The Preacher Man

"Think Bel'dar will go after us this time?" whispered Jibran at my side.

I shrugged. "Possible. We'll just have to wait and see. The Guards certainly appear ready for anything." We were politely surrounded by some of the corps' best sharpshooters. They didn't appear though to be expecting a repeat of yesterday. Or was that just my wishful imagination? Royal Guards are trained to reveal nothing through facial or body expressions.

"This really is unprecedented Abdul Hadi," continued Jibran. "In all of history, The Code has never attacked its own base of power." He paused for a moment. "Don't you have a wife who's good with history?"

"Yes, Abigail. You're right. Last night I commanded her to do some research for me. There's nothing in history of The Code ever condemning the monks."

"Until now," replied Jibran smiling.

"Yes, until now. Look, the Sacred symbol to standby. I think it's about to start."

The women of Australia put on quite a show. The Code spent over an hour wailing against the corruptness of the Priesthood and how it had lost its way. It was vintage Bel'dar. I felt I was listening to undiscovered parts of his Second Tower, and phrasing and melodic poetry were so perfectly matched to his ancient scriptures. I reminded myself that the Second Tower eventually became the core of many of the Prayers in the Hours of Counted Failings and Uncounted Failings.

It was vintage Bel'dar all right, but it was also more than just poetic oratory. Embedded within the lamentations were clues on how the coming Judgments should be implemented. The clues were mildly subtle, but far too numerous to miss. I sat back and relaxed and enjoyed the show, absorbing the ersatz Sacred Preaching with what I hoped to be an obedient expression.

At 1:23 PM The Code finished its poetic laments and unleashed its Dark Judgments against both the Priesthood and the fabric of society.

1. Until further notice, no child or adult was to enter into any of the child monasteries. The edict was worldwide, and there were absolutely no exceptions. No supplies of any kind were allowed to enter either, no food, no power, absolutely nothing. Communication was allowed only to the extent of delivering the scope of today's edicts.

2. Until further notice, the Nikahaldi were forbidden to perform any marriage ceremony.

3. Until further notice, no child or adult was to enter either of the world's two adult monasteries, the one at Babylon and the other at Tobruk, whose monastery also functioned as the world's Nikahaldi Academy. The restrictions on supplies and communications also applied to them.

4. The Code condemned mankind for its sinful lust, and declared that henceforth in any act of defilement, the defiled girl would be forever banned from marriage, and the defiling man must be executed.

The Code finished by granting us a brief trial period to abandon our sinfulness and return to Bel'dar's true path. The Code proclaimed that further Dark Judgments would be forthcoming in eight days if our progress was not worthy. We were warned we were in grave danger of losing our redemption, and then The Code finished by signing the Sacred Seal of Bel'dar's Judgment. The transmission ended.

The room was stone silent for a moment. I turned to one of the senior Guards. "Has all this been recorded?"

The man blinked at me. "Of course Abdul Hadi."

"Re-transmit the Judgment immediately, worldwide coverage. Holocast the edicts first. I want full and immediate implementation. Move!"

The Guard saluted and ran to comply.

I sat back and took a moment to collect myself. We had only managed to save a tiny fraction of the girls at this year's marriage gate, 383 of the most accomplished women at the threshold of their adulthood. We had moved just in time to save the 258 0.6's. Their marriage ceremonies were imminent, some scheduled for as early as tomorrow.

I looked at my Council. They appeared to be in a state of shock. Jibran turned to me with glassy eyes. "The child monasteries!" he whispered. "How long..."

I nodded. Jibran saw the core dilemma facing our society. In a population of twenty-five million, there are over nine million children, and almost seven million of them were girls. The children represented 36% of the human population, and their care and training consumed a huge portion of the world's resources. How long could they last without supplies? As if we evacuated the child monasteries, where would they go?

"I don't know Jibran." I sighed. "I think Bel'dar left us clues though in how he wants us to act."

"Oh yes, I caught dozens. The theologians will find fertile ground here I think..."

I chatted briefly with my other Council members, and then suggested we keep our overdue appointment with the monks at Babylon.

