Battle for the Known Unknown Ch. 23

"You shouldn't take it so personally, sweetheart," he said strolling towards his husband, brushing a strand of long blond hair off his decidedly feminine face. "These cranks have been brainwashed. They'll believe only what they've been told to believe. Imagine what it's like to be brought up in a world where the nonsense in Revelations and Genesis is treated with seriousness. Some even deny that their colonies revolve around the Sun. They're beyond hope."

"Don't say that!" retorted Emmanuel sharply. "You don't have to be a Christian to feel compassion for those who live in such fear and intolerance."

"Fuck it!" said Maxwell as he clasped Emmanuel in his arms and peppered his cheeks with kisses. "Let them believe what they like. All the rebels you've interviewed are murderers and torturers. Do you think any one of them wouldn't have twisted off your thumbs, crushed your testicles or gouged out your eyes? They've been guilty of crimes that should have them all put into psychiatric care. If they want to tear themselves apart in Holy Wars or return home to some kind of ritual crucifixion, well, fuck it, they deserve every last nail hammered into their feet."

"That's the very reason I'm a Christian," said Emmanuel who pecked his husband on the cheek. "He taught compassion for everyone. However heinous their crimes, these crusaders are misguided souls who deserve compassion. Isaac loves his family. He believes he acted virtuously even when he behaved most inhumanely. Shouldn't he be afforded some sympathy?"

"You agonise too much on his behalf," retorted Maxwell as he placed a hand on Emmanuel's stirring cock. "If he was interrogating you rather than the other way round you'd be beaten to a bloody pulp. You certainly wouldn't have a dick left that's half as good as this!"

"Not here!" Emmanuel whispered urgently, although he could feel passion rising within him. He directed his eyes towards the surveillance cameras that constantly kept watch on the interrogation chamber: more to provide evidence of alleged abuse than to spy on the person being interrogated.

"You'resucha prude!" Maxwell laughed. "Come on! We've surely got time before your next candidate."

"In fact I've finished for the day," said his husband.

"And how many fanatics did you have to question?"

"I'm not sure. Dozens. They were all soverysad. All the suffering they've undergone in pursuit of their pointless quest..."

"And all the suffering they've been responsible for," said Maxwell. "You've got to put it in perspective."

The two lovers wandered off to their shared villa on the seventh level. This wasn't quite as well appointed as Paul's now deserted villa on the outermost level, but it was in a pleasant close surrounded by fields of wheat and barley over which larks sang and crows circled above tall trees. Each villa had its own swimming pool where on a towel the two lovers pulled off each other's clothes and lay down together. Their hands brushed along each other's thighs and toyed with their testicles.

Maxwell took his husband's now fully erect cock in his mouth while agitatedly pumping his own penis in his hand. Their passion grew steadily with their agitated kisses until it reached a high enough crescendo for Maxwell to offer his gaping anus to Emmanuel's obliging thrusts. Toned muscle pressed against toned muscle. Beard scraped over stubble. Chest hairs tangled. And in the acrobatic exertion, Emmanuel engaged his penis in his husband's arse as he released his anxieties and doubts in the lovemaking he never felt anxious about and with the love of a husband he'd never doubted.

They were an odd couple in many ways. Maxwell had none of his husband's piety and although he preferred a submissive role he was the more outgoing and sociable of the two. Neither would have met the other normally. Emmanuel had lived in Earth orbit on a colony that was proud of its Polynesian heritage but was far from ethnically pure. Maxwell was a Saturnian who rebelled against the conventional style of clothing and hairlessness in the Socialist Republics and had even once had a long-term heterosexual relationship.

Their fucking climaxed after not very long as Maxwell couldn't restrain his semen from spurting over the hard enamel tiles of the swimming pool. Emmanuel released his semen as soon afterwards as he could, considerately over his husband's arse cheeks rather than inside the anus. They then jumped into the pool to wash off their shared sweat and sperm.

"Are you interviewing any more of these rebels tomorrow?" Maxwell asked as he surfaced from the deep blue water of the pool.

Water streamed down Emmanuel's hairy chest and plastered his long hair to his cheeks. He grabbed his lover by the shoulders and peppered them with affectionate kisses.

"Yes. But we're almost through. There are fewer than a hundred left to be processed."

"And have you learnt much?" wondered Maxwell.

Emmanuel pondered on this. "Yes, I have. But nothing that shakes my faith," he said. "What troubles me most is how what should be a force for understanding and harmony in the Solar System can be so easily perverted. How much stronger would the community of believers be if the Christian faith was never plagued by hypocrisy and dogma?"

"Well, I'm sure there'd be many more believers if there wasn't so much crap associated with religion," replied Maxwell with a smile as he tenderly caressed his husband's penis. "But nothing will ever make me believe in all that spiritual nonsense and mumbo-jumbo. If there is a God, then He's done a pretty crap job. And if thereissuch a thing as spiritual truth why can it never be explained in ways that ordinary people can understand?"