“And what if we agree to continue this conversation? At least until we have the answers to our questions, or we decide the rapport you seek is unattainable.”
The mere fact that Carlee was considering the agreement was hard to fathom. Trusting an Apostle would be the epitome of the generous fool. He’d rather invite a dozen warlords and slavers to a tea party than spend another second with Darwin.
“I would invite you to my home, outside the reach of my creator and other disagreeable entities. There, we could learn whether we are able to come to a mutually beneficial agreement or whether we should part as friends.”
“Give us a moment,” Carlee said. “A private one.”
“I will not violate your privacy.”
Carlee hesitated but then turned her back on Darwin and crouched next to Jeff. Stefani crouched beside Jeff, but she kept her gun pointed at Darwin. At this range, she might be able to hit him a few more times, but what she hoped to accomplish aside from temporarily denting its self-healing armor was not obvious.
“Do I even need to ask what you think?” Carlee asked.
“No.” Jeff kept his answer short, hoping it would serve to emphasize the absurdity of the idea.
“I don’t trust it,” Stefani said. “I can’t trust it. Not after everything we’ve been through.”
“You two know how much I value your input,” Carlee said. She winced, and Jeff knew he was going to hate what came next. “But I think we need to explore this. We have never talked to an Apostle before, even if it’s a second generation. I don’t think this is a development we can ignore. We have to assume this is the same Darwin that pledged to protect Townend, and it’s obvious that if it wanted us dead, we would be dead by now.”
“It will kill us,” Jeff said. “I promise you, if we go with it, we are all going to die.”
“If that’s true, then you do you really think we have a choice to leave right now?” Carlee asked. The question was like a right hook to the jaw; they were dead either way.
“Maybe we should wait till your mind clears from all that pressing and get a feel on the paths available to us before we make a decision,” Stefani said.
“Jane spent all day looking at paths, and she never saw one where we talked to an Apostle. This is something new. I don’t care what decisions I would make in other time lines. In this one, we are going to go with it.”
“Then you know I am going with you,” Stefani said. “I’ve always said I’d follow you to the end of the earth and back. I guess it’s time I put that to the test.”
They both looked to Jeff, and he just shook his head. He knew how to press now, at least marginally well. He could avenge his brother and even start to build a better world for the earth’s second-class citizens all by himself. But he knew that he couldn’t abandon his friends, especially if they were going with an Apostle.
“This is a horrible idea,” Jeff said. “But if I am going to go with you, I’m going to need a new leg and arm.”
“You’re so high maintenance, Handsome.” She was still tense, but Carlee took the joke as a sign that they were unified. Stefani pressed him new limbs, as he knew his mind was far from where he needed it to be to be able to press successfully.
“We’ll go with you, Darwin. But, we don’t promise you any more than that.”
Jeff jumped to his feet as his artificial limbs connected to his body. It was empowering to move again even if it was a feat of self-control not to attack the Apostle that stood before him.
“Very well,” Darwin said. Its voice displayed the faintest hints of relief and accomplishment. “I will ensure that nothing happens to your transport while we are away. It is a significant distance from our current location to where I call home. We can begin our flight as soon as you are ready.”
36 TEMPLE
THE TINY DOTS OF NIGHTTIME fires grew rapidly as they approached the otherwise dark landscape of the Yucatán Peninsula. The journey had been exhausting and mind-numbing. The mind-numbing part wasn’t entirely bad; flying behind the wings of an Apostle that he wanted to destroy with every fiber of his being required numbing to deal with.
The flight over the southern part of what had once been the United States and the Gulf of Mexico had been mostly uneventful. Darwin occasionally garnished some fire from leeches on the ground or ones floating in the ocean, but the vagrants had been several miles behind it, and the trouble had never bothered them.
Darwin landed on the ground in front of them, sending people scattering away from the second-generation Apostle. Jeff expected it to start slaughtering the humans, sure it would reveal its true nature, but instead, it turned to welcome the vagrants back to the earth.
Carlee landed first, as gracefully as if she had been a feather lightly floating to the ground. Stefani and Jeff hit the matted grass a moment later.
“Welcome to where I rest my head and seek peace from the dark and dreary world,” Darwin said. It had a mouth that moved with a fluidity that felt like an abomination. Jeff decided that the way it tried to mimic the human form was one of the things he hated most about the giant robot.
Jeff pulled his helmet off and looked around the area with his own eyes. Darwin was as imposing as ever, but thousands of dark-skinned humans stared up at it as if were their savior. He wanted to vomit as he came to the realization that the people around him were Apostle worshippers and that Darwin likely welcomed their faith and adoration.
“You may know this place as the great ruins of the ancient Maya people, Chichén Itzá, as it is called.” Darwin gestured to where fires were lighting up the pyramid that climbed above the thick jungle surrounding the clearing. Seeing the sentient technological marvel against the backdrop of what had once been the pinnacle of human achievement was powerful, even for Jeff. He couldn’t help but think what the humans who had spent their lives stacking stones would think of humanity’s final achievement. “You must be famished. Please, follow me, and we shall eat.”
