Gulliver's Fugitives - Keith Sharee [39]
He didn’t remember what he’d last used the library for, and was not yet sure where he wanted to start.
“Fine.”
The screen showed him the Dance of Shiva. Underneath it scrolled a list of metaphorical references to the subject by physicists over the last five hundred years.
“Oh …” he said, “not what I’m looking for now. Show me some high-energy proton collisions.”
Chapter Nine
“THIS BIBLE SETS FORTH the only true religion. All other religions and philosophies are hereby declared false and criminal.
“Everything contained in this Bible has been verified as factual truth, and is to be accepted as such, and in no other way, by the reader. Any interpretation of this Bible as metaphor, literature, or mythology is expressly forbidden.
“Violators will be subject to the full penalties as determined by the Council of Truth and enforced by Cephalic Security.
“To report criminal violations call this number toll free …”
Picard leafed farther into the book. It was recognizable as a Rampartian revision of the Christian Bible. The Rampartians had annotated it throughout with “proofs” as to the “factual” nature of its “events.”
What confused people, he thought—they take what should be understood as a metaphorical story and they try to make it into science and history. They see a hand pointing a moral direction, and instead of looking to see where it points, they spend their time sucking on its finger and declaring to themselves, “It’s a finger, a finger, a finger.”
Picard closed the book solemnly and put it back where he had found it, on the table by his cot.
He looked up at the camera lens and brain wave antennae in the upper corner of the small white room.
That’s right, he thought defiantly. You heard me correctly.
Or maybe they hadn’t. Maybe his thought was trapped somewhere, like lint, by a metaphor-filter.
He lay back on the bed, tired but unable to sleep.
The white room that now served as his home was as stark as a prison cell but also reminded him of a primitive mental hospital. It made him think of some of the sadistic “mental health” practices of centuries long past on Earth, the time of lobotomies, forced electroshock, “lock them away and forget them.”
The bed had thick straps and buckles dangling from its frame. On the wall above it were several jacks for electronic gear. The lens and antennae in the upper corner were similar to those carried by the one-eyes. Built into the wall at the foot of the bed was a video screen, which was on all day and dimmed automatically at night. There appeared to be no way for the room’s occupant to shut it off at will.
So far as Picard could tell, the screen showed only news reports and commercials. He guessed he was seeing the same broadcasts that all other Rampartians watched. A studio anchorman who looked like a store mannequin introduced each news piece. The anchorman never speculated; the stories were always factual.
“Yesterday,” the anchorman now intoned, “CS Major Ferris captured three armed criminal conspirators.”
The name of Ferris caught Picard’s attention.
“The incident occurred at the old Dumont ore factory.”
Wide shot of the interior of the factory: blue-washed maze of ducts and catwalks. A group of white-suited CS men pointed to something up on a catwalk.
Close-up: a man on the catwalk fired a phaser.
Picard leapt to his feet. The man was William Riker, his own first officer.
Riker seemed desperate as he spun around and fired again.
Flattering close-up of Ferris: The stalwart Major took two steps forward, looked upward, raised his pistol. With two-handed combat grip, he fired.
Medium angle of Riker: He fell from the catwalk, tumbling toward the camera.
Tight close-up of Ferris: the very picture of avenging justice, the “good guy” that won, the military man that did his duty in the face of whatever danger, that risked his life for the sake of those snug at home, watching from couches and around dinner tables.
Long shot, exterior: Under the blue nebula-shrouded night sky, Ferris led his men toward two assault hovercraft with rotors that now began to