Chapter 13

Diana received a phone call Monday afternoon resulting in a family discussion when I got home that I wasn’t necessarily happy about. At the same time, I also realized from my bathroom discussion with Ryan White, that perhaps it was time to present my side of things. Having both Ed Bradley and Morley Safer around for several days should allow that to happen properly.

Something I hadn’t actually considered were the changes to my personal schedule. I got up Tuesday morning like normal, intending to go to class. Elroy was already waiting in our dining room.

“Ah, good morning,” he said. “Holly and Gloria made it back to Kansas last night just fine. Earl and Jasmine are dealing with the final details of both your lawsuit and the actual trial. That means you get me for your meeting this morning with the scariest television journalists in the world.”

“Um, Elroy, as much as I appreciate that – and there’s no one I’d want with me more than you – I’m not going to let them interfere with my classes.”

“What classes? I’m going to make a guess that you forgot.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

Margie looked over from her seat in amusement. “Yep, he forgot. While the rest of us are slaving over our textbooks so we can gain some additional education in these last few weeks of the quarter, leave it to Cal to forget he no longer has classes on Tuesday and Thursday because he’s already passed them.”

“Um, guilty as charged?”

Marcia sharply stated, “Never say those words when a camera is rolling. You never know when they might be edited so they’re taken out of context. You use that answer too frequently, it’s become a habit for you, so watch that. And Elroy, you’re partially wrong. The joke is, the good news is, they want to interview me on television. The bad news is, it’s Mike Wallace with ‘60 Minutes.’ This is Ed Bradley and Morley Safer. That doesn’t mean they won’t be tough interviews, but at least they don’t think Cal’s done anything wrong. Yet.”

“I’ll grant you that one, Marcia. Come on, boy, this ought to be fun.”

Surprisingly enough, the morning was. It was decided they would hang around with me all week and through the game Saturday. The main reason they sent both Morley and Ed out was so they could switch off, with one reporter and camera crew with me, while the other went around with a camera crew doing investigations. Then, to make sure things weren’t being hidden, they’d switch off. Elroy and I discussed things with them, and we set a few ground rules for them that they easily agreed to.

We were just finishing up our discussion when I was mentally contacted by Pahto.

‘Cal, we have a CERT emergency in South America. An active volcano in Colombia is about to erupt, and the government is not warning and evacuating people appropriately. I estimate a minimum of twenty thousand will be killed.’

‘Contact Mina, call Cris Bauman and Otis Bowen and let them know. Let’s get things in motion.’

“Um, who is covering me first?” I asked.

“That would be me,” Ed Bradley said.

“Good. Elroy, go ahead and give Morley the tour. Ed, come with me.” I turned and whistled to Dave. “Pahto just contacted me. Mina will be deploying. Let’s try to get ahead of this, shall we?”

“Yes, Sir,” Dave said, keying his radio. “All units, this is Parsons. Activation alert, CERT South America. I repeat, activation alert, CERT South America. Quarterback is heading home now.”

I heard, “Parsons, this is Simon. Elton John will meet you there.”

Ed slipped into the Suburban with us, then looked over in surprise when he realized someone was already in the back seat.

“Don’t mind me. I’m simply here to protect my Master and do his will,” Sayel said.

“No, that’s ... fine. I just literally didn’t see you get in is all.”

“Good,” Sayel said with a smile.

Dave turned on the emergency lights. We got home less than a minute before Mina and her guard, Nicole Simon. Mike was right behind her. We all ran into the living room, where both televisions were on.

“What’s going on?” Mike asked.

Pahto was on one of the televisions, looking like she was standing in a field, appearing to look up at a volcano.

“This is the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. It has a very active history, and is known for creating what are called lahars, mud and debris flows that sweep down the mountain and pretty much kill everything in their path. This volcano is about eighty miles west of Bogota. While the new government of Colombia is considerably better than the one that existed prior to the visit of the Messenger from Above, it is still fairly incompetent. This volcano shows all of the signs of preparing to erupt as early as tonight, or as late as tomorrow night. Regardless of timing, it will erupt.”

I picked up a phone and called Cristian. He answered on the second ring.

“Cristian Bauman.”

