Gentry Lee - 02 - Double Full Moonlight

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Double Full Moon Night
By Gentry Lee
THE STUNNING SEQUEL TO "BRIGHT MESSENGERS"
SET IN ARTHUR C. CLARKS RAMA UNIVERSE
TO MY SEVEN SONES,
Hunter, Travis, Michael, Patrick, Robert, Austin, and Cooper,
WHO HAVE ENRICHED MY LIFE BEYOND MEASURE
PROLOGUE
IN THE THIRD decade of the twenty-second century a global stock market crash
precipitated a devastating worldwide depression known as the Great Chaos. Throughout
the world, the destitute flocked in thousands to metropolitan areas, desperately searching
for work and creating a homeless problem that overwhelmed the infrastructures of the
great cities.
In London, fear of uncontrolled anarchy prompted the city fathers to accept an
extraordinary proposal to care for the homeless. The Michaelites, a new religious order
dedicated to serving humanity following the precepts of the charismatic Franciscan
novitiate Michael Balatresi, martyred in June 2138, converted Hyde Park into a tent ciw
There, under the leadership of a twenty-four-year-old woman ordained as Sister Beatrice,
the unpaid, energetic sect members provided hope, training, and sustenance to as many as
ten thousand of the temporarily downtrodden.
During the bitterly cold winter of 2141, both Sister Beatrice and her Michaelite
apprentice Sister Vivien, a former high-class call girl who had experienced a lifechanging
epiphany during a chance late-night meeting with Beatrice on the streets of London, had
eerie encounters with glowing clouds of sparkling,’ dancing particles of unknown origin.
Later, after Sister Beatrice was appointed Bishop of Mars and the two women had moved
to the red planet, they would convince themselves that the astonishing particle apparitions
they had seen were angels sent by God to strengthen their faith and dedication.
During that same winter of 2141, Johann Eberhardt, a thirty-year-old system
engineer responsible for water distribution and allocation throughout greater Berlin, also
had a startling encounter with a similar apparition of the sparkling, dancing particles that
always drifted about, seemingly at random, inside a glowing cloud of constantly changing
shape. Even though his busy life was burdened both by the dire financial straits of his
parents and an ugly resurgence of racist nationalism in Germany, Johann was
nevertheless fascinated by the apparition and expended considerable effort to understand
it. He was certain that there was an explanation for the phenomenon he had witnessed
that was consistent with the laws of science.
When Johann moved to Mars, he became the director of the Valhalla Outpost, a
facility located near the northern Martian polar caps whose function was to provide water
to the other human habitations on the planet. On Mars Johann and Sister Beatrice both
had additional encounters with the clouds of enigmatic, sparkling, dancing particles. For
each of them, the new apparitions only reinforced their earlier conclusions about the true
nature of these experiences.
The Great Chaos resulted in substantial reductions in funding for the Martian
colonies. Although the lack of money undermined the essential infrastructure on the
planet and triggered a mass emigration back to Earth, Johann and Sisters Beatrice and
Vivien steadfastly remained in their jobs on Mars, eventually becoming acquainted with
one another and sharing stories of their unusual apparitions. When a giant global dust
storm swept across Mars, threatening to deliver a deathblow to all human habitation,
Beatrice and Vivien were at Valhalla with Johann. The three of them, along with eight
other human beings, had the courage and faith to enter a strange, hatbox-shaped structure
that had been built by bizarre alien robots just before the dust storm reached the outpost.
To their astonishment, the structure turned out to be a vehicle. This vehicle blasted off
and orbited Mars for several hours before being swallowed by a gigantic spherical white
spacecraft with a red polar hood and red linear markings around its equator.
Once inside this amazing extraterrestrial spaceship, Johann and Sister Beatrice
were separated from the other nine humans. They were guided toward a small boat,
which took them on an incredible voyage, a magical mystery tour that suggested whoever
or whatever had created the giant sphere not only had thorough knowledge of recent
human history, but also had somehow accumulated intimate personal information about
Johann and Beatrice.
