XLI.
Erichthonius
A change of clothes welcomed Jan as he boarded the armored truck that would take them to journey’s end – to the Tevat. They were baggy but clean, and leagues better than the rags he had always worn. He sat in the back of the hovercraft with his mother and a few of the soldiers. All of them spoke fondly of the place they were going, with such joy and pride it was enough to make Jan a believer as well. “What… was that thing?” Jan dared to ask one of the men. “Was it really a demon? It couldn’t have been a person, right? We’ve run into mutants before, but… nothing like that.”
“That was ‘The Mourner’, we call it,” the man informed, but with a shake of his head. “But, it ain’t either of them things, nah. It ain’t even really alive, if you can believe that.” The man thought for a moment before saying, “You know what a virus is, kid?” Jan nodded and the man continued, saying, “It’s kinda like the difference between a virus and a germ, It’s what we call an Anomaly – capital A, bud.”
“Absolutely freaky shit,” uttered another with a huff and a widening of his eyes.
“Pardon his French,” quickly said the first, “but I’d be inclined to agree. Demons, mutants, whatever… They we can shoot, or cut – cause sometimes it leads up to you and your knife – or we can even blow’em up! But those things… They run on a kind of cycle, a loop of sorts, and follow a particular set pattern - uh mostly, usually. That one is nocturnal, you see. You know what that means?” Jan nodded again. “Yep, it’s only ‘alive’ at night.”
Suddenly Jan’s mother raised her hand to halt the conversation, saying as she did so, “Please, please… Speak no more of things, at least until we’re safe aboard the Tevat.” She turned and faced her son, smiling. “There you can ask all the questions you want. There are many things you will learn there, so many things, Jan. No more scavenging for scraps; the host of humanity’s knowledge will be at your fingertips.” The idea excited him beyond belief. All he knew, which he liked to consider substantial, was fed to him by his Father, all the bits of knowledge he had pulled out of the ruins of the old world. To have it all at his disposal, as it was… Well, he thanked the Angel of Light right then and there, and he felt her warmth grow within him, blooming like a bed of flowers. It was beginning to feel as if she were right there with him, and maybe she was. Was that really so hard to believe? It had been before, but now that he felt it, he couldn’t fathom not believing. It felt so good he cried. And, to his surprise, none of the men laughed, not a single one of them. They all looked at him and nodded, placing a hand on his knee knowingly. They felt it too.
It had never occurred to Jan how close to the ship they had truly been. His mother had sworn they were nearby, but at the time her swears meant little. Thanks to the truck, they cut their way through the dead city in less than an hour, and soon found themselves in a great plain of asphalt and steel – a grid of streets and the flattened bases of buildings that no longer were. Upon the grid, near the furthest side, was the Tevat. It was real and far greater than he could have ever imagined. There was no class of ship for the behemoth thing that seemingly spanned miles. The greatest warship he knew of was dwarfed by the Tevat’s starboard engine. “Beautiful, innit?” the soldier from before said. “It’s no wonder they had to clear out half of Erichthonius just to build it.”
“They?” Jan asked, face pressed to the window.
“Well, no one knows rightly how it started, what the core of it is…” the man said, scratching his chin. “But she called us here, called us to build up around it. We tore the city apart, traveled miles into the wastes for things she knew exactly where to find: parts, people, animals even, as pure as us. Son, have you ever seen a dog? Well, we have eight of them aboard, and a litter on the way. It’s… It’s an ark, just like Noah’s – even named the same. But, you’ll see! You’ll see what I mean,” The soldier looked far off, through the steel of the convoy, as something unseen and beautiful. “All this shit… Jan, was it? All this shit, Jan… You can forget it all the moment you step aboard. It’s gonna be lightyears away.”
Jan stared out the window at the Tevat, growing larger and more impressive by the second. Every time he thought they were almost there, the soldier would say, “Not yet,” and it grew larger and larger. However, there was one thing still on his mind. “I… I believe now,” Jan uttered, looking up at his mother who smiled down at him. He could feel the warmth of her smile flow through him. “I really do… But, I was – we were never religious, me or my dad… He learned science from his mom who was born before… all this.”
“So what?” asked the soldier with a shrug. “Neither was I! Hell, I didn’t think I could be saved. I… wasn’t a good man, Jan. I was one of those raiders you’ve probably heard about – taking everything from people, good people. But, one day… One day she came to me and freed me from that life. She forgave me, Jan, and she’ll forgive you too – for whatever you’ve done. It doesn’t matter whether you believe or not, not really, not in the end. Do you know why, pal? Because she believes in you.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
It was a comforting thought, the all-acceptance. It felt almost as warm as that feeling inside. Almost. Jan touched his face. It was a comforting thought, but it wasn’t the question he was going to ask. “What is she?” Jan asked bluntly. “That’s what I was leading up to… I’m sure she’s real now, and I’m sure she’s as you say: kind and warm… I can feel it already, I can! But, what is she?” The soldier got quiet, but looked to be pondering the question more than holding his tongue. He looked to the other men and women, and then to Jan’s mother who strangely nodded for him to go forward, as if she already knew. “Well, we call her the Godhead, or most of us do anyways,” he answered before adding with a laugh, “Seemed wrong to just call her Beth… It’d be like calling Christ ‘Jessy’ or ‘Josh’ or something. And, as you can surmise from that, she’s human – just not like you or me… Um… Shit, I’mma just say it plain in maybe a way you’ve heard of. She’s the Second Coming, Jan, the Messiah.”
