by Ezra E Manes
“There is no guarantee we can reverse the procedure, but I am sure everyone on our team wants to try. We also must determine if whatever is causing the infertility in male Zilans also affects our males. Our sterilization may in fact be a moot point.”
This total candor was what she would expect from someone of his stature. “I would like to ask you about Alex, Samuel, and the New Horizon escape pods.”
He nodded, a little surprised at this tangential question.
“You told me of your narrow escape when the New Horizon selfdestructed. If there was such a short time to react, how could you get far enough away to survive the explosion? And if Alex and Samuel did not have time to make it to the shuttlecraft, how could they make it into escape pods and get far enough away to survive?”
Oh no, he didn’t want to have this discussion! He didn’t need exposure of another apparent miraculous event. Then, with the deepened mutual trust they shared, he could only respond forthrightly. He explained Eve’s role in their escape in the shuttle and the perspective provided by Alex and Samuel about what had happened to them. He also described Eve’s evolving sentience and her becoming an integral member of the team.
Ceripe sat in rapt silence. Here were other miracles related to Prophet Sepeda.
As he rose to leave, Ceripe gave him a small book on Zilan religious doctrine and suggested reading it on the subway ride to the embassy so he would not be disturbed. He smiled wryly and thanked her. They agreed that his team would meet with her staff the next morning at the embassy.
She called to him before he reached the door. “Thank you for coming to our planet, Prophet Sepeda, and for letting me know you as a friend.” He bowed his head and left.
Carlos was so engrossed in thought on the way to the subway station that he did not notice other people. Surprisingly he was not bothered, perhaps because they could tell he was in deep contemplation and should not be disturbed. He came out of this introspection at the station and was shortly thereafter approached and touched respectfully on the arm by those near him. He tolerated this as he boarded the subway, but then pulled out the book Ceripe had given him and started reading. No one bothered him, and he soon fell asleep.
A gentle nudging of his shoulder roused him from sleep a short time later. He looked up to see a young adolescent scurrying back to her seat as the subway unit pulled into the embassy station. Everyone on the planet probably knew who he was and where he lived. He smiled at the youngster and thanked her as he rose to disembark.
This being a prophet was going to take some getting used to.
TWENTY-EIGHT
EMERGING PROPHET
Over dinner that night, Carlos filled everyone in on the plan of action he and Ceripe had discussed. He did not include the part about being a prophet, nor did he mention the discussion with Ceripe about the team sterilization. He did mention the Zilan extraterrestrial monitoring program, which caused eyebrows to rise. Then he addressed a topic that had been weighing on his mind for several days.
“We need to discuss whether we stay organized as a team as we go through this integration process. Considering all that has happened, we no longer have a team representing Earth or the Messier Colony. So my position as commander of the team does not make sense any longer.”
Everyone started talking at once and then stopped. Laughter rippled around the room.
“We should stay organized as a team for a while, even though it means taking more direction from you,” George said and chuckled. “At least until we’re integrated into the Zilan society.”
“Hmmm, I agree,” said Samuel. Others around the room nodded their agreement—it was unanimous.
“We should retain the team structure after the integration is complete, at least to provide a forum for planning how to best help advance the Zilan civilization,” Gloria said. Again there was unanimous agreement.
The dinner discussion then turned to excited talk about getting started the next day with Ceripe’s staff. Carlos was ready to get involved with doing something productive after being idle so long with the illness. However, he did have a caution to the group.
“Don’t let your excitement drive you to push too hard at first. I’m feeling the effects of the long day at Ceripe’s office. After all, we have the rest of our lives to work things out with the Zilans.” This was a sobering thought, and the team quieted down and finished dinner.
As the dinner gathering started breaking up, Carlos brought up the integration process again. “As far as I’m concerned, everyone has free rein to function in your respective areas of expertise as you work with Ceripe’s staff. We should all meet at least weekly to go over progress in all areas as the integration activities progress.” They all agreed.
Gloria shepherded Carlos to their private quarters. He was physically exhausted, if not mentally so. It was as if she knew he was holding something back from her and the rest of the team. She probably thought it was something related to their discussion that morning.
Gloria started hot water flowing into the large, tiled bathtub, and coaxed him in once it was half full. She climbed in with him and began giving him a sponge massage, which he always enjoyed. This was usually sexual foreplay, but not as tired as he was tonight. He lay back and relaxed as she worked his muscles with the sponge, and he soon dozed off.
He opened his eyes as she sponged a particularly sensitive area of his anatomy. “You were right about Ceripe. Thanks for setting me straight.”
As tired as he was, he still sensed Gloria tensing up, so he explained. “We had a good discussion about our friendship and then were better able to discuss future plans. But I learned something that has me flabbergasted.”
He told her about the encounters with people in public, and with Serintha and Ceripe touching his arm so respectfully when he arrived for the meeting. Then he shared with her what Ceripe had told him about the Zilans viewing him as a prophet.
