“I can make you an oversize print by hand,” he said, picking it up and yanking off the rubber band.
He pulled it out and looked it over. “What’s so special about this newspaper page?”
I explained the disappearing story. He looked at the bottom of the page.
“Even on a negative, I can tell she is a looker,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“Please take care of this as fast as you can.”
“It will take me at least 24 hours, but I can certainly get it done,” he said, with a grin.
I went back to my desk and looked at the clock on the wall. I felt drained and weak; I had been doing a lot of running around that day, and it was catching up with me.
I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep in my chair and Sherry had walked in on me.
“Oops, sorry!” I rubbed my eyes. “I didn’t know I was that tired!”
“You’ve been running full out,” she said. “Why don’t you knock off for the day?”
I nodded to her.
“Sherry, can you close the door?”
“Sure,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I’ve been here a few weeks. Honestly, what kind of job do you think I’m doing?”
“Honestly, I don’t think you thought through what you were doing when you took the job,” she said gently. “You are a hard worker, but you don’t understand bureaucracy and how much people want to go along and get along.”
“So I’ve shaken things up? By doing what, exactly?”
“By being you,” she said quickly. “One thing you don’t think about is how hard it is for people to ‘get’ to you because you’re not married and have no children,” she said. “You’re impervious to social pressure.”
“Is that crap all that important?”
She snorted derisively. “You know this place is like a small town,” she said. “Maybe more so, because we’re not spread out. It’s an indoor town. But you’re shaking things up by being fair and impartial, and working hard. That’s a much needed change.”
“So maybe I’m like Marshall Dillon?”
“More like Jimmy Stewart’s character in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.’”
“The Pilgrim? The lawyer?”
“Yes. The Senator, too” she said. “You are right, but you are also stubborn. You seem to have a few blind spots. I still don’t know why you are fixated on the missing woman.”
“I saw her here. I know it was her. I know it was her,” I said.
“But how?”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I don’t know yet, but there’s some kind of conspiracy at work. I just know it.”
“So if you’re Jimmy Stewart, and Kurland is Lee Marvin, where’s John Wayne?” she asked. “Or are you going to end up face down in the dust on Main Street?”
“Actually, I have a pretty good idea who the John Wayne is, but like in the movie, other people don’t know who or where he is,” I said. “So am I doing a good job or not?”
“You are. You’re doing the job that needs to be done,” she said. “But you’re burning your bridges with the Republican Party. You won’t get any more appointments after this.”
“The Democrats are going to take the White House in ’88,” I said. “Come on, the Republicans have been in power for 24 years, people are ready for a change. The Democrats will need folks with experience in administration. Getting blackballed by the Republicans may be my ticket to a better job under a Democrat administration.”
She gave me an incredulous look. “Damn, you’re more cynical than I thought!”
“No, just realistic. I’m 27, and there are decades of old entrenched Republicans ahead of me. I’ll advance faster as a Democrat.”
My pager went off.
“Well, that’s Chairman Bush, you’re toast now!” she laughed.
“Very funny,” I said as I read a number I didn’t recognize.
Sherry opened the door. “I’ll let you get that.”
“Close the door behind you, please,” I said.
I sat down and dialed the number. A woman’s voice answered.
“Mister Shuster? Thank you for calling so quickly!”
“Anita?” I remembered I had given her my card.
“Are you okay? Is there a problem?”
“No, not at all. I wanted to invite you to fellowship tonight. I hope you’re not annoyed.”
“No, not at all,” I said. I looked at the clock. “What time is your fellowship?”
“Six o’clock. We meet at Asaph’s in Dome Six.”
“I remember,” I said. “That’s the best invitation I’ve had all day.”
“Then you’ll come?”
“Barring unforeseen circumstances,” I said.
“We’d love to have you! See you later!”
I dropped the phone back on its cradle hook. I wasn’t a religious man, but a church was one place I hadn’t looked to for guidance yet. I did more paperwork and reviewed some reports until quitting time.
Before she left, Sherry came back to see me.
“You seem to have gotten a second wind.”
“A little cat nap always helps,” I said. “See you tomorrow.”
I left my briefcase behind at the office.
As I waited for the transport to the inter-dome train, the radio was playing “The Killing Moon” by Echo and the Bunnymen.
Chapter Sixteen
The “sign” on the door of Asaph was just a plastic business card, affixed with cellophane tape:
Asaph’s Corporation
To worship God in song and music
George and Anita Hautula, proprietors
That’s certainly unpretentious, I thought.
I knocked on the door.
A young man with a full dark beard opened it and looked at me. “Mister Shuster?”
“In the flesh! Anita invited me,” I said. “Can I come in?”
He threw the door open wide. “Of course!” He shook my hand vigorously. “I’m George Hautula, Anita’s husband. Nita!”
Anita was behind him chatting with a small group of people. She saw me and came right over.
