Speaker 1: Divinity by William Morrison. Bradley had one fear in his life.
Speaker 1: He had to escape regeneration. To do that, he was
Speaker 1: willing to take any chance, coward though he was, even
Speaker 1: if it meant that he had to become a god.
Speaker 1: Bradley seemed to have escaped regeneration now he only had
Speaker 1: death to worry about. Ten minutes before, he'd been tumbling
Speaker 1: through the air head over heels, helpless and despairing. And
Speaker 1: before that, he remembered how his heart had been in
Speaker 1: his mouth as he crept down the corridor of the
Speaker 1: speeding ship. He could hear Malevsky's voice coming faintly through
Speaker 1: one of the walls, and he had been tempted to
Speaker 1: run back, fearful of being shot down on the spot
Speaker 1: if he were caught. He had fought back the temptation
Speaker 1: and kept on. No one had seen him as he
Speaker 1: crept into the lifeboat. This is your one chance, he
Speaker 1: told himself. You have to take it. If they get
Speaker 1: you back to port, you're finished. Luck had been with him.
Speaker 1: They were broadcasting the results of the Mars earth matches
Speaker 1: at the time, and most of the crew were grouped
Speaker 1: around the visors. He had picked the moment when news
Speaker 1: came of a sensational upset, and for a minute or
Speaker 1: two after the lifeboat blasted off, no one realized what
Speaker 1: had happened. When the truth did penetrate, they had a
Speaker 1: hard time swinging the ship around, and by then the lifeboat.
Speaker 2: Was out of radar range. He was free.
Speaker 1: He had exulted wildly for the moment, until it struck
Speaker 1: him that freedom and space might be a doubtful gift.
Speaker 1: He would have to get to some civilized port, commence
Speaker 1: the port authorities that he had been shipwrecked and somehow
Speaker 1: separated from other crew members, and then lose himself quickly
Speaker 1: in the crowd of people that he hoped would fill
Speaker 1: the place. There would be risks, but he would take them.
Speaker 1: It would be better than running out of air and
Speaker 1: food in space. It had been the best possible plan,
Speaker 1: and it had gone wrong, all wrong. He had been
Speaker 1: caught before he knew it, in the gravity of a
Speaker 1: planet he had overlooked. The lifeboat had torn apart under
Speaker 1: the combined stresses of its forward momentum and its side
Speaker 1: rockets blasting full force, and he had been hurled free
Speaker 1: in a spacesuit, falling slowly at first then faster, faster, faster.
Speaker 1: The automatic parachutes had suddenly sprung into operation when he
Speaker 1: reached a critical speed, and he had slowed down and
Speaker 1: stopped tumbling. He fell more gently, feet first, and when
Speaker 1: he landed it was with a shock that jarred but
Speaker 1: did no real damage. Slowly he picked himself up and
Speaker 1: fumbled at the air valve. Something in the intake tubes
Speaker 1: had jammed under the shock of landing, and the air
Speaker 1: was no longer circulating properly filled with the moisture of
Speaker 1: his own breath had felt hot and clammy and clouded
Speaker 1: the viewplates. If he had kept all his wits about him,
Speaker 1: he would have tried to remember before he took a
Speaker 1: chance whether the planet had an oxygen atmosphere, and whether
Speaker 1: the the oxygen was of sufficient concentration to support human life.
Speaker 1: Not that he had had any real choice, but it
Speaker 1: would have been good to know as it was. He
Speaker 1: turned the air valve automatically and listened nervously as the
Speaker 1: stale air hissed out and the fresh air hissed in.
Speaker 1: He took a deep breath. It didn't kill him. Instead,
Speaker 1: it sent his blood racing around with new energy. Slowly,
Speaker 1: the moisture evaporated from his viewplates. Slowly he began to see.
Speaker 1: He perceived that he was not alone. A group of
Speaker 1: people stood in front of him, respectful, their own eyes
Speaker 1: full of fear and wonder. Some one uttered a hoarse
Speaker 1: cry and pointed at his helmet. The unclouding of the
Speaker 1: viewplates must have stricken them with awe. The air was
Speaker 1: wonderful to breathe. He would have liked to remove his
Speaker 1: helmet and fill his lungs with it unhampered, exposed his
Speaker 1: face to its soft caress, expand his chest with the
Speaker 1: constriction of the suit. But these people, they must have
Speaker 1: seen him tumble down from the sky and land unhurt.
Speaker 1: They carried food and flowers, and now they were kneeling
Speaker 1: down to him as to a Suddenly he realized to
Speaker 1: them he was a god. The thought of it made
Speaker 1: him weak. To Malevsky and the ship's crew, he was
Speaker 1: a criminal, a cheap chiseler and pickpocket, almost a murderer,
Speaker 1: escaping credit for that crime only by grace of his
Speaker 1: own good luck and his victim's thick skull. They had
Speaker 1: felt such contempt for him that they hadn't even bothered
Speaker 1: to guard him too carefully. They had thought him a
Speaker 1: complete coward, without the courage to risk an escape, without
Speaker 1: the intelligence to find the opportunities that might be offered
Speaker 1: to him. They hadn't realized how terrified he was of
Speaker 1: the thing with which they threatened him. Regeneration, the giving
Speaker 1: up of his old identity, not for him. They hadn't
Speaker 1: realized that he preferred the risks of a dangerous escape
Speaker 1: to the certainty of that. And here he was a god.
