Limbo System

by Rick Cook

  The others at the table looked at each other. Then Sharon got up and followed the priest out.

  “Father, what is it?” she said when she caught up with him in the corridor. “What’s wrong?”

  The priest looked down at his right hand, still glistening with spilled salad oil. “Vouchsafe, oh Lord, to consecrate and sanctify these hands by this unction and our blessing. That whatsoever they bless shall be blessed and whatsoever they shall consecrate shall be consecrated and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

  “What?” Sharon took his arm. “Father, are you all right?”

  Father Simon let out a long, deep sigh, as if he had laid down a heavy burden.

  “Yes, Dr. Dolan, I am fine. It’s just that I had forgotten who I am.” He looked up at her. “I got lost, you see, and it’s taken me some time to find my way back.”

  “Father, will you please talk sense!”

  “It is sense, Dr. Dolan. The oil . . . you see, part of the ritual of ordination is anointing the priest’s hands as a token of his new office. His call ad onus presbyterii, to the burden of the priesthood.”

  “And?”

  “And I had forgotten that. Or rather I never let myself think it through. What I had promised and what it meant. It’s been nearly twenty-five years since I was ordained. I never had a parish, of course, and the only thing I ever taught was astronomy. Somewhere in all that, I just strayed away.”

  He straightened up and pulled out a pocket handkerchief to wipe his hand. “But once I remembered that I am a priest and what the duties of a priest are, it was simple.”

  “You mean go back to the Colonists. I thought you said you didn’t have a license to do missionary work.”

  Father Simon nodded. “And acting as a missionary without a license from my superiors is a violation of canon law, which is a sin against obedience. But the Church enacts ordinances to enable her to carry out her divinely mandated role. If I refused to perform the duties I accepted when I was ordained, it would be an even greater sin.”

  Sharon was silent as Father Simon finished wiping his hand and put his handkerchief back in his pocket.

  “Look, Father, let’s talk about this in the morning, shall we? Meanwhile promise me you won’t do anything until we talk again?”

  Father Simon smiled his old warm smile. “There isn’t much I can do tonight, is there?”

  He looks better, Jenkins thought as Father Simon came on to the bridge the next morning. He looks calm and refreshed again.

  “Captain, may we speak privately?”

  “Sure, Father. Come into my office.”

  Once in, Father Simon carefully closed the door and then turned to face Jenkins. He didn’t bother with the straps on the arms of the chair.

  “I understand we are leaving very soon,” the priest said by way of opening.

  “Forty-two hours and counting,” Jenkins said with a grin. “We need to tidy up some last details. Then we blast.”

  “You’ve done a remarkable job, Captain, bringing us through so much.”

  Jenkins thought of Ludenemeyer, puffed and blacked from decompression; of DeLorenzo with his guts torn out by a samurai sword; of Lulu Pine, psychotic and defiant at her court martial. “Not so remarkable. We have twelve fewer people going back than we came with. Eleven dead in the morgue and one who’s probably dead and staying behind.”

  “By any account that is still remarkable, but that was what I wanted to talk to you about,” Father Simon told him. “You will leave two humans behind. I am staying too.”

  “What! Why?”

  “I have work to do here,” the priest said. “Ministering to souls thirsting for the word of God.”

  Once again, Jenkins damned the expedition organizers who had sent the Maxwell out without a psychiatrist. “Do you mind if I ask why?” Jenkins asked neutrally.

  “Because the aliens need me. Because they have asked me to stay. Because it is my duty to stay.”

  “When did you decide all this?”

  “It has taken some time. I came to the final decision last night.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Father Simon shook his head. “No, Captain, I don’t want to do it,” he said vehemently. “If I had completely free choice in the matter, I don’t think I would do it at all. But as a priest and as a man, I am not free to follow my own whims regardless of the needs of others.” He sighed. “I’m perhaps the most unlikely evangelist you will ever find. But that doesn’t really matter. I am here and I am the one who was chosen. Captain, back on Hasta I started something. It wasn’t intentional. I fought against it as hard as I could, but nonetheless it happened. Now I have a responsibility.” He looked straight into Jenkins’ eyes. “I am through trying to avoid my responsibilities, Captain.”

