Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (54 page)

These questions
must be answered from the perspective of a historian and not that
of a priest, fanatic or even one who was directly involved at the
time. Personal involvement must suggest emotional response, which
is never objective.

That the aliens
were real couldn't be denied. They weren't a trick of one or
another church. All churches – exclusive of Ith – were as much as
destroyed by the fact there were any aliens to come here.
Ithianism, by its very nature, simply wouldn't care.

The aliens
brought some small being with tentacles who was supposedly from a
planet called Menta. It always seemed to be far the most
intelligent among them when everything was later considered if only
because it kept its mouth (figuratively. It didn't speak, or I
should say, "vocalize," directly) shut and merely observed,
inserting comments at rare times and with rare insight.

There was the
huge hairy one they called a Vendan and the one who was almost like
a Kroon except that his skin was one-colored – and that an ordinary
pinkish off-white. He was supposed to be from a world called
Terra.

That ship! It
was enormous and reportedly was made of pure platinum.

To be quite
honest, Kroon WASN'T doing well at all so I must suppose they had
the right to attempt to save us from ourselves. Everyone who was
NOT from a church, plus the Ithians, seemed to like them. That
fellow who had been employed by the television station as a
cameraman wrote some things far more telling than anything those
politicians and priests ever wrote.

Brother! The
representatives of the churches didn't like them! Not at all!
They’re still crying about it, even though their churches are gone.
It seems there are always a few who will cling to an idea no matter
how dead it is.

It's more than
the halfyear since they left and things are still not settled in
any way, though the small wars have become much less. As they were
mostly fighting among different sects that was to be expected. Like
it or not, the Mentan was right when it said the only thing we ever
got from our churches was war, intolerance and blind hatred.

I've tried to
be honest in researching the history of Kroon through the history
of its various religions and find it to be unjustifiable from any
position. It really is a sad and bloody heritage those churches
have given us. Enn Far, from the Ithian church, has worked very
long and hard to try to straighten the sordid mess out and will
certainly be elected representative to the council. That's
foregone. He was the only Kroon who made any sense through the
contact, which was quite an accomplishment in itself. Almost
everyone else involved had been nothing less than an embarrassment
to the Kroon race. That their actions and statements were more
reprehensible than responsible is another of those undeniable
facts.

I'm called Hal
Korr and am a historian. I was in the jungles of Frite with the
anthropological team who earlier discovered the ancient ruins of
the Kitronchitlan race. Our "dig" returned less than ten days ago
so I didn't know of any of this mess until I stepped on the ground
from our ship. It was my first knowledge anything had happened in
my short absence. I seldom listened to the newscasts on shipboard
as there was no reception in the Jeurne Valley where I spent the
past year so perhaps I can be somewhat more analytical about it, my
having lived through the time in rather extreme isolation from the
whole thing.

That's the
sworn duty of a historian. I must make no judgments in what I
record, but must write the facts. That is ALL!

As I
understand, these aliens landed in their spaceship saying they were
merely on vacation from some empire and had happened on Kroon so
stopped to look around. There were a number of small wars in the
desert over those silly scrolls. (Sorry, I'll try not to make
judgments. I MUST not make judgments! Only a moment ago I said I
would stop doing that.) The aliens flew over to demand the wars
stop, then flew over all the major cities on the world where the
various militaries fired every type of our weapons with no effect
on them whatever. They came to ground near the capital where they
met with the politicians from the old churches to set up a
worldwide television show where that idiot, Gu Verdeen, (Sorry – I
DID PROMISE not to do that!) and those others made absolute fools
of themselves. The priests and religio-politicians were seemingly
easily manipulated into making claims that were demonstrably untrue
by dint of the fact of the aliens' BEING here. The Great Vision of
Soolinn was shown to be totally false, causing the end to that ...
to one arm of the most powerful church on the world of Kroon.

When the
teachings of Soolinn fell the rest of the branches growing from his
worship were dragged along with the Church of the Vision. Gui
Veltree was soon manipulated into acting like some kind of idiot –
but then she always had acted that way. (Again! I MUST show NO
bias! I'm going to have to rewrite this whole thing! Note:
re-transcribe this before printing.)

I have to study
those tapes. I've been told all the aliens did was to point out
exactly how ridiculous the ideas were when the priesthood
contradicted themselves so completely and so often.

I'm assuming
manipulation through rhetoric. These churches have had more than a
thousand years to learn how to slip out from under tight spots by
THEMSELVES manipulating language. That was only poetic justice.

Perhaps I'm
wrong. I'll gladly admit that if it's true. Now the Ithians are in
power, but they had by advice from the aliens made a world council
bid. They set up a form of government to be run by council, not by
the churches, so the religions are denied any voice in the
government. I suppose that will last but awhile. Kroon doesn't have
a history of keeping a thing that's good – not for very long. Some
new religion will arise to take power and we'll be as bad off as
ever. It won't be the Ithians as that kind of "religion" has no
base for power. They believe there may or may not be a god or gods
but if there are gods it's irrelevant. These gods, should they even
exist, certainly don't care what we do.

If one studies
history one tenth as much as I have he can't fail to see their
point. There are no strongly religious members in the historical
studies guild. The results of earlier points about what heritage we
have from the churches ensures this will persevere. I am, however,
somewhat less than pleased with the demands being made upon my time
as these people insist I make speeches. I'm a recording historian,
not an orator. I'm able enough when it comes to that. I simply feel
it an imposition on time better spent elsewhere. I AM primarily a
teacher. I would personally much prefer that I be left alone to
pursue my studies. I'm not certain this society's worth the trouble
or that it'll last. As I say, we have a history of doing the wrong
thing at precisely the wrong time. History is NOT going to treat
kindly what we had and it isn't at alllikely it'll be any more
kindly disposed to what's replacing it.

