by T.W.Ambrose
“Good morning, Mallet.”
Mallet rolled from his bunk and crashed to the floor.
“Morning, Sis.”
Mallet stood as tall as he could in his cramped quarters and reached his arms out before him. Squatting, he straightened his back and stretched the kinks out of his neck, groaning slightly. Standing back up, he took a couple steps to the other side of the cabin and punched the buttons on his food processor for coffee and warm protein oatmeal.
“Are we still on course this morning, Annie?”
“Yes, we will reach the ion storm later today.”
“That ain’t no storm out there today, Annie. You’re gonna be the first computer to face God. That is, if you had a face.” Annie did not respond; she never did to statements outside her programming. Still, Mallet was happy he had paid extra to implant his sister’s voice into the ship’s AI Terminal. Two and a half months was a long time to be alone in space; at least he had a friendly voice to keep him company.
Taking his food and coffee, Mallet ducked down and entered the small cockpit where he sat in the captain’s chair. He put his food on the console, reviewing the small craft’s readings from overnight. Nothing out of the ordinary. He had followed this routine every morning for over two months, but as he looked out the front window, he knew today would be different. Soon, there in the distance, in the dark cold of space, he would enter the warm purple glow of God.
The sight took Mallet back nearly two years when he first discovered the unimaginably complex ion field while on the job manning a deep space telescope. Being the religious man that he was, Mallet had skipped over the scientific community completely and went straight to the Church with his discovery. But the religious leaders only laughed at him. They spouted their rhetoric that God was found inside each of us and we must live good lives to achieve heaven here on earth.
After that, Mallet reluctantly took his finding to science, but the laughing only continued. Yes, the electrical cluster was unique, an amazing scientific discovery, but he was written off as a fool to believe in something as archaic as God. Mallet lost his job and his friends, but he knew the truth: God was out there in that fiery storm.
It took him only a few months to liquidate all he owned and to purchase a small ship, which he christened Elijah, after a man who was said to have seen God. It was never meant for this type of voyage, but with a few adjustments it was holding up well.
Mallet was brought out of his reverie as the ship shuddered around him. He spilled his remaining coffee, but it didn’t matter. He was in awe. He could feel the surge of the storm as Elijah breached the edge of the field. It felt, at first, as if a mighty wind whipped through the cabin, and then a powerful shaking threatened to tear the craft apart. Mallet gaped as lightning arched in and around the ship.
Attempting to stand, Mallet braced his hands against the cockpit window. “God!” he shouted, “I have come to you. Show me your face, show me your heavens.”
Mallet stood in silence as his ship flew deeper into the storm. Lightning flashed once more, striking his ship. Then all went black.
Alone and in the dark without even his sister’s voice to comfort him, Mallet realized God was not in the storm.
© 2009 T. W. Ambrose
Original fiction debuting at Residential Aliens.
Congratulations, Tim, on ending the P&E Readers Poll at #1. We’ll celebrate again when the verification software finalizes the tallies, but what a compliment to you, ResAliens, and fans of spiritually infused speculative fiction. Best wishes with Digital Dragon as well as we (along with a number of other zines, of course) expand the venue for those who enjoy family friendly quality fiction. Lyn
[...] Short Story Category. Congratulations to T. W. Ambrose on taking the #1 spot with his story, “The Pilgrimage.” And tying for 9th was T. M. Hunter’s story, “Redemption.” You can read [...]