Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (55 page)

This was
designed to be a fiasco! Before we went one word into it I was
ready to say nothing would happen except that each of the leaders
of the basic churches of the land would spit and claw at one
another and the aliens would be ignored. All Kroons would appear to
be stupid. Now I could see the cleverness of the aliens in stating
those rules before the debate began.

I was happy to
see such tactics in fact would NOT be allowed. Needja started a
tirade and the alien's machine called for a point of order, stating
this was a questioning session and was neither the time nor place
for cheap theatrical personal attacks. I literally applauded!
Again, my respect increased. For the first time I wished I'd been
there to see the original broadcast!

Flann cut
Needja off then and went on to Veltree, who thoroughly enjoyed
Needja's great discomfort, but was having trouble restraining
herself from doing the same. She called the alien "Gu Z," but he
said he wasn't a priest so "Z" would do.

Ipth asked
about Grumm, whereupon the alien replied that on his home world
they called the adversary of the principle god Satan.

Imtree asked
about lightspeed, to which Z replied the ship doesn't actually
exceed lightspeed, though it could. It wasn't necessary! (?)

Flann then
again went to Needja, whereupon Z interrupted to say he was
permitted questions, too. Flann stuttered a bit, then told the
alien he could proceed. Z asked Gui Imtree how she correlated our
science with the worship of Soolinn, then really destroyed the
bunch of them when Imtree answered that she didn't understand the
question. I'll quote exactly what transpired for this record.

Z: "Soolinn
said we, my friends and I, do not exist. Your science told you even
BEFORE we appeared that we DO exist – and we are now HERE! How do
you correlate the facts with the belief?"

All Imtree
could think of to say was she hadn't thought about it, quite
frankly. That showed how much science was utilized by the Sciencer
sect.

It passed for a
few moments, but as the alien obviously had read the Vision of
Soolinn, the debate was over. The churches were dead. The
questioning passed around for awhile longer, then everyone passed
time to Needja, making it obvious to the stupidest watcher the
priests had agreed before the debate to make plans to work together
to defeat this alien. That just added to the victory of the
otherworlders, though getting that stupid bunch to do ANYTHING
together was an unusually difficult task for which I again
applauded the aliens.

Needja was
stupid enough to say the aliens were a trick and weren't really
there, that they had hypnotized the Gus. I laughed when Z stated
that it was possible he had hypnotized them all, but no one could
hypnotize a television camera so people would be calling by the
thousands to tell them they were sitting in midair asking questions
of no one, besides which if he wasn't really there who or what
hypnotized them?

Z made them
suggest the vision of Soolinn had been misinterpreted when it
declared there were no other intelligences. He threw in their faces
the fact the words were clear and explicit, stating within
themselves they weren't subject to other interpretations. "No
intelligences" meant no intelligences, period, yet there were three
very different ones right there staring at them and they were
staring back.

Verdeen had
been overlooked until that time. Flann suddenly apologized and
suggested the Gu could then ask several questions. His questions
buried the churches of Soolinn and Pinneestees forever. He tried to
be clever and to suggest the aliens had twisted his words. Z
replied it was permitted in the stated rules that any statement
that was twisted could be straightened again by any of them.
Verdeen shut up and glared, then Flann minced about and said no
harm had been done because transmission was stopped right at the
first. The aliens' machine replied it had carried the whole thing,
having burned out the jamming equipment the churches tried to use.
The alien told the people they had seen exactly what the churches
and the Gus were and wished everyone good fortune.

I find myself
liking these aliens! Now I must determine what I am to say about
this, but there really isn't much TO say. It's really rather
obvious. All they did was point out the obvious to us. Anything we
don't see immediately is due to the fact we don't wish to see.

Bad News

* Enn Far

"Verily I say
unto you, suffer not the infidels to live for I, Soolinn, have so
decreed. Let those who would follow Grumm know of his defeat. Yea,
he is defeated.

"I say unto you
now there are no others. You alone exist in all the universe for
all the worlds and I say unto you there are many worlds for I have
prepared these places for you. They are as rooms in my palaces.
Verily I say unto you I have prepared these rooms for my beloved
Kroon alone. The Kroon are my perfect act of creation. I have made
no others. There are those plants and those animals I have created
for the delight of the Kroon. They are only as the furniture in
those rooms I have prepared for you and are patiently awaiting the
true believers' occupation. There are no others who would be
masters of these rooms for I have come before you to prepare this
place. The Kroon alone have the free mind and reason in all of
creation, for I, Soolinn, have created all things and all places
and this is my word. What I speak is truth. Only Soolinn speaks
only truth.

"I give then
unto you this warning: Do not suffer the infidels to live! I,
Soolinn, will not permit that infidels and followers of Grumm enter
into my kingdom! Destroy the unbelievers and their evil!"

From
The Words of the Vision

I was in my den
studying the Words of the Great and True Vision of the Followers of
Soolinn and was comparing them with the words and the television
transmissions of the aliens.

This was the
first time the words seemed so silly and childish to me, though
they had never taken my attention before so that was as good an
explanation as any. When a child is raised hearing nothing else it
is as much as imprinted and remembered as rote.

The alien, Z,
had been so right. All the religions on Kroon except the Ithians
were proved to be false by the existence of those very aliens. The
words were plain and were unmistakable.

"The Kroon
alone in all of creation have the free minds and reason..." was not
a thing open to interpretation nor were the words of the vision
"for I have created no other" open to any other interpretation. The
Vision of Soolinn, witnessed by four thousand trusting people, was
proved to be a fraud and a trickery. It was done by some fakery to
give the priests more power. There was simply no other reasonable
explanation.

