The CRES code

Chapter seventy three - The Sacrifice

     They met the priest after about half an hour of walking.

     "I have left instructions with the ship," said Randall hurriedly. "Telling it what to do if I die. If you want a peaceful end to this war you need me alive."

     "As expected," said the solitary priest. "Just turn control of your lobotomised machines over to us and you and your lady friends are free to go. You can live to a ripe old age somewhere and never have to worry about us again."

     "I want to see Dolly and Maisey."

     "Of course. I'll have the images sent to your head phone. You can talk to them as much as you like."

     "I want to talk to them in person."

     "My colleagues can relay anything you want to say to them. They can even speak with your voice."

     "I want them to hear my voice. My actual voice. Take me to them."

     "As you wish." The priest turned and beckoned for them to follow him.

     It took two hours for them to reach the grassy field in which the woman and the other two priests were waiting. Dolly and Maisey were sitting with their backs to a huge, ancient apple tree. They jumped to their feet as Randall and Jane came into sight. "Watt!" cried Dolly, running over and throwing her manacled arms around his neck, giving him a tearful hug. "What's going on? They say you're evil, that you're an enemy of VIX!"

     "Good and evil are matters of perspective," replied Randall. They're rarely useful concepts. Yes, I am an enemy of VIX, but..."

     "Don't say that!" cried Dolly, taking a couple of steps back to stare into his face in shock. "Don't joke about it!"

     "VIX isn't what you think," said Randall, "but we can talk about that later, when this is all over. I promise you that I have good reasons for everything I've done. I am a good man, or at least I'm trying to be. I need you to trust me."

     He knew that, to her, it was like confessing to be a devil worshipper. He was asking her to go against everything she'd been taught her whole life. Behind her, he saw Maisey staring at him in shock and disbelief. She took a couple of steps back, looking as if she was about to run. A priest stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm.

     "Let me go!" she protested tearfully. "I haven't done anything!"

     "That's right," agreed Randall. "You haven't." He glared at the priest holding her. "What has she done to deserve being treated like this? Do you still claim to be the good guys?"

     "There's a difference between what's good for individual humans and what's good for humanity as a whole," said the third priest. "When you sow a line of seeds, you have to thin them out when they germinate. Perfectly good, healthy seedlings have to be discarded to make room for the others. If you tried to protect each individual seedling..."

     "I can't believe you're comparing human beings to radishes!" cried Randall. "What kind of monsters are you?"

     "You are living organisms, just like radishes," the priest replied. "You are both compelled by billions of years of evolution to produce as many offspring as possible. This drive is so strong that you cannot control it even when you know that you are outgrowing your own environment. You saw this for yourself back in the twenty first century. A dying world, polluted and overpopulated. Misery and suffering on such a scale that the sane mind cannot comprehend it. That is why you need an outside force to do what you cannot; keep your population under control."