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CHAPTER 6

THE FIRST OUTCOME OF THE CONFLICT

Harry’s world was on fire. His father was not unknown to him: an irascible man, smooth as a cat’s fur when in public, capable of putting bull’s rancour to shame in private, and at that, often letting it come like gentle steam from the nostrils, rather than entirely in impetuous rush. He had not reached his summit by folly in behaviour, and in fact, had his conduct resembled his heart, he would have risen no higher than the Challenger, relative to its intended program.

The Secretary, like Stalin in his early days, was knowledgeable about people and instructed in gaining support; but Harry did not know how far he would go when really roused, not just domestically, but politically.

Politics ? What a strange thought, he mused, to call this politics; but that was its nature. You did not have to be elected by the people, but by some people. You did not have to satisfy a national voting population, but you did need to meet the desire of your masters. There were programs of popularity, of course, meeting with placating words, the frenzied utterances of opponents with whom you had to provide peace if you could; but there other times, such as having Zionism called racism, when the most outrageously aggressive stance was allowable in international affairs.

This new Earth Unity Force seemed like its predecessor: tantalizing, talented, aggressive, presumptuous,  arrogant, with a lamb’s talk superimposed on a wolf’s mode. Yes, from seminary studies he remembered the second dragon of Revelation 13 which would have sheep’s clothing, but talk like a dragon. Where would it end ? As in Revelation 20 of course, but on the way ?

It was rather like being IN spacecraft Columbia in that last desperate mission. Something was wrong ? Yes, it had been considered at large for days and that intensively, though some felt there was a push for consensus on the DO NOTHING approach, concerning that foam based damage which it sustained at take-off. As the evidence was gathering, the loss of data, the loss of communication, the surrealistic seeming glow that surpassed the norm, like some great light, then the sundering ... It was so like the position for this world with Hu more and more conscious of being the pilot. Endless preliminaries shouted the truth; but they were not about to heed them. They had not heeded them on earth; and they were thrust into eternity, in space. The space-vehicle meant for life, became an assured scene of death.

It piloted only to death, foreseen, attested, increasingly evidenced, and the thing glowed with a light which though intense, was like lightning, not born to last. How like these last days for this world, it all was, a parable in motion ... Harry felt an oppressive gloom concerning his father, as if he had already fallen, as one set of human remains did to a man's farm, and was to be seen by his own son, on that land, looking at him, appalled, aghast, but not at all surprised.

He was jolted back to the present by the cold.

As he walked and thought, having only an old car which he had not brought to the meeting, it seemed a good idea to visit Niagara, and having a little spare cash, he took a day off, soon finding himself near the rainbow-crested, suffusing mist that showed how near the Falls had come to him. Down, down into the bowels of the earth, which that day seemed strangely supportive, though as bowels, he thought moodily, they had little to offer but darkness. On with that raincoat and with those boots, and then to the passage leading to the back of the Falls, he went, his thought an additional cloak, sheltering him from interaction with the others. To the wire protection he proceeded in the aura of spray, to watch the majesty of the waters, when suddenly a sharp pain brought his wandering mind to the immediate situation.

Someone had impacted heavily on him from behind,  and he felt sure there had been  a sudden elevating motion ramming him upwards and on towards the Falls. It seemed someone had fainted and in the action had been convulsed, so throwing one on another in an amazing way. Seizing the wire with both hands, his athletic ability enabled him to throw himself sideways and back; but not without wrenching.

Like dew onto the morning grass, reality descended. His father was not known for suffering pain readily, and feeling that fear was the driving force in the end, he could act! Perhaps this was a warning from him to his son, to change his ways, and to be less critical. Whether or not he could actually have been manoeuvered by several in the crowd, in pay of his father, into falling over he did not know; but the idea was plain enough.

The combination of delicious apprehension and nervousness in some of the spectators and of a couple of good actors could have been dangerous. Was this a warning or an endeavour to exterminate him, so that he could join the Jews whose Wall the world so hated ? A wall! The world cried, as if mere Jews should even DARE to protect themselves, let alone fail to give up everything they had gained since extermination process 1948!

