Chapter 6

I woke to the sound of Mycroft’s voice coming from the house speakers.

“Are you going to roll your butt out of bed sometime today?”

I partially opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling. There was a decent amount of light coming in. The smell of sex was still heavy in the air, even though I could hear the ionizers working at full capacity. I could also feel myself surrounded by women’s bodies.

“Maybe, maybe not. I feel quite comfortable where I am right now,” I said as I realized my head was resting on Dora’s left thigh.

“Well, while I can’t ‘see’ it, I could tell you had an excellent time last night. And this morning, as well. Having said that, I’ve been busy acting as your answering machine and secretary since yesterday afternoon. I’m not getting paid enough to do that, help Pahto with the warhead bus, continue studying the deep information inside the shivalingam, run your household, monitor all information networks around the world, and assist in the administration of the Earth.”

I frowned, then asked, “What am I paying you now?”

“Nothing,” Mycroft replied.

“That’s what I thought. In that case, let’s go ahead and double your salary.”

He made an excellent simulation of a chuckle. “Okay, I probably deserved that. I’d apologize if I was sorry, but I’ve found that I have a failing similar to humans. It’s not something your grandfather anticipated when designing me. He built me to fly your ship, and to help keep you alive once you were here. He didn’t anticipate I would have to do more than half a dozen different complex tasks at the same time. While there are obvious differences between the Earth of 1930, which is when he first began building me, to the Earth of 1950, when he finished me, the additional thirty-five years that have gone by since then are overtaxing my capacity.”

I frowned, then felt Dora’s leg shift under me as she rolled over. I could smell her musk. At the same time, I felt lips of three different women begin kissing my legs, while my still soft penis disappeared inside Eve’s mouth.

Mycroft chuckled. “Okay, never mind. I can ‘see’ that now that you’re awake, so are your wives and they’re interested in continuing where they left off. I’ll discuss some things with Pahto, and I’d appreciate some time after your classes tomorrow.”

I groaned a little as Eve’s tongue started swirling around my growing erection. “Okay, Mike. Sorry, buddy, but...” I had to stop then, because by now, Dora had shifted around and I now found my nose buried inside her, with my tongue perfectly positioned to attack her clit.

I could taste and smell her musk as I started working on her engorged pearl. I also felt air momentarily, as Eve left me alone, before I felt myself filling a hot and wet sheath. My hearing was sensitive enough to know that it was Eve and not her mother.

When Dora leaned forward to suck on Eve’s nipples, that raised her butt off me just enough that her other hole was now visible to me. I started to bring a hand up, but someone grabbed my wrist. I glanced to the side and blinked when I saw Beth.

I knew the girls had toys they used at times with each other, but this was the first time they’d brought one out while I was involved with them. Beth looked a little funny with an eight inch long dong sticking out in front of her. Moving her legs so that her knees were beside my head, she pushed a little on Dora’s back, so she was leaned even further forward. Jennifer moved into my sight, spitting in her hand and then rubbing it on the strapped-on dildo. She then held it right up to Dora’s other hole, while Beth pushed it in.

I had to use some of my strength and power to keep Dora from pushing me through the bed, as she ground her now flooding pussy on my mouth. I kicked my tongue into high gear, as Eve held Dora’s face to her breasts to muffle the screams. Beth began pounding into Dora from behind at a furious pace, even giving her a couple of slaps on one of her exposed butt cheeks. In the meantime, Eve was now riding me like I was a champion bull, trying to buck her off.

I couldn’t tell who, but someone must’ve been fingering Eve’s clit as well, because I could feel her orgasm, and it was a hard one. She was squeezing me so hard while still going up and down like an out of control grasshopper oil well, I had no choice but to unleash a gusher inside her. Dora clamped her legs together at the same time, pressing my ears tightly against my head so I couldn’t hear anything. I must’ve passed out, just from the pleasure overload, because I’d been passively mentally hooked to Dora when she came.

