It was very quiet here. A slight breeze moved over his face, the normal air- conditioning in this immense hollow. The sun's rays sparkled here and there, rays glancing off white houses and storage domes, off a brook or creek, and once an intense flash as if from a mirror. A red deer trotted out from the edge of a thick wood near the wall, looked around, and disappeared back into the trees.
It was all very quiet and pastoral. Yet it was a time-bomb ticking away; it could explode on Earth. Perhaps. What did the Martians plan?
Orme got out of the car and walked over to the dome. Its great windows were open, and the door stood ajar. No sound came from it. But when he looked through a window, he saw a male Krsh sitting at a desk writing with a pen.
The Krsh looked up as if he had heard Orme, though he had made no sound.
'Come in, Richard,' Hfathon said. 'I've been waiting for you.'
10
His heart beating hard, Orme entered. He took the chair indicated by the Krsh. Hfathon leaned back and smiled at him across the desk. Orme thought he looked smug.
Hfathon gestured at an instrument-control console against the wall.
'There is the means to open the tunnel door. You probably would have figured out how to operate it. And then what? You'd have triggered alarms in the central government building and within the tunnel complex itself. There are men stationed at all times in the complex. Even if they weren't there, you couldn't open more than one door within without a coded sonic device nor without the co- operation of two human monitors in the government building.'
Orme shrugged. 'I had to try.'
'Of course. Very commendable. It was your duty to make an attempt. But I am surprised, and disappointed, that your colleagues lack your courage and determination.'
'They think escape is impossible. So I didn't enlist them. Anyway, they're so fascinated with their studies that I don't think they really want to leave. Even if it is their duty to get back to Earth if they can.'
'However,' Hfathon said, 'from another viewpoint your duty should not be to your nation if that duty means preferring evil over good. There is Someone higher than nations or a whole world. You should have thought about that. If you had, you would have seen that the Sons of Light are to be preferred to the Sons of Darkness. You would have cast your allegiance to them. That is, you would have if you could see that most of Earth's inhabitants are of the Sons of Darkness. So...'
'Why would I think that?' Orme blazed.
Hfathon said, calmly, 'It is obvious. You and your fellows have told us much about conditions on Earth. It is plain that injustice, misery, poverty, murder, every conceivable kind of crime, and, above all, hatred and hatefulness abound there, i You have the means for making Earth as near a paradise as is possible, but you pervert these means.'
He paused, then said, 'I'm assuming, of course, that what you tell us is the truth. I can't see that you'd paint such a bad picture deliberately. Now, be truthful, isn't it far superior here to anything you know on Earth?'
'Yes,' Orme said. 'I admit that what I've seen so far is incomparably better. But then you have a small society here, and you're not subjected to the many influences existing on Earth. I mean, you're homogenous. Here you don't have many races, many nations, languages, and differing ideologies and religions. Nor do you have the thousand clashing traditions and the many hostilities of classes, races, and political systems. These were wiped out when you formed a single political-religious-economic entity. You took one tradition and developed it without interference from others. You did that a long time ago, and you also had a superior science and technology enabling you to give your people the benefits we Terrestrials lacked then.'
'True,' Hfathon said. 'So... we might give you those benefits you lack now. But not just as gifts which you will inevitably pervert.'
'I'd like a drink of water.'
Hfathon rose, saying, 'Allow me to get it for you. I am your host... though I didn't invite you here.'
He went into the next room and came back holding a tall glass.
'Here. This is much better for you than the wine you drank so immoderately today.’
Orme drank, and said, 'Thanks. Okay, so I got loaded. The pressure has been heavy. And getting free for just a little while made me want to celebrate.'
'You were never free in that you were away from observation, or had any chance to escape. Just as you've never been free in any sense. The only genuinely free man is one who has rid himself of evil. The half-free man is one who is battling to do that.'
'Spare me the platitudes.'
'Perhaps you are right. It is example, not words, that work best. By the fruit of the tree shall you judge it. Let's go back now. I'll drive.'
Orme followed him, wondering how the Krsh had got here. There were no other cars in view. Either he'd been driven here or there was an underground system for travel besides that for shipping.
As the car started down the road, he said, 'I suppose you saw everything?'
'No,' Hfathon said, looking sideways at him and smiling. 'We didn't see you while you were in that house. Nor did we observe you while you were parked under the tree with the woman, Gulthilo bat-Yishaq. By the way, what were you two doing?'
'That's our business,’ Orme said.
'No doubt, if both of you have the consciences to handle it.'
'We didn't do anything wrong,' Orme said angrily.
'Perhaps not from your viewpoint. But this is a trivial matter - so far. Let's drop it. Now, Richard, I know that you and your companions have been disturbed because we wouldn't let you communicate with Earth.'
'Disturbed? Outraged!'
'Understandably so. But, you see, we didn't want you to send any report until you could make a complete one. You have to comprehend us thoroughly, know us to the bone, before you can describe us. That takes time. If you were to tell about us now, you'd only give half-truths, incorrect impressions. We want Earth to understand exactly who and what we are.