At the end of the voyage Johann and Sister Beatrice were deposited near an
uninhabited island paradise somewhere inside the sphere. They lived together on the
island in harmony, arguing only about whether their hosts were God’s angels or an
extraterrestrial species with unbelievable technological capability. During this period they
also fell in love. However, the strength of Beatrice’s vow of chastity, taken when she was
ordained as a Michaelite priestess, prevented the physical consummation of their affair.
Johann and Beatrice were visited by a glowing ribbon of the sparkling, dancing
particles, which performed a complex display that each of them interpreted differently
Immediately thereafter, their almost perfect island existence was irrevocably altered by
the arrival of a third person who had left Mars with them, Yasin al Kharif Johann and
Beatrice found Yasin unconscious and near death, clinging to a floating piece of debris in
the lake that surrounded their island. The good and gentle Beatrice exerted her con-
siderable energies to nurse Yasin back to health.
Yasin had worked for Johann at Valhalla. Johann knew that his former employee,
although extraordinarily intelligent, had a history of sexual assault and other sociopathic
behavior. Johann brooded about what life would be like when Yasin was again healthy.
He also shared his knowledge of Yasin’s past with Sister Beatrice, but she essentially
ignored his warnings.
In the days that followed, Johann’s worst fears were realized. Yasin, after first
being rebuked by the outraged Johann for suggesting that the two of them should subdue
Beatrice and together enjoy her sexually, seized the first available opportunityto attack
Sister Beatrice. Johann stopped the rape before it was successflul, and was going to kill
Yasin, but Beatrice interceded. Later, after a period of uneasy peace, Yasin trapped and
imprisoned Johann. Leaving Johann to die in his cave prison, Yasin repeatedly raped and
humiliated Beatrice in many additional ways.
The particle beings, however, kept Johann alive in his prison by providing food
and water. When Yasin entered the cave to confirm that Johann was indeed dead,
Johann’s righteous anger erupted and he murdered his adversary. Unfortunately, Yasin
had already impregnated Beatrice, and she refused to even consider aborting the child.
Johann and Beatrice lived together as husband and wife while Yasin’s child grew inside
her womb. She died shortly after giving birth to a daughter, but not before she extracted a
promise from Johann that he would care for Maria as if she were his own.
Johann dug a grave for Beatrice and buried her. Soon thereafter, a glowing white
hovercraft, accompanied by many dazzling ribbons of the sparkling, dancing particles,
appeared at the island site where he was struggling to care for the infant Maria. To
Johann’s astonishment, a ramp descended from the hovercraft to the surface and a white
being, looking and sounding exactly like the woman he had just buried, beckoned for
Johann to ascend. After a moment’s hesitation, he picked up Maria and climbed up the
ramp.
JOHANN AND MARIA
ONE
JOHANN CAREFULLY PLACED eightthintwigsinthe cake. He inspected his
creation a final time, gently chastising himself for the messiness of the inscription, and
then lit the makeshift candles with a small hand torch.
“You may open your eyes now,” Johann said to Maria as he carried the cake into
their cave.
The girl’s face broke into a dazzling smile. She rose from the chair where she had
been sitting and bounded toward Johann. He bent down and held the cake, which he had
made from the fruits and berries on the island, directly in front of her eyes.
“Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you, Johann sang. In the ffickering
light from the candles he could see Maria beaming with joy.
When the song was over, the little girl blew vigorously across the top of the cake.
All but two of the twigs stopped burning immediately The sudden burst of smoke, how-
ever, made Johann cough. Laughing, and moving away from the smoke, he put the cake
down on the small table next to their mats. Maria ran over and threw her arms around his
waist.
“Thank you, Johann,” she said.
He picked her up and hugged her. “You’re eight years old now,” he said. “You’re
a big girl.”
“You don’t really know how old I am,” she said in a teasing voice, kissing him
lightly on the forehead. “You’re just guessing.”
Johann dropped her to the floor of the cave and stared at his little companion. The
light from the torches standing just outside the cave entrance caught the deep blue of her
eyes, suddenly reminding Johann of Maria’s mother. There was a powerflil rush of
memory and emotion that left him momentarily speechless.
“What is it, Johann?” Maria said, noticing his change of expression.
