomas refused to leap to conclusions. “It could be.” Internally, his own doubts that he was already struggling with increased at a rapid pace. “Why rush to judgment without proof?”

  Looking the Samaritan squarely in his eyes, Adam maintained his stance. “Who are you?”

  “Someone you should not take lightly,” replied the Samaritan with a small smile. “If you don’t like my company you are welcome to leave. I never asked you to follow me… you and your brother wanted to.”

  “Thank you for rushing in to help us defend ourselves, by the way,” Adam added, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’ve also noticed that when things get dangerous, you prefer to stand and watch.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see this before,” concluded Thomas suddenly, casting a concerned gaze in his brother’s direction. “Adam, I think you may be right.”

  “I am a Samaritan, traveling the desert on my own terms,” replied the gray-robed, bearded man.

  “Then why do you speak Koine Greek?” asked Thomas curiously. “Shouldn’t you be speaking some offshoot of Hebrew or Aramaic? But you’re not. You’re speaking a language that isn’t regularly used around here.” Beside him, Fika settled into a sitting position but there was a low rumble building in his throat.

  “Perhaps it is best if we part ways now, since your obvious distrust of me will only increase.” The Samaritan turned to leave, but Adam grabbed him firmly on the right shoulder. Blue energy crackled and sizzled around his fingers. The other man glanced down at it idly, clearly unimpressed.

  “What about yesterday? Were those Roman soldiers really attacking you? Or were you in the process of luring them to their death, in the same manner that you just tried to use against us?” Adam spun him around violently and seized both his shoulders. His suspicions were confirmed seconds later as he noticed a red glow suddenly appear within the steel-gray irises of the Samaritan’s eyes as he smiled malevolently in response. Whoever this man was, he was not who he appeared to be.

  “Take your hands off of me,” replied the bearded man, no longer trying to feign innocence. Next to Thomas, Fika unexpectedly emitted a low whimper and backed slowly away. “I suggest you do so right now!”

  “Or what?” asked Adam curiously. “Are you going to lure more bandits…” His sentence was interrupted as the Samaritan suddenly seized both of his arms. Astonishingly, the electrical blue defensive shield that normally protected Adam from serious harm flared brightly and then faded with a loud snapping electrical pop.

  “Three men and a dog were not enough to weaken you sufficiently,” continued the Samaritan, somehow overpowering Adam and spinning him around. “Ten men, however, took care of the matter very nicely.” He noticed the puzzled reaction on Thomas’ face. “Yes, I know something about who you two are and where you come from,” he added for emphasis. “Both of you thought I was sleeping last night and into the early morning, but I was listening to every word you spoke.”

  “Who are you?” asked Thomas sharply. “Who the hell are you?” he screamed a moment later.

  “You already know who I am,” guessed the Samaritan. “Don’t you?” He watched Thomas nod in response.

  “Fika is a highly trained attack dog and yet he never comes within fifteen yards of you,” Thomas pointed out. “Yes, I think I know who you are.”

  “If you and your brother simply drop this matter entirely and leave right now, I will let him go.”

  “Thomas, who IS this guy?” wondered Adam, gasping for breath and struggling as hard as he could to break free of the Samaritan’s grip. The strength the man was deploying against him defied his thin, wiry s
tature. Elbows, kicks to the legs, even a couple of head butts failed to free him from the stranger’s grasp.

  “Don’t you remember the history of this era, Adam; the story of Jesus Christ’s time in the desert?”

  “Of course I know the story. To what, specifically are you referring?”

  “There were two people involved,” continued Thomas as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He watched the Samartian carefully, noticing that the red glow in his eyes continued to grow stronger and stronger with each passing second. “Jesus was the Tempted and the second man was the Tempter.”

  “Very good,” said the Samaritan with a malevolent smile. “But I’m afraid your correct conclusion has now changed my mind on the matter of whether or not to let you two live.”

  Effortlessly, he snapped Adam’s neck.

  “No!” screamed Thomas Roh, watching his brother’s limp body fall slowly to the rocky ground. “Noooooo!”

  But he could see the sightless glaze in his brother’s eyes and already knew that it was too late.

  Adam was dead.

  PROJECT EARTH

  Pathfinder Series: Book Three

  Chapter IX: The Making Of A Miracle

  Planet Earth, Orbiting above the Emirate of Guitan, present day

  The sound of alarm klaxons blaring aboard the Lexington brought President Dennis Kaufield suddenly awake. He glanced first toward the desk in his small quarters, where three hard drives given to him by Valiana 001 sat waiting for additional attention. Earlier he had browsed through some of the files, although the sheer amount of data eventually drove him to push it aside temporarily in exchange for a brief chance to rest. Now, for some unexplained reason, the warship was being called to full alert. Outside he could hear the sound of feet pounding through the corridors, men and women passing by him on their way to assigned duty stations. A red light bleeped for attention on the desk’s intercom. “President Kaufield, please report immediately to the starboard cargo bay. We have an emergency situation developing.”

  Isn’t it always? he thought somewhat sardonically.

  Rising to his feet he declined to put on his traditional Presidential robe of office and instead walked directly out into the corridor, still fully dressed in civilian garb, picking up his feet in a manner similar to those of the officers and crew around him. They looked stern but confident, ready for action, having trained just as hard in the Proteus galaxy as they would have had they remained Earthbound. Wondering just what in the world was going on, Kaufield made his way to the nearest ladderwell and descended swiftly to the deck containing the entrances to the cargo bay. The voice of the person that paged him was Glen Fredericks, he mused thoughtfully. And the starboard cargo area is our Command and Control center for the implant project.

  Is it possible that Adam and Thomas have finally made contact with us again?

