Isaac and his companion eventually arrived at a glade beneath some tall trees and beside a collection of villas. Each one was stripped of the clutter of domestic life that Isaac saw in his brief foray into a similar building when he was armed and considerably more dangerous. Under the trees was a long table on which was presented a sumptuous array of dishes and where some crusaders were already dining.
Isaac and Elijah had made a pact to resist the temptation of gifts provided by the atheists. Surely only evil could come from evil. As it is said in Chapter Seven, Verse Fifteen, of the Gospel According to Saint Matthew: "
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
" But when Isaac saw that the other crusaders had already sampled the repast and showed no sign of having been poisoned, he decided that there was really little choice. In any case, he was very hungry. He could decline the feast but then he would only die from starvation. If the food poisoned him, this would merely hasten his arrival at St Michael's Golden Gates. Isaac was also surprised by how good the food tasted, however simple and plain it appeared to be. There was rice, bread, boiled vegetables and greens, and they were all remarkably fresh and lightly seasoned. Isaac had never tasted such wholesome and appetising food before: either on Holy Trinity or since. The vegetables tasted far better than those he'd cultivated in his garden under the colony's dim lights. There were also foods from the Holy Land that rarely featured in Isaac's diet such as olives, figs and dates. The repast sinfully reminded Isaac of the manna bestowed on the refugees from Egypt on their way to Israel.
The atheist dogs had also provided many comfortable beds on which Isaac and the other crusaders could sleep but which also lacked sheets or blankets to cover their nakedness. In a sense, such covering wasn't strictly needed as the temperature aboard the Intrepid was very comfortable.
Isaac hesitated about resting on a mattress and not only because each one was in such close proximity to the next in the villa's otherwise empty rooms. Then there was a light shower of rain which persisted for many minutes but miraculously failed to fall on the table on which the repast was laid. Isaac needed shelter and he needed to rest. He debated whether it would be sinful for him to sleep naked. He wasn't sure his genitals mightn't be exposed when he was asleep. But when Isaac lay down on a mattress he was so exhausted that sleep overcame him almost immediately.
Isaac got to find out more about his comrades in the following days. They were not only all English-speakers but without exception also all Christian. The other religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Judaism each had their own languages and English was the language of Christianity. Well, many of the Christians. Some like the Orthodox Christians spoke Greek or Russian, whilst others spoke Aramaic, Italian, German and Spanish. There were no Orthodox Christians in Isaac's company, though there were Roman Catholics, Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses and even a solitary Mormon. Nevertheless, those who followed the exact word of the Authorised Bible as revealed to King James kept themselves apart from those who followed heretical corruptions of the Lord's word as revealed in other texts.
Isaac and those of the most proximate faith soon removed themselves from the heretics and claimed a room in one of the smaller villas. Isaac was the sole survivor from the colony of Holy Trinity. Despite the many doctrinal and liturgical differences that separated him from his closest companions, especially those relating to the practise of prayer and worship and rather secondarily to the exact interpretation of the Gospels, the crusaders chose to unite around what they had in common.
Isaac became steadily more accustomed to his nakedness although not an hour passed when he didn't yearn to conceal his shame. The atheists had removed all material that could be fashioned into clothing and had herded away any animal or bird whose hide could be fashioned into clothing. It was evident that they preferred the crusaders to remain naked, although their beards and hair were allowed to grow.
Those in Isaac's company were reluctantly forced to resign themselves to their nakedness. Despite everything, they were all men. Isaac became accustomed to seeing his comrades' limp penises. More to the point, the surviving crusaders had other concerns. They were still intent on fulfilling the mission to which they were all sworn.
