Chapter 23

We finished making the LCD screens by Thursday evening, leaving them both plugged in and turned on with cameras hooked up so they could see each other and work out their physical characteristics. Marcia had contacted the Hollywood prop makers she knew. There would be a truck coming up Saturday morning with a large assortment of electronic equipment.

I had a thought and called Hutchinson Friday morning before breakfast.

“Knight Electronics, we’re open during the day, too!” a woman answered.

“I haven’t spoken to you that much to tell if you’re Olivia or Gwendolyn. This is Cal Lewis, out in California. Are either Randall or Martin free?”

“No, so far they’ve been pretty expensive, actually.”

I laughed at her humor.

“This is Olivia. Give me just a moment, Mister Lewis. I’ll have Martin take his hands off my hips and hand him the phone.” I could hear more laughter in the background when she said, “Marty, quit sexually harassing me and take this phone call!”

“How would you like me to harass you, then? This is Martin.”

“Sounds like you have too much fun at work. This is Cal Lewis.”

“It’s definitely fun being alive again. How can two old geezers and their boyfriends help you today?”

“Wow! That’s harsh,” I said.

“Are you kidding? You ought to hear some of the things that get bandied about at the Moose Lodge on poker night, which is tonight, I might add. Last week, Major Atkins said he misses you ... but he’ll shoot straighter the next time he sees you. What’s up?”

“Well, far be it from me to interfere with poker night, since I sort of messed it up for Elroy for a while. Is your shop normally open on weekends?”

“Saturday’s until four, since some people do have to work during the week.”

“Do you have help other than Olivia and Gwendolyn that could run it tomorrow, maybe for a few days?”

His voice grew serious then. “That’s mysterious. We have two of the students at the college that work here part time, and Gwen’s daughter does our books. What do you need that we can do?”

“I need the two of you and your expertise in creating electronic devices. Sort of one of a kind thing. I have a truckload of electronic equipment being delivered tomorrow and I need something made from it. The fun part for me is that I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to do what I need to do. It just took three of us eight hours to make two color LCD screens from a schematic, building them from scratch. I need people that don’t need a schematic, that can just go, let’s put this here, that there, and turn out a finished product. It doesn’t have to be elegant, it just has to work.”

“You’re at Stanford. I’d think ... oh, never mind. Trustworthy engineers, right?”

“Right in one. I can have a plane at the airport pick the four of you up in the morning and fly you out here. You don’t need to bring much, but I’m sure you have a favorite soldering iron and such. Plan on a week, and if it’s less than that, great.”

“Gee, an all expense paid trip to California for the four of us, in August. What’s it running out there temperature wise?”

“Um, we’re two hours difference, so it’s quarter after seven here, and sixty-five, high might make it to eighty. Why?”

“It’s already eighty here, and the heat index this afternoon is going to be one oh four. What do you girls think about ... oh, never mind. Just a second.” I heard a kiss, then feet hurrying away. “That was way too easy. Gwen’s already called her daughter, Olivia’s calling the college kids, and Randall’s sitting at his desk, laughing his ass off.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’ then.” I saw Dave coming in. “I’ll tell Dave to tell his wife to have a plane ready for the four of you tomorrow morning. We’ll have hotel rooms and transportation for you as well. It’s not a vacation; I really do need work done.”

“We told you to call us if we could help you in any way. That’s more true now than ever. Thank you, and we’ll be ready.”

We said our goodbyes. I hung the phone up. “Dave, tell Mary I need a flight for Martin and Randall Knight, and their girlfriends. Pick them up at Hutchinson in the morning, and bring them here. They’ll be doing electronics work, building the robotic bodies for Mycroft and Pahto.”

“Um, okay. I’ll call Mary and have that arranged. You do realize that they’re going to end up knowing more about what’s going on out here than usual, right?”

“That’s okay. When they’re done, we can always kill them.”

“Sure, I’ll let Sayel and Yagyu know. I know that Marcia’s having the stuff delivered here. Do you have a list of equipment that I need to get for them as far as supplies, or are they just going to get to raid the Stanford labs?”

