'I've never kissed a Martian before,' he said.
He paused.
'We could go into the field.’
She blushed again, but she smiled a moment after.
'If we did that, we'd have to get married.'
'I won't tell anybody.'
'But I'd know. Anyway, I'm not in love with you. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Only...'
'Don't apologise. It was wonderful while it lasted. But I hope you don't tease other men like that. You might get raped.'
'Only an evil man would do that. And he'd get sent to She'ol.'
'Where's that?'
She shuddered.
'I don't want to talk about that. Please, let's drive on.'
'As you wish.’
After a minute, he said. 'This is easily the most moral society in the solar system. Or the strictest, anyway. Yet basic human nature must be the same everywhere. How many of your brides are pregnant before the ceremony?'
She laughed. 'Oh, it's been estimated that about one-fourth are. But no woman is ever shamed. She is never rejected by the man responsible. He wouldn't dare.'
'I would think that that'd make for a lot of unhappy marriages.'
'No. Why should it?'
He didn't think he had the answer to that. He'd have to know even more about these people's attitudes before he could argue about this. Terrestrial conditions were obviously not always, or not often, like those here.
She pointed to the sun.
'He wouldn't like it.'
'Ah, he! But why should fear of him make for happiness?'
'We love him,' she said. 'We would adore him if he would permit it. But he keeps warning us that he is not the Merciful One.'
Orme decided to change the subject. All this talk, though informative, was irrelevant to his purpose. Since she was so frank, why shouldn't he be? And perhaps surprise might work.
He said, 'By the way, where is the entrance to the tunnels that lead to the spaceship?'
'Over there.'
She pointed past him at the blue wall of the cavern. He followed the invisible extension of her finger, but he could not see anything significant.
'If you'll drive to the road that parallels this one five miles from here, and then go straight towards the wall, you'll come to the road that winds up the side. Then you'll come to a shelf of rock on which will be a small building striped blue and red. Behind it is the entrance.'
How easy it had been. Perhaps too easy.
'Is it a guardhouse?'
'No. Why should there be guards?'
Was she putting him on? Or did she really believe that the Earthmen would no more think of escape than a fat steer in a lush meadow? Did the authorities believe that?
'If you get lost, you can ask directions at the village of Gamaliel. Slow down, please. That's Wang Ben-Hebhel's farm. I teach his son and daughter.'
Orme turned on to the cement-paved horseshoe-shaped driveway and stopped in front of the house. Like most of the residences it was of wood and seven-sided. (The number seven had great symbolic meaning in this culture.) It was a storey and a half tall, and the wood composing it would be, he knew, very hard (of Krsh origin) and very thin. The boards were vertical, and there were big windows everywhere. The pagoda-like roof was red; a light-blue veranda surrounded the house. The eaves were very broad because of the Jewish tradition that, if a man fell off the roof, no blood should touch the house itself.
A big animal that looked like a black wolf, but whose ancestors had come from Krsh, rose from the veranda floor and chirruped loudly. A moment later two youngsters, about ten and thirteen, ran out. A slim dark woman, a beauty, followed them a few seconds later.
All three looked surprised on seeing Orme. When Gulthilo introduced him - as if they didn't know who he was - they smiled broadly and seemed genuinely delighted. Gulthilo thanked him for the ride, at the same time giving him an enigmatic look. Apparently, he was dismissed. But before he could turn away for the car, she said, 'Wait a minute,' and she rattled off Krsh to the woman, Ester.
Gulthilo said, 'Are you hungry?'
'I did skip lunch, but...'
'You're invited to eat with us. Please accept.'
'With you?'
'Yes. Ester told me she just heard over the TV that the Council has decided that you Terrans may eat at our tables. You aren't able to eat unfit food now since your provisions ran out, and there's no harm in eating with us. Of course, this applies only to ordinary meals. Feast days and holy days are out for you. And you must observe the rules.'
'It's nice not to be treated like a pariah,' Orme said.
He thanked her and followed them through a wide doorway on the sides of which were mezuzahs, little boxes containing holy writings. The only residences on Mars that did not have them were the two in which the Earth people lived. The first room was tall and airy. The wall boards were painted alternately in pale white and pale blue. No wallpaper. From the storey-and-a-half-high ceiling hung three large chandeliers of cut quartz, each bearing six huge electric lights. The only wall decorations were two big, very thin TV sets and a gigantic spear on brackets. Every household had at least one such weapon. It had been an ancient Krsh custom for the father to give his son this ceremonial spear when he got married. The humans had adopted this custom about the time the sixth cave was hollowed out.
The floor was polished mahogany with bright patterned throw rugs here and there. The furniture consisted of a very large table in the centre, five sofas, some small sidetables, a lectern, and a huge desk. The latter had at each corner a tall round post on which were carved six-pointed stars and floral designs.
The room led directly into a square central court. Every room had access to the court, a most charming place. Polished granite slabs formed its floor. In the centre was a large seven-sided pool from the centre of which there were openings in the floor from which grew twenty-foot-high trees with wide-reading branches. Yellow and scarlet canarylike birds sang or twittered in the branches or pecked at purple, apple-sized, pear-shaped fruit.
