Kalin
Unwanted
Great Cathedral, Chapel of Eternal Fire
17 July, 2242 A.D.
The Centauri suns were beginning to set in the sky, painting the teeming metropolis in a cascade of gold, red and orange – all sacred colours, the Elders of Zion said, sent by the Almighty as constant reminders of both the Evangelical Flame of Anointing and the hellfire tormenting the impure. As had been customary for close to a century, Believers of all ages and stations in life were flocking to their churches and viewing screens, opening their minds to Sister Miriam's pre-recorded sermon in the Lord’s evening light.
While the loyal sheep received their spiritual provisions, the Elders of Zion themselves were busy with more practical concerns. The military, for one, was lagging behind that of the Human Hive, and although the Hive was an ally - the Hive had always been an ally of the Believers - the elders held no illusions as to what would happen if the Chairman ever scented weakness from the faithful. Despite bold proclamations in the official propaganda outlets, most of the marvels associated with Bio-Engineering had not even been prototyped, much less deployed. The new "clean" Archangel Interceptors would not be ready for many years to come, and the lavish battle cruisers had been put on indefinite hold. The great fruitfulness campaign had at least been successful, its results surpassing even the most optimistic forecasts. New Eden was now literally bursting with brothers and sisters - particularly the latter - and despite discontinued distribution of lust-inducing stimulants in the water supply, the population was still growing rapidly. All was not well, however, for an unfortunate side-effect of the liberal policies and rampant growth was that the populace had become increasingly difficult to control. The psych budget had completely absorbed all funds set aside for research, and while the Longevity Vaccine had helped mitigate a great deal of unrest, the masses still remained insolent and ungrateful. The vile concept of democracy, Elder Yehudzi explained to his peers, was rapidly eroding the spirituality of the masses. The authority of the Council was being tested, and even the great longevity project itself had come under attack from a number of upstart factions.
"…as well as plenty of resistance from the Prosperites, always whining about us restricting the vaccine to our own members instead of selling it at premium rates to the infidels. This was, of course, always the plan, but we can't exactly say that now", Yehudzi said, taking a deep breath before continuing. "And yet, the worst of all is surely the accusation that the project is unscriptural..."
"Preposterous!" a white-bearded elder exclaimed, visibly upset. "The matter of raising yehzah is a legitimate concern, and we can hardly curtail it with this wretched constitution in place, but to defy us on spiritual matters... Why, it is appalling!"
"Appalling indeed!" another elder burst out, evidently disgusted by the very notion. "And it sets a very dangerous precedent. Let this atrocity pass, and every unwashed drone will soon think itself capable of interpreting the Holy Scriptures! Something must be done!"
"Indeed brothers" Yehudzi continued. "I looked into it more deeply, and I found that apparently what these fools take issue with, is our teaching that the project was foretold in Revelation chapter twenty-two, verse fourteen and fifteen. They stubbornly say that it shows the location of the Tree of Life to be in New Jerusalem, whereas our Longevity Vaccine was developed in the Rapture, and that therefore, we haven't fulfilled any prophecy! Since we have historically rejected interpretations of New Jerusalem as a reference to the congregation rather than the base, this is, I admit, somewhat problematic."
"Yes, so, we just went ahead and fixed the glitch", Elder Slydell chipped in.
"We actually took back our statement?" a younger elder inquired, a puzzled look on his face. "Wouldn't that signal weakness?"
"Just a second there, brother! We, ah, we fixed the *glitch*. The Rapture is now New Jerusalem, and vice versa. All our maps, records and datalinks have been corrected. Unbelieving data may say otherwise, but only an apostate would accept Satan's information over Believe-Net, so for now, it'll just work itself out naturally. Once we end this democratic nonsense, the Purity Patrol will thoroughly help any brethren who quietly harbour doubts to adjust to the current version of the eternal truth. Problem solved from our end."
"Great!” Elder Jeffs remarked, concluding the matter. "Now, as for the University, I am sure you have all seen the glorious footage from Putin Memorial."
A round of nods, smirks and joyous smiles erupted around the table. Holoreels of the nutrient failure and the catastrophic famine had circulated widely on Believe-Net channels, serving both as entertainment and a source of conviction that the Lord God did indeed punish the wicked.
"Beautiful as it is" Jeffs said gruffly, "it is regrettably but an isolated event. On the whole, Satan is still strong in that accursed faction. Not only are they developing new AAA tracking for their security forces, we believe their ultimate goal is to breathe life into machines and create blasphemous artificial intelligences. Given the speed of their research, this could happen in a mere decade. I would therefore suggest that we re-classify the University as a level five threat and redouble our efforts on Landmass Three. It will likely delay the development of the Morganic Mandate even further, but it simply cannot be helped. All in favour?"
Unanimous nods of approval went around the room, quickly settling the matter. The meeting, of course, was far from over. There was still the matter of Brother Lal's blasphemous Mind/Machine Interface project to consider, as well as the request of another borehole from the governor of Providence Island, not to mention the cultural "Golden Age" sweeping through the Human Hive. Much as the elders enjoyed their residences, private needlejets and hundreds of young wives, the shepherding of humanity was hard work indeed. Still, someone had to do it, and as Saint Paul had said, to share in Christ's glory, one also had to share in his suffering.
New Jerusalem has always been east of Mount Zion.
Could really use some more crawlers, but the borehole rush and pop booming has yielded some nice results. Might be able to go full ecomojific specialist in a bunch of these bases and rake in teh big yehzah. Would also help reduce the amount of drones that would go full chimpout if I would ditch the 50% feelgood handoutz and try to do some actual research of my own.
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