The Preacher Man

And the time passed. It was after 8:30 AM, and the view out the windows turned very dark as we disengaged the ramjet engines and began our final landing approach to Dakar.

Michal's head was still on my breast. "I love you," she whispered.

I pressed my head gently against hers. "I know. I love you too."

Michal sighed and nodded. "Yes. I can feel it. I can feel your love for me." She was quiet for a moment and then continued. "How is this possible Ilias? I've only known you for a few hours, and yet I think it would be impossible for me not to love you..." Another moment of silence passed. "How is such love possible?"

I had no answer for her at first. "Perhaps," I said at last, "perhaps love is more powerful than we'll ever understand..."

Michal nodded in agreement and sat up. I handed her a burqa which she slipped on and then we both fastened our seatbelts. She attached her hood, becoming completely invisible and thus legally dressed for exiting the plane. At 8:55 AM our flight touched down at Dakar, right on schedule. Home at last!

Chapter 33. Quiet Reunion

Even though it's the hub city of High Tech, Dakar's airport was almost deserted as Michal and I walked through it. I took a look at the display board in the well-lit but empty terminal. Only a handful of flights were scheduled to land later today, and all of them were executive Mach 3+ ramjets.

It made sense. The era of sub-sonic passenger jet travel was coming to an end, at least in North America. The bullet trains were just as fast, and far safer and more economical. There were only three townships on the North and Central American continent not yet on the bullet network, including isolated Anqara, and they were all scheduled to be connected by the end of the year. This represented an historic level of cooperation between High Tech and Utility. High Tech is even negotiating with Health to build a bullet line down the 1250 km east-west spine of the island of Answan (ancient Cuba), and connect Health's five townships there.

I've heard Persepolis, 8 o 0' N, 5 o 56' W, at the ancient site of Turbo, Columbia, is now the busiest township in the world for air traffic, and only slightly below Bandar Arenas which is thirty times its size. It's not surprising. Persepolis is right at the Central American tip where it joins South America, and is the southernmost town currently serviced by the bullet network. Flights which used to fly non-stop Bandar Arenas to Dakar (11107 km) now take off with much less fuel and fly to Persepolis (5,047 km). The travelers then make the rest of the trip by train.

As we were leaving the airport, I thought of something I had meant to do on my plane but had forgotten. So I stopped at a vending machine and downloaded into Michal's e-book a current edition of her favorite engineering magazine. She gave me a startled look and then a small nod of thanks through her burqa. As an eternal virgin, she could learn nothing from it for any length of time. It was just a gift for her enjoyment.

We arrived at my cathedral complex a half hour before dawn. Emotionally I couldn't wait to see my other three wives again, but outwardly it would be expected that they would be the last thing on my mind. So I went first to check up on things with my chief of security.

Inside security's private office area, it was permissible for Michal to remove her veil, and I gave her instructions to sit and wait for me and read if she wished. She gave me a happy smile and dived into her book. A few minutes later I was sitting down with Amid.

He was extremely polite and formal, even though I had given him a hand gesture to relax.

"It is an honor to serve you, Grand Mufeto," he said following the correct protocols as he bowed appropriately.

"Amid, what are you doing? Are we being recorded?"

He blinked at me. His eyes seemed unable to tear themselves away from my CL-28 arm insignia. "No, Grand Mufeto," he said hoarsely.

"Amid, please! No titles, not even sir. Just call me Ilias."

"Yes, s... yes Ilias."

I grinned at him. "You think I've changed that much, living at the capital?"

He stared at me for a long moment, and then found my grin contagious. He gave me a genuine smile for the first time. "Shaitan Ilias! It's happened before!"

"Well, it hasn't happened with me!"

My playful smile disarmed his fears. He finally started laughing. "Men wearing the tricolors of purple, red, and yellow just don't talk this way to lowly CL-7 Ilias! You're asking me to act against a lifetime of training!"

"Well, get used to it! I'm starting a new trend!"

"Okay! I'll do my best sir! Uh, I mean Ilias!"

"So, how have things been?" Amid had sent me daily morning reports of course, throughout my stay at the capital. But he knew I was asking for an opinionated summary.

"Quiet and peaceful sums it up. Only one adult male execution in Dakar since you left, well within normal parameters."

"Ah. I remember you mentioned this briefly in your report from January 5th."

