Mission
From CleanPosts
THE MISSION
Barakiel Antero and Kushiel Bellon climbed the biggest mountain in the uni- verse without breaking a sweat.
Hybla-Dia at Alpha Centauri A was a true binary planet, forming a figure eight when seen from space. Gravity pulled both worlds into teardrop shapes that nearly kissed and the sharp ends of those teardrops were the biggest mountains ever discovered. But close to their summits where the gravity of the twin bodies nearly canceled out the burden of climbers was very light indeed.
As the sun Rigelkent set, there was a light-hearted race between them to reach the pinnacle of Hybla. The short, thin, but wiry Kushiel attained the summit first. A balding forty-eight year old yang with a fringe of brown hair, Kushiel watched the younger yang bounce his way to the top with graceful alternating touches of his feet and hands.
Despite the steep slope of the wall here, in minimal gravity rock climbing was largely just a matter of intelligently choosing one's route, more a ballet than a demonstration of endurance and strength. Barakiel was the more powerful yang and half his age, but Kushiel had chosen his path more wisely, and his payoff was to bag the summit first.
Looking down, Barakiel and Kushiel saw the flanks of their mountain merge into the rest of the planet Hybla far below, literally thousands of miles below. They saw endless undulating gray ridges and long skinny deep blue lakes, all partly obscured by clouds. Looking straight up, the identical but slightly smaller blue and green bulk of the neighboring planet Dia filled half the sky its own mega-mountain nearly poking them in the eye. Few nephilim from Gorpai had seen this awesome sight with their own eyes.
Looking out, the yeng saw a handful of other tourists with strap-on wings circling the mountain, rising on the winds. Too bright to look at, yet giving almost no heat, the distant orange sun Agena hung out there in the pur- ple sky. It was the home star of all the nephilim, and gave far more light than the full Moon ever did during night on Earth. Rarely was it ever truly night here at Hybla-Dia with both suns under the horizon.
But even more astonishing than the view, Kushiel saw a classic piston mono- plane spiraling up the narrowing flanks of the Hybla super-mountain, rising under minimal power with the wind. The planes design was three hundred years old if it was a day.
Kushiel was fascinated by antique machines, a love that led to his career in engineering.
When the plane rose up over the lip of the compact but flat summit plateau the pilot killed its engine, an actual internal combustion engine by the sound of it, Kushiel thought. In the low gravity the plane settled to the ground with three slow bounces on its fat rubber tires.
The door of the plane opened and that most rare of creatures stepped out, a female officer of the Imperial Navy.Sha was Major Suriel Larund. Barakiel recognized har pale, icy blue eyes, white skin, and the way har voluptuous body filled out har black working uniform.
Thirty-two years old, Suriel was childless but oozed a sublimated maternity that found other outlets. Sha wore har ample pile of jet-black hair coiffed and pinned up in a style that was popular a hundred and fifty years ago, because everything old was new again.
Suriel was the ops boss when Barakiel was a lieutenant on the Disputer and hy was glad to see har again. "Major Suriel! Hello, it's been such a long time!"
"Barakiel! I wasnt expecting you to be up here already. I almost hit you."
Both yeng bowed slightly but stifled an urge to salute. It would have been inappropriate. They were out of uniform, on liberty and dressed for climb- ing.
Barakiel said, "Major, I'd like to introduce Sergeant Kushiel Bellon. Hy is an excellent climbing partner and he's an even better mechanic. The best."
"Hello Sergeant." He bowed again, deeper this time.
"Kushiel, Major Suriel Larund is an a absolutely brilliant tactical action officer. Uncanny, really. With just a few occasional glances at har gear sha maintains a complete picture in har head of whats happening around har ship at all times."
She smiled, but didn't blush. "True, all true. But don't forget the most important part, Captain."
"Of course! Kushiel, as Tactical Action Officer, Major Suriel is never afraid to override the captains orders if hy makes an obvious mistake. sha saved our ship from running aground several times."
