The Preacher Man

"Michal," whispered Abby. "She is a great teacher to the both of us. Have you noticed, how she is a different person each day? It's not just repetition."

"Yes. I'm so glad too..." We had all been together for only a few days, and this was a new experience for both of us, waking with an eternal virgin. One of the things we noticed was that Michal could be playful or serious, happy or somber as she read her marriage book when she woke. Her memories were the same, but the human mind is self-organizing, and will guide itself to different states even with the same initial memories. It was a joy to see the richness of Michal's personality during the different days. And her presence has been invaluable in teaching Abigail how to act like an eternal virgin.

Abby's hand drifted back a bit, returning to gently stroke my scrotum and anus. I loved how her fingers probed my sac and caressed my testes. More kisses to my neck and ears... I sighed with the deep pleasure.

I stretched a bit, getting comfortable, my semi-hard penis sliding out of Michal. Abigail's hand left my sac and firmly gripped my erection. There was one brief tug as she felt me hardening, and then back to the steady grip. Abigail was asking whether I wanted sex with her.

It had only taken a few days. We had both become very adept in reading each other's body language. If Abigail actively desired sex, she would be pumping me, working my erection to full hardness. But the single tug was an honest question about my desire. If I responded with interest, Abby would actively work me with her mouth and hands and then position herself for entry, lying on her back with raised legs or kneeling on all fours and lifting her rump for me.

But it had been a full day of work and prayers for me, and even without orgasming into Michal I was sated. After a moment the hand left my cock and returned to caressing my sac. I sighed my approval to Abigail.

Quiet and peaceful minutes passed. I began to doze off. I was dimly aware of Abigail stirring, turning behind me. And then something infinitely soft and sleepily playful joined Abigail's fingers on my scrotum. It was her tongue. So soft, so gentle. I tried to talk, to tell Abby that I loved her, but I was too far gone. With my left testis held in Abby's lips, I fell deeply asleep.

The bedroom comm link starting beeping. I looked at the clock. It was after 2 AM. Abby was still lying in the opposite direction from me. She had turned over in her sleep. We were butt to butt, her long hair all over the back of my calves, and her legs were curled, her bare feet by my head. I gave her instep a fleeting kiss as I rose. Abby responded by reaching behind her and giving me a quick pat on my rump, showing me she had been awakened also by the beeps. I answered the call a few seconds later. It was Zaim.

"Good morning sir."

He gave me a brief nod. "Are we alone?"

He would have expected me to announce any other person. The fact that he was explicitly asking for confirmation banished the last of my sleepiness. "Yes sir. Just my wives, and we all sacked out around midnight."

Another quick nod. "I want to give you an update on our discussion yesterday."

"Yes sir, thank you."

"Ruling Royalty has decided to accept your field decision that ammunition is not a weapon. The fact that it took them three days to do this is..." He trailed off for a moment.

I completed the thought, "...is diagnostic that I've made some enemies at Bandar Arenas."

Zaim frowned. "These survival tests, they're not meant to weed out anything except gross stupidity. The usual culling rate is less than one percent. These last two months in the northern forests, we now think we've lost more than half the teams. A number of the bears in your canyon had ingested survival beacons. The team from Cairo is still doing autopsies."

"Cairo? Why isn't Jericho doing this? We're much closer."

Zaim looked at me dismissively. "Ilias, are you still asleep?"

I blinked. "Oh, sorry sir. I must be. Please continue." Cairo is home to the Guild that specializes in worldwide wildlife animal conservation and management. They would be the natural choice for this problem even if it had occurred in South America.

Zaim switched topics. "Those two militia men of yours have been spreading absolutely unbelievable stories about you, stories that the Cairo team is backing up with hard data. Pistol work that went beyond human! Ilias, you are wildly popular within the labor ranks of the Holy Militia right now, all across the planet. Rescuing a commander's unborn child, it's a boy by the way, saving that idiot's rifle ammo, your fast pace for hiking, saving the two militia men, winning your war with the bears, so many right decisions Ilias! Your survival test has become legend!"

He paused for a moment before continuing. "There hasn't been a commander or general with this kind of popular appeal among the military since the first millennium. If we don't handle this correctly, it'll be a disaster!"

