Jesus On Mars

by Philip José Farmer

  'You are blessed indeed to have one,' Bronski said. 'I hope that he is in good health and of sound mind.'

  'Not bad for a two hundred and forty year old man,' Hfathon said.

  Bronski raised his eyebrows and so did Orme when the exchange was translated.

  'Your medical science is far advanced over ours,' Bronski said. 'You're speaking in terms of Terrestrial years, not Martian, aren't you?'

  'Of course.'

  Orme, hearing this, said, 'If it'd been Martian years, he'd be about four hundred and eight years old. Wait'll the folks back home hear about this!'

  Bronski considered briefly the implications of his statement. He shuddered.

  'May I ask what age you are, Hfathon?'

  'One hundred and sixty-nine.'

  Orme whistled and said, 'He doesn't look much over fifty. Of course, he's Krsh, so it's hard to tell with him. They all look alike to me, anyway.'

  Bronski said, 'Sha'ul seems to be about thirty. How old is he?'

  'Eighty-two.'

  Bronski said, 'This longevity is unnatural, isn't it? I mean, do you use chemicals or some sort of scientific preparations to slow your ageing?’

  Hfathon said, 'Don't your people?'

  Bronski thought about lying. But sooner or later the Martians would know the truth.

  'No. We've been able to slow down ageing in laboratory animals to some extent, but nothing like what you have accomplished. So far, we've nothing for human beings.'

  Hfathon and Zhkeesh sucked in their breaths.

  'You still die like the beasts? As you did two thousand years ago?'

  Bronski said nothing. The two Krsh must realise what the news would do to Terrestrials. Once they found out, they'd clamour for the treatment or elixir or whatever it was. If, that is, the Earth governments released the news. Though the world birth rate had declined since the Sixties, overpopulation was a terrible problem.

  Hfathon said, 'Let's start the lesson. But first, please take these.'

  He withdrew two large green pills from the inner pocket of his robe.

  'Swallow these. They won't harm you. They're memory aids. You'll be able to learn quicker and to retain the knowledge one hundred per cent. We'll double the speed of progress.'

  Bronski held up the square pill between thumb and forefinger.

  'Why weren't these given to us when we started?'

  'You were. In minute amounts in your food and wine and water. Each day the dosage was increased. You've built up an immunity to the side effects, some of which are unpleasant.'

  Bronski explained to Orme what the pills were for.

  Orme said, 'The quicker we speak the language, the sooner we get out of this prison.'

  They swallowed the pills with a water chaser.

  Orme stood blinking for a moment, then said, 'I don't feel a thing.'

  'What did you expect? Lightning? A sudden increase of IQ?'

  'I don't feel any smarter.'

  But the pills worked. They mastered sixty new vocabulary items, didn't forget any, and grasped much more of the Krsh syntax than they'd been able to do in previous sessions. Moreover Orme had much less trouble in reproducing the sounds.

  'Will these pills - what do you call them?'

  'Gbredut.'

  '...gbredut... help a person of low intelligence?'

  'Not as much as one of higher intelligence.'

  'Man,' Orme said, 'these will be of great value on Earth. Now, if I could get a monopoly on these...'

  'Can't you think of anything else but how to get rich?' Bronski said.

  'I think of lots of other things, but there's no reason why I should pass up an opportunity like this.'

  Hfathon sharply recalled them to their task, but Orme couldn't keep from imagining how much money he could make if he could get a franchise on Earth. Of course, this pill-he'd name it the 'wogglebug' pill after the giant insect of Oz who gave his students instant-learning pills so they could spend all their time playing - would be of immense benefit. He wouldn't charge high prices for it - he wouldn't have to.

  But what if the Martians just gave the gbredut to Earth? Or would they even permit Earth to have it? After all, its possession gave the Martians an edge.

  But if they were as ethical as they claimed to be, they wouldn't withhold this boon any more than they would deny the longevity treatment. Or would they?

