“My God!”
He had never been more sincere in that exclamation. He felt sick. He jerked the crystal from the viewer and tossed it to one side as if it were infectious. He then took up the next crystal. SOME XENOETHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THRAKE…
“Barbarians!”
He tossed the crystal aside and took up the next.
“Let me get this right. You wish to go out alone to study the Orbonnai. I do hope you are aware of the… difficulties,” said Carmen.
“I saw that obscene recording of the thrake creature,” said Mark. Carmen looked askance at him then shook her head.
“They’re no problem—”
“I beg to differ.”
“You can beg all you like, but no amount of begging is going to get you near the Orbonnai. They move very fast when they want to… well, in most cases. Most of the recordings we’ve managed to make have been by remote chameleon drone. Paul was the exception. He came close to the station to feed because he was old and had been driven away from his group by a younger male.”
“Then perhaps he is the one I should seek. In that other,” Mark pursed his lips in distaste, “recording, I noted that Paul had been radio tagged.”
“Which crystal was that?”
“You are well aware of the one I am referring to.”
“Oh yes, ‘Sexual Dynamics In Orbonnai Family Groups’. I remember it — a most definitive study.”
“I still wish to make my own observations.”
Carmen stared at him in annoyance for a moment. “I will do everything I can to prevent you. You were foisted on us here at Seventeen by the New Christian Church at Carth. It is unfortunate that Earth Central have not seen fit to keep the likes of you off our backs.”
“I resent your inferences, Madam.”
“And I resent your beliefs. I find the practising of your particular brand of pseudoscience here, where real science is being carried out, most distasteful, and quite possibly damaging. I know why you are here. Your Church knows there are creatures of near-human appearance and all of a sudden they’ve got the missionary bug. When are you going to learn—”
“I do not have to tolerate this. Creation Science has its basis in the most sublime of works. The New Carth Bible is — Where are you going! Come back here!”
Carmen ignored him.
Once back in his room Mark picked up a memory crystal at random and smashed it against the wall. Then he dropped to his knees. “Oh Lord, give me the strength to go on. Give me the will to bear this ignorance of your plan and your presence.” He bowed his head and clasped his hands below his chin. Didn’t they understand? What worth had their universe of facts without a binding deity? How could they believe the magnificent complexity and pattern of the universe was not created by God? He hated so-called ‘true’ scientists. Where would the human race be without God to guide it? He unclasped his hands and stood up. As a Christian in the face of adversity, he would do what he had to do. It had always been so. Their science was irrelevant. He opened his case and removed some things he would need.
Carmen slammed the door to her office. She was angry because she had allowed him to get to her. But what other reaction was there in the face of such pig-headed stupidity? She sat down at her desk and stared blindly at the papers before her.
He had not studied the crystals fully, else he would have realised the futility of his mission. But then that was always the way with people like him. They based their ‘science’ on a false premise and discarded anything that did not fit. They rambled on about watchmakers and complex construction and gave simplistic explanations: a human being is complex therefore it was made, because conventional science does not have all the answers, the ones it does have are wrong. For his kind facts were twisted to match theories, rather than theories proven or disproven by facts.
Carmen repressed the urge to smash something and reached across and pressed the button on her intercom. “Davidson?”
“Here, lab twelve.”
“If you’re not on anything important can you come up to my office.”
“Just running some computer models. The AI can handle it. I’ll be up in about a quarter of an hour. What’s up?”
“What do you think?”
“No word from Earth Central yet?”
“There was a vague promise of a monitor being sent, but you know how it is with them. They think that causing a furore is free advertising for the Churches. Best to let them die a natural death. Interference is frowned on. Freedom of choice and all that.”
“I preferred the pre-runcible attitude: belief in superior ‘It’ll be all right in the end’ deities equated with dangerous irresponsibility.”
“Yeah, see you shortly anyway. We’ve got to sort out how to deal with the arsehole. He wants to ‘make his own observations’.”
There was a silence before Davidson replied. “Freeman told me he saw him down at the stores kitting himself out. You mean you haven’t given him permission?”
Carmen closed her eyes and rubbed at her forehead. She was getting a headache. She suspected it would get worse. “We didn’t actually get to that. Got side-tracked. Go to the stores yourself will you and see if he’s taken a radio tracker. Also get Freeman to charge up that last chameleon drone.”
“I’m on it.”
Carmen leant back in her chair and stared at the map up on her wall. She had been going to warn him. Him with expensive clothes, city ways and archaic beliefs. Outside Station Seventeen was a wilderness that thus far had claimed three lives, and they had been professionals. Did he think his God would help him once he was lost and starving? That would be a first. All the proteins and sugars out there were inverted. You could eat your fill of fruit and meat every day and still starve to death, if you were not poisoned beforehand. No matter. The water would get him first. It was so contaminated with mercury salts it was a standing joke that the streams grew longer in warm weather. Carmen shook her head. The ache was growing worse.
“Ugh! Filthy creature!”
Mark stamped the leaf-shaped worm into the ground and winced as his boot rubbed on the raw spot on the back of his ankle. Then he inspected the red ring on the back of his hand where the worm had clung for a moment before convulsing and falling off. This was just too much. He looked around at the nigh impenetrable jungle then continued on down the track he hoped had been made by Orbonnai. He would show them that a creation scientist was as capable of doing field-work as the best of them. The sky was growing darker by the time he reached the stream and he offered up a silent prayer of thanks before stooping down at its edge to fill his water bottle. Once that was done and he had drunk his fill, he unhitched his pack and took out the tracker. The direction finder pointed roughly up the course of the stream. There should be no problem. His God was with him. He sat down on the blue sand to rest for a moment. He was tired, but well-satisfied with himself. He had made a stand, as all good Christians should.
The nautiloid was bumbling along below the surface directly in front of him when he saw it. With great daring he reached into the water and took it out. With a click it retracted into its shell. He held it in his hand, checked his watch, then began turning it as he had seen Paul do. After thirty seconds nothing had happened. He tossed it to the ground and stood up.
“Rubbish,” he said, and went on his way.
The blue nautiloid, with its fifty-second response time, crawled back into the stream once he was gone. Carmen studied the man seated opposite her and felt bewilderment. He represented Earth Central, yet, he looked so… mediocre. It was obvious he had no alterations. The face he wore had not seen cosmetic surgery since his birth. His eyes were muddy green and there was a scar on his chin. His clothing had nothing to recommend it either, other than functionality. He wore a green monofilament coverall and cheap plastimesh hiking boots.