Chapter 14

Once she pulled back because she couldn’t breathe, Dora took her place to do the same thing. When she stepped back, I just shook my head. “I’m guessing that Beth wasn’t the only witness to what I saw, then?”

“It was ... fuzzy ... at times. I could tell you were saying something, but I couldn’t hear what you said, or what that man said back to you. When they shot you in the chest with that grenade, and it did nothing, I felt so relieved,” Eve said.

“Si. I completely lost you when you drilled through the mountain. I saw you come out into daylight, then dive into an ocean or something, then I saw nothing until you were high in the sky. It was so beautiful; I wish I could have seen it better.”

I looked at Beth, who had a smirk on her face. “Before Beth says anything, two more things that Mike said as well. You all heard him say that I was able to process things 500 times better than Beth. You didn’t hear him say that compared to regular Earth normal, both of you are doing 5 times better than regular Earth people, Beth is 20 times better. The other thing is that I’M not normal, either. I’m at 20 times what our normal is, or was. I’m quite sure that has something to do with it. Now, Beth...”

“Like these two, I went to bed at 11. About 11:15, I connected with you. You were waving at the pilots of some jets, then landed. There were troops shooting you, then you yelled something at an officer. They quit shooting, you and he talked for several minutes. I could hear you speaking, but I didn’t understand the language. Then you went flying down the runway, plowing them up with your bare hands. You flew through jets, blowing them up. When that huge bomb blew up, I was scared for you, but it didn’t affect you. Then you landed, told some people in that airport terminal something, then flew through the mountain.”

She chuckled. “I almost got dizzy; the way things were spinning. Then it got dark. I could tell you were still spinning, though. Then you popped out into sunlight, dove into the sea, swam for a bit, then flew up, up, and away. The Earth ... it’s so gorgeous from up there. We have to get pressure suits or something, so you can take us up there, so we can see it ourselves. My alarm went off then, just before you started flying home. I knew it’d be an hour before you got here, so I stayed inside for a bit, fried up the meat for breakfast so it’s all ready, then went outside at about three.”

I nodded. “So, none of you were asleep for a while.” They all shook their heads, for which I was thankful. “Good. I hope I never have to do ... what I did ... again. I’m glad that none of you witnessed it. Let’s just say that the people who planned the attack in Beirut aren’t around any longer, and leave it at that.”

“You killed them, then? All of them?” Eve asked.

“All but one. He said he repented when I asked, the rest were completely defiant.”

“Good. You tempered your actions with mercy. That’s how you should act, what you should do.” With that, she dropped to her knees before me, pulling my shorts down in the process, and slipping me into her mouth.

Beth quietly shut the door behind us, then walked by us, going to lay back down. Dora did the same, snuggling up behind Beth, while Eve continued using her mouth on my dick. Her tongue flicked out, licking my balls at times, her fist stroking me in time with her head bobbing. It didn’t take me long to fill her mouth, which she quickly swallowed. She pulled off me, then gracefully rose up, taking my hand and leading me to the bed, where she curled up behind me. “Thank you, my love,” she whispered in my ear.

The alarm went off at 7:00. We opened the door to the bedroom, to see Elroy standing in the doorway to the master bedroom. “Good morning, Elroy. I think the girls will just rest a lot today, yesterday was so stressful for everyone. Are you ready for breakfast?”

He looked at me suspiciously. “Sure.” I double checked to make sure I’d put shorts on, which I had. I led everyone downstairs.

Dora started scrambling a dozen eggs, while Beth pulled the meat from the refrigerator, and Eve made toast. I started the coffee pot going for Elroy, then got glasses of milk and juice for the rest of us. Elroy just shook his head, then went into the living room. “I forgot about this, but you’re supposed to have cable television out here now. I’m curious to see if it works.”

He used the two remotes, first turning the TV on, then turning the cable box on. There was a written guide showing the stations we’d get, so while we finished up breakfast, he tuned it first to a Kansas City news station, then to CNN.

