Martian Rainbow

by Robert L. Forward

  Gus looked around. There was the globe of the world that Alex used each Sunday to save the world. It was floating in midair above its base—no doubt some sort of superconducting applied magic. Above it was the little model of the asteroid that Alex had saved everyone from that morning. It was on its way up to its apogee, whence it would return next Sunday.

  He walked over to the globe and confidently put his hand on it.

  "The left hand please, Infinite Lord."

  Gus hesitated, took a deep breath, and put his bandaged left hand on the globe.

  "The bandage prevents complete identification, Infinite Lord, even though my vision program tells me it is you," the voice said. "Is it possible to remove the bandage?"

  "Not at the present time," Tanya interrupted, switching off the console. The minute the computer saw Gus' stumps, it would know something was wrong. She muttered something in Russian.

  "Damn!" Gus said.

  "I said that already."

  "Maybe Alex has cooled off enough that we can talk with him," Gus said with a sigh.

  "It's our only chance," Tanya said, leading the way to the outer door. "Remember, when we go into the kitchen, if the monitor camera is back on, tell it to stop looking at you."

  "HE'S NOT wiggling, so he must still be out," Gus said as he unlatched the helmet.

  Tanya looked in at Alexander, then suddenly put her hand on his throat to feel his pulse.

  "He's dead!" she said, her face terrified at what she had done.

  They got him out of the suit as fast as they could and tried everything, but they were too late.

  "The world has one week to live," Gus said dejectedly. He picked up the limp left hand of his brother. "From the way that computer responded, it seems like the only thing that can save the world is this hand—the left hand of God." He brushed tightly at the fingertips that had recently tried to throttle him. The hand was starting to cool off. "If there were only some way we could keep it alive ..."

  "There is," Tanya said.

  Gus looked up at her quizzically.

  "But it's going to hurt," she said.

  GUS WAS feeling queasy after they returned from carrying the remains of Alexander's body back into the freezer. Lying on the butcher block, next to the meat saw, was Alexander's left hand.

  "Now it's your turn," Tanya said. "Are you up to it?"

  "Is there any sedative left in that injector?"

  "I'm afraid not." Tanya was using a steel to sharpen up the butcher knife again. Gus watched the flickering blade with dazed fascination.

  "Besides, we have to make it look like an accident. I'll cut the major tendons and nerves with the knife so they'll be easier to reattach, but the muscles and bone have to go through the saw to make it look good."

  She put down the sharp butcher knife and picked up Alexander's left hand. She looked at the end of the stump carefully, noticing the specific position of the important nerve fibers in this particular genetic version of a human left hand. She then placed Alexander's clammy left hand on top of his brother's quivering left hand and scratched a ragged white line on the living flesh with the point of her blade.

  "Ready," Gus said. He stretched out his arm on the butcher's block and looked away. Tanya turned on the meat saw so it would be running when it was needed, then picked up the knife.

  AS THE ambulance wailed off into the night, Tanya turned to the crowd of staff and guards.

  "Don't just stand there," she yelled at them. "Get to the church and pray for the immediate recovery of the Infinite Lord from this tragic accident!" Obediently they turned and, voices chattering, headed for the huge chapel at the center of the Olympic Palace complex.

  When they were all gone, Tanya turned on the giant-sized waste disposal machine next to the butcher block, picked up a cleaver, and headed for the walk-in freezer.

  EARLY the next morning Tanya went to the Central Hospital. As she was approaching the main entrance, an armored patrol helicopter thundered in overhead and landed at the emergency room pad. She watched as the medics pulled the bloody body of a man in swimming trunks out the side door of the helicopter and placed him in a stretcher. Tanya recognized him as the man who had delivered Gus to the castle in the freezer truck.

  "See if you can bring him around," the patrol officer growled. "We want to find out why he was trying to swim to Turkey."

  "Then you should shoot fewer machine gun bullets," the medic said, looking up. "He's dead."

