Chapter 3

Who knew that dressing up in a costume and walking around would be so much fun?

And no, the irony of that statement is not lost on me.

Beth was just driving down the road when I was landing. I got to the ground, quickly put my clothes on, and ran to meet her. There was no one else around, so all she did was slow down, while I opened the door and jumped in. That way, we didn’t get covered in dust drifting forward from a full stop.

“I’m glad you’re home in time. Toby’s really excited about going trick or treating with his new big brother or Dad, he’s not sure which. We’ve got the neighborhood we’ll go to mapped out so we can be done within two hours. With it getting dark so early now, we want to be finished and home by then. You probably didn’t even notice, but we changed the clocks for daylight savings time during the weekend.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. Um, why?”

“It’s called Daylight Savings Time. Spring forward, fall back. It goes back to when the US was really rural, and the clocks were adjusted so that farmers getting up in the fall would still be closer to regular sunlight hours. Doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore, since even in rural areas like this, we have electricity. It’s especially stupid with school kids, because in the winter time, if there’s snow on the ground and the buses are delayed at all, they’re getting dropped off basically at dark. Like a lot of government things, it made sense when they did it originally; now, not so much. So, how’d your day go?”

“Oh, not too bad. Met with Reagan and Bush, then destroyed the CIA. Only had to kill a few people for being stupid. How’d you know to pick me up, if you weren’t watching the news?”

She tapped the side of her head. “Linked even stronger now. I’m sure we’ll see it on the news tonight. Now, let’s get in so you can change and become Khan.”

A nice thing about being me was that I didn’t have to wear a coat or jacket, because the chill didn’t affect me. When we got to the first house, and Toby yelled, “KHAN! Trick or treat!” the family inside ran to get their camera. Eve and Jennifer were wearing nude colored body stockings under their diaphanous gowns. In a last second change, they were wearing flashing things on their neck with numbers on them, as Mudd’s women. Marcia was dressed like a Vulcan priestess. Dora became a Klingon warrior, with Margie and Beth as two of Khan’s women. Having three red-shirt security officers made it perfect.

That’s pretty much how the next hour went. We’d walk to a house, Toby would make his saying, and the family would get their camera. The newspaper had a photographer out and about taking pictures. We ended up posing for some pictures for him. Chuck ended up carrying the second sack of candy for Toby. Courtesy of us, people gave him huge amounts. When we got back to the house, Elroy and SJ were waiting with a camcorder to record us. They also had glasses with amber colored liquid in them.

“We got into the airport an hour ago. Our new jet will be delivered as soon as they prep it properly for us. Those are some incredibly realistic looking costumes and make-up,” SJ said.

“Thank you,” Marcia said. “I didn’t think they’d be this popular. Everyone was taking our pictures in town.”

“Are you kidding? Cal has the chest to make Khan even more imposing than he was in the movies. They look so authentic, too.”

“They’d better. They are authentic. That’s the outfit Ricardo Montalbán wore.”

Elroy nodded. “That makes sense, with your Hollywood connections. Either way, live long and prosper.” He held his hand up with the fingers in the correct Vulcan formation.

“Live long and prosper, Elroy,” Marcia said, doing it back to him.

Chuck looked at her. “You’re telling me these are really from the show?”

“Yeah. You saw the stuff I had on the main floor. You didn’t see my bedroom.” That got the others laughing. The three security guards took their shirts off, then left.

“I got all this? Wow, this is so much more than any other time I’ve been out,” Toby said.

“No ruining your appetite, though, young man. You need to eat dinner, before you have too much candy,” Jennifer said, a smile on her face.

“Okay, Mom. Let me go get changed.” Toby ran into his room.

Elroy said, “I don’t suppose there’s anything you need to tell us, since we were only gone overnight, before we talk about what Boeing did.”

I looked sheepish. “Um ... is it time for the nightly news?”

“Do I want to know what you did?”

“Um ... let’s watch the news. Try not to throw too many things my way.”

