Chapter 1

“When was the change in orbit noticed?” I asked.

“Noticed? Last week. The ICE Explorer rendezvous heading was badly off course. When it actually happened was sometime around three to four weeks ago. It took the guidance computer and ground stations a while to figure out the satellite hadn’t changed course, the comet had.”

“Give me a moment, Bob.” I closed my eyes and concentrated. I still didn’t detect anything. “Okay, this has to be totally on the AI, because his shivalingam aren’t any more active now than they were. Which means what?”

“It means the AI found out all it needed to learn in the initial meteor shower. I’m going to make a guess, but the information gathered from the probes in the Eta Aquarids told it Irhaal had succeeded in her plan to have someone ready, and maybe even capable. You know, I hesitate to guess, but if the damned thing was somehow or other monitoring our television or radio signals, it may have seen something about the Messenger, and then him leaving, and that made it decide to act. The problem is, we’re entering the Orionids now, so our plan to keep ... certain things secret is still applicable.”

Sighing, I said, “Well, fuck. Let’s try to keep this as much under wraps as possible for now. I’ll contact Walter, because this definitely qualifies as one of those bad things that comes under both our job descriptions. See if you can politely – or impolitely, I don’t really care – persuade a couple of the larger planetary bound telescopes to get us more data, so you can refine it and let us know.”

He snorted. “I’m a bit too old for anyone to reactivate my commission, but I’ll be damned if I don’t feel like I’m back trying to do research to help with the war.”

“That’s exactly what you’re doing, Bob. Thanks for letting me know. You’ve got my authorization to spend whatever you need from the Federation budget. And Bob ... thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now, how are things in Mexico?”

We spent a couple minutes talking about that, then said our good-byes and hung up. I had locked my thoughts off when he first started talking to me. I looked at the television screens where Mycroft and Pahto were sitting. I could tell from their expressions they’d been listening in.

I took a moment to compose myself. “Eve, it was brought to my attention that when you and I register for classes tomorrow, we both have to register for an undergraduate class. I have to sign up for 138V, which is Varsity Football. You’ll have to sign up for 136V, Varsity Basketball. Your practices will start tomorrow, sometime after registration, is what I’ve been told. Congratulations on making the team, by the way.”

I sighed. “I bring that up, because I think Dora’s cousin, Virginia, is going to be learning some more secrets. I believe you said that the Arc Jet should be able to melt the metal from my ship and from the container that carried the water lorquats here. Let’s make sure we don’t get rid of something we might need later. Like, being able to hook up the engine from their spacecraft and send it on a collision course with Shiva’s ship. It appears the AI made a decision a few weeks ago, and is now headed this way.”

“I thought it was coming this way anyway,” Jennifer said.

“Orbital mechanics comes into play here. The orbit of Halley’s Comet is pretty well fixed. Yes, it crosses Earth’s orbit. Sometimes it gets pretty close, even. That’s why Earth flew through the tail of it back when Hugo was conceived. The Comet itself had crossed our path already. For simplicity, think of two sets of train tracks. Earth is on a circular – well, close enough for imagination’s sake – set of tracks at a fixed distance from the Sun. Halley’s Comet is on an elliptical set of tracks, and while it’s been coming back every seventy-five years, the difference in speeds means that sometimes the Earth is near it, and sometimes it’s pretty damned far away. It’s ninety-three million miles from the Earth to the Sun, for example. The way things work, the Comet is supposed to pass Earth by thirty-nine million miles on this trip.”

“I don’t like the way you said ‘supposed to pass,’ Cal. Doesn’t it have to do that?”

I sighed. “Orbital mechanics says it does. That’s simply a further application of Newton’s First Law, anyway. Of course, his second law gives us force divided by mass equals acceleration, too. How do you change a fixed train track? You put in a turnout, then throw the switch. It doesn’t have to be a very big change. You’re hitting a ball straight down the fairway, straight up and down three hundred yards in a nice arc, if you hit it just a teeny bit off, only off one degree, three hundred yards later, that ball lands sixteen feet from where you wanted it to. The Shiva AI has used something to modify the orbit. Instead of a few seconds, like a golf ball, it has a few months for that change to affect it. Spacecraft use that theory all the time. A little nudge here can have a huge result when you reach your destination. I’ve been guilty ... well, I think we all have ... of thinking of Halley’s Comet as being just a natural comet, and forgetting there’s an interstellar spaceship in the middle of the damned thing.”

