The Preacher Man

Shephatiah spoke up. "Well, it wasn't just a thoughtful gift. We needed a field test for PING. The ramjet was a perfect opportunity."

The project Sheffie spoke of was perhaps the most potent weapon in our holographic arsenal. The birth of PING lay in one of the conjectures Sheffie sent to Australia in 8240. She theorized that the standard method used for harmonic lock verification does not rigorously prove the actual existence of a harmonic lock. Under very specialized circumstances, she wrote, it should be possible to create a sliding harmonic that would give the appearance of being a locked shield but would still allow information access through a super-continuum laser.

Through incredibly intense work, PING went from concept to operational in less than two years. It's not an infinitely powerful can-opener. We still need prior physical access to the internal shield generator to set up the sliding harmonic. But Sheffie, Chanah, and Michal did just such an installation on our ramjet during one of our family moves in 8242. At the time, I thought the decision was very risky and borderline insane, but Bithiah was right. The decision proved Providential.

"Imagine our shock Abdul Hadi," Bithiah continued, "to see the plane filled with your enemies. We called our council into emergency session and debated our options. Around 11:40 AM that day, we voted unanimously to become murderers, and then spent the next half hour preparing our executions."

She took a deep sigh. "When the ramjet disconnected flight control from Bandar Arenas, it sent a spectral challenge through the open portal for Az Zarqa to meet. But we could immediately read what the response should be through the laser interface. The ramjet told us how to respond correctly to its own challenge, hundreds of milliseconds faster than the photonic switches at Az Zarqa could calculate the keys. We had time to lock the portal and reset its frequency before the Az Zarqa response arrived. The pilots never saw it."

I nodded. "I think I can guess the rest, though I still want you to tell me. Bithy, when Abdul Muhsi's technicians inspected my ramjet, why didn't they discover MIRROR-MIRROR?"

Bithiah paused. "Pascha, you want to take this one?"

"Sure! A pleasure to speak with you again Abdul Hadi! To answer your question, Sheffie's modifications are entirely interior to the holo-emitter assemblies. There are three differences, two visible to the naked eye. The non-visible one is in the details of the pseudo-crystal laser interface matrix. You'd need a quantum microscope to see that one."

"Uh... Okay..."

"The two visible differences are the extra power feeds and the ultra-high density Heisenberg memory buffers. To the technicians examining the plane, the emitters probably just looked liked something High Tech had thrown a lot of money at. They're famous for that, you know."

I laughed as I thought of all the gadgets in my home around me. "Oh yes indeed!"

Pascha laughed back, "Anyway! The search teams probably had a primary focus of searching for bombs, poisons, stuff like that. As far as they would see, the holo-emitters were just emitters, doing what emitters do. Their extra abilities are based on physical principles unknown in your world. They might have caused your top quantum theorists to wonder what was going on, but technicians? The danger of discovery was really quite small."

Bithiah resumed her explanation. "We tapped into your processor array, interfacing your geo-visual database with our satellite lock on the plane. A shielded ramjet gets its geo-positioning signals through the portal. Making it drift off course was as easy as telling the plane it was on the right path while we slowly nudged it to the east."

"And the pilots?" I asked.

"Ah, MIRROR-MIRROR at its finest. We established an alternative-reality hologram right within the glass of the windshield. The pilots were seeing themselves flying the correct path."

Another counselor, Yadira, spoke up. "We didn't have enough bandwidth on the sat-laser to emit holograms to the passenger windows, but we thought the new ruler and his party wouldn't notice. Besides, at 17,000 meters, all jungle looks pretty much the same."

I was still puzzled. "But how did you drop the jet down the gullet of a volcano?"

Bithiah shrugged. "With twenty minutes of absolutely frantic work to create an animation, that's how. At T minus five seconds before impact, the ramjet was 1600 meters from the northern rim and traveling 315 meters per second. It had just dropped below supersonic speed. Suddenly from a cloud ahead of them appeared the belly of a large commercial aircraft, descending and heading straight for them. We fed simulated radar echoes through the portal which activated the plane's automatic collision avoidance system. The plane couldn't see the volcano. The pilots couldn't see the volcano. They could have overridden the automatic avoidance response, but why should they?"