CL-5 Imad-al-Din was furious at us for being put off until 1 PM, and then was further insulted by being left waiting for almost an additional hour. He started off with a list of demands, including a mobile surgical hospital for his wounded, when I cut him off and recited Bel'dar's edicts. He stared at me in shock and then tried to repeat his demands, but I just reiterated the only communications between us while he was still at the monastery would be the proclamations of the edicts. He tried to repeat his demands a third time and I severed the connection.

Jibran leaned back in his chair and stretched. "Well, that was pleasant! I wish all my communications with monks were so satisfying! How long do you think, Abdul Hadi?"

I was just finishing keying in some commands to the local Commanders at Babylon. "Well, we did our duty to inform them. Their outside power is now cut, and their fusion generator at their admin building is destroyed."

"Do you think they'll come out then? Abandon their monastery?"

I thought for a moment. "No. I'm guessing Imad-al-Din will abandon his wounded first. On the campus his word is Sacred Law. I think that kind of power is more important to him than Watts. He'd rather rule a ruined monastery in darkness."

"But their vault has huge reserves of power, enough to last for centuries."

I nodded. "Yes. Curious how they're not tapping into it."

"Curious?! I would use the word fascinating Abdul Hadi. The duty shift at the vault seems to have totally abandoned them. And I'm astonished the vault personnel haven't tried to contact us."

I shrugged. "Maybe they can't. Maybe they are also under Bel'dar's Dark Judgment."

Jibran looked as if he wanted to say something more but stopped himself. A moment later he excused himself to make a report to Utility.

Six days later...

Time: July 11, 8244 3:24 PM

I was surprised the monks had such hidden firepower, but their armor was no match for guided missiles striking with pinpoint accuracy. Their attempt to break out of the security perimeter had caused surprisingly high casualties on our side, but had also resulted in the complete annihilation of their attack. They had thrown everything they had at us. My local Commander estimated perhaps a handful of non-wounded monks left on the entire campus. And as for the monks in the vault, over the last several days people have begun to assume that the Sacred duty shift had met Bel'dar's Dark and Final Judgment.

Such a waste! The remaining monks were free to come out at any time. But the thought of surrendering their Sacred powers had proved to be unbearable. I pushed myself away from my desk and strolled around the office for a moment, idly checking a few holographic monitors before finally stopping at a window.

I looked outside and took a moment to admire the view. We had just endured five days of brutally windy weather. The nights had been filled with frequent blasts of wet snow, and the golden sunshine before me now was a welcome contrast and respite. The sun at the moment was due northwest and three degrees above the horizon. It would be another half hour before it slid slanting to the west and tucked itself in for the long night.

"Karbala," I thought. "They've just gone through the same storm. How long has it been since I was there? Not since I switched my Domine to Dakar. It seems like so long ago..." I made a mental note to fly over for a visit sometime, if nothing else to meet with some old friends. Perhaps I would stop at Jizari too...

"Cheer up Abdul Hadi," I thought to myself. "The great plan is working brilliantly so far." I sighed and admired the scenery before me, gentle river valleys running free and wild to the western horizon. "Let the skies and the Earth teach you patience. Tomorrow will have a minute more light than today, and the sun's peak will be just a little higher. Learn to be patient."

My secretary announced that CL-28 Hani had arrived for his 3:30 appointment, prompt as usual. I told my secretary to send him in.

"I suppose you heard the news of the battle Abdul Hadi?" Hani asked as the doors sealed behind him.

I nodded smiling. "You mean Babylon? Yes. I'm surprised you've heard so soon."

"Babylon? No! I meant Tobruk! There's been a battle at Babylon too?"

I nodded again. "I just received a report. We suffered forty casualties, eight fatalities. The monks tried to punch through to the east at Preacher's Gate."

Hani shook his head sadly. "Such insanity. Why not just come out peacefully?"

I shrugged. "It's a gray area in the law. If the monks could officially address me, they could announce a Bel'dar proclamation and I would be obligated to listen. And if they then went back inside the monastery grounds to issue it..."