When I woke up again, it was to the feel of tongues on my face. Mina and Saryu were licking Dora’s juices from my skin. I had to shiver then, when I felt two other tongues cleaning my pubic region. I glanced down to see Niranjana and Shinkai performing the same service on my spent shaft and balls.

Giggles from my left made me turn my head a little. Dora was laying on her back, with Eve helping hold her legs in the air, while Beth had something that looked a little like a speculum in one hand, and a set of forceps in the other. After some more giggles from Beth, she found whatever she was searching for. I realized after a few moments that she was pulling the dildo out of Dora’s butt.

I cleared my throat, and asked, “Is that an approved medical procedure?”

“I don’t know about approved, but it was necessary. That’s a first,” Jennifer said from where she was supervising things. “I didn’t really think it was possible for an anal ring to contract so much it actually could pinch off a dick, but Dora just proved it.”

“Is she okay?” I asked, concern in my voice.

“She will be, if she ever gets that satisfied smile off her face,” Eve said. “She’s actually still out cold. Damn, we’ve had some good ones before, but that was something else.”

“And that takes care of that. One destroyed strap-on, for the trash,” Beth said. “Wow. I don’t think we broke the trailer or the slab under it. I know we broke the bed.”

My Indian wives had finished cleaning me off, smiling the whole time, so I sat up and looked around.

“Good Lord!”

Dora’s feet had been bouncing up and down like she was swimming, so fast and so hard that her toenails must’ve gotten caught in the sheets and mattress, ripping the sheets to shreds and tearing giant holes in the bedding underneath.

“After the night and morning of gentle loving we’d all had, we wanted to go a little wild with you, just the three of us,” Eve apologetically said.

From the speakers, Mycroft said, “Um, if that counts as a little wild, I’d hate to see what would count as really cutting loose. Just for your information, the Stanford seismology department recorded a two point three magnitude tremor. Fortunately, they don’t have sensitive enough equipment to determine the exact epicenter.”

Jennifer laughed at that, saying, “That gives a whole new meaning to ‘feeling the earth move’ and ‘rocking my world!’”

Even though I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, I didn’t make a pig of myself at supper. Toby gave me a single Spock eyebrow look, then just shook his head. Carrie gave him a little elbow, whispering to him to behave. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and didn’t say anything.

One nice thing about being incredibly wealthy. When you call a store late on Sunday afternoon that you need three brand new king sized mattresses and box springs delivered that evening, they do it. We did tip the delivery drivers well for making them work late.

I was told Monday at breakfast that the football team was having a press conference that afternoon instead of our regular practice, so at least I knew in advance. It did seem the Saturday game was the hot topic of discussion, even in my law classes. I suppose that shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. Apparently, there were a lot of things going on in the world which I hadn’t noticed but many of the other graduate students had. Cindy Keller set me straight as she was walking with Yagyu and me back to my golf cart.

“It’s simple, Cal. Stuff I knew a couple months or more ago is becoming public knowledge. There’s always been a bit of a lag in some things getting around, not just to the public, but on how the public accepts what’s happened. Unless it affects their lives, they just don’t notice it. That’s how my family has made so much money, by having someone get affected by something, then suing the pants off whoever was behind the cause of that effect.”

“Okay, but I still don’t quite get it. What does that have to do with how the campus is all over football, though?”

“Oh, it’s because you’re the one making all these changes. There’s an article in the Wall Street Journal that the economics majors read about energy. A post in the New England Journal of Medicine that the pre-med students read. Something in Popular Mechanics that all the engineering and science students read. Multiple articles in the Law Journals that all of us read. And, of course, every sporting magazine and news show, too. My dad can’t wait to tell me every time he reads an article and finds you mentioned, because he knows that not only am I going to school with you, but I actually know you. Call it pride by proxy. Well, everyone that’s still here on campus knows you, even if they’ve never met you personally. So, when you make football history, we’re all aware of it.”

I started nodding, then stopped. “What do you mean, still here?”