Speaker 1: He lifted his hand without thinking, to wipe away the
Speaker 1: perspiration that covered his forehead. But before the hand touched
Speaker 1: his helmet, he realized what he was doing and let
Speaker 1: the hand drop again. To the people watching him, the
Speaker 1: gesture must have seen one of double significance. It was
Speaker 1: at once a sign of accepting their food and flowers
Speaker 1: and their offer of good will, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: in order to withdraw, they bowed and moved backwards away
Speaker 1: from him. Behind him, they left their gifts. They seemed human,
Speaker 1: human enough for the features on the men's faces to
Speaker 1: impress him as strong and resourceful, for him to recognize
Speaker 1: that the women were attractive, and if they were human,
Speaker 1: the food must be fit for human beings, whether it
Speaker 1: was or wasn't. However, again he had no choice. He
Speaker 1: waited until they were out of sight, and then stiffly
Speaker 1: he removed his helmet and ate. The food tasted good,
Speaker 1: and with his helmet off, with the wind in his
Speaker 1: face and the woods around him whispering in his ears,
Speaker 1: it was a meal fit for the being they thought
Speaker 1: him to be.
Speaker 2: He was a god. Possibly it was.
Speaker 1: The space suit which made him one, especially the gogglied helmet.
Speaker 1: He could take no chance of becoming an ordinary mortal,
Speaker 1: and that would mean he would have to wear the
Speaker 1: space suit continually, or at least the helmet. That he
Speaker 1: decided was what he would do that would leave his
Speaker 1: body reasonably free and at the same time impressed them
Speaker 1: with the fact that he was different from them. By
Speaker 1: manipulating the air valve, he would be able to make
Speaker 1: the viewplates cloud and uncloud at will, thus giving dramatic
Speaker 1: expression to his feelings. It would be a pleasant game
Speaker 1: to play until he had learned something of their language.
Speaker 1: It would be safer than trying to make things clear
Speaker 1: to them with speech and gestures that they could not understand.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: He wondered how long it would be before Malevski would
Speaker 1: find the shattered lifeboat drifting in space, and then trace
Speaker 1: its course and decide where he had landed. That would
Speaker 1: be the end of his divinity. Meanwhile, until then, until then,
Speaker 1: he was a god, unregenerated, permanently unregenerated. Holding his helmet,
Speaker 1: he threw back his head and laughed loud and long,
Speaker 1: and wondered what his mother would have thought. For a
Speaker 1: while he was being left alone. They were afraid of him,
Speaker 1: of course, fearful of intruding with their merely mortal affairs
Speaker 1: upon the meditations of so divine a being. Later, however,
Speaker 1: curiosity and perhaps a desire to show him off to newcomers,
Speaker 1: might draw them back. In the interval, it would be
Speaker 1: well to find out what sort of place this was
Speaker 1: in which he had landed. He looked around him. There
Speaker 1: were trees with sharp green branches, sharp green twigs, sharp
Speaker 1: red leaves. He shuddered as he thought what would have
Speaker 1: happened to him if he had fallen on the point
Speaker 1: of a branch. The trees seemed rigid and unbending in
Speaker 1: the wind that caressed his face. There were no birds,
Speaker 1: so that he could see small black objects bounded from
Speaker 1: one branch to another, as if engaged in complicated games
Speaker 1: of tag. He wondered if the games were as serious
Speaker 1: as the one he had been playing with Malevsky with
Speaker 1: himself as it there were no ground animals in sight.
Speaker 1: If any showed up later, they couldn't be too dangerous,
Speaker 1: not with the natives living here in such apparent peace
Speaker 1: and contentment. There probably wouldn't be anything that his pocket gun,
Speaker 1: which he had taken the precaution to remove from the
Speaker 1: lifeboat before that shattered, wouldn't be able to handle. Near
Speaker 1: him was a strange spring or little river, or whatever
Speaker 1: you might call it. It broke from the ground, ran
Speaker 1: along the hard, rocky surface for a dozen feet, and
Speaker 1: then plunged underground again. There were other springs of a
Speaker 1: similar nature scattered here and there, and now he realized
Speaker 1: that their combined murmuring was the noise he'd mistaken on
Speaker 1: first removing his helmet for the rustle of the wind
Speaker 1: in the woods. He would have enough to drink, The
Speaker 1: natives would bring him food. What else could any reasonable
Speaker 1: man want? It wasn't the kind of life he had
Speaker 1: dreamed of. No Martian whiskey, no drugs, no night spots,
Speaker 1: no big time gamblers, slapping him on the back and
Speaker 1: calling him pal no brassy blonds, giving him the eye. Still,
Speaker 1: it was better than the life he actually lived. Much
Speaker 1: better it would do, he would have to do. From
Speaker 1: what he had seen of the natives. He liked them
Speaker 1: and feared them. For all their mistaken faith in him.
