Rebirth

by Philip R Benge

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  Their ancestors had been forced to leave Earth because their religion was being stifled by the bigger mainstream religions in the year 2200. Jealousy was the main reason, the other religions found they were constantly losing their faithful to this upstart 'religion' that promised its followers an eternal after life, if only they began to live as god intended that they should, and to show that they meant business they should first convert to the one and only true faith. Disillusioned people looking for something that the governments and the other religions could not offer turned to them to fill the void they felt within their hearts. Unfortunately, it had occurred just when the main religions had begun to take control of the government of Earth, and so it had begun to make things more and more difficult for the followers of the true religion. This was when the leaders of the Church had purchased a starship and sent as many of their followers as they could to start a new life on Genesis, far away from all the other non-believers and their corrupt leaders. Unfortunately, their ancestors lost contact with Earth before the starship arrived on Genesis; it was thought that a large nebula that is between Earth and Genesis prevented any communication. Then when the starship reached Genesis, a meteorite that hit the starship, damaged part of the ship`s systems, and caused it to land heavily, and it only narrowly escaped disaster. They had been able to repair the engines, that had been only slightly damaged, but they could never repair the hull of the ship to enable it to take the stress of taking off again and going up through the atmosphere of the planet, so that they could never regain contact with Earth. They now saw themselves as one of the lost peoples of god. Here on Genesis only the true religion was followed, the heretical teachings of the old mainstream religions would never be tolerated by the people of Genesis, the people who followed the true faith, the Church of the Universe. This was followed by a ranting attack on non-believers in general and how god would punish them all by sending them to hell. Being isolated from other thoughts and beliefs had tended to make the people of Genesis a little insular. Appolon and Tryon finally managed to excuse themselves and returned to speak to Tyler and Caroline. When they got back to the Defender, they found them in their cabin.

  "Excuse us for bothering you in your cabin Tyler, but we felt it best to speak to you privately at first before telling the others." Appolon said.

  "What on earth is so secret that we cannot talk of it amongst the rest of the crew?" Tyler asked.

  "We have been speaking to the colonists on Genesis. We spoke of this and that until we finally touched on the religion that is practised here on Genesis; it is the Church of the Universe." Appolon then told Tyler and Caroline the story of how the people of Genesis had lost contact with Earth and now thought of themselves as another 'lost tribe.'

  "So what is the problem Appolon, the lost people have been found?" Tyler asked perplexed.

  "The way they talk, they sound so fanatical, as you know all of the people of Orion follow the religion of the newcomers from Earth, but we are not fanatical about it, privately we even question some of its teachings, but rather than upset our teachers we keep any questions and subsequent answers to ourselves. The people of Genesis are fanatical about their religion, and fanatics of any belief are not to be trusted." Appolon declared.

  "The colonists amongst the crew are bound to find out that the people of Genesis are their long lost buddies, nothing good can come of hiding it ?" But Appolon could not contain himself and broke in here.

  "Those three leaders who came aboard the Defender, they are also the leaders of the church here on Genesis, I am worried that our people..." It was Tyler who now broke in.

  "Appolon, the crew of the Defender are all men who will lay down their lives in the cause of justice for all, no matter what race, creed or religion they are, if we cannot trust them then we may as well surrender to the next dictator who comes our way." Tyler said, and Caroline agreed with him up to a point.

  "Appolon is worried because on Orion we have had our own share of fanatics, and they can be dangerous Tyler. It was only because of our Great Grandfather that our people were able to stop them from turning the whole of the planet into a war zone." Caroline said.

  "I too dislike religious fanatics, but we would be playing a dangerous game if we didn`t tell the others this news, and especially if the people of Genesis were to be a danger to us. But my security precautions still stand and that should be sufficient to ensure our safety." Tyler said and then walked out of his cabin and onto the bridge.

  "Paul, what do you know about a Church of the Universe colony starship of around the year 2200, it went missing and was never heard from again?" He asked.

  "Why on earth are you asking about that ship, it is almost mythological now, it was the first colony ship of the Church, and when it disappeared it was almost the last? If the Leader of our Church hadn`t been a firm believer in the spreading of the word across the galaxy, the ideals behind the setting up of new colonies might have died when that ship was lost." Paul Johnson declared.

  "The ship wasn`t destroyed Paul, it landed on Genesis, and the people on this planet are the descendants of those first travellers." Tyler said. "Appolon and Tryon have been talking to the people of Genesis and this is what they have learnt from talking to them."

