Johann waited patiently for the two strange people to return. He could hear them talking on the other side of the door, but he could not understand what they were saying. Finally he decided enough was enough. “Hello again,” he said in a loud voice. “I’m still here.”
The door opened slowly and both the man and the woman stumbled into the room. “We’re sorry,” the man said shyly, chewing on his bottom lip and not looking at Johann. “We didn’t know you were coming and you kind of, well, you caught us by surprise.”
“Hell, we didn’t even know you were on Mars,” the woman said. Emboldened by Johann’s smile, she came around the corner and grabbed his arm. “He’s real all right, Darwin. This sure ain’t no damn costume.”
The man now joined them and, as an afterthought, stuck out his hand. “I’m Darwin Bishop,” he said. “And this is my wife, Clementine. You can call her Clem for short.”
“I’m pleased to meet you. Darwin,” Johann said. “My name is Johann Eberhardt… You and your wife seem to have mistaken me—”
“So that’s your name,” Darwin interrupted. “Johann Eberhardt. We can finally fit a name to your famous face.”
“Jesus, he is tall,” Clem now said. “I had no idea from the video that he was such a big man… What do you think, Darwin, maybe two-ten or so…”
“Two meters eleven,” Johann offered.
“Hell, you’re a damn giant,” Clem said. “No wonder those funny particles singled you out for contact.”
Johann was starting to understand. These two portly people, both of whom were now circling excitedly around him, had obviously seen the Carlos Sauceda video in which Johann had described in detail his strange encounter in the Tiergarten. At Carlos’s suggestion, Johann had not identified himself in the video.
“This is just too good to be true,” Darwin was saying. “What a wonderful Christmas present for all our society members here on Mars.”
“We must send out a message immediately,” Clem said. “Everyone will want to meet and question Mr. Eberhardt.”
“If you don’t mind”—Johann now spoke again, frightened by the prospect of meeting a covey of Darwins and Clems—”I would like to take this a little more slowly. Could we start with what you know about those funny particles you mentioned…?”
Darwin and Clem took Johann into the back of the office, which was an amazing disaster of Christmas packages, boxes, computers, and other electronic equipment scattered in no apparent order around the large room. They found a table and Darwin set up three chairs around it. Clem brought Johann something to drink and they began to talk. The couple peppered him excitedly with questions, wanting to know what he had felt during the experience, what his theories were to explain what he had seen, and what he believed about the existence of intelligence either out in space or in some other, unperceived dimension. They were disappointed by Johann’s unimaginative answers. Both Clem and Darwin had concocted creative, but different, explanations for the particles, neither of which appealed to Johann’s logical mind.
The Bishops told Johann that his video had arrived four months previously and had immediately caused a sensation in their society, primarily because the chemical analysis of the imprints on his pouch had identified some complex molecules that were not manufactured on the earth. Johann asked some technical questions about the molecules, specifically about the likelihood that they could be waste products of fairly standard chemical reactions, but Darwin and Clem could provide no information.
A few minutes later the phone rang. Darwin located it behind a pile of boxes. “Guess who’s sitting here in the office talking to Clem and me,” Darwin said, after he and his friend Wyatt had exchanged greetings. “That German in the video, the one who captured the tiny spheres in Berlin… Really… I shit you not… No, I can’t show you because I don’t remember where I put the video connection… He just walked in the door, about an hour ago. Clem and I nearly passed out… Can you believe it, Wyatt, we now have three people on Mars who have made contact with those funny particles. The odds against it must be astronomical… I don’t know, Wyatt, we haven’t asked him. But we’ll let you know… Merry Christmas to you too. Good-bye now.”
When Darwin hung up, Johann asked immediately about his reference to the “three” people on Mars who had made contact with the particles.
“It’s two of those nuns from the Order of St. Michael,” Clem said. “They were in England at the time of their encounters. They both saw the particles on the same day. Carlos managed to talk with one of them a week or so after he made your recording.”
“One of our society members recognized the nun from the video,” Darwin said. “He saw her supervising the food distribution at the homeless shelter in the Newport section last week. When he confronted her, the nun told him to go away, that she wanted nothing to do with the Rama Society.”
“We don’t really know who the other nun is,” Clem added, “but Carlos wrote in the society newsletter that she is probably on Mars also. Cabs deduced that fact from some comments the first nun made after the interview.”
“May I see their video?” Johann asked.
“Of course,” Darwin said. “I should be able to find it here somewhere.”
He rummaged through a couple of boxes for three or four minutes. “Here it is,” he said brightly. “The label says ‘Two Nuns on the Same Day,’ received October seventeenth, 2142.”
“Why did it take so long to arrive?” Johann wondered out loud.
“Carlos said that the Order of St. Michael gave him some trouble. They said they were concerned about the video’s impact on their public image.”
“Hell,” added Clem, “according to Cabs, the order even tried to buy the video from him in exchange for a generous contribution to the society… He didn’t send out any copies until he was fairly certain that the Order of St. Michael had forgotten all about it.”
