The Divine Dissimulation [Complete]

Chapter 35 Jon, A typical settler on Eden

Abraham Goldstein observed Jon of the Gad tribe who was sleeping. He could tell that Jon was unwell and confused. Suddenly, Jon woke up cold-sweating next to his wife, Nadia. He had experienced another strange dream that did not make any sense.

In the dream, Jon carried a rod that could fire projectiles and kill people from afar and a gadget that enabled him to speak and look at people that wasn’t there. He remembered sitting in a flying ship leaving a reddish planet watching his home blew up. But nothing of this made any sense. None of these things existed, and Jon could also remember that he and Nadia had been together for years as humble farmers on Earth working hard to support their children. But if this was true, why couldn't he feel any connection to his wife nor his kids?  Jon contemplated whether he was dead and life on Eden was the afterlife or if he had lost his mind. The memories he had were so shallow and filled with gaps that he couldn't know what was real, and yet they were all he had. Not finding peace Jon quickly drank a big tankard of red wine to calm his nerves. As the intoxication took hold of him, he managed to relax and fell back to sleep.

Jon's reaction was typical. When Abraham and the angels had wiped the memories of the first inhabitants of Eden, they had also inserted generic memories into them to help give them a purpose and role in society. Unfortunately, they had neither the time nor the will to provide all the Edenites with a comprehensive set of unique memories. Erasing and inserting memories was tedious, so instead of creating every individual unique they had just erased everyone's memories and used a few generic templates to create similar memories for all the Edenites. It wouldn't matter anyway; memory erosion and creation technologies could not realistically recreate and destroy a person's memories regardless of how much effort one put in. But after 50 or so years everyone living on Eden would be born there and all their memories would be real and prove that Abraham was their God.

The disconnect that Jon felt to his wife and children were a natural part of how Eden was set up. Abraham had made sure that all the family units on Eden consisted of individuals with no prior connection to each other. Hence Jon, Nadia, and their three children were not connected to each other at all before they were induced by memories and sent to live together in Eden.  Abraham had intentionally picked individuals that did not know each other to live together because if he chose to set together real family units, they would share fragmented memories from their earlier lives, and they were more likely to question their current reality. When pairing individuals with no prior connection, they would all have their different memory fragments from before, but these pieces would not match, and they would instead just adapt to reality and hide their emotions outwards than come across as insane.

Jon's drinking was not acceptable though, Abraham wanted his subject to live a good life, which included being fruitful and to multiply. If Jon drank heavily to calm his nerves, he would drink himself into an early grave and not be fruitful. If his subjects were not prolific, Abraham would run out of people to rule, which was not worthy of a god. Abraham decided to intervene; he activated the chip in Jon's brain and appeared like a mirage.

Abraham Goldstein:

-          Jon of the Gad tribe, why are you drinking?

Jon:

-          Wait, who are you?

Abraham Goldstein:

-          I am Abraham, thy God

-          You are abusing the gift I gave to you! I gave humanity wine so that you can celebrate together, not to drink away your weaknesses.

Jon:

-          I am sorry grandmaster Abraham; I repent and beg for forgiveness.

Abraham Goldstein:

-          Good. I forgive you sinful behaviour. For this time.

-          Now honour my will and have s*x with your consort. I demand you to be fruitful and multiply to praise my name!

Jon:

-          I don't mean to be disrespectful Grandmaster Abraham, but my wife and I have grown distant since you saved us and delivered us to your promised land. We have not engaged in any marital union since we arrived here.

This answer angered Abraham. This insolent human asked for help to f**k his wife. Sexuality was biology and was below his divine work. Abraham wanted to kill the audacious i***t instantaneously. But that would be a pointless death, and there would be no lessons learned for the rest of the people. The first generation of inhabitants was a complete wreck; Abraham needed people born on Eden with authentic memories to be better followers to him than the idiots he was tending over now.   Abraham decided to appear as a mirage to both Jon and Nadia simultaneously

Abraham Goldstein:

-          Wake up, Nadia!

Nadia:

-          What, who are you?

Abraham Goldstein:

-          I am Grandmaster Abraham, Thy God!

-          Jon told me that the two of you have failed to honour me by not laying together in your marital bed!

-          I find this is unacceptable. I command you to have s*x tonight!

Abraham made his mirage disappear and secretly studied Jon and Nadia. They were fumbling a bit, but they were slowly making their way to s*x. They would get there eventually; it was only biology.

Abraham concluded that the situation with Nadia and Jon was far from unique. Although he felt it was below him, he would just have to face the circumstances and get his subjects to procreate. With 700 couples on Eden, this would keep him bogged down for a while. Life was not all glorious as a god.