"We need to talk," Suriel said, "but the summit of Hyblo is not the best place for it. I'm sorry to cut your liberty short, but we need to get to Central, and I can start to brief you about what's happening on the way up." Sha opened a door to har plane and indicated with har hands that they should get in.
"Say, actually, Major, Id like to give your plane a whirl," Kushiel said. "I admit I've only seen such in books, Ma'am, but what could happen?"
Books! Coming from anyone but a full engineering officer, that answer would not have sufficed. But Sgt. Kushiel Bellon had come up through the enlisted ranks to gain the attention of some very important officers. That was, in fact, the very reason Suriel was picking hym up. So sha relinquished har seat.
The plane had two in-line counter-rotating propellers so engine torque wouldn't spin the body of the whole plane in the low gravity. After the first heart-stopping leap off the summit, Kushiel flew straight up. It took two hours to cross the 200 miles to the null point between the summit peaks of Hybla and Dia, and hy enjoyed every minute of it.
Suriel filled them in along the way. Commodore Lahatiel Gerash was hand- picking a crew of all-stars for a frigate of new construction, the Exiler, which was already waiting for them parked at Central.
"By coincidence, two of the names hy had in mind were registered to climbing together this day, so hy sent me here to pick you up."
Barakiel said, "I've heard the name Lahatiel Gerash, Major, but I've never met him."
"Commodore Gerash was the commanding officer of the Ambusher. They say hes a big risk-taker, that hy did more than any other officer to turn the tide in the Eggbeater."
"Then Im not sure I like him, Major, since the most important thing in the universe is my ass, and I dont want hym gambling with it."
"I should be able to rein hym in," Suriel assured Barakiel. "He's going to brief us as soon as we get to Central, and we're supposed to have some other very special guests, I hear, very very senior, and also one human VIP from Earth. It means you will both have to trade in your climbing gear for dress blues. Everything you need is already in your staterooms aboard the Exiler."
"Well, Major, whats your best guess?" Kushiel asked, when further details were not forthcoming. "What kind of mission is this going to be?"
"A hot one, from the talent that's being lined up, and from the secrecy. I'll wager there's been a break back at Sol, some kind of insurrection. Maybe some admiral is leading a coup against the Emperor. My guess is that were about to do a hit-and-run to try to decapitate this guy. Then his coup will fall apart."
"And if we dont make it, they'll line up another crew," Barakiel said ruefully. "Dont tell them they'll be just the second, or the sixth, or the tenth team to try it."And Barakiel wasn't happy about the prospect be- cause ahe didn't relish dying for Emperor Azibeel, but that was yet another reason he had been picked.
"No, I'm thinking the Emperor is going to use us as bait," Kushiel said, putting out his own theory. "Dangle an imperial ship, draw Astrodyne out, and smash them with one big fleet action. Emperor Azibeel has waiting for a long time to wage a grand battle against Femina Caelestis. This might be it."
Central, the gravitational null point, was slightly closer to Dis than to Hybla. People lived and played here totally free of the bonds of gravity. Sports involving nephilim-powered flight were not only possible, but prevalent.
As Kushiel flew in hy saw many self-contained houses floating in the air, maintaining their position with little automatic puffs of air. A navy frig- ate floated next to a big green grassy round rock and when Kushiel drew near with the plane's engines on idle hy saw the name painted on the side of the ship: Exiler.
Strong winds alternated as the world-pair turned in the sunlight of Alpha Centauri A. Without an anchor like this rock floated in from the Egg-beather, one traveled with the wind as the rain condensed in clouds, so it never actually rained. But here the little asteroids inertia allowed the rain to "fall". It allowed the capture of rain in "ponds" which were really just big round globules of water. And some of this water was used in steam jets powered by burning wood to keep the garden rock in the sweet spot. If they ever went unattended for very long the rock would drift toward either Hybla or Dia and crash.
Arrival procedures were quaint. Kushiel killed the plane's engines and maneuvered solely on their inertia with rudder and flaps. Commodore Lahatiel Gerash stood at the hatch of Exiler and tossed a line, which was caught by Barakiel after two attempts as hy hung halfway out an open door of the plane. Working together, Barakiel and Lahatiel drew the rope taut until the plane was fastened to the frigate with only a short space to cross between them to the hatch.
