A Covenant of Thieves

by Christian Velguth

  “Should’ve hiked up that mountain with us, you could’ve gotten the full Jesus treatment too. Hey -- how’d you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Get the jump on K’ebero’s soldiers?”

  “Oh, that. Just waited for an opening and took my shot.” Kai shrugged, as if that explained everything. Then his face darkened. “I heard about Estelle.”

  As soon as he heard the change in Kai’s voice, Rick knew, and immediately felt stupid for not noticing earlier. He should have seen it, the way Kai had talked about Estelle and acted around her. In his defense, there had been a lot going on and no time to discuss budding infatuation. And now it was too late.

  “Yeah. I tried to -- well, to do something, but…You saw K’ebero. She’d lost it. It…was fast.”

  “Not your fault.” Kai’s voice was calm, but a bit tight. He couldn’t blame Rick, could he? “Just, next time, don’t open negotiations with a grenade.”

  “God, I hope there isn’t a next time,” Rick said with half a laugh, eager to move past the topic. He glanced towards the entrance. “They let you walk over here alone? What’s happening out there? Who are these people?”

  It seemed to take a moment for Kai to hear him. He blinked, refocusing his gaze on Rick from some distant place. “Radical Dynamics.”

  “I knew it! I mean, kind of. Is Nasim here?”

  “Yeah, with her own private army. I think this was the convoy we were supposed to meet in Cairo. They came pretty well prepared.”

  “They knew,” Rick said. “About the Ark. What it can do, they must have. Explains why they wanted it so badly. ”

  Kai frowned. “What did it do? Haven’t really gotten a straight answer out of anyone around here.”

  “It got damaged in the blast. Pretty much destroyed. And then it just kinda put itself back together. Me along with it, I guess.”

  Kai raised his eyebrows. “Just like that?”

  “There were a lot of flashing lights and…” Rick trailed off, the hospital tent momentarily disappearing as he caught glimpses of the blue-green streamers, the golden fireflies. He shook himself, a sudden cold sweat breaking out beneath his gown. “And that’s about all I know.”

  Kai was nodding. Then, slowly, a sly smile appeared on his face. “You realize what this means, right?”

  “No. Do you?” He was genuinely curious.

  “Means I was right. About the Ark, remember? I said maybe it has real powers.”

  Rick vaguely recalled a conversation like that in Addis Ababa. “Ok, but we were talking about it being a big capacitor or being radioactive or something. Not --”

  Another tremor shook the ground, causing him to swallow his words. It lasted for nearly a minute, and neither of them spoke until it was over.

  “So how long has that been going on?” Rick asked quietly.

  “Started a little white after these guys got set up. They sent a team up the mountain, into the cave. You think it’s…?”

  Rick nodded. “The Ark? Gotta be. Nobody told you what it’s doing?”

  “Like I said, no answers. Feels like it’s bringing down the whole damn mountain, though…” He trailed off, suddenly looking uncomfortable. When he next spoke, his voice was low, sounding both embarrassed and slightly awestruck. “What is it? It’s not…not actually God, do you think?”

  “If it is, then God’s weird as hell. But…I don’t know.”

  “You think Ibis knew about all this?”

  Rick hadn’t given that much thought until now. “No. Maybe. I guess, if he was working inside Pharos, then he must have.”

  “Don’t want to find out what he’s planning on doing with it,” Kai said darkly.

  “I don’t want to know what Radical Dynamics is going to do with it either. That’s all someone like Nasim al-Faradi needs, access to literal god-like powers.”

  “I think she’s alright,” Kai said slowly. “They’ve evacuated the monastery and the nearby town, just in case something goes wrong. Nasim might be here for the Ark, but she’s trying to keep anyone else from getting hurt along the way.”

  A burst of voices from outside made them both turn sharply. The tent flap was flung open, and Julie Miles came marching in, a thunderous look on her face. Rick thought she was going to try to force him back into bed and throw Kai out, and kind of looked forward to seeing that play out, but then she was followed by two men he hadn’t seen before. They wore uniforms similar to Julie’s, but closer to lab coats and navy blue rather than white.

