The process of learning—of really learning about a thing—is one of the great challenges of life, and for me the most rewarding.
—Branson Tobek, opening entry in his laboratory journals
Following the secret instructions of Branson Tobek, Billy Jeeling had supervised the construction of a high walkway, a sky bridge in the shape of an immense Cross of Jesus, stretching half the length of the great ship, laid on the tops of several high-rise buildings, directly beneath the matching arrangement of clear exterior domes that looked out into space. When the lights on the cross were activated and illumination was thrown into the domes, the symbol glowed so brightly that it could be seen from the heavens—and from AmEarth when the great ship was geostationary and tilted toward the planet. The unusual walkway and its central maglev track was a favorite retreat for Billy, and he often spent time meditating there, thinking about his many challenges.
He had other places to go as well, such as a secret room at the pinnacle of Skyship, a spot that was even more elevated than the domes—but he only went up there on rare occasions, because his maglev chair could not get him to the pinnacle, though he still had an alternate, less comfortable way of getting there.
Billy was the only one who operated a maglev unit on the high walkway and track—in his case the unique high-speed chair—but he did allow a small number of managers to utilize the narrow walkways on either side of the track, for getting from one building to another, and for conducting business with him.
It was late night now, and Billy sat alone in his unique custom chair, at the crux of the cross, the heart of the great religious symbol. With the lights of the cross switched off, he gazed upward, into the starlit sky. He identified the constellations he was seeing, having learned them by name from Tobek, and had memorized them. Billy and the old inventor had not taken many breaks, as both of them worked very hard—but on occasion they had taken time off together, and invariably they used such occasions to come up here and gaze out into the majesty and mystery of the universe.
Yet when Billy thought about it after Tobek’s death, it occurred to him that constellation names were worthless, since they were merely human reference points, for mortal purposes. God did not need anything like that. The Supreme Being knew where everything was in the cosmos, and could journey to any destination, anytime He chose to do so. Or, perhaps He already occupied each of those places simultaneously—and was not a bearded old man in the sky at all. Yes, Billy rather liked the thought of a deity that was simultaneously everywhere at the same time. It might be the God of Christianity, or an all-inclusive deity that was an amalgamation of the beliefs of all major religious faiths.
Billy had never considered himself to be a Christian. And even Tobek’s religious beliefs seemed to be on the fringes of Christianity, in Billy’s view, because Branson had never attended church, and had not done the things that Christians customarily did. He just had this Christian symbol, this huge cross, and had never answered questions put to him about it. Billy thought it was spectacular, though, and a perfect setting in which he could seek and find calmness.
To Billy, the giant cross symbolized something far broader than one religious faith, and even more than the combination of all major religions, because such concepts were limited by human perception. It didn’t take much of a leap in thinking to realize that there had to be other perceptions out in the galaxy, beyond anything involving AmEarth and its self-serving, plundering Empire. Here at the heart of the great symbol, alone at night and gazing into the heavens, he felt a deep, all-inclusive spirituality.
But this evening, in the smallest portion of himself, his human self, he also felt a deep sense of hopelessness, that he was being whipped one way and another by events on the surface of the planet beneath him, and could do little or nothing to influence them. Things were turning against him too quickly for him to keep up.
He had devoted most of his life to the welfare of AmEarth. His eyes misted over in sadness. Despite all he’d done for the benefit of humankind, he had kept no financial benefits for himself, and lived very simply, rather like an austere priest, it seemed to him. Billy had never accepted invitations to appear in parades, had never agreed to receive the numerous medals, honorary degrees and ribbons that had been offered to him. He had sanctioned no ostentatious statues, no plaques, no world holidays in his name, no honoraria of any kind... though all had been offered at one time or another, and a great deal more. Each time he’d ever heard about anything like that, he’d always let it be known that he did not want it, and had taken steps to prevent it.
People seemed to have forgotten that.
He realized now that he might have done better if he’d allowed the monuments to go up, if he’d received all the honoraria. It would have strengthened and enhanced his public image, his legend. Yet, that was not something he’d ever sought, so perhaps it was for the best that he had avoided such trappings.
And he did have great riches after all, earned from Skyship. These riches were of tremendous value, though they were not monetary. Instead, they amounted to his personal fame and the positive feelings this had given him for decades, and to his tacit “ownership” of Skyship, and the ability to pass it on to his son, Devv. To some extent, he understood what riches his enemies were after. Perhaps he had sinned by enjoying his fame too much, and by designating Devv as his successor. But when he named Devv, it was not what anyone thought. Not at all. They would be surprised if they knew the real reason, very surprised.
There were endless secrets surrounding the workings of Billy’s inner mind, and his activities, compartmentalized so that one person knew certain things and another did not. He thought of all the secrets Branson Tobek had kept from him, and which perplexed him to this day. Those secrets were vitally important, and Billy wondered why they had been kept from him. He’d always assumed that Tobek had intended to reveal them eventually, but had died too soon.
Why, if Tobek was not a practicing Christian, did he make the statement of placing a giant cross high inside the vaulted interior of Skyship? Billy had asked him that very question several times, and had made other inquiries about his religious and spiritual beliefs, and always Branson had said that his beliefs were his own, and not easily explained in words. It had almost sounded Zen to Billy, like a wordless truth. But the old inventor had wanted the huge Christian cross, and gone to great pains to make certain it was built according to his exact specifications.
