Chapter 11

During the first leg of our flight, our security forces were surprisingly upbeat.

“Chuck, is it just me, or do the men and women in the back seem to be having way too good of a time, considering what we’re going to be getting into?”

He laughed. “These boys and girls are some of the best of the best. When you dropped Wackenhut, and it became common knowledge that everyone would be working directly for Mike Douglas, there were resignations not just from Wackenhut, but from damned near every police, private security, and military in the world, so they could come work for Mike, and thus for you. Add in that Sayel came along for the party, and if you wanted to simply take over the government of Nepal, we could do that.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said.

“You know, I really wish you were kidding, but I also know you’re not. You’ve done a lot of growing up, haven’t you?”

“I’m a father, Chuck. It’s really sunk in, holding little Robert in my arms. I started what I did because I wanted a safe world for my children to grow up in, never realizing just how truly dangerous this planet is. My intent was to just scare the governments into giving up their nuclear bombs, because sometime or another in the next fifty to hundred years, someone was going to use them.”

He nodded. “Then things snowballed.”

I snorted. “You think? If nothing else, it’s a hell of a mess, that’s for sure.”

Dave turned from where he’d been looking out the window.

“This is going to sound a little maudlin, but I’m damned glad you showed up when you did. You’re right, you know. We were setting ourselves up to kill ourselves off, either with nukes or biological warfare. I really wish I didn’t know as much about that shit as I do. The funny thing is, that nerve gas you found in Syria? It’s all well and good for a terror attack, but unless you keep it confined, it’s just too damned unstable. You’ve got to have perfect weather to spread it, and even then it breaks down. Oh, some that stays in shadow could remain deadly for years, but that’s just annoying, not really dangerous except to the poor bastard that turns the wrong door handle and finds it. Nukes and bugs and germs, that’s the nasty stuff, due to mutations and radiation.”

“Definitely,” Chuck agreed. “We’ve all had to train for that shit, and it’s worse than lethal. We were told that if we knew we took a heavy dose of radiation and the guys at the aid station told us we were fine, then just head on back to the lines, because we were dead men walking. We’d already taken an LD, a lethal dose, and we just hadn’t died yet.”

“I’ll ask one of my sister-wives to see if Mycroft knows anything about comparing normal human dosages versus us, since we have something inside us that’s designed to actually help absorb radiation,” Dora said. “He may know of something artificial, or some other treatment that Cal wouldn’t necessarily know about due to the problem simply not existing on Star Home.”

I nodded. “We’ve seen that before. I’d guess that’s what the shivalingam were designed to do, but that’s purely a guess. It seems like every time I think I’ve figured out what they’re supposed to do, they surprise me with something else that they’re capable of.”

“Are they able to act like umbrellas?” Chuck asked.

“Um, no. Why?”

“Then I’m really glad that we brought all of the tops for the jeeps and rain gear for the troops. I hope you four remembered to pack something. This is monsoon season in Nepal. The temperature will be fine, but the rainfall and flooding will be horrendous.”

Beth shook her head. “I doubt that the locals would approve of us just wearing swimsuits.”

Chuck laughed. “As much as I’d like to see Cain and Abel have heart attacks on seeing that, I’d put that in the very bad idea box. You’re going to be meeting the King before we get to head out, after all.”

I was puzzled. “Why?”

“It’s an international diplomacy thing, Cal. If you were at your residence in Islamabad, or wherever your home is going to be in Australia, and the head of another nation came by to visit, you’d greet him at your home. And we brought outfits for that, but I don’t think we considered the monsoon season,” Eve said. She frowned. “Didn’t you just get a Master’s in International Relations?”

“I had to have that since my wives are from America, England, Australia, India, and Pakistan,” I joked.

At her raised eyebrow, I said, “Okay, yes, but that didn’t cover monarch to monarch discussions. I probably should have gotten a clue from the trip back in January, but I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“Nothing that important, really. Just the entire fate of the whole world,” Dave said.

“Dave, when you put it that way, then you’re probably right,” Eve admitted. “Don’t ever let it happen again, or we’ll tell Mary.”

