They enter into the Church without the soldiers and file along the side wall to the back, then through a doorway, then halfway down a hallway through another door to a set of stairs. Down three flights and through a door and a corridor that seemed to cut back under the central part of the Church above, all this under the escort of the ushers.
They finally enter a large room nearly as large as the main chamber of the Church they first came into. This one they entered through the back and onto its raised dais. Facing across from them stood a large arched doorway with double doors.
Su’Zi could see that the door in front of them looked as though it had been closed and hastily barricaded. The barricade looked a jumbled mess, haphazardly constructed, using materials from inside the Church, mostly piled and broken pews.
This barricade was old, the surface sealants and plastics of the barricade were decaying, peeling and cracking, all appearances indicating that it hasn’t been touched in many years. Su’Zi began to think that this place must be a remnant of the Touch of God Event eight hundred years ago, a Holy Place.
It had been a long day, and the initiates had been told not to eat or drink anything after breakfast, it was now late evening, and Su’Zi was tired, hungry and thirsty. She hoped that after all the accolades from the graduation at the stadium that some dinner or feast was in order, but there was no sign of food and the ushers were nowhere in sight.
The Church Elder, a kind looking U’Te limped to the center of the stage. She introduced herself as Ra’Chl[40] and asked the initiates to be seated in the chairs on the right-hand side of the dais, old metal chairs bolted to the floor, reinforcing Su’Zi’s impression that this is a ceremonial place. Every effort made to keep the chamber the same for hundreds of years, preserving the look, feel, and orientation of the site for the ceremony that is to come. The initiates seated themselves and Ra’Chl congratulated them on their achievement and said that the ceremony was about to begin and soon after they would be able to eat and drink.
Ra’Chl continued, explaining that they were now in an ancient section of Dadr’Ba one of the few places where survivors gathered after the Touch of God. Ninety percent of all life on Dadr’Ba perished instantly on that day, and the rest were sick or injured to the point that many of them died of their injuries. But some survived, and we are the descendants of those survivors.
That day changed Dadr’Ba forever; no-one escaped the Touch of God, and the Touch of God raised the consciousness of all, and bound the survivors together with a shared purpose, through shared struggle and pain. Together they helped each other recover from their wounds and restarted the main engine that executed a fail-safe shutdown, having left the ship running on emergency and auxiliary systems.
The survivors became the seed of a new civilization. They became a society of the tough, and the strong, that know how to work together and sacrifice. They came back from death, helping each other rediscover the lost knowledge needed to run the ship and overcome the hardships and the pain of losing friends and family.
I will now show you a glimpse of that moment and with that, Ra’Chl limped behind a curtain on the other side of the stage. The lights dimmed, and everyone expected a holograph or something to appear out over the central part of the Church they were facing where the congregation would normally sit.
Instead, there was pain, excruciating pain, paralyzing seizures and gut-wrenching spasms. Su’Zi could see nothing but a bright field of light as electricity raced up and down her limbs and her spine, her head feeling like exploding. All that was left in her supposedly empty stomach surged upward spraying the back of the chair in front of her. Su’Zi doubled over and collapsed to the floor, the pain vanished, but the effects remained; her body was in convulsions as she felt the floor hit the side of her head again and again. Finally, the convulsions subsided as she and all the other initiates faded into blackness.
P’Ko having been sound asleep in bed suddenly woke, overwhelmed with a feeling of vertigo, the room spun and twisted, P’Ko trying to reach out and stabilize himself rolled himself off of his bed onto the floor where he remained splayed out until the spinning stopped. Afterward he sat up wondering what happened for some minutes, and then crawled back into bed; feeling exhausted and fell back asleep.
Su’Zi didn’t know anything. If you asked her, she wouldn’t have even known her name, time had no meaning, but she gradually became aware. Not yet self-aware because, she was unable to recognize her body, or even if it existed, it seemed like she floated as if in deep space and that nothing existed in the universe. She gradually got the sense that she was tumbling. All was still pitch black, the tumbling increased changing from a tumbling in one plane into tumbling in many planes. Nausea came over her; a mental nausea building up pressure in her mind, ready to burst. Then she spotted what she thought was a light, flying past at crazy, changing angles. She focused on the light, grasping for it with all her will. It was difficult to spot, often she’d miss it as the tumbling caused the light to appear almost in random places and it was very far away.
Slowly, requiring all of her concentration she was able to catch and mentally grasp the light, the tumbling slowed and finally stopped. All that was in her universe was the light; she focused all of her concentration on it. She gradually realized that the light had been out of focus, that made it appear larger than what was, now as she focused on it, it became smaller and brighter.
Continued concentration began to yield information, Su’Zi thought of the light like a distant star in the vast expanse of black space. She just knew these terms with no worded definition, voice or idea, spoken or remembered came to her, from outside her existence, wordless, but the meaning was clear “Learn from what you don’t know” all these words or ideas she comprehended but would be unable to describe. She resumed her concentration on the light, as she concentrated and focused on the light it seemed to grow larger, brighter and closer.
