Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

contact with us, to avoid… contamination. We were left here.
    Abandoned."
    "We are very happy here," said one of the Hadenmen, in his buzzing voice. "We preached the perfectibility of Man, and we have found it here. We all came down, to spend our lives singing praises and hosannas to our Lord, as is fit and proper. He is the most perfect. We have come at last to the promised land."
    "These are my children," said Jesus fondly. "In whom I am well pleased."
    He gestured again, and the three figures trembled, as though disturbed by an unfelt breeze, and then they crumbled and fell apart. Carrion moved in close beside Silence so he could speak softly.
    "Don't look now, but the angels are gone too. Vanished. I think Jesus… just forgot about them."
    "Dust to dust," said Jesus, smiling his interminable smile. "From dust they came, and to dust I send them back. They came as you did, seeking wonders, but they were not worthy of the miracles to be found here. Their small minds could not encompass the marvels I have worked in this place. I can call up all who have died here, that you may question them, if you wish. Be not troubled in your minds, and in your hearts. If any of you are troubled, come to me and let me but touch you, and you shall be healed forever."
    "No one is to lower their shields," said Silence sharply. "That's an order.
    Morrell; did you pick up anything from those… returnees?"
    "Not from them," said the esper thoughtfully. "Just this low background buzz.
    But I think I detected some kind of… transmission, from Jesus. It's possible he could be the puppet master here, speaking his words through their mouths."
    "Or maybe they just belong to him, because they died here," said Barren. "His, forever, to do with as he pleased. Would that make this a Heaven or a Hell?
    Singing praises to the Lord for all eternity, because you have to?"
    "He has made no direct threat to us as yet," said Carrion.
    "Yeah," said Morrell. "But a lot of that old-time religion is starting to get on my tits. If he says Behold one more time…"
    "Disbeliever," said Jesus, smiling sadly. "Woe to them who will not see the light. Be careful you do not raise my righteous anger. I have made a Heaven here, and I will not be mocked."
    "You infected yourself with preprogrammed nanotech," said Carrion. "And then you took it outside the Base, and allowed it to transform this entire world.
    What happened to the original ecosystem? To all the millions of small interacting species that made their home here?"
    "Gone, all gone," said Jesus. "They were not important. They have been replaced by something greater. I could summon them up again, out of the dust, but what would be the point? Their time was over. Their only reason for existence was to be the place that I would come to. This is my world, my Heaven, my paradise, and all things here are as I wish it."
    "You talk to him, Captain," said Carrion. "Perhaps you can find common ground.
    This man destroyed a world even more thoroughly than you did."
    "Life is life," said Jesus. "From dust to dust. Nothing is ever lost, as long as I remember it. Forget them. I am here, your redeemer. Be happy here, and worship me all your days."
    "You know," said Morrell quietly to Silence, "we've stumbled across something even more important than we thought. Forget the programming of people; using the right nanotech you could preprogram an entire planet in a way that makes terraforming look small and inefficient. It would be the ultimate weapon; just find a planet you didn't like, sprinkle a few nanos from orbit, and the whole world and its people would become what you wanted. Think what it could do as a weapon against Shub, or the Recreated."
    "If we knew how to control it, which we don't." Silence shook his head unhappily. "Besides; we came here looking for a possible cure to the nano plague. Let's not get distracted, people."
    "Take me from this world on your ship," said Jesus. "And I will stop all wars and bring peace everywhere. Cure all ills with my touch. No one now alive need ever die. I will bring about the golden age of which Humanity has always dreamed."
    Carrion frowned. "It's clear from the limited use they've put it to that Shub has only the barest control of the nanotech they've been using. What we've got here is far more dangerous. It's possible we might be able to create nanos to combat the plague, but as the Captain says, we have no experience in controlling it. It might be like curing the common