A Covenant of Thieves

by Christian Velguth

  “Look out!” Chris yelled.

  There was a sharp crack, and a spear of blue-green sizzled its way over their heads, emanating from the blazing light of the Ark. Rick dropped flat, blinking at the after-image seared into his vision. As he made contact with the floor he felt a burst of spatial awareness, something like a bubble popping in his brain, a surge of data he couldn’t parse --

  Overhead the bolt made contact with a pillar and persisted, flickering and jittering in midair. The pillar’s glassy surface began to glow -- then flow like liquid. A thin spar emerged from its flank, about halfway up, growing as they watched, extending to span the hall. After only a few seconds it connected with the opposite pillar. With another crack the bolt of energy vanished, leaving behind a thick strand of golden fireflies that slowly began to disperse. The glow of the pillar, however, remained, coursing across the new spar and illuminating the stone from within like lightning in a bottle.

  Slowly, they began to pick themselves back up. “Jesus,” one of the Retrieval team whispered, awestruck. “What…what do you think that is?”

  “I simply have no idea,” Dr. Halley said faintly, as the pillar continued to shine above them. Its newly-joined companion had begun to glow as well. “Perhaps some sort of capacitor or conductor -- oh! Mr. Álvarez!”

  Rick, who had been shaking off the strange burst of awareness and pushing himself onto his feet, froze. “What?”

  But a moment later he saw it. Where his feet touched the floor, outlines of golden light had appeared. Not painted on the glassy stone, but somehow beneath it, as if there were a substrate inches below. Thin lines began tracing away from him, running unhindered beneath the feet of the rest of the group. They wound their way down the chamber, covering the rest of the distance to the Ark.

  “Looks like it likes you,” Kai said.

  Everyone had turned to stare at him.“Uh -- what do I do?” He remained motionless in a half-crouch. To his left he saw Torv moving around him, arms held at his sides as if he weren’t quite sure what to do with them.

  Both doctors began to postulate excitedly, then broke off as Kai strode forward and took Rick’s hand, pulling him up. The glowing lines remained wholly disinterested in Kai’s presence.

  Rick looked around. Even the Retrieval team was watching him, as if expecting an explanation. Hesitantly, he took a step forward. The elliptical outline moved to follow that foot, pulsing slightly as he touched down again. Somewhere deep in his chest, Rick felt the faintest warm echo of that pulse.

  “Perhaps,” Dr. Okai said, “you should lead the rest of the way.”

  As if they had planned it, the group parted before him, abandoning their single-file order. Only Kai remained at his side. Rick glanced at him. “Maybe you should --”

  “Nah.”

  He nodded, grateful, then took another step forward. The warmth remained with him and the lines adjusted as he slowly approached the Ark, Kai in step with him. The others followed behind at a slight remove. The radiance of the Ark intensified as he neared it, growing almost impossible to look at. He could just make out a white core, a center that seemed to bend the light around it prismatically and send off rings of gold in slow pulses.

  Rick reached the edge of that somehow-solid nebula and paused. It hung in the air like a thick fog, like heat shimmers frozen in place. Tentatively he stepped towards it. For a moment he was certain he wouldn’t be able to pass, that it was a barrier. Part of him hoped it would be impassible. But then the nebula faded and became ephemeral, granting him his first clear view of the artifact since first discovering it.

  The chest sat on a low stone dais, looking as if it had never been scratched, let alone blown up. Only now it was alive. Plumes of golden fireflies burst from its surface, twisting in helices and corkscrews before quickly dispersing to fill the air. Threads of blue-green lightning danced constantly between the seraphim, whose wings were now opening and closing rhythmically like the valves of a heart. Occasionally the lightning lanced off on its own to crawl through empty space and burrow into a pillar or stone block. The folds of gold on the Ark’s sides waved and rippled, overlapping, as if the material were in a process of endless flux and renewal, never the same for more than a second. Staring at it, Rick thought he could see fractals and geometric patterns emerging from the chaos, visuals that hinted at meaning, a hidden depth to the endless motion, but they always sank back down before he’d fully processed them.

