The Chaplain's War
steps so that I could get a better look. The tape on his breast read HOFF and he looked to be in his forties. Balding. Sharp eyes. The posture of someone used to giving orders and having them obeyed. I immediately wanted him off the premises, but decided I could at least entertain a few questions. If I kept my answers circumspect enough, hopefully the trio would get bored and leave.
    “It’s true,” I said. “There has been a mantis coming to the chapel.”
    “What does he want?” Hoff asked.
    “He’s just curious,” I said.
    “About what?”
    “About the chapel. About churches in general. About what I do here.”
    “Why?”
    “Couldn’t begin to tell you. He’s an alien, how am I supposed to know?”
    “So what have you told him?”
    “Nothing much. I make sure the chapel stays clean, that the lamps are lit, and that people can always come and worship whenever they want during the day.”
    “Anything else?”
    “That’s the long and the short of it.”
    Hoff stared at me, while his compatriots looked around the chapel’s interior.
    “He comes in here and asks any more questions, you notify one of us immediately.”
    “What for?” I asked.
    “We’re still at war, you know. The fact that we’re long-term prisoners doesn’t change anything. Though I think a whole lot of people forget this. No matter. When the Fleet returns, there’ll be a reckoning. Right now I’m mostly concerned with information. You were the chaplain’s assistant so I respect the fact that you’ve carried out the chaplain’s wishes for the construction and care of this place. Hell, I admire it. At least you’ve done something useful. Which is more than I can say for a lot of others.”
    “It seemed like a good idea,” I said.
    “Right. So keep your ears open. A mantis comes sniffing around here, it may mean something important.”
    “Like what?” I asked.
    “Who knows?” Hoff replied. “You just said it yourself: they’re aliens. But that’s not your concern. I’m giving you an order to report back on whatever you learn from the mantis. Is that understood?”
    “Clearly,” I said.
    Hoff and his pals waited.
    I think maybe they were expecting a salute?
    I didn’t offer one.
    Eventually he muttered something about insubordination and wandered out the way he’d come in, his cronies giving me sidelong glances.
    I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to my stool. I had no intention of reporting anything to those fools. Chain of command only works when everyone in it agrees to cooperate, and ours had disintegrated shortly after being captured and cordoned off behind The Wall. Since we couldn’t talk to Fleet Command, and Fleet Command had probably written us all off as casualties, what more did we owe to the service?
    Still, the major had made one good point.
    So long as I—or any of us—possessed information of interest to the mantes on any level, there was potential bargaining power.
    I dwelt on this for the rest of the day, remembering the Professor’s awful promise that the Fourth Expansion would finish humanity forever.

CHAPTER 4
    THAT NIGHT I WAS AWAKENED BY THE SOUND OF VOICES—TWO human, and one familiarly mechanical. I slowly got up out of my cot and stepped quietly to the doorway, where I peered out. The Professor was there, and seemed to be conversing by lamplight with a man and a woman, neither of whom I recognized.
    “And what does immersion accomplish?” said the mantis.
    “It takes away the sin,” said the woman.
    “And what is sin? ”
    “Bad choices,” said the man. “When you screw up.”
    “Mistakes?” said the Professor.
    “Yes,” said the woman. “All of us make mistakes. All of God’s children. Which is why we all need His forgiveness.”
    “And that’s what the immersion in the water accomplishes?” said the Professor.
    “Yes,” said the man. “It’s a clean start. Once a person becomes a member.”
    The mantis rotated his disc suddenly. He looked at the

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