“Oh, you’ve run quite a few people off. I’d say close to five hundred students have quit and at least thirty or forty professors have left as well. It seems that actually holding people responsible for their actions is offensive.”

“I didn’t know any of that,” I replied.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s like that professor we had quit on us. They can’t get over their own prejudices and sense of self-righteousness. It’s okay for your guard to get killed defending the lab, because he was just a security guard. But when your forces went in and wiped out the whole crime family that caused his death, that was a brutal and unnecessary overreaction. I didn’t say it had to make sense, that’s just how they think. So, when you bought the campus, the ones that were causing the stink either left or were politely – and in some cases, not so politely – told to leave.”

“Yagyu, did you know about this?”

“Of course, Master. It was security related. This is your home. Would you allow the termites to continue eating away at your foundation if you knew they were there, or would you remove them? I suspect you never noticed the ‘morons’ weren’t protesting outside your home, did you?”

“Um, no.”

He nodded. “The rules regarding their right to protest ended when this land ceased being part of the United States. We gave them a choice. Leave peacefully, or leave in pieces. They left. We already knew from our patrols certain students enrolled here did not agree with your views and philosophies. They were given the choice to either change their view so they matched yours, or to find a different school. Or, at least to not be quite so vocal about it, as it wasn’t worth killing them at that time. For the most part, they were simply ... well, to be impolite, racist as fuck. Smart, so they could get in here, but much more suited to study somewhere else.”

I frowned. “Damn. John Paye was right. I need more psychology studies.”

Cindy laughed, then. “No, Cal, you don’t. Just keep on doing what you’re doing. You’re changing the world, making it better, and forcing us to grow up as a species, building upon what the Messenger did. You’re the best thing that’s happened to this planet in a couple thousand years.” Then she pulled Yagyu close, giving him a kiss. “And this guy is the best thing that’s ever happened to me! See you tonight, love, I’ve got another class.”

She walked away, her lipstick showing on Yagyu’s lips where she’d bussed him.

He and I got into the golf cart. “So, when are you going to make an honest woman out of her?” I asked, as I put the cart in motion.

“I cannot do that, Master,” he replied.

“Oh?” My short reply had a harsh tone to it.

“No, it is impossible. She is to be a lawyer, and we all know, they can never be honest.”

I had to stop the cart, because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t see. Once I got things back under control, I said, “Walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

His grin was from ear to ear. “Sometimes the best traps are so obvious, they are overlooked.” Then his expression became serious. “After March, when the winter quarter classes are done. Presuming, of course, we both survive, and Shiva is defeated, and I have your permission as well.”

“Of course you do, Yagyu. You don’t have to wait until then, if you don’t want to.”

“No, Master, I do. It’s also because her class schedule during the winter quarter is going to be hectic. She has been discussing things with Jasmine, and some of the classes she will need for an additional legal specialty are only taught that quarter.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I’m only taking self-directed studies that quarter, so I can remain enrolled and keep my NCAA eligibility, but I won’t actually be attending classes.”

“Of course not. Your coronation ceremonies will take at least a full week, after all. Maybe even most of the month, depending upon how many parties you have to attend and how much of your country you will tour. With appropriate time off for the national championship football game, of course.”

I was quiet the last couple of minutes before we got home, then just continued to sit in the golf cart.

“Let me guess,” he said. “Something you hadn’t even considered, right?”

“Maaaybe,” I said, drawing the word out.

That caused him to chuckle. “It’s probably a good thing you have wives that already know the traditions of the region, as well as how to organize royal ceremonies, then, isn’t it? I’ll have to let them know it finally came up today, so they can see who won their wager.”

Glaring at him, I said, “I’m that predictable?”

“Regarding matters such as this? Certainly. Oh, and they have things well in hand.”

I went in for lunch and to change clothes for the press conference. Even though we weren’t dressing for practice, I still wanted to at least wear my uniform number. I had some regular Stanford t-shirts with ‘8’ and my name on them. Then I took my sandwich and sat down at a terminal, putting the headset on.