'In fact, at this stage, any messages you sent would probably be disbelieved. But twelve days from now, when you report, you can verify that all is true. Not just by your words alone, however.’
Orme said, slowly, 'All of what is true?’
'What you'll see in seven days. You'll have no doubts about it. And, I hope, neither will your people on Earth. Still, they might need more... Well, let's not think about that.'
Hfathon's expression bordered on the ecstatic. After a while he began humming a song which Orme had heard before in the streets and, once, from Philemon.
'I'm glad you're happy,' Orme said. 'I'm just bewildered and mystified.'
'That will change,' Hfathon said, and he laughed.
'For the better, I hope,' Orme said sullenly.
'Your life depends on that.'
Orme didn't ask him what he meant. He was tired of all this dodging of questions which his captors seemed to enjoy so.
Shortly before entering the central section, Hfathon's wrist chronometer buzzed. He spoke into it, then held it to his ear. He frowned, said a few low words and turned to Orme.
'Cancer of the liver has just been detected in Madeleine Danton.'
Orme felt shock, and for a moment he could say nothing.
'The examinations that began two days ago have just revealed it,' the Krsh said.
'But she was given a clean bill of health before we took off! And believe me, we all got a very complete going over.'
Hfathon shrugged. 'It may have been too small for your instruments to detect. Or it may have started afterwards. In any event, she is at the chief hospital now. She was rushed there the moment the physicians found the cancer.'
'Poor Madeleine,' Orme said. Then, 'Who would have thought that cancer would be something we'd encounter on Mars?'
'It's nothing to worry about,' the Krsh said. 'No one ever dies from it now.'
At Orme's insistence, Hfathon drove to the hospital, a small one-storey building near the main administration building. However, its smalln
ess was only a surface appearance. It had ten storeys below the ground; Danton was on the sixth. Orme noted, as he passed the windows, that the personnel and patients would have no sense of being buried. On each window was a scene of rural beauty; trees, birds, deer grazing in the meadows, children playing in the distance. The pseudo-scenes looked real.
He found Shirazi and Bronski in a waiting room. They rose as he entered, but they did not have long faces. Indeed, Shirazi was smiling.
'I just heard,' Orme said. 'How's Madeleine?'
'Madeleine's fine,' Nadir said. 'She'll be leaving in a few minutes. The treatment is short but tiring, so she's resting.'
'You mean it's all over? Diagnosis and cure, all done? How?'
Nadir said, 'I find it hard to believe, too. But the doctors have assured me that she is completely well. Moreover, the cancer won't recur.'
Bronski said, 'I was told about her at the university. They thought I should know, but they might just as well have waited until it was over.'
'You're not disturbed because you were interrupted, are you?' Orme said.
'Of course not. What bothers me is that they probably called all of us in to impress us. They wanted to show us how superior their medical science is. And to give us one more item to report to Earth.'
'Wait a minute,' Orme said. 'You've been told, too? I mean that we'll be allowed to communicate with home in twelve days?'
'Yes. Trrwangon - she's my mentor - told me just before I got word about Madeleine.'
Hfathon said, 'The Council decided that it might ease your anxiety if you knew you had only a short wait. Also, you may start preparing your report now. The first part, that is. The second part will be prepared after the eighth day from now. Both parts will be transmitted together.'
'That's great,' Orme said. 'At least, I think it is. Frankly, I think you're up to something we might not like.'
Hfathon smiled.
Nadir Shirazi said, 'It does seem inhumane, if you'll pardon me for saying so, that these wonderful cures should be withheld from Earth. If they were to be transmitted at once, it could mean saving the lives of millions. And it would alleviate much suffering, too.'
'I doubt it,' Hfathon said. 'From what you've told us, even if we gave your scientists that data at this moment, it would be several years before your governments would allow our drugs to be used. First, the data would have to be studied. Then experimental tests on animals would be made. Then the legislators would have to decide whether or not the drugs could be given. Of course, they would eventually do so because of popular demand. But the total process would require anywhere from four to six years. Am I correct?'
'I am afraid so,' Orme said.
'Yet, when, or perhaps I should say if, the formulae and the two thousand years of data were given, and the data proved conclusively that the cure rate was 100 per cent, your governments would still require an independent study of their own, right?'
'Right.'
'So what's the rush?'
'We were just thinking about all the people who could be saved,' Shirazi said.
'Not to mention,' Orme said, 'the longevity treatment. The longer the delay in getting it to Earth, the more people will die of the diseases of old age.'
'True. But that can't be helped. If we do give you the age-delaying formulae, we'll do so only under certain strict conditions. The socialist countries will have to treat everybody, no exceptions, at government expense. There will be no such thing as selling it for a profit and so making it available only if the purchaser has the money. The communist countries will have to do the same. They won't be allowed to withhold the treatment from political prisoners.
'Moreover, to ensure that this is done, we will set up administrative units in every country. They'll be organised in such a manner that the governments will not be able to interfere in any way.'
Orme looked at Bronski and Shirazi. Each knew what the other was thinking. It was possible, but not probable, that their own countries would allow this. They would resist, but once the people knew that the treatment would be available, the people would bring irresistible pressure to bear. Even so, the governments would attempt to have some sort of control.