There was a commercial that played, then the screen switched to a man sitting behind a desk. “Welcome back, to CNN, I’m Lou Dobbs. In international news this morning, Reuters is reporting that the Mehrabad Airport has been shut down, possibly due to Iraqi airstrikes. In addition, seismologists report an earthquake in the Alborz mountain range to the north of Tehran. They’re unsure if the two events are related. If this was the result of combat action by Iraq, it would indicate a serious escalation in the ongoing war between the two countries, as well as capabilities previously not known.”

“In other news, Colonel Joseph Kittinger, the man who holds the record for the highest free fall parachute jump in history, at 102,800 feet, and just set the world record for first flight across the Atlantic in a balloon on September 18^th, received a warm welcome in Paris, from Francois Mitterrand. The French President...” Elroy shut the TV off.

“Seems that cable is working fine. Strange that Iraq could hit that far into Iran.”

“Who knows, Uncle Elroy? Come on over and eat, while things are hot.”

He grumbled a little, but ate with us, then went back upstairs. He got dressed and left, with me following right behind him, so I could make it to school.

“I’m surprised he didn’t ask any questions,” Dora said to me, just before I left.

“He doesn’t want to know. If he knew, then he’d have a serious conflict of interest. As it is, he’s ... conflicted, but he can rationalize things in his own mind.”

The phone rang. Beth answered it. “Hello? Good morning, Jennifer. No, we just had breakfast. That sounds like a great idea, just a second.” She looked at us. “Jennifer wants the three of us to come over in a bit, help her get a room ready for Stephen, for when he gets home.” The other two nodded. “Sounds good. We’ll see you in ... an hour? See you then.”

“Take care, my love. We’ll see you before the game tonight.”

I was shocked, then pleased, at lunch, that there were three empty seats at our table. I almost didn’t get to eat; everyone was telling me how much they supported SJ and the family. Coach Thompson even stopped by, to make sure I knew to be at school at 4:15, so I could catch the player’s bus. Because of the length of the trip, there would also be three buses available for parents, family, and other fans that didn’t want to drive.

The girls weren’t home when I got there. However, we did have a real flagpole installed out front. It looked to be about 60’ tall. Jim stopped and told me that it had to finish setting, so sometime next week, we could put flags up on it then.

I thanked him. Once he was gone, I went into the barn. “Good evening, Mike. What’s been going on that I need to know about?”

“Good evening, Cal. As I presume you’re talking about the Iran situation, the amount of confusion among the various sources I have access to is tremendous. The closest thing to accurate is from an Air Force satellite picture, showing the damage to the runways and the equipment at Mehrabad. No analysis that I have found understands what did happen. There are reports from the Central Intelligence Agency that a demon showed up in Tehran and caused all the issues, which were immediately discounted. Due to the state of the war between Iran and Iraq, the majority analysis seems to think that Iraq managed to launch missiles that somehow were launched from Lebanon.”

“This is the current thought, as both spy plane photographs and satellite imagery clearly show the disturbance in the soil running nearly directly from Baalbek to Tehran. Some of these photographs are being leaked to certain news organizations, as part of their regular, deniable information briefing.”

“Also, there is a report in a NASA computer of two strange traces in the mesosphere. It was a simple recording that coincides with your flight paths. I have deleted it from their records.”

“Hopefully, I won’t have to take many more flights for a while. Thanks, Mike.” The girls came home just as I was leaving for school, for the bus. They were going to change clothes, then ride over with Stephen and Jennifer. Elroy had already told me he was not going, so I didn’t expect him.

The JV won their game by two touchdowns. We won the coin toss for the Varsity game.

Things went badly for Garden City from the kickoff. Aaron ran it back for a touchdown. Then, on their first series, we intercepted a pass and ran that in for a touchdown, putting them down 14-0, with barely 5 minutes gone. They couldn’t do anything, and punted to us. Coach put me out there, figuring that their defense would key on me, but with Terry as the quarterback. Our first play, Terry made a deep pass to Aaron that he ran in all the way, while they were trying to triple team me. That made it 21-0. They finally managed to get a field goal, just before the end of the first quarter.

