Hunt glanced at Gina and shook his head, frowning. “You mean you just strung them together inside his head, serially? He remembers both sets of experiences equally vividly?” he said to VISAR.
“Yes.”
“But they were both happening at the same time,” Gina said.
“So what?”
Hunt and Gina looked at each other. VISAR was right. Evidently it was another Terran hang-up that Thuriens could live with and not worry about. It really didn’t matter, did it? They had already gotten used to some far stranger things.
“So what?” Hunt repeated.
Gina nodded and smiled at the impossibility of ever coming fully to terms with it all. “So what?”
They continued on into the corridor where the couplers were located.
In the forecourt of the Temple of Vandros, Hunt and his remaining companions prepared to depart in style, as emissaries from the gods would be expected to do. At the door of the Chinook, he paused to exchange a few parting words with Shingen-Hu.
“No more raisings until we’ve figured out on the outside how to handle it,” Hunt said. “We’ll be in touch, that’s a promise. In the meantime, make them believe that we haven’t abandoned them, and keep the faith.”
“It shall be as the new gods command,” Shingen-Hu assured him.
“And we don’t want sacrifices, killings, atonements, cleansings, or any more of that kind of thing. Try being nice to people for a change. Help them get what they want. You’d be amazed at the results.”
“The commandments will be obeyed.”
Remembering what had happened to the Jevlenese, Hunt waved at the machine, waiting with the others already aboard, its rotors idling. “This and the other miracles will cease. They don’t belong here. The people will have to learn to develop their own ways of solving their problems and catering to their needs, in ways that are natural to this place. In that way, they will develop also.”
“We shall await the Word.”
“And that’s about it.” Hunt extended a hand. Shingen-Hu looked at it, hesitated, and then returned the gesture. They shook firmly. Then Hunt climbed up and turned from the door for a last view. As the note of the turbines rose, Eubeleus ran forward from the knot of priests and notables standing ahead of the awestruck crowd.
“What’s this?” he screeched. “You’re not leaving me here? You can’t!”
“There isn’t a lot of choice,” Hunt called back. “You don’t seem to have grasped the point yet, Eubeleus, old chap. We have intact minds out there to return into. You don’t.”
And of course, Eubeleus hadn’t. He still thought that this was a software illusion manufatured by JEVEX, and had no idea how he had come to be part of it.
“Don’t worry too much about it for now,” Hunt shouted as the Chinook began to rise. “You should have plenty of time to figure it out.”
And as the crowd watched in silent reverence, the machine climbed away to hang over the city, its rotors flashing in the sunshine as a testament to the new, unimagined powers that had visited Waroth. The form froze into a white outline that persisted for a second longer… And then it was gone.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
The Shapieron was back on its pad at Geerbaine. The edges of the hole that it had torn through the city roof had been trimmed back to remove the immediate hazard from the looser debris, but no real work had commenced on repairing the damage yet. No doubt the Jevlenese would get around to it eventually.
There were no crowds or any public ceremony. Garuth and a small party from PAC drove out from the city-the tubes weren’t running that day-to see off the group who were returning to Earth and to make their farewells, most of which were personal rather than functions of any office. Not many of the Jevlenese at large were aware that the scientists who were leaving had had much connection with recent events, anyway. All they knew was that the ballyhoo about JEVEX returning two weeks previously had fizzled out, and after all the hype about Eubeleus’s migration to Uttan, not a lot seemed to be happening there. (Actually, a lot of Thurien vessels had been arriving at Uttan, but that wasn’t general knowledge yet.) Besides that, the hotheads who had seized PAC with the collusion of some elements of the Shiban police had changed their tune suddenly and surrendered; the Ganymeans were back again-but this time they were more committed to setting up a native Jevlenese administration instead of trying to run things directly themselves; and nobody could get a headworld trip for any price anymore.
Leyel Torres and a deputation of crew officers from the Shapieron were waiting at the spaceport to add their own farewells. The groups met in the main departure lounge, watched curiously by onlookers going about regular business and others assembling to travel back on the same ship-which again would be the Vishnu. The Thuriens were still being as casual as ever about taking anyone who wanted to go, and-especially after the latest complications-steering clear of any involvement in human politics. If any Terran or Jevlenese faction, sect, authority, government, party, union, church-or whatever other form of organization humans insisted on banding themselves together into to interfere with each others’ lives-had a problem with it, they could settle it among themselves by their own incomprehensible methods.
“It should work out a lot better this time round,” Hunt said to Garuth. “Although after the way you spent twenty years getting your ship back before you showed up at Jupiter, I don’t have to tell you anything about perseverance.”
“Now that we know where the problem was coming from, I think it will change a lot of things,” Garuth replied. “The new system will give the whole population a common goal and a symbol to unite them.” His face twisted into the peculiar Ganymean form of a grin, and he looked at Danchekker. “But no pyramids or temples, crescents or spirals, eh, Professor?”
“I think the human race has had more than its fill of that kind of thing,” Danchekker agreed.
Garuth was referring to the new planetary computer system that would be built from scratch, on Jevlen, where JEVEX was supposed to have been, by the Jevlenese themselves. In the meantime, they would have to learn to meet their own needs through their own initiative, as the more enterprising among them had already shown an amazing propensity for doing. As they grew, the system would grow with them. It wouldn’t come as a ready-made gift this time. The Thuriens themselves had insisted on its being that way.
“It should keep you two busy enough for a while,” Hunt said, turning to Shilohin and Keshen, both of whom would be involved with the project. “But don’t try and plan everything too far ahead. That’s how things end up inflexible-the one thing that’s sure to happen is the one you never thought of.”
“Nobody planned the Entoverse, or this one,” Shilohin said.
“We’ll let it plan itself as it goes,” Keshen agreed. He grinned. “And I know not to take on any sidelines this time.”
“Watch where you’re flying that ship, the next time you take it up,” Hunt told Torres and Jassilane. “Tell that computer of yours to try not to bump into any cities. It does tend to upset the inhabitants, and the police take a dim view of it.”
“I don’t exactly remember that they were about to give you the citizen-of-the-year award at the time,” ZORAC chipped in, reverting momentarily from translation mode to its own voice.
Del Cullen shook hands with Hunt warmly and gave him a hearty thump on the shoulder A contingent of Terran police and security advisers had arrived from Earth with the Vishnu to help Garuth s Jevlenese administration establish some machinery for protecting the basic rights that governments were supposed to be for. Cullen would be working with them initially to adjust their thinking to the needs of the local society, instead of the other way around.