One of the things Bronski could not help speculating about was the fitness of the Martians for war.
'What do they know about the horrors of war? It's an alien concept to them, something they've read about but which they've never experienced. Two thousand years of peace have made a psychic atmosphere we of Earth can't possibly imagine.
'It's true that every generation has trained for war, but it's all play - so far. What will their reaction be when they have to kill and be killed? Will two millennia of peace ruin them for war?'
'The red-eyed ape that slumbers in all of us will be awakened and let loose from his cage.'
'If there is such a creature in us.'
'But he says that this must be done, that it is right,' Orme said.
'If it was anyone but he, I'd question that.'
Both knew that the other still had reservations about what was going to happen, still had doubts and questions. But they'd told themselves, and each other, that they had not yet overcome their Terrestrial conditioned reflexes. Surely, the time would come when they would be able to dissolve these, be as Martian as the natives. In the meantime, they were suffering. Orme was in a worse state than he would admit to Bronski, than, most of the time, he would admit to himself.
Another thing that made the Martians different from their Terran coreligionists was the initial influence of the Krsh. In the beginning, their impact had been tremendous. They were at least 2500 years ahead of their captives in science and technology. They had regarded the Earth people as culturally retarded and with good reason. Indeed, if it had not been for Yeshua', whose powers were undeniable and irresistible, they would have made the Terrans, or their children at least, into Krsh, in mind though not in body.
Instead, the totally unpredictable and highly improbable had happened. Under the only circumstances which could bring about such a turning around, the Krsh had been converted.
Though the first generation of Krsh accepted the Law whole-heartedly, still, they were Krsh. And so the inevitable changes in the interpretation of the Law and in the mode of life of the human Jews took place swiftly. It was recorded, in sound, living colour, and three dimensions that Matthias and his Libyan Jewish disciples objected to many of the changes. But Yeshua' himself did not, in fact, he blessed them, and so there were no more objections, openly, at least.
In any event, a difference about interpretation and a steady evolution towards the humanitarian spirit of the law had always been a feature of Judaism. And in no way was there any lessening of emphasis on the basics of the religion.
The Krsh and the humans became thoroughly integrated; they lived side by side, their children played together; they worshipped together. The Krsh were only different in that none of them could ever be priests or the temple servants of the priests. The blood of Aaron and Levi did not flow through them.
One of the changes that would have shocked an orthodox Jew was a minor change in the morning prayer of every adult male. For thousands of years the men had said the Three Benedictions:
'Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who hast not made me a heathen.
'Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who hast not made me a slave.
'Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who hast not made me a woman.'
There were no heathens on Mars and very little chance that any Jew would become one. Yet there were many on Earth, and one day the Martians would go to Earth and encounter them. So the first passage was kept, though it meant little to the prayers.
There were no slaves. Though the worshipper had been taught what the word meant, he had not suffered slavery and had never seen a slave, so this, too, had no emotional impact. But there had been many on Earth when the Krsh ship left it, and for all the Martians knew, there still were. So this passage was kept unchanged.
While the first generation lived, the third benediction was unaltered. But then, under the urging of the Krsh and of the human women, affected by the Krsh views, the third passage became: 'Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Our God, King of the Universe, Who hast not made me a beast.'
Because the room for an expanding population was so limited, the first commandment of God, to be fruitful and multiply, had to be kept within bounds. Every couple was allowed three children only. But, when they became ninety years old, they were permitted, if they so wished, to have two more. At one hundred and eighty, they could have another two.
Once the children left home, the parents were free to divorce. Still, it was considered socially incorrect, a matter for gossip, and reprimand by relatives. But when a new coupling occurred, it was usually sanctified by marriage before or shortly after the fact.
To a Terran Jew the Martian society would be strange at first. There were many things to approve of; but there were also so many disconcerting things. Yet, after a while, unless he was ultraorthodox, he could become comfortable. Whatever exotic or unexpected features life here had, it was thoroughly Jewish. Here the thought of God permeated the populace. Everything that could possibly be so was based on the worship of God. The people lived in an ocean of divinity. Yet, unlike the fish who were unaware of the element they swam through, the Martian was always being reminded of this Creator and of the ancient covenants He had made with their ancestors and so with them.
21
'Were you the one who stood by my bed at night and watched me?' Orme said.
'I am with every one of my flock by day or night,' Jesus said, and he would speak no more on the subject.
Orme was puzzled and also a little angry. What kind of an answer was that? Why couldn't Jesus say yes or no? This reply was too much like the one he'd given when the Pharisees had asked him if it was permissible to pay the poll-tax to Caesar. He had said to them, 'Render then to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.'
This was much quoted during the next two millennia and the basis of thousands of interpretations of proper allegiance to one's government and to one's religion. Yet there had never been unanimous agreement on the distinction between what was Caesar's and what was God's.
And there was his answer to the Sadducees' question about the resurrection of the dead, 'He is not God of the dead but God of the living.'
