He turned up the sound. The soap opera had now resumed, replacing the animated hemorrhoid. An elderly bearded man, an exceedingly hairy old man, struggled with two popeyed arachnids who sought, apparently, to decapitate him. "Get your f.u.c.king mandibles off me!" the elderly man shouted, flailing about. The flash of laser beams ignited the screen. Herb Asher remembered once again the burning down of his communications gear by Yah; he felt his heart race in anxiety.
"If you don"t want to watch it-" Rybys said.
"It"s not that." Telling her about Yah would be hard; he doubted if he could do it. "Something happened to me. Some- thing woke me." He rubbed his eyes.
"I"ll bring you up to date," Rybys said. "Elias Tate-"
"Who is Elias Tate?" Asher interrupted.
"The old bearded man; I remember what the program is called, now. "The Splendor of Elias Tate." Elias has fallen into the hands-although they don"t have hands, actually-of the ant- men of Sychron Two. There"s this queen who is really evil, named-I forget." She reflected. "Hudwillub, I think. Yes, that"s it. Anyhow, Hudwillub wants Elias Tate dead. She"s really awful; you"ll see her. She has one eye.
"Gracious," Asher said, not interested. "Rybys," he said, "listen to me."
As if she had not heard him, Rybys plodded on, "However, Elias has this friend Elisha McVane; they"re really good friends and they always help each other out. It"s sort of-" She glanced at Asher. "Like you and me. You know; helping each other. I fixed you dinner and you came over here because you were worried about me."
"I came over here," he said, "because I was told to."
"But you were worried."
"Yes," he said.
"Elisha McVane is a lot younger than Elias. He"s really good-looking. Anyhow, Hudwillub wants-"
"Yah sent me," Asher said.
"Sent you what?"
"Here." His heart continued to labor.
"Did he? That"s really interesting. Anyhow, Hudwillub is very beautiful. You"ll like her. I mean, you"ll like her physically. Well, let me put it this way; she"s objectively obviously attractive, but spiritually she"s lost. Elias Tate is a sort of external conscience for her. What do you take in your tea?"
"Did you hear-" he began and then gave up.
"Milk?" Rybys examined the contents of her refrigerator, got out a carton of milk, poured some of the milk into a gla.s.s, tasted it and made a face. "It"s sour. G.o.ddam." She poured the milk down the sink drain.
"What I am telling you," Asher said, "is important. The deity of my hill woke me up in the night to tell me that you were in trouble. He burned down half my equipment. He erased all my Fox tapes."
"You can get more from the mother ship." Asher stared at her.
"Why are you staring at me?" Quickly, Rybys inspected the b.u.t.tons of her robe. "I"m not unfastened, am I?"
Only mentally, he thought.
"Sugar?" she said.
"Okay," he said. "I should notify the C-in-C on the mother ship. This is a major matter."
Rybys said, "You do that. Contact the C-in-C and tell him that G.o.d talked to you."
"Can I use your gear? I"ll report my meltdown at the same time. That"s my proof."
"No," she said.
"No?" He glared at her, baffled.
"That"s inductive reasoning, which is suspect. You can"t reason back from effects to causes."
"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"
Calmly, Rybys said, "Your meltdown doesn"t prove that G.o.d exists. Here; I"ll write it down in symbolic logic for you. If I can find my pen. Look for it; it"s red. The pen, not the ink. I used to -"
"Give me a minute. Just one G.o.ddam minute. To think. Okay? Will you do that?" He heard his voice rising.
"There"s someone outside," Rybys said. She pointed to an indicator; it blinked rapidly. "A Clem stealing my trash. I keep my trash outside. That"s because-"
"Let the Clem in," Asher said, "and I"ll tell it."
"About Yah? Okay, and then they"ll start coming to your little hill with offerings, and they"ll be consulting Yah all day and all night; you"ll never get any peace. You won"t be able to lie in your bunk and listen to Linda Fox. The tea is ready." She filled two cups with boiling water. Asher dialed the mother ship. A moment later he had the ship"s operator circuit. "I want to report a contact with G.o.d," he said. "This is for the Commander-in-Chief personally. G.o.d spoke to me an hour ago. An autochthonic deity called Yah."
"Just a moment." A pause and then the ship"s operator circuit said, "This wouldn"t be the Linda Fox man, would it? Station Five?"
"Yes," he said "We have your video tape of Fiddler on the Roof that you requested. We tried to transmit it to your dome but your receiving manifold appears to be malfunctioning. We have notified repair and they will be out shortly. The tape features the original cast starring Topol, Norma Crane, Molly Picon-"
"Just a minute," Asher said. Rybys had put her hand on his arm, to attract his attention. "What is it?" he said.
"There"s a human being outside; I got a look at it. Do something."
To the mother ship"s operator circuit, Asher said, "I"ll call you back." He rang off. Rybys had turned on the external floodlight. Through the dome"s port Asher saw a strange sight: a human being, but not wearing a standard suit; instead the man wore what looked like a robe, a very heavy robe, and leather ap.r.o.n. His boots had arustic, much-mended quality about them. Even his helmet seemed antique. What the h.e.l.l is this? Asher asked himself.
"Thank G.o.d you"re here," Rybys said. From the locker by her bunk she brought out a gun. "I"m going to shoot him," she said. "Tell him to come in; use the bullhorn. You make sure you"re out of the way."
I"m dealing with lunatics, Asher thought. "Let"s simply not let him in.
