Chapter 8 Chapter Six

One hundred and sixteenth day: Every day, I paced in my cage, surrounded by flame forests to the south and east, forested ravines to the northeast, and the Great Rift to the north and west.The Three Score and Ten forbade me to climb below the cathedral beyond the Great Cleft.The cruciform also does not allow me to walk 10,000 meters away from the big rift. At first, I couldn't believe this fact.I have made up my mind to enter the forest of flames, and trust that with luck and God's help, I will get through this.But within two kilometers of the edge of the forest, the pain hit me, and the pain in my chest, arms and head was unbearable.I figured it must be a massive heart attack.But as soon as I returned to the Great Rift, these symptoms disappeared.I've tried it several times and the result is always the same, never an exception.As long as I dare to go deep into the flame forest, away from the big chasm, the pain will come again, and the pain will become stronger and stronger until I return.

I began to understand other things.Exploring north yesterday, I stumbled upon the wreckage of the original seed ship there.It was just a rusty wreck of metal caught in the vines, in the rocks at the edge of the flame forest beside the ravine.I squatted in the alloy skeletons of these weather-beaten ancient ships, imagining the joy of those seventy survivors, their short journey to the Great Rift, their discovery of the cathedral at last, and...then what?What's the use of guessing what happened after that?Doubts persist.Tomorrow, I'll try again to examine a Bikura's body.Maybe, now that I'm a "cruciform person," they'll let me do it.

Every day, I scan myself with a medical scanner.The worms are still there, maybe thicker, maybe not.I am convinced that they are completely parasitic, although my body shows no signs of parasites.In the little pool by the waterfall, I gazed at my face, and saw only the face I had come to loathe in recent years, the same long, old face: this morning I stared at myself in the water The image of my mouth opening wide, a thought flashes through my mind: I'll see gray filaments and swarms of nematodes in there, growing out of the roof of my mouth and the back of my throat.But nothing. One hundred and seventeenth day:

Bikura have no sexual characteristics.It's not abstinence, it's not hermaphrodite, it's not underdevelopment, it's asexuality.They have neither external nor internal genitalia, like a child's foam doll.There was no sign of atrophied penises, testicles, or similar organs in females, or that they had been surgically castrated.There is not the slightest sign that these organs ever existed.Urination occurs through a primitive urethra, a small opening near the anus, a sort of primitive cloaca. Beta allowed me to check him out.Medical scanners confirmed things my eyes couldn't believe.Del and Theta also agreed to my scan.I'm already convinced that the rest of the Three Score and Ten are similarly sexless.There is no indication that they were... castrated.I thought about all of them being born that way, but what about the parents who gave birth to them?How do these asexual clumps of human clay reproduce?It must have something to do with the cruciform.

After I had the scan, I undressed myself and studied it for myself.The cruciform bulges on my chest like pink scar tissue, but I'm still a man. How long can this last? One hundred and thirty third day: Alpha is dead. Three mornings ago he fell off a cliff while he was with me.We traveled about three thousand meters to the east, searching for tea horse bulbs among the giant rock formations near the edge of the Great Rift.It has been raining for most of the past two days, so those rocks are very slippery.I climbed carefully, raised my head, just in time to see Alpha slipped and fell off a rock on the edge of the cliff.He didn't bark.I just heard the rustling sound of the robe brushing against the rock, and after a few seconds, his body hit a torrent 80 meters below, and there was a "bang", the sound was disgusting, like a falling stone. The watermelon burst.

It took me an hour to find a way down.I knew as soon as I started this dangerous descent that it was too late for me to save him.But this is my responsibility. Half of Alpha's body is stuck between two boulders.He must have died instantly, his arms and legs were broken, and the right side of his head was smashed.Blood and brains clung to the wet rocks like glasses and dishes after a picnic.I stood over this little man, crying.I don't know why I cry, but I do cry.While weeping, I performed the final apotheosis, praying that God would accept the soul of this humble, sexless little man.Afterwards, I wrapped the corpse with vines, pulled the shattered corpse with great effort, and stopped to catch my breath several times when I was so tired, I finally climbed up the cliff 80 meters above.

