The Preacher's Daughter

"How beautiful..." Eliana whispered.

"It's as if the Holy were trying out some new finger paints..." Basel whispered back.

The phenomenon lasted for about two minutes. And then the beacon was gone and the southern horizon back to its usual whites and grays. Basel and Eliana turned to each other and said simultaneously, "Wow!"

"It's the refraction phenomenon, right?" asked Eliana.

Basel nodded. "Exactly. The top of the sun's disk has to be edge-on to the horizon with just the right atmospherics. Usually when it does occur, it's just for a second or two, a green flash. But right now the sun is traveling perfectly horizontal with the horizon. We had exactly the right conditions for almost, what, two minutes?"

Eliana nodded. "I've talked with military pilots who have played sunset tag with the green flash. They would fly west supersonic with just enough speed to balance the Earth's rotation and keep the sun motionless at just the knife-edge of setting. They could see the green flash again and again." She smiled. "So, Basel, how have you been the last two days?"

He laughed easily. "Oh, I'm fine. I know I've been quite a hermit doing all the Level-0 certification." He gave her a playful smile. "Did you miss me?"

"Well, not just certification. You're being too modest," Eliana replied. "A month from now, we would have been in serious trouble with sewage recycling." She leaned over and gave him a quick peck on his cheek. "And yes, I did miss you. And I would have hated all the crawling you had to do."

"Ah, it was a one-person job. You know, the odds of what happened are almost zero. I've heard rumors the Guild will intentionally muck something up for an isolation trial, nothing the candidates can't handle if they do the certifications correctly, but if they're sloppy about it..."

Eliana nodded and peered at his picnic basket with a playful smile. "Something good I trust?"

"Um hmm. An Aleppo delicacy."

Eliana leaned over and cracked the basket open and sniffed. "Lobster for lunch!"

"You got it."

As Eliana helped set up the table, she asked. "There can't be too much of this in storage."

"You'd be surprised. I pulled some strings. Or rather, Varda did."

"Really? Great! Still, what's the occasion?"

"Well, this is Day 9, the 5% mark of the survival test. Within the next eighteen hours, we're going to have to send the final go / no-go to mission operations. There's no turning back after this."

Eliana nodded as she bit into a piping-hot piece of lobster wrapped in a light buttery pastry. "Oh, this is fabulous! You're a much better cook than I am Basel!" After a few more bites she asked, "Who's Varda?"

"A really nice CL3. We were going to do our isolation testing here together, starting last September."

"Oh... May I ask? What happened?"

Basel sighed. "She's engaged to join another marriage, becoming wife number four. At the last moment, her husband-to-be complained and she switched partners. She's now doing her testing with another woman CL3. They should be more than halfway through now, the largest island of ancient Japan."

"Oh hell Basel. I don't mean to pry, but that must have hurt."

"Oh, Varda and I are good friends, and I've met her other wives. They're really nice people. I didn't want to upset... well... Anyway! This is my day to ask about you!"

"Okay! Let me start by telling you about my family."

Basel listened with interest as Eliana talked about her family tree. The descriptions lasted till the end of lunch.

"Wow," he said at last. "I knew Abdul Hadi never sired any children. His wives were too old by the time he was cured of his eternal virginity, and he didn't want to procreate during his infliction. But his legal descendent through Kefira, yes... Didn't he also have an adopted son through Michal?"

"Yes. His wives traced the child from the medical records at Dalma. He was killed at Jericho in the Judgment of 8244. He was eight-years old, culled at the first childhood gate."

"Hell..."

"I know..." Eliana shrugged and then tried to smile. "I think most people today have forgotten what sacrifices my ancestors made, what a horror they saved us from."

"I know what you mean. Life is so incredibly easy now. The horror before Abdul Hadi is almost unimaginable."

A deep sigh from his companion. "So, Basel, what else would you like to know? I can start with another monologue, or I can answer questions about my life."

"Any questions?" Basel asked with a playful grin.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Actually, before we start, I was wondering..." Basel began to blush.

"Yes?"

"Eli, may I take you to the mat?"

Eliana gulped. "Huh?"

"I've been thinking, these last two days, all the love you offered me. I'd like to return the affection."

Eliana gulped again and surprised Basel by looking a little nervous. "Uh, okay."

