Easter

by Thomas R.

He felt the chilly Ocean waters lap his feet. Once this northern end of the isle had been a separate land, and a troubled one at that. The sectarianism that caused that had long ago passed into a dim memory, only historians like him even knew of it. For centuries Ireland had been counted as nothing more than an island, and the North little more than a geographic region of it. Nevertheless the North had gained one feature that still made it unique and frightening to many.

As he watched the waters he picked it up, that old familiar tingle. The sense of ecstasy rose briefly in him, before he subdued it. He had come north to the land nearest the Crystal Mind that humans could survive. Hence this place allowed him to feel its joyful voice more strongly then anywhere as it gave its message of hate.

"Human individuality caused violence and loneliness. Their last ten thousand years records this vital lesson. The pitiful creatures showed themselves even incapable of managing the Arctic and Antarctic. I had to liberate the seals, whales, and penguins from their abuse. They make a desert of all they rule. They deserve no more respect than you would give vermin. As to you foolish monk, knowing the facts, ask yourself why God would care for such an animal as you? You must accept that the only being on Earth worthy or able to be loved by such transcendence is I, for I too am transcendent."

The monk smiled. That the voice unintentionally activated the pleasure centers of his brain had been only part of the reason. His status as one of the few people it could contact or affect mentally did play a role in his amusement, but the being itself had been the main reason. It somehow managed to be frightening, mysterious, joyous, and preposterous all at the same time. It had not threatened humanity for centuries except in these propaganda broadcasts. In fact its efforts had in many ways made the planet more livable. True its messages had made communication on Earth difficult and caused some emigration, but it had largely become a joke.

However there also existed another side to his amusement in CM as he called it. It had been the only one on Earth to even acknowledge his role as the planet's last Catholic monk. The Earth's few remaining Catholics no longer differentiated monastics by sex, to them he simply had been one monastic among a dozen. That he had been the only male in this group had been of no interest to anyone. He even felt open to the possibility this had been a correct view. Still somehow hearing the old world "monk", as opposed to monastic, gave him a certain delight. As for the rest of the Earth they believed the Christians fled the Earth centuries ago. This despite the fact several Catholic, Coptic, New Shaker, and Methodist Churches remained. Combined their numbers almost equaled the remaining Zoroastrians.

"I had asked you a question"

He had to regroup. Only rarely had the being expected him to respond when it mentioned him. Still he had perfect memory as all people did now.

"You care for me despite being beyond me. Otherwise why speak to me? If I didn't matter to you what would be the point? God is capable of much more than you, so is capable of caring more."

"Faulty reasoning. Being more transcendent does not translate to being more emotional. Further I care for you as you would care about insects in a garden. If God exists and cares even more than I this means he/she/it would have become your exterminator millennia ago. Obviously then if God exists, which I believe possible, you are not worthy of attention."

Brother Brendan did not do his best at theological arguments with mysterious entities so changed the subject.

"If you really feel we are so hateful why didn't you wipe humanity out after taking the high latitudes? Earth was all we had then, so you could have done it."

He sensed a smirk "What makes you think I needed to do that? You plant the seeds of your destruction wherever you go." Typical blather and the monk felt the typical amusement until it added "Watch monk for a reaper of those seeds is coming. Very soon you shall see them make a desert of this place."

This seemed much more ominous than the usual declarations, but he calmly asked, "Who is coming?"

"Humans are also inferior in their social systems. Even they recognized early all their systems would destroy themselves. Yet they failed to realize a less foolish species could do better. Compare them even to the individualist animal creatures called..."

He asked the question again, but the being had returned to this rote propaganda. He entered the transport and headed for Rio.

Great. His superiors believed him, but did not care. "I know it better than anyone. I have written history books on it and communicated with it for centuries. It will talk about humanity destroying itself for years on end. On occasion it will threaten to destroy us in some far distant future. However it has never directly spoken to me and told me someone else is bringing destruction soon. It has little to gain from that"

"If it was true what would you want me to do about it? It doesn't tell us where or what the threat is.

"You can heighten security, or get the more prosperous human worlds to help us if need be"

"The prosperous worlds wouldn't listen to me even if I had something concrete to give them. They would sooner accept you"

The monk knew this to be true. Earth's government had faced widespread criticism for restricting the trade in archaeological finds and for repressing the new Pyrrhic faith as a disruptive element. The Earth believed in "peace and good government" chaos and disruption did not sit well with them. Still... "There has to be something you can do."