Toby came out of his room, ready for dinner. Beth looked at Eve and Dora. The three of them went into the kitchen, to fix dinner for all of us, and to keep Toby entertained and away from the television. I sat down on the couch, Marcia on my lap, Jennifer and Margie on either side of me. Elroy and SJ took their drinks and moved to the other part of the couch.

“Good evening, America, I’m Tom Brokaw. This is a special broadcast of the NBC Nightly News. Due to the sheer volume of events around the world, we purposely did not report on them earlier. In addition, at 6:50, President Reagan will be speaking to America on all networks at the same time about these events.”

“Now, here is the timeline of what happened around the world within the last 24 hours. Keep in mind that due to time zones, all events will be reported in their local times. These are from different networks, not just NBC. From New Delhi, India, here is Narsimha Rao.”

“It is the middle of the night here in New Delhi. Earlier today, in response to the attack upon a Punjab temple in June, two members of Prime Minister Gandhi’s bodyguards attempted to assassinate her. They were unsuccessful due to the actions of the Messenger from Above. According to her personal secretary, he had shown up to discuss troop movements that were in violation of his edicts regarding ending fighting. After his discussion, but before the assassination attempt, the Prime Minister, Missus Gandhi had agreed that she would work with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan, to reduce tensions between our countries.”

“After the attempt ... and the burning of these phrases into the concrete outside her residence ... she has contacted Miss Bhutto and is working to set free the disputed area between our nations. As you can see, this area has now become a shrine to peace. I spoke with Prime Minister Gandhi earlier this evening. She told me that while the Messenger has claimed otherwise, to her and the people of India, he is and always will be a Deva. From New Delhi, I am Narsimha Rao.”

“I’m Christiane Amanpour, here in Berlin. The party atmosphere behind me has been going on since early this morning. Members of the East German Army are working with both Soviet and NATO soldiers to remove the Berlin Wall. This scene is being repeated all over the country, as the Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union have disappeared overnight. This morning, the Messenger from Above arrived in Moscow. He met publicly with Foreign Minister Gromyko, newly elected Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, and Hieromonk Gleb Yakunin, of the Russian Orthodox Church. The meeting was recorded by Moscow TV and broadcast immediately around the country without any censorship whatsoever.”

The screen showed me talking to the Soviet leaders, my arms animated. “In what was something suspected, the Messenger confirmed that he is from another planetary system. He also told the people that when someone evil like Hitler, Mao, or Stalin comes along, to take responsibility. He told Mister Gorbachev to tear down the wall. The entire planet depends upon us growing up.” It then showed the three men hugging me. “The three men pledged themselves, and their lives, to following the teachings of the Messenger.” The camera showed me slowly rising into the air, the crowd cheering me.

The screen cut back to Tom Brokaw. “Ladies and gentlemen, what we are going to show you has not been edited for content, only for length. The images that you are about to see violate all FCC regulations for broadcast television. We suggest that if there are any young children in the room, they leave immediately. President Reagan ordered ... not asked, but ordered ... the FCC to allow us, and all networks to show these recordings. I’m going to wait one minute, while any children, or people who may be disturbed by scenes that are graphic, leave the room.”

A large clock appeared on the screen, counting down. Everyone in the living room looked at me, then back at the screen. The clock reached zero.

“This morning, the Messenger from Above arrived at the White House. He met with President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, and the new Secretary of State, George Schultz. One of the things from that meeting is that he said someone was going to have to break the news to Congress. President Reagan had ordered all members of the CIA home, under his authority as Commander in Chief. He had to ask Congress to repeal part of the National Security Act of 1947. These are his words, from a tape in the office.”

It cut to a camera shot of the CIA building from a helicopter. “I even heard a few members of Congress say that they didn’t believe in any of this trickery, and that they would be damned if they’d dissolve the CIA. That’s fine. Free will, after all. If they won’t dissolve the CIA, I will. Literally.”

