The Book of Josiah - Chapter 23c

Part a is here.
Part b is here.

“The shields - the whole shielding system - it was your idea, you designed it.”

    “You designed it, is it going to work?”
    “What do you want me to tell you?”
    “I want you to tell me that we’ll do it, that we’ll save Luna-city, and ourselves. Ammi will have our child and we will all live happily ever after.”
    Jonah looked down sadly.
    “I wish I could tell you that, but deep down in my heart I know that is not how this story ends.”
    “Yeah, I know. The whole ‘IN THREE HOURS’ business. What was that about?”
    “It’s called prophecy, Josiah.”
    “You’ll excuse me if I don’t immediately accept that as an answer.”
    “I will,” said Jonah, smiling devilishly, “but for the purpose of this conversation let’s just take it as read.”
    “Okay, fine. So how do you get into this whole prophecy gig?”
    “You are chosen, and believe me, it is as much a curse as a blessing. I have been walking the earth for many lifetimes now, but soon it will be time to rest.”
    “If you can’t be more cheerful I might become more sceptical.”
    Jonah laughed again. Somehow, despite the growing patch of red and orange, that signalled the approach of Security, despite the growing image of Luna-city projected at the front of the bridge, somehow they had found calmness. But Josiah knew it was just the eye of the storm.
    “I shall endeavour to be optimistic, at least in conversation.”
    “That’s all I ask.”
    “So Josiah, what do you dream about?”
    “Haven’t we had this discussion before? I have the strangest feeling of déjà vu.”
    “Yes we have but times change and so do dreams.”
    “And is there nothing else to talk about?”
    “Nothing else worth saying - the world is run by dreams, the world is changed by dreamers. One should never cheapen the power of dreams.”
    The power of dreams. Yes, the phrase itself struck a chord within his soul but he could not say why. Power…
    He flicked the third switch. It was a delicate balance - too much plasma all at once and the whole engine could blow, ruining any chance they had of saving the city. Too little and they would not change course in time.
    The first rumblings pulsed through the ship as the starboard thrusters filled with plasma. Everything shook, first gently and then with increasing ferocity until Josiah had to cling to his chair, and was half afraid his teeth would fall out.
    Then the shaking subsided.
    “Well that was exciting,” Jonah said, sitting up and brushing dust from his clothes.
    “Yes but it wasn’t enough, we’ll need more to push us off course.”
    He looked up at the display - Luna-city seemed so close now, he could make out all the different buildings, the roofs, the domes, the towers. Was that Ammi’s hospital? It was hard to say. But this was what he was fighting for, and he would not let it go.

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 23b

Part a is here.

And then he knew what he had to do. He did not know how but he had no doubts, no doubts at all...

    If he had had any doubts, he should never have begun. Now there was no choice, no choice at all. Lovecraft sank to the floor, a gaping hole in his chest. Blood splattered across the corridor, spraying all over Duke’s clean clothes and Thee’s white glove. And everything seemed to happen so slowly.
    Was he doing the right thing? He knew he was right, and Amber agreed but now he had to deal with it. There was no choice - he would not let Amber die.
    A ghastly smile on his face, Lovecraft crashed to the ground. And already Duke was turning, his mammoth body turning so slowly. The gun in his hands would never fire. He could not think, he had to shoot, if not for himself then for Amber.
    He aimed the gun, closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. What else could he do? He had been left with no options, no options at all.
    Duke’s right hand dropped the gun. His left hand moved up to his chest instinctively as Josiah’s bullet passed clean through it, and exploded out the other side in a fountain of vivid red. Duke’s lifeblood boiled away. He had no last words but his face was a picture of stunned shock.
    A flash and something hot burned across Josiah’s back. Another flash.
    He looked up at saw Theano fall to the floor, her brains scattered against the walls. Amber held a gun in her shaking hands.
    “She…” Amber forced herself to swallow. “She was going to shoot you.”
    “We’re safe. You can drop the gun.”
    “We killed them,” she gasped, her eyes were wide open, staring into the middle distance, her knuckles were white from clenching the grip.
    “We did what we had to do,” he answered, as gently as he could. They had not had any other choice. If only they had listened to reason.
    Amber nodded somewhat doubtfully, and managed to release her hold on the gun. It clattered to the floor.
    Josiah put his hand to his back. It came back red with blood. Theano’s bullet must have literally scraped across his skin.
    “Come on,” Josiah said, “we have to get out of here.”
    She nodded again, gulped down a breath of air and together they headed down the corridor towards the skyway.
    It was unbelievable, really. How had he managed to do those things? Not long ago he hadn’t even been able to fire a gun. How was he able to keep walking, as blood trickled down his back? The human mind was truly a powerful thing. Such power…
    “Lean on me,” Josiah said, seeing that Amber was still limping.
    She put an arm round his shoulders and they hobbled down the corridor, the skyway just ahead of them, past the pools of blood on the concrete floor.

