The Time War Ch. 09&10

The Time War

By Gary LM Martin

Chapter 9: The Quaker Sex Slaves of Nigeria

Commander Strayker strode into the control room, passing by a long haired Indian woman with very firm looking buttocks. He went over to Sarah. "You called me?"

"Yes sir," said Sarah. "It's Lagos. And other cities in Africa." She started intently at her holoscreens.

"What about them?"

"There... it's gone now."

"What's gone?" said Strayker.

"For a few moments, Africa seemed to be... changed." Sarah seemed startled, a rare expression, for her.

"Changed? Changed how?" Strayker asked.

Sarah shook her head. "I'm not sure... the Africans, they seemed lighter skinned. And the cities, they were much more developed, with skyscrapers and shopping malls. Lagos looked more like... like New York," said Sarah. "But it was only for a few minutes. Everything seems back to normal, now."

Strayker nodded. "Keep me informed."

********

The Temporal Social Justice Warriors:

His name was Winton Smith, and drunk driving changed his life forever.

Winton Smith was a high school dropout. He found classes in Virtue and American Racism and Emotional Intelligence to be very boring. He liked to play hologames. Actually, he liked to play hologames, get drunk, and get high on Weed. Unfortunately, he had a tendency to combine some of these activities while driving an air car, with unpredictable results.

After his second crash, his father, who was a wealthy refinancier of emotional guilt, ran out of patience with him. And so Winton's luck ran out when he crashed into a tree while drunk driving. He had the misfortune to be picked up by the police; and the greater misfortune to be high on alcohol, and not Weed. Both impaired the ability to drive, but since Weed was considered virtuous, there were lower penalties for driving under the influence of Weed. Winton was facing real prison time.

Winton pleaded with his father to hire the elite law firm of Rabinowitz, Rabinowitz, and Rabinowitz, but Winton Senior was not moved. Nor would he even engage one of Rabinowitz's famous Robolawyers. It was said that the fourth generation Robolawyer, code-named "Moishe", could generate acquittals in criminal cases an astonishing 97% of the time.

Winton's father only smiled and said he had hired a lawyer who was more "cost effective". And so Winton's jaw dropped open when he finally met his lawyer.

She shimmered into being in front of him and his father. "Greetings," she said. "I am Jamilla Pramilla, your virtual attorney." She spoke in a clipped Bombay accent.

Winton turned to his father. "What the fuck is this?"

"It's a computer generated attorney, the sharpest AI available, son," said his father.

Winton was sure that this was not the sharpest AI available; more likely than not, it was the cheapest.

"I have studied your case at great length," said Jamilla Pramilla. "I am confident that if we plead guilty, we could get you a sentence under two years in a minimum security rehabilitation colony-"

"Fuck that!" said Winton. "And fuck you!"

"I am not programmed to respond in that area," said Jamilla Pramilla.

"Son, if you want a better lawyer, by all means, hire one," said his father generously.

But Winton had no money. His father knew that.

********

Winton brooded in front of his mirror in his bedroom. It was all so unfair. Life was so unfair. And as he stared into the mirror, he realized why.

It was all because he was black.

Suddenly, it all made sense. On the outside, he was a white man. He had a white face, white arms, a white chest, white legs, and a fairly white penis. But inside, he was a black man. He could feel it!

That's why life was always so unfair to him. And that's why the police arrested him. It all made sense now.

When the day for his trial arrived, Winton represented himself, much to his parents' misgiving. He looked the judge squarely in the eye, and told him that he had been arrested not for crashing his car while he was drunk, but because he was a black man.

The judge looked at Winton, who was clearly white, and asked him, "You are black?"

Winton frowned at the judge, and held up a white hand. "With all due respect, Your Honor, can't you tell?"

And so the case was immediately dismissed.

But Winton Smith was not content to leave it there. He sued the Amherst police department for racism. The case settled out of court for some fifty million credits.