Speaker 1: They seemed to be no fools. How many times before
Speaker 1: had men from some supposedly superior civilization dropped in upon
Speaker 1: the people of a new world and made that first
Speaker 1: impression of divinity, only to have the original attitude of
Speaker 1: worship by the natives give way to dissolution and contempt.
Speaker 1: Who was that fellow they told about in the history books?
Speaker 1: He had read as a kid Cortes way back on Earth,
Speaker 1: when that planet itself had offered unexplored territory, and later
Speaker 1: on it had happened on one of the moons of Jupiter,
Speaker 1: and on several planets outside the system. The explorers had
Speaker 1: been gods until they had been found out. Then they
Speaker 1: had been savage, murderers, plunderers, devils. It would be too
Speaker 1: bad if you were found out. He was one against
Speaker 1: them all. He would never be able to fight off
Speaker 1: so many enemies more than that. He was a stranger here.
Speaker 1: He needed friends. No, he mustn't be found out. Better,
Speaker 1: put on your helmet, dope, he told himself savagely. They'll
Speaker 1: be coming back soon, and if they find you without it.
Speaker 1: He put on his helmet, still muttering to himself. It
Speaker 1: wouldn't make any difference if you were overheard. They didn't
Speaker 1: know Earth language and would take his words for oracular utterances.
Speaker 1: He could talk to himself all he wanted, and from
Speaker 1: the looks of things, there would be no one to
Speaker 1: understand him. He hoped he didn't grow crazy and eccentric,
Speaker 1: like those hermits who had been lost alone in space
Speaker 1: for too many years. The helmet was the first nuisance.
Speaker 1: There would be others too. He couldn't even talk, and
Speaker 1: would have become his new natural manner, with a wine
Speaker 1: in every word, a wine that came from being treated
Speaker 1: with contempt by police and fellow criminals alike. A god
Speaker 1: had to speak with slow gravity, with dignity. A god
Speaker 1: had to walk like a god. A god had endless
Speaker 1: responsibilities here, it seemed. He thought again of his mother.
Speaker 1: Ever since he could remember, it had been Georgie, wipe
Speaker 1: your nose, and Georgie keep your fingers out of the cake,
Speaker 1: and Georgie, do this and don't do that. A fine
Speaker 1: way to speak to a god. Even after he had
Speaker 1: grown up, his mother had continued to treat him like
Speaker 1: a baby. She had never got over examining his face
Speaker 1: and ears and his fingernails to make sure that he
Speaker 1: had cleaned them properly. He couldn't so much as comb
Speaker 1: his hair to suit her. All through his aboardive attempt
Speaker 1: at college and later at a job, she had done
Speaker 1: it for him, But she had been a lioness in
Speaker 1: his defense later on, when he had given way to
Speaker 1: that first irresistible impulse to dip his fingers in the
Speaker 1: tail and get away with what he thought would be unnoticed,
Speaker 1: petty cash. It had been her fault that the thing
Speaker 1: had happened. Of course, she could have given him a
Speaker 1: decent amount of spending money instead of doling it out
Speaker 1: to him from his own wages, as if she were
Speaker 1: giving money for candy to a schoolboy. She could have
Speaker 1: treated him more like the man he was supposed to be. Still,
Speaker 1: he couldn't complain. She had stuck to him all the
Speaker 1: way through whatever the charges against him. When that lug
Speaker 1: of a traveling salesman had accused her Georgie of picking
Speaker 1: his pockets, and that female refugee from a TV studio
Speaker 1: had charged poor, harmless Georgie was slugging her. It was
Speaker 1: his mother who had stood up in court and denounced them,
Speaker 1: and solemnly told judge and jury what a sweet, kind,
Speaker 1: helplessly innocent lamb her Georgie was. It wasn't her fault
Speaker 1: if no one had quite believed her. Now he was
Speaker 1: on his own, without any possibility of help from her,
Speaker 1: and in what the ads called a responsible position that
Speaker 1: she had never so much as dreamed he could fill. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: now that he had reached so exalt at a level,
Speaker 1: there seemed to be few possibilities of promotion. There appeared
Speaker 1: only the chance, on the one hand, that the natives
Speaker 1: would find him out and slaughter him, and on the
Speaker 1: other that Malevsky would track him down and bring him
Speaker 1: back to Earth for the punishment.
Speaker 2: He dreaded.
Speaker 1: It was a good thing he had put on his helmet.
Speaker 1: Not far away, a group of the natives was approaching,
Speaker 1: laden with more food and flowers. It was larger than
Speaker 1: the previous group. Evidently, as he had anticipated, they were
Speaker 1: showing him off to newcomers. He came to a stately
Speaker 1: hall and waited for them to approach. He could see
Speaker 1: the surprise on their faces as they noted his change
Speaker 1: of costume, and he watched nervously as they stopped to
Speaker 1: whisper among themselves. It would be too bad for him
Speaker 1: if they didn't like it, but they didn't seem to mind.