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 23a

The Five of Cups reversed, gold on black.
    He is in a car with her, and they are driving down the road. The top is down, the wind is in her hair - God, she looks beautiful today, eyes like black on gold. And they are laughing so hard, though he can’t say why. They laugh and laugh, as though this could never end. And then he looks at his hand, and sees a trickle of blood - why does it not hurt? He stops laughing, and so does she. They stare at the trickle of blood, confused, as it traces a red path down his arm. And then the car is out of control, and they go off the bridge. For a moment they are suspended in empty space but then they fall. And somewhere distant, a girl is crying.
    The Six of Wands reversed, silver on black.
    On an ocean, rocking back and forth with the gentle waves. It is night, and the moon is full, silver on black. It is so peaceful here, with the gentle rocking of the sea. But the sky grows darker, and one of the crew is not who he seems, he is an outsider, a traitor, but which one? Perhaps they should draw lots. But the lots are not fair and he draws the short straw - no! I am not the traitor! - but no one will listen to his cries, and they prepare to throw him from the boat before all is lost. “Pray to your God,” they say, “perhaps he will hear and save your life”. But he does not believe in God and so all hope is lost. For a moment he is suspended in empty space but then he falls forever.
    The Fool.
    How should this dream go? I shall toss a coin to decide, I cannot control a dream. Heads, we shall all go home and live beautiful lives, and the dream shall end happily ever after. Tails, we shall never go home, and the dream shall end in fear and pain. He tosses the coin, watches it spin, round and round. For a moment, it hangs there, forever revolving, but then it falls. He reaches out a bloodstained hand and catches it. Tails. Best of three, he thinks, and tosses the coin again and again - and every time it comes up tails.

    The World reversed. Failure.

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 21

    At the next meeting, Josiah could barely keep still. At last he would be able to make a contribution to the project. The safety of thousands, maybe even millions, of people who would come to live on the moon would be thanks to his insight. And to find the problem in the design process before construction had even begun, would save thousands of dollars as well. The youngsters would know that he still had some life in him, that he could still hack it in the fast-paced world of technology. Yes, he would show them all.
    He longed just to get up and say everything - to prove his genius then and there. His legs kept almost standing, beyond his control. But he had too much respect for Eliphaz to show him up in front of his colleagues. He had to wait until the end of the meeting, then he could have a word with him in private. It would help Eli save face when he realised his mistake.
    But the agony of waiting, the words burning a hole inside his head. ‘I was going through the notes,’ he would say, calmly and measuredly, ‘when I came across some anomalies. I was wondering if you could explain them to me.’ But there was no explanation that could be given. The entire structure of the protective shield was dangerously unstable. There might be no problems for years - it was possible that the shield could last for decades without having any problems at all - but then again, under the wrong circumstances, the shield would suffer a catastrophic failure, followed by the collapse of all backup systems. The result would be the annihilation of Luna-city. But he had seen the flaw, it would be put right, and it would all be thanks to him.
    With these thoughts running through his mind again and again, Josiah found it nigh on impossible to listen to the meeting. Something about gardening. His fingers twitched, his legs jerked up and down, a nervous tension grew in his stomach.
    “Josiah,” said Eli, breaking off whatever conversation they had been having, “you look agitated. Do you have something to add?”
    All eyes turned his way, youthful and mocking.
    “Uh, maybe I could have a word with you after the meeting,” Josiah stuttered, totally thrown by this sudden turn of events.
    “Sure, if you want,” said Eli in his calm way. “Is it about the project?”
    “Uh, yeah, it’s about the project.”
    “Well why don’t you just tell us all now, while we’re all here.”
    “No, I’d really rather just speak to you later.”
    “We have no secrets here, what’s on your mind?”
    This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The eyes were filled with disinterest and derision. What had he planned to say?
    “There’s a flaw in the shield system,” he blurted out, “a really serious flaw, I mean, really deep-rooted, and if we don’t do something about it, we could have a really serious problem later on down the line, I mean, when we come to build it, because then we’ll have to replace all the inducers.”
    He thought he heard the Wicked Witch cackle quietly to herself. They won’t listen, he thought, and his heart plummeted. But Eli was listening and would hear what he was trying to say.
    “Why don’t you just pause a second and then start from the beginning,” Eli said sympathetically.
    Josiah took a deep breath, tried to gather his thoughts, and began at the beginning. He pulled out the now ragged bits of paper, criss-crossed in red scribbles and black arrows, referencing first one part and then another of the design specifications, gathering momentum all the time. Why was he nervous? After all, he knew he was right, and Eli would listen, even if the others were too blinded by prejudice to see the truth. He didn’t care what they thought, only Eli mattered. His mind grew wings and soared, each sentence he spoke was perfect, his argument faultless - they would all recognise the truth of what he said. This was the perfect flash of inspiration, everything came together and he understood it on a new level - this was the feeling he lived for, the sheer energy, the power of the mind.
    He was reaching his conclusion and knew it to be irresistible.
    “And so, in conclusion, you can see that the structure of the defensive shield has an inherent weakness. It can be struck by a meteor and not sustain a scratch, but if subjected to vibrations of a certain frequency, a frequency not uncommon, the plasma flow will be interrupted, causing a catastrophic failure of all systems, primary and secondary, resulting in depressurisation and total annihilation of the city.”
    There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch into an eternity. All eyes looked at him but he could not tell what they thought. He found, to his great surprise, that he was standing up, and perhaps had been for some time. They stared at him forever, pens held limply in their hands. In this moment of silence, Josiah felt Ammi’s loss more profoundly than he had for years, though he could not explain why. And then the silence ended.

