For a moment, neither of them said anything.
“Is this home?” she asked in a small, unsteady voice.
“Home?” he approached her slowly until he was face to face with her. “Where is home?” he asked softly, gingerly.
“Qataria. Madagascar Island.”
He gave a slight nod.
One hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes shone with elation and welled with tears. “Please,” she whispered, a tremor in her voice. “I need to go outside.”
“Of course.” Aldabara walked swiftly over and opened the door wide.
She stepped onto the porch, squinting. Fields of tall, molten-gold grass thrashed about under the azure sky. The air was fresh. A cluster of baobab trees soared high a few hundred paces away.
The young woman sunk to her knees. She sobbed and gasped for a short while, overcome with strong emotions.
She got up and, whooping, raced to the majestic conical trees. Once there, she bounded and skipped back, hollering all the while. Grinning from ear to ear, she leaped up the stairs, and seated herself next to the elderly man on the porch swing, breathing hard.
He laughed. Her joy was contagious.
“I am Aldabara,” he said.
“Lee’chelle,” said the girl and giggled. She could not stop herself; the giggles kept bubbling to the surface.
Finally, she calmed down some. “How did I end up in your house?”
“It was last night, at the height of the storm.” His voice was carefully neutral. “I found you lying at my door, passed out. I dragged you inside.” That was the least peculiar part of what had transpired. But he decided not to push things too fast.
She frowned, puzzled.
He partly expected this reaction. “What do you remember?”
She pushed away stray tendrils of hair and knit her brows in concentration. “My parents died in an accident about two years ago. I remember this.” Was it two or three years back? Suddenly she wasn’t sure. “It was not here. It was definitely not around here. It was….” She regarded the few giant tortoises at the base of the short flight of stairs. “It was an entirely different place.”
“Another place?” he said.
The girl nodded gravely. “Another place.” Another world, she suddenly recalled. Earth! The name came to her. But it was as if the memories were water in her hands; she could feel them trickling away.
“Oh,” he said.
They were quiet for a while.
“Is Allah most high in that other place?”
“What?”
“It was one of the things you were mumbling about last night. You seemed delirious. Do you know what the reference to Allah could mean?”
She grimaced.
“‘And fight them until there is no more disbelief and polytheism,’” he quoted. “Or at some point, you said, ‘Bribes and one’s ethnicity may determine who gets a job or police protection’ and ‘We partner, blan. We make good money together’ and ‘Have you doxxed, denounced, and driven out of town.’”
“I said those things, too?”
He nodded mutely.
“None of the things you muttered made any sense to me,” he confessed. “A bad dream?”
“Perhaps yes.” She tentatively put her hands up, feeling in wonder—as she had done multiple times earlier—the smooth, youthful contours of her face. “I…I think I have a sense of what these statements mean,” she said. Oh, God, she thought. Did she just awoken from one, gigantic nightmare? Were these memories of actual events and actual discussions? She would have to sort it all out later. Much later, if she could help it.
Lee’chelle lowered her arms and gazed at him. “First thing first,” she said. “I don’t recall arriving here or the storm you’ve mentioned. I’m afraid I don’t have any memory of last night at all. I’m certain, though, about one thing: I owe you my gratitude.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “Thank you, for whatever it is you did.”
He bowed his head. “You’re welcome.”
It was the first day of the rest of her life. And she planned not to squander or take for granted even a minute of it.
She beamed at him and jumped to her feet. “Breakfast?”
Chapter 39
Undisclosed Location, Off-World, the Commission Building
“Christianity has withstood the test of time,” Susan told a mildly indifferent Brandon. “It is not a fad but the most revered religion on Earth. I am proud to have Jesus as my Lord and savior.”
She repeated this one hour later to the Chief Examiner and his associates at the chambers of the Survey Group to the Man-Made World.
Master Rafirre noted the golden cross around her neck. He wondered how things would have played out had Jesus died in recent times. Would she have adorned herself with a miniature replica of an electric chair?
“The New Testament book is old news, boss,” one of his aides told him. “Things happened on that front since it was composed. I got something much fresher.” He studied his computer screen some more. “Here. A while ago, another guy began something in Kenya. The lost Israelites.”
“Oh?”
“This guy says he is Jehovah. Jehovah Almighty God Wanyonyi.”
Prolonged silence as the assistant consulted the displayed data. “Says he came down to Earth after his son Jesus was rejected. He wants to try to salvage humanity himself.”
The Examiner smiled brightly. “This is good. We’ve God visiting Earth here and now. I’d like to give you a fair hearing, you know.”
But Susan was shaking her head violently. “This is not God; it’s just some charlatan.”
The Examiner’s smile faded. “Charlatan, you say? Why? I mean, he says he’s the father of Jesus. How can you speak ill of him?”
“Like heck he is the father of Jesus.”
“You are a Christian! You are saying you don’t believe in Jehovah Wanyonyi?”
“You think just because someone claims to be God, I would believe it?”