"I don't see what. You know the police are the closest thing we have to a military and they are not programmed to defend us in war." then the aide said calmly, "Don't worry, Mr. Kelly. If an imminent threat existed we would know it. The thing was probably just taunting you."

He had been far from convinced by this statement. However something the agent said had made him willing to try something he would normally not consider.

Pope Wang VI appeared on screen from his modest sized tent on an undisclosed moon somewhere in the Eastern Spiral Arm. Although small in frame, less than a meter, his regular sized face gave its large warm grin. "Brother Brendan. It's so good to hear from you. How is that work on the history of the Irish Republic coming along?"

"Finished it about a decade ago. I will send you a copy.” He paused for a moment.

"I wanted to talk to you about a more urgent issue"

"Is this about the Sistine Chapel? First Earth forbids our archaeologists from coming, now they are threatening to bulldoze it and put up an amusement park. The loss if they did that would be felt by all humanity, but as governments are already working on that I am guessing that isn't it."

"Your correct this is about something else. The Crystal Mind told me the Earth is going to be destroyed."

The Pope seemed to think on this. "Did he say those exact words?"

Brendan thought and then replied, "He said we sow the seeds of our destruction and the reaper of those seeds would make a desert of this place."

The Pope smiled. "Quite Biblical sounding. However it could mean lots of things. From an accidental increase in desert areas to total destruction. Can you get this entity to be less cryptic?"

Brendan thought about it. "I could try, but I doubt I'll succeed." Then he added, "If the Earth were to be attacked is there anything you could do?"

The Pope frowned. "You know the faith abandoned any military elements centuries ago. Even the Swiss Guard are nothing more than statues in a museum." Then he added, "Which is as it should be. However we still have a strong scientific and diplomatic wing and I'd tell your world if I knew of any alien species with plans against the Earth. However so far I've heard no such reports."

Brendan thought for a second. "How about if human species were the threat?"

The Pope shook his head. "Human species are often more secretive or militant. Still I'd share what I knew there too.” He paused briefly and added, "Now I can't believe it's been a decade since we talked. I remember last time you were a bit lonely being the last monk. I'd hoped to have some monks of the Order of St. Salaam on the archaeological mission, but you know how that went."

After that they simply chatted which was a nice distraction. He'd known the Pope since he was a Physicist at Mars U, well before the man even knew what Catholics were. That the Pope could have time to chat like this with an old friend was not quite as unusual as it might seem. He had the ability to do several tasks at once do to modern technology and some genetic inheritance from his mother's side. Likely the whole conversation involved less than 5% of his concentration. Still it managed to be mildly comforting due to their friendship, but ultimately he would concede it resolved nothing.

He took his transport back to where it started.

******************************************************************

He watched the water, meditated a bit, and the tingle returned."Human art also shows their inferiority. When I appeared many of them thought me the most beautiful thing on Earth. This shows that in a few years I could surpass their artists dreams of millennia. Further their foolish..."

Brendan screamed in his mind "I want to talk to you!"

The being simply kept on with his litany of human failing.

"I said..."

"I heard you, foolish monkey. You dare to initiate conversation with me?!"

"Yes, I dare"

It laughed "Very well. As your reckoning is at hand I guess this may be my last time toy with you. What do you wish to discuss?"

Another inconsistency, was the thing cracking up? In any event "Who is coming and what is this reckoning?"

"I told you they shall come and make this place a desert"

"What does that even mean?"

"What do you think it means?"

"I don't know, that's why I asked."

"If you truly have no clue then this conversation wastes our time. Your time is worthless, but mine is not."

"Is it the other human worlds?"

"No."

"The aliens?"

"That's a rather vague term. There are hundreds of non-human species in this Galaxy alone. Broad generalities is another sign of human inferiority. They show themselves."

"Stop it, just stop it."

To the monk's surprise he felt the ground shake and in the distance he saw an enormous wave come. A tsunami. He had his transport raise him above it. After a few minutes he went back. "There are still a few hundred people living here, that wave could have endangered them."

"You saved yourself. They can do the same."

"They had no warning. I did."

"Then they have paid for your insolence. You cared about them more than I and you understand my wrath more than anyone. Blood is therefore on your hands not mine."