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 20

    And there it was: a mountain in the heart of London, a snow-capped needle of glass and steel piercing the night sky. The Cathedral of the Steel God watched the world the way an earthly lord might survey his domain. Soaring amongst the clouds, it claimed a place in heaven. The icons of the Steel God were crusted in ice and snow, white on grey metal. The everlasting torch flicked from the top of the glass pyramid, a beacon for the lost.
    But the sight brought no cheer to Josiah as he trudged along the twenty-eighth skyway. He did not feel that stirring of heart that true believers felt on approaching the cathedral, nor did he feel the thrill he had once felt on nearing his place of work, looking forward to seeing Elijah. It was bitterly cold up here. He could have taken a lower skyway but this was the most direct route - Josiah begrudged any waste of time.
    Visions of Amber filled his mind. Tortured, caged, beaten. What were they doing to her? Anxiety gnawed at his gut and ate away at his stomach. If only the skycars had been running. This damn snow. The skyways were covered in a layer of black ice, slippery and treacherous. If he had had a car, Josiah might have taken the risk, but like everything else in his life, the Circle had taken it from him. He had known nothing else, and they had thrown him to the dogs. And now they had Amber. What more did they want from him? The machine - his last act of heresy, the last corner of himself. All he had left was his life, and what was that worth?
    When he had last rode the skyways he had been with Amber, driving till dawn. Now it was 3am Central Europe Time, and dawn was out of reach. Shivering violently, Josiah gritted his teeth, pulled his cloak around him, and marched on. Not far to go now, it was almost over.
    Josiah had not thought he would look upon this place again - he had thought that he had escaped the past but he was finding that he could not. He had spent fifteen years of his life in this place, his first memories were of steel fists and full moons. The Circle had been his family, Elijah his father and teacher.
    The Cathedral loomed ever larger as he approached, filling his vision, making him feel small and insignificant - as it was intended. For the last five years he had made this journey every day, and it seemed that each day his excitement had dwindled. Now there was simply a hole inside him.
    What would he find? And more importantly, who? If he got his hands on Lovecraft... She would be alright, they would both be alright.

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 19

 

The end is nearly upon us - just five more chapters until the end of the Book of Josiah! Enjoy.

    “I thought they would have found us by now,” Jos said as he and Jonah hurried down the twisting passageways, “it’s not exactly like we’re hiding from them.”
    “I told you,” replied Jonah, smiling enigmatically, “they won’t find us until the time is right.”
    “Jonah, I’m not sure about this, I’m frightened.”
    “I know. Look at it this way. The ship is going to crash into the city unless something happens. Even if I am completely insane and having paranoid delusions about some conspiracy, nothing we can possibly do now could make the situation any worse.”
    Jos had to admit that Jonah had a point. He felt a new resolve fill him. Despite the impossible odds, he and Jonah would manage to save the city. Together, there was nothing they could not do. They would get to the bridge and somehow they would turn the ship around. There wasn’t long to go now.
    But Jonah suddenly toppled over like a tree blown down in a hurricane. It was all Jos could do to avoid being knocked to the floor.
    Violent tremors began to course through Jonah’s body - he began to shake uncontrollably. Jos started to panic - was he having a fit? what should he do? Jonah’s arms and legs jerked spasmodically but without force, like a mad puppet. He had to do something!

