Lamberti stretched out his arm and balled his fist with the thumb
extended and pointing down. "You know me, Caesar."
"I do. Even my best friend disagrees with my decisions now, after all
these years of elbow-rubbing.
"You are usually more out-spoken, Major DeCosta. Have you nothing more
to say?"
DeCosta's reply was slow in coming but rapid in delivery. "I am around
Caesar much of late," he rapped out. His back was stiff and military as
he strode out of the Dictator's office.
Prefect Lamberti's gloved hand dropped to the butt of his gun, but
Caesar shook his head in gentle negation.
Julius Caesar Imperator V gazed sadly at the closed door.
* * * * *
Jay had given up trying to reason with Ilaria about God. The
man was intelligent as well as brilliant--there's a tremendous
difference--about everything else, but he was stubbornly obstinate
to Jay's arguments. At least in Jay's terminology he was stubbornly
obstinate. All faith is stubborn obstinacy. Kevin Ilaria's faith was
appalling. His arguments were beautiful. Flawless. Jay thought of his
old friend, Father O'mare. Even that great psychologist-priest would be
hard-put, he decided.
So he quit. He didn't give up. He just quit.
Can you tell a man the Earth's flat after he's been up in a jet?
Can you talk a bullet out of pursuing its path?
Can you reason with a Marxist?
"If a man can conquer the greatest enemy the world has ever faced, is
he not God? If he can turn from killing and soldiering to soothing
and pacifying, is he not God? If he can make the world one, after
twenty-two centuries of 'world anarchism' is he not God? If he can
maintain the peace and keep the people happy and heal all sores is he
not God? If he just looks at you when you call him 'God' or 'Savior'
and smiles and say 'I?' is he not God? If he chooses the perfect man to
continue in his place, is he not God?"
"But that's proof! Why die? Isn't God immortal?"
"Only God could realize that one man can't continue to reign
indefinitely. His ideas, yes. But he must create another to carry on
his ideas. There must be variety and diversions."
Unshakeable. Unquestioning. Jay could never understand a person's
sticking to the claim 'I'm a Christian' or 'I'm a Moslem' when he would
be killed for it. Jay had always figured he'd have said to Nero's men
'Me? Me? A filthy Christian? Not I. I love Jupiter and Juno. Step
inside and see my altars ...'
Now he was seeing what sturdy, rock-firm martyr faith was like.
So he quit.
Instead he learned about the gyro-jet cars which hugged the roads like
lovers on a honeymoon. He watched them sprout stubby wings and breathe
flame and soar straight up. He learned about saying 'Open' to a lock
and having the electronic device 'recognize' him and let him in. He
learned about personalphones which 'recognized' your voice. He learned
about the tiny pellet of potassium cyanide and sulphuric acid with
which the guns were loaded. The pellets struck and broke and the victim
was dead in seconds. Very humane. No maimed or wounded. Just the dead.
He learned about self-shaping sandals--the most comfortable and most
sensible shoes man had ever worn--and air baths and soft-voiced
alarm clocks which politely told you it was time to get up and about
unbreakable ring-finger chronos and about atomic heating and flawless
plumbing and he saw plastic, plastic, plastic.
He learned about all of them. But his real delight was the depilatory
cream. This, above all others, was man's greatest invention.
"No shaving ... no silly damned socks or tight, hot shoes or tie ... no
battery stalling or flat tires ... I guess this is paradise, Kevin!"
"And the perfect government and the perfect religion! All one race! One
religion! One nation! One language! One nationality! One God!" Ilaria
added exuberantly.
"That reminds me. How come I never see any coloreds?"
"Haven't you? By the way, no murderous car insurance or alimony laws,
either. And no need for them. All marriages are ideal."
Jay was readily detoured to this new novelty.
"Now, don't let's go too far. Identical religion and race and customs
and ideals and opinions may lower the divorce rate a lot, but there's
still ye olde sex angle. A couple can go together twenty years and
break up on the wedding night. Some are hot and some are cold and some
are slow and some are fast. The only thing you could have improved
on, is sex education. It's astounding how many people of my time know
nothing about the sexual part of marriage. The most important part!
"Of course it's doing what comes naturally; but what if two people
have been taught from different viewpoints? Or if one hasn't been
taught at all? Some people are actually ashamed or embarrassed. There
are intelligent people who don't even know the biological facts!
Few--especially women, know about the pleasure and the habit-forming
angle. That's the one thing than can break up something beautiful in
ten minutes.
"Education, maybe. Human nature, no."
"Whew!"
"Excuse me, Kevin, for launching into a Phillipic, but that's long been
my pet peeve. Atrocious, deplorable, and all that."
"We don't _usually_ tamper with human nature, Jay. As a rule, that is.
This is going to come as a shock to you, with your silly, 'atrocious
and deplorable' 1954 ideas and morals.
"A trial period. A pre-marital period of living together for a couple
of weeks. If the couple isn't sexually suited, they either attempt to
have it remedied by a physician or break off."
"A shock, yes," Jay murmured, slowly shaking his head. "How did it ever
start? Anyone who'd propound an idea like that in my time would be
accused of being some sort of perverted sex-fiend!
"A foolproof, flawless plan to insure happy marriages!"
* * * * *
Half across the world a door swung open and a tall dark man with
piercing black eyes and a twin-tufted beard came in. His dark-green
garment, faintly resembling a trench-coat, was double-breasted and
belted and military cut. His feet were encased in plastileather boots
which clicked as he came to attention before the desk.