  TANYA had a little difficulty getting in, but soon was allowed a short visit with the recuperating Infinite Lord. He was in a large suite in the wing of the hospital reserved for the higher level initiates of the Church. She was relieved to see that the room had no monitor cameras, although there were plenty of them in the hallways.

  "There is only one of you now," she reported grimly. Gus didn't ask how she had arranged that. She looked carefully at his left hand. It was swollen, but pink.

  "The world has a new lease on life," she said.

  "But only if we can keep up the masquerade," Gus said. "Once anyone in the upper levels of the Church finds out that I'm not Alex, there'll be a palace coup and the world will find itself under a new tyrant."

  "The one other person who knew you landed successfully on Earth was killed by the patrol."

  "Then Augustus Armstrong must die," Gus said. "That way no one will ever conceive that there's been a switch—even if I commit serious blunders or start doing things differently."

  "Like acting rationally?"

  "Send a message to the Mars underground asking why I didn't show up. Sooner or later the news that I was lost in space will leak to the Watchers. No resistance movement is leak-proof."

  "I hate to do that. It's going to demoralize both Mars and the Mars underground with you gone."

  "The sooner they learn to stop being dependent on one man to tell them what to do, the better," Gus said gruffly. "Tell them Gus Armstrong is dead."

  "Very well," Tanya said. She got out a slip of paper and a pen, wrote a short note, and tucked it in back of the mirror in a compact full of violet eye shadow.

  "I don't think violet is a good shade for me," she said, looking in the mirror. "I think I'll return this for another color."

  CHAPTER 21

  Earth Released

  THE FOLLOWING Saturday the Infinite Lord was brought back to the Olympic Palace in his private helicopter. It landed on the roof of the tall stone tower in the evening dusk and he took the elevator down to his floor. Tanya was waiting for him next to the floating globe of the world. Above the globe was the tiny model of the Mace of God—on its way down toward its rendezvous with the Earth Sunday morning.

  "We can talk here," Tanya said. "Even the central computer is blind until you turn on its console." She came over to look at the bandage on his left arm. She took the hand and touched each finger lightly and professionally, then stroked the palm to watch the reflex.

  "How does it feel?"

  "Still sore and swollen, but I can move some of the fingers already." He demonstrated by curling the outer three fingers toward his palm. "Still can't get much reaction from the thumb and forefinger. Guess my brain doesn't know how to cope with them, having done with stubs for so long."

  "It is still slightly swollen," Tanya said. "We had best put it to the test before the real crisis comes tomorrow morning."

  "Yes," Gus said. "It ought to be easy to turn off the Mace now that I can command the central computer."

  Tanya walked over to the computer console, activated it, and touched a few icons. The computer spoke.

  "You wish to change the operating parameters of the Mace of God?"

  "Yes," Gus said, walking over to the globe and putting his left hand on it.

  "Very well, my Infinite Lord," the computer said. "What is your command?"

  "Please arrange to have the Mace of God go into an orbit that will not intersect Earth."

  "Given sufficient advance notice, the Mace can be made to drop down over any po
int on Earth where you are speaking to create the proper amount of awe in the congregation," the computer said. "But what you ask is not physically possible."

  "Then arrange so that the Mace separates to miss the Earth even if I don't put my hand on the globe," Gus said.

  "That would defeat the purpose of the Mace," the computer said. "It is not one of the possible options."

  "But suppose I die!" Gus blurted, frustrated.

  "That is not possible," the computer said. "The Infinite Lord cannot die."

  Gus switched off the console before he lost his temper and gave himself away. He went over to sit down on the huge circular bed and shook his head.

  "What are we going to do, Tanya? The insane zealots that wrote the Mace program even have the computer believing I'm immortal."

  "Why don't you get some rest," Tanya said. "Fortunately, the computer recognizes your left hand, so we can activate the Mace tomorrow morning. That will give us another week to work on a solution."

  She started to leave.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To my room," Tanya said. "Alexander preferred sleeping alone."

