The Missionaries were not leaving solely to escape the Clayark plague though. As Neila Verrick told Alanna on their last night at Verrick Colony, “We’re going to fulfill our part in the Mission. We’re going to spread the Sacred Image to one more world.”
Alanna sat comfortably on the bare floor of the Verrick house listening to the pious words, and knowing that Neila believed them. But Alanna had heard words less pious from other Missionaries—words that bothered her. She frowned, spoke to Neila.
“Some people are saying the ship is a trick. They say there is no ship and we’re being led like cattle to be slaughtered.”
Neila sighed, put aside the book she had held open pn her lap. She was sitting in a rocking chair made of wood. Her favorite chair, soon to be abandoned with the rest of the settlement’s furniture. “Do you believe the rumor, Lanna?”
“That we are to be slaughtered? Even the people who say it don’t believe it. If they did, nothing would move them from here.”
Neila gave her a small relieved smile. “Exactly. And just to put your mind fully at ease, I’ll tell you, I know the starships are real. I’ve seen them. I’ve seen them launched with Missionaries aboard. Most of the people here haven’t had that experience, and they’re a little afraid.”
“They say the people who build the ships aren’t Missionaries, so why should they help Missionaries.”
“Because they’re human—more or less. Because they care whether or not the human species survives. We Missionaries are their insurance. They have no choice but to stay here with the Clayarks. They think they can survive, but whether they can or not, they hope we will. Some of us, at least.”
“They can’t leave even though they have the ships?” said Alanna.
“That’s right. We’re lucky. If they could have left, they might have abandoned most of us. Their weakness gives us a chance.”
“What weakness? What’s wrong with them?”
“Some Missionaries say God has quarantined them on Earth in their city, their Forsyth. Chained them here for their own attempt at altering the Sacred Image.”
“I’ve heard that talk.”
“And you don’t believe it—just as you don’t really believe other more important things.”
Alanna said nothing.
Neila shook her head. “Well, for once, I agree with you. The people who now live in Forsyth began altering themselves slowly by selective breeding thousands of years ago. Their founder is supposed to have gotten the idea from the way the people of his ancient time bred animals. He guided his people to breed themselves as carefully as the rest of us breed our best animals. But through it all, they’ve retained the Sacred Image. They never meant to change it. It was their minds that they were struggling to reshape. And they worked only with people who were already slightly different. They began with small mutations and bred themselves to the power they have now. Now they can hear and see and heal and kill and more, all with their minds. And they still have all their physical senses. The power of their minds is extra.
“About fifty years ago, when the plague began to get out of hand, the people of Forsyth stopped pretending to be less than they were, and…”
“They pretended? They were in hiding in spite of all their power?”
Neila hesitated. “Yes. But not out of fear. They hid to keep their privacy and to live in their own way. Anyway, they stopped hiding. They brought scientists and technicians from all over the world and put them to work on more ships like the Clay’s Ark—or larger and better than the Ark. The people of Forsyth already knew something about starships. Some of them had secretly had a hand in the building of the Ark. But now, they wanted the best possible ships. They wanted to find a world of their own and leave Earth to the Clayarks. But the first load of them to leave died before they were much beyond the orbit of the moon. Those back here could feel them dying, but couldn’t help them. The distance was too great. After that, those here did some careful experimenting. They found that the telepathic adults—and most of the adults are telepathic—weren’t able to break free of the mental ties they had with those they left here on Earth.
“For a while, there was talk of everyone leaving at once in several ships, but one unanswered question prevented them from doing that: What would happen if even one of their ships was disabled or destroyed? What would the mass destruction of that ship’s occupants do to the people in nearby ships? The distant dying of the people on that first ship had been agonizing for the Earthbound observers. What would it be like to experience that agony at closer range? Could one ship drag the others down in a spiral of madness and death? They didn’t want to find out. And they didn’t want to risk the whole existence of their kind to only one huge ship, even though such a ship could have been built.
“So they go on building ships for us. And sometimes, they send groups of their children with us. The mental abilities of the children don’t mature until sometime after puberty so the children tolerate space travel as easily as we do.”
“And will they do that with us?” asked Alanna. “Send a group of their children?”
“No!” said Neila with sudden vehemence. “Not with us. Thank God, the leaders of Forsyth have promised us that much. Those children, Lanna…” She groped for words. “Those children are like the eggs some wasps lay inside the bodies of living caterpillars. They’re not evil, any more than any other parasite, but when they grew up, when their mental abilities matured, they would quietly, slowly, enslave us. Our Mission would be over, even forgotten, perhaps. They would become our gods.”
“They need not,” said Alanna. “They could be stopped.”
“But, I tell you, their power…”
“Need never mature. Missionaries are not helpless caterpillars. They can kill the children before the children mature.”
Neila stared down at her sadly. “Children, Alanna…?”
“Why not?” Alanna touched her side where the Missionary guard had shot her. “At least those children are really dangerous.”
