Chapter 30

An unbidden face entered my mind. The only way I could have dredged it up was with the cataloging Mikhail-1 had done when he sorted through my brain. I’m not sure how, but I knew it was the face of my birth mother. Since she died when I was only a few days old, there’s no way I could have remembered that without help.

I had to find somewhere to sit and spent the next several minutes crying. While I had missed having a mother as I grew up, I had never specifically missed “my” mother since I didn’t know her. Now I knew her, or at least what she looked like. Now I missed her. God, but she was beautiful. I hoped my daughters were half as beautiful. A mental nudge from Mikhail-1 caused me to wonder if I could go back and meet her. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be impossible to do that without changing history. If I talked with her, I would be keeping her from what she had already done during that time. If I simply watched her from a distance, I would almost certainly end up interacting with someone else around her. Then I had a brainstorm, one that had me looking for Johann.

I told him I had a theoretical question that really was theoretical this time. He laughed anyway, and I told him Qwraten and I’d be at his home in a few minutes. It was the first time in several days that I’d been to Alamogordo. Man, but the place had changed. A second lab building was well under way. Hundreds of houses were finished, complete with parks and landscaping, with hundreds more under construction. There were trees everywhere. They must have transplanted trees from every town and city under the dome and still bought more.

Carbon-fiber pylons were being installed for the second layer of traffic on the streets they expected to be busiest. The park in the center of town was complete and the lake was full. Several schools were finished, and one was filled with children; the four square block commercial tower was nearing completion. Shuttle traffic near the base of the tower told me that the main grocery store was open for business. The Community Center on the south side of the lake was also nearly finished, and the Inquisitive’s AI was communicating with the city’s traffic AI. The enormous pits for the underground warehouses and traffic corridors were filled in, obviously complete.

Johann was waiting for us in his backyard, seated on a chair in the cool shade of a large Zahn Ash tree. He motioned for us to use the other chairs. “Mike, you’ve done a good thing here. Everyone is raving about the city. I feel like I’ve stepped back 300 years into the past,” he mused.

“Funny you should mention that,” I replied. I explained what Qwraten had told me about theoretically being able to go back in time. The surprise registered on his face, but he continued listening. “I can’t do anything that alters the past in any way,” I told him. “I’ve thought about going back and meeting my mother, but just talking to her or bumping into someone while I’m there could alter what happened.”

Johann nodded his head in understanding. “Johann, I need you to promise that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone until I find out if it works,” I almost begged. He gave me his word, so I continued.

“Would it be altering history if I showed up seconds before someone had died, and just a moment before they died, absorbed their consciousness, their soul so to speak, and brought them back here? I could scan their DNA and recreate their physical body here, putting their consciousness back into it. That way, nothing in the past would have changed. They would still die at the exact time and place. I would be changing the present and future, but not the past. What do you think?” I asked, finishing my rambling.

Johann looked to Qwraten for an opinion. “It sounds like it meets the necessary criteria to work, but I really don’t know anything except that he can’t change whatever happened already,” Qwraten opined.

Johann thought quietly for several minutes, staring absently up into the leaves of the tree above him while he did. “I’m obviously not an expert on the legalities and technicalities of time travel, but I agree with Qwraten. Your idea seems to meet the stated criterion. Why?” he asked. I explained that, if I could figure out how to do it, I wanted to bring my mother and Justin, Renee’s husband back.

For the second time, Johann’s eyes raised in surprise. “What about your marriage to her?” he asked.

“I have more than one wife. Why can’t she have more than one husband?” I asked. “Doing that would not only bring back the husband she loved, but it would also give Vonna and Jenna back their father, and Stan and Beverly their son who was taken from them at too early an age.”

Johann was shaking his head slowly in disbelief. “Once again, you surprise me in ways I could never have guessed,” he mused.

“Mike, I need an emergency favor!” Sven’s troubled voice called urgently over my com unit. “There’s a coup underway in Brazil and my friend, Hermann Rivers, is president there. He and his family are holed up in a secret safe house, but they could be found at any time. Could you go rescue them?”

“Transmit the coordinates to the Inquisitive and call me right back,” I said as I ran to the ship. I hollered to Johann, telling him what was happening on the way to the ship and he came with us. While I was running, I commed Kateryna. “Get every prepared ship we can spare in the air immediately and headed for Brazil. Get with Gwen and get whatever troops we can spare and get them on the way next. There’s a coup underway. I’ll get right back to you with details,” I said anxiously. Mike-8 was letting all base androids know what was happening and getting things moving.

Mike-14 was in Rio at the university and left for his shuttle immediately. He only had eight androids with him, but that was more than enough to shield the Rivers family if he could get to them. Sven commed me again as I ran to the ship.

