Chapter 14

Once we convinced Khalfani that I was serious about putting him in better housing, he started helping his wives gather their children, while Mike got on the radio ordering a couple of buses to come here. His mother was sitting back, looking concerned. She had white hair, her face full of wrinkles, but her eyes were sharp, not missing a thing. She finally asked, in a quiet voice, “Why do you call my son your brother?”

“For the same reason that you are my sister. You were born in, what, late 1910?”

“The 29^th of Dhul Qa’dah, 1328. Or, as the British called it, December 2^nd of 1910. How do you know this?”

“First, a question that I’m curious about. Was your mother in Russia when you were conceived?”

Her sharp intake of breath told me the answer to that question.

“A follow-up question, one that is not intended to be hurtful. Was your son’s father a white man named Hugo?”

“He was not white, he was from Nepal. I have not seen him since ... well ... then. The British trained me as a nurse, during the war. Afterwards, I was in Algiers, working in a hospital, helping soldiers from all sides recover so they could return to their homes. He was fleeing Hungary and Communism. I did not understand why someone who was a Gurkha had been in Hungary, or even why he was in Algiers, but ... it was a terribly mixed up time, for so many people. He stayed with me for almost six months, working to get things in order. We became lovers. When his opportunity to leave came, I spent one last night with him. I did not tell him I wanted his child. After he was gone, I went home, continued working for the British there.”

I nodded. Something wasn’t adding up to me. “Nyota, do you speak English, as well as Swahili?”

“I try not to let the white man know that I speak it. It makes them feel better, to consider me a stupid black woman. It gets me better deals in the marketplace, as well,” she said with both a grin and a slight British accent.

The buses showed up, along with a truck to carry their possessions. It didn’t take us long to get everything loaded. I told Khalfani that my ladies would go with him, his wives, and his children to their new home and help them, and that Mike would also go along to help make sure there were no problems.

“Excuse me? I’m going...”

I shook my head. “No, you’re not. I’m not on a restricted license any longer, and I can drive a Suburban without an issue. I’m certain that she hasn’t been out very much since they’ve been here, so I’m going to show Nyota some of the local sights.”

Khalfani asked, “Boss, why are you doing that? My mother has been very helpful in all of our things, and...”

I held my hand up. “You know how General Douglas said our conversation before was a military thing? This is a boss thing. Don’t worry, I won’t keep your mother out too late on our first date.”

That brought a cackling laugh from Nyota. “Do what your boss tells you, Khalfani. He is the head of the family, after all, so there is no religious violation.”

I took the keys from Mike and escorted Nyota to the Suburban, holding the door for her. She wasn’t frail at all for someone seventy-five years old, and was tall enough to have no trouble getting into the seat. My wives were giving me some slightly confused looks, but none of them said anything as I shut the door and ran around to the driver’s side.

Once I was driving out of the trailer park, I asked, “Have you had lunch yet? Or would you prefer something light, so that it doesn’t spoil dinner?”

“Something light would be perfectly fine with me, young man.”

I headed towards San Francisco, remaining quiet until we were almost to Redwood City. I then pulled off the highway, found a Jack in the Box and got several tacos and drinks for us. I found a spot to park at the San Carlos Airport, where we could see some water and Bair Island.

“This is a nice view. There are people that want to develop that island into housing, but that got voted down. They’re going to turn it into a wildlife refuge, is what I hear,” I said.

“Those are interesting birds,” she replied watching the Ridgway’s rails hunt for mussels, then taking a taco from the sack, unwrapping it, and biting into it. She nodded. “Good.”

We ate in peace, without talking. It didn’t take me long to demolish four tacos, while she delicately ate two. When we were done, with the trash back in the sack and sipping our drinks through the straw, she asked, “Thank you for, uh, what did you call it, a date? Should we return now, so I can help the women with the children?”

I chuckled. “Eventually, yeah, we ought to head back. I need to know a few things, first. How much does your son know? And please, don’t insult me by saying nothing.”

I saw her slide a hand into the bag she had on her waist. I looked through and into it, confirming what I had guessed.

Nyota said, “I think you probably ought to take me back, Boss. This is a nice vehicle. I don’t want to have to explain what happened to it, or to you.”