"It would have the weight of a Sacred decree, and be more recent than the July 5th decree. Yes, I begin to see their problem." Hani looked around for a moment and then whispered, "Please don't take this the wrong way Abdul Hadi, but I never realized how petty some of these rules were until now."

That comment in the wrong ears could get Hani in a lot of trouble. I took his saying them to me as an offer of friendship. He was exposing himself for possible rebuke. I just sighed and nodded and gestured for him to take a seat on a nearby couch. I sat on a chair opposite.

"Tobruk's academy might be completely evacuated now. The nausea gas seems to have worked."

"Nikahaldi are notorious for being poor fighters," replied Hani. "I'm surprised they revolted at all."

"I don't think they planned to. It seems more likely their protest march out of the academy just got out of hand. There were no fatalities on either side." I glanced at the clock. "Sorry to speed things up Hani, but I have another appointment at 3:50. What is your report?"

"Yes sir! Uh, Abdul Hadi I mean. For the third day in a row, the number of procreation requests filed worldwide is zero, absolute zero."

I leaned back in my chair and nodded. The normal daily number of requests for the drugs to unlock female fertility should be close to two thousand. Not all petitions result in a pregnancy of course, and not all pregnancies result in children. But given the state of absolute uncertainty with the child monastery system, people for now were holding off adding to the burden.

Hani went on. "We're close to 60,000 above Bel'dar's ideal of 25 million. As long as this matter is resolved in a month or two, the impact to the world's population will be very minor. And the situation can't possibly last longer than that, could it?"

"I hope not. Just transferring the infants is proving to be a monumental task. We're especially in trouble with the girls."

"Yes! What an amazing change! Instead of a defiled girl being mercifully put to death, it's now the man who must be executed. A Dark Judgment indeed!"

We both left the next thought unspoken, that a man accidentally defiling a young girl by allowing her to see him might not be so quick to turn himself in for execution. By ancient Law, infant girls can be defiled once they enter their third year, at the second Judgment of their lives.

I remembered with amusement that Abigail once told me that the ancient people in pre-war times kept track of birth days as well as birth years, would actually mark them for private celebrations. It seemed to be such a novel concept at first, but the idea grew on me over time. In my society, birth day and time are strictly secured, recorded only in the Holy vaults at Dalma. We know the year of our birth, nothing more. But I kind of like the idea of celebrating my wives' birthdays with them, imagine getting them presents of appreciation. The ancients even celebrated the occasions with cakes and parties. And why not?

I looked at the time and stood up. Hani and I gave each other a brief friendship hug of goodbye, and then it was time for my appointment with Aleser. The man is never tardy, and I like to return the favor.

Chapter 53. Civil War

One month later...

Time: August 11, 8244 1:27 AM

I walked back to my private quarters at the palace feeling very tired. One of the awful things about war, I thought, is that there's never an intermission. Still, it was a battle worth fighting, and over the past thirty days my cause has enjoyed an unbroken series of successes. Except for my tired mind, I had no reason to complain.

The war began in the Caribbean shortly after dawn on July 15th, two days after a new holographic pronouncement from Bel'dar had made it clear that the condemnations against the monasteries would be very long-term or even permanent. At the time, most of the world's child monasteries were still holding onto their children, in spite of critical shortages of water. Only the infants had been evacuated.

The sacred pronouncements on July 13th changed everything. People had been rioting in the streets over the impossibility of caring for the young, unmarried girls outside of a monastery system. I therefore made my own pronouncement. With the unanimous backing of my Council, I declared an edict that re-wrote the Purdah. Henceforth, the curtain law would not apply to girls before their marriage gate. Only adult women were required to wear the burqa in public. The girls were exempt from defilement consideration.

I also ordered all the unmarried girls remaining at this year's marriage gate to be brought to my palace at Bandar Arenas. I've met with them several times. A few choose to remain in burqas, a few have their head free, most have chosen to wear head scarves. It's so nice to see their faces. I think that's the most evil part of a burqa, shutting down a woman's ability to express herself emotionally through her face. Perhaps that's why Bel'dar insisted on it originally. He thought it would be easier to enslave and dehumanize them that way.