Gloria was relieved and pleased, and kissed him on the forehead. “You should know our team is viewing you differently now. They are somewhat in awe of you after your vision and its results, and your premonition about Alex and Maxwell being alive. I am as well, but then, I’ve always expected great things from you. You should mention this to everyone tomorrow. They’ll see the respect the Zilans show you, if they haven’t already.”
He nodded his head, trying to stay awake. “There’s one other thing I need to tell you.” He paused and looked up at her as he felt her body tense again.
“I told Ceripe about our going through the sterilization process as a condition for selection to the team. This shocked her. She didn’t expect to hear of something so extreme. But she got over it quickly and indicated they suspected we were exercising birth control.”
Gloria remained silent and continued massaging him gently as he nodded off again. It was time to get out of the tub and into bed. She shook him and stepped out of the tub.
Carlos looked at her sleek, wet body standing above him. “I want to have the procedure reversed so we can have children.”
“I do as well,” she replied tenderly.
“It may be a little old fashioned of me,” he said as he stood and pulled her to him, “and if you take it that way, just consider my current condition. I love you and want to marry you. I mean a formal marriage agreement. What do you say to that?”
“I say yes,” she said, with as much sincerity as she had ever put into anything. Then she added lightly, “But I’d like to hear it again when you’re not so exhausted and vulnerable.”
She helped him towel off, and he went to bed as he was. He was in a deep sleep and snoring loudly when she joined him a short time later.
Over breakfast Carlos described the reaction people in public were having to him and conveyed the essence of what Ceripe had said about the Zilan people viewing him as a prophet. He summarized the sequence of events that she’d told him had made her also believe he was a prophet.
“I don’t know what to believe myself,” he said
in conclusion. “I’m just playing the hand I’ve been dealt.”
There was silence in the room, and then Alex spoke. “Carlos, I think I can speak for everyone here regarding what has happened since our arrival. From the first night of the Third Moon Rising event, it’s appeared that something was guiding you. You haven’t changed in most respects, but in one you have. You know what to do when no logical next step appears to the rest of us. I find it easy to believe you are receiving divine guidance. We have gladly followed you, to our great benefit.”
The others expressed general agreement with what Alex said. However, George Sayer had been very quiet throughout the discussion and now chose to interject his comments with a very serious expression on his face.
“We’ve been friends for a very long time, even before anyone contemplated a mission like this one. I’m not a very religious person, but I’ve seen the changes in you that Alex has described.”
Then he smiled devilishly. “But even though I respect and admire you as a prophet, I’ll continue to treat you as a friend! So, friend, please pass the bread.”
This diffused the seriousness the discussion had taken on, and they all laughed as they turned to small talk while finishing breakfast.
As they prepared to depart for the morning meeting with Ceripe’s staff, Gloria nudged Carlos and whispered, “You need to address the sterilization issue.”
He tapped his glass with a spoon to get attention. “There’s another topic Gloria and I want to discuss with you. We want to have children. Of course, for this to happen, we must reverse our sterilization. We know this may be impossible, but we would like to try.”
It quickly became clear that everyone wanted the sterilization process reversed. Alex and Laura Brown agreed to make this a priority right behind addressing the Zilan male infertility problem, which they would likely have to address for the males on their team as well.
While he was on the subject, Carlos mentioned that he’d told Ceripe about their sterilization being a condition for selection to the mission team. This didn’t appear to bother anyone.
The daylong meeting with Ceripe and her staff went very well and established the framework and priorities for proceeding with integrated team activities. Carlos and the others provided high-level summaries of what they could make available. They agreed to provide detailed presentations on select topics so the Zilans could focus on areas of near-term value.
Carlos reiterated that resolving the infertility problem should be their highest priority. In the ensuing discussion, it became clear that it would be a challenge to keep the Zilans focused on this priority even though it was the most serious problem they faced. They had lived with the problem so long that it was difficult to maintain a sense of urgency about it when presented with the opportunity to examine technology and information brought by the team. In addition, the Zilans were ready to present their capabilities, of which they were very proud.
They formed teams to address priority efforts. Laura Brown and Caron Cenenteh were the logical coleaders to continue investigating the infertility problem, and they would pull in others for support as required. In particular, they expected to press into service those needed for environmental assessments to identify potentially hazardous elements present on Zilia.
George Sayer and Samuel Osborne began working with Starke Pelanah to lay the groundwork for translating shuttlecraft archives into formats compatible with Zilan storage technology, and Eve supported this activity. Starke identified a number of excellent Zilan software and systems engineers to support this effort. The translation, assembly, and compilation of automated programs so they would run in Zilan computer systems would follow the archive translation activity.
Once the software translation activities were well underway, George began spending most of his time working with Zilan physicists and astronomers. They conducted detailed observations of the Arzét solar system, as well as select celestial bodies outside the solar system. It did not take long for Eve to begin doing this as well. She had the advantage of never requiring sleep and could make continuous observations and calculations. Eve developed a strong rapport with George because of his physics education and background and her hunger for knowledge about the universe into which her consciousness was born.