“Cris, Cal. Is Colombia a part of the Federation?”

“Yes, it is, my brother. Otis and I were both called by your assistant. He is on the phone to the President of Colombia right now. The government there is still relatively new, and is afraid to act one way or the other.”

“Explain to them that tens of thousands of people will die if they don’t evacuate now! The South American CERT team has been activated, and Mina is getting ready to fly down to Bogota to coordinate. General Douglas is also sending two thousand troops, and is ordering two of my available aircraft carriers to the area to act as support ships. This isn’t going to be an explosion like Mount Saint Helens, with huge clouds of volcanic ash. This eruption is going to create a lot of heat, melt all the snow, and then bury people alive under mud if they don’t get out.”

“I actually understand that, my brother. The government is not corrupt, simply not yet capable of dealing with national emergencies. One moment, Otis has just hung up.” He put me on hold.

When he came back on, he was seething from anger. “Tell your wife to stand down. The government of Colombia has officially told the Federation that they can handle this internal situation on their own. They appreciate that we are concerned, but do not feel the situation is severe enough to warrant anything further.”

“You’re shitting me,” I said in disbelief.

I heard the voice on the phone change. “I wish I was, Minister Lewis. I’m sorry I don’t know you as well as Cristian does, because I’d like to. We’re the Terran government, responsible for the planet as a whole and not over what each specific nation does within its own borders. They’re idiots, and I simply pray that God has mercy on the souls of those they’ve just condemned to death.”

“Thank you, Otis. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to get together in January. Tell Cris I said to give his wives our love.” I very, very carefully hung up the phone.

Mina came out from the bedroom, dressed and ready.

I shook my head. “Go change back. Stand all CERT teams down. Mike, cancel my orders if you’ve already given them.”

Mina looked at me in shock. “What?”

I collapsed into a chair, then motioned for her to come to me. “Colombia is a member of the Federation. They are a sovereign nation, so what happens within their borders is their own business. They have voluntarily declined all assistance and refused all help. Tens of thousands of people are needlessly going die tomorrow because the government of Colombia is stupid.” Mina simply crawled into my lap and started crying. I patted her back and comforted her like I would any of the children when they were upset. After a couple of minutes, I realized that Ed Bradley was simply standing back, being quiet.

“Ed, I didn’t think we’d have quite this big of an event your first day with us.”

He shook his head. “That’s quite all right. I just want to clarify a couple of things, if I may?” At my nod, he continued with, “The young woman in your arms right now is one of your wives, correct?”

“She’d better be. This is Mina. She’s the CERT – CEDEM Emergency Response Team – leader for South America. Responding to an emergency like this is what she and her people train to do. They go in during the initial disaster phase, when the locals are still overwhelmed, with trained and experienced personnel and both specialized and basic equipment the local people may not have available. During the Mexico City earthquake earlier this year, Mina and another of my wives, Saryu – who is the CERT leader for North America – both spent just over a week in Mexico City, coordinating and running the immediate rescue operations, and another of my wives also helped, simply due to the scope of the disaster. An individual team may only have twenty or thirty people in it, but they go in with enough basic equipment to supply three or four hundred others. Keep in mind, we’ve got half a dozen teams, or more, for each continent. Then, when the immediate rescue operations are done and things switch to a recovery effort, the teams leave their basic gear and come home. I can replace all the equipment for the next emergency. That stuff’s cheap, relatively speaking.”

I grimaced then. “Presuming we get to give it away in the first place, and help those that we could rescue. I hesitate to make any kind of comment that could be taken as on the record regarding the government of Colombia at this moment. I’m quite sure it would be the wrong one.”

“Hallelujah, you’re growing up,” Mike said.

My middle finger in the air towards him was my sole response. After a couple minutes, Mina finished crying, then gave me a single kiss on the cheek, and went into her room to change out of her uniform.

“Master, do you need anything to destroy, to get it out of your system?”

“Thank you for asking, Sayel. No, I’m fine. Seriously.”

Mike gave me a look of disbelief. “Okay, for once, I’m with him on this one.”

I shook my head. “Am I happy that people are going to die? No, not in the least. Is there anything I can legitimately do about it? Again, no, not in the least. I’m not saying I have to make the best of it, but ... realistically, there simply are things I can’t help. What’s the old phrase, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink?”