My wives nodded at my explanation. Jennifer then asked, “Okay, you’re right. I can even visualize what you mean, because I do just that when I’m driving or hitting my irons; I use the precise control I now have to hit my shots. But what does this mean for us?”

“Not just us. The whole planet. The spacecraft will now cross Earth’s orbit thirty-nine million miles ahead of where it was supposed to. We’ll get better data as they spend more time being able to follow the changes, and being able to refine the numbers. But as of right now, we’ve got two trains on a collision course,” I replied.

Carrie frowned. “I’ve already contacted Cally, so she and Karen will be over shortly. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense. When the sisters were alive, they could all fly in space. So could Shiva. None of them ever flew beyond the moon, but that wasn’t a problem.”

“That may be it,” Eve said. “Perihelion – the closest it gets to the Sun – is about fifty-four million miles, and without speeding up, it’ll be going about a hundred twenty-two thousand miles an hour. We know we can be millions of miles away from Earth without any problems. Shiva doesn’t, and thus, neither does the AI. It’s trying to maneuver the Comet so he’ll only have a short jaunt to get here.”

“Shit!” Beth cursed. “That means we can’t get our shivalingam back in November, and the three of us need to make sure we keep our personal ones locked down from sharing information with all the rest.”

My eyes went wide. “Mycroft! Not just theirs! Lock them all down, now!”

“On it!” he replied.

“What’s going on?” Margie asked.

“Mycroft’s faster with them than I am. He can control the ones that Hugo has, and that also means I’m going for a trip tonight, to get the seven we don’t have and to get them under our physical control, not just mental.”

“Okay, but why?” she reiterated.

“Because just as Cal can tell what’s going on with all the shivalingam here, and on Shiva’s craft, Shiva would be able to do the same if it activated those shivalingam onboard. That’s how it knew what Irhaal was planning, and worked around it,” Beth replied.

“What was my former self planning?” Karen asked as she, Cally and Mike walked in.

“She used her shivalingam to spy on Shiva, but he did the same with hers. We need all of our shivalingam locked down, to prevent data transmissions, from now until the comet actually gets here. That means we can’t have thirteen of them even after the danger from the Orionids passes,” Beth said.

“Why?” Karen asked.

“Oh, because there’s about two hundred forty-three billion tons of rock on what currently appears to be a collision course with Earth,” I said. “Fucker started changing the course of the comet gradually a few weeks ago, so it won’t pass thirty-nine million miles from here in mid-April. It’s going to be a lot closer.”

“Well, that sucks,” Mike calmly said. “How bad would it be if it hit?”

Eve shook her head. “Based upon some new theories, the crater from the rock that hit Mexico and wiped out the dinosaurs is about a hundred ten miles in diameter. Considering what we know of the size of Halley’s Comet, it’d be a little worse, probably making a crater about a hundred forty miles in diameter. About a hundred fourteen million megatons of explosion.”

Pahto said, “I have records of something along those lines naturally happening twice, and older records of massive kinetic energy weapons being used in warfare. Nothing that large, but certainly craters three to four miles in diameter, with energy equivalents of five to six hundred megatons.”

“What happened to the planets where it happened naturally?” Mike quietly asked.

“One was considerably smaller than Earth is, and it simply shattered. The other was a bit larger, and suffered complete destruction of the existing ecosystem. That happened slightly more than three million years ago; the planet was expected to recover sometime in the next two million years.”

“And that’s what we think killed all the dinosaurs sixty some odd million years ago,” Eve said. “So I think having some damned good data to confirm that’s not going to happen next Spring is a good idea.”

One of the features of my watch was that it had an alarm built in. That went off, causing me to glance down at it.