One of the assistants smirked.
The Examiner settled back in his chair. “You have not even been in His Presence. How can you dismiss his claim out of hand? Will you risk burning in Hell for this?”
Rafirre looked over his shoulder at his assistant. “What else you got on him?“
“Jehovah Almighty God Wanyonyi is the one who created Adam and Eve.”
The Examiner was nodding encouragingly at Susan who remained stone-faced.
“He also took all the sins and dirt on himself.”
“Well then.” Rafirre spread his hands as if that settled it.
“There is more, boss. Says he’ll wipe out all the heathens.”
“Oh boy, that’s not too good, is it?” announced the Examiner. “Anyway, Wanyonyi does sound like the real deal to me.”
Susan was gaping at him.
Rafirre took the printout handed to him and skimmed through it. He lifted his head. “Wanyonyi says he can treat all diseases, including AIDS.” He waved the sheet of paper, offering her to see it for herself.
She was livid. “Do you really believe that?”
“As much as I believe Jesus restored sight to the blind.” Those religious types were all the same, Rafirre reflected. Skeptical and level-headed when it comes to all religious claims—but their own.
He sighed. “Anything suspicious about Wanyonyi?”
They were quiet as the aide studied it some more. Susan, flushed; the Examiner, unruffled. “Other people in that area claim he is a false prophet, boss. The government claims he is dangerous.”
“I told you he is a fraud!” yelled Susan.
“Come, come now.” The Examiner leaned back and put his feet on the desk, enjoying the moment. “Jesus, your God, was also denounced as a false prophet and was executed as such. Be sensible now.”
It took her all she had to restore a semblance of calmness. “If it’s all the same to you, why do you insist?”
Rafirre brought his legs down. “Dear lady, we have no firsthand account of what Jesus himself said. In fact, we have no firsthand account of anyone who met Jesus. The earliest accounts that make up your New Testament were written by people faroff, and decades after he died. This is very soft evidence. Instead, we can investigate live people who were miraculously healed. Here we can interview God himself!”
Susan massaged her temples and eventually said, “Just trust me on this one. You’ll do my people great disservice if you use this man and his…teachings as the cornerstone of your presentation about religions on Earth.”
The Examiner studied her, cocking his head to one side. Finally, he shrugged. What difference did it make? Let the Terraneans hand him the rope to hang themselves with.
The briefing on religion took place in the Grand Hall. Unlike the adjacent deliberation chambers, this one resembled an amphitheater and could hold an audience of one thousand people. It was the custom to open at least one session to the public. It often made for a tumultuous hearing, but the commissioners had soldiered those open sessions stoically. Invariably, the attendees came from the Reservation—from any one of its hundreds of thousands of population groups.
Happening once every decade or two, a hearing had never failed to draw a crowd. For those in attendance, it was a unique, typically once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. As always, the Grand Hall was full.
Half a dozen seats were arranged in the hexagonal floor area in the center. These were reserved for the handful of Earth people who wished to take a more active role in that session. Any of the Terraneans who had chosen to sit there could be asked to testify, render an opinion, or be cross-examined. Across from them stood the Chief Examiner, hands resting on a burnished lectern made of copper. Against the wood-paneled wall sat five of the commissioners, the presiding chair among them. Religion was an important thing in the lives of many Earth people. Therefore, the commissioners wished to learn something of the religious precepts and outlooks on Earth.
“The hearing is now in session,” the master of ceremonies called out. And the presiding chair rapped with the ceremonial hammer.
Rafirre turned and bowed toward the bench. “With the commissioners’ leave,” the Examiner intoned. He turned back to face the large crowd and the few Earth people seated in front of him.
“Christianity maintains that an entity begot the cosmos,” he opened. “They refer to it as God. This entity is uncreated and everlasting. Furthermore, it is omnipotent, omnipresent, and all knowing. It has a distinct will and personality. And it actively governs the universe. It does so with profound love, wisdom, and absolute justice.
“I said God, but in fact, classical Christianity asserts that three discrete entities share this state of godhood and are working in unison and in perfect harmony with each other. The three gods are God the Father and, in subordinate roles, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
“Both God the Father and God the Son are single-minded in their urgings: follow the path we have laid out for you, follow our dictates, follow our social precepts and code of ethics. These proclamations are accompanied by dire descriptions of what will happen if people do not, along with enticing descriptions of what will happen if they do.”
“Do devout Christians obey the words of God?” inquired one of the commissioners, his question was directed at the small seated group of Earth people.
“Most assuredly.” It was Susan who answered. “We try to adhere to His principles to the best of our abilities and lead upright, moral life.”
“Well then, let’s get on with the Gods’ precepts,” stated another commissioner.
Rafirre bowed. “I will start off with God the Father, who is the primary source of these.
“The main thrust of humanity is to be fruitful and multiply, swarm and fill the earth, hold sway and reign over all other animals.” The Examiner glanced at the Terraneans in attendance. “I think on those counts we can all agree they have performed admirably.
