Sabbath

Oct 28, 2024

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Illoia awoke the next morning and stretched. It seemed like she had slept forever. And Tom was still sleeping next to her. She glanced lazily at her com and started. 0900! And Tom still sleeping! She reached out and was just about to jostle Tom when she realized, with a start, that this was Sabbath! No wonder he was still sleeping.

She checked her com: Sacred Services were at 1030. No training or anything of the sort on this day.

Her movement must have woken her husband, for he rolled her over and pulled her in for a kiss. “Our first Sabbath!” he said, when he came up for air.

“Yes, My Lord,” she said. “Do we have time for breakfast with the others, before Worship?”

“Oh, yes, certainly,” he said. “Do comm them.”

He vanished for the fresher while she commed them, and she met Eudoria in the line for the fresher before she got an answer.

“Oh, Illoia,” Eudoria said, kissing her. “I assume we can come, but I haven’t talked to Eukles yet.”

“No problem, dear,” Illoia said but then, noticing Eudoria’s strange look, said, “Is something else…?”

Eudoria’s face broke into a grin and she triggered her comp and held it out. At the sight of the thin blue and pink lines Eudori was showing on her comp Illoia broke out, “Oh, Eudoria, matched twins matched twins! I’m so happy for you!”

Soon the whole line of lasses was busy congratulating Eudoria but Illoia, who had been forced to the front of the line, had to go in and fresh, with Eudoria coming in a few seconds later but both had been busy and had dutifully ignored each other.

But she got to congratulate her more a half an hour later when they met at breakfast. She was so pleased that Tom was allowing… almost even encouraging… these meals together. She had looked it up and both of these other leaders would be assigned very near their own assignment, so this was excellent socialization. She would eventually have to work on their relationships with higher ranks, but she knew full well that relationships with same rank peers was very important.

“So how will we do Sabbath?” she asked, as the breakfast started to wind down.

“They will be setting up in here,” Eukles said. “The higher ranks will be seated in here with us, the rest of the ship will watch on vid. In their dorms or at their stations. No sims today.

“The Sim AI’s actually use the down time,” Meriones put in. “I have a friend that is a tech whiz, and he told me that the AI actually puts the time to use. Not a violation of the Sabbath for an AI to work.”

“In here,” Illoia said, looking around the dining room.

“It’s the biggest open room in the whole ship,” Eukles said.

Illoia had always attended Sabbath by vid when on ship, and had never known where it had been held. She had never even wondered at not being invited, enjoying the time in her room with a certain (carefully selected) group of friends. But somehow she knew that Eukles’ ‘we’ included her.

“What are you going to wear?” she whispered to Eudoria. She knew that Eudoria had excellent clothes sense. She suspected it was because her parents were not as rich as they liked to make out, and had to make up for it with very careful taste.

“I have a few designs picked out,” Eudoria said, showing Illoia her comp.

“Can I borrow one?” Illoia asked. “I hadn’t even given a thought to Sabbath, let alone dreaming that we would be in the main room.”

“Sure, take any one of them!”

“No, you choose first and I’ll pick one of the others. It isn’t fair for you to go to all that trouble and then have me steal your favorite design.”

“Well, it really isn’t an issue. Look, if I make a slight color change to this one, it will go very well with your colors. Our hair and our skin are both different. I’ll go with this one here, and you can go with the one I just designed, if you like it.”

Illoia did like it. It was subdued, as befit a sabbath service, but still managed to be… to fit her colors well and stand out. And, she thought, it would go well with the all black that her husband always wore. She had seen many other soldiers, actually, wear black, and a variety of grays, to Sabbath service.

She was still thinking about the outfit when she noticed some rankers coming into the room.

“We should go now,” Meriones said. “They’re starting to get the room ready.”

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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von

Links

Article 17 is a military science fiction story with aliens and romance. It is set in a future reminiscent of Napoleon era Britain. The war was going very poorly until the military installed a dictator. This story follows one of the dictator’s great men: Cladin Tomirosh, Leader, and thrice decorated hero.

Intro // Podcast Version

She was pretty, popular, snobby, and a planetary governor’s daughter. He was the son of shopkeepers, a social misfit, and a decorated hero. She thought she was there to dance. He had other ideas.

A Dance // Podcast Version

As a governor’s daughter, Illoia usually avoided such events, but when the captain made the announcement that there was to be an Article 17 dance, she, too, was forced to attend. If only the scum hadn’t been there too.