  “Good, you’re awake.” Julie sounded anything but delighted. She came to stand beside him and folded her arms. She didn’t so much as glance at Kai. “These men want to ask you some questions. I can’t actually order them to leave, because this camp has become a circus. But, as a fully-sentient adult, you are free to tell them to piss off if you don’t feel up to being grilled.”

  “Um…I am?”

  Julie glowered at the two men as they caught up with her, both alternating between apprehensive looks at the formidable doctor and Kai, and curious glances at Rick.

  “Please, Dr. Miles,” said the man on Julie’s left. He was thin, with a flap of dark hair and small glasses perched on the end of his nose. “We just want to ask Mr. Álvarez a few questions, and maybe do a few tests. All under your supervision, of course.”

  “My patient is still recovering,” Julie said through her teeth, without turning around. “Now is not the time --”

  “Unfortunately,” said the second man, stepping around her, “we no longer have the luxury of time. Events are beginning to accelerate. If we don’t want this mission to be a complete and utter disaster, we need to take drastic actions.” He was older, and spoke with a firm authority that said he was the leader of the duo, if not all the bluecoats.

  “You’re talking about the earthquakes,” Rick said. “Right? They’re coming from the Ark.”

  “The artifact,” said the first man. His voice was practically trembling with excitement. “It has become increasingly active since you…interfaced with it. The tremors are directly linked to that. But to fully understand what it’s doing, we need your help.”

  “The man is wearing a paper gown,” Julie said, eyes raised to the ceiling. “What help could he possibly provide you?”

  The second of the bluecoats waved a hand, dismissing her and addressing Rick. “Tell us about your first encounter with the AUO. We’ve already heard Mr. Hopkins’ account, but we need your perspective as well.”

  Rick glanced at Kai, who shrugged. Julie was still hovering over him, arms folded. Despite her stern expression, he could see a lingering curiosity.

  “Here’s a thing. How about you answer a few of my questions first?”

  “Mr. Álvarez, I hardly think --”

  A shiver ran through the earth, making the nylon walls buzz like a nest of hornets. Everyone froze, and the younger man with the glasses visibly paled. It lasted longer than the one before it. “You want my help with that?” Rick said, once it had fully dissipated. “Fill me in on a few things.” He wasn’t sure what help he could actually provide, but so long as these men thought he knew something they didn’t, he had leverage.

  Both bluecoats sighed, then nodded, motioning to the nearby beds. They sat, Rick and Kai on one, the men on the other. Julie remained standing, watching disapprovingly. “I’m Dr. Halley,” said the bespectacled man. “This is my colleague, Dr. Okai. We’re the senior scientists of Field Team 30. What that is -- what Pharos is --” He shrugged helplessly. “I’m afraid it’s not worth my salary to explain.”

  “Not good enough.”

  Dr. Okai leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Mr. Álvarez, you must understand. This is a very special operation, deployed due to very special circumstances. Unprecedented circumstances. Consequently, there are some very special protocols that must be followed. What we have discovered is a very –”

  “Say very special one more time.”

  The old man’s expression soured. Dr. Halley
stepped in. “Suffice it to say, levels of security and protocol dictate that we cannot reveal…well, much of anything about our organization to you. I’m afraid that’s just how it’s going to have to be.”

  “We can, however, tell you a little about the artifact.” Dr. Okai sounded reluctant. “If it will help.”

  The artifact. Not the Ark. Rick couldn’t help but notice they were taking care to make the distinction. He nodded to Dr. Okai. “Alright. What the hell is it?”

  Julie sat beside him, apparently resigned to the situation. Dr. Halley cleared his throat. “Please bear in mind that this is all speculation. What we know is infinitesimal. What we don’t know, comparatively, is planetesimal. And what we don’t know that we don’t know --”

  “We get the picture,” Kai said lightly.