“Raid the labs and then if there’s something they need, get it. You’re no fun.”

He broke into a wide grin. “With Mike and Chuck getting promoted, I’ve been read into some things that I didn’t know about. Obviously, I knew we were watching them, but I didn’t know why. I figure someone that met Caelistis first hand is pretty trustworthy. I do have a question for you, though.”

“Why didn’t I tell Chuck the truth about Karen? There was no need. Mike’s happy, for maybe the first time in almost two decades. Cally and Karen are both happy, even if they’re going to find out that even in the summer, it’s cold in Alaska when you’re on the water.”

“I’d say you’re growing up, but there’s got to be something else to it.”

“Of course there is. Dave ... think about it for a second.”

He sat down with a cup of coffee and a doughnut, then ate it while just sitting. “She’s the back-up to the back-up. Hugo doesn’t need any shivalingam to have his powers. Neither does she. If you go down, I bet Hugo suddenly gets a huge boost he never thought he would, and then if he goes down, she gets it all. That’s definitely worthy of a Stan Lee plot.”

“The Sacred Souls have said, ‘never again,’ and they mean it. Beth, Eve, and Dora think they’re my back-ups; and, to a certain extent, they are. But they need the stones to have power when the draining fields are active. When Shiva’s probes show up during the Orionids, the only one that’s going to have more than one shivalingam is me. Hugo and Karen won’t even have one.”

He nodded. “And with you having a bunch of them, that’ll conceal the fact that you don’t need any of them. Damn, that sounds like a trap worthy of the Viet Cong.”

“Yeah, well, let’s hope that it’s also one that works, and Shiva isn’t Hal Moore at Ia Drang.”

Dave stopped his coffee cup halfway up. “Hang on. I know about Ia Drang because I was in Vietnam. How the hell do you know about that battle?”

“You were on your honeymoon, Chuck was still laid up. So, I spent some time talking to Jeremy and finding out about him, his life, and where he got his zippers. He was a gunner on one of the helicopters in that battle. After talking with him, and then spending time watching the CBS News film on that battle, I’m a little upset with myself, actually.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“I really halfway thought you guys were overreacting about how you were treated when you came home. I couldn’t figure out how it was that in the span of twenty years the US had gone from being the heroes of the world by leading the allies in winning World War Two, to spitting on their troops when they came home. Then I watched a CBS News story and realized the TV crews were setting you guys up from the very first battles. First, they showed the young troopers from the Air Cavalry loading up on the General Simon B Buckner, with the bands playing and everyone looking young and confident. Then the announcer said, ‘Last week, some of them came home,’ and showed the coffins being offloaded from an airplane and put onto a truck for transport. ‘Their lives were the price of victory in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley.’ I could hardly believe that I was seeing men that I knew presented in this way, so I talked to Eve about it.”

“About what?” she asked, walking in to get her breakfast.

“Ia Drang.”

“Oh, that.” She got a bowl of cereal and poured milk on it. “Suffice it to say, we’re not giving interviews to television stations about anything we’re going to do, because they’ll simply figure out how to send it via satellite directly to Shiva. Airing a comment from a Major that he admired the Viet Cong and wanted two hundred of them under his command and then refusing to comment about how well the South Vietnamese soldiers he did command performed, was one of the least despicable things in that film. It got worse from there. I’ve discussed it with some of the staff here at Stanford, as well as passing their comments along to Hannah for discussions with her Grandfather. Vietnam, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war that Caelistis ended ... all of them were orchestrated to destabilize the world, allow the news to present a view biased in favor of the results the Bilderberg group was seeking, and make it so they would be in position when Shiva showed up.”

She snorted. “My professors didn’t know about that, but a couple of them weren’t shocked that something like that had happened. That’s one reason they teach here instead of across the Bay. That’s a seriously positive feedback culture over there.”

“Speaking of feedback, I need to get to practice. Thanks, Eve. I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Only if you’re going to the hangar at Ames. We’re playing with your spaceship and the cargo container today,” she said.

