'The judges are more than just judicial authorities. They are also governors. They're like the judges in the pre-monarchical period of the Hebrews. You've read the Old Testament, you know what they are.
'The central government is headed by a council of representatives from each cavern, and a judge is the head of that council. At the moment a Krsh, Zhmrezhkot ben-Rautha, is the supreme judge. He...'
'Just a minute,' Madeleine Danton said. 'Are all the councillors and judges male?'
'About five-sixths are.'
Danton looked indignant.
Bronski smiled. 'It's not as bad as it seems, Madeleine. Aside from the top government administrators, the proportion of women in the lower levels of government and in the professions is much higher. Almost half of these are women. But these are all older people. A woman is required to spend her child- bearing years at home. This is about from age twenty-seven to forty-seven. Remember that the longevity treatment means a longer period of childhood and youth.
'When the children are grown up, a woman can go into any field she wishes. If she opts for taking care of children because she likes to, she can teach or be a live-in auxiliary mother. These people place great value on their children. There hasn't been a case of child abuse, physical or mental, for three hundred years.'
Danton's face had been getting redder. Now she exploded.
'But what about the women who don't want to be mothers? Those who don't have the proper temperament or the inclination? What about lesbians - including those who'd like to be mothers but prefer adoption or artificial insemination?'
'The Krsh eliminated the biological basis of lesbianism in the second generation here. After the first, there were no more.'
Danton sputtered but managed to get control of herself. 'Why, that's ridiculous! In the first place, it's a violation of civil rights!'
'Is it? Anyway, remember that this society isn't Earth's. But they can offer Earth the solution to the problem of homosexuality.'
'Nonsense! What about those whose homosexuality is determined by family environment? Where the father is weak or absent and the mother domineering? What about that, heh?'
'The psychicist whom I talked to says that the family environment doesn't determine homosexuality. Many men have weak fathers and strong mothers on Earth, you know, but are not homosexual. He said that only those with a genetic tendency to homosexuality are influenced by the weak father-dominant mother syndrome. But if those genes are altered, then there's no tendency, no matter what the familial situation is.'
'You're talking about male homosexuality! What about lesbians?'
'The same applies. Look, Madeleine, I'm not defending the Martians, though I do admire the results of their attitudes. Yehudhah ben-Yonathan, he's a Krsh, by the way, said that sometimes a child does exhibit incipient homosexuality drive. But he or she is a mutation.
'Diabetes was eliminated in the genes, but still a very rare diabetic child occurs. Even with a mile of rock above the cavern, radiation affects the cells. When homosexual behaviour or diabetes is detected, the child is treated. The gene complex is altered.'
'They're creating robots!'
'You mean a person should be given a choice as to whether or not he wants diabetes?'
'The Earth could benefit from their genetic engineering,' Orme said. 'They're way ahead of us.'
'Are you thinking about cornering the market on that, too?' Bronski said.
'There's no harm in making a profit if you're benefiting people. However, the Martians must practise birth control; yet it's strictly forbidden by the Mosaic laws.'
'If they didn't practise it, they couldn't hollow out caverns fast enough to keep up with the population growth. On the other hand, the women never have abortions.'
'What if,' Danton said, 'a woman doesn't want to quit having babies?'
'After she's had three, she's through. But she can be a substitute mother; and she can help take care of other women's children.'
'They're totalitarians!' Danton said.
'In some respects, I suppose. But they're the only genuine theocracy in the solar system - if what they say is true.'
'You mean, governed by priests?'
'No. They don't have priests, though descendants of Aaron abound. They don't have a temple. For them, the only temple is the one in Jerusalem. By the way, Yehudhah was very excited when I told him the Romans had destroyed that temple in 70 AD. The Martians didn't know that, of course.
'Then he said, "It will make no difference. We will rebuild it." He paled a little, and he looked as if he'd said something he shouldn't have.'
