“What the devil was he doing?” Mary wondered out loud, turning to look at her husband. “Why would he need to siphon the energy from the CAS drive?”
“Why don’t we ask him?” suggested the President calmly. He closed his eyes and initiated a mental link.
Planet Earth, southwest of Bethany, approximately A.D. 27
Immediately after the fight with the desert outlaws began, Thomas realized that he and Adam were running out of time. They were facing dangerous opponents once again; men with clear malevolence in their eyes and curved knife blades crusted with the dried blood of their victims. This new situation made the Romans and their swords look tame by comparison. He entertained few doubts that they would be offered mercy of any sort. Rather, these types of men would simply kill them and loot their belongings. But he had been working steadily over the past day and his practice using the eye HUD to make programming and parameter changes was nearly completed – all that was left was to run a computer model that would verify the accuracy of everything to within 99.9997 percent. Without interruption, it would complete its current cycle in slightly less than ninety minutes.
Unfortunately they didn’t have that much time to spare.
On impulse Thomas initiated a mental request to reopen the communications link with the Lexington. He submitted instructions for a brief contact, a connection that would last just long enough to fully charge his implant. He did so knowing full well that doing so risked blowing out his implant’s communications hardware. His reasoning was that Adam would still have his fully functional implant and if this worked then it was well worth the risk, given the circumstances. Satisfied, he rejoined his brother in battling their opponents, whose number had unexpectedly swollen from four to ten during his brief thirty second pause. We’ve got only half a day’s charge! his mind screamed at him, causing him to fight back panic.
Their protective shields could fail at any time with extremely bloody consequences.
The young scientist mimicked his older brother’s actions. He limited his attacks to mild electrical discharges from his wrist guns and basically contented himself with grabbing onto the limbs nearest him and throwing people into each other. That strategy was working very nicely for them, especially given the fact that he could see the ferocious profile of Fika picking men off one or two at a time in the background. Somewhere toward the end of the battle he received the response he had been hoping for – a twelve second connection with the Lexington that fully resupplied his implant, swiftly charging its internal power cell to full capacity. Abruptly the communication terminated, allowing him to evaluate the results and tweak the data as needed.
The urge to immediately lash out with the wrist guns at full power was tempting, but there was no way to determine, in the heat of the moment, whether or not the connection had terminated normally or because something was wrong with his parameter set. Acknowledging the reality of the situation and maintaining his composure, Thomas chose instead to transform his skin-tight defensive shield into an electrical blue aura. Eight shaken, confused opponents were still standing, battered and bruised and bloodied from the prolonged fight. Giving them no time to recover, Thomas charged at them, glowing like the proverbial sorcerer with an angry, howling Fika at his side. The bandits reacted in a predictable, horrified manner, turning and fleeing from the scene as fast as their legs would carry them. Coming to a stop, Thomas smiled despite the severity of the situation.
His implant held a full charge and the fight was over… in his eyes things couldn’t get much better for them.
Then Adam’s uncomfortable confrontation with the Samaritan began, which was not at all surprising to Thomas. Ever since they met the stranger he had been quietly entertaining his own doubts about the man’s stated background. Those doubts grew significantly after hearing the man’s claim that he was in fact a Samaritan while speaking to them in ancient Greek. The language aspect of the puzzle hadn’t dawned on him at first, since the mental translation process controlled by the brain implant was so quick and efficient. He actually needed to submit a mental request to the implant for the specifics of the actual words spoken by their supposed new friend. The mere fact that the stranger identified himself with the Samaritan people had completely blown Thomas’ faith in his ability to analyze the situation correctly. Jesus Christ would not lie to him. Thus the stranger was NOT in fact the man they were seeking… it was as simple as that.
So why in the world would he really be traveling all by himself in a freaking desert?
