The Preacher Man

Jibran took a deep breath. "Abdul Quddus has got to fill those vacant seats eventually. If you do a little leaning in his direction, Health will be the lone holdout. They won't be able to block you by themselves. What they will do is try to sell you their vote for the best price they can get. Be careful of the shifting winds Ilias."

I nodded and murmured, "Dakar..."

"Ever been there?"

"No."

Jibran thought for a moment about my history. "No, I guess not. It's a lot like Jericho, but without the bears. It's a showcase city for High Tech's power, a gem. You'll even have a nice lake to the west of the city, completely de-salted, just like Jericho. Ilias, this is a fantastic, once in a lifetime opportunity. Dakar is fabulously wealthy. The opulence of your cathedral will rival the capital's."

I nodded quietly. "How long do I have to think about this?"

Jibran laughed. "Take all the time you want. But have an answer of yes waiting for me when I call you again at 3 PM."

I smiled. "Oh, I can't take the pressure Jibran!"

He turned very serious. "All joking aside, those aren't my words. I'm passing them on as the personal desire of Abdul Quddus." We stared into each other's eyes for a moment. "You've started a trend Ilias. Out of the eight CL-27 in the world, I'm the only one currently at Bandar Arenas, and I'm returning to Aleppo tonight. You and the other six are all at their Domine townships now. New political structures are being created. A new day has dawned, one with new rules. Ilias! Be ready with a yes at 3 PM." And on that note he broke the connection.

Abigail had listened to the whole conversation, sitting off-screen on a couch behind the monitor. She came over and hugged me from behind as I sat, kissing my cheek.

"Big day Ilias," she whispered. "It seems the Holy has thrown all your dice up in the air again."

"Yeah," I whispered back. "Yeah."

Chapter 26. A Day to Remember

Time: June 26, 8237 10:37 PM

After evening Prayers I rushed home, took a quick shower and jumped into bed. I pulled out something to read, but mostly I was waiting for Michal. The room was a bit cool, certainly below 20C, but it was cozy under the covers, and made even cozier by the howling blizzard outside the windows. Winter had arrived at noon today, and the sun's aphelion was due at 2 PM on July 11th. Karbala is a challenging place to live at any time, but in winter, especially without the modern technology, it would be a challenging place to survive.

Michal walked into the bedroom and gave me a shy smile as I lay reading. She then drifted to the northern windows a few meters from the bed. She pressed her face up against it and stared at the fury a centimeter away.

"See anything?" I asked.

"Just a little, the glow from some of the city lights... All this darkness Ilias, so little sun. And this blizzard! Such power! I've never seen anything like it!" Then she turned to face me with a frown. "Wait. I don't know if that's true or not."

I looked on her with love. She was so attractive in the dim lights. My dear wife, so beautiful! "Aren't you cold Michal, standing by the window like that?"

Her frown turned into a grin, and then she turned her head back to gaze at the swirling whiteness outside. "A little perhaps, but it will make my cuddling with you even more enjoyable."

Michal was captivated by the sight and stood without speaking for another minute, until she began to shiver. She then spun around and jumped under the covers with me. She seemed delighted to find me naked, a smile burst on her face, and she quickly shed her nightgown and pressed her cold body against me.

"You feel like ice, like the storm," I whispered, as I enfolded her in my arms.

She tilted her head up, as if she would reply, but kissed me instead. The kiss did not break, and our tongues began to gently play with each other. Michel rolled her body on top of mine. My hands came up and held her to me, holding her low on her butt, my open fingers extending down to the backs of her thighs. All was love at first, and gentle playfulness, but her loveliness and desire for me soon began pulling me into arousal.

Our hands were roaming over each other's bodies. Her cheeks, throat, breasts, so beautiful, hard chocolate nipples tasting of Michal's sweet milk. I suckled her with the memory of her sweet flow in my mind. She held my head for a while, holding me by the back of my neck with one hand and petting me with the other.

"I love you," she whispered.

I broke my suckle lock and began licking her nipple. I whispered back, "I know. I love you too." My hand had been caressing the side of her hip. My fingers began dancing in soft fur of her pubis, and I unexpected felt the tension of tight hairs. And then I felt the bow. "Huh?"

Michal giggled. "It was Sheffie's idea. This season will be the last time you make love to me at Karbala. Sheffie thought you should have the chance to deflower me like a proper Karbalan girl."