“Okay, brain trust! Not a lot we can do about it now, unless I fly out there and try to fight him. I’ll do that, if that’s what you come up with. Otherwise ... discuss it. I have a press conference to attend.”

Mike actually blinked, shaking his head. “Who are you, and what did you do with my overly angst ridden Cal?”

“You can either fret and worry about it until you’re sick; or you can live your life and when the time comes, deal with the situation, consider that time an incredibly lousy time, and then put it all behind you,” I said.

His eyes widened. “You’re learning from us, too! That was Chuck’s philosophy once he adjusted to being in the jungle. Live life normally, and don’t worry about the next mission until you’re on the next mission.”

“We’ll call Walter,” Diana said. “This is something that’s going to have to be handled very delicately, to avoid global panic. As reassuring as you can be for us, you’re not what a lot of people would call an elder statesman, able to project calm.”

I quickly gave those of my wives that were present kisses, doing the same for all of my children except Toby, who bowed out of that group, and went to the stadium to find out the repercussions from yesterday.

Our press conference was in a larger room than the preseason one, but the whole team was in attendance, as well as twice as many members of the press. I was one of the last to arrive, and took my place at the head table, between John Paye and Coach Elway. Mister Geiger waited another five minutes for the last couple members of our team to arrive, then nodded.

He stood up, then moved to the podium.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the media, and welcome to Leland Stanford Junior University. I’m Fred Geiger, Director of Athletics. At the front table, from my left to right, are: John Paye, quarterback; Cal Lewis, quarterback; Jack Elway, Head Coach; Terry Goodman, Pac-10 NCAA Representative. On the other side are Donald Kennedy, President of Stanford; Pat Dillon, Head Trustee; Sonny Lubick, Assistant Coach, and Dick Mannini, Assistant Coach. I’m going to read a statement, and then Mister Goodman will have one as well. After that, we’ll throw it open to questions from legitimate members of the press.”

I noticed Ray Ratto wasn’t present.

“During yesterday’s pregame activities, the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band and the Stanford Cardinal football team coordinated in an activity which resulted in the ejection of Coach Elway prior to kickoff. The administration of the university and the athletics department does not condone such actions. Camaraderie and team building activities do not actually violate university policies if performed at an appropriate time and place. Less than sixty minutes prior to the kickoff is neither. We are officially placing the band and football team on notice that we will not tolerate further violations of this policy, and there will be severe repercussions if it ever happens again.”

He smiled, then shrugged. “A couple of you look disappointed. Keep in mind, we’re Stanford! We didn’t blow up their stadium, we just poked fun at them using something that’s current and brand new; a video game. These are college students, not priests! Lighten up, Francis! And on that note, here’s Terry Goodman.”

Geiger sat down to applause from the entire football team, while Goodman took his place at the podium.

“Thank you, Mister Geiger. I met the team and band when they arrived back on campus this morning. I’ll repeat now what I said then. The NCAA is officially shocked and appalled at the behavior of the Stanford Cardinal football team and the Leland Stanford University Marching Band. It is considered a Level III Breach of Conduct, and will remain on file for the remainder of this school year. Any further unsportsmanlike conduct by any Stanford team will take this event into consideration when being considered by the NCAA. For this particular event, at this time the penalty imposed by the referee, the disqualification and ejection of Coach Elway, is considered sufficient punishment. College humor has an appropriate time and place; this was neither. At this time, the NCAA considers the matter closed, presuming there is no further misbehavior that requires us to reconsider this matter. Now, I’ll throw this open to questions from the audience. Mister Walker?”

“Thank you, Mister Goodman. Wayne Walker, KPIX 5. Is the NCAA aware at this time of the actual audience for the game yesterday?”

“Not specifically, no. We’re quite aware of how large the audience was for the Cardinal game last week, at something like seven hundred million around the world.”