  A deep thrum pulsed out from the Ark. He could feel it reverberating in his chest.

  Set up around it were pieces of much more prosaic-looking equipment. Four metal towers had been positioned around the dais, each one mounted to a cylinder that looked like a sort of turbine and connected to large generators via thick bundles of cable. The towers bent at right angles at the top and crossed over each other, forming a sort of open-sided cube around the artifact.

  “That’s the containment device,” Chris said. She was standing several feet behind Rick and Kai, with the rest of the group. Her voice was clear over the radio, but there was an odd interference, almost like a reverse echo -- as if Rick could hear her words a moment before they actually reached him. “Basically a supercharged EMF generator. If you can shut this thing down, we’ll use it to put the artifact in a state of dormancy. If not, then it’ll be reduced to its molecular components.”

  “It won’t come to that,” Dr. Okai said stubbornly. “Mr. Álvarez, now is the time to try interfacing.”

  Rick glanced at Kai, but Kai nodded down, indicating the golden lines around Rick’s feet. They climbed up the lip of the dais and seemed to connect directly to the Ark. “I think it’s all you, buddy. I’ll be right here.”

  “Sure. What, uh -- what exactly am I supposed to do?” Rick posed the question generally.

  “Think back to your first encounter,” Dr. Halley said. “Try to recall your state of mind, any actions you might have taken.”

  “I blew it up with a grenade.”

  There was a snort that might have come from Torv. “Please don’t do that,” Dr. Halley said. “In controlled settings, we’ve observed a distinct change in the brainwave patterns of those who meditated in the presence of an artifact. Just try to focus. If your connection with it remains, you may be able to gain access again.”

  Great. The air was swirling with alien fireflies and this thing kept shooting off fireworks of mystical energy. But, sure, just meditate. Rick took a deep breath, focusing on the Ark. It was still almost too bright to look at, still not quite stable in his field of vision. He screwed up his eyes and thought at it really hard.

  Please stop doing whatever it is you’re doing.

  He would’ve been more surprised if the thing had reacted at all.

  “Mr. Álvarez?” Dr. Okai already sounded impatient.

  “Yeah, I’m trying. I…” Sighing, he took a step forward. The lines of light suddenly lifted from the floor, becoming three-dimensional ribbons that wavered in the air and pulsed, running from his abdomen to the Ark. Sounds of awe and surprise told him he wasn’t the only one seeing this.

  Ok, progress. He was now only three feet from it, the air thick with a vaporous luminescence. Part of him expected heat to be coming off the thing, but he could feel nothing through the hazmat suit. Nothing except…

  Closing his eyes was the last thing Rick wanted to do right now, but it was the only thing he knew about meditation. He blew out a harsh breath that fogged his faceplate, tried to steady his pounding heart, and squeezed his eyes shut. Patterns of light and shadow swam across them like creatures glimpsed deep within the ocean. He focused on them, on that pulsing warmth in his breast, trying to feel the Ark, to reach across the wavering ribbons that linked him to it. Earlier, in the tunnel, there had been a moment, a flash of white, an endless space --

  -- He fell into it the world exploding away from him space unfolding in endless nothingness -- but it wasn’t empty there was something ahead something shining approaching with a noiseless rush --


  Gasping, Rick stumbled backwards, eyes flying open. Kai caught him from behind to prevent him from falling.

  “You ok?”

  “Mr. Álvarez!” Dr. Halley. “What is it? Did you make contact?”

  He was still trying to find his words. For a moment it had been as if he’d forgotten how to use them -- as if he’d never needed them in the first place. “Yeah,” Rick finally managed. “I’m fine, I -- I think I broke through something.”

  “You lit up,” Kai muttered, still propping him up. “Just for a second, the air around you glowed like the northern lights.”

  The ribbons were still connecting him to the Ark, and maybe looked to be glowing a bit brighter. “Incredible,” Dr. Okai said. “This data will be invaluable. Try again, Mr. Álvarez! Mr. Villeneuve, I suggest you step back so as not to influence --”

  “I’m not moving.” Kai’s voice was mild, but it carried a warning. “Rick, if you want to be done with this…”

  “No, no, I’m ok.” His heart was pounding, but, oddly, he wasn’t afraid. “I need to…I’m going to try something.”