At the same time Jesus had made it clear that there would be a resurrection. But there would be no marrying or giving in marriage; the resurrected would be as the angels in Heaven. What did that mean? That there was a perfect sexual freedom with men and women coupling when they wished with anyone they wished? Or did it mean, as the churches said, that men and women would be sexless and, therefore, no longer men and women? Whenever Orme had thought about this, which wasn't often, he had a strange feeling in his genitals, a shrinking, as if a castrator with a big knife was about to sever them.
Orme had many questions, and when he had learned that Jesus lived and was available for questioning, he had thought that now, at last, he would get all the answers. But this Jesus, like the one in the books he'd read, was still giving ambiguous replies. Perhaps, as Bronski said, these were amplified and clarified in the many recordings of Jesus's statements made on Mars. But there was no time to go through these now. He was leaving for Earth.
On this, fateful day, all three Terrestrials were in a huge cube-shaped level near the surface of the planet. Around them were seven spaceships, six cylindrical, the seventh three times as large as any of the others, a hemisphere from which projected six long cylinders each tipped with an enormous globe. Into each ship was filing a double line of men. They no longer wore their ankle-length robes and sandals; they were soldiers uniformed for war, though they hoped that war would not be necessary. They wore calf-high blue boots, baggy red trousers, hip-long white tunics, and round brimless black plastic hats. Metal insignia of Krsh origin, denoting service and rank, were on their chests, shoulders, and hats. Many wore belts supporting holsters containing pistol-shaped weapons. Some of these were lasers which could kill a man at three miles and cut through steel three fe
et thick half a mile away.
Of the twenty thousand men, only four were not in uniform. Jesus wore his sky-blue robe, and the Earthmen were dressed in their IASA uniforms. The Messiah had thought that it would not be good for them to appear to be part of the Martian space navy.
'You are with us and of us and so beloved by us. But the people of Earth may regard you as traitors. It is better that you appear first as converts only. You will be of the Kingdom of the Presence and hence His soldiers. But the Sons of Darkness will be filled with suspicion, fear, and trembling. They must not identify you as one of us. You must still be Terrestrials, not Martians. Thus, you will be a bridge between us, a means of communication and reassurance. Later, you can wear the garments of the Sons of Light.
'The Kingdom of the Presence cannot be brought about by force. We do not go to destroy and slay. We will effect the rule of the Messiah by example, by love, by gifts. Of course, there may be war, but we will not be the first to attack.
'You see,' he said, smiling, 'this man whom you call Saint John the Revelator, the writer of the Apocalypse, was a poet. He cast the coming of the Messiah in vivid imagery, in hyperbole, in blazing symbols. And he based his visions upon the supernatural. But the establishment of the Messiah and the
Kingdom of the Presence and the laying of the foundations of the New Jerusalem will not come about as he said. The sky may be rolled up like a scroll, and the four horsemen may ride, and the seven-headed beast burst from the sea, but these things will not happen except symbolically.
'Much of the conquest will come about because of science and technology. This will cause what you call cultural shock. For instance, we will announce, and it will be true, that just recently our scientists have gone beyond ensuring a long delay of old age. We can now tell the peoples of Earth that we can give them immortality. Barring, of course, homicide, accident and suicide.'
Orme gasped. Then he said, 'Master, is that true? No, forgive me, I don't doubt you. It is se staggering.'
Bronski said, 'But if very few die, there soon will be no room on Earth for children.'
Hfathon, who was standing nearby said in a low voice, 'Do not bother the Messiah with obvious matters.'
Jesus, however, said, 'I did not say that only a few will die. There will be plenty of room in the beginning. Afterward, when the Earth has been filled again, provisions will be made for the children.'
Orme felt sick. There would be war, the most terrible that mankind had ever suffered. Or did Jesus's words hold another meaning which only time would reveal?
'It does not matter,' Jesus said. 'In eternity, five hundred years are as long, and as short, as a million. Our plan takes time. How much does not matter. We can be as patient as a loving mother with her troublesome children. In time everybody who deserves to be resurrected will be. Our scientists are convinced that we will someday be able to raise the dead. The recordings of things past and gone exist in the substratum of the universe. Or, to put it another way, in the body of the Creator. The scientists refer to it as the ether, a concept which I understand your scientists reject. But they are, in this respect, as ignorant as the wise men of ancient Earth were of other matters.
'In time, the dead will be raised. Five hundred years, a thousand, what does it matter to those who sleep?'
'Master,' Orme said, 'will this, too, be revealed to the people of Earth?'
'You will see. Ponder this. All things are done by the Merciful One, but He often uses men as his hands. This applies to the rising of the dead as well as to the restoration of the Kingdom of the Messiah.'
Jesus turned away then to speak to a group of officers. Orme, feeling slightly stunned, walked away. Bronski said something, but it could not have been urgent since he spoke softly and did not repeat it. Though Orme had already said farewell to Gulthilo, he walked across the vast space until he came to a metal fence. Behind this stood the families of the crews and near a gate was his wife. She had been told the day before that she was pregnant. This news had caused both joy and dismay, since he had to leave the next day and there was no telling when he would return. Even if she had not been with child, she could not have accompanied him. No women were on the ships since there might be war. Later, if all went well, women would be sent to Earth as teachers and administrators. But she would not be going even then because she had a child to raise.