One thing Enn
Far did that WILL be a positive point in history is his disarmament
pact. This is the first time in our existence we haven't been armed
to our ears and in some kind of war with, as the Mentan is supposed
to have said, "our own kind." It seems we would be better disposed
to get along with aliens than with others of the Kroon race.

Is that true
elsewhere? If so how would I research it? I think I would very
greatly have enjoyed conversation with the Mentan. Like all the
aliens it was bluntly truthful to us about ourselves. Its
statement, including the above, is reported as, "You have the
effrontery to ask us to allow you congress with the Maitan Empire?
There are several thousands of worlds already a part of the empire
who are vastly different from you and even from any of us on this
ship. They get along very well with one another as you can see from
this little group. No two of us even slightly resemble one another.
You seem unable to get along with your own kind. To think of you
coexisting among the peoples of the empire is ludicrous!"

I'm ashamed to
have to admit I fully agree with that painful but true assessment.
We CAN'T get along with our own kind. We have NEVER gotten along
with others on Kroon and, if history is truly the best prophet, we
never will.

The fall of the
old churches is also a good thing in another perspective: They had
become purely political organizations vying for power among
themselves. There was no freedom or choice left to the people.
Ithianism will end that for a time.

When I think of
it I'm not surprised these three aliens and their intelligent
machine were able to topple the old church system. The priesthoods
had become so deeply ingrained in their sniping at one another all
the aliens had to do was give them powder enough and they would
blow THEMSELVES into the hell they so very loudly and long
decried.

I was
contemplating many such random things, audiblizing them into my
portable recorder as I unlocked and entered my office at the
University of Zeneye, the Capital City of Klarstenland of Kroon. I
threw my records and notes onto the desk, read my mail, checked
over my incoming assignment sheets and called records for copies of
all they had on the aliens. I would have to spend a few hours on it
to be able to deduce what had really happened and what was rumor or
direct untruth from the dispossessed.

Damn it all! I
needed this time to correlate my work of the past year and to write
my book about it! We've made some major advances in the digs in
Jeurne Valley Rift about the ancient Fricke civilization of the
Kitronchitlan race. It shouldn't have to wait just because I was
asked to make speeches about the effects on our sad history of
contact with the aliens! We wouldn't KNOW the effects for a minimum
period of hundreds of years! It will probably mean the later
leaders will be perhaps a slight bit more clever and careful in
their scheming, but nothing else will change.

Why me, damn
it?!

No sense in
getting upset. If I want to be a professor I'll have to act like
the bureaucrats think a professor should act, but damn!

I picked up the
printed-out transcription of that worldwide television broadcast,
but it wasn't good enough in written transcript, though this "Z"
character, the Terran, seemed very sharp to me. It needed
intonation and facial expressions, I decided, then decided that
intonation may be important, but facial expressions may mean
nothing in a being from a different society. There are even vast
regional differences in the area where I was recently working that
are almost directly opposite to those of this area.

I located the
cubes of the broadcast, placed them into the player on the
television monitor and sat back with the controls. I could then
stop, rewind, slow, speed up – whatever. Might as well enjoy the
show – and from what I've heard it was REALLY a show! After a full
halfyear it's still all the people talk about!

Erl Flann, that
insipid wimpish newsman from the old Vision Church, was introducing
the people. He said this one was the Terran, Z, who would answer
all the questions.

I studied the
Terran very carefully on action stop. He was but a few centimeters
shorter than Flann, had brownish hair on his head, an unusual
trait, but was otherwise very much like us. He was an even light
whitish/tan color where we have many patterns of color, but was
bipedal, had ten fingers as we do, had brownish eyes where ours
tend more to greens, reds and blues – very close, really. He seemed
confident rather than arrogant as the priests later claimed and not
at all like what the priests said previous to the show if the
papers I read were accurate.

I ran it on.
Next was the Vendan, Ape. He was large – possibly two and a half
meters, had pointed ears, was covered in a brownish-red fur that
seemed quite thick, had ten toes and fingers, each of which ended
in very sharp and strong- appearing claws. Flann explained Ape
didn't speak directly, but there was a way provided so we would
know what he wanted.

The Mentan drew
my attention. It was less than a meter, sort of a squarish globe
with four tentacles and eyes that were on short stalks atop the
globe. Flann explained it and Ape wouldn't take part in the debate,
but would observe.

I ran it
forward until there was a sudden voice from nowhere. Flann jumped
and asked what it was.

It was the
machine that keeps the records and reports for the aliens. I
immediately saw how the churches were made to appear as ridiculous
as they, in reality, are. The machine stated that as all had agreed
to hold a debate the rules should be reviewed before they began
their discussion or questionings. Flann became rather flustered and
stuttered about, then asked the machine to state the rules. I
decided right there was the point where the churches lost the
debate. One thing I know about debates is that one concedes any
point starting into the arguments. That is defeat before the battle
is joined. I saw right then how this broadcast was designed to be a
debacle for the churches. I would think those priests would have
better sense. They had many centuries of practice in those same
tactics.

I ran the tape
on. Everyone could ask and answer questions, including the alien,
Z, and Erl Flann. Each must wait his natural turn and no personal
attacks were to be permitted. The broadcast was to run without
interruption until they were through. Not bad. I expected a clever
trick in the rules, but it hadn't materialized. My respect for
these aliens grew.

Flann
introduced the people from the churches, Gu Verdeen from the Church
of the Great and True Vision, Gu Needja (Idiot!) of the Church of
the Fundamental Truth, Gui Veltree (I've heard of her punishment
when she spitefully brought charges against others and was shown to
have maliciously lied) of the old Church of the True Believers, Gu
Ipth represented the Foes of Grumm and Gui Imtree represented the
Church of the Sciencers.