Part 26 (1/2)

'If we are to live rational lives, then we must accept that there are certain existential matters beyond our understanding - for the present at least, and maybe always and for ever.

'It is certainly no perversion to feel a reverence for life, for the miracle of it, for the world and for the universe. Doesn't the discovery of Chimborazo increase our wonder? Into such reverence the idea of G.o.d slips easily. Our minds are not quantputers. They work in contradictory ways at one and the same time. It's for this reason we sometimes seem at odds with ourselves.'

While listening intently I nevertheless noticed at this moment a fleeting smile on the face of Poulsen, who had sat motionless, not s.h.i.+fting his position, making no comment.

Belle was continuing. 'Those most vehement against established religion are often proved to be those most attracted to its comforts. We exist at the heart of a complexity for which any human laws we promulgate must seem flimsy, even transitory.

'There was a time when it was bold to take up an anti-religious stance. That time is past. Now we see that religion has played an integral role in our evolution. It has been a worldwide phenomenon for many centuries, and-'

At which point Dayo broke in, sawing the air with one hand, saying, 'Look, Missis Belle, slavery too was a worldwide phenomenon for many centuries. It still exists Downstairs! Millions of people were s.n.a.t.c.hed from West Africa to serve the white races in the New World - twenty-five million people s.n.a.t.c.hed from East Africa by Islamic traders in one century alone. I have the figures!

'Slavery isn't done away with yet. Always it's the rich and powerful against the poor and powerless! That doesn't mean to say we don't need to banish slavery - or religion. Or that these terrible things are good, just because they're old, does it? Antiquity is no excuse. We're trying to reform these horrible blemishes on existence.'

Dayo received a round of applause. A look of delight filled his face. He could not stop beaming.

Belle gave Dayo a nod and a tigerish smile, while seeming to continue her monologue uninterruptedly.

'Life for all generations, more particularly in the dim and distant past, has been filled with injustice, fear, injury, illness and death. G.o.d is a consolation, a mediator, a judge, a stern father, a supreme power, ordering what seems like disorder. For many, G.o.d - or the G.o.ds - are a daily necessity, an extra dimension.

'We like, in our Christian inheritance, to think that G.o.d made us in His image. It's more certain that we made Him in our image.

'And where does that image live? Beyond matrix, beyond time, beyond s.p.a.ce-time. Was it intuition that dreamed up such a place, which scientists now believe might exist?'

'You make,' I replied, 'religion sound like a unitary matter. In its many sects, in fact, it has proved divisive throughout Earth's history, a perennial cause of war and bloodshed.'

'But we are creating Mars's history now,' said Crispin, smiling and allowing a glimpse of his gold tooth, while Belle, scowling radiantly, said, 'Tom, let me quote a phrase Oliver Cromwell once used: ”I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken!”'

I let myself be persuaded by their eloquence. 'As long as you don't start sacrificing goats,' I said.

'Heavens,' Crispin said. 'Just show me a Martian goat!'

The discussion then turned to other subjects, on which agreement was reached with unique ease, and - with everyone's a.s.sistance - Adminex accordingly drew up and put on record our laws.

As Arnold Poulsen was about to depart as silently as he had come, I caught his sleeve and asked him what he made of the debate.

'Despite wide divergence of opinion, you were agreeable together, and so able to come to an agreeable conclusion. Did you not find that a little unexpected?' He brushed his hair back from his forehead and scrutinised me narrowly.

'Arnold, you are being oblique. What are you saying?'

'From my childhood,' he said, in his high voice, 'I recall a phrase expressing unanimity: ”Their hearts beat as one”. Perhaps you agree that seemed to be the state of affairs here just now. Even Feneloni was amenable to a point...'

'Supposing it to be so, what follows?'

He paused, clutching his mouth in a momentary gesture, as if to prevent what it would say. 'Tom, we have difficulties enough here, Upstairs. You have difficulties enough, trying to resolve the ambiguities of human conduct by sweet reason.'

'Well?'