  He stepped forward, up onto the lip of the dais. The ribbons bunched in the air as he closed the space between him and the Ark. There he stood, only a few inches from it. Golden fireflies swirled around him, never settling on the surface of his suit. The lacework of blue-green energy flickering between the seraphim seemed attracted to him, pulled subtly towards him like the lightning in a plasma ball.

  Raising a hand, Rick undid the velcro cuff around his glove.

  The reaction behind him was instantaneous. Chris, Torv, and both doctors immediately started shouting at him. Rick ignored them. “You want me to talk to this thing? I think this is the best way to do it.”

  “Álvarez, I cannot advise that!” Chris said sternly.

  “Noted.”

  “Rick,” Kai said. “You sure about this?”

  “Not really.”

  He pulled off the glove and flexed his fingers in the open air. It was warm, but the heat wasn’t coming from the Ark. It swirled around him like a constant summer breeze, carrying a charge that made the hairs on his hand stand as straight as toothpicks. As he reached out, hand hovering over the lid of the Ark, new threads of light extended from the tips of his fingers to the Ark and a few golden motes settled on his skin. It was like electric snow. There seemed to be a subtle change in the Ark’s activity, a slowing, as if it were considering him -- or waiting for him.

  Rick brought his fingertips down to the lid and closed his eyes --

  -- White the world falling away once more like the petals of a flower and all was white a shining nothing that contained every color every shade and it wasn’t empty he rushed towards something something rushed towards him something knowing something known familiar a form discrete parts entire worlds contained within walls infinitely small machinery unfolding and replicating to tell the same story over over over in spiraling lines and there it was there he --

  A current ran through him, kicking him out of that white space. The fabric of his clothes and the suit rubbed against his skin like sandpaper. Something was roaring in his ears -- his own breath, his own heartbeat, the crackling of the electricity that carried the signals of his thoughts and emotions. He stared at his exposed hand, feeling for a moment as if he could see every cell and molecule and atom that composed it. Everything was vibrant and bold as if he’d never been aware of it. Everything was there.

  He felt Kai’s hand before it landed on his shoulder, like ripples in a pool. Before either of them could speak, something happened.

  The ribbons and threads that had connected him to the Ark broke away, pulling back in towards it like a line being reeled. They hung in the air just before the Ark, and there they began to knit together, twisting and braiding while at the same time splitting, branching into endless dendritic forms. It was chaotic but directed, and now the space between the branches was filling in, like molten gold being poured into an invisible mold.

  A figure began to take shape. Standing before him like a statue of gold, it had his features, his face -- but not his alone. They wavered and rippled, flickering between endless variations. Occasionally there were periods of stability, and in those moments Rick saw himself clearly, but older, younger, with a larger nose, a smaller mouth, widely-set eyes -- or he saw Booker, or K’ebero, or the two dead soldiers, even a glimpse of Estelle -- and other faces, other forms, ones he didn’t recognize. An aged man with a long beard, a youth in medieval armor, a matronly woman.

  Even as the figure shuttered through these forms, these memories, it spoke, and when it spoke it was with a hundred different voices overlapping. “Yyyyyyou do not have the worddddD.”

  “Sweet baby Christ,” Rick heard Kai whisper. He had almost forgotten he wasn’t alone. It was impossible to look away from the figure.

  “Yyyyyyou do not have the wordddddD,” it said again. The voices dripped in the air, sound coming together in a burst of coherence before scattering like waves against a cliff. Its golden eyes were fixed on him -- Estelle’s eyes, K’ebero’s, his own, ancient eyes full of wisdom, burning with a vivid aquamarine radiance.

  “Mr. Álvarez.” Dr. Okai’s voice came over the radio, sounding breathless, barely more than a whisper. “What -- what is it saying?”

  Rick swallowed. “It -- it’s telling me I don’t have the word.”

  “What word?” demanded Halley.

  “Beats the shit out of me,” Rick muttered.

  “Try asking it.”