That was something Jan had heard about before on their travels. Many people fell back to old superstitions and beliefs when civilization collapsed, so he knew the vague histories of half a dozen of them. Seemed most religions of the old world pertained to some mythical figure, the ‘Messiah’ as the man called it. “So… She’s Jesus?” Jan asked with knit brows, thinking how much of a blow that must have been to the hundreds of other belief systems out there. “Uh – um… Well,” the man sputtered, “yes and no? This… this is all well above my paygrade, as my grandpa used to say. It’ll be best if you just ask her yourself, really. You seem like a pretty smart kid, Jan – got a good head on your shoulders. I think you’ll find your place here right fast. And you know the best part? She’ll be right beside you the whole way.”
At long last, they reached their destination. The convoy stopped and the party unloaded at the rear end of the massive ship. Jan stared in awe at it, standing taller than any of the buildings behind them. The lowest set of the nine bay doors were open, wide and welcoming, full of people waiting to greet them and lead them into their new lives. It was very nearly overwhelming at first, seeing so many people happy to see them. All he wanted to do was run away, but his mother kept a tight grip on his hand and a barring arm across his shoulders. “All this for us?” he wondered doubtfully, but that warmth welled up within him again as everybody greeted him not as a stranger, not as a disfigured child, but as true and honest family. Jan couldn’t help but sob as they walked between them all, the crowd parting way before them like the waters of the Red Sea. He looked up to his mother and smile, a smile she returned, that same warm and loving smile she had never once bore before she died. Jan leaned in against her, feeling not only her love, but the love of all those around him.
The greeting party stayed behind, and their escort as well, once they made their way inside the bay. Strange ships were docked high above them – fighters from the design of them: small, sharp, aerodynamic, and heavily armed. They were no doubt to protect them from whatever took down the O’Brien, Jan thought with a tinge of dread. The idea that there was something out there that could even dent the Tevat was a terrifying thought. That beside, Jan was both excited and afraid of the prospects of going to space. Where would they go from there, he wondered. Mars? The belt colonies? Outside the solar system even? He had heard there had been a whole series of long-ranged ark-like vessels that had shot off into the unknown in the years before the End, to far off places like Andromeda and even further. He couldn’t help but wonder if they even knew about them, or if they were blissfully unaware of what happened, if they even cared.
At the far end of the bay were a series of arching booths of sorts. A smiling crewmember directed them to walk into them, saying chipperly, “Don’t worry – this is all part of the process. One at a time, please.” Jan’s mother pushed him forward with an encouraging nod. Tenderly he stepped into one. “Please state your ID for registration,” blared a voice, seemingly from nowhere at all. Jan nearly bolted for the exit, but before he did, he came to his senses and recognized it as an A.I. system. Instantly his fear was overcome by fascination. “I repeat: Please state your ID for registration before proceeding further.”
“My ID?” Jan thought to himself out loud for a moment before stating clear and loudly, “My name? My name is Jan Xu.”
“ID Registration: Complete,” the A.I. announced in a cheery voice that made him feel more uncomfortable than welcomed. It felt so forced, he thought, glancing back to his mother. It was just like her smile. A dread welled up in him, but only for a moment before the warmth fought it off again. “Welcome, Jan Xu, to the Tevat – your new home away from home! From here you’ll proceed to Turbo-Lift 1 which will take you directly to the Medical Deck for your preliminary examinations! Thank you for your patience and have a very nice day!”
Jan looked back at his mother, at the falsity of her and her smile. He wanted her to be real, to believe so badly, but something, something about that place didn’t feel right. The warmth flooded him like a drug, trying to purge his doubts, but Jan just couldn’t get the image out of his mind, the image of her, his mom, being drawn into that thing, the anomaly. There was no coming back from that, no way, not a chance… But, there she was, right as rain, as his dad used to say. Jan understood the old world meaning of it, but in the new world, the rain burned, and he could feel its fire on his skin looking at her. “Are you alright, Jan?” his mother asked softly as she walked through the registry straight to him. The machine said nothing of it, but he pretended not to notice as she embraced him and then said, “We’re here, finally here, just like I said. I know it’s hard after all you’ve been through, but have faith. Have faith in her, Jan, and everything will be alright. You feel it, don’t you? The warmth?”
“I feel it,” Jan admitted, falling into the embrace, falling into belief, into faith. But that wasn’t all he felt; he still felt the burn alongside that enthralling warmth. “I’m alright, mom,” he said, tears in his eyes once more, “right as rain.”