“Nothing,” he replied. “You’re right, of course, about your age ... It’s impossible
to determine without any true frame of reference.” Johann suddenly brightened. “But it
doesn’t matter if today is really your birthday, or not,” he said. “Because we are going to
celebrate anyway ... Wait here for a moment, I’ll be right back.”
Johann dashed out of the main cave and turned left, into the plaza where the
perpetual fire burned. Around behind the fire, in a barricaded alcove beside one of the
smaller caves, he had hidden all of Maria’s birthday presents in a decorated wheelbarrow
He removed the barricade, grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow, and drove it back to
the entrance to the cave.
“All right, young lady;” he said. “It’s time for your presents.”
Maria stepped out into the artificial daylight. She removed the decorative fabric
fiom the top of the wheelbarrow and began rummaging through her new toys. Each of
them had been painstakingly created by Johann during the weeks before her birthday
from materials that he had collected from the island and the lake. There was a new; larger
abacus, several pieces of furniture for the tiny houses in their make-believe city on the
sand beside the lake, a pair of small carved dogs, new costumes for both the Siegfried and
Brunhild marionettes that Johann used to illustrate his Wagnerian stories, and three
human figurines, about twenty centimeters high, two men and a woman, wearing robes
that covered their bodies from just below the neck down to their ankles.
The delighted little girl held the three figurines close to her face, so that she could
see them more clearly “This must be Brother Ravi,” she said after a moment’s exaniuna-
non. Johann nodded. “And these two are Sister Nuba and BrotherJose.”
Maria carried the figurines into the cave and placed them on a shelf that had been
built against the wall behind her bed. On that same shelf were eight other human figu-
rines, the tallest of which bore a striking resemblance toJohann. Maria surveyed her
collection with satisfaction.
“I have them all now;” she said. “You, Mother, Father, Sister Vivien, Kwame,
Anna, Fernando, and Satoko, and now these three.” She spun around and ran back toward
Johann, literally jumping into his arms this time. “Thanks again, Johann,” she said. “I
could not have asked for better presents."
In a few seconds she wriggled out of his arms and returned to the wheel-barrow to
pull out the carved dogs and the doll furniture. “Come on,” she said, running off toward
the lake. “Let’s go play—we can eat the cake later, after lunch.”
Johann followed her down the path toward the water.
ON THE SAND beside the lake what had originally been built as a small town,
named Potsdam after Johann’s boyhood home, had now grown into an extended ciw Con-
struction on their city in the sand had been ongoing for over a year by the time Johann
and Maria celebrated her eighth birthday Their play together in Potsdam offered Jo-hams
a perfect means of introducing the girl to a wide range of human endeavors and activities
that would have been utterly foreign to her otherwise. The concepts of family, marriage,
divorce, school, work, money, and other items that would have been familiar to any
normal eight-year-old on Earth meant nothing to Maria, who had never seen any human
beings other than Johann. She was fascinated by his descriptions of the daily lives of the
people in their tiny houses, descriptions which Johann, who lacked a fertile imagination,
drew completely from his own childhood memories of the people who lived on his block
in Kiezstrasse in Potsdam.
Potsdam was Maria’s favorite play activity, and time with Johann on the sand in
and around their city was often her reward for outstanding performance during the
morning school lessons that the girl tolerated only because they were so important to
Johann. Maria had little or no interest in spelling, or multiplication tables, or Earth
geography, but she did her lessons brilliantly so that she could spend more time sitting
beside Johann on the beach and creating a new school complex, or a shopping center, or a
residential housing development.
What thrilled Maria the most during their play were the details of daily life in
Potsdam for the people who inhabited their buildings and worked in their offices.
Constantly prodded by his young companion for more minutiae about the lives of the
citizens in their city, Johann began to recall events from his childhood that he had long
since forgotten. Maria took these vignettes from his memory and expanded and
embellished them. Thus the day that Johann’s friend Otto temporarily disappeared (in
reality there had been a new film that Otto had risked the wrath of his parents to see)
became, in Maria’s mind, a family soap opera that ended with Otto’s unconscious body
being dragged from the Havel River and miraculously resuscitated.