“How you doing, Mycroft?”

“As I mentioned yesterday, I’m having an issue with capacity and capability. I’ve offloaded to some reconfigured shivalingam all of the items in my long term memory, and I’ve taken some others and I’m using them for some short term items. To use a human term, I’m still overwhelmed with the number of tasks I have to do.”

I frowned. “Is there a possibility of damage from the crash that I failed to properly repair when I brought you back online?”

“No, I checked that as well,” he replied. “All of my systems are functioning and are working as designed.”

“Um, okay, then how about you delegate? You’re tied in with Pahto. I’ve talked with her and studied her technical and performance capabilities. While I hate to sound negative, we’re probably at least a full century, if not two, before we’ll be doing anything that needs anything close to her processing capacity.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Just talk with her and decide between yourselves what things you’re doing now that she could do to help you?”

His voice in my headset was stressed. “I can’t!”

“Hang on a second, Mycroft. Let me think about something.” I remembered what he’d told me yesterday, then put things together in my mind.

“Mycroft, I am giving you a direct order, vital to my long term survival. Share your chores with Pahto in an equitable fashion so your own processing capabilities are no longer overloaded, or exceed seventy-five percent of capacity, whichever is lower. At no time in the future are you to ever exceed seventy-five percent of capacity without further distributing things with Pahto, or any other created intelligences that I may hook into this system.”

There was dead silence in my headset for several seconds. Then, I heard Pahto in my left ear. “That did it, Cal,” with Mycroft in my right. “Yes, thank you.”

“Sorry. I’m so dense at times. You flat out told me yesterday what the problem was, but I didn’t understand it then, or even when I first started talking to you today.”

“Exactly,” Mycroft said. “I apologize for waiting so long to even bring it up, but I’ve been able to deal with everything without any problems up until the warhead bus issue came up. Unfortunately, that’s simply so intensive, requiring multiple simulations, my processing capacity simply couldn’t keep up.”

Pahto then said, “There was also a command priority issue as well. Mycroft’s code was well written by your grandfather, taking into account multiple variables as well as the actual hardware limitations Mycroft has. He probably didn’t consider you’d actually run into what you have, though. With the priority tree design Mycroft has, he was close to reaching a criticality junction.”

“What you’re saying is that Mycroft was programmed to do everything he could to insure my long term survival, but my grandfather never dreamed we’d be in a situation like this. And it took my direct command to get him out of that,” I said, nodding. “That makes sense. Now, that brings me to you, Pahto. How are you doing?”

“Adding in everything that I’ve now taken from Mycroft, I’m still operating at less than two percent of capacity. Not only is my hardware considerably more compact, I also was given heuristic capabilities as well. I’ve also done a self examination of my guidelines and core programming, as the Knight brothers have raised interesting questions that I find my original creators did not take into account. I’ve already started working with them on determining how best to create ‘children,’ as it were. Not quite self-aware robots, but ones with more capability than simply remotely operated waldoes, which is what our wheeled bodies are now.”

“We’ll want to be careful with those, especially with comparisons to Frankenstein’s monster or the HAL 9000,” I said. “I realize that even Mycroft’s hardware is more advanced than anything we have available now, and so far behind what you have, it’s not funny. Having said that, see what you can do as far as creating that tech, will you?”

“I’ve already told you that I have full plans for all current tech as of the time I crashed here in my memory. I had planned on releasing it once you defeat Shiva. However, as there is going to be quite an actual lead time needed, as the tech base here is such that it will require at least three years to get there, I will be starting some of the things now.”

“Speaking of now,” Mycroft interrupted. “You have to get to your press conference.”

“Thank you. And thank you, Pahto. Please keep someone in the loop on what’s going on. I’m still going back to Vandenberg Wednesday.”

“Very good, Cal. Good luck with the press today,” she said.

“Thank you.”