It must’ve been a great distance away; there was no concept of time passing, she just concentrated on the light. The light being the only thing in her universe. The light gave her comfort and an inviting feeling, like there was someone there, a friend, waiting for her. The light guided her through the darkness, voicelessly calling to her and seemed to provide energy.
After a while, she was able to discern an edge or crescent as the light got brighter and closer. It began to look like a spotlight, and she could see the light, like a star, a sun, and feel the warmth from its rays. Su’Zi relaxed and basked in the rays of the friend, the light, the guardian, and the light engulfed her and along with that came her memories of Ba, Ma, Sato, Ro’Sa and others. Su’Zi realized the light friend was not Ba, but something or someone else. As she came to that realization, the light began to fade, along with the feeling of nearness to the Guardian’s presence, God?
As the light faded colors began to appear and from these colors, shapes began to form, the realization that she had a body and that she was lying face down on the floor in the old church, where many of the survivors of the Touch of God gathered and she wondered if there was a God? She felt she was certain that there was somebody, a presence, a will behind the light that guided her back in from the blackness that the pain had taken her to because she was able to remember everything.
She hated the trick that was played on them but was thankful for the experience. She blinked her eyes and the smell of her stomach contents she was laying in filled her senses and another set of spasms radiated up from the pit of her stomach but produced nothing. She struggled to her hands and knees and sat upright, taking in her surroundings.
She was one of the first ones to recover, fear that some of the other initiates were dead or lost in the abyss swept over her, and she crawled from one to another of her grad-mates finding each breathing normally with a strangely composed almost pleasant expression on their faces. She left them untouched to finish their journey with the help of the mysterious Guardian.
Several other grads had awakened and were comi
ng to grips with what had just happened and what the others had and were going through. Each one quietly contemplating what had happened taking in their surroundings.
Everything looked different, as the color, hue and intensity had been increased Su’Zi even became more aware of her peripheral vision and with a sudden realization looked around and saw Ra’Chl and the Ushers had returned and were standing quietly watching with a calm approving expression on the faces.
Su’Zi sensed that they wanted this event to complete naturally, without interruption or modification and she sat quietly soaking in her surroundings contemplating what had happened. Soon, in spite of her surroundings her hunger pains returned and one of the ushers as if on cue went to a table and picked up a biscuit and a small energy drink and offered it to Su’Zi, still sitting on the floor, near where she fell. Su’Zi accepted it gratefully as the usher gave her an approving pat on the shoulder.
It took several hours for everyone to recover, yet Su’Zi was in no hurry, as were the rest of the awakened, the biscuit and energy drink quelled the hunger pains, and a peaceful warmth took its place.
Once everyone was awake, Ra’Chl asked everyone to get up and step down the stairs and to wipe themselves off, using a cleaning towel handed to them by an usher at the bottom of the stairs and to take a seat on the pews. Once sitting in the pews, the Ra’Chl began to speak.
First of all, Ra’Chl, apologized for the deception. Explaining that the original Touch of God didn’t give any warning either. The Touch of God happened just as suddenly, and even more unexpectedly, since the grads, as off guard as they were, knew or anticipated something was going to happen, just not what. And said that they could believe what she was saying because “I was there, during the First Touch of God.” A gasp ran through the gathered grads, that would make Ra’Chl over eight-hundred years old.
Ra’Chl went on to say the First Touch of God was more painful than what they had just experienced and sickening to the brain. And included long-lasting systemic effects, numbness, tingling, tremors, paralysis. It was then that the initiates noticed the trembling of Ra’Chl’s fingers, it wasn’t that she was nervous, it was that she carried a mark or sign from the Touch of God, and it also explained her limp.
“The electronic shock that was used to give you a glimpse of the Touch of God was real and carefully calculated to bring you to the edge of death so that you may know God, and that if God is willing, return you to life.” “Rest assured that though the success rate for this process is high, there are no guarantees. We were lucky this time; Sector Two had no losses. But there was a loss in Sector One and Four. We make no attempt to interfere with God’s choices.” “Had you tried to interfere we would have prevented you.”
“I’m sure you can understand why it’s important that the sacred knowledge that you’ve gained here today must remain a personal secret and never, ever be shared with an un-awakened, penalty for disclosure of the sacred knowledge is severely enforced without exception or hesitation.” And then, as if answering Su’Zi’s mental question Ra’Chl added, “This is a Church secret not a CA secret.”
They were then made to swear an oath of secrecy under the penalty of death, never to reveal the nature of the Touch of God Ceremony they had just experienced.
They were told that God’s will is God’s will, and that there’ve been instances of lost grads. God chooses not to appear, or the initiate cannot find God, and the initiate is lost, never finding their way through the darkness, to die lost in the darkness and never knowing God, retiring without passing a piece of yourself on to your descendants. Su’Zi thought of Ba. The Elder concluded with the reminder “The Church suspects that God refuses to appear to those with advanced knowledge of the ceremony.”