I dragged Alpha's body back to Bikura's village, no one cared.In the end, Beta and five or six people walked over casually, with stern faces, staring down at the corpse.No one asked me how he died.After a few minutes, the small group dispersed. Then I dragged Alpha's body to the raised grave where I buried Tucker several weeks ago.I was digging a shallow grave with a flat stone in my hand when Gamma appeared.The Bikura's eyes were wide open, and for a few seconds, I thought I saw the emotion beneath the impassive exterior. "What are you doing?" Gamma asked. "Bury him." I was too tired to say anything more.I leaned on a thick tea horse root and took a rest.

"No," was the command, "he is a cruciform." I stared at Gamma as he turned and walked quickly back to the village.After Bikura left, I tore off the poor-quality fiber oilcloth wrapped around the body. There is no doubt that Alpha is really dead.To him, to the universe, it doesn't matter whether he belongs to the cruciform or not.The fall was so severe that it tore almost all his clothes, all his dignity.The right side of his head burst open, hollowed out like a breakfast egg.One eye gazed absently at the Hyperion sky through a thickening veil, while the other gazed lazily out through a listless eyelid.His ribcage was completely ripped apart, bone fragments protruding from his body.Both arms were also broken, and the left foot was nearly broken.I've done a sloppy examination of the body with a medical scanner and found his internal injuries to be severe; even the poor fellow's heart was shattered by the force of the fall.

I reached out and touched the cold body.The body had begun to stiffen.My fingers brushed against the cross-shaped edge of his chest, and I jerked my hand away.The cross is warm. "Go away." I looked up and saw Beta and the rest of Bikura standing there.I'm sure if I don't get away from the body, they'll kill me right away.I had to walk away resentfully, and at this moment, something stupid and frightened inside of me noticed that the Three Score and Ten had now become the Three Score and Nine.It's funny. Bikura picked up the body and started heading back towards the village.Beta looked at the sky, then at me, and said, "It's about time. Come on."

We climb down the Great Rift.The body was carefully tied in a vine basket and descended with us. Before the sun had yet illuminated the cathedral's interior, they laid Alpha's body on the broad chancel and tore off what was left of his rags. I don't know what I'm anticipating in my head, maybe, some kind of cannibalistic ritual.Nothing surprises me. However, just as the first colored rays of light entered the cathedral, one of the bikura raised his hand and intoned: "You will follow the cross all your life." Three Score and Nine knelt down on the ground and repeated this sentence, but I still stood without making a sound.

