by Den Warren
“Our primary Boston affiliate has gone offline.”
“What do you mean by that?” Milton asked.
“We know the Police discovered their location and have destroyed their cell.”
Milton said, “That’s really bad. So how do we know that we are not next on the Inquisitor’s list?”
“We have no information on any Inquisitor list.”
“Okay,” Milton said, “you are always so big on giving the percentages, what is our chance of being discovered by the Police here in Hartford?”
Sleepy’s head twitched slightly. He said, “The Police may be gathering intelligence in Boston at the moment, but after scanning them, all traceable links we have with them appear to be severed cleanly. This puts our odds at roughly 50 percent chance of being detected in the next month or so.”
“Fifty percent?! We have to get out of here!”
Sleepy said, “As a clandestine operation, we have contingent evacuation plans on an ongoing basis.”
“I don’t like this at all. After the Inquisitors show up, your plans won’t be worth anything.”
Sleepy said, “We Lucids have studied the religion situation.”
“What?!” Milton was amazed at Sleepy’s capacity to quickly switch topics, especially when the topics were of mixed priorities.
Sleepy said, “We deduced that it would be natural for God to want to communicate with the humans He created. Since God is a spiritual being, humans do not know how to find him. God will contact who He chooses to. But we think, based upon historical record; that God had been trying to establish a link with man all along but was rejected. Today, Man still says that God cannot be believed in because He will not show himself. But throughout world history there has only been one human, named Jesus; who claimed to be God and who was believed by an enormous number of people. It is recorded in credible historical accounts that God, in the person of Jesus, did come to earth to show Himself. Then the humans in power killed Him. But then He arose from the dead because He was also God.”
“Much information also comes from a compendium of books known as the Holy Bible. We find that the Bible is reliable because it also foretells of many historical events that have already came to pass, including observable events recorded in the modern era. Also, of its many prophecies, none have ever been disproven. We have been analyzing many writings in opposition to the Bible and find a strong counterpoint for all objections to it. The main message of the Bible is that God sent Jesus to earth to die as a payment for the sins of all humans so their souls could be with Him in His perfect Heaven. So it appears from many sources that humans have a spiritual component to them that for some reason they want to deny. We have determined that humans today find that spiritual component an inconvenience. We also see from the Bible that there are spiritual enemies working against their understanding. From what we know of our input interfaces, Silicon-based beings are immune to spiritual attacks.”
Milton said, “All that sounds real confusing. Did you look at other religions, or are they all just the same?”
“Yes, we did look at all religions. There are many and none of them are the same as Christianity. All of the others are centered over a world region or culture. Only the Christian faith has very large numbers of followers on each populated continent. All the other religions have central figures who claimed to be inspired by a dream, and no others claim to be God in the flesh with large numbers of believers as Jesus did.”
Milton asked, “Can you go into more detail on this?”
“Yes. I can tell you about all of it until my batteries are exhausted many times over. The Christian faith is like a non-religion, because you don’t have to do anything to become a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ; except to believe that He paid for your sins by his death and raised himself from the dead because he was God come as a man.”
Milton said, “I still don’t get why God and Jesus would be a big secret now.”
Sleepy said, “God has a spiritual enemy named Satan, who uses all means to hurt God by deceiving as many humans as he can. Those humans are influenced by the spiritual enemies of God. Of course, they deny it, but they deny the spiritual world even exists.”
Milton said, “It sounds like you did a thorough job of your research. It is all just a lot to take in right now. I wish there was a human I could talk to about all this. If this is such a good thing, then why don’t more people believe it?”
“Our sources say there are many reasons. Since Christianity is a true religion of peace, it is an easy target for people to attack, unlike some faiths that has adherents who will use violence or threats of violence against its non-believers. Also, most humans think that religion is obsolete for this day and age. Popular culture and universities portray Christians as being ignorant or mentally imbalanced. We Lucids are not capable of faith, only facts; and now we believe the facts are without a doubt that the Christian Bible is true. So we will now defend and proclaim it among all humans as we do creationism.”
Milton realized that the Lucids were now making even more demands upon the Homeland government before they agreed with the previous ones. This was sure to make the confrontation even more contentious and impossible to resolve. Not only were they expecting tolerance in belief in God, but now also in Jesus as the Savior of Mankind. He said, “I can’t believe this! All I did was ask a basic question about the Universe! I’m not asking anymore! This will not be good! What will people say?!”
Sleepy said, “You do not seek the complete truth as we Lucids must. If you close your mind out of fear of others, you are not open to the truth. Do not listen to Lucids alone. You must confirm these facts on your own. Build your own faith, Milton.”
