Kate Wilhelm - Let the Fire Fall

“Obie Cox is going to start such a war within the next five years, if he isn’t stopped soon; You can stop him.”

Johnny hadn’t seen Obie Cox since his weekend visit three years ago or more. He had promised to call him from time to time, but hadn’t done so. There was always trouble locating him when Johnny thought of it, or someone came to see Johnny, or something happened to postpone the call. Johnny had no idea that Obie claimed him as the inventor of the revolutionary products that were being offered to believers through the Church. He had found Obie interesting, but he found everyone from outside interesting. He couldn’t remember what they had talked about. It didn’t surprise him to hear that he was the only one who could stop a war brewing on Earth. As the months went on, his power would come to be realized more and more by Earthmen, and they would turn to him often for help and advice. He said, “How could addressing the United Nations General Assembly stop this one man and his ideas?”

Lenny hesitated only a fraction of a second, coming to the tricky part now, not really knowing exactly how aware Johnny was of what was happening in the world beyond the walls of the estate. He suspected that the answer was nothing, except for what his occasional visitor told him, and that was carefully monitored at all times. He didn’t appear to pause at all. “Obie Cox has made certain claims about you. He says that you have appealed to him as your savior, that you have pleaded with him to rescue you from the U.N. personnel who torture you daily. Things like that. He also has claimed that your people are wicked and plan to conquer Earth when they return, and that you are in communication with them and plan to aid them in their endeavor. He will make war with them too, if they return.”

He stopped, not knowing if he had gone too far or not. johnny’s face changed subtly during this recitation of Obie’s claims, he had become more distant, more thoughtful. Well,it was done. Now he would wait for the reaction. Johnny was thinking about Obie. He hadn’t appeared very brilliant, so how had he guessed about Johnny and his almost daily communication with his people? Why did he think Johnny’s people would want to conquer Earth? And didn’t he realize, if he knew that much, that johnny was the one pre-selected to lead the attack. destined to reign forever? Johnny felt the beginnings of a headache and there was a stir of excitement that he always felt when it was time for the shining man to come to him and tell him what to do. He stood up.

“I’ll think about it,” he said, starting toward the door.

“There’s nothing to think about,” Lenny started, but when Johnny turned to him, his eyes were glassy-looking, and his face as composed as a sleepwalker’s. Lenny had seen Johnny fall asleep on his feet before, and it always made him queasy. He said hurriedly, “Yes, think about it, Johnny. I’ll talk to you later.”

In his room Johnny let himself open to the inner vision and he listened intently to the voices that instructed him daily.

Afterward he knew that he would help Obie Cox in his war all that he could. If that would halve the population, when his people returned it would be simple to finish the rest of the job, the other half. Johnny never had seen more than fifty or sixty people at one time in his life. To him the idea of four billion people was incomprehensible; that was somewhat over five thousand, but how much over he had no concept. So he could consider reducing that by half with ease since it was meaningless to him to begin with.

He would let Lenny’s speech writers prepare whatever they wanted him to say, and meanwhile he would be writing the speech that he actually would make. The shining man would tell him what to say in it.

Special to the New York Times , Oct. 3

Today the Works of Man Museum unveiled its newest acquisition amidst a stormy protest of the nation’s most eminent art critics, who revile the statue with one voice. Palizzo’s nude, entitled, St. Diane, they say is pornographic, vile, hideous, has no redeeming merits, is crassly commercial, a return to the stultifying conformism the early Catholic Church demanded of artists over a thousand years ago. The statue is that of a nude woman straddling a relief map of the United States. One of her hands clutches her genital area, the other is pressed against her breast, and while improbably long hair obscures both hands, the rapture on her face and the pose in general ore suggestive….

Oct. 30

An uneasy silence lies aver the Works of Man Museum tonight following the worst riots witnessed in New York City in over a decade. Slowly the pieces are starting to fall into places as the laborious task of sorting rumor from fact continues. Dr. Wilford Depuy, Director of the Bureau for Maintaining Serenity and Peaceful Coexistence among the. inhabitants of the city, states that the cause of the riots now appears to be rooted in the effect of the “miracle” that three women claimed to have witnessed at the “shrine” of St. Diane. The women claim that they were visited by St. Diane in the spirit as they neared the statue, after waiting in line for over six hours. The visitation afflicted them with hysterical catatonia. As with most hysterical manifestations, this was contagious, and people started to collapse in the museum, then in the street as they waited to gain entrance. The rumor spread rapidly then that the MSPC forces were using riot gas on the people without cause, and there was panic that spread throughout the night and into the following day….

Oct. 31

Replicas of St. Diane are being offered throughout the city, throughout the nation in all sizes, for all prices. Some of them are gold-plated, others cast in the crudest plaster, but all are selling. Again and again “miracles” are being reported by the owners of the statuettes, and in churches where large copies have been installed, doctors are on round-the-clock duty to minister to the stricken….

Rome, UPI, Dec. 17

Italian longshoremen continue to picket the docks here and violence mounts as the nine-day-old strike spreads. Leaving their jobs today were the public transportation unions, the telephone company employees, and the garbage collectors. It is an open secret in Rome that the strikers are being encouraged by the Vatican, and nightly long lines form at various churches and cathedrals where the workers are fed, and receive allotments of food to take home to their families. It is rumored that martial law will be declared within two days if the workers refuse to return to their jobs. The dock area is already a malodorous health hazard, officials report, and with the garbage collection halted, and the worsening conditions brought on by the prolonged drought and summer heat, all Rome will be endangered by disease and fire.

The strike originated when it was learned that aboard the U.S.S. Conover there were fifteen million replicas of the infamous Palizzo, St. Diane….

“HERE they come,” Merton said, watching the parade on a screen no bigger than a postage stamp. The usual cloud cover hung over the city, dirty cumulus clouds forming in the midst of the blanket of smog that never dispersed, so that there were columns of deeper yellow-gray than the background, as if a mad architect had decided to hold up the smog ceiling with these whirling unstable materials.

The parade was being watched by millions in the city, and hundreds of millions on the entire planet. Many of the viewers didn’t believe in the Star Child at all. It was a myth that the U.N. had created for its own reasons. Others believed exactly what Obie had said about the Star Child: originally damned, he had been converted and was the agent through which Earth could be saved. Most of them had no opinion, but were curious, or watching the 3D sets because that was what one did.