Briefing for a Descent Into Hell Read online

  “Timing is everything,” murmurs Minerva the Flashing-Eyed, bustling off to find Thoth, or Hermes, and finding him speeding around the sun in an orbit so dazzling and so lively and so gay and above all so many-sided and accomplished that it was hard to keep up with him.

  “Ah,” says he, “it’s time again, is it? I was thinking it must be.”

  “You sound reluctant,” said Minerva.

  “I’ve just been visiting Venus.”

  “Everyone always likes her best,” says Minerva, drily. “As everyone knows, she and I don’t get on. She’s so silly—that’s what I can’t stand. People say I’m jealous—not at all. It’s that damned stealthy dishonesty I can’t tolerate—that appalling hypocrisy. I’ve never been able to understand how it is that intelligent men can put up with it—but there you are. And I didn’t come to talk about Aphrodite. I’m here about poor Earth, poor traveller!”

  “Your kind heart does you credit. But don’t forget, it was partly their fault.”

  “Stealing the fire?”

  “Of course. If that fellow hadn’t stolen the fire, then they would never have known what a terrible state they are in.”

  “You, Mercury, God of letters and of music and of—in a word, progress, complaining about that! You wouldn’t want them still in that dark and primitive state, would you?”

  “They don’t know how to use it.”

  “That remains to be seen.”

  “All I’m saying is that knowledge brings a penalty with it—of course, it was enterprising of him—what’s his name, Jason, Prometheus, that fellow—in his place I might have done the same. Eating the fruit when I was told not to …”

  “Stealing the fire,” says Minerva, always with a tendency towards pedantry.

  “Come now, don’t be so literal-minded, that’s to be like them,” says Mercury.

  “And there’s the other thing,” says Minerva, rather stern—at her tone Mercury began to look irritated. For Minerva was also a bit of blue-stocking; her feeling of justice and fair play (regarded as childish by some of the Gods who regarded themselves as more advanced, philosophically) usually led her to the question of women’s rights, and men’s vanity.

  “All right,” says Mercury, “understood.”

  “But is it?” says she, severe. “His mother was an earth-woman, certainly, but who was his father? Well?”

  “Oh don’t start, please,” says Mercury. “You really are a bore, you know, when you get on to that.”

  “Justice,” she says. “Fair play. I’m my father’s daughter. And who was his father? With such blood, or rather, fire, in his veins, he was not to be expected to live like a mole in earth knowing that Light existed, and yet never reaching out after it.”

  “There was reason to believe,” says Mercury, “that he was in it all the time. He walked in the Garden with God.”

  “And then he ate what he should not have done. He stole the Apple, dear God of Thieves. And paid for it.”

  “And in short everything is going as was expected, and according to plan, and with Our assistance.”

  “Progress has to be seen to be made.”

  “All right, I’m ready to leave when the Time is Ripe.”

  “Are you quite sure of your mandate?”

  “Dear Minerva! Is it any different this time?”

  “It is always the same Message, of course …”

  “Yes. That there is a Harmony and that if they wish to prosper they must keep in step and obey its Laws. Quite so.”

  “But things are really very much worse this time. The stars in their courses, you know …”

  “Fight on the side of Justice.”

  “In the long run, yes. But what a very long run it must seem to them, poor things.”

  “Partly through their own fault.”

  “You sound very severe today. Sometimes we even seem to change roles a little? You must remember that you are God of Thieves because you inspire, if not provoke, curiosity and a desire for growth, in such actions as stealing fire or eating forbidden fruit or building towers that are intended to reach Heaven and the Gods. Punishable acts. Acts that have, in fact, been punished already.”

  “Perhaps it isn’t always easy to take responsibility for our progeny? Is it, dear Minerva? For acts can be our children … tell me, is it easy for your Father, or for you, to recognise as kith and kin acts of justice that are in fact the results of your influence—can in a sense be regarded as you, though in extension of course? Justice is Justice still, in the sentencing of a thief to prison—and the thief has stolen books because he has no money to buy them. In such a drama both you and I are represented—and there’s little doubt which of us appears more attractively? Are you sure you aren’t finding my celestial role rather more attractive than yours, and it is that which accounts for your concern—which I very much value, of course.”

