"Foreign Gods" by Jessica Warner

This can't be the right place...

She was looking for an immense structure, the grandest around - and had been directed to this...space. A high-roofed hall at the top of a non-descript building, 121 storeys up, and quite a distance from the city centre.

  And inside, where she had expected riches and activity, was a bare silence. The decor was a testament to someone's battle with a meagre budget. The floor tiles were fancy almost to the point of being tacky, as if the decorator felt the place should be as rich as possible, but still had a certain amount of taste. The walls, a soft white with gold edging, showed the wear of age, but not of use. One of the lighting units flickered, revealing a corner that nobody had cleaned, either from lack of time or motivation.

I must have been misdirected, surely…

Most of all, she had expected statues. There were none. But there were immense, three-dimensional holographic pictures.

Aiaun wrapped her tail about her shoulders, a bad habit of hers when she felt insecure, and stroked the black fur gently. She looked up into the face of the nearest hologram.

  It was a woman – a female human. She was hardly distinguishable from the throngs of women Aiaun had seen populating this dirty planet, except this one was only just clinging to the same side of the divide between human and robot. She had circuitry running down one arm, and her left hand replaced by an interface conduit, for easier computing. She had wires coming out of her from every direction, and a few panels marked where “modifications” had been made on the inside as well. But worst was her face, which Aiaun couldn’t stop staring at. The woman had no eyes, only wires into her skull through the empty sockets, and visual receivers on her cheeks. And yet her mouth was untouched. It was a human mouth, completely without expression.

  It’s not a person, it’s hideous! Thought Aiaun, her ears trembling in distaste.

  What is this place?

  She jumped as a door opened and a short human entered. He seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. But he looked a lot happier about it, as a delighted smile immediately spread across his face.

  ‘Good morning daughter, how may I help you?’

  He wore a neat uniform, except for the gloves he was hastily removing. It seemed he had been cleaning or repairing something manually. Aiaun was slightly lost for words, but found her tongue after a moment.

  ‘I was looking for the temple.’

  ‘And you’ve found it!’ the man declared.

  ‘This? This isn’t…’

  He raised his eyebrows slightly.

  ‘This doesn’t look like a temple.’

  ‘Well, no. I don’t hold any kind of services in here, that doesn’t seem to be what people want. And there haven’t been any offerings for a month or so now, which is why I haven’t been able to get the cleaning system or the lighting fixed, but…’ he looked up into her doubtful eyes. ‘I assure you, this is a temple.’

  ‘Why…?’

  The priest looked her over thoughtfully. ‘You’re from the planet Ral? The rainforest world, yes?’

  ‘Yes,’ she nodded.

  ‘Ahhh…and you have little need of technology there.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is this your first time on Titan?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I see. Then I’m sure this all looks rather odd to you,’ he said apologetically.

  ‘Well…yes! What is that?’  she demanded, pointing at the hologram of the eyeless woman.

  ‘Trianne, the tracker,’ he said promptly.

  ‘Terian the huntress goddess…’ she remembered a tall statue, of a long-tailed woman, stealthy and silent through the treetops, carrying a bow and arrow. She glanced up at the hologram…

  ‘But that’s all wrong! She doesn’t look like that at all!’ she burst out. ‘How can that be a hunter, it’s stupid!’

  The priest didn’t change his expression. Not because he wasn’t offended by her outburst, she suspected, but because he’d had a lot of practice at remaining calm in the face of such reactions.

  ‘Why is it stupid?’ he asked reasonably.

  ‘Well how can that hunt things, she can’t even move for all the metal!’

  ‘On Titan, you don’t have to move to hunt,’ said the priest. ‘So much is in programs, on screens, insubstantial. In order to be a good hunter, you must be able to move quickly and quietly, to be sure. And none can move quicker through cyberspace than Trianne, nor cover their trail better. She helps us navigate the insubstantial parts of our world.’

  ‘But…’ Aiaun couldn’t link this horrible light show to a Goddess.