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 18

    It wasn’t his fault. Not really. He was afraid of his dreams and so he fought the darkness. What had happened to his beautiful dreams? Once he had dreamt of other worlds and other times, when a man could be a hero, where he was free to live out his fantasies. But he had squandered his infinite dreams and now was left with only two.
    In one, he watched a cup of tea fall to the floor, so elegant, so graceful, and shatter into a thousand pieces like a drop of rain as it hits the ground; and an inhuman screech filled his ears as brakes burned, tires slid and a car, all too close, collided with a brick wall. It was inevitable and he was bound to watch, over and over again.
    But relatively speaking that was the good dream. In the other, he woke up in his bed to find Ammi lying beside him, worn by the passing of years but as beautiful as ever. And he would wake her up and tell her about the strange dream he had had, and how he had imagined the crash, and her funeral, and his sorrow, and she laughed and said “what a funny dream” and they both laughed together until Dinah came to find out what was going on; and she was so beautiful it ached his heart, and he told her about his strange dream, and how she had died and he had gone to her funeral and been unable to say a word, and he laughed because she was so full of life - they all laughed.
    Joe felt himself falling asleep again and drove his nails harder into his leg - he had to stay awake. it wasn’t his fault that he kept falling asleep in this meeting. How could he go to sleep at night knowing what waited for him in the shadows?
    His head jerked backwards and he knew that he couldn’t help himself. In a few minutes he would be asleep, and there was nothing he could do about it. No, he wouldn’t accept that.
    Eli was still talking but it was just a senseless drone, like an itch at the base of Joe’s mind. He did not understand a word that was being said but couldn’t ignore it. He had to seem interested but to do that he had to stay awake. Rising from his seat in what he hoped was a surreptitious manner, Joe went over to the water machine and poured himself a large cup of water.
    ‘I need something stronger than water,’ Joe thought but then was immediately angry at himself for thinking it. He did not drink any more.

The Book of Josiah - Chapter 17

    Darkness dissolved into light.
    From nothingness all he could see was fire, fire burning hot and bright. And yet he was cold. And could not move.
    The light was fleeting, the warmth fading - the darkness more than real.
    Steel chains bound his arms and legs, rusted links wore at his wrists and ankles. The constant sound of dripping water played out a never-ending riff. Water swirled and danced around the stone cobbles and pooled around his feet, covered with the filth of eternity. And yet his mouth was dry beyond enduring. And the water was out of reach.
    If he felt anything, it was abject terror.
    He knew he was alone despite the darkness. No, it wasn’t dark. Fire burned in braziers, fixed at equal intervals along the wall, flickering like ghosts, more dead than alive. And the walls stretched beyond the end of the world, beyond the brink of forever.
    And then he was in the jungle, running, running. The unbearable green burnt his eyes, the cascading water plunged his hair to rivers, the undergrowth tore at his tattered clothes. But he was running, and nothing else mattered.
    He was a jaguar, fleet of foot, king of the jungle, deadly hunter. His claws were like steel vices, his teeth like industrial diamonds. And his prey was close. The infuriating stench of its sweat filled his mind with visions of death and blood, of red and green.
    The water did not matter, the thickness of the air he fought was irrelevant - the only thing in the world was his prey. He had to run.
    And then he was the prey and was still running, running, fighting the pain of a broken arm - he knew that a piece of metal was stuck in his flesh. Cold sweat mingled with the gushing water but there was no oblivion.
    His antlers caught a branch and he was slowed for an instant - the pause was deadly - the hunter was upon him.
    This is a dream, he thought, and smiled to himself. There is no pain and no water. With a leap he sailed high into the air and left the hunter far behind. This is a dream, and here I can fly.
    But he could not fly, and so he fell down with the rain, faster than teardrops, plummeting to the green earth and the dark ribbon of silver. The ribbon rushed to meet him, its waters closed over his head.
    This is a dream, he thought, and I can swim. And so he did. But he saw that fish too can swim, and they gathered around him, sunlight flashed off bared fangs. Then all around him, the water turned from green to red.
    He was the hunter, laughing at his folly.
    He was the hunted, crying into blood.
    He was the fish, extracting his pound of flesh.
    He is you, and you are me, and I am everyone.
    “You are not My people. And you are not forgiven.”

*  *  *

    “Well Mr Smith, this is a pleasant surprise.”

The Book of Josiah - An Introduction

In the distant future, the Steel God has replaced the God of the Bible, and Science is the only religion. A non-believing priest, Josiah works desperately to complete his time machine, as Elisha and the Inner Circle strive to frustrate his new ideas. Josiah must flee to the Deep, the squalid streets of Camden Town and Kings Cross, escape the hordes of Piranhas and followers of the Steel God, to finish his life's work.

Jos is visiting his wife, taking a break from working on his time machine to fly to Luna City, when he meets the mysterious Jonah, a mad prophet and convicted murderer. But when terrorist strike London, what will Jos and Jonah be prepared to do to save the ship?

Jo is an old man, life wasted on the futile project of building a time machine, desperate to see his wife and daughter once more. When they died in a car accident, his whole life came to a halt and now lies covered in a thick layer of dust. But this peace is shattered when a former student of Jo's, Eli, invites him to join a team. Their project? To build a city on the moon.

Jo, Jos and Josiah - each one of them building a time machine, each one of them disturbed by haunting dreams. They can't possibly be the same person - can they?

The first chapter of 'the Book of Josiah' is online now.