Chapter 19

Beckie could see that David had been devastated by what Ben had told them. He was sitting on one of the sofas in the cave they had been allocated and he had his head in his hands. The sound of a low and continuous moan merely confirmed his state of mind.

She tried to work out how she herself felt. Thirty years of worshipping a God - thirty years of belief, of devotion, through childhood into adulthood and through the birth of an entire tribe — only to find out now that each time God had manifested himself it had been Ben.

The times that 'God' had spoken to her were still very clear in her mind. Until now they had been cherished memories — now she wondered if the discovery that it had been Ben all along changed that.

Surprisingly, she found that it didn't. Her motives for trying to get David to sleep with her hadn't been affected all that much by God — that had been more about the fact that she loved David as a man.

To her amazement, Beckie realised that she still believed in God, she still believed that there was a higher power, perhaps one that had influenced Ben to act as he did? Her faith and belief were as strong as they ever had been and she rationalised Ben's revelations as all being part of God's grander design. That idea gave her a large measure of comfort. God had meant for her and David to be together. God had meant them to build up their tribe to worship him. What Ben had done didn't change that feeling at all. She decided that she should share these feelings with David — that it might somehow help him too.

"David, listen to me. This doesn't change anything. Neither of us should lose our faith and belief in God because of what Ben has done. God is still there for us, I know it in my heart. Who is to say that Ben has not just been a pawn that God has been using to do his work for him?

"We have a duty to both God and our tribe to keep the faith. Now more than ever is the time to have courage and belief in the majesty of God and all that he has created."

David's only response was to moan louder and she crossed the cave to sit beside him so she could wrap him in her arms.

"You have always been the strong one, my love. Now is not the time to falter," she crooned.

David suddenly tensed and his head came up.

"Now you have seen for yourself what kind of man Ben is! Haven't I told you all along that he thirsts for power and control? Even I didn't think he could go so far as to consider himself a God, but it all makes sense — the cap fits the man! He barked.

"What has he done that's so bad?" asked Beckie. "He has saved your life on any number of occasions and he has looked after our tribe when we could have been in grave danger.

"He fed you, carried you, found us both a beautiful home. If it wasn't for God acting through Ben we would never have been together, we would never have built our tribe. I think your real problem is that you've discovered that you've been wrong about Ben all this time and you can't stand the idea that you're beholden to him!"

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE WOMAN!" screamed David. "You don't get it, do you? I couldn't care less if Ben had saved my life a hundred times. His real crime, his unforgivable sin is that he dared to call himself God, he dared to act as if he was God!

"I think you're right about the fact that there is still a God. The times that I've found myself disagreeing with God all make sense now — I wasn't disagreeing with our Lord, I was disagreeing with Ben! Yes God exists, yes I still have my faith and belief in him and if God does exist that means that Ben has committed an unpardonable offence. He is the most heinous blasphemer of all time and he must be made to pay for his sins!"

Beckie was thrown by David's sudden change of tack. She was relieved that he had accepted her argument that Ben's actions did not mean that there was no God. He seemed to have recovered very quickly once that idea had been accepted and now he was already turning the existence of God into a reason for attacking Ben once more. She knew she had to try to head him off before things got out of hand.

"Surely if God was offended by what Ben was doing, he would have turned his wrath loose on him? Who are we to judge what is offensive in the eyes of God? Can't you just accept that God used Ben as his instrument, his messenger? Why do you have to twist things in order to condemn Ben? Are you any better than Adam?" she demanded.

"Ben is evil through and through. Unless he is stopped he will have others believing he is God. He will drain the true believers away from God's path to righteousness; he will do everything he can to secure power for himself — power that should belong to God alone!" David snapped back.

Beckie could see the look of madness in her mate's eyes now and she shivered involuntarily.

"What are you going to do? David! What are you going to do?" she asked.

David pulled away from her and stood up.

"What else is there to do? I'm going to pray to God to show me the way, to enlighten me on how we must proceed. I will not lose my faith — you and our tribe can rely on me to be steadfast in this, to be sure and constant in our beliefs. Ben has usurped and sullied God's name, and I need help to figure out what to do about that. So, I will pray to our God for guidance!"

Elizabeth and Thomas had fled the heated exchange in Ben and Sarah's cave and returned to their own accommodation.

"Well I guess that confirms that Ben and Sarah knew all along that David had Beckie, or is it Lillian?" said Thomas.

"That was still no excuse for torturing Ben," said Elizabeth, a twinkle still in her eye at her fond memory of the time she had linked with Ben and Sarah. If anything, she thought that Ben was even more impressive now than he had been all those years before when he had lived at the caves.

The way Ben had taken charge the day before affected her in a way she hadn't expected. The feeling of power that radiated from him touched something deep within her and she knew she was aroused just by being close to him. Elizabeth was becoming besotted with Ben. She had watched all of the women (some her own children!) dancing and rubbing themselves against him with envy, but didn't trust herself to be in such close contact with him. Now she felt moved to defend the man she was growing almost lovesick over, she would forgive him anything in her current state.

"From what we heard it sounds as if Ben has been looking after David and Beckie for years now. If you ask me she was better off away from Adam."

"Maybe so, but what gives Ben the right to act like God? How would you feel if it had been one of our daughters that David had taken? And who's to say that Adam wouldn't have been a different man if he hadn't been so obsessed with finding Lillian for all those years?" asked Thomas.