"You will follow the cross all your life," said the little Bikura, and the cathedral echoed with repeated choruses.The light, with the color and texture of blood clots, shone down, casting a huge cross-shaped shadow on the far wall. "You shall be a man of the cross, now, forever, forever," sang the hymn, as the wind rose outside, and the organ pipes of the canyon wailed, and it seemed to be mingled with the moans of a child in pain. I didn't say a soft "Amen" when the Bikura finished singing the hymn.I stood there, and suddenly the others were completely indifferent again, like spoiled children no longer interested in their games, and they turned away. "There's no reason to stay." Beta waited for the others to leave and said. "I'm staying," I said, thinking he'd order me to leave.But Beta turned around, without even shrugging, and left me there.The light dimmed.I went outside and watched the sun go down, and when I got back inside, it started. Once, at school a few years ago, I saw a time-lapse hologram of a rotting gochud.A week of slow work that nature recycles is accelerated to thirty seconds, which is frightening.I saw the sudden, almost comic expansion of the little corpse, and then the stretching of the flesh to the point of injury, followed by the white maggots popping out of the mouth, in the eyes, in the ruptured wound, and finally, the The flesh of the corpse was suddenly and unbelievably removed, leaving only the white bones. There is no other word suitable for this scene. The swarms of white maggots twisted from right to left, from head to tail, eating carrion here In the accelerated spiral, only bones, cartilage, and mouse skin remained. Now, what I see is the body of a man. I stood there, staring, and the last ray of light quickly faded.In the reverberating silence of the cathedral there was no sound but the throbbing of my pulse in my own ears.I stared at Alpha's body. He twitched at first, and then began to tremble visibly. In this sudden violent convulsion, the body was almost floating above the altar.After a few seconds, the size of the cross seemed to increase in size, darken in color, and glow red. The redness was like raw meat. I suddenly imagined that I caught a glimpse of the net-like filaments and nematodes. Clinging to shattered flesh like metal fibers in a sculptor's molten model.The meat is flowing. That night, I stayed in the cathedral.Everything near the altar is always lit under the illumination of the cross on Alpha's chest.As the body moves, the light casts strange shadows on the walls. I didn't leave the cathedral a step until Alpha left on the third day.But the most dramatic change came in the final moments of that first night.This Bikura, which I call Alpha, was disassembled and then rebuilt, and I saw the whole process.The body left behind isn't quite an alpha, and it's not quite an alpha, but it's whole.The face was that of a froth doll, smooth and unwrinkled, with a smile on it.At sunrise on the third day, I saw the corpse's chest begin to rise and fall, and I heard the first inhale, a heavy sound like water being poured into the skin.Shortly before noon, I left the cathedral and started climbing the vines. I follow Alpha. He didn't speak and wouldn't answer.His eyes are always fixed on a certain point, but they are not focused. Occasionally, he will stop, as if he can hear the voice calling him from afar. We went back to the village and no one noticed us.Now Alpha is back in the hut and is sitting there.And I sat in my hut.A minute ago, I lifted my robe, fingers touching the criss-cross hem.It lay tenderly in the flesh of my chest.waiting. One hundred and fortieth day: I am recovering from trauma and blood loss.I couldn't cut it off with a sharp stone. It doesn't like pain.I was unconscious before the pain or blood loss could take hold.Every time I wake up and continue cutting, I pass out.It doesn't like pain. One hundred and fifty eighth day: Alpha is now speaking.He seemed duller, dumber, and only vaguely aware of me (or anyone else), but he ate and moved around.He seems to have a little impression of me.Medical scanners showed the heart and internal organs of a young man, perhaps a sixteen-year-old boy. I have to wait another month of Hyperion, plus ten days, or maybe fifteen days, until the forest of flames becomes calm enough for me to go out, pain or not.Just wait and see who can endure the most pain. One hundred and seventy third day: Someone else died. The one named Will (the one with the broken finger) has been missing for a week.Bikura walked several kilometers northeast yesterday, seemingly following traffic lights, before they found his remains on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Apparently, he was climbing a tree to pick some tea horse leaves when the branch snapped off.He had broken his neck, and it must have killed him instantly, but what mattered more was where he fell.The body, if it could be called a body, lay flat in two huge mud cones, the holes dug by some kind of big red bug that Tucker called the fire mantis.Carpet beetle might be a more apt name.Over the past few days, the bugs had stripped the body so clean that almost nothing remained but the bones.Apart from the skeleton, there were only jumbled fragments of tissue and tendons, and crucifixes, still attached to the ribcage, like some ornate crucifixes worn on the bodies of long-dead people in sarcophagi. It sucks, but there's not much I can do to help, and, after the sadness, I feel a little joy.The cruciform can no longer regenerate something through this only bone; even if