by Ezra E Manes
Days later, the team was as good as new but without the means to quickly contact Earth or the Messier Colony. Using available technology, it would take over four years for a message to make it round trip from Zilia to the Messier Colony and back.
Carlos was confident they could and would build another advanced communications system, but he doubted they would have the desire to contact Earth for some time to come. The Zilans were in no mood to contact Earth either, considering the total lack of concern shown for the mission team.
TWENTY-SEVEN
CANDOR AMONG FRIENDS
It was great to be back in the embassy. Carlos stretched out in bed alongside Gloria. Everyone had been quiet during the trip to the compound from the hospital. A smiling Smara Trunia was back at her post and had welcomed them at the front door. They enjoyed an excellent evening meal and afterward called it an early night. The finality of recent events was setting in, and they needed time to adjust.
Carlos did not feel stranded, nor did Gloria, which became apparent as they talked on into the night. He had wanted to be alone with her, to hold and caress her and make love to get as close as possible. The sexual interaction did not happen that night, even though they lay physically and emotionally intertwined, touching and talking. The first rays of light were sifting through the curtains when they finally drifted off to sleep. It was Fifth Day, a day for rejoicing and tending to family relationships.
In fact, the entire following week was very relaxed, the closest thing to a vacation they had experienced since their first week on Zilia. Ceripe and her staff made a few courtesy calls to check on the team but placed no demands on them, and they greatly enjoyed the recuperation time. It was more than just time to heal; it was a break from the nonstop mission stress experienced since awaking en route to Zilia.
Carlos and Ceripe agreed to meet the following First Day to discuss future interaction between their teams. She suggested that his team take an additional week or longer to rest, but he declined. Most on the team were already antsy about the delay in pursuing plans with the Zilans.
Carlos stepped out of the shower early the morning of the next First Day as Gloria entered the bathroom. She smiled her approval at the sight of him unclothed and wet. They were finding new dimensions in their relationship, which he thoroughly enjoyed.
“What time is your meeting with Ceripe this morning?” she asked, touching him affectionately as he toweled down.
“It’s at 0300,” he replied, and reached for her, “which gives us plenty of time for a romp before I leave.”
“No,” she said, with a petulant smile as she turned to begin her morning ritual. “I don’t want to send you to the meeting all worn out and distracted.”
He laughed and embraced her from behind, his excitement growing. But she wiggled free and pushed him away firmly. He went into the bedroom to dress and was slipping on his shoes when he sensed her watching. She was leaning against the bathroom doorway with a very serious expression on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with sudden concern.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. She came over and sat on the bed next to him. “I have something I need to say but don’t really know how. No matter how I form the words in my mind, they sound wrong to me.”
“Please go ahead.” He cupped her hands in his.
“All right, but I warned you. I sense you’re letting your personal feelings about Ceripe inhibit your developing a true friendship with her,” she said with a strong gush of air. “I know you have strong feelings for her, and this doesn’t concern me now. The stronger your friendship with her, the more we can accomplish here.”
This was a surprising turn of events. She had come full circle from being jealous. How was a man supposed to know how to react?
“I guess I’ve come to think this way because I feel so secure in our love. It grows stronger even when I think it could not possibly get any better. I’m not suggesting an intimate friendship. I just suggest you stop worrying so much about exposing your feelings to her and let your friendship grow. I believe that will help us get on with what has to be done here on Zilia.”
Carlos sat dumbstruck. Gloria had reacted so jealously before!
“See, I told you it would come out wrong,” she said, her lower lip quivering.
“No,” he replied tentatively, “you totally surprised me, considering your previous sensitivity to anything personal between me and Ceripe.”
Her face quickly brightened, and she leaned over and kissed him. “Just be yourself and you’ll keep me happy. I’m sure I’ll occasionally throw a jealous tantrum, but I promise to only do that in private. Then I’ll take my frustration out on you.”
Gloria withdrew her hands and squeezed his leg gently as she got up from the bed.
An hour later, Carlos walked as usual to the public transit system station just across from the embassy compound. This was his first trip out in public since the team had become deathly ill. As he took a seat near the middle of a half-full subway unit, he was surprised to feel a soft touch on his left arm. A young woman with a small girl in tow had touched his arm lightly, bowed her head solemnly, and then withdrew. The child also touched his arm, then retreated to join her mother in a seat across the aisle. He didn’t know what to make of this, so he did nothing.
Soon a middle-aged man approached and repeated the sequence of touching his arm lightly, bowing his head, and retreating. Carlos watched spellbound as everyone in the compartment took his or her turn in approaching and touching his arm. Not one of them said a word, and neither did he, since he didn’t know what was going on. He tried his best to keep a solemn composure.
Serintha greeted him at Ceripe’s office, but not in the normal way. She was quiet and reserved, and came around her desk to greet him by laying her hand on his arm much as the individuals had during the subway ride. She bowed her head and backed away respectfully.