Speaker 1: One of them, a very impressive old man with green
Speaker 1: hair flecked with red, stepped in in front of the
Speaker 1: others and made a speech, A melodious speech full of
Speaker 1: liquid sounds that were neither quite vowels nor consonants. He
Speaker 1: didn't have the slightest idea of what the individual words meant,
Speaker 1: but the significance of the speech as a whole was
Speaker 1: clear enough. As it came to an end, they presented
Speaker 1: him with more food and flowers. Bradley cleared his throat,
Speaker 1: and then, with as deep and impressive a voice as
Speaker 1: he could manage, she said, ladies and gentlemen, it gives
Speaker 1: me great pleasure to accept your nomination. I promise you that,
Speaker 1: if elected, I shall keep none of my promises. It
Speaker 1: was his first speech to them, and he enjoyed making
Speaker 1: it so much that every time he saw them. During
Speaker 1: the next few days, they settled down to coming twice
Speaker 1: a day morning. At night, he made it again, with variations,
Speaker 1: listing the wonderful things he would do for them if
Speaker 1: elected to office. After a while, as he began to
Speaker 1: enjoy the ceremony for its own sake, he didn't mind
Speaker 1: at all putting the helmet on for two short periods
Speaker 1: every day. Having so little contact with him, he could
Speaker 1: learn their language only very slowly. He could distinguish the
Speaker 1: words for flowers from that for food, although he himself
Speaker 1: could pronounce neither. He knew the names of a few plants,
Speaker 1: a few parts of the body, and he learned a
Speaker 1: few names of people. The red, green haired old man
Speaker 1: was as close as he could make. The sounds yan you.
Speaker 1: He took the trouble to notice the prettiest girl was
Speaker 1: oh Ya. At first, everything had been exceedingly peaceful, But
Speaker 1: about a week after his arrival he couldn't be exactly
Speaker 1: sure how many days had passed because he hadn't kept count.
Speaker 1: He learned of some of the dangers they faced. It
Speaker 1: was while they were holding the morning ceremony that the
Speaker 1: thing came out of the forest At first, he thought
Speaker 1: that a tree had moved. It was green, with reddish blotches,
Speaker 1: like clusters of needle leaves, and it seemed to ooze
Speaker 1: forward toward them from among the trees. Ah Ya noticed
Speaker 1: it first and pointed and screamed. It was the size
Speaker 1: of a tiger, thought Bradley, and might even be more dangerous.
Speaker 1: He had difficulty keeping his eyes on the rapidly moving
Speaker 1: creature through the goggles of his helmet. He was aware
Speaker 1: of gleaming eyes, of two rows, of dull green teeth,
Speaker 1: and of muscles that rippled under the green fur. Several
Speaker 1: of the men had little blowpipes through which they released
Speaker 1: a shower of darts, but the darts bounced off the fur,
Speaker 1: and the thing came on. Bradley fumbled for his gun
Speaker 1: and almost dropped it in his excitement. When he finally
Speaker 1: brought it up to aiming position, his hand was trembling
Speaker 1: and his finger could hardly catch the trigger. The thing
Speaker 1: leaped into the air at the old man Yanu. Just
Speaker 1: as the gun went off, the body vaporized first, leaving
Speaker 1: for a fraction of a second the fierce head and
Speaker 1: the powerful legs, apparently supporting themselves in the air. Then
Speaker 1: part of the head went and the rest fell to
Speaker 1: the ground, but sheer momentum carried the green, smoky vaporns
Speaker 1: that had surrounded the old man. Then several of the girls,
Speaker 1: and after them Bradley himself. They were all yelling, all
Speaker 1: but Bradley, who put away his gun and muttered to
Speaker 1: himself in relief. And then the wind began to dissipate
Speaker 1: the vapor, and on the ground there was left only
Speaker 1: part of a head and six torn legs. They were
Speaker 1: bowing to him and raising their voices high in thanks.
Speaker 1: It was easy, thought Bradley. Really it was a cinch
Speaker 1: to be a god. The beasts that were such great
Speaker 1: dangers to them were mere trifles to him. To him
Speaker 1: with a gun loaded with a thousand thermal charges, each
Speaker 1: of which was capable of blasting armor plate, the thing
Speaker 1: wouldn't even have come close if he himself hadn't been
Speaker 1: such a timid, cowardly fool. Put Malevsky in his place,
Speaker 1: and the detective would have gotten the creature as it
Speaker 1: came out of the trees. He wasn't Malevsky. It was
Speaker 1: a good thing for him that they couldn't know that.
Speaker 1: Now his position was completely secure. Now he could relax
Speaker 1: and enjoy his divine life. He didn't realize that a
Speaker 1: much greater danger was yet to come. He found that
Speaker 1: out after the evening ceremony. The group that came to
Speaker 1: see him this time was bigger than ever. Evidently to
Speaker 1: honor him, they had dropped all other work. Yenu seemed
Speaker 1: to have constituted himself Bradley's priest. He made a tremendously
Speaker 1: long and rhapsodic sounding speech, but at the end there
Speaker 1: was no donation of the usual food and flowers. Instead,
Speaker 1: Yanyu backed away, all the others doing the same and
Speaker 1: looking at Bradley as if expecting him to follow them.
Speaker 1: He followed in this manner, with his worshippers, walking respectfully backwards.
