It was strange to be served food by Jesus, but the ancient custom that the host should do this for his guests was honoured even in this house. The breakfast was ample and tasty: a muskmelon, grapes, bread, honey, mutton, beef, and wine. Though the Martians had coffee bean bushes in their cryonic vaults, still potentially viable, they had never grown any. Orme had spoken to Hfathon about their use, and the Krsh had said he'd see what he could do about it. So far, Orme had heard nothing of any progress in the matter.

Miryam ate with them, but she served herself. .She ate quickly and sparingly and left to shop in the market before the men were halfway through their meal.

While eating bread and honey, Jesus said, 'I had expected that all four of you would have asked that you be admitted into the Fellowship of the Sons of Light. That is, as Hebrews. But so far you have made no request. What is it that holds you back? Hardness of heart?'

He chewed, swallowed, then said, 'Or is it that you are still unconvinced that I am indeed the Messiah? And that my powers are only seeming, that, in fact, I am tricking you?'

The food in Orme's stomach seemed to transmute into a lump of iron. He wished that that serious subject could have been avoided so that he could enjoy the meal. There was, however, no way to avoid this. He didn't have the courage to tell Jesus that he would prefer another time for this subject.

'Three of us are firmly convinced that your demonstration was valid,' he said. 'One is still trying to rationalise, but...'

'That is the woman, Madeleine Danton.'

It was not a question,

'Yes. May I ask how you know?'

'I know the souls of all of you.'

'Then,' Orme said, greatly daring, 'you shouldn't have to ask what hinders us.'

'I know your souls, that is, your characters, but I cannot, or will not, read minds.'

'I think,' Orme said slowly, 'that we've hesitated because we've been raised in different religions. None of which have prepared us for what we've found here. In fact, what we were taught to believe is so different, so contrary to the situation here, that... uh... we find it hard to accept. It'd be easier, I think, to accept something totally alien to our beliefs. But here... some things are exactly what our religions said they would be. But, others... well, they contradict... if you see what I mean.'

'They shouldn't. Hfathon says that Bronski told him that your scholars have known for a long time that your holy texts are full of interpolations, of pious frauds, and that many of your dogmas are based on misinterpretations, deliberate or otherwise. That your holy texts contain contradictions that can only be reconciled by the most desperate and illogical rationalisations.'

'Yes, but very few people know of these. Or want to know. I'll have to admit that I was one of them.'

'And still are,' Jesus said.

He sipped on his wine, then said, 'Bronski has also spoken of the Antichrist. Perhaps that worries you. I don't understand the references fully, so we've requested an Earth government, your Canada, to transmit to us the full text of this book you call the New Testament. In the original Greek, of course.'

Orme thought, what a sensation that must've made! Jesus Christ asking for a copy of the Gospels!

'We've also requested that the nation of Israel transmit to us the full text of the sacred writing of the Jews. We will compare these to ours.'

A cat, russet-coloured, long-legged, long-eared, and with some tiger markings on face, legs, and tail, strolled in. It meowed, then jumped up on Jesus's lap. He stroked it while, purring, it fixed its golden eyes upon Orme.

Jesus smiled as if he was enjoying a private joke, and he said, 'Of course, it is possible that I am not what I claim to be. I could be this Antichrist whom the man you call John the Divine wrote about. By the way, could he be that Yokhanan who was one of my twelve disciples?'

Orme cleared his throat. 'It is generally believed that he was. But Bronski said that there is no proof.'

'It doesn't matter. From the quotations given by Bronski, it's a superbly poetic apocalyptic vision. John was obviously symbolising the Roman Empire when he talked about the seven-headed beast and the great whore of Babylon. And he just as obviously expected the coming of the Messiah and the days of judgement in his own lifetime. But then so did I.

'However, that is beside the point, though interesting. What about this Antichrist? If I should be he, then there also has to be a Christ, a Messiah. Do you believe that there is indeed a Christ? Or do you, in your heart of hearts, think that he, too, is a myth?'

'No,' Orme said huskily, 'I don't believe that. I do believe in Jesus Christ, my saviour, mankind's redeemer.'

'Good. So... I could be his great antagonist.'

Jesus was smiling as if he was enjoying this dialogue immensely.

'Let us consider other possibilities. Is the Antichrist this devil, this Satan, to which the New Testament refers so often, according to Bronski?'

Orme cleared his throat and drank some more wine to relieve the dryness.

'Not as I understand it. The Antichrist will be a mere man, but he will be directed by the Devil.'

'This Devil, as I understand it, is a fallen angel, whose name was Lucifer in English. The word is derived from Latin and means Light-Bringer or Light-Bearer. Correct?'

'Yes.'

'The Hebrew holy writings include the Book of Job. In this, Lucifer is only one of the angels, though a chief one, and he is not evil. He's a temporary prosecuting attorney chosen to argue against Job's case. It is you so-called Christians who have made him into a fallen angel, a being with horns and hoofs and a tail.'

'That's an old folk legend,' Orme said. 'Nobody nowadays really believes that he has horns and all that.'

'The point is that you Christians had to have an evil force which was almost as powerful as God. That's an idea which was probably borrowed from the Persians, by the way. Thus, much of the evil in the world could be attributed to him. But it is obvious that man does not have to be influenced by a spirit to be evil. His evil is sufficient unto himself. There are spirits, angels, but these are not evil.

'Suppose, though, that I am Satan. What would I be doing on Mars? Why, I would be preparing an evil force to invade Earth and completely subdue it. Thus, evil would reign there, my enemies would be slain, and I would have established a worldwide kingdom which worships only evil. Although, from what I've heard of Earth, I'm not sure that Satan doesn't rule there now.'

Jesus laughed, startling the cat on his lap. He soothed it with a few strokes between its ears.

'Look about you. Can you truly believe that the Martians are an evil people and that I am Satan?

'Of course, I could still be the Antichrist, and the goodness here is only a facade, a reasonable facsimile.

'But there are other possibilities. Let's imagine some of them. What about something that could, scientifically speaking, possibly exist? Nothing of the supernatural about it, though it can't be proved, at this time, that it is in the realm of the natural. As if the Creator wasn't natural, though he is at the same time outside of Nature.

'Let us say that, during its interstellar exploring, the Krsh spaceship stopped on a planet that seemed to hold no life. This was somewhat larger than Earth, and its sun was considerably larger than Sol. A blue giant. In fact, the Krsh did land on such a planet.

'Let us say that, though there was no life as we know it on this planet, the Krsh instruments did detect strange electromagnetic phenomena. These roamed the surface of the planet in seemingly random pattern. In actuality, they were moved by winds. The electromagnetic winds from the blue giant.