Chapter 28

My youngest wives returned from Kansas two days early, so they’d be here for Helen giving birth. After eating breakfast with the family there, the time changes had them home just before noon. The group in Vegas finished up their discussions after breakfast Saturday morning as well, so they landed at Moffett Field barely five minutes after the Kansas crew. Mike and Karen made it back from Port Hueneme ten minutes later, and we made it back from the beach by one. Word had been passed around that Helen was going to give birth, so everyone wanted to be sure they were present and didn’t have any emergencies. There also was another reason we were hiding.

Once our lunch was finished, my wives that had stayed home had Chuck, Dave, Eddie, George, Angela, Jenny, Wendy, and Sharon come in to sit down with them at the table to review their thoughts on the new female security officers. Mike, Karen, and Cally went into an adjacent room to discuss Karen’s family back in Nebraska with Mycroft. They wanted to get whatever public updates they could since she was alive again. I sat down in the living room to talk to Margie and Marcia about what they’d found out in Vegas, while my youngest wives simply sat in to listen.

William and Yagyu took Sayel into the practice room so they could work out together, as well as coordinating the training Carrie, Cally, and Holly would need over the school year, as Holly would be returning to Kansas at the end of next week. The unstated reason was because that room was also sound-proofed, which was why our perimeter guards hadn’t reacted to gunfire from inside.

That way, when Brad knocked on the door and said that Niranjana had visitors, she was able to simply get up and give her sister a hug at the door, followed by all of her nieces and nephews, and then bring them into the living room.

“My King, it is my pleasure to introduce to you my sister, Jasmine, wife of Sayel, and their children. This is Aditya, my oldest nephew, who is eleven. Shaista, my oldest niece, who is nine. My nephew Sagar, who is seven. My nephew, Deepak, who is five. My niece, Prabhjeet, who is three. And my niece, Fahmida, who just turned one.”

When I stood, Jasmine and the older children either curtsied or bowed.

“Please, as Niranjana is my wife – and just as importantly, you are the family of Sayel Pashtar – you are family as well. No formality is required between us,” I said.

Jasmine rose up, so I could get a good look at her. She was wearing a traditional sari, with appropriate makeup on her arms, a bindi on her forehead, jewelry in her hair similar to what my wives wore, and was something that didn’t surprise me, an incredibly beautiful woman.

“I presume that as you are Niranjana’s sister, she has told you the names of all my wives and children, as well as my name.”

In near perfect English, with only a very faint accent, Jasmine replied, “Since you have said that we do not require formality, then I must ask. Why would you presume that? My sister was taken from us several years ago. As she was held hostage by Ramaeshwara Randhawa, to be used as leverage against both our father, the clan chief, and later, with our cousin’s ascension to Prime Minister of Pakistan, a bargaining chip for concessions, how can you presume she has passed along any information to me regarding you or your family?”

I started laughing at that, then sat down. “Please, have a seat. Aditya, if you and your younger siblings would like to play, I’m quite certain that Toby and the girls would be more than happy to show you some of their toys and games, or the equipment we have outside. I suspect that your mother is not yet done verbally sparring with me.”

Jasmine’s eyes twinkled when she realized that I was calling her out, so she turned her head. “What do you say?”

The four oldest, in unison, said “Thank you.”

Toby, Carrie, and Holly got up and took them into the other room. Niranjana picked up three year old Prabhjeet, asking her if she would like a cookie. When the little girl nodded, she carried her back into the kitchen, leaving Jasmine with Fahmida in an infant carrier. Jasmine then took a seat. I saw her eyes darting around the room, missing nothing, and making careful note of both Marcia and Margie with our babies on their laps.