  He fervently hoped so – it was difficult not to worry about them during the brothers’ prolonged absence. Glen and his wife Mary were waiting for him when he finally arrived. Both of them were smiling cheerfully, lowering the President’s anxiety level a notch or two. Whatever was happening was obviously something good… a welcome relief as far as the aborted time travel mission was concerned. From the outset, nothing had seemed to go right with that particular decision and the maddening amount of unknowns he was forced to live with from day to day were really becoming a burden. It was a problem that just hung out there in front of him, unsolved and seemingly unsolvable. Hopefully he would now be able to bring his missing men home and they could all put their heads together and come up with a new, viable alternative.

  It took him almost no time to cross the cavernous bay at a brisk trot. “What’s going on?” he asked calmly, although the intensity of his curiosity was off the scale.

  “Thomas briefly made real-time contact with us less than five minutes ago,” Mary reported in her most professional tone of voice. He took note of the fact that her eyes looked fatigued and that she and Glen probably hadn’t slept much over the past couple of days. Well then, neither have I, he thought, immediately chiding himself for the selfish reaction. Under normal circumstances, he didn’t like having to push his people too hard… it always seemed to end badly in one way or another.

  “It was only a twelve second link, just long enough for Thomas to download a full load of energy for his implant’s power cell,” added Glen bluntly. “Both of them must be down to minimal levels… he used a quick burst of what must have been everything that was left. Now he’ll recalibrate and compensate for a few initial errors so that he can send a second transmission that will hopefully restore a permanent connection.” Clearly, Thomas’ close friend and colleague of many years was very impressed. “For a first try from all the way back in A.D. 27, that was amazing,” he noted with a huge grin.

  “What about Adam?” The concern in Kaufield’s expression was impossible to hide. He didn’t even try.

  Glen shook his head. “Nothing so far.” He could see the worry lining the President’s features. “That means nothing sir. It makes sense that they would try this one at a time.” Everything on the control console in front of him seemed to light up at once… all green and yellow lights.

  “We have another contact!” declared Mary triumphantly. “This one has linked in to the main communications hub. If nothing else is wrong we’ll have a permanent connection in another few seconds.”

  But that didn’t happen.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Kaufield as he watched the lights on Glen’s console go dark again. “Why wasn’t the link successful?”

  “It was… is,” noted Glen with puzzlement. He was staring at the new numbers flowing onto the telemetry screen. “Thomas has done something new… he’s bypassing the normal communications link and has connected his implant directly to…” Reading the on-screen data as swiftly as possible, Fredericks’ eyes widened.

  “What?” The President demanded sternly. “What’s going on?”

  “Thomas is connecting himself to the main power line running into our hub from the CAS drive,” announced Glen with astonishment. “Why would he need access to that kind of power?”

  The question hung in the air for a moment, unanswered. Both Glen and Mary worked feverishly to determine just what the younger Roh was up to, but they were interrupted by an urgent page from the Lexington’s command bridge. “This is Admiral James Henry. What’s going on down there?”

  “We’re not exactly certain yet Admiral,” replied Kaufield uncertainly. “Thomas has somehow managed to reestablish contact with us, but for some reason he’s bypassing the normal communications link.”

  “We know. He’s draining power directly from the ship’s CAS engine,” the Admiral told them. “Our stealth shield has failed and we’re visible to any Brotherhood ships in the area. I’m launching combat fighters with stealth capabilities of their own in case hostiles show up. It’s only a matter of time.” He paused, allowing just enough time for the three of them to stare at each other and shrug helplessly. “Any idea how long this odd connection will last?”

  “No,” Kaufield told him. “Are there any hostiles nearby?”

  “Not yet, but there will be. It won’t take long for local patrol ships to pick us up on motion sensors.”

  “Will our laser array work?”

  “Not reliably. That’s why I’m launching a combat patrol… they can cover for us temporarily. But if this ends up being a long-term problem we’re going to be in for a rough ride. We’re only one ship and we need the instantaneous transit capability to keep us out of harm’s way.” The Admiral fell silent momentarily. “Is there any chance that your new Brotherhood ally on Earth can call off her wolf pack?”

  Considering the matter carefully, the President groaned in response. “At this point, I think that should be a last resort,” he decided with minimal hesitation. “Valiana is one of the key people who participated in the annihilation of Earth as we knew it. Though she has obviously entertained doubts about
the nuclear war in its aftermath and dedicated herself to helping me, she did so while I held the upper hand.”

  “I see. In other words you don’t entirely trust her yet.”

  “No Admiral, I don’t. Only time will tell with this new alliance. I wouldn’t recommend putting the lives of this crew in her hands unless we have no other alternative.”

  “Understood. In that event everyone should be prepared to transit to a safe location if…”

  Glen and Mary cheered suddenly as the communications console once again lit up with brilliant green and yellow winking lights. “Our communications link with Thomas has now been restored Mr. President,” grinned Fredericks with a relieved sigh. “All systems powered by the CAS drive are coming back on-line… including stealth.” On the still-active intercom they could hear the Admiral issuing orders to recall all ships. Once everyone docked safely, he instructed the helmsman to move them to a new location.

  Kaufield laughed unexpectedly despite the gravity of their situation, causing heads to turn. He smiled in response and turned the pockets of his pants inside out. “I think we’ve reached another waypoint for David’s master plan,” he commented idly. “I know I had it with me when I left my quarters, but somehow that damned silver watch is gone again!”

  Behind them, Noriana Roh appeared suddenly from behind one of the large computer banks. She made her way through the Science staff toward them. “What’s going on?” she asked curiously, her own concern obvious by her tone and manner. “Is it them? Is it Adam and Thomas?”

  “So far it’s just Thomas,” chuckled Kaufield. “We don’t totally know what he’s up to yet, but we have definitely reestablished contact with him.”