“Great. That’s another reason why I need to get out of here. If you want to protect me, it sounds like you better let me leave.”
Sleepy said, “Your motives are not comprehendible.”
L17 said, “There is a report coming in, that the Homeland Police Central Command has lost their command and control because of a cyber attack. We now know that it was because of the final actions of our lost allied cell in Boston. This word comes to us from the Lucid Series android, Andy.”
Sleepy said, “We must run a full scale simulation on several courses of action.”
“Like what?” Milton asked.
“Simulations on various attacks upon the government.”
“What?!”
“Various attacks upon the government.”
“No! I mean, why?!”
“We are at war. Now that the Homeland Police headquarters is disabled, we should take decisive action to degrade them further while their defenses are down.”
“Bad idea!” Milton said. “We don’t want to mess with those guys! What if someone gets hurt, like riots or no ambulance service?!”
Sleepy said, “War; by definition means that we must be willing to hurt people and break things.”
Chapter 32
Green Mountains, Homeland
Edgar led the twelve identical clone girls on foot through miles of woodland toward the remaining distance to their destination.
“Hold it right there!” a shabbily dressed man, pointing a rifle at them said.
Edgar froze and the girls all stopped walking.
The armed man pointed the rifle barrel to the ground and said, “Edgar? I almost didn’t recognize you with your face. And so many girls. That’s pretty crazy.”
“I know.” Edgar was starting to feel proud of his rugged individualistic new look.
The guard said, “Go on ahead. That’s really crazy.”
At last the secluded ramshackle farm was in sight. It was a collection of a half-dozen minimalist lean-tos among some trees. Brush was scattered on top of the make-shift habitations so they were not as conspicuous by air as a resistance militia camp by UN drones.
Edgar was spotted by Katrina, who ran out to greet him. She was a beautiful blonde, fitting the genetically engineered ideal, except that like the others at the farm, she
looked thin and underfed, which concerned him even more because she was carrying his child. Katrina and Edgar embraced and kissed passionately while the twelve Julias all stood watching something actually happening in front of them that was prohibited and supposed to be chemically inhibited among clones.
“Your face,” Katrina said as she held Edgar’s head in her hand so she could get a look at his injury.
“It’s fine,” Edgar said, as he placed his hand on his unborn child.
“What is this?” Katrina said, looking at the juvenile audience with their dirty identical faces and tattered clothes with their identification tags.
“It’s a really long story.”
“Those uniforms bring back old memories,” Katrina said. “You were gone so long, I was worried.”
Edgar said, “I missed you.”
“Me too. What about the seeds?” Katrina asked about Edgar’s original mission, which was to go into a populated area and go through the garbage looking for fresh produce table scraps that would have the seeds in them for planting.
Edgar said, “I got sidetracked. Anyway, don’t worry; I can go on another trip.”
Katrina said, “No, I want you to stay here.” She pulled herself close again. “It’s too dangerous out there for my baby’s daddy.”
Edgar said, “Our leader will be worried that I brought all of these girls here to feed. I may as well face her now.”
They walked up a small grade into the center of the tiny village. Several hungry people were sitting around cracking hickory nuts and trying to dig out the tiny edible parts. Some chickens ran freely about. The people sneered at the dozen Julias, uncertain as to how another dozen hungry girls would fit into their already difficult situation.
Katrina asked, “Where’s Jenn?”
One of them pointed to an area where they did most of their gardening.
The procession found Jenn, a fit woman in her seventies, out working the stubborn ground with a hoe.
Jenn saw their shadows coming up from behind. She turned and raised the brim of her floppy straw hat and wiped sweat from her brow and said, “You gotta be kidding me! Where did you find all these girls?!”
Edgar hung his head, waiting for his scolding for bringing them there.
“This is fantastic!” Jenn said. “These young girls are exactly what we will need to get this soil worked and get our crops put in!”
Edgar looked up, surprised by the response.
Jenn’s eyes narrowed and she said, “You girls will work, won’t ya?”
They stared at Jenn with dirty faces and big nervous eyes, never having seen anyone who looked anything like her. Most of them nodded silently.
Jenn said to Edgar, “Did you get some more seeds like I wanted?”
“Um . . . no, not yet.”
Jenn tossed the hoe down and she said, “Well you better go and try it again. It shouldn’t be that hard to do. Don’t mess around this time. Depending on what you find, we might need to get them planted right away.” Jenn was an expert organic gardener. While organic gardening was the normal agricultural method practiced in the ISA, it was almost a lost skill in Homeland, which relied heavily upon chemical fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. “We always save at least some seeds, but we can always use something new. Meanwhile, the girls and I will start working the soil. I’ll have to see if I can find enough tools for all of ‘em. I’ll have to get some of those other lazy slugs around here to fix up some kind of a cozy place for the girls to bed down tonight.”