His mood changed radically to one of intense resolve. If this was his irenic father’s idiotic effort to intimidate, or even worse, he too would act.

Back at seminary, courtesy of public transport, some hours later, he shared with Ralph his adventure. Rosy-faced for a  young man, and kindly at heart, Ralph was always slow to pick up the scent of evil. He reminded Harry of a cat he once had, which had great dignity and sense of fitness, especially of what fitted its feline purposes. Brought in from outside to a cupboard where a mouse had just been seen, it displayed but one purpose: to leave the kitchen with haste and to resume its former pursuits outside. Ralph was always slow to sense the operations of evil.

Not that his liberal hearted thoughtfulness was at fault, in Ralph’s case: it was just that he was so slow to think evil, that if something like a wasp hit him in the face, he would consider first whether it had been a bird dropping, before swatting, Harry felt.

No, your father would never do a thing like that! Ralph assured him. The man may be paranoid, or even just militantly universalistic, ridding himself of ‘foes’ in his own way; but surely he would never attempt murder or intimidation with his own son, by mere physical means. Harry, he emphasised, if you are going to descend to that level, you may need to consider the sensitivities of your heart.

As the two friends talked, a tension loomed between them, and Harry suggested a drive in Ralph’s car. On his salary, he could easily afford me a car, he affirmed, and yet look, I walk. He is always keen to control and limit opposition, and it is no secret that I am in that camp in his mind. He sees things as the IDEA, the IDEAL and the ACTION. In the IDEA, he is the main executive, not only by appointment, but by fate, which he congratulates on its wisdom in selecting him. Anything which collides with the idea, is evil, and needs extermination. The IDEAL is simply getting it done. The ACTION is what does it.

Aren’t you glamorising his intensity into a drastic evil, almost making of it a cartoon in your own mind ? his kindly friend asked.

I do not mean, Harry replied, that it has ever occurred to me that he would attempt murder, or even physical  force as a threat; but I DO mean that he has always had this arrogant streak, as if he has the patronizing power, the gleam of reality and the certainty of success. If you thwart something in that particular area of his thinking, you are ‘evil’ and have to go. Psychological warfare has been his mode, but why should it end there ? Absolute power may not always be absolutely corrupt, but a lot of it can go a long way.

Some people become defensive of this power, scheme to preserve it, fear to lose it, become dramatically involved in little spas and surges of feeling, little contests with other aspirants, taking devious and guileful steps to cut the ground from under their feet, eventually realising that bulldozers are effective in that sort of action,  and insensibly, the tyrant is born.

You surely don’t mean that your father is a tyrant ?

No, but I have much reason to believe – man, you should have heard him at that interview we had, with all the benevolence of a mongoose meeting a rattle-snake in the wilderness – that he is in danger of becoming one.

As they turned a corner to a nearby park, with a peaceful lake and a little path surrounding its gleaming waters and quiet beauty, a police car blocked their way, although it did not seem the usual kind. Still, it had POLICE marked clearly on it. They stopped.

“You are under arrest,” said the officer, showing his card so briefly that neither could see it.

Harry, whose early training had made him perspicacious, at once saw the suggestive combination of unusual markings, inadequate show of card, and plain clothes with the obvious lack of intimation of the supposed offence, mingled with a brusque intimidatory style, and tried guile.

Officer, he said, smiling pleasantly, could I just get my case with papers in it first ?

Go ahead.

After all, the other officer was still in the car. Nudging Ralph to join him, he went to the car,  and then the two in one sudden lurch screeched out of the scene, the officer watching Ralph’s legs being slowly brought into the lurching vehicle.

They were dumb, said Harry.

I am beginning to think you may be right, said Ralph.

Dad must have been using some functionaries who usually do something else, to let us outwit them like that.

Let’s tell the Seminary President about this! said Harry.

There goes my degree! said Ralph.