“Nope. Rule number one of a happy life together. The wife is always right. Rule number two is, when in doubt, refer to rule number one. And yes, I know we’re not married yet, but that’s later this fall, I think.” He looked around at us. “We’re, um, not planning on going off of birth control until after you deal with Shiva, though. I don’t want to have children under his rule.”

Chuck shook his head. “You and me both, brother. We’re taking things a lot slower, simply due to what happened. Oh, it doesn’t bother me in the least, it’s just that Melissa has things to work out, mentally. Although you could look at it this way. Cal’s bringing children into the new world. You know that he’ll die before Shiva wins.”

Quietly, Dave said, “Yeah, I do. I didn’t say that my reasoning was totally logical, did I? Shit’s supposed to go the other way for us.”

“Yeah.” Chuck looked up and met my eyes. “It’s a real pain in the ass when you’re this close to your principal and his family, like they’re your family.”

Beth got up from her seat and walked over to each of them, giving them each a kiss on the cheek. “You are a part of our family, both of you.”

They both nodded in understanding, then got up without saying anything else and headed to the back of the plane.

Sayel shook his head. “The more people are close to you, the closer to you they become. No, I’m not saying something mystical, just that you are quite possibly the best Master for us all that has ever lived.”

“Sayel, I appreciate that. Now, if you don’t mind ... and even if you do mind ... go to a different part of the plane. We’ve still got four hours before we land at Yakutsk, and I’d like to spend a little time in debauchery with my wives.”

He laughed and left.

We didn’t, though. We simply snuggled and quietly talked about our futures together.

Landing at Yakutsk wasn’t much of an issue. They’d installed an eleven thousand foot runway about six years ago. It wasn’t the smoothest runway we’d ever landed on, but it wasn’t bad. Once we were down and taxiing to the fueling location, the intercom in the front cabin clicked on.

“Cal, could you come up to the cockpit, please?”

That was unusual enough that I hurried from our room and up the stairs.

“What’s going on, Cass?”

“That,” she said. I looked out the window. ‘That’ was two T-72 tanks parked along the runway, their turrets rotating to follow us. A follow-me that had machine guns on it pointed in our direction pulled in front of us.

I held out my hand, and she gave me the microphone. In Russian, I said, “Yakutsk tower, this is Federation Three Actual. I suggest that those things pointed in my direction get rotated away, or I’ll be having a serious talk with President Gorbachev and Chairman Gromyko.”

“This is Yakutsk tower. Your aircraft shows private ownership, with United States registration. What is this call sign you are using?”

“Federation of Terran Nations Three, Spatial Defense Minister California Lewis.”

There’s no way they had a clue they had their microphones live. “You fucking idiots! Get those things turned away...” The microphone clicked off, immediately followed by the rotation of all weapons away from our aircraft.

“Anything else you need, Cass?”

The laughter of the flight crew followed me as I left.

Once we were stopped and hooked up to ground power so they could top off our fuel tanks, a stairway was rolled up to the plane. As soon as it was close to the door, two men in Soviet military uniforms ran up the stairs and were waiting once we had it open.

“Our apologies, Minister Lewis. I am General Anton Zakharovich, Military Commander for this region, and this is Colonel Victor Petrovich of the Committee for State Security. We received notice from Moscow earlier this week that a privately owned 747 with a large contingent of heavily armed soldiers would be landing here for fuel, but they did not tell us anything further. In light of what happened earlier today in Germany, all of our airport security forces are on high alert.”

I frowned. “Well, we qualify as having heavily armed soldiers on board. What happened? We’ve been in the air for nine hours.”

Colonel Petrovich said, “Seven hours ago, a large bomb exploded at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany. A second bomb was found but defused. The reports I have received state that at least three people were killed, including two children. Nearly a hundred other people were hurt, many of them seriously. Moscow ordered all of our airports to the highest level of alert as a precautionary measure.”

“They should have only done that if there is an indication that this was caused by an outside source, one that would operate across national borders,” I said.

General Zakharovich nodded. “That is correct, Minister. There have been several groups that have claimed responsibility for this terrorist attack, most of them having ties to Palestinian or Arab sourced groups.”