I chuckled for a moment, thinking of my imaginative third wife. I pulled the blankets back and gazed at Michal's loveliness. The pale white and blue ribbon was tied tight across her pubis in traditional Karbalan fashion. In my passion with my first night with Sheffie, I never admired the more interesting qualities of this practice. But tonight! I smiled at Michal and then moved my head between her legs.

The hair below the ribbon was shaved baby smooth, and Michal shivered as I ran my tongue along the silky skin around her outer lips. The unshaved hairs above the clitoris are held tight by the bow and pulled upward, lifting the prepuce and semi-popping the clitoris from its hood even when the female is not sexually aroused. The tension also stretches the hymen in the hours before a marriage girl's first intercourse, making it easier for her to tear.

Michal didn't have that problem now of course. The ribbon was for my pure enjoyment of watching her tight pink button quiver as I licked her labia. The lips soon parted from her arousal. I started long, slow laps with my tongue along the full length of her labia, beginning at her anus and licking upward, flicking the exposed clit a little harder on each slow pass. Michal started gasping and jerking her hips as my tongue slid along the underside of her clit, as it failed to retract under the hood from the intense stimulation.

"Ilias," she whimpered, "I don't want to wait anymore."

Her legs came up and spread wide, and her hips were making little thrusts of invitation. I didn't want to tease her. I untied the bow with my teeth and heard Michal sigh with relief as her clit was allowed to slide back underneath its protective hood. I licked the hood, long slow strokes along the aroused upper fold until Michal let out a crying sound.

I moved my kiss up from her prepuce, sniffing her pubic hairs, kissing and licking her navel and belly, my mouth wandering to kiss her ribs and breasts. I came up between her legs and lay on her, the sides of our faces finally pressing against each other, my erection poking into the folds of Michal's labia. I felt my penis head cup into something warm and moist, and Michal groaned and placed the heels of her feet on my butt and pushed me into her. She was already open for me from her arousal and very wet. I slipped inside of her in one easy, silky stroke.

Our love-making was intense. We were both soon softly howling in time with the wind outside. Before she came, Michal turned over and lay flat on the bed, arms extended by her sides. She wanted to be completely submissive, held down by her arms and immobile as she was fucked from above.

"Ilias, don't be gentle," she whispered as I slid back into her and nestled her rump into my groin. "Take me as your obedient wife, fast and deep."

I cried and nodded and was soon pounding into her. Michal would give a little whimper on each slapping stroke. As she felt me lengthen inside her, she knew I was very close to orgasm. She rotated her hips, opening up the angle for deep penetration, and she lifted her shoulders and then bent her head down.

In all of our lovemaking, I had never seen her do this before, but I instinctively knew what she wanted. As I felt myself begin to spasm in orgasm, I bent down and bit the back of Michal's neck, holding her vulnerable body firmly with my teeth. I felt her vibrate and jerk with her own orgasm as I splashed my seed inside her.

We spun down slowly from the fever heat. It was several minutes before we decoupled. It was approaching midnight, the normal start of Michal's purge cycle, and I was expected Michal to be very sleepy and enjoy being cuddled in my arms as she fell asleep. But as the cathedral bells chimed midnight, her eyes popped open and she seemed wide awake.

"Ilias? Would you mind if I stay up for a while?"

"Hmmm? Huh?" I looked at her. "No, that's okay. What do you want to do?"

"Just talk, if that's all right with you."

I smiled. "Sure. Remember not to fight the sleep cycle too hard though."

"Okay." We kissed for several moments, nothing too sexy. All was playfulness and affection. Michal's hand drifted up my thighs and caressed my scrotum, but it was an expression of pure love. We both sensed our needs for lust and copulations were over, at least for the night. Michal got out of bed naked and stared at the storm again until she began to shiver. She was back in my arms a moment later.

"Ah, that woke me up! A perfect day Ilias," she whispered. "It's been a perfect day for me. How about you?"

My fingers brushed the hair by the side of her temple. "Busy... Okay I guess, don't know about perfect. Over half my security team is half a globe away, checking out my cathedral complex at Dakar."

Michal kissed me on my cheek. "How soon till we move?"

"Probably two months at the earliest, as late as October if something slows us down."

"October?! We'll miss the northern summer completely!"

I laughed. "I know. I seem to have a knack for doing that."

