Chapter 16

I stood back with Jeremy, watching our security prepare to collect the ‘evidence’ with a wet-dry vacuum. “Where’d we get the body?” I asked.

“It’s been in the cooler for a while. One of those guys that Cristian sent to collect the shivalingam, when he tried to kill Jennifer,” he replied.

“Oh. I guess I never considered what happened to them.”

Jeremy snorted. “That’s one of the disadvantages of being a ‘good guy,’ you tend not to consider that there may be a situation come up where it’s handy to have a dead body or two that you can simply pull out with no notice, to have burn up in a fire or ... something like this.”

‘This’ was actually a little gross to watch. Wally didn’t argue when we had him pull Pacific out and fire up the outboard starboard engine, or put something into the log that this engine seemed to be running a little off and needed testing.

He found a set of coveralls for Nyota to change into so we could have her outer clothing. She almost balked when I asked for the shivalingam so her pouch could be used as identification, but finally relented when she realized her other choice was to actually go through the engine herself. My assassins brought the body over, I used my vision to warm it up to normal temperature, we stuck Nyota’s clothing on it, and I threw it into the engine.

That rather obviously trashed the engine, as well as causing a little damage to the wing that we’d have to repair. Other than that, the aircraft wasn’t damaged. I don’t think any of us expected how big the spray of blood and body bits out the back of the turbine would be.

“Yeah, that would’ve hurt,” Mike said from his safe vantage point to one side.

“I think it did a better job of spreading things around than when I fed some catfish using a wood chipper,” Yagyu mentioned. “Those are always a pain to clean up after you’re done.”

William snorted. “I prefer to pull the teeth and cut the hair off, and just feed some pigs. Circle of life, and all that.”

Sayel grinned. “Both of those are quite excellent methods if you simply wish to make things disappear. I do so like leaving a message that I had made a visit.”

“Boss, you’re a scary, scary man,” Khalfani said.

“I don’t want to be, but the fate of the Earth is too important to leave to chance. It’s bad enough that I know people will die when I face Shiva.” I sighed. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “I will be. I’ll break the news to my wives, and I can make the investigators believe me.”

“Just write down our story in your own words, and that’ll take care of it,” Mike said. He looked at the end of the runway, where a couple of NASA vehicles were headed our way. “On second thought, you might want to look properly distraught. I forgot about them.”

One of the vehicles pulled to a stop. “We heard the explosion! Jesus Christ, what happened?” Finley asked as he jumped out.

“My mother! She’s ... gone!” Khalfani wailed.

I motioned for all of the women to take him away.

“One of those stupid, stupid accidents. We were showing off some of our aircraft to the Major, since he’s going to be working with them. Pacific was being tested for an engine issue, and his mother ... got too close,” I said.

Virginia had gotten out as well. That’s when I knew she was truly a scientist.

“This is going to sound disgusting and callous, but ... can we take measurements and pictures, please?”

Everyone, including the people that actually knew what was going on, stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

“Um ... it’s rather messy, obviously, and we’re having to keep the seagulls away, which is really gross, but I suppose yes. It’s not like we’re going to have OSHA or the FAA out here, since ... not their jurisdiction. Some good ought to come from this horrible accident,” I said.

Finley frowned. “Why wouldn’t OSHA or ... oh, that’s right. I’m sorry, I forget at times that this is effectively considered an embassy for you, Cal.”

“It’s all good. Here, I’ll go put this back where I found it.” I held out the battered but still recognizable pouch. The way a jet engine is designed, there’s still a channel inside where a smaller object can go by the actual compressor turbine in the middle. When I’d tossed the body in, I made sure the pouch went around the turbine section so it wasn’t totally destroyed. “This ... this was a pouch his mother wore. It’s the only thing that’s bigger than ... bits.”

Both scientists winced at that. Then their curiosity won out, so they went out to look. I didn’t know whether to be proud of them or not when they made sure to vomit away from the ‘splash’ zone and then go back to taking pictures and measurements. I just shook my head.

We left them under security’s supervision, then went back to the hangar. Sayel let me know that since the body was supposed to be female, he’d made sure and removed the testicles and penis first, just in case something physically identifiable came out. Then he grossed me out.