“The prime precept is the sanctity of life. Willful taking of life is a cardinal transgression. As the life of every creature is in its blood, one corollary of it is that one must never consume blood—either outright or by eating meat that has not been first drained of blood. The lifeblood ought to be returned, as it were, to the source.
“There is an absolute and fixed order to the universe, and no blurring of various categories is permitted. Hence, no crossbreeding of two different kinds of livestock or planting the fields with mixed crops. Hence, no weaving fabrics using in tandem different kinds of yarn, such as linen and wool. Hence, no intercourse between human and beast, brother and sister, man and man.
“There is broad protection of property rights. Land cannot be owned, though; all people are but tenants who can only lease land to each other. Every fifty years, a reset takes place, and all parcels revert to their original tenants or to their descendants. In accord, leasing costs are to factor in the length of time remaining until the next reset. All land lease contracts are to include a provision allowing the initial tenant to make a payment and regain the land at any point. By contrast, the sale of a house is final in the city, provided the original owner does not choose to purchase it back during a twelve-month grace period.
“The administration of the law is to be fair and impartial. In accord, one is not to provide false testimony nor take bribes. Punishments are to be proportionate. Legal rulings are to be without partiality to one’s social or economic standing. Cities of refuge are to be established: sanctuaries for those who killed someone accidentally and without malice in their heart.
“Family and the institution of marriage are to be held in paramount sanctity. One is to honor one’s parents and respect the elderly. A man must not covet someone’s possessions or wife. Husbands are to rule over their women, as is reflected in the terms for ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ in the Old Testament, which literally mean ‘owner’ and ‘woman’ respectively.
“Civic responsibility and ethical conduct are the order of the day. One who had sex with an unengaged maiden is to provide her father a bride-price and marry the woman for life. One is to deal with others in fairness and integrity. Among other things, one does not make his hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay. One is not to stand idly by when the neighbor’s life is threatened. One is not to harbor jealousy. One is neither to pass on false rumors nor spread slanderous gossip. And if one spots someone’s livestock, he is to take it back to its owner.
“Beyond that, one is to be generous, loving, and kind. Notably, one is to treat with compassion widows, orphans, and the physically handicapped. Leave some of the harvest bounty to those in need. One is to be charitable to the poor, share freely with them, and lend as needed without charging interest. A person is not to nurse hatred in their heart for their relatives. One is not to seek revenge or bear a grudge.
“And lastly, every seventh day is mandated as a day of rest.
“God the Son declares the need to follow even the least of the Father’s commandments and social precepts, and He mentions a few of these explicitly, such as the prohibition of adultery, murder, and theft. He reiterates that one needs to honor one’s parents, one ought to be generous and loving for those in need, and one ought not harbor anger.
“However, the Son intensifies some mores. A man is not to divorce his wife unless she has been unfaithful. A man should not marry a divorced woman. If being slapped, one is to offer the other cheek. If a person is sued and his shirt is taken from him, he is to give his coat, too. Love one’s enemies and pray for those who persecute him. Lend to people without expecting to be repaid.
“God the Son also laid out some precepts distinct to Him. Do not hoard money and possessions. Do not be overly concerned with everyday necessities, in other words, do not worry wh
ere the food is to come from or save money to buy clothes in the future; live in the here and now as birds do. Lastly, He encouraged his followers to sell all their possessions, give up on everything they own, and be devoted to Him to the possible exclusion of their own kids, parents, and spouses.”
One of the commissioners signaled the Examiner to pause.
The chair studied the notes in front of him for a while. At last, he glanced at Susan. “I understand all humans who exist now are descendants from Noah’s family.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
He examined his notes some more. “In your religious book, it states God established a covenant with Noah and his progeny. It contains but one commandment: there will be reckoning for taking life, for murdering fellow humans and for eating flesh with its life essence, namely, its blood. Given the context in which it was stated, this seems as fundamental edict as it gets. My question is, why don’t you, Christians, adhere to it and drain the blood of slaughtered animals before consuming them, much as the Jews do?”
Susan pondered this for a while. “God the Son, Jesus, said nothing outside of a person—in other words, no food—can defile him by going into his or her body.”
The chair was taken aback by her response. “This may be, but this commandment isn’t about you, or whether it defiles you.” He found it unsettling how self-engrossed her answer was. “In draining the blood, you are presumed to return the animal’s life to its creator—to whom it belongs.” He studied her for a moment in silence.
The Examiner addressed Susan, “Would you agree that to love and revere God, in fact, equates to following His precepts?”
“Yes.”
“Would you further agree that one of the cardinal tenets of evangelical Christianity is that the Bible is self-authenticating, clear to the rational reader, and is the final authority?”
“Yes.”
“Why is it then your missionaries do not bring the word of the Bible to the slaves of your world—from the child slaves in India to the sex slaves in Thailand? Why don’t they urge them to follow God’s inspired words in the Bible to obey their earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart?”
The Earth Hearing Page 43