this abominable parasite is terribly illogical, it must consider and obey the law of conservation of mass.This Bikura named Will is truly dead.From now on, the Three Score and Ten really becomes the Three Score and Nine. One hundred and seventy fourth day: I am an idiot. Today, I asked about Will, about his life and death.I'm curious about Bikura's indifference.They recovered the crucifix, but left the bones where they had been found; they made no attempt to move the remains to the cathedral.At night, I wondered if I would be forced to fill in the blanks that Three Score and Ten were missing. "I'm sorry," I said, "one of your lives has died. What about the Three Score and Ten?" Beta stared at me. "He can't live a true death," said the bald androgynous little man. "He's a cruciform." Shortly after, I went on to scan the tribe with a medical scanner, and I discovered the truth.The man I called Sita remained unchanged in appearance and behavior, but now he had two crosses embedded in his flesh.I have no doubts that this Bikura will grow fatter, swollen, and mature over the next few years, like E. coli cells in a petri dish.After the death of this dude who didn't know what was male or female, two people would crawl out of the grave, and the Three Score and Ten would once again become the complete Three Score and Ten. I believe, I'm going crazy. One hundred and ninety fifth day: I've been studying this damn parasite for weeks now, and I still can't figure out how it works.Sucks, I don't care about this anymore.I am concerned with more important things now. Why does God allow such blasphemy? Why did Bikura impose this punishment? Why choose me to suffer their fate? I ask these questions in my nightly prayers, but I hear no answers, only the Wrath of the Wind rising from the Great Rift. Two hundred and fourteenth day: The last ten pages should contain all my field notes, as well as technical speculation.I will try to enter the peaceful forest of flames before dawn, and this will be my last diary. There is no doubt that I have discovered the ultimate truth in the stagnant human society.Bikura fulfilled a human dream: immortality.For this also paid for their humanity and immortal soul. Edward, I have spent so much time wrestling with my beliefs, with the needs of my beliefs, but now, in this horrible corner of an almost forgotten world, I am overcome by this nasty parasite, and I somehow Way to rediscover the power of belief that I have not known since you and I were kids.I now understand the need for beliefs, beliefs that are pure, blind, and defy reason.I was like the protector of tiny beings in that wild, infinite ocean of a universe governed by merciless laws that cared nothing for the tiny beings that inhabited it. Day after day, I tried to leave the Great Rift. Day after day, I felt great pain. The pain has truly become a part of my world, just like the sun the size of a mung bean or the green sky is my world. part of the world.Pain became my ally to humanity, my guardian angel, my remaining bond.Cruciforms don't like pain.I don't like it either, but, like the cruciform, I'm willing to pass it, for my own purposes.Moreover, I will consciously let it serve me, instead of doing it out of instinct like the brainless alien organization deeply embedded in my body.That thing just mindlessly avoids death by any means.I don't want to die, but I am willing to accept pain and death instead of being an immortal brainless life.Life is sacred, I still hold on to this idea, and see it as a core element of the church's thinking and teachings for the past twenty-eight years, although life is so humble, but even more sacred is the soul. Now I understand that my attempt to falsify Armaghast's data was not to regenerate the church, but merely to transform it into another wrong life, like these poor walking dead.If the church is destined to die, it must die, but die gloriously, knowing full well that it will be reborn as Christ.It has to go into the dark, reluctantly, but well done, bravely, with faith, like the millions who have gone before us, keeping the faith of generations, in death camps, in Nuclear fireballs, in the cancer ward, in the isolated silence of the Holocaust, facing death, walking into the dark, if not hopeful, then religious, there is a reason for everything that happened, so much pain, So much sacrifice is worth it.Those of us ahead of us walked into the dark with no guarantees, neither logic nor facts nor convincing theories, nothing but a glimmer of hope, or faith that hovered left and right.If they can continue to cling to their sliver of hope in the face of darkness, then surely I can...and surely the Church can too. I no longer believe that surgery or therapy can cure me and get rid of the parasite, but if someone can get it off, study it, and kill it, even at the cost of my death, then I will willingly. The flame forest has calmed down, and this will last for a while.Now I'm going to bed.I will start before dawn. Two hundred and fifteenth day: I can't get out. 14,000 meters into the forest.There is still a fire, and the current will burst out suddenly, but it can be entered.Just three weeks of walking and I'm out and about. But the cruciform wouldn't let me pass. The pain was like a never-ending heart attack.I still staggered forward, staggering through the ashes.Eventually, I lost consciousness.When I woke up, I was crawling in the direction of the Great Rift.However, I would turn around, walk a kilometer, climb fifty meters, then lose consciousness again, and wake up at my place.This stupid war on my body