Journey to Year 1,000,000,000 Ch. 20

Journey to the Year 1,000,000,000

Chapter 20

[Note: This is a Science Fiction story with some erotic scenes. It is not a story with erotic scenes in every chapter. Some chapters have incredible sex scenes, but many others have none. ]

Over dinner they watched the holonews. The disappearance of all World Government facilities was the number one story, of course. The cause was widely debated; some commentators believed Pam had done it; others said that of course that was impossible.

And then there was the announcement from the President of the African Union. Farou Ujamaa gave a thunderous speech. Taylor wasn't paying much attention, as he cleared the dining room table and cleaned the dishes, but Pam listened intently.

"Michael, this man is threatening to attack your World Government with nova bombs."

"What? Who?" Taylor turned to the broadcast. "Oh, that's just the African Union guy. He does that all the time," said Taylor.

"All the time?" said Pam, sounding confused.

"Sure. He's been threatening to nova bomb the World Government for years," said Taylor, as he finished putting away the dishes. He started to clean the countertop.

"And this does not worry you?"

"Well, like I said, he's been threatening to do it for years, and he hasn't. And the African Union doesn't even have nova bombs." He paused. "At least, I don't think so." He cleaned some more. "Besides, there is no World Government left to nova bomb. You saw to that. The African Union guy is making even less sense than usual."

"He says that the destruction of the World Government headquarters was the result of a test of a new weapon gone wrong, a weapon which destroys buildings without killing people," said Pam. "He says that the World Government plans to use this on Africa, to destroy their infrastructure before the World Government invades."

Taylor chuckled. "As if Africa has any infrastructure."

"It does not?

"It is the least developed continent." He paused. "Well, actually, second least, if you count Antarctica." He paused again. "Although actually, McMurdo City has been catching up, so maybe that's no longer true."

"Taylor, why does this man have such hostility to the other people on your planet?" Pam asked.

"Racism," said Taylor. "He's black, and we're white." He looked at his own skin color. "Well, this isn't technically white, but it's what we're called."

"Black... white....?" Pam looked confused. "Are you referring to the color of his skin?"

"Yes," said Taylor.

"Of what possible bearing could that have on anything?" Pam asked.

Taylor sighed. "Many hundreds of years ago, some black people were enslaved, and forced to serve white people. Some black people are still angry about that."

"I did not realize that your species had such long lifespans," said Pam.

"They don't. No one who is alive today was a slave. There hasn't been a slave in over... 500 years," said Taylor.

"Then why are they still speaking of it now?"

"Politics, mostly. The African Union leads a disparate group of black nations. They agree on very few things, and many of them resent being run by one centralized government."

"I thought your World Government was your centralized government."

"It is. And underneath them, in Africa's case, is the African Union," said Taylor. "By the way, and I'm sorry I even have to ask this, but please don't vaporize the African Union before the end of this conversation, all right?"

"All right," said Pam, with a small smile.

"Where was I? Anyway, to hold all the factions together, their leader continually invokes the injustice of slavery from 500 years ago. It's that hatred that serves like a common glue, to keep them all together."

Pam squinted. "By inciting racial hatred, the African Union achieves Formos?"

"Yes," said Taylor.

"But... that is so bizarre. To hate a person, based on the color of their skin... it's so arbitrary and irrational. It's as arbitrary as hating someone based on their eye color or height," said Pam. "It is not Tisson Crae. I do not kockk."

"I don't know. Maybe I'm not explaining it right," said Taylor. And before he fully realized what he was saying, he said, "You'd have to talk to the head of the African Union. Maybe he could explain it better."

"A good idea," said Pam.

And suddenly, they were somewhere else.

Inside a grand mansion in Mozambique. Specifically, inside a large bedroom with a four post bed.

There were three dark Africans in bed. One of them was a topless man wearing a red pajama bottom imprinted with large teddy bears. He had an enormous belly, and Taylor faintly recognized him as Farou Ujamaa, the President of the African Union. There were two women in bed with him, also topless. One had large black breasts, and the other had enormous black breasts.

The woman with the enormous black breasts screamed, and Ujamaa turned and saw them. "Guards!" he screamed.