  “But even so—” Jenkins began. But Father Simon cut him off.

  “There are practical consequences as well. Captain, these people have only the most rudimentary knowledge of Christianity. Without guidance there is no telling what they will turn to.”

  “And you’re afraid they’ll become heretics.”

  “I am less concerned with heresy than the effect on their entire civilization,” the priest said stiffly. “This is a very tightly knit culture and what I have released is a very powerful force. What do you suppose would happen if they interpreted what little they know of Christianity as a cult of suicide, or ritual cannibalism, or just as a quietist retreat to the contemplation of God?”

  “You’re assuming that your teaching will take.”

  “It has taken. There are converts on Hasta, 246 and I think several other colonies by now. These people were ready for the word of God.”

  “Oh my God,” Jenkins said softly.

  “Precisely.”

  Jenkins shook his head. “I don’t know. Preaching a human religion to aliens.”

  “Would it surprise you to know that most of Jesus’ followers felt that way when Saint Paul started preaching His message to non-Jews?” Father Simon asked him. “It’s a very old story, Captain.”

  Jenkins was silent, watching the priest carefully. He wasn’t back to his old self at all, he realized. There was something very different about him now. He had a serene quality that somehow hinted at dynamism beneath. For some reason, the captain thought of Sukihara Takiuji at his sword exercises.

  “You know what your life expectancy is likely to be once we leave, don’t you?” he said at last.

  “I’m afraid that is rather out of my hands,” Father Simon said.

  “Father,” Jenkins said desperately, “how the hell am I going to explain this to my superiors?”

  “I’m afraid I hadn’t considered that,” the priest said. “But I will give you a message to my superiors and they can explain it to your superiors.”

  “. . . so he’s staying,” Jenkins told Iron Alice DeRosa several hours later when she came on watch.

  “You’re not going to stop him?”

  The captain shook his head. “I don’t think . . .” his screen chimed and he hit the stud.

  The window expanded on his screen and there was Andrew Aubrey.

  The flesh seemed to have melted from him. The smooth polished surface was gone and what was underneath was a rawer, harsher version.

  “Good day, Captain,” Aubrey said.

  Jenkins glanced over to make sure Iron Alice was in the circuit.

  “Dr. Aubrey,” he said neutrally. “Where are you?”

  “Colony 246. I felt I should tell you that I am staying here to learn what I can from the Colonists.”

  “Nonsense!” Jenkins snapped. “You’re coming back with the rest of us.”

  “No, Captain, I am staying,” Aubrey said firmly. “There is nothing for me back on Earth and so much that these people have to teach. The new leaders of 246 have offered to let me stay and I have accepted.”

  “Like Hell! You’re part of this expedition and you’re coming back with us.”

  “So yo
u can have your show trial when we get back?” Aubrey smiled his old superior smile and shook his head. “Captain, isn’t there something somewhere about never giving orders you can’t enforce? I am staying and there is really nothing you can do about it.”

  He was probably right, Jenkins realized. Unless the Colonial Council was willing to use force, there was no way to bring Aubrey back. He doubted the Colonial Council would press the issue.

  “Captain, I have a job to do here,” Aubrey went on. “The Colonists have so much they can teach us about constructing a truly just society, one without war.”

  “I would have thought by now even you would see just how wrong you were,” Jenkins said bitterly. “If you want more proof, I have eleven bodies down in the morgue from the last time you welcomed your ‘unwarlike’ friends aboard.”

