Chapter 26

I felt pretty good about things at dinner that evening, especially with the girls, Toby, and Karen having returned home just in time to eat with us.

Then reality decided to intrude.

The phone rang, with Holly the nearest. “Lewis residence, this is Holly.” She held it out to me. “Cal, it’s for you.”

“This is Cal Lewis,” I said.

“Cal, this is Walter Mondale.”

“You’re up awfully late, Mister President. What’s going on, and how can I help?”

“Not that late, thank you. I’m actually in Sodom on the Potomac, so it’s only eight thirty here. What do you know about the activity of the Angels from Above today?”

“I had football practice this morning. Well, it was mostly a press conference. Then after lunch, I had another interview with three reporters. That ended half an hour ago, so I haven’t seen any news. What happened?” I covered the microphone. “Can we turn on a TV to the news, please?”

“I don’t know whether we’re in trouble or not, to be perfectly honest,” Mondale said. “One of the Angels made as spectacular of an appearance as possible over Japan, saving more than five hundred people in a 747 that was about to crash. But then she told the Japanese they won’t help us next year, that we’re on our own.”

“That’s pretty much what we figured was going to happen anyway, though, isn’t it?” I asked, puzzled.

“Yes, but when you have someone who can literally ... you never met Caelistis in person, did you? Actually had him demonstrate in front of you what he can do?”

“No, not like that. I met him, once, but he was in disguise, so I didn’t know it was him until ... much later. I’ve seen the recordings of what he can do. I’m still figuring out exactly what it is that I can and can’t do as Guardian of the Earth, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to deal with Shiva in the Spring.”

“Can you lift four hundred tons five miles up?”

I was quiet for several seconds while watching the interview with the Japanese pilot.

“Sorry, Mister President. There was a local news station showing the interview with the pilot of the JAL 747, and a helicopter shot of it sitting in the middle of a parking lot. As for the question you asked ... since you’re so close, would you care to come visit my home?”

“Excuse me?”

I blew out a deep breath. “I don’t think you ought to bring Jeanne Kirkpatrick unless she wants another go at blowing up Fremont, but you might bring President Reagan, if he’s available. I have football practice until noon tomorrow, so I could meet the two of you at Moffett after that.”

“I’m not sure if I’m happy with that answer.”

I grinned. “You’re the one that said I was a pain in your butt during the ceremony at Geneva. I’ve heard that from others. How about we make it an official request from your Spatial Defense Minister, to discuss things in person, as well as a ... demonstration ... of some recent discoveries?”

“Just a minute.” He hit the mute button, which meant I couldn’t hear his end of things.

“How far along are the Knights on getting mobile platforms ready?”

“From what they told us earlier, they’ll have them ready by this next weekend,” Hannah said. She blinked, then continued, “I’m calling the Heinleins right now, so they can make sure we have two full sized televisions set up in Hangar Two tomorrow by noon, with connections for Mycroft and Pahto.”

I nodded as the phone clicked back on. “We’ll be there at one, your time.”

“Thank you, Walter. I appreciate it.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, Cal. I can’t believe I ever thought I wanted to be President of the United States, now that I’m President of the Federation and can see what the job really entails. Tell your wives I look forward to seeing them tomorrow.”

We said our good-byes and hung up.

“No good deed goes unpunished?”

“Jennifer, I knew that at some point, they were going to want a bit more proof than I’ve given them. I’d hoped it wouldn’t be for a while.

“I’m not going to say that I wasn’t expecting something like this, because I was. I don’t blame any of them for being curious; because, simply put, they’re scared,” Marcia said.

At my blank look, she shook her head.

“It’s just normal human nature, Cal. We’re not scared, because we’re your wives. We know what you can do, what you will do, what you’re willing to do. They’re not, and while you’ve given a few minor demonstrations, when they suddenly have it shoved in their faces what an Angel can do, and then get told that the Angels won’t help, and it’s up to us to defend ourselves, they’re panicked,” she explained.

“Well, then I guess I better get ready for a dog and pony show tomorrow. Mycroft, are you and Pahto ready for your big unveiling?” I asked.