“So, what’s going on?” I asked.

Coups in South America were not uncommon. For the last 500 years and more, it seems like there had been a coup somewhere down there at least once a year.

“The usual, the military wants more power and thinks they can do a better job of running the country that the civilian government can,” he answered, obviously very troubled.

“Do you want me to do anything more than rescue your friend?” I asked.

“This is a civil war, and unless there are indications of genocide, which would be highly unlikely, the UN can’t get involved,” he explained.

“Am I prevented from getting involved?” I asked.

“No, and if you were to decide to intervene, I could neither encourage nor discourage you,” Sven answered, very politically correctly.

“We’re on the way,” I said excitedly as we took off to the south. I explained to Johann what Sven said about the UN not getting involved, and that he could neither encourage nor discourage me.

“Interesting choice of words,” Johann commented thoughtfully. “He could have just said that he couldn’t encourage you,” he pointed out.

“Are any hypothetical problems I need to know about,” I asked.

Johann’s deep laugh boomed throughout the ship. “I can’t think of any just yet,” he answered still laughing.

I let Kateryna and Gwen know what was going on, and that I wasn’t sure how many troops I’d need or for how long. Gwen told me that there were 10,000 troops on the way from Russia that should be there in 20 minutes.

I was getting a video feed from Bumblebee 47 of the place where the Rivers family was hiding. It didn’t look good. “Bumblebee 47, get troops down there now. Launch grav skids if you can, and shield them,” I barked. We had added ten grav skids to each Bumblebee a few days after the invasion of Russia. That way they could launch individual troops from the air if need be, and individual android troops at or near ground level could travel much faster than they could run and with much more firepower.

Mike-8 was hovering over the house at the coordinates Sven gave me. His androids had just used the saber to cut a hole in the roof and had all dropped into the house. There were over 500 troops, including grav tanks and shielded personnel carriers surrounding the small house. Evidently, the troops had already entered the house as two doors were smashed in. Suddenly several of the rebel troops reappeared, flying headfirst back out through the door. Gunfire erupted, aimed at the house. It stopped, as suddenly as it started when Mike-8 emerged from the house, ordering them to lower their weapons.

The gunfire continued, but only for a split second before every gunman was instantly turned to ash. I contacted Sven and let him know the family was safe.

A shuttle from Bumblebee 47 landed amidst the ashes, allowing the family to board. Mike-8 went with them. “Bumblebee 47, have your shuttle with the family you rescued com me,” I said, setting up a link with Sven.

The androids on the ground were re-boarding Mike-8’s shuttle when a woman’s voice came over my com unit. “This is Mari Rivers. Whoever you are, thank you,” she said, her voice still trembling. She gasped when I turned on my video screen.

“Is your husband okay?” I asked.

“He is unharmed, but very distraught,” she answered.

“Can you ask him if he wants me to intervene and stop the coup?” I asked.

He nodded, barely, and mumbled something. “He says yes, please,” his wife replied.

“All ships and troops, you are ordered to stop and capture all military troops involved in the attacks using whatever force is necessary. Take them alive if they surrender. Kill them if they even raise a gun. Shield and protect all civilians, especially government officials and their families,” I ordered. The Rivers family was taken aboard the hospital ship, sedated, and returned to the base where Sven met them the next morning.

Two hours later, the revolt was over. The rebels had managed to seize power and had killed several prominent members of the government. Most officials had been captured and were being held prisoner. No doubt they would have been killed the next day to prove to the rest of the country and the world that the military now ruled Brazil. Instead, the Omega and Defender flags now flew over the capitol building in every province, every military base, and every broadcast station letting any further combatants know who they would face if they attacked.

TUE JULY 23

The first rays of dawn found me snuggled with three of my wives and Chaquanda in the makeshift bed aboard the Inquisitive. The android troops spent the night interrogating their captives with truth gas. Over half of them had not approved of or taken part in the revolt. They had been locked up in prison cells or barracks on military bases by the attacking troops. We released them and ordered them to remain on base until further notice. About half of the remaining forces had joined in because they felt pressured to. Once it was determined that they no longer posed a threat, they were released and ordered to return to their bases and stay there. They were also warned that there would be some form of punishment that either their government or I would decide later.

I was sure about the remainder of the hostiles. About 25,000 died in the fight last night, fights against Omega troops or against android Mikes. The remaining 10,000 wouldn’t see another dawn. Every state capital would hold a public execution for the traitors. I acted as judge and jury, declaring them all guilty of treason and sentenced them to death by firing squad at noon Brasilia time.