  “All that being said.” Dr. Halley drew a breath. “Artifacts of Unknown Origins. AUOs, for the sake of brevity. And, yes, there are more than the one you found in that cave, although none of them measure up in scale and significance. Some of us call them Remnants --”

  “It is a presumptuous term,” Dr. Okai interrupted shortly. “Rife with assumptions. It implies that they were left behind, that those who made them are gone. That we know anything at all about their purpose or history. We do not.”

  “Those who made them,” Rick repeated slowly. “That…sounds like you don’t mean humans.”

  “You’ve seen the artifact in action, Mr. Álvarez,” Dr. Okai said. “Did it resemble any human technology that you’re aware of?”

  “No.” He paused; then, feeling a bit silly, said, “It looked more like magic.”

  Dr. Okai smiled, a thin, sharp expression that didn’t do much for his paunchy face. “You’ve heard Clarke’s axiom, I’m sure? Any sufficiently advanced technology, to a lesser civilization, would be indistinguishable from magic. And magic, really, is only science we do not understand. That’s all it’s ever been. So, from that standpoint you are correct, Mr. Álvarez. The artifact is as inscrutable and powerful as the magical myth that surrounds it.”

  “But not for long, hopefully,” Dr. Halley said quickly. “That’s our job. To understand the AUOs. To translate their magic into predictable, replicable science, and to apply it for the betterment of the human race.”

  Kai coughed with what could have been skepticism. “Ok,” Rick said. “But…what is it? If it wasn’t made by people, then why does it look like a human artifact? Like the Ark of the Covenant?”

  “It is a tool. For what, we don’t know. Perhaps it has no single purpose, or perhaps its purpose is beyond our understanding. On the most basic level, we know that all AUOs are able to harness vast amounts of energy and utilize them in ways we can’t yet understand. Inferring from the effect it had on you, at the very least it possesses the ability to influence biological materials on a molecular scale and the intelligence to repair significant damage. As for its appearance…we have observed that AUOs are incredibly flexible in their form. They can take on virtually any shape, and even appear to be able to adjust their mass. This artifact, whatever its origins, is undoubtedly old. Perhaps it assumed a shape that was influenced by the cultures that interacted with it. Hebrew, Egyptian. Or perhaps it was given a shape that those cultures would find familiar and significant. Perhaps it was a gift, to ancient man from its creators. Whomever they may have been”

  “Aliens,” Kai muttered.

  Dr. Halley smiled, but it wasn’t a dismissal. “That’s one, very likely, hypothesis. Another is that it is of this world, but not of us. Some precursor race that evolved much earlier than we did. Or perhaps, in the nearly half-million years of our existence, humans at some point advanced much further than we ever knew.”

  “Homo sapiens,” Dr. Okai said, “biologically modern humans, have been on this planet for more than 300,000 years. A child born 299,000 years ago would be virtually indistinguishable from one born yesterday, at least from a biological perspective. In the last fifteen thousand years alone we have gone from stone tools to interplanetary travel. It begs the question: What on Earth were humans, with the same biological capacity for logical thought, imagination, and creation that we now possess, doing for the 285,000 years leading up to known history? Does it seem likely that, in all that time, we would only ever figure out civilization and technology once?”

  “Well, yeah,” Rick said. “Kind of. I mean, the Earth wasn’t exactly hospitable during that time. We were living through climate shift, ice ages. There was never enough time to figure out agriculture, and without that you’d have a hell of a time feeding enough people to build a civilization, let alone create things like your Remnants.”

  Both men were looking at him with surprise. “He’s a nerd,” Kai said helpfully.

  “Actually,” Dr. Okai said, recovering, “that’s not strictly true, Mr. Álvarez. We now know that climate shift is a regular occurrence. Our current situation is certainly an accelerated period, but there’s nothing to suggest that our ancestors lived in a particularly trying climate between ice ages. Furthermore, periods of what we would call climatic stability lasted for tens of thousands of years. They had ample time to take advantage of the warmer climate to develop agriculture, build civilizations, and advance technology. Just as we have done since the end of the Younger Dryas, approximately 12,000 years ago.”