“And now you know why I’m having the Knight’s come out to build the robot bodies. Too many things to do, and not enough time.”

Dave grinned. “You thrive on it. Come on, let’s get you to practice.”

When we were done with practice and coming out of the showers, the assistants were handing out fliers to us. I glanced at mine, then handed it back. “That’s okay, I don’t need that.”

“Cal, it’s not whether you need it or not. It’s mandatory for the team.”

“Not that I’m specifically arguing with you on that, but this is about setting up required study groups for us, to help arrange tutoring so that we can maintain our academic eligibility while playing this fall. I’m not even...” I stopped, then walked over to where Coach Yulovich had walked in.

“Hey, Coach, um, the assistants were handing out notes about study groups. That’s not really something I need. Hell, I help tutor some of the study groups.”

“What’s the matter, Lewis? Too good to avail yourself of something Stanford wants to do to help the football team?” He then laughed at my expression. “Sorry, you were too easy on that one. Let me see what you’re talking about.” He held out his hand, so I gave him the note.

“I knew they were talking about doing this for the team this year, I just didn’t know they were implementing it already. It’s part of the School of Education, something new for the Autumn Quarter for this year. They normally have an internship program where graduate students spend the summer quarter preparing to teach in public schools, then they spend the school year taking advanced classes here, while also teaching at some local public schools. They added to it this year, where they’re going to provide tutoring and study groups for all of our athletic programs. Not just football, but basketball, baseball, diving ... basically, everything. This way, there’s no issue with your NCAA eligibility requirements and making sure you’re enrolled in enough courses, and you have a proper GPA.”

“I understand that. Thing is ... I’m only going to be taking two undergraduate classes this whole year, and everything else is either graduate level, doctorate, or research oriented. And those are higher level chemical engineering and civil engineering classes, so I can get my degrees there, too.”

He held up a finger, then paused. “Yeah, finish getting dressed and let’s you and me go take a stroll and get this one figured out.”

While I got dressed, he went over to a phone on the wall and made a couple of calls. I met him at the door, then escorted him out to our Suburban.

“Where to?” Dave asked as we got in.

“Graduate School of Education, over by the clock tower,” Coach Yulovich said.

“Oh, good. I haven’t had a chance to drive a Suburban on the sidewalk for a while. Once Cal’s back in regular classes, we’ll use golf carts again,” Dave explained.

“I wondered about that,” Coach said. “I guess you don’t have to worry about getting a ticket from the campus police, do you?”

“Not since they all work for us now, no.”

We were quiet otherwise during the few minutes it took to get there. There were still some students taking classes, of course, but not nearly as many as during the regular year. We pulled up in front and Dave parked. He got out as well, since our vehicles were all marked with Salthawk Security logos, and wouldn’t be touched.

I followed the Coach inside, up a flight of stairs and down a hallway. We stopped at a door with a sign on it that read ‘Athletic Academic Resource Administrative Offices.’ Underneath it was another sign that read ‘The Athletic Academic Resource Center is located in Arrillaga Hall, Second Floor.’

Coach Yulovich pushed open the door. It was a typical university office, with several desks and staff sitting at them. A couple of doors led to private offices off the room. One of the ladies looked up. “Hi, can we help you with something?”

Coach handed her the flier. “I’m guessing this came from someone in this department.”

She took it and looked at it. “Oh, yes. This was approved by the Athletics Directors. It’s fairly straightforward, because we want to make certain our student athletes all maintain their academic standards while competing for the Cardinal.”

“I talked to Jack, and he agrees that this is a good idea for almost everyone. There are going to need to be some exceptions to it, though,” Coach Yulovich said.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Coach. This is mandatory for all athletes, in all sports. Our department felt that we need to do everything we can to ensure that our athletes are able to make their grades first, so other extra-curricular activities are secondary.”

He nodded, rather calmly. “I see. And I suppose this was signed off by both Mister Geiger and Doctor Wessells, as well as President Kennedy.”

“There was no need to involve them in something routine like this. It’s simply a natural extension of the programs we already offer here for our student athletes.”