"Yes sir. Oh, sorry! Just yes. The man had just failed his fifth promotional gate to CL-6 and was sure he had been given a placebo injection instead of the anti-aging drug."

"He did? Any idea why?"

"There's no way you can tell of course. It was just a hunch I guess, and a bad one too. Out of curiosity, the execution council got permission from Health to check the medical logs."

"Health agreed?"

"Sure. If someone had a found a way to tell the difference between a placebo injection and the real drug, Health would want to know about it."

"Ah. Yes, of course."

"Anyway, the man did get the real drug. No surprise there. The chance of getting culled on your first year after final failure is almost zero."

I nodded and sighed. "And the man must have known that. So what he do?"

"He went back to the hospital and started swearing at a Health commander, CL-8."

"Ouch! That would do it."

"Yeah. It's the third pillar of faith. Hierarchical obedience must be absolute. And it was all caught on tape, a cut and dried case. The execution council took less than ten minutes with it."

"Did the Health commander show mercy?" I was asking if the man had been killed by a super-fast lethal injection.

"From Health?!" Amid rolled his eyes at me. "A High Tech commander might. I think you might. Shaitan Ilias! I know I would. But the Health Guilds don't do mercy killings Ilias. That just isn't their style."

I sighed as I realized the man in question had been flogged, wrapped in a cocoon of white cloth and then while blinded inside the cloth stoned to death. "Anything else?"

"Oh, nothing of consequence. A few post-Judgment cullings at the monasteries, two girls, one boy I think.' He paused for a moment. "Two women were impaled for resisting discipline by their husbands, uh... Can't think of anything else... All in all a completely normal month..."

"Oh... Well, speaking of wives," I said, eager to change the topic, "how have mine been?"

"Your wives? They're the most boring women on the planet to monitor, super obedient and industrious, genuinely cheerful too. They've done a fine job of keeping your private quarters clean."

"Heisenberg shields working okay?" I asked causally. I was referring to the quantum uncertainty shields which prevent any and all snooping in my private area outside of the monitoring system.

"Sure, running perfectly. Of course your wives are unobserved once they go through the lab's double airlocks." He smiled at me. "A bit unusual to trust them like that."

Amid was referring to my private research area. "Oh, I have of ton of repetitive search work for them to do, perfect for their inferior minds. I'm interested to see how well they did."

"From the amount of time they've spent in that lab, perhaps very well indeed. I've never seen wives so dedicated, especially from wives that don't get their rumps whipped." Amid looked at me. "How did you do it Ilias? What's your secret? How did you get four wives so genuinely eager to please you without whipping them?"

I stared at Amid and decided to take a risk. "My secret is that my wives don't fear me."

Amid stared back. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why should a woman want to please you if she doesn't fear whippings for her failures?"

"Ah, a deep question Amid. Think of our relationship. Is it only through fear that you try to please me?"

Amid was startled by my question. "No, of course not! But these are females Ilias, inferior to us from every perspective, right?" He grinned, expecting complete agreement from me. Anything less would be in direct contradiction with the Book of Bel'dar.

"As it is written, Bel'dar's truth," I replied automatically. I also added in thought to myself, "But not my truth Amid, nor the truth of the true Holy whom I worship." I cleared my throat and then continued, "But it is permitted to show kindness to inferiors, even mercy and affection. Don't you ever do it yourself Amid, when you're anointing a wife, stroke her with affection as she submits to your mount?"

"Well..." Amid blushed, not from the conversation of coitus with a wife, but rather from the thought of discussing being kind to a woman submitting herself for anointment. "Yeah, I suppose. Sometimes it is nice to pet them gently during sex, not use the whip on their rumps." He grinned at me. "They do hump better when they're happy, don't they?"

"Exactly! It's the same thing outside of coitus. If you don't whip her, the wife becomes more eager to please you."

Amid stared at me, decided I was not joking and tried to digest this very foreign concept. "Oh gee, I don't know Ilias. I think I'll see Bel'dar's Judgment before I avoid whipping my wives entirely."

Amid was referring to a Judgment 209 years in the future. The odds were great he would not live that long. I sighed. "Well, perhaps try backing off, just a bit. Try a shorter spank with just your hand instead of the leather strap."

He still looked uncertain. "Really?"

I nodded. "Try it and see. Even through the purge cycle, the female will recognize that the lack of pain on her rump means her superior is treating her with compassion. That's what makes her eager to please you."