'Aha!' Orme said. 'So they do have plans for Earth!'
Shirazi said,' So, if they don't have priests, how can they be theocrats?'
'Well, it seems to me that they're ruled by Him.'
'Him? Who's him?' Orme cried.
'Who's He, you mean.' Bronski pointed a finger at the burning globe.
Orme felt as if his skin was evaporating, as if his nerves were suddenly exposed to the flaming air.
'You can't mean... Jesus?’
'According to what Yehudhah said, Jesus does arbitrate the most difficult judicial cases and occasionally interferes in the executive process. He is, in effect, if not in name, The Big Judge.'
Cold slipped up Orme's spine and over his neck and scalp. The globe looked like an immense fiery eye. Was it gazing at him?
'Perhaps,' Bronski said, 'theocracy is not the exact definition. After all, he is said to be the Son of Man, which means he is just a human being. He is not supposed to be the son of God, except by adoption, nor God. Still, in effect...'
Orme told himself that he was reacting overemotionally. The Martians had to be conning him. Nevertheless, when he said his prayers at bedtime, kneeling on the floor, he realised that he was facing in the direction of the globe. He got up quickly, his face warm, as if he'd been caught in a very embarrassing - indeed, sinful - act.
The next day he was summoned with his colleagues to Hfathon's office in the Tleth'sha, the main university. Waiting for them were the other five interrogators and teachers, Ya'aqob, Zhkeesh, Sha'ul, Yirmeyah, and Hmmindron. The Earth people sat down and were offered water or fruit punch and wafers with strips of dried fish. Orme wondered how they'd go for bagels, cream cheese, and lox, a combination these Jews had never heard of. If he could get a patent on that, he might clean up. But would they give a monopoly on such a thing to anyone, let alone a Gentile? Anyway, what good would Martian money be on Earth? Still, maybe the time would come.
After Hfathon had inquired about everybody's health - as if anybody ever got sick here - he said, 'We've called you here to tell you some of our history. We have audiovisual aids in this office to complement the verbal delivery. Though you've progressed very well in learning our language, I may use some words or constructions you don't know. If so, please feel free to ask about them. Otherwise, I would like silence until the lecture is ended.'
Aside from the anticipated questions, no one spoke while Hfathon talked. For the first fifteen minutes he sped through the evolution of life on Thrrillkrwillutaut, the planet of the Krsh. (Orme noticed that he never said what star it orbited.) Life there had developed much like that on Earth; the Krsh had evolved from an apelike creature.
'Similar planets produce similar life forms,' Hfathon said. 'At least, those we found have done so. Though I must admit that we encountered only two others like yours and ours. One was still in the Palaeolithic. The other, well, I'll get to that.'
Prehistory and history had progressed through the various stone ages, the bronze, iron, and plastic-electronic-atomic ages. As on Terra, there had been different races. Representatives of all these had been on the starship which had set out for interstellar exploration. But while on Mars miscegenation had made the Krsh a homogeneous people.
Orme was entranced when he saw the holograms of the Krsh civilisation. Even then, two thousand years ago, no, more, since who knew how long the voyage had lasted before the
ship came to Earth, these people had a science and technology that made Earth's seem primitive.
Then why hadn't Krsh science developed even more? It didn't seem any more advanced than when they had left their home. In fact, in many respects it had regressed. Most of the Martians used horses for riding and ploughing. Cattle and horse manure were the chief fertilisers.
Hfathon's exposition of the building of the starship and the launching made Orme forget his questions. The vessel was truly colossal, much larger than the exposed portion had suggested. Whatever its form of propulsion - Hfathon omitted that - it must have been incredibly powerful. It hadn't been constructed in orbit; it had lifted directly from the planet's surface.
There were fascinating holograms of life aboard the ship, though activity there was limited. The voyagers took turns manning the vessel or lying in suspended animation.
'It took forty years, travelling at one-quarter of the speed of light, to reach the first system,' Hfathon said.
