The CRES code

Chapter Sixteen - Randall and the priest

When the service finally came to an end the priest went to the doors to see his congregation out; shaking hands, asking after their families and answering any questions they had. Seeing he was likely to be some time, Randall made his own way back to the infirmary where Cuthbert was helping the other three hibernators remove the tubes and wires from their bodies. All three of them were looking visibly healthier. Even Loach, whom Randall had thought looked perfectly hale and hearty, had a new sheen to his skin as he rose to a sitting position on the hospital bed, swinging his legs over the side with a strength and confidence he'd previously lacked.

"Wow!" said Jane as she also sat up. She looked resentful at first as the medical machines allowed her to regain consciousness, but it faded as a look of delight came over her face. "I feel great! I feel like I haven't felt in years! Am I cured now?"

Cuthbert looked at the machine standing against the wall behind her bed. Information was being displayed on the large, central monitor and the verger frowned as he squinted at it. "The priest normally does this," he said, "but I've been attending him for many years now and I think I can read it. It seems to be saying that you're perfectly healthy. The priest will be able to tell you better."

"You just call him 'the priest'," said Emily. "Doesn't he have a name?"

"We just call him 'the priest'."

"How do you tell which priest someone is talking about?"

"Well, if we want to refer to a specific priest we'll say the priest of the Oyster Street temple, for example."

"But wouldn't it be simpler if they had names?"

"They've never had names. They've never needed names."

The priest chose that moment to enter. "Ah, you're up," he said, going to Jane and putting his fingers to her neck. He stood there for a couple of moments as whatever equipment he had hidden in his fingertips did its work. "You are now in perfect health," he told her. "You might live for another fifty years."

"This doesn't mean you're off the hook, though," the young woman said as she accepted a hospital gown from the verger and pulled it around her shoulders. "You're still worshipping a machine and making people think it's a god. The real God will not forgive that unless you fully repent and tell your people the truth."

"Thanks for the warning," said the priest with an amused smile. "I'll certainly keep it in mind."

He then examined Emily, finding her to also be completely cured, and finished with Loach, where he confirmed what Randall had already thought. All three had been fully cured. "All right then," he said, turning to Randall. "Your turn. Take off your clothes and lie on the bed."

Randall did so, and the priest started attaching tubes and wires to his body. "Cuthbert, please show the others into the storage room," he said. "Let them choose some clothes for themselves."

The verger nodded and beckoned for the three healthy hibernators to follow him.

Randall waited for them to go, then turned his head to look at the priest who was moving to make some adjustments to the large medical machine standing against the wall. After a moment the display on the monitor screen changed and Randall felt a tingling where the wires touched his body. "Has it begun?" he asked.

"It has begun," the priest confirmed. "It probably won't take as long as the others. Your condition is more easily cured. In fact, a cure was probably just a couple of years away back in your own time."

"Without hypersleep, would I have survived long enough to receive the cure?"

"Probably not. And even if you had, the nuclear war would probably have killed you."