“Take me to your terminal, I need to make a couple of phone calls.” I turned and looked back. Beth was already dressed and ready to come with me. “Proceed with fueling, as normal.” Sayel and Chuck both came with us. Neither Soviet officer commented upon that.

The General took me into the office of the director of the airport. “Please, Minister, feel free to use this office.”

Colonel Petrovich said, “One moment, please.” He walked over to the wall, pulled out his pocket knife, and then stabbed it into a knot in the wood paneling. He put a little pressure on it, then pulled out a listening device. “Your calls will not be monitored. Those of us in the KGB are under very strict orders from Moscow regarding Your Majesty, Minister Lewis.”

The two of them left the room. “What was that about?” Chuck asked.

“You know how the KGB isn’t afraid of anything? I think they’re afraid of me.” I turned to Beth. “I need to call Geneva. Have someone check with Mycroft, to see if he picked up anything.”

While she was doing that, I called Geneva. It didn’t take long for me to get through to Vice-President Shamir, although I did wake him up, as it was the middle of the night there. He and I talked for a few minutes about what had happened. The dead were from Portugal and Australia, the injured from many nations, not just Germany. He’d already discussed this with Walter, and they were in agreement that something of this nature would come under Federation rules. If it’d been done by a German terrorist group, seeking the overthrow of the German government, it would be an internal matter. This didn’t appear to be.

“One moment, Mister Vice-President.” I held the phone down, covering the mouthpiece. “What do you have, Beth?”

“I don’t know that it’d hold up in a court of law, but the Libyan embassy in Bonn played host to half a dozen terrorists from Abu Nidal yesterday, and there have been a number of phone calls back and forth between the head of Libya and their Bonn embassy since the bombing, confirming that ‘both packages were properly delivered to Frankfurt, so why did one ... got him, Gaddafi just called Bonn wanting to know who was responsible for assembling the second bomb, so he can punish him!”

“Mister Vice-President, I need to call you back. You know I have some sources, right?”

He chuckled. “Of course, even when you’re in the Soviet Union, you have no limits, do you, my friend?” he said and hung up.

I called South Africa.

“Good ... whatever the hell time of day it is for you there, Hugo.”

“The night, but I do not sleep much. Before we delve into whatever it is you need, my brother, allow me to offer you my congratulations on both the birth of your firstborn and on your recent accomplishments at Stanford. I ... well, you make me wish to become a better man, seeing what I could have been doing all these years.”

“No one’s stopping you from starting now, Hugo. Actually, I thought that’s what you were doing.”

“So my ladies tell me. Now, what has happened in the world outside of Africa?”

“Terrorists from a Palestinian group, Abu Nidal, blew up a bomb at the Frankfurt airport in Germany, killing three, including two children, and injuring nearly a hundred others. They were supported by Libya. And yes, I know this because ... well...”

“I understand. Unfortunately, at this time, I have no way to assist that far to the north. I am rather busy with the southern end of this continent at the moment, and I cannot get up there for months to ... talk ... to Mister Gaddafi.”

“That’s okay, Hugo. If you can’t, that’s not an issue. Do I have your permission to have the Federation intervene?”

I could hear his puzzled tone. “Why would you even ask me such a silly question?”

“I told you, Hugo. Africa, other than Egypt, is yours. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize either our working relationship or our friendship.”

He was silent for several moments. “Thank you,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I appreciate that. Do what must be done. I will ... make arrangements ... for another government to be ready to run Libya, one more ... open to proper decorum.”

“I appreciate that, Hugo. I have to call Geneva again. Goodbye, my brother.”

“Goodbye, my brother,” Hugo replied.

Vice-President Shamir was waiting by his phone. “Who, and where?”

“Abu Nidal and Colonel Gaddafi of Libya. The Libyan embassy at Bonn helped, so they’ve voided their diplomatic immunity, and Hugo said he’ll have another government ready to run Libya. He doesn’t have the ability to do anything else at this moment.”

Shamir snorted. “You would think that with there no longer being a Palestine that Nidal would have given up. He’s been kicked out of Iraq – Persia – been kicked out of Syria, so I suppose going to Libya makes sense. He split away from Arafat years ago. As for our friend in Africa, that’s fine. There just so happens to be two US carrier groups in the Mediterranean, and both the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been asking if they can be of assistance to Marshal Demidov. I suspect that Mister Gaddafi is about to have a very bad day.”

