Project Pope

'And the Listener, Mary? Is she a Christian?

'Holiness, I am sure she is. You must understand, however, that Search is not concerned with theological matters.

'That is strange, said the Pope. 'I would have thought you would be.

'Holiness, you are being deliberately difficult today, Cardinal Theodosius chimed in, 'and your attitude is not worthy of you. You underestimate our friend of the Search Program. Through the years he has performed outstanding services for us.

'Eminence, said Cardinal Roberts, speaking stiffly, 'I think you presume too far.

'I think not, Theodosius said stubbornly. 'In a deliberative council, such as this, due respect must be paid to every viewpoint raised. The issues must be solemnly and honestly discussed.

'None of you as yet, said the Pope, 'has tried to discuss the issue. The finding of Heaven, or the presumed finding of Heaven, is getting out of hand. Are any of you aware that there is a growing sentiment to canonize the Listener Mary, to make a saint of her? We have never created a saint. We have canonized no one. And if we were about to do so, certainly we would want to wait until she was decently dead.

'Your Holiness, said Roberts, 'all of us are aware of what you speak. With you, all of us realize the seriousness of it, the danger it could pose. The whole idea is impossible, of course, but at this point in the situation, we ca

'What promise, Cardinal? asked the Pope. 'Surely no robot, no matter how devout, can ever hope to be translated into Heaven. Nor, if he properly takes care of himself, would ever need to be.

'The fault, perhaps, lies in ourselves, said Theodosius. 'Many of our people in the more humble posts — the farm workers, the gardeners, the woodsmen, the laboring brothers, even many of the monks — are very simple souls. With them the basic idea of Christianity, although somewhat faded, nevertheless is a rather powerful force. They don't understand Christianity, of course, but even back on Earth, a thousand years ago, many people who prided themselves on being Christian may have understood it even less. These people of ours do not know all that we have learned; we have not tried to explain any of it to them. We know that life and intelligence can come in many forms- biological, nonbiological, and that strange matrix of intelligence we find in those worlds beyond the space-time universe. We know there is at least a second universe and perhaps a third and fourth, although we ca

'That all is true, said Roberts, 'but this matter of sharing with our brothers the knowledge that we hold or glimpse has been under continuing review, and in every instance when it has been discussed, we have decided that it would not be advisable to inform the others fully. Can you imagine the kinds of interpretations that would be put upon certain segments of the knowledge? We have created an elite within Vatican; only the elite are aware of the knowledge we have gained. That may be wrong, but I think it is justified by the inherent danger of revealing all the facts. Revealing them, we would have been rent by a thousand heresies. No work would have been done because each robot would be convinced that he alone understood correctly and would have thought it incumbent upon himself to set his erring brothers straight. There would have been bickering and squabbling and animosities that could tear us apart. It was, we agreed in every instance, better that we continue to let the others cling to their residual Christianity, sterile as it might be.

'Bickering! said the Pope in his cold, terrible voice. 'What is this you're doing if not bickering? And worst of all, you've bickered before two humans who would not have been aware of it.

'I, Your Holiness, am aware of a great part of it, said Ecuyer, 'and had my suspicions about the rest of it. As for my friend Dr. Te

'Yes, Te

'You can rest easy, Holiness, said Te

'As for the outside universe, said Roberts to the Pope, 'there need be no fear that the word will be carried by the two humans who joined us recently. Neither of them will be — leaving.

The Pope grumbled, 'I don't know. There is this Decker human. He turned up out of nowhere. Have any of you ever learned exactly how he got here?

'No, Holiness, we have not, said Theodosius.

'If one of them can get in without our knowing it, said the Pope, 'another can get out. The humans are a slippery race. We must watch them all the time.

'They are our brothers, Holiness, said Theodosius. 'They have always been, and they still are. There is an unspoken pact between robot and human. Through all the years, they have stood side by side.

'They exploited you, said the Pope.

'They gave us all we had, said Theodosius. 'Had it not been for humans, there would have been no robots. They fashioned us in their shape — no other race would have done that. No other race has. Other races have made machines, but no robots.

'And still just now, said Te

'You were fleeing for your life, said Theodosius. 'We gave you sanctuary. What more do you expect?

'But Jill?

'Jill, said Theodosius, 'is quite another matter. I am convinced she does not want to leave.

'For that matter, said Te

'Dr. Te

'Agreed, said Te

'Now, said the Pope, 'allow us to get back to a consideration of Heaven.

'It seems to me, said Ecuyer, 'that the problem is quite a simple one. Is there a Heaven or is there not? If there's not, all this discussion is entirely pointless. Why don't you go and see? Vatican has the means to go almost anywhere-

'But there are no coordinates, said Roberts. 'The Listener Mary's cube shows no coordinates. We must know where we an going before we start out.

'Mary may make another trip, said Te

Ecuyer shook his head. 'I don't think she will be going or another trip. I don't think she wants to go. I think she is afraid.

The day was misty, with lowering clouds that sliced off half the height of the mountains and lent to the land a gray-wool quality. The path that Te