I turned to her, with a grin on my face. “We have plenty of them in our fleet. Having one get destroyed wouldn’t mean a whole lot, one way or the other. As for me ... I would hate for you to make a decision without knowing everything. Especially one that could be fatal.”

I held my right hand out to her. “Please, take my hand and squeeze it. As hard as you possibly can.”

“I’m a frail, old woman that’s three-quarters of a century old. How hard do you think I can squeeze?”

“Not hard enough to hurt me in the least,” I said with a grin. “Go ahead.”

I could tell she’d practiced this in the past. She’d probably had to use it a few times, especially considering how women in Africa were treated. She brought her hand over to mine, with it shaking as if from age. Her skin was cool to the touch as she put her hand in mine. Then she gave me first a gentle, almost insignificant squeeze. When I didn’t react, then she used the power from the stones she had in her pouch and squeezed down, hard.

Her expression went from one of anger and sorrow at what she was having to do to one of complete puzzlement when I simply sat there.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were going to squeeze hard. Perhaps you’re a little out of practice, or ... perhaps you made an assumption, without knowing all of the details?”

She blinked, then eased off, finally pulling her hand from mine. “Perhaps I did,” she quietly said.

“You know the nice thing about being right here? There’s not a beach, but there is a bit of a shoreline. Let’s get out and walk down there for a minute, shall we?”

She was confused now, but allowed me to get out, then come around and open her door. I held my arm out, which she took. I then walked with her down to the shore.

“I’m sorry I don’t have chairs for us to sit on, but I doubt that you’ll get tired just standing here. Oh, good. This is what I was hoping to find along here.” I bent down and picked up two rocks that were about the size of golf balls. I put one in her hand. “Go ahead, you need to prove to yourself that it’s not a trick.”

Frowning, she simply squeezed the rock, like she’d squeezed my hand. There was a slight cracking noise that escaped her fist, then she opened her hand, palm upright. She turned it to the side, allowing the dust and fragments to fall from her palm, then blew on her hand, clearing the remainder from her skin. Without a word, she watched as I did the same.

“Your son’s name is Khalfani. I know that in Swahili that means ‘destined to rule.’ What you don’t know is that my name is California. Do you think that might mean something similar?”

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not all, though, is it?”

“Not in the least, no. How many nights ... or longer ... did you spend on the peak? Sleeping, trying to learn what you were being taught in your mind, by the voice from deep inside Uhuru? The people that lived there aren’t extinct, as was once thought. They simply hid and blended in with the rest of the colonists from Star Home.”

My statement caused her to stumble back. “How is this ... the Guardian legend?”

“It’s getting windy. Come, let’s go someplace else.” I led her back to the Suburban and held the door for her again.

It was getting dark, so I drove further into San Francisco. Nyota surprised me by remaining silent as I continued to drive up the peninsula, just looking out the window at the lights on the ships in the harbor.

“That’s San Francisco International Airport, up here on our right. If you’d like, I can pull in there, and you can be on a flight back to Kenya tonight.”

“My son and family are here, though,” she said.

“Well, I could always put you onto a flight to South Africa, or wherever Hugo happens to be resting his head right now.”

That caused her to whip her head to face me. “What do you know of him?”

“He has three women that are now pregnant with his children. He doesn’t know you were still in Africa, or I’m quite certain that he would have found you. After all, you’re not just his lover from just after the war, you’re also his sister.”

She actually ripped the armrest off the seat. “Pull this vehicle over now, and tell me!”

“Oh, dear. I’ve a better idea. How about you sit back and relax, try to get your breathing under control, and I’ll do a little explaining while I drive back to my house, okay? I don’t think you can have a heart attack from stress, but let’s not chance it.”

She calmed down a little. “Fine. Begin talking!”

“There we go, that’s the spirit!” I found an off ramp and got turned around, so we were heading south again. “Speaking of spirits, I’m certain that the news of the Messenger from Above made it to Kenya.”

“Yes. Stupid man! The Afrikaans are so proud, they don’t care. They consider all of us, even someone like me, to be inferior, just because of my skin color! Stupid bastards! Why would you say that Hugo is there?”

