Their ears were much larger than any human's, and the convolutions were baroque, from a Terran's viewpoint. Their chins were huge, reminding Orme of photographs of people suffering from acromegaly. Their noses were very large and extremely aquiline, and the nostrils were edged in blue-black. Their lips would have been human if they had not been lined with a black-green pigmentation. Otherwise, they closely resembled Homo sapiens, even in the shape of their teeth.

All the newcomers wore robes, single-piece garments of a light thin material. Some were sleeveless, some had low collars, other were V-necked. The colours ranged from solid black, orange, and green to stripes of many colours. Most were ankle-length, but a few came to just below the knee. One male wore a cloak with clusters of four tassels at each corner. Their footwear was sandals or buskins, all open-toed. The female's robe was heavily brocaded with abstract designs, but she was not alone in sporting many jewelled rings, gold or silver bracelets, and earrings. The latter were secured by little screws.

All wore headpieces of different sizes and designs, one looking like a cowboy's ten-gallon hat and two like 18th-century tricorns, one of which flaunted a huge feather.

The female exuded a musky perfume, and her upper eyelids were coated with blue and her right nostril with a semicircle of yellow.

Hfathon, the chief of the non-humans, who were called Krsh, walked in first. Close behind him, as befitted the second in importance, came Ya'aqob Bar-Abbas, a human. He had a large aquiline nose, a bull neck, and extremely broad shoulders. He looked as if he was forty-five Terran years old. But if what he'd told Bronski was true, he was one hundred and thirty.

The other nonhumans were Hmmindron, a male, and Zhkeesh, a female. Yirmeyah Ben-Yokhanan and Sha'ul Ben-Hebhel were human.

Hfathon greeted the prisoners with a raised right arm, two fingers forming a V and a thumb extending at right angles to them. He smiled, exposing teeth blue from some sort of chewing gum. He spoke to Ya'aqob, who then said something in Greek to Bronski. Orme didn't understand more than a word of it. Bronski, the linguist, had discovered that neither Aramaic nor Koine Greek was the common speech, but scholars had preserved them and were quite fluent in both. Bronski could read Koine, or New Testament Greek, with ease, but he'd had little practice speaking it. However, if his interrogators spoke slowly, he could understand most of what they said.

There was a number of Krsh loan words used because the original Greek had no words for advanced scientific or philosophical concepts. These had had to be explained in Greek to him.

Orme was glad that at least there was one language available to both groups. Otherwise, it would take many weeks before they could communicate to any extent with their captors. Meanwhile, Danton and Shirazi were stuck up in the ship. If they didn't hear from their colleagues in three weeks, they'd be forced to return to Earth.

Or so he thought. For all he knew, the Martians had already sent up one of their own vessels, or ascended in the lander, and captured the two. Bronski had asked their captors if they had done so, but he had received nothing but a smile in answer.

As the questioning proceeded, Bronski interpreted some of the sentences for Orme.

During the first two days, they had been isolated from their interrogators by the transparent wall. But today the Martians had entered. This meant that the tests run on them had given them a clean bill of health. Physically, anyway. From what Bronski told him now, their captors were not so sure about their mental health. Or perhaps it would be better to say their theological state.

Ya'aqob said, 'Then on Earth lesous ho Christos is worshipped as the son of the Merciful One? And he is also the Merciful One? Is this belief held by everybody or are there dissenters?'

Orme got the impression from the man's narrowed eyes that he did not like even to say the last sentences.

Avram Bronski said, 'As I have said, there are perhaps four billion or so Christians on Earth, but these are split into many groups, all holding many different views on the nature of ho Christos. The orthodox believe that lesous ho Christos was conceived through the will of God by a virgin, Mariam. Moreover, Mariam was herself immaculately conceived. That is, her mother bore her free of sin. So, in a sense, her mother was the grandmother of God.'

The eyes of all six captors rolled, and they uttered a word which even Orme recognised was not Greek.

Bronski said, 'I should confer with Captain Orme on these matters. Though I've read much about Christianity, I am not a Christian. I am a Jew. The captain is a Christian of a sect called Baptists. He is a devout man and much more qualified than I to speak about the subtleties of his particular dogma.'

The Frenchman had been translating everything he said to Orme. 'That isn't right!' Orme said. 'You tell them that you're much more knowledgeable about comparative religion than I am. If you make any mistakes about the Baptists, I'll tell you so.'

Ya'aqob spoke machine-gun-fast Greek. Bronski asked him to slow down. Ya'aqob repeated.

Bronski said, 'Captain, he asked me how I can call myself a Jew when I don't believe that lesous is the Messiah. Anyway, he says, a Jew wouldn't be cleanshaven. He'd have a full beard. And sidelocks.'

Orme felt both confused and frustrated.

'You tell them we'll argue religious matters later. There are more important things to find out now. Hell, we don't even know where Hfathon and his kind came from! Or how the humans got here! And it's vital that we communicate with Danton and Shirazi!'

'That's right - for us,' Bronski said. 'But the religious issue, I'm afraid, is the most important one to them. I can't make them talk about what interests us most, you know.'

Bronski looked as troubled as Orme felt.

Orme threw up his hands. 'Who would have believed this?

Hfathon said something.

Bronski translated, 'He wants to know what's wrong with the brown man?'

'Tell him I'm black, not brown.'

Hfathon rattled off something, and the others laughed.

Bronski said, 'He wants to know why a colour-blind person would be selected to lead a space expedition.'

'Tell him that "black" is a manner of speaking. If you've got kinky hair and everted lips and a dark brown skin, you're black. It's a... uh... semantic matter. Political. You can have straight hair and blue eyes and thin lips and still be black. Oh, what the hell!' he said, throwing up his hands. There they were, the first humans on Mars, or so they thought, and they were discussing religion and semantics.

'I don't think I'll interpret that,' Bronski said. 'We're confused enough without going into that sort of thing.'

Hfathon spoke again.

Bronski said, 'He says his skin is the same colour as yours, and he's definitely brown.'

Ya'aqob spoke sharply then, as if he realised the interrogation was going astray. Bronski answered the question that followed.

'To explain why I consider myself a Jew would take even longer, and be as detailed as explaining why Orme is a black man. Can't we get down to more immediate issues? Won't you tell us something of yourselves? Once we understand how you came here and why you're still here when it seems, to me at least, that you could leave this planet, why, then we can get back to your line of questioning. We'll have a clearer idea why you are so interested in our theology. Rather, theologies, for there are many on Earth. Thousands, perhaps.'

The six Martians went into conference then, speaking the language which Hfathon had said was Krsh.

When they were through, Ya'aqob said, in Greek, 'You are probably right. Please pardon us for what must seem to you an excessive curiosity about certain matters. It is not excessive for us. Indeed, it is the only thing that really matters in our world. But if we're going to get any place we should proceed from the simple to the complex so that we may understand each other.