Isaac's companions included some whose pods hadn't even penetrated the Intrepid's well-defended hulk. Most hadn't made it nearly as far as he had. Some like Jeremiah and Ephron had been captured while their pod was still drilling through the hull. The vessel was destroyed but the crew was taken alive by the atheists' robots. Others like Thomas and Joshua never made it even onto the ship's surface. Their pod was destroyed and they were rescued by the same robots that had inflicted the damage and carried inside the ship after being detained outside for several hours. During their hours spent floating in space, they watched the Intrepid's robots clear away the battle debris and bear it off to the rear of the ship. The residue of the once proud invasion fleet was to be converted into the Intrepid's antimatter thrust. Rather than hinder the ship's progress, the Holy Crusaders' efforts had ended up in helping to refuel it.
Isaac's company erected barriers outside the room they had designated as their own to ward off Catholics, Baptists and other heretics. When their territory was secure, a party was assigned the task of exploring the ship. It was imperative that they determine whether there was a way to pursue their holy crusade. Isaac was one of those chosen, along with Amos, Ezra and Elijah.
As the crusaders explored their new territory, Isaac couldn't help but be impressed by the evidence of opulence and wealth. The outermost level was deserted although there were many villas now stripped of anything useful, and many of these had been assigned to crusaders of other faiths. Although these heretics and infidels were similarly naked, they made an effort to designate to which faith their territory belonged. A crucifix was carved on a tree to designate a Roman Catholic stronghold. On another tree, a crescent marked Muslim territory. There were other areas held by Hindus, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Sikhs and other faiths.
Isaac and his comrades diligently avoided having to stray into such territories just as they also avoided contact with the other naked men they saw wandering about the level. It was sinful to expose oneself to heresy. It was also likely that any contact with heretics and infidels would only be violent. The compromises that had enabled so many disparate faiths to work together towards a common cause would have evaporated as surely between communities of different religions as it had between those of different faiths of the same religion within the first few hours that the English speakers had settled in their villa.
There was none of the wild and domestic animals that had been in such profusion when Isaac arrived. The only other living things he saw were the odd scurrying rabbit or vole, and the birds and squirrels in the trees. The landscape was mostly composed of lawns, wooded glades, lakes and streams. There were no robots although the hovering holoscreens were still very much in evidence. These continued to provide the very useful information as the direction by which the crusaders should return to English-speaking territory.
The level bent upwards so their home territory was soon obscured by the ship's curvature. The columns that housed the elevators could be seen high above their heads where they had retracted into the ceiling. Huge struts kept the outermost level in contact with the levels above but these afforded no anchorage to the crusaders for an upward climb. Their imposing height was interspersed by platforms that were too smooth to offer a grip and too wide to clamber over.
After many hours walk and some breaks for repast and prayer, the crusaders at last reached the furthermost limit of where they could wander. This was not indicated by any warning line, but rather by an invisible barrier that gave off no reflection but repelled any force with one that was equal and opposite. Beyond this barrier were the animals that had once roamed freely about the whole of the outermost level. There seemed to be no way to enter the innermost levels of the ship that were high above Isaac's head.
The crusaders continued to roam along the edge of the invisible perimeter. They weren't sure whether it encircled the freely wandering large animals or whether it enclosed them. The only way they could establish where they were in relation to their new home was from the holoscreens which every few hundred metres pointed back to where they'd come. Isaac had no more skill in land-surveying than his comrades. In fact, all they had in common was that they had worked in a capacity, either in the police or the military, where they had expertise in killing people. The people they'd killed had all been heretics or recidivists, and not one of which belonged to a faith as far removed from their own as, for instance, a Roman Catholic, a Mormon or a Jew.
Elijah had served as a soldier in a war against the breakaway colony of St James whose heresy was to claim that King James was not merely divinely inspired but was actually the Second Messiah. Amos and Ezra had both been policeman with roles very similar to Isaac's. Their faiths differed in detail rather than substance and like Isaac they took great pride in their duty of ridding their respective colonies of any hint of deviancy or wavering in the true faith. Isaac was uncomfortably aware that on Holy Trinity it would have been his duty to slaughter all three of his comrades as it would have been theirs to kill him. Consequently, there was no real intimacy between the reluctant comrades.