“He actually has a home, up on the Mediterranean. But he’s starting in South Africa, because I gave him the continent. I know he’s supposed to have come up with a replacement government for Libya, but I haven’t paid much attention to that. I have bigger things on my plate.”

“Khalfani said that you now had Gurkhas in your forces. That worried him, since...”

She quit talking.

“Since they’re from the Annapurna, and grew up in the shadow of Machapuchare, like Hugo did? Don’t worry about them, they’re completely loyal to me. I’m curious as to where you found Bavana, Dalia, and Lindana, to be Khalfani’s wives.”

She was puzzled. “From the tribes around Kilimanjaro, of course.” Then her expression changed. “Ah, you know so much, you know that the people who used to live there no longer exist. But since you are not from there, you don’t know that just because a people don’t exist doesn’t mean that their history isn’t remembered, or that they weren’t taken in, to other tribes, and have their stories handed down.”

I nodded. “Now things make sense to me. Your mother went to Russia, to meet with Rasputin, because somehow, word had made it to ... ah, of course. Between the Crimean and Zulu Wars, there were British that served in both, stayed in Africa afterwards and passed along rumors. I’m curious about something. We call them shivalingam, Hugo called them Sacred Stones. What is your name for the devices from Star Home that you have in your pouch?”

She blinked. “Mawe ya kuzungumza. That just means ‘talking stones’ in Swahili. That you know of them tells me that I was wrong in my initial thoughts about you.”

“I’ve heard that one before. I think you and Helen are going to have a lot to talk about. Oh, Helen Awarai, one of my wives. She’s the Guardian of the Sacred Souls of Uluru, in Australia. I’m curious about something else. Are you going to quit coloring your hair, and putting the makeup on, so that it makes you look old, and simply allow yourself to return to what you should look like?”

“I do not put coloring in, or makeup on. How soon before we reach your home?”

“From here? About fifteen to twenty minutes, depending upon traffic.”

“More than enough time.” She brought her legs up, crossing them in the seat. She then placed her hands on the opposite knee, palms upward, with her forearms crossed, and closed her eyes. After a couple of minutes, I had to pull over to the side of the road and put the emergency flashers on. I couldn’t concentrate on driving with the thoughts that I was hearing in my head.

She wasn’t pulling power from me, but she was getting it from somewhere. I watched as her skin began to glow from within, and then her hair seemed to almost catch fire, as it blazed brilliantly from the light emanating from each strand. She was wearing open toed sandals, so I could see her toenails and fingernails also glowing. I listened to what she was telling the talking stones, and more importantly, to what the talking stones were telling her. This was different from what I’d done with everyone else, when I’d given their bodies a tune-up. This was nearly a complete remolding of her body.

When she finished, she drew in a deep breath, like she hadn’t been breathing the whole time she’d been working. “Ah, that’s better,” Nyota said, her voice no longer cracking from age, instead sounding young and vibrant.

I hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on outside, unfortunately. When she finished talking, I realized that there were flashing lights coming from behind us, with a spotlight shining in the driver’s side mirror.

“Oh, crap,” I said.

The California Highway Patrol officer came strolling up to the side of the Suburban, as I hit the button to lower the window. “License and registration, please.” He had his big flashlight out, the beam aimed right into my eyes.

“I don’t suppose you ran the plates on this vehicle before you walked up here, did you?”

“Now why the hell would I do something like that? Is it stolen?” he asked in a snarky tone.

“Even worse, so far as you’re concerned. It, and I, have diplomatic immunity. This is the emergency lane, and the young lady had an emergency that required me to briefly pull over. As you can see, if you would get that flashlight out of my eyes, there is nothing else going on that requires your presence.”

“Diplomatic immunity, my ass!”

“That’s exactly what it’s going to be if you push this any further. I’m going to pull my wallet out of my right front pocket slowly, and pull one card out. You can look at it, but you may not touch it.”

The card I pulled out was my Federation Identification Card. It very clearly stated on the front that the individual had full diplomatic immunity in every nation on Earth.

“What kind of fake and funny ID bullshit are you trying to pull on me, boy? How about you get your ass out of this truck right now, before I drag you out?”

