Europa Strike(34)

He was also the family’s smart mouth. He enjoyed baiting her about the Faith.

“Not everyone understands N.A.,” she said primly. It was as much as she could say within the boundaries of her oath, which included the injunction to teach children to think for themselves, rather than filling them with one’s own belief system.

It was an oath she took at least as seriously as physicians had taken the Hippocratic a century before. First, do no harm…

“Well, this guy was sayin’ the Anists are just taking over the old, conservative neopagan churches and sneaking the An in to replace the old nature spirits and elementals, kind of to, like, dress them up in modern garb, y’know? Give themselves gods that are up to date!”

He was goading her, she knew, looking for a way to get through her armor, a way to make her overstep herself, maybe look foolish, or at least give him the opportunity to pick a few amusing holes in her logic. She refused to take the bait. “That assumes,” she said, “that a religion is consciously constructed by its worshippers. That it’s a charade. A game at best, and self-deception at worst. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Well, not exactly. I mean—”

“This sounds like a perfect topic for a talk. Both of you.”

“Awww!” both kids chorused.

“Twenty minutes, minimum, with any visuals you want to pull off the Net. Convince me logically, and with facts, not dogma, that religion is nothing more than people creating the gods in their own image.”

“We know we can’t do that!” Alan said with a snort.

“You may take the other side, if you prefer. But either way, be sure to discuss what role faith plays in religion. How people can be willing to die for something that they know is a fraud.”

“Wait a minute, Cissie,” Kam said, all of the indignity possible for a bright twelve-year-old burning behind those large dark eyes. “I didn’t make fun of your religion! Why should I be punished?”

“First, it’s not punishment,” Rena said. “It’s a chance for you to show off what you know. Second, I didn’t hear him making fun of my religion—which is something no well-mannered young man would do in any case, am I right?” Both shook their heads solemnly. “Of course not. He was telling me about what you two saw in the documentary, which we would have discussed in any case. And finally, I want your talk, Kam, to be on how the Marine Corps deals with different religions, different religious beliefs among their men and women. Your mother and father both might have some good input there, especially about things like prayer times, services, special foods, and religious icons, tattoos, and the like. Both talks due…next Friday.”

“Awwww…”

“If you’re going to be a Marine officer, you’ll have to learn about people. And religion is one of the few things left that’s distinctly human. Most people have religious beliefs of some sort, even the ones who have faith that there aren’t any gods at all!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Hey, Cissie!” Alan said, pointing at the wall screen. “There’s a pickup for us!”

The house spider—the limited-AI that crawled the Netweb looking for programs and announcements of particular interest to the family—had brought up a flashing window in one corner of the screen. From the unfolding logo, Rena saw that it was a Triple-N special report.

“Go ahead. Bring it up.” As Marine family, the Garroway-Lees had programmed the spider to pick up, among other things, any news stories that had a bearing on the world political situation. It might be an announcement of new trouble with China, or a—

“Enlarge window,” Alan said, and the frozen documentary swapped places in the tiny window with the news story, which now covered the wall.

“…arrived here at Net News Network a few moments ago,” the announcer was saying. “At 4:03 Eastern Standard Time this afternoon, sensors and cameras aboard a Triple-N monitor satellite in Earth orbit detected two explosions in deep space, several seconds apart. Analysis of the apparent position in the sky of these explosions suggest that they may have taken place on board the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, which is currently in solar orbit in the Asteroid Belt on CWS Peacekeeper patrol. Unconfirmed reports indicate that military facilities here on Earth have lost radio and laser contact with the Kennedy in what could be a terrible space disaster. For more, we take you now to our special military correspondent at the Pentagon, Janine Sanders.”

“Thank you, Fred. At this time, there is a firm ‘no comment’ from officials here at the Pentagon, who…”