The stranger’s story didn’t make sense at all… any of it. The only thing that truly caught Thomas by surprise was Adam’s choice to confront the Samaritan here and now, so shortly after yet another violent fight. But he lacked the knowledge that his brother had gained while climbing the rock face, allowing him to recognize that this was in fact the desert home of the outlaws. Already suspicious of anyone in what they perceived to be ‘their’ desert and eager to rob, people walking directly into the center of their camp would only infuriate them further.
Adam is correct, Thomas nodded to himself. It was Roman soldiers yesterday and desert bandits today… someone is definitely manipulating us for reasons unknown. And everything appears to center on the Samaritan.
Watching his brother’s lifeless body drop to the ground almost finished him. His vision clouded with angry tears that burned and ran down his face in sudden bursts and his body was wracked with sobs and strong emotion. First it was denial, a powerful presence that almost caused him to give in to hopelessness. But his brother was lying on the rocky ground right there in front of him and there was no way to ignore the sight of it. A slow-burning rage began to build within him as he watched the Samaritan move away from Adam’s body and walk slowly toward him, smiling maliciously the entire time. “What are you waiting for boy? Why don’t you kill me, if you can? If you don’t, you will soon be just as dead as your brother.”
The telemetry results of Thomas’ first attempt to communicate with the Lexington scrolled across his eye HUD with only minor adjustments recommended. Mentally he submitted the necessary changes and then initiated a request for a permanent, real-time connection with his friends back in the present. Knowing the command would take a few seconds to process across so great a span of time he slowly began walking in a circular arc around the Samaritan with Fika holding close by his side. He continued moving for another few dozen steps and then stopped, his expression a mask of control that hid his true feelings almost completely. “You’re going to pay for what you did here today,” he said softly. “Dearly.” As he spoke the last word, he felt the implant’s connection with the Lexington’s command and control center take hold.
Suddenly grinning confidently, he used his thoughts to submit a third request.
Thomas’ dark but pleased expression caught the Samaritan by surprise. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Two of those bandits are dead because of your manipulation. I’m just making sure that there’s a solid rock face behind you,” Thomas told him tersely. “I’m not a violent person. I wouldn’t want any more innocent bystanders in this desert to get killed because they happen to be in the way of this little spat of ours.”
The Samaritan’s eyes flared with a bright red glow. “You haven’t got anything left with those little tricks of yours!” he screamed furiously. “I’m going to kill you slowly boy, and leave your body to dry in the desert.”
“Maybe.”
During his experiments back aboard the Lexington, Thomas had worked hard to repeatedly test the process of connecting a brain implant directly to the output of the warship’s CAS drive. It was a dicey procedure, but one that was easily resolved now that all of the hard work to recalibrate the software for a temporal displacement of two millennia was complete. Holding both arms carefully out in front of them, he bent his elbows and rotated his fists upward, pulling them back so that the wrist guns would fire. Finely tuned, razor sharp high-intensity laser beams shot straight upward, visib
le to Thomas on his eye HUD but completely invisible to the Samaritan. The bearded stranger’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he saw a new, even more suspicious smile crawl across Thomas’ face. “What are you doing?” he shouted, repeating the demand for information with sincere puzzlement clouding his features.
“This!”
In a quick, carefully pre-planned maneuver, Thomas brought his fists downward and crossed them. His right fist ended up moving beneath his left toward the opposite side of his body. His left fist mirrored the other, ending up crossing above the right and ending up in front of the right side of his waist. The lasers, still firing at maximum strength, completed a near perfect “X” across the Samaritan’s body and intersected near the lower center of his abdomen. In the process his body was sliced into half a dozen pieces of varying size. The incredulous expression on the bearded stranger’s face as he died was very satisfying to the young scientist who had, only moments before, been forced to stand by helplessly and witness the death of his brother.