Apparently, a lot of the other reporters in the room hadn’t been aware of that fact. Wayne followed up. “That’s correct. This week, even though Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip weren’t in the stands, the worldwide audience numbers went up. We’re showing there were seven hundred twenty-five million people around the world that watched the Cardinal game, including the pregame festivities, as we were already broadcasting them. My question is, did the NCAA take into account the popularity of the Cardinal football team around the world when determining this punishment?”

“Actually, no. In the discussions I had with NCAA headquarters ... well, let’s face it. Stanford has a reputation regarding stunts. It’s not necessarily a good reputation, either. At the same time, we realize that student athletes are going to pull pranks. Stanford isn’t the only university that does so. Quite frankly, the only reason we got involved in this one, is that it happened so close to game time. The jurisdiction of the officials begins sixty minutes before scheduled kickoff and ends when the referee declares the score as final. Therefore, the referee had to take official notice. There is no disagreement that this was not a Section Two, Article One, Section a, paragraph one, subsection b and c violation. There’s normally a fifteen yard penalty from whatever succeeding spot the ball is to be placed at, but as kickoff had not actually occurred yet, the referee simply chose to consider the disqualification and ejection of Coach Elway as enough punishment. Yes, Jule?”

“Jule Campbell, Sports Illustrated. Two questions. Under NCAA rules, the field must be clearly and appropriately marked. We all realize that outdoor football fields can’t be perfectly flat, simply due to the requirement for water drainage. On a natural surface, having the very center of the field being about ten inches higher than the sidelines is standard. On artificial surfaces, though, the standard is five inches. The center crown at Autzen Stadium is more than fourteen inches higher than the sidelines, even though it’s artificial turf. Does the NCAA plan any rules regarding the actual field of play, and not just the size of it?”

“That’s an interesting question, Jule, that has come up in the past, and will probably come up in the future. We’ve discussed it more than once, but with the variety of locations where colleges are located, the actual composition of the field of play is more dictated by the local climate than anything else. Keep in mind that Autzen Stadium originally had a natural surface, and the weather there really pretty much meant their field was destroyed at the end of every season. I’ll admit they didn’t change the drainage slope when they switched to artificial turf, but at that time, it was still new for colleges to even consider using artificial turf. Currently, so long as the field is in playable condition and is marked according to our rules, we have no other requirements.”

“Thank you. My second question is for King Lewis. Your Majesty, do you feel that it was a deliberate slight by the Oregon Band to not play your national anthem prior to kickoff?”

I had a slight smile as I shook my head. “Let’s keep this informal unless we really need to, Jule. Especially since Bruce is here today, as are others who report to a broader outlet than regular American press. So I’ll just go by Cal. Or...” I paused, my grin getting wider, “ ... the magnificent and totally modest Stanford Quarterback.”

That got the laugh from everyone I had hoped it would, because I could tell things were a little tense.

“Okay, in all seriousness, it actually doesn’t bother me, one way or the other. I wasn’t expecting it at our first game, but I did appreciate the touch. With Her Majesty the Queen of England in the audience, playing ‘God Save the Queen’ was appropriate. While I am royalty and a King, I’m also a participant in the activities. Let’s face it, I was holding a rubber chicken in my hand just like the rest of our team. Now, if you really want to do some investigative journalism, find out why our band already had rubber chickens in their trailer, when we didn’t come up with the idea for this prank until literally just before we came out of the locker room. It’s almost enough to make you wonder about them at times.”

“It is at that. Thank you, Cal.”

“Bill Dwyre, LA Times. Coach Elway, you must be proud of the job your assistant coaches did in running the offense when you were ejected. How long have they been practicing with the team, to be able to do that?”

A smile on his face, Coach Elway said, “We started organized practice two months before the start of our first game, as per NCAA rules. We had no organized practices before that, as we discussed at a previous press conference. That was also the first day any of our players, or for that matter, any of my assistants, saw this years’ playbook in full. I’d worked with Tony, Sonny, Otto, and Dave in designing some of the plays, but they hadn’t seen the whole thing until our first day of practice. However, you’re also wrong in who I’m proud of, for running our offense while I was absent. The Cardinal offense was completely run by our four quarterbacks.”

Dwyre looked puzzled. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand.”

