Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
“Don’t make a scene. We pride ourselves on minimizing collateral damage. If I meant to kill you, you’d be dead already. Take a seat and hear me out. It’s not as though you have any other choice, unless you’re content to leave here in a body bag.”
I weighed my options. Then I sighed, took the only open seat and buckled myself in. He smiled at me, unnaturally calm given the situation. “Good, good. I’ll bet you’re confused and frightened. Not to worry, I’ll fill you in on the way.”
I asked where he meant to take me. “You have it backwards” he insisted. “It’s you that will take us where we wish to go. Straight to your father’s last known location.” My stomach sank. They must have been closely monitoring me since arrival.
There was never any realistic hope of eluding them. They’d only been waiting for Dad to contact me, then for me to charter the flight so they could get ahold of the coordinates and a hostage Dad would care about.
“This is about me, isn’t it?” I pled. “Why involve him? You only needed him to find me in the first place.” The peacoat wearing fellow gestured dismissively. “The media blew your little stunt out of proportion. Small potatoes, compared to what your old man’s been up to.”
What could they mean? So far as I knew, Dad spent the last six years selling organic produce to conshelfers. I’d never before seriously considered the possibility that Dad had his own criminal life that he kept hidden from me.
The tree doesn’t grow far from the apple, I suppose. The aircraft shuddered, hull resonating subtly as it lifted off the pad. It wasn’t like engine vibration, exactly, but the hum commonly emitted by high current electrical machinery.
The craft lurched beneath me as it began to accelerate on its way out to sea. My abductor and his six fullmetal thugs jostled about in their seats, the seatbelts straining against their considerable weight.
Soon we ascended above the cloud layer and there was nothing to be seen in all directions but ocean. It would’ve been pleasantly serene if not for the tense atmosphere. If not for the fact that I was leading Dad’s probable assassins straight to him.
There wasn’t any opening to make my move just yet, though. Not in such a confined space with four fullmetals. I’d be beaten into strawberry jam before I could so much as get my hands around their boss man’s neck.
So I sat there, biding my time. Studying my captors, and working on the beginnings of a plan for after we landed. Fullmetals in general are nothing to sneeze at, and I especially didn’t fancy my odds of beating these ones in a fair fight.
They were matte black, all sharp angles, like stealth bombers in the shape of men. Some of the edges in their chassis were lined with red EL wire that glowed, gently pulsating, seemingly only for intimidation purposes. It was working.
No matter how I came at the problem, I couldn’t imagine a plan of action that ended well for me. Or Dad, for that matter. There was no use agonizing while I could do nothing about it, but I couldn’t help myself. More than any other point in my life, I now felt like a cornered animal.
My abductor seemed comfortable enough that he’d holstered his pistol and was watching some sort of talkshow on the craft’s ceiling mounted infotainment console. The flip down display depicted a panel type debate between a Sunni Imam, a Catholic priest, and a notable feminist author.
“For those just joining us, today’s discussion topic is whether or not the ban on Muslims traveling to orbit via the recently completed space elevator is constitutional. I’ll let Sarah Maxwell, author of “The male problem”, open things up. Sarah?”
The only woman on the panel, sharply dressed in a dark grey business suit and horn rimmed glasses, wasted no time framing the discussion as she saw fit. “Of course it’s unconstitutional. It’s racist. There’s no such thing as opposition to Islam which isn’t simply veiled racism.”
The priest now interjected. “Hold on a minute. That’s not fair. Aren’t you opposed to Catholicism, and in fact any sort of Christianity?” She affirmed it, so he continued. “Does that make you racist? Why is it racist to oppose Islam, but not Christianity? Do you not understand why Islam is heretical and worth opposing on theological grounds, or can’t you put yourself in my shoes? Can you at least see why atheists might oppose Islam for the same reasons they oppose any other religion?”
She rolled her eyes. “Muslims are a minority group. Historically speaking, opposition to minority groups has always come from a place of xenophobic sentiment.” The priest pointed out that globally, Muslims outnumber Christians, which failed to move her.
“My opposition to Christianity has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with Christianity’s history of homophobia and misogyny.” The priest then asked her why she did not oppose Islam even more strongly for the same reasons, given that it’s even more severely homophobic and misogynistic than any modern denomination of Christianity.
“What you have to understand” she explained, “is that as white Westerners, we cannot stand in judgement of a foreign culture. They have their own separate world, essentially, which we are outsiders to. Are we still in the business of imposing our values? Would you have us be cultural imperialists?”
The priest scoffed. “It sounds like what you’re saying is that Islamic homophobia and misogyny are “cultural” and therefore acceptable, but the Christian equivalent isn’t, even though it’s much less severe. Pardon me if I don’t consider that a good reason for such an overt double standard.”
She assured him that she didn’t much care whether he agreed. She then asked why he was so opposed to Islam himself, when Islam’s stance on women’s rights, gay marriage, abortion, and just about every other social issue lined up near perfectly with Catholic values.
“That’s a misrepresentation” the priest defensively stated. She challenged him to explain how. “It’s just different. Apples and oranges. When Muslims do those things, they intend to oppress. Catholics are simply following God’s law as revealed through his son, Jesus Christ.”
It was her turn to scoff. “Muslims would say they’re simply following God’s law as revealed through the prophet Muhammad.” The priest was not impressed. “Yes, but they’re lying. Muhammad was no prophet. Do you know how heavily derivative the Qur’an is of the New Testament?”
She asked whether Jews would say the same of the New Testament, in relation to the Torah. “It doesn’t matter what they would say” the priest answered. “They’re in the wrong religion, like Muslims. Only the Christian perspective, and specifically the Catholic perspective is of any importance here, because only that perspective is correct.”
She smiled. “Similarity breeds contempt, doesn’t it.” The priest, now visibly irritated, insisted that there were no such similarities between Catholicism and Islam. That Catholicism is God’s true church on Earth and Islam is just an overgrown desert cult, such that no valid comparisons could be made.
The host then broke in to steer discussion back to the original topic, the space elevator travel ban. They looked sheepish and began discussing the logistics that would go into screening individual Muslim travelers.
“It’s discriminatory to screen them at all. At least any moreso than the average passenger headed to orbit. But then if they increase security level across the board just so nobody accuses them of profiling, it’s still ultimately motivated by prejudice.”
The Imam nodded thoughtfully. “The American whore makes some excellent points. Indeed prejudice against my brothers and sisters is widespread, and wholly unfounded. The constant so-called terror attacks, if you were to properly investigate them, have all actually been the work of Mossad. But American lap dogs will never side against their Jewish masters.”
Stay Tuned for Part 33!
I wish I have been follow your stories, but I'm new here. I want to be a great writer like you some day
Dude you are wrong to criticize any religion.
You don't deserve the respect I give you.
Thanks and have a good day.
I never asked for any.