“And. . .”
“And my invention communicates with it. It works. It works very well in fact. We have been experimenting with elevating considerable weights to high altitudes within the stratosphere. Anti-gravity is now fully functional.”
“And will you use it to reach the . . . ship?”
“We will use it. However, the grace I received concerns the extent of the use.” He stared at the floor for a moment, then looked up and continued. “I am the only one with access to my notes and diagrams. I am seriously considering destroying them. My invention will work only for a limited series of projects.”
“How do you know this?”
“I made the thing to be so.”
“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand.”
“Crucial internal components of my invention have a brief operational span. They are calibrated to a certain number of usage events. I have also included an altitude factor. We are guaranteed numerous test flights below the ionosphere, but only two flights to the ship in the heavens.”
“You planned it that way.”
“Yes, I did.”
“What is to prevent other scientists from simply replacing the outmoded parts with fresh ones?”
“The invention is sealed. It has a self-protective function. Any attempt to enter it now would initiate an internal reaction, using white phosophorous, carbon allotropes, disulfide, and various other components that would interact in such a way as to immolate everything inside, rendering it unintelligible to analysts.”
“Have you told anyone about this?”
“Only you. Of course, I will inform the other committee members before any more flights are made.”
“Good. That is absolutely necessary. You cannot risk human life.”
“There is no real risk, as long as the use does not exceed the parameters I’ve set. The invention is solid and reliable.”
“Until it destroys itself. Why did you do it?”
“To set a limitation on what we can retrieve from the ship. It’s my hope that the mission team will focus on seeking understanding of the past, and not on new keys to dangerous kinds of knowledge.”
“An old debate, Felix—the rights of Science and the rights of Prudence.”
“Though I am a scientist, Anselm, I would rather err in the direction of prudence, considering the calamitous mistakes made by the scientists who brought the Kosmos to Regnum Pacis, and who probably are responsible for the Earth’s present silence.”
We regarded each other mutely for some moments. As I pondered what he had told me, I saw that he had a point. Yet his decision had been made, in human terms, entirely on his own; he had consulted no one but God. How well had he heard what God was saying? How subjective had he been, really? Did he have a right to do what he had done? On the other hand, the invention was his own. The materials he had used were his own. He had been asked by the Commonwealth to apply his gifts to the project, but he had never been their salaried employee; he was not paid by anyone. He had rendered a gratuitous service that was already an enormous achievement, one that would in all likelihood be of great benefit to mankind regardless of how few the flights to the ship. Little did I know that he would not live to see this happen. A few months later, he would succumb to a massive heart attack while working in his lab at the science center near Foundation City.
“Will you tell the committee soon?” I asked.
“Yes, at tomorrow’s meeting. But I thought you should hear first. You played an important part in the decision.”
“Did I?” I said uneasily.
“Horizons, Anselm”, he said with a thoughtful smile. “True horizons.”
He had nothing more to say. Nor had I. We both rose to our feet, shook hands, and bid each other good night. He went off to pray in the abbey nave, and I to the choir, where I knelt down close to altar. The vigil lamp by the tabernacle gently flickered in the darkness, and it held my eyes for a time as peace slowly returned.
It seemed to me that this small light was not like the wavering lamp of human knowledge but was instead a beacon in the great sea of being, pointing to the Presence who is always with us until the end of time, and pointing to the true horizon where he dwells in eternal communion.
“Look up”, sang the little flame as it danced. “Look up to the heavens beyond the heavens.”
[Handwritten note found on the body of Dr. Neil Ruiz de Hoyos, physicist, contributing designer of spaceship Kosmos; born planet Earth, circa 2029 E-y; deceased during voyage, 2122 E-y (10 RP-y).]
Where were you when I established the earth?
Speak, if you are capable of judging!
Who has determined its measure, if you know it,
Or who has stretched the measuring line over it?
Upon what are the bases of its pillars founded,
Or who has laid its corner-stone,
When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
—Job 38:4-7
NRdH
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
If, in our wild imaginings mingled with speculative thought on what might be, we do not forget that our baleful “folys” are entwined with purest longing for the things that are above, we may better comprehend our horizon. Even so, by long labor, the unknown craftsman, with his hammer and saw and wood, leaves a greater sign: the spiral staircase of St. Joseph stands, as it has for the past century and a half, in the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
NOTES
1 Here, along with his title, the over-god’s proper name is used for the first time in the codex. The hieroglyphics are unique to his name, presently undecipherable. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
2 Literally, “spilling human blood”; this may or may not signify the death of the sacrificial offering. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
3 My phrase, “a heaven in the heavens” for the literal, “a god-realm [singular] in the god-realms [plural] above-waters”. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
4 Numerical values are represented pictographically with a symbol of the human hand. One hand with fingers and thumb extended represents five. The latter capped with a slash represents ten. Thus, eighteen is represented by a single hand with slash, beside which is a single hand without a slash, beside which is a hand with three fingers. The hands are linked by a single underline. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
5 Presumably a female idol in the royal temple. Back to text.
6 The number 380 is represented by three hands surmounted by a single horizontal line, which is surmounted by ten vertical checks, then follows eight hands surmounted by a slash, the whole underscored by a single line. The sum is estimated, yet is consistent with other verifiable numerical values such as eighteen and seven. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
7 “Many” is represented by a single hand within a circle, number uncertain. —D.I. Mirza Back to text.
8 The pictograph combines the serpent sign, the name of the Lord of the Night-gods, and that of a four-legged beast with a long tail. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
9 The pictograph is complexified by the signs for “offspring” and “servant”.— D. I. Mirza Back to text.
10 My punctuation. Alternative is: “Slay the fool in the forest. You must slay also. . .”, etc. D. I. Mirza Back to text.
11 Presumably, this means the dawn, when the diffused light of the cloud cover returned. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
12“Very” is represented by a hand in circle with stroke through middle. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
13 This short line is followed by the symbols for blood, sexual intercourse, and a hand within a circle—signifying “many”. —D. I. Mirza Back to text.
a B.P. = Before Present. — Zheng. Back to text.
Michael D. O'Brien, Voyage to Alpha Centauri: A Novel
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