Winton realized he had something good going here. He started an organization to cash in on all the white people who felt guilty about their unconscious racism. He wrote a book, "What's Wrong With White People?" which became an instant bestseller. Winton started his own "Cult of Forgiveness", where White People could seek forgiveness for their unconscious racism by making a donation to the Cult. The more money they gave, the greater the forgiveness they received. Winton pioneered the original "I'm so sorry" movement, where white people could meet and write self-criticisms about themselves... and make a generous donation to the Cult of Forgiveness. Winton sponsored high-priced conferences and retreats to liberate every last credit he could from wealthy and very guilty feeling white folk. He became an instant celebrity and was invited on every major talk show. Winton became extremely wealthy.

During this time, Winton realized that his transformation, from a white man to a black man, was incomplete. That was not entirely who he was. He spent days in prayer and meditation, staring at himself in the mirror, before he fully realized his true identity.

Winton Smith wasn't merely a black man. No, Winton Smith was a black woman. Not just any black woman, but a Latina black trisexual woman.

And so, with great fanfare, Winton Smith became Maria Jefferson. Some wondered why he had taken the last name Jefferson; after all, that was a known slave master's name. Maria replied that he knew that full well, but wanted to reclaim the name, to turn the tables and make the "Jefferson" name an accepted organic part of the black Spanish female trisexual community.

Winton's outwards appearance didn't change; his skin was still white; he still had a penis and a beard; but on the inside, he was a Spanish black trisexual woman of color. For sure.

Winton, now Maria, wrote a holobook entitled "How I Became a Spanish Black Woman, and You Can Too!" and it became a bestseller, bigger even than his debut holonovel, "What's Wrong With White People?". He made a splash by saying that not only must white people make reparations for slavery, and men must atone for the patriarchy, but that he, Maria, had made the ultimate reparation--his own body. Many of his eager followers followed his example, and thousands of white men became black and Spanish women overnight, after paying the appropriate administrative fees to the Cult of Forgiveness.

Winton/Maria acquired an enormous following. And then rumors came to his ears. Rumors of a woman who had the secrets to time travel. She was being held captive by a certain group, but Winton acquired eyes and ears inside this group, and before long he had rescued Marsha Kalinsky from her servitude to Tom Stoyer, though not before she had created a Time Shaft for him and his fellow Luddites.

Maria expected Marsha to be so grateful for her rescue that she would eagerly build a Time Shaft for him as well. Maria was savvy enough to realize that while Marsha was not black or Spanish like he was, she was a woman (also like him!), and thus she should have an innate eagerness to smash the patriarchy.

She didn't. Regrettably, Marsha had to be convinced, in ways that were not always gentle. Maria was not happy about having to break Marsha. Nor was he happy about forcing her to wear a circlet around her neck containing four grams of explosives. But measures had to be taken to promote the greater good.

It took Marsha six years to build another Time Shaft. Maria gave her all the funds she needed, and even more encouragement, whenever he sensed her enthusiasm was flagging. When it was done, the Time Shaft took Maria's breath away.

Finally. Maria stared at the blue, pulsating shaft, which reminded him of his feminine penis, and realized he would be able to accomplish his lifelong dream:

To make history look a lot more like humanity--less white, and less male.

Whenever Maria thought of history, he was disgusted. All the great inventions were invented by white men. All the great conquerors: again, white men. All the great decisions of history, made by white men. Even the name "history" had the dreaded "his" in it--why should it not be called herstory or theirstory or even itstory?

This needed to be fixed. Justice must be rendered.

To accomplish this, Maria created an organization to bring his dream to life. He called it The Community. He would grow an army, whose members would be Temporal Social Justice Warriors, TSJW's who would fight the wrongs of time, followers who had the same vision as him and the true grit and determination to see it through, whatever the cost.

But Maria didn't trust white men, not even white men who had made the conversion, as he did. Maria knew that his own conversion to blackness, to Spanishness, to trisexuality and femininity was wholesome and true; but didn't trust the conversion of so many others he had happily taken money from.

So his entire support staff was either dark skinned or female (with one exception). There were John Cummings, Keith Ashanti, and Elijah Ellison, all proud black men. John was his chief planner, and Elijah was charged with learning the ways of the Time Shaft, to keep an eye on Marsha, who was rapidly becoming more and more expendable with each passing day. John, Keith, and Elijah all felt as he did, that the history of white men needed to be rewritten in a more equitable way, and they accepted Maria as Spanish/Black because, well, he simply was.