“Gee, I thought I was in California, and not in the racist and intolerant South. Nyota, I apologize for not bringing one of my guards along as the driver, since they all have Deputy US Marshal ID cards.”

“Are you going to get out of this vehicle, or do I have to force you out?”

Right as he said that, two bright spotlights suddenly illuminated us from the sky. He got onto his microphone. “This is David Fourteen, I didn’t request air units!”

“This is Salthawk Security International. Back away from the Suburban and return to your patrol car. We are authorized to use deadly force against you, and will do so without hesitation.” The Cobra gunship helicopter then launched a flare, so that it was quite visible. The flare also illuminated the Sea Knight, with the rear gate down and men clearly visible with weapons aimed at the CHP officer.

The police officer very, very carefully put his hands over his head and backed away from the Suburban. I simply rolled the window back up, turned the flashers off, and put it into gear. I knew they had a built-in radio. I reached down and turned it on.

“Thank you. I wasn’t expecting trouble.”

“No problem, Sir. We’ve left you alone, simply had rotating high cover, or as best we could since you decided to drive by a couple of airports. We wouldn’t have bothered, but we could tell that things were getting out of hand when the officer didn’t simply immediately let you go.”

“Probably saved his life, I suspect,” I said.

“Sir, we’ve seen you in action. Definitely saved his life. Are you heading back for the barn now?”

“Affirmative.”

“Copy that. We’ll maintain medium cover while you RTB, then we’ll head back to Moffett.”

“Understood, medium cover while I return to base. Federation Three actual, out.”

I put the microphone back down. “Well, that was slightly more excitement than I thought we’d get. I’m sorry I had to pull over and not keep driving, but I couldn’t drive and listen at the same time. Apparently, I’ve also made a few errors this evening.”

She had a crystal laugh now, perfect in tone. “My apologies to you. If I’d known you could hear both sides of the conversation, I wouldn’t have started the process while you were driving.”

“I’m sixteen years old and I have seventeen wives, Nyota, with five of them pregnant. The oldest is forty-one, but due to my own abilities, she’s the physical match for her seventeen year old daughter.”

She giggled like the teenager she now looked like. “I didn’t do this for you! Oh, you really ARE still young, aren’t you? When you use the rocks to rejuvenate yourself, you have to go back, to younger than you intend to be, before you can stabilize yourself at your new, physical appearance.”

I pulled off the highway and began working my way down the city streets, my mind working furiously. I kept quiet the whole time, while we pulled into our research facility and parked. Before I opened the door, I said, “You told me one thing that’s actually not true, but it was only in answer to a question of mine, didn’t you? Everything else that’s wrong was simply my own supposition.”

Her eyes narrowed again. “Did I?”

“Yes. Oh, you told the truth the rest of the time, simply making your answers such that I wouldn’t normally put things together. There’s just one minor problem, and it’s no big deal, at least from my perspective. I did, after all, call you my sister. I just didn’t realize how literal I was being when I said it.” I opened my door and walked around to hers. I took her hand as she stepped out. Her skin was still cool, but there were no longer wrinkles on it. Her face was clear, and her hair was now jet black.

“Neat trick. Hopefully, you’ll teach me that one. We didn’t have an instruction manual with the shivalingam that we have, so it’s all been pretty much figuring things out as we go. It does help that I have Mountain Guardian Africa inside, though, helping my AI figure things out.”

She stumbled when I said the word ‘AI.’

“He’s stable, and sane, unlike the one that resided under Machapuchare. I’m curious about something, though. Why didn’t the sisters rescue you, when they escaped?”

I could see that she was thinking furiously as we continued to walk to the door. “That you know to ask that question means that my deception plan has finally met its match. Even Hugo didn’t realize that. How did you know?”

“Because I know that where the city of Vendamin was, became a lake, and I know how it got that way.”

The one thing I wasn’t expecting her to do when I said that was faint. I barely caught her in time, then picked her up. I used my powers to open the door and carry her in.

Beth was waiting just inside. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, so I didn’t hear what you said. I’ve heard you use your charm before, but to actually knock an old lady out?”

“I think this redefines the definition of ‘old lady,’ Beth.”