“Ceripe is ready for you to join her,” she said, opening the door to the inner office while keeping her head bowed.
Ceripe rose from behind her desk. “It is good to see you looking well and rested. I hope the others in your team have recovered as well.”
“They have, and thank you.” He took a seat at the small conference table. “You have been most patient as we rested this past week, and we appreciate that. But it is time to address where we go from here.”
He wanted to ask her about the strange way people had treated him on his way to her office but couldn’t bring himself to say anything about it just yet.
Ceripe rose to join him at the table, but instead of walking around the far side of the desk to face him, she came around the side closest to him. She approached and touched him lightly on the arm, and then squeezed his shoulder gently before going on around the table to take her seat.
“I have to ask the significance of your touching my arm that way,” Carlos said. “Every Zilan I have encountered this morning has done the same thing.”
She blushed and lowered her head before answering. “I gave you a touch of respect and took from you a touch of peace. This is customary when encountering someone revered in our religious order. Please do not take offense. While you were recuperating, our high priest issued a proclamation about your prayer and associated miracles. You are held in high regard by every Zilan old enough to understand what it means to be in the presence of someone who has done holy work.”
Now it was his turn to be embarrassed and confused. He was not a Zilan religious leader, nor had he ever professed to believe in the Zilan god, although his temple prayer might have been interpreted that way.
He looked across the table at the beautiful person patiently waiting for him to collect his thoughts. She meant more to him than he cared to admit. He thought about Gloria’s advice and tried to look at Ceripe objectively as a friend without letting his emotions get in the way. He relaxed, looked into her eyes, and smiled. She smiled also and blushed slightly. Maybe this wasn’t going to be too difficult. After all, Gloria had said, “J
ust be yourself.”
“Ceripe, I trust you explicitly and consider you a very dear friend to me and my team. We need to talk candidly about what is going on and how our teams will interface in the future. I need your advice and guidance on how we should proceed to become integrated with society here. I do not see any way we will ever make it back to our home world.”
“You can indeed trust me in every way. I consider you a very dear friend, although there for a moment I saw you looking at me in another way.” She chuckled at his obvious embarrassment.
It was his turn to blush. All right, so they were going to have to work a little on settling into this “dear friend” relationship. Nevertheless, he was already feeling more relaxed in her presence than he had ever been in the past.
“So what is really happening with everyone wanting to touch my arm?”
“You really do not know?” she stated with sudden revelation. His puzzled look told her she was right. “Let me explain as succinctly as I can. You came from a distant place unknown to us. Your coming was a precursor to the Holy Third Moon Rising event. During that event, you provided us information about the third moon that we had no way of obtaining. You brought us very advanced knowledge in many areas in which we are neophytes. And all of this is as prophesized in the Holy Book of Zil.”
She held up her hand to stop him from interrupting.
“You had a vision about the recovery of your team from a fatal illness, and acted on the vision by praying in the Temple of Zilerip, with miraculous results. Not only did the third moon become illuminated in the night sky as you prayed, a glow enveloped you, and then your people were healed as foretold in your vision.
“Soon thereafter, you had a premonition to go to your shuttlecraft to learn of the survival of two of your team, whom all thought were lost. You rescued them and took two Zilans into space with you, a first for our people. Starke and I were able to see the darkened third moon still located near Zilia, a truly Holy experience.”
She reached across the table, took his hands in hers, and said softly, “In the eyes of our religious leaders and the general population of Zilia, you are a prophet. In my eyes, you are a prophet, a man to be revered, and a close friend.
“I repeat what I said earlier, for it is the same with all the people you have encountered this morning. I was giving you a touch of respect and taking from you a touch of peace. And you can expect this wherever you encounter our people. However, they will not approach you if it is obvious it would be an impediment to what you are doing or an invasion of your privacy.”
His thoughts were in turmoil. “How could I possibly be considered a prophet when I am a relatively normal person with a loving, intimate partner? I am also a person who makes many mistakes, as you have seen. And I have never professed to believe in the Zilan god.”
Ceripe laughed heartily, then leaned back in her chair to peruse him. “I did not hear in your words that you really understand what I am saying about you being a prophet. You are using the word ‘prophet’ as a general descriptor. I think you are overlooking the true significance of what I am saying. You are a Prophet, a person of great distinction and importance in our religious order.
“There is nothing in our religion that dictates a priest or a prophet cannot also be a normal man, with normal aspirations, desires, and shortcomings. Celibacy is not a tenet of our religious doctrine. Perhaps more important than anything, as far as your beliefs go, your actions speak for you. There is no need for you to profess anything.”
“But how do you view the rest of my team? They have been alongside me at every step.”
“They are thought of very highly but not in the same sense that you are. You are the leader, the one who had the vision and prayed at the Temple of Zilerip while the third moon became illuminated. Carlos, you are the Prophet!”