“So ... as for how I can presume, it is quite simple. I have a preponderance of evidence, albeit circumstantial, to indicate that. First, of course, is that it has been seven months since I visited the properties I acquired after killing Ramaeshwara Randhawa and took both your husband and your sister into my service. While I am aware of you only having one visit with your husband since then, at the same time I am also aware that Prime Minister Bhutto has received communications from Niranjana in that time. That was confirmed by no less a person than Rajinder Kumar Dhawan, the secretary to Prime Minister Gandhi of India. In addition, Niranjana is my military coordinator for both India and Pakistan, regarding the equipment and troops that both countries will be supplying to the Punjab. As such, she is quite capable of freely using this rather new invention called the telephone. Additionally, I am also quite aware of her status change within your clan and with her elders since she became first my slave and then my wife, as well as the primary reason your husband took his position with Ramaeshwara Randhawa in the first place, which was to be her executioner should such an unfortunate circumstance be required. Finally, I have been informed by usually reliable sources that after the evidence of your husband’s actions in assisting with the disaster relief in Nepal reached you, you then decided it was time to become the actual family you are, as it was no longer necessary for you to live apart to protect your children. There is no longer advantage to be gained by taking one of you prisoner to use against the other.”

She sat back in her seat, patting her daughter’s back. I could see a faint smile cross her lips. “Are you aware of my occupation?”

“Please, feel free to call me Cal. And no, that has not come up in any conversation that I have had with Sayel or Niranjana. I have been told that you are considered ‘formidable’ when in conversation, similar to Marcia’s non-family ‘Aunt’ Beverly Poulson. She is considered by those who know her as a ‘force of nature.’”

“I believe that I have been complimented, then. My specific title is Advocate, with my LLB and LLM from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lucknow, with my LLD from the Faculty of Law of the University of New Delhi.”

From the kitchen, I heard Eddie curse, while George exclaimed, “Bloody hell! You mean that Sayel is married to a solicitor?”

Jasmine laughed, then loudly replied, “Ah, good sir, please do not insult me! Under your legal system, a solicitor could only wish he had qualifications approaching those which I possess, which far exceed those of most British barristers.”

I smiled, shaking my head. “Come on in, everyone. Jasmine, I have not heard your ruling so far upon my presentation. Should I contact John Ely and have him come over to discuss your failure to properly rule upon the decision?”

“Oh, I can see us having such interesting conversations, Cal. Obviously, based upon the prima facie evidence, you have presented a compelling case. Normally, I would return multiple rebuttals, simply to further the discussion. However, I can see that you are, indeed, worthy of the service to which my husband has pledged his life, as your evidentiary presentation regarding the titles to which my sister has received is quite convincing. Thus, I accept you as my brother-in-law and worthy to be the uncle to my children.”

Marcia shook her head. “God help us all. Uncle Leonard will be getting Karen’s papers on Monday and bringing Aunt Beverly up on Tuesday to see the babies.”

“I think if we keep Elroy in Kansas for the time being, their combined presence won’t rip any holes in the space-time continuum. That will allow the dimensional space to naturally repair any incipient damage from Tuesday so that when the three of them do finally end up in the same room together, it won’t be any more dangerous than the Tokamak reactor having an uncontrolled fusion reaction.”

Margie disagreed, saying, “I’m not sure about that. Remember that Elroy tends to bring Earl with him, for some reason. You add both of them into the mix, and the only thing preventing total destruction of the solar system is that Tess and Victor aren’t present.”

“Then we’re all doomed, of course,” Hannah said from where she’d finally made it in from the dining room. “They’ve been paying close attention and realize that we tend to give birth about two weeks in advance of our due date. They already know Helen is going to give birth to Ivory tomorrow or Monday, because they asked during our weekly phone call. I suppose it was a bad idea to allow Grandmother the freedom to leave her island prison, but she was so happy to attend our sister-wife’s birthday party. She has already said that whether Grandfather comes with her or not, she’s coming over the first week of September and not returning to England until she’s held her first great-grandson in her arms. Since Aunt Anita already gave birth earlier this year, there’s no holding her back. And I’m quite certain that Grandfather will be bringing over paperwork prepared by his solicitors for signature. I hope he’ll wait until they’ve taken the afterbirth to your lab.”

“That seems rather drastic,” I noted.