The Samaritan’s arms hit the ground first, both severed slightly below the shoulders. Next were the smaller, pie-shaped wedges from the sides of his abdomen. There was no blood, and it was not immediately clear to Thomas just what the bearded man truly was. Inside his body was a strange, spongy pink substance of some sort that made an awful, slapping sound against the stony ground. The top half of his body toppled backward, with the “V”-shaped upper portion of the abdomen slowly separating from the bottom half. Watching it all transpire with a mixture of shock and relief, Thomas suddenly noticed that the lasers emitted by his wrist guns were continuing to bore into the rocky hill behind the Samaritan’s cleanly dismembered corpse. Shutting off the continual twin streams of laser fire, he uncrossed his hands.
Focusing on the task at hand, he completed the series of mental commands that disengaged his link to the Lexington’s CAS drive and restored contact with the communications hub. Only when that was done and he was certain that all enemies were gone, that everything was fine did he allow himself to fall to his knees and begin to sob helplessly over the loss of his brother. An unending flow of tears poured from his eyes and his body was wracked with convulsive fits of anger, frustration, and mourning. Thomas Roh lowered his head into his hands and cried almost hysterically, finally losing command over his demeanor as raw emotions continued to boil up from within and threatened to overwhelm him.
I’m all alone here now! he mentally howled at himself. How in the world are you going to get out of this without Adam… WITHOUT Adam?
That was when his intellect first ‘heard’ Dennis Kaufield’s mental link click solidly into place. [“Thomas,”] he heard inside his head as their minds linked. [“Thomas, what’s going on? Why did you hook your implant directly into the CAS drive without warning us? You almost got us caught in a terrible mess!”]
Trying to behave in the way Adam would have, Thomas allowed himself a few more precious seconds to properly vent his anger and regain control of his composure. Then he slowly rose to his feet and began deciding how best to report the events of the past few days. Surprisingly he was able to hold himself together; somehow he was able to force his mind back onto the reality of the situation and everything that must come next. President Kaufield needed an updated report, and Thomas was going to give it to him. And yet the loss of his brother continued to leave a massive, empty hole in his heart.
How the hell do I tell Nori?
[“Mr. President,”] Thomas began cautiously, [“we have a bit of a situation here…”]
Unexpectedly, his link with the Lexington terminated.
His mind raced, temporarily devoid of options. How… just what exactly is going on here?
Then he turned around and saw a stranger leaning over Adam’s body. The newcomer was wearing a tan robe that fit loosely over skin that had seen far too much of the desert sun. He had a neatly trimmed mustache and beard similar to the Samaritan’s, but he looked nothing like the other man.
“That’s my brother!” Thomas snapped harshly, still reeling from the suddenness of his unexpected loss. “Get away from him! He’s…” His voice trailed suddenly as he noticed the soft, pulsating white glow surrounding the man’s body. A quick eye HUD analysis was unable to identify its source or offer anything conclusive. Caught by surprise once more, Thomas decided to try a different tactic. “Who are you?” he asked simply even though he already instinctively knew. There could be no other possibility.
“I am Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph,” the man proclaimed. All of the anger and vitriol in Thomas’ heart suddenly, somehow transformed into pure elation and joy. “Please wait there for a moment as time is short.”
Jesus returned his attention to Adam’s prone body and his hands probed the abdominal area first and then the chest area, moving slowly up to his neck. Gently he wrapped his fingers around Adam’s throat and held them there, closing his eyes in concentration. Thomas’ eye HUD lit up as additional energy of an unknown type was detected, a bright glow that flared from within Jesus’ body and moved into Adam’s throat. Temporarily deactivating his enhanced vision, he noticed that no trace of the light was visible without it.
Over the next few minutes very little changed. Jesus continued to hold his hands wrapped around Adam’s throat and Thomas stood where he was, completely entranced. With augmented vision reactivated, he watched the soft white aura and the bright light shining from Adam’s neck with wonder and astonishment.
Could it be? he wondered silently. Is it possible that my brother could live again after receiving such a brutal death blow? He watched with a mixture of hope and awe, tears streaming almost endlessly from his eyes. When his brother suddenly coughed several times and shifted position just slightly, Thomas fell to his knees and wept openly. He’s doing it! He’s SAVING my brother’s life and bringing him back to me!