"But your security team is in akar now? Ah. Worried about being spied upon?"

"Of course. Nothing but good news from Amid so far though. Oh! He's my chief of security."

Michal smiled and nodded. "This whole day! It's been so amazing! You, Abby, and Sheffie! You love me so much, taking time to explain things to me, knowing I'll forget it all. Why do you love me so much Ilias? How is this possible?"

We stared into each other's eyes. "I..." The words wouldn't come. We wound up kissing and cuddling for a while, the howling wind outside singing of the power and the raw beauty of the world.

I thought Michal had forgotten her question, but she asked me again. "How is it possible Ilias?"

"To love you? It seems like the wrong question. How could I not love you? And you've learned to love back Michal. The eternity drugs, they haven't stopped your growth completely."

"Huh?"

"I think Abby noticed it first. How sad you were, when your son was taken, even though you had no memory of him. The human capacity for emotions, to love, and to feel the pain of its loss... I think it's more than simple physical memory."

"Ah..." Michal nodded. More quiet moments of petting passed. "Is that why the three of you trust me so much, enough to tell me this morning that Abby and Sheffie are not eternal virgins?"

I nodded. "We do it every day now. It's a joy for all of us to see you Michal, see how you've grown to trust us in spite of the drugs." My eyes were filled with tears.

"And to love..." whispered Michal. "Ilias, don't feel sorry for me."

I shook my head in weak protest.

"Stop! I can see it in your eyes Ilias, your pity as well as your love. And there's no need. After Abby and Sheffie, I think I'm the luckiest woman on the planet. My days are full of love and purpose. Don't pity me Ilias! My life is so rich! I shudder to think now, how I almost took the easy way out."

"Huh?"

Michal looked at me with a critical eye. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"Ilias, how many girls are born each year?"

"Uh, 360,000 girls a year reach six month of age, right?" That was the age that children are baptized by the Priesthood with the Holy Waters of Bel'dar and receive their names.

Michal nodded. "Correct. And do you know how many girls make it to the marriage gate each year?"

"Sure, 282,000."

"Right again! Do you know what happens to the rest?"

I thought for a moment. "I know there are no childhood gates for the girls, not until the marriage gate, and that gate is not a culling gate." I noticed Michal studying me as I spoke. "I guess I assumed it was for heresy. Boys are culled for that too, in addition to the gates."

Michal shook her head. "Heresy is very rare in girls. We have three hours of daily Prayers. We are taught Obedience, Acceptance, and Submission."

"I know."

"The Priesthood drills us day after day. From the time we are very young children, we hear the Prayers over intercoms. We are taught that the honor of the eternity drugs is available only to girls who willingly take the vows of obedience and submission. The Priests are completely serious about this."

Michal turned her head and watched the storm for a moment from the bed, and then looked back at me. There were tears in her eyes. "For girls unwilling to take the vows, unable to make the life commitment, the priesthood provides an alternative. It's a super narcotic, one easy pill to swallow. Before reaching adulthood, about one in five girls will ask for it. At my monastery at Al Maqwa, we girls called it taking the easy way out."

"The Holy!" I hissed.

"You didn't know?"

I shook my head numbly.

"Abby, Sheffie, and I talked about this before breakfast today, while you were getting dressed. They think for some reason it's not talked about much. But it's real. It's the same at the girls' monastery at Qataban and here at Karbala. We think it's the same the world over." Michal saw my gloom. "Ilias?"

"Yeah?" I muttered.

She tried to cheer me up. "CL-27! I never dreamed I'd marry so high! What's the best part?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know. Becoming a Domine, I guess, when I reached CL-24. The power is awesome, almost like a god when I'm in Karbala. I can even turn off my office monitors, any time I want."

Michal laughed and snuggled into me. "I know! Abby taught me the color code on the display, to tell me when I could relax, if I wanted to visit you from the labs." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Don't you see Ilias? My days are filled with purpose! Don't pity me! I'm helping Sheffie with the design for reading the crystals. Her mind is brilliant, vastly superior to my own. But she doesn't have my practical engineering skills. Sheffie's mind provides a bridge of continuity for my work."

Michal took another deep breath and for the first time tonight looked sleepy. She continued. "There is nothing I'd rather be doing, working with someone I love and... Ilias, and supporting your good purpose. Don't you see? You have filled my life with love and purpose! Don't pity me!"