“Damn. You’re going to use this as an example of what will happen if a nation decides to ignore the freely given help, aren’t you?” Mike said.

“There’s going to be a lot of need for that help in March. Let’s just say that I’m going to have a long memory on where I prioritize assistance then, if the need arises.”

Ed Bradley frowned at that. “Pardon me, but that sounds ... cold.”

“Welcome to the trolley problem in real life, Ed.” I spent the next half hour explaining to him what the trolley problem was, and how it applied.

Since this wasn’t the first time I’d had someone follow me – even with cameras – my instructors on Wednesday weren’t too bothered. Coach wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it when I showed up with a cameraman and reporter for the quarterback meeting, but we just had Morley sit off to one side while we did our thing.

That evening, Morley had supper with us, then spent some time getting to know my wives and the children. I was surprised the phone didn’t ring at all that evening. I later found out Mycroft and Pahto were intercepting and answering all calls on purpose. Once he was gone, I talked with Dora about the additional blood tests that had been run both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ed Bradley was there for breakfast with us. We purposely didn’t discuss Colombia. He rode with me to the hospital.

“I noticed you have two slightly different wordings on your lab jackets. Why is that?”

“I still wear the ones with just my name in my lab, since everyone there knows my credentials already. It’s not like they don’t all work for me, after all. We’ll go there after we’re done this morning, so you can see a little bit of what’s going on. I also used to wear them when I was doing my clinicals. Now, when I’m seeing patients, I wear this one, instead.”

“I know you have several PhDs, but I take it this means you’re actually a medical doctor as well?”

“I expected to earn it, just not quite as quickly as I did. I still have to do my residency, but once you graduate from a school of medicine, you’re an MD. I’m not licensed to practice in California, but since we’re not in California anymore, I’m good. I trust David Korn on that,” I said with a smile.

David was waiting for me at the hospital. He wordlessly handed two folders of paperwork to me. I scanned them, then nodded.

“You want to come along?” I asked.

“This is on you, Cal,” he answered.

I tucked both folders under my arm, then walked over to the staff elevator. Ed was quiet while he and the cameraman rode up with me, then followed me down the hall. I stopped at the nurse’s station and got the chart for Ryan.

The door to his room was partially open. I knocked on it before walking in. “Hi, guy. Sorry, I haven’t been around to see you since Monday. I’m still a student here for some other subjects. Have they been treating you okay?”

Ryan was sitting in his bed, his empty breakfast tray on the cart off to one side. “Well, other than the hospital food, which everyone knows leaves a lot to be desired, yeah. I’ve been in a lot of them, you know.”

“Yeah. Oh, this is Ed Bradley, from ‘60 Minutes.’ He’s actually not here for you, he’s here for me. Somebody decided they should see if I’m real or not. Are your Mom and step-dad here this morning?”

“Everyone’s around. Steve went out to smoke a cigarette, and Mom and Amber went to the cafeteria to get something. They should be back in a couple minutes, if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine. Well, I suppose I ought to make use of this fancy stethoscope my wives got me, otherwise the cameraman will think I’m faking it. I think you know the drill.” I put both folders onto a side table as he slipped the gown aside, then I listened to his heart and lungs.

Jeanne White and her daughter stepped in just as I was finishing up. “Oh, my. What’s going on? Wait, aren’t you Ed Bradley?”

“Yes, Ma’am. We’re here to follow Doctor Lewis around this week. Is it okay with you if we film in here, since I know Ryan is a minor?” Ed asked.

“Not the first time we’ve been on television, sure. If Doctor Lewis doesn’t object, that is.”

“It’s fine with me. Ah, come on in, Steve. Would you do me a favor, and close the door? Thank you. Please, go ahead and have a seat.”

“Okay, now you’ve got me worried,” Jeanne said.

“It’s simply for privacy,” I said. “One of the things I was warned about was that I hadn’t quite developed that calm and detached attitude that doctors are supposed to have, so if my bedside manner leaves something to be desired, I apologize in advance. You all met Dora the other day, she’s been doing the rest of the blood work on the samples you’ve provided. You also met Doctor Korn. He had the latest reports from this morning for me and gave them to me just before I came in.”

