Mars Life (19 page)

The executive committee of The New Morality, Inc. had just convened an emergency meeting. At the head of the long glossy conference table sat the newly ordained Archbishop Overmire, the signet ring on his right index finger symbolizing his accession to the leadership of the movement and presidency of the corporation.

Overmire glowed with success. Twenty-five years younger than the recently deceased archbishop, he looked tanned and energetic, broad shouldered and barrel chested, his midsection taut beneath his custom-fitted dark clerical jacket. The archbishop’s face was youthful, his cool brown eyes bright, his sandy hair long enough to just touch his collar. His smile seemed genuine.

“I must admit with all humility,” he said to the other corporate officers and ministers arrayed around the long table, “that I’m somewhat nervous chairing this meeting for the first time. Please forgive me if I make any errors.”

A murmur of assurances went around the table. Eighteen men were seated there, half of them in clerical garb, the others in business suits that were almost as dark. Four women were among them, all in conservatively cut skirted suits except for the one female minister, placed at the bishop’s left hand.

Down at the foot of the table sat Shelby Ivers, who had flown to Atlanta from New York for this special meeting. He stared up the length of the table at Archbishop Overmire, trying to tell himself that what he felt was admiration, not envy. Still, Ivers couldn’t help thinking that one day he himself might rise to the leadership of the New Morality. If he prayed and worked hard. If he played his cards right. If Overmire didn’t live as long as the previous archbishop. At least, he thought with a sigh, Overmire’s on record as rejecting rejuvenation treatments. But so did the old archbishop, until he needed a replacement heart.

Looking back clown the long table at Ivers, Archbishop Overmire shrank his smile a little and said, “I’m sure you have all been informed about the problem that Reverend Ivers has uncovered.”

Nods and murmurs of agreement from the others.

The archbishop went on, “Despite the Vatican’s assurances that the Roman Church will work with us in all respects, this priest is preparing to fly to Mars.”

“He’s some sort of scientist, isn’t he?” asked one of the businessmen halfway down the table.

“A geologist,” said the woman minister, almost hissing the words.

“How can a priest be a scientist?”

Archbishop Overmire’s smile turned charitable. “No man can serve two masters,” he murmured.

Ivers spoke up, “He not only is preparing to join the other scientists on Mars, he’s working with the Mars Foundation to produce a video documentary.”

“About Mars?”

Nodding vigorously, Ivers answered, “And the alleged Martians.”

“We can’t allow that!”

“We’ll organize a boycott—”

Overmire silenced the committee members by raising his hands, palms outward, in a gesture of calm.

“This is not the time for an outward show of power,” he said mildly.

The others exchanged puzzled glances.

“We have worked long and hard,” the archbishop explained, “to attain our rightful influence over the government. We control many individual states. We have a majority in the House of Representatives. In November we will drive the secularists out of the United States Senate and two years from now we will put our chosen man into the White House.”

“Then why shouldn’t we — “

“This is not the time to make a public issue over the secularists on Mars. Things are flowing our way; we don’t want to do anything that might interrupt that flow.”

“But with all respect, Archbishop,” said one of the businessmen, “we can’t allow this priest to confuse the public with his blasphemous claims.”

“Up until now,” Overmire said, softly, “we have treated the Mars exploration with what one might call benign neglect. We have not actively refuted them — “

“There’s plenty of conspiracy theorists claiming it’s all a hoax,” muttered one of the older men.

“Yes, true enough,” said the archbishop. “But our policy has been merely to work behind the scenes and discourage the media from giving undue publicity to the scientists on Mars. Isn’t that so, Reverend Ivers?”

“That’s been our policy, yes, Archbishop.”

“I think that policy has worked well enough. Our polls show that the general population’s interest in Mars ranks quite low in their priorities. Climate change and the associated economic and family displacements are at the top of the list, along with crime and child abuse, followed by personal fulfillment and health issues.”

“If I may interrupt, Archbishop,” Ivers said, in an attempt to impress the committee without alienating its chairman, “this Father DiNardo could be a serious challenge to our policy.”

“How so?” the archbishop asked, his smile turning brittle.

“He is ostensibly a man of God: a Catholic priest who serves in the Vatican. He is also a scientist, a geologist of international reputation. That flies in the face of our position that secularists cannot be good Christians.”

“And he is preparing to star in a video documentary,” the archbishop added.

“I’ve tried to discourage the networks, but they’re actually bidding for the rights to broadcast the documentary! They want to air it! They think it will gain a significant audience.”

The archbishop folded his hands on the tabletop. “We can deal with the networks at the highest level.”

One of the women murmured, “Can you be sure 
. . .?”

Overmire gave her his saintly smile. “True power doesn’t need In show itself. The networks respect our power, believe me. A few words in the right places and none of them will air the documentary, I promise you.”

Ivers objected, “But then the Mars Foundation will simply post the documentary on the Internet. Anyone will be able to see it.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that,” said one of the businessmen.

“Isn’t there?” the archbishop said, one brow cocked slightly.

“What do you suggest?”

“The success of an Internet posting depends on the publicity it generates. There are millions of postings every day. The size of one posting’s audience depends critically on publicity, on the ‘buzz’ that the posting generates.”

Everyone nodded, even Ivers, impressed with the archbishop’s depth of knowledge.

“We can see to it that publicity for this Mars show is minimal. We have enough clout with the media to bury the Mars posting.”

Ivers started to object, thought better of it, then said merely, “But once the documentary is on the Net, word of mouth might generate a big audience. It could grow and grow.”

“It could,” the archbishop admitted. “But it won’t. We have almost every church in the land on our side. We’ll arrange a . . . ah, a studied neglect. Not an openly announced boycott, something more subtle. No big announcements, no fanfare. No fuss. Not enough noise to make people curious. We’ll simply have our people delete the documentary from their files. Pastors will quietly ask their flocks to see to it that their children do not watch the documentary. Schools will be similarly enlightened. After all, the documentary is all secularist heresies, isn’t it?”

“But the Catholics. . .”

His smile warming, Archbishop Overmire said, “The Catholics will stand at our side over this issue. We’ll make the parallel with Galileo.”

“Galileo? That was five centuries ago!”

“And the Church formally admitted they were wrong about him, eventually,” one of the clerics said.

With a pitying little shake of his head Archbishop Overmire pointed out, “There are still people high in the Roman church’s councils who disapprove of the Papal admission of error.”

“But they 
were 
wrong,” Ivers blurted. “They forced Galileo to admit that the Sun goes around the Earth. That isn’t the way it is.”

Overmire replied, “No, the Church was not wrong. Galileo was put on trial not for his astronomical discoveries, as the secularist scientists would have you think. He was put on trial for disobeying the authority of the Church. And he was manifestly guilty of that, I assure you.”

Ivers fell speechless.

The archbishop went on, “We will not try to stop this renegade priest from spewing his heresy. We will simply make certain that his views are ignored by the public.”

Everyone around the gleaming table nodded agreement.

“True power,” said the archbishop, “can accomplish wonders. In two years’ time, when we have put our own man into the White House, then we can take off the gloves, so to speak. Then we can show everyone how much power we have to wield. Everyone, including the secularist scientists.”