Children of the Old Star by David Lee Summers Page A

resolve, he knocked again.
    Clyde's once-light heart grew heavy as he realized that no one was home. His shoulders sank as he trudged downtown and got directions to a motel. Arriving at the motel, he found he had neither enough money for the room nor the night's taxes to stay on the island. Grumbling to himself, Clyde made his way back to the hover port and caught a flight back to Hyannis Port, where he found an affordable bed for the night.
    Sitting on the thin steel-framed bed that was covered in a blanket that smelled vaguely of mildew, Clyde worried about how he was going to get money to survive on Earth. He tucked his suitcase under the bed and stepped out into the streets of the once-rich town of Hyannis Port. Dirty people wandered by, heads down. People with less money than Clyde began to light fires by their street-side tents.
    Clyde McClintlock raised his collar against the wind, thrust his hands deep in his pockets and trudged down to the ocean side. More people camped on the beach. With a deep frown etched on his face, Clyde began to think about the stories the people of Roanoke taught about Jesus preaching by the seashore. He thought about his visions of the Cluster.
    On an impulse, Clyde wandered up to a group of rough looking people gathered by a cooking fire with fish skewered on pointed sticks. They huddled away from him, scared of just about any stranger. They protected their fish, which was probably more food than any of them had in days, maybe even weeks.
    "Don't be afraid,” said Clyde gently. “I'm here to bring you good news, glorious news..."
* * * *
    That night, Clyde McClintlock delighted in the joy he brought to the people at the beach. He brought them news that there was nothing to fear from the Cluster. In fact, he taught them that the Cluster only had good news for the people of the Earth. He read passages from the book of Ezekiel showing them that the Cluster had, in fact, visited Earth in ancient times. Reverend Burroughs might not have seen any similarity between the Cluster and Ezekiel's vision, but these people saw it clearly. Because the people on the beach had not heard the news of how the clusters easily destroyed space vessels, it was easy to tell only the good side. Clyde told them of the visions and how the Cluster had placed him on the path of righteousness. Speaking dramatically, like Reverend Burroughs, he told them the Cluster would set them free.
    It all started simply, like that. Clyde made his way up Cape Cod, preaching the good news that the Cluster had come to help humanity. Some who knew of people who had died in the war, turned a deaf ear. Most of the people, haunted and tortured looks in their eyes, listened. After a week, Clyde found he did not need to worry about shelter. The people of the beach took him in and chipped in money, paying his taxes. People loved Reverend Clyde, as he came to be known, because he told them that there was one being that held the answers to a planet in trouble. Better than other preachers and soothsayers, he could show the people holograms of their awesome savior. He told them he had actually talked to it and it had helped him.
    Again, sitting on the beach one night, Clyde looked around at the people roasting fish over open fires. “The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish,” said Clyde, recalling the parable spoken by Jesus three thousand years before. “When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away."
    "Baskets of fish?” scoffed a man with greasy hair and a livid scar on his forehead. “It's hard to catch even one fish in these waters. Even when you do catch one, it's hardly fit to eat."
    "Maybe so,” said Clyde patiently. “But this parable demonstrates how it will be at the end of this age we're living in. The Cluster will come and separate the wicked from the righteous by destroying