Bithiah paused. "The energy from the rapid drop in altitude and the full engine-power pushed the plane back to supersonic." She paused again for a deep sigh and then concluded. "They thought they had 2600 meters of vertical clearance for their escape maneuver. And five seconds just wasn't enough time to consider and decide that the scenario was ridiculous. That's all it took. Five seconds after the cartoon started, it was all over."

"The opportunity seemed too good to pass up," added Dalis. "We had the chance to bury all the jet's internal recorders in molten lava. Abdul Hadi, did we do the right thing?"

I nodded immediately. "Oh yes. We all know this revolution won't be painless. Our baseline plan will make us directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Babylonian Priests, probably thousands. And we won't achieve victory by dying for our cause. It's the other people who will have to die. I empathize with your guilt Dalis, I feel it too, but you absolutely made the right decision. And we have seven months to prepare for our next move. Is that enough time?"

"It'll have to be," answered Dalis. "We'll be ready. Oh, Abdul Hadi, one more thing to report on this issue. We needed to bring in additional technicians for our work on May 2nd. Four additional women here now know who you are, and later in the month, word somehow got into our general population that we have a powerful male friend. I'm so sorry, but the situation got out of our control. We've tried to compensate. We've dropped some hints that it's a geneticist within Health."

I sighed and tried to comfort her. "That's okay. It's just one more risk among the many. Anything else?"

Dalis nodded. "Well, a code name developed for this male friend. We don't know who picked it."

"Oh?" I smiled. "What is it?"

Dalis smiled back. "The Preacher Man."

Chapter 48. Hope and Fears

Time: June 29, 8243 4:03 AM

I had a delightful twenty days at Dakar, keeping a light load on my regal schedule and spending most of my time swimming, hiking, and horseback-riding with my wives. We even managed two overnight camping trips, one by the lake up north near where Salt Lake City used to be, and one high up in the mountains. The beauty of the northern lake is remarkable. It's so difficult to believe the area took two direct fusion blasts 8243 years ago.

Three days ago an opportunity came up for a major reconciliation with Health, and rather than dragging several hundred Health commanders and Royals to Dakar, I did something very non-regal and just flew myself to Giza instead. Our new agreements are vast and well worth the trip. My ramjet returned to Dakar shortly after 3 AM this morning.

After a brief meeting with my security team, I let myself into my private quarters after bidding my guards goodnight at the portal. All of my wives were asleep, not surprising. Dakar's solar clock runs 2:43 hours later than capital standard, so sunset occurs very late in the evening this time of year, 10:18 PM today. We've been taking many delightful hikes, starting just when the cool of the evening begins to form, and then hiking by the lakeside in the star and moon light. It's incredibly beautiful.

We usually get back after 1 AM, have a quick snack and sleep till almost morning Prayers. It's a nice schedule. The sun doesn't rise till after 7 AM, even now at the summer solstice.

I had such good news for Australia! They knew of my mission. I decided not to wait, and went to my inner conference and paged Eleora, the sixth counselor of the women's senior government. She's usually very quiet in our meetings, and it was only last year when I learned Eleora is also the women's chief medical officer, in addition to her government position. So the news I had was very appropriate for her.

I looked at the Australian scenery while I waited. It was currently 4:15 AM, and it looked as if the sun would set in about twenty minutes in the faraway conference room. It's something we're missing, I realized, as I stared at the scenery. Living only in the Americas, we're missing the global perspective of the planet.

Eleora entered the holographic room panting slightly about six minutes after I paged her. She was wearing dirty farm cloths and had her hair tied back in a ponytail, looking very different than the way I usually see her.

"Hi Eleora!" I said. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Huh? Oh no. I was helping to do some planting about two kilometers from here. I ran back as fast as I could in these work clothes. Hi Abdul Hadi! Forgive my appearance!"

"Oh, that's okay," I said smiling. "I just arrived back at Dakar an hour ago. I could use a shower myself."

"Oh yes, Giza. How did it go?"

"Wonderful, even beyond my original hopes. I won't bore you with the political deals, but I did want to report on one of the medical agreements. Giza is starting a major research effort into anti-aging, and it's going to include some new investigations into the genetic death-trigger mechanism. I've been promised full technical readouts on the progress."