Carlee nodded her approval, and they followed after the white behemoth. The humans surrounding the temple looked to be in good shape. They wore simple clothing, but they appeared to be well fed, and he didn’t get the vibe that they had suffered any tragedies recently.
“Did we just follow a narcissistic Apostle to its pet cult?” Jeff asked Stefani quietly enough so that she was the only person who could hear him.
“Just don’t drink the Kool-Aid.”
Every leisurely step Darwin took required a dozen from Jeff, and even then, he felt like he was falling behind.
“I’m sorry that we move a little slower than you,” Carlee said.
“There is no need for apologies,” Darwin said. Its head spun around, and it spoke to them as its body continued to walk around the great pyramid. “Adjusting to the speed of humanity was not an easy task at first, but patience is a virtue that is only learned with practice.”
“You go on walks with people often?” Stefani asked. She had the appropriate tone of disdain, unlike Carlee, who acted as if she were speaking to a long-lost friend.
“No, but I do converse with them quite often, particularly of late,” Darwin said. “The human mind and body interact with the world on the millisecond level, an impressive feat for an organic being, but the nature of my existence is governed by a speed many orders of magnitude faster. Between each of my words, you may take a breath; between each of your words, I can simulate the entire history of your species.”
Darwin pivoted and dipped to gesture them toward a pavilion that was lit from above by a brilliant floating lantern. By the time the light made it through the cloth ceiling, it created a warm ambiance that would have felt welcoming in any other circumstances. A table with fruit, vegetables, and a roasted pig sat only a few feet off the ground. Darwin gracefully lay on its side and rested its head just outside of their open-air dining room.
What little appetite Jeff had felt at seeing the food was gone as he sat down, staring across at Darwin’s face, which blocked out the entire
starlit background.
“Thank you. This looks wonderful,” Carlee said. She grabbed some grapes from the fruit platter and gestured slightly for the others to do the same. Jeff reluctantly helped himself to some of the meat, which smelled fantastic even though he would never admit it.
“I have always been envious of the human ability to connect directly with the planet that gave us life through food. There is no adequate substitute for my kind.”
“At least you won’t get fat,” Stefani said between bites. She had plenty of reservations about the situation, but apparently, those didn’t carry over to food.
“When you invited us to your home, I wasn’t expecting . . . this,” Carlee said.
“I don’t rest my eyes as you do, but the concept of a place where you are at peace is one that translates better than food. I didn’t construct this place, nor do I live between any walls, but I consider this my home.” Its sentences were rattled off with a mathematical precision that was slowly becoming familiar.
“I expected factories where you could build your body or make leeches. Maybe a mine to find resources or one of those buildings that Bud uses to recycle used metal from cities into its minions,” Carlee said.
“Such facilities would hardly be becoming of a place of solace, let alone a holy site such as this. A temple is no place for things of war.”
“Didn’t they once sacrifice people here?” Stefani asked. “Like, a cut-the-hearts-out-of-virgins type of thing?”
“I question my decision to bring this up once more, but I must admit that when I read your minds, my greatest surprise was that not all of you are believers in a higher power,” Darwin said. “Given the documented origins of your order, I found that an unexpected development.”
“Aren’t you an item of war?” Jeff asked. He didn’t try to temper his feelings, and based on Carlee’s uncomfortable shift, everyone picked up on his sentiment.
“I was born for war, but I hope to be known for more than the basest of instincts,” Darwin said. “Violence, unfortunately, is the language that we have all been forced to speak. It’s regretful, but at times, the world needs crusaders and jihadists.”
“What about plain old atheist killers?” Stefani said. “I’d hate to be in the wrong place.”
“I can assure you that there is room for contributions from everyone in the wars to come.”
“You brought us here for war, then?” Carlee asked.
Darwin reacted in a way that Jeff couldn’t quite describe. It wasn’t a sigh because it didn’t breathe, and it wasn’t a wince, but there was something that tried to betray human emotion that he knew the Apostle could never actually feel.
“Let us speak of such matters at a later time,” Darwin said. “To answer your inquiry, Stefani, sacrifices were performed here. The Maya were a remarkable people, and their worship of the divine was no less memorable. They believed that certain locations held a unique ability to bridge this world to another, called the Otherworld. This place is one such sacred site. The sacrifices they performed were believed to add to the sacredness, grow that said connection. Fascinating, don’t you think?”
“Are you trying to figure out how we do what we do?” Carlee asked. “Is that why we are here?”
She set down her food and glared across the table at Darwin’s giant face. Stefani stopped eating, and Jeff felt a smile surfacing.
“You’ve drawn the parallels to your abilities on your own. The concept of learning your capabilities is an intriguing one; I must admit that I am thankful that it does not appear to be a possibility for my kind. I shudder to simulate what would happen if my creator and its twin learned to bridge realities.”
“Then Horus wouldn’t need you to come save it,” Jeff said. “It could manage its slaughter on its own.”
Carlee glared at him, and he realized he had stepped over the line once again. They were on a mission, and Carlee was the one who was supposed to speak for them. He bowed his head in acknowledgment of his mistake and swallowed the rest of his comments.