  "I'm not Alexander."

  "I'll put on my nightgown and be right back," Tanya said with a pleased smile. When she returned, Gus was undressed and lying waiting under the sheet. She climbed over the huge circular bed, lifted the sheet, and looked down under the sheet at him.

  "Well, it may not be infinite, my lord," she said. "But it'll do."

  LATE THAT night Tanya was wakened by a whimpering sound. It was Gus having a bad dream.

  "No! No!" he shouted out.

  She reached over and hugged him, then stroked his face and reassured him until the dream went away.

  ERIC HAD already arranged for the Sunday sermon to be a rerun. Actually it would seem like a new one, since it would be a smoothly blended version of the best parts of some of Alexander's older sermons. It was still necessary, however, for the Infinite Lord to place his hand on the globe at the proper time in order to activate the separation of the Mace of God. Gus did that in private in his room and was relieved to see the model of the Mace split in two.

  "It worked," he said. "We have a week's respite while we try to figure out how to get the world out of the mess that Alex left it in."

  "The first task is to turn off the Mace," Tanya said.

  "There is more to be done than that. We have to destroy the hold the Church of the Unifier has on the world. How do I call Eric on this console? I need some information."

  "THE CHURCH controls over a hundred trillion dollars," Gus reported later with amazement. "More than a thousand dollars for every person on the globe."

  "That's because they've gouged tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of every Church member," Tanya said. "It's a racket to enrich the franchise owners and the Watchers."

  "But most of those people joined the Church of their own free stupid will," Gus said. "They were bamboozled with words, but no force was used on them. I don't think many would believe the truth about the Church even if I told them. The first thing I'd better do is destroy the power of the higher levels wrrile I still have the Mace to hold over their heads."

  "Don't forget the Silver Scythes," Tanya said.

  THE FOLLOWING Sunday, the Infinite Lord was ready. He gave a powerful sermon that assured all who listened that the world was finally unified and saved. Since they were saved, they no longer needed watching. In a dramatic gesture, he announced that the Winged Eyes of God were henceforth blind. He thanked the Watchers for their faithful labor over the years and not only relieved them of their duties of watching, but formally retired them with large pensions for being such good servants of God. A few Watchers, those who were in it for the power rather than the money, tried to use their Caps of Contact to carry out their usual snooping. They found they were locked out of the control computer.

  Then, to the dismay of the thousands of ninth level Leaders around the globe that owned the franchises to the level instructional schools in their district, the Infinite Lord removed all the security blocks to the instructional courses needed to move from level to level in the Church. Now anyone with a Cap of Contact of any color had free access to all the mysteries that they previously had to pay for. When the Leaders tried to complain, they, too, found they were locked out of the control computer.

  Finally, the Infinite Lord forgave all debts owed to the Church and released the faithful of the Church from the requirement of tithing. Gus would have liked to give them back the money they had already poured into the Church, but most of it had already been spent, and he was going to need the rest to keep the higher levels bribed into submission.

  Right after the sermon, the Infinite Lord broadcast a short message to the Caps of Contact of the ninth level Leaders and the eighth and seventh level Watchers.

  "We almost blew the whole gig two weeks ago. I'm closing the operation down. Nines get a billion each, eights one hundred million, and sevens ten million. Take the money and run. In case any of you are thinking about causing me trouble, the Silver Scythes have not been deactivated. Alexander."

  THE NEXT visit of the Infinite Lord was to the office of the head of the Department of Applied Magic down in the basement of the castle. Jerry arrived soon after they got there.

  "Sorry I was so late responding to your call, Infinite Lord," he said. "I was skinny-dipping down on the beach with some unmarried sixes. What can I do for you, Infinite Lord?"

  "Because of my recent experience, Jerry, I want to have the Mace disabled so it will no longer strike Earth—even if I happen to die."

  Jerry looked bewildered at the thought of the Infinite Lord dying.

  "Or lose my left hand."