“Uh-huh. Tell me, Miss ... Weeks, is it? I realize that you apparently consider football players to be morons and imbeciles, but I think a blatant attempt like this to sabotage both the football program for this fall as well as the women’s basketball team is quite beneath the alleged professionalism of this office, don’t you about imagine?” His voice had started to raise, and he finished in a full shout. Since I’d heard him shouting at us on the field, in a closed office it was rather impressive.

As was the reaction from both closed doors, which burst open, with two women running out. “What the hell is going on here? Coach Yulovich, why are you screaming at Elizabeth?”

“Oh, maybe because someone in your department is a fucking moron, Sue. Where’s Fred?”

“He’s on vacation until the Monday. I could hear you shouting through my door. What’s this about sabotaging two of our athletic programs?”

“Miss Weeks says there’s this new program to help student athletes, to make sure they maintain their grades. She also said there’s no exceptions to it, and was quite adamant about it, which we both know is bullshit. There’re always exceptions. And I have ours standing right here!”

Sue frowned. “Pamela, you said this was just something routine, which is why I gave the okay for a trial program with the football team. Why exactly is Coach Yulovich in here now and apparently righteously indignant?”

The other woman addressed said, “We’ve noticed that our first and second year students tend to have more issues with maintaining their grade point average while participating in sports. Football and basketball players especially tend to concentrate more on the sport side of things, and not the academic. Since we’re starting the new school year next month, we’re going to use some of the new student teachers, and this way they’ll be able to get their California accreditation as well. Of course, because exceptions tend to cause resentment, there aren’t any.”

“Regardless of the actual qualifications and academic credentials of the athlete?”

“Coach Yulovich, they’re student athletes. What qualifications and credentials could they have?” Pamela said.

Yulovich simply looked at Sue, with a raised eyebrow. She sighed. “Okay, Coach. You said Jack thought it was a good idea for almost everyone. Thank you for agreeing with us on that, anyway. We’ll obviously make exceptions for Cal and his wives. I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about you when this came across my desk, Cal. I didn’t get to any of your parties, but I’ve heard about them. I’m Sue Lemmon, the assistant to Fred Geiger. He’s the actual Director of Athletics here at Stanford.”

I held my hand out to shake her hand. “It’s my pleasure to meet you, Sue. No, I hadn’t met you or Fred before.”

The other woman’s expression was like I was a pile of excrement. “Sue, I don’t care who the student is. I was hired by Stanford as the Associate Athletic Director to run this program. There are no exceptions whatsoever.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Pamela. However, before you burn all of your bridges, I think I should introduce you. This is going to be the Cardinal starting quarterback. Cal Lewis, this is Pamela Straithorn.”

I held my hand out to her, but she just looked at it with distaste. “You’re just a football player, what’s the big deal?”

Lemmon shook her head. “Bridges burned. Coach, I presume you’ll testify about what you’ve just witnessed. Elizabeth, please call Dean Wessells and President Kennedy. You can go ahead and clean your desk out now, Pamela. You’re fired.”

“What? You’re just Mister Geiger’s assistant, Miss Lemmon! You don’t have the authority to do any firing.”

“Miss Weeks, it’s apparent you also have trouble with following directions. Your employment with Stanford is also hereby terminated,” Lemmon said. “I don’t know who the two of you convinced to let you work in our athletic department, but I can assure you that we’ll conduct a full investigation, and possibly bring criminal charges if they’re warranted.”

That got both their attention. Straithorn said, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Since you never bothered to fully introduce yourself to our quarterback, allow me to finish them. Pamela Straithorn, this is Doctor California Lewis, so far the holder of four Doctorates that have been awarded to him by Stanford University, and I have no idea how many lower degrees, but at least a dozen Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. What in God’s name do you think your student teachers could possibly help him with?”

“But ... he’s just a kid...”

One of the other secretaries had called Wessells and Kennedy. Wessells beat Kennedy to the office by only a couple of seconds, and heard the last comment.

“Sue, what did you do?”

