Contact - Carl Sagan [53]
As they drove toward the new main gate, near Telescope 101, Ellie could see a young man on a jerrbuilt platform importuning a sizable crowd. He was wearing a T-shirt that depicted the Earth being struck by a bolt of celestial lightning. Several others in the crowd, she noticed, were wearing the same enigmatic adornment. At Ellie's urging, once through the gate, they pulled off the side of the road, rolled down the window, and listened. The speaker was turned away from them and they could see the faces in the crowd. These people are deeply moved, Ellie thought to herself.
He was in mid-oration: "…and others say there's been a pact with the Devil, that the scientists have sold their souls. There are precious stones in every one of these telescopes." He waved his hand toward Telescope 101. "Even the scientists admit that. Some people say it's the Devil's part of the bargain."
"Religious hooliganism," Lunacharsky muttered darkly, his eyes yearning for the open road before them.
"No, no. Let's stay," she said. A half smile of wonderment was playing on her lips.
"There are some people-religious people, God-fearing people-who believe this Message comes from beings in space, entities, hostile creatures, aliens who want to harm us, enemies of Man. " He fairly shouted this last phrase, and then paused for effect. "But all of you are wearied and disgusted by the corruption, the decay in this society, a decay brought on by unthinking, unbridled, ungodly technology. I don't know which of you is right. I can't tell you what the Message means, or who it's from. I have my suspicions. We'll know soon enough. But I do know the scientists and the politicians and the bureaucrats are holding out on us. They haven't told us all they know. They're deceiving us, like they always do. For too long, O God, we have swallowed the lies they feed us, the corruption they bring."
To Ellie's astonishment a deep rumbling chorus of assent rose from the crowd. He had tapped some well of resentment she had only vaguely apprehended.
"These scientists don't believe we're the children of God. They think we're the offspring of apes. There are known communists among them. Do you want people like that to decide the fate of the world?"
The crowd responded with a thunderous "No!"
"Do you want a pack of unbelievers to do the talking to God?"
"No!" they roared again.
"Or the Devil? They are bargaining away our future with monsters from an alien world. My brothers and sisters, there is an evil in this place."
Ellie had thought the orator was unaware of their presence. But now he half turned and pointed through the cyclone fence directly at the idling convoy.
"They don't speak for us! They don't represent us! They have no right to parley in our name!"
Some of the crowd nearest the fence began jostling and rhythmically pushing. Both Valerian and the driver became alarmed. The engines had been left running, and in a moment they accelerated from the gate toward the Argus administration building, still many miles distant across the scrub desert. As they pulled away, over the sound of squealing tires and the murmur of the crowd, Ellie could hear the orator, his voice ringing clearly.
"The evil in this place will be stopped. I swear it."
CHAPTER 8
Random Access
The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.
-Edward Gibbon
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, XV
Ellie ignored random access and advanced sequentially through the television stations. Lifestyles of the Mass Murderers and You Bet Your Ass were on adjacent channels. It was clear at a glance that the promise of the medium remained