  “I should have known better,” says Minerva. “Only an idiot gets into an argument with the Master of Words. Well, I can’t really wish you an enjoyable visit, when things have never been so bad.”

  “But one hopes, and indeed expects, that they have a potentiality for good in proportion to the bad—for that is how things tend to balance out.”

  “The sort of remark that I usually make, if I may say so—and which tends to irritate you, dear Messenger. But you are right. This particular combination of planets will be really so very powerful—the equivalent of several centuries of evolution all in a decade or so. I don’t think I am exceeding my mandate if I say there is anxiety. After all, no one could say they have ever been distinguished by consistency or even ordinary common sense.”

  “I am sure the anxiety is justified. But I expect there’ll be the usual few who will listen. It’s enough.”

  “So we must hope, for everyone’s sake.”

  “And if the worst comes to the worst, we can do without them. The Celestial Gardener will simply have to lop off that branch, and graft another.”

  “Charmingly put! Almost, indeed, reassuring, put in such a way! But so much trouble and effort have already been put into that planet. Messengers have been sent again and again. The regard of Our Father (as of course it comes down to us through his Regent, my own Father) is surely expressed by the long history of Our concern? And there was that Covenant—the fact they continuously disregard it, is not enough reason to abandon them altogether. After all, when all is said and done …”

  “You are tactfully referring to that ancestry business again? Well, whatever the stark and dire nature of the shortly-to-be-expected celestial configurations, and whatever man’s backslidings, the fact that I am about to descend again (yes, I grant that I say that with a bit of a sigh) shows that our respective fathers are well aware of the situation. And more—that there is confidence in the outcome.”

  “I’m glad I find you in such good heart.”

  “Dear Minerva, do come out with it. You want to give me some good advice, is that it?”

  “It’s just that—well, after all, there are a dozen or so of us, Jupiter’s children, and it is an enlarging family, and some of us are not unlike Earth, and as the oldest sister you must see that I have had so much experience and …”

  “Dear, dear Minerva.”

  “Oh well, I really didn’t mean to irritate you. I’ll leave you, then.”

  “Yes, do, goodbye.”

  And Minerva flies off.

  As for Mercury the Messenger, he divides himself effortlessly into a dozen or so fragments, which fall gently through the air on to Earth, and the Battalions of Progress are strengthened for the Fight.

  Ah yes, all very whimsical. Yes, indeed, the contemporary mode is much to be preferred, thus: that Earth is due to receive a pattern of impulses from the planet nearest the Sun, that planet nearest on the arm of the spiral out from Sun. As a result, the Permanent Staff on Earth are reinforced and

  THE CONFERENCE

  was convened on Venus, and had delegates from as far away as Pluto and Neptune, both of
whom normally asked for transcripts to be sent. But this time, everyone in the solar system would be affected. The Sun Himself was represented. But his Presence was general and pervasive: the light glowed more strongly after a certain point in the proceedings, and a silence fell for a moment—that was all. But everyone knew how rare an event this was, and the sense of urgency deepened.

  Minna Erve was in the Chair. A forceful and animated woman, with particularly arresting eyes, she was the obvious choice, because of her position as Chief Deputy’s oldest daughter.

  The conference was already nearly over, with not much more than the Briefing to come. Already those who were not in on the Descent were getting up and collecting their gear.

  Minna Erve was still speaking. “In short, this is the worst yet. The computers have checked and doublechecked —and checked again. This was on advice from on High—” here the Light pulsed in acknowledgement—“but there is no doubt. The balance of planetary forces already exercises strong adverse pressures, which will reach a peak in about ten to fifteen years from now. Their years, of course. Before you leave, I’d like you to watch this second film, Forecast (Detail).”

  Delegates glanced at each other, but sat down again. Minna might be overconscientious, but it was true enough that until most of them had reached here and had been hit by the atmosphere of this particular conference, they had not really appreciated the urgency.