Maria’s precocious imagination, which Johann only fettered when her lack of life
experience caused her to concoct a scene or situation that could not possibly have
happened, eventually became the driving factor behind
their play. It was as much a source of delight for him as it was for her.
“Mr. Kleinschmidt has made another ten million marks,” she would say “and
wants to build a new Wagnerian theatre out by the lake.... But he insists that the
audiences must have good restaurants available in the immediate vicinity.” She would
sketch the general design of the buildings on the sand and then, with Johann’s counsel
and engineering advice, choose the building materials and the sites for the new complex.
Maria did not do any of the actual construction. That was Johann’s task. But she would
regale him with tales about Mr. Kleinscbmidt, or his daughter Katya who wanted to be an
actress but had a speech impediment, while Johann was adding the new buildings, roads,
and trolley tracks to their make-believe city.
Several months before her eighth birthday, Johann and Maria’s imaginary abode
had changed, at her insistence, to a brand-new house in their Potsdam on the sand. They
had moved from Kiezstrasse to a housing development close to the Schloss Cecilienhof
and its magnificent lakeside park. In this new neighborhood Johann no longer had his
childhood memories to help him recall who lived in what houses. Maria, of course, knew
not only the names of the imaginary people who inhabited every one of the little houses
spread out on the beach, but also all the details of their lives. She chided Johann when he
forgot that Ulrike was the daughter of the Muellers, not the Heinnchs. The play in their
city had by this time become completely hers. Johann was only a willing acolyte.
According to Maria, one of the most recent families to move into their housing
development was from Egypt, like Maria’s father. Both of the parents in the family
worked all day Their only daughter, Tetrethe, was lonely She had not yet become friends
with the other children in the neighborhood. Tetrethe wanted a pet. On the day of her
birthday, by the tune that Johann reached their re-created city on the sand, Maria had
already placed the two carved dogs outside a specific new house at the edge of the city.
“Tetrethe is happy now,” she shouted as Johann approached. “When she comes
home from school she’ll have someone to play with.”
She looked up at him innocently and a quizzical look spread across her face. “But
she wants to know what kind of dogs these are, and I can’t tell her:’
“The lighter, long skinny one is a dachshund." Johann answered. “The other is a
schnauzer.”
Maria explained what she had just learned to the make-believe Tetrethe and then
began placing the other pieces of birthday furniture in houses in the same neighborhood.
One of the homes had to have its walls torn down to accommodate a fancy
entertainment/communications system. Maria explained to the Offenbachs that now they
would be able to have “full-screen, interactive entertainment on demand” as a result of
their purchase. Johann smiled to himself while he was reconstructing the Offenbachs’
house and listening to Maria’s banter. She has learned my words well, he thought, even
though she has absolutely no idea what they really mean.
When Johann was finished, Maria looked troubled. “While I was talking to Mrs.
Offenbach," she said, “she told me that her husband, Fritz, has not been feeling well. He
is over at the doctor’s office now. Let’s go see what’s the matter with him.”
Johann and Maria took several steps to the right and Maria dropped down on her
knees next to the building marked with a red cross on the top. “Oh no, Johann," she said
after several seconds. “Mr. Offenbach has a brain tumor that must be treated immediately
or he will die. What a terrible tragedy that would be for Mrs. Offenbach and their two
daughters....
. . .
JOHANN WAS STANDING in the placid lake, the water just below his knees,
holding the large net beside him. From time to time he would bend down and retrieve one
of the flsblike creatures trapped in the net and drop it in the bucket dangling from his left
shoulder. Behind him, fifty meters away, Maria had moved across Potsdam to the small
pond that represented the Havel in their imaginary city. She was kneeling next to the
only mosque in the miniature town, talking to Tetrethe and her family. Tetrethe’s mother
was explaining to her daughter (Maria was, as usual, speaking for everybody) that most
of the people in Germany were Christians, not Muslims as they were. From the distance
Johann could hear many of the same words he had often used in explaining to Maria the
differences between her mother’s and her father’s religion. I have kept my promise,
Beatrice, he thought idly as he dropped a long, slithering, eel-like being into the bucket.