Eleora stared at me for a moment. "Abdul Hadi, if you weren't a hologram and your wives were here to chaperone us, I'd lean over and kiss you! But was pushing for this worth the risk?"

I smiled. "Ah, that was the beauty of it. There was no push! They handed me this proposal on their own and were thrilled that I agreed to regal funding for their efforts. Health has wanted to explore the death trigger for centuries. It's very expensive research and they never had the budget for it. Eleora?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you the person I should send the technical readouts to?"

"Well, not just me. I'll set up a team on this end to study the reports. When might we begin to receive them?"

"The research is starting now, and I'm supposed to get reports at least quarterly. Expect something by the end of September."

"So soon? Excellent. Thank you Abdul Hadi." She then leaned back in her chair and looked very thoughtful.

"It's Divine justice," I went on. "The regal cut of your gold production is considerable. That's what's letting me fund this research."

Eleora continued to look thoughtful. "Divine justice? Do you believe that Abdul Hadi? That this is your Holy's plan for the gold? That your Holy created the gold in the ground so it could be used this way?"

I nodded. "Profound questions Eleora, ones I don't have easy answers for. Where is the boundary between my free will and the Holy's will? Somehow I don't think there is a boundary. Somehow I think we and the Holy share responsibility for what the future will become, at all levels of magnification. Our wills are designed to combine with the Holy's will into a shared perspective."

I paused for a moment and then added, "I do see myself at the Holy's child. Not to boast. I see you that way too. And as the Holy's child, my understanding of justice is not zero. It is just for the gold to be used this way, Divinely just."

Eleora gave me a very warm smile. "Thank you Abdul Hadi. You minister to my soul. It was you who taught me I had one. It's unfortunate the women here refer to you in secret as The Preacher Man. The codename is too dangerously apt."

I felt embarrassed by such praise and tried to change the topic. "Uh, Eleora, may I ask you a personal question?"

"Hmm? Sure. What?"

"You're the chief medical officer, right? So why do you have to do farm work?"

"Oh, we're all supposed to do farm work. I could petition for an exemption I suppose, but I like it. I find working in the forests therapeutic."

"Oh... It takes your mind off medical issues?"

"Well... Sometimes that's useful. Two days ago we lost one of our members."

I looked at her. "The death trigger?"

She shook her head slightly, looking puzzled at how to answer. She finally said, "Not exactly. Fortunately we've only had one pure case of that so far. This time the death was initiated by a snakebite, a western King Brown. With our medical facilities, it shouldn't have been fatal. But we think the toxic shock activated the death trigger."

Eleora sighed. "Out of the original thousand of us rescued in 8224, our current number is 987. We've done okay at surviving." She took an even longer pause, and then sighed again. "But to answer your original question, no, that's not what I meant, about working in the forest as therapy I mean."

I nodded, trying to be supportive. "So how does the farming help?"

"I'm creating life when I'm working there, helping a new birth. The odds for me living more than a few years are so small. I guess I feel the forest will be my legacy, something wild and free and beautiful. I have no opportunity to procreate, no opportunity for children." She looked at me and gave me a kind smile. "Tell me Abdul Hadi, do you ever miss it, not having children I mean?"

Her question brought back a painful memory. "I have a son. Michal was pregnant when we married."

"Oh. I didn't know."

"We lost all contact when he was a month old. The Priesthood came and took him at Karbala. It's impossible for me to track him, even as Cunif Califar. The child monastery system is defined as sacred law by the Code of Bel'dar, under the control of the Priests of Babylon. The penalty for trying to find my son would be death."

"Yes, of course."

I grimaced at the memory of Michal's last day nursing her child. "Thank goodness for modern fertility control! My wives and I can enjoy sex without worrying about procreating."

"And there's no pressure for you to have children?"

I looked at Eleora surprised, but then realized she was rescued from her child monastery in her tenth year, before she would be taught about this. "No, none at all. The world's population has been very stable for centuries at around 25,060,000, the higher end of the neutral range of 25,000,000, plus or minus 100,000. In the neutral range, procreation is neither encouraged nor discouraged. The birth of Michal's child was recorded as an act of procreation by me, since I knew she was pregnant when I married her. But I get no merits or demerits because of it."

Eleora nodded thoughtfully, absorbed by what I was saying.

