A/N: A look two decades after the end of the 1952 movie "Red Planet Mars". Stewart Cronyn considers the changes the world has gone since his parents contacted Mars.

Keeping The Faith

Stewart Cronyn sat in the hard chair and looked up at the nearest wall of the room in his home. Off to the side, a flat-screened television was sitting just above a shelf that ran the length of the room. Directly in front of him on the shelf was a statue of Jesus, beside a picture of his parents Chris and Linda. His attention was drawn to the picture of his parents, taken only months before the explosion that had killed them twenty years ago in 1952. The shop with the radio they were in had been completely obliterated, while the two boys remained relatively safe in the damaged house nearby. There were unconfirmed reports of a third person killed in the shop, but no definitive proof ever saw the light of day.

"Mom, Dad, just wanted to check in with you both to know that I'm okay. Sometimes though, I wonder if you ever imagined what the world would be like after your discovery," he mused out loud. He put his feet on a hassock he had drawn closer and let his mind think back to the time when his parents were still alive. "I might have been just a kid, Dad, but twelve is old enough to see what was going on in the world. I remember seeing the news and all the fighting around the world. World War II might have been over, but there were plenty of spots you could go where country fought country and people were dying. You pointed out that I wasn't as good in history as I was in math and science, but I was good enough to know that people have been killing each other since recorded history."

"Then you and Mom got the design of the Hydrogen valve that Franz Calder developed for the Nazis and used it to power that transceiver to direct signals at Mars. I remember how frustrated you were that things weren't working, and how excited you got when you finally got that answer back. Maybe I shouldn't have given you the idea to use the value of Pi as a message, but that's what happened and nothing can change that. They answered back, and the world changed forever and not just because you got the Nobel prize. Folks got all in a frenzy when they were told the Martians had no hunger or poverty, long lives and plenty of power for everything. Industries crumbled, the market crashed and just when they thought they might not get the secret to all this success they were told it was to return to Christianity. Then all Hell broke loose," Stewart said before chuckling at the unintentional pun.

"Oh, it looked great at the beginning. Before you and Mom died the Soviets got rid of Communism and reinstituted the church. All those fears about the Reds taking over just dissolved away. Funny, I remember hearing Mom argue with you about what might happen if Mars was to attack us when we contacted them. Yeah, I know I was supposed to be asleep but I pretended so I could hear what you two were saying. She ended up agreeing and it turned out Mars didn't attack us at all."

Stewart reached for a glass of water and took a drink before returning it to the coaster. It was a special coaster he had invented that kept drinks cold while in contact with the base. "Then Mom and you got killed. If we were just ordinary kids we might have been put in an orphanage, but because we were children of Chris and Linda Cronyn that wasn't good enough - Admiral Bill Carey himself adopted Roger and me. He was like an uncle to us, but it was probably better than a lot of places we could have finished growing up. He tried to keep us out of the limelight as much as possible even though we were the sons of the world's newest appointed saints. And we were especially kept from the wars."

"The wars, Dad! You were in the Navy four years - that's where you learned so much being a radio man and you saw your fill of fighting; you told me yourself. Well, the Soviets might have had a lot of people willing to embrace Christianity again but there are other parts of the world that don't hold that particular theology. And when the Have Nots were refused by the Haves to our new advances, you can imagine the fighting that took place. It took time, but eventually most of the world embraced God and Jesus as the answer - I'm sure that it was pure benevolence that those that refused were allowed to scratch out a living on certain South Pacific islands. Then the whole world could live in peace and work toward all those promises the Martians made."

The young man shook his head. "It didn't work out that way, did it? I could see it coming but I kept it to myself. Any group that will by force of will impose its beliefs on others will only fall victim to itself as time goes on. The bigger group slowly sheds itself of members that don't fall completely in line with the mainstream. How many flavors of Christianity are there? The answer was too many, according to whoever you asked. But of course, it was always the denomination being asked that was the 'true' belief. Squabbles, theological arguments and finally outright fighting broke out as one faction fought another for dominance. Now any difference in beliefs is only shown during small underground services or just held internally by the believer themselves."

"Then, guess what - history repeated itself. The church in power maintained that power along with the bulk of knowledge and research that was being done, meting it out as it saw fit. We progressed alright - but at what cost? You can't even get an original Bible anymore; everyone has a WWB. Oh, sorry, that's a Whole World Bible for Earth's 'true' religion. It has a lot of what the old one had, with some editing to fit with how things are run now." Stewart looked over at his bookshelf, knowing that the large volume labeled Radio Handbook was in fact a KJV that was fifty years old, and hidden from those who might ask too many question about why he bothered to keep such an 'outdated' relic. And just what versions of that great book existed before his?

"Still, I learned things from you two that I've carried with me my whole life. Stand up and do what's right. Speak your mind, but respectfully. Always keep up on my studies. Watch out for Roger the best I can, but he was so young when you died I doubt he even remembers much from then." He glanced over at a newspaper and read a headline that made him scowl. "I see that they're working on getting a mission together to visit Mars. The press has been pestering me for an interview on the subject, thinking me some expert simply because my parents were the first and last to contact the planet. At least as far as they know. I'll try to be diplomatic the best I can, but no guarantees when I don't know what the questions will be. I'll let you know how it comes out - but then again, maybe you'll somehow know too. Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Dad."

Stewart shifted in his chair. It was very uncomfortable, but the clergy insisted that every home have an altar and each one had solid seating so as not to be too comfortable when worshiping. He reached forward and pushed a hidden button on the coaster, then reached under his chair and toggled a switch before speaking out loud. "Stewart Cronyn calling. Do you read?"

There was a delay of several minutes for the message to travel the distance between the two planets and return again. "We read, Stewart. Report?" a voice said from a hidden speaker.

"No immediate events or achievements to report. Standard news as follows." He read off several paragraphs from the newspaper including the developing mission to Mars project and the state of the world. "Unauthorized denominations continue to grow unofficially, although they refuse to acknowledge it publicly and seem totally unable to stamp them out."

"Truth persists, though it take countless years."

"They really think that they're going to find Martians when they get to the planet," he added before waiting for the response. Sometimes the delay was really annoying, and he was working on a system that would cut it to a fraction of the time. In the meantime he still occasionally blurted out comments as if in normal conversation.

"Affirmative. They'll only find a relay station where we used to be and won't have a clear indication of our current location in the galaxy. We really don't want to make contact until they mature more as a society. We will await your regular report in two weeks your time or contact us on the special channel if an emergency arises. KTF."

"Keeping The Faith," Stewart responded and closed the connection. He looked up at the picture of his parents again. "We'll get where we need to be. Someday."

The End

A/N: Wow, Peter Graves before Mission: Impossible and Airplane! The movie seemed to be done earnestly, but I refuse to believe that such a paradigm shift in the world's religions could occur so quickly and easily. And even the best intentions can and often do go awry...

This was more of an oddity than not in the science fiction film collection - no aliens ever seen or heard, no spaceships, and a message (no pun intended) that Hollywood would be hard-pressed to make today. I tried to preserve those themes in this short.

One of MANY films about the planet Mars, at least the celestial object hasn't been demoted like a certain icy body beyond our orbit. I won't put a list here, but you can look them up easily enough.