Several minutes later Adam’s eyes opened and focused on the man leaning over him. At first he said nothing, obviously noticing the same type of white radiance that he had written about in his reports detailing the events of his meetings with the mysterious entity known as David. Abruptly he sat up and looked around, shifting his gaze until it settled on Thomas and Fika. “What?” he asked with puzzlement. “What the devil just happened?”
“Exactly,” sobbed Thomas in response, laughing almost hysterically at a joke only he understood.
“Why are you crying?”
“Because,” said Thomas Roh, “you’re alive. And we’ve finally found the man we’ve been searching for.”
*
Whatever his brother had been through during the process of quite literally returning from the dead obviously exhausted him, so Thomas injected him with some antibiotics along with a vitamin/nutrient formula mixed with a mild sedative. Since their food and water was limited and they might have to stay in this precarious location for some time, he didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.
Carrion-eating birds were already circling overhead, so he took a portable shovel out of his backpack while Jesus tended to Adam and buried the two dead bandits in a soft patch of dirt and sand next to the stony path. Afterward, he glanced briefly at the remnants of the Samaritan. The soft, squishy pink interior had darkened to a dull brown in the hot afternoon sun and Thomas noticed the carrion-eaters were steering clear, wanting nothing to do with it. Eager to be done with the creature, he simply left whatever it was right where it lay.
Finished with the tough job of digging in the hot desert sun, he sat down and used his body as a shield while using implant energy and the tips of his fingers to fill a large bowl with water. Opening an MRE pack he ate quickly and drank the water slowly until his fatigued body was no longer thirsty. He filled his animal skin with water too, offering it to both Adam and Jesus before pouring the rest into a bowl and setting it down so that Fika could also drink his fill. “Nice doggie,” he told the large Mastiff. “You did great!”
“I think this man is going to be all right.”
It was v
ery uncomfortable for Thomas at first, because the legends of Jesus had built him up so highly that actually sitting near him proved to be extremely intimidating. “I am Thomas, son of Raymond,” he managed after a time. “The man you saved is Adam, also the son of Raymond. He is my brother and I’m very grateful to you for giving him back to me.”
Jesus nodded in response. “It is nice to meet you.” He turned back toward Adam, who was once again slumbering peacefully after Thomas finished feeding him a small supper and carefully moved his body into the cooler shadow of a large hill.
“I gave him a… medicine to help him rest,” offered Thomas informatively. “We’ve been moving around in the desert quite a bit and haven’t had much time to sleep as much as we should. I have no idea how much you were able to help him so it made sense to let him rest and heal for a while.”
“Yes, unfortunately you two ran into my… adversary,” said Jesus. “He approaches me every so often, but I refuse to play his games and eventually he gets bored and moves on to someone else.”
“How did you find us?” wondered Thomas curiously. “You appeared seemingly out of nowhere.”
“I live in a cave near here, up there in the rocks.” Jesus pointed toward a huge, shadowy rock face roughly half a mile distant. “I was out and about and heard the sounds of fighting and grew curious.”
Thomas felt the blood drain out of his face. “You live there… right next to a pack of desert outlaws?”
“Yes,” Jesus replied, as though it were the most sensible decision in the world. “It is easier to avoid them if I know where they are, and since I mostly meditate they do not even realize I am here.”
“May I offer you something to eat?” Thomas held out an MRE pack.
Shaking his head, Jesus smiled at him. “I accepted a personal challenge by coming out here into the desert, all alone. Scavenging for traces of water has hardened both my endurance and my determination.” He pulled open his robe so that Thomas could see his ribs, clearly outlined and visible through the skin on his breast. “I seem to have lost quite a bit of weight in the process, but no matter.” he chuckled, shifting his gaze toward Fika. “Your great big dog appears to have little difficulty locating something to eat.” The Mastiff was busily devouring yet another of the small desert lizards… the crunch of bone was clearly audible.
The Pathfinder Trilogy Page 100