“I must say, that did a much better job of destroying the skull and jaw than I anticipated. There’s no hope of matching anything from dental records, even if we didn’t have an identification already set up, so no one will be wiser. Thank you, Master, for teaching me something I didn’t know.”

Khalfani had been taken home by Mike and my three younger wives, while the girls remained with Nyota and me. Jeremy took the five of us back to our house.

I kept most people out, but the three girls. Margie, Hannah, Earl, Elroy, Gloria, and Helen were present, as well as Jeremy and the assassins. There was tea, coffee, and cookies available.

“Thank you for the light snack,” Nyota said. “After what I just saw, even with all that I’ve seen over the years, that ... was disturbing.”

“You’re welcome,” Helen replied. “Now comes the question we have to resolve.”

“Whether to go ahead and kill me or not.”

Elroy smiled. “I do appreciate it when someone has a firm grasp of the situation facing them.”

“Judge Bannister, I’m quite aware that my options right now are limited. While I did voluntarily relinquish my shivalingam to Cal’s custody, I’m still from Star Home and have the vestigial organ, so I’m far from powerless. However ... I’m also realistic, and I know that even without using the shivalingam, Cal could easily defeat me in any kind of combat. Especially as he has powers and abilities that I didn’t know even existed, even after decades of years studying the shivalingam on Star Home, and thousands of years of working with them here.”

She turned to me. “Telekinesis was not something I expected to see.”

“Maybe not, but you do know how to fly, after all,” I replied.

“Of course. I didn’t when I was held prisoner inside Machapuchare, but once I escaped that was one of the things I figured out. Hopefully, you’ll forgive my dishonesty, but I am used to keeping some secrets. However...” she paused, sighing. “You have an AI, you have dozens of shivalingam, and you have a Guardian Control Unit here. I did my own scans of your resources when I visited you before. Just as I know your AI copied every single bit of information from my devices, I only managed to get ... well, not a damned thing from him, only what I could from the other shivalingam. Even then, only a few of them. I’d say it’s impressive programming, but ... I wouldn’t know good from bad programming if it was right in front of me. I’m good at figuring out how things work, not in making them work in the first place.”

Cally snorted. “Ten thousand years and you haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

Nyota started to look pissed off, then her expression changed, becoming softer. “I’m sorry, I remembered the arguments and discussions we used to have, then ... you’re not her. You didn’t go through body sculpt to make yourself look younger and change things around, you really are a fourteen year old girl. I think we all used to have something around our home that had someone in it that wanted to remain a part of the family after they’d died, but to really have the soul share itself with another person?”

“She kept me sane while I was growing up. I’m a genetic experiment, you see. I don’t know how much was from information you leaked over the centuries, but the major world governments knew about Shiva’s arrival next year. The Germans created Cristian Bauman after World War Two, thinking he would be the leader of their Fourth Reich. While you set things in motion to get Hugo born, he planned on taking Shiva’s powers himself, and has more than enough shivalingam to act if he wants to.”

It was obvious that statement took Nyota by surprise, but Cally wasn’t done.

“The US Government had some of them as well. They created ... me. Born of woman, but only as a host. Every bit of my DNA was engineered in a lab, taken from different men and women and combined, so that I could use the shivalingam, too. The CIA succeeded, but they didn’t know that Dala knew about me and joined me while I was still in the womb. I did show the CIA some of what I could do, which made them happy, but certainly not all of what I could do. Then, when mercenaries hired by Bauman attacked and destroyed the lab, I hid inside the escape room for six months. If I hadn’t had Dala to keep me company, I think I might have gone insane like you did.”

Nyota shrugged. “Amazing how our minds can repair themselves, given enough time. I was such a bitch to all of you, wasn’t I? You didn’t deserve it. I’ve spent most of the last two days just thinking about things, what I could have done differently. What I should have done differently. Once you escaped, though ... I don’t know if I ever told you, but he tricked me, too. He drugged the three of you, because all of you were both intelligent and beautiful, even without body sculpt. He told me he had figured out how to visit the home world of one of our visitors, and swore me to secrecy because it used technology from the ancient days. I thought it would be a grand adventure. I was so young then, so naïve. I thought I loved him.” She shook her head, saying, “I had no idea what love really was back then.”

