William Quantrill becomes a Merarch in the Draka Security Directorate;
Charles George Gordon agrees to negotiate with the Mahdi on behalf of the Domination of the Draka so that the Domination will agree to his, Gordon's, "Plan" for a Nile dam;
in Khartoum, Gordon eats a "delicious" meal that deserves to join our food thread -
small glasses of sugar-laden coffee like thick syrup;
honey-covered dates and pastries;
cold melon;
freshly caught Nile fish, picked free of bones;
cold meats;
dried figs. (p. 52)
Gordon's merchant host warns him that an attempt to talk to the Mahdi will mean Gordon's death. How far will events in the Domination timeline parallel events in ours?
Gordon is described as "...a devout fundamentalist Christian..." (p. 37) who believes that every man should be allowed to worship his own god in his own way, "...as long as he worshiped some god." (ibid.) That is not what fundamentalist Christians usually believe. And it is tolerant only of theists. The world also contains sincere secularists and practitioners of non-theistic spiritualities.
This story also contains some humor: Gordon must evade the overt sexuality of Draka women and must also prevent his grateful host from kneeling before him because:
"There was no telling if the rotund merchant would have been able to fight his way back up to his feet again." (p. 51)
No comments:
Post a Comment