Clifford Simak - Project Pope

'Decker never spoke of it, said Tennyson. 'Are you sure?

'So it has been said. Through the years. One of the Old Ones keeps watch of us from the hills above Decker's place.

'If the Old Ones have kept watch over you all these thousand years, they must know something of you. Of Vatican, I mean.

'Much more, said the cardinal, 'than we may have suspected. But I must be upon my way. The Old One may be hard to find. Drop in to see me someday soon; we could enjoy a few hours in pleasant conversation.

'Thank you, said Tennyson. 'I'll do that.

He stood in the path and watched the cardinal until he disappeared from view over a low ridge. Then he turned about and went down the path toward Vatican.

Reaching his apartment, he put out his hand to the knob, then pulled it back, shrinking from entering the emptiness and loneliness he would find there. He stood there, with his hand pulled back, raging at himself for his lack of courage. Finally he reached out again, turned the knob, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.

There was no emptiness or loneliness. The fire was blazing brightly and Jill was rising from the couch to greet him. He rushed across the room, seized her in his arms, pulled her tight against him, clinging to her. 'I'm so glad you're here, he told her softly. 'I was afraid you wouldn't be.

Gently she pushed him away. 'I'm not the only one who's here, she said. 'Whisperer has come back.

He looked quickly about the room and saw no sign of him.

'I don't see him.

'He's here inside my mind, she said. 'He wants to be in yours as well. He comes to take us back to the equation world.

'Heaven!

'Yes, Jason. The equation folk have found the way to Heaven. They can take us there.

Late in the day, Theodosius found the Old One that he sought.

He walked up close to it and waited for it to notice him. It made no sign it did.

Finally Theodosius spoke. 'I've come to visit you, he said.

The Old One began its vibrating, drumming sound, and after a time words formed in the vibrations.

'Welcome to my place, it said. 'I seem to recognize you. You were standing on the steps, were you not, when I brought the Decker home?

'Yes, I was. I am Enoch Cardinal Theodosius.

'Oh, you are that cardinal. I have heard of you. Tell me, could the organic being that stood on the steps with you have been the Tennyson?

'Yes, it was Tennyson. He was a friend of Decker's.

'So I understand, said the Old One.

'You said you had heard of me. Do you know many of us? Or have you heard of many of us?

'I know no one, said the Old One. 'I observe. That only.

At first, the Old One had seemed to talk with effort, but Theodosius noticed that after a few sentences, he now was speaking more easily and fluently.

'We have been unneighborly, I fear, said the cardinal, 'and I beg your pardon for it. This visit should have been paid centuries ago.

'You were afraid of us, said the Old One. 'You feared us greatly and we did not correct the fear. You feared us out of the figments of your mind and not because of anything we did. We did not correct the fear, for we have no real concern with you. Our concern is with the planet, and you are but a passing phase upon the planetary surface. What small concern we have with you regards how you treat the planet.

'I think we have treated it rather well, said the cardinal.

'Yes, you have, and for that we give you thanks. Perhaps we owe you more than thanks. We may even owe you some assistance. Do you know a Duster?

'Duster?

'The Decker called it Whisperer. Perhaps you know it by that name.

'I have never heard of it, said Theodosius.

'Once there were many of them here upon this planet and then they went away. They left one of them behind. They left a runt behind.

'The runt is Whisperer? Decker's Whisperer?

'That is right. And now the runt that was left behind in such disdain by his fellow Dusters begins to show great promise. We are becoming proud of him.

'I'd like to meet him, said the cardinal. 'I wonder why I haven't. Nor heard a mention of him.

'You cannot meet him now. He has gone away. With the Jill and the Tennyson he has gone away. Together they go to find the Heaven. ,

Theodosius gasped. 'Heaven! Did you say Heaven?

'This Heaven you have heard of? It means something to you?

'It means a great deal to us. Can you tell me what Heaven is?

'All I can tell you is that the three of them have gone to find it. They have help from others who are called equation folk. People the Listeners found many years ago.

'You surprise me by how much you seem to know of us and our operation.

'Our concern for the planet, said the Old One, 'made it seem wise that we keep marginally informed.

'Heaven! said Theodosius, gulping slightly.

'That's right — Heaven, said the Old One.

The cardinal found he could stay no longer. Abruptly he turned about and went plunging down the hill, tearing his way through low-growing bushes, his purple vestment catching on the bushes, torn to shreds as his headlong flight tore the fabric free.

At the foot of the hill, he came to a shallow ravine paved with huge flat stones that through the years had fallen from the hillsides. A small, shimmering sheet of water slid among the stones.

Here Enoch Cardinal Theodosius dropped to his knees. He clasped his hands together and held them on his breast. He lowered his head to rest against the clasped hands.

'Almighty God, he prayed, 'let it come out right! Please, make it come out right!

It was exactly as he remembered it — the pea-green carpet of the surface ran out to the distant horizon to meet the pale lavender of the shallow bowl of sky. The cubes were there, the same as ever.

And yet it was not the same as ever, and the difference lay not in where he was or where the cubes might be — the difference lay within himself. He was not himself, not himself alone; he was himself and someone else, himself and others.

On his first trip to the equation world, he had sensed Whisperer only marginally; the greater part of the time he had not sensed him at all. Too scared, perhaps, to be aware of him, too taken up with all the rest of it. He did sense him now, he knew that he was here, the soft, almost fairy touch of him. But it was not Whisperer; it was someone else that he felt closer to.

— Jason, said Jill, speaking as a part of him, the two of them inseparable, as if their minds had become one mind and their bodies one as well. Jason, I am here.

He had felt some of it the night before when the two of them had joined, opening their minds so that Whisperer might join with the both of them that they might grieve with him. There had then been the touch of two minds becoming one, but its effect had been softened and obscured because the sharp, keen memory of Decker had been there. But now it hit him full force. He and Jill were together as never before, closer together than when their bodies had been locked in love.

— I love you, Jason, she said. I do not need to tell you now. You now how much I love you now.

And she was right, as she was always right. There was no need for her to tell him, and no need for him to tell her, for they were together and could not help but know what was in the other's mind.

Five cubes stood apart and closer to them than the other cubes. The others had pulled back, forming a large circle in which stood the nearer five.

— These are the ones, said Whisperer, who will be our guides.

Among the five, Tennyson saw, was his old friend who was deep purple with the equations and diagrams glowing in brilliant orange. There were, as well, the one who was startling pink with the equations all in green and the extra-fancy gray one with copper spots and the equations in startling lemon yellow. The fourth was a rose-red creature with equations in showy damson plum and its diagrams in sulphur yellow.