  They had already seen the Forecast film, showing Earth as an item in its place in the solar system. Earth had showed it was under pressure, as it and the other planets moved into the expected positions, first of all by the increased activity of the surface. This was slight to begin with, but earthquakes, tidal waves, excessive movements of all kinds become increasingly noticeable. The weather, always inhospitable to life on that planet, became more extreme. The icecaps melted slightly, causing havoc along the seaboards. The Comet added its quota of disturbance to the already delicate-enough balances between Earth and its neighbours. The representatives of Mars and Venus had sat with particularly long faces. What happened anywhere in the System (and of course, beyond) affected everyone, but near neighbours were bound to feel it first: the last time Earth was in a crisis, both Mars and Venus had suffered, and the memory of that time was still strong. But it had not been possible for any delegates, not even those from Pluto and Neptune, to whom the Earth’s inhabitants were alien indeed, to watch the end of the Forecast film without awe.

  But this was Forecast (Detail); Earth in closeup, by herself, and without even the Moon. The previous film, showing Earth and Moon as—as it were—an atom of the molecule, had brought home first the change in the seasons, weather, crustal activity, vegetation. This film, on a smaller and slower scale, showed the drastic increase of population as Forests and Plant Life and Animal Life diminished, and deserts spread. For as animal and bird life dwindled, human beings multiplied, to preserve the balance. Organic life, necessary in the cosmic balance, had to be maintained on Earth, and as humans killed and destroyed the organic life of which they were a part, their own increase kept the balance. But their aggressiveness and irrationality increased steadily. As usual it was a total process—one strand or factor not to be separated from another. It was not that human aggression and irresponsibility increased because of the population explosion, and that this explosion was because of the planetary movements—all these were strands in a single process.

  The delegates watched with steadily deepening grimness as wars, previously kept fairly local, got worse and enlarged. Towards the end the destruction ceased to have even a pretence of consistency. Nations became allies in one decade who had been enemies the last; enemies who had been devoting every technical resource to mutual slaughter suddenly became allies. But the technical devices were out of control; the instruments of mass slaughter and destruction took over. As that planetary position was reached that was by now designated everywhere in the System as FIRST CLASS EMERGENCY, the increasingly poisoned atmosphere on Earth, the emanations of mass Death and Fear, reflected back and affected—first of all, Mars and Venus; and their imbalance in its turn spread out to the other planets—and, as was signalled by the presence of the Sun Himself, to the Sun Himself.

  By the time the planets had moved out of the Danger position, changes must occur in every part of the System which even now, at this moment, the computers in a million laboratories were busy forecasting.

  The penultimate stage showed by Forecast (Detail) was more violent than the last stage. Earth rocked and hissed, and heaved, showered locally by falling rock, flame, boiling liquids, and convulsed by quakes. Men fought and struggled. There were mass movements of lower forms of animal and insect, locusts, rats, mice. There were sudden epidemics. Whole nations of people died in these epidemics, and as poisoned air and water reached their patches of the planet. So much of animal and human life died it was as if the globe quietened, stilled. An awful emptiness distinguished the final stage. It seemed as if no life remained. But even while this cauldron of poison bubbled, it was possible to see the beginnings of another pattern—some of the humans busied themselves in a different way. Even as the Earth’s convulsions began to subside, the planetary Emergency over, they were again rebuilding, re-creating—and, as was obvious from their increasingly meaningful activity, the crisis on the planet had bred a new race. It was a mutation. While not much different in appearance from the previous human, the new human being had increased powers of perception, a different mental structure. This remnant of an old, or the beginnings of a new race, had as heritage all the accumulated experience of the human race, plus, this time, the mental equipment to use it.

  Forecast (Detail) ended, and the delegates left. When no one remained but the Descent Team and Minna Erve, the hundred or so of them waited politely for the Sun to leave, if He so wished, but the pervasive golden glow remained steady. Some thought It even brightened a little, and they took courage from this, thinking it to be a message of hope, and of belief in their powers to accomplish what they had all volunteered to do.

  Now Minna Erve was joined on the platform by Merk Ury.

  Minna said: “Merk will brief you. But I must remind you all that Time is running out.”

  Merk said: “Thanks, Minna. I had in fact already decided to limit this to the main points, particularly of course as you have already so ably done the groundwork.