The light inside allowed her to see Nyota’s features.

“Oh, shit!” Beth said.

“Don’t look at me, she did it herself. You, Eve, Dora, Helen, Jasveer, and Holly. Make sure we have a connection with Mycroft.”

“Just take her into the computer room. We’ll put her on the couch in there,” Beth said.

My wives and Holly quickly showed up, as did Mike. I looked at him. “Sorry, but this is over your pay grade, Mike. Hell, it’s over mine!”

He glanced at the woman on the couch and saw that she had black hair, nodded, and simply left the room.

Jasveer brought in a tray with pitchers of water. “I have a feeling we’re going to be talking for a long time tonight, Master. Oh, she’s starting to come to.”

Holly had taken one look at Nyota and fell backwards onto the floor.

“Didn’t I tell you about doing that, when I unloaded the forklift? You’ve got to be careful or you’ll break your tailbone!”

“Bite me, Cal! Do you know who this is?”

“Well, from the way she acts, I’m guessing she was on the ship with the sisters, and probably worked closely with Shiva, before he went nuts and decided to come here.”

“Goddammit! How fucking smart are you?” she yelled.

From the speaker, Mycroft said, “I presume that’s a rhetorical question, Miss Holly. While I monitor everyone and maintain current measurements on them, I suspect that if I actually answered you wouldn’t like it.”

“In other words, not just scary smart, but frightening to the point of hysteria smart. Let me guess. Those three are right there with him,” Holly said, pointing at Beth, Dora, and Eve.

“Effectively, yes. Young lady, you can go ahead and open your eyes. As I stated, I monitor everything within this home, and can tell that you returned to consciousness long enough ago to hear Miss Holly’s question. Of course, you didn’t know her by that name. While I understand the indigenous culture’s reasons for not using the name of the departed, since she’s technically only physically deceased and not mentally dead, there is no insult intended when I tell you that Bara is present, as are Wala and Madalait. Please call them Lara, Dala, and Madalain when you properly speak to them, though. You are a living being of flesh and bone, not of circuits.”

Nyota opened her eyes, then sat up on the couch.

“What are your names? Your real names?”

“Oh, they’re exactly who they said they were. That’s why I was trying to figure out the names of your ... what, great-granddaughters? I’m guessing that neither Khalfani nor any of them know the actual truth. But that was one clue. Bavana is the equivalent of Beth ... Elizabeth Watson. Dalia ... Dora Menendez. Lindana ... Evelyn Lynette Patrick. The coincidences were too close for me to not be suspicious, anyway. That all of them, and you, and more importantly, the children ... have the same organ that we do confirms it.”

I pointed to the others in the room. “That’s Jasveer. She’s the caddie for one of my wives. She’s also Sikh, from the Punjab region of India. Those two are Helen, and then Holly, Awarai. As I said, Helen is one of my wives. Holly is her younger sister, and they’re both from Australia, at Uluru. As for me ... California Lewis is my name. But it’s not my birth name. That’s Kalikulo.”

Nyota leaned her head back, closing her eyes. “Finally!” Tears began to flow from her eyes. “When can I go home? I want to see our sun again, run my hands through the sands of the deserts again!”

With my eyes, I motioned my youngest wives so they’d be ready. They moved closer to her, then I nodded at Holly.

“Nyota. I think I like that name better than Irhaal. We owe you an apology. None of us thought you were still alive, once we’d escaped.”

“I shouldn’t have been. The metal worker cut my necklace as well, but he showed me how to make it look like it was still connected. Shiva went totally crazy when you escaped, you know. Killed more than half of the slaves in a rampage and fit. He broke both my legs and arms, and simply threw me into a corner, to live or die. He made a mistake, though. It was the corner where he kept ... I may as well use your terms for them ... the shivalingam. I should have died, would have died, but he didn’t know I’d deciphered how to use them before we left Star Home. They kept me alive. Your sisters didn’t know that I was alive, if you call it what shape I was in at that time alive. For more than two thousand years, the stones kept me alive, when I had nothing else to live for but revenge. It took me that long to totally understand their processes, to master them completely.”