Speaker 1: They arrived at what seemed to Bradley to be an
Speaker 1: ordinary small hut. Outside the hut was what he took
Speaker 1: for a curiously shaped log of wood. The inside of
Speaker 1: the hut was in shadow, but as his eyes became
Speaker 1: accustomed to the dimness, he saw something in one corner.
Speaker 1: It was a weird looking head, also of wood. Then
Speaker 1: it struck him the log of wood been the old god,
Speaker 1: good enough to worship until he had come along and
Speaker 1: showed them what a god could really do. Now it
Speaker 1: had been contemptuously deposed and decapitated, the hut was a shrine.
Speaker 2: It was all his.
Speaker 1: He had been promoted after all. The thought didn't please
Speaker 1: him in the least. Suppose he failed them too, and
Speaker 1: that was very possible, for he had no idea of
Speaker 1: what miracles they expected of him. Then he would be deposed,
Speaker 1: and he gagged at the thought, But he knew that
Speaker 1: he had to finish it decapitated. But for the moment
Speaker 1: there was no thought of deposing him. The gifts they
Speaker 1: offered were more lavish than ever, and in addition to
Speaker 1: the food and flowers, there was something new, a jug
Speaker 1: filled with a warm Swedish smelling liquid. He could get
Speaker 1: the odor faintly through the intake valve of his helmet.
Speaker 1: Later on, when his worshippers were gone and he had
Speaker 1: its helmet off, he realized that it smelled up the
Speaker 1: entire hut. Couldn't be harmful. Nothing that they had offered
Speaker 1: him so far was harmful. He took a sip and
Speaker 1: sighed with content. This was one of the few things
Speaker 1: he had been lacking. There was alcohol, and there were
Speaker 1: flavors and essences that reminded him of the drinks he
Speaker 1: had encountered on a dozen planets. But this was first
Speaker 1: class stuff, not diluted or adulterated with one thousand and
Speaker 1: one synthetics that were put in to stretch a good
Speaker 1: thing as far as it could go. Without realizing the danger,
Speaker 1: he downed the entire contents of the jug.
Speaker 2: He felt good.
Speaker 1: He hadn't felt so good in years, not since his
Speaker 1: mother had made him a special cake for his birthday
Speaker 1: when he was let me see now, was it eight
Speaker 1: or nine? No matter, it had been many years ago,
Speaker 1: and the occasion had been notable for the fact that
Speaker 1: she had let him drink some of the older people's punch,
Speaker 1: maybe with a tiny bit of some alcoholic drink. He
Speaker 1: felt very good. He picked up his helmet and put
Speaker 1: it on his head and stuck the stem of a
Speaker 1: green flower rakishly through the exit valve of the helmet,
Speaker 1: so that the flower seemed to dance every time he
Speaker 1: exhaled and staggered out of his hut. He was fortunate
Speaker 1: that it was dark. I'm drunk, he told himself. Never
Speaker 1: been so drunk in my life, never felt so good. Mother,
Speaker 1: never felt so good. Malevski never felt so good. He
Speaker 1: passed his shadowy figure in the dark and said, Hi,
Speaker 1: a friend and worshiper. Ever see a god drunk before?
Speaker 1: The figure bowed and kept its head lowered until he
Speaker 1: had moved on. Drunk or sober, I'm still divine, he
Speaker 1: said proudly, and he began to sing loudly and impressively,
Speaker 1: his voice orchestral in his own ears, within the confines
Speaker 1: of his own helmet, all lives high, and she used
Speaker 1: to be, and which she used to be. The words
Speaker 1: came easily, and as it seemed naturally, to his lips.
Speaker 1: After a while, however, he tired of them. After a while,
Speaker 1: he found that his legs had tired of them. He
Speaker 1: sat down with a thump under a spiky tree and said, solemnly,
Speaker 1: never felt so good in my life, never felt so happy.
Speaker 1: It's a lie. I don't feel good. He didn't, not anymore.
Speaker 1: He felt sick to his stomach. A touch of sober
Speaker 1: thought had corroded the happiness of his intoxication, and he
Speaker 1: was sick and afraid. Today their god was a hero.
Speaker 1: Today they would forgive him everything.
Speaker 2: But did they.
Speaker 1: Actually prefer a drunken God. No drunkenness made a god human,
Speaker 1: all too human. A drunken god was a weak god,
Speaker 1: and his hold on his worshippers was their belief in
Speaker 1: his strength. As he valued his life. He must get
Speaker 1: drunk no more. He ain't gonna get drunk no more.
Speaker 1: He sang sadly and solemnly to himself, and finally he
Speaker 1: fell asleep. He awoke with a hangover and a memory.
Speaker 1: He was not one of those men who, when sober,
Speaker 1: for get all they have done. When drunk, he remembered everything,
Speaker 1: and he knew that he must put drunkenness away from him.
Speaker 1: That morning they brought him only food and flowers, But
Speaker 1: in the evening ceremony they presented him once more with
Speaker 1: a jug of liquor as an additional reward for his
Speaker 1: destruction of the deadly beast. For the first time, Bradley
Speaker 1: took an active part in the ceremony. He held up
Speaker 1: the jug and set in grave tones, in the name
Speaker 1: of Carrie Nation, I renounce THEE and all thy works.