Mycroft’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Oh, I’m not going to introduce them to your physical bodies. But I think having Bob and Ginny at Moffett, along with a television screen for each of you, will be a bit of a boost for them. Um, Karen, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I do not want you there.”

Cally shook her head. “Yes, you do.”

“I do? Why is that?”

“Mom has several things, courtesy of the Sacred Souls of Mount Moffett, that she can share with them.”

“Okay, if I’ve learned one thing, it’s not to argue too vehemently with them.”

I got that blank look for a few seconds, the one I’d learned to associate with my wives talking to each other, so I asked Mina and Saryu for an update.

“Okay, the crew in South America will be home early tomorrow morning. They weren’t planning on leaving until then, but that plan was flexible if we needed them. We do.”

“Good,” Karen said. “I had so much fun with the girls and Toby, but I miss having my family all together.”

More phone calls were made while we sat down trying to eat dinner. The girls were surprised that they couldn’t link with me.

Toby nodded. “That’s logical. Dad doesn’t carry a shivalingam, and he’s never made love to any of you. If he did carry one, he probably could link with you; but it’s fine if he doesn’t.”

“Thank you. Unrelated, I think, but don’t know for sure, that we got some new TVs for you to replace the ones we took.”

“You bought them anyway, so they were yours in the first place,” Carrie said. “Oh, and I need to get together with Linda and Mary for dinner tomorrow. We brought home four hundred pounds of fresh seafood that was just caught yesterday, that the People processed to serve our King. I don’t know that you intended for it to work out this way, but we had plenty of excess Ice-X left over after painting the houses and all the fishing boats. Instead of having to freeze seafood for it to survive the trip, a cooler that’s had a coating of Ice-X on the inside will stay cold for days, so fresh seafood will stay good. And obviously, frozen things will stay frozen a lot longer as well, so we’re even able to transport frozen seafood via ship instead of airplane. The native crabbers and fisherman from Dutch Harbor are indirectly related to us, and we’re making their lives easier, too.”

“Good. I certainly realize that we can’t make the world idiot proof, but for those jobs that are inherently dangerous, maybe we can help.”

“The Sacred Souls of Mount Moffett were right,” Karen said. “You really are a good man.”

“Well, I’d like to think so, in spite of some of the things I’ve done. But I’m curious, why or how did that come up in a conversation with them?”

“Because with the help of the girls, they completely healed me. You’d done a good job, but in spite of being more skilled with the shivalingam than I ever was, there were just things you didn’t know needed correcting. That was a good idea, coming up with the story that I was like the sisters are, with the soul of someone deceased living on inside me like you, Margie and Marcia also have, but it eventually would have backfired. Something you don’t know, that you had no way of knowing, is the amount of power that the Sacred Souls really can generate. With Holly bringing in the Souls from Uluru while Carrie tied in the Souls from Moffett, they were able to literally search the cosmos for a single soul. It didn’t take long or use any power, actually, because she hadn’t gone far.” Karen held up her hand, spreading her fingers to emphasize her wedding ring. “When she died, she went looking for her husband, because she loved him so much. She was in here, so she could remain close to Mike.”

I blinked, then said, “How much of your former life do you remember?”

“Which one? You’re damned good, they did say that. That’s what made it doable, and why the girls went along with it. Even Toby and Tobias agreed. Genetically, I’m Karen Ann Douglas. Only now, I don’t just think I’m her, they put her into me, so that she and I are one. Oh, I know I was Nyota, or Irhaal. There’s no way to prove that now, because I also had them take some of those memories from me, on purpose. That I had acted that way, that I had been that way, I remember that. But I’m also ... you know how the girls talk about how the sisters are in them? I’m also Karen, because her soul is inside me now, so I remember Mike helping me find my locker our freshman year of high school, and how handsome I thought he was then. As for what Nyota did? Thank you for sparing me that, in our previous conversations. Now it’s irrelevant. There’s half a legal pad list full of things to track down around the world, mostly in Europe, India, and Africa. Items she ... I ... hid, or left somewhere for safekeeping. I told you when I destroyed the computer room that I’d pay for the damage. It’s all yours, since you were kind enough to give me the money to start fresh as Mike’s wife and Cally’s Mom. But there’s something else that they changed as well, without actually affecting anything.”