Smiling, he sat down again and, with a gesture, invited me to sit by him as the hall was clearing. He then proceeded to remind me of the extract from Wallace's Malay Archipelago Malay Archipelago that Crispin Barcunda - 'very usefully', as Poulsen put it - had read to the company. Poulsen had thought about the pa.s.sage for a long while. Why should a community of people, those islanders characterised by Wallace as 'savages', live freely without all the quarrels that afflicted the Western world? Without, indeed, the struggle for existence? Such utopianism could not be achieved by intellect and reason alone. that Crispin Barcunda - 'very usefully', as Poulsen put it - had read to the company. Poulsen had thought about the pa.s.sage for a long while. Why should a community of people, those islanders characterised by Wallace as 'savages', live freely without all the quarrels that afflicted the Western world? Without, indeed, the struggle for existence? Such utopianism could not be achieved by intellect and reason alone.

Was there an underlying physical reason for the unity of these so-called savages? Arnold said he had set his quantputer to a.n.a.lysing the known factors. Results indicated that the communities Wallace referred to were small, in size not unlike our stranded Martian community. It was not impossible to suppose - and here, he said, he had consulted the hospital authorities, including Mary Fangold - that one effect of isolation and proximity was that heartbeats synchronised, just as women sleeping in dormitories all menstruated at the same time of the month.

On Mars we presented a case of all hearts beating as one.

The result of which was an unconscious sense of unity, even unanimity.

Poulsen had established a small research group within the scientific community. Kathi had referred to it. To be brief, the group had decided that an oscillating wave of some kind might serve as a sort of drumbeat to a.s.sist synchronisation. In the end, adapting some of Mary Fangold's spare equipment, they had produced and broadcast a soundwave below audibility levels. That is to say, they had filled the domes with an infrasound drumbeat below a frequency of 16 hertz.

'You tried this experiment without consulting anyone?' I demanded.

'We consulted each other.' He spoke in the light, rather amused tone into which he frequently slipped. 'We knew there would be protests from the generality, as there always are when anything new is introduced.'

'But what was the result of your experiment?'

Arnold Poulsen laid a thin hand on my shoulder, saying, 'Oh, we've been running the beat for six days now. You saw the benevolent results in our discussion. All hearts beat as one. Science has delivered your Utopia to you, Tom ... The human mind has been set free.'

I didn't believe him. Nor did I argue with him.

Later, when I was lying with Mary, I told her of what Poulsen claimed to have done, for his pride in scientific ingenuity had irritated me. 'To claim that an oscillating wave brought about our Utopia, instead of our own endeavours - why, you might as well claim that G.o.d did it...'

She was silent. Then she said, almost in a whisper, 'I don't want to sound unreasonable, but perhaps all those things conspired together...'

I kissed her lips: it was a better course than argument.Further Memoir by Cang Hai

21.

Utopia

Dear Tom has been dead now for twenty years. He died at the youthful age of sixty-seven. I zeep these words in what would be midway through 2102 by the old calendar.

A statue to Tom stands at the entrance of the Strangers Hall of Aeropolis in Amazonis Planitia. It depicts him in an absurdly triumphalist pose. I never saw him stand like that. Tom Jefferies was a modest man. He regarded himself as ordinary.

But perhaps the legend below his name is correct: Prime Architect of Mars - 2015-2082.

The Man Who Made Utopia Part of Our Real World.

Did Tom love me? I know he loved Mary Fangold. They never married. Marriage had gone out of fas.h.i.+on. But they were In Liaison as the new rationalism has it.

Do I miss him? Probably I do. I did not remain on Mars. In my old age I have decided to move further out, to lighter gravities.

My daughter Alpha went to seek out those Lushan Mountains I painted for her when she was a child. But I find I am an independent animal, as long as I retain contact with my Other. So our lives unfold.

On the occasion when Tom's just society was announced and its const.i.tution read aloud, everyone was in a mood for rejoicing. We truly knew we had made a human advance.

Our proceedings, together with the celebrations that followed, were recorded as usual and, as usual, broadcast to Earth.

One incident of that day is vividly recalled. I had not seen my friends, Hal Kissorian and Sharon Singh, for some while - not, in fact, since their marriage - and longed for their company to make my happiness complete.