To Your Scattered Bodies Go

"During the four hundred and seventy-six days that I have lived on this River, I have learned much. I am not incapable of changing my mind. I listened to Roach and Frigate. I argued frequently and passionately with them. And though I did not want to admit it at the time, I thought much about what they said."

"Jew-hate is something bred into the child," Targoff said. "It becomes part of the nerve. No act of will can get rid of it, unless it is not very deeply embedded or the will is extraordinarily strong. The bell rings, and Pavlov’s dog salivates. Mention the word Jew, and the nervous system storms the citadel of the mind of the Gentile Just as the word Arab storms mine. But I have a realistic basis for hating all Arabs."

"I have pled enough," Burton said. "You will either accept me or reject me. In either case, you know what I will do."

"I accept," Targoff said. "If you can change your mind, I can change mine. I’ve worked with you, eaten bread with you. I like to think I’m a good judge of character. Tell me, if you were pla

16

The next day, shortly after breakfast, several guards came for Burton and Frigate. Targoff looked hard at Burton, who knew what Targoff was thinking. Nothing could be done except to march off to Göring’s "palace." He was seated in a big wooden chair and smoking a pipe. He asked them to sit down and offered them cigars and wine.

"Every once in a while," he said, "I like to relax and talk with somebody besides my colleagues, who are not overly bright. I like especially to talk with somebody who lived after I died. And to men who were famous in their time. I’ve few of either type, so far."

"Many of your Israeli prisoners lived after you," Frigate said.

"Ah, the Jews!" Göring airily waved his pipe. "That is the trouble. They know me too well. They are sullen when I try to talk to them, and too many have tried to kill me for me to feel comfortable around them. Not that I have anything against them. I don’t particularly like Jews, but I had many Jewish friends. . " Burton reddened.

Göring, after sucking on his pipe, continued, Der Fuehrer was a great man, but he had some idiocies. One of them was his attitude toward Jews. Myself, I cared less. But the Germany of my time was anti-Jewish, and a man must go with the Zeitgeist if he wants to get any place in life. Enough of that. Even here, a man ca

"If you Americans had had any political sense, you would have declared war on Russia as soon as we surrendered. We would have fought with you against the Bolshevik, and we would have crushed them." Frigate did not reply. Göring then told several "fu

Burton was surprised. Had Göring learned about this from Kazz or was there an informer among the slaves? He told in full detail everything that had happened between the time he opened his eyes to find himself in the place of floating bodies to the instant when the man in the aerial canoe pointed the metal tube at him.

"The extra-Terrestrial, Monat, has a theory that some beings, — call them Whoever or X — have been observing mankind since he ceased to be an ape. For at least two million years. These super-beings have, in some ma

"Monat, however, inclines to the former theory. He does not believe in time travel even in a limited sense.

"Monat believes that the X’s stored these recordings. How, he does not know. But this planet was then reshaped for us. It is obviously one great Riverworld. During our journey up River, we’ve talked to dozens whose descriptions leave no doubt that they come from widely scattered parts, from all over. One was from far up in the northern hemisphere; another, far down in the southern. All the descriptions fall together to make a picture of a world that has been reworked into one zigzagging Rivervalley.

"The people we talked to were killed or died by accident here and were resurrected again in the areas we happened to be traveling through. Monat says that we resurrectees are still being recorded. And when one of us dies again, the up-to-the-minute recordings are being placed somewhere — maybe under, the surface of this planet — and played into energy-matter converters. The bodies were reproduced as they were at the moment of death and then the rejuvenating devices restored the sleeping bodies. Probably in that same chamber in which I awoke. After this, the bodies, young and whole again, were recorded and then destroyed. And the recordings were played out again, this time through devices under the ground. Once more, energy-matter converters, probably using the heat of this planet’s molten core as energy, reproduced us above the ground, near the grailstones. I do not know why they are not resurrected a second time in — the same spot where they died. But then I don’t know why all our hairs were shaven off or why men’s facial hairs don’t grow or why men were circumcised and women made virgins again. Or why we were resurrected. For what purpose? Whoever put us here has not shown up to tell us why."

"The thing is," Frigate said, "the thing is, we are not the same people we were on Earth. I died. Burton died. You died, Herma

Göring sucked on his pipe noisily, stared at Frigate, and then said, "Why not? I am living again. Do you deny that?"

"Yes! I do deny that — in a sense. You are living. But you are not the Herma

Göring tamped his pipe with tobacco and said; mildly, "You certainly know much about me. I should be flattered, I suppose. At least, I was not forgotten."

"Generally, you were," Frigate said. "You did have a long-lived reputation as a sinister clown, a failure, and a toady." Burton was surprised. He had not known that the fellow would stand up to someone who had power of life and death over him or who had treated him so painfully. But then perhaps Frigate hoped to be killed.

It was probable that he was banking on Göring’s curiosity.

Göring said, "Explain your statement. Not about my reputation. Every man of importance expects to be reviled and misunderstood by the brainless masses. Explain why I am not the same man."

Frigate smiled slightly and said, "You are the product, the hybrid, of a recording and an energy-matter converter. You were made with all the memories of the dead man Herma