Adelaide hadn’t been to a church in years, but she was pretty sure this wasn’t what they were supposed to look like.
It wasn’t the architecture — Adelaide knew that religious groups can and would meet anywhere from a stunning cathedral to the basement of a strip mall to underneath a sheet of aluminum siding. And Bermuda had become a striking example of the mutability of architecture. Everything had started growing so quickly with so little land to work with that there was no hope of getting specific buildings custom-built for specific purposes. People just started building and figured out what would go in there when they were done.
So the fact that the Church of His Frontier was in a smallish, beaten-up warehouse wasn’t too surprising. And it even made a certain sense that there would still be so many boxes present; plenty of congregations just rented their space. The issue was what everyone was doing.
Specifically, everyone was working out.
It wasn’t like a traditional gym — there weren’t many machines, although there were several treadmills. It was more like one of those intimidating Crossfit-plus work-out-like-a-marine classes that the really intense people posted about on instagram, where people would voluntarily do something called “The Crusher” or “Double Busters” and then post about how many they had done. A lot of boxes that were being pushed forward and jumped on.
But the people didn’t exactly look like intense-work-out types. Some of them did, and they seemed to be the instructors. But plenty more looked normal — skinny or slightly overweight, trying their best without a lot of success. It was like it was a “New members only” day, but nobody was asking questions or taking a tour.
Perhaps because of how much space this took up, there wasn’t really room for the sort of religious trappings Adelaide expected. Instead, just a mural that ran around the room, and even that was a simple, with a repeating pattern. It was an abstracted view from a beach, with waves crashing into the shore about two feet up from the wall, and the horizon about five feet up. The sea was choppy, and there were clouds in the sky except for where a sun was rising. The only thing that marked it as religious iconography at all was that sun, which was yellow except for a bright red cross that split it in half.
“I didn’t peg you as a spiritual man, Ray,” Adlaide said.
“No? I wonder what makes you think that — I’d remember if we’d discussed it. But we’re not here for our souls. I know someone here, and I think we have something he wants.”
Ray led them to the back of the room, past two men who nodded at him, and into an office that lacked any of the athletic trappings of the main area. Instead, the bare walls were lined with cheap filing cabinets. The only distinctive things in the room were the desk, which have been carved from a single piece of wood so large Adelaide struggled to see how they had gotten it in here in the first place, and the man sitting behind the desk. If he hadn't been wearing a clerical collar, he would have read much more as a football coach or a soldier than as a pastor. Even before he stood, Adelaide could tell he was tall, and he towered over her when he rose to greet them.
“Mr. Freeman, welcome. Whom have you brought with you?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Hello, Reverend. This is Adelaide — we just got back from her first trip. Adelaide, this is Reverend Underwood.”
Reverend Underwood reached out a hand. “Please, just call me Paul — I’ve told Ray to do so, but I’m committed to being stubbornly formal as long as he is.. Welcome.”
Adelaide shook his hand. “It’s an unusual sort of religious activity you have going here.”
The Reverend smiled. “It depends on what you’re used to, I suppose.”
“Do you see it as part of spiritual growth, working out?”
“The Lord never suggested that we should do anything but honor our physical selves. But there is a practical reality as well, of course. The worlds that have opened to us require pilgrims who can live without modern comforts.”
“Adelaide just experienced that. But, Reverend, I wanted to come regarding geographical data.”
“Ah, and I’ll be glad to have it.”
“What data?” Adelaide asked.
The Reverend gave Ray a look. “Have you told this poor young woman nothing?”
Ray ignored that, and looked at Adelaide. “The Reverend buys the maps that we generate as we travel in order to calculate our distance from the Triangle. Since we make them automatically, I come here after each voyage.”
Adelaide furrowed her brow. “Those maps are incredibly low resolution, and of a Triangle instance that closed. Why would you want it?”
The Reverend folded his hands. “We are called to know all of the Lord’s creation, are we not? I would love higher resolution, but we make do with what we have.”
Ray spoke up before Adelaide could respond. “Well, that’s the other thing. I know you want better maps than people normally make. So I thought Adelaide would be perfect. You see, she has this thing, I don’t really understand it, but it’s a physics thing, and it seemed like it was capturing the kind of map information you want. What was it called Adelaide? The Deresonance —”
Adelaide saw something in the Reverend’s eyes, a little flash of recognition and a quick pull on the side of the lip, but it vanished before Adelaide could interrupt Ray. “Oh, Ray, that’s not — that’s not geographical data at all. Nothing to do with maps.”
“But I thought —”
“Ray, I’ve explained this over and over, there’s no reason to do it again here. I’m sorry, Reverend, I wouldn’t have wasted your time if I understood Ray’s intentions.”
“No waste at all. And you should not be so quick to dismiss your value, or the value of your ideas. I have an interest in many things, and the Lord provides us with the ability to compensate for them. What sort of data have you collected?”
Adelaide tried to smile casually. “It’s really wonky physics stuff. That’s what I do — I’m a physicist. I let Ray handle the exploration and he leaves the science to me, or at least normally! Haha.”
“Haha,” the Reverend repeated.
Ray looked between them, but thankfully let it rest. “Well, ok, I guess I was wrong. But, Reverend, I’ve got the normal map here. Two weeks, although not all sailing time.”
The Reverend took the flash drive from Ray. “Of course. I’ll wire you under the Church’s normal arrangement. And, Adelaide, please don’t hesitate to come back if your data starts to accrete into something. I’m always happy to learn more.”
Adelaide kept smiling. “Thank you, Reverend, but I doubt it will come up. Like I said, this is very wonky physics stuff. Nothing that would interest you or your congregation.”
The Reverend’s smile never faded. “One never knows, Ms. Curran. The Lord moves us all in to fit His design.”