Their woes continued in the second quarter. Their coach was still so concerned about me that when Terry made a hand-off to Jeff, after faking it to me, their entire defensive line chased me all over the field, knowing I had to have the ball. That made it 28-3. We started doing our tackle substitutions on their next series, stopping them on our 25, and they missed the field goal. I rode the bench the rest of the half. Coach had me call plays in to Terry, but I was letting him call his own. We finished up 35-3 at the half.

At halftime, Coach told us to not let up, just in case they pulled a trick or two out of their pockets. We kicked off to them, and they worked it down the field for a touchdown. We were halfway expecting the onside kick, so when they tried it, it wasn’t a shock. It didn’t work for them. Terry went back out and led us down the short field, making it 42-10. We stopped their next drive, forcing them to punt, and Terry led us to another score. With it 49-10, their coach threw in the towel and asked for the running clock.

It wasn’t unexpected. While we didn’t let up, we also didn’t let them score without making them work for it. The final score was 56 to 24. Their last score was because they had a team mascot, as it were, a young man who was mentally handicapped. They put him in on the last play, so he could say he’d played in a game. We purposely fumbled the ball to him, allowing him to run back for a score. Everyone on both sides cheered him as he walked the ball in for a touchdown.

On the way home, Coach told us that we’d done a good thing, and to keep in mind that our next three games would determine how we finished things. It was almost 2:30 in the morning by the time I got home Saturday morning, the girls were already home and asleep. I showered, then joined them in bed.

I was having a dream that I was grilling sausages on the stove, but then I was also setting the table and petting Spanky at the same time. Then I was starting some laundry. When the phone rang, I ran for it to answer it, before it woke Cal up. Then I woke up, realizing that the phone had been ringing. I also was alone in bed.

I slipped some shorts on and went downstairs. Beth was just finishing up a phone call. “Sorry, you were sleeping so well, I hoped I’d get it before it woke you up. They’ll be here in two hours to hook the computers up and show us how to use them here.”

We ate breakfast, then cleaned up. I didn’t mention to the girls just yet that I’d seen what they were doing, I’d tell them that, later. I cleared some of the furniture from the living room, so there’d be room for the desks. About an hour later, a small box truck pulled up. Two guys got out, one with a clipboard.

“Hi, we got a delivery and setup here for Lewis.” Jethro sniffed at them, peed on one of their truck tires, and went back to watching things.

“I’m Cal Lewis. Let’s see what you have.”

He opened the back door. “I’ve two desks, not assembled, two office chairs, carpet mats for the chairs. It won’t take us long to put the desks together. We’ve two full computer systems, one Apple Macintosh 512K, one Apple Laser Writer, one external floppy drive, one IBM PC/AT, with 6 MHz clock speed, with the 80286 and 80287 chipsets, 16 MB of RAM, and one 40 MB hard drive, two power supplies, power strips, one Hewlett Packard Laser Jet. We also have two 28K modems; we were told there were two phone lines available for dedicated use.”

“That’s correct. I’ll show you where everything goes in the house, then let you start.” I led them into the house, showing them where to work. While they were working, my girls went into town to get more groceries for the upcoming week; we were eating more than we’d originally planned. I read through the manuals for both computers. After that, I checked with them. They said it’d be at least two more hours before they had everything set up, so I told them I was going into town for a bit, and I should be back in about an hour.

I drove to the HCC library, found their section on computer programming, and walked down the aisle, reading everything I could that seemed relevant. It only took me about 20 minutes, then I went back home. The girls were a few minutes behind me, so we put things away. While the computer guys were making sure everything worked, I went out and checked with Mike.

“Just how pathetic are these things in the house, Mike?”

“As the latest and best small computers available on this planet, they are both state of the art for the industry here. Obviously, compared to me ... while they’re primitive, I can recognize the basics that make up my own architecture. Depending upon how much effort is made into improving them, a local computer in about two hundred years could almost match me.”

“More importantly, I am able to interface with both of them from here, and send files to their printers. That means I can also send and receive files in the more local format. I have a question. Will I be remaining here once your new home is complete?”