  After the lesson was finished, which Hfathon said had gone well, and the two Krsh had left, Orme spoke to Bronski.

  'Do you think we could get away with not swallowing the pills tomorrow? We could palm them. The only thing is, we'd have to fool them into thinking we'd learned everything. That'll be a strain, but we might pull it off.'

  Bronski stared at him.

  'You want to keep some so they can be analysed when we get back to Earth?'

  'That's the idea.'

  'And so you can become a plutocrat?'

  'What's wrong with that? Somebody'll be doing it. Why not me? I won't be hurting anybody.'

  'Why don't you just ask them for a sample? Or for the formula? They might give it to you.'

  'And if they refuse? Then they'll know I'm up to something and they'll watch me like a cat watches a mousehole.'

  That night they were permitted to talk to Shirazi and Danton. They verified that they were in separate prisons. Neither one seemed embarrassed at being caught in bed together, though they didn't like the consequences.

  Nadir said, 'If I understood my interrogator, a man named lyyobh, we have a choice. We can go into a work company, and then when we're free we'll wear a label for a year proclaiming us adulterers. That's a better deal than we'd have received under the old Mosaic life. We'd have been signed to death. The other choice is marriage.'

  'You already have a wife!'

  'Yes, but I told them, and it's the truth, that I am a Muslim. I had to explain what that was, but they regarded me as some sort of heretical Jew. Anyway, I said that a Muslim could have more than one wife. That was the law of the land.

  'lyyobh said that monogamy was the custom here, though in the beginning, when the population was low, polygamy was permitted. If I understand him correctly, the Krsh can determine the sex of an unborn child, so they produce three girls to one boy. That way, a man could have three wives and produce many more offspring.'

  'What about cloning?'

  'I don't know. I'd guess their religion would taboo it. Or it would result in too much genetic similarity. Anyway, they have decided that Madeleine and I can either marry or suffer punishment.'

  'I wouldn't take a second making up my mind,' Orme said.

  Madeleine said, 'Neither did we. We're not in love, but we're very compatible in bed, and we won't have to suffer from sexual tension. The only thing is, my contraceptive will be absorbed in six months. Nadir didn't get any insertion, so he'll be fertile. We'll have to quit having conventional sex after six months. I'm not taking any chance of getting pregnant.' She said this matter-of- factly.

  Orme said, 'You're lucky. Bronski and I only have each other, and he looks prettier every day.'

  Bronski looked indignant. Orme laughed.

  Madeleine said, 'You talk rather lewdly for a devout Baptist.'

  'Talk doesn't hurt anything. In fact, it helps relieve the tension. Anyway, that's between my God and me. How are the lessons going?'

  Nadir said they were progressing as well as could be expected. Orme said that they could expect to go faster in a few days, and he told them about the 'wogglebug' pills. They were interested in these, but the news about the prolonged longevity of the Martians amazed them.

  'If they refuse to give the Earth the formula, there'll be a war,' the Iranian said.

  'Probably,' Orme said. 'But I'm not sure they will tell Earth about it. One of the reasons they're so hot about our learning their language is that they want to find out just what kind of people we are. I think they might decide to stay completely isolated when they do. Isn't that right, Avram?'

  'We don't
really have enough data to go on.'

  Another week passed. Nadir returned to Madeleine's quarters after they were married. Their marriage hadn't been performed by a rabbi since they were considered pagans. But Nadir told them that under the law of the land, all he had to do was to announce publicly that he and the woman were married in the eyes of God. This was not true. Since the Martians didn't know any better, they couldn't object. Everybody was happy about the marriage, although Nadir was worried about what might happen when he returned to Scotland.

  'Bigamy is illegal there.'

  'Don't bother about it,' Bronski said. 'You won't be married under Scots law. But you'll give the lawyers there something to argue about. Is a marriage on Mars legal?'

  'Besides,' Orme said, 'you may never get back to Earth.'

  That was a sobering thought.

  On the thirtieth day of imprisonment, without previous announcement, the four were released. Hfathon, smiling, informed them that their freedom had its limits.

