"Molotark!   What's going on?" Sanklara asked, taking him by the arm and shaking him.

   Molotark blinked his eyes several times, seeming to have seen them for the first time.   "It's Herrapki.   He's already laid waste to the Priest's Parish and is now in the process of trying to destroy the front of the temple!   Only the sub-Priests and Hammabelpar are holding him at bay!   And they're losing the battle!"   He wrung his hands.   "What are you going to do about it?"

   Sankalara gave him a reassuring pat on his shoulder.   With a very somber look she said, "I don't know.   But I AM going to do something!"   She took off at a dead run.   Javastad gaped at her a moment.   Then he took off after her.

   Her legs carrying her in bounds that she could not have managed without the PQ, Sankalara ran down the maze of back halls.   Finding the doorway that she needed, she ran down the short connecting hall and into the main sanctuary (formerly the Emperor's audience hall) where she skidded to a complete halt.   Javastad, using the PQ to keep up with her, narrowly missed running into the back of her, coming to a halt just in time.   They both stood there and looked with shocked dismay at the damage already done.   There was glass all over the floor from the busted out stained glass windows. A diamond chandelier lay on the floor, it's golden arms bent.   Onne of the blackwood arches in the vaulted ceiling was sagging perilously. And their were dents in the marble and gold front wall that looked like a giant fist had been pummeling it.   Shaking off her shock and dismay, Sankalar ran down the length of the sanctuary, coming to a stop beside Hammabelpar who was standing to the left side of the wide open double doors.   In a moment Javastad joined them.

   Risking a look out the doors, Sankalara saw Herrapki standing in the square.   Several things happened at once.   Sankalara asked, "Who opened these doors?"   Herrapki seemed to see her standing there, despite the fact that she was partially obscured.   And the assault on the Tabernacle ceased.   In the sudden lull, the sub-priests who had been standing on the right side of the open double doors ran over to join Sankalara, Javastad and Hammabelpar.   Then they just stood there looking expectantly between Hammabelpar and Sankalara.

   In the sudden quiet, Hammabelpar answered Sankalara's question.   "I ordered the doors open because we could not see Herrapki with the doors closed and had to be able to focus on him to fight back.   For all the good that did!   Fortunately, I was in the sanctuary with these sub-priests taking care of a few duties or else we would all be dead like those over there surely are." He pointed throuh the open doors towards the Priest's Parish across the square.

   Sankalara saw what Hammalbelpar meant.   The once beautiful, imposing building now lay in a heap of rubble.   Surely Hammabelpar was right.   Anyone in that building when it came down was now dead!   But what was more important to Sankalara's mind was the concerns of the moment.   Why had Herrapki ceased his destructive assault when he'd seen Sankalara?   What WAS he waiting for?

   "Sankalara!   Javastad! I know you're in there!   You lied to me!   Come out and face me!   Are you cowards as well as liars?"

   Sarcastically Javastad said, "Well, I guess we don't have to look for him. And I guess we got a pretty good idea of what he's going to do!"

   A sudden blackness came over Sankalara.   Not only was their plans all in ashes, but if Herrapki had his way then he was going to tear her whole world down around her ears.   It seemed to Sankalara at that moment that she had been right to run away from what was no good.   And did she really have anything to live for?   Other than shame and disappointment and self hatred?   Pashli, her best friend, was going to hate her until the day she died.   She had ruined Herrapki by listening to Javastad.   She still loved Javastad, but if they went on with this --somehow! -- would she ever be able to completely trust him?   Maybe it would be better if the whole thing came to a complete end?   Was there going to be any use carrying on what would probably end up being a long drawn out battle that no one would end?   It would just go on and on and on!   Unless . . .   She stepped out into the square, resolute, knowing what she was going to do, knowing what she HAD to do.   This world was no good anymore and it was time that it came to an end.

   "Herrapki!   Jevstan is NEVER coming back.   Your hopes and mine are in vain."   Sankalara said in a voice that so loud that everyone in the capital heard it.

   Herrapki just stood there looking at her with a knowing smile on his face.

   Javastad came to join her.   "Sankalara!   What are you doing?" Javastad asked her, a befuddled, alarmed look on his face.

   Sankalara ignored him.   She ignored Hammabelpar who also came out to join them.   Pashli appeared in the doorway and peered out uncertainly.   She too came to join them.   Sankalara turned to Pashli and said, "Know that I have loved you more than all."   Pashli just stood there woodenly, not acknowledging Sankalara at all.   But that was alright.   It soon would be all over anyway.   Looking to the sky, raising her hands commandingly, Sankalara shouted in a voice impossibly loud.   "Father Light! Come to us and heal us all!"

   Everyone looked up to see who and what Sankalara was talking to.   It soon became apparent.   The sun began to get larger. It went from yellow to white to blue.   The five moons, looking like a claw in the sky, embraced the sun and then were consumed.   At the last moment Herrapki began to cry, that terrible ululating cry that he'd voiced earlier.   Then it was over, washed away in a light so brilliant that it was cleansing.   A light that embraced them all and carried it's message of love across the years.

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   I looked at Perki in shock and extreme puzzlement. "Just like that?   I mean, she destroys their world just like that without even a fight?"

   Perki gave me a sad, wise look.   "Well, Doc, you gotta realize she could see the future with the PQ.   And because she could, she knew that it was not going to be any good.   Remember when she said that it would just drag on and on and on?"   I nodded.   "Well that wasn't just defeatism on her part.   She had looked into the future and saw that it WAS going to just drag on and on and on."

   I wasn't ready to be convinced.   "But surely there was something she could have done that was less drastic than killing her whole world and everyone in it?"

   Perki's sad look grew even deeper. "You do remember what I said back at the beginning of all this?   About how I made a mistake setting up a religion on this world so it would end the conflict?   And you remember how Sankalara ran away because she didn't want any part of it?   You remember how her and Javastad talked about how their world had lost it's diversity and how they were going to change that?"

   I remembered all those things clearly and told Perki so, having the bad feeling that I was beginning to understand.

   "Well, that's exactly it.   The religion I help set up ruined that world because it ended any diversity and initiative.   It was a powerful tool that could have been used for much good, but instead it became so stratified and rigid that no one could really do anything good and it only hurt those that it was meant to help.   Sanklara saw that at the end.   That it was irrevocably ruined.   There was no way back." By this time Perki was crying freely.

   I took her in my arms to comfort her, while Weslee studiously ignored us.   Edgar just looked on the whole scene with a completely blank look in his android eyes.   It was obvious that more esoteric aspects of humanity was something his programming couldn't begin to fathom.

   Perki let me comfort her for awhile.   At last she pulled away.   "Now I must tell you the worst part.   I know you are familiar with the Arthur C. Clarke story, "The Star."   Well, that world really existed."

   Suddenly I felt horribly sick.   And I realized that I had not understood at all.   "You mean --?" I managed to ask, not able to put it into words.

   Perki gave me a look of such sorrow that I felt like I was being drawn into a black hole. "Yes.   I do mean that.   This world was that world.   And the star that shone over Bethlehem was the Father Light that Sankalara called to her world.   Sanklara's Star killed them all and shone over that event that changed another world, your world."    Now I was the one crying.   Sankalara's death had been needless and the birth of Christ had been in vain.

   We got out of there and went to look for Jevstan.      

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