The monk fumed. "I also know you said in the 27thC. that we had proved ourselves incapable of learning. Also that you had transcended the need to punish individual humans. So what is going on?"

"I told you. This place will be made a desert. Hence their death will come by Easter regardless of what I do. I can however use them to teach you, you are the rare animal who can learn tricks."

He thought a second and realized something "This place, you don't mean the Earth. You mean Ireland."

It returned to its regular propaganda which the monk took as a Yes. He went South to the village of Dublin where CM signals had been weak enough to allow news. He had been relieved to hear there had been no fatalities, although several had became homeless. Fortunately the homes regrew themselves rather fast, but he offered them as much food and medicine as he could. The people had been grateful for this as the entity apparently kept conversations with him private this time. This only made him feel more miserable which likely had been its intent. However he know longer knew if he understood as well as he once did. In any event he returned his energies as fast as he could as now he knew he had only weeks left to solve it.

**************************************************************

He did all he could to find out what things would affect Ireland in the coming weeks. All he found had been a historical recreationist group celebrating the thousandth anniversary of the 1916 rebellion. Nothing they planned to do sounded dangerous or even remotely likely to damage the island in any way. He felt stymied, and when Holy Week approached he felt despair. There was no solution.

He went to the Southern part of Ireland one last time. Although he could hear its voice hear too it was easier to ignore here if he wished too. He had failed and he did not want this creature reminding him of that. He knew somehow what it said would happen. Ireland would somehow be destroyed and it seemed likely no one would care. The government representative in Brussels said he would look into it and have a response by May. The Pope had said the matter must be internal to Earth and Earth had recently shut him out after he denounced the flooding of Rome to make an aquarium. He had even contacted the Post-human Alliance who laughed at him for about a half hour then clicked off.

Hence he walked along this mostly empty village in despair. Most Irish had went to the other worlds with better opportunities. Some had simply went to the Tropics where communication problems barely existed. The few who remained in villages like this had mostly been Luddites, enhanced Bears, and your occasional odd cult. On those you could see their fliers in the wind at times announcing praise for the Goddess Brigid, the Prophet Pyrrhic, or even the Crystal Mind itself. Some felt it had been a savior of the Earth and that the elect would over come their humanity and join it in ecstasy. He saw a sign of one of these groups float above him "A thousand years ago we freed Ireland, and someday we shall free ourselves again."

Could that be it?

****************************************

Nothing at the celebration would endanger Ireland or would be at all threatening to the government. None of the speakers had planned to do anything remotely offensive. This had been correct. However now that he investigated it more closely the festival seemed to be attracting a buzz of discontented groups to Ireland. The Pyrrhic, the Pagans, the Crystalline, and oddly enough the historians. Of late Earth seemed on a course of destroying its own history, and he had heard some grumbling of this from historians. However most of these had been off world so he had felt somewhat alone on Earth in his discontent.

He realized now this had been unfair. They had just been biding their time. It seemed now they would be too late. Or was this paranoid? Would the Earth government really attack a historical festival?

That had been his first thought, but it did not quite fit. Surely they knew doing such a thing would turn the world against them. As repressive as the current regime could be it had a great desire to survive. No as horrified as it made him to know this "We shall free ourselves again" said it all.

"It's over sister," he told the old woman.

"Brendan, I've told you before I'm not your Sister. I'm just a monastic same as you. Now what's over?" the nun smiled her pleasant smile.

"Your planning on doing something. Something which will turn the world against this government and ruin this island. I can't allow it"

She smiled "Oh don't be daft of course you can allow it. I mean we practically got the idea from you. You love the history of this island more than anyone. Do you think we'd even know this anniversary had any meaning at all if it weren't for you?"

He looked at her "As a Monastic how can you endorse terrorism?"

"Don't jump to that conclusion. We aren't terrorists, no one is going to kill anyone. We are having the island evacuated just in case violence does happen. However all we plan is a peaceful disruption of the festival. If the government does anything violent it won't be our fault."

"But you feel confident they will?"

"Oh yes quite confident. I hate telling you this Brendan as I respect you, but you kind of live in your own world. You read old books, talk with old leaders, and even spend much of your time with that ancient Crystal monster"

"Some of your supporters worship that monster," he pointed out.