I nodded. "Okay, I promise." I petted and kissed her for a while. She became very still. "Sleepy?" I whispered.

She nodded. "I've been trying to hold on, seize the day for all of its worth. But I guess it's time..." she yawned, "for me to rest. Goodnight darling."

"Goodnight Michal, I love you."

She nodded and seemed as if she wanted to say something more, but was fast asleep a moment later. I held her gently and soon followed.

Chapter 27. High Tech's Cho Cho

Time: October 9, 10:35:49 AM

The massive bullet-shaped monorail came to rest exactly on time on Track-2 at the Tyre rail yard. The layover would be exactly 9 minutes and 11 seconds. As my royal guards studied the light crowd, I glanced up at an overhead display in the terminal and confirmed we were boarding the right train. The display read Local 10:45:00 to Sidon, which was the home township of the Nuclear Fusion R&D Guild. Yep, this was my train. After nine days of traveling, I found myself still blinking at the posted distance and arrival time, 11:16:09 AM. The 360 km trip to Sidon would take only 31 minutes and a handful of seconds.

The laborers of the Rail Operations Guild bowed deeply as we boarded and immediately escorted us to a private, spacious booth reserved for royalty. My guards and I settled into the plush leather chairs. The chairs were electronically controlled and automatically swiveled to face the front of the train in anticipation of the pending acceleration. In the few minutes left before departure, I turned and gazed at the township beyond the train's elevated platform. The view was of the sprawling laboratory complex of Tyre's Condensed Matter Guild.

I actually managed to get some living time in summer this year. My family and I arrived at Dakar on September 20th, ten days before the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere, and we found the weather and lake at our new home delightful. The climate was very dry, with highs reaching 30C each day but dropping below 15C at night, a perfect combination. The elevation of my new Cathedral is almost 1400 meters. It's nothing like the 4100 meter elevation of Qataban of course, but it is high enough to have the wonderful mountain swings in daily temperature.

And so I began my life as the Domine of High Tech's capital. The core of High Tech's power lies in a set of 27 townships, roughly arrayed in a 9 x 3 grid in the western half of the North American continent.

The southern run consists of nine coastal towns circling the Gulf, from Ariel on one end (located at the ancient site of Mobile, Alabama) to Ebla at the other end, the fabled "City of the White Stones", at the ancient site of Cancun, Mexico. There is a middle row of nine townships cutting across the heart of the American Midwest and Southwest, and then the great northern run which holds Dakar, High Tech's seat of power.

The northern run consists of nine towns from Baalbek (at the ancient site of Stockton, California), home of the Photonics Guild, to Neveh (the ancient site of Green Bay, Wisconsin) on the Great Lakes, home of the Nuclear Fission R&D Guild.

I was aware of course of the new rail system High Tech is funding for the North American continent. It's been under construction from before I was born, and now connects forty cities, with many of the links just completed within the last three years. There is still massive construction in progress to complete the integration with the Eastern seaboard.

The train sounded a one-minute warning chime. I checked my seatbelt and chair controls. Everything seemed in order. I left the default mode on for opaque windows starting at 15 seconds after departure. There was a slight sense of pressure as the train sealed, and then a final warning chime. My seat locked in the correct orientation with full computer control, and at precisely 10:45:00 the train departed.

Superconducting trains are known to be smooth, but this one was so gentle my view out the window was the only indication we were moving. In the first fifteen seconds, forward acceleration was ramped linearly from zero to 20% gravity. By that time, the train had moved 74 meters and was traveling 53 kph, an impressive achievement for something so bulky. But the real miracle was what happened next.

The windows darkened, and I was pushed back into my seat with 20% of my body weight for another ninety seconds. This was the train's primary acceleration pulse. The push was very noticeable but not uncomfortable. At the end of the ninety seconds, the train had traveled 9.3 kilometers and reached a velocity of 688 kph. Next there was a final fifteen seconds of terminal acceleration, a mirror image of departure, during which the forward acceleration was dropped linearly to zero.

Two minutes after departure, the train had traveled 12.3 kilometers and reached its cruising velocity of 741 kph. The ride was so smooth, it was difficult to detect even a vibration. The overhead displays mapping the train's position and status were the primary indications we were moving at all. We would cruise like this for 27 minutes, and then have a two-minute deceleration before stopping at the train terminal in Sidon.