Carrie snorted. “You weren’t even two hundred years old when we left Star Home. You made a mistake.” She paused. “Don’t even go there. I know what you’re thinking, if you’d only known what was going to happen, Star Home would still be there. It’s not your fault, it’s all on him. He’s the one that created the AI that doomed Star Home. Do you know how he did it? Not the one in his ship, the one that’s in Halley’s Comet, but the one he used to destroy Vendamin and start the war that doomed our planet? He took artifacts, tied them together so they’d have enough processing power, then gave them a mission of war. He did that on purpose!”

I looked over at where she was sitting. “And you know that, how?”

From the speaker in the kitchen, Mycroft said, “Because we’ve completely fixed Junior.”

“You did? When? How?” I asked.

“The answer was in Nyota’s shivalingam. The story she gave, about being tossed aside, is mostly true. I’ve no doubt that time has changed some of your memories. However, as you said, they are incredible little computers. They keep in their long term memory a record of everything they do. Once I learned how to interact with them properly from the instructions I copied, the entire history of what each individual shivalingam has done since its creation a quarter million years ago is available to me. That also gave me the hints I needed to find the full operating systems for both Peace and Junior, as well as everything they have in their memories. It allowed me to reboot Junior, if you will, so that he is now fully operational.”

Elroy asked, “Can we go back to something you said early on, Mycroft? You said that her story is mostly true. Can you elucidate?”

“I could, but it would serve no purpose other than to cause Nyota to feel more sorrow regarding her actions while Shiva’s prisoner. It happened, there’s nothing any of us can do about it, so let’s just move on, shall we?”

At her look of astonishment, I said, “My grandfather did a good job with him. Now, for the fun part that you haven’t even considered, yet. Mycroft, what have you found?”

“At some point, you’re going to have to get an actual video monitor that I can control and not just display pictures on, so I can create a face like my namesake did. I would so love to be able to raise an eyebrow while saying ‘Fascinating’ right about now, even if my created head doesn’t have pointed ears. The results are ... well, remarkable. I’ll begin with the family. All of your wives, including Diana, are a full 50% match to you, with Eve and Jennifer now at 99.99% identical matches to each other. Nyota is effectively no match to you other than standard randomization. However, she is a 12% match to Dora, indicating the genetic convergence over time. In addition, she is a 4% match to Gloria, and a 2% match to Carrie. The other item of note is that while there is individual variation, she is between a 14% and 17% genetic match to each of your wives from India, as well as an 8% match to Sayel.”

“I did spend a lot of time in Asia, India, and such, before I moved to the Middle East,” Nyota said.

“That makes sense,” I said. “What about the four lobes?”

“That’s what’s so fascinating. Her three primary lobes measure at 37.4, while the fourth lobe is 12.6.”

I leaned back in my chair, completely puzzled by that comment.

Hannah shook her head in disbelief. “One of the things I’ve been doing is keeping track of everyone’s development so we make sure our newest wives are all in classes that they can handle. That’s nowhere near even the least of them. How is that possible?”

Mycroft said, “Other than the vestigial organ, which is an exact genetic match to the one that Cal has ... and thus, is also an exact match to the one everyone else has ... there is no genetic match other than being human between Nyota and Cal. Other than statements that you recognized her in the younger body, I really can’t find anything biological that tells me Nyota is from Star Home.”

Carrie nodded, saying, “That makes sense.”

We all looked at her. “It does?” I asked.

“Irhaal wasn’t very old, all things considered, when she was seduced by Shiva. I think I ... well, Madalain ... sorry, this is probably the most confusing way to talk that any of the three of us have ever experienced, because we’re voluntarily letting them use us to talk, instead of repeating what they tell us. Anyway, Madalain was the next youngest, and she was easily five hundred years older than Nyota. Dala and Lara were twins, and were four hundred years older than me. Dammit, you know who I mean. Anyway, Nyota had to use the shivalingam to heal herself after she was nearly killed by Shiva after we escaped. We sort of glossed over something she said, that she killed ten thousand people or more in that pit gaining the power to heal herself. You haven’t asked how.”