lasted all day. Before sunset, Bikura entered the forest, found me five kilometers from the Great Rift, and brought me back. Oh god, why are you doing this to me? There is no hope now, unless someone comes to me. Two hundred and twenty third day: Try again.Painful again.Failed again. Two hundred and fifty seventh day: Today, I am sixty-eight years old.I am building the chapel near the Great Rift, work continues.Yesterday, I attempted to climb down the cliff to the river, but Beta and four others stopped me from going over. Two hundred and eightieth day: Been on Hyperion for a year now.A year in purgatory.Or is it hell? Three hundred and eleventh day: I continued to work on the ridge under the rock shed, using the stones I gathered, where the chapel was built, and today I made a major discovery: the lightning rod.Bikura must have thrown them over the edge of the cliff after killing Tucker that night two hundred and twenty-three days ago. These poles will allow me to break through the flame forest at any time, if the cross allows it.But it won't allow it.If only they hadn't destroyed my medicine cabinet, it has painkillers in it!But, today, I'm still sitting here, clutching the pole, and I have no idea. My rough experimentation with medical scanners continues.Two weeks ago, Sita broke her leg in three places and I watched the cruciform react.The parasite did its best to keep the pain at bay; most of the time, Theta was unconscious, and his body was producing an incredible amount of endorphins.But the fracture was so severe that four days later Bikura slit Sita's throat and carried his body to the cathedral.It was much easier for Cruciform to rebuild his body than endure such pain for a long time.But before he was killed, my scanner found that the cruciform nematodes showed signs of retreat, from certain parts of the central nervous system. I don't know if it's possible to inflict on someone, or make him suffer, some degree of non-fatal pain, enough to drive the cruciform out, but I'm sure of one thing: Bikura won't allow it . Today, sitting on the ledge below the half-finished chapel, I consider the possibilities. Four hundred and thirtieth day: The chapel was built.This is my life's work. Tonight, on the altar of the new chapel, I said Mass as the Bikura climbed down the Great Chasm to perform the burlesque of their nightly worship.I've baked bread with tea horse powder, and I'm sure the stuff tastes the same as the tasteless yellow leaves, but to me it reminds me of sixty standard years ago in Villers-sur-Saone Wind Pavilion, my first communion, it was exactly like the first wafer I shared. In the morning, I follow my plan.Everything is ready: my diary and the photos from the medical scanner will be in a pistol woven bag.This is the best bag I have ever made. Holy wine is just water, but in the dim light of sunset it looks blood red and tastes like holy wine. My tricks can lead me deep into the forest of flames.I hope that there is enough initial activity in the Tesla trees out there, even in the lull. Goodbye, Edward.I don't know if you are still alive, and even if you are, I can't get together with you. What separates us is not only the distance of years, but also a wider abyss in the shape of a cross.I hope to see you again, not in this life, but in the life to come.You'd be surprised to hear me say something like that again, wouldn't you?I must tell you, Edward, after decades of dubious belief, although I still have a strong fear of what lies ahead, my heart and soul have calmed down. my lord jesus, I violated the commandments and wounded your heart, I repent of my sins, for heaven's loss, for the pain of hell, hurts your heart more than anything else, my lord jesus, You are the lord of mercy deserve my love My heart is strong, I have Your mercy, I repent of my sins, I make amends correct my life Amen. Twenty-four o'clock: The setting sun poured into the open windows of the chapel, and the light bathed the altar, the crudely carved chalice, and me.The Winds of the Great Rift sang its final chorus, and with luck and God's mercy I was able to listen for the last time. "This is the final record," Rainer Hoyt said. After the pastor finished reading the diary, the six pilgrims on the table looked up at the pastor, as if they had all woken up from the same dream.The Consul glanced upward. Hyperion was now drawing nearer, filling a third of the sky, its cold radiance driving away the stars. "After about ten weeks after we parted ways with Father Duley, I came to Hyperion again." Father Hoyt continued.His voice was hoarse, like the sound of a file. "It's been more than eight years in Hyperion... It's been seven years since the last record in Father Du Lei's diary." The pastor is obviously in pain now, his face is pale, sweating profusely, and glows sickly. "After a month of sailing up the river from Port Romance, I came to the Perry Heber Plantation," he continued, putting some force into his voice, "and I thought the fiber plastic growers might tell me the truth, Even though they have nothing to do with the Zemstvo consulate. I'm right. The administrator of Perihib, a man named Orlandi, remembers Father Durley, and Orlandi's new wife remembers, this woman Her name was Senfa, and Father Durley mentioned her in his diary. The managers of the plantation had planned several rescue operations to the plateau, but the unprecedented series of active seasons in the flame forest forced them to abandon the plan. For several years Afterwards, they gave up hope, and they thought there was no way Duray or their Tucker was alive."