"f.u.c.k that! He"ll wait until you"re gone. Tell him to come in. He"s going to rape me and kill me and kill you, if we don"t get him first. You know what he is? I recognize what he is; I know that gray robe. He"s a Wild Beggar. You know what a Wild Beggar is?"
"I know what a Wild Beggar is," Asher said.
"They"re criminals!"
"They"re renegades," Asher said. "They don"t have domes any more."
"Criminals." She c.o.c.ked the gun. He did not know whether to laugh or be dismayed; Rybys stood there swollen with indignation, in her blue bathrobe and furry slippers; she had put her hair up in curlers and her face was puffy and red with indignation. "I don"t want him skulking around my dome. It"s my dome! h.e.l.l, I"ll call the mother ship and they"ll send out a party of cops, if you"re not going to do anything."
Turning on the external bullhorn, Asher said into it, "You, out there."
The Wild Beggar glanced up, blinked, shielded his eyes, then waved at Asher through the port. A wrinkled, weathered, hairy old man, grinning at Asher.
"Who are you?" Asher said into the bullhorn. The old man"s lips moved, but of course Asher heard nothing. Rybys"s outside mike either wasn"t turned on or it wasn"t working. To Rybys Asher said, "Please don"t shoot him. OK? I"m going to let him in. I think I know who he is."
Slowly and carefully Rybys disarmed her gun.
"Come inside," Asher said into the bullhorn. He activated the hatch mechanism and the intermediate membrane dropped into place. With vigorous steps the Wild Beggar disappeared inside.
"Who is he?" Rybys said. Asher said, "It"s Elias Tate."
"Oh, then that soap opera isn"t a soap opera." She turned to the screen of the TV. "I"ve been intercepting a psychotronic information-transfer. I must have plugged in the wrong cable. d.a.m.n. Well, what the h.e.l.l. I thought it was on the air an awful lot of the time."
Shaking off methane crystals, Elias Tate appeared before them, wild and hairy and gray, and happy to be inside out of the cold. He began at once to remove his helmet and vast robe.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Rybys. "Any better? Has this donkey been taking good care of you? His a.s.s is gra.s.s if he hasn"t."
Wind blew about him, as if he were the center of a storm.
To the girl in the white frock Emmanuel said, "I am new. I do not understand where I am."
The bamboo rustled. The children played. And Mr. Plaudet stood with Elias Tate watching the boy and girl. "Do you know me?" the girl said to Emmanuel.
"No," he said. He did not. And yet she seemed familiar. Her face was small and pale and she had long dark hair. Her eyes, Emmanuel thought. They are old. The eyes of wisdom. To him in a low voice the girl said, " "When there was yet no ocean I was born."" She waited a moment, studying him, searching for something, a response perhaps; he did not know. ""I was fashioned in times long past," "the girl said. " "At the beginning, long before earth itself." Mr. Plaudet called to her reprovingly, "Tell him your name. Introduce yourself."
"I am Zina," the girl said.
"Emmanuel," Mr. Plaudet said, "this is Zina Pallas."
"I don"t know her," Emmanuel said.
"You two are going to go and play on the swings," Mr. Plaudet said, "while Mr. Tate and I talk. Go on. Go."
Elias came over to the boy, bent down and said, "What did she say to you just now? This little girl, Zina; what did she tell you?" He looked angry, but Emmanuel was accustomed to the old man"s anger; it flashed forth constantly. "I couldn"t hear."
"You grow deaf," Emmanuel said.
"No, she lowered her voice," Elias said. "I said nothing that was not said long ago," Zina said. Perplexed, Elias glanced from Emmanuel to the girl. "What nationality are you?" he asked the girl.
"Let"s go," Zina said. She took Emmanuel by the hand and led him away; the two of them walked in silence.
"Is this a nice school?" Emmanuel asked her presently.
"It"s OK. The computers are outdated. And the government monitors everything. The computers are government computers; you must keep that in mind. How old is Mr. Tate?"
"Very old," Emmanuel said. "About four thousand years old, I guess. He goes away and comes back."
"You"ve seen me before," Zina said.
"No I haven"t."
"Your memory is missing."
"Yes," he said, surprised that she knew. "Elias tells me it will return." "Your mother is dead?" He nodded. "Can you see her?" Zina said. "Sometimes."
"Tap your father"s memories. Then you can be with her in retrotime."
"Maybe."
"He has it all stored."
Emmanuel said, "It frightens me. Because of the crash. I think they did it on purpose."
"Of course they did, but it was you they wanted, even if they didn"t know it."
"They may kill me now."
"There is no way they can find you," Zina said.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I am that which knows. I will know for you until you remember, and even then I will stay with you. You always wanted that. I was at your side every day; I was your darling and your delight, playing always in your presence. And when you had finished, my chief delight was in them."
Emmanuel asked, "How old are you?"
"Older than Elias."
"Older than me?"
"No," Zina said.
"You look older than me."
"That"s because you have forgotten. I am here to cause you to remember, but you are not to tell anyone that, even Elias."
Emmanuel said, "I tell him everything."
"Not about me," Zina said. "Don"t tell him about me. You have to promise me that. If you tell anyone about me the government will find out."
"Show me the computers."
"Here they are." Zina led him into a large room. "You can ask them anything but they give you modified answers. Maybe you can trick them. I like to trick them. They"re really stupid."
He said to her, "You can do magic."
At that Zina smiled. "How did you know?"
"Your name. I know what it means."
"It"s only a name."
"No," he said. "Zina is not your name; Zina is what you are."
"Tell me what that is," the girl said, "but tell me very quietly. Because if you know what I am then some of your memory is returning. But be careful; the government listens and watches."