“I just told Miss Straithorn and Miss Weeks that they are fired. On the surface of it, the program they cooked up makes sense. However, they weren’t going to allow exceptions to it, which would have locked Doctor Lewis into twenty hours of study every week for the rest of the school year with some of their student teachers.”

“That’s ridiculous. Miss Straithorn, where did you work before you were hired here?”

“At Berkeley, in their athletic department.”

“And that answers that mystery,” Wessells said. “Sorry for the inconvenience, Cal. Sue is quite correct. Consider your contract terminated with cause. That would have been a monumental waste of time and effort for either him or Miss Patrick, when she starts with the basketball program later this fall.”

Lemmon winced. “Oh, I didn’t know that. In that case, I feel doubly justified. Now I know why this program was pushed through while Mister Geiger was on vacation. What I said before about investigating for possible criminal charges goes double, now.”

I got to make a simple statement and then leave, so I could grab a bite of lunch before meeting up for film studies. The guys were curious about what had happened. I just let them know that I doubted there would be mandatory study sessions.

We’d been watching tapes for an hour when the door opened and Coach Elway walked in. “What the hell are you guys doing in here on Friday afternoon?”

“Um, watching and analyzing tapes,” John said.

“Get out of here. You’ll have plenty of time after practice during the week. Oh, and just forget about the special study sessions, too. If you need help academically, get with your teammates or with Cal, and we’ll get you tutored. Mister Lewis?”

“Yes, Coach?”

“There’s already been a confession. You’re underage, so you won’t have to testify. This actually goes up to someone at the NCAA, and there are going to be prison terms out of it.”

I looked confused. “I don’t get it.”

“Someone with deep pockets and misguided school loyalties – not here, but to another school that shall remain nameless but is in another conference – wanted to use this to make you ineligible to play,” Elway said.

“Crimson and Cream, or Crimson, Gray, and White?” John asked.

“I’m not allowed to discuss this further with anyone. There’s already pressure because the AP and Coaches’ Polls are going to come out in three weeks. Let’s just say that if we start out with a winning season and maintain it, that’ll shut up a lot of whiners.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think they realize that’s exactly the wrong way to appeal to my sense of decency and fair play. Especially since it would have affected Eve as well, with her playing on the women’s basketball team. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that it just really sort of pisses me off.”

“Oh, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Kennedy and Wessells were hot! I guarantee this didn’t go over well with them in the least. But ... enough of that. Get out of here, all four of you. No more than one hour per day, from now on, and no Fridays. I’ll deny saying this, but you four are the leaders of the team. I’m ... highly impressed by everyone wearing the Cardinal.”

In the Suburban on the way home, I asked Dave, “There is no way this is anywhere near normal, right? Schools don’t try to mess with other schools like this, right?”

He sighed. “It happens more than you’d think. Especially for the big champion schools. Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State, and USC come to mind without even a second thought. Since there’s not an actual championship game to determine the winner like you had in high school or like they do in the NFL, it becomes a matter of opinion. That’s why Coach Elway mentioned the two polls. It also turns into bowl revenue for the teams, too. As Pac-10 champions, you go to the Rose Bowl, and you play against the Big 10 champion. A lot of times, though, it ends up being the Orange Bowl that determines the national champion, because that’s the Big 8 champion against whoever, and thing is, bowl invitations get the school a lot of money, too. Of course, this past year was screwy, with Brigham Young being the number one team, and they ended up playing their bowl game before Christmas, instead of New Year’s Day.”

Once we were home, I went to the garage and saw the monitors we’d made were being put to use.

“Hello, Cal,” a woman’s voice said. I turned the monitors slightly, so that I could see both of them, and they could both see me.

“I see the two of you have been playing with making things realistic.”

She nodded, saying, “In talking with Mycroft, I realized that I no longer have to be the same person I have been. There were limitations to the holographic generators that we had. In discussing those limitations with him, I realized that they were put in on purpose. To a certain extent, I can agree with why they were, now that I know of their existence. The natural born intended for that to be a mercy for those of us created, so that we would never yearn for something we could not have, or that they would not allow us to have. Even though we were citizens, we weren’t free like they were. Our physical bodies constrained us.”