Cally spoke up then. “Mycroft, can you do a genetic analysis on me?”

“I already have, simply as part of my general monitoring of the health of everyone in the family when they’re within my range. Then I ran it twice more. How the hell did they do that?”

“How’d they do what?” Helen asked.

Mycroft said, “Cally is no longer only a partial match to Mister Douglas. Oh, I get it, now that I’m actually looking inside of you, Karen. They didn’t quite copy the genetic code from your unborn baby, they did allow for assorted other differences, so Cally and your ... infant ... will show as siblings. But otherwise, they modified Cally as well so that she now is genetically your daughter with Mike.”

“Thank you. In spite of all the people in the family who have the ability to see through things, which now includes me again, I prefer to simply know that our child is healthy, and I want to wait until I give birth to find out if I’ve given my husband a son or another daughter,” Karen said.

I looked a little puzzled just then.

“Oh, once they fixed me, the Sacred Souls ... for lack of a better term, reactivated me. I know why you turned my powers down. I agree with your reasoning; at that point in time I was still mentally unstable – a little anyway – especially with what you’ve since found out about how Shiva was using me as a decoy, feeding me false information. Nyota, as she was, wouldn’t have been able to handle it. I’m not her, even if I have most of her memories, and this body at one time used to be her. I think ... no, that’s wrong. I know that if you could have done this for me, you would have. So, thank you for what you did do, and I look forward to not only being the best mother to Cally and wife to Mike that I can, I also look forward to helping you with defeating that pile of filth that thinks he can take over Earth again.”

I was quiet for a few moments, then asked, “Full reactivation?”

“For what I had. I’ve had a bit of a mental boost, by your healing of my defect, and then their complete fixing of it. Maybe twice what I was before. So no telepathy without a shivalingam, certainly no telekinesis. Nothing like what the sisters can do. They truly were given their abilities by the Sacred Souls to fight Shiva, although none of them were expected to survive it. Now?” She shook her head. “Now it’s a totally different proposition.”

Carrie said, “Basically Dora, when she saved that plane in February, or what I’ve heard about when they were all saving the people fleeing Mexico. Flight, strength, invulnerable to almost everything, able to hold her breath and not affected by normal heat or cold. Still not as strong as you are, or for that matter, Beth or the other two now, and probably not likely to ever be their equal, more like we were. Her organ is the same as ours, which is the same as yours or any of theirs,” she said, pointing at my wives. “What do the car commercials all say? Your mileage may vary. One thing, though. The Sacred Souls didn’t just fix her DNA, or change it. Something you hadn’t done, even though you changed her DNA, was you didn’t change the structure of her brain. Anatomically our brains are all similar, but have myriad differences. They ... changed hers, so even if Shiva gets close to her, there’s no way he could detect her thoughts or brainwaves, using his old information.”

“Why?” I asked, still puzzled.

Holly grinned a little. “Call it a sign of good faith on Earth’s part. Sis, you’re not the only one they communicated with in their own really lousy way. They were talking to me and Carrie, too. That’s why Karen needs to be at the meeting tomorrow, with Mondale and Reagan.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I’m still confused.”

“That’s about normal,” Margie said. “We’re not actually discussing it mentally, but I think I know why. She’s your assistant.”

“I’ve had a very stressful day and I’m just not thinking clearly,” I admitted.

“She can also publicly ... well, you know what I mean ... have powers as well. She’s Cally’s mom by any test they can perform, and we can blame everything on the CIA and then the witness protection program she was in. She hid that she had powers until after she recently got back together with Mike, and now she’s ready to help you, too.”

I frowned. “Margie, have you been around ... strike that, of course you’ve been around Elroy too much, he was already related to you before we met.”

From her screen, Pahto said, “I hope I’m not speaking out of turn when I ask this, but why did the Sacred Souls feel that they could trust her? By giving her these powers, she’s now stronger than any of you girls, even if she’s not as strong as Cal, Beth, Eve, or Dora. That would seem to me to be a dangerous risk.”