As for the communist nations, they would not permit aliens to move in in the large numbers required for administration. They would suspect that they were spies, and they'd fear the dissemination of anticommunist ideas along with the treatment.
But could they withstand the demands of their citizens once they discovered that extended longevity was being denied them? Wouldn't that lead to riots, even revolution?
Either way, there would be a tremendous disruption. Things would never be the same in any country, no matter what its ideology.
The Martians had a terrible weapon. They could blow Earth apart, in a sense, without firing a shot. In fact, they would wage war under the disguise of conferring a great benefit. Longevity was only one weapon. The elimination of disease was another. But Orme felt that these were feeble compared to something else the Martians had not yet revealed completely. He would, he suspected, soon know all about it.
As a Christian, he should be looking forward to the seventh day from now with ecstasy. But he was shaking with fear - fear which was an anticipation of horror.
11
Hfathon had told them that they could put together a 'programme' lasting four hours. It would be up to them to say and show what they wished. They wouldn't be censored unless their statements were misrepresentations, or outright lies. In these cases, their 'hosts', as Hfathon referred to the Martians, would enlighten them so they could speak truly. But nothing would be excised.
It wasn't as easy as the four had thought it would be. It was difficult making a balanced 'show' because each of the four wanted to present his own speciality as much as possible. After a day-long discussion, they agreed, though reluctantly, that each should cut down his own portion of the programme.
'What's vitally important now is the Martians themselves,' Orme said. 'Their history, including the origins of the Krsh. How they managed to survive and the present state of their society. That is what will really interest our people. The exact details of their sciences can come later. Anyway, if you get down to it, we don't have the information on the really important scientific and technological stuff. And this is obviously just a prelude, a summary of what's happened to us. And how much of that can we get into four hours? We'll have to compress it so much, just skim the surface, that even that'll be bewildering to the folks at home. They'll be so numbed by the first ten minutes they won't comprehend the next two hundred and thirty.'
'Besides,' Madeleine Danton said, 'we really don't know yet how much of what we're preparing now will be shown. We have to save time for whatever happens six days from now.'
She seemed healthy enough, but she was obviously not sleeping well. The suddenness of the discovery of cancer and its equally swift and unexpected treatment had shaken her. Orme suspected, however, that this was not the major factor in her insomnia. The coming event, the appearance of the Messiah, was disturbing her deeply. She just could not believe what the Martians had told her of him. Yet, in light of her experiences here, she could not believe the Martians were lying.
It was strange, Orme thought, that he was as struck with anxiety as she. She was an atheist and so could be expected to be in an emotional turmoil, especially when you considered the devout upbringing she'd had. The conditioned reflexes established in childhood were eating upwards through the dark layers. The religious upbringing hadn't been dissolved; such things never were.
But he... he had been born and raised in a fundamentalist Baptist family. To them, everything in the Bible was taken as literally true.
Orme tried to recall everything he knew about Jesus as told in the Bible. Jesus Christ had been born of a virgin, and had died on the cross, atoning for people's sins and assuring them salvation, resurrection and immortality in heaven, if they believed that he was God's son and also God, and if they followed the golden
rule, believed certain dogmas and were spiritually 'born again'.
All this Orme had believed, despite certain early convictions and doubts, until he was in high school. From then on the overwhelming evidence for evolution, the billions-year-old age of Earth, and many other things had led him to fall from fundamentalism, but not from grace.
Though he did not believe that the Old Testament was to be taken literally, he did think that the events in the New Testament had happened as portrayed. His parents were horrified at his new attitude. They thought he would go to Hell if he didn't revert to the truth. Though sorrowful because of this, he continued to adhere to his somewhat more liberal Christianity. No longer did he believe that he would go to a hell of fire and brimstone and eternal physical torture if he lacked faith in the utter literalness of the Old Testament. He might go to hell, but it would be a spiritual one, the horrible knowledge that he would be forever cut off from God.
Also, he did things that he knew were wrong. Occasionally, he got drunk, and he lay with girls before he got married. But since he'd taken a wife, he was faithful to her, though it wasn't easy. The divorce had been shattering. Hadn't Christ said [hat the only excuse for divorce was infidelity? But he lived in a society in which divorce was almost as easy as marriage. In my event, he had not wished for the divorce, but it had been useless to fight against it in the courts.
So, here he was, a man who prayed to God and His son every night and sometimes in the day, who hoped some day to see His son face to face.
If the Martians were to be believed, he soon would be face to face with the living Jesus. Why, then, this quivering unease, thudding heart, sickness in the stomach, and desire to run? Was it because he would have to decide whether or not this was the true Christ? That was a judgement that he did not think he was competent to make, though the Bible certainly have the clues to help separate the true from the false.
But here were the Martians, saying that Jesus dwelt with them, though he stayed most of the time in the globe that replaced the sun for them. They said they had undeniable proof of their assertions. Yet from what Matthias said, who had known Jesus in Palestine and on Mars, he was only a man, though in a sense more than that since he was the Messiah.
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