There had been clues about Tobek’s spirituality, though. Billy knew that he had essentially been a pacifist, because he had railed against the endless succession of wars caused by male aggression and imperialism, and had said that there should be more female energy in the star system to balance the violent, destructive tendencies of men. So, in putting up the great symbol, Tobek might have been harkening back to the remarkable Sermon on the Mount of Jesus, and to other peaceful things the Christ said, many of which were recounted in the Bible and other religious texts. Tobek must not have been honoring the crusades or other terrible wars fought in the name of Christianity, wars that the deeply nonviolent Jesus would never have condoned.
Yet why hadn’t Tobek chosen an earlier symbol of Christianity, the fish? The answer came to Billy when he recalled that Tobek once said he admired the brave way that Jesus had died on the cross, and how he’d done that for the sake of humankind, making a great and historic sacrifice. In his own way, Tobek had also died for humanity, though he could not have seen that coming, the disturbing, horrible way he was killed.
And now Billy Jeeling was himself nailed to a symbolic cross, dying from the wounds inflicted on his reputation, the assassination of his good name. After all he’d done for people, it had come to this.
Despite his personal suffering and the depressions it sent him into, Billy didn’t really like Lainey’s public relations campaign, even though he had agreed to let her conduct it on a limited basis, and it was for his benefit. He felt that the truth should win out if it deserved to win out.
But life wasn’t that way, not at all. For him, it was not following that particular script.
A political leader of centuries past, a beloved American president who was ultimately assassinated, once observed that life was not fair. How prescient and ironic. And true! The thoughts gave Billy some solace; at least he was not the only person to ever have been treated unfairly, far from it. It happened all the time. Not on the scale it was happening to him, perhaps, but all of the time nonetheless. It was part of the human condition, part of the suffering of mankind. It was history, it was the present, it was the future.
He activated his smart watch, saw the green dial light up. Almost 2:00 am.
Just then a person approached on one of the walkways, wearing an illuminated headlamp. Soon Billy recognized the characteristic stride of Devv Jeeling. His son was always punctual. Billy had summoned him here to talk. They did this on the elevated walkway whenever they could, on nights when they could have solitude and gaze into the timeless, serene infinity of the universe.
It wasn’t as if Billy had anything really important to say to Devv this time. There were certain things he could not tell him. But in Billy’s increasing despondency he liked to talk with his son, and with the others who were close to him, including Lainey Forster and Rachel Ginsberg. Now it was Devv’s turn.
The younger man paused on the walkway, next to Billy’s high-tech chair, which rested on a raised maglev track, so that the eye levels of the two men were the same. Billy activated a panel of soft lights around his chair, and Devv switched off the headlamp.
“I’m happy to come to you whenever you need me, Father. Even though I’ve had a long day, and just had a bad argument with Sonya over her flirtations with other men. Before that, it was a day full of police problems, sapping me of energy. I’ve told you we need more human officers, and again I request your blessing to get more. Sometimes the robots are problematic, not responding well to unusual situations, even though they were programmed to do so. Humans are naturally more adaptable.”
“That is true, but I assume your programmers are looking at the robots now?”
“Yes.” Devv provided additional details, many of which he had mentioned before, about why he wanted more non-machine officers. Then he asked, “Is it all right if I make arrangements for additional human recruits?”
Billy took a moment to consider this, and finally he nodded. Even though he would prefer an all-robot police and security force, he had too many problems to argue with his son about this. “As for the robots, if your programmers have trouble figuring them out, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.” He smiled softly, added, “They are my family, almost as much as you are, because I created them.”
“I know,” Devv said, “but I don’t want to add another problem to your already-long list. The glitches with the machines are nothing I can’t handle, or at least supervise. You’ve said yourself, the programmers are doing a fine job, and they’ve trained replacements for themselves, so you don’t need to be involved. Besides, we have plenty of backup ‘bots in storage, and can put them on duty while we’re having others worked on.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all under control. Wish I could say the same about my own responsibilities. I just received my daily stack of reports from our operatives on AmEarth, describing the campaign of personal attacks that is increasing against me, in city after city, community after community. It’s character assassination, pure and simple. A mountain of lies and distortions. And I have to admit to you, I feel myself dying inside.”
Devv placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. “I wish I knew what to do for you, Father, to make the pain go away. I wish I could help.”
“You’re helping by just being here. I admit, I have countless personal flaws; I am not perfect. I am human, I hurt and I weep. The attacks on me are so unjustified that they tear at my very soul!” His voice trailed off.
“The verbal assaults are overwhelming you, Father. You’re suffering an injustice that cries out for redemption, for one hell of a good donnybrook to get even. Don’t you ever feel like mounting a military attack against the Empire, or at least sending assassins to kill the leaders of the conspiracy against you?”
He shook his head. “That is not my way.”
They talked for another hour, about this and other matters, even about their own strong personal relationship. Then Devv climbed into the sidecar of Billy’s chair, and they returned together.