“Mom is from Star Home, like Cal is. They know she was trying to defeat Shiva, even if her plan wasn’t that great. One of the nice things about being part of the family is that when we told Brenda and Walter that we needed to make a journey to Mount Moffett, they simply made sure we had warm coats. They didn’t know we didn’t need them, and we made sure Toby, William and Leah stayed behind for the two and a half days the four of us literally sat on top of the mountain, talking with the Sacred Souls. Well, the first day and a half was talking, the rest was while they fixed Karen and me.”

Helen shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t pick up a single thing about any of that.”

“No, Sis. What’s that expression Dad Elroy uses? They were keeping their cards close to their vest. One thing they thought was it would be more believable for her to have the information from the ‘soul’ of Irhaal in her if she had more powers, since the three of us have stated we do, and Cal told Cardinal Gantin that he does as well.”

“As for trusting me? I understand why Cal did what he did. I was still a little mentally unstable, even with his corrections. Part of that was due to my actually already having a few of the hormonal changes from being pregnant, and you had no way of knowing that my body was fighting against some of the changes you’d made because of them.”

“Oh. Oh! I admit, I didn’t even think of that. I really didn’t want to kill you, not if I could avoid it. I still don’t. You’re ... the girls have the souls of someone from Star Home in them. You’re from Star Home. You were family before I knew the truth about you, if that makes sense. I didn’t even consider that when I was changing you mentally, that when your body changed your hormone levels, it would cause you problems,” I admitted.

“Of course you didn’t. You’re male, and you’re not an actual physician. Not yet, anyway. I’m not angry with you, don’t think that. I actually feel even more blessed than I did when we had our talk on the plane ride home from Geneva. My only regret is that I’m just not as smart as any of you, even now. My knowledge from Star Home is almost worthless here.”

Mycroft was shaking his head. “Not exactly, Karen. I’m now able to access the menu from the shivalingam, including the information that you got from Shiva that you didn’t know you had. Cal is now mentally able to access all of them, including the ones on Shiva’s ship, even if he can’t control them. You’re literally the expert on how they work. One of the things I need is a material that simply isn’t available here on Earth right now. You know how to do body sculpt without any issue. Did you ever find evidence that the shivalingam could do material transformation?”

“Well, of course. If there weren’t materials available for some parts of the body sculpt, then you’d use energy and convert it.” A huge smile spread across her face. “Oh, I see what you’re talking about! It doesn’t necessarily have to be living tissue that’s created, it just requires a lot of energy as well as basic components to rearrange the atoms and atomic structure. We didn’t do it for common things that were easily mined or otherwise found, such as hydrogen for the fusion reactors. But for the higher elements, the ones that had to be made in a lab, but were useful, we could make those.”

“How much power are we talking about?” he asked. “You saw what I was able to do with the reactor at Area 51, in firing the beam weapon.”

She lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

“She really doesn’t,” Carrie said. “It’s one of those things that my sisters and I knew we as a people could do, but that wasn’t our specialty. It may sound silly, but ... everyone think back to before you met Cal. Other than Marcia, could any of you have drawn the power generation cycle from how a fission reactor generates power to how it gets to the plug wires in the room and lights a bulb?”

Diana chuckled. “Some of us still can’t. That’s what engineers are for.”

“Exactly! We put petrol in the tank, turn the key, pull the lever, push on the gas, and the car moves. None of us have to know how an automatic transmission works, or how the engine actually gets the power to the wheels. We just need to know to check the oil and keep it changed, check the air in the tires and change a flat tire, or change a burned out light bulb. As long as you knew not to actually ride in Henry’s Ute, you could pick up a lot of information on how cars worked from him. Or at least enough to know you didn’t want to know any more information on how they worked,” Holly said.

“We had very simple lives, to be honest, even before we were taken by our former Master,” Jasveer said. “While we were family of important people, none of us were ourselves that important, other than all being the daughters of leaders, at least until Ramaeshwara Randhawa took us as hostage and as slaves. Then our importance changed, but only in a negative way. In my village, we knew of electricity, of course, but it was only for certain machines. Actually becoming a slave allowed me to see many things I’d never dreamed even existed, for all that was expected of me before was that I would marry the son of another village leader and have his children, continuing the cycle of women in my culture. Of course, now, I can simply look at a green and help show Jennifer where she should putt, or study the way the wind is blowing leaves to have her club ready before she even asks for it. It occasionally strikes me as amusing that I have as much honor from being her caddie as I do as your slave, my Master.”