Speaker 1: Then he poured out the liquor and smashed the jug
Speaker 1: on the ground. After that, the smashing of the jug
Speaker 1: was part of the ceremony worshiping him. It left him
Speaker 1: unhappy at first, but sober. After a while, the unhappiness disappeared,
Speaker 1: but the soberness remained. From now on, he would act
Speaker 1: as a god should act. The natives were not stupid.
Speaker 1: He saw that very clearly. The first jugs they had
Speaker 1: offered him had been beautiful objects of excellent workmanship, But
Speaker 1: when they perceived that the only use he had for
Speaker 1: them was to break them, the quality deteriorated rapidly. Now
Speaker 1: the jugs they brought him were crude things, indeed made
Speaker 1: for the sole purpose of being smashed. He wondered how
Speaker 1: many other tribes had tricked their god similarly. No, they
Speaker 1: were not at all stupid. It struck him that with
Speaker 1: such advantages of civilization as he himself had it enjoyed,
Speaker 1: they would have gone much further than he did. Two
Speaker 1: weeks or so after he had come down from the
Speaker 1: sky to be their god, he saw that they had
Speaker 1: learned from him. One of the young men appeared during
Speaker 1: the day wearing a wooden helmet. It was a helmet
Speaker 1: obviously patterned after his own, although it had no glass
Speaker 1: or plastic, and the openings in front of the eyes
Speaker 1: were left blank. The mythical earth hero Prometheus had brought
Speaker 1: fire down from the skies. He had brought the helmet.
Speaker 1: He was Bradley, the helmet Bringer. Even at that, he
Speaker 1: had underestimated his worshippers. He had thought at first that
Speaker 1: the helmets were meant merely for ornament and decoration. He
Speaker 1: learned better one day when a swarm of creatures like
Speaker 1: flying lizards swept down out of a group of trees
Speaker 1: in a fierce attack. He had not known that such
Speaker 1: creatures existed here, and now that he saw them, he
Speaker 1: realized how fortunate it was that they were not more numerous.
Speaker 1: They had sharp teeth and sharper claws, and they tore
Speaker 1: at his head with a ferocity that struck fear into
Speaker 1: his heart. His gun was of less use than usual
Speaker 1: against them. He could catch one or two, but the
Speaker 1: others moved too swiftly for him to aim. By this time,
Speaker 1: others of the natives were wooden helmets, and he could
Speaker 1: see how the sharp claws ripped splinter after splinter from them.
Speaker 1: But the birds or lizards or whatever they were didn't
Speaker 1: go unscathed. From a sort of skin bellow, several of
Speaker 1: the natives blew a gray mist at them, and where
Speaker 1: the mist made contact with the leather skin, the flying
Speaker 1: creatures seemed to be paralyzed in mid flight, and they
Speaker 1: fell to the ground, where they were easily crushed to death.
Speaker 1: By the time they had given up the fight and fled,
Speaker 1: half a dozen of them were lying dead. They were
Speaker 1: evidently useless for food because of the poison they contained.
Speaker 1: He was surprised to see, however, that the natives still
Speaker 1: had a use for them. They dragged the dead creatures
Speaker 1: into a field of growing crops and left them there
Speaker 1: to rot into fertilize her But such incidents as this,
Speaker 1: he found, were.
Speaker 2: To be rare.
Speaker 1: For the most part, the life here was peaceful, and
Speaker 1: he found himself liking it more and more. Now without laughter,
Speaker 1: He wondered again what his mother would have thought of him.
Speaker 1: She would have been proud, he realized now that she
Speaker 1: had done her best for him, and when everyone else
Speaker 1: had given up hope for him, she had not. Perhaps
Speaker 1: she had protected him too much, but she had early
Speaker 1: learned the need for protection. He could look at her
Speaker 1: now in a new light. Her own father had died
Speaker 1: early in life, and then her husband soon after. Her
Speaker 1: son had been born. She had faced a tough fight
Speaker 1: and had thought to spare him what she herself had
Speaker 1: gone through too bad. She hadn't realized exactly what she
Speaker 1: was doing. She was bringing him up with the ability,
Speaker 1: as the old epigram had it, to resist everything but temptation,
Speaker 1: the temptation to steal that petty cash, to put his
Speaker 1: hands into a drunk zone pocket and lift the man's wallet,
Speaker 1: to lie to a pretty girl, to slug a helpless victim.
Speaker 1: He had resisted none of them. He had resisted nothing
Speaker 1: until that day. He poured the jugful of liquor on
Speaker 1: the ground and smashed the jug itself. But could he
Speaker 1: blame his mother for all that? It had all been
Speaker 1: his own fault, And it would be his own fault
Speaker 1: if he failed to resist the new temptation that now
Speaker 1: reared its pretty head.
Speaker 2: Aoh ya.