And the world evolved. What followed was a month of frantic political and military maneuvering as I attempted to avert a worldwide civil war. Looking back, I would have to judge we were successful beyond our most optimistic estimates. There was armed confrontation and sabotage in dozens of townships, but the total number of fatalities so far is under twelve thousand, with perhaps an additional twenty thousand wounded. An awful burden to be sure, but a loss the world's population can survive and far easier to bear than the horror of the culling of children at Judgment. Monumental changes have been made in the fabric of the society, and so far the cloth has been stretched but not torn.

The pattern of the resistance evolved into a few isolated townships causing almost all the fatalities. The North American continent was solidly behind me, as was the worldwide Holy Military and Police. It was as I had hoped. I had sensed through the years that High Tech begrudged the wasted potential of the girls, and they had quickly accepted the new order. The support of The Code of Bel'dar and the my secular government gave High tech the perfect cover to suspend both the culling and the female mind mutilation. Whether their primal motivation is from compassion or just their innate desire for engineering efficiency, I'm not sure. But I'm very happy with the end result.

The utility townships across South America were at first a scattered mix of rebellion and support. Karbala is solidly behind me, as are the tri-townships around Xerxes. But numerous other townships have had sharp outbreaks of sabotage and assassinations by the Holy Administration, sometimes targeting the people caring for the female children, and sometimes targeting the girls themselves. The attackers melt back into the population when we respond with militia. I'm under no illusion that the problem is solved.

The battles in the Caribbean have been the fiercest of all, and Giza is the site for our one military loss in the war so far. Giza, the Guild of the anti-aging drugs and the headquarters of the Health faction, proved to be over 90% rebellious in both its militia and police. The few troops that tried to remain loyal to me were slaughtered.

Giza is the single township right now in an active state of rebellion, and they are sending three representatives to negotiate a hudna. Hopefully the cease-fire will prove to be enduring. We are scheduled to meet at 9 AM later this morning.

Tobruk, at the ancient site of Puerto Eden, Chili is a second township that until three days ago was in an active state of rebellion. The Nikahaldi joined with most of the city's Holy Administration and launched an all-out attack to retake the Nikahaldi Academy. It was fanatical fighting, death or glory were their only options, and in the end, the Nikahaldi met death. It was an extremely close battle though. At one point, the only thing that stopped them was a single squad of militia laborers who held their line against almost impossible odds.

The Code Of Bel'dar made two more pronouncements after the start of the civil war, one on July 21st, and another on August 4th. Bel'dar rebuked the rebels and condemned them for holding onto their wickedness. In a show of support for me, Bel'dar also preached that The Holy would bestow five pillars of unmistakable support for me, as Holy Signs for the world to see and follow.

Grandstanding? Of course! But the women of Australia thought it would be foolish not to take advantage of a preaching within the original Code, that the 85'th Cunif Califar would be the Holy's favorite and do mighty things. There's no denying that this preaching has been known for almost a thousand years, revealed during the Dark seven-day Judgment of 7260 at the start of the 55'th Holy Century.

Ah, the Holy Calendar, perhaps Bel'dar's most elegant invention, and I'll give him credit for it. Abigail pointed out to me once that both the solar calendar and lunar calendar before the War were based on a year one and a first century, rather than a year zero and a zeroth century. I certainly like our way better. Our way makes it much clearer when the decades and centuries and millennia begin and end.

I saluted my Guards outside my private quarters and entered. I sighed. Ah, home at last. My home was very quiet, and I would soon be joining sleepy Abigail under the covers. But first, I had a scheduled meeting with my wife Eleora.

Over the past year, with the full approval and encouragement of my other wives, Eleora and I have become emotionally intimate with each other. We've never met in person of course, never touched each other's bodies, but our love for each other has grown to be infinitely deep and unbreakable, and two months ago we declared to our families that we considered ourselves married. It is a bittersweet relationship. As are all the unregistered women of Australia, Eleora is under a death sentence from the implanted genetic triggers.

I entered a small inner conference room and after rechecking the shield status, activated the holographic link to Boddington. Eleora appeared before me a second later.

"Good morning my love!" she said cheerfully.

"Good morning back," I smiled. "You look happy! Good news I hope?"