Johann recognized Sister Vivien immediately, but he did not say anything to Darwin and Clem. Vivien told her story succinctly, emphasizing the angelic shape of the particle cloud and the fact that she had been in the process of making her ordination decision when the particles appeared. That’s probably why the order didn’t want the video circulated, Johann thought. Even though I don’t see why it would be damaging.
Toward the end of the video, in a sequence lasting no more than a minute, Sister Vivien described another similar encounter by a fellow Michaelite priestess in Hyde Park in London on the same morning.
After watching Vivien’s video twice, Johann stood up to leave. “Surely you’re not going already,” Clem said. “We’ve just started to talk… and we haven’t even scheduled a time for you to meet with the society.”
“I have a lunch appointment with a friend,” Johann said, “and I still have some Christmas shopping to do.”
“But when will you be back?” Darwin asked. “And how do we contact you?”
“I certainly thank you for all the information you have given me,” Johann said, “and I appreciate your excitement about my incident… But I would rather not have my address and phone number public knowledge among your members. My privacy is very important to me. I’m certain you can understand.”
“Yes, we can,” Clem said, clearly disappointed. “We’re just delighted that you stopped by. Could we ask one favor before you go?”
“What is it?” Johann asked.
“Could we take some photos and a short video showing that you really were here? It would mean a lot to us.”
“Certainly,” said Johann.
While he posed alongside Darwin and Clem, Johann’s mind was elsewhere. He was both fascinated and intrigued by the fact that Sister Vivien had also seen the strange particles. I have a nun, or is it a priestess, to see, Johann said to himself. Before I leave for Valhalla.
5
The Order of St. Michael was flourishing on Mars under Beatrice’s leadership. Three months after her arrival, contributions and new recruits had both skyrocketed, despite the
difficult economic situation. Soon thereafter, Sister Beatrice supervised the design and construction of a new cathedral not far from downtown Mutchville. It took only seven months from groundbreaking to completion of the building, primarily because of the extraordinary dedication of the Michaelite priests and priestesses who provided the labor.
The cathedral was the first major new building in Mutchville in three years. Its towering spire reached within forty meters of the bubble itself. At the front entrance stood a bronze sculpture of Christ, surrounded by birds and children. Underneath the bare feet of Jesus was written, SUFFER THE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME. At the rear of the cathedral was a second bronze statue, this one of St. Michael standing on the steps of the Victor Emmanuel Monument in the Piazza Veneto in Rome. Around his head of thick curls was a great circle of flame representing the nuclear blast that vaporized him instantly in late June of 2138.
The doors of the cathedral were open twenty-four hours a day. People could come for free food and clothing at any time. They were welcome to sleep on the cots and mats, use the toilets, see one of the Michaelite physicians, or if they were burdened by a problem, they could talk to one of the priests or priestesses who specialized in counseling.
Johann was astonished by the large number of people moving in and out of the cathedral on Christmas Eve. For ten minutes he stood across the plaza, leaning against a storefront. While he watched the activity at the church Johann planned what he was going to say to Sister Vivien.
He realized that even finding Sister Vivien might be difficult. She might not even be in Mutchville at all, he said to himself while he was crossing the plaza toward the cathedral.
While Johann was walking the door to the smoking kiosk beside the theater opened and a dark-skinned woman, wearing the blue robe and the blue-and-white headpiece of the Order of St. Michael, stepped out. Johann did not see her. Sister Vivien, however, recognized him immediately. She intercepted Johann in the center of the plaza.
“So, giant Johann, you didn’t forget?” Vivien greeted him with a wide smile. “For how many people have you brought Christmas dinner? We may feed a thousand here at the church before tomorrow is over.
“Hello, Sister Vivien,” a surprised Johann said. Then he laughed. “I’m afraid I forgot about the dinner.”
“It’s not too late,” Sister Vivien said. “It’s only Christmas Eve. The supermarket is still holding another thirty turkeys for us. Tell me, giant Johann, how many of them will you buy for your brethren?”
Johann stopped for a moment. “Do you really feed anyone who wanders into the church, no questions asked?”
“Yes, indeed,” said Vivien with a serious look on her face. “And with the same enthusiasm that we ask the more fortunate people, like you, for money or time to be contributed to the benefit of others.”
“Well,” said Johann, “I came here specifically to see you. I know you’re busy, but there’s something I want to discuss with you. If I offer to buy, say, five turkeys for your Christmas feast, will you talk to me on the way to the supermarket and back?”
“Throw in twenty kilos of potatoes,” Vivien said with a charming laugh, “and I’ll even flirt with you in both directions.”
Johann told Sister Vivien that he had come to talk to her because they had something unusual in common.
“What’s that?” she asked lightly.
“We have both had encounters with clouds of dancing, sparkling particles,” he said, immediately beginning to tell her about his experience in the Tiergarten.
Vivien stopped dead in her tracks. “That’s exactly the same…” she said at one point, so overcome she could not finish her sentence.
When Johann described the imprints that the spheres had left in his pouch, Vivien began to tremble with excitement. “Imprints?” she shouted, grabbing Johann’s shoulders. “The angels left imprints?”
