Chapter 41: No Easy Model

The following afternoon...

Time: January 5, 8240 11:50 AM

The world from 22,000 meters is an awesome sight. As my ramjet rocketed southward to Qataban, I was in an aisle seat with Dodi at my side. She kept her face pressed against the window. A small display at the front of the passenger cabin was showing our current speed at 4,035 kph. The weather was clear and calm, and the scenery below was changing far too quickly to ever be boring.

Dodi had given me a formally correct bow when I had given her permission to remove her burqa veil during the flight, and after removing it a brief smile of genuine gratitude. She knew she was married to me, knew because we went through a brief registration ceremony just after my conference adjourned earlier this morning. She had felt my hand on her throat and pubis after pleading her bondage to me. But other than the ceremony, I was a complete stranger to her.

The conference was a complete success. I thought I had earned the human geneticists' grudging admiration, and a part of me was impatient for April to arrive and my stay at Dalma to begin. Qataban though, there was still so much I wanted to do there, so many wild hunches I wanted to explore. And I had great hope Abigail would be an invaluable asset in my investigations.

I took another glance at the back of Dodi's head and inwardly smiled, carefully keeping any outward sign of affection from my face. I had invited seven members of my guard and senior deputies to hitch a ride back with me to Qataban, and showing affection to Dodi in their company would be considered very abnormal behavior. After one last peek at my new bride, I went back to reading some papers.

My new wife! We had stayed up to almost 1 AM last night. Dodi had opened her heart to me, letting me see her innermost fears and desires. She knew how fragile the moment was, despaired that there was no way for her to save what we were building. As 1 AM neared, she finally accepted my growing concerns for her not to fight her drifting mind. She rested peacefully as I petted her, falling deeply asleep minutes after giving up the struggle.

I went for my morning exercise with my guard at 4 AM after logging my marriage selection with Giza cathedral's head Nikahaldi. I then joined the negotiation teams for a buffet breakfast which quickly turned into a working meeting right there in the dining hall. By the time 6 AM morning Prayers started in the main sanctuary, we were deep into resolving the last of our small differences. We completed our work less than two hours later.

The woman besides me now had no measure of my character, had no idea how thoroughly she had bared her soul to me last night. I sighed as I read my papers. I had had the same frustrations with Michal, in our first few months of marriage. We would build some beautiful during the day, touch each other's hearts, and then I would see it all disappear at day's end. It was profoundly frustrating and sad.

And then, after about three months of marriage, something miraculous happened. Michal's love and trust for me began to jump across the purges of the eternity cycle. When we would sleep together, I could see a joy in her eyes when she woke and saw me, even though she had no conscious memory of who I was. I think it bewildered her even more than me at first, but we are both comfortable with the miracle now. Both our souls have learned to accept the gift.

Dare I ask my Holy for the same gift for me and Dodi? I decided yes. My Holy is a Holy of abundance, gracious and loving in His care. It is right for me to ask.

There was a warning chime, and shortly thereafter an audible change in the pitch of the engines as the pilots began to cut power. Our supersonic bow wave quickly began to brake the plane. Our return to Earth and Qataban had begun.

One hour later...

Dodi let out a frightened shriek of dismay. I had just introduced her to my prone wives who were kneeling before me at my Qataban home. Seeing the shields raised and the woman next to me as their new sister-wife, three of them had gotten up to hug both me and Dodi. A few seconds later, a mildly confused Michal joined them.

Such easy displays of affection are considered blasphemous in our society, a direct and unforgivable affront to the pillar of hierarchical obedience. My new bride looked at me askance over the shoulder of Abigail who was hugging her. Dodi's eyes were bright with fear. She was probably expecting me to reach for the leather whip hanging on the wall... or the bamboo cane... Women have also been executed for such outrages, impaled under the hammer of the righteous.

I had a wonderfully warm and affectionate Shephatiah in my arms, with Chanah and Michal nearby. I gave Dodi a smile as peaceful as I could make it. She finally managed to give me a small and hesitant smile back a second before I got lost in a very playful kiss from Sheffie. "Come, all of you!" I called out. "We have so much to discuss! Abigail! Where's the best place for us to conference?"

She thought for a second. "If you don't mind being informal, perhaps the master bedroom." The room she was suggesting was designed for a Royal to have sex with twenty wives or more at the same time, a huge expanse of bed spreading across the room. We changed into some very informal house clothing and were soon relaxing there. "The Holy!" I thought. "My wives are so beautiful!"

I was dying to know of the months of progress with the crystal data, but all our concern for Dodi came first, for Michal too for that matter. We spent the next half hour describing our heresy and our great quest. There was peaceful acceptance from Michal and one shocked look after another from Dodi. She started to shiver and kept glancing around the bedroom, looking for video monitors. It was a good reminder to all of us how dangerous our quest was. Occasionally even I would check the status of the Heisenberg shields. All was well.

My curiosity finally overwhelmed me. "Abigail! The crystals! What have you found?!"

She nodded and was still for a moment, collecting her thoughts. It was time to report on all their months of hard work.

"It's a dilemma Ilias," she said at last. "There is no easy model in history for what we want our society to be. In many ways, our species and our planet are much better off now than they've ever been before. Not as individuals, but as a species, we and the Earth have never had it so good."

I felt like a punctured balloon and let out a deep sigh. "This is not exactly what I was hoping to hear."

"Oh, I know it!" wailed Abigail softly. "I'm not saying our quest is hopeless Ilias, but the history of humanity before Bel'dar is a horror, in many ways just as hateful as we are now and much, much more destructive."

"They had bigotry," said Shephatiah. "Gender domination too, maybe not as much as now, but lots and lots of bigotry."

"Bigotry?" I asked perplexed. "Bigotry of what?"

"Pure stupidity," replied Chanah. "It's unbelievable how stupid they were. Totally meaningless bigotry, bigotry based on skin tones, eye shape, body hair patterns. We all thought it was a joke at first. But it was no joke, and then the geneticists got their power and made the differences real."

I stared at Chanah and my other wives. "Explain."

"Everyone hated everyone for the weirdest reasons," Shephatiah said. "People would hate you if you were born in a different place than they were."

I blinked and tried to keep from laughing. "Well, at least in this I know you're joking."

Abigail shook her head. "No, it's true Ilias. The countries that existed before the war, it was common for people to be biased against people not born in their country."