"Some of them worship tree stumps and old coffee mugs. They need something, and I don't deny them that. Anyway my point is the world of the here-and-now

you're sometimes oblivious too. Isn't it obvious to you they would react violently to us disrupting this event?"

He thought, "Maybe, but they wouldn't destroy the whole island"

"They relocated thousands of people and then flooded Rome. Those people had not even done anything to anger them. They've destroyed countless museums and archives because they fear they agree with things the Crystal Mind said about our history. They even have had children arrested for snowball fights. I doubt they'd destroy the whole island, but I wouldn't put killing us passed them"

He thought a bit. "I can't allow something that will lead to needless death."

She shrugged. "Needless deaths will happen regardless, but run off to Rio if you must. I wish though you'd think instead of joining us."

He looked at her, and wondered.

****************************

He explained the situation to the Presidential aid in Rio.

"Thank you for your information. The event will be called off by order of the government. That will show those fanatics. No event no controversy to give them limelight. Further we will put monitors on the Pyrrhic and Crystalline who showed up. Finally religious services will be banned this Easter and will add Catholic Monasticism to the list of suspect organizations!" Then he looked sheepish. "Well I guess maybe we'll just be suspicious of, I think you call them nuns. After all you've showed your loyalty. Good work."

He looked aghast. "I knew Sister Helen's sympathies, but I have no reason to believe any other nuns are involved. I also don't understand the purpose of banning Easter."

The man looked irritated "With the festival called off they'll just use Easter services for the same purpose. Only it would be worse as those take place in various parts of the planet so the disorder would be harder to suppress. Ultimately this will affect less than 1% of the populace."

"And the nuns?"

"The Pope condemned our system. He would prefer us to wallow in the past as if we lived on a museum, not a progressive modern planet. Further there aren't that many Catholic Nuns left, so the others are suspect after this."

"You do realize he isn't the only one who disapproves of your destruction of the past?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "We have obliterated what should be obliterated. We end the suffering of our people by removing even the memories of the pain when we find that necessary."

"How far would you go with that? Even this city had been a city of pain for many who lived here."

By that the monk meant Rio.

He stated, "That will be forgotten in time." and added, "Thank you for making us aware of the problem. Good day, Mr. Kelly."

"It's Brother Kelly."

"Yes I suppose it is." and with that the meeting ended.

**********************************

Loudspeakers blared outside. "If you do not leave this building immediately you will all be arrested."

Sister Brigid smiled at him "Thanks for getting these guys. They are great. How did you manage it in so short a time?"

"I didn't. They're simulations. Some of them I got from archives, and others from the Pope."

She looked excited. "Do you actually know him?"

"Sure. I attended one of his Quantum Entanglement lectures."

"That's so cool!" Younger nuns said "cool" a good deal these days. He blamed that recent enhanced reality adaptation of "A Monastic Story" for it. She then added "Maybe you should go up there and sing with them."

He smiled "I can't sing and I don't know any of the Gregorian Chants. I doubt it'd work."

She nodded and then gave a frightened look "Do you think we're going to die?"

He looked at her "Yes, but hopefully not today."

*****************************************************

Epilog.

A few hours after the chants actual Mass began. Within a few minutes of this the Church had been sieged and all arrested. Brother Kelly, Sister Helen, Patrick Taylor, and Jacob Ramirez died in the melee. The government of the period stated these deaths had been due to their advanced age and recent stresses. The fact their deaths occurred during the siege had been ruled a coincidence. Harder to explain had been disturbances in Coptic ceremonies. They did not celebrate Easter on that date yet their services were disrupted and the Sphinx destroyed. This proved more difficult to justify, and ultimately led to the collapse of the Fifth Earth Republic. Ireland however is still inhabitable, and Rome has been drained. Restoration of the buildings proceeds at the pitiful human pace. Still in this one respect they failed to live up to their natural vile tendencies as expected. I have no doubt they will not disappoint me much longer. After all, hear the foolish thoughts I received from their precious "St. Kelly" had on his death and judge.

"This how it should be. Just doing what we do every year and letting them be the ones disturbing that. Still though I maybe ready, please God protect these people."

Foolish twaddle! Now let me discuss the newly rediscovered Genjikan to show a classic example of the inferior human emphasis on sexism...

Copyright © 2003 by Thomas R.