The Oak Hotel - Watty Awards 2013 Finalist

Chapter Fifty - The Pilgrims of Atoth

Chapter Fifty

The Pilgrims of Atoth

 The sky erupted in a chaotic dance of fire, spider-web lightning and glimmering metal. A deafening barrage of thunder bounced from sky to land and back again.

Kayleigh and Lincoln, sitting on the ground where El Rhea had once stood, jumped to their feet and ran without thought toward the shelter of Kana Hove. On their way, hasty glances upward revealed the terrifying reality of rapidly approaching horseshoe-shaped spacecraft.

By the time they reached the entrance of the city, all was again quiet. The silence, however, was uncomfortable given that half a dozen ships were frozen at various distances from the ground above them.

I have not stopped anything, Sapana said, seeming to read their minds. The Planck craft are all in emergency power down. Their cores are overheating. In the valley, we watched this astonishing spectacle in disbelief. We had done everything to ensure Te’hæra Thorn remain hidden. It was the A.I. on their ships that narrowed down a suitable planet for habitation. We had not accounted for this technology, which grew out of the changes we’d made.

One particular ship, frozen right above the Valley of the Oaks, appeared as if it could completely crush more than half the trees. Just the thought of this made Lincoln squirm.

“What went wrong?” Kayleigh asked. “Why all the fire and noise?”

Their journey, which exploited every known trick learned from cross-dimensional trading, overtaxed the flexibility of the fabric of reality. Their one goal was to escape Atoth and live forever beyond the reach of the Applewhite Regime. Acting in parallel, the A.I.’s did the impossible… brought them here, though at the price of their transport. It was a small miracle they even made it, considering the damage done to the propulsion systems. Most would have left massive craters all around Kana Hove and the valley if not for our eventual intervention.

“What did you do?” Lincoln asked, unable to take his eyes away from the surreal spectacle around him.

We put them all to sleep, Sapana stated plainly. Using our will, we transported them to the city, filling every habitable space with their unconscious forms.

Lincoln felt his body blur forward then stop suddenly in the center of Kana Hove. Both he and Kayleigh walked slowly toward the Tower of Quercus, avoiding the many pilgrims scattered around in various states of repose.

Without warning, the scene changed. The silence was replaced with animated discussion and the movement of dozens of people.

“How many pilgrims were there?” Lincoln asked.

Three hundred and seventy-eight, Sapana supplied. Sixty sleeping travelers per ship with three pilots in wake rotation. We marveled at how quickly they adapted to our city, finding order and purpose in ways we had never intended. In the end, though, this was their city. We knew we would one day have visitors, just not from the planet we meant to distance ourselves from.

“But they were the pilgrims,” Lincoln said. “Emil told us all about them. They fled Atoth because their families were being persecuted.”

“My grandfather said his people were healers, mystics,” Kayleigh said softly. “That the leaders on Atoth were afraid of them because they didn’t rely on science.”

This was only partially true, Sapana amended. The pilgrims did eventually learn to give up the world they left behind. The first few years, though, were quite trying. They saw our dear city as the perfect launching pad for a new and improved Atoth. I do believe they meant well, but the direction they were moving was fraught with peril.