The camera zoomed in, to show dozens of naked men and women running from the building. “The Messenger brought the Presidential limousine with the three men and two Secret Service agents to CIA headquarters. He ordered all doors sealed, and all people inside to leave everything inside except their identification, their wallets, their keys, and their wedding rings. He also meant their clothes, as well.”

The camera got closer. “At this point, you can see the Messenger inside, sorting people. President Reagan allowed the camera helicopters to come closer than we’ve ever been allowed, so this could be recorded. You can see there are two people off to one side, sitting on the floor.” The line of naked people continued, with a couple of people in wheelchairs being carried out to cars by security guards. “No one was allowed anything else, other than these items. After 40 minutes, the number of people inside were down to only a handful, including those 6 people you see off to the right.

The camera showed me walk up to and talk to one of the men. It then showed me killing him, then the next two men as well. You could see me talk to the remaining man and one of the women, taking their items and melting them. Brokaw said, “Interestingly enough, this woman was allowed to keep her necklace. When contacted, she said that the necklace had been a gift from her husband, who had been killed in Vietnam. She said the Messenger told her where her husband’s name was on the wall, and that he would not disrespect him. She was the only person allowed to bring anything extra out of the building. She also told us that the men that the Messenger killed were trying to smuggle films and other things out inside their bodies. That is why they were killed.”

It then showed the two Muslim women running out. You could see me doing something further inside, then meeting with Reagan again. Everyone hurried out, getting into the limousine and quickly driving a short distance away from the building. Nothing was visible from outside for almost a minute, then the building slowly began to collapse and burn, from the inside out. The helicopter began pulling back. “Our news helicopter had to retreat to a safe distance. The intensity of the heat could not be measured by any normal device. Based upon the actual melting of concrete and the literal pool of melted material that is all that remains of CIA headquarters, the temperature had to exceed seven thousand degrees Fahrenheit.”

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.”

Ronald was actually still at CIA headquarters. The camera was showing him in the foreground, with the smoking hole in the ground in the background. Marcia murmured her approval of the staging.

“My fellow Americans, today ... we were given a lesson. The United States is one nation on this planet among many. We have been fortunate ... very fortunate ... to not receive a message such as China, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, or many others have received. Today, I was in the White House when Mister Gromyko and Mister Gorbachev called, asking for our help in reunifying Germany. I had never expected to hear those words spoken, or to have it very bluntly confirmed that we are no longer the enemies we have been since the end of World War II.”

“The Messenger told us valuable words today. We made it into space, then fell back. We are on the cusp of either moving on, becoming a member of a galactic community we knew nothing about until today, or destroying ourselves. He would not say specifically where his authority comes from; I don’t think he needs to. He did tell us that he will do what he can to prevent us from destroying ourselves.”

“When it was apparent that something was going to happen to the CIA building, this temporary command center was set up. I will not hide anything. You saw on TV that the Messenger killed nine members of the CIA. Those people tried to smuggle things out. He apologized to me, saying that some people just won’t listen. The Congress of the United States did not listen. Here is the recording we made.”

“I really hope that someone recorded all of that. I’d hate for that message to be lost to anyone. I fully realize that this nation is a representative republic. If the representatives are so stupid as to not recognize what’s right in front of their faces, then maybe some of them need to retire. Or be retired.”

“What ... what did you do?”

“He sent us a message. Live in peace; destroy the drugs; end the fighting. We’ve been ... very fortunate today. He didn’t have to empty the building before he did that. The only ones who lost their lives today were those that didn’t listen to his message.”

Reagan said, “For those of you who don’t know, the last two voices were former director of the CIA, William Casey, and Vice-President Bush. There were two more relevant recordings made, that I will play. Before I do, let me make it clear that, as this could be classified as political in nature and that our Presidential election is next week, I called former Vice-President Mondale and played it for him. Upon hearing it, and seeing what had happened today, he gave me his permission to play this last recording.”

“Yes. I see that we needed a bit of a kick in the pants, like you did elsewhere. I hope you never have to do anything more in this country.”

