Rumors had it that when a curly haired young woman and her stiff, straight dark-haired husband were brought out of cold sleep by Dr. Winifred Harvey, they were met by a young man who resembled the older man very strongly, and by a young couple with a small child, the girl very like the woman, the man blond And good-looking. And they had a child.
Alien and human? They can’t breed. Everyone knows that. So did that mean that Johnny was actually the alien that he claimed to be? What then of the recognition of him that caused Dee Dee to faint? Do our memories trick us like that? During the melee on Mount Laurel Johnny got out of the hospital wing where he had been kept, and he melted into the crowd so efficiently that he never left it again. Now and again his claims of alien superiority forced him to move, but he was tolerated; he didn’t cause anyone any trouble, and there was room for his kind too.
This is the good ending.
The other one goes something like this:
When Obie prayed at the altar the cameras turned again to the coffin where Blake was lying. Slowly he rose and he was a towering figure. He spoke: “The Church, the people, the Earth is mine, so saith the Lord. I have come this night to take unto myself that which is mine.” And protected by the magic that gave them wings, and even stronger magic that turned away bullets, the believers that night slaughtered the non-believers and made the Earth safe for the godly. They cleansed the Earth of the forces of evil, and forever after lived under God, in peace, and prepared for the coming of the strangers. And Blake reigned nine hundred years and begat four thousand sons and daughters who reigned after him. Amen.
Copyright
A LANCER BOOK • 1969
LET THE FIRE FALL
Copyright © 1969 by Kate Wilhelm
All rights reserved
Printed in the U.S.A.
This Lancer edition Is published by arrangement with Doubleday & Company. Inc. Its large sale in the high-priced hardcover edition make possible this inexpensive Lancer reprint.
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