Chapter 16

“Are we going back to Kansas this morning?” Eve asked once we were awake.

I shook my head. “Not unless you really want to. I want to spend some time talking with Mycroft and Pahto, and otherwise finishing up a couple of doctoral dissertations.”

She chuckled, then said, “Is it a bad thing that I just want to relax, too? I thought I was prepared for basketball. It’s not physically challenging, any more than it is for Mom to blast through a golf course or for you to play football. It’s the mental challenge. Our season has more than twice games than you play, not counting championships. It’s the player’s level of skill. I think I’m making a difference with making the other girls on the team play better. But some of our opponents are damned good teams.”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

She frowned, then asked, “What’s so darned funny?”

“I think things will be better for you next year. I do apologize for laughing, but I had two major advantages over you. One was being the Salthawks quarterback and getting both state and national recognition before we came here. The other was that this wasn’t Coach Elway’s first year here, and more importantly, the team watched films of what I could do on the field. So the team made the decision to be in the best physical shape they could be, because as a group they knew how good I was, before I started practice. The big difference between high school and college is I no longer play both ways.”

She nodded. “Yeah, and the Stanford defense just isn’t that good, is it? I hope that doesn’t cause you guys problems in the Rose Bowl. And I get what you’re saying. I was shoved down Coach VanDerveer’s throat more because of you than her seeing and knowing what I could do on the court before we started here.”

She sighed. “Oh, well. We’ve got two games this next weekend, up in Spokane, Washington. It’s another invitational, like at San Jose, so a four team tournament.”

I nodded. “We’ll use two jets for that one. One for the family, and one for your team.” Then I thought about it for a moment. “Um, your Coach does know about that, doesn’t she?”

Eve nodded. “I get the same protection on road trips that you do. That’s another issue with our team. They can’t quite wrap their heads around me being an actual Princess.”

I chuckled. “Well, I told Coach VanDerveer you’d be missing the games in Nevada because of my official coronation. She said she’d talk to you about it.”

“Oh, she has. I think she’s starting to come around, now that she’s seen me play. She knows I’m not a ball hog or a glory hound.” She snorted, then. “It’s funny just how much better – how in shape and physically capable – all of us are, even without using powers.”

I grinned as I said, “I like your shape,” then pulled her to me and spent a couple of hours showing her how much I like it.

After showering, we went out and did something we hadn’t done for a while – we made our own breakfast. While a lot of our security forces had to work