  “Except there’s no evidence,” Rick countered. “There’s no archaeological evidence of any sort of advanced civilization existing before the last ice age. No massive structures, no tools, no hint of technology. Certainly nothing like whatever that thing up in the cave is.”

  “300,000 years is a long time,” Dr. Okai said firmly. “There is a significant portion of the planet now covered in ice and water which, in the ancient past, would have been habitable. Antarctica, for instance. We really have no idea what’s beneath the ice. And when you take into account how drastically coastlines can shift, and the fact that even today most of our cities remain clustered around major bodies of water –”

  “It’s beyond the accepted dogma of modern science,” Dr. Halley conceded. Perhaps he had noticed how red his colleague’s face was becoming. “And there is evidence that suggests AUOs have existed far longer than humans. But you can’t deny what your own eyes have seen, Mr. Álvarez. You know what the artifact is capable of. Maybe it was left by extraterrestrials, or maybe it is a relic of our unknown past. One way or another, we must be ready to accept the extraordinary.”

  “Well, Julie here tells me I should be dead right now. So, yeah,” Rick said. “I’m feeling pretty open-minded.”

  “Then perhaps,” Dr. Okai said irritably, “we can cut to the point. You interfaced with the artifact, in a way that has not been achieved since the founding of our organization. We want you to do it again.”

  Julie coughed. “Excuse me, what?”

  “In the last sixteen hours,” Dr. Halley said, “the artifact has become…unpredictable. We’re not sure why --”

  “Well, I did blow it up,” Rick pointed out. “Maybe that broke something?”

  “To be honest, we do not know if they can be broken. They are incredibly resilient, as you have seen. Still, we fear that your actions may have triggered some sort of defensive mechanism. Its activity, those tremors you have been feeling -- it’s all been accelerating.”

  “Like a countdown,” Kai offered. Halley nodded.

  “What is it doing?”

  “We don’t know,” Dr. Okai said. “But it could prove dangerous.”

  “Oh really?” Julie’s eyebrows had soared and her tone was bright with sarcasm. “I never would have guessed. And when were you going to inform the rest of us plebs around here that our lives might be in danger of -- of whatever the Remnant is doing?”

  Dr. Halley looked apologetic. “We’re still gathering data --”

  “The time for that is over, unfortunately,” said a new voice. Two people were entering the tent. Booker, following behind Nasim al-Faradi. Booker was wearing an outfit similar to Julie and the
doctors, but green in color.

  “We were just explaining,” said Dr. Okai, rising to meet Nasim.

  “Yes, thank you.” Nasim nodded to him, then turned to Rick. “You understand what it is we’re asking of you, then?”

  “No, actually. What are you expecting me to do with it that your scientists haven’t already achieved?”

  “We don’t know,” Nasim admitted. “This has never happened before. Nobody has interacted with a Remnant to the extent that you have done tonight.”

  “You've never even used one of these things?”

  “They have been wielded, clumsily. But what you've achieved is different. We’ve never been able to activate one to the degree that the Ark has been made active. We do know, however, that even the slightest interaction with them establishes some sort of link between you and the artifact. One that remains open for a little while, at least.”

  Rick wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. “What kind of link?”

  “Again, we don’t know. We haven’t had the time to fully study it. All we know is that it allows you to interface deeply with the artifact. Control it, maybe. Which makes you our best hope for containing the Ark.”

  Rick stared at Nasim and the scientists, arguably the smartest people in the room when it came to these Remnants. “You’re kidding, right? You people have been studying these things for, what, years? And you want me to just go in there and poke at it until something happens?”

  Dr. Okai sighed. “Believe me, Mr. Álvarez, the circumstances are not ideal. If I had my way, this would be a months-long operation. We wouldn’t dare move the AUO so soon. But, as it is --”

  “Our present circumstances are far from ideal,” Nasim finished.

  “Ma’am,” Julie said, standing. “With all due respect, I really don’t think sending my patient back into that cave is going to help anything. He’s still recovering, and like you said, we don’t know what it will actually accomplish. Why not just have Retrieval --?”