“One thing the family does not like is turmoil in the financial markets. At least the sort that they themselves did not cause. Remember, my brother Phillip doesn’t want the title, and with my father dead, it has to go to our son. I think the only reason he didn’t trot out the paperwork last month was because it was Diana’s birthday. That, and he was still talking with Uncle Robert about how to apply the family funds.” She saw my look. “Cal, Uncle Robert wasn’t kidding in the least when he told you he really is a greedy Jewish banker. That’s our family history, after all. Just because he’s treasurer for the world now doesn’t mean he’s not going to help increase the family profits if possible.”

Jasmine had been quietly listening to the conversations, but Hannah’s last statement caused her to turn her head. “Excuse me if I misheard, but did you say ‘treasurer for the world?’”

Hannah grinned, saying, “Technically it’s the Federation of Terran Nations. Since the family will no longer be the banker for the governments of the world, because we did make most of our profits off of warfare over the centuries, after all, we’ll simply have to be the corporate bankers for the world. Having secure heirs for the Rothschild family and banking fortune will help stabilize the markets.”

I leaned back. “You know, it’s not that I forgot about that, it’s just that it didn’t really occur to me with Victor still alive.” I sighed. “Well, crap. I think everyone knows I was planning on hiring Cindy when she’s done to represent us, simply because I’m going to be too damned busy to do it myself. Unless you want it, Beth?”

My tall, blonde wife shook her head. “No, thank you. I’ll stick with the program because you need an actual advisor, but actually doing what Elroy did, and what Earl is still doing? Not a chance. This is going to sound pretty funny, considering how much trouble I used to have with Mathematics, but once I get my doctorate this year, I think I’m going to get into computers. I want to be able to help build our own versions of Mycroft and Pahto.”

“That’s ... admirable,” I said. “We’re going to need them, probably everyone will.”

“Yeah. When we went home, I got to looking around at everything. The farms, crops, livestock, feeding them, even the traffic congestion that’s part of the growing pains for Hutchinson, and I could see the mathematics for solving so many of the problems in my head. We just need powerful enough computers to help, and those don’t exist ... yet. I want to help make the world a better place with them.”

“Good! Lord knows we’re going to need better computers on the space stations and then on the colonies on Luna and Mars.” I sighed. “Jasmine, I guess since Helen’s already made the pronouncement that Ivory wants to see her father no later than Monday means that you get a reprieve until Tuesday. So you can have until then for your romantic reunion with Sayel. Of course, while we’re still here in California, your children will be enrolled at Menlo School with the other children, since we already have a security presence there, and no one cares about anyone’s origins. They’ll begin classes at the start of next month. But Tuesday, you’ll have to meet with John Ely. I’m sure that with your background, you won’t have to attend many classes, probably just a few so you’re familiar with the US legal system, so you can get your JD to practice here in the US. Margie, go ahead and put her on the payroll now, so far as our international operations are concerned, but you’ll definitely need your JD so you can handle US operations as well.”

When she blinked, I smiled. “Ah, perhaps you’re not as formidable as I was led to expect. Surely you understood that, didn’t you?”

She lowered her head a little, giving me the same look my own mother had when she caught me misbehaving. “Of course I understood it. I understood everything. You were attempting to throw me off balance. However, your previous presumption that I did challenge simply to determine your own acuity was quite correct. I have spent many hours on the phone with my sister, so I know Hannah is a member of the Rothschild family, and thus worth hundreds of billions of dollars. I know you are the Spatial Defense Minister of the Federation of Terran Nations, and also how proud Niranjana is of you as both that and as the Guardian of the Earth. As the Prince of the Punjab, the people of the region are already preparing for your rule and actively look forward to it. Of course, you also have two other nations to rule as well, and eventually the whole planet once you have defeated Shiva. But you also have businesses around the world that you own or are partnered in, and due to your own unique set of quirks, you inspire family members to exceed their own, self-determined limitations, to excel and to lead your various enterprises. All of those need legal representation, so therefore once I have received my JD from the Stanford School of Law, with my internationally recognized degrees, I will be able to represent you and the family anywhere in the world, in both civil and criminal litigation.”

She had raised her head back up while speaking, then moved her clothing around a bit so that she could feed Fahmida.