Speaker 1: She had taken the coming to his hut shrine for
Speaker 1: a private little ceremony of her own. You might almost
Speaker 1: have thought that she had fallen in love with him
Speaker 1: as an individual. He wondered whether she had been impressed
Speaker 1: by his helmet. Did she take that to be his
Speaker 1: actual head? No, of course not. They had made helmets
Speaker 1: for themselves. Therefore, they knew that the thing he wore
Speaker 1: was also a helmet. Perhaps they knew more about him
Speaker 1: than he thought. But they continued to worship him, that
Speaker 1: was the main thing, And aou Ya brought him every
Speaker 1: day little presents, special flowers and food delicacies that argued
Speaker 1: a personal affection. This was a danger that he recognized
Speaker 1: from the beginning. Perhaps a god might fall in love
Speaker 1: with a mortal without losing his godliness. Perhaps it had
Speaker 1: happened before. But however, the rest of the tribe might
Speaker 1: react to the idea. Bradley had noticed one young man
Speaker 1: who liked to stay near the girl, and he knew
Speaker 1: that his rival wouldn't take kindly to it at all.
Speaker 1: He might resent the god's behavior. And what happened when
Speaker 1: these people didn't like the way a god behaved, Why
Speaker 1: they struck his head off. The god might act first,
Speaker 1: of course, the young man wouldn't stand a chance against
Speaker 1: him if he used his gun. In fact, Bradley could
Speaker 1: blast the other man unobserved, make him disappear into vapor
Speaker 1: without leaving any traces of how he died. That was murder.
Speaker 1: But if a god couldn't get away with murder, what
Speaker 1: sort of a.
Speaker 2: God was he? Pretty poor, cheap sort.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yes, he could make his own rules, and he
Speaker 1: could go on maintaining his godhood by little murders of
Speaker 1: that sort and other deadly miracles until they hated him
Speaker 1: more than they loved him. That would follow inevitably, And
Speaker 1: then when they all hated him, not even his gun
Speaker 1: would save him. Then you're a liar, he told himself fiercely.
Speaker 1: That isn't the thing you're afraid of. Your weakness is
Speaker 1: that you don't have a murderous nature. You could kill
Speaker 1: one or two of them and get away with it,
Speaker 1: and you'd be able to control yourself and kill no more.
Speaker 1: That time you hit the man over the head. You
Speaker 1: didn't intend to kill him either. You were more frightened
Speaker 1: at first, anyway, by the thought that you might have
Speaker 1: killed him than by the danger of being caught. You're
Speaker 1: overjoyed when he lived. You hate to kill. That's your trouble.
Speaker 1: You had a sense of responsibility all along, but it
Speaker 1: never had a chance to develop. Now it's developed. You
Speaker 1: feel responsible for these people, for oo Yah and the
Speaker 1: rest of them. That's why you can't take advantage of them.
Speaker 1: You've been posing as a rebel all your life, and
Speaker 1: you're just a respectable, law abiding citizen at heart. He
Speaker 1: winced at the thought his own society had never accepted
Speaker 1: him at his own valuation. This one took him for
Speaker 1: a much greater being than he took himself, and there
Speaker 1: seemed to be nothing to do but to live up
Speaker 1: to what he was expected to be. All the same,
Speaker 1: ou Yah continued to be attempting Morsel, and sooner or
Speaker 1: later he feared he would not be able to resist her.
Speaker 1: And then the planet itself provided a diversion. They had
Speaker 1: never seen such a thing and had no idea of
Speaker 1: what it presaged. But he knew he had heard of
Speaker 1: it on Earth and on Venus, and he had seen
Speaker 1: it on other planets where the rock formations had not
Speaker 1: yet settled down. A little hollow appeared first in the ground,
Speaker 1: and then the hollow was pushed out and suddenly blown
Speaker 1: into the air. Steam whistled through the newly made vent,
Speaker 1: a shower of steam and hot dust and red hot
Speaker 1: fragments of rock. Slowly the vent grew until the cloud
Speaker 1: from the terrifying guys Are darkened the sky and spread
Speaker 1: panic through the tribe. He knew what would happen next.
Speaker 1: They were running around in terror, but not for one
Speaker 1: moment was he himself in doubt. He donned his complete
Speaker 1: spacesuit in order to impress.
Speaker 2: Them the more.
Speaker 1: Then stalked into the middle of them and said, pick
Speaker 1: up all your possessions and follow me. They stared at him,
Speaker 1: and he showed them what he meant by picking up
Speaker 1: the belongings of one household in his gloved hands and
Speaker 1: handing them to a waiting woman. Then, when they grasped
Speaker 1: the idea and they were gathering all they owned, he
Speaker 1: led them toward the safety of the trees. Five minutes
Speaker 1: after they had set off, the lava began to flow
Speaker 1: from the newborn volcano, scorching the ground for one hundred
Speaker 1: yards around sparks, smoking and smoldering in the tree tops.
Speaker 1: The head start he had given them was enough to
Speaker 1: help them escape the resultant forest fire. All that day
Speaker 1: they traveled until finally they came to a forest which
Speaker 1: couldn't burn. And here they rested, and here they settled
Speaker 1: down to build their lives anew. It must have been
Speaker 1: a comfort to know that a god had led them
Speaker 1: to safety and was helping them make the new start
Speaker 1: and even more with his slightly superior knowledge, He showed
Speaker 1: them how to fashion tools from stone, and how to
Speaker 1: use these to build better huts. He taught them how
Speaker 1: to make swords and other weapons, so that henceforth they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be forced to rely for defense on poison alone.
