It’s pretty simple really. I mean, no one knows how it works, or really even what it does, but still, it’s simple.
You look at the bigass stone tablet, you read the words, you believe in your heart, and you disappear in a flash of light. That’s all anyone knows really, and I know it because I’ve seen it.
A lot of people THINK they know what actually happens. They “believe” they know. Some of them have compelling arguments, particularly the physicists, but I don’t think they really know either.
What the anthropologists and the archaeologists and the geologists and the planetologists, and probably a lot of other ologists all seem to agree on is that 560 million years ago, a civilization of 14 billion Venusians all read from the tablet.
I know, it was weird when I found out too.
Nine years ago we finally built ships that could land on that hellhole, to let the scientists poke around among the volcanos and acid clouds and everything-melting-heat. Of course we COULD have gotten there a lot sooner, it was just the acid and the heat and the not giving a shit about a place no one could exploit for real estate or mining rights like they have everywhere else in the solar system. They’re not sure what caused the acid and heat thing either, or whether the Venusians had a comfortable climate, or whether indeed the climate was perfectly dandy for them even with all the volcanos and acid. It certainly wiped away a lot of the traces of their civilization, except for…
THAT.
It wasn’t even hard for them to bring it here, what with all the asteroid and planetary mining technology. There were seven bids on the job.
The Venusians all thought they were leaving their home planet to merge with the Sun. We’re certain of that, because that’s what the tablet says. That’s what you’re supposed to believe in your heart. Though it’s pretty hard to know what someone else actually believes in their heart, some people don’t get incinerated, er, I mean merge with the sun, or anyhow disappear in a flash of light, and it does seem like it’s when they have doubts. Or maybe their Venusian accent is bad. Or maybe the rock decided it had its fill of people.
The light is hard to miss. No one can sleep within a dozen miles of it. Even when you close your eyes you can still see it. Inside. Underground. We don’t know how that works either. It doesn’t hurt though, and doesn’t seem to be harmful to anyone, even up close.
So, it’s all pretty convincing, and a lot of people have been convinced, and this being America and all, if you want to do something stupid and dangerous there’s always someone there to defend your right to do it, and probably take a vid of it. The first few went viral.
I’m not one for any of the old religions, seeing as how none of them even knew Venus was a planet. The newer ones are hard to get behind too. Sure, they can make your brain feel good, with community and charity and parables. Useful doesn’t mean it’s true, and absent any hard evidence I’m just not going to believe in one thing over another.
But Ra? Much easier to point at.
Yeah, Ra is the Venusian word for the sun.
(You have to learn it for the incineration thing.)
There are three vehicle brands, four soft drinks, three children of celebrities and a sports stadium named Ra now, and I don’t have to help you imagine their chants.
Of course if they were true believers they’d all be gone by now, right?
Lots of people have.
Billions.
But a lot of us are left, either because we aren’t convinced, or because we have some other excuse to lean on.
Some think the Venusians lived in this state for a thousand generations. Some think they all left in less than a year. We’ve been at it for two.***********************
End of Chapter 1?
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