“Was there anything I missed, Cal?”

“Um, oh, you might need these when you’re done,” I said, mentally picking up some tissues and floating them over to her. “No, I think you pretty much covered it. I hope you’re going to be happy, being able to be around your husband so much, because after Robert was born, I have primarily made Sayel his guardian, even while he remains in my employ, as his primary occupation.”

The one thing I wasn’t expecting was for Jasmine to actually look surprised when she plucked the tissues out of midair.

“What?” I asked. “You said Niranjana told you I was the Guardian of the Earth.”

I used my telekinesis to pick her up from her seat, then slowly rotated her so she could see just how many people were actually in our living room, and then I gently lowered her back to her seat.

“I ... I am, quite possibly, for the first time in my adult life ... I am at a loss for words.”

Niranjana laughed. “I told you, my sister. He denies it, of course, but the eight of us truly believe that he is an avatar. It matters not of which god, for he is our husband, our lover, and our protector. It is not he who is worthy to be related to you, it is whether or not you are worthy to be related to him!”

Jasmine blinked several times. “Is this what humility feels like? It is an interesting emotion, one that I do not believe I have ever felt before. Love, affection, anger, hate, pride, disdain ... I am quite familiar with all of those. Humility and humbleness is quite new to me. Thank you for giving me this experience. I will take the classes and be the best possible Advocate, Barrister, and Attorney for the family that I can be.”

“I did not think I would ever hear you say those words, flower of my life,” Sayel said from where he’d been hidden from her view, even when I spun her around. “Now you understand why I had no choice in following him.”

“I do, my husband. I hope you can forgive me for my thoughts and words.”

“There is nothing to forgive.” He sighed. “However, you will understand when I say, completely without irony, that you and Beverly Poulson are identical in strength of purpose and personality. Therefore, I would like you to allow your sister and her sister-wives to watch and care for our children for the rest of the day and tomorrow, so that in the event the world does end upon your meeting, that we will have reduced the karma upon our souls for the next turn of the wheel.”

Jasmine nodded, standing up. “There is formula for Fahmida in our bag, my sister. I find that my husband has made both a reasonable and a responsible request. Will you assist us?”

“Of course, my sister. All of us would and will. We are family.”

Fahmida had finished feeding anyway, so Jasmine wiped herself with the tissues, burped her daughter, and then handed her to Jasveer, since Niranjana still held Prabhjeet. Sayel held his arm out, Jasmine took it, and then he escorted her out the door.

Once they were gone, the noise level in the living room reached near cacophonous levels as everyone started speaking to each other, followed by laughter as we all realized what we’d done.

I mentally heard Jennifer say, ‘Jesus Christ! I had no idea what a huge compliment Sayel was paying me when he said he’d ask me to marry him if you and Jasmine both died.’

‘I don’t think any of us did,’ I replied. ‘I hope ... no, I know, we’ll all love each other that much when we’ve been together that long. But yeah, that was ... wow!’

After things settled down a bit, Mike and Karen came over.

“Cally went out to play with the new kids, and to let them know a little about what they’re going to have to learn to deal with as part of this family. I know the answer, but it’s still good to ask. Can we borrow a jet?”

“You know the answer to that is yes, Mike. The question is, do you want to borrow me for a couple of days, too? Say, starting about five minutes after Leonard gives Karen her papers?”

Karen giggled. “You’re not a coward, are you?”

“About the Jewish Viking Warrior Princess? You bet your ass I am! I’m not sure that all five of us could take her in a fair fight!”

“Excuse me?” Karen asked in disbelief.

Beth said, “When we had a public gathering in Hutchinson, Cal was still growing, so he was six foot one, finally taller than me. He was making a presentation while standing on a six inch riser, and that allowed him to look Beverly eye to eye.”

Helen nodded. “Hannah and I went to Europe to deal with some other properties that King Fahd gave us that used to belong to Prince Khalid. There was a police officer that ‘suggested’ he was open to bribery, to allow us to do what we wanted. She broke him ... literally. At least three weeks in the hospital for him to recover, and he was going to get demoted when he got out after the tongue-lashing Beverly gave the Paris Police Commissioner.”