  'You'll be given quarters near the government building. Your house will be across the street from the Shirazis'. But when you go any place, at first, anyway, you will be accompanied by two guides.'

  Orme said, 'We thank you. But may we communicate with Earth now?'

  'In due time. We believe it best that you learn more about us so that you may report accurately to your government. We don't want any misunderstandings. Also, we must get more data about your people. Peoples, I should say, since you are highly heterogeneous. Also, you will start teaching us some of your more important languages.'

  'But it's vital that Earth understand that we are not prisoners here.'

  'But you are prisoners.'

  And then Hfathon said a strange thing.

  'We must be cautious when we deal with the Sons of Darkness.'

  Orme bristled. 'What do you mean by that?'

  'It will be made clear to you. Meanwhile, let's go to your new home.'

  On the way, while riding in a car. Orme said, 'In an early conversation, you said something about Jesus Christ. Will you tell us about Him? Are you worshippers of Him or are you really Jews?'

  'We are Jews who know that Jesus is the Messiah. No, we don't worship Jesus. He is a man, and there is only One we worship. But Jesus is with us.'

  Hfathon pointed at the bright globe hanging below the roof of the cavern.

  'He lives there.'

  7

  Sometimes, Hfathon came alone after breakfast to talk to them. Other times, Sha'ul or Ya'aqob came alone. Occasionally, they were accompanied by people from different branches of the government or professors of science, the arts, or humanities. Before entering, they asked permission, apparently to give the Earthmen the impression that the house was their home and so put them more at ease.

  In the afternoons the Terrestrials were free to stroll or ride where they wished, within limits. Now and then Hfathon or Sha'ul would drive them through the tunnels to other caverns. There were forty of these, and a new one was being carved out to make room for the expanding population. The four went once to watch the excavations. Here giant lasers were disintegrating hard granite and basalt as easily as an acetylene torch burned paper.

  'You have the same type of laser equipment, of course,' Hfathon said.

  Orme nodded.

  'When you do communicate with your people, you must tell them that if they send a ship here, it must not be equipped with such burners. Or with fission or neutron bombs. In fact, with any tools for waging war. We would regard that as a hostile move.'

  Hfathon smiled as if as to weaken the sting.

  'We've now set up detection equipment and weapons on the surface. It's a purely defensive measure. But I can assure you that no armed enemy vessel or missiles would get within 50,000 miles of here before being destroyed.'

  Orme asked how the Martians could board a ship in space to check for weapons. After all, they had no spacecraft.

  'Had is correct.'

  The Krsh wouldn't say any more about that, but Orme supposed that the wrecked ship had been repaired. However, if this was so, then the surveyor satellites would have reported this to Earth. Or had the wreck been left untouched while another ship, or ships, was built underground? And why, since the Martians could have built space vessels any time in the last fifteen hundred years, had they waited until now?

  He didn't ask Hfathon about this, but he did inquire about why the magnetometer instruments on the Terrestrial satellites had not detected the many immense hollows under the surface.

  'We have means to give false readings,' Hfathon replied.

  On the way back they stopped at a restaurant. As always, the four from Earth were given a table to themselves.

  'It makes you feel unclean,' Orme said in a low voice.

  'Which, ritually speaking, we are,' Bronski said. 'But what's the difference? We get the same food as they do, and it's good. We also get a chance to talk among ourselves without being monitored.'

  Orme said, 'I'm not so sure of that. How do we know we're not being bugged?'

  Madeleine said, 'But we use English. They don't know that language.'

  'So they say,' Orme said. 'How do we know they don't? Because they say so? Maybe that's so we'll talk freely, and they can find out if we're planning anything.'

  'Have you found out where the tunnels are that lead to outside?' Shirazi said.

  'No, and it wouldn't do any good if I did,-' Orme said. 'Now that they've got their ship in readiness, they could overtake us easily even if we did get aboard the Aries.'