In one corner a lion-coloured cat the same size as its Terrestrial counterpart watched her three kittens play. Its great ears and facial markings and large green eyes were lynxish.
Ester led the way along the edge of the court to the other end of the square. Here they entered a hallway, where he was shown a large bathroom. After closing the door, he relieved himself and washed his face and hands. The bathtub was large enough to hold three people comfortably and was cut out of a single block of glossy black basalt.
He joined the others, who had also washed, and they led him into a gigantic kitchen with a fireplace big enough to roast a calf. It didn't look as if it was used much, however. One wall contained racks of knives, saws, cleavers, and table utensils. Another held dishes, pots, and kettles. A big chopping block stood by the sink. In one corner was a large electric range with a microwave oven above it. There were also a dishwasher, two towering refrigerators, and, in the centre of the room, a table large enough to seat twenty or so. It was set, however, for six.
Ester bustled around putting dishes of food and bowls of fruit on the table. The little girl helped her, but the boy stood staring at Orme until his mother sent him down into the cellar, the trapdoor to which was at one corner. He came out a minute later with two large bottles of wine. At the same time the head of the household Wang Elkanah Ben-Hebhel, entered. Gulthilo introduced Orme. They bowed to each other, the farmer frankly curious about this fabulous creature, the black Terrestrial. His stare would have been rude on Earth, but here it was only good manners.
Ben-Hebhel had just come in from the fields, where he had been inspecting the barley. He had, however, hastened to wash and to doff his working robe and put on a clean white robe. His hat, which looked like a cowboy's sombrero, was also white. Over his shoulders he wore a silvery prayer shawl, a tallith. The boy ran out of the room and returned with prayer shawls for the rest of the family and for Orme.
Gulthilo sai
d, 'You aren't of our faith - as yet - but the Council has also decreed that you may pray with us. If you wish. However, the woman, Danton, can't share in the prayers as long as she remains an atheist.'
'I'll be happy to pray with you,' Orme said.
Here, however, the blessing and the thanksgiving came after the meal was eaten.
They began eating the delicious vegetable soup, the tasty black bread, the salad, and the cheese. On Mars lunch was a light meal. Since there was no meat on the table, they did not have to be careful to keep it separate from the dairy products.
Orme had to answer a lot of questions, though mostly from the children. With the help of Gulthilo, he answered them as best as he could.
Once, Orme quoted the New Testament.
'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'
Wang said, 'So, you know that statement of the Messiah. Then you have read The Testament of Matthias?’
Orme explained that Earth had testaments from other disciples of Yeshua'. These had been collected to make a book which was the sequel to what Terrans called the Old Testament, the holy book of the ancient Jews and of the modern ones, and also one of the holy books of the Christians.
Gulthilo said, 'Yes, we heard about that. Two weeks from now the first of a series of programmes will be given which will tell us about the history of the followers of the Messiah since Matthias the prophet left Earth.'
Bronski had been the chief informant for those preparing the series, though Orme had contributed as much as he could. But he had been more chagrined than pleased because of his ignorance of his own religion. The scholarly Jew had known far more about it than he.
'To get back to The Testament of Matthias,' Wang said. 'You didn't say whether or not you'd read it.'
'I'm about a quarter of the way through it,' Orme said. 'It's hard going for me because I'm not fluent in Krsh yet. On the other hand it is in simple language. I can't read the original at all, which is in Greek.'
'And do these New Testament writers, as you call them, agree with Matthias?'
Orme smiled. 'Well, in many places, yes. But in many others, no. He says nothing of the virgin birth, for instance, or the Holy Trinity, or Jesus's genealogy, or... many things.'
Bronski, who had by now read Matthias four times, had told Orme that all of the New Testament books were written long after Jesus had been crucified. And many, especially Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, showed evidence of tampering.
Orme had denied this, but Bronski, whose Biblical scholarship was profound, had cited him chapter and verse of the Book and the many commentaries on it.
'Matthew, Mark, Luke and John never heard of the virgin birth. Paul never mentions it, and you can bet that if he had, he'd have made a long comment on it. The references in the first four gospels are obviously later interpolations, pious frauds. And it's evident from the first four gospels that Jesus was a Jew who thought of himself as the Messiah of the Jews, the saviour of them only.
'The extension of the faith to the Gentiles was chiefly the work of Paul and Barnabas. Most Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, and so certain accommodations of the Mosaic Law were made for the pagans. Such as, for example, giving up circumcision and the dietary taboos. Also, the belief in virgin birth was common among the pagans; their myths and legends had hundreds of accounts of them.'
'Why hadn't I heard about all this?' Orme had said.
'Because, like most Christians, you didn't bother to read what was available. Of course, many have, but they've rejected scholars' findings. They ignore them. They believe blindly. Or if they do accept them, they rationalise them and become watered-down liberal Christians. On the other hand, the fundamentalists believe everything in the Bible in a literal sense. That is, there was an Adam and an Eve and a garden of Eden and the snake did tempt Eve to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and the snake was cursed and lost its limbs and had to crawl on its belly forever after. Haw, haw!'
