Chapter 58: All Good Gifts Around Us...

Time:?

Drifting... Drifting... I have a dream. I have a dream, and it is just beyond my grasp. What is it? Am I asleep? Am I in Heaven?

I laughed at myself as I drifted. Abdul Hadi, don't be stupid! This still feels like a human mind! This isn't eternity, just the eternity drugs! But still... Where am I?

It was the strangest feeling, completely unexpected and yet hauntingly familiar. I could feel the locks of the purge cycle on my mind, imagine how I would tear my consciousness on the sharp blades of the locks if I fought the cycle and tried to awake before the cycle was complete. And yet...

Yes! The locks were disintegrating, dissolving before and within my mind. Was this what it was like to wake up from a purge cycle? It seemed very strange. I thought in another few minutes though, if the locks kept up their disintegration, I might safely try to force myself awake.

What has happened? The last thing I remembered, I was standing in the third airlock, looking at the time. It was three minutes after the start of the second hiss. I could see the red numbers of the clock inside the control room clearly. And then... And then... Oh, the irony! To go from perfect memory to no memory at all! What happened?!

I calmed myself with a short Prayer and considered. I had been expecting to fall asleep in a purge cycle but not awake from it. I was standing inside the airlock. It was so real! Just moments ago, I was there! I could see the control room! Hear the hissing! Feel the heavy glass door in front of me! The airlock! Just moments ago! Just moments ago?

Perhaps gas injection of the drugs causes an immediate sleep cycle. Possible I guess. But that doesn't seem right. Could that have happened? I would still be midway in the purge cycle of my first forced sleep when the building exploded. But I'm alive! But... Oh, I don't know...

Could I be lying in the open airlock, coming out of a short purge cycle? Are precious seconds disappearing? Perhaps I should try to fight the locks before they disintegrate? Oh, my dear wives! Dodi and Michal, do you have this awful decision to make, every day of your lives?

My Guide came to me in my sleep, mighty without measure, and He gave me peace, resting my heart and telling me to wait. As His servant, I trembled and cried out my love and obeyed.

The then the last of the locks were gone, destroyed. Destroyed? I could sense my body now. I was lying peacefully in a comfortable bed. I probed my body with my mind, and was very happy with what I sensed, layers of smooth and well-developed muscles. I couldn't remember ever being in this good of physical shape, not even during my extended tours with the Special Guard. And there was more.

I was being held. I was sleeping with someone. I would feel warm, bare flesh pressing against me, legs, hips, and chest. I was being held in loving arms. I sighed, my mind profoundly calm. I opened my eyes.

There was a naked woman lying with me. She was severely withered. It looked like a very extreme case of anti-aging withdrawal, more severe than any textbook ever illustrated. I reached up and gently stroked the wrinkled face along the temple at the edge of the snow-white hair. The woman's eyes opened and gazed into mine.

And the eye contact brought recognition. "Eleora?!" I whispered.

A loving, easy smile greeted me. "It always amazes me Abdul Hadi. You recognize me every time!"

I sat up and looked around. There was twilight outside the many banks of windows, and somehow it felt like morning twilight. One direction showed a few low buildings, their unfinished frameworks clearly exposed, with much excavation and grading equipment beyond. Another prospect was that of a short set of dunes followed by an ocean stretching to the pinkish light of the horizon. A clock on a nearby table read 2:47 AM.

"Am I looking east now?"

Eleora nodded and gave me a loving smile. "Uh huh. Just about."

I glanced around the room. It was very nice, simple and beautiful. It reminded me a bit of my cathedral quarters at Karbala. But this certainly wasn't Karbala! I turned to Eleora. "I'm puzzled. If this were Karbala at Judgment, the time would be right for sunrise, but..."

Eleora smiled at me with indulging amusement. She knows of my childlike love for solar geology. "Ah Abdul Hadi, as a matter of fact, yes, this is Judgment 1."

I looked again out the window. "But this can't be Karbala! Where are we?"

"You're right about being on an island. We're at the construction site of a new township. The town's name hasn't been picked yet. That will happen later today. The old name of the island is Lanzarote."

I blinked. "Oh. The Canary Islands?"

Eleora laughed. "Yep!" She kissed me and then pointed to the dawn with a frail arm. "Africa is just a short 200 km hop from here!"

I laughed back and then blushed. "Forgive me, but you look so ill! But you're not ill, are you?"

"Nope! This is what the body of an old woman is supposed to look like. This is what's normal for a hundred and two years old!" She kissed me fiercely before I could reply.

I laughed again when Eleora broke the kiss and began licking my ear. Such a tease! She knows how much this tickles me, remembers our wedding night! I tried to get back to the conversation. "A hundred and two, huh? What's the date?"

The soft tongue stopped its teasing, as least for the moment. "Judgment 1, 8316."

I blinked, the reality of her words finally crashing in on our playfulness. "My Holy! The start of the new Holy Century, the seven-day Judgment. So many years Eleora! What happened?"

She was about to answer, but we wound up getting back to kissing first. It was pure love and kindness for a while, but the platonic nature of our caresses didn't last. I was amazed how easy it was to slide from simple caring love to eroticism. Our tongues were playing with each other, and her skin felt like fine, worn leather. Our flesh was pressing against each other, and our hands were very active in expressing our appreciation. I moaned at how much my body loved her body. A strong, bony hand replied by gripping my penis firmly. Eleora began to stroke me. I was soon gasping in the pleasure, thrusting my erection in harmony with her pulsing grip.

"Eleora?" I whispered and panted.

"Hush my love, unless you want me to stop." She sat up and turned. Soon her mouth joined her hands at my penis and sac. Warm slick moisture everywhere, and a wet fingertip teasing and probing me lightly at my anus. I panted and rocked my hips, rolling with the sexuality until I felt myself nearing orgasm. The wet finger then pushed hard against my asshole, sliding and entering me and hooking my rectum. I gasped as Eleora started pumping my prostate, just as her suckle lifted to my penis head and intensely simulated me there. I spurted into my wife's loving and hungry mouth.

Eleora purred when I had finished. "Hmmm. My beautiful lion! And so tasty too!" She sat up and sat on me, her groin against my spent but still wet cock. She took it in her hands and worked my erection for a while, making me fully stiff again, and then she pushed the velvet nose partway into her wet vagina. I felt my manhood held in a soft and silky circular embrace. Eleora began to hump her pubis down, impaling herself on my male eagerness for her.

She looked at me, her eyes bright and her body flush with desire. "See? I like to Ride the Asad too!"

I grinned. "And how far do you want to ride?"