  "But this is fantastic Tyler; we must send a message back to Orion, to Earth. Do the people of Genesis know that the crew of this ship are all believers of their own faith?" Colin Freeman asked and then smiled as he looked at Tyler. "Well almost all, I forgot that you are still a pagan, Captain."

  Just then, Caroline strolled out onto the bridge. "Admiral, Colin. Earlier on I was checking up on the ranks amongst the Space Navy of Earth and its states that the Commander of a sector of space has to be an Admiral, so remember the captain of this beat up cargo vessel is in fact an Admiral of the fleet." The entire bridge crew might have been rehearsing it as they all jumped to their feet and saluted Tyler amid a scene of wild laughter; in fact, they were so loud that Appolon and Tryon rushed onto the bridge to see just what was happening.

  "You lot had better watch out or you will all be on report." Tyler said smiling. "And you Colin had better send your messages, oh and you must send one to President Michaels, it will make his day when he finds out his newly appointed Admiral of the Fleet is responsible for finding his long lost brethren."

  "Yes Sir." Colin Freeman said and began sending out messages to Earth, Orion, Persephone and New Earth.

  When all of the messages had been sent, Tyler spoke to Charles Bragg.

  "Charles, I take it that you too are a member of the church, and if so I would like you and Colin Ryan to go forth and inform our previous guests that this ship comes from a planet which follows the same religion as they do. That their religion is now one of the mainstream religions of Earth, I am correct in my thoughts about the faith of you two aren`t I?" Tyler asked.

  "Yes you are correct on both counts, but shouldn`t you be the one to inform them?" Charles Bragg asked.

  "If they begin to question me on the current beliefs of the church, they may think that I am lying to them about Orion, and their churches following on Earth, and my subsequent discomfort would make President Michaels too happy for my liking." Tyler said smiling.

  Tyler had still insisted that members of the crew stay on board the Defender and put his security measures into operation, Colin Freeman and Colin Ryan would take over the bridge for the second shift from the hours of ten until midnight, no later, as they had a battle to wage in the early morning. Neither, Tyler or Caroline could be part of the security details as they were the two people who would be noticed most by their absence, and Tyler wanted to be friends with the colonists of the planet Genesis. John Anderson spoke to Tyler almost as soon as he and Caroline joined the party.

  "Charles Bragg tells me that there is a colony which follows our faith just a day`s space travel from Genesis."

  "That is correct John; in fact we had just finished escorting the colony starship to Perseph
one when we received your planetary distress call." Tyler confirmed.

  "I thought that you had a run in with space pirates prior to answering our distress call?" Anderson said slightly puzzled.

  "On this voyage we have had to fit in many things. First, we answered a planetary distress message from another of your churches colony planets. It was under attack from space pirates; we destroyed their vessel and rounded up the pirates landing party. After that we received a distress message from the colony ship Constellation on the way to Persephone, it also asked for our help, we could not refuse. Alien spies had killed a number of your brethren and stolen a highly secret technological device; we managed to find those responsible and then escorted the Constellation to Persephone. It was then that we received your distress call." Tyler replied, to an even more baffled colonist.

  "How did you manage to do so much with so little trouble?" Anderson asked.

  "John, I will answer that question tomorrow evening, if I am still here to do so." Tyler answered.

  "I am sure that you will be Tyler." Anderson stated firmly.

  "Oh and I can put your mind at rest regarding your energy requirements John, we can arrange for a small supply of Dylithium to tide you over until you are able to get your mine into operation. If our assailant does not desist in his attacks then I am sure that the Church will supply you with enough Dylithium to cover your needs." Tyler said to a delighted planetary leader.

  Caroline saw that Tyler had managed to find yet another follower, soon he would have more followers than the church, but they would all have to get in line behind her.

  "John one thing puzzles me, and that is why haven`t your people colonised the whole of this planet during the last two hundred years, surely you had the time to do so?" Tyler asked.

  "No Tyler, we didn`t have the time. It was originally planned that further colonists would come to help us build our colony, and that they would bring with them the necessary technology to help us, but when we crashed here on Genesis we were never able to re-establish contact with our Church, and they must have thought that we were all dead. The first fifty years were very much like the first fifty years that the original settlers must have endured on the east coast of America, back in the seventeenth century on Earth, the battle to survive. That we managed to hold on to our level of technology says a lot about our ancestors, and it is only during the last one hundred years that our population has been able to grow. Now we have established a number of villages to serve our farmers, and if this mini ice age hadn`t started, or if our new enemy hadn`t arrived, we would have begun to colonise the rest of this world."