Then there was Red Bull, who was actually born Gerald Malkin, until he learned he was he was one eighth Native American, and then he decided to embrace his 12.5% identity. After his conversion, Red Bull became angry with the name given for his people, Native American. "Native" implied they were superior to other Americans, but white people were so dense that to many of them it was not clear that they were being insulted. So Red Bull started a campaign to force everyone to call his people "Superior Americans". His campaign caught the attention of Maria, who recruited him to join the TSJW's, promising him justice for his people.

Then there was Ahmed Ahmad. Ahmed Ahmad was a follower of the Great God of Blood. He wasn't an enemy of white people per se, but as most followers of Laquinta were dark skinned, anything which hurt white people was bound to be good for his own kind.

Hillary Ashanti was the sole black female member of the Community, married to Keith Ashanti. There were also three white females in the Community, Chloe Weatherly, Dana Slotkin, and Alyssa Goldenfrau, who were dedicated to smashing the patriarchy, as well as one lesbian named Katie Lang, who was dedicated to smashing the heterosexist patriarchy.

And then there was... Craig Fuller.

Maria had some hesitation before deciding to let Craig Fuller join the Community. Craig was a white male, which normally would disqualify him for membership. But Craig professed to be a strictly practicing inanimasexual, meaning he only had sex with inanimate objects. That in turn made him a sexual minority. Maria, with some hesitation, allowed Craig to join, but half wondered if he would regret it later.

There was some natural tension in the Community between the white women and the black men. The black men felt that the Community should focus their temporal efforts on empowering racial minorities; but the women felt instead that the Community's first priority should be smashing the patriarchy's grip over history (or herstory, as they called it).

Red Bull felt like a minority of one, and that his needs were not being met. And Ahmed Ahmad felt uncomfortable being surrounded by so many unbelievers. Only Maria's repeated promises of justice for everyone kept his followers in line.

Mediating all these disparate factions was not always easy. But when the black men became agitated, Maria reminded them that as a fellow black man, he understood their needs; and when the women started complaining that their concerns were not being addressed, Maria reminded them that as a fellow biological female, he was looking out for their interests too.

One way that Maria kept the females mollified was through sexual intercourse; and even though he still had a penis, now that he was a woman, any intercourse with them could only be strictly defined as lesbianism; but Alyssa Goldenfrau. Dana Slotkin, and Chloe Weatherly were so dedicated to him, that they didn't mind, and he found his feminine penis easily converted the women to the joys of lesbianism.

Every night the women competed for a place in his bed. Last night, Alyssa Goldenfrau, a gorgeous blonde, hissed his ear and fondled him without shame in front of the others. But Maria, seeing Chloe Weatherly flirting with Elijah Ellison, went over to her instead and simply reached down and kissed her on the lips. Chloe responded eagerly and without hesitation, and Alyssa watched with jealous eyes as Maria took Chloe into the bedroom.

Followers of the Community believed in absolute equality, which included equality of sexuality, which implied redistribution of sexual wealth, which further implied that that anyone could ask anyone else in the group for sex. What it meant in practice was that Maria could ask anyone in the group for sex, and he exercised his rights vigorously.

Two hours later, Maria and Chloe sauntered out of Maria's bedroom. Maria had a smug smile on his lips and Chloe was tiptoeing like a cat that just had its belly rubbed.

"My friends," said Maria. "It's time to seek justice, for the ultimate injustice."

"The crushing grip of the patriarchy?" Alyssa Goldenfrau asked.

"Pushing the white man out of my ancestral lands?" said Red Bull

"Spreading the joy of Laquinta?" said Ahmed Ahmad.

"Ending the injustice of slavery?" said Elijah Ellison.

"That's right," said Maria. "We are finally going to get justice for slavery of our brothers and sisters!"

"But... we have tried several times to end slavery before it began," said Keith Ashanti. "And each time, we were thwarted by the Continuity Service."

"True," said Maria, taking a seat in the lounge. He looked at Dana Slotkin and patted his lap. She immediately climbed into it with a smile. "Each time we were thwarted. We know the CS is watching the standard slave trade routes. I don't think we'd have much luck there. But... if we tried something different... in a place where they weren't watching so closely... "

"What do you have in mind?" Elijah Ellison asked.

