The Jesus Incident

It was an explosive revelation for Panille - Thomas, a piece of history resurrected! Ship's hand in this was almost visible - past, present, future woven into a lovely pattern. This thing wanted only a poem to bring it into existence. Panille smiled at his own enlightenment, and spoke in a burst of energy: "Then you must know why you made Ship."

Thomas heard it as a question.

"We had a Voidship, the Earthling, and we were commanded to turn it into a conscious being. We did it because it was succeed or die. At the moment of consciousness, Ship delivered us from one danger into another, demanding that we learn how to WorShip. It's what we were supposed to do with our new lives, us and all of our descendants after us."

Panille did not answer, but continued to stare at the arriving swarms of hylighters each with its cargo of people or equipment. The soft flutings of the hylighters and the terrified babble of the people being lowered to the ground began to fill the open area all around.

"So you talk to Ship as I do," Panille mused. "Yet you do not hear your own words. Now, I see why Ship needed a poet here."

"What we really need is an experienced military leader," Thomas said. "Lacking that, I guess I'll have to serve." He turned and strode toward the nearest batch of terrified survivors.

"Where are you going?" Panille asked.

"Recruiting."

***

Through the process of nostalgic filtering, Earth assumed for the Shipmen fairyland characteristics. The different strains of people, telling their different historical memories, could only make such stories mix in a paradise setting. No Shipman ever experienced every Earthly place and clime and society. Thus, over the many generations, the reinforcement of positive memories left only the faith in how things were.

LEGATA SAT at a comdesk in the working space assigned to her at the Redoubt. It was a small room and showed signs of hasty construction. Directly in front of her across the desk was an oval hatch leading into her own private cubby, a space she seldom occupied now. But Oakes was busy somewhere and she had seized this opportunity.

She punched for shiprecords, keyed for her own private code, and waited. Did they still have contact with Ship?

The instrument buzzed. Glyphs danced across the screen in the desk. She punched for the Ox gate, set up a random-barrier lock and began transferring the data on Oakes into the Redoubt's own storage system.

There you are, Morgan Lon Oakes!

And the printout remained secreted in Oakes' old cubby shipside should she ever need it. It was remotely possible that Oakes might stumble on this record here, might erase it and even trace back to the original to erase that. But the printout would remain, stamped with Ship's imprimatur.

When she had reviewed the data to reassure herself, and once more checked the random-barrier, she keyed the lock, then turned to the question of Lewis. It was not enough to have power over Oakes. Lewis held to his own power base like a man aware of every threat. She did not like the way he stared at her, secretive and measuring.

The Ox gate gave her its open-files response and she asked for anything available about Jesus Lewis.

Immediately the activity light at the command console winked out. She jiggled the switch. Nothing. She tried the override sequence, Oakes' private code, the vocoder. Nothing.

When I asked for material on Lewis.

It had to be a coincidence. She went through the entire contact routine once more. Ship's records could not be brought into this console. She stood up, went out and into the passage, through the tension and bustle of E-clone Processing, and borrowed one of their consoles. Same result.

We're cut off.

She thanked the pale, thin-fingered E-clone who had stepped aside at her request and returned to her own cubby. She knew that the right thing to do would be to tell Oakes. With Colony gone and no communication to Ship, they were isolated, alone in the wilderness that pressed inward all around the Redoubt.

Yes - Oakes would have to be told. She sat down at her desk, called on Voice-Only when nothing else responded, and when he snapped that he was busy, insisted that her information transcended any other business.

Oakes heard her out in silence, then: "We're trapped."

"How can we be trapped?" she asked. "There's no one to trap us."

"They've set us up," he insisted. "Wait there for me."

The 'coder blapped at his sudden disco

In less than a minute, Oakes stepped through the hatch, his white singlesuit drenched in sweat. He was speaking as he entered, crackling tension in his voice.

"That TaoLini woman, Panille and Thomas - they're out to destroy us!"

He stopped just inside the room, glared down at her across the comdesk.

"That's impossible! I saw the hylighter carry Thomas off. And Panill...."

"They're alive, I tell you! Alive and plotting against us."

"Ho.... ?"

"More clones have revolted! And we've had a strange message from Ferry, threatening. They're somewhere nearby, some valley, Lewis thinks. People and equipment. They're going to attack."

"How could anyon.... ?"

"Probe flights, Lewis is sending out probes. And there is something out there. They're able to drive our search instruments crazy - some kind of interference that Lewis can't explain - but we're still getting indications of a lot of life and metal."

"Where?"

"South." He gestured vaguely. "What were you doing when the ship broke contact?"

"Nothing," she lied. "The circuitry just went dead."

"We need that contact, the people still up there, the material and food. Get them back."

"I've tried. Here, see for yourself." She slid out of the seat and gestured for him to take it.

"N.... no." He seemed actually afraid to sit at her comdesk. ".... trust your efforts. I jus...."

She slipped back into her seat. "You just what?"

"Nothing. See if you can contact Lewis. Tell him to meet me at the Command Center."

Oakes turned on his heel. The hatch hissed closed behind him.

She keyed a search for Lewis and fed the message into it, then tried once more to contact Ship. No response. She sat back and stared at the comdesk. A feeling of regret swept over her, pre-remorse, a sense of sorrow over the Morgan Oakes who might have been. He was nearing the very kind of desperation she wanted.

Let someone attack the Redoubt. Whatever happened, she would be ready with the material she had stored here.

At the worst possible moment, Morgan Lon Oakes! You may be able to appreciate my timing, although you never have before.

Would it happen in front of Thomas? Was it possible that Thomas had survived and would lead an attack? She thought it distinctly possible. Thomas - another Ceepee. The unfailing Thomas who had seen her run the P, who had helped her in that desperate hour, then said nothing of it to anyone.

Discreet. Kind and discreet. Almost a lost breed.

Doubts began to fill her mind then. Perhaps the survival of humans groundside really did depend on Oakes and Lewis. But Colony was gone and the Redoubt was clearly under siege from the planet, if not from some nebulous force headed by Thomas. She thought of the Scream Room then. Where did the Scream Room figure in any scheme of survival? The Scream Room was unjustifiable by any standards. It betrayed negative, anti-survival impulses. Everything about it, that proceeded from it, brought death or hunger or a terrifying subservience. No - not survival.