Elway glanced over at John and me. I tapped John’s foot to answer.

John stood up. “Mister Dwyre, when Coach Elway was ejected, Cal had us huddle up as a team. He told us to be on our best behavior, no celebrations when we scored or made big plays, just hand the ball over to the referees because we have the expectation that we will do that. What I don’t think anyone realized after last week, when each of us was in for an entire quarter, is that all four of us called our own plays. Coach Elway didn’t tell us what to do, other than to win the game. It’s our job as quarterback to do that. San Jose State was, nothing against them, an easy win. Oregon was different, so we had Fred and Greg watching in case any substitutions were needed, and they’d send them onto the field, once we started taking more than one play to score. At halftime, Coach Mannini told the defense he wanted Cal out of the game, and me in, so it was up to them to stop Oregon. Coach Lubick told the offense that if the defense couldn’t figure out how to stop Oregon, we were just going to blow their doors off every single play. It took our defense a little while to figure things out, so Fred and Greg were still running substitutes in and out for us for most of the second half, even when I was under center.”

His brow furrowed, Dwyre asked, “Coach Mannini, why did you want Cal out of the game?”

Mannini laughed. “That’s our goal, every single game, Mister Dwyre. How quickly can we get Cal out of the game? Once we’ve done that, then we know we’ve got the game won, and we can let John, Fred, or Greg get some playing time.”

“Bob Espinosa, San Francisco Chronicle. Mister Paye, you’re telling us that you and Mister Lewis were calling all of your own plays? You weren’t getting anything called in from the sidelines?”

“That’s correct, Mister Espinosa. Coach Elway told us, from the first day of practice, that Cal and I would be calling our own plays, and as Fred and Greg gained more experience, he potentially would allow them to do so as well. There’s no mercy rule in college football like there is in high school football. At the same time, there’s no reason to completely embarrass your opponent. I admit at halftime I told Cal to keep kicking their butts, because it was fun watching them try to figure out how we’re calling our plays without even bothering to check the sidelines. We just don’t need it.”

“Todd McKim, sports director of KVAL 13, from Eugene, Oregon. You’re telling us that Coach Elway is allowing a freshman quarterback to run his offense?”

Elway chuckled a little. “Todd, apparently you didn’t see footage of a previous news conference we held. We don’t have any freshmen on our team. Doctor California Lewis is a postgraduate student at Stanford, as well as the Spatial Defense Minister for the Federation of Terran Nations. You’re confusing his youth – he is, after all, now just seventeen years old – with his ability and intellect. I think when Presidents Mondale and Reagan came to visit him – and then came to one of our practices because of him – that we don’t even think about him that way at all. I do apologize to the Ducks and their fans about our incident, and take full responsibility because I knew they were going to do something and I didn’t take steps to stop it.”

I said, “Keep in mind we are Stanford, after all. You can’t tell me that no one at Oregon made any connection between the Nintendo video game and your team mascot before us. However, I have talked to our Dollies as coordination with our band and they promise to behave during our games. Or else, actually. Having said that, under official NCAA rules, things that happen more than sixty minutes prior to the start of a game are not subject to the jurisdiction of the referees. Certainly no one has mentioned doing anything that the Texas Longhorns might object to, such as a calf roping contest, at least so far. Heck, they might even enjoy participating in that. Then, if they don’t have to leave so soon after the game, we could even have a cow and pig roast, to show no hard feelings after we beat them.”

McKim snorted. “You sound awfully arrogant about that, considering you’ve only played one season of high school football.”

I smiled back. “Mister McKim, if you haven’t done so, go ask Chris Miller what he and I talked about at midfield after the game. He thought I’d made an arrogant comment. I told him that arrogance means you think you can do the job. Confidence means you know you can do the job. I know the Stanford Cardinal is the best NCAA Division I-A football team this year. That’s not arrogance talking, that’s knowing that with John, Fred, Greg, and me as quarterbacks, Coach Elway as head coach, and the rest of those guys sitting behind you to help make the plays, no matter what someone else’s opinion is, at the end of the season, we’ll have proven we knew what we were talking about. There’s a reason we’re the highest ranking academic university in the nation, ahead of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. We really are the best. Note that I’m not saying that MIT, CIT or Rose-Hulman might not be better engineering schools. They probably are, because that’s what they specialize in. That’s fine. Arrogance or confidence? What do you think?”

