Kate Wilhelm: Let the Fire Fall

And that’s all, except for the cleanup, the loose ends, some of which will remain forever loose, because that’s how life is.

With such pretty new toys to play with the people forgot about the Church rather quickly. There they were, free to anyone who asked for them. Anti-gravity belts and power sources; the water-producing gadget; the power supply for dwellings. They flew from the cities. They found how simple it was to live when there was water and power and freedom to come and go as they chose. They learned that they could build their houses high in the skies, and support them with anti-gravity units; they could float into them with ease. They could float their cities over the ground if they chose. The governments were not happy about it, especially in the beginning. But can you shoot down October leaves in the wind? It was anarchy, but it was the new tide that was flowing, and no government was large enough to stop the tide. Eventually they went with it.

There were rumors. There were hearings concerning the mysterious disappearance of Obie Cox, and of his son. Everyone was questioned repeatedly, with no clear-cut answers arising from the testimony. Speculations grew: Obie had absconded with five billion dollars, said some. He had died and gone to heaven, said others.

There was some speculation, Wanda talked about it much later, that Obie had been secreted away by Blake on the fateful night when he demanded help. That Blake had donned a beard, and appeared alongside his own double on the balcony, taking equal chances with him of stopping any of the fatal bullets, but when the metal deflectors appeared shortly after that, it was argued that Blake hadn’t actually taken such a dreadful chance after all, if indeed he had been the one to appear in place of Obie. Oh, they studied the films carefully, and the experts said it was Obie Cox and his son Blake, and other experts said that it could have been almost anyone with a beard…. Fraud, charlatan, Voice of God:… What difference does it make now? He was gone. The funds from the Church had been signed over to a new research company, The Black Foundation, that despite lawsuits and threats gave away everything it developed.

Rumors had it that when a curly haired young woman and her stiff, straight dark-haired husband were brought out of cold sleep by Dr. Winifred Harvey, they were met by a young man who resembled the older man very strongly, and by a young couple with a small child, the girl very like the woman, the man blond And good-looking. And they had a child.

Alien and human? They can’t breed. Everyone knows that. So did that mean that Johnny was actually the alien that he claimed to be? What then of the recognition of him that caused Dee Dee to faint? Do our memories trick us like that? During the melee on Mount Laurel Johnny got out of the hospital wing where he had been kept, and he melted into the crowd so efficiently that he never left it again. Now and again his claims of alien superiority forced him to move, but he was tolerated; he didn’t cause anyone any trouble, and there was room for his kind too.

This is the good ending.

The other one goes something like this:

When Obie prayed at the altar the cameras turned again to the coffin where Blake was lying. Slowly he rose and he was a towering figure. He spoke: “The Church, the people, the Earth is mine, so saith the Lord. I have come this night to take unto myself that which is mine.” And protected by the magic that gave them wings, and even stronger magic that turned away bullets, the believers that night slaughtered the non-believers and made the Earth safe for the godly. They cleansed the Earth of the forces of evil, and forever after lived under God, in peace, and prepared for the coming of the strangers. And Blake reigned nine hundred years and begat four thousand sons and daughters who reigned after him. Amen.

A LANCER BOOK • 1969

LET THE FIRE FALL

Copyright © 1969 by Kate Wilhelm

All rights reserved

Printed in the U.S.A.

This Lancer edition Is published by arrangement with Doubleday & Company. Inc. Its large sale in the high-priced hardcover edition make possible this inexpensive Lancer reprint.

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