“This is a hard for me to accept,” Carlos said. He stood and looked out the window. It was difficult to assimilate and accept all that she had said. His mind rebelled at the idea that they looked upon him as a religious prophet. He needed to get away and clear his mind before they began discussing plans for the future.
“Would you like to go for a walk in the park and perhaps have lunch before we start our more serious discussion?” Ceripe asked.
Her statement brought him back to the moment. It was almost as if she were reading his mind. “I would enjoy that. But if what you say about ‘Prophet Sepeda’ is true, how will I keep people from approaching me in public?”
“Remember what I said about no one interfering with you in your private time or when it would impede something you are doing? Well, with me hanging on your arm, they will know you are in private time.”
It was as she said; they were not bothered throughout the walk in the central park near her office, nor while they were having lunch at an eatery overlooking the park. The only time anyone approached him was when he looked directly at a person, acknowledging his or her presence. That person then respectfully approached and touched him lightly on the arm, bowed, and then quickly retreated. Overall, it was a refreshing outing.
By contrast, the afternoon was exhausting as they concentrated on how to integrate the team into society. Carlos felt no obligation to maintain a separate Earth diplomatic mission identity for the team. That obligation had gone up in the fire, smoke, and debris of the New Horizon. His objective now was to make available everything they had brought with them, including their personal knowledge. They would carve out productive lives and live them to completion in the Zilan society.
They finally agreed to revise the exchange agreement to be a plan of action for integrating the team with Ceripe’s staff. The integrated team would then work with the various sectors on Zilia that could benefit from access to the knowledge and technology offered by the team. They also agreed that a top priority issue was finding the cause of Zilan male infertility and finding treatment alternatives for those families affected. They agreed it would be best to minimize publicity with respect to Carlos and the team in any broadcast media that could eventually be intercepted by off-world monitoring.
It was during this discussion that Carlos revealed that the team had not come directly from Earth. Learning of the Messier Colony was a startling revelation to Ceripe. However, she took it in stride and was sympathetic to the awkward position those on Earth and at the Messier Colony had placed the team in.
He also revealed the duration of the long journey to Zilia but indicated it would not surprise him if those at Messier could now make the journey much more quickly. If they did not have the capability to do so, they certainly would have in the near future. This knowledge only served to increase the importance of getting the teams fully integrated, and having the knowledge and capabilities brought by the Messier team understood and applied by the Zilans.
Carlos summarized what he knew about the extraterrestrial race that existed some great distance away toward the center of the galaxy. This revelation was not as startling to Ceripe, since she had so recently accepted that others existed in the universe. However, it did strengthen her resolve to see her people grow strong technically and otherwise, to survive future encounters with other space-faring civilizations. She indicated they would expand their program of monitoring for extraterrestrial signals, those from Earth and elsewhere.
This was the first Carlos had heard about the Zilan program to search for extraterrestrial signals. Ceripe explained that they had initiated the program soon after first contact with Earth, and they had identified two Earth communication relay satellites in the Arzét system. They had also detected signals from Earth and from the vicinity of what Carlos knew as Nepali A.
Carlos indicated that his team would provide as much information as possible about the signals from the distant extraterrestrials to aid the monitoring activities, including information supporting interpretation of the signals, if detected.
At the end of the afternoon, they were both very tired, but Carlos more so than Ceripe, as the effects of his ill
ness lingered on. Both were satisfied that they had made great progress in laying out a plan of action that would benefit everyone directly involved, as well as bring innovations to the Zilan society. They also agreed that Carlos’s team would continue residing at the embassy compound for the near future.
Before leaving, there was just one other topic he needed to address, a most difficult one.
“I need to tell you something very personal that affected all on our team, something that occurred before we ever departed from the Messier Colony.”
“You do not have to share anything personal. I have learned all I need to know about you and your character.”
“This is something I must address. It is very similar to the male infertility problem here. A condition for assignment to the mission team was sterilization. I reluctantly agreed and underwent this process, as did everyone on our team. Having children during the journey here, or during our first years on Zilia, would have complicated matters for the team. This is something I personally regret, and all on the team do as well.”
He stopped talking. This revelation visibly disturbed Ceripe. Her face paled, and she bowed her head. He reached over to grasp her hands, which were cool to his touch, but she did not push him away.
“I am sorry, I should not be reacting this way,” she said haltingly. “We thought you were exercising birth control, and this appeared reasonable under the circumstances. I was not prepared to hear about intentional sterilization. Procreation of life is sacred to us, and to hear that you took steps to preclude this is shocking. But we have to accept that we will encounter such factors as we learn about other civilizations.”
He didn’t know what to say and continued holding her hands as she struggled to regain her composure.
“Is this sterilization permanent, or can it be reversed?” she asked, eyes still downcast.
“We were told it could be reversed. I plan to discuss this soon with our doctors.”
“Good,” she replied firmly and looked up at him. “I would hate to see you continue for long on Zilia without fathering children.”