  “Derfuhrer was an aberration,” Aubrey said. “I didn’t realize that and I made a terrible mistake.” His face clouded. “Believe me, I am truly sorry for that and I will have to live with the consequences of that for the rest of my life. But one mad being doesn’t change the fact that the Colonials are still our cultural superiors.”

  “You’ll pardon me if I am not impressed,” Jenkins said dryly.

  “Do you think we would have done better if the tables had been turned?” Aubrey retorted. “How long do you think the Maxwell would have survived if this had been a human society? What horrors would we have been willing to commit to gain the secret of the drive? And yet, except for a single aberrant individual, none of the Colonists attempted to use violence against us.”

  Jenkins thought of the bombs in the shuttle bays, the worms in the computers and Lulu Pine, driven to paranoia and murder by alien voices. “I like to think we would have done better,” he said.

  “We all like to think well of our species,” Aubrey agreed.

  “These people behaved like a gang of pirates and you call that ‘culturally superior’?”

  “We tempted them beyond bearing,” Aubrey said with a trace of desperation. “And when they responded they were extremely efficient at it. They came within a hair’s breadth of taking your ship, Captain. And as it was, they got what they wanted.” Again that superior smile.

  “They got it on our terms,” Jenkins reminded him, “and they would have gotten that anyway. There was never any question that Earth wouldn’t make a deal with them for the secret of the star drive. The only question was the terms.”

  “Ah yes, the terms.” He shook his head. “Your offer was brilliant, you know,” he said somewhat ruefully. “I would have preferred something that would have brought us together sooner, but this will be sufficient.”

  “Sufficient for what?”

  “Sufficient to integrate Earth into the Colonial culture,” Aubrey said. “You didn’t think far ahead, did you? But what do you suppose will happen when Earth, with all its petty, competing sovereignties is exposed to the Colonial culture? Why, the same thing that always happens when a backward culture meets a superior one. In a century or two the Maxwell expedition will be acclaimed as the beginning of a new era in human civilization.”

  Jenkins wanted to smash his face.

  “Don’t be too sure of that,” he said tightly. “We’re having an effect on the Colonists as well. Apparently, Father Simon has made a number of converts. He’s staying behind to preach Christianity and the Colonists seem very receptive.”

  The captain cut the contact before Aubrey could get the look off his face. Then he punched up his second-in-command.

  “That slimy, sanctimonious sonofabitch,” DeRosa said as soon as her window opened on his screen. “I think he really believes all that shit.”

  “He’s got to justify his actions to himself somehow.” Jenkins looked unhappy. “He may have something, though. Even one shipload of Colonists and their technology is going to raise hell on Earth.”

  Iron Alice snorted. “Aubrey’s crazy. You did what you had to do to save your command and head off a war. Nobody could ask for more than that. Besides, you’re not the one who makes the final decision. It’s up to Earth to decide to send out a ship to pick up the Colonists.”

  “Yes, but they will probably accept my recommendation,” Jenkins said. “Sharon Dolan was right. The Colonists have so much to offer us that it would be insane for us to turn it down.”

  “So you’re going to let a traitor play with your head.”

  “One way or another it comes down to my decision.” He sighed. “Father Simon told me once I should start acting like the Master Under God of this ship. But nobody made me Master Under God of Earth’s future.”

  White and shaking, Jenkins punched up Father Simon’s cabin. The priest answered with a pile of underwear in one hand, neatly folded and ready to go into a space bag.

  “Father, you’re going to have some company,” Jenkins said without preamble. “Aubrey is alive. He’s staying behind on 246.”

  “That is news,” the priest said and laid the underwear down out of range of the camera. “Did he say why he intends to stay?”

  “Because he wants to learn from the ‘superior’ culture of the Colonists.”

  “Oh my,” Father Simon chuckled. “Oh my.”

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I was just enjoying the irony. He stays behind to learn from the Colonists’ superior culture and I stay behind to teach them ours.”

