Read Online The Pandora Sequence: The Jesus Incident, the Lazarus Effect, the Ascension Factor by Frank Herbert - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Frank Herbert
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no mistaking the outrage. It flowed through him as though his body were a sudden sieve thrust beneath a hot cascade. Then, more softly: “I do not steal your memories, Raj.”
“Then I’m to be something different, a new factor, in this game. What else is different?”
“The place of the test possesses a difference so profound it may test you beyond your capacities, Raj.”
The many implications of this answer filled him with wonder. So there were things even an all-powerful being did not know, things even God or Satan might learn.
Ship made him fearful then by commenting on his unspoken thought.
“Given that marvelous and perilous condition which you call Time, power can be a weakness.”
“Then what’s this profound difference which will test me?”
“An element of the game which you must discover for yourself.”
Flattery saw the pattern of it then: The decision had to be his own. Not compulsion. It was the difference between choice and chance. It was the difference between the precision of a holorecord replay and a brand-new performance where free will dominated. And the prize was another chance for humankind. The Chaplain/Psychiatrists’ Manual said: “God does not play dice with Man.” Obviously, someone had been wrong.
“Very well, Ship. I’ll gamble with You.”
“Excellent! And, Raj—when the dice roll there will be no outside interference to control how they fall.”
He found the phraseology of this promise interesting, but sensed the futility of exploring it. Instead, he asked: “Where will we play?”
“On this planet which I call Pandora. A small frivolity.”
“I presume Pandora’s box already is open.”
“Indeed. All the evils that can trouble Mankind have been released.”
“I’ve accepted Your request. What happens now?”
For answer, Flattery felt the hyb locks release him, the soft restraints pulling away. Light glowed around him and he recognized a dehyb laboratory in one of the shipbays. The familiarity of the place dismayed him. He sat up and looked around. All of that time and this . . . this lab remained unchanged. But of course Ship was infinite and infinitely powerful. Nothing outside of Time was impossible for Ship.
Except getting humankind to decide on their manner of Worship.
What if we fail this time?
Would Ship really break the recording? He felt it in his guts: Ship would erase them. No more humankind . . . ever. Ship would go on to new distractions.
If we fail, we’ll mature without flowering, never to send our seed through Infinity. Human evolution will stop here.
Have I changed in hyb? All that time . . .
He slipped out of the tank enclosure and padded across to a full-length mirror set into one of the lab’s curved walls. His naked flesh appeared unchanged from the last time he had seen it. His face retained its air of quizzical detachment, an expression others often thought calculating. The remote brown eyes and upraked black eyebrows had been both help and hindrance. Something in the human psyche said such features belonged only to superior creatures. But superiority could be an impossible burden.
“Ahhh, you sense a truth,” Ship whispered.
Flattery tried to swallow in a dry throat. The mirror told him that his flesh had not aged. Time? He began to grasp what Ship meant by such a length of Time which was meaningless. Hyb held flesh in stasis no matter what the passage of Time. No maturity there. But what about his mind? What about that reflected construct for which his brain was the receiver? He felt that something had ripened in his awareness.
“I’m ready. How do I get down to Pandora?”
Ship spoke from a vocoder above the mirror. “There are several ways, transports which I have provided.”
“So You deliver me to Pandora. I just walk in on them. ‘Hi. I’m Raja Flattery. I’ve come to give you a big pain in the head.’”
“Flippancy does not suit you, Raj.”
“I feel Your displeasure.”
“Do you already regret
“Then I’m to be something different, a new factor, in this game. What else is different?”
“The place of the test possesses a difference so profound it may test you beyond your capacities, Raj.”
The many implications of this answer filled him with wonder. So there were things even an all-powerful being did not know, things even God or Satan might learn.
Ship made him fearful then by commenting on his unspoken thought.
“Given that marvelous and perilous condition which you call Time, power can be a weakness.”
“Then what’s this profound difference which will test me?”
“An element of the game which you must discover for yourself.”
Flattery saw the pattern of it then: The decision had to be his own. Not compulsion. It was the difference between choice and chance. It was the difference between the precision of a holorecord replay and a brand-new performance where free will dominated. And the prize was another chance for humankind. The Chaplain/Psychiatrists’ Manual said: “God does not play dice with Man.” Obviously, someone had been wrong.
“Very well, Ship. I’ll gamble with You.”
“Excellent! And, Raj—when the dice roll there will be no outside interference to control how they fall.”
He found the phraseology of this promise interesting, but sensed the futility of exploring it. Instead, he asked: “Where will we play?”
“On this planet which I call Pandora. A small frivolity.”
“I presume Pandora’s box already is open.”
“Indeed. All the evils that can trouble Mankind have been released.”
“I’ve accepted Your request. What happens now?”
For answer, Flattery felt the hyb locks release him, the soft restraints pulling away. Light glowed around him and he recognized a dehyb laboratory in one of the shipbays. The familiarity of the place dismayed him. He sat up and looked around. All of that time and this . . . this lab remained unchanged. But of course Ship was infinite and infinitely powerful. Nothing outside of Time was impossible for Ship.
Except getting humankind to decide on their manner of Worship.
What if we fail this time?
Would Ship really break the recording? He felt it in his guts: Ship would erase them. No more humankind . . . ever. Ship would go on to new distractions.
If we fail, we’ll mature without flowering, never to send our seed through Infinity. Human evolution will stop here.
Have I changed in hyb? All that time . . .
He slipped out of the tank enclosure and padded across to a full-length mirror set into one of the lab’s curved walls. His naked flesh appeared unchanged from the last time he had seen it. His face retained its air of quizzical detachment, an expression others often thought calculating. The remote brown eyes and upraked black eyebrows had been both help and hindrance. Something in the human psyche said such features belonged only to superior creatures. But superiority could be an impossible burden.
“Ahhh, you sense a truth,” Ship whispered.
Flattery tried to swallow in a dry throat. The mirror told him that his flesh had not aged. Time? He began to grasp what Ship meant by such a length of Time which was meaningless. Hyb held flesh in stasis no matter what the passage of Time. No maturity there. But what about his mind? What about that reflected construct for which his brain was the receiver? He felt that something had ripened in his awareness.
“I’m ready. How do I get down to Pandora?”
Ship spoke from a vocoder above the mirror. “There are several ways, transports which I have provided.”
“So You deliver me to Pandora. I just walk in on them. ‘Hi. I’m Raja Flattery. I’ve come to give you a big pain in the head.’”
“Flippancy does not suit you, Raj.”
“I feel Your displeasure.”
“Do you already regret
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