There were flashes of holograms of a world which resembled that of Earth circa 20,000 BC. The beings were humanoid but had pointed ears, catlike eyes, and teeth which clearly indicated their purely carnivorous origin.
'On this world evolution took a slightly different path. The Divine Presence guided a primitive form of feline towards sapiency.'
The second voyage was to a star which, like Earth's, the Krsh's, and the third planet, was a G-type.
'This trip lasted fifty-five years of objective time,' Hfathon said.
Here the Krsh found two inhabited planets, the third and fourth out from the luminary.
The fourth planet had recently been deluged with vibration bombs (Hfathon didn't define these), but there were survivors, tiny groups wandering the land, trying to find food and at the same time escape the conquerors.
'Apparently it was the beings from the third planet who had won,' Hfathon said. 'We don't know what they called themselves, but we do have photographs of them.'
A screen showed a squat, heavily boned, heavily muscled creature dressed in what looked like chainmail. In its broad-fingered hand it held a silvery helmet with a serrated crest. A close-up of the fingers, however, showed that it lacked nails.
The head was much like an Earthman's, but the creature could never have passed for one. Instead of hair it had short thick bristles reminding Orme of a porcupine's quills, though they could have been much more pliable. The skull was larger in proportion to the body than that of a normal Terrestrial's. The ears had somewhat different convolutions, and the tips were split into two long fleshy parts. The chin was very massive. The lips extended almost to the lower jawbone. Its mouth was open, revealing quite human teeth. The nose was very short and broad but the bridge bore a round hump from which a few quills projected.
The eyebrows were thick, their hairs, or quills, corkscrewy. The upper and lower eyelids moved when it blinked, one going up, the other down. The lower was blue-black, the higher, the same colour as the facial skin and the hands, reddish-brown. The eyes were a solid russet.
'Other specimens show different skin, eye, and hair colours,' Hfathon said. 'But all their hearts are black. Or perhaps I should say, to be charitable, that the heart of its government is evil. There may be good people on that world. Whatever the case, we were attacked without warning, though we had come in peace.'
Fortunately for the Krsh, they were equipped for self-defence. And their weapons were superior, though not overwhelmingly so.
Orme noted that Hfathon did not specify the nature of the weapons.
The two ships that tried to destroy the Krsh were themselves destroyed. Still, the Krsh made an attempt to communicate with the aliens, but it was ignored, and another attacker was annihilated. Forced to abort their exploration, the Krsh departed for the next star on their schedule: Earth's sun.
'But the Sons of Darkness pursued us, though we were not aware of that until some time after we'd reached Earth. There we placed the ship into orbit. After observing that we could easily handle any armed attack from the primitive peoples of Earth, we sent down a survey ship. Many specimens of plant and animal life were picked up and frozen to be taken back to Thrrillkrwillutaut.
'Obtaining samples of the sentient life presented a problem. We were forbidden to abduct any, since that would violate our ethical standards. But we did as we had off the first planet we visited. We flew around until we observed beings in dangerous situations, including illness. We rescued them hoping that their gratitude would be so great that they would willingly co-operate in our study of them. Afterwards, they would be released near the place where they were picked up.'
8
Hfathon paused to drink fruit juice.
'Of course, we hoped that some of those would be curious enough to wish to return with us. We had had no luck on the Palaeolithic planet. Our "guests" were too tribal; they would have died if removed from their own people too long. So, after studying them, we returned them.
'But here were civilised people, though mightily uncivilised from our point of view. Out of the two hundred we got, fifty were so hysterical with fear that we quickly put them back where we'd found them. Most of those left were from the Mediterranean lands or from a land through which ran a great river called Sindhu, or they were from the far east. The latter were brown people with epicanthic folds. A few were from a city in the middle of a continent across an ocean west of the largest continent. Or east.'
Here Hfathon interrupted his lecture to ask the four if they had names for these.