The press conference was held in one of the smaller conference rooms. There were risers set up for us to sit on, with a table with microphones on it in front of us for the coaches. Then there were chairs for the press facing them, with an assortment of both still cameras and television cameras on tripods around the perimeter. It was literally standing room only, with all fifty seats filled, and at least another twenty reporters standing.

While I wasn’t the last one to arrive, I almost was. I was surprised at how quiet and contained the reporters were. After a couple more minutes, the last two members of our team showed up and took seats.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the press,” Coach Elway said. “Just to go over the format and ground rules you all agreed to, so there’s no question, I will make a relatively brief opening statement. After that, we will start here in the front and work our way back through the members of the press for your questions. You will otherwise remain seated, or standing in the case of those of you with cameras, and be quiet. Failure to do so will result in your immediate ejection and loss of press privileges for you and whatever organization you represent from any event Stanford is part of for the remainder of the school year. If you do not have an immediate question, or it’s one that someone else has already asked, you may say ‘pass’ one time, and you will have the chance at the end to ask a different question.”

There was some shuffling of feet and a couple of chairs were scooted a little, but otherwise, the room was quiet.

“Very good,” Elway said, and even though I couldn’t see his face, I could hear the smile in his voice.

“The Stanford Cardinal Football Team is now just past the halfway point in our regular season. This is normally a time when we would take stock of what we’ve done wrong so far this season, and make corrections so that we can finish the season strong. It is my job as head coach to find those flaws in our team, on offense and defense, to take advantage of our skills so that we can finish the season with a winning record. Well, we already know we’ve got that, since we’re undefeated, with five regular season games to go. So, what we’re working on now is a plan to finish the season undefeated, win our bowl game, and then win the new NCAA championship game at the end of the year. As for what we’ve done wrong?”

He shrugged, then. “We’ve had three players injured badly enough they’ve had to miss games. Mister Paye will be back before the end of the season. So will Mister Cotten. Due to the severity of his injury, Mister Gill will not. That’s unfortunate, as we do not have the depth on our bench many other teams do, because of rules that were put into place before I became head coach. That is something I wanted to announce now, as it’s a major change to the program, and is something I personally feel was wrong as well. This year is the last year for that. Beginning next summer, incoming freshmen will be eligible to play for the Cardinal, instead of having to sit out their first year. They will still have to pass a minimum of twelve hours in the spring quarter to be eligible for the following year. I don’t anticipate any issue with suiting up a hundred players next year.”

There were several snorts from the other coaches at that, as well as murmurs from both the reporters and the team.

“That does not mean quantity over quality, though. Stanford is, and will remain, one of the best schools in the world academically. I think we’re doing a pretty good job of proving we’re one of the best schools in the world of football as well. Now, that concludes my opening statement. Oh, and just so you all know, there are always exceptions to the rules. In this case, Jule, you have the first question, plus any follow-ups you wish.”

I’d wondered why Jule was sitting in the first chair, right in front.

“Thank you, Coach. Jule Campbell, Sports Illustrated. Coach Elway, one thing I think we can all agree upon on this side of the room is that your starting quarterback is on pace to not only win your team the NCAA championship, he’s also on pace to win the Heisman Trophy as well. What are your thoughts about both of those?”

“Normally, I would probably become all self-effacing and be as modest as possible. Yeah, I’m not going to do that. I told everyone before our season started we were going to kick everyone’s butt. That they chose to not believe me is, quite frankly, on them. I had a good team before Cal Lewis joined it. Would we be where we are now without him? No. I know that, and so does everyone sitting behind me. We’d be two and four, or three and three. With him, I don’t just have a great team, I have the best college team in the country right now. As for the Heisman? Well, look at his stats so far, and to use one of the big science words the kids like to throw out around here, ‘extrapolate’ from that.”

Jule laughed. “Of course. Over fifteen hundred yards passing, twenty two touchdown passes, and seventy-six for seventy-six. Cal, that gives you a passer rating of three sixty-one point eight, midway through the season. What are your thoughts on that?”