“Hey, don’t forget to let the German army have fun with the Libyan embassies in that country as well.”

He chuckled. “Combining business with pleasure? I like that. Thank you, my young friend. Be safe on the rest of your journeys.”

We opened the office door to leave. The two officers were standing nearby, but not close enough to have overheard anything.

Colonel Petrovich asked, “How may the Soviet Union further assist Your Majesty?”

That told me which one of them really was in charge here, which wasn’t surprising.

“If our plane is fueled up, then for now, we’re all good. We’ll be coming back through on our return trip to America, and depending upon how things go in Nepal, we’ll either just need our tanks topped off, or we may need a complete fill-up. I would presume there would be no issue, either way?”

“Nyet!”

“I wish I could tell you exactly when it is we’ll be coming back through, but it could be as soon as tomorrow, or maybe an entire week. I simply don’t know at this time. Oh, one thing I can tell you is that you can relay to Moscow that if nothing happens soon, they can probably stand down.”

Both men looked confused.

“It was a Palestinian terrorist organization, run by Abu Nidal, that set off the bombs. They did so with the assistance of the Libyan government and it’s leader. Marshal Demidov of the Federation is planning on utilizing the combined armies of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to make sure this issue is never repeated.”

General Zakharovich frowned. “Please do not take this as a criticism of the Marshal, but neither of those two armies are that good. Against the Israeli Army equipped with your first line equipment, they fared quite poorly every single time.”

I grinned. “True. But there are two things. The first is that they’ll be going up against the Libyan Army, which has your second line equipment, with mostly your own first line gear. Of course, that presumes that point two even leaves anything for them, as there are two US carrier battle groups eager to, what’s the term? Ah, yes. To ‘get some,’ I believe.”

“Yob Tvoyu Mat!”

“Fuck your mother, indeed, Colonel.”

The General shook his head. “I almost pity the Libyans.”

“Don’t,” I harshly said. “They brought this upon themselves. Colonel, from your use of my title and rank, you know more about me and my abilities than many. I’m not surprised that Mister Gromyko shared the information he has about me with the KGB. After all, once Shiva is dealt with, I’ll technically be the greatest threat to our planet.”

The General looked surprised at my comment, while the Colonel shook his head. “No, Your Majesty, you won’t. At least not according to the reports I’ve read.”

That made it my turn to look surprised. “Really? Why not?”

“Your Majesty, according to the reports I’ve read, you are sixteen years old, correct?” I nodded. “You have eight wives, with four of them pregnant.”

I shook my head. “Seventeen, with four pregnant, and a son born just over two weeks ago.”

His face broke into a huge smile. “Congratulations, Your Majesty. I truly mean that. To a Russian, family is ... well, everything. And that is why we’ll have no fear of you once you defeat Shiva. You are a father, you have wives and children, to help keep you balanced. I am going to commit heresy here. Stalin would have been a better leader if his first wife had not died and his second wife not killed herself. He let one of his sons die in a German POW camp rather than trade for him. His other son was a military disgrace.” He laughed. “And his daughter? She is visiting the Soviet Union right now, from her home in Wisconsin, where she defected from our great nation. Oh, don’t look shocked, General! The old world, the old ways, they are dead. Let us bury them where they belong, and embrace this new world. It is much more refreshing and invigorating.”

I blinked at his comment. “Are you sure you’re a Colonel in the KGB?”

That caused him to laugh uproariously. It took him a few seconds to calm down. “Quite certain, Your Majesty. One whose wife met the Messenger from Above when he stopped in Moscow, and whose children ... well, one is returning from Argentina where he assisted in cleaning up the drug dealers and oh, yes, helping improve the world, and the other who will be working for you, on one of our aircraft carriers we are giving you. And more importantly, one who survived a sickness this spring, because we had medicine from the United States available that you, personally, invented.”

At my expression, he explained, “No, she had a massive infection of her uterus. By giving her your medicine, it allowed her to shed the uterine lining, removing enough of the infection that antibiotics could take care of the rest. My Anya is, a father hopes, too young for it to have been something else.”

