Chapter 6: The Church of the One God of Trenaport.
At one time the central church of Trenaport had been the biggest church on Trena. When Trena had been young, it had become the Theocracy’s Embassy to Trena, and diocesan offices of the Trena branch of the Church of the One God. Over the years the church been expanded into a cathedral. The Church of the One God was a strict congregation. The Church of the One God was a polyglot of the old Earth religions of the Christian, Jewish and Islam faiths. Unfortunately they took most of the most extreme positions of all three faiths. They had been welcomed on Trena to about fifty years ago. Fifty years ago, an incident involving the Abbot of Trena along with several of his followers caused the Theocracy to declare Jihad on Trena. The abbot had abused a clone and had killed her hideously. If Had not one of parishioners had not shared what he had seen in his church’es basement with a Mounty from the Trena Mounted Patrol, no one would have known about the incident. The abbot had been arrested by the Mounties and charged with murder. He was being held in the central jail when the Theocracy attempted to rescue the Abbot and his followers from jail and tried to take over Trena. The invasion fleet had been bloodied by a combined fleet from the kingdom, and the Thonian Realm, and the Earth Empire. The Militia had raided the Abby and the church and found that the gentle god fearing faithful of the Church of the One God had killed or torture some three hundred clones, Thonians, and others considered unclean by the scriptures. Read that to mean that were not Earth Humans, and born of natural means. The King had ordered the church sacked, and pillaged. King Ralph had always been known for his temper. During the attempted invasion when he found what the churchmen had done he personally went and burned the church down, then had issued a royal decree that all church property belonging to the Church of the One God was to be searched and if they found any one on the property harming another human being, or had, every one present, any and all parishioners even children were to be shipped off to Dungeon, the prison world. He didn’t care if they were innocent or not. Subsequently the church that rose from the ashes was much more modest. It was still the home of the Theocracy’s ambassador on Trena. It was the only facility of Church of the One God on Trena. For the most part, the people of Trena followed a more casual religious tradition and didn’t want any part of a religion that harmed people the way the Church of the One God had. The king didn’t even have to issue a decree to outlaw the church. His people did it.
After a special Mass celebrating the demise of Trena, celebrating god’s wraith and the vindication of the martyrs of fifty years previously, the bishop turned to his assistant and said, “gGet this dispatch off to the Holy World.”
“Yes Your Holiness,” The priest responded. “The lord has given us a great opportunity to redeem the souls on this world.”
“He certainly has!” The bishop said, “Why it took so long for our martyrs to be avenged I have no idea; but they certainly have. Our patience and piety is to be rewarded at last!”
“How can we help our lord avenge our people?” The bishop mused out loud. “We don’t want the spawn of the devil to propagate any further than here. We can now take the action that God demands of us on those that created the filth these blasphemers call bioengineered humans and we call the harlots of Satan.”
“We could sabotage their evacuation effort,” The priest suggested, “We could also start a campaign against that heathen Wilson.”
“He is unclean sleeping with that whore of Satan.” The bishop replied. “Are there enough brothers on world to help us do that?”
“Yes your holiness,” Many of the survivors of King Ralph’s rage had gone underground. Waiting for the day when they would avenge their parents and grand parents’ death fifty years before. They had been told that their day would come and when it did they would be lifted out of obscurity to destroy the world that had killed the faithful.
“Father,” The bishop turned to the priest, “Make it happen. These people are not to leave this hell hole of a planet. When a bridge collapses, when people are killed by the Faithfull’s hand let these unholy vermin know it is God’s wrath and they are being punished for their unrighteous faithless life style. I want Wilson dead. If he’s gone, then their evacuation will be so uncoordinated very few if any will get off.”
The priest nodded and left.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 17