At noon, I took a place at the center of the firing squad in Brasilia, faced off across from the leader of the rebellion. My single pistol shot dropped him where he stood and began the carnage. When it was over, their bodies were unceremoniously dumped into large pits outside each capital and were buried.

Rumors were flying, though, rumors of a powerful new weapon that turned my enemies to ash instantly. Rather than speculate, several of the reporters from the estate simply asked me if there was any truth to the rumors. I told them it was a mental power granted me by the Defenders, one that I had shared with all the android copies of myself. That was something else I had to explain. Mike-8 commed Bree and asked her to turn out another hundred clones of me. She laughed her delightful laugh, telling me that she’d have 50 of them there right away, and the rest later today.

I met with the uncertain Brazilian politicians afterwards. Renee and Johann both made sure I realized that, technically, Brazil now belonged to me. While I had saved the majority of the government officials, the military had totally seized control of the country, and I had taken control back from the military. It was obvious that the politicians understood this as well. The relief in the room was almost palpable when I returned their country to them. They were so grateful that they hardly grumbled when I added my one stipulation. I assumed control of the most rural areas of the country, limiting logging to managed plantations. No longer would there be illegal logging in the country’s rainforests. As we were doing in Russia, we would re-plant most of the denuded area. I would set up terraforming shields to allow the production of two or three crops a year in the richest farming areas, permitting much of the area that had been clear-cut for farming and ranching to be reforested. All the replanted areas would become wood plantations, eventually allowing the production of even more lumber than was now being cut, but without destroying any more of the rainforest. Brazil had, for centuries, paid lip service to protecting their rainforest while not rigorously enforcing the laws they had agreed to. Now it was time to pay the piper. For their sakes, I hoped they didn’t try to wiggle out of the deal.

Conspicuously absent all day had been Sven. He was making sure that he and the UN were not linked in any way with either my intervention in or subsequent capture of Brazil or with my plan to take control of the rainforests. In fact, he hadn’t said a word to me all day, at least not directly. I received a call from Sonja early this morning excitedly reminding me what a great opportunity I had to replant the rainforest in Brazil since it belonged to me now.

I knew her well enough to know that, as smart as she was, she paid little attention to politics. She probably didn’t even know what happened in Brazil. She definitely wouldn’t have realized that I owned Brazil unless someone said something to her about it. I also saw Sven’s hand in Johann and Renee each making sure I understood that Brazil was mine to do with as I pleased.

In spite of my surprise edict about the rainforest, everyone was genuinely happy at the reception that evening. I never did get anything to drink. Grateful wives and daughters of the men I’d saved, as well as the grateful female politicians I’d saved kept me on the dance floor all night. By the end of the evening, I realized that most of them were truly grateful for what I’d done about the rainforest.

They explained that the problem they had was that if they had actively pushed enforcement of the laws, the loggers would have made sure their opponents had enough money to beat them in the next election ... if they lived that long. Hearing that, I sent ten Mikes to scan the whole country. I wanted any logging that wasn’t being done on a legitimate logging plantation stopped immediately and the loggers imprisoned at the base unless it was a single tree being cut down by someone from one of the few surviving native tribes still trying to eke a living out of what little rainforest was left the way they had for centuries.

When we left that evening, I noticed a few more passengers than we arrived with. Perla Rivers, the divorced, adult daughter of President Rivers and her two young children joined us. In addition, Carlotta Ortiz, the young widow of one of the politicians killed yesterday joined us. Vonna explained that Mrs. Ortiz was traumatized and pregnant, and was escaping to a safe place to put her life back together and have her baby. Perla and her children were also going with us to keep them safe. Her parents wanted her someplace they knew she would be safe while they put their country back together.

Having skipped a day, when we got home, I created a new Crys while the women got our guests settled in. Crys-1 would be full-grown and ready to fly before morning. Qwraten asked if I would permit Crys-1 to recharge him once he (I?) was fully charged. I reviewed the information I had and found that, much like I’d done with Sven and then the boys, one Defender could direct an energy flow to another. Rather than wait months for Qwraten’s body to charge enough to fly, the direct transfer would only take seconds. Both would still be above a 50% charge and both would be able to fly to the sun and recharge. At that point, they would leave in opposite directions to rescue the other Defender warriors. Crys-2 would be fully-grown and charged enough to fly by noon. He would take a third direction in the search for incapacitated defenders.

Right before leaving to join my wives for the night, Qwraten asked one last favor. He asked if I would create a ceremonial prayer garden. I agreed, after a mental image came to mind, along with the understanding that this was where the Defenders worshipped. They believed in a God, or Supreme Being, and believed many tenets that were common in almost all religions they’d come across. They also believed that the differences between the religions were the result of the messenger’s personal interpretation and prejudices, not necessarily a different religion.