“My first inclination is to say fried, but that’s a bad joke at this point,” I said.

“Very,” Carrie dryly replied, then continued with, “She needed power. The only source for that power was other people that were prisoners. There were hundreds of thousands of them down there, after all. People all originally from Earth, even if they were descended from colonists. More than a hundred thousand years had taken care of that issue. We didn’t know that you could use shivalingam for body sculpt, but we did know that we could use them for healing, just as we’ve done for Elroy, Earl, Gloria, and others, and with our own skills we’ve helped Margie and Emily with their childbirths. We get our energy from the sun, just like you do, just like she does ... now. Not then. In our time, we had places that we could go for body sculpt. That means remaking yourself externally, and at the same time, it would regenerate you internally. Cal, I remember you said those existed on Star Home in your time as well.”

“That’s correct. We didn’t call them that and people didn’t use them casually, as they were energy intensive, with a limited number of them available, and they required resources to create their results that we didn’t have in abundance. It sounds like they were more common for you. For Madalain, that is. Damn, you’re right, this is confusing.”

She chuckled. “That’s why my sisters are being quiet and letting me be the only one to talk. We built things to last, we always did. Some of our body sculpt chambers were twenty thousand years old or more and worked just like they’d been built yesterday. Anyway, there were always a few ... minor ... chemicals needed. You simply can’t create new bone, or change tissue, without something being consumed. While energy and matter are completely interchangeable, if you need more matter because you want bigger boobs, it’s a whole lot simpler to have spare tissue sitting there to convert than it is to create it from pure energy. We used artificially created ... lab grown ... tissue. To heal herself, Nyota didn’t have any of that. She had to use what was down in the pit. Healing a broken bone ... well, the body can do that on its own, of course. But only if the bone is set properly. How long after Shiva died before his AI simply cut off the supplies and everyone had to resort to cannibalism?”

“That’s why we were trying to escape. The AI was treating us as game animals at that point. He’d make an announcement, then people would run in fear and try to hide from him, from his weapons. I never ... I couldn’t ... eat anyone. Funny. I could, and did, drain their life forces for the power to heal myself, but I wouldn’t eat their flesh later. Not to say that others were as ... picky ... as I was. You’re right about the process being energy intensive. When I changed myself twice in one day, I think I drained nearly all of my reserves. I still don’t have all of them back, if I needed to do it again. That doesn’t affect my other abilities.” Nyota paused, then frowned.

“Madalain, what you’re saying, if I’m understanding you correctly, is that because I used the energy from normal beings of Earth to heal myself, it modified my own genetics so that I don’t really show that I’m from Star Home anymore?”

“If any of you ever really did, anyway,” I said. “Keep in mind that I’m as human as everyone else, it’s just that my DNA contains the same retrovirus that caused the growth of the same vestigial organ as you have in yours. It’s just ... like you said, you have to give birth to share it. I don’t.”

Margie laughed. “That’s our Cal. Horn dog and despoilers of virgins around the world. Willing virgins, Nyota, don’t look alarmed.”

“Sorry, I ... bad memories. I’ve met a few men that were like that since I’ve been out of the pit.” She paused. “I was just thinking back to what was said, and I got distracted by the genetics. What are you talking about, with the four lobes of the brain? How smart someone is?”

“How much advanced biology, psychology, genetics, and other advanced education have you had?” I asked.

“I took the basic science classes in what would be considered college on Star Home. I was more interested in archaeology. The study of the cultures that came before ours, their artifacts, even the things that dated back to when we were first ‘planted’ on Star Home. I found that fascinating. That’s why I spent years studying the shivalingam, how their ‘content menus’ could grow if you added more of them, to increase both their processing and output power. How they could be programmed to do certain tasks. At one time, I thought I would help a clan in what is now India take power so they could grow stronger, and perhaps create someone to challenge Shiva without my own direct intervention. I was wrong about how they turned out, becoming petty tyrants and despots on their own. But, back to my question, please.”