They went over to the Judo mat and took off their shoes and socks. "What do you want me to do?" asked Eliana.

Basel sat in a lotus position. "Just lie and let me hold you, as you held me." Basel made a soft pillow out of a clean picnic towel for her head, and as she lay on her back, he pressed a bare foot against her soft hair and his hand was gently holding the other side of her head. He unexpectedly felt her trembling. "Hey Eli, you okay with this?"

"Yes!" she squeaked back, and then in a more normal voice, "Ask a question!"

Basel was at a loss why she was so nervous, and tried to think of something non-stressful to talk about. "So! Where did you live growing up?"

"Well, it's a tradition in my family to be half-shifters, four times as fast as yours. We moved to a different township every six years..." A long period of silence followed.

Basel was perplexed and tried to keep the conversation going. "Yeah. It's an interesting custom, everybody registering for the township rotations. I believe it was a personal idea of Abdul Hadi for people to shift every Holy Decade."

Eliana nodded. "And his wife Abigail. Her study of history taught her that when a population sits in one place, especially over generations, people get territorial."

"Which leads to nationalism, which leads to wars. Yeah. I think the shifting is a good idea. And it lets you see more of the world."

"Yep, that was my parent's idea. They doted on me, gave me the chance to see lots of different parts of the world. I was born in Nubia, the ancient Galapagos, and when I was four, we lived at Luxor where San Diego used to be. When I turned ten, my parents moved to Humar in New Zealand. And then when I was sixteen we moved to Tarim at Cuba, so I've lived on islands most of my life. When I became an adult, I signed up for a half-shift at the capital. I remember going there... The Holy, Basel! I was so innocent back then..."

Eliana was shivering. Basel tried to be affectionate, gently hugging her head with his foot on one side and a caressing hand on the other.

The effect was immediate and shocking. Eliana's eyes blinked wide and she shrieked and bolted to a sitting position.

"Eli, I'm so sorry," whispered Basel. "What?"

Eliana was gasping for breath and did not answer for a while. "Oh hell, oh hell..." she mumbled.

A quiet question, "You want some time alone?"

"No!" Another few ragged breaths. "It's not you Basel, not at all. I had a flashback." Another few ragged breaths, and then she lay back down and pushed her head firmly against his foot. "Hold me?" she whispered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

Basel gently cupped her ear on the other side of her head. They sat like that for many minutes in absolute silence, Basel's thumb slowly caressing her ear, feeling the struggle within Eliana's body.

She whispered, "It was early February of 9564. I had been at Bandar Arenas for a month... Oh..." She gave a gasp.

"Eli, wait. This memory is obviously painful, and I don't want to drag it out of you. Won't that make the pain worse?"

"I'm not sure... But it's a part of who I am. Basel, may I show you?"

He caressed her for a moment and then nodded. "Eli, it's an honor to see your soul."

Eliana took a deep breath and nodded back. "I was just making my career choices for my adult studies. I had already picked the military Priesthood, and was also thinking of a medical profession, not counseling though, not a Priestess..."

Basel sighed. "Very ambitious..."

"Oh yes. And I was teased by my age-mates about it. A lot of us new adults were living in the same housing complex. I had a reputation for being too ambitious... and prudish..."

"Prudish?! Like hell! Some of the sexual norms of the capital are horrible!"

"I know that now. But at the time, I was innocent and ambitious and off on my own for the first time of my life and..." She took a couple of big gulps of air. "I tried to make friends with a bunch of medical students, a few years older than I was... There was a party..."

Basel stroked her head in silence for several minutes. Then she continued.

"They thought I needed loosening up, and the vote nullifying the Aleppo rape convictions had just occurred three days earlier. The male students were very angry. There were some recreational drugs at the party. I didn't know. I drank more than I should have... something that relaxes inhibitions."

"Oh Eli..." Basel whispered.

"I was being held down, a man's boot pressed into one side of my head, and he had a firm grip of my hair on the other. Another man was under my dress." She winced. "And I was allowing it to happen."

"Allowing?! Like Hell! You were drugged!"

"There were others too, holding my legs. Maybe my arms too, it's difficult to remember. I remember the grips on my ankles though. And they were all laughing, saying that if I were internally lubricating and then orgasmed, then it couldn't be rape."

