{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68529/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68529","id":"gutenberg_68529","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68529","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Novels","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Human-alien encounters -- Fiction","Religion -- Fiction","Science fiction","Short stories","Technology -- Fiction"],"text":"FIREGOD\n\n                           BY WILLIAM SCARFF\n\n              Some are born to greatness, others achieve\n                 the rulership of systems--but Merssu\n                   wanted to be a god. All he needed\n                was a million years and a little luck!\n\n           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from\n                      Rocket Stories, July 1953.\n         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that\n         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]\n\n\n\"Your Majesty!\"\n\nD'hai Merssu, Emperor of All the Suns, Protector of the Galaxy, looked\nup calmly as his prime minister burst into the room. His lean, brooding\nface did not change expression as he watched the pale and perspiring\nman cross the flagstoned floor with a sharp, nervous patter of leather.\n\n\"Gently, Tors, gently,\" he said quietly, his eyes mocking under their\noverhang of dark eyebrow. \"You're Prime Minister now--remember that.\nA prime minister doesn't come blundering into the palace looking as\nthough the sky was falling. It creates unrest in the population. Try to\nremember that we're no longer a pair of obscure rabblerousers, trying\nto overthrow the Crown. We _are_ the Crown now. Try to act like it.\"\n\n\"D'hai, the sky _is_ falling!\" Tors burst out unheedingly, \"I have word\nthat the Earthmen are driving beyond the Rim and into the heart of the\nEmpire itself! Their ships are irresistible. They're winning battle\nafter battle! And the people are restless! They say it's time the False\nEmperor's rule was overthrown. Some of the garrisons are rebelling!\"\n\nStill the Emperor's expression did not change. \"So,\" he said calmly,\n\"the Earthmen were not bluffing when they said they'd maintain the\nrights of the old Emperor.\"\n\n\"Yes! You said they wouldn't, D'hai. What are we going to do?\"\n\n\"I was wrong, Tors,\" Merssu said evenly. \"No matter. As for what\nwe are going to do, why, I suppose you'd better arrange for another\nbroadcast. Tell the people we have weapons ready if the situation\nbecomes serious, that they have nothing to fear.\"\n\n\"But the situation _is_ serious! And what weapons?\"\n\n\"No weapons, Tors,\" Merssu explained patiently. \"But the story will\nserve to keep the people calm--and, perhaps, make them think twice\nabout revolt. Now go. Hurry!\"\n\nThe prime minister's feet pattered over the floor again. The door to\nthe room closed.\n\nMerssu smiled quietly. He rose, and opened the concealed door behind\nhis chair. Closing it behind him, he slipped into a passage of which\nno one knew, and ten minutes later he was in a private tubeway that\nled half-way across the continent into the heart of an old and barren\nmountain range.\n\nAs he sat comfortably in the padded upholstery of the tube car, Merssu\nsmiled again. Poor Tors! So excitable. Always the hysteric--a perfect\nrabblerouser, perhaps, but not a clever man. No, never a clever man. A\nclever man knew when the game was over. And Merssu laughed.\n\nThe game had been worth it. Five years ago, he had been a\nrevolutionary, slinking through the alleys at night, always in\ndanger--and always clever. Four years of that, and then--Empire.\nAbsolute rule over the entire Greater Magellanic Cloud. Now he was once\nagain in danger. But it was a danger he had long ago foreseen, and\nplanned for. And the past year had been worth it. He laughed again.\nPoor, addle-witted Tors! Left with the empty bag in his hands.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe spaceship rested like a crouching bullet in its chamber. As he slid\nthe tubeway door shut behind him, Merssu admired the savage sleekness\nof its lines once again. Even more, he admired his cleverness in having\nit built. A clever man always has a back door. He crossed the hangar\nfloor unhurriedly, and climbed into the ship.\n\nThe control room was small, but efficient. A hundred controls lay\nclosely around the padded chair, some of them for the standard drive,\nothers for the hyperspatial warp.\n\nThe hyperspatial warp! Merssu smiled. There was his escape--and more.\nHere were the means for his future rulership over nothing so small as\nthe Cloud--here were entire galaxies waiting for his hand.\n\nHyperspace! There was something to make a man think! Another universe,\nnot beyond, but _alongside_ his own, hidden in the complex byways\nof Reimannian geometry and the mathematics of Einstein. A universe\nwhere time itself ran slower, where a year of normal time encompassed\ncenturies. A ship could twist itself into that universe and travel just\nbelow the speed of light, the limit which, in normal space, was the\nbarrier no ship could cross. But, in hyperspace, while the same barrier\nexisted, a man from normal space could travel for centuries, covering\ngreat distances, while, for him, only a few months passed.\n\nMerssu chuckled. Behind him, stored in the great holds of the ship,\nwere working models of every machine and weapon the Cloud civilization\npossessed. There were plans, manuals, instructions, all translated into\nbasic symbology that any intelligent being could understand. Packed\ninto this ship was an entire civilization, ready to be brought to\nwhatever people Merssu chose. He had only to enter hyperspace and lose\nhimself where no Earthman or rebel could follow, and there he would\nfind a primitive race, barely beginning to rise out of the mud. He\nwould bring them civilization. In return, he would have--Godhood!