Those scrolls,
supposedly written by Soolinn to be read and presented at the Great
Vision by Soolinn, were equally a fraud and a trick.

SOOLINN was a
trick!

I am a leader
and student of these things and can see easily how it was done, but
that isn't important here. Our society is falling apart and chaos
reigns. The council of a hundred are trying to pull things together
and the Ithians are, at least, not saying "I told you so,"
regardless of the opportunity. They certainly have been given the
right on a crystal tray!

I personally
never believed in the Vision. The race has been bogged down in
silly wars for all of its recorded history. These priests have
always preached love and understanding, mercy and true forgiveness
in one paragraph followed by hate and murder in the next. That fact
was pointed out by the Mentan, too.

Strange how
blind even such a scholar as I could have been all this time. It
was there to see, but I, as others, WOULD NOT see it! Looking back
even from a perspective of only a halfyear I can't understand how
or why anyone ever fell into the trap of those things. For
thousands of years – four thousand since the Vision – poor people
have been tithing twelve percent of all they earn to support the
priests, increasing the luxury of those socalled leaders and the
wealth of the churches.

The priests
grabbed political power to fight their wars among the various cults
to further their own wealth and power and the world had known no
real peace since. To even read speeches made by those priests and
politicians now it becomes obvious it has always been a fraud
perpetrated upon the people of Kroon by a sordid greedy priesthood
for personal power. I know shame that such was seen and known by
our visitors.

Now they were
gone, after exposing the falsity of the Vision. The council has a
truly impossible task ahead or some new and equally ridiculous
religion will come along and nothing here will change even for a
small time. I greatly fear that nothing will ever change here and
we will very deservedly be excluded from congress, as the Mentan
said, with the other members of the empire. If there was truth in
what they said – and I believe that to be shown – there are
thousands of races living together in harmony.

The Kroon can't
even live with the Kroon!

I have to come
up with some kind of speech to try to change something here. It
really is my duty to do what I can to change this society for the
better. I am a TEACHER, thus I have a duty to all people. It comes
with the job.

Such a muddle
to come at such a time.

Well, onward
with it! A project never started is a job never completed! I do
have the reputation of finishing anything I start and will have to
try to retain that, at least!

How did I ever
let myself get pulled into this morass? What strange and malicious
turn of fate made me the one?

I met and liked
the aliens, as anyone with any sense whatever would – and sense is
in very short supply these days. They DID expose those phony
religions to be what they are. They DID show me where the right
thing should be and they DID rightfully say it must be a Kroon who
did these things, but why ME? Why did I have to agree to set up
this governing council?

The great Enn
Far! The one who will lead us from the dark ages!

I am not
qualified and I know it but, as the Mentan, Thing, said to me, "No
one is qualified, but at least you aren't so directly influenced by
the fall of the false gods. You have said all along that the system
was wrong and the churches were merely oppressing the people. You
aren't held in thrall by those old ideas."

I'm not?
Ithianism is as old as any of them!

Now everyone's
jumping on the Ithian platform and I AM the nominal leader of the
cult. I AM the one who's looked to for guidance and council. I AM
considered the expert.

I can be proud
of one thing! I was able to force Clah Meen to disarm. The threat
of that is no longer hanging over the head of every Kroon alive. I
may have had help from the aliens, but they used my ideas and the
words of our enemies against themselves. This is the first time in
the entire history of Kroon no major power has been armed against
its neighbors and that's the one thing I intend to see stays as it
is. If I can leave that as my legacy existence is worthwhile. Very
few can ever say that!

A halfyear
until the open elections and I just KNOW they'll elect me president
of the council! I have to do something to stop it, but I don't want
to discredit myself or to disgrace my name. It may be true that no
one else is qualified for the position, but I'm not either. This is
the wrong time!

That historian
teacher, Hal Korr, is quite the outspoken sort of person. I've
managed to finagle him into a position where he'll have to become
the orator for the council's positions. He IS very good so maybe I
can make him the logical choice for the leader. I can possibly
switch my own popularity to him and leave through the side door
when all eyes are upon him. I'll certainly have to try! I want out!
I'm not even vaguely prepared for this kind of responsibility. I
can't stand up to the pressure of always having to be right when I
don't know what I'm doing! I'm blundering around in the dark and am
bound to stumble over something.

This is the
time when Kroon needs leadership more than at any other time in
history. Failure of all of this will be disastrous for years or
even centuries. I don't want that on my head.

Thank whatever
gods may be for the good people on this world! They have – so far –
kept their pledges and are truly working for the good of the entire
race. After the elections that pressure will be gone from me, at
the very least. I selected the whole council so I am responsible if
any of them act in a manner that's not proper or honest. After the
coming election it's the peoples' choice, not mine. I will again
finally be able to sleep and wake up rested, I hope. I can still
dream!

This
constitution thing the Terran suggested seems a wonderful idea, but
I see the traps in it. It will take more than what he called
"eternal vigilance" to make it work. Each branch will attempt to
gain the major powers to themselves. The old call of personal greed
won't change. If there's one constant in the Kroon race it's that.
I can see that fact lurking in the shadows down the path a ways.
After the patriotism and statesmanship wear off it will be the old
story of "What does it put in my vault?" and the old corruption
will creep back in. The chairman will eventually try to rearrange
the responsibilities if for no other reason than to pass blame when
something goes wrong, the courts will certainly try to interpret
the constitution itself, though the document will pointedly state
they can only interpret other laws to make them comply with the
constitution and the legislative bodies will try to pass laws to
give themselves all the power and, therefore, all the funds. It
will work for awhile, but something better will have to be
found.