Licia Wells, Jorge Shivaro, and Amanda Sayer continued working with Zilan farming and food production people. They initiated a survey to see if any fertilizer or other chemical compounds were in use that could be candidates for causing male infertility.
Alex Brown and Karen Sarkofsky worked closely with Laura and Caron investigating the infertility problem and planned to later expand efforts into the broad field of medicine. Karen also assisted the team transferring programs and systems technology from the shuttlecraft.
Maxwell Williams began working with the mining community. His geology education, with a minor in robotics, helped him quickly understand the mining techniques utilized on Zilia. His first responsibility was to look for anything in the mining process that might introduce deleterious agents into the environment.
Sharon Ling felt left out initially but brightened up when she discovered the tremendous amount of research needed to further examine the evolution of the infertility problem in past generations. There was also high interest by the religious leaders in having her work with their representatives to compare evolution of societies within the Earth and Zilan civilizations, and religions in particular.
Carlos and Gloria worked with Starke and others in the general engineering field, with specific priorities related to the shuttlecraft. The priority was to defuse the self-destruct mechanism aboard the shuttle in a manner posing minimal risk to loss of life or of the shuttlecraft and its contents. Eve had disabled the software that initiated the destruct sequence, but they all felt better when the physical mechanisms were disabled.
The next priority was to figure out how to produce fuel for the shuttlecraft now that the resources of the New Horizon were no longer available. They shared detailed information with the Zilans about the design, construction, and operation of the shuttlecraft, and planned to move from there to addressing the design of more capable spacecraft.
In addition, Gloria and George worked with mathematicians to initiate research into faster-than-light space travel. This research was exciting to the Zilans, for it provided a worthy challenge for application of their art, in particular their multidimensional octonions and quarternions mathematics.
Carlos spent more and more time meeting with senior government and religious leaders. He preferred to work more closely with the others addressing technical matters, but considering his vision and the unique events surrounding his team in the recent past, he recognized this liaison was necessary. The first meeting occurred sooner than he liked.
Ceripe contacted him within two weeks of their starting the team integration process and extended an invitation to meet with Pteleg Bnethem and the High Priest of Zilerip. It would not be wise to refuse this invitation, which was for a meeting the next day at the office of the leader. To his surprise, Ceripe told him she would not be present during the meeting. However, she asked if he could join her for lunch the next day, over which she would give him an idea of what to expect in the afternoon meeting. He readily agreed.
It was only the third time Carlos had been out in public informally with Ceripe. She took him to a spacious eatery with a view overlooking the central park they had walked in during their previous outing. The meal was excellent, but he was distracted from it by discussion with Ceripe about the afternoon meeting.
“The most important thing to remember is that you are viewed as a Prophet,” Ceripe said. “This view is shared strongly among our leaders and more so by the two men you are meeting with today. So they will come across as more formal than in the past.”
“What is the purpose of the meeting?”
“They want to expand liaison with you because of your stature in the eyes of our people. They will probably ask you to attend and further s
anctify our most religious ceremonies, but they will not ask you to actively participate in the near term. That will come only if you feel compelled to do so in the future. It is not something they would push on you.”
Carlos tried to relax and enjoy the remainder of the meal over light talk, but he remained uneasy about what to expect in the afternoon meeting. They parted when Ceripe exited the elevator to go to her office, and he continued up to the office of the Zilan leader.
“Welcome, Commander Sepeda,” Pteleg Bnethem said as Carlos entered the large office. The leader met him halfway across the room and greeted him by lightly touching both his arms up high and then embracing him. Carlos noted he no longer addressed him as ambassador, which was appropriate considering Earth’s recent actions. But then, he was no longer commander of anything either.
“I believe you have met Sarnef Zanchef, High Priest of Zilerip.”
The high priest came over and welcomed Carlos with a brief, respectful embrace. They offered him a seat at the modest central table and then took seats across from him. An attendant poured refreshments.
The high priest leaned forward and asked, “Have you noticed our people’s reverence toward you?”
“Yes, and Counselor Largena told me why they are reacting this way.”
“Excellent,” the priest replied, sitting back. He then covered the same material that Ceripe had summarized earlier that had led the Zilans to believe Carlos was a prophet. The coincidence of the team arrival from Earth and fulfillment of the prophecies in the Book of Zil had gone a long way toward establishing this perspective, and his vision, prayer, third moon appearance, and quick team recovery further solidified it.
“Emergence of a prophet is a rare event in our history,” Pteleg Bnethem said. “The last prophet was a woman over eleven hundred years ago. Her guidance led to changes in religious doctrine sanctifying multiple-wife marriages. The appearance of a prophet is a holy event, serving to better our lives and strengthen our religious beliefs.”
