Hfathon had told them that they could put together a 'programme' lasting four hours. It would be up to them to say and show what they wished. They wouldn't be censored unless their statements were misrepresentations, or outright lies. In these cases, their 'hosts', as Hfathon referred to the Martians, would enlighten them so they could speak truly. But nothing would be excised.

It wasn't as easy as the four had thought it would be. It was difficult making a balanced 'show' because each of the four wanted to present his own speciality as much as possible. After a day-long discussion, they agreed, though reluctantly, that each should cut down his own portion of the programme.

'What's vitally important now is the Martians themselves,' Orme said. 'Their history, including the origins of the Krsh. How they managed to survive and the present state of their society. That is what will really interest our people. The exact details of their sciences can come later. Anyway, if you get down to it, we don't have the information on the really important scientific and technological stuff. And this is obviously just a prelude, a summary of what's happened to us. And how much of that can we get into four hours? We'll have to compress it so much, just skim the surface, that even that'll be bewildering to the folks at home. They'll be so numbed by the first ten minutes they won't comprehend the next two hundred and thirty.'

'Besides,' Madeleine Danton said, 'we really don't know yet how much of what we're preparing now will be shown. We have to save time for whatever happens six days from now.'

She seemed healthy enough, but she was obviously not sleeping well. The suddenness of the discovery of cancer and its equally swift and unexpected treatment had shaken her. Orme suspected, however, that this was not the major factor in her insomnia. The coming event, the appearance of the Messiah, was disturbing her deeply. She just could not believe what the Martians had told her of him. Yet, in light of her experiences here, she could not believe the Martians were lying.

It was strange, Orme thought, that he was as struck with anxiety as she. She was an atheist and so could be expected to be in an emotional turmoil, especially when you considered the devout upbringing she'd had. The conditioned reflexes established in childhood were eating upwards through the dark layers. The religious upbringing hadn't been dissolved; such things never were.

But he... he had been born and raised in a fundamentalist Baptist family. To them, everything in the Bible was taken as literally true.

Orme tried to recall everything he knew about Jesus as told in the Bible. Jesus Christ had been born of a virgin, and had died on the cross, atoning for people's sins and assuring them salvation, resurrection and immortality in heaven, if they believed that he was God's son and also God, and if they followed the golden rule, believed certain dogmas and were spiritually 'born again'.

All this Orme had believed, despite certain early convictions and doubts, until he was in high school. From then on the overwhelming evidence for evolution, the billions-year-old age of Earth, and many other things had led him to fall from fundamentalism, but not from grace.

Though he did not believe that the Old Testament was to be taken literally, he did think that the events in the New Testament had happened as portrayed. His parents were horrified at his new attitude. They thought he would go to Hell if he didn't revert to the truth. Though sorrowful because of this, he continued to adhere to his somewhat more liberal Christianity. No longer did he believe that he would go to a hell of fire and brimstone and eternal physical torture if he lacked faith in the utter literalness of the Old Testament. He might go to hell, but it would be a spiritual one, the horrible knowledge that he would be forever cut off from God.

Also, he did things that he knew were wrong. Occasionally, he got drunk, and he lay with girls before he got married. But since he'd taken a wife, he was faithful to her, though it wasn't easy. The divorce had been shattering. Hadn't Christ said [hat the only excuse for divorce was infidelity? But he lived in a society in which divorce was almost as easy as marriage. In my event, he had not wished for the divorce, but it had been useless to fight against it in the courts.

So, here he was, a man who prayed to God and His son every night and sometimes in the day, who hoped some day to see His son face to face.

If the Martians were to be believed, he soon would be face to face with the living Jesus. Why, then, this quivering unease, thudding heart, sickness in the stomach, and desire to run? Was it because he would have to decide whether or not this was the true Christ? That was a judgement that he did not think he was competent to make, though the Bible certainly have the clues to help separate the true from the false.

But here were the Martians, saying that Jesus dwelt with them, though he stayed most of the time in the globe that replaced the sun for them. They said they had undeniable proof of their assertions. Yet from what Matthias said, who had known Jesus in Palestine and on Mars, he was only a man, though in a sense more than that since he was the Messiah.

Matthias had been one of the Purishim, the 'separatists', of the Pharisees. Jesus had cursed the Pharisees and the rival party, the Sadducees. But the maledictions against the Pharisees had been only applied to the hypocrites among them. Unlike their rivals the Sadducees, they believed in the resurrection and the angels, which Jesus also believed in. And though they were stricter than he, still they admitted that the laws of Moses were subject to evolution. They wouldn't blindly follow them if they disagreed with reason or conscience.

When the Pharisees rebuked Jesus for breaking the Sabbath or for sitting down to eat with tax-collectors and other sinners, and for not washing his hands before taking a meal he had replied, 'The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.'

This was a principle that, in theory at least, the Pharisees could have agreed with. Their reply to Jesus was not recorded in the New Testament, but Matthias said that in time many of his interrogators came to agree with him on this point.

The Pharisees were also deeply concerned about salvation. Not just the salvation of the Jews, but the salvation of all humanity. Eventually, they believed, all Gentiles would accept the Law and have but one God, though the Law would be that of Moses and God would be Yahweh. The nation of Israel would be foremost of all, an elder and wiser brother. Also, the Pharisees, unlike the other sects, believed in vigorous proselytising and converting the pagans to Judaism.

Jesus, though not a Pharisee, did agree with many of their tenets and practices. For a time, he had been an Essene, according to Matthias, but he had found the community around Qumran too strict, lacking in the humanity of those who truly loved' the sons of Adam and Eve. So he had departed.

Orme, unable to read Matthias's book swiftly enough to finish it before the coming great event, had insisted that Bronski read it aloud to him. The Frenchman had done so, though he stopped now and then to explain difficult passages.

When the end was reached, Orme had shaken his head. And he'd said, 'I'm more confused than ever. Matthias was a disciple and an apostle, and he knew Jesus intimately, accompanied him throughout Palestine. He should be giving the straight stuff, since his account hasn't been tampered with. He says nothing of the virgin birth and he doesn't know the doctrine that Christ's death was an atonement for the sins of mankind and therefore their route to salvation. He says nothing of the miracles which the Biblical writers say he performed. Apparently, he didn't see them, though he was with Jesus much of the time. He does say that he heard stories about the miracles after Jesus had died. But he discounts them, since he knew they weren't true.