The Naked God — Faith

Joshua and Louise waited by the airlock hatch of docking bay MB 0-330. They’d both accessed the sensors around the bay, watching Lady Macbeth settle lightly on the cradle. Her chemical verniers puffed out fast bursts of bright yellow flame around the equator as Liol brought her in. She touched the cradle in perfect alignment, and the holding latches closed. Utility hoses and cables rose up to jack in one by one. Thermo- dump panels folded down into the hull, and the whole assembly started to sink down into the bay.

He did that well, Joshua admitted to himself. How are you doing?he asked syrinx.

Almost there,she told him.

Affinity showed him the big voidhawk sticking close to the Mindori and Stryla as the blackhawks curved round the spaceport spindle to chase the habitat’s docking ledge. The two blackhawks needed guiding and coaxing: their personalities were almost traumatised into catatonia by the possession. Both of them desperately wanted their lost captains. It wouldn’t happen, Joshua knew, Kiera had destroyed the bodies back on Valisk, forcing the newly possessing souls into the blackhawks.

They will recover with time, Oenone said softly. We will be here for them.

I’m sure you will.

Congratulations, Joshua Calvert,the jovian consensus said. And our profound thanks. Samuel has told us that it was you alone who communed with the singularity.

I had plenty of help reaching it,he said. a smile image flashed between himself and Syrinx.

Your method of terminating the crisis was spectacular,consensus said.

Believe me, it was one of the quiet options. God-power is a modest understatement for the singularity’s abilities.

Are you still in contact?

Yes. For the moment. There’s a few loose ends I want to tie up myself. After that, it’s over.

To abandon such power requires considerable strength of character. We are happy to see Samuel’s faith was not misplaced.

To be honest, a life spent jumping round the Confederation righting wrongs really doesn’t appeal. From now on all I carry is a message.

Joshua Calvert, missionary,syrinx teased. Now there’s a real miracle.

Will you be returning the Confederation stars to their original position?consensus asked.

No. I want them to stay here. That also is my decision.

And one we will have to abide by. After all, it will not be easy for us to send a starship back to the Sleeping God from here.

It’s not impossible. But then that’s the whole point.

Would you explain?

Humans have been lucky in the past, expanding and colonising our way across the galaxy. I’m not knocking it. Things were pretty bad back there on Earth for a while. As a species we needed to get away, as the old saying goes, to put our eggs in more than one basket. But it can’t go on forever. We have to face up to the future, and develop in different ways. There are eight hundred stars out here in this cluster, that’s all. There can be no more physical expansion at our current social, economic, and technological level. No more running away from our problems; we’re mature enough to address them now.

And our isolation will ensure that we do.

I’m hoping it will concentrate a few minds, yes.

We will live in interesting times.

All times are interesting if you know to live them properly,joshua said. I have the new coordinates of the other stars for you. You’ll have to send out voidhawks to them and spread the information, put us all back in contact.

Of course.

Joshua let the information flow out of his mind and into the Consensus.

The airlock opened, and his crew came flooding out yelling raucous greetings.

Liol hugged him first. “Fine bloody captain you make! You abandon us there to have fun all by yourself, and the next thing we know we’ve got Jupiter’s SD command screaming at us.”

“I brought you back, what more do you want.”

Sarha squealed and wrapped herself round him. “You did it!” She kissed his ear. “And what a view.”

Dahybi slapped his back, laughing ecstatically. There were Ashly and Beaulieu, pushing at each other to get at him. Monica said: “Looks like you got it right,” without sounding too much of a grudge. Samuel chuckled at her obstinacy. Kempster and Renato chided him for cutting off their observations so abruptly. Mzu barely thanked