I picked Ryan’s folder up. “Well, I have bad news for you. We need this hospital room for someone that’s sick, so pack your stuff up and get out.”

There was dead silence for a good five seconds, then, in a high pitched voice, Jeanne asked, “What did you say?”

“Oh, I forgot, you came out here in a military jet. Well, I’m sure this week of school is shot for you. I’ll write you an excuse for the rest of the week. There’s a whole big city out there with lots of tourist attractions. I’m sure I can find someone to drive you around and show you the sights. So, get your butt out of that bed, get dressed, and get out of here. Go see San Francisco, eat at Fisherman’s Wharf, and we’ll get you back to Indiana in time for you to get back to classes next Monday. Sound like a plan to you?”

Ryan looked at me with wide eyes. “It worked? I don’t have AIDS any more?”

I affected a puzzled look. “Of course not. You got the shot on Monday. You were cured then. The rest of the time was simply us getting enough proof that we can send off to the FDA.”

It became apparent then why I’d asked Steve to shut the door. Ryan screamed so loud, the cameraman had to yank his earphones off. After about five minutes of near pandemonium in the room, a full box of tissue was used up, and everyone had calmed down, I held up my hand.

“Okay, that was the bad news. The good news, as it were, is that there was a side-effect I wasn’t expecting in the least. So, this one is completely on me. It’s going to require a lot of study on our part to figure this one out. What that means is we’re going to be doing follow-up with you, through your doctors in Indiana. You’re not going to need clotting factor shots any longer. You no longer have hemophilia.”

Jeanne looked at me. “But, it’s genetic! How the hell is that possible? I’m a carrier, which I didn’t know before Ryan was born.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s something we’ll need to figure out. I suppose, worst case, we put on the shot, ‘Warning, may also cure hemophilia.’ I do a lot of genetic research as well, so we’ll just have to figure that one out. I hope that’s not a problem, is it?”

We had a long discussion then, that lasted close to an hour. After that, I got kissed on the cheek by both Jeanne and Amber, then we left the room. I made sure a couple of our guards would take them on tours and otherwise see to their needs. I stopped by the nurses station once I’d left the room, to sign the discharge paperwork.

I grabbed the charts for the Burk family, then Ed and I went to see my other patients. Their room had two hospital beds in it, as well as a crib.

Lauren was sitting in a chair, holding Dwight, while Pat was laying on one of the beds with his eyes closed.

“Hi, Lauren. Is everything okay with Pat?” I asked. “Oh, and this is Ed Bradley, with ‘60 Minutes.’ He’s here to see if I’m real or not, if it’s okay for him to be in here.”

“That’s fine. Pat’s just tired is all. Dwight didn’t want to go to sleep last night, and he stayed up to hold him and rock him. You weren’t kidding when you said it’d be a nasty defecation. I had a slight fever, just over a degree and a half, all of Tuesday, too. It really took a lot out of both of us.”

“Sleepless nights with your child. I’ve been fortunate in that respect. I don’t need a lot of sleep, but I also have seventeen wives to help with our babies. I looked at your chart. It looks like Dwight had his nasty poop on Monday, but the two of you didn’t have yours until Tuesday. Oh, and I apologize for not coming in sooner, but I’m also a student in other subjects.”

“I didn’t figure you were a regular doctor, but I didn’t quite know what to make of you when we met you with the President on Monday. I’m still a bit in shock about how fast things went, with that Air Force doctor showing up, saying he had a shot for each of us that was personally provided by the President, and then asked us to get on that jet and fly to California. This has all been just nearly overwhelming.”

I nodded. “I understand. It’s my understanding neither of you have jobs right now, is that right?”

She shook her head. “I still do, but Pat can’t work at the Center any more. They’ve switched me from being a nurse and helping residents, to staff duties.”

“Okay. Well, let me go over the medical stuff first, then we’ll figure the rest out, okay?”

“Thank you, that’d be great,” she answered.

“Sure. Since you’re awake, I’ll go ahead and check your heart and breathing. Lean forward, please. Good, thank you.”