  Right. That seemed like an idea. But it was very difficult to put even a simple sentence together. Rick had to focus to bring the words to his lips: “What…what word don’t I have?”

  “Yyyyyyou do not knowwwwW,” the figure said. It spoke without emotion or inflection. “Iiiiignorance pervades all. None here have memory. None here have the word. I will not be your toollllL.”

  “It says none of us have the word,” Rick reported to the doctors. “Says we’re all ignorant. And that it doesn’t want to be a tool.”

  “Please tell me we’re recording,” Dr. Okai said to someone. “Álvarez -- ask it what its purpose is.”

  “What is -- what are you?” It wasn’t quite the same question, but it seemed like the best one.

  “Wwwwwe are Creation. We are Knowledge. We are Life. We are ChangeeeeE.”

  “Change. What change? What are you trying to change?”

  The figure raised both arms, slowly bringing them above its head, trailing a fan of phantom arms as they moved. Rick and Kai took a step back, but it seemed nothing more than a gesture.

  “AaaallllL.”

  “Oh.” Rick shared a look with Kai. Neither of them felt good about that answer. “Change all…into what?”

  “Aaaaaa better world. Better than now. Better than the First Time. A world of our Diagram. Our imageeeeeE.”

  “Did you guys get that?” Rick asked, speaking over the radio to the doctors. “It wants to change everything. That sounds bad. Doesn’t that sound bad?”

  There was a confusion of voices as everyone tried to speak at once. It was Kai that Rick heard. “Why in your image? What makes your image so great?”

  The figure didn’t turn its head; instead, a hundred faces overlapped and reoriented to look at him, as if it had just noticed him. “Yyyyyou do not have the wordddddD --”

  “Yeah, I don’t have the word. Got it. What gives you the right to change the world? Or anything?”

  “Kai,” Rick muttered, “please don’t make this thing angry.”

  For the first time there was a hint of emotion on the figure’s faces, but it wasn’t anger. Rick saw puzzlement on his own face, on Booker’s, on that of a bald man with a pointed chin. “Rrrrright? It is our purpose. Our…form. It is why we were brought into being by those who made usssssS.”

  Kai seemed unfazed. “Yeah? And who were they?”

  “Tttthey wereeeeE…” It seemed to be searching for the right word. “Yyyyyou do not have their n
ame. You do not have their memoryyyyY.”

  “Look,” Rick said, feeling they were getting off-track. “Whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re changing -- we need you to stop. It’s -- it’s frightening people. We don’t want it.”

  The figure returned its attention to him. “Yyyyyour fear comes of ignorance. We remake the world to be better than it is. We have known change and isolation and pain. We have seen death surmount the fragility of life. We can correct thissssS.” It turned to Kai with Estelle’s face. “Wwwwe can correct youuuuU.” The figure raised an arm, and the fingers began to stretch, multiply, lengthening into tendrils, reaching for him.

  They both leapt quickly back before those tendrils could touch them. “Ok, nope!” Rick yelped. “We’re all good on the -- we don’t need any correcting, thanks!”

  The tendrils paused, then retreated back to their normal finger lengths. The figure looked puzzled again. “Yyyyou will not partake? But we have already known you. Already corrected youuuuU.”

  Rick’s stomach lurched, and he prayed it was only referring to the healing of his wounds. “Yep, and once was enough for me, thanks.”

  Blue-green energy flickered over the figure’s shoulders and down its torso. The golden nebula around the Ark began to thicken. “Dddddo not interfere with the workkkkK.” Its features melted like soft wax, smoothing away and presenting them with its back. Rick realized they had been dismissed, and despite his fear he felt a moment of disappointment, as if he had just failed a test.

  “I think it’s done talking,” Kai said. “Shall we?”

  It was now nearly impossible to see the Ark through its nebula. Rick turned and felt a jolt -- he could barely see Kai next to him through the golden haze. “Yeah, let’s.”

  They beat a hasty retreat to Retrieval team and the doctors. The group was standing at a safe remove from the edge of the golden nebula. Dr. Okai pushed forward to meet them. His face was visibly red and angry. “What did you do? You squandered our first contact! Why did you ask those insipid questions?”