Step Back - Part 28

October 12, 1969 8 PM Eastern Time

Dan Rather sat back in his New York City residence. He was still quietly fuming. When the proposal was made to send Mike Wallace up to the starship Eagle he objected on the grounds that he was younger and healthier and therefore he should go up.

“No Dan,” said Wallace, “apparently your counterpart on the original timeline had committed a serious breach of ethics and as a result the Uptimers want nothing to do with you here and now.”

From Rather’s perspective Wallace had pitched several softballs to the Uptimers. They were clearly enemies of Progress and fully deserved to have been ripped a new one on the air.

The thought that Rather would have been sent out an airlock did not occur to him.

In Huntsville Werner Von Braun and several members of his NASA team had also watched the broadcast.

He spoke up.

“Boatman never mentioned the fact that the design for the Integral was based on his own Master’s thesis at Cal Tech.”

“Why should he?” Said John Linden. “He actually designed and built all of the other starships. And let’s face it, he was virtually standing on some tall shoulders while doing so.”

“John,” Werner replied, “we’re not in the Reich anymore, there’s no need to kiss anyone’s ass here.”

“But the truth is the truth.” Linden replied.

“Yes, it is.”

Werner Von Braun quietly wondered when his friend Evelyn Boatman would ever get around to writing a doctoral thesis on starship design. He seriously wanted to read it.

In the White House President Nixon had also watched the broadcast with his family.

In his opinion Boatman was clearly a master of political spin. At no point were the natives of Eden mentioned or any word of their fate. And the story of Alice Boatman’s existence aboard the Integral would silence all but the most insane critics of her actions in Dallas. There was no question that the Reverend Grant had asked for it. But sometimes a nose has to be rubbed into a pile of excrement before someone got the point.

The rest of the First Family simply sat back in silence.

Across the nation’s capital Senator Edward Kennedy sat back on the sofa alone with a shot glass and an open bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey.

He was fully appalled at the news of a future where people acted without any guidance from their betters, or to act without any other social restraint.

He thought, and then he took another slug from the shot glass.

Something absolutely must be done to stop these monsters.

In the city of Minneapolis former Vice President Humphrey had also watched the broadcast.

How can they live with themselves? He thought. How could they act on their own and abandon the Human Race? How could they show absolutely no remorse for their actions? How could they be so selfish?

In his Minneapolis apartment Thomas Archer, professor of English Literature at the University of Minnesota, switched off his television set.

Those liars! He thought. Those absolute fucking liars!

How can I promote Peace and Social Justice when it was possible to freely contradict me? And how dare that lying fascist bitch say that she was raped as a little girl by a Progressive leader?

It was now clear to him.

The so-called freedom of speech is in fact the freedom to lie, and it has to be stopped once and for all!

In campus dormitories across the nation the empty spaces between the ears of the drones of the student collective were filled with the same set of notions.

Everything about them is wrong! They have technology without restraint. They have power without restraint! They can do anything to anyone they want! They are the enemies of Peace and Progress! They must be stopped! They must be stopped by any means possible! They must be stopped!

Doctor Mark Goldman was doing rounds on his shift in the Emergency Room of Parkland Hospital. A nurse suddenly walked up and spoke to him.

“Doctor, have you seen tonight’s 60 Minutes broadcast?”

“No--why”

“They interviewed Doctor Boatman aboard the Eagle. I understand her now, I understand why she shot Reverend Grant.”

Doctor Goldman nodded.

Katherine Grant had watched the broadcast with several senior staff members of her late husband’s ministry.

She had reached a point of absolute anger beyond anything she had ever experienced. A black rage had taken over her consciousness and it left her fully blocked from any light of truth.

As far as Katherine was concerned there was absolutely no question that the Boatman family and their crew were the creations and the servants of Satan. And there was no absolutely question that they had pulled her daughter into their web of lies and condemned her to eternal damnation.

Judith was gone.

It was not the fact that she was aboard the starship whose reality she fully denied. It was the fact that she had fully renounced faith in God and path of eternal salvation. Judith had fully renounced the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there was no going back.

And it all began with Ayn Rand.

That godless Russian Jewish whore Ayn Rand!

Something had to be done. Something had to be done before more helpless souls would be lost to that whore and her lies.

With that thought her ministry formally began.

In their own home in California Robert and Virginia Heinlein had also watched the broadcast.

What could be said about what he saw tonight?

“Well done, Son.”