Jesus On Mars

'Here. This is much better for you than the wine you drank so immoderately today.’

Orme drank, and said, 'Thanks. Okay, so I got loaded. The pressure has been heavy. And getting free for just a little while made me want to celebrate.'

'You were never free in that you were away from observation, or had any chance to escape. Just as you've never been free in any sense. The only genuinely free man is one who has rid himself of evil. The half-free man is one who is battling to do that.'

'Spare me the platitudes.'

'Perhaps you are right. It is example, not words, that work best. By the fruit of the tree shall you judge it. Let's go back now. I'll drive.'

Orme followed him, wondering how the Krsh had got here. There were no other cars in view. Either he'd been driven here or there was an underground system for travel besides that for shipping.

As the car started down the road, he said, 'I suppose you saw everything?'

'No,' Hfathon said, looking sideways at him and smiling. 'We didn't see you while you were in that house. Nor did we observe you while you were parked under the tree with the woman, Gulthilo bat-Yishaq. By the way, what were you two doing?'

'That's our business,’ Orme said.

'No doubt, if both of you have the consciences to handle it.'

'We didn't do anything wrong,' Orme said angrily.

'Perhaps not from your viewpoint. But this is a trivial matter - so far. Let's drop it. Now, Richard, I know that you and your companions have been disturbed because we wouldn't let you communicate with Earth.'

'Disturbed? Outraged!'

'Understandably so. But, you see, we didn't want you to send any report until you could make a complete one. You have to comprehend us thoroughly, know us to the bone, before you can describe us. That takes time. If you were to tell about us now, you'd only give half-truths, incorrect impressions. We want Earth to understand exactly who and what we are.

'In fact, at this stage, any messages you sent would probably be disbelieved. But twelve days from now, when you report, you can verify that all is true. Not just by your words alone, however.’

Orme said, slowly, 'All of what is true?’

'What you'll see in seven days. You'll have no doubts about it. And, I hope, neither will your people on Earth. Still, they might need more... Well, let's not think about that.'

Hfathon's expression bordered on the ecstatic. After a while he began humming a song which Orme had heard before in the streets and, once, from Philemon.

'I'm glad you're happy,' Orme said. 'I'm just bewildered and mystified.'

'That will change,' Hfathon said, and he laughed.

'For the better, I hope,' Orme said sullenly.

'Your life depends on that.'

Orme didn't ask him what he meant. He was tired of all this dodging of questions which his captors seemed to enjoy so.

Shortly before entering the central section, Hfathon's wrist chronometer buzzed. He spoke into it, then held it to his ear. He frowned, said a few low words and turned to Orme.

'Cancer of the liver has just been detected in Madeleine Danton.'

Orme felt shock, and for a moment he could say nothing.

'The examinations that began two days ago have just revealed it,' the Krsh said.

'But she was given a clean bill of health before we took off! And believe me, we all got a very complete going over.'

Hfathon shrugged. 'It may have been too small for your instruments to detect. Or it may have started afterwards. In any event, she is at the chief hospital now. She was rushed there the moment the physicians found the cancer.'

'Poor Madeleine,' Orme said. Then, 'Who would have thought that cancer would be something we'd encounter on Mars?'

'It's nothing to worry about,' the Krsh said. 'No one ever dies from it now.'

At Orme's insistence, Hfathon drove to the hospital, a small one-storey building near the main administration building. However, its smallness was only a surface appearance. It had ten storeys below the ground; Danton was on the sixth. Orme noted, as he passed the windows, that the personnel and patients would have no sense of being buried. On each window was a scene of rural beauty; trees, birds, deer grazing in the meadows, children playing in the distance. The pseudo-scenes looked real.

He found Shirazi and Bronski in a waiting room. They rose as he entered, but they did not have long faces. Indeed, Shirazi was smiling.

'I just heard,' Orme said. 'How's Madeleine?'

'Madeleine's fine,' Nadir said. 'She'll be leaving in a few minutes. The treatment is short but tiring, so she's resting.'

'You mean it's all over? Diagnosis and cure, all done? How?'

Nadir said, 'I find it hard to believe, too. But the doctors have assured me that she is completely well. Moreover, the cancer won't recur.'

Bronski said, 'I was told about her at the university. They thought I should know, but they might just as well have waited until it was over.'

'You're not disturbed because you were interrupted, are you?' Orme said.

'Of course not. What bothers me is that they probably called all of us in to impress us. They wanted to show us how superior their medical science is. And to give us one more item to report to Earth.'

'Wait a minute,' Orme said. 'You've been told, too? I mean that we'll be allowed to communicate with home in twelve days?'

'Yes. Trrwangon - she's my mentor - told me just before I got word about Madeleine.'

Hfathon said, 'The Council decided that it might ease your anxiety if you knew you had only a short wait. Also, you may start preparing your report now. The first part, that is. The second part will be prepared after the eighth day from now. Both parts will be transmitted together.'

'That's great,' Orme said. 'At least, I think it is. Frankly, I think you're up to something we might not like.'

Hfathon smiled.

Nadir Shirazi said, 'It does seem inhumane, if you'll pardon me for saying so, that these wonderful cures should be withheld from Earth. If they were to be transmitted at once, it could mean saving the lives of millions. And it would alleviate much suffering, too.'

'I doubt it,' Hfathon said. 'From what you've told us, even if we gave your scientists that data at this moment, it would be several years before your governments would allow our drugs to be used. First, the data would have to be studied. Then experimental tests on animals would be made. Then the legislators would have to decide whether or not the drugs could be given. Of course, they would eventually do so because of popular demand. But the total process would require anywhere from four to six years. Am I correct?'

'I am afraid so,' Orme said.

'Yet, when, or perhaps I should say if, the formulae and the two thousand years of data were given, and the data proved conclusively that the cure rate was 100 per cent, your governments would still require an independent study of their own, right?'

'Right.'

'So what's the rush?'

'We were just thinking about all the people who could be saved,' Shirazi said.

'Not to mention,' Orme said, 'the longevity treatment. The longer the delay in getting it to Earth, the more people will die of the diseases of old age.'

'True. But that can't be helped. If we do give you the age-delaying formulae, we'll do so only under certain strict conditions. The socialist countries will have to treat everybody, no exceptions, at government expense. There will be no such thing as selling it for a profit and so making it available only if the purchaser has the money. The communist countries will have to do the same. They won't be allowed to withhold the treatment from political prisoners.

'Moreover, to ensure that this is done, we will set up administrative units in every country. They'll be organised in such a manner that the governments will not be able to interfere in any way.'