She opened her eyes, taking a tissue from a concerned looking Beth, and wiping her tears. “By that time, he was dead. Kalikulo, you asked why they didn’t rescue me? They were dead. Shiva was dead then, as well. He left an insane AI to run things. I ... I probably killed ten thousand or more of the people that were still living in that pit, gaining the power I needed to actually heal myself. You’re right, I have the same organ as you. I can see it in you, in all of you. It needs the radiation from this star to function. There was none of that, more than ten thousand feet below the surface of what is now Nepal. Once I was healed, though, I moved quickly, made my escape plan.”

Nyota shook her head. “There were more than a dozen of us that tried to escape, at the same time, because we were nearly the only ones left alive after another thousand years. The AI ... he was more than insane, he was diabolical. There were millions of dead that he’d simply randomly killed. When we made our break, he let us get to within ten feet of the ceiling hatch, and then opened fire with the secondary planetary defense beams.” She chuckled in memory. “He didn’t count on me having the power to partially resist the one beam that hit me, before I made it into the shaft. We had no clothes, so I had all of the extra shivalingam that had been stored in the cavern in the only place I could. I’d swallowed them. The beam that hit me, they absorbed most of the power. It still burned me, but it also cauterized the hole it made, so I didn’t bleed. Then it was simply a case of climbing. The hatch was open, and when the sun came overhead and shot down the shaft? I’d say you have no idea how I felt, but ... Ba ... sorry, Lara, you do. Once I got to the top, I shut the hatch, because there wasn’t anyone left alive to follow me.”

Her eyes turned to me. “When can I go home?”

Holly said, “I am so sorry. The rogue white dwarf has already destroyed Star Home. This ... this is our home, now.”

Nyota closed her eyes tightly, her voice breaking. “I ... I ... I wanted to see the skies there one last time! He took that from me, from the four of us! Oh, gods, why did he do that to us?” The pain in her voice was such that all three of my wives took her in their arms to comfort her. After several minutes of crying, she finally got some composure back.

“Kalikulo, where is everyone else? We had a plan to evacuate the planet, after all.”

I shook my head. “He started a war when you left. It took us thousands of years to recover from it. We didn’t know the white dwarf was coming until literally a few years ago. I’m...” I choked up. “I’m it. This colony of ours here? This lifeboat for our people, that we found? I’m the last survivor of Star Home.”

The next few minutes were crazy, as Nyota reacted rather poorly to that news. I had to join in helping hold her down while Holly and Helen sang something that finally managed to help get her calmed down. Jasveer had grabbed a chair cushion and held it in front of Holly and Helen, so they didn’t get hit by some of the flying debris. Carrie and Cally ran in at the first sign of violence and helped by using their powers to assist in holding Nyota down.

When things were finally done, and she no longer had the wild look in her eyes, she just shook her head. “I’m ... I’m sorry. Did I hurt you, or anyone?”

“I think we all need some new clothes. Not even much of our underwear made it, let alone our pants and shirts,” Beth said.

I looked around the room. We’d need some new computer monitors and furniture, too. At least no one had gone flying through the ceiling, walls, or floor. She followed my gaze.

“That’s all material stuff. Don’t worry about it,” I said.

Nyota shook her head again. “I’ll pay for everything I just damaged or destroyed. It may surprise you ... but then again, considering what Lara said, probably not. I’m quite wealthy. It’s rather amazing the number of trinkets you can acquire over the course of centuries, how proficient you can become at tasks when you literally have nothing but time on your hands, because the people around you have no concept of modern or advanced technology.”

There was a knock on the door. “Is it safe for us to come in?”

“Yes, Sayel. Grab five bathrobes, we’re sort of mostly naked in here, and this time it wasn’t due to fun,” I said.

“So I gathered. You’ll forgive me for not joining in, Master, but this was one time where I don’t think my skills could have helped in the least.”

“No, they couldn’t,” I replied. Someone handed him some robes and he walked in then. “Miss Beth, Miss Dora, Miss Eve. Master. And you must be Miss Nyota. I am Sayel Pashtar.”

She took the robe from him and slipped it on. “I know who you are. We’d heard that Ramaeshwara Randhawa was dead, as was the Thuggee cult with him. It makes sense to me that you would now be with the one who killed him.”