“You have to be back Friday, to meet with Intel,” Hannah reminded me. She grinned, then. “I think it’d be interesting if you take Mycroft and Pahto with you.”

“That’ll work,” I said, then looked at Helen. She smiled back at me.

“Don’t worry, we forgive you. You’re only the most powerful man on Earth. She’s Beverly Poulson.”

Their combined laughter couldn’t quite conceal my relief.

Sunday afternoon, I was invited to the garage.

Both of the new remote control bodies were complete. Pahto and Mycroft were trying them out, but gingerly.

“I would’ve thought at the least, you would’ve already had assorted subroutines for dealing with this,” I said to Pahto as she spun around inside the garage.

“I do, but I’m not using them. This is different equipment, and I need to make sure that I have the appropriate fine control of the motors and hydraulics, especially since that’s not really what my remotely operated bodies used.”

“I understand,” I said. “What do you think, Mycroft?”

“I think your grandfather would’ve liked to have seen this. Perhaps he will, if he’s one of the souls coming to Earth. We had machines that could be programmed with a personality overlay to perform functions, such as operating our version of what Earth people call ‘cabs,’ but those were just complex programs without self-awareness. They couldn’t make decisions on their own. They simply followed their programming. If a situation truly arose that was beyond that, they would have to call for assistance.”

Martin smiled like a proud father as the two bodies continued to move around. “Keep working on things, like we suggested. If one of the electronic components of your bodies is going to fail, it should do so within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The parts that are hydraulically operated will need a little preventative maintenance every month, to make sure there’s no excessive wear. We’ve shown Toby where to lubricate everything on you, as well.”

“What kind of operating range do they have from here?” I asked.

“That’s the other thing we’re going to be working on tomorrow and Tuesday. The KZSU pole, since it’s really not an actual tower, gives us five hundred feet above sea level. We’ve gotten the cable in so we can start running that in the morning, and we expect the rest of the transmitter equipment by early afternoon. We’ll be able to send out a five thousand watt effective radiated power signal.” He picked up a map of California off a table and pulled a pencil out to draw on it. “The mountains to the west of here will block us from getting to the Pacific, but we’ll have coverage along the east slopes. That’ll get us up to the San Bruno Mountain, so San Francisco itself is out, but everything else south of there on this side of the Bay is open.”

He drew a line to the south through Loyola, extending it to the Calero Reservoir. “Terrain and signal strength should get us this far, but this niche back to the west where Los Gatos is, would probably cause loss of signal. Then from San Jose maybe all the way up to Richmond on the east side of the Bay, again with the west slope of the mountains being somewhat accessible, but potentially causing LOS as well. There’s more than enough power to deal with potential blind spots due to buildings and such, so unless they literally go into a full Faraday cage like your house, they’re good to go.”

He grinned. “You know, I’ve heard of a double-wide, but never a nineteen-wide.”

I snorted. “Don’t worry, it’s only going to have to get bigger. And there are still some rooms I haven’t been in, even though we’ve lived here for eight months. Once I beat Shiva in the Spring, I’ll still have almost two years as a student here, which means I expect six to twelve more babies. Even when we sort of permanently move back to Kansas, we’re going to effectively need a mansion. Which I find annoying, but as the kids grow up, we’ll need the bedrooms and bathrooms. Unlike Mike Brady, I’m not going to make three boys and three girls share one bathroom, with interconnected doors, no less. I’m not even an architect, and I know that was a very bad idea with puberty and step-kids.”

Gwendolyn giggled, then asked, “Sort of permanently?”

“Pakistan just finished building the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the Presidential Palace, in 1981. Since Islamabad is going to be the capital city for Punjab, and I’m the ruler of Punjab, that’ll be one of our homes. We’ve also got an entire wing in the Third Royal Palace in Riyadh, since Hannah, Jennifer, and I are all also members of the Saudi Royal family. I haven’t had anything built in Adak or near Uluru yet, and I almost forgot about Yakima in Washington. Shame on me for that.”