“Here, as in the barn? No. I plan to put you inside the house. We’ll have an entire room dedicated to computers. I can probably get you an actual cabinet so you can be visible to everyone, with no one other than us actually knowing what you are. Make for better interactions for you, maybe even get some cameras or something, so you can get some visual sensors going again.”

“That would be good, thank you. I should make you aware that there are some results from your actions that you did not anticipate, and I did not include in my calculations. The destruction of the Mehrabad Airport has been noted by the Iraqi army, and they are using the reduction in Iranian air power to advance with armor deeper into Iran than before.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It’s my understanding that Iran is an enemy of the United States, while Iraq is an ally,” I said.

“They are an ally of convenience, only. I have infiltrated all of their computer systems with appropriate subroutines. Maintaining the status quo between all of the larger nation states in the region, while supporting the nation of Israel, would be the ideal result.”

“Will there be a need for me to interfere before next weekend, do you think?”

“The Iranians can trade territory for time. I do not anticipate any issues.”

I nodded. “Good. I want you to determine, over the next week, exactly what and where I need to act. I’ll plan on going over there next Saturday evening, right after dark, destroy or otherwise neutralize whatever targets you have for me, or as many of them as I can, then come back Sunday.”

“You’ll excuse my question, but ... I can understand the reasoning behind the actions against Lebanon and Iran. Those are covered by the family code. I do not see how any further actions are covered or acceptable.”

“You’re aware of the banners displayed in front of this residence. Factor those into your calculations, as being an influence upon me.”

He was quiet for about 15 seconds. “To ensure your long-term survival, you have made the conscious decision to join with the native group known as the United States of America. Destabilizing actions by any other native national group on the planet increase the risk of long-term survival of your ladies and your eventual progeny. Based upon my sensor analysis of your body, you personally could survive a direct hit by a 10-megaton nuclear blast, those who are part of your family could not. The only way to ensure that is to remove their toys. Your intent is to remove the major weapons of war from all other nations and force everyone to live in peace.”

“Exactly. I’ve...” From the house, I heard Beth calling me. “I hope to be back to continue this conversation.” I jumped down, then went into the house.

“We’ve everything wired in, and both machines are up and running. We got test pages printed, so the hardware is communicating. According to the option list, you did not want any on-site training. I just want to confirm that.”

“Correct. Did you bring out blank storage media?”

“Floppy discs? Sure, three boxes for each machine. They’re in the large box over there. We’ve put all the software that we have available for them in that box as well. I ... guess that’s all we can do, for now. Here’s your copy of the invoice for today, it’s all already paid for.” I looked at it, just under $25,000 total. I walked over to the sack by the couch, reached in and pulled out a stack of $100. I counted out 6 of them, giving each of them $300.

“Thanks for coming out and doing this on Saturday. And more importantly, not making any comments about my ladies, especially where I could hear them.”

“Mister Lewis, my dad is the owner of the shop. He threatened me within an inch of our lives if either of us did anything out of line. Because you ordered from us, we’ve already gotten orders to upgrade all of the branches of the First National Bank here in town, and the school corporation has just placed an order with us instead of Kansas City, and we’ve a bid in with HCC now as well. We’ll probably have to hire at least two more people, just to help with everything we’ll be doing for the next year.”

“Good. That’s what I like to hear, someone local doing well.” The two of them picked up all their trash, then closed up their truck and left.

I had Eve and Dora start on the PC, Beth on the Mac. I told them to play around for a couple of hours, while I went back out to the barn.

“I find that I am impressed by your long-term goal, Cal. However, I am not sure how you will carry it out.”

I chuckled. “Mike, when I figure THAT part of things out, you’ll be one of the first to know. I’m sure if it was easy, someone would have already done it.”

I spent the two hours talking with Mike, discussing options, as well as planning how he would re-do the subroutines he would put into place in government computers. I went back in, where the girls were running programs on both computers.

“What are your thoughts?”