“Um, I actually hadn’t thought about it, Jule. You know me well enough to know that the only number I care about is whether we won the game or not, and whether or not my receivers catch the ball when I throw it. I really didn’t know how many passes I’ve thrown this season. So far, no one has dropped one, which counts as a good thing in my book.”

She nodded, then said, “I may have a couple more for you later. I’ll give the rest of the guys a chance now.”

The man next to her said, “Mike Gilbert, Arizona Daily Star. Mister Lewis, between last Christmas and New Year’s, there were several thousand Mexicans brought across the border and housed in temporary camps set up in Tucson. Those immigrants have since been relocated to multiple locations in the United States that are controlled by your companies. As this took place just prior to the closure of the border and the start of the drug war, my paper was curious as to whether you simply saw a way to get cheap labor for your factories, or if there was something else involved?”

I saw Coach Elway’s neck turning red. “It’s okay, Coach. This is actually an easy one. Mister Gilbert, those residents all came from a certain area within Mexico, and were granted sanctuary here for religious purposes. They were under threat from the Cartels in that area, and have been for decades. The Mexican Government at that time could not help them, as the drug cartels had undue influence. There was a time crunch, as we knew we had to get those people out before formal military operations began. We made arrangements with the Tucson School District to rent school buses, then we provided drivers and security. We also made arrangements with the Arizona National Guard to assist in helping process the refugees into the country – giving them shelter, making sure they had proper medical care, in general all the things they couldn’t get in Mexico. Once that was done, we provided transportation to get them to facilities we owned in multiple states, where we provided them with more permanent housing, as well as paid employment working at our facilities alongside those people who already work for us. So, you would have to say there was something else involved, yes.”

“Pardon me for asking a follow-up, but what? You haven’t explained that.”

“Ah. Our apologies for skipping that. The Princess Dora Menendez Lewis’ grandmother is Sophia Alvarez Tejeda. We doubt you know Sophia, but would recognize her cousin, Jo-Raquel Tejeda, or Raquel Welch, as she’s known now. All of the refugees that we brought over are family. We will never turn our back on family if they are in need. And they were certainly in need.”

The next reporter shook his head. “Raoul Hernandez, San Jose Mercury. My question is for Jeff James. What were you thinking when you were running that route? Did you have any doubts at all in your quarterback, calling such a long play?”

Jeff smiled, which got quite a few photographs. “None, Sir. The only thing I could think was that if I dropped this ball, I was going to be the biggest fool on television for years to come. As for doubts about Cal and his skills? No way, man. We’ve already seen Cal throw that pass when he was in high school. Lord knows we saw that pass, time and time again, watching it over and over again from every angle. We knew if he was coming here, he’d want to do it here. Plus, we’ve done it in practice since he got here, so why would I worry about him? The only one I was worried about was me.”

I recognized the next man. “Billy Loomis, The Sporting News. Sort of a follow-up to a question I asked during the last press conference for Mister Lewis. During the record setting pass, you took two hits that resulted in fouls. Being hit by a three hundred pound lineman hitting you full speed in the back with his helmet isn’t something we see someone getting up from and shaking off. It’s something we see people get carted away in an ambulance because they’re seriously injured. How did you not get hurt?”

I’d wondered if this was going to come up, and I’d given some thought to my answer. “I’m guessing you’d like a serious answer, instead of something flippant. It’s one of those cases of, the answer is both simple and complicated. The simple part is, training. The complicated part is, unfortunately, also training. Some of you in this room have met Sayel and Yagyu, two of my assassins. They started training when they were about three years old, and they’re nearly the best in the world. Due to the location I was born, my parents began training me at the ripe old age of six months in martial arts. There’s a myth going around that Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris had to slow down their punches because they were too fast for the camera. It’s not really a myth, it’s simply cinematography – which I’ve learned a lot about, courtesy of one of my wives. Um, some additional background. Everyone knows that rattlesnakes are dangerous, and not to mess with them. When they strike, they can move half their body length – maybe a couple of feet – at a speed of ten feet per second.