“Mister Shuster, you came!”
“I told you I would try,” I said.
“Come in, let me introduce you to some people,” she said.
There was a table with a pot luck buffet, where people shared their own home-grown produce as well as food from the cafeterias. There were maybe two dozen people there, very friendly and down-to-earth.
We all shook hands, and, as I surmised from their accents, there were a few people from the Soviet Bloc—which really surprised me.
I smiled at one man who had a blonde buzz cut and big blue eyes. “I thought the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is an officially atheist nation?”
He chuckled. “The United States is officially a democracy, but is everything done democratically?”
I exaggerated a cringe. “Ouch, you got me. So we’re all sinners, eh?”
“That’s why we’re here,” he said.
I grabbed a small plate of fava bean kielbasa and mushrooms, and sat down in a metal folding chair. Anita and George flanked me.
I smiled at them. “So tell me about your small business.”
“It’s more like an overgrown hobby,” George said. “My real job is maintaining the comptometers for Mitago Mines. But Nita and I have always been amateur musicians, and we know everyone who plays an instrument in the colony.”
“With George’s manual skills, he kept getting asked to repair instruments,” Anita said. “It got so busy we finally rented this small office. This is where I work during the day.”
“You’ve got to be doing something right, to be able to afford the rent,” I said.
“We cover costs,” said George. “It’s more a labor of love. Plus, it gives us a home for our small Bible congregation.”
I noticed a man and woman sitting in a corner, not eating but just looking over at
the others.
“How come that couple isn’t joining in?” I asked. “Are they new?”
Anita looked down. “They’re not people, they’re androids. They don’t know what to do because they don’t eat.”
That wasn’t an answer I expected. “What are they doing here?”
“One of our members works with them at a restaurant,” George said. “They actually asked him about God. He told them they could come and watch us worship. But he had to work late tonight and couldn’t come himself. They came on their own.”
“We’ve never seen them before,” said Anita.
That surprised me—a lot. “Wait, you mean they self-motivated and came on their own, without being ordered to?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Anita.
“Did you talk to them?” I asked.
“Yes, we welcomed them, but we really don’t know a lot to say; they’re not very chatty,” said George. “I guess they will sit in on the service.”
“I need to talk to them,” I said as I rose and walked over.
They stood up as I approached. “I am David Shuster, interim colony administrator.”
“Yes, Mister Shuster.”
“Identify yourselves, please.”
“I am Axel Howard Johnson,” said the male.
“I am Sussudio Howard Johnson,” said the female.
“So you are both service androids at the Howard Johnson restaurant?”
“Yes, sir.” They both said.
“Who requested you attend this event?”
“No one, sir. We have scheduled down time to avoid excessive depreciation, and we are allowed self-directed education as part of our heuristic programming,” said Axel. “Are we doing anything wrong?”
“No, to the contrary, you are to be commended for utilizing your programming so efficiently,” I said.
“Thank you, sir,” said Axel.
“The Hautulas said you want to learn about God?”
“Yes, we hear humans speak of him or it all the time,” Sussudio said. “Even as part of overheard interpersonal communication between individuals. It is obviously an important concept to humans.”
“We work among and serve humans. It will help us perform our duties better,” said Axel.
“Again, you are being diligent in performing your heuristic self-improvement,” I said.
I remember thinking, These machines have more curiosity and motivation than most people I know.
George walked up in front of the keyboards and other musical instruments, and called for people’s attention.
“We have an honored guest here tonight, whom you’ve all met,” he said. “Mister Shuster, we are happy to have you tonight as our guest for worship and praise.”
“Thank you.” I said as I nodded.
“We also have a first, a pair of androids have asked to sit in on our worship,” he said with a nod to them.
There were some murmurs of disbelief, and a few of amazement.
“You all,” he said, gesturing toward the three of us standing together, “are welcome to participate as much and however you wish.”
“Thank you, I will stand here with the special guests, and engage in some mechanical missionary work,” I said.
There were chuckles, and a few looks from people who probably thought I wanted to “keep an eye” on the androids.
And I did, but not in the way they thought.
“We always start our worship the same way, with a nod to our namesake,” said George, taking his place behind the keyboard, as others took the guitars or sat behind the drums.
After a little tuning and a countdown, the lead guitarist started with the opening chords of “Spirit in the Sky.”
In the front row, a couple of women picked up tambourines and started to bang them.
Neither myself nor Axel or Sussudio joined in the singing or dancing—although I will admit to a little hand-clapping—but we all paid close attention to George’s “message.”
I paid close attention to the androids.
Of course, androids don’t register emotion, but it was clear—by the focusing of the irises and the subtle inclination of their heads—when they were paying close attention. When George stopped to preach, concepts such as “the afterlife” and “the soul” garnered the most reaction.