Eliana shuddered under Basel's caress. "There was a paste undergoing clinical trials at the capital, a stimulant of the Bartholin's glands. It was meant to help women over three hundred lubricate and have sex. I felt a cold latex hand open my sex, and then a slick finger smeared the paste across my labia. I started to howl and hump my hips. It was sexual heat, white hot! The desire was incredible Basel! And the men were laughing at my flow and how juicy I was. And I could feel the man moving under my dress again...."

Eliana sobbed. "He drilled me! The latex finger returned with new paste and he drilled me under my clitoral hood! I started to scream as I orgasmed! The people at the party said it sounded feral!"

Eliana shuddered and sobbed. "My screams shocked the med students into ending their attack. It turns out... It turns out... It turns out there's a sympathetic chemical link between the paste and the recreational drug I was on. The potency of the paste was augmented... a hundred times... I was lucky not to suffer brain damage..."

Basel grimaced. "Tell me that you didn't prosecute."

"Okay. Basel, I didn't prosecute."

"Oh hell Eli..."

"My soul is like yours Basel. I couldn't bear to hang onto my anger. And my attackers sincerely apologized. I went to counseling for a while... It helped a lot..."

"You still should have prosecuted."

"Oh, I was so embarrassed Basel. Not just from the attack, from the horrible vote voiding the rape law. I was embarrassed about my gender. And the men were sincerely contrite. I didn't want to hurt them, ruin their lives..."

Her hand came up and held his hand against her cheek. "I told the court we were all under the influence of an inhibition suppressor, that we all didn't know. That last part was a borderline lie. The med students were making sure my punch glass was full. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to forgive them." She sighed. "I told the court I couldn't remember much but might have given them permission to use the paste."

Basel caressed her. "Eli, two days ago... I can see why you thought the annulment vote was such an abomination."

"Another wart on my soul..." she whispered.

"What?! This is no wart!"

"I shrieked when you held me! Are you sure you still want me?"

"What a question?! More than ever!"

"I... I... Oh Basel, I don't feel like thinking anymore..."

Basel cracked a kind smile. "This really is a mirror image of two days ago. Come on, I'll tuck you in."

Basel walked Eliana down to her bedroom. The mirror image really was complete. She scooted over to one side of the bed to make room for him. With tears in his eyes, he joined her, and they held hands as Eliana drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

"My gosh, what an angel," he thought. "What a beautiful angel. This is so amazing. After so many years of dreaming about sleeping with girls, I'm finally getting my chance. This is the second time Eli is lying with me and trusting me with her body. And we've been so chaste with each other." Basel lay on his side and watched Eli as she slept, enjoying the feel of her hand and watching the slow rise and fall of her breasts. He felt overwhelmed by a desire to care for this precious creature beside him.

Chapter 8. Cast Off

Later that day...

Time: January 15, 9570 11:41 PM UCT

Eliana looked at Basel across the Level-2 control center. "You don't mind, do you, that I'm waiting till the last moment to send the final Go code?"

"No, I guess not. It's a bit unusual, but I like your thinking. There's no advantage to sending it early. Your way maximizes our safety, and there's no downside to waiting." He paused to look at the clock and added, "Assuming, of course, we actually get around to sending the code by midnight."

Eliana grinned. "I must say, even our partial isolation thus far has had a certain weight to it. I send reports out, and absolutely nothing comes back, not even an acknowledgment of reception. I've never experienced anything like this. It's a little spooky."

Basel nodded. "I have the advantage on you there. I've talked with lots of Rangers. It'll be even spookier after we send the Go code. Except for the station's encrypted link with the CAT, we will be completely communications isolated. We won't be able to cry for help, scream that our partner is trying to kill us, plead that we're mortally injured... We will be completely isolated from the rest of the world. Even our link to hologram entertainment will shut down. No matter what happens, we won't see another human or hear a news report about the world until July 7th."

"Well, we do have the CAT. We could abandon the station, head south. Water won't stop us, the CAT is submersible."

"It's not the water. The CAT has a governor built into its global positioning system. If we try to leave the area..."

Eliana stared at him. "It'll die?"

"Nothing quite that dramatic. It just won't stray too far. The CAT will start to get sluggish."

"So how far can we go?"