I grinned and commented, “Dogged little researcher, aren’t you?”

She smiled back at me.

“Okay, here’s the short answer. Yes,” I said.

I was quiet, and everyone else was as well. I was curious as to how she would respond to my teasing. After about thirty seconds, her eyes twinkled, then she casually reached out, picked up a cookie, and gently threw it at me. I reached up and caught it with my hand.

“Very good. That earns you an answer. First, though, would you please do something for me? Throw another cookie at me, only as hard as you can.”

“Are you sure? I know I won’t hurt you, you proved that to me already. But...” she looked at everyone else. “Fragments might hurt them.”

“The Royal Court is still in session, Nyota,” I firmly stated.

“Then it’s on you.” She picked it up, whipping her hand forward as fast as my youngest wives when throwing a rock.

“No, it’s not,” I said, reaching up with my hand and picking the cookie out of midair, where I’d stopped it, floating six inches from my face. “Very good, by the way. You answered several questions I still had concerning you, and your future, just then.”

Her jaw dropped. “You really do have telekinetic powers! I honestly thought you were pulling some kind of trick in the hangar, to make it easier for Khalfani to go along your plan so you wouldn’t have to kill him.”

“For my next trick, I’ll turn water into wine. Well ... maybe not, you’ve already seen someone do that, after all,” I said.

“See, now I know you’re trying to distract me. And of course he could do that. He’d acquired some shivalingam and had some basic skills, but I taught him many more. You know Peter wasn’t a homosexual, but he hated women. Peter totally twisted what Jesus told him we’d done before he was rescued. That’s why Peter called me the tempter.”

“Makes sense,” I said. “I just didn’t want to upset you when I explained things. There are four lobes in the brain. Three of them basically control our ability to process data and effectively how intelligent we potentially can be. A normal, average human would test at 1.0 in those three lobes. The fourth lobe is part of what allows us ... me ... to do things with my mind, like telekinesis. Again, a normal human would test at 1.0 in the fourth lobe. Carrie mentioned that they’d healed Elroy, Earl, and Gloria. I call it a tune-up, because it’s not the body sculpting that I witnessed you do. I cleaned out all of the bad stuff that had accumulated in them over the years; the plaque in their arteries, the liver issues, cancers, and such, and then programmed their bodies to gradually return to a younger state. It’ll take ten years, but at that time, they’ll basically be just like they were fifty years ago. I set it for such a long time period, because I’m working on being able to create an actual medication that will cause genetic reversion. In any event, I don’t know that I’ve heard the results for the lobe tests in a while, but I know Elroy tested out at about 1.9 in his three lobes. Mycroft, where’s he now?”

“2.8 and 1.6. Earl is similar,” Mycroft said.

“Congratulations, grandfathers. You’re working on getting smarter.” I turned back to Nyota. “What that means is, compared to an enhanced, normal human, you’re able to process information more than thirteen times faster and are nearly eight times more capable of mental control of things, which is how you’re able to talk to the shivalingam in the first place. I see that look on your face. Are you sure you want to know?”

“No, but I think I need to, to know that I truly have made the right decision.”

“Fair enough. Keep in mind I already was a genius before I even left Star Home. In late September of last year, when I first met Margie, she measured at 26.4 in the three lobes, and at 3.6 in the fourth. That was much higher than Beth, and basically three times the level that Eve or Dora measured. Now that we’ve determined that Margie and Marcia had souls in them as well, that partially explains things. Um, I measured 9,830, with my fourth lobe at 2,645. I have no idea where we are now, only that it’s a lot more.”

Nyota slumped back in her chair. “I always was the dumb one.”

All three girls laughed. When Nyota turned her head in anger, Carrie said, “Dumb like a fox! We told you that you hadn’t changed in ten thousand years. Shiva was going to do what he did, no matter what happened with us. If we hadn’t been on his ship, we would have died on Star Home in the war. You would’ve, too. Where do you think this planet would be if that fucktard hadn’t had us to stop him?”

Nyota snorted. “In a hell of a lot worse shape than it’s in right now, that’s for certain.”