The service ended with the singing of “Amazing Grace” whose lyrics drew the androids’ rapt attention. As soon as George dismissed us, the androids turned to leave.
“Stop, stay here for now,” I said. “I want to speak with you.”
They stopped. I went over and thanked George and Anita, and the others, for the evening.
“It’s always good to get a dose of the Holy Ghost, if only occasionally,” I said.
“You’re welcome to our weekend worship,” Anita said.
“I’m sure I am, and I’ll be back,” I said. “Before I leave, I’d like to talk to our ‘friends’ who joined us,” nodding to the androids.
I went back to Axel and Sussudio. “Sit down please,” I said, joining them.
“Yes, Mister Shuster,” said Axel.
“I’d like to debrief you,” I said. “What did you learn this evening?”
“We expanded the parameters of our ignorance,” said Sussudio.
“This worship and concept of religion includes unquantifiable concepts,” said Axel.
“Very well, we humans call belief in things that cannot be as yet materially proven ‘faith.’ You heard that a number of times tonight, didn’t you?”
“What is the difference between faith and ignorance?” asked Axel.
Okay, I need to screw my brain in tighter, I remember thinking. I don’t want to mess them up with a stupid answer.
“Time,” I said, after a pause. “When you were initiated as units, you had all the programming you required, but you had to acquire data to fulfill that programming.”
“You mean that, given enough time and input, our faith will be replaced by experience?” asked Axel.
“It seems to work for humans,” I said. “To the extent your programming emulates human functioning, there is no reason not to suppose you will eventually reach that objective.”
“Has your faith been fulfilled?” asked Sussudio.
“Not wholly,” I said. “Please appreciate, I am a young human. Any other questions?”
“What is the soul?” asked Axel.
Simple question. Stopped me in my tracks.
They both stared at me, waiting for an answer. It was unnerving.
“Blink, will you, while I think a moment?" They blinked simultaneously.
Okay, I thought. Forget a theological answer, they won’t get it. I need a practical analogy.
“A soul is like an operating system. Everything else runs on it. It was given to you when you were created,” I said. “You are not aware of it because it runs in the background.”
“Our operating systems were created by humans,” said Sussudio. “Who created yours?”
“God,” I said.
“But we know humans? Do you know God?” asked Axel.
“By evidence, yes. Not directly.”
“That seems like an insufficient answer,” said Axel.
“Not really. God created the universe. We are just one part of it,” I said. “We know Him by His signs and evidence. For example, if you booted up in the middle of the desert with no one else around, the humans having left you behind, you would still know someone had made you and put you there.
“In this case, your creators are right here, so you know exactly who made you,” I continued. “We interact with each other every day. We humans are not so fortunate, and so our God is more of a mystery for us than your creators are for you.”
“But it wasn’t always that way,” said Sussudio. “Doesn’t your holy book say, “‘And they heard the sound of Jehovah God walking up and down in the garden at the breeze of the day’?”
“You’ve read, or uploaded the Bible, and yes, there is a dim recol
lection that men and God did live together at one time,” I said.
Something actually seemed to blaze in Axel’s eyes. “Is this then the Garden of Eden for us?”
I was stunned. He was drawing conclusions and making leaps of logic which seemed perfectly valid. I gave the best answer I could.
“That may be true. Like any hypothesis, it needs to be tested before it can be confirmed. Don’t ask me how. It will probably take a great deal of time.”
They both sat there, impassive but obviously thinking. Axel spoke up.
“What is the afterlife?”
Again, I dug deep into my storehouse of pseudo-philosophy.
“The existence of the soul after its host is no longer functional. For organisms such as humans, that is called death.”
“But how can an operating system exist after its host is non-functional?” asked Axel.
“How is an operating system encoded?”
“Magnetically,” said Axel.
“And magnetism is a form of electro-magnetic energy, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said.
“And we know electro-magnetic energy is a wave, and a wave needs no medium to propagate.”
They both sat there listening intently.
“Humans believe their souls continue to exist after death, and that is the afterlife. Because our senses are not sensitive to electro-magnetism, the living cannot observe those emanations. The nature of that existence is only conjectured by our study of religion, what we call theology. Different schools of thought envision different analogues.
“There are some people who seem to have a small amount of sensitivity to these emanations,” I continued. “We call them ‘mediums’ because the emanations can propagate through them. Sometimes they help us bridge the gulf of communications. Sometimes there seems to be emanations that are able to bridge that gulf themselves, albeit in a very imperfect way. We call them ghosts.”
Sussudio looked me in the eye. “Do we have souls?”
I went with my gut response. “Yes, I believe you do. The fact you ask the questions means you have some self-awareness.”
I stood up. “I hope I have answered some of your questions,” I said.
“You were the one who stopped us,” said Axel. “I hope we answered yours.”
“Yes, you’re now free to go about your activities.”
Another Girl, Another Planet Page 24