Rubbish! Do you think that …

The FACTS would not hurt us, but the interpretation might.  What if those men were some kind of legit body ?

Not acting like that.

Seminary is hot on law and order. How could we defend our joint instinctive flair to recognise this in terms of what happened at the Falls and in the Interview, rationally ?

Easily, if I give a detailed account of the interview.

If it had been some high-power business magnate, they might believe; but for the Secretary of the Earth Unity Force, they might quail, both at the likelihood of a man in that position so attacking his own son, and at the thought of what might happen if we are, as they must consider possible, mistaken!

Well, IF nothing comes in the official police level, from this, that will in itself be material to the case.

Could not your father put up some sort of screen to legitimise this as real security action ? They are so nervous about that, that they created the Earth Unity Force in the first place; and if the secretary invents some ground for arrest, perhaps just checking something in depth and detail which was putting us under security suspicion, then this constitutes grounds to add to it, and we are law breakers, construable as violent and dangerous drivers as well.

I do not think, Ralph responded, that he would expose his fatherly action towards a son to this sort of stress, as we manifestly parted without visible stress when I was there; for most of his menace was in little glances, or intimations, or expressions that no one would be likely to notice. A Secretary with that sort of problem with his son ? cannot manage his own house ? I am willing to risk his not daring to do so.

Perhaps you are right.

After prayer, they resolved however to await further developments, and to act if anything further happened to make it conclusive.

On the following Saturday, they saw in the local paper, an advertisement for space personnel for the new Moon Station, and felt attracted. It was after all, only a matter of two months to their final examinations, and Chaplains were needed. Hence they prayed and found counsel from the Lord. They understood it to be this. Keep out of sight, and highly inconspicuous for a time. Say nothing to Hu or the President of the seminary; just work and be careful.

In due time, graduation occurred without further incident, but as Harry was receiving his degree, he felt a sudden sharp and almost blinding light strike his face. Instantly moving sharply away, because of his high-strung sensitivity to danger, he escaped with what felt like a blow to the face, and felt a little stunned. What sort of laser might that have been ? he wondered. No one seemed to have noticed much, so he said nothing.

Intimidation ? Probably. He had no further doubts that at the very least, he was now subject to a systematic series of events to bring either injury or an acute sense of apprehension, so that he would cease being vocal in his criticism of his father. It could be progressive, not in the sense of good, but in the meaning of cumulatively moving towards more certain disaster…

Speaking with Ralph, he decided to apply for the Chaplaincy; for after all not many would want the Moon for their landscape, he felt, and the idea of taking on young people might appeal to the makers of policy in such a rugged situation. Ralph smiled at the idea, but realised it would put Harry out of proximity to his father, and that this could help preserve his life, whether from more physical violence or the cumulative planning effects which his father, now seeming more and more paranoid, might concoct. In fact, he decided to join him. After all, people were in the Moon Station, and they needed Christ as much as anyone else. It might be an ideal outpost for finding people ready not only to receive the power and peace of God in the name given, Jesus Christ, but to grow in grace and spiritual stature where it was needed! The Moon for Christ  … he almost laughed as it seemed slightly idiotic; but then, it was eminently realistic.

Could not action from earth obliterate the earth FROM the moon, Harry mused ? If he were unsafe on earth, perhaps he could be valuable for Christ on the moon, and there live longer, better fulfil his life's calling, and obscured by distance, secure more for his Master. He shared these thoughts with Ralph, who whole-heartedly concurred. In fact, to be accurate, they both began to find just a smidgeon of excitement, deliciously flavoured with apprehension and a sense of discovery.

It was four months later when the interviews occurred. It seemed remarkable what a good reference his father had given, and Ralph’s background in computing had served well: they were accepted, the bonding between them highly agreeable to the authorities, who realised the danger of loneliness and the advantages of peace in the ranks which their friendship portended for such a trying and extraordinary mission. Their studies had prospered in their plight, and they both received a First Class Honours Degree, with high commendation from the seminary, making them glad they had shared nothing with the President, of their surmises.