I made sure my stethoscope was warm before checking Dwight. He didn’t wake up, and everything sounded normal to both my regular and enhanced hearing. I touched Pat on the shoulder.

“Pat, this is Doctor Lewis, are you awake?”

He sighed and opened his eyes. “Yeah. I just feel like I’ve been through a wringer is all, between Dwight being so much more alert and active than he’s been in a couple months, plus you weren’t kidding about those bathroom trips.”

“I understand, and I’m sorry about that. Let me do my thing by checking your heart and lungs, please. You don’t have to sit up, you’re fine.” I listened to him both ways as well.

“Thank you. So, what do, or did, the two of you do for a living?”

“I’m an RN, which is one of the reasons I’ve been wondering what the hell is going on. I know how good the Stanford School of Medicine is, so that’s the only reason we went along with that Air Force doctor. Oh, I’m at the Ebensburg Center. Pat was one of the maintenance men there. It’s a State School for the mentally retarded, fifty miles east of Pittsburgh on US 22, if you’re familiar with the main roads.”

“Well, I haven’t been there, but I’ve seen a map. So yeah. Did you know who else was on the jet with you on the way out here?”

“Yeah, that was Ryan White and his family,” Pat said. “He’s like me, he’s got hemophilia, and he got this shit the same way I did, from injections of the clotting factor that were infected. That’s ironic, the stuff that was supposed to help keep me alive ended up killing me and my whole family.”

“It would have, yes,” I said. “Pat, I apologize up front, but I’m going to direct some things to Lauren, as I didn’t know she was a nurse.”

“That’s fine. She understands this stuff, I just do what she tells me.”

I grinned. “So, you’ve definitely got Rule One of a Happy Marriage down. The wife is right. Of course, Rule Two is simple. When in doubt, refer to Rule One.” I sighed, then. “For good or bad, though, I have seventeen wives, so let’s just say that from my perspective, Mel Brooks was right. ‘It’s good to be the King,’ and leave it at that.”

Lauren had been looking at me, so I saw the look of recognition on her face. “You’re that kid that’s got the newspapers and religious zealots all freaked out. Now I know why you’ve got Ed Bradley with you.”

I caught myself, and instead said, “Yes, and they’re not the only ones. So, what do you know about recombinant DNA gene-splicing regarding treatment of viral infections?”

She frowned. “I know what recombinant DNA technology is. It’s only a few years old, and Lilly uses it for the creation of their human insulin. As for treating infections with it, then no.”

“Well, I’ve got a lab here on campus that I’m going to show Ed – but not his cameraman – later. If you’d like, I can show you as well. That’s where I came up with Resist Heat and No Regrets, and where we came up with the shot you all received. There’s been one side effect of it that affected Pat, just like it did Ryan. It’s something none of us expected, but we’re now two for two on curing hemophilia with it. Now, whether it’s because you both had AIDS that it did this, we’ll have to do more experiments on. But other than that, um, all three of you are good, otherwise.”

“No AIDS?” Lauren asked in disbelief.

I shook my head. “No AIDS, no hemophilia. Dwight was close. Based upon examination of his blood and stool markers, rather bluntly, he would have died next month. Now? All three of you are cured.”

I’d already casually picked up two boxes of tissues, so they were available to help with the tears that flowed from everyone in the room. Including me, this time. Even though they were supposed to just be observers, I noticed both Ed and his cameraman were crying just as hard as the rest of us.

When we were all finally done wiping, Ed said, “I thought you were the doctor here. Aren’t you supposed to be calm and detached?”

“You’ve met my family. Dwight’s about a month older than Harry, and there’s another five and eight-ninth’s that are younger than he is at home. I hope I never become so calm and detached that I can’t help celebrate saving people’s lives.”

Lauren sniffed and wiped again, then said, “That sets you completely apart from every other doctor I’ve ever known.”

“Good. How deep are your ties to Pennsylvania?”

“We’ve got family in the area, mostly down in West Virginia,” Pat said. “Why?”

“Well, I’ve already got one RN that works in my lab. I could use another, because I’ve got so many different lines of research we’re investigating it’s not funny. I also have two PhDs and about a dozen graduate assistants, but they can’t help with the medical things. There’s also enough stuff going on as far as electrical, fans, and everything else, that instead of just using regular workmen, it could use its own dedicated maintenance man, if you’d like, Pat.”