Orme had got angry and had finally quit arguing with Bronski.
He couldn't deny that Matthias knew nothing about Jesus's resurrection, though he had heard rumours of it. And he, the thirteenth apostle, had known intimately all those closely connected to Jesus, and none had claimed to have seen the risen Jesus.
'So,' Bronski said, 'the accounts of this in the four Gospels are fabrications attached to them. Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John give contradictory stories, and the Christian apologists have written many books attempting to explain these discrepancies. None are convincing. They're splendid examples of the power of the human mind to rationalise, and that's all!
'The only conclusion to draw from this is that Jesus is a few mouldering bones in some stone tomb or merely dust. But then there is undeniable proof that Jesus did suddenly appear on Mars shortly after the digging into Mars had started. He wasn't on the Krsh ship when it left Earth, at least his presence aboard had gone undetected, and then presto! There he was! And Matthias, who'd known him well, recognised him. It was then that Jesus said that he had died on the cross and been buried in a tomb. But, unlike the accounts in the Gospels, some of his disciples had taken the body away and reburied it. They were accused of doing that by their enemies, you know.
'However, this Jesus said that his spirit had been taken to heaven, and then he was sent back to the material world by God, but not to Earth. God had informed Jesus that he had been mistaken - Jesus, not God, of course - about the nature and the time of the Last Days. He was sent in a new body, which looked just like his old one, to Mars to rule over his people there and to prepare them for their rule in establishing Zion on Earth. What do you think of that?'
Numbed, Orme could only reply that he had nothing at this time to say. Except that it sounded very fishy to him.
'The fish was the symbol of the early Christians,' Bronski said. Orme didn't ask him what he meant by that.
Meantime, he was reading Matthias's testament as fast as his ability permitted him. So far he had only got to the section where Matthias and his companions were sick with the plague in Libya and praying that The Divine Presence would deliver them from evil as He had the Chosen People in the time of Moses.
The rest of the meal was occupied with Wang's jokes. He seemed to be a great story teller, and Orme could easily have spent the day there trading stories with him. However, none of Wang's tales were 'dirty'; that was forbidden.
Finally, Wang said he had to get back to his chores, and Gulthilo had to start the lessons. Orme thanked them for the meal and got into the car while the others stood on the porch saying goodbye and inviting him to come again.
Before he could drive away, the blonde ran down from the porch. She leaned across the seat and touched his wrist.
'Maybe we really shouldn't see each other again,' she said. 'But I would like it if we did. If you come this way again, ask for me in the village of Nod. Or you can call me through the TV.'
'I'd like that very much. But I don't know. The authorities might interfere. And what would your family do if they thought I was courting you?'
'We'll worry about that when it's time to do so,' she said.
She withdrew her hand, leaving a warm tingling spot on his wrist. 'It's up to you. I've been too bold as it is.'
He drove away without looking back. It had been a pleasant experience, one which had done much, even if only temporarily, to alleviate his loneliness.
Except when he was with Philemon and his fellow athletes, he'd felt that he was truly an alien. What was it? 'A stranger in a strange land.'
The hospitality and the genuine friendliness of the family, and the attraction Gulthilo felt for him, had made him feel warm and somewhat secure. But, he warned himself, this was illusory. There was danger in seeing the blonde, and the Ben-Hebhels had shown to their guest a welcome that their Law probably required.
No, that wasn't fair. Their reception of him had not been the polite formality that was demanded if correct behaviour was to be observed. They'd seemed genuinely intereste
d in him. Of course, that could be because he was a curiosity, something they could talk about to their friends, a conversation piece.
As long as he had no evidence, he told himself, he was being paranoid again. Why take them at their face value until he had proof it was false?
Wang had given him a bottle of wine. He drank from it now and then so that when he reached the wall he was half-drunk. He realised that he was stupid to be in this condition. He had to have all his wits when he was trying to locate the tunnel entrances. It was then that he knew that he was drinking because he did not really believe that he was going to get away with his effort. They - the enemy - were too indifferent. They didn't care if he took a car and drove around doing what he wanted to do and eventually found the entrance. They knew where he was; they could stop him any time they wished.
By the time he'd finished the bottle, instead of feeling audacious and exhilarated, he was in a funk. He was a fool to think he could boldly drive up to the escape route and go through it. No intelligent people - and the Martians were intelligent even if they did have some weird religious convictions - would leave the way to the surface unguarded.
Or perhaps they had done so because, once he reached the surface, he'd find that the lander wasn't operable. Or that it had been removed.
Nevertheless, he drove up the winding road to the dome, which he had seen from the ground level. What the hell. He might as well go through with it.
Before him was a metal door, two doors, in fact, set into the wall of the cavern. On his right was the hemisphere, shining in the decreased light of late afternoon. There was no one around. They felt so secure they hadn't even posted guards.
He stopped the car and punched the off button. For a minute he sat listening, his gaze moving around to take in everything it could. He turned around once and looked behind him. No one was coming up the road after him. The only near vehicle in sight was a large horse-drawn wagon a half-mile away, piled with something shaggy. Probably a farmer taking a load of plants to some destination.
Jesus On Mars Page 9