“Very good, Colonel. General, we’ll see you ... well, when we see you. Until then.”

We went back to Pacific.

“Thoughts?”

“Last year, if he’d said what he did, Colonel Petrovich would be a dead man and his entire family would be on their way to a gulag. Now? He’s simply stating reality. Which is both refreshing and annoying. What are we supposed to do now that they’re not the bad guys?”

From his tone, it was obvious Chuck wasn’t too serious.

“It could be worse, Mister Allen. And it will get that way, the longer my Master is in charge. What are you going to do when there are no more bad guys?”

“Retire to an island and raise a passel of kids.”

Beth laughed as we shut the door and got ready for takeoff. “I think I lost count of how many times Cal asked if we could just go to some island and call everything off.”

“It never seemed to be an appropriate time to just do that, did it? Oh, well, I suppose I’ll just have to see this through to whatever conclusion we get.”

Chuck’s brow furrowed. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Not really. Realizing that you’re all professionals, please make sure everyone is well rested when we get to Nepal. Speaking of that ... did anyone mention to Cass about our flight plan for crossing the Himalayan mountains?”

My wives shook their heads. We all felt the jet increase power and begin moving rapidly down the runway. Simply to avoid an issue, we took seats until we were in the air, then I went up the stairs to the cockpit again.

“Apparently, you lit a serious fire under someone’s ass in Yakutsk, Cal. They couldn’t have been nicer when we were refueling and then leaving,” Cassandra said.

“Good,” I answered with a smile. “You know how I leave the flying to you, unless there’s just something that comes up, like the last time we went along the mountains?”

“Yes,” she replied suspiciously.

“Good. Please stay at least fifty miles away from Machapuchare this trip. I don’t care if they fine us! I’m sure that they’re used to requests to fly near Everest. That should be far enough away.”

“The weather isn’t the greatest over in this part of the world right now, and I was planning on coming in from closer to Machapuchare than that. How ... can you give me some idea?” she asked.

“Yeah. You’re definitely part of the family.” I paused. “Remind me to tell you and Mary something once we’re done in Nepal that I just thought of. Anyway, you know that I’m rich, and for reasons that probably have never been explained to you, I’m also a major part of the new Federation of Terran Nations.”

She, Nathan, and Grace Deacon, the Flight Engineer all nodded in agreement.

“I presume you all know at least some of what’s been publicly released about Shiva and the crap that’s going to happen next year. Yours truly is in charge of dealing with that, because while I’m human, I’m also the Planetary Guardian and pretty much the only one capable of dealing with Shiva. So, to make a very long and involved story really short, it’s entirely possible that Machapuchare has emplaced beam weapons. Think really powerful lasers that could blow this plane out of the sky in less than a second, with no warning because they fire at the speed of light.”

Cassandra showed her military training then. “Nathan, please make sure our new course to Tribhuvan airport takes us on the far side of Mount Everest, and get that cleared with both Chinese and Nepalese flight control. We’ll change heading at one thousand miles out, and I don’t give a shit about the thunderstorms in that area if they want us to route around.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Nathan replied.

She turned at looked at me. “I knew that Pacific was configured to carry troops and armored vehicles for a reason, I simply thought it was to provide security because you’re so stupidly rich it’s not funny. Note that I’m not complaining or jealous about that. You being that way lets all of us do what we love, which is fly. I just think it might have been nice if you’d let us know that the actual fate of the entire planet depends upon us actually doing our mission.”

I blushed. “Sorry about that. No, seriously, I am! This really is the first time we’ve had to do something or go somewhere that it’s been ... well, this important. Everything else so far has simply been business, or family stuff. What scares me is that I didn’t know anything about Machapuchare when we were here before, and it didn’t do anything.”

Cassandra frowned. “Oh, that’s a disturbing thought. We basically had Salthawk in a very tight circle, so you could take pictures. What’s changed?”

Grace showed she was up to date and following world events. “Mister Lewis wasn’t in charge of world defense then, and the Messenger from Above was still here. Whatever’s in the mountain running things decided that your behavior then was just curiosity.”