  “The first point is this—and the second and the third—you should not underrate the difficulties. Every one of you in this room has of course travelled extensively inside the System—some of you perhaps outside of it—and you won’t need to be told that to hear a place described is not the same as experiencing it. Which is another reason to keep these few remarks short.

  “Now, you will probably all know that at first there was a doubt whether life could exist on Earth at all, after the previous Crisis which altered the atmosphere. But Nature is infinitely resourceful, making virtues from deficiencies. We had thought that nothing could live in that tempestuous, erupting, unstable, accident-prone planet, but in fact the life forms did adapt, but most are only able to live in certain dry areas of the Earth and where the temperature is more or less equable. Most parts of the planet are too cold, too hot, wet, frozen, mountainous or dry. But you are all familiar with the dominant creature that has evolved, its most striking physical feature being its pumping system for air and liquid. In other words, it is distinguished by the organs it has evolved for living in a particularly difficult and poisonous air. But it is as yet an inefficient adaptation and the creature’s mental processes are defective.

  “Now, the Permanent Staff on Earth has always had one main task, which is to keep alive, in any way possible, the knowledge that humanity, with its fellow creatures, the animals and plants, make up a whole, are a unity, have a function in the whole system as an organ or organism. Our Permanent Staff’s task is always extremely difficult, the main feature of these human beings as at present constituted being their inability to feel, or understand themselves, i
n any other way except through their own drives or functions. They have not yet evolved into an understanding of their individual selves as merely parts of a whole, first of all humanity, their own species, let alone achieving a conscious knowledge of humanity as part of Nature; plants, animals, birds, insects, reptiles, all these together making a small chord in the Cosmic Harmony.”

  Here there was a discreet, slight, and not uniformly approving applause. For Merk had a literary turn. Merk smiled slightly on hearing it. He knew quite well that some of them there believed that as he was a technician he should not be indulging himself with the inexact arts. It was an affectation among some of them to use jargon, despise literature and to arm themselves with a jaunty facetiousness when approaching the serious.

  “Each individual of this species is locked up inside his own skull, his own personal experience—or believes that he is, and while a great part of their ethical systems, religious systems, etc., state the Unity of Life, even the most recent religion, which, being the most recent is the most powerful, called Science, has only very fitful and inadequate gleams of insight into the fact that life is One. In fact, the distinguishing feature of this new religion, and why it has proved so inadequate, is its insistence on dividing off, compartmenting, pigeon-holing, and one of the most lamentable of these symptoms is its suspicion of, and clumsiness with, words.” Here he smiled again, winningly enough. A few laughed.

  “To sum up these few remarks: our task, that of the Permanent Staff, is always to inculcate and maintain a truth to which these creatures are so far able only to pay lip service, a phrase of theirs which is their way of summing up their most powerful defect, the inability to see things except as facets and one at a time. The truth is that We—speaking of course in our roles as delegates and deputies—” and here the all-pervading Light brightened for a moment, as it were in acknowledgement of their stewardship—“We can only tolerate them insofar as they obey instructions, manage their affairs, their communal life, in such a way as to adjust to the System’s needs. But they seem unable to retain this very simple truth for long, although they have been told again and again, and this is because of another and most powerful feature of their thinking, which is that anything they are told is distorted to fit their own particular personal or group bias and then added, like another pebble to the pile of the half-truths they already cherish. So that we confidently expect—or could have expected in the past, before this present great (forgive me for another lapse into the literary) leap forward, under the influence of the Solar Wind of Change—” and here the Light brightened and, as it were, smiled—“that anything we have to say will be retained in its pure form for only a short time and by a few people, because in the nature of things, or rather, it is in their nature, this simple fact—human duty as part of the Harmony—will be off running like a mad dog, will be twisted out of itself, will have become the property of a hundred warring sects, each claiming that their version, which they have concocted, is correct. But that time is past, or nearly so. An ability to see things as they are, in their multifarious relations—in other words, Truth—will be part of humanity’s new, soon-to-be-developed equipment. Thanks of course, not to Us, but to …”