  'You're sure of that?' Bronski said.

  'Their ship has to be a hell of a lot faster than ours.'

  'Perhaps,' the woman said, 'they just told us that so we would abandon any plans to escape.'

  'It wouldn't make any difference. Their lasers could easily burn us out of the sky. If, that is, they have set them up outside. Maybe they're lying about that. But should I - we - take the chance that they are?'

  When they re-entered their 'home' cavern, Orme pointed up at the globe.

  'He's supposed to appear from there in a month. Do you think they mean symbolically or are they putting us on?'

  Bronski said, 'They'll tell us which when they think the time's right. Or perhaps they'll wait until the event and let us see for ourselves.'

  They passed a marketplace in which several hundred people were trading or buying cattle, sheep, goats, horses, chickens, ducks, pheasants, turkeys, parrots, and many small birds striped orange, black, and green which sang like no other birds they had ever heard. These were descended from pets the Krsh had brought from their native planet, Thrrillkrwillutaut. Orme had told Hfathon how beautiful he thought they were, and the next day the Krsh had given him two. They didn't need a cage since they were housebroken.

  There were also agricultural goods, art objects, and many household items. All were paid for, when not bartered, in thick plastic money of various sizes, shapes, and colours. The crowd was noisy but good-humoured. Everybody seemed to be happy.

  From what Orme had seen, this society was far more congenial and free of crime and vice than any on Earth. If what Hfathon said was true, the last case of theft had been ten years ago, the last murder, six years ago. What other population of a million could boast of that?

  'Sounds great,' Orme said. 'How do you know so much about this?'

  'I've talked to our teachers and to the people in the street, both human and Krsh.'

  'They may be feeding you a line of bull. Maybe, though, they are sincere. But you know how reality fails to match the ideal, though people will tell you only about the ideal.'

  Bronski said, 'I've a feeling they're telling the truth, not just as they see it, but as it is. Anyway, there's an intense family relationship here, a beneficial one. Though I suppose there are disadvantages, just as there are in everything. But the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks.

  'Here, the former Hebrew word for cousin has been borrowed by Krsh to mean citizen. Everybody's related. You
should see the genealogical tables, which have been kept faithfully since the day they landed. These include gene charts, by the way.

  'But I'm getting off the subject. There are no orphanages here; an orphan is adopted by his closest relative in most cases. Of course, there are very few orphans, since most people live out their full life span. Anyway, members of a family and the aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews are all very intimate, and they keep a close watch on each other, but mainly to make sure that everybody is loved.'

  'Great!' Orme said. 'But what do they mean by love? You know how meaningless the word is on Earth. It's interpreted in a hundred ways and perverted in a thousand.'

  Bronski shrugged and said, 'They're human beings, and you know what they are. But then there's the influence of the Krsh - whatever that is.'

  Bronski believed that the Martians had a near-Utopia because of the unique religious-social-political system.

  'Its roots are their religion, and so is the stalk and the flowers. But it's not a rigid system. It's open-ended, ready for any beneficial evolutionary change.'

  'What's their definition of beneficial?’

  'Let's wait and see. Sha'ul told me that the time may come when we'll be invited to live in a Martian home for a while so we can soak up the atmosphere of their way of life.'

  'Will we be allowed to eat at the same table with them?'

  'I think so. It'll probably be soon. If we couldn't, we would feel like strangers, outsiders, and so could never really know their society. We still won't be citizens, since we haven't converted. But I think they expect - or hope - we will.'

  Orme said, 'If we did that, we'd become Martians. And we'd be traitors to Earth!'

  'The Martians have a saying: "The only traitor is he who betrays the truth".'

  Bronski proceeded to tell them something about the governmental system.

  'Each neighbourhood is self-governing on matters involving its own concerns. These make up a township, and they send their representatives to the township council. Each county has its judge, who heads the council, and the counties send representatives to the cavern council. This is headed by a judge, the final authority for the cavern. The buck stops with him, though he does have limitations on his power.