A Servant's Timeless Mission

The portal glimmered into existence.

For the past two days, a strange light had appeared in the air, hovering at the end of the street outside the abandoned Saloon town. Not that there was anyone residing in this sleepy town to witness the bright alien distraction. Not this time. That was because the last time a visitor arrived through the Crossing, the gift he carried, a brown paper box had brought about the beginning and the end of Josephville. That was a hundred years ago after the diamond rush rumour that created this town in the first place. Since the last resident left, the rows of shops either side of where the ball of light currently hung, had long fallen into dilapidated ruins. The few timber buildings that remained were weathered and warped, their frames rusted and twisted beneath the punishing desert sun. It was as if over the years the unforgiving heat had simply wrung the very life out of the structures that had provided shelter to its inhabitants for a brief time. Now doors and window shutters hung limp, creaking in the gusts of wind frolicking down the street towards the growing light.

Which begged the question. Why would any human want to live out here in this desert hell hole anyway? Three hundred and ninety miles due east of the nearest city with not a tree in sight. When just an endless line of mirages met the eye in every direction. Surely only a madman would have caught onto the frenzy that swept the new world arising from one old man’s rumour that way out west in the middle of the desert the red-hot sands were littered with diamonds so big your hands could not wrap around them. Well as to be expected every man, women and children that caught wind of that story thought it had to be the easiest get rich quick scheme ever to occur since the very first piece of gold was discovered thousands of years earlier. Rich and poor alike sold whatever they owned and trekked their families far out west to the desert. What would be a couple of months on an adventure that could bring more wealth than one could possibly earn in an entire lifetime slaving away for some ungrateful corporation?

Well, those naive humans left their city lives in droves, hundreds and then thousands at a time until they created a sprawling tent city that spread right across the horizon. Each and every one of them holding dreams of amassing their fortune gathering the stunning jewels just sitting on the ground for all to see. And to take. It wasn’t long before greed filtered throughout the makeshift town growing at such an unsustainable rate that any new prospectors moving in had to make do living in hastily erected shanty hovels situated far from where the richer citizens had already established the Saloon town. Due to the over enthusiastic prospectors, within six months there became fewer diamonds to gather on the outer edges of Josephville then in the centre where the wealthy had hired gunmen to protect their hordes of diamonds. First there had been reports of stealing amongst the hovels, then numerous brawls from accusations of theft to exaggerated stories of stolen hauls buried in the desert sands. That of course was only ever going to end with every story teller’s corpse being found weeks later in the desert with his throat cut because he didn’t give up the location of the hidden jewels. This scenario happened over and over until there were more murdered people in Josephville than there were diamonds left on the ground.

So finally, week by week the rich grew richer, and the fear, murder and mayhem grew like a black ominous cloud. So too the tent city and the hovels disbanded and eventually everyone disappeared and the original saloon town of Josephville faded into obscurity. As so often happens once spontaneous wealth dried up, the prospectors and settlers moved on, either back to the main cities they came from or off to follow the next rumoured discovery of exploitable riches. But most importantly for the servant, these unsuspecting fools took with them the diamonds to spread throughout their cities and towns of the world. In the end that was exactly how it was planned by the one man who had orchestrated the beginning and end of Josephville.

That same old man now shuffled towards the strange light flickering at the end of the street, with his head cocked to one side as if listening for something. His face tanned and weathered by the ages he glanced occasionally upon the bone white shop fronts now dilapidated to his left and right. Although he remembered well how gaudy and brightly painted the shops were because he had been here since the beginning. Before the first visitor arrived and the first nail was hammered into the first building. Now, the only sound to break the monotony of silence and accompany the old man as he walked was the rusting door hinges squeaking in the breeze. Not that the old man cared. He had lived for a thousand years and as the servant, he would live a thousand more to perform whichever duties his masters bid him. The missions might be obscured and varied but they gave him the rare privilege of visiting millions of different worlds and living among their civilisations, watching and learning. All he had to do was observe and sometimes manipulate the life forms then record what the experimental outcomes were. His place was not to ask the reasons why the masters wanted him to do such things, only to perform his duties. And that he did exemplarily.

Although if the old man was honest as he drew closer to the light crackling with vibrant blue energy that raised the hair on his skin every time the messenger arrived, he did miss the brief colourful life he had witness bloom here. Perhaps he was getting old and senile he thought for why should he miss the love and laughter of the simple folk he mingled with day and night during the diamond rush? Why, when it was simply his mission to yield as much knowledge as possible from the experiment? He knew he missed mostly the hustle and bustle of every seventh day when the streets would fill with citizens dressed in their finery to gather in the markets. Which on closer inspection by any refined eye, the clothing of the not so well to do, was more often faded from excessive years of wear, the material thread worn to almost brittleness. Yet for all their attempt to cover the rotten core of the greed that brought them here in the first place, the cacophony of humanity did bring a pleasing distraction to the blandness of the desert which that page in this world’s history was lost to the echoes of time. But what he had seen and learnt of the human condition on this planet during that and many other experiments had yielded vital information that would better serve the collective masters.

As the old man stopped before the portal light he had watched growing larger over the last two days, he knew it would be only moments until the messenger’s arrival. Almost on cue, from within the ball of light a dark figure emerged with features and form hidden beneath a long dark cloak and voluminous hood. As the stranger stepped forward of the light, the old man dropped to his knees in submission.

“Welcome Messenger.”

The messenger gazed upon the man. “Have you done what is required?”

“Yes.” The old man stated as he withdrew an object from his threadbare coat. He held out a diamond cupped in two hands, his arms shaking from the weight of it.

The mysterious man in the black clothing took the hefty diamond and lifted it to the sky reviewing every detail written on its multi facets. In a way only one of his kind could, the messenger reviewed the diamond’s archived contents carefully inscribed by the servant. Seeming satisfied, he placed the diamond within his cloak and nodded once more to the elderly servant on the ground.

“You have done well.”

The man raised his head to meet the gaze of the messenger. “Thank you. May I ask what the masters require of me now?”

The messenger whose presence rippled the very fabric of time and space around him, looked for the first time beyond the man to take in the desolate barren surrounds of the ghost town. Then he looked beyond the mountain ridges in the far distance and then turned towards the vast inland sea hundreds of miles away. Finally, his powerful gaze came to rest on the old man.

“It is time for you to do one more task before you return home.”

Although disappointed, the old man bowed his head. “Your will.”

From another pocket of his voluminous cloak, the messenger drew a small brown paper box and handed it to the old man.

“You know what to do. Call me when it is done.”

The old man took the lid for the brown paper box and looked inside. He frowned slightly at the strange cold black rock inside, feeling the future evil that this seemingly innocent rock would soon unleash upon humanity. The servant shivered, trying to immediately cover his questioning thoughts from the messenger’s powerful gaze.

“You seemed confused as to your task?”

The old man trembled from the wave of energy washing toward him.

“Only momentarily Messenger.”

“Good. Come with me. I will take you to the location where your next mission is to be undertaken.”

The servant stood up and shook the dirt from his clothes and stepped closer as the messenger placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. Instantly a snap of light surrounded the two men who then vanished from the desert.