"Think back Thomas. Ben was always the best of us, he was always the one to take the lead and sort out our problems. Perhaps he's made some mistakes — we all do — but I for one believe he has done what he has done with the best of intentions.

"If it had been our daughter I would probably have reacted exactly as Hannah did, but I would have been wrong! You saw what Ben was able to do yesterday; he saved so many of David's tribe?

"How many others would have been able to do what he did? How many others would have been so decisive, would have been able to keep calm in the face of disaster, and could have seized control of the situation? You know deep down that Ben is still our leader; nothing that's happened has changed that. He's a remarkable man!"

If Thomas had looked at his twin he would have seen the passion on Elizabeth's face as she felt herself responding to her own words — yes, Ben was a truly remarkable man she thought.

Thomas couldn't find the energy to argue with his twin. He had always followed Adam more out of trying to ensure he had an easy life than out of any conviction that Adam was right. If he was honest with himself he knew that Adam scared him. It was easier to simply agree to do what Adam wanted than to risk him turning against him.

"Well if we've re-gained our leader at least he's come back to us with some pretty impressive technology," Thomas said now.

Elizabeth detected a note of jealousy in Thomas' comment.

"Maybe he has, but perhaps you can make it better yet?" she tried to humour him. The last thing she wanted was for Thomas to begin to hate Ben — that might get in the way of what she was starting to think might be possible.

When Hannah had left the caves, Elizabeth had schemed to capture Adam for herself, drawn by his strength, position, energy and the prospect of better loving than Thomas was able to provide. That had all ended with Adam's death. Now she was quickly realising that her perception of Adam's qualities were a pale shadow of what she saw in Ben. Elizabeth was already imagining what it would feel like to have his weight on top of her, crushing her to the mattress as he took her as only a real man could. She shivered as a flash of arousal surged from her diamond hard nipples down to her already sopping sex and the stiff nub of her clit.

"Is there anybody home?"

Elizabeth almost collapsed as she heard Ben's voice call out, just as she was visualising him in such a sexually graphic way. She had worked herself up until she was almost like an animal in heat and the sound of that voice was almost enough to ignite an orgasm. She knew she had to somehow get a grip of herself — now was not the moment, but it would be soon, very soon.

"We're through here, come in," Thomas responded.

Ben and Sarah entered the cave, both of them looking as if nothing had happened earlier that morning. The water twins had decided that they needed to speak to Elizabeth and Thomas before they had a chance to dwell on what Ben had said. If at all possible they wanted to influence the other twins by giving explanations for what Ben had done. Having Elizabeth and Thomas on their side could be very important in the weeks and months ahead. Ben prepared himself to launch into the explanation he and Sarah had worked out, but he was struck dumb by Elizabeth's first words.

"Thomas and I were just agreeing how good it is to have our natural leader back," she gushed. "You were always the one that held our group together; we were at our best when you took charge. I'm afraid Adam wasn't quite up to that and it seems that all of our people here have suffered because of that — none more so than Hannah perhaps. Now you're back we can try to fix that."

Sarah's breath caught in her throat. She not only heard Elizabeth's words and the tone she used to deliver them, she also saw the way Elizabeth was looking at Ben. Her woman's sense for these things told her that Elizabeth was very hot for Ben, so hot it looked as if she was barely able to contain herself.

"How lucky is that? She's almost falling over herself to get Ben to notice her. Maybe we're not going to have such a difficult job of getting them to support us after all?" she thought to herself.

Out loud she tried to steer Ben away from the plan they had hatched before coming to the cave. Elizabeth's opening changed everything and it was likely that Ben hadn't yet picked up on how the woman was looking at him — he was a man after all and they were so dim about such things.

"Thank you, Elizabeth. We came to discuss the issue that I tried to raise this morning, but which we got kind of side-tracked away from. Ben has been in contact with the commander of the Woden ship that's orbiting the planet."

Thomas stirred and showed some interest for the first time since Ben and Sarah had arrived.

"Why speak to them again? Surely what we really want is for them to simply leave?" asked Elizabeth.

"Things have changed dramatically for the Wodenites," Ben began his explanation. "Another race has attacked Woden and conquered the planet. It seems as if the Wodenites are poor fighters at best and are certainly ill-prepared for war.

"The Woden Emperor has broadcast a message asking all of the space ship captains still at large to band together and to prepare to try to liberate their planet. If the ones we have come across are anything to go by, it's going to be a long, long time before they're anywhere near ready to attempt that."

"What has that got to do with us?" asked Thomas, as if on cue.

"Although we weren't born on Woden, I still feel something for the people we are descended from, don't you?" asked Ben. "If you think about it, we have many of the things that the Wodenites lack and if we could combine our strengths then these poor people might have a chance of freeing their friends and families."

"But what do we have that they need?" asked a puzzled Elizabeth.

"We have aggression! The Wodenites are woefully short on that. Allied to that, David's people are highly skilled with weapons and in the tactics of fighting. I'm willing to bet that he and his tribe could train the Woden troops to be much more effective. And then there's you," said Ben, pointing at Thomas.

"What have I done?" whined Thomas, fearful that something was going to change his easy life.

"You are without doubt the best engineer that we will ever see; you're far and away beyond anyone that the Wodenites have. With your skills they could re-fit their ships — protect them with shields, put in new engines to increase their speed, fit some of the powerful weapons that David's people could make," said Ben.