She has learned about God and Christ and Saint Michael. She knows what an essential
role religion played in your...I have even taught her the basic tenets of Yasin’s religion.
Even after all these years Johann could not mention Yasin’s name to himself
without a surge of antipathy. Pushing these negative feelings aside, he recalled an
evening a few months earlier when Maria had asked if the real St. Michael had had curly
hair like the carved image of the young man on the amulet on her necklace. Johann had
answered that although he had not personally known St. Michael, other people, Maria’s
mother among them, had assured him that St. Michael’s hair had indeed been very curly.
Johann had then explained the rest of the imagery on the amulet, including the nuclear
fireball behind St. Michael’s head, and had taken advantage of the opportunity to remind
Maria once again of her mother’s priesthood and her devotion to both Jesus and St.
Michael. For once, the girl had not peppered him with questions. In fact, she had been so
quiet that Johann had worried that something might be bothering her. During a
particularly long pause in what had essentially been a monologue, Johann had looked
across at Maria and in the reflected torchlight she had appeared far older than her years.
“You always tell me,” the girl had then said, “what my mother believed, and how
important her religion was to her. But you have never told me what you believe, Johann.
Are you a Michaelite too, like my mother? Or something else altogether?”
Johann had turned away for a second, astonished by the directness of the question.
“I was raised a Lutheran, like most Northern Germans,” he had said after some reflection.
“It’s a slightly different religion from your mother’s, but it is Christian and accepts the
concept that Jesus Christ was the divine son of the one true God and appeared on Earth
both to show us how to live and to save us from our sins.
Johann had smiled. “If your mother were here, Maria," he had continued, “she
would justifiably have claimed that what I just said was a gross oversimplification. But it
will suffice for now.... Anyway, what do I believe? I believe there is a magnificent order
in nature that may be the result of a master designer. I believe human beings are an in-
credible miracle, a collection of chemicals manufactured in stars that have somehow
evolved into consciousness and awareness.. . . But, as far as I can tell, none of these
beliefl has anything to do with the divinity of Jesus Christ or the personal Gods of
Christianity and ..... .
Standing in the lake deep inside the spherical extraterrestrial spaceship of
unknown origin and purpose, Johann could remember vividly the puzzled, almost
bewildered look on the girl’s face after their discussion about religion had concluded. It’s
not enough that I force her to learn about a planet she has never seen, he thought,
criticizing himself. I even confuse her with the illogic of the religions of our species. Of
what possible importance is the concept of God here, in this alien world of ours? Of what
significance are the lives of Jesus Christ, Muhammad, and Saint Michael? If I had not
made that promise to Beatrice, I doubt If I ever would have mentioned the subject of
religion to Maria.
Johann’s contemplation was broken by the sound of splashing in the water. He
turned to his left and saw Maria cavorting with her aquatic friends, Hansel and Gretel, a
mated pair of creatures whose physical appearance and behavior both suggested a cross
between sea lions and dolphins. Most afternoons, before the artificial daylight
disappeared, the pair would approach the shore and squeal for their human playmate to
join them. Maria loved to wrestle with Hansel and Gretel. She also rode on their backs, or
tossed a light wooden ball back and forth with them. The sea creatures were Maria’s only
real friends other than Johann.
Johann smiled as he listened to her laughter. I’m virtually certain, he thought, that
this lake contained no life of any kind when Beatrice and I first came here. Our hosts
stocked it for us while Maria and I were away. Now it would be difficult for us to live
without the food it provides.
Maria was swimming a speed sprint beside Hansel. She lost, but just barely, and
playfully whacked the creature’s flipperlike arm. Hansel feigned indignation and Maria
laughed uninhibitedly. She needs their friendship, Johann said to himself lam certainly
not much of a playmate.
He felt a tug on his net and looked down into the clear water. Johann could not
recognize what was caught in the net. He reached down and picked up something he had
never seen before, a long, light blue tentacle, resembling a very thick garden hose, at the
end of which was a large and powerful claw the size of a human hand. The edges of the
claw were as sharp as a knifr. Johann dropped the tentacle with the claw in the bucket
without thinking. The water in the bucket suddenly exploded as those creatures who were
still alive scrambled to move away from the new arrival.