Any religion that taught domination or that preached the use of unprovoked violence was a religion spawned by evil, cloaked to appear to be a religion, but in actuality, intended to bring more evil to the universe.

Then I joined my wives and children in the bedroom and snuggled into the naked embrace of Helga and Jenna. I spent the night pondering what I’d managed to do with the boys. From what I knew, I could make permanent changes to a person’s physical appearance, and even heal them. I decided to try that on some of the convicted captives before using the power on the women. I also pondered the prayer garden and decided to set up the sector on the western border of the state with the prayer garden and as a place where the Defenders could go if they needed or wanted to get away from people. With the Mington population having been annihilated, I wasn’t sure exactly what sort of accommodations, if any, the warriors would want here.

I planned out the garden, not quite a square mile of grass, flowers, hedges, wide paths, and rocks. The center was a tall rock structure with a waterfall cascading down one face and smaller streams of water trickling down over the rocks on the other three sides. A large pool surrounding the rock fed several brooks wandering, apparently aimlessly, through the garden, laughing and babbling over the rocks along their courses. A tall hedge would enclose the garden, with smaller areas cordoned off by hedges to provide privacy for individual worship or for introspection. At the outside hedge, each brook disappeared, the water being pumped back to the top of the rock structure in the center of the garden. The rest of the garden was filled with as many colors of flowers and foliage as the rainbow would allow. Hummingbirds, birds, bees, bumblebees, and butterflies each added more color to the celebration of their God.

The Mingtons were actually bipedal, something akin to the ancient Bigfoot legends. For a second, I thought that the legends might have been from sightings of the Mington people, but remembered that only the Defender warriors who had the crystalline body were able to traverse the universe at will. The Mington civilians were limited to travel in ships of their own design, and rarely left their own galaxy. Even at Zed 2, their maximum speed, the trip to our solar system would have taken several lifetimes.

To accommodate the Defenders, the garden had wide paths laid out in a specific pattern. Each path was two gnorls (strides) wide. The average stride of a Defender was 4 feet 7 5/16 inches. The entire garden was their equivalent of a mile square. The gnorlprt was 1000 strides, or not quite .9 miles. Nobody knew exactly what the significance of the pattern was, or why one rambling path was polished granite, one was polished marble, one was white sand, one was black sand, and one was small, smooth, river pebbles.

Natalia had received a message from Mikhail-1 letting her know what I wanted done with that property. The design was submitted, complete with a detailed breakdown of every plant and exactly where it should go. Aside from some type of grass on nearly every planet that supported life, none of the plants were the same in the gardens on other planets. All that mattered was that they were colorful and represented all the colors of the rainbow. The only things that were specific were the areas of grass, the design of the walkways, the material used on each walkway, and the courses of the many streams and brooks that wandered throughout the garden.

WED JULY 24

Everyone headed in different directions after breakfast again. Crys-1 had waited for my arrival before his first flight. Barely minute later, he was back, fully charged from his fly-by of the sun. He shared the power with Qwraten, and a few seconds later, they were both headed to the sun to recharge. They stopped back by to charge Crys-2 and say their good-byes. Both expected to be back by supper, depending on what they found. Fully energized now, Qwraten was able to communicate with all 99 of his surviving comrades and let them know that help was on the way. He was especially surprised to find that the one who had released all of his energy managed to survive. Barely. The colony ships were diverted, heading instead, to rendezvous with the four planets with humans on them.

Mike-9 brought 25 of the Mike look-alikes out and I created a seed of awareness for each of them. Our first four way gates were aboard four ships and headed in four different directions. Each gate was set up for one of the crystalline bodies to power it. I figured that I’d have the Crys leave here once the gate was almost installed. I also decided to wait to install our gate until the other ones were nearing their destinations. Ships were being refitted with the upgraded engines and power supplies all day long. First, we made sure we had upgraded ships to carry the way gates. Then, we upgraded our other ships. These four gates were headed for four of the solar systems that should be inhabitable. They were also on the way to the four human-inhabited planets. I decided to have them travel roughly two weeks to the solar systems I picked out. Once the gates were set up, a second and then subsequent gates would be sent through for further explorations. The closest human-inhabited planet was six weeks away. It would get the third gate in that direction. After the first four gates were on the way, gates for closer destinations would be launched, including two for our own solar system. Those would be set up a thousand miles above and below Earth, angled so that anything coming through the gate would fly way above or below earth unless it was controlled and able to change course on its own.

Sven called right before lunch and asked if I was available tomorrow. He wanted to stage a huge show of military might at the UN building as a little extra intimidation factor when he tried to get his new agenda pushed through. I told him I was available. I laughed at the specific details of his request but agreed to do it.