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Authors: Paul F Gwyn
Tags: Steampunk
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talk, not just to think. You need to see things from a different point of view.”
He looked at Sébastien with further confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I know you have certain thoughts, thoughts that you believe equate to you having been made wrong. You are incorrect for thinking this. There is nothing wrong with you, or your thoughts.”
Nathanial tentatively asked; “They are not wrong? I cannot believe such a thing, otherwise I would not feel so conflicted.”
“Is there really such a thing as right or wrong? Or are we just conditioned to act according to what our governments, our parents, our society dictates to us?”
“There are absolutes,” Nathanial interjected. “God’s laws, higher than anything man can…”
Sébastien raised a hand. “God’s law?” He laughed in derision. “By whose reckoning? Could it not be that they are merely laws man has attributed to God, led by their own fears and ignorance? It is my belief that not everything can be split between right and wrong. There is a whole area that falls in-between. Just because someone disagrees with another, it does not make one more correct than the other. As a scientist, you should understand that better than most. As for Arnaud, there is nothing that he needs to say. I could tell it from the moment I met you back on Earth.”
The more he spoke, the more Nathaniel believed him to be Sébastien. If something had happened and this was his ghost then did that mean Sébastien had met with God, learned of truth beyond Nathanial’s understanding?
“As a scientist, my mind should be more open than many, but as a man, I still believe I have been made wrong,” he said, trying to understand his own thoughts. “God created two beings, man and woman, to procreate, then spread out across the Earth. It has always been that way. You hear talk of deviants more and more, but they are just that, aberrations. And…” He looked to the deck. “I fear I am one of them.”
“Are you saying my son is a deviant?” Sébastien laughed at the idea. “My son is the most loving person you can meet, he sees the joy in everything. And he sees it in you, young man. If you wish to cling to God’s law, then consider this. What is God above all else if not love? ‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.’ You are not made wrong, but right.”
Could it really be so? He looked away, out through the porthole, and into the aether. Was God out there, waiting with the answers Nathanial needed? Or could it be, that as Sébastien had suggested, that the answer was already before him? Nathanial hoped the latter was true. His spirit lifted somewhat, he turned back to thank Sébastien, but he was no longer present. The greenhouse was silent.
Nathanial walked around the greenhouse, peered out onto the gangway, but of Sébastien there was no sign. Of course there wouldn’t be, Nathanial realised, the visitation had served its purpose.
His eyes caught a reflection in a pane of glass by the door. The feeling of ice ran down his spine. It was an all too familiar figure. Impossible , he thought, but then no more so than a visit by Sébastien Fontaine.
Nathanial spun around to find him. “Father?”
There was no-one there.
For a moment longer Nathanial remained standing there, his eyes lost in the aether. The answer he had sought his entire life, it had been in him all along.
He straightened his back, feeling a renewed sense of certainty and turned away.
Nathaniel knew what he had to do.
Chapter Six
“A Man of Courage Does Not Run Away”
1.
ARNAUD WOKE GROGGILY , gasping for air; it felt like a ball of sandpaper was being forced up his windpipe. It seemed even when he did not consume considerable amounts of cognac the night before, he would still rise with a pounding headache.
“ Merde, ” he wheezed through cracked lips.
A sound.
He was not alone. Arnaud could not remember being
He looked at Sébastien with further confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I know you have certain thoughts, thoughts that you believe equate to you having been made wrong. You are incorrect for thinking this. There is nothing wrong with you, or your thoughts.”
Nathanial tentatively asked; “They are not wrong? I cannot believe such a thing, otherwise I would not feel so conflicted.”
“Is there really such a thing as right or wrong? Or are we just conditioned to act according to what our governments, our parents, our society dictates to us?”
“There are absolutes,” Nathanial interjected. “God’s laws, higher than anything man can…”
Sébastien raised a hand. “God’s law?” He laughed in derision. “By whose reckoning? Could it not be that they are merely laws man has attributed to God, led by their own fears and ignorance? It is my belief that not everything can be split between right and wrong. There is a whole area that falls in-between. Just because someone disagrees with another, it does not make one more correct than the other. As a scientist, you should understand that better than most. As for Arnaud, there is nothing that he needs to say. I could tell it from the moment I met you back on Earth.”
The more he spoke, the more Nathaniel believed him to be Sébastien. If something had happened and this was his ghost then did that mean Sébastien had met with God, learned of truth beyond Nathanial’s understanding?
“As a scientist, my mind should be more open than many, but as a man, I still believe I have been made wrong,” he said, trying to understand his own thoughts. “God created two beings, man and woman, to procreate, then spread out across the Earth. It has always been that way. You hear talk of deviants more and more, but they are just that, aberrations. And…” He looked to the deck. “I fear I am one of them.”
“Are you saying my son is a deviant?” Sébastien laughed at the idea. “My son is the most loving person you can meet, he sees the joy in everything. And he sees it in you, young man. If you wish to cling to God’s law, then consider this. What is God above all else if not love? ‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.’ You are not made wrong, but right.”
Could it really be so? He looked away, out through the porthole, and into the aether. Was God out there, waiting with the answers Nathanial needed? Or could it be, that as Sébastien had suggested, that the answer was already before him? Nathanial hoped the latter was true. His spirit lifted somewhat, he turned back to thank Sébastien, but he was no longer present. The greenhouse was silent.
Nathanial walked around the greenhouse, peered out onto the gangway, but of Sébastien there was no sign. Of course there wouldn’t be, Nathanial realised, the visitation had served its purpose.
His eyes caught a reflection in a pane of glass by the door. The feeling of ice ran down his spine. It was an all too familiar figure. Impossible , he thought, but then no more so than a visit by Sébastien Fontaine.
Nathanial spun around to find him. “Father?”
There was no-one there.
For a moment longer Nathanial remained standing there, his eyes lost in the aether. The answer he had sought his entire life, it had been in him all along.
He straightened his back, feeling a renewed sense of certainty and turned away.
Nathaniel knew what he had to do.
Chapter Six
“A Man of Courage Does Not Run Away”
1.
ARNAUD WOKE GROGGILY , gasping for air; it felt like a ball of sandpaper was being forced up his windpipe. It seemed even when he did not consume considerable amounts of cognac the night before, he would still rise with a pounding headache.
“ Merde, ” he wheezed through cracked lips.
A sound.
He was not alone. Arnaud could not remember being
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