Gulthilo, seeing him, smiled, though not as bravely as when they had parted an hour ago. 'What's wrong, Richard?'
'Nothing, except that I'm overwhelmed. I just heard that the scientists have announced that they expect to raise the dead some day.'
She put a hand through the wide mesh and took his. 'That's nothing to be surprised about. Jesus has always said that it will come about, and so we've expected it. I didn't know that the scientists, who've been working on it for a thousand years, had discovered something substantial. They must be confident that they can actually do this. Otherwise, the Messiah would not have told you that it was so. Probably, the news will be announced on TV soon. It'll be an occasion for great rejoicing. Perhaps a new annual festival will be established.'
'Give me another kiss,' he said, and he put his lips against hers, the wires pressing against his flesh. The contact with her flesh reassured him, gave him the sense that this world had not suddenly become misty, immaterial, far away. It was as solid and warm again as her body and the entity in her womb.
'May the Creator be with you,' she said softly. 'I will also assuredly be with you. And you will return before the baby is born. If it is at all possible, you will be with me then. The Law ensures that, and the Messiah is merciful.'
'Until then, my love,' he said, and he walked away. But he was not as certain as she. Only One knew what reception the Sons of Light would get from the Sons of Darkness.
22
Among the many things Orme hadn't understood was how a spacefleet could set forth without a long training of its personnel. He was told that simulation-training had been going on for the last fifty years in anticipation of this day. Thus, when the ships were built there were skilled crews to run them.
The personnel had fasted and prayed. Those who had from one cause or another become ritually unclean had been cleansed. All was ready.
The upper-level cube was cleared of people, and the entrances were blocked by massive metal doors. At one end of the hollow, from the ceiling, the bottom of a Brobdingnagian plug, a monolith of granite, slowly descended. Though it was a quarter of a mile high and half a mile in diameter, and though it had no visible attachments, it came down as lightly as a toy balloon slowly losing its air, and entered a cavity prepared for it.
First, the flagship, the Maranatha (Aramaic for 'Our Master, come!'), rose through the exit. One by one the others followed. Last was the giant hemispherical Zara, or 'seed', and when it was a quarter of a mile above the surface, it stopped. In ten minutes the top of the monolith had replugged the hole.
Then, from one of the globe-tipped cylinders sticking from the Zara, an orange ray shot forth, and the rock about the plug and the plug melted together.
No surveyor satellite from Earth would record and transmit this event. The two presently operating had been shut off by the Martians. And since it was night on this side of Mars, by the time the spot came into range of Earth's delicate instruments, it would have been cooled off. When the Zara returned, it would disintegrate the thin crust of lava so that the plug could move down again.
The flagship, accelerating at three-fifths of Terrestrial gravity per second, rose into the thin atmosphere of the red planet. The others followed in Indian file, the Zara bringing up the rear.
Hfathon, standing by the three who were no longer Earthmen but naturalised Martians, spoke.
'The Zara's pet name is "The Weathermaker". It can tap the power of the sun directly at the surface and transmit it in modulated form to Earth. It can create droughts or a deluge. It can warm up an arctic region or cool off a tropic one. Over a large area, it can affect temperature in five m
onths by raising or lowering it five or six degrees for a considerable time. When the energy is concentrated on a small area, the effect is quickly noticeable. The Zara also has other capabilities. May the King of Heaven spare us from having to use it.'
'May He indeed,' Orme said. Imagining what could happen on Earth, he was sad. But had not the Messiah said that he came not with peace but with a sword? On the other hand, he had also said that he came to preserve men's lives, not to destroy them.
What would be would be, and no matter what the interim results, the intentions and the end were good. However, that philosophy had been used - misused and abused - by so many people and with such evil means that it was discredited. But this was a holy war, ordered by God and initiated by His adopted son. Winning the war could only result in great good, the greatest possible good, for mankind forever.
Why, then, was his heart so heavy and tears so close to his eyes?
Bronski and Shirazi seemed to be happy. They had no doubts. Like all the other men of the crew of the Maranatha, they went around smiling, singing songs in Krsh and Hebrew, some joyous folk songs, others devout prayers.
Except for the hours after the evening meal, Orme did not have much time to think of other than official matters. He was kept busy conferring with the chiefs of the state and the higher officials of the fleet. Occasionally, Jesus sat in on the details of the broad plans outlined for Earth. Orme was to be the chief administrator for the North American area. Shirazi was to be the main consultant in the dealings with the Moslem states. Bronski would be the head of the liaison department handling the affairs of Western Europe and Israel. He was also to be head of the department which dealt with the non-Moslem Communist nations.
In addition, Orme was taking short lessons in the Hebrew language, so he'd understand the liturgies thoroughly. By the time he went to bed, he was very tired. But his dreams were lively. Too much so, since his nightmares were hideous, and he woke more than once sweating and whimpering. Usually, a dim figure in the crouching darkness pointed an accusing finger at him, and it glided towards him without moving its legs until Orme was just about to recognise the face. Then he would start awake, and sometimes Nadir and Avram would call from their bunks, asking what the trouble was.
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