Commodore Lahatiel greeted them in the common space which was a combination dining hall and sitting room and parlor, with many tunnel openings in the deck, overhead, and bulkheads leading to other parts of the ship. In- stead of a large common table there were nine smaller individual tables and chairs facing each other in a ring along the wall. The frigate was originally designed for a crew of eighteen. In a port and starboard duty rota- tion, half the crew would be on watch while the other half messed here in the Banquet Room.
The Commodore was a short, bulky-muscled, space-tanned hard-ass with the usual sour look of one of the Emperor's most trusted senior officers, which was ironic given that Lahatiel had already gone over to Ariel. A scar on his face attested how close a blade had come to taking one of his eyes.At first glance, his disposition seemed unpleasant, but in the days to come his crew would rapidly warm up to him.
The Gerash commodore had already signaled his respect for them by the mere act of picking them for his mysterious mission, which naturally inclined the crew to return the respect.
Lieutenant Adnarel Sala was already aboard as well, sha of the braided blond ponytail tucked into the neck of har uniform and a thick cluster of freckles dotting har face. Adnarel was a sedate, even naive twenty year- old doll born on the blunt side of Dia in a farming co-op modeled after an Israeli kibbutz on Earth. Sha was never particularly happy on Dia, but having no brothers, only sisters, it became clear to har that pretty much the only way to leave the planet was to enlist. Sha followed har father's foot- steps and joined the Navy.
Lt. Adnarel looked unwell, and Barakiel realized sha was not taking to the weightlessness of Central very well. Sha had spent har entire life under gravity and didn't have har "space legs" yet.
There was also a corporal Oriel aboard who would not be joining them for the briefing nor the mission. Hyz role was simply to take away the plane. After the officers made quick introductions among themselves, Oriel saluted the Commodore and everyone farewell, and crossed over to the plane to undo the binding ropes.
Now everyone was alone together for the first time, and they all took a good look at each other. "Welcome aboard the Exiler," the Commodore told them. "We don't have much time before the briefing, but allow me to give you an abbreviated tour while you enjoy that new spaceship smell."
Six hatches in the Banquet Room led to the six main drive modules, each with a space for performing engineering duties and more hatches leading to access tunnels aft. This would be Kushiel Country if hy accepted the mission.
Forward of each one of these engineering spaces was a large supply room, corresponding to the domed enclosures that capped each engine. Access ways in this space were shaped by the stored material itself, they were simply the voids between boxes, a bewildering three-dimensional maze.
The flight-deck was all the way forward. This was the ship's "bridge," and it was somewhat more cramped than the common room. Arranged around the rim were tubes for the six forward torpedoes, the radar, communication equip- ment, and the F/1 Fairchild 500mm CCD optical tracking system called the Big Eye, import of Earth.
There was also a thick circular window forward, dead center, with a liquid crystal layer which could be electronically polarized or even made opaque in the event of a laser attack or if Barakiel screwed up and tipped the ship directly at one of the Centauri suns.
Adnarel still marveled that no sizable flat space along the interior bulkheads was wasted as merely a bare wall.
Crew's berthing was between the Banquet Room and the flight-deck, shaped like a pie cut into six pieces with a wide hole taken out of the center. These six "staterooms" had some 900 cubic feet inside each, roomy as such things went. One entered through blue curtains secured with runners. Each stateroom had a large picture window looking out the side of the ship.
As hy put on his uniform in the stateroom assigned to hym Barakiel felt a vague gloom which hy attributed to those common superstitions plaguing sailors for thousands of years. When the Empire moved into space and took up the ceremonial aspects of the seagoing life the myths were inherited as well. Barakiel decided to cloak his doubts with the Spartan military routine of space travel.