“Just for the hell of it, what are our numbers now?” I asked.

“I still have to estimate for you, but I think it’s close when I say 17,735 and 8,250. Beth, Eve, and Dora are all well above 10,000 now, with Beth close to 5,000 and the other two about 4,900. All of your pregnant wives are in excess of 300, with Margie at nearly 400. They are all over 125 in the fourth lobe. Your Indian wives are all in the 200 to 220 range, and 30 to 40 range. Young Robert concerns me. He’s already at 7.8 and 3.4. And yes, I measured Harry, Emily, and Elaine for comparison values. Don’t worry, the three of them are quite normal.” Mycroft continued with a slight chuckle, “Well, as normal as Harry ever was.”

“Robert is one month old, after all, so I’m certain his numbers and abilities are only going to get worse, or better, depending upon your perspective,” Margie said.

Nyota looked at me in amazement. “I had no idea I was so right about you. I was the smartest person on the planet for millennia. Now ... you effectively do have the powers of a god, compared to everyone else.”

I chuckled. “So do Beth, Eve, and Dora.” I chuckled, remembering Hannah’s reaction on the Mexican border, then blew out a deep breath. “Okay, I have a serious and legitimate question for you, Nyota. When you do body sculpt, do you have to stay the same outside? Not that your younger self isn’t a beautiful woman ... which I suspect is how you caught the eye of Temüjin ... but can you actually choose your skin color or how you look, otherwise?”

“Yes, but it takes so much power to do that, it’s more than I can internally store. That really does modify certain portions of your DNA, the parts that control your external appearance. It wouldn’t do to give yourself red hair, if it grew back out black, after all. Even if I haven’t used any of my abilities for a year or more, I don’t want to do that any more. I did, during my ... well, insane period, to be polite. I killed hundreds, if not thousands, when I would do that.” She paused, then giggled. “Funny. I was so much darker than any of his other wives, but I was still his first and was the queen he saved.”

I glanced at Cally, who got up, left the room for a few moments, then came back in with a picture. She handed it to Nyota.

“Can you look like her, only about ten years older?” Cally asked.

“That’s easy, if I had the power to spare. Oh, and ten of the shivalingam back, since I gave them to Cal. You simply can’t body sculpt without them controlling the process inside you. But I don’t have either,” Nyota said.

I floated ten of the shivalingam to her. “Go ahead and start the process,” I said.

Nyota started to object, then changed her mind. She crossed her legs and took the position she had in the Suburban. Then she placed the picture in her lap and stared at it, while she started to concentrate. I could see her start the molding process and felt it falter as she quickly ran through her own energy reserves. That’s when I began feeding her power as well as mentally sending her directions. She gasped in astonishment, her eyes opening wide as she looked at me. I nodded towards her lap, and she again focused on the picture.

In less than five minutes she was done. I brought the shivalingam back to me while she was still looking at her new skin tone, lengthened fingers, and moving around in her chair as she adjusted to how her new body felt.

“Remarkable,” Earl said.

“Welcome to advanced technology 101, kids,” Helen replied. “We could have had that for all of us, now, if Shiva hadn’t interfered.”

Her mother answered, “As if the Sacred Souls didn’t already have enough reason to hate him for what he did, this would surely cause them to do so now.”

Nyota finally found her voice, which due to her lengthened vocal cords had changed. “I definitely feel different. My center of gravity has changed, and I think I’m a couple of inches shorter. I’m not as young as I was when I changed in the Suburban, Cal. Why is that?”

“You’re not. You’re more age appropriate. Also, depending upon how things go, this may be the last time you ever get to body sculpt like this. That isn’t up to me, though. It’s up to how next Spring works out.”

“I can understand that. I never knew someone else could give me power like that. I don’t even feel like you tapped any of your own reserves, either. You just gave me the equivalent of a small battery, while keeping a nuclear reactor in reserve.”

I laughed. “That’s not too far off, actually.”

“So, who is this that I’ve now become?”

Cally sighed. “They’re home, from helping Khalfani. You know that my last name is Douglas, that Mike considers himself my father, since there’s much more of his DNA in me than any other donor.”