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though device A may be improved upon at some future time by device B, ought we not at least consider the evidence presented by device A at this time?"

    Bellarmine looked away. "Devices," he said at last. "Believe me, there are more devices in this Universe than you with or without your telescope have ever imagined."

    Galileo squirmed. "Are you referring to the Instruments? Do you seek to intimidate me by intimations of your Instruments of Torture?"

    Bellarmine said nothing.

    "I am a weak vessel," Galileo continued. "I might well sooner lie about what I know to be true than be subjected to your torture. But what would that gain you in the end? Do you suppose you can torture the whole world – impose your will on every human eye that looks at the heavens through a lens?"

    "I was hoping you might be persuaded, not by torture, but by reason itself, to see the dangers in the way you proselytize your theories," Bellarmine replied. "I was hoping that once so convinced, we might even enlist you to help in our cause – explain to the world that, although science always progresses, always changes, the soul and its place in the Universe remains constant, remains forever, and our Holy Church is the only reliable guide to that."

    "Forgive me, Eminence – but I fear it is the Church that is treading on the domain of science here, not vice versa, in your insistence that the Earth is the unmoving center of the Universe. And you have no evidence that the Copernican theory, which my telescopic observations support, is wrong."

    Bellarmine sighed. "Suppose I showed you evidence."  

    Galileo scoffed. "Where, in the Holy Bible?"

    "No," Bellarmine said very quietly. "In Instruments perhaps ultimately not unlike your telescope – Instruments that offer vision far deeper than your telescope. Dangerous Instruments – far more dangerous than your telescopes." He wrung his hands. "I had hoped not to have to speak to you of this. But I see there is no other way."

    Galileo shuddered. "You are speaking to me again of torture? Of burning out my eyes?"

    "No, not of torture – at least, not of physical torture, I assure you," Bellarmine replied. "I would invite you to accompany me on a journey."

    "To the torture room?" Galileo asked, still not convinced.

    "To the city of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle," Bellarmine replied. "To Athens."  

    ***

    Galileo complained every hour he was awake, which was most of the seven-day voyage by sea from Rome to Athens. "I don't like this kind of travel at this time of year," he said to Bellarmine after he had thrown up his latest meal overboard, "but I fear my life depends upon it."

    "I am bringing you to Athens to learn," Bellarmine replied. "You of all people should welcome that."

    Their ship entered the Port of Athens without incident. It bustled with international trade under Ottoman rule. Galileo was still complaining. "The Turks have telescopes, but to them they are just toys. They have no idea what they are looking at when they point them at the sky."

    The two disembarked with Bellarmine's servant Ruggero – a priest about thirty with the build of a Swiss Guardsman who had accompanied them on the voyage. He carried Bellarmine's and Galileo's belongings, as well as a number of knives.

    The weather was mild. "Our destination is about ten minutes on foot," Bellarmine said.

    Galileo nodded. "I would welcome a walk on solid earth after all of those days at sea."

    [Athens, 1615 AD]

    They arrived at Hakam's coffee house about fifteen minutes later. Galileo had stopped several times to divest his sandals of pebbles. "They serve a wonderful heated beverage they call kaweh – which means 'vigor'," Bellarmine explained. "The taste is delicious, the aroma is from heaven, and it will indeed strengthen your constitution and sharpen your intellect."

    Galileo smiled fully for the first time in a week.  

    "They name many of their coffee houses after Hakam, and their proprietors take his name,"