“Well, if you’re still in the White House at the end of January, and I see no reason why the people would vote for anyone else that might not be as reasonable as you ... I suspect we can have some more interesting discussions.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to be something that no politician ever is; I’m going to be blunt. Nine people lost their lives here today because they were too damned stupid to listen to the Messenger. Nine people lost their lives today because the Congress of the United States was too damned stupid to listen to the Messenger. Congress has not changed their restriction on marijuana. It’s a hell of a note when the leader of the Soviet Union is more reasonable than the United States Congress. Within the last week, Mikhail Gorbachev was made the new leader of the Soviet Union. When he called, asking for our help in Germany, and to live in peace with the United States, he said, ‘We have free will, as you said. The free will to be morons and stupid idiots. I choose the free will that will see my nation, my people, and then the whole planet, prosper.”

“North Korea has over a million people dead. Pakistan has several hundred. Syria has thousands. Iran and Iraq have thousands dead. Afghanistan has hundreds dead. China has more than ten million dead. The United States has lost nine. Not nine hundred, nine thousand, or nine million. Nine stupid morons.”

“This man, this Messenger from Above, has told us that he’s human, just like we are, only from a more advanced civilization. He regrets doing what he had to do. The alternative is to do nothing, and allow us to destroy ourselves. I find that I am saying something that, a few months ago, I would never have considered possible. I completely agree with Mister Gorbachev. I call upon the Congress of the United States ... act, and act now. Today is Wednesday, October 31^st. Our national election is next Tuesday. Between now and next Monday, show to the American people that you are not stupid idiots or morons. To the American people, I say this. I choose the free will to see my nation, my people, and then the whole planet prosper. Next Tuesday, if Congress has not acted, please do not be stupid idiots and morons and put those same people back into office, no matter which party they are from. Our political parties no longer matter. Our nation, and our world, is what matters. Thank you, and good night.”

The camera cut back to Brokaw. He sat there blinking for a few seconds. “That was President Reagan. Just a second, please. I ... we have a camera right now, set up with former Vice-President Mondale. This is also live.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen. We have witnessed today the greatest threat our nation has ever faced. At the same time, we also have witnessed the greatest opportunity that our nation has had since 1776. I am going to do something now, on national television, that, to my knowledge, has never been done before. As President Reagan has said, our political parties no longer matter. Our nation, and our world, are what matters. I also choose the free will to see my nation, my people, and then the whole planet, prosper. To that end, I hereby volunteer my services to help President Reagan during his second term in office however I can, and I publicly state that I will vote for him next Tuesday.”

“Our political system is a crock of shit! Congress does what they can to secure pork for their own districts, and to hell with what’s good for everyone else. I know! I was a Senator and did exactly that, because that’s how the game was played. I’m being truthful, because I have no desire to see a swath of our country destroyed like what happened to China. The Chinese government LIED to its people, and more importantly, they lied to themselves. I call upon all Americans! Do NOT lie to yourselves! We have a peace, and a cooperation with the Soviet Union. Between us, and all of our allies, let us work together to ensure that no further demonstrations are necessary. End the fighting, destroy the drugs, and live in peace. Thank you, and good night.”

Tom Brokaw sat back in his chair. “That was ... Walter Mondale, Democratic Party nominee ... stating that he will help President Reagan and he will vote for him. I ... he was right, that’s something never been seen before on television, or anywhere else that I’ve ever heard of.” He looked confused at that point, so Margie used the remote and turned the television off.

“So, you don’t like our bodies, you had to look at a couple of thousand naked women?”

“It’d be nice to say that I got to enjoy it. But I was using my vision the whole time, looking inside of everyone and their wallets. That’s how I found those men with the film and other stuff shoved up their butts and the two that had swallowed them. I could also tell that the man and woman trying to get jewelry out ... that stuff I melted ... were lying to me about the origins of the jewelry, too.”

“Cal...”

“Yes, SJ?”