Despite the mind-boggling scale of the universe, for human beings and nephilim alike the experience of space was actually quite snug. You crowded into tiny micro-environments like a ship, graviformed "Greenhouse" aster- oids only 3000 feet across, five acre tin cans, undersized staterooms like this one, or the ultimate enclosure of a close-fitting space suit. That required discipline. If you didnt laugh at the prospect of being constantly buried alive wedged in rat-tunnels, you needn't apply for space duty. Claustrophobia was the first screen-out factor for officer candidates.
When hy returned to the Banquet Room wearing his dark blue, almost black dress uniform, a guest had arrived, and Barakiel wondered with disdain why hy had been ordered by Suriel to get dressed up for this six foot stack of shit Barakiel both knew and despised. It was Major Rogziel Bellon, an undistinguished tanker skipper before hy settled in for a long tour of shore duty at a supply center in the asteroid belt at Sol.
Rogziel had accumulated most of hyz rank as a paper-shuffler. Hy definitely knew how to play the political game, however, and when hy became the Emperor's personal errand-boy, Barakiel knew it was really nothing more than a rite to be fulfilled before Rogziel could pry his star and flag rank out of the Imperial bureaucracy.
Also present in the Banquet Room was a willowy, beautiful human woman no one recognized, but she was wearing the uniform of a WDF Girl Guard with a general's insignia. The Commodore knew who she was, but hy was told that another one wished to make all the introductions here today. And the time for those introductions was now.
"Attention on deck!" hy suddenly bellowed, and somehow, it sounded ridiculous.
Into the room floated Ariel harself, the incarnation of the goddess Chokhmah, owner of Hybla-Dia and indeed the entire Alpha Centauri A star system. Everyone came to attention instinctively, which in zero gravity consisted of little more than stretching to one's full height and becoming rigid.
It was quite a shock to most of the officers in the room, they'd never actually seen any of the elohim, at least in their mammal form and not as suns.
With Ariel also came a bearded human male with light brown skin and black curly hair, dressed in white linen clothing that fitted him loosely enough for comfort, yet did not fly away in the null gravity. Ariel would intro- duce him shortly as well.
Protocol demanded that Ariel strap harself into har seat first, but when this formality had been observed sha invited everyone to sit with a smile and a familiarity that put them all at ease, but then sha came out blazing.
"Let me begin by saying this meeting is a council of war against Belial."
There were murmurs all around. Some officers present there expected har to say that, and some did not, so it took a few moments for what sha said to fully register.
Ariel went on. "Each one of you have been chosen to be here because you are crucial in that war and because we believe you may be ready to join our cause. Perhaps you've only been waiting for someone to say something, or make a firm move. We have tried to choose carefully, but if there is any- one present who must in good conscience say they are still loyal to Belial, let hym or har depart. If your military oath or the religion of your youth comes first, if you believe that attending this meeting is treason, then honor dictates you must depart before we say more, and go in peace with my blessing."
Ariel looked in the eyes of each one of the potential crewmembers of Exiler in turn. Only Kushiel Bellon seemed to have reservations. Ariel said to him, "Please feel free to speak your mind, Sergeant Kushiel, whose name means 'My Lord is God'. There is no shame if you must be true to your name."
Kushiel said, "Lady Ariel, I am not willing to betray the Emperor, but I will listen to what you and the others have to say, if you will allow me to stay. In the end if I do not accept the mission, then you have my word as a soldier of Belial that I will not betray you with a report to my superi- ors, but I will go my own way and remain silent."
"That is not acceptable," Major Rogziel said firmly. "There are many things that will be said here today that will mean slow death for all of us if word ever got back to any of the officers loyal still loyal to Belial."
"We will never get a chance like this again," Commodore Lahatiel said. "Also, I believe only Sergeant Kushiel has the skill set to understand, in the short time we have, what the Imperial Astronomer Ithuriel Gerash has discovered when we arrive at Proxima."
Ariel said, "I am well-acquainted with slow death, Major, yet Lahatiel's counsel is wise. Let Kushiel of the Brown Beards remain with us for now. If he had the integrity to tell me he had reservations about this meeting, then I believe he has the integrity to remain silent if he departs from us, just as he said he would.
"Yet if all goes well, then we may never have to meet in secret this way again. So first I'll say a little bit about myself before I go around the room, but only a little for now, and later I will say more.
