Orme cleared his throat again and said, 'Pardon me, Rabbi, but wouldn't this be unethical?'
Jesus chewed on a piece of bread and honey for a moment.
'Yes, in one sense. But this being saw a way to make the people of Earth healthy and happy. So, the higher ethics, the higher law, won.'
'I've heard that before,' Orme murmured.
'Ah, you mean evil people talk about the higher law to justify their evil actions? That is true, but there is no doubt about the validity of this particular reasoning. Nor would the thing, as Jesus, have used force and violence to bring about this Land of Beulah on Earth. These would, unfortunately, result in war. But then, as I once said, "I bring a sword, not peace." The peace comes later.'
'And then?' Orme said. 'I mean, what happened then on the ship?'
'You have seen what happened. The Sons of Darkness trailed the Krsh vessel, and the Krsh had to dig into Mars. The rest you know.'
'Not entirely, Rabbi,' Orme said. There is much that I've not been told. Perhaps much that has been deliberately concealed. Anyway, why have you waited so long for the... uh, millennium? To return to Earth? Surely, after a hundred years or maybe even before, the Krsh could have gone back to Earth?'
'Yes. But they did not number many. And the humans had to integrate with the Krsh, and the faith had to be well established. Besides, a quick return would have found the Earth people in the same situation as when the Krsh left them. But the Krsh said that in time the Terrestrials would advance in science and perhaps in humane institutions. They would be at a stage where the Martian science and technology and institutions could be both readily understood and assimilated.
'Then, too, they did what this being who called himself Jesus told them to do. He said that when the time to return came, they would know it. That time, as foretold by Matthias, would be when the Earthmen came to Mars.
'It is possible that the being named Jesus hinted to Matthias what he should predict.'
There was silence for a while. Jesus finished his breakfast, and then he said, 'Let us give thanksgiving to our Creator for this food.'
Orme scarcely listened to the Hebrew prayer. Was this man putting him on? Was he just having fun? Or...?
Jesus rose and said, 'We can talk a little more. Then I must ask you to leave since I have business to attend to.'
They went into the front room. Jesus sat down in a large overstuffed chair. Orme took a seat on a sofa.
Jesus church-steepled his fingers, and said, 'There are other speculations, too. Suppose, for instance, that it was not an energy-being that possessed a Krsh when they were on the planet of the blue star. Suppose that, when they were on the planet of the hominids, some other creature possessed a Krsh. This would not be an energy being but some strange form of parasitical life, a loathsome slug. This creature has the ability to infiltrate the body of another being, to reside within its tissues much like a worm. But it can take over the brain of a sentient being and become, in a sense, sentient itself. And this creature has then followed much the same route that I outlined for the energy being, though perhaps with evil intent.'
'But that theory wouldn't account for its powers.'
'I suggest that this sluglike thing also had the ability to tap the potentialities of a human being, potentialities that human beings don't themselves realise they have. Not as yet, anyway. I keep telling them, and they refuse to believe.’
'Which of these stories is true, Rabbi?'
Jesus, his dark eyes seeming to blaze as if they were glass windows of a hot furnace, spoke loudly.
'You have heard the truth, and you have seen it! I tell you, son of man, that this son of man has revealed everything needful to you! You do not have much time to decide the path to salvation!'
Orme quailed before the fire and the thunder.
Jesus rose, and the stern forceful expression was replaced by the smile.
'You may go now. Peace and the blessing of the Merciful One shower upon your head.'
He held out his hand. Orme rose, went to him, and kissed the hand. He could feel the power flowing into him.
19
'What I'm doing,' Bronski said, 'is writing an unauthorised biography of Jesus.'
He looked across the piles of papers and recording machines on his desk at his captain. Orme was pacing back and forth across the room.
'Actually, it'll be a short book, since it's more an outline than a massive detailed life. But I want to have it ready by the time we return to Earth. Possibly I can get it done early enough to have it transmitted before the takeoff.'
The day before, the Marsnauts had been informed that they would be passengers on the Martian ship. It had come as no great surprise; they'd expected to be used as eyewitnesses and to validate that they had not been lying because of pressure by their hosts.
Orme had told the others of his conversation with Jesus at breakfast. Madeleine Danton had immediately seized upon the story of the energy-being as the true one.
'He's playing with us,' she'd said. 'He's telling us the truth, knowing that we won't believe it.'
'But you do,' Nadir had said. 'Personally, I think you're very confused and upset. Otherwise, you'd never give any credence to such a fantastic tale. It's pure science-fiction.'
'I'd rather believe that than that he is indeed Jesus Christ!' she'd cried.
'Why not?' Bronski said. And during the heated discussion that followed, in which they kept interrupting each other with increasingly higher-pitched voices, Bronski had stopped them cold. He'd told them that he intended to convert. The arrangements had been made with the neighbourhood rabbi. An hour later, the rabbi called back. Excitedly, the rabbi told Bronski that he had wonderful news.
The Messiah himself would conduct the ceremony.
'That's real class,' Orme had said. 'I'm jealous.'
The jest concealed a genuine seriousness. He was jealous, and he hated himself for being so. Last night, he'd prayed in the living room while Bronski slept.
'Lord, show me the truth. Tell me whether or not this man is indeed Jesus Christ, Your son, or the anti-Christ. Or... could he be that energy-being? Give me light. Don't allow me to make the most grievous error in the world. I'm one of Your children, and surely it would not be too much to show me the true path. I beseech You, Father. Please. Amen.'
He had not really expected that a great light would flood the room or a thunderous voice speak. Nevertheless, he was disappointed when nothing occurred. Not even his weak inner voice spoke or his own feeble light glowed. He stood up, tensed, whirled, and then let out a long sigh. For a few seconds he'd had the feeling that someone was standing behind him. It was the same sensation as when he'd awakened in the night knowing that someone had been standing by his bed.
Who was it? What was it? The result of overwrought nerves? The dim consciousness of God Himself? Or had the real Jesus allowed his presence to be felt so that he, Orme, would realise that he was not alone? But which Jesus had it been? The one he'd been taught about when he was a child, or this Jesus, the living man, the Messiah of the Jews, and eventually of all peoples? Or was there any difference between them? Were the Christians really in error? Or was this Jesus really the energy-being?
If Orme had not thought that it would be sacrilegious, he would have cursed Jesus for having told him that story. It had given him grave doubts, though that had not been Jesus's intention. Or had it? Perhaps he was testing Orme's sincerity.