"You didn't answer our question about rest and recuperation," Rachel Demarest accused.
"You may not realize it, Rachel, but the schedule of shipsid...R is the most important issue before us today."
"You're not going to buy us off with shipside time!" she said. She was clenching her wand with both hands, pointing it at him like a weapon.
"Again, I am aghast at your limited perception," Oakes said. "You really are not fit to be making the decisions which you ask the power to make."
At this direct attack, she backed two steps away from him, glared into his eyes.
Oakes shook his head sadly. "You have a friend down there brave enough to state the essential proble...." Oakes pointed down at the perimeter guard who sat in red-faced anger. (Have to watch that one. A fanatic for sure.) "...but not brave enough nor perceptive enough to see the full implications of his emotional outburst."
That did it. The man was on his feet and shaking a fist at Oakes. "You're a false Chaplain! If we follow you, Ship will destroy us!"
"Oh, sit down!"
Oakes used almost the full amplification to drown out the man's voice. The sound-shock provided the man's companions with the interval to pull him back into his seat.
Turning down the amplifier, Oakes asked: "Who among you asks what I ask? An obvious question: Where did WorShip originate? With the ship. That ship!"
He thrust a pointing finger ceilingward. "You all know this. But you don't question it. As a scientist, I must ask the hard physical questions. Some among you argue that the ship has been motivated by the wish to save u...beneficent savior. Some of you say WorShip is a natural response to our savior. Natural response? But what if we are guinea pigs?"
"What are your origins, Oakes?"
That was Rachel Demarest again. Beautiful. She could not have performed better for him had she been programmed. Didn't she know that by the best guess, the naturals outnumbered the clones almost four to one? - perhaps even more. And she already had admitted to being a clone.
"I was a child of Earth," Oakes said, and once more his voice was its most reasonable. He looked directly at her, then back at the audience. A little barbering of the truth was called for now. No need to bring up the fact that old Edmond Kingston had chosen him as successor. "Most of you know my history. I was taken by the ship and trained as Chaplain/Psychiatrist. Don't you understand what that means? The ship directed my training to lead WorShip! Don't any of you find something strange in this?"
Right on cue, Rachel intruded: "That seems the most natura...."
"Natural?" Oakes allowed free reign to his rage. "A mirror and recorder would have done just as good a job as such a Chaplain! If we have no free will, our WorShip is sham! How can the ship expect to condition me for such a task? No! I question what that ship tells us. I don't even doubt. I question! And I don't like some of the answers."
This was public blasphemy on a scale few of them had ever imagined. Coming from the Chaplain/Psychiatrist it amounted to an open revolt. Oakes allowed the shock to become well seated in them before hammering it home. He raised his face to the domed ceiling and shouted: "Why don't you strike me dead, Ship?"
The hall became one long-held breath while Oakes turned and smiled at Murdoch, then turned the smile on his audience. He reduced the amplifier volume to the minimum required for reaching the hall's extremities.
"I obey the ship because the ship is powerful. We are told to colonize this planet? Very well. That is what we are doing and we are going to succeed. But who can doubt that the ship is dangerous to us? Have you had enough food lately? Why is the ship reducing our food supplies? I am not doing this. Send a deputation shipside if you wish to verify this." He shook his head from side to side. "No. Our survival requires that we depend as little as possible upon the ship, an.... eventually, no dependence upon the ship at all. Buy you with shipside time, Rachel? Hell no! I intend to save you by freeing you from the ship!"
It was a simple matter to read the majority reaction to this challenge. He might appear to be a fat little man but he was braver than any of them, dared more than the bravest among the.... and he was risking new clones (whatever they might be). He was also going to feed them. When it came time for the question: "Put me out of office or continue me. But no more of this democracy and Council crap." When it came time for that, it was clear they would support him by acclamation. He was their brave leader, even against Ship, and few could doubt it now.
Both Lewis and Murdoch argued for a bit more insurance, though, and Oakes knew it would do no harm to follow their script.
"It has been suggested that we introduce complicated and time-consuming forms into our survival efforts," Oakes said, his voice tired. "The ones who propose this may be sincere but they are dangerous. Slow reactions will kill us all. We are required to act more swiftly than the deadly creatures around us. We cannot wait for debate and group decisions."
As both Lewis and Murdoch had insisted she would do when faced with defeat, Rachel Demarest tried the personal attack. "What makes you think your decisions will save us?"
"We are alive and Colony prospers," Oakes said. "My first effort here, my primary reason for being here, is to direct a crash program to increase food production."
"No one else could do wha...."
"But I will!" He allowed just a touch of mild reproof into his tone. Anyone who could defy Ship could certainly solve the food problem. "We all know that I did not make those decisions which killed our loved ones on Dragon. If I had been making those decisions, we might still be alive and growing out there."
"What decisions? You talk abou...."
"I would not have wasted our energy trying to understand life forms which were killing us! Simple sterilization of the area was indicated and Edmond Kingston could not bring himself to order it. He paid for that failure with his lif.... but so did many innocents."
She still wanted her reasonable confrontation.
"How can you fight what you don't understand?"
"You kill it," Oakes said, facing her and lowering the amplification. "It's that simple: You kill it."
There is fear in the infinite, in the unlimited chaos of the unstructured. But this boundless "place" is the never-ending resource of that which you call talent, that ability which peels away the fear, exposing its structure and form, creating beauty. This is why the talented people among you are feared. And it is wise to fear the unknown, but only until you see the new-found fearlessness which identity beautifies.
FOR A concentrated surge of time, Hali Ekel stood at the inner ring of the throng and stared up at the three men so cruelly suspended. It was a nightmare scene - the blood, the dust, the orange light which threw grotesque shadows on the doomed men, the sense of latent violence in every movement around her.
I'm an observer, observer, observe....
Her chest hurt when she breathed and she could smell the blood dripping from Yaisuah's nailed feet.
I could save him. She took one shuffling half-step forward.
Don't interfere. Ship's command stopped her. It was not in her to disobey that command. The conditioning of WorShip was too strong.
But he'll die there and he's just like me!
He is not just like you.
But he'....
No, Ekel. When the time comes, he will remember who he is and he will go back just as you will go back. But you two are profoundly different.
Who is he?
He is Yaisuah, the man who speaks to God.
But h.... I mean, why are they doing this to him? What did he do?
He reported his conversations. Now, they try to move God in this way. Observe. This is not the way.
God? But God is Ship and Ship is God.
And the infinite is infinite.
Why won't you let me save him?
You could not save him.