Chapter 19 Chapter Nineteen

Theremon never imagined that he would take such a hostile attitude towards the scientists of the observatory.It was all because of everything that happened in the past few months that pushed him to where he is today. He told himself that he was doing this essentially out of a sense of justice that a journalist should have.He and Beanie were close friends; Dr. Arthur was undoubtedly an excellent astronomer; He is also an important archaeologist.he doesn't It never occurred to me to push myself to the opposite of these people. But he must record everything he believes.However, from the bottom of his heart, he also thinks that the group of people in the Observatory are as stupid as the followers of the Flame Sect, and they will also pose a danger to social stability.

There was no way for him to take these people's words seriously.The longer he stayed at the observatory, the more he felt that everything here more and more crazy. There is a planet invisible to the naked eye, even with the help of instruments, which flies across the sky every few decades in an orbit close to Kalgesh.When this invisible planet appears, the Sun in the sky will make Dovim the only planet remaining in the sky.Dovim will go dark, the world will be plunged into darkness, and everyone will be mad at the end.No, it's not possible.He couldn't agree more. To Theremon, this view was as unfounded as the rambling madness that the Pyroists had been spreading.Their only devotion was to make known the mysterious phenomenon of the stars.Even the people at the observatory had to admit they couldn't imagine what a star was.The believers describe the stars in this way: They are obviously some kind of invisible celestial body, when the year of repentance is over and the wrath of the gods falls on Kalgesh, they will suddenly burst into people's sight.

"That's not the case." One night six months before the eclipse, Benny said at the Six Suns Club, "We thought there would be an eclipse and a night. As for the 'stars', there can't be. There is no one in the universe except us. The world, 6 suns, some asteroids, and Kalgesh II, there are no other objects. If there are stars, why can't we detect their existence? Why can't the orbital perturbator observe them? We In this way the second Kargesh was detected. If there were stars in space beyond our own, the law of gravitation would be broken. But we know that theorem is true."

We know that this theorem is all right, it came from Beanie, but is it any different from Fleming's statement "We know that the Book of Revelation is a book of truth"? At first, when Beanie and Schelling told Theremon that they already knew that the whole world would experience a period of devastating darkness, he was skeptical and fearful, but the tragic scene of the end of the world had been deeply engraved in his mind. So he wanted to do whatever he could to help them. "Arthur wants to meet with Fleming," said Beanie. "He wants to know if the Believers have any ancient astronomical evidence to corroborate our discovery. Can you arrange that?"

"A ridiculous idea," said Theremon. "That grumpy, scientific old man wants to meet the anti-science, non-science spokesperson. Well, I'll see what I can do." No one expected the meeting to be arranged so easily.Theremon had been planning to interview Fleming again, and the chiseled devotee allowed him to meet the next day. "Arthur?" said he, when the reporter passed Benny's message to Fleming. "Why does he want to see me?" "Maybe he's planning to become a believer!" Theremon replied jokingly. Freemont laughed out loud. "Impossible. From what I know of him, it won't be long before he paints himself purple and walks naked in the Salo Street."

"Well, maybe he has changed his belief." Theremon said, paused deliberately, and then added cautiously, "I know that he and his men have some information, which may just support your belief : On September 19th the whole world will be shrouded in darkness." Freemont carefully restrained his emotions, as if these words did not attract him.He raised his eyebrows inadvertently. "It would be great if that's the case," he said calmly. "Whether it's true or not, you'll know when you meet him once." "I can see him," said the believer.

They did meet.In fact, what is the essence of the meeting between Fleming and Arthur, despite all the twists and turns of Therimon, still nothing.Arthur and Fleming were the only people on the scene. As far as Theremon knew, they did not disclose any news to the outside world afterwards. Even Beanie, the main contact person of the observatory, could only provide some vague guesses. "It has something to do with ancient astronomical records, the main contents of which are known only to believers, and that's all I can tell you." Beanie reported, "Arthur suspects that those beliefs have been passed down for centuries, perhaps since the last solar eclipse. It has been handed down. You know, there are some passages in the Book of Revelation written in an ancient language that has been forgotten."

"You mean, an ancient language that was forgotten? No one can understand it." "Yes, I can't read it," Beanie said, "but some eminent philosophers believe that those texts may be the prehistoric version. What if believers really have a way to decipher this language? But they don't want to make it public, because any leak of astronomical data will be recorded in the "Apocalypse". This is the key point that Arthur wants to know." After hearing this, Theremon was refreshed. "You mean that Arthur, the most eminent astronomer of our time, and perhaps of all time, felt obliged to ask that passionate group of believers a scientific question?"

Beanie shrugged his shoulders and said: "As far as I can see, Arthur's views agree with yours, and he doesn't like the believers and their teachings either. However, he thinks it would be beneficial for him to meet your friend Fleming." Not shallow." "He's not my friend! Strictly speaking, just an acquaintance at work." Beanie said, "Okay, fine, whatever you want to call it..." Theremon interrupted him, and a wave of unidentified anger rose up, and he was shocked by it. "I want to tell you, if you guys finally make some kind of deal with believers, I will never agree. From my point of view, believers represent darkness itself

…the reactionary views held are the darkest and most hateful.Once we give in to them, we have to go back to the medieval life of fasting, celibacy, and spiritual thrashing and enslavement.It is unfortunate that among us there are people who are as crazy as they are, who talk nonsense all day long and make up some lies to disturb the peaceful life of every day.But if a man of such esteem as Arthur attributes such nonsense to his own discoveries, and uses it to raise the value of those absurd villains, my friend, on this point, I respect any news from your observatory. Suspect. " Benny looked terrified.

