The Helianx Proposition/page 67
Noe had taken hir time in making hir decision, slowly circling the globe and enjoying the freedom of the open oceans--perhaps for the last time.
Back at the briefing, the computers had little to say of what was to become of
Noe and hir small clan after sHe had accomplished hir mission.
This uncertainty had been exaggerated, as sHe well knew,
by the unanticipated event of the celestial rebellion.
Although the computers had been aware of a couple of previous uprisings amongst the lower levels of the celestial bureaucracy,
these were not thought to have been sufficiently disruptive to have to burden Noe
with any additional strategies designed to deal with such a rare occurrence.
SHe had been well-briefed on the second mission, since the arrival of the botanists was said to be a key sign that hir own mission was nearing its culmination. By this time, and under more normal circumstances, sHe might have expected the human population to be far more advanced in development than were the confused and fearful beings sHe encountered in hir travels around the globe. SHe knew from hir previous Multiverse experience that intervention protocol required the world in question to have been set well in order by the time of the arrival of the second biological mission. And yet here they were, an unfortunate pair, deposited on their verdant peninsula amidst indigenous natives still terrified of their own shadows, and deposited on a small and seemingly insignificant world devastated by constant wars, famines, and extreme climatic conditions.
Not for the first time, Noe thought that it was all very odd. SHe recalled this was known to be an experimental planet, but that would not fully explain such a radical break with tradition. Something had to be going on behind the scrim of reality and unfortunately for Noe sHe had no dimensional access to those realms of celestial organization. Yes, sHe had agreed with hirself, it was very strange; ever since the rebellion had struck, nothing had been even vaguely similar to the picture painted by the computer simulations back on the Great Ship.
The few attempts Noe had made to communicate with human beings had been notable failures. The humans, accustomed to being oppressed by the cruel demands and bullying antics of their overlords, had proved themselves quite incapable of being in hir presence. Some had run in terror at the first sight of this improbable creature, so gentle and seductive, and yet who seemed to be filling their heads with sound; others had fallen into hopeless fugue states; whilst still others appeared to be possessed by a strange madness, writhing around on the ground and foaming at the mouth, until exhausted they, too, had fallen into a long sleep. As for the Midway creatures, Noe had long observed with horror some of the techniques used by those spurious divinities to control their flocks of devotees. By now a class of priests and priestesses had arisen to act as privileged intermediaries, which had made it possible to continue to manipulate their followers, even as the Midwayers' own voices were fading in the minds of most humans.
Desperate times, thought Noe, might well require desperate measures.