Johann nodded and Vivien exploded with joy. “Oh, God,” she said exultantly, “thank you, thank you for sending us yet another sign… You have blessed us so much. Sister Beatrice will be ecstatic.”
She started running toward the supermarket. “Come on, Brother Johann,” she said. “We must hurry and get the food and return to the church.”
“Wait,” he yelled at Vivien. “There’s more… I saw them again, last week, here on Mars, near the north pole.”
Vivien stopped and turned around. “What did you say?” she asked.
“I saw the bright particles again,” Johann said as he approached her. “While I was on a repair mission on the polar ice, only a few days before I left to come to Mutchville.”
Vivien’s excitement turned to skepticism. “If this is your idea of a joke,” she said, “I don’t appreciate it… Those Rama Society weirdos put you up to this, didn’t they? They’re the only ones here on Mars—”
“This is not a joke,” Johann said. He stared directly at Vivien. “I am deadly serious. If you will just be patient, I’ll tell you the whole story.”
“Go ahead,” said Vivien. She still looked as if she didn’t believe him.
Near the end of Johann’s tale, Vivien hailed a Michaelite priest who was passing on the street. “Brother Angelo,” she said, “will you do me a favor?”
The priest came over beside them. Vivien asked Johann for the money for the food. “Take this to the market, please, Brother Angelo,” she then said, “and buy five more of those Christmas turkeys Walter is keeping for us, plus as much dressing and potatoes as he will give us. Then take all the food back to Sister Dana. Tell her it’s a gift from Brother Johann, and that I’ll explain it all later.”
After Johann bad finished his description of his second encounter with the particles, Vivien asked him many questions. She wanted to know more about the details of the transformations that occurred in the nature and shape of the particles. She was also very curious about the baseball-sized sphere that smacked into Johann’s space helmet.
“Now, why do you think it struck your faceplate?” Vivien said. “That seems odd, and out of character.”
She started walking toward the church. “Out of character?” Johann said. “That’s an unusual choice of words.”
Vivien laughed. “I guess it is,” she said. “Sister Beatrice and I… Well, I’ll let her tell you herself, but we believe the bright particles are angels. Messengers from God, like in the Bible… And they appear only on very special occasions.”
It was Johann’s turn to be astounded. “Angels?” he said.
“Sister Beatrice will explain it to you,” Vivien said. “She can be very convincing.”
There were magnificent stained-glass windows on both sides of the cathedral sanctuary. The life of Jesus was depicted on the panels on one side; the life of St. Michael of Siena on the other. Because the scattered sunlight coming through the two bubbles protecting Mutchville did not show off the full beauty of the stained-glass windows, one of the Michaelite priests, who had been a motion-picture lighting director before his ordination, had designed a deployable lighting array, mounted on the roof, which permitted the full range of color and texture of the individual glass elements to be seen. Since it was Christmas Eve, the array was in place. Many of the hundred people who were in the cathedral when Johann and Sister Vivien entered had come just to look at the windows.
The back half of the sanctuary had been converted into a cafeteria. There were long tables, covered with simple white tablecloths, that were spread across the church. In front of the tables, toward the altar, four priests and priestesses were serving food to the short but steady flow of people having a meal at three o’clock in the afternoon. On both sides of the sanctuary, still in the back half, were clothes bins where sorted, washed, and marked-for-size outfits were available to anyone who wanted them.
Johann, who had been temporarily left by himself while Vivien attended to some order business, was surprised to find that he was emotionally touched by what he was seeing. The Michaelites seemed uniformly pleasant and dedicated. There was no doubt that
they were performing a valuable service. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so cynical, he told himself.
At that moment he first heard the computerized music system of the church. On the opposite end of the church, standing to the left of the altar, a solitary female figure, dressed in a blue robe with a wide white stripe, began to sing.
“O Holy Night… The stars are brightly shining…”
Johann was thunderstruck. He had never heard such a clear and beautiful voice. The sound was mesmerizing, and heavenly.
“It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth… Long lay the world, in sin and error pining…”
All other sounds in the cathedral had ceased. Everyone had stopped whatever he was doing, and was listening with rapt attention to the angel by the altar.
“Fall on your knees… 0 hear, the angels’ voices…”
Without his even knowing it, tears filled Johann’s eyes and began to run down his cheeks. When the amazing voice soared up the scale with the final “O Night, Divine…” Johann closed his eyes and focused his entire being on the magnificent sound. The pleasure was so intense he felt as if his spirit had been lifted out of his body.
She only sang one verse. When Johann opened his eyes, he noticed that Sister Vivien was watching him from a few meters away. Embarrassed, he pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his nose and eyes.
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Vivien said softly after she was beside him.
Johann was speechless for a few moments. “That’s an understatement,” he eventually managed to say.
“Sister Beatrice wanted to try out the new sound system before the service tonight,” Vivien said after a short silence.
“That was… Sister Beatrice?” Johann said, not even trying to hide his shock. “The other priestess who saw the particles?”
Rama: The Omnibus Page 194