The door burst open, and two armed guards who had been stationed there burst in. They quickly froze in place.

"We mean you no harm," said Pam.

The woman with large black breasts whimpered, but Ujamaa snapped, "Silence, woman!"

He slowly got up and put on a blue bathrobe, staring at Pam. "You are the one. The woman from the future."

"Correct," said Pam.

"So it is true," said Ujamaa. "In the future, all black people have been wiped out."

"There are no black people in my time," Pam admitted.

"I knew it!" His eyes became wide.

"But then, there are no people of any color as you know them in my time either," said Pam.

"How was it done? Tell me the time and manner. It was a surprise attack from the World Government, and their white lackeys in the Survey Service, correct?"

"You are not listening to me," said Pam.

"You are an example of the evil white future which heralds the doom for all black people! You are living proof that the black race has been eliminated! Tell me how it was done! What year? What year did it happen in! Tell me now, whore!"

Pam sighed. "You do not kockk."

"Fuck you!" said Ujamaa. "I fuck better than anyone!"

Pam grew exasperated. "I only wish to understand. Why do you have such animosity against those with other colored skins?"

"A dark legacy. Racism. Colonialism. Capitalism. Capitalism and slavery, they are all the same thing. It still goes on today," said Ujamaa. "The Northern Hemisphere enslaves us with all their loans, their grants, their consultants, their aid programs."

"And why do they do that?"

"Are you blind, woman? It is because we are black, and they are white."

Pam frowned, and looked at Taylor. Taylor gave her an "I told you" look.

Pam looked at Ujamaa. "I do not kockk."

"Nor would I with you, you white bitch whore-"

Suddenly, they were back in Taylor's apartment.

"Pam-"

"I must expra."

"Pam-"

"Taylor, I must expra," she said sternly.

********

It wasn't until the next day that Taylor noticed that something had happened.

Pam was just sitting there, totally withdrawn, which was unusual for her. It made Taylor a little nervous.

He sat there, with one eye on her, and another on the holovid. He flipped through the many channels.

At first, he noticed something was wrong on an unconscious level. He flipped from one channel, to the next, to the next, and his mind said, "Something is very wrong here!" but he couldn't quite figure out what. He watched a police drama, and then a family drama, and then an explorer drama, and then his jaw dropped as he started to notice a pattern.

Most of the actors... were white.

There were no blacks.

Under World Government diversity mandates, at least a third of all actors on holodramas had to be black, and blacks were only allowed to be protagonists, not antagonists or "bad guys", to satisfy good modeling practices. In practice, eager Hollywood and Caracas studio executives overmet the quota, so that half or more than half of casts were black, to signal to their audiences that they were virtuous and took the diversity mandate seriously.

But on every channel that Taylor flipped to, he did not see a single black person. Most of the cast were white.

On impulse he switched over to the sports network. He caught a game of hoverball.

Every single player was white.

Taylor watched as Jamal Williams, #79 on the Baltimore Crackheads, landed a slam dunk in the hoop while hovering in the air on his gravitating sneakers.

Jamal was now blonde and blue-eyed and... white.

Taylor turned to Pam. "What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Pam smiled. "I have ended your counterproductive focus on skin color."

Taylor waited.

"I have made all black skinned people on this planet... white."

********

Pam figured it this way: irrelevant differences in skin color was a leading cause of strife on the planet. Therefore, if everyone had the same skin color, that strife would be eliminated. Pam hadn't gotten around to changing the Asians and the Hispanics because she wanted to see how it would work on the blacks, first.

"Pam, did you really make every black person on the planet white?"

"Yes," said Pam.

Suddenly, the sports game was interrupted by a news flash. Farou Ujamaa was making an announcement. He threatened terrible retribution.

"Look what you have done to us! It is genocide, racial genocide!" Ujamaa cried. He looked totally different. The fat, heavyset black man had been replaced by a fat, heavyset white man, with brown curly hair, blue eyes, and skin as pale as Taylor's. "We will fight you! We will destroy you! You have decimated the black race! We will-"

With a wave of the hand Pam silenced the holoemitter. "He will adjust. They will all adjust. Now that they have the same skin color as you do, there will be peace."