"I am called Ariel and I am what you humans and nephilim used to call a god. But I'm really a sun, and I'm alive just as you are. Except my life involves nuclear reactions in the center of a star instead of chemical re- actions on the surface of a planet. Living suns like me are called elohim. My true body is the star Alpha Centauri A, or Rigilkent, and this double planet Hybla-Dia where we are now revolves around me.
"I cannot tell you exactly how old I am, because elohim do not measure time like you do by marking the revolution of little dark rocks circling around them but my best guess is that I was quickened about a hundred thousand years ago, Earth or Gorpai years, take your pick.
"I was called Chokhmah in those days, and even now in the kingdom of Alodra in the Land We Know they call my house the Temple of Chokhmah, but about thirty-five hundred years ago I became the first elohim to live in union with the nephilim. You call it Possession.
"My host was a brave yen named Ariel, who fully consented to the merger, and we became a single new being, but the mind of that unified being was five parts in seven my memories and will, and two parts in seven the memories and will of Ariel.
"Later Belial contrived my execution, and it was the worst thing that ever happened to any nephilim in our long and sad history. All of you have read the account. It was terrorism on his part, to deter me from returning to Gorpai, and in that respect it worked well, as he knew it would. Even now I will not set foot there. But Ariel lives in union with me to this day and sha will continue to do so for as long as a star shall live, which is very long indeed.
"Now allow me to go around the room and say a few words of introduction. At my left hand is Commodore Lahatiel of the House of Gerash, called the White Beards. His name means Flaming One of God, and he earned much renown fighting the Cast Off in the Eggbeater.
"For the benefit of our human guests who may not know, the Eggbeater is our nickname for the great beehive of asteroids and comets and little proto- planets here in the Alpha Centauri system that come together every eighty years when Rigilkent and Agena are at periastron and mix it up.
"When this star system formed billions of years ago the conflicting gravity of the two suns prevented the formation of any large gas giant planets like the four examples you have at Sol. Instead we have two clouds of rocky debris endlessly smashing each other up in a cosmic demolition derby: the Eggbeater. There are endless places to hide there, and before the coming of Commodore Lahatiel the Cast Off gave the Navy no end of trouble there."
Commodore Lahatiel said, "Lady Ariel, it is true that I earned great fame in the Eggbeater, but I am no longer proud of my deeds there. This double world of yours was lifeless in the beginning, and the elohim prepared it with water and air using wormholes, just as you are doing with Venus and Mars in the Sol system. But the task remained to plant Hybla-Dia with grow- ing things, and bring animals, calling for many nephilim to come and labor here. In return they were promised some of the very land they toiled to bring to flower.
"But the Emperor of that time broke his word and gave landed estates in- stead to those officers of flag rank in the Five Families who were his cro- nies, and the laborers were promised only more serfdom. So the labor pool naturally dwindled. Not enough volunteers from the free population of ne- philim were found to replace those who left when their contracts expired, yet much work remained to do before both worlds were fully habitable.
"So the successor to that Emperor cleaned out his prisons and brought them here as slaves. When even that was insufficient for the task, the Emperor who followed him in turn decreed many new laws, until the smallest offense was grounds to deport nephilim here to work the farms. The prisoners were male and female, of course, because even some of the gentlest yen could not avoid breaking the new laws. Once here, they came together as nephilim naturally do and gave birth to a whole generation of bastard children outside of the laws of Belial that govern marriage.
"None of these children were accepted in the cupel testing system that is the gateway to military service and lawful breeding. Their children and the children of those children were forever excluded from the rest of Gorpai society. Cast Off. And they too were denied land ownership here at Hybla and Dia. Many of them fought in the Great Revolt, and when that was put down by the father of Azibeel, some escaped to the Eggbeater and began to raid imperial shipping. But many remained behind as virtual slaves.
"When Azibeel became Emperor he was faced with a manpower shortage, for the laws of his father had caused many able-bodied yin and yeng to be exiled here. Now he found he needed a much larger army and navy to put down piracy in the Eggbeater. So he began to draw recruits from the Cast Off. Azibeel promised his enlistees land on Hybla and Dia that would be theirs after a term of twenty years.
