They both saw it at the same time. And they watched, without speaking,
both knowing what was in the other's mind and heart. They watched the
giant four dimensional screens all through the city. A green, lush
planet showed bright and clear on them and there were ships standing
among the trees and men walking through the grass, that moved gently
like the swells on a calm ocean, while into their minds came the
thoughts projected from the screen:
"This will be your new home. It was found and then lost. But another
expedition will be sent out to find it again. Be of good hope.
Everything will be all right."
Michael turned from the window. "So there's our evidence. Two thousand
years. All the others killed getting it. And with a simple twist, it
becomes a lie."
Mary sat down and buried her face in her hands.
"What a terrible failure there's been here," said Michael. "The
neglect and destruction of a whole planet. It's like a family letting
their home decay all around them, and living in smaller and smaller
rooms of it, until at last the rooms are all gone, and since they
can't find another home, they all die in the ruins of the last room."
"I can't face dying," Mary said quietly, "squeezed in with all these
people, in this tomb they've made around the seas. I want to have the
open sky and the quiet away from those awful pounding pumps when I
die. I want the spread of the Earth all around and the clean air. I
want to be a real part of the Earth again."
Michael barely nodded in agreement. He was standing very still now.
And then there was the sound of the door opening.
They both rose, like mourners at a funeral, and went into the council
chambers.
* * * * *
Again they sat in the thick chairs before the wall of desks with the
faces of the council looking across it like defenders.
The pumps were beating, beating all through the room and the quiet.
The President was standing. He faced Michael and Mary, and seemed to
set himself as though to deliver a blow, or to receive one.
"Michael and Mary," he said, his voice struggling against a tightness,
"we've considered a long time concerning what is to be done with you
and the report you brought back to us from the galaxy." He took
another swallow of water. "To protect the sanity of the people, we've
changed your report. We've also decided that the people must be
protected from the possibility of your spreading the truth, as you did
at the landing field. So, for the good of the people, you'll be
isolated. All comforts will be given you. After all, in a sense, you
_are_ heroes and martyrs. Your scar tissue will be cultured as it has
been in the past, and you will stay in solitary confinement until the
time when, perhaps, we can migrate to another planet. We feel that
hope must not be destroyed. And so another expedition is being sent
out. It may be that, in time, on another planet, you'll be able to
take your place in our society."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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