Chapter 56: Parental Request

Time: November 11, 8244 5:10 AM

I got home and found all six of my wives there, another indication that something big was up. Abby quickly led me into our most informal conference room, the one with a lot of bean bag chairs. Dodi and Michal were looking happy and alert, having just awoken from their purge cycles an hour ago. Abby, Sheffie, Chanah, and Eleora by contrast looked very agitated, bursting with excitement.

I smiled at Abby across from me as Eleora sat close by my right side and Dodi by my left. "I hoping this it something good," I chirped.

Abby nodded. "Something tremendous if we're right. Husband, do you have time for some background first?"

"Take all the time you want. What's up?"

"History! A hundred... no, thousands of pieces of the historical puzzle fell into place this morning, right after you left. The crystal data, the Qataban archives, the palace data-store, and now the new library fragments from Giza..." Abby took a deep breath. "Let me start from the beginning. We think we know why the War of the Burning Metals really started."

"Overpopulation, right?"

"Well, yes, but that's just part of the answer. It was a nuclear battle between a new species of human, us, and the original humans. Twenty-five to thirty years before the war, a new human genome was created, one that could successfully take the anti-aging drugs and live to be three-hundred years old."

I stared at Abby in shock. "So soon?!"

"Yes, before the war! And by the time the war started the new humans were breeding just as fast as the old humans, maybe even faster. But there was no place for them to go, no place for them to be. Our ancestors even offered to buy Antarctica, to have a nation of their own there."

Chanah spoke up. "We think our genome is much hardier than the original. We're faster, stronger, keener senses, better balance and reflexes, we need only four hours of sleep at night, so many advantages. Our genome is also self-repairing against radiation damage, much more than the original. That's why the refugee population flooding Punta Arenas was mostly our species. We overwhelmed the city's original inhabitants, and then we slaughtered them."

I was silent for a moment. It always bothered me how a refugee population could come up with all the new miracle sciences. Now I knew. The pre-war population had created it for them. Or should I say us? I nodded to my wives. "Okay."

Abigail continued. "There are so many myths as to the timing and reason for Bel'dar's death. Our best guess now it happened about the year 40. We think Bel'dar had at least two sons. One became Abdul Wahid Sami, Servant of the Ineffably Sublime, the second Cunif Califar. The other is quite a mystery in the records. His name is never mentioned. He went off to found a monastery which would become the spiritual power center to back up the central secular government."

"Ah," I nodded. "Babylon."

Abigail smiled and shook her head. "No! Not Babylon. Think husband! It was just 40 years after the war. The post-war battles of extermination were over, but we were still in the early years of the Wild Times. Bel'dar's two sons needed to be closer to each other than Bandar Arenas and Babylon. That's 4600 kilometers, a huge distance at the time."

Abigail's point suddenly hit me. "Tobruk!"

"Yes!" she cried. "Exactly! About 500 kilometers, at the shell of ancient Puerto Eden. Close enough for secure contact, but far enough away to separate the two seats of power. We don't know the name of Bel'dar's second son, but we do know he had a child. He was the man who eventually murdered his uncle and became the third Cunif Califar."

I sighed deeply and then gasped. "Murdered his uncle?! Abdul Jabbar, Servant of the Compeller, founder of the Nikahaldi Academy! Of course!"

"Yes! Abdul Jabbar tried to hold both reins of power, both sacred and secular. When that proved too difficult, he split up his sacred power base to weaken it and to keep it from interfering with his secular rule. He kept the Nikahaldi at Tobruk with their production of the eternal virginity drugs, established The Code of Bel'dar monastery at Babylon in Peru, and sent the anti-aging drug expertise to the Caribbean. Grenada was the first island resettled after the War. The monks there renamed the island Giza, and founded what eventually became the Health faction."

I nodded, feeling a tremendous surge of adrenaline in my body. "But all three facilities originally operated at Tobruk!"

"Exactly! Including the production of the anti-aging drugs! Do you see now why the Health faction was so eager to destroy the Academy there?!"

Five days later...

Time: November 16, 8244 4:00 AM

I woke up rested in the Royal guest quarters of Tobruk's cathedral, near the center of town and about ten kilometers south of the Nikahaldi Academy. I sighed in the pleasant coolness of the room and thought about the coming day. After all the years of struggle, especially after the emotional turbulence of the last five days, euphoria to despair to slim hope to tearful goodbyes, today I... What?

Civil twilight was just starting outside the window. The sun would be up in another thirty-four minutes. The room was in dim shadows, but it was light enough to see. I blinked as I realized there was a small person sitting classic lotus-fashion in pajamas on my large bed with me, small bare feet tucked under the body. The breathing control of my intruder was superb.