"And the lack of pain leads to a lack of fear? Well... Wow, this certainly is a different way to think about wives! I'll give it some thought."

I nodded. "I'll tell you a true story. I anointed Michal the first day I met her. She wasn't complaining, but her rump was covered with welts from her former husband, a guy by the name of Sofian."

Amid nodded at me thoughtfully.

"They weren't actively bleeding. I think he eased up on her, maybe five to ten days before their survival test, so she'd be a better pack animal for him."

"Yeah, makes sense."

"Those were the last welts Michal ever got. I haven't raised one on her since I took her plead for bondage, not one, and she's the sweetest wife I can imagine." I didn't mention that I haven't spanked her at all. "One step at a time Ilias," I reminded myself silently.

Amid nodded at me again. "Thanks Ilias. Maybe I'll try it. I'll certainly give it some thought."

"That's all I'm asking." We parted a few moments later. I collected Michal and together we made our way across the cathedral complex. Michal walked in obedience behind me. I thought again of my conversation with Amid and his reference to Bel'dar's Judgment. The calendar of Bel'dar is really very simple, and perfectly tuned with Earth's orbit. It is based on a 4224-year cycle called a Holy Millennium.

There are twelve years to a Holy Decade, eleven Holy Decades to a Holy Century, and thirty-two Holy Centuries to a Holy Millennium. The rule for the length of Judgment for any given year is really quite simple. If the year is divisible by 4224, the Judgment is for six days, else if the year is divisible by 132 (a Holy Century year), Judgment is seven days, else if the year is divisible by 12 (a Holy Decade year), Judgment is eight days. All other years have a Judgment of five days.

Over the full cycle of Holy Millennium, the calendar on average is accurate to a couple hundred milliseconds per year, within the noise of our ability to measure. So perhaps a half million years from now, we'll have to add or subtract a day to stay in synch with the solstice, but for now it's the best we can do.

The two most common Judgments are known as Holy Judgments, five or eight days long. The Judgment at the beginning of each Holy Century has seven days, a number of low impurity. It is commonly referred to as Shaitan's Judgment, even though the Book of Bel'dar itself refers to it merely as Dark Judgment. By tradition, absolutely no inter-township travel is done during a seven-day Judgment.

And finally, the Judgment at the Holy Millennium mark is six days, a number of the Earth. It's only been celebrated once so far, over four thousand years ago. The Code of Bel'dar had the world perform some strange rituals then, at the start of the year 4224, including the immediate stoning of men failing their fifth promotional gate that year. No one knows what the Code will demand in 8448... if anything...

At last! We got to the entrance of my private quarters. I entered with Michal, and my other three wives came running and knelt in supplication before me. The door closed and sealed behind me, and I reached over and activated the Heisenberg shields. To the startled gasp of Michal, I was surrounded by loving hugs a few seconds later.

An hour later we were in one of our favorite living areas, numerous floppy beanbag chairs scattered around our loosely clothed bodies. Michal had been told of our deceptions and as usual had accepted them with lightning speed. My other three wives were plainly displaying an interest to bed me, but all of us were even more eager to hear about each other's lives. I satisfied my wives' curiosity and described my time at Bandar Arenas first. I then turned to Abigail and batted my eyes. "Well?"

She nodded. "In another few weeks, we're going to know so much more. We're just beginning to scratch the surface, an incredible wealth of information Ilias."

Sheffie piped up. "We know the year the War of the Burning Metals started, on the old calendar. It started on the first day of the first month of the year 1600, about 250 years after humanity developed nuclear power."

"Lunar years!" Chanah added.

I looked at Chanah. "They based a calendar on the moon?!"

"Yep! Twelve months of twenty-nine or thirty days each! And there was no Judgment time. That was the whole year!"

I thought for a moment. "That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it get out of synch with the tropical year?"

"It did!" said Abby. "And they didn't seem to care! They also had another calendar, one they called a Common Era calendar based on the orbital year. On that calendar, the war started on December 7th, in the year 2173 C.E., on something referred to as a Tuesday. Oh, by the way! I also found a reference for black bears! They did exist, no question, and in North America too! They were described as shy creatures, not a problem at all. I was right Ilias!" Abigail leaned over and gave me a playful kiss. I put my arm around her waist and gave her an affectionate hug back.