  ‘I’m sure Trianne…or Terian…doesn’t look like this,’ said the priest. ‘But I’m sure she doesn’t look like your statues on Ral, either. The odds of that are very slim. These are just representations, after all.’

  She couldn’t deny the wisdom of that. She looked at the man oddly.

  ‘Are you a priest of Terian then?’ she asked, half expecting the answer.

  ‘I’m the priest of everybody,’ he admitted, proving her expectations right. ‘Priests are in short supply up here. I suppose on Ral the gods have a temple each, and throngs of priests?’ he asked wistfully.

  ‘Well…yes.’

  ‘That must be nice. Still! It’s encouraging for me to think of. Would you like me to show you which holograms are which?’

  ‘Um…I was looking for Coranté the Just?’

  ‘Corrant,’ said the priest, striding to the other side of the room. ‘Here. What does he look like on Ral?’

  ‘He wears armour. He carries a sword. There’s a sect of warriors that follow him, and uphold order and justice…’

  The priest was smiling. ‘That sounds not so very different.’

  ‘Um…he looks quite different,’ said Aiaun, staring up at the hologram.

  ‘Yes, but it’s essentially the same thing. Instead of armour, he has a forcefield, and metallo-enhanced skin. Instead of his sword, here he carries a Strikegun. And although he has no sect of warriors, he is wearing the badge of the police force, and he carries a readout of the law as well, on his palm screen.’

  A lot of this went over Aiaun’s head, but she could see what he meant.

  ‘Don’t your police worship him?’ she asked.

  ‘No, not really. Hardly anyone does, as you may have noticed,’ he said dryly.

  ‘Why not?’

  A grin spread across his face. ‘What a wonderful question!’ He laughed. ‘Well, here’s what I think. I think when things are going well, the people of this moon decide they clearly don’t need any gods. Life is going fine without them, so why bother? And then, when things take a turn for the worse…well, clearly the gods have never done anything for them, look at the state they’re in! Sometimes the desperate will come here with an offering, and if they don’t immediately get exactly what they want, they curse at me. If they do, they put it down to coincidence,’ he shrugged lightly. ‘There are a few that believe. There are even fewer that will help me give charity, as the gods recommend. They’re always so terribly busy, you see,’ he said, rubbing a patch of the holo-emmiter clean. ‘Ah, that’s better. So, can I help you with anything while you’re here, daughter? It’s a great pleasure to have you visit, I can tell you.’

  ‘I…wanted to leave an offering for Coranté.’

  The priest looked at her keenly, and she knew he was wondering what she was doing here, and why she needed help from the god of justice. She hoped he wouldn’t ask.

  He didn’t. He just nodded, and gestured to the white plastic tiles before the holo-emitter. ‘Please do.’

  ‘I was going to…do what I’d do back on Ral,’ she said uneasily. ‘Is that okay?’

  ‘I’m sure Corrant will be equally pleased, however the offering is given,’ said the Priest, with a small smile. Aiaun nodded. She wasn’t sure the priest would be quite so pleased. She had disapproved of his way, now was his chance to disapprove of hers…

  She took her miniscule bloodknife from her boot. Closing her eyes in prayer, she drew it across a scar on her palm, and clenched her fist. It stung, but she was used to the feeling.

  The blood was warm, and real. More real than all this metal, the artificial intelligence, the virtual reality.

  And yet, Corrant’s expression was exactly the same as the statue of Coranté at home. Down to the last line.

  Kneeling down, she pressed her hand onto the white tiles, and prayed for the Just Lord to hear her, and help her. She kept her eyes closed, and knelt there for a while, trying to imagine she was back in the rainforest…

  When she opened her eyes, it was to the flickering light, and the holograms. And the priest, still smiling slightly.

  She stood up, and put her bloodknife away, wiping her hand on a small cloth. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I didn’t do anything. Thank you.’

  ‘I might return,’ she said.

  ‘And you’ll be very welcome.’

   She didn’t feel so awkward any more. There was comfort in the familiar ritual, and the warm feeling that she got from the temple at home. Yes. It was alien, but it was a temple. 

The gods were here, looked for or not.