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."