"You think so," said Taylor.

"Yes," said Pam.

"I don't," said Taylor.

"You will see. In a mere 50 of your years there will be harmony among people of all skin colors," said Pam.

"Show me," said Taylor.

"All right, I will," said Pam.

Suddenly, they were floating in space, above the continent of Africa. But Africa looked different now.

Half the continent had been destroyed by war or famine. The bottom half of the continent was pitted with nova bomb craters. Most major cities had been wiped out.

"How?" said Pam. She closed her eyes. "I must expra." She was silent for a long moment. Then she opened them. "No."

"What?" Taylor said.

"They started wars," said Pam.

"With the other white people?"

"No," said Pam. "With each other. The Africans with brown hair cleaved from the Africans with blonde hair. They claimed the ones with blonde hair had assumed racial superiority over them. They went to war with each other. Brown haired Africans slaughtered blonde haired Africans. Blonde haired Africans slaughtered brown haired Africans. Brown eyed Africans slaughtered blue eyed Africans." She looked at Taylor. "Where I eliminated differences, they found other ways of differentiating themselves and carrying on their hatred."

"Such is the nature of man," said Taylor.

"I was wrong," Pam whispered.

"Don't feel too badly. It happens to me, once every billion years or so," said Taylor.

She gave him a small smile.

"Now that we've seen the future, can we do anything to prevent it?"

"Yes," said Pam, after she thought for a moment.

And then they were back in his apartment.

"This is my time? Right around when we left?" Taylor asked anxiously.

"Within the same day, yes," said Pam. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them. "It is done."

"What is done?"

"I have restored them to their blackness."

"You... you have made the black people, the formerly black people, black again?"

"Yes," said Pam. "Was that not what you wanted? Alternatively, I could have made everyone black. Would you have preferred that instead? We could try it-"

"No no no. We have black people, we have white people, that's the way it should be," said Taylor. He went to the holovid and rapidly flicked the channels.

He was relieved to see that most of the actors were black again. Taylor turned to a dramatization about the first landing on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were black again. He smiled with relief. Everything was back to normal.

*********

Except, everything wasn't quite back to normal.

Farou Oujamaa raged about it in his next broadcast. He threatened to rain nova bombs all over the Northern Hemisphere.

"I don't understand," said Pam, as she listened to his broadcast. "I made them all black again."

"Yes, but you didn't restore them to their precise shade of black." All over Africa, some blacks had darker or somewhat lighter skin than others. When Pam had restored them, she had given them random shades of blackness. Inevitably, some black people discovered they had slightly lighter or slightly darker black skins than they had originally. And all of them were enraged.

Pam wrinkled her nose. "This incessant focus on skin color. I really do not kockk it."

"Neither do I," said Taylor, watching Ujamaa rage on with the sound muted."But if anyone asks you whether you know anything about black people changing into white people and then back again, you know nothing about it."

"I know nothing about it," Pam repeated obediently.

********

But it was obvious to many what had happened and who had caused it. For several hours, every black person on the planet had turned white. And then they had turned black again, but sometimes, a slightly lighter or darker shade of black. Blame, rightly or wrongly (but, mostly rightly) was laid at Pam's feet. It was a good thing that the Survey Service and the remnants of the World Government was keeping her location a closely kept secret.

"You have to do a better job of restraining her impulses," said Admiral Von Windhoek, via holocom.

"I can't exactly control her ,sir," said Taylor.

"But you do have influence over her," said Von Windhoek.

"Some, sir."

"Then use it. Her... demonstrations have caused a tremendous upheaval. The women are saying she's the second coming of the Goddess Aura. The Equalitarians say that she's proof that the Equalpocalypse is upon us. And the Ramadans are gearing up for war."

"Again? Why?" Taylor asked.

"They say that Pam is a sign that the Evil One has risen, and that all the forces of Laquinta must arise to defend the God of Blood."

"But another war? Are they really serious?"