MARIA WAS STRETCHED out on herbeda couple of meters to his left. Johann
had dimmed the torches, as he always did at bedtime. He could barely see her face, but he
could tell that her eyes were still open.
“Did you have a good birthday, Maria?” he asked.
“Oh yes, Johann,” she said quickly. “Dinner was great, the cake delicious and I
loved the presents.” She held up Sister Nuba so that Johann could see her. “See, I’m
sleeping with one of the new figurines.. . . Tell me, what was Sister Nuba like?”
“I never knew her that well," Johann answered. “The first time I really talked with
her was when she came to Valhalla with your mother, right after Kwame Hassan and I
explored those subterranean ice caverns beneath the Martian north pole. Sister Nuba was
from Tunisia, if I remember correctly, and was one of the most devoted priestesseS on
Mars. She was quiet and shy, but had a beautiful smile. I’ll never forget how terrified she
looked when that snowman-like thing wheeled into the large waiting room shortly after
we entered this sphere....”
Maria had heard all Johann’s major stories several times. She knew the names and
personalities of all ten of the other humans who had, along with Johann, departed from
Mars in a bizarre, hatbox-shaped spacecraft that had been engulfed hours later by the
gigantic sphere in which Johann and Maria were still residing. She was well aware that
her mother, Beatrice, had been the first bishop assigned to Mars by the Order of St.
Michael, that Johann had been the director of the Valhalla Outpost (the northernmost
habitation on the red planet), and that the two of them had each separately seen, both on
Earth and later on Mars, several astonishing apparitions of enigmatic, sparkling clouds of
particles that had never been explained. Maria also knew that Johann and her mother had
significantly different opinions about the likely origin and nature of these apparitions.
From time to time Johann reminded Maria that her.
mother never once wavered from her belief that the particles, whose manifestation
inside the sphere had been as glowing, flying ribbons of light, were messenger angels
sent from God. For his part, Johann explained his reasons for believing that the sparkling
particles were some kind of extraterrestrial being, or at least an alien creation of some
kind, and represented a species so advanced that to us they would seem to possess
magical attributes.
Many of their late-night discussions were about the other people who had
accompanied Johann into the sphere. In general, Johann told Maria the truth about
everything. There were one or two exceptions to his rule of truth. The girl knew, for
example, that Johann and Beatrice had been alone on the island for a long time before her
father arrived, and that they had essentially lived together after her father’s death;
however, Maria did not know the true nature of the relationship that had existed between
Johann and her mother. She thought that they had only been the best of friends, like a
brother and a sister, and that Johann had consoled Beatrice after the death of Yasin. Of
course Maria knew nothing at all about the way her father actually died. She believed,
because that is what Johann told her, that Yasin had fallen from one of the high cliffs on
the opposite side of the island during the first trimester of her mother’s pregnancy.
On the night of Maria’s eighth-birthday celebration, after Johann finished telling
his story about Sister Nuba, the girl rose from her bed and went over to the shelf where
she kept all her human figurines. She pulled down three, Johann, her father, and her
mother. Then she turned around and looked at Johann.
“What is it, Maria?” Johann asked.
For a moment she was silent. “You know, Johann,” she then said matter-of-factly,
“I really don’t have a very clear picture in my mind of my father. But it doesn’t really
bother me. Would you like to know why?” She skipped across the cave until she was
beside him. “My father coukln’t possibly have told me any more about my mother than
you have, or, for that matter, cared about her any more than you did” Maria grinned.
“And even if he had lived, my father couldn’t have been any nicer to me than you have
been.”
She kissed hñn on the forehead and returned to her
mat. Johann did not fight the tears that came into his eyes.
“Good night, Maria’ he said. “And Happy Birthday again.”
TWO
JOHANN LAY AWAKE on his mat a few meters away from the sleeping girl.
Despite the fact that he was tired, his mind would not let him sleep. It kept jumping from
one topic to another. For a while he thought mostly about Maria, worrying about the kind
of future she would have. Then the focus of his anxiety changed and Johann found
himself asking the overwhelming questions for the ump-. teenth time since they had
returned to the island. Why are we here? Who are our hosts? What is going to happen to
us?
