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.