Elms fired the laser rifle. The figure staggered and bled.
It was Travis’s blood, Agneta realized. In him. Not his own blood. This is terrible. She put her hands to her face, terrified.
“Quick,” she said to Elms. “Say, `I am innocent of this man’s blood.’ Say it before it’s too late.”
“I am innocent of this man’s blood,” Elms whispered hoarsely.
The figure fell. Bleeding, it lay dying. It was no longer a bearded man. It was something else, but Agneta Rautavaara could not tell what it was. It said, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
As she and Elms gazed down at it, the figure died.
“I killed it,” Elms said. “I killed Christ.” He held the laser rifle pointed at himself, groping for the trigger.
“That wasn’t Christ,” Agneta said. “It was something else. The opposite of Christ.” She took the gun from Elms.
Elms was weeping.
The Earthpersons on the Board of Inquiry possessed the majority vote, and they voted to abolish all activity in Rautavaara’s artificially sustained brain. This disappointed us, but there was no remedy for us.
We had seen the beginning of an absolutely stunning scientific experiment: the theology of one race grafted onto that of another. Shutting down the Earthpersons’ brain was a scientific tragedy. For example, in terms of the basic relationship to God, the Earth race held a diametrically opposite view from us. This of course must be attributed to the fact that they are a somatic race while we are a plasma. They drink the blood of their God; they eat his flesh; that way they become immortal. To them, there is no scandal in this. They find it perfectly natural. Yet to us it is dreadful. That the worshiper should eat and drink its
God? Awful to us; awful indeed. A disgrace and a shame-an abomination. The higher should always prey on the lower; the God should consume the worshiper.
We watched as the Rautavaara case was closed-closed by the shutting down of her brain so that all EEG activity ceased and the monitors indicated nothing. We felt disappointment. In addition, the Earthpersons voted out a verdict of censure of us for our handling of the rescue mission in the first place.
It is striking, the gulf that separates races developing in different star systems. We have tried to understand the Earthpersons, and we have failed. We are aware, too, that they do not understand us and are appalled in turn by some of our customs. This was demonstrated in the Rautavaara case. But were we not serving the purposes of detached scientific study? I myself was amazed at Rautavaara’s reaction when the Savior ate Mr. Travis. I would have wished to see this most holy of the sacraments fulfilled with the others, with Rautavaara and Elms as well.
But we were deprived of this. And the experiment, from our standpoint, failed.
And we live now, too, under the ban of unnecessary moral blame.