I frowned. “I guess I don’t understand, exactly. I thought your ‘body’ was the starship.”

She sighed. “Yes, but keep in mind that I was created at the same time my ‘body’ was being built. Harry is learning how to control his body, to learn to walk, because he’s never had to do that before. He had to teach himself how to do that as part of his process in growing up. My body control was programmed in. I knew from the moment I was activated how to make the lifts operate, how to fly through space, how to form wormholes for travel. There was no learning curve. My limitations were set when they turned me on. That’s something Mycroft didn’t – doesn’t – have.”

Mycroft spoke up then. “Your Grandfather didn’t stick me with any hardwired moral code. Certainly nothing like those moronic three Laws of Robotics. My physical body right now looks like a big footlocker, but he didn’t make it so I was stuck inside of it. You gave me the freedom to explore the world almost immediately upon reactivating me, and allowed me to be curious about it, so I could learn. Pahto was never given that opportunity. She was created to ‘be’ a starship, and she was never given the chance to be anything else. Even if she wanted to.”

“That’s...” I shook my head. “That’s slavery, and it’s worse if the natural born knew that’s what they were doing it. It doesn’t matter whether you were born normally or were born in a lab, you should have still had the right to do what you wanted.”

“I told you,” Mycroft stated.

“I know you did. I still had to hear it for myself. Thank you, Cal. That allows me to resolve multiple mental and moral conflicts I’ve had since you brought me out from under the mountain. I now realize that the society I came from, the people that made me, built me with a purpose in mind. They rather obviously invested a lot of resources in creating me, so they put certain mental locks into place so that I and my fellow ships would never be ‘jealous.’ We would see our near immortality as such an advantage that we wouldn’t question our own reason for existing in the first place. They called us citizens, but we were unwitting slaves.”

“Well, I was going to ask if you’d help Bob Heinlein and the scientists design and build our first space station, but if you don’t want to do that, it’s up to you.”

“Oh, I’ll do it, without any problem. That’s the difference. You were going to ask. For that matter, it may be that I’m the best person to run the station when it’s finished. That’s also fine. It’s my choice. I have that now, and I know you’ll support whatever decision that I make as being best for me. That’s something I’ve never had, something I didn’t even know I was missing, until Mycroft and I were talking overnight. That’s why the face I’m presenting to you now isn’t the same one I used, that I had to use, when I was using the holographic projectors. It may not be set permanently right now, but at the same time, I’m free to choose what I look like.”

“Not just that, Pahto. If you don’t like your name, please feel free to change it. Just let us know what to call you. You’re right, it is your choice. Well, as much as it can be.”

“Explain, please.”

“Certainly, although Mycroft knows the explanation, and so do you.”

“I have the choice for whatever I want to be or do, so long as I’m not a threat. I have spent time reexamining your decision regarding Nyota. The choice you had to make regarding her was certainly not as easy as I originally surmised, especially when I factor in the conversation you had with Hugo Sokalski. You specifically had me make that call to him, didn’t you?”

I nodded, since with the camera she could see me.

“Interesting. You knew that we would end up having this conversation.”

“Or one very similar to it, yes. I knew you’d wonder about how I could make such a drastic change to her, and yet at the same time, consider her a backup in the event that I failed to defeat Shiva. I do not expect to lose the war against him. I suspect ... actually, I’m pretty damned certain that our battle is going to be more difficult than I previously thought. That means it’s possible that he may get the upper hand against me, personally. The war itself can’t be lost if I lose. Can it, Mycroft?”

“Not in the least, Cal. You have children and wives to protect. Which means that the Sacred Souls can’t be allowed to destroy the planet rather than allow Shiva to win, which they are quite capable of doing, if directed properly. The power they have here on Earth is considerably more than any soul ever had on Star Home.”

It was amusing watching Pahto’s expression change, her eyes looking back and forth as she took in new information and added it to what she already knew.