I looked back at her. “Grace, I’m Cal. That makes sense. How’d you come up with that?”

She grinned, her teeth contrasting her brown skin. “My weakness.” She reached down beside her, picking up a book from her case. “I read a lot. Mostly hard science fiction, with some fantasy thrown in just because.”

I looked at the title of the book she was reading. “That’s both a good and disturbing one, dealing with genocide of an alien race, as well as the reactions of humanity. When you consider his age, I think they were wise in not telling Ender that he wasn’t playing a game and that he was in charge of the fleets, with men and women dying at his command. I’m not that much older than he was in the book.”

“Yes, but our Earth isn’t like his Earth. That’s the beauty of science fiction like this. Niven and Pournelle wrote ‘Lucifer’s Hammer,’ and from what I’ve seen regarding what’s supposed to have happened, historically, there may be a lot more connections to their recent novel, ‘Footfall.’ But their book, ‘Oath of Fealty,’ is only a possible future, and not one that I think we’ll see now that we have a world government.”

Cass held up her hand. “Slow down, kids! Grace, if you’re going to discuss science fiction and fantasy, you ought to wait until we’re on the way home.”

Grace chuckled. “I can get going, can’t I?”

“Not a lot to do on some of those long assed flights we used to take, right?”

“Definitely not,” Grace replied. “Sorry, Mister ... Cal. Pat had the first leg, so he’s on rest. I need to be up here and if not paying attention to my instruments, at least not disturbing the people keeping us from running into the sharp edges of the sky.”

That made me laugh. “I completely understand. You need to come over the next time Bob comes up for a visit, especially since he’s up most weekends to play with his namesake, my son, Robert. I’m sure he’d be interested in your opinions.”

“Bob who?” Grace asked.

Her squeal when I said, “Robert Heinlein,” was nearly deafening in the cockpit of the plane. The door to the crew rest area burst open as a sleepy looking Mary and Greg both hit it at the same time.

“What’s going on? What was that sound? How can we help?” came from both of them.

Grace had the courtesy to lower her face in embarrassment.

“Sorry, that’s on me,” I said. “Not only did Grace find out I’m also a science fiction fan, she found out who one of my friends is, and had what basically is the normal reaction to everyone that knows his work.”

The two shook their heads. Mary said, “Yeah, we flew him back to Missouri. He’s a nice man, and a good author, but ... it’s Grace, so ... you’re forgiven, this time. I’m going back to sleep now.” Greg shook his head, smiled, and shut the door behind him.

Cassandra and Nathan had maintained control the whole time. In a very deliberate motion, Cass reached out and turned on the auto-pilot. Then she and Nathan broke into laughter, with their hands nowhere near the controls.

“I’m ... um ... sorry,” Grace said again.

I just shook my head, smiled wryly, and said. “I think I’ve done enough damage, myself. I’m out of here.”

I went back down the stairs, where my wives were looking upwards.

“The last time I heard something that loud, there were serious orgasms involved,” Beth said.

“Grace is both a science fiction fan and a Robert Heinlein fan, and she just found out I know him,” I explained.

Dora laughed, saying, “She beats everyone I’ve heard so far with her squealing about that. Which for a serious science fiction fan means there probably was an orgasm involved.”

That got a laugh from all of us, then we settled down for the remainder of the trip.

We landed without an issue at Tribhuvan airport. Our sixteen hours of flight and stopping for fuel meant that it was shortly before two in the afternoon ... the day after we’d left. There were limousines to take my wives and me to the palace to meet King Birendra and pay our respects. We would be doing that during the hour it would take our troops and airport personnel to get our vehicles unloaded, and then they would come pick us up for our trip to Pokhara.

That was the plan, anyway.

It was a short drive to the palace. We were met at the curb by a functionary, who opened the door for us. Sayel was the first one out. He looked around quickly, then nodded. I got out next, wearing something that vaguely resembled what I’d worn at the Academy Awards. I wasn’t thrilled, but it was part of being visiting royalty. I then helped my wives out. The three of them were gorgeous, naturally, with their make-up done right and their dresses accentuating their figures while also looking regal.