  "Yeah!" Jerry said. "That was pretty close, wasn't it. Never thought about that possibility." He paused to think for a while.

  "Sorry. Can't be done. Wrote the codes myself. Crack-proof. But we have nothing to worry about ... 'The Infinite Lord is infinite in both space and time.' Unified Scriptures 15:74, if I recall correctly."

  "Isn't there some way to turn it off?" Gus pleaded, getting frustrated. He thought for a minute, then said, "I'm getting tired of having to show up every Sunday."

  "I see ..." Jerry said, thinking. "I guess that is a drag." He thought some more. "Nope. I can't think of a way to do it without triggering the circuits that lock the two halves together."

  Gus ground his teeth in frustration and tried to hold on to his temper. Then he remembered his still-hidden white knight.

  "Isn't there someone else that might have some ideas? Like Bill Boswick?"

  "Yeah!" Jerry said, brightening. "Bill might be the one. Let's go see him."

  When they entered Bill Boswick's office, Bill looked up from his console and stared strangely at the stocky figure of the Infinite Lord in his golden tunic and tights. Gus could see the suppressed emotion of raw hate in his eyes. Gus could understand why, for on Bill's desk was a picture of Bill's wife, a gorgeous long-haired blond—just the kind that both Gus and Alex liked—and in front of her were their two little daughters. Except for the skirt and curls, the older girl's face was almost identical to that of the Armstrong twins at that age.

  Gus wanted to reassure Bill that things would soon be better, that Bill's Uncle Dave was here—hiding behind a golden costume. But that couldn't be done. Bill must never know, for Augustas Armstrong had to stay dead.

  "The Infinite Lord wants a vacation from his Mace duties," Jerry said. "You got any ideas of how to turn the Mace off? Now don't count on that back door you hid in the code. I caught that when I did the final program check." Jerry turned to Gus.

  "Every programmer I know sticks back doors in stuff that they write, so they can always access it later even if they don't know the password the customer has chosen for access."

  "Then why don't we use your back door?" Gus asked.

  Jerry looked shocked. "I would never put a back door in something I wrote for you, Infinite Lord," he said. "It would be unth
inkable. That's why I took Bill's out. Besides, even if there were a back door, the options available for the operating parameters of the Mace do not include turning it off—as you found out. There was no need for it, so I didn't put it in the program."

  "We've got to find a way to turn off the Mace," Gus said with emotion. "We can't let the world die!"

  Bill Boswick looked quizzically at the man he hated more than any other in the world. Bill knew how close the world had come to dying last week. Maybe this vain crackpot now realized that, too, and was finally beginning to come to his senses.

  "I might be able to think of something," Bill said cautiously. "But how do I know you won't just have it nullified and leave us in the same predicament as before?"

  "I can understand why you don't trust me," Gus said. "But after my recent experience, I've changed. I apologize for any wrongs that I may have done to you. Please, if there is any way to rid the world of this terrible menace that hangs over us all ..."

  Bill hesitated for a while, then finally turned to his computer screen.

  "I'm bringing up the portion of the program for the Mace that has to do with the timing gates."

  Bill soon had a screen full of lines of programming code. He pointed to the screen. "The basic time interval is the seven days between Sundays, three and a half days up and three and a half days down. When the globe is activated at the right time, plus or minus a half-hour, then the signal it sends tells the two halves to fly apart and pass around the Earth. But when I was coding it, I think I made a little mistake," Bill said, looking at the screen. "What is the number of seconds in a week, Jerry?"

  "According to what it says in the program here, it's 302,400."

  "That's the little mistake," Bill said. "That number is the number of seconds in three and a half days. The number of seconds in a week is twice that."

  "Why, you tricky little rascal," Jerry said with a pleased smile. "The Mace will accept signals not only when it is approaching the Earth, but also when it is at the peak of its trajectory at eighty-three Earth radii. If we spring the two halves of the Mace apart at that altitude they'll go into orbit about the Sun."