"That was the covenant the Emperor made with us. We served him well, and gained the upper hand against our own brothers. I rose through the ranks to Commodore and was granted land on Hybla as a 'friend' of Azibeel. But the Emperor broke his promise to all the Cast Off veterans who did not attain flag rank, and none of them acquired farms on either world. "On that day, I considered my oath of loyalty to the Emperor to be null and void. I did not walk away from him, he walked away from me, I deemed. Good friends I have now among the same Cast Off I fought so fiercely in the Egg- beater for most of my career. They know my grievances, for they more than anyone share the same discontents with me, and they do not hold my years of service to Belial against me, though the death of many of their friends and loved one can be attributed directly to my orders.
"Eight wives I had, as was my right under the Law of Belial governing flag rank. As a sign of my change of heart I released seven of them from their bonds and took them to live with my Cast Off friends in the Eggbeater, and all of they have already been married after the manner of our people there and also here at Hybla-Dia, for yeng still outnumber yen among the Cast Off and will continue to do so for many years.
"But my sister-wife Noriel lives with me still, and she will accompany us on Exiler's voyage. In that I will break a long tradition of Belial's navy, but there is an important reason for this beyond merely staving off loneliness or avoiding romantic entanglements among the crew. As I take my wife, so also may one companion join us for each one of the officers who accept the mission, but the rest of your dependents will be taken to a safe place."
Ariel said, "The blessing of the elohim be upon you and yours, Commodore Lahatiel, yet your assistance to me has been the greater blessing, and I thank you for finding these excellent candidates, such as Major Suriel of the Black Hairs sitting next to you, whose name means, 'God's Command.' Major Larund is said by many to be one of the most outstanding tacticians in the Emperor's fleet."
"Thank you Lady Ariel," Suriel said, jumping in without further prompting. "There was a time when a yin officer would have been unthinkable in the Empire, because yin have been considered little better than property under the Law of Belial from the beginning. Even now as a commissioned officer, I can own no land, not even if I attain to the highest echelon.
"But there have been many changes in our society over the last five hundred years, and some of these are influenced, I think, by affairs in the Land We Know. The cupel system of testing still stands, but it has been modified to take into account the existence of yen who are bliss: Yen who love other yen rather than yeng.
"As everyone already knows (except perhaps our two human visitors), there is a harsh initiation ritual to join the armed forces of Gorpai. It's called laraji, the trial by death combat. The victor takes his own sister and the sister of his dead opponent as his two wives and enters the lowest echelon of the military, a harem that only grows as he advances in rank through two more death combats.
"For thousands of years of Gorpai history, I believe not a single yang had the slightest clue what the women of his harem did among themselves when he was away on maneuvers. After all, campaigns can be long, and yen are nephilim too after all, and we can get very lonely. For many yen, bliss sex is a matter of opportunity and availability. For some of us, bliss sex is preferred. By that I mean there's simply no comparison.
"But eventually even the yang realized that bliss yen existed. Some of these yen even wanted to join the military. And it occurred to some yang that there was all upside to that situation and no downside. If a yang, by some fluke, was killed by a bliss, surely he didn't deserve to live and breed to contaminate the gene pool. But it was thought to be far more likely that the weak little bliss would die, yielding up a sister who would otherwise be unavailable.
"I was in the first 'class' of bliss yen who enlisted under the new rules, and they thought we were virtual suicides, but me and a hard core of other bliss yen survived and even did very well for ourselves. We became more fierce than any yang, because at all times we must be on guard against rape attempts. Still, having yen in authority over yang takes some getting used to, as Barakiel can attest from our time together serving on the same war- ship.
"Three booty-wives I have and one sister-wife, all totally dependent on my income as a Major, but only my booty-wife Orifiel is my lover. Belial I worship not, and why should I do so? All Yen are denied entry to the Temple of Belial and from every Belial shrine. My goddess is Chokhmah-Ariel, and you can imagine the awe I feel to be in the same room conversing with my very deity.