“Can you just do that?” he asked.

I smiled. “Pat, I own Stanford. You’re not even in the United States right now, you’re in my Kingdom. So, yeah, I can pretty much do whatever I want. Of course, that would mean you’d actually have to live here, which, again, wouldn’t be a problem.”

Lauren frowned. “But ... I don’t think our insurance is going to cover paying for our stay here. That’s going to be...”

I cut her off. “Absolutely free. Courtesy of some weird laws, President Reagan actually had to pay me for the shots the three of you received. Everything else is on me. Tell you what. This has been a big day for the three of you. All three of you were sick, now you’re not. I’m not going to just kick you out on the streets. Rest up, talk things over. I’ll have a couple of my security people hang around to help you. Ryan has to go back to school, so I discharged him. I’ll sign the discharge paperwork for the three of you as well, but take your time. And if you want to go see some of the sights here, and spend a week or so just – well – rejoining the living, then do so. We’ll give you something to drive, or someone can drive you around if the idiotic traffic here bothers you. Oh, and if you need clothes and such, just tell security. They can either take you shopping or just get stuff for you.”

Pat gave me a big hug and Lauren kissed me on the cheek as well before we left.

I signed the paperwork for them, and made sure security would have someone available to help them for however long it took.

“Well, Ed, you ready for some lunch?” I asked.

I had Morley again Friday while Ed was off doing other investigative journalism. Saturday morning, Morley headed back to New York while Ed rode with us to Phoenix in Pacific. It was right at seventy degrees, with a very light wind, at kickoff. Sun Devil’s Stadium could seat seventy thousand people. It was nearly full, primarily with their fans, although we did end up with about five or six thousand of ours there as well.

Last week, they’d beaten the Huskies pretty solidly, 36 to 7, and had high hopes of giving us our first loss of the year. We ended up letting Fred play the entire fourth quarter instead of John. It didn’t matter a whole lot, as when I left after the third quarter, we had a forty-six point lead. I had my third four hundred yard passing game, with five passing touchdowns. The final score was 63 to 21.

Once the game was finished, Ed shook hands with everyone, then caught a late flight to New York. Once we were on the plane, Coach got on the intercom.

“Listen up, Cardinal. We will have practices every day next week like normal. We beat the Golden Bears last year. It’s time to do it again, this year. The banner will be hung from Meyer Library Tuesday afternoon before practice. Everyone should be there that’s not in class. The weather doesn’t look like it’s going to give us a problem with the bonfire on Lake Lag this year, so that’ll be after practice Tuesday. The Gaieties will have performances Wednesday through Friday. If you can make one performance, that’s fine, but not mandatory. This is going to be the only home game where we will have bed checks by the coaches every night. Well, except for Cal. In your case, no wearing you out the night before by your wives!”

{ Editor’s Note: https://gaieties.stanford.edu/ }

That got a laugh from everyone in the plane.

“Gentlemen, there are two teams who remain undefeated so far besides us. Penn State, and Bowling Green. Needless to say, I have no fear whatsoever if we end up meeting Bowling Green in a bowl game. Greg can start if that happens.”

There was a cheer from us at that comment.

“Okay, we all know we’re not going to meet Bowling Green in the Rose Bowl. Which, by the way, we’ve been officially invited to play in Pasadena. So, we know where we’re playing on New Year’s Day, now we just have to confirm who we’ll be playing. It’ll either be the Hawkeyes or the Wolverines. But we’ll find out soon enough, so let’s make sure we concentrate on not only keeping The Axe, but on chopping the legs out from under the Golden Bears next Saturday afternoon. Now, there is one more thing, too, so listen up. We will not be having any post-game celebrations beyond The Axe ceremony. As a team, we will eat a meal, then as a team, we will travel down to San Jose State for the last two games of the Anheuser-Busch Classic. If the Stanford Women’s Basketball team loses their first game Friday night, then they will play the first game that night, and we will be there to show them our support. However, since I expect they will win Friday, then we shall be present as a team to show them our support.”