Sheffie spoke next. "We think we found a reference of how many people were on the planet, the day before the war, over thirty billion."

I shrugged. "Well, that's not much more than..." My eyes popped. "Did you say billion?"

"Yep!"

"But... But that's beyond the carrying capacity of the planet!"

It was Abby's turn to shrug her shoulders. "So, they overshot the limit. You can do that in the short term. It destroys the ecosystem though. And you have to pay for your mistakes eventually. Physical laws are infinitely non-forgiving."

I had a deep frown on my face. "And these are the people I'm looking to, for a model for a new society?!"

We were all silent for a moment. Eventually Abigail snuggled with me and sighed. "It wasn't all craziness Ilias. We think there was goodness in the societies too, at least some of them. Goodness and nobility, true kindness on a social scale unheard of now. It just didn't survive the war..."

"Give us another month Ilias," said Chanah. "Maybe two. We'll know so much more then."

I nodded thoughtfully. We spend a long time just petting each other and renewing our bonds, nothing too sexy and with very little talking. Chanah was so relaxed with being with me again, she fell asleep in my arms. I looked at her in love, my hand resting gently on her stomach, feeling her warmth and the slow breathing of her body.

Chapter 34. Consummation

One hour later...

My mind was drifting, not quite asleep but not fully awake either. It felt so nice to hold Chanah in my arms again. My hand was idly stroking her stomach as she slept, her head was against my shoulders, and her clean hair smelled so wonderful. I sighed and opened my eyes and looked up. It was a little past noontime.

Abigail was nearby quietly reading a book, curled up on one of the beanbag chairs. She noticed that my eyes were open and smiled at me. "Hi Ilias."

"Hi," I whispered back, and then looked back down at Chanah. "She's really a delight to cuddle with, you know..."

Abigail gave a small laugh. "Actually, I wouldn't know! Sheffie yes, Michal yes, but Chanah... well, she likes to sleep by herself."

I blinked at Abigail, considering her words. "Ah... I'm sorry there wasn't a good way to give you some privacy from the monitors, in the bedrooms I mean."

Abby shook her head. "It's okay. The three of us are almost pure heterosexual anyway. When you're sleeping with Michal or Chanah, Sheffie and I would rarely do more than just cuddle with each other. Chanah though, she loves us, but all her sexual interest is focused totally on you." Abby paused for a moment. "Ilias?"

"Uh huh?"

"Chanah, she missed you dreadfully this past month. She's more than ready to make love to you now."

"Ah... You sure?"

"Uh huh." Abigail took a moment to stretch. "Sheffie and I think you two were incredibly wise to get to know each other first. We're both a little jealous of what your first experience will be like. Chanah... Sheffie and I missed you greatly, but Chanah pined for you Ilias."

She was silent for a moment and then continued. "The three of us had some quiet discussions in the lab. Chanah is shy in some ways, much more than Sheffie or I."

"I know. When we had our sleep nights together last year, Chanah and I would rarely allow ourselves to arouse each other. It was so incredibly sweet. As her master, she would be eager to satisfy me, but as her equal, she wanted to spend lots of time sharing her thoughts first, getting to know me."

Abby nodded. "So what'd you two talk about?"

"Oh, everything I guess, everything that matters. What our hopes are, what we like and dislike, what we fear. It was very touching. We spent a lot of time talking about our childhoods, talking about our dreams..."

Abby nodded again. "She really opened up to us too. She let Sheffie and me come right underneath her shyness."

Abby eyes drifted down to my sleeping wife. Chanah stir in my arms. "Well, I think that's my cue to take off."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be working with Michal and Sheffie in the lab. Expect us not to come out before dinnertime." Abigail gave me a last smile and playfully raised her eyebrows at me, then got up and departed.

My hand was still on Chanah's stomach. I looked at her for a while as I petted her. My hand drifted up to hold her by her ribs for a moment, and then I started petting her breasts.

Chanah stirred and wiggled a bit as I petted her. She sighed deeply and then spoke to me, her eyes still closed. "I still feel as if I'm dreaming. I don't want to open my eyes."

"Hah! I love you, and I've missed you."

Chanah nodded. "I love you, and I've missed you too. Not having you around, it was as if I were living in a great empty hole..." She opened her eyes and looked at me. "Ah, not a dream, good."