Speaker 1: He was the most industrious god since Vulcan, and in
Speaker 1: helping them, he found that he had no time for
Speaker 1: aou Ya. Came the day when the new village settled
Speaker 1: down to its changed routine of life. The morning ceremony
Speaker 1: before his new shrine had just been completed, but Bradley
Speaker 1: was not satisfied. Something was wrong Yanyu's demeanor aoya's. With
Speaker 1: a shock, Bradley realized what it was. From old Yanyu
Speaker 1: down the line. None of the natives seemed to have
Speaker 1: their original fear of him. There was respect, there was affection, certainly,
Speaker 1: but the respect and affection were those to an older
Speaker 1: brother rather than a god. And he was not displeased.
Speaker 1: Being a god had been a wearying business. Being a
Speaker 1: friend might be a great deal more pleasant. Yes, the
Speaker 1: change was something to be happy about, but he had
Speaker 1: little time to be happy for. That same morning, there
Speaker 1: came what he had so long dreaded out of a clear,
Speaker 1: shipless sky. Malevsky appeared strolling toward him as casually as
Speaker 1: if he had been there all along, and said, nice
Speaker 1: little ceremony you have here, Hello, Malevsky. Don't give me
Speaker 1: the credit. They thought it up ingenius. Almost as ingenious
Speaker 1: is the way they've used the help he gave them.
Speaker 1: We had this tribe listed long ago as a very
Speaker 1: capable one, far behind the rest of its system in development,
Speaker 1: It's true, but only because it had started laid up
Speaker 1: the evolutionary ladder. It had been doing very nicely on
Speaker 1: its own, and we didn't want to interfere unless we
Speaker 1: could give it some real help. I'll admit that I
Speaker 1: had a few qualms at first when we trace you
Speaker 1: down here and learned that you had landed among them.
Speaker 1: But we've been observing you for the past day and
Speaker 1: a half. Our spaceship landed beyond that burned out stretch
Speaker 1: of ground, not too close to that volcano, and I'll
Speaker 1: have to admit that, judging from your past record, I
Speaker 1: didn't think you had it in you. I suppose that's
Speaker 1: over with now, said Bradley. Yes, you're finished with being
Speaker 1: a god. We don't believe in kidding the natives Bradley.
Speaker 1: Bradley nodded ruefully. They don't seem to believe in it either.
Speaker 1: I guess they found out I wasn't a god before
Speaker 1: I did, but it didn't seem to matter to them.
Speaker 1: He sighed and turned toward the new village. Do you
Speaker 1: mind if I sort of well hold a farewell ceremony
Speaker 1: before we go. They won't understand, but they'll feel better
Speaker 1: than if I just go off. Malevsky shook his head firmly. No,
Speaker 1: no time for that. I'll have to get out a
Speaker 1: full report, and we're in a hurry to get off.
Speaker 1: Any word you'd like to have sent out to your mother,
Speaker 1: Bradley before we blast? Bradley looked back again, and his
Speaker 1: shoulders came up more firmly. He'd taught his people here
Speaker 1: and led them, but he'd learned a few things himself,
Speaker 1: and he'd found he could take what was necessary. He'd
Speaker 1: found that the easiest way wasn't always the best, that
Speaker 1: getting drunk was no way out, and that real friendship
Speaker 1: and respect meant more than the words big shots. Maybe
Speaker 1: he'd learned and enough to be able to take regeneration
Speaker 1: he managed to grin a little lopsidedly at Malevsky. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you might send her a message. Tell her I'm fine,
Speaker 1: and I've learned to wipe my own nose. I think
Speaker 1: she'll be glad to hear that. She will, Levsky told him,
Speaker 1: when she hears that your provisional governor of this planet,
Speaker 1: she'll even believe it. Provisional Governor. Bradley stood with his
Speaker 1: mouth open, staring. He shook his head. But what about regeneration,
Speaker 1: Malevsky laughed. You're appointed on the basis of my first
Speaker 1: report about what you're doing here, Bradley, he answered, As
Speaker 1: to regeneration, well, you think about it while we bring
Speaker 1: in the supplies we're supposed to leave for you before
Speaker 1: we blast out of here. He went off chuckling towards
Speaker 1: the ship, leaving Bradley to puzzle over it. Then, just
Speaker 1: as Malevsky disappeared, he understood, damn it, they tricked him.
Speaker 1: They'd left him here where he had to be a
Speaker 1: god and assumed the responsibilities of a god, and through
Speaker 1: that he'd been regenerated, complet lately, thoroughly regenerated. Suddenly he
Speaker 1: was chuckling as hard as Malevsky, as he swung around
Speaker 1: and went back to face his former worshippers, and they
Speaker 1: were coming forward to meet him, their friendly smiles matching
Speaker 1: his own. And of Divinity by William Morrison