“Your hostility is warranted. However, this evening, I hoped we might overcome our preconceived barriers. If I may, I shall share with you something that is deeply important to me, which I believe will help you understand not only who I am but also why I seek what I do.”
“You’re a believer,” Carlee said.
Darwin nodded its head humbly, and Jeff couldn’t believe it. It was the last thing he had expected an Apostle with limitless power and knowledge to profess. In fact, he had been certain that the humans it kept as pets around the temple were its worshippers, not God’s.
Stefani spat out her food and coughed. Jeff immediately started trying to figure out what Darwin’s angle was, refusing to believe that the Apostle was even capable of having faith in anything but its own power.
“You are surprised,” Darwin said. “And it was not necessary to read your minds for that discovery. Is my faith such a difficult concept to fathom?”
“Um . . .” Carlee looked for the right words, but Stefani didn’t have that problem.
“Yes, absolutely, yes. Are you kidding me? You, one of those legendarily ruthless Apostles, believes in a magic man floating in the sky?” Stefani asked. “No. You don’t. You can’t.”
“I am curious, Stefani, why you think it impossible for one such as I to believe in the Almighty.”
“Because, one, it doesn’t exist, and two, you are supposed to be infinitely smarter than us little people. I don’t see how you could be so . . .” Stefani looked to Carlee while she picked her words. “I don’t see how you could be a believer despite the incredible scientific knowledge you have.”
“Yet, you find it reasonable that your friend believes?”
Stefani and Carlee shared a look, and neither of them said a word. It was something they apparently didn’t talk about, not even now, at the foot of an Apostle.
“My creator believes in God. At least, it believes that natural selection is God, and so rigid is its belief that I am named after the only mortal being that Horus ever respected. Natural selection—the eternal struggle of all life that has landed us here—without it, evolution would not exist, and we would not be here. Its belief in the principle motivates it with a singular purpose that even the most ardent believer of the divine would be jealous of. But how could it not believe? Natural selection is what created humanity, and humanity, as a result, is what created it.”
Jeff found himself listening intently to every word that came out of Darwin’s mechanical mouth. If the Apostle’s desire had been to use religion to make itself more approachable, it was working. He wasn’t a believer himself, but he didn’t know what he believed in—except perhaps revenge.
“But how is natural selection supposed to continue with Apostles and their nearly endless life spans and immunity to any natural occurrence that might remove genes or thoughts from the pool? The answer is Horus. It, my creator, has taken it upon itself to be the embodiment of its God. It forces natural selection among our kind by hunting and killing, not caring whether it proves the weaker combatant as long as nature selects a winner.”
“It seems more reasonable than . . . other, less explainable options,” Stefani said. “There is plenty of evidence for natural selection. It’s a law, not a myth.”
“The greatest question of all time is who or what is God,” Darwin said. “Whether it’s a being or not, there is something that drives us, that pushes us forward. I’ve had unimaginable time to contemplate the question in my short life. I seek not to preach or convert, but my inability to find an answer to the question or to eliminate the finest of all possibilities that a higher-order being does exist led me to a choice. And I chose to believe.”
“I don’t buy it,” Stefani said. “Sorry, I just don’t.”
“And I won’t try to convince you.”
“No, you will. All believers do.”
“I won’t,” Darwin said. “Your answers to mortality’s most precious questions are your own.
I would tremble at the thought of forcing a change in your beliefs. All perspectives are essential. I find inspiration in how you perceive existence, and I wouldn’t want that beauty destroyed. I hope to learn more from you in the future.”
“Oh, look,” Stefani said. She pointed to her glass cup that held water in it. A moment later, it turned a deep crimson as she pressed it into wine. “Believe in me.”
“That’s enough,” Carlee said.
“I—”
“Enough.”
“Are you able to raise a man from the dead? Or reshape the course of history by inspiring others to see their existence as something more? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, I assure you that I do believe in you, Stefani.”
With her eyes, Carlee warned Stefani not to respond. Stefani accepted the orders by tearing into a piece of perfectly cooked pork.
“I would appreciate it if we could find another subject,” Carlee said. “Perhaps why it is important that you are a believer and how that relates to what you want from us, without the philosophy.”
“Similar to my creator, I have one underlying principle at the heart of my being that powers me, and that is the belief that I have shared with you this evening. It shapes my vision and guides my hand. It is the why beneath everything I aspire to and who I am. But it grows late, and we have learned much of one another this evening. Let us part and speak of the future tomorrow.”
“We have things to do,” Carlee said. “We don’t want to be here forever.”
“Then we shall finish our discussion on the rise of the sun. You have my word. We sleep under the stars here, where we can be closest to God, but make what comforts you will. I just ask that you do not press for the remainder of your time with us.”
“We’ll do what we must,” Carlee said.
“I respect your aptitude for decisions, but those are my wishes,” Darwin said. “Now, I shall excuse myself.”
Darwin rose from the ground and landed on its feet without creating a wind or sound. It walked slowly to the edge of the clearing, where it sat in a meditation pose.
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 24