I saw Zaim's point immediately. There was a natural animosity between non-ruling Royalty (CL-16 to CL-23), and Ruling Royalty (the purple with red classes). The last thing Ruling Royalty would want would be possibility of a power struggle with some lowly commander. I would have to be very careful how I acted with the Holy Militia in public. The fact that no one had even imagined that Abigail could have been firing the second pistol was, I thought, a sad comment on my society.

Zaim saw that I got his point and moved on. "One last item, your request for restricted library access. You are familiar with the cutoffs?"

"The three levels, of course sir." The first level was for CL-14 and above, second level was for Royalty, and the third level was for the eighty-some members of Ruling Royalty.

Zaim smiled, happy to catch me in something I didn't know. "Four levels Ilias! There's a fourth hidden level reserved for the Supreme Ruling Council. My point though, is that I would have to spend some political capital getting you first level access as a CL-13. Considering you might be CL-14 in twenty days and get the access automatically..."

He wanted to wait. I agreed with him completely. "An entirely appropriate decision sir."

Zaim nodded and looked as if he were about to sign off. "Good fortune on your own ride sir," I called out. Zaim would be making his fourth attempt to enter Royalty on Judgment 1, 8236. Except for the childhood gates and advancements within Ruling Royalty, adult promotions are decided entirely by the ancient computer programs at Babylon.

I looked at Zaim with sympathy. He had been a strict master, but had also invested much of his time and political capital with me. If he didn't make it now, he would have one final chance in another thirteen years, in 8249.

Zaim looked at me and offered one of his rare smiles. "If you succeed on your final ride Ilias, and I suspect you will, you'll report directly to me. Hopefully that will be for just ten days. Do you think I'll look good in purple vestments?" And with that he broke the connection before I could reply.

I returned to bed with Abigail and sleeping Michal. There wasn't anything Abby and I needed to talk about. A few brief kisses, and then we petted each other back to sleep.

Twenty days later...

Time: December 23, 8235 3:29 AM

I had been staring at an almost full moon for most of the flight until it set an hour ago, probably while I was somewhere over the southernmost part of ancient Bolivia. The sun was now just rising above the horizon as my ramjet touched down at Bandar Arenas. With the solstice coming in six days, I was about to go from fifteen hours a day of darkness at Jericho to seventeen hours a day of light. I idly wondered if I would need to get used to the change.

My last ride on the Asad had been on the 21'st at the Jericho cathedral. The test had been very strange, filled with paradoxes. Literally. Six hours of questions on mathematical paradoxes, emotional paradoxes, legal paradoxes; the testing left my head spinning by the end of it. The moral paradoxes were the worst. I had never realized our framework for reality had so many holes in it.

I don't recall much of the evening prayers that evening. I do remember Abigail and Michal petting me to sleep soon after I got home. The next day, yesterday, I went through morning Prayers and reached my office before 10:30 AM. There I waited for the results feeling very uncertain. How do you score a test on true paradoxes, where every answer is at best incomplete, and at worst wrong from opposing and valid perspectives?

I was hoping for an answer around noontime, but the afternoon hours came and went without word from the cathedral. And then shortly before Evening Prayers came a terse summons. A ramjet was being fueled. I was to report to a Royal committee at Bandar Arenas immediately.

In the early morning hours of dawn's light, my flight landed at the capital. A special-weapons police escort met me as I departed my jet. They were both crispy efficient and extremely polite. I breathed an inner sigh of relief. At least my treason with Abigail had not been discovered. We boarded a private inner-city rail car to reach the central cathedral complex, a city within a city. I smiled as I recognized Fadil waiting to join my escort by the rail car. He was the same CL-11 who debriefed me when I passed my last childhood gate less than a year ago.

I thought it proper to let Fadil begin the talking, but he never did. We rode the entire trip in silence. Near the end he gave me a brief hand signal, very discreet, to show the silence was not his decision. I made no outward response, but a brief eye contact between us let him know I understood.

Fadil left me as the rail ride ended. I wondered what purpose his presence indicated. My remaining "honor" guard walked me quickly down long corridors in the inner city labyrinth, numerous checkpoints waving us through.