“You do?” Jennifer asked.

“Yes, Mistress. You are the best golfer in the world, as proven by your winning of the Master’s Tournament. I was seen on television with you.” Jasveer giggled, then continued with, “It is causing much ... angst ... among my people. Even though I am Sikh, many from the Punjab are not, and seeing a woman from our region honored as such is causing some reconsideration of old customs.”

Niranjana nodded, saying, “I agree, my sister-wife. My cousin remains the leader of Pakistan due to the influence of the Messenger. She has taken the three precepts to heart and is working with Missus Gandhi everyday to lessen the tensions between our nations. It certainly hasn’t hurt her, or my status, that I am literally in command of coordinating all of our military forces; something that would have been unheard of, before.” Then she giggled. “Poor Sayel.”

That made me frown. “What do you mean by that?”

“My sister, his Jasmine, will be arriving here this weekend. He knows she plans to come here. He does not know when.” Shaking her head, she continued, “He does not think I know about us, his relationship to me, and what he would have had to do. I do not think he knows that all of us were happy it would have been him who would kill us if need be. He is not a cruel man, and would have made our deaths quick and painless.”

My other Indian wives nodded in agreement.

I glanced over where Yagyu had quietly been sitting in the corner. “I don’t think we need to pass that on to Sayel, about Jasmine.”

“You got it, Master. And if I may say so, I look forward to the fireworks. It ought to be spectacular.”

Frowning, I asked, “All I’ve ever heard is that he and Jasmine have a rather unique sort of marriage. What’s the big deal?”

“I know, but I think I won’t say anything. That’s his story to tell.” He glanced at Niranjana. “I’m certain you know it, but I think our Master should learn it himself.”

She nodded in agreement.

“Well, that’s even more mysterious. Perhaps it’s a mystery that Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother should solve,” I said.

Mycroft shook his head. “Nope. My cabinet and equipment are still subject to being smacked around. Remember, your ship got damaged due to impacts, and you had to make repairs to me with simple Earth materials. I have no desire to find out if I could survive the impact from being dropped off the Stanford clock tower or the Transamerica Pyramid.”

Pahto raised her hand. “I have a question for Karen and the girls, please.”

“Yes, Pahto?” Karen replied.

“I discussed with Cal what he did to you and why he did it, as it was a decision that a commander would make. Perhaps I’m operating on inadequate information, but it appears to me that the three sisters overrode his decision in restoring you. What exactly am I missing here, because very bluntly, in my experience, he should be furious with all of you.”

Toby said, “Oh, I know the answer to that one, from discussions I’ve had with Grandpa. It’s easy. We’re not a formal military, even though Cal stuck his foot in it when he yelled at Beth. He’s ‘in charge’ because, well, he’s the wild card that the Sacred Souls didn’t see coming. Certainly, he has authority because he’s ultimately the leader of the family, but a family isn’t a military organization. You’re used to a strict chain of command is how I understand it, so you’ve taken Cal in the role as your Captain. That’s perfectly well and good for you. Especially since he is a King, after all. It works for Mike, Chuck, Dave, the Gurkhas, and the rest of the Salthawk forces, including the pilots and ground crews. Heck, even for the rest of the world, as far as they’re concerned.”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t work for us. Not in anything other than in an actual combat situation, in which case Grandpa and I will follow his orders to the best of our abilities, and so will my girls, and everyone else. This isn’t intended as a rebuke to you, so please don’t take it that way. We’re not robot soldiers, mindlessly following orders. Neither are you or Mycroft. You’re thinking, intelligent beings. Act like it.”

Pahto looked surprised. “I’m ... surprised. That was quite the eloquent and totally appropriate dressing down. One that I did deserve, now that I consider it.”