"If you knew, Therimon, the mocking tone with which Arthur spoke of the faithful, and the contempt he had for any opinion they had..." "Then why did he condescend to talk to them?" "You talked to Fleming yourself!" "It's different. Like it or not, Fleming's been helping make news these days, and it's my job to figure out what's going on in his head." Beanie responded excitedly: "Perhaps Arthur feels the same way." So far their discussion has turned into a quarrel, and no one expected such a result.Because Beanie really didn't know whether there was an agreement between Arthur and Flemish, and if there was an agreement, what it was, and Theremon saw that there was no practical point in entangled with him on this point. However, Then Theremon realized that it was this conversation that caused him to begin to change his attitude towards Benny, Schelling, and others at the university. The curious bystander becomes a mocking, fooling critic.Although the meeting between the director of the observatory and the believers was thanks to his mediation, but now this matter seems to be the cruelest betrayal for him, and it is the result of the reactionary forces and blind ignorant forces in Arthur's direction. compromise. Theremon never brought himself to believe the scientists' theories...although they allowed him to look at all the so-called "evidence"... When reports of a doomed solar eclipse first hit readers of the Chronicle, he Takes a neutral stance in his column. "A bold prophecy," he called it, "very frightening...if true. For Arthur 77 has openly stated that any prolonged and sudden darkness worldwide would be a disaster unknown to the world. However, This morning, a different opinion came from the other side of the world. 'Dear Arthur 77,' declared Heranian 104, an astronomer at the Imperial Kanipilitiniuk Observatory, 'there is no conclusive evidence for the existence of the so-called second satellite of Kargesh, Not to mention the possibility of a solar eclipse as predicted by Salo University. We have to keep in mind that the sun...even a small one like Dovim...is much bigger than any satellite cruising through space. This makes We understand that it is impossible for a satellite like Kalgesh II to be precisely positioned in space to prevent the sun from shining its light on the surface of our world.'” But what followed was Mondiel71's speech on August 13, in which the bishop proudly declared that the world's most outstanding scientists supported the views in the Book of Revelations. "The voice of science merges with the voice of God at this moment." Mondir 71 shouted: "Now I beg you, stop pinning your hopes on those miracles and dreams. What will come will come after all. No one can save the whole world from the wrath of God, unless Fei volunteers Renounce vice, renounce evil, and place yourself in the path of virtue and justice, or nothing." Mondir 71's muffled and emphatic statement made Theremon no longer remain neutral.In keeping with Benny's loyalty, for a while he allowed himself to take the eclipse hypothesis more or less seriously.But now, he's come to see it as frivolous news published purely for the pleasure of his readers... In a daze, I would rather deceive myself into believing the most ludicrous nonsense of the century. The next day, Thelimon asked readers in his column: "Do you want to know how the Pyromen managed to get Arthur 77 and convert him? Of all the people, it seems, only this brilliant old astronomer least likely to be among those who support the robed and masked believers who offer sensational and demagogic nonsense. Could it be that some sharp-tongued believer has charmed the great scientist and made him lose his due? Some wit? Or the whole story is just like this: When the school stipulates the retirement age of teaching staff, the age is set a few years higher? I heard that everyone is quietly discussing this in the ivy-covered walls of Salo University. thing." This is just the beginning of things. Theremon is well aware of the extent of his role now.If people start to take the matter of a solar eclipse seriously, their spirits are sure to break, if not the chaos caused by the appearance of total darkness. Let everyone believe that the end of the world will come on September 19. Long before that date, there will be chaos in the streets: everyone will become hysterical, law and order will be destroyed, and society will be in a state of extreme anxiety for a long time. Unsettled, people fearful... Only the gods know how people's emotions will fluctuate when the day of fear comes and ends before it can wreak havoc on the entire world.And his task is to use the sharp weapon of laughter to pierce this fear and weaken everyone's fear of sunset, darkness, and doomsday. Therefore, when Mondir yelled viciously that the gods' vengeance was just around the corner, Thelimon 762 responded with a relaxed tone.He told everyone that if the believers had their wish to transform society into what they wanted... people flocked to the beach in ankle-length bathing suits; Masterpieces, classical dramas, to eliminate any disrespect for God... What will the world look like. Kalgesh II is invisible to the naked eye and apparently impossible to observe.When Arthur and his crew published diagrams of its motion in the sky along its own shadowed course to meet the dim red light of Dovim, Thelimon spoke to the sky dragons, invisible giants, and other mythical The devil of pleasure, made a friendly comment. When Mondiel wielded the scientific authority of Arthur 77 as evidence for the secular community's support for the beliefs of believers, Thelimon's response was to ask who would value the scientific authority of Arthur 77 , since he himself has evidently been Dill was just as crazy. When Arthur called for urgent action to stockpile food, scientific material, and all the necessities of the insane, Theremon offered to provide his own list of items given that in some areas the insanity had broken free , you can store these things in your basement ("can openers, thumbtacks, multiplication tables, playing cards . Forget the name... tie the string around your wrist, write on it, and to know the name, look at the string on your wrist..."). When Thelimon finished writing the news, his readers found it difficult to decide which group of people was more ridiculous...the great catastrophic prophets of the Flame, or the sensitive and gullible people of the University of Salo Observatory. astronomical observers.One thing is indisputable, though: Few among the populace believed that something bizarre would happen on the night of September 19, and it was all thanks to Theremon.