“You sure you’re only seventeen years old?” McKim asked in disbelief.

Everyone at our table laughed. “Don’t worry, Mister McKim,” President Kennedy said. “I effectively asked the same question last year when Mister Lewis said he planned to attend Stanford. Damn, that wasn’t even a full year ago!” He snorted, then continued.

“Not a lot of incoming students find errors on the MCAT, either. Mister Lewis found one. A reason that Mister Dillon and I pay very close attention to anything that Mister Lewis does is not because we’re concerned it’s going to reflect poorly upon Stanford. On the contrary, we’ve now received more applications from international students seeking admission to our university than ever before. I spoke with President Fullerton of San Jose State on Friday. Gail told me the admissions department there is busier than ever, and she expects at least a fifteen percent increase for their spring semester. I want to talk to President Olum this Friday. If Paul doesn’t see an increase in interest, I’d be very surprised.”

McKim shook his head. “Why?”

“Bruce Wilson, Melbourne Herald. Normally someone in the press doesn’t answer the question of someone else in the press, but this one is easy. Your American football games, and thus the commercials for your American colleges, have now each been seen by more than seven hundred million people around the world. Live. That means people in New Delhi were up at midnight to watch the game. People in Tokyo were awake at four on Sunday morning. In Melbourne, it was five on Sunday morning. In Riyadh, it was ten on Saturday night. They didn’t care. I wondered if the audience would go down for the game yesterday, without Her Majesty in attendance. It didn’t, it went up! The world is watching the Stanford Cardinal, Mister McKim, and it’s watching the schools they play. You Americans ... nothing personal, Your Majesty... do tend to be arrogant when viewed by the rest of the world. His Majesty, King Lewis, is showing the rest of the world how confidence and ability can and will overcome arrogance. Wayne, my friend, do you have the final numbers from both our interview with His Majesty and last weeks’ game?”

Wayne stood up. “The preseason interview that you, Jule, and I had with Cal has been rebroadcast on television stations in sixty-seven countries, with an estimated viewing audience of one point two billion people. The final numbers, with delayed and repeat broadcasts, put the total audience for the Cardinal-Spartan game at one point six billion. That’s an estimate, as many countries where the game was viewed don’t have individual television sets. For example, in many parts of Africa, India, and Pakistan, people gathered at local schools, with crowds of three or four hundred people, all watching one television.”

“I’ll have to see what we can do about that,” I said. “I know we’re getting affordable electricity to places around the world that’ve never had it before, but I hadn’t considered some of the other things that go with it. I know Pakistan and India will gain additional trade due to my Punjab factories; I’ll talk to the Federation representatives for Africa to make sure that those nations that are part of the Federation get appropriate assistance in becoming economically more stable. We’re a little busy right now, with all the CEDEM Emergency Rescue Teams from North and South America, along with some of my military forces and heavy equipment, working in Mexico to assist with the rescue and recovery operations from their devastating earthquake.”

I paused, then shook my head. “Sorry about that. This isn’t a press conference about that, it’s about our football team.”

Goodman shook his head. “I don’t think we have to worry about that. You just showed these members of the press and the entire NCAA that you’re upholding the finest traditions of what we would hope our student-athletes will do and have when they finish college with your concern for and fair treatment of your fellow human beings.”

I don’t think the NCAA rep was supposed to lead a round of applause that turned into a standing ovation. I know my face was almost as red as our jerseys at the end of it.

Once everyone sat back down, another reporter stood up. “Billy Loomis, The Sporting News. I was at the game yesterday and ran into some people I know that are NFL team owners. They mentioned that they are business partners with Mister Lewis. I’m legitimately curious as to how Mister Lewis can maintain his amateur standing when he’s working with professionals?”