\n\nThey would worship him, those primitive people. He would be Merssu\nthe Firegod, thundering out of the sky, bringing with him the gift of\ncivilization. And once the gift was given, he would climb back into the\nsky on a pillar of fire, promising to return when his people were ready.\n\nHe laughed aloud, the deep bass sound echoing through the control\nchamber. Why not? He could fly back into space and spend a year,\nwaiting, while centuries passed on the primitive world. When he\nreturned, that world would be his, and soon afterward the entire\nuniverse would bow before the name of Merssu, the immortal Firegod, for\nthere is no force so strong, no loyalty so great, as that of men for\ntheir gods.\n\nStill laughing, he blasted the ship out of its hangar into the darkness\nof space, and a little later, into hyperspace, while the big blue ships\nof Earth smashed his discarded Empire behind him.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn a month, he had found his planet, and his people. They were almost\nhuman in appearance, but shorter. So much the better. He was like them,\nbut just different enough to be a god.\n\nHe brought his ship roaring down through the atmosphere, trailing a\nstreamer of flame. As he passed over the sea that covered most of the\nworld, the wash of his jets kicked the water into froth, and the sound\nof his passage echoed through the sky.\n\nThe village rested on the shore of the sea. The mud huts trembled as\nhis ship sank down, resting on its jetstream until it settled slowly to\nthe ground.\n\nSmiling faintly, Merssu put on his spacesuit, strapping his antigravity\nharness on over it. He flew out of his upper airlock, carrying a gun in\nhis hand.\n\nHe hovered in the air above the village. He pointed the gun into the\nair and fired. A cone of flame shot toward the sky. He pointed the\ngun at the sea, and towering curtains of steam rose to hang over the\nvillage.\n\nMerssu descended, and found his people groveling in the mud.\n\nWeeks passed. A stream of men carried the ship's cargo into a great\nsprawling building that Merssu carved out of a stone cliff with a\nsubatomic cutter. The lintels of the building were sanctified with\nthe blood of virgins. A new class of people arose in the village--the\nPriests of Merssu, the Firegod.\n\nAnd as the ship rose up into space again, on its journey back into the\nnormal space where Merssu would wait his year and the centuries would\npass for his people, the priests chanted over their altars.\n\n\"He will return. Merssu goes to his kingdom in the sky, but he will\nreturn, bearing flame in his hands. Merssu the Firegod--Merssu, the\nimmortal Bringer of Fire--will return.\"\n\nAnd the centuries passed.\n\nMerssu brought his ship out of the sky, tearing the air as he came, the\ngrowl of his jets thundering over the mighty city on the sea. The sound\nechoed back from the carved face of the Temple of Merssu, and beat\nagainst the spreading buildings.\n\nThe ship settled to earth. Merssu strapped on his antigrav unit, and\nflashed out into the air above the city. He fired his gun into the sea,\nand the steam-curtain rose once more. He pointed the gun skyward, and\nthe heavens danced with flame.\n\nA low, snarling car bearing the sign of Merssu's priesthood drove up to\nhim as he touched the ground. Two men got out and walked toward him,\none of them dressed in the somber black of the priesthood. Merssu stood\nwaiting, his eyes lighting with triumphant fire.\n\n\"Who are you?\" the priest asked.\n\nMerssu stared, the pose broken. \"Who am I? Kneel, fool! I am Merssu,\nthe Firegod.\"\n\nThe two men looked at him speechlessly for a moment, then burst into\nlaughter.\n\n\"Merssu!\" The priest wiped his eyes. The other man's laughter trailed\ninto anger.\n\n\"Watch your tongue, blasphemer!\" he said curtly, drawing a gun from his\nholster.\n\n\"Merssu!\" the priest repeated, \"You're the fool, stranger. At least\nthe others who've tried to claim his godhood had the sense to disguise\nthemselves to resemble his pictures.\"\n\n\"Pictures change, rash priest!\" Merssu thundered. \"I am the Firegod!\nLook on my power!\" Once more he fired into the sea, and once more the\nsteam pillars rose. \"I am the God of Fire. I fly in the hands of flame.\nI walk on the air. I burn the land and the sea. I am Merssu!\"\n\nThe priest's face lost its tolerant amusement. His mouth twisted in\nscorn.\n\n\"Walk on the air, do you? In a Mark XI Antigrav belt, yes. Burn sea and\nland, eh? With a sungun, certainly. Fly in hands of flame? If you wish\nto be picturesque about it, yes--but so does every drunken fool of a\nspaceman.\"\n\n\"_I tell you, I am Merssu!_\" Merssu screamed. \"_Bow down and worship!_\"\n\n\"_Silence!_\" The priest's voice was dangerous, \"You will come with us\nto the temple. There you'll see how we worship imposters!\"\n\n\"I'll kill you!\" Merssu shouted, raising his gun.\n\nThe priest motioned with his hand. The man with him blew Merssu's head\noff.\n\n\"Blasphemer!\" the priest spat disdainfully, his voice filled with\ndisgust. He and his retainer turned back to the car, leaving the body\nto be carted away later.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEvery evening at sunset, the priests of Merssu stand over their altars\nand intone the words.\n\n\"He will return. Merssu the Firegod--Merssu, the immortal Bringer of\nFire--will return.\"\n\nAnd the people of Merssu's world intone in reply, \"He will return.\"\nThroughout the galaxies of hyperspace, wherever the men of Merssu's\nworld may wander, there are other priests, and other races that\nrespond, but the ritual is always the same.\n\n\"He will return.\"\n\nAnd the city waits. The planet waits, and the other planets about the\nother stars through all the galaxies of hyperspace wait.\n\nThey always will.","title":"Firegod","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":1873}