"We're treating it as such. All Survey Service officers and crewmen have been recalled. All ships have been placed on a state of high alert. Intelligence reports that warships are mustering on Ramada. We'll be ready for them, if and when, but... I really wish this conflict didn't have to occur." He looked purposefully at Taylor. He couldn't ask for Pam's help, but his meaning was clear.

"Yes sir, I understand."

The Admiral's image faded.

"What's happening, Michael?" Pam asked, snaking an arm around him.

"Nothing much. Just another war that's going to break out, all in your name."

********

"I still do not kockk your concept of God," said Pam. "You believe in a divine being who created all of you."

"Correct," said Taylor. "At least, many of us do."

Pam gave him an inscrutable look. "But there are many different religions, and many of you argue over which is the correct one. Furthermore, these religions have many different rules, many of which are in clear conflict with each other."

"Yes," said Taylor.

"So why would a divine being create such a system, or at least allow such a system to be created?"

"The answer is... we don't know," said Taylor.

"So... people who believe one religion... what do they think of those who believe another?"

"For some, tolerance is the rule. We accept that others have different beliefs."'

"And others?"

"Others believe that those with differing beliefs should be killed or converted," said Taylor, remembering his own experience with the brothers Khalid, Ahmed, and Chaka on PR-52981. They had instigated an enormous religious war which had killed thousands. Which had forced Taylor to kill thousands to save many thousands more.

"Unfortunately, followers of Laquinta, the God of Blood, many of whom are on the planet Ramada, are among those who are less tolerant of those of differing religions. They have launched two wars and several skirmishes against Earth, all in an effort to kill or enslave those who oppose their beliefs. And your presence here, Pam, has convinced some on Ramada that the time for another war has come."

"Why?" Pam asked.

"They have heard about your powers," said Taylor.

"But... I have told no one about my abilities," said Pam.

"I think they may have noticed it when all the World Government buildings disappeared. They may also have noticed when black people all turned white, before being turned black again, sometimes a different shade of black than they were before," said Taylor. "And for some crazy reason I can't explain, they think you were the cause of it."

"I was the cause of it," said Pam.

Taylor sighed. For all her expra abilities, the subtleties of sarcasm still eluded her. "They think you are the representative of the Evil One, an evil entity who opposes Laquinta. It is said that when the Evil One appears, it will be time for the final battle of their religion. And so they are gearing up for war."

"But you just said that they thought I was a representative of the Evil One, and not the Evil One itself," said Pam. "And you said that this war will be triggered only by the appearance of the Evil One, not the representative of the Evil One."

"What can I say?" Taylor shrugged. "They're flexible when it comes to prophecy."

"To make war... to cause destruction on a global scale... what tells them to do this?"

"The Book," said Taylor. "It is called the Book of Blood. It tells the story of their leader, Brother Khalid."

"This... Brother Khalid told them to do this?"

Taylor nodded. "Almost fifteen hundred years ago."

"Well then the solution is simple, then," said Pam.

"And what is that?"

"Get Brother Khalid to tell them to stop the war before it starts," said Pam.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure that will work," said Taylor, before he remembered, too late, that Pam didn't understand sarcasm.

********

Khalid Mustafa Hussein Al Saddiq, the leader of the followers of Laquinta, was very pleased.

His armies had spread across what is now known as the Middle East, into Europe and Asia, and was slaughtering and converting infidels by the thousands. The streets of every city flowed red with the blood of non-believers, Laquinta be praised. Thousands of men had been enslaved for labor on the plantations, and thousands of women as well, the prettiest of whom would be destined for bigger and better things..

He was quite content as he was sitting on his throne in the Aqaba Palace, sipping mint tea, until suddenly there was a flash, and two people, a man and a woman, appeared in front of them. They were obviously infidels, from the look of them, but the woman was a stunning beauty, with flowing blonde hair and high cheekbones and green eyes and large breasts. He knew from the minute he saw her that he would have her, and that he would make her scream as he filled her with his precious seed.

The woman spoke in a foreign tongue, but somehow Khalid understood every word she said.

"Greetings, Your Eminence," she said. "My name is Pamela, and this is Michael Taylor. We are here from the future, and we need your help."