Mycroft spoke up. “Don’t forget Geneva, too, since you’re the number three man of the world government. I’m quite sure Walter is already counting the days until he can hand that job over to you.”

I stopped, then looked at Mycroft. “You know, I’ve never told you to do something physically impossible, but ... shove that thought up your metallic ass. I may go find a deserted island by then.”

Pahto zoomed her screen in so we could see her grin. “Well, it’s not like you won’t have the Presidential Suite of the biggest resort ever seen in Las Vegas that’s yours, too. Oh, wait, you will. So I’m sure you’ll always have some place you can sleep.”

I saluted her with a single finger as well.

All of the biological people in the room except me laughed at that.

“Okay, unrelated to these two ... oh, wait, it’s still related, darn it. Are the four of you okay with working on making more bodies for them in Kansas, so you can still run your electronics business? I know I sort of assumed that in our conversation, but I do want to make sure.”

Randall chuckled. “It’s actually fine. Mycroft and Pahto have access to phone lines, and nothing we’re doing is going to be so time critical that we can’t work around it. We’ll be working with Cisco – Robert already called Len and Sandy Bosack for us – to work on data transfer. The FCC recently released more bandwidth for radio communications, so we’re working on different things. Rather than real-time responses for video, many of the responses could be programmed into the devices, so the only thing needed is audio plus sending the camera signals back. There’s a technology that allows for signal compression, so one of the things we’re going to work on is allowing them to have a remote in someplace like Kansas, while they remain here, and still operate it in real-time, or near real-time. Depending upon if the signal has to go up and down off a satellite, there might be a slight delay, similar to those of our remotely operated moon explorers.”

Martin then said, “We’ll be able to build them in Kansas and do most of the testing there, and then simply send them out here for usage. We’ve already had discussion about what kinds of tools and implements they want on Model Two. We’re also in close contact with the Japanese, and I think we’re going to have at least a twelve inch LCD on their next remote bodies, too.”

Olivia smiled. “In other words, yeah, the four of us are, to use your poker expression, ‘all-in’ on making more bodies for them. The minor detail that with their assistance, we’ll be the leading business in making remote control robots for industrial and other uses is simply a bonus.”

At my look of surprise, she nodded. “Yes, we’re definitely going to be a subsidiary of CEDEM. We’ve already figured out that we can make a tracked vehicle with camera and lights that could go into tunnels that are too difficult for people, such as enclosed spaces in factories where there could be carbon monoxide buildup, or for police for bomb disposal.”

I shrugged. “Okay. Your baby, run with it.”

Ivory Awarai Lewis decided that two in the morning was an appropriate time to come out and see the world, so we were woken up for that. I didn’t mind in the least, being in the delivery room with Holly to help take care of any labor pains. Labor lasted almost three hours with Helen, but once she was out, Ivory was such a cute baby that none of us minded in the least.

One thing we did do was head off the massive delivery of flowers, making sure that only those from family or incredibly close friends made it into the room, with the rest being again distributed to other patients and facilities. Once things had settled down by early afternoon, William and Leah came with a special present.

“That’s a pretty long stick, William,” I commented. Then I noticed Leah had one as well.

Helen shook her head. “Oh, my. How long have the two of you been planning this?”

“Not just the two of us, and quite some time, my Queen,” William replied. “This has been under discussion since the day you met my Master. Jeffery Jaako and Andrew Marra gave Charley a mission that you were unaware of, when they returned home from Florida. Then when I took service with my Master, Leah and I have been able to keep them informed as to your progress. You are the Dreamer, the Queen of our People, and your child will be heir to your powers and our fealty. Charley succeeded in early May, and we’ve had these ever since he was able to get them here safely. My wife and I have been practicing. We’re not worthy to do this for you and the heir, but we are here.”

I could see tears falling from Helen’s cheeks. “You are worthy, William and Leah Dangu. You honor us with your gift.”

They nodded, then took the long sticks and brought them to their mouths. I mentally heard Helen say, ‘These are didgeridoos, very special ones. I may have to finally forgive Charley.’