"We'll go to England, in the early 18th century," said Maria, as he started to fondle Dana's breasts. "We will recruit white people, and bring them to Africa."

"Why?" Dana asked.

"To sell them as slaves!" Maria grinned.

"White people...in Africa... as slaves? How does that help anyone?" Chloe Weatherly asked.

"It's reparations," said Maria. "The whites will pay for the sins of their wicked white brothers who enslaved our kind. Just as they enslaved us, we will enslave them. It's the highest form of racial justice!"

"Justice!" cried Elijah, taking up the chant.

"Justice, Justice!" cried the other black men.

"And how are we to accomplish this?" Red Bull asked.

"First, we have to start in Africa," said Maria, with a gleam in his eye.

********

Maria brought John Cummings and Keith Ashanti with him to what would become Nigeria in the year 1723. John and Keith knew Maria was black, of course, but the primitive Africans of the time might not recognize his innate blackness, so Maria brought John and Keith with him to improve his credibility, even though all three were dressed as Europeans of the period.

Tribal Chief Yemeni Osinbajo held the cotton ball Maria had given him in his hand with obvious distaste. "This will make me rich?" he said, in Yoruban.

"Absolutely," said Maria, in the same language. "The whites will pay you handsomely for it. All you have to do is grow it on your plantations."

Osinbajo looked doubtfully at the cotton ball, and even more doubtfully at Maria.

"Whites in the New World are getting rich off of it," said Maria. "You can make thousands of manillas off of this."

"Thousands?"

"Hundreds of thousands. Millions, perhaps," said Maria.

That got Osinbajo's attention. "But to plant so much... I would need many peoples...."

"Don't worry," said Maria. "We'll provide the people for you. At a very modest price."

********

Next, they went to London, in the same era. Maria started with the debtors.

He met with James Oglethorpe in a tavern in London. Oglethorpe was a renown advocate for debtors. In England, people with debts were thrown into prison. When they emerged, they were penniless, with no means of survival.

Maria offered Oglethorpe a solution. He would take Oglethorpe's debtors to the New World, a place called Georgia, where they could establish a self-sustaining colony.

"And will they be able to earn a living there, to earn their keep?" Oglethorpe asked.

Maria guaranteed it. He said there were farmers, cotton farmers, in desperate need of farm hands, and they would pay living wages, he promised.

Oglethorpe eagerly accepted.

Dana Slotkin, who had accompanied Maria to London, made a face after Oglethorpe had left.

"What?" said Maria.

"These debtors never enslaved anyone. They aren't responsible for slavery," she said.

Maria caressed her arm. "My dear, they are white. They have whiteness in their DNA. And what have I told you about DNA?"

"That racial guilt passes through DNA."

"Exactly. If some white people had slaves, then all white people are guilty of it, whether they actually had slaves or not," said Maria.

*********

After the debtors, Maria went after the Puritans. The Puritans were being persecuted by the Church of England for their religious beliefs. They were fined for refusing to attend Church of England services, and even imprisoned or executed for their beliefs.

Maria met with one of their leaders, a man named Robert Browne.

"I can take you to the New World, to a place called Massachusetts where you will be free to practice your religion in peace," said Maria.

"And no one will try to coerce us with another religion?" said Browne.

"I guarantee you, there will be no religious coercion," Maria promised.

"You are a good man, sir, to make such an offer," said Browne.

"I know," said Maria, not offended at being called a man in the slightest.

After Browne left, promising to gather his flock, Katie Lang turned to Maria and said, "Puritans, Maria?"

Maria grinned. "Maybe when this is all over they won't be quite so pure."

********

The last group Maria went after were the Quakers. But first, he had to quell a minirevolt on his hands from Chloe Weatherly and Dana Slotkin.

"No, Maria, not the Quakers!" Chloe cried.

"The Quakers are a decent, peaceful people," said Dana.

"Who are also white," said Maria. "And what do we know about white people, Dana?"

"That... that they are racist oppressors," said Dana, hanging her head.

"And what must be done with racist oppressors, Chloe?" Mari asked sternly.

"They must make reparations," Chloe said.