Isla Noctis - 2124
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The sounds of a nuclear fusion generator powering seventy-two electric motors driving treads across the loose quartzite sand would be echoing for miles across the desolate wastes of Isla Noctis, if only there was a single living thing out there to hear it. From inside the overland train Frostcrawler, the only indication of all the driving machinery and the motion of the vehicle itself was a subtle, constant vibration felt through the floors of each car. Eleven months in motion had been enough time for the crew to fully decipher ninety-nine percent of the Adam's Messiah ritual in the Codex of Holy Geometries, the last bits still eluding them being the final steps of the physical ritual itself.
The portions of the ritual translated thus far covered the entirety of the necessary constructs which were to be assembled and arranged before initiating the ritual, and the crew had completed the last of them— weeks ago now. Very specific measurements were outlined by the Codex using a single unit for any measurement. The term for this unit was translated as “Une” and it is roughly equal to 1.12 inches when measuring physical length, and there are approximately 4.7 Unes in one second. Each of the constructs was centered around a number: there was a regular tetrahedron of lead rods and gold corner clamps, with everything in measurements of four or four hundred Unes or four tenths of a Une. Similarly there was a dodecahedron of bronze and copper in measurements of 12U, and a cube of iron and silver in measurements of 6U. There was also an octahedron constructed of tin and copper, centered around eights, the completion of which had felt ominous to many of the passengers of the Frostcrawler as it seemed almost an effigy of their enemies’ own God.
Each of the constructs contained at its center a more precious (in material, detail, and general fragility) version of itself, exactly a certain fraction of Unes smaller than its containing counterpart. Raike Stearns, longtime Commander of Operations for the Anti-Node Eventuality Taskforce, was inspecting the crystal prism at the center of the dodecahedral construct when he suddenly felt something very wrong from the pit of his stomach. There were other ANET volunteers around verifying measurements and etchings on the different objects, so Raike asked aloud:
“Did anyone else feel that?”
A chorus of “yes”-es was largely drowned out by an engineer barreling into the hangar car at that very moment, shouting “Train's stopped!” as she went, continuing on to the next car ahead.
Raike tried not to say “Oh fuck” out loud as he quickly followed after the engineer. They made their way to the engine at the front of the overland train, both of them praying to the universe that it wasn't an issue with the nuclear reactor. The engineer was only a few steps ahead of Raike when she passed through the coupling into the engine, but she was already in the thick of the technical discussion when he came through moments after her.
“-nk God, so once we service that we'll be moving again?” asked the engineer.
“Should be. It's serviceable from inside, we just need two of us to go down in the compartment and do it,” answered another volunteer, before acknowledging Raike, “Commander.”
“Yes. Don't let me get in the way of you experts but I do want the run down. Also names and stations from everyone please, I like to know who I'm working with, especially in a crisis.”
“Right. Introductions first then- Lojy Trieu, as you know, designated Head Engineer for the Frostcrawler.”
Raike nodded, acknowledging that he did in fact remember who was primarily responsible for keeping the vehicle they'd been in for eleven months running. If there wasn't an ongoing crisis he probably would have felt guilty that she was the only name in the room that he knew.
“Synesthia Gold, Electric Motor Specialist,” said the engineer Raike had followed before, offering a salute.
Raike nodded slightly to acknowledge her, but also waved his hand and gave the slightest shake of the chin to indicate there was no need for the formality of a salute. The others present introduced themselves as Jim Fieldsmile- General Engineering, Karsta Haight- Battery Technician, and Benji Crane- Generator Specialist. The Conductors had apparently arrived and been excused by the engineers before Raike got there. With introductions out of the way, Lojy explained the situation.
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“We've blown a fuse on the main line through the coupling from the engine to the next car. The whole train stopped moving as a failsafe so that if any of the further cars lost power on account of the fuse they wouldn't get ripped to shreds by the rest of the train moving around them. We just need to replace the fuse and power cycle the drive system and we'll be golden.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Raike replied, “do you need anything from me?”
“We've got the fuse, the people, and the know-how here already. Just keep the rest of the crew calm until we're moving again.”
“Got it.”
Raike made his way through the train, explaining to group after group of anxious volunteers that everything was in order and the Frostcrawler would be moving again before they knew it. People were visibly calming down and things were going smoothly until he was explaining it all to some bleary-eyed folks from the night watch who had been startled awake in their beds by the sudden stop, and was interrupted suddenly by a blood-curdling scream from right behind him. Raike whipped around to see what was the matter, and a pale as paper young crewman was standing there, pointing wordlessly out the tiny, triple-glazed window.
“Out there… there's someone coming for us,” whispered the boy.
Raike was at the window in a flash, cupping his hands between his eyes and the glass to get a glare view past the glare. Sure enough, just at the edge of the light cast by the windows and markers of the train, there was a human figure, standing motionless. It was hard to tell whether the figure was facing them or away from them.
“Christ, he's right,” was exactly the wrong thing for Raike to say aloud if he was trying to prevent panic. All the crew members he had only half-explained the stoppage to were stirred into a commotion as they clambered toward the windows.
Raike tried to cut the pandemonium short, shouting over the chorus of anxieties, “Alright everybody keep calm for a second. Let's get a better look at what's out there before we freak out. This train car could protect us from an ICBM if such things still existed, we're not gonna lose our shit over one person!”
As he said this, he made his way to a control panel at the front of the car, and switched on exterior floodlights. All present recoiled at the temporary blindness caused by the lights reflecting back off the white sand, but as they blinked vision back into their eyes they got a clear view of the visitor.
The figure was clearly humanoid, though it seemed unlikely to be living. Its general form was keeping absolutely still— no breathing, no shifting with the wind— but the entire surface of it had a shifting quality, as though—
“It’s made of the sand!” exclaimed one of the crew.
Raike squinted at it and took a slow breath before concurring, “yes, it appears so. Not really moving at all. Not likely a threat.”
“The EOKAJ made an entire city and its population from the quartzite sands of a lost zone just like this one, it stands to reason that Eremiel could bend the eucharist in the same way,” chimed in another of the crew.
“Makes sense. We’ll keep an eye on it, and we’ll be moving again soon enough anyway,” said Raike.
In the end, it took several hours to replace the fuse- a matter of having to disassemble several layers of electronic components just to get to the fuse and then carefully reinstall everything before even beginning the ninety-minute power cycle process. In the meantime, more of the dusty avatars of Eremiel appeared. Presumably they rose up from the surrounding sand, but it happened instantaneously; there was the faintest glow from the sheer heat of the motion that illuminated each one for just a moment after it appeared. It was by this light alone that the crew knew the numbers were still growing steadily throughout the ten minute blackout period at the middle of the power cycle.
The crew was getting visibly nervous by the time the power cycle was finishing, but Raike was thanking the stars they were keeping it together— even he was unsettled by the now hundreds of faceless, shimmering avatars. Just as the motors were coming back to life, there were several concurrent yelps and screams from various members of the crew, and more than one shout of:
“They’re movinnggg!”
Raike looked and sure enough the forms were all moving. He would find it hard to describe later, but they were all sort of rippling in the direction of the Frostcrawler as it started moving again. Their hands weren’t exactly moving or turning, but he almost would have called it waving; whether it was a sendoff or a welcome would remain to be seen. As the overland train got up to speed the winds outside picked up into a violent sandstorm, and with the avatars either swept up into it or merely blocked from view, the passengers traveled on in solitude once more.
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