"It's what Abigail and I fear the most. If we are successful in our revolution, men can have multiple children, but most women will have to limit their procreation to one child. It's our greatest fear."

"Exploding the population?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"But the world is so beautiful now! Why would people want to do that, rape the planet again?"

"Why did they choose to rape it the first time before the war? Selfishness. They thought they owned the planet. Their arrogant pillage almost destroyed the world's ecosystem. Did you know we lost over half the species in the War? Thank the Holy so many of the DNA records survived. The restoration millennia would have been a nightmare without them."

Eleora frowned. "Well, hopefully we know better now. We have better technology, a worldwide love of the Earth, and a more complete history to guide us. Won't that be enough?"

"I doubt it. Right now there's no economic or personal satisfaction in having children, and just the pure desire to procreate is enough to keep the population stable. If we add the other benefits, return to the old family structure of men and women caring for and loving their own children, won't that cause more people to procreate?"

I looked at Eleora closely. Our eyes locked together and a long moment of silence passed. And then suddenly, the eye contact transformed, becoming deeper and then infinitely deep. We allowed each other to see into our souls, our fears and hopes, and then I blinked in surprise as I saw Eleora's love for me. The Holy! So deep! As deep as Abigail's. Eleora blushed and looked down.

"Abdul Hadi, I ..."

"It's okay. I know. I love you too."

Eleora just shook her head, reluctant to look at me again. "Still," she whispered, "there must be some solution. Doesn't your Holy commission us to hope, hope that our love will be enough?"

It was my turn to blush. "You're quite right. Under a mantel of mercy, the Holy does commission us to hope. Thank you Eleora. On this point, you are my teacher." I smiled. "I'll try to stop worrying about the issue. It will be a problem for the world's children to solve."

We chatted for a few more minutes until I heard some of my wives making breakfast in the kitchen. Eleora allowed me to lock eyes with her again, openly expressing her love for me through her gaze, and then she shut down the transmission. I stared at the empty half of the room for a long moment before getting up.

Five months later...

December 1, 8243 2:17 AM

We had a very short meeting planned within my palace at Bandar Arenas. While Michal and Dodi slept, my other three wives and I contacted Australia.

"Success?" I asked, the second the video appeared.

"Finally, yes, we've passed all the system tests with the prototype," answered Dalis. "We're downloading the technical fabrication procedures into your Dakar servers now. Sorry it took so long."

"What you've done is miraculous," replied Shephatiah. "Don't be so modest."

"Abdul Hadi," continued Dalis, "will you be able to return to Dakar before the High Judgment?"

I nodded. "A bit unusual for so late in the year, but I've been hinting at High Tech I'd like to have an extended conference with them. I'll finalize my plans tomorrow. And as Sheffie said, good work Dalis!"

Dalis nodded and broke the transmission. We quickly went back to bed on our end. By 2:30 AM Sheffie was already in my arms falling asleep. I looked down at her as I held her, gently petting her head.

Such a brilliant mind. It was Sheffie that first saw that in order to pivot the society, I needed to pivot the religion. And to do that, I needed a place to anchor my lever.

A unique opportunity for just such an anchor position was fast approaching, at the start of the new Holy Decade and the High Holy Judgment. At noon on Judgment 8 of 8224, the opportunity will be upon me. So many details, and everything has to work perfectly the first time. We'll only get one chance at this. My will and the Holy's will. I prayed we were sharing perspective on this.

Chapter 49. On the Eighth Day of Judgment

Time: Judgment 8, 8244, 11:40 AM

"Well, okay so far. Try to stay calm Ilias," I thought to myself, and then my face almost broke into a grin. After all the months of hearing absolutely no one make that mistake, I made it myself. "Relax, Abdul Hadi," I thought, as I looked around the Babylonian hall and tried to appear cheerful. "Pray if you want."

The hall was magnificent. The monks take a vow of poverty, but that does not apply to their common areas. I was surrounded both by monks with ceremonial weapons and my own Royal Guard with more modern weapons. Not that the two sides would go to war with each other. Within the city limits of Babylon, and even worldwide under some special circumstances, command authority of the Guard falls to the head monk of Babylon. If he ordered my Guard to kill me, they would, as long as the order was seen to be a sacred one flowing from the Code of Bel'dar.