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.God is an enemy of the Bureau, too.It seemed obvious that the Bureau believed God existed and feared Him, for Jin had been sent on this ship to observe the proceedings and report back to headquarters.In the Bureau’s view, Jin decided, God must be a terrible threat, for He competed with the Bureau for the hearts and minds of humanity.God existed, but should not exist.The two belief systems folded together, one on the other, and Jin saw clearly the perfect state in either: No God.Jin knew intuitively that he was merely playing a part, that Plarnjarnism was only a convenient disguise for a cyberoo agent.But he was having difficulty extricating himself from the part, and it struck him that this had to be by design.The Plarnjarn tenets that surfaced in his consciousness were those that were supposed to surface.He was supposed to reason this situation out and come up with the best possible course of action.Right action leads to rewards.But he had just killed three hundred and ninety-two people.Plarnjarns did not hold with harming even the tiniest speck of life.In part it was this contradiction in basic programming that halted him in the midst of the slaughter, sparing those few who remained alive.But that had not been all of it, the only reason for altering course.There had been something else, something much larger.A great convergence of forces that inhibited violence.Jin decided that this must have been a trick of the false God to thwart the rightful will of the Bureau.Plarnjarnism is subservient to the will of the Bureau.The Bureau is the preeminent authority in the universe—kill the seekers, and with them their false God.An antiseptic scent of lemon touched his biosensors, and objects before him blurred into a green mist.Moments later he was outside the ship—on the ramp, gazing at the cavern entrance that had been left open.Suddenly Tananius-Ofo opened his eyes and sat up.McMurtrey, on a pillow on the floor, was of such a height that he looked straight across, directly into the albino eyes of God.The eyes were the whitest white of the sky that reigned over this peculiar world, without apparent depth to them, without the mysterious regions beneath the surface characterized by Corona’s eyes.These were shallow pools in a darker region of ruddy-gray flesh and black hair, like the lakes and seas McMurtrey had seen on the surface of the planet.“Gather close and rub my belly,” God said.“This should be done for good luck.” He lifted his blue smock, revealing a massive gray potbelly, with a protruding bellybutton so large and ugly it might have been a tumor.The Hoddhist rubbed the belly first, saying, “This is as I thought it would be, as Hoddha told us it would be.”“I am not Hoddha, of course,” God said.“You understand that, don’t you?”The Hoddhist withdrew his hands, smiled serenely.“Hoddha was a great man,” God said, “and an excellent card player, one of my prophets.He and I had many good times together, and always we rubbed each other’s bellies.”Yakkai went next, and as he stood before God he told of a statue of Hoddha in front of an import store that he used to pass by as a boy.Yakkai became accustomed to stopping to rub the belly of the statue for good luck, and just for fun.“Then one day I rubbed the belly and it had gooey spit all over it.An early experience in religion, I guess.A negative one that may have helped turn me into an atheist.Considering many things, I realize now that I didn’t have all the information I needed to make my decision.”A conversion, McMurtrey thought.But to which religion?“A Krassian spit on that belly,” the Hoddhist snapped.“Only Krassians do such things.”“Now, now,” God said.“Enough of that.”McMurtrey went next and touched the skin of God.It was warm and dry, indiscernible from that of a human, and smooth except for the erupted bellybutton that McMurtrey bumped without meaning to.“I must ask you,” McMurtrey said before stepping aside.“The mantra that came to me for the religion I created—did you plant it in my mind?”“‘O Chubby Mother,’” Tananius-Ofo intoned, with a gummy smile.“‘Let me rubba your belly, let me rubba your belly.’”He laughed boisterously, and his great belly shook.“Let’s hurry along,” he said.“There is much to discuss.”Orbust was next, and despite God’s instruction he too had something to say.“I purchased my Snapcard from a door-to-door salesman, a Floriental man who smiled the very way you do—with his gums showing.”Tananius-Ofo revealed his gums again.“And you’re suggesting by such ‘evidence’ that I sold you the device? Well, I must admit there are a lot of expenses in running a universe! Hurry along now!”Orbust flushed red, rubbed the proffered belly quickly and resumed his seat.The others came without comment, and when they had resumed their seats, Tananius-Ofo dropped his smock back into place
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