The Awakened were now guided to another section of the Church and allowed to clean and shower, then given a clean, white robe. Their old soiled undergrad clothes were bagged for recycling. All the grads were careful to keep their crew member badge and displayed it proudly on their new, clean, white robes.
Each of them was given an appointment for their bio-mods and taken upstairs to their waiting families. To Su’Zi’s surprise, there was a crowd waiting outside the Church, unlike graduation, where the whole sector attended, there was only the immediate family of the awakened, there was loud applause and occasional cheers as each of the awakened strode out into the broad light of a Dadr’Ba midday. Su’Zi didn’t know how much time had passed, but she guessed that it wasn’t the following day, but more likely the one after that. She walked out to a cheering crowd, and almost immediately was almost knocked over as out of nowhere; she was grabbed and hugged by her mother and brother. Su’Zi chocked up, short of breath as all she could think of was that Ba was missing this.
Chapter 8, Su’Zi’s Bio-mod
Su’Zi having already been apprenticing as a carpenter went directly to work the after she got home from the Touch of God Ceremony, she’d have to wait her turn for her bio-mod appointment.
Su’Zi’s primary task in the days before her bio-mods was securing and sealing the tunnel close behind the tunnel boring machine cutter head this work was internal to the T’Bm and in a somewhat controlled environment.
Once Su’Zi has her bio-mods, her duties would include maintaining the high-pressure duct system that carries raw fuel to a staging silo and the elevator up to the fuel processing facility. These tasks meant spending most of her time outside the protection of the T’Bm inspecting and maintaining kilometers of ducts and raw fuel transport systems.
She anxiously awaited her bio-mod appointment. When the day finally arrived, it was the same as with graduation; hers was the very last appointment of all the graduates in sector two.
Su’Zi selected her bio-mods with great care and deliberation. In a society of clones, individuality is highly regarded and sought after, which results in some pretty unique and garish combinations of bio-mods.
Permanent hair is viewed by many as a must. Hair has the practical aspects of insulating and cushioning the critical components of the head. It also offers clones, striving to be individuals, a huge variety of colors, textures, and styles which, along with permanent tattoos and cosmetic facial structural modification can have a dramatic effect, often changing the person’s whole personality.
Given the birthing process is equally divided between genders and the necessity for zero population growth, both prospective parents have an equal incentive for picking the perfect mate, which would ideally mean finding a pairing that complements each other while enhancing their strengths at the same time minimizing their weaknesses.
However, this is rarely the case, the vast majority of couples choose their partners based on love.
Gender role development in Dadr’Ba society is unique. Many children like Su’Zi know very early on what gender they want to be, there’s no explanation for it, they just know. Early gender self-recognition is common, but sometimes it just takes time and children are free to experiment and behave in whichever gender role they choose. Children that don’t resolve their gender identity sometimes run into problems when they near coming-of-age, undergo the Touch of God Ceremony and are awarded their CA sponsored bio-mods.[41]
The norm is that the graduate upon selecting their body mods and their sex will pick an individual or couple to teach them how to use their new equipment. These mentors will guide the Lr’Lng[42] in the ways of sex.
Sex is for many a recreational activity, particularly among the young. Since sex is not involved with birthing, (the whole crew is biologically sterile), there is no risk of unwanted pregnancies and the associated paternity issues. And since DadrBa is a sterile environment, there’s no danger of the spread of disease (although climaxes or resets occur, there is no exchange of body fluid). So sex aboard Dadr’Ba is a physical activity used as a physical, mental and psychological stress relief and is often linked to self-image and esteem and group/pair bonding.
Choosing a partner for a mate and forming a committed relationship, is
for grownups, those people that have reached a level of maturity, usually at least fifty, more often a hundred or more years old. The joining ceremony at the Church, registering the union with the CA and moving from the single dorms to the family apartment is a significant milestone in a person’s life.
Mate bonding is a commitment that often involves a level of sexual monogamy at least until the couple has been together long enough to cement their relationship and build a level of trust, and to become perhaps a little bored, often several decades or more. A mated couple is together for a century or more, and the bond of trust, love and commitment goes far beyond the physical.
Su’Zi had chosen for her mentors, Pri’Api[43] and Ti’Reso[44] a married couple that had been together for over a hundred and fifty years, had birthed two children of their own, had been mentors to dozens, and possessing an outstanding reputation. When Su’Zi asked them to mentor her, they gladly accepted and offered advice on the best sexual bio-mods. In the end, Su’Zi took their recommendations and picked her skin tone, hair color, permanent tattoos, facial features. She had less control of the job-related enhancements, particular ones were mandatory, others optional, allowing her to withstand better the cold, dark, harsh environments, especially in the lower part of Zone Three where current mining operations have progressed to and eventually the “death” zone, zone four.
Su’Zi reported to the Med Clinic at the appointed date and time. Su’Zi would be asleep for the procedure and wake up at Pri’Api and Ti’Reso’s place and get her first lesson on the use of her new equipment. She checked in and was provided a sedative, after which she remembered nothing.
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