  “You’ll excuse me if I don’t share the joke,” the captain said with a slight edge in his voice. “You know what he told me? He said that I’m going to start the ‘integration’ of Earth into the Colonial culture!”

  The priest considered. “I think he overstates the case, but there is something in that. Earth culture will change because of this. But then Earth culture would have changed anyway.

  “There is an old conundrum about never stepping twice in the same river. Dr. Takiuji could undoubtedly put it more elegantly, but it is still true. We were bound to meet the Colonists and to be changed by them. At the very least, what you did was to prevent Major DeLorenzo’s nightmare of exploitation.”

  “And I’ll be responsible for bringing Colonists into the Earth system. Great.”

  “Under more controlled conditions than would have happened otherwise,” the priest told him. “We will have a century or so to adapt. Consider that if you had not acted as you had, Earth might have been tempted to bury its collective head and ignore the Colonists until they came to us. Besides, whether my mission succeeds or fails, the Colonists will be changing under our influence.”

  “You really believe we’re going to change them?”

  “Oh, there’s very little question of that,” Father Simon said. “Contrary to popular belief, old and stagnant cultures do change when confronted with outside influences. We’re already changing them and in the next few decades we will change them even more.”

  “You think it’s a two-way street?”

  “That’s usually what happens when two cultures come in contact, I believe. They mix.”

  “You know, with you and Aubrey here and the Colonists coming to Earth I wonder where it will end.”

  “Probably better than we fear and perhaps worse than we hope. We aren’t given to know the future, Captain, and I think that’s a blessing.”

  PART XI: AJI

  “You’re sure you’ll be all right?” Captain Peter Jenkins asked for the hundredth time.

  He sucked in the oddly tainted air of Meetpoint for the last time. Above him, the Maxwell swung in comforting proximity. As soon as this last chore was done he would reboard the ship and set out for Earth. Even as he and Father Simon said their goodbyes, Iron Alice was making the final calculations and Kirchoff and Clancy were bringing up the fusion torch.

  “Quite all right,” Father Simon reassured him. “The Council President has agreed that I will be allowed to continue my ministry. I will have to stay on his colony, of course, but . . .” he shrugged. “I will be able to preach and teach electronically and he assures me arrangements will be made
so I can administer baptism and communion to visitors.”

  “There is still time to change your mind.”

  Father Simon smiled and shook his head. “I think not.”

  “I still don’t like this. You’re trusting the word of the Council awfully far and you’re going to be vulnerable once the Maxwell is gone.”

  “Vulnerability isn’t new to someone with this calling. And as for trust, well, it is not the Council I am placing my trust in.”

  “You’re a brave man, Father.”

  The priest looked embarrassed and for a second a flash of the old Father Simon showed through. “No. Just someone with a job.

  “What about Dr. Aubrey?” Father Simon asked quickly to cover the moment. “You’ve talked to him again, I understand.”

  “He says he is content where he is with the Colonists. I probably should take him back for trial, you know. I should take you back as well,” Jenkins said. “But no, leaving both of you behind was a captain’s decision. In his case, it’s the best thing. He doesn’t want to come and Derfuhrer’s successor doesn’t want to give him up. Besides, as Aubrey is fond of pointing out, he is a civilian. Once he is off the ship he is no longer my responsibility.”

  “How is he?” Father Simon asked.

  Jenkins thought of the pale, drawn face on the screen with the lines etched deep around his mouth and the glint in the eyes. “Surprisingly well, all things considered. He’s determined to learn all the Colonists have to teach him about their methods of conflict resolution.” Jenkins shrugged. “Who knows? He might even learn something useful.”

  “I hope so,” Father Simon said. “Poor man.”

  Jenkins turned toward the sunward view port. The ruddy star of Limbo System glowed red through the filters. Hanging off in the distance he could make out the Colonial ship that would carry Father Simon to his new home.

  “I wonder what the Pope is going to make of his new converts.”

  Father Simon smiled. “His Holiness is most adaptable.”