"The manner of the death of Ariel is remembered by every bliss, for it revealed Belial's true character for all time. After that obscenity, it was clear to anyone with a heart, and not blind adherence to dogma, that to serve Belial is to embrace an evil god. Even many yeng have come to see that recently."
Ariel said, "Bless you Suriel, and thank you for your loyalty to me, but I want you to know that in this time the three kinds, humans and nephilim and jen, have outgrown their gods, and we elohim do not wish to have you as servants anymore (if we ever did) but as true partners!
"All of Belial's labors up to this point have been out of fear and suspicion of you. But the labors of myself and Binah and Yahweh and Krista have been out of friendship and love. But what do you say, Captain Barakiel of the Red Beards, whose name means Lightning of God?"
Barakiel stood up to speak. "I listened with interest to what Suriel just said and it struck me that even though it is only recently that the Empire has allowed yen like har to serve, sha still has full legal standing. There may be yen who love only other yen, and this has come into the light of day, but there are also yang who love only other yang, yet this fact re- mains shrouded in the dark.
"I feel comfortable speaking about this to you, Lady Ariel, but there's no going back after I finish what I'm about to say, and then I will throw my- self upon your mercy and ask for sanctuary for me and mine. It may not be worthy of slow death, what I'm about to reveal, but death nonetheless. And it is simply that I'm a fraud: I never killed my opponent in the death com- bat when I became a private!
"His name is Peniel, which means Face of God. The poison I used in my dart was powerful enough to convince the proctors in the laraji that I had killed him, but it allowed him to recover later with no ill effects. Then Peniel presented himself to me as his own 'sister', and became my 'wife' together with my real sister, Anafiel, who I love in a completely different way, and never touch beyond the innocent hugs and kisses of siblings. For Peniel alone is my lover.
"Again I repeated the deception in my second combat, and after that my vanquished 'opponent' Sachiel and his 'sister' Gedael became my alleged third and fourth wives, but they are merry yang lovers even as Peniel and I are, and they now dwell together in the security of my harem.
"I can at the very least say that I was not the first to conceive of this deception, and I won't be the last to resort to it. What the Navy gets in return for supporting the five of us (despite the fraud) is a damn good pilot and navigator. But I have never killed a yang, and I do not relish killing. There has to be something more than this eat-or-be-eaten mentality spread by the cupel system of Belial. "
Only Rogziel expressed disgust at Barakiel's revelations, though he had enough class to say nothing in front of Lady Ariel. The others took it in stride. Rogziel was sitting apart from them, between a human male and female, and Barakiel hoped that meant he wasn't going to be on the Exiler crew.
"It is for those talents that Commodore Lahatiel picked you for this mis- sion," Ariel assured Barakiel. "The other things are entirely your own af- fair. From the humans sitting here you will probably get little more than an indifferent shrug. The nephilim may be ahead of the humans in many technical things, but the Sexual Revolution lies nearly a century in Earth's past.
"For my part I will call you Captain Barakiel. That you had to resort to an elaborate deception is not a reflection on you, but a reflection on the Em- peror's broken society and a tribal model that doesn't work anymore. And do not worry for the lives and safety of your loved ones, Captain Barakiel. That is why we asked you to bring all who you call your own with you here to Central. King Brogan Stronghammer of Menkal in the Land We Know has agreed to place them in his safekeeping, and you will take them there your- self in the Exiler, but Peniel can stay with you aboard the ship if you choose."
"That makes me glad," Lieutenant Adnarel Sala put in, "I also have four wives who won't be safe if the Eyes of Belial learn I have joined this team. A sister-wife and three booty-wives are supported by me, even though I never do anything with them the way a bliss would do. I wouldn't even know how."
Suriel grinned. "Oh honey, you don't know what you're missing."
"Welcome to you, Suriel of the Gold Hairs," Ariel said. "Like Captain Barakiel and the others here you need not fear for the lives and safety of the ones you call your own. Bring them with you on the first leg of your journey to the Land We Know, and they will be perfectly safe behind the Menkal Wall."