"The Guild doesn't tell the cadets the exact limit, there's a random element involved, certainly less than a hundred kilometers though. Still quite a distance, and heading back to the station will always work at full power. And on July 7th, all the restrictions will disappear."

"Any way to fool it before then?"

"Oh, it's been tried, never successfully. There are some real horror stories in Ranger history."

Eliana looked at the clock and then leaned back in her chair. "We still have some time. Amuse me!"

Basel thought for a moment and then laughed. "Okay, you asked for it! About seven-hundred years ago, there was a Ranger test at a desert station where ancient Lebanon used to be. This was in the late 8700's, when the isolation candidates were never contacted but were still supposed to make daily reports to Guild headquarters."

"Uh huh."

The test seemed to go fine for about four months. Then both Rangers reported that their station was infested with giant poisonous ants, claimed they had giant ant bites covering their bodies. They begged for medical help..."

Eliana frowned. "...and got nothing."

"No, not during an isolation test. Two months later the pickup team found their two bodies. The women were trying to take shelter in the cold storage food lockers. Their notes said the cold was keeping the ants out. Their bodies were covered with tiny puncture marks, and the autopsy concluded they died from formaldehyde injections."

"What?! The ants were real?!"

"That's the spooky part. No trace of the infestation was ever found. The station was clean, no ants, no ant droppings, nothing. And the outside environment was examined and found normal."

Eliana blew a full load of air through her cheeks. "Oh hell..."

"Yeah. The official conclusion was that the two cadets snapped, became delusional, even to the point of self-inflicting their wounds, jabbing formaldehyde into themselves. There didn't seem to be any other explanation."

Eliana looked at the clock. "Basel, let's send the code now."

Basel nodded and turned to his console. He lifted a clear protective cap and inserted a small orange key into an orange slot and turned it full left. "Ready Commander."

"On three, One, Two, Three!" Five meters apart, they turned their keys full right. At another part of the control room, their main communications console blacked out, displaying only a security lockout warning and a countdown clock with 171 days, 0 hours, and some minutes and seconds on it. The second phase of their test had begun.

Six hours later...

Time: January 16, 9570 5:57 AM UCT

Eliana was standing alone at the southern end of the observation dome, waiting for the year's first sunrise. She was expecting Basel to join her momentarily, and for a while was lost in quiet contemplation as she watched the pre-dawn sky.

She felt a tingle and thought she sensed Basel quietly sneaking up on her on her left. Smiling and about to laugh that she had sensed him and foiled his surprise, she turned her head and realized there was no one there.

She looked around the observation room, her eyes drawn to the eastern horizon for no particular reason she could understand. She saw peaceful rocks and snowy evergreen forest deep within its winter's sleep. Eliana finally heard her companion climbing up the ladder and decided to laugh at herself. "Basel and his ghost story! I didn't realize I was so susceptible. The total isolation is affecting me more than I anticipated." She put the issue out of her mind, and a moment later Basel emerged from the ladder. Eliana offered her hand to Basel, and enjoying the simple human contact, they waited for the dawn.

"Well, this is nice," commented Eliana at 6:03. "Beautiful pink sky, a tip of yellow light, spring is on the way!"

"Well, sort of, it's more than two months till the equinox! Enjoy this while you can. A big storm is moving in tomorrow."

She glanced to the eastern horizon without realizing it and nodded her head. "Tell me Basel, originally you were going to stay here after the isolation testing, right?"

"Uh huh. The original isolation test was going to run from early October to the end of March. We even had our Judgment 4 anti-aging injections sealed and ready to take with us. Then Varda switched partners..."

"What would you have done in April?"

"Same thing that I'm hoping to do now. A large herd of wooly-hippo was observed to move into the area a few years ago. The Guild thinks it might be a new sub-species. I want to do a behavior study, see how they're interacting with the bear and reindeer population." He paused. "And how about you? Eli, the one question I wanted to ask you yesterday, I never got around to it."

"Shoot."

"Why would an ambitious woman who is a Commander, a Priestess, and a military aviator want to become a Ranger?"

"Simple. My commanding Governor asked me to volunteer for this mission."

"Uh... She did huh?"

"A man actually, name of Zaafir, and yes, he did. He sent me to look for a missing meteor crater."

Basel smiled. "Oh? Did somebody lose a meteor crater?"