Read The Alembic Plot: A Terran Empire novel Page 29

  28. Aboard the Lindner

  James Medart was looking forward to his arrival in the Kingdom Systems.Another new culture to study, this time a group whose ancestors hadfled the early Empire in an attempt to escape religious persecution.From Captain DeLayne's reports, that had been about four hundred yearsago, and even though they refused to discuss religion, DeLayne saidthat from their symbols and occasional references, they were a RomanCatholic variant.

  DeLayne's primary informant was Cortin's second-in-command, who wasalso studying the Empire with considerable interest, DeLayne said, butmaking slow progress because he had a strong negative reaction toteaching tapes. That was unfortunate, Medart thought, but Odeon'sattitude was a distinct improvement on Cortin's fear. He admitted tobeing a priest, once DeLayne asked about some of his insigne, but wasreluctant to go beyond that, and said most of their Founders' recordshad been destroyed in the Final War. He couldn't provide thehistorical background Medart would have liked, then, so the Rangerdecided to see what he could find from the Imperial side.

  After several days' research, he studied what he'd been able to puttogether from obscure and also incomplete records--not typical of thetime, and he found himself wondering if that could be deliberate.Sabotage, maybe, by some who had stayed behind, to protect those whohad left?

  The group that founded the Kingdom Systems had begun as a large RomanCatholic parish in the Southwestern United States, conventional exceptthat it was allowed to use the Latin Mass. In 2148, however, they wereassigned a new priest. Until his arrival there, he had seemed equallyconventional, though he had already gained a reputation for greatcharisma and persuasiveness. When he became parish priest, however, hebegan preaching about the Final Coming--not of Christ, but of a ThirdAspect of God he called the Protector. This Aspect would appear afterSatan had been released from Hell and allowed to wreak his will for ahundred years. He also called for the ordination of women, apriesthood allowed to marry, and numerous other changes.

  To the Vatican's dismay, he attracted a large number of followers fromall over the world. Many moved to his parish, while those whodisagreed with him moved out. The entire group was excommunicated in2156, branded a heretic cult, and generally scorned by outsiders. Atthis point, it began implementing the priest's suggested changes,including new terms for Satan and Jesus--now Shayan and Jeshua.

  All this got them greater notoriety and contempt. To escape that, thepriest persuaded his followers that it would be best to flee thispersecution and the Empire that permitted it--though in fact the Empirewas simply maintaining its strict neutrality regarding religiousmatters--and, in 2158, the group left Terra, fleeing in threesurprisingly large and well-equipped ships. Nothing had been heard ofthem since, and apparently no one had particularly cared; there hadbeen no investigation or follow-up of any kind.

  Another deliberately self-"lost" colony, Medart thought. At least thisone wasn't fighting them, and from Odeon's medical records there didn'tseem to be any genetic tampering, as in the case of the Sandemans--justa pseudo-virus, one that enhanced the sex drive, which had surfacedabout thirty years ago, and a mutation in Odeon that somehow mimickedit. That, Medart was certain, was natural rather than engineered; theKingdoms' medical care was more advanced than the Sandemans' had beenat Annexation, but it certainly wasn't up to genetic engineering.

  He spent the rest of the trip studying the tapes DeLayne transmitted,including what teaching tapes he'd transcribed for Odeon, and brushingup on Roman Catholic theology of the mid-twenty-second century. Thechurch had been starting to splinter then, but from what little Odeonlet slip, it seemed safe to concentrate on what was currently calledthe Traditional branch--while keeping firmly in mind that this was avariant, possibly in more than the Persons of the Trinity and the namesof God and Devil.