“Remind me to never piss you off.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. You’re family. You know, if we can manage to ever get the laws changed, you’ll actually be my step-son. Just like Margie is Beth’s step-aunt. And besides, I wasn’t angry.”

“You weren’t? It sure looked like you were angry.”

“Nope. Angry wouldn’t have emptied the building first. Angry is what happened to China. The rest of it ... SJ, I could, quite literally, take and survive without any damage to myself, a direct hit from a 10 megaton nuke. You can’t. Neither could anyone else.”

“This is my home, these are my wives in all but name. Two of these women are carrying my children, and the third will probably be pregnant as soon as her body flushes out the birth control hormones. The other three plan to be pregnant when they’re walking across the stage at Stanford, getting their degrees. I will do anything and everything in my power to make sure they’re safe, and that my family is safe. And I have a lot of power.”

“Cal, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think I’m actually a little scared of you.”

Elroy laughed. “You’d be a damned fool if you weren’t. And what I saw in California is that you’re not a damned fool. You’re a fine addition to the team, Son.”

“I’ll say this, Cal. You stood differently,” SJ said.

The phone rang. Dora answered it. “Hello? Hola, mi Madre. Si. Si, but that is not a thing to talk about on the telephone. I suggest waiting for mi Abuela, tomorrow, and we can talk things over with her then. Si. Good night, then.”

“Darned straight you don’t want to mention anything over the phone. Just because Earl hasn’t seen anything about phone taps, I wouldn’t put it past someone to be checking things out around here, due to the local changes,” Elroy said.

“Well, you two now know what I ended up doing last night and today. What did Boeing have to say?”

SJ looked at me like I was being funny, then realized I was serious. “Gotcha, Cal. Okay, um, yeah ... maybe I shouldn’t have had that second glass. Sorry. Yeah. They want a lot. All we can give them. We did the wind tunnel test. First, they put a model into the wind tunnel, about five feet wide, just to make sure the temperature mix was right. They cranked it down to 10 degrees inside, then started blowing moist air by the model. Didn’t take it long at all to ice up, on the nose, then on the leading edge.”

“They turned on the edge deicers that the model was equipped with, which took some of the ice off, just so we could see how those worked. Once they were done with that, I put a thin coat of anti-ice on the model. It took an hour to dry, while we were eating lunch. Once it was dry, they turned the wind tunnel back on again, with the moist air. It was amusing, watching their engineers checking things. They didn’t believe their own instruments.”

Elroy was leaned back on the couch. He started chuckling. “Sorry, Son, I was just remembering the expression on that one engineer’s face when he realized that the air temperature in the wind tunnel was negative thirty, the outside temperature of the model itself was negative thirty, and not a damn bit of spray was sticking to the model and freezing. His mouth was gaping and closing like a fish out of water.”

“That was funny, Elroy, you’re right. They had us move to the big tunnel, with the big models. There were two of them in this chamber. What they had me do was paint one wing on each model, and half the nose, fuselage, and tail rudder. We waited the hour for the coating to dry. During this time we went out and checked out the 737-200 that we’d flown out there to look at. Very nice plane. Like I said before, they’ll deliver it here hopefully later this week. Anyway, we got back inside, and they fired up the wind tunnel. They started putting moist air in and cranking the temperature down. Heh!”

He was quiet for several seconds, a huge grin on his face. “It was hilarious, watching them taking pictures, checking all their instruments, and mostly shaking their heads. Two hours, and when they turned things off, the half of the plane models with nothing on them were giant ice cubes. You know how slush forms, then freezes, getting thicker and thicker? They pushed it so hard, the weight of ice on one of the models broke the wing in half. What’d they expect? They’d dropped the temperature to minus sixty, put the wind speed up to five hundred miles an hour, and subjected both models to conditions no plane could survive, massive mists of water shooting out and freezing instantly on any surface it touched ... except the sides of the models coated with anti-ice.”

“I take it that they were somewhat astonished by that, then,” I said.

