The Missionary by Jesse F. Bone

Name: The Missionary
Author: Jesse F. Bone

"The Missionary" by Jesse F. Bone opens with Saul, a psi-gifted Adept of the theocratic world Promised Land, held captive with a broken leg in the stronghold of Wolverton, ruler of a neighboring island Holding and reviled by Saul's people as the "Father of Evil." Promised Land's rigid faith, centered on the teachings of Zard, has driven relentless population growth (per the scriptural command to "be fruitful and replenish the land"), and Wolverton's untouched, unfarmed territory is desperately coveted as farmland. Wolverton's technology shields his domain from the Adepts' mental powers, and his Halsite mercenary retainers guard his lands; Adepts sent to assassinate him never return. Saul was one such assassin: flying in with an atomic weapon, he was shot down before he could detonate it, broke his leg in the fall, and was rescued and treated by Wolverton's household, including an apostate Adept-turned-doctor named Sara. During weeks of captivity, Wolverton needles Saul with lessons in history, ecology, and interstellar politics — explaining that unchecked human fertility has repeatedly wrecked colony worlds (Earth, Mars, Proxima, Fanar, Kungtze, Samar, Halsey), and that Promised Land is heading toward the same collapse. Saul dismisses this as the "smooth tongue of Evil" and clings to Zard's Word, resolving instead to follow the "Missionary Creed" — feigning weakness, learning his enemy's secrets, and biding time to kill him. He attempts escape after incapacitating a Halsite guard, but Wolverton recaptures him effortlessly and fits him with an inescapable neck ring that nullifies his psi powers, revealing that Sara herself is a former Adept who abandoned the faith after years of similar captivity. Over ensuing weeks Wolverton, unbound by malice, recounts humanity's spread across the stars — showing Saul both the youthful glory and the eventual catastrophic decline of each colony world (overpopulation collapsing into famine, tyranny, war, or extinction). He reveals he is genuinely centuries old only in objective time (relativistic time dilation from lightspeed travel keeps him subjectively young), and that he has waited generations for a psi talent as strong as Saul's — someone able not just to nudge minds but to truly *convince* entire populations to limit their birthrates, serving as a living brake on runaway population growth across threatened worlds. Saul is horrified and unmoved by logic alone, still viewing Wolverton as demonic. The turning point comes when Wolverton shows Saul his ancient, still-formidable battle cruiser and offers him the freedom of the stars if he joins the cause. Overwhelmed by the ship's grandeur and Wolverton's passion, Saul verbally agrees to join — but inwardly plans betrayal, reasoning that a promise made to the "Father of Evil" carries no true moral weight and could even be virtuous to break. When his neck ring is removed and his powers restored, Wolverton deliberately lowers his own mental defenses, leaving himself utterly vulnerable to Saul's psi. Saul seizes the chance to kill him — but on probing Wolverton's exposed mind, finds not evil but boundless love for humanity, righteous anger at humanity's self-destructive folly, and total selflessness. Shattered, Saul realizes it is his own faith's assumptions that were wrong, not Wolverton's character. Wolverton explains that exposing his mind was a calculated risk — a final test of whether Saul was still redeemable — and that he needs Saul's full, willing cooperation, since coercion alone would fail. Humbled, Saul submits as a religious convert, offering himself as Wolverton's follower. Wolverton corrects him: Saul will not be a subordinate disciple but a leader in the effort to come, addressing him pointedly as "Saul" — evoking the biblical Saul/Paul conversion, casting Saul as a persecutor-turned-apostle who will now carry a new mission (population restraint via persuasive psi ability) across threatened worlds instead of violent resistance to it. The story is a first-contact-style morality tale using biblical/conversion allegory (Saul struck down and transformed, much like Saul of Tarsus) to dramatize a science-fictional Malthusian argument: that rigid dogma and unchecked fertility doom civilizations, and that true "missionary" work lies in persuading humanity toward sustainable restraint rather than in holy war against those who counsel it.

By Jesse F. Bone · First published 1960 · Genre: Science Fiction, Philosophical Fiction, Religious Fiction · 10,091 words

First lines

_What value has a promise when you make it to the Father of Evil? To slay him, I could promise anything -- and still be free of sin. Indeed, his death would make me holier._

My leg itched. The knitting fracture beneath the cast was letting me know in no uncertain terms that a simple fracture is simple in name only. There is nothing like a nagging, unscratchable itch. It doesn't really hurt, but after awhile it can become unadulterated torture, -- and all you can do is grin and bear it. Ultimately you stop grinning.

What this Textopian page supports

The Missionary is listed on Textopian as a short story by Jesse F. Bone, dated 1960 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Work type: Short story
Author: Jesse F. Bone
Date: 1960 CE
Language: English
Genres: Science Fiction, Philosophical Fiction, Religious Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Space Opera
Length: 10,091 words
Structure: 1 section, 187 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Genres

Science Fiction — The fundamental framework of the work. Features advanced technology (spaceships, shields, electronic restraints), alien species (Halsites), psychic/psi powers as genetic traits, multiple planets colonized by humans, relativity-based time dilation effects, and futuristic societies spanning interstellar space across millennia.
Philosophical Fiction — The narrative is fundamentally structured around philosophical debates about morality, civilization, population dynamics, and ethics. Wolverton's arguments about the inevitably cyclical rise and fall of civilizations and the role of persuasion in saving humanity form the ideological foundation driving the entire story.
Religious Fiction — Explores profound questions about religious belief, faith, dogma, and spiritual transformation. The conflict between the protagonist's indoctrinated religious fundamentalism in the Word of Zard and exposure to rational, secular thought drives the central tension and the work's resolution.
Dystopian Fiction — Extensively depicts multiple dystopian future societies as cautionary visions: Earth (legalized cannibalism, collapsed civilization), Mars (infanticide and technological failure), Proxima (suicidal warfare), Fanar (nuclear destruction), Kungtze (totalitarian collective state), and Samar (gender-based social dysfunction).