The Delmarian Influence

Chapter Four

The Sisters of the Immediate Blessings are not exact clones, rather they are variations on a similar theme. Until the last five hundred years they were born exclusively of Delmarian stock. The arrival of Humans caused an immediate melding with the Delmarians, as the Four Gods foretold, and the Sisters were born half-breeds.

The Delmarian genes are always dominant in Sisters. They have the body type of Delmarians, short and well-muscled. They have the sharp features that are near identical to the Sisters that bore the names before them, and each at the age of maturity finds her way to Delmar Two where she is indoctrinated into the Sisterhood.

So it is that they who rule Delmar and Delmarians are both Human and Delmarian, though never more than either.

--Excerpt from Delmarians Are Sort of Like Us, “Chapter Seven: Sisters of the

   Immediate Blessings”

--Copyright 4043 O.E.

4.

4100 O.E. Septam 18, 08:43:55.03

Habitable Planetary System of Delmar

Delmar I, Continent of La Gordia, City of Essix

Theology of the Universe felt more like a let-down than anything else for a last class. Garett found himself kicking his sneakers softly on the orange tile of the classroom floor. His thoughts kept turning back to the smokers that lay in his pocket and whether he should let Dania share the smoker with him. Increased heart rate was one of the side effects, but he had never known any of the Gravity Kids that ever died from one.

Mrs. Ryl Nolson—a tall woman with short-cropped hair—was their teacher for this course. She was the same shade of skin as Garett, save darker. She spoke with a slight rhythm that made them all lose interest and drift off.

“...the people of Old Earth Colony Fifteen were of all different religions, creating a global mix that has survived, although there has been the occasional religious discourse from time and again. Can any of you tell me why?”

Dania looked to Garett and rolled her eyes.

The class was silent as Mrs. Nolson moved on without waiting for an answer. “Religion has very specific beliefs that people enjoy interpreting as their own. There are always a set of laws that all people follow, yet with faith and religious fervor, it is this truth that will give you immortality, peace, and a place with whatever higher being exists...”

Garett allowed the voice in the background to drone on as he noticed the track just outside the window. More than once he wished himself out there rather than in this classroom.

There was only the Immediate Blessings on Delmar I, and they were natives to this planet. They believed in the Four Gods, which were representatives of the good things in the human condition. There was a God of Love, Bravery, Compassion, and Knowledge.

Garett shrugged thinking of the Great Dampening. It was the Immediate Blessings that used technology to nearly cripple the Confederate and force them to recognize that other life-forms had rights, and one of those was not to advance and build bigger and better technological societies. The dampening brought about places like Delmar I that were surrounded by fields that kept out most energy frequencies for the sake of the people. Robotics and nanotechnology, according to the Immediate Blessings, would destroy the human race and all other beings in their wake if they continued on their current course.

It was a shame the Immediate Blessings did not have a God of ‘Leave Well Enough Alone’, Garett thought. Most of the Gravity Kids could have lived normal lives with nanotechnology, or any technology. According to his biology class people would live at least two centuries longer with the nanoscopic robots.