“They were fucking freaked out! At that point, they were ready to sign up. Then they realized one other minor detail, from looking at the sensors in the wings of the models. The first one was just a regular carved model. The second ones, the big ones, had temperature and stress sensors built into them. The right wing, which was coated with ice, in the actual air temperature of minus sixty, was actually frozen down to minus forty inside the core of the wing. Left wing, with the anti-ice coating, actual air temperature of minus sixty, was forty degrees inside the wing. Not negative forty, positive forty, above freezing. They thought the sensor was broken, but it read the same from BOTH of their models.”

“So, being the good little engineers they were, and because Elroy and I didn’t know any better, thought it was fine for them to do a couple more experiments. They went out and got half a dozen bananas. They stuck temperature probes inside them, to make sure they were okay. Then they had me paint three of the bananas, and we let the paint dry. That gave us some more time to check out the jet, and eat dinner. Everyone here knows what liquid nitrogen is, right?” He waited for a second.

“Okay. We came back. They brought out some liquid nitrogen. The probes showed the inside of the bananas were about sixty degrees, a little below the room temperature. One of the engineers took tongs that he was holding with special gloves, and dipped a banana into the liquid nitrogen. It took it just under a minute, and it was frozen solid, to the middle, with the probe showing the thing was lower than negative three hundred degrees. Then they dipped one of the bananas with paint on it. It took ten minutes for the temperature inside the banana to drop from sixty degrees to zero. They left that banana in there, dropped another one into the pail, and it froze to negative three hundred within a minute. Pulled that one out, turned the other banana around, moved it. The coldest it ever got was negative thirty, after half an hour completely submerged in liquid nitrogen.”

I was baffled. “I don’t understand. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

“They pulled that one out, then took one of the painted bananas and cut it in half, so that a bit of the temperature probe was visible, and liquid nitrogen could get to the interior. Basically compromised the outside. The thing still easily cut with a knife. They dipped it in, the temperature probe showed the middle of the banana was frozen within a minute, down to negative three hundred, pulled it out. The outside of the banana wasn’t frozen all the way down to the level that the anti-ice had soaked into the peel, so it froze from the inside out.”

“Mike, you’re aware of the chemical formula I used to create the anti-ice paint, correct?”

The computer said, “Yes, Cal, I am. Based upon these descriptions, it is functioning like it should. It will prevent water and ice accumulation down to negative four hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit, and act as an anti-freezing agent to that temperature as well.”

“Hang on.” My face showed a lot of confusion at this point. “I simply took Dad’s formula that he’d created and copied it here. I remember him telling me that it was good down ... to ... damn. I fucked up.”

Beth said, “Let me guess. Conversion tables. Just like you forgot about the difference in planetary rotations, when you told us you were 14, and you’re actually 17 if you’d been born on Earth, you forgot to convert from whatever temperature scale your Dad used.”

I put my head in my hands. “That may have been a mistake, letting them play with it. I’m not blaming you for that, SJ. I really fucked up with this one.”

“Are you kidding? I told them it was patented, and we were getting our chemical plant up and running. Once it was going, they could have it for two hundred bucks per gallon. They want enough to paint every single plane they make, and to re-paint every plane they ever get in for servicing, at that price. No questions asked.”

“You ... did tell them that it’ll take just over a hundred gallons to paint a 747, right?”

“I didn’t tell you the last thing. They stuck the last two bananas into their regular deep freeze. The one that gets down to negative one hundred, and keeps it that way overnight, that they test components in for failure. Both bananas were at sixty degrees when they went in. This morning, when we met with them, the regular banana was frozen solid, at negative one hundred. The other banana had been in the freezer for eight hours, at negative one hundred degrees. Guess what the core temperature of that one was?”

“Negative ten?”

“Twenty degrees Fahrenheit. The record low at the South Pole is -117. They know that, because they’ve studied things down there. It’s so cold down there that if someone gets sick, they may be stuck there for months because a plane can’t fly in there. Now, a simple coat of paint on the plane, and on the exposed parts, and no freezing. If it lasts the five years you mentioned ... what’s wrong?”