Beth shook her head. “We’ve been talking as we’re doing things. I’m disappointed. This computer has more capacity and power, but it forced me to learn this language to utilize it. It has a better screen, in that it has color graphics. But the capabilities at this point seem clunky. My sisters have figured out how to operate the Macintosh, really without even needing to read anything. I can make this computer operate the programs, and I’ve already written several small programs for it, to execute commands. But having only a keyboard for input is awkward.”

Eve nodded. “This was quite easy to start using. Using the mouse, it made it almost too easy to do some things. Especially drawing. Dora made this image of our mascot with no help at all.” There was a printed picture of a Salthawk on the table.

“At the same time, this is highly limited in that it only has a monochrome screen. With the monitor being built into the computer itself, that makes upgrading effectively impossible for the average consumer. We have a Commodore 64 at home that cost a fraction of what these systems do. It hooks up to a television, and operates more like an Atari game console, but it’s still a computer. Toby uses it for learning and playing games. While the capabilities of it are nowhere near what this can do, if this was modified to use a color screen or television, this would be much more successful.”

“Si, mi amor. While one of us played, the other read. I can see where we will use this for many things. I utilized the modem to connect to the HCC mainframe, but it was ... to be generous, ponderously slow. I also had issues finding files there that I could use here.”

Beth nodded. “I ran into almost the same problem. I connected to K State. There’s not a lot that’s public I could use. There were boards and groups that are using their system to communicate. This could be very useful, if it’s developed further.”

Dora agreed. “I am afraid that we have been spoiled by Mike. He is much better than anything we have, now.”

“Come on with me.” They all got up, we went back to the barn. “Mike, did you hear our conversation inside, regarding the two computers?”

“Yes. Your planet is on the cusp of a revolution in computers. Based upon my analysis of both devices, they each have their own advantages and weaknesses. I am sending to one of the printers some basic information on each of the devices and their components, as well as the manufacturers.”

“Mike, could you write a program so that the IBM could use a mouse?”, Beth asked.

“That would be simple. However, the software developer, Microsoft, has a version they call Windows that has already been demonstrated; it simply has not been released to the general public yet. I have told Cal that your computer capabilities are, based upon my own history, approximately two hundred years behind my own; meaning that within that time, your scientists should nearly match what I can do now. What I would suggest is that I write a program for your own personal use, that will fully utilize the capabilities of the IBM machine. I can upgrade the Macintosh as well, including writing an interface so that both machines can share files and processing capacity.”

“Si, that would make it much more friendly for us. Gracias, Mike.”

“It is my pleasure, to be of service to the ladies of Cal.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Mike. This ... discussion ... has me thinking of some things that I need to talk to Elroy about now.”

Eve nodded. “What companies do you invest in, and how much? Do you just buy them, if possible, buy part of them directly, or for those publicly traded, simply buy stock?”

“That’s what I need to talk to Elroy about.” We went back into the house, and I picked up the phone, dialing his number.

“Elroy, it’s a little late this evening. What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?”

“I have a feeling I’m coming out to your house. Can you give me a clue?”

“Nothing major. I just need some investment advice, and how to proceed with it.”

“Cal, where you invest the money for the future is up to you,” he said, sounding puzzled.

“I realize that. I’ve figured out where I want to invest some money. It’s the process, and actually doing so, that I need help with. Is there a stock broker that you know that could meet us here as well, one that is honest enough to not give me any grief when I tell him I want to put money in a company? Or if I want to buy or directly invest in a company?”

“You HAVE been busy. I’ll make some phone calls tonight. Let’s plan on 2 o’clock.”

“Sounds good. How many should we plan on?”

“Let’s say three of us, maybe four.”

“See you then, Elroy. Good night.”

Dora said, “I’ll put meat out to thaw tonight. We haven’t used the grill yet, since we’ve been here. What time, and how many?”

“Elroy said three, maybe four, at two.”

“We’ll have salads ready then, steaks and fresh corn on the cob to grill,” she said.

I smiled. “What would I do without you three?”

“Let’s never find out.”