'The land of the Sindhu river would be India,' Orme said. 'The far east people would be Chinese or other Mongolians. The land that connects the two continents would be Central America and the people from there would, I suppose, be Mayans. By the great continent I think you mean three continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia.'
'We thought it was one continent,' Hfathon said. 'It looks like one land mass from the photos I've seen.'
'They may be connected, but they're three separate continents,' Orme said. 'Though, actually, Europe isn't. It's considered to be a separate land mass because of historic and racial reasons. But that big land mass to the west of Eurasia is also two continents, North and South America. The narrow portion where you got the Mayans or whatever they were is Central America. It connects the two.'
'I don't want to get into geographical disputes,' Hfathon said. 'Most of those we brought back to the mother ship were sick with disease. We cured them and then learned their languages before we gave them the choice of going back or staying with the ship.
'One of the persons was from the continent you call Africa, in an area not too far from Khem, or Aegyptos in Greek; he was a Hebrew named Mattathias or Matthias for short. He was the disciple of the Messiah, the one chosen by lot to succeed Yehudhah. In Greek, loudas Iskariotes, the apostle who betrayed the Messiah.'
'You're talking about Matthias and Judas-Iscariot!' Orme said in English, incredulous.
The Krsh ignored his outburst. He pressed a small device in his hand, and inside the huge set on the wall appeared a small bearded man talking to two Krsh in a small room.
'What language is he speaking?' Orme whispered to Bronski.
'I think it's Aramaic.'
'That is Matthias,' Hfathon said.
He paused. 'He was the thirteenth apostle, and he knew Jesus well before he was crucified. He walked and talked and ate with him here.'
Orme wanted to ask him to explain just what he meant by his last remark - 'ate with him here' - but Hfathon was talking about the sudden appearance of the Sons of Darkness.
'Our detectors picked them up as they came from behind the planet you call Jupiter. We had three choices, hide, fight, or run. We could have concealed the ship beneath the surface 'of an ocean, or we could have escaped from the system readily, since we could outrun them. But we did not know what they would do to Earth. From what we'd seen, they were ruthless and savage. They had a high degree of technological civilisation, but that does not mean an equally high et
hical standard.
'What if they would destroy Earth as they had the fourth planet in their system? Or perhaps they might enslave the Earthmen. Since we were the ones responsible for their being here, we had a duty to protect Earth. Our policy was to interfere as little as possible in the development of another species, though it might hurt us not to rectify the evil things done there.'
He paused again.
'At least, that was our policy then.'
Orme sat up straight. What did that enigmatic statement mean?
'So we decided to fight.'
Orme said, 'Pardon me, Hfathon, but I just can't restrain myself. You said, "Our policy then." What...?'
'That will be explained later.'
'Okay. But what I also want to know is how you could identify the ships of the "Sons of Darkness", as you call them. Was it their configuration or what?'
'They were shaped like those which had attacked us before. We didn't know, rather, our ancestors, the crew, didn't know how they had managed to follow us. A spaceship doesn't leave spoor. At least, we didn't think so, though perhaps those Sons of Darkness were more advanced than we thought.
'Also, they had to have had Starships when we visited their system, though we hadn't observed any. Anyway...'
The Krsh ship, with the Terrestrial 'guests' still aboard, met the enemy 100,000 miles beyond Mars. The battle was brief and furious. Pieces of the attackers floated towards the sun. But the Krsh had been hard hit. With only one engine operating, it made for Mars and crash-landed. Fortunately, the impact was not serious to the crew and passengers. But the vessel could not be repaired, and the smaller survey ship was ruined.
The Marsnauts watched pictures taken of the flight and the wrecking, and of the measures taken for survival. With the equipment at hand, the Krsh hollowed out of the hard rock a temporary base. From the minerals they made oxygen and food. And as the years went by, they expanded, eventually ending up with the great underground complex.
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