Voyage to Alpha Centauri: A Novel (89 page)

“Will you tell the committee soon?” I asked.

“Yes, at tomorrow’s meeting. But I thought you should hear first. You played an important part in the decision.”

“Did I?” I said uneasily.

“Horizons, Anselm”, he said with a thoughtful smile. “
True
horizons.”

He had nothing more to say. Nor had I. We both rose to our feet, shook hands, and bid each other good night. He went off to pray in the abbey nave, and I to the choir, where I knelt down close to altar. The vigil lamp by the tabernacle gently flickered in the darkness, and it held my eyes for a time as peace slowly returned.

It seemed to me that this small light was not like the wavering lamp of human knowledge but was instead a beacon in the great sea of being, pointing to the Presence who is always with us until the end of time, and pointing to the true horizon where he dwells in eternal communion.

“Look up”, sang the little flame as it danced. “Look up to the heavens beyond the heavens.”

[Handwritten note found on the body of Dr. Neil Ruiz de Hoyos, physicist, contributing designer of spaceship
Kosmos
; born planet Earth, circa 2029 E-y; deceased during voyage, 2122 E-y (10 RP-y).]

     Where were you when I established the earth?

     Speak, if you are capable of judging!

     Who has determined its measure, if you know it,

     Or who has stretched the measuring line over it?

     Upon what are the bases of its pillars founded,

     Or who has laid its corner-stone,

     When the morning stars sang together

     And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

—Job 38:4-7

NRdH

If, in our wild imaginings mingled with speculative thought on what might be, we do not forget that our baleful “folys” are entwined with purest longing for the things that are above, we may better comprehend our horizon. Even so, by long labor, the unknown craftsman, with his hammer and saw and wood, leaves a greater sign: the spiral staircase of St. Joseph stands, as it has for the past century and a half, in the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

¹
 Here, along with his title, the over-god’s proper name is used for the first time in the codex. The hieroglyphics are unique to his name, presently undecipherable. —
D. I. Mirza
 
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²
 Literally, “spilling human blood”; this may or may not signify the death of the sacrificial offering. —
D. I. Mirza
 
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³
 My phrase, “a heaven in the heavens” for the literal, “a god-realm [singular] in the god-realms [plural] above-waters”. —
D. I. Mirza
 
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⁴
 Numerical values are represented pictographically with a symbol of the human hand. One hand with fingers and thumb extended represents five. The latter capped with a slash represents ten. Thus, eighteen is represented by a single hand with slash, beside which is a single hand without a slash, beside which is a hand with three fingers. The hands are linked by a single underline.
—D. I. Mirza
 
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⁵
 Presumably a female idol in the royal temple. 
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⁶
 The number 380 is represented by three hands surmounted by a single horizontal line, which is surmounted by ten vertical checks, then follows eight hands surmounted by a slash, the whole underscored by a single line. The sum is estimated, yet is consistent with other verifiable numerical values such as eighteen and seven. —
D. I. Mirza
 
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⁷
 “Many” is represented by a single hand within a circle, number uncertain. —
D.I. Mirza
 
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⁸
 The pictograph combines the serpent sign, the name of the Lord of the Night-gods, and that of a four-legged beast with a long tail.
—D. I. Mirza
 
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⁹
 The pictograph is complexified by the signs for “offspring” and “servant”.—
D. I. Mirza
 
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¹⁰
 My punctuation. Alternative is: “Slay the fool in the forest. You must slay also. . .”, etc.
D. I. Mirza
 
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¹¹
 Presumably, this means the dawn, when the diffused light of the cloud cover returned. —
D. I. Mirza
 
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¹²
“Very” is represented by a hand in circle with stroke through middle. —
D. I. Mirza
 
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¹³
 This short line is followed by the symbols for blood, sexual intercourse, and a hand within a circle—signifying “many”.
—D. I. Mirza
 
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^a
 
B.P.
= Before Present. —
Zheng
. 
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