At last I was led to a massive door of oiled hardwood. I idly recognized the species, Jujube. The door was beautiful, magnificent, burgundy-orange in color with violet streaks. The knob and hinges were gold plated. With my honor guard standing to either side, the next action expected of me was obvious. I turned the gold knob and walked through.

It was a circular inquisition chamber, probably the most ornate one in the world though, and without the standard facilities for pain generation and drug injections. There were twelve judicial tables and plush leather chairs arranged in a semi-circle along the perimeter wall, and a single hardback chair in the center of the room. Another deviation from a standard setup; the center chair had no eyelets for chains.

There was a second door into the room off to the side. My guess was it led to a chamber filled with monitors of this room, so the judges could observe the reactions of their person as he entered. I hoped that I had kept my expression neutral.

I stood near the center of the room in silence, waiting for the judges to make their appearance and the next move. Forgetting its purpose, the room I was in really was very beautiful. I began to amuse myself by admiring the abstract decorations on the rich tapestries covering the walls. Fateen, my childhood Imul, had once asked a group of us boys something in a very rare moment of familiarity. If death is inevitable, he asked, what is left? Style, only style...

The side door opened and one person entered the room, ending my daydream. I recognized the man as Thaqib, a CL-26 member of Ruling Royalty. Security personal are required to know a basic biography on all Ruling Royalty. Before rising to Royalty in the early 8100's, Thaqib had spent over a century as an Administrative Priest specializing in execution councils. He sat down at one of the tables and curtly gestured for me to take the center chair.

I sat stiffly erect in silence for about ten minutes. Thaqib appeared to be studying some papers at his table. And then the side door opened again and the rest of the inquisition team filed in. I kept myself motionless and under control as I saw their ranks as eight CL-24's and three CL-25's. A twelve-member inquisition team made up entirely of Ruling Royalty?! This was absolutely unheard of. I recognized CL-24 Ghazi and CL-25 Aban among the new arrivals, the Security Guild's two former members. Following tradition, I tried not to initiate eye-contact with anyone.

The questioning started immediately. There was no hint as to the purpose of the probe. I was asked about everything, incidents from my childhood, my opinions of the Asad exams, my decisions as commander. After two hours, I began is see a familiar thread, a focus on my reasons for choosing to ride the Lion to its full length.

In an epiphany, I saw the dilemma of the inquisitors, and the reason for all the dancing with the questions. The Book of Bel'dar explicitly states that decisions of the Asad are solely between the rider and the Holy. My questioners could not ask me directly about my reasons for choosing such a seemingly suicidal path. They were hoping I would inadvertently volunteer the information.

I offered a silent prayer of blessings for Fateen. He had played these mind games with us boys for hours, teaching us how to get people to answer questions that were never asked. I switched into game mode with my inquisitors. Knowing what question they wanted answered gave me an overwhelming advantage. We were midway through the morning Prayer cycle before the last of them finally gave up. Several of the judges began packing up their notes. I was still on my guard of course. Thaqib threw me one last question. He asked me what my thoughts were about the probable outcome of my last ride on the Lion.

I told him the truth, that I doubted this inquisition would have been held if I were to remain a CL-13 for life, and thus I was optimistic that I had succeeded on my final ride. Thaqib then made the cryptic comment that I was optimistic about something that was perhaps still undetermined. As I pondered his response, the inquisition team rose. I rose also in respect for my judges. All but Aban then filed out of the room. Aban sat back down and gestured for me to do the same.

He looked at me with an expression that was difficult to interpret. "I told them all this would be a pointless exercise. No one except Ghazi believed me." He stared at me for another moment. "You have permission to speak both freely and informally."

"Yes sir. Thank you."

"Ilias, do you know the possible outcomes for Lion rides?"

His question was so simple, at first I thought he was asking me for some deep philosophical insight, but I couldn't imagine what else to say. I answered simply, "Well sir, the two outcomes that I know of are to pass or to fail." I pushed the limits of my granted permissions. "Do other outcomes exist?"

"Very good Ilias. Indeed, the answer is yes. It was just discovered yesterday that a third outcome exists. Babylon code unexecuted since it was first written eight thousand years ago has now been activated. It seems the Lion has grown fond of your hands on its reins. For some reason no one can fathom, the Lion is willing to consider your future ambitions."