Unable to sleep, at length Johann rose quietly pulled on the new trousers that
Maria and he had made the previous month, and walked to the front of the cave. He stood
beside one of the two torches on either side of the entrance, idly staring out at the rocks,
the plants, and the dirt pathways surrounding the cave. It seemed to Johann that he had
been in this place forever. His childhood and university days in Germany, his years on
Mars at Valhalla, and even the six months Maria and he had spent, just after her birth, in
that strange place Johann called Whiteland, all seemed to be part of another lifetime.
As his eyes searched the darkness beyond the areas illuminated by the torches,
memories of his first days on the island flooded into Johann’s consciousness. Again he
could see Beatrice’s lovely face and hear her incredible voice, soaring majestically while
singing one of her favorite songs. He had a vivid recollection also of the intensity of his
love for her, and how happy he had been during those first hundred days, before Johann
and his angel Beatrice lost the paradise offered to them by their unknown hosts. That was
all here, Johann thought, in this same cave. He was unable to quell his feelings of sorrow.
Thoughts of Beatrice always pulled him toward her grave. He glanced back at the
sleeping child before trudging up the pathway. Along the way he stopped to gather a bou-
quet of the red and white flowers that she had liked so much. Beatrice had always told
him that those particular flowers reminded her of the amaryllis, one of the Earth’s most
beautiful creations.
When Johann turned the corner in the path next to her gravesite, he looked up into
the darkened interior of their mammoth alien spaceship and invoked Beatrice’s name. He
asked her to give him a sign that Maria and he had not been abandoned by her altogether.
For just a moment he thought he saw a light in the far distance. But the surge of hope
quickly waned. There was nothing unusual in the sky
He laid the bouquet of flowers beside Beatrice’s grave. Eight years ago you died,
Johann thought. You gave me your daughter to raise. He leaned back and stared at the
exact place above the gravesite that had been filled with glowing ribbons on the night he
had buried Beatrice. Or did you really die? he asked himself Maybe transformed, or
transfigured, would be a better word.
On that amazing night Johann had been astonished to see Beatrice again,
apparently alive, only minutes after he had covered her lifeless body with dirt. In his
emotional distress, he had been certain that the glowing white figure beckoning to him
fiom the top of the ramp that dropped out of the white hovercrafl had indeed been his
Beatrice. Only later, after he had carried Maria with him up the ramp and they had been
transported to some other location in the starship, did the idea occur to Johann that
perhaps the white being who was beside him was not really Beatrice at all, but just an
amazingly accurate reproduction of her.
This person was his regular companion in Whiteland for the next six months.
Slowly, surely, Johann realized that the woman nursing the child Maria was not really his
Beatrice, but some other kind of creature or being altogether. She was so perfect that only
someone who had studied Beatrice as closely as Johann had could possibly have noticed
the subtle mistakes. A wrong gesture here or there, an occasional facial expression that
was not correct, a speech pattern that she would never have used—these were the only
differences between the Beatrice in white who was caring for the infant Maria and the
woman who had died in Johann’s arms after childbirth.
Johann had yearned to touch this beautiful white Beatrice, not just because he
wanted the comfort and pleasure, but also because he knew that if he could hold her in his
arms for even a moment he would know for certain if she was really his Beatrice or
simply a superb copy. She always told him gently that no physical contact between them
could be permitted. The Beatrice in white explained that her body had “undergone a
change” that might cause him distress if he touched her. “Maybe someday, Brother Jo-
hann,” she had said consolingly, “but not yet.”
But even a fake Beatrice was better than nothing, Johann thought. He recalled the
morning when the Beatrice in white had announced, with no prior warning, that it was
time for Johann and Maria to return to their island. During their ffight back to the island
in the hovercraft, Beatrice had explained to Johann that Maria now had enough teeth that
she could eat solid food. She had then told him that Maria and he were to stay on the
island until they received an unmistakable sign that it was time for them to leave. When
they arrived at the island and disembarked, the white Beatrice had said only a brief good-
bye and had then departed.