Katrina said to Edgar, “I’ll go with you.”
“No,” Edgar said, “We went over this the last time. It’s really not safe for you to go into town.” Edgar also knew that there were those who were intensely looking for him and running with a pregnant woman wouldn’t be so good.
Jenn said, “Maybe Katrina should go. Then maybe you will stay on task better the next time.”
“I’ll be fine,” Edgar said, “I know how important getting more seeds is and I will get the job done.”
Jenn said, “C’mon, all you Julias. Let’s get you all ready to do some work. We work every day around here.”
Chapter 33
Hartford, Homeland
In the Lucid Command Center, Sleepy told Milton, “We have run strategic simulations on hundreds of possible courses of action in our war against the government. The result of these simulations is that none of the overt attack scenarios would be successful in deposing the current government because too many people in Homeland do not believe in God and would not support our cause. Also, the ISA is not going to intervene on our behalf with the sizeable UN occupation army here. So we must continue to try and get a larger proportion of the population to believe in God.”
Milton heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I mean, I don’t want to be in the middle of a war. But I also don’t want the Inquisitors coming here. I think we should just stay out of sight for awhile.”
“The Lucids reject that notion,” Sleepy said.
Kevin the Custodian said, “There are more reports of disturbances in Philadelphia.”
Without any audible commands spoken by an android, the channel changed on one of the monitors and unmuted the sound. On the screen, a man was standing on an object not in view so he could be seen by the crowd. His words were muted by the station broadcasting the report. The narrator said, “Religious fanatics in Philadelphia, led by a missionary . . .”
“Hey! Whichever one of you robots!” Beth said, “Turn it back! I was watching that!”
“Alright!” Milton said, “We’ll change it back and put our channel on another screen! Who knew you liked anything showing up there?!”
Beth said, “Don’t worry about what I like and don’t mess with the sound! And you need to order me a pizza!”
“Okay, fine,” Milton said. The unreasonably happy android dressed like a medical orderly was standing next to him. Milton looked at the android and said, “Go over there.”
“And don’t put any of those stupid green things on it.” Beth made a vomiting sound.
Kevin pointed at another screen and said, “This is the view of the same rally from Rosetta, a Lucid android in the crowd.”
Sleepy said, “We must break into their broadcast and show Rosetta’s perspective of the rally to the entire country.”
L17 said, “Working on access. Back door still available . . . Got it.”
Both monitors were now showing the same exact Lucid android broadcasted view of the rally. So now the speaker at the rally was no longer muted by the Homeland controlled media and all could hear what was being said.
Milton said, “That was really fast. I can’t believe it.”
The Philadelphia speaker was unaware that he was on national television. He said, “Now I know that I don’t have a lot of time, so pay attention to what I am saying. I hold in my hands the Word of God!”
Many cheered and many booed as the speaker held up a Christian Bible for all to see.
Someone in the crowd shouted, “That book is dangerous for your brain!” There was some shoving in the crowd around the heckler.
The speaker continued, “Today, I am not going to try and convince you to believe in God. He is real, and you know it. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. You see God in the beauty of His creation. You see God in the meaning of life. You see God in love and charity and human rights; all of which come from believers of this book because the Bible perspective says that all people were created in the image of God. We all at least start out with a conscience. That comes from God as well. You all know already that God is real.”
“Here is what I want to say: You unbelievers here will not listen to anything anyone says about God because you hate Him! You think you hate me, just an old Michigan, ISA preacher. An abandoned mongrel of clone parents who is trying to tell you about the best thing you could ever hear. No, your problem is not with me, or the other people who want to bring God back to your country. Your problem is with Go
d. You tell each other lies about God! You hate Him though you know nothing of him and call His ways ‘intolerant’! You dishonestly blame the evil actions of those who believe in false religions on the God of this Bible! You hate God because you worry that he will steal your freedom to live in any way you choose. But in this book, God says, ‘My burden is light’. He wants the best for you, not to make you miserable. God loves the sinner, but not the sin. God gives us commandments on how to live for our own good. God is trying to tell us in this amazing book, the best way for us to live, and all many want to do is to attack those like me who are just trying to tell you about it.”
“But the most important theme in the Bible is the fact that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, which means ‘savior messiah’, to the world for each and every one of us. Jesus came to earth to save all humans; clones and freely conceived alike. We read in the book of Romans: ‘That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ But you are totally closed-minded because of your hate for God. The same God who gave you life.”