"Sir?"

Aban reached under his table and handed me a shirt identical to the one I was wearing, except for green replacing the blue in the diamond of my class insignia. "Here, put this on."

As I changed into CL-14, Aban went on to explain what he meant. I had not merely passed my last ride. The Babylon software had commanded that I be given the opportunity to book next year's run. In twelve days, at the end of evening Prayers on Judgment 5, I would join with the top 1% of new adults and declare my intentions for riding the Lion in 8236. I had the opportunity to decline and begin my life as a normal CL-14, or to declare my desire to ride anywhere from Top Commander CL-15 to third-level Ruling Royal CL-26.

Time: Judgment 5, 8236 11:58 PM

I sat in my bedroom at home by the video phone, waiting for Royalty's scheduled call at midnight. I was still dressed in the white robe of an Initiate from Jericho's evening Prayers ceremony. With so many thoughts going through my mind, I hadn't bothered to change. But it was time to focus my mind. In preparation for the call, I tried to think of something peaceful and mathematical to relax me.

The calendar. Every twelve years, when the year is divisible by twelve, the first day of Judgment falls on the most probable day for the summer solstice at Bandar Arenas. The length of Judgment 1 that year is adjusted with enough leap-seconds to have calendar noon occur precisely at solar transit time at the capital's grand cathedral, a symbolic alignment of Heaven and Earth. The last time this occurred was in 8232.

The Judgment period for these alignment years is lengthened to eight days, and the 368 day calendar year causes the next solstice to occur on December 28th the same year. After that there are eleven years of 365 days, during which time the solstice slowly drifts back to Judgment 1, completing the twelve-year cycle.

My video link beeped and I switched it on. Before me was a familiar face in a Royal purple robe. "Hello sir." I initiated, breaking a slew of protocols.

Zaim stared at me for a second and then nodded, acknowledging that whatever our official titles, we were first and forever members of the Security Guild. "How did you know I was alone?"

He would have had to treat my greeting as a lack of respect for Royalty if non-Security people were present. "Educated deduction sir. I can't imagine the scenario where you would want witnesses to this conversation."

"True enough... Ilias, somehow I half expected your decision tonight, but... Are you insane?!"

I sighed for a moment. "It's difficult for a person to self-judge a question like that sir, but I hope not."

Zaim scowled. "Hope?! I had hoped you would have found my arguments persuasive."

"Your arguments were sound sir. I have my own reasons for doing this. They're deeply personal."

"But to CL-26?! Anything up to CL-23 would have been foolhardy but still sane. Ilias! Even if you succeed, the Lion will have injected you directly into third-level Ruling Royalty! Promotional testing beyond CL-23 is just a formality! All the real decisions are made through secret agreements!"

"Yes sir, I understand."

"You do, huh? Ilias, if you had stopped at CL-23, you would still have 31 years to develop the network you would need for advancement. But this?! Having the Lion inject you directly into third-level?! All of Ruling Royalty will see you as a threat! Ilias, a year from now, you won't have the political alliances you'll need to survive!"

"Ah, you're assuming I'll pass all twelve of my gates sir."

Zaim was silent for a moment and then cracked a thin smile. "I guess I am. I don't know whether to laugh or cry Ilias. You could have been such a tremendous asset to the Guild, and it appears you've thrown it all away, regardless of whether the Lion smiles on you or not. And yet, I hear a small inner voice telling me not to worry."

I smiled back. "Perhaps my insanity is contagious sir."

"Yes, perhaps... Oh, two other points. The Supreme Executive Council has appointed me as your personal Royal Adjunct while you are still on the Lion, regardless of your class. While you are still a Commander, you will retain your current station at Jericho. If you make it to CL-16 in February, you'll have to vacate the Guild. Your job then will be Royal overseer of the Karbala cathedral, reporting directly to Jibran."

"An overseer sir? Isn't that usually a job for a CL-15 Priest?" I blinked for a moment, thinking of the Ruling Royal Zaim mentioned. Jibran was a powerful CL-27, only one level below the Supreme Executive Ruling Council and the official Domine of the Karbala cathedral. "Yes sir. Makes sense, I guess."