On a well-settled Mars, the five
major city Council regimes struggle to meld into a stable, working government.
Embracing an official Unified Faith In Humanity, the Councils are teetering on
the verge of pogrom directed against Christians, Molesters, Jews, Rapists,
Buddhists, Murderers, Muslims, Thieves, Hindu, Embezzlers and Artificial Humans
– anyone who threatens the official Faith and the consolidating power of the
Councils. It makes good sense, right – get rid of religion and Human
divisiveness on a societal level will disappear? An instrument of such a pogrom
might just be a Roman holiday...To see the rest of the chapters, go to SCIENCE
FICTION: Martian Holiday on the right and scroll to the bottom for
the first story.
The Dalai Lama held out the crystal and said, “This is a Bible I
brought from Earth. It contains the complete Book of Daniel – as well as the
rest of the complete Bible.”
MishAH scowled. She’d remained silent as usual. Agricultural
secretaries didn’t have much intrigue to deal with on an average day in a Dome.
She said, “We don’t have complete Bible’s here?”
He shook his head. “No one on Mars has ANY complete holy book. The
Koran here has been tampered with as have the Analects, the Aqdas, the Kojiki, the Tao Te Ching,
the Torah, the Tripiṭaka, and the Vedas. Others less well known but just as
important to their adherents have also been tampered with.” He held up the
crystal, “I’ve come to Mars with a holy library. I’ve come to bring you your
words.”
DaneelAH
held out his hand. The Dalai Lama curled his finger around the Bible crystal,
plucked the complete holy library from his other hand and reached to drop it in
DaneelAH’s hand. He pulled his
hand back. “I don’t think I should carry the entire library.”
hand back. “I don’t think I should carry the entire library.”
“Why
not?”
“To be
perfectly honest with you, I wouldn’t need it particularly, as I am
a…a…Christian.”
The Dalai
Lama’s eyebrows rose. He said, “I didn’t know the Christian faith had reached
the point of accepting artificial Humans into fellowship.”
DaneelAH
frowned, stepping back, and said, “Why would you say something like that? Why wouldn’t
you simply hand over the copy and let me discover my faith on my own?”
The Dalai
Lama face went still and he didn’t move for some moments. Finally he pressed
his hands together at his chest, bowed and said, “You shame me, young Human.”
“I’m
neither young nor Human, Dalai Lama.”
He smiled
faintly then said, “You may not be young, but you are Human as far as I am
concerned – it is I who is inhuman. I allowed my prejudice to assume that as an
Artificial Human you have no soul. Please accept my deepest apologies.”
DaneelAH’s
mouth opened, but no words came out. He looked back at his vatmates, AzAH,
MishAH, and HanAH – but they watched the lama intently. He said, “I accept your
apology, sir – but I don’t know how this will change anything.”
“It won’t
change anything at this moment, but who knows what will happen in the future?”
He went back to the suspension vault where the other crystals lay. He reached
to the very back of the vault and pulled a black crystal from it. He held it
out, “This is a very old book, my friends.”
“It’s
another holy book?”
“I don’t
think so. It’s old, though younger than the Torah, it’s older than the Daodejing.
But not a holy book. Typically it’s been ascribed to an individual whose
scientific credentials are suspect.”
“This is a book of pseudoscience?”
“It wasn’t
until we began to colonize Mars that a book that appeared to be pseudoscience
began to become a science.”
“What
book is that?”
“Verumi
Mawort.”
“‘True
Mars’?”
“In the
book, there are copies of rubbings made of incomprehensible etchings. They aren’t
related to
any language known on Earth.”
any language known on Earth.”
“What do
you mean?”
“While
Earth was the only world we knew, we are here now,” the Dalai Lama said. “There
are markings on surfaces of this planet that may be similar to these. But no
one has investigated this possibility yet.”
“Why?”
asked AzAH. As a biological translator, the challenge of language was the only
thing that made her heart race. It was as irresistible as food to a starving
man.
“Because
the Five Councils have forbidden it.”
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