Free Master of Space and Time by Rudy Rucker Page A

rummaging under his bed. “Just what the old doctor ordered. Keeps the slugs off, too.” He took out a clear glass bottle of oily liquid.
    Harry drank from it, wiped his mouth, then passed the bottle to Sondra. She shook her head and gave the bottle to me. It was moonshine, sharp and with a bitter undertaste. I spit out half the mouthful I’d taken and gave the bottle back to Tad. I didn’t trust wireheads.
    â€œTell us more about Herber,” I requested. “Did he start a religion, or what? You say they electrocuted him?”
    â€œYou’re really elsewhere,” said Tad. “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere. Scope this, age levels five through thirteen.”
    He handed me a color comic book, the kind of thing that a child might bring home from Bible school. On the cover was a soft giant brain with a halo. That was Gary? Crowded all around the brain were laughing children with humps on their backs. It occurred to me that I’d seen a lot of round-shouldered people on the streets here. Why would being saved make you into a hunchback? Beginning to sense my answer, I sat down and read the comic book frame by frame. The writing was mirror-reversed, but I got used to that soon enough.
    1. Gary’s parents were scientists . Two clean-cut people in white smocks. She holds a test tube, he holds a Geiger counter.
    2. Their world was full of trouble . Weapons, broken liquor bottles, bloody faces, a background of psychedelic music symbols.
    3. And God had been forgotten . A drunk sleeping on the steps of a looted temple.
    4. God spoke to Gary’s parents . They stand in a roomful of machines, staring up into streaming light.
    5. And told them what to do . She leans over a microscope, while he handles some radioactive material with tongs. Her belly is swollen.
    6. Gary Herber was born on June 25 . The parents lean over a radiant cradle. The cradle contains a naked brain with a spinal cord.
    7. Gary’s brother, Seth, was scared . The brain floatsin a tank of nutrient. A dirty, unattractive boy peers at it from around a doorjamb.
    8. God told Seth to share . Seth kneeling next to the brain’s tank, his face blank with religious ecstasy.
    9. Seth and Gary grew together . Gary is riding the nape of Seth’s neck. Seth is clean and happy-looking, writing answers on a blackboard.
    10. They began to teach God’s Laws . Lean and charismatic, Seth is standing on a soapbox preaching to a crowd. The naked brain is hidden beneath Seth’s coat.
    11. These are God’s Laws . A stone tablet with three laws chiseled in:
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â God’s Laws
    Â Â I:   Follow Gary
    Â II:   Be Clean
    III:   Teach God’s Laws
    Tad thrust the bottle at me again. Reluctantly I looked up from the comic. The bottle was almost empty and Harry was drunk. He was sitting on Tad’s bed with his arm around Sondra. They were kissing.
    â€œNo thanks, Tad.” I turned my attention back to the comic. “Is this all true?”
    â€œThey omit to mention where Gary wig and drink all a woman’s spinal fluid. She croaked and the Herbers got the chair.”
    I read on.
    12. Gary’s disciples shared him . Smiling Seth is setting Gary down on an attractive woman’s nakedback. Many cheering faces in the background.
    13. But there were enemies . Three swarthy, low browed men sitting at a table with money and whiskey. One shows a legal document to his gloating comrades.
    14. Seth and Gary were arrested . Faceless police officers in riot helmets drag humpbacked Seth away from weeping women and children.
    15. The public electrocution . Seth is strapped into an electric chair. A special wire leads to Gary, naked on Seth’s back. A crowd is watching.
    16. The Blessed Scionization . Seth is dead and smoking. But Gary is much bigger than before. He bulges out like a cauliflower, and pieces of him are splitting off.
    17. Soon Gary was everywhere . An