Over dinner that evening, I mentioned to the girls that, when they let me sleep in, I saw what they were doing. They all looked pleased, with Eve explaining that this made them feel closer to me than ever.

We watched two movies, the one we’d missed from last night, and then one for tonight. The first one was funny, with the main character finding love with a prostitute. His dance scene, sliding in his underwear, was hilarious. The second one also made me laugh, a little. “I will not, ever, ask Mike if he wants to play a game. Not only that, but the game itself was flawed. You can see that from the title of it. Global Thermonuclear War? Of course, it’s going to end up destroying everything. That’s just bad programming.”

“So, you think it’s possible to have a limited nuclear war?” Beth asked.

“Naturally. They set things up in that scenario so all the weapons would launch, no matter what. A more appropriate scenario would be to figure out what bombs being launched would NOT cause that kind of war. Half a dozen EMP devices, blanketing a country, would render the country helpless, anyway.”

After that it was snuggle time, with some in bed discussions about what we could do as adults to help prevent anything like this, and three slightly upset girls that wondered about the future of mankind.

We all slept late the next morning, then took showers and made sure the house was ready for a business meeting that afternoon. I messed around a little on the IBM for about half an hour, before Elroy led a parade of cars to our house. A man about Elroy’s age got out of the first car. A man that looked about Harry’s age got out of the second, and a young woman, maybe ten years older than us, got out of the third. They were all wearing professional clothing, the men in suit jackets and ties, the woman in a light brown dress, and they all had briefcases or portfolios. For some reason, she looked familiar to me.

The oldest man said, “Looks like you’re doing a bit of expanding here. Did Harry come into some money, finally?”

Elroy shook his head. “We’ll get into everything inside, Paul. Cal, what do you have for us?”

“Salads are ready on the table. The corn is already grilled, rolls are being kept warm, and the steaks are ready to go, we just need to know how everyone likes them.” I got orders for two mediums, one medium rare, and one medium well. “Very good. If you’ll all go in; Beth is hostess, Eve and Dora are serving.”

I had already seasoned the meat, so I put the medium well on the grill first. After two minutes, I rotated it so it’d have grill marks on it, then put seven mediums on. After two more minutes, I flipped the medium well one, rotated the mediums, and then put the medium rare one on. Two more minutes passed, and I flipped the mediums, rotated the medium well and medium rare. After two more minutes, I flipped the medium rare, then after two more minutes, rotated it and the mediums. Two more minutes and I checked the steaks with my thumb, then took them all off the grill, putting them on a platter and covering them with foil. I put the corn back onto the grill briefly, to warm it back up, then after a couple of minutes, took everything inside.

“Here we are, fresh off the grill, with a resting time of about four minutes.” Dora took the platter of corn from me, so everyone could get whatever sized piece they wanted. I walked around the table with the steaks, with Eve first giving the two that were special out, putting one on everyone else’s plate, then the last two on mine. I held their chairs for them, both of them to my left, while Beth looked a little wistful on my right. “Is there an issue, sweets?”

“Just thinking that this is the first time since Mom died that we’ve had both leaves in the table, that’s all.” I reached over, giving her a small squeeze.

Elroy cut a chunk from his steak, looked at it suspiciously, then bit into it. I could see the surprise in his eyes when the flavor hit his tongue. He chewed and swallowed, then said, “My compliments to the chef. I wasn’t expecting it to have such a nice herbal and spice crust.”

Beth smiled, now. “You’re welcome, Uncle Elroy. That’s a combination I came up with maybe five years ago. Cal made sure and read a book on how to cook the meat, so it would be grilled right.”

The other three at the table complimented her on the crust, with the younger man saying, “How did you get them all to come up at the same time? My medium-well is just right. My wife likes hers medium, but I can’t ever get it right.”

“Simple. You don’t start them at the same time. Put the medium-well on first, then two minutes later, put the medium on. Only flip the meat once, so you flip the medium-well, then two minutes later, flip the medium. Six minutes later, pull them both off, and then let the meat rest for about four minutes, covered, before you cut it. While it’s resting, it’ll finish cooking inside.”