"Even my mother, Lady Ariel?"
"Certainly, although the Exiler might be a little crowded at the beginning of the mission! Now please tell everyone about yourself, Lieutenant Suriel, as much or as little as you like."
"Thank you Lady Ariel. I brought my mother with me but I didn't know she could come on the ship. About me? I was born on the far side of Dia from here, and I grew up with my sister on my father's estate. We had many farm hands to help us, and I never had to toil once for all the days of my doll- hood.
"Then my father died in a war, and our land reverted back to the Emperor, because according to the Laws of Belial my mother could not inherit proper- ty. And by this time the Emperor was running out of high-ranking friends he could assign land to, yet he refused to allow lower-echelon veterans to have estates, as the Commodore mentioned in his remarks.
"And there was the question of what to do with me and my sister and my mother in any event. If we were cast out to become beggars, or set to toil on what had been our own land, it would set a precedent, and other officers of flag rank would fear to die in service to Belial, lest their own wives and children suffered the same fate.
"So the Emperor reorganized my father's estate as a kind of agricultural cooperative, and set my mother in place as the Emperor's representative. The farm hands continued to have employment, and the Emperor received far more in taxes than he did when my father was lord of the plantation, because there was no middle-man with expensive tastes like my father to in- tercept the bulk of the profits.
"My childhood had been spent doing nothing but play, and when I became a full-grown yin and set aside my toys, life grew boring for me indeed. I knew nothing about farming, and there was only enough food and money to survive from one day to the next. Never once in my whole life before this week did I even visit here in Central between the two worlds. We couldn't afford the trip.
"But I did have one talent that could not be denied. When I went hunting with a bow to supplement our green stuff with meat, I simply could not miss. And that, through a long, strange winding path and an accelerated college education, led to my career in Belial's Navy as a weapons officer. But I'm afraid I've taken too much of your time already, Lady Ariel, so I'll shut up for now."
Ariel chuckled softly. "You did well, Lieutenant Adnarel. And returning to you, Sergeant Kushiel, if there is anything about yourself you would like to mention before I begin, please feel free."
He said "I would avoid speaking of where I was born, Lady Ariel, because I am of the House of Bellon, and were I to mention the city of Rumbek, and the lands beyond the Nine Mile Wall where I was raised, I fear it would bring to your mind thoughts of your execution there by Belial, and where also you last saw your beloved Kandiel.
"As a non-commissioned officer I only have two wives, Adriel and Neriah, and it mourns me to think I must leave one behind, because I love both of them equally well."
"I will take no one with me," Adnarel told him, "so bring Adriel and Neriah both, if the Commodore is willing. I will gladly give up that particular luggage allowance if I can have a stateroom all to myself."
"Adnarel's proposal does meet my approval," Lahatiel said. "By all means bring both of your wives, Kushiel, but it means three in your stateroom."
"Thank you, sir. Thank you Lieutenant Adnarel. Now instead of speaking about where on Gorpai I come from I will say that my knowledge of machines comes from my love of antiques. I'm fascinated with everything about the Twentieth Century on Earth, which really has no parallel on Gorpai. We ne- philim never had such a burst of activity compressed into only a hundred years.
"A simple device like a phonograph is beautiful to me, like paintings are to others. With our technology we need never fear for another world flood on Gorpai like the two that occurred in our written history and the many floods before that. We have the power now to divert comets and asteroids before they strike our planet.
"But long before we were ready to do that, it was Belial who saved seven families through the first flood and five families through the second one. It was Belial who taught us the cupel system of testing that made us a har- dy race, strong enough to survive the bitter cold winters and the eternal violence of the native life on Gorpai. So when I sit here and hear talk about Belial being an 'evil God' it puzzles me if such a thing was spoken by my fellow officers from ignorance, but it can easily anger me if such a thing proves to have been spoken from malice."
Ariel said, "Thank you for sharing your candid views, Sergeant Kushiel. I know you came to believe such things honestly. But much more will be said about Belial now, and then you will know how we came to believe the things we do."