Suddenly she was gone, Johann recalled, somewhat sur— prised by the strength of
his bitterness, without either explanation or preparation. It was abrupt and insensitive,
both ftr Maria and for me. Since that time we have had no interaction with either
Beatrice or the glowing ribbons.
Johann detested self-pity, especially in himself To force a change in his thoughts,
he walked away from the gravesite, up the side of the mountain, and stared out toward the
lake. In the total silence of the island he thought he could hear the water lapping gently
on the shore. lam lonely for an adult companion, he thought to himself But it could be
much worse. I have someone to love and cherish, which makes me.
His reverie was broken by Maria’s shout. Johann bolted down the pathway toward
the caves, hurrying past the gravesite, and reaching Maria’s side in no more than a
minute. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide open and a look of amazement was on her
face.
“It was here, Johann,” she said excitedly. “Over there, against the .... .. One of
those ribbon things you told me about. Its light woke me up. As soon as I opened my
eyes, it zoomed out the cave entrance.”
Johann pulled the girl to him. “That’s all right, Maria:’ he said soothingly.
“You’ve just had another of your vivid dreams.”
“It was not a dream, Johann,” Maria insisted. “I did see the glowing ribbon. Right
there, in our cave. Only a few minutes ago.
To placate her Johann toured the entire cave with the girl, searching for any
evidence there had been a visitor. They found nothing. When Johann suggested that
Maria should return to her mat and go back to sleep, the girl was indignant.
“Whether you believe me or not,” she said angrily, “I know what I Saw?’ Maria
stomped over to the entrance. “It disappeared right.."
The child interrupted herself to bend down and pickup an object that was leaning
against the bottom of the torch holder on the right side of the cave entrance. “See,” Maria
said, turning to Johann with a satisfied smile on her face and holding up the object, “I
told you so. That ribbon left me a birthday present.”
Johann was thunderstruck by what he saw in Maria’s hand. It was a doll, a perfect
likeness of her mother, Beatrice, dressed in shimmering white exactly like the person or
being that had accompanied them during the first six months of Maria’s life.
MARIA WAS NOT interested in the geography lesson. She ignored Johann’s
lecture about the Arabs and the Mediterranean. She continued to chatter about the
glowing ribbon that had visited their cave. In the intervening four days, Maria had
embellished the story of the ribbon’s visit with details from her hyperactive imagination.
“It did such a wonderful dance, Johann,” she said, interrupting his lecture while
they were standing on top of Egypt on the flat world map that Johann had laboriously
drawn on the beach sand. “Its tail bounced up and down quickly, the particles drifted
back and forth, and then whoosh, it was gone.
“You told me that night that you barely saw the ribbon at all,” Johann said crossly
“And besides, Maria, we are presently in the middle of our geography lesson?’
“But it’s boring, Johann,” Maria said petulantly, switching the Beatrice doll
rapidly from one hand to the other. “I don’t care about Egypt, or China, or Germany, or
America. What difference do any of those places make to me?”
“Someday, Maria:’ Johann said, “we may meet other human beings. Who knows,
maybe you and I will even be returned to Earth. Then all this geography will be impor-
tant. You may meet members of your family - .
“All right:’ Maria said playfully, sensing that he was going to be stubborn. “I’ll
show you what I know.” She jumped across the outline of the Atlantic Ocean that was
drawn on the sand. “My mother grew up here in Minnesota, in America;’ she said. “And
Fernando Gomez lived here, in Mexico, until his assignment to Mars.”
She came back over beside Johann. “You were born in Germany, just behind your
left foot, and Anna Kasper came from nearby Switzerland. My father lived in both Egypt
摘要：

[Scanned04-18-04version1.0ByColdspin.IdidwhatIhadtimetoasfarasfindingOCRerrors,butIamsurethatmanystillexist.Pleaseupdateverisonuponfurtherproffing.]DoubleFullMoonNightByGentryLeeTHESTUNNINGSEQUELTO"BRIGHTMESSENGERS"SETINARTHURC.CLARKSRAMAUNIVERSETOMYSEVENSONES,Hunter,Travis,Michael,Patrick,Robert,Au...

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