Chapter 10
The Professor and his students showed up later that day. Eighty young mantes, each riding an unarmored and unarmed disc, their carapaces green whereas the Professor’s was a dingier brown. Each of them very young—and eager. They congregated at the chapel, observing the mass of hundreds of humans who had come to crowd the inside and the outside of my little church, each of them giving thanks to various versions of the Lord for their salvation.
Diane was leading a particularly raucous bunch of gospel singers who were harmonizing at the top of their lungs. I’d literally never seen her so happy before.
I squeezed my way out of the building and went out to greet the Professor, waving my arms and smiling genuinely for probably the first time in almost two years.
“You were successful,” I said matter-of-factly.
“For the moment,” said the Professor, wings fluttering slightly. “It took a great deal of argument and debate through the university system, but together we pressed the Quorum of the Select, and they agreed to stay your communal execution.”
“What of the Fourth Expansion?”
“That too has been stayed, until my students and I can complete our research here. We are to observe and learn all we can about humans: religion, culture, all of it in as natural an environment as possible.”
“Is that why The Wall is gone?” I asked.
“Yes. I had to fight hardest to get that done, but my colleagues and I believe it is impossible to conduct accurate research so long as humans are trapped in a test tube. You’re free to travel as far as you wish, though I would warn you that not all the mantes in this hemisphere will take kindly to seeing humans roaming freely. I would advise caution.”
“And when your research is complete?”
“That will be several of your years from now, assistant-to-the-chaplain. Many things can happen in that time. Many minds can be changed.”
“Mantis minds?” I said.
“Perhaps human too,” said the Professor.
His wings fluttered again. And that’s when I felt it start to bubble out of me. Laughter. Clean, peeling, exuberant laughter. So much that I had to bend over and drop to all fours, gasping. I finally recovered and, wiping my eyes, got back to my feet.
“Come on,” I told him. “You kept your part of the bargain. I have to keep mine. You should come watch this.”