43. the SPARROW

Mary Doria Russell 1996

An extraordinary science fiction with strong religious and philosophical undertones about extraterrestrial life in planet Rakhat. The voyagers are a group of friends: Emilio Sandoz, Anne, George, Jimmy and Sofia. Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest and lone survivor of the mission recounts their compelling story in alternating present and flashback telling. It is a story of love and friendship, belief and faith.

"It was predictable, in hindsight. Everything about the history of the Society of Jesus bespoke deft and efficient action, exploration and research. During what the Europeans were pleased to call the Age of Discovery, Jesuit priests were never more than a year or two behind the men who made initial contact with previously unknown peoples..."

"Ruminating over the same problem as he walked back to his lightless room on the eastern side of the Rome Ring, John Candotti had his own theory about how things had gone wrong. The mission, he thought, probably failed because of a series of logical, reasonable, carefully constructed decisions, each of which seemed like a good idea at the time. Like most colossal disasters."

"Sometimes... I begin with songs. They provide a sort of skeleton grammar for me to flesh out. Songs of longing for future tense, songs of regret for past tense, songs of love for the present."

""Do you know what made me fall in love with you?" George asked suddenly. Anne shook her head, puzzled that he should ask her this now. "I heard you laugh, down the hall, just before I got to Spanish class that first day. I couldn't see you. I just heard this fabulous laugh, like a whole octave, top to bottom. And I had to hear it again.""

"At first, they simply listened to the fragment of music over and over, each time groaning as the signal fell off to static just as the music began to build to something wonderful. Then after the third hearing, Anne said, "Okay. What can we tell about them? They sing in groups, and there is a lead singer. So they have a social organization. Can we assume they breathe air because their music can be heard like this?""

"The discussion went on for some time, with George, Anne and Jimmy extrapolating, deducting and arguing. Emilio, thoughtful, went back to the music again, playing it through softly once more, but then he turned the playback off. Sofia alone had neither comment on the music nor any speculation about the singers..."

"Trained as linguist and a priest, Emilio had a hard time understanding the Einsteinian physics that predicted that the transit time elapsed on Earth would be around seventeeen years, while the effect of traveling near light speed would make it seem closer to six months for the crew onboard the asteroid."

"And now we have evidence that another sentient species exists nearby and that they sing. They sing, Anne... We have to find out about them. There is simply no alternative. We have to know them."

"Why is it that God gets all the credit for the good stuff, but it's the doctor's fault when shit happens? When the patient comes through, it's always 'Thank God," and when the patient dies, it's always blame the doctor."

"When he got back to the apartment, he found that the household numbers were somewhat reduced that evening. Askama had left to play with her friends, as she often did if Emilio was out of sight for a while. Manuzhai had gone visiting. She might not come back at all; equally likely, she might return with five or six guests who'd spend the night. Chaypas was away on some errand, for some unspecified length of time. People often disappeared like that, for hours or days or weeks. Time seemed unimportant to the Runa. There were no calendars or clocks."

"The Runa could be perceptive, but he did occasionally find some of them -- not dense really, but limited somehow. "The technological basis for the society is gathering." George was saying disgusted. "They collect food. and flowers, for crying out loud. Damned if I know what they do with them.""

"Emilio, everything I have learned about the mission leads me to believe that you went for the greater glory of God. You believed that you arrived at your destination by the grace of God. In the beginning, everything you did was for the love of God. I have the testimony of two of your superiors who believed sincerely that something far out of the ordinary happened to you on Rakhat, that you--..."

"There are times, he would tell the Reshtar, when we are in the midst of life -- moments of confrontation with birth or death, or moments of beauty when nature or love is fully revealed, or moments of terrible loneliness -- times when a holy and awesome awareness comes upon us. It may come as deep inner stillness or as a rush of overflowing emotion. It may seem to come from beyond us, without any provocation, or from within us, evoked by music or by a sleeping child. If we open our hearts at such moments, creation reveals itself to us in all its unity and fullness. and when we return from such a moment of awareness, our hearts long to find some way to capture it in words forever, so that we can remain faithful to its higher truth."

Personal Note: Read and was amazed: May 1, 2010 Amsterdam, Netherlands. Thanks to Bibliolatry