Toby nodded. “You’re welcome. You’re obviously older than, well, all of us combined. But I suspect that we’ve seen considerably more actual combat. My Grandpa was in it for several years straight, basically. My girlfriends, their other halves fought for centuries at a time.”

“I did train for it, and we did have some combat, of course, but space combat tends to be very short in duration, a pitched battle might only last a few hours. And even then, things did tend to be more peaceful than not. Out here, the distances are simply too vast to make combat economical. Or at least that was the conventional wisdom.”

“Before we get sidetracked on that, simply because it would truly be fascinating to discuss that, I believe I’m still owed a batch of cookies,” I said.

Some of my wives gave me puzzled looks, while Cally and Karen simply grinned and got up.

“You’re right. I think making them on the ground would be better. If you don’t mind, we’ll run home and make some up,” Karen said with a smile.

“I’m sure Reagan and Walter would like some, too, and I know Mike will as well.”

“Not a problem, Cal. We’ve plenty of ingredients, I’ll make several dozen.”

“Thank you, Karen,” I answered, then escorted them to the door.

Helen had been very quiet since her earlier comments. When I returned to the room, she looked up at me, her teeth almost glowing in contrast to her skin with her smile.

“I did what you asked, me love. Nothing against you girls, but I checked.”

“I could tell you were, Helen. I was almost as taken aback as everyone else. We even wondered if she’d planned this, because we really had intended to stay another week when we left. It was almost...” Carrie paused, took a drink of milk, then continued.

“We left here early Wednesday morning, landed just before noon. Aunt Brenda and Uncle Walter were waiting for us, took us home. The Navy has some rooms for visitors, but there are no hotels in Adak. Normally, if you’re visiting, your choice is to stay with family or friends, and that’s about it. There’s like two trailers up there that were put in for the wind turbine crews, but those are just bunkhouses, basically. So, anyway, they took us around town so I could meet up with everyone. That took like three hours, since Adak has such a huge population,” she said with a grin.

“Then once we were home, Aunt Brenda started cooking a traditional meal for all of us and asked Karen if she’d like to learn. Well, you know how Karen is, wanting to be the best wife she can be now that she’s decided she enjoys life again. Aunt Brenda and Uncle Walter didn’t know anything about Karen’s history. Uncle Walter had taken William, Leah, and Sharon over to the Navy base because they qualified courtesy of Sharon’s badge as visitors the Navy would take care of, and I was showing my sisters and Toby some of the stuff in my room. Next thing we know, we hear Aunt Brenda yelling for us. We go in there, and Aunt Brenda is standing back against the cabinets while Karen is huddled on the floor, crying and saying she’s sorry. Aunt Brenda had the ingredients out for baking some mushrooms she’d gathered. Aunt Brenda looks at us and asks where did Karen come from.”

Holly said, “Cally said, ‘She’s my Mom’ and Brenda said, ‘No, but she can be. How did she know?’ We went, know what, and Brenda said she’d planned on cooking a traditional Unangan meal for us in celebration, with everything out, and she turned back around and Karen was already cutting the mushrooms and humming the tunes.”

“We tend to sing when we’re cooking, because it makes the time go by. Aunt Brenda just watched her for a couple of minutes and was shocked when Karen just did all of the prep work without thinking about it. That’s when she yelled, which scared Karen and brought us running. Well, Toby helped Karen up, and while he was doing so, told Aunt Brenda about Karen, the real truth. She already knew about Cally, anyway. The stone from Mount Moffett you gave her? She wears it as a necklace. It had actually started vibrating in time with Karen humming. Then there was a knock on the door, it was the rest of the tribal women that you’d given stones to in January. Their stones had let them know to come to our house. A lot of talking was done that night, very late into the night. Thursday, we met at the school again, this time with the full tribe, to make sure everyone was good with what we proposed doing, so they’d know we intended no sacrilege. Then Uncle Walter drove us as close as possible Friday morning, the four of us sort of walked the rest of the way – we mostly levitated, because the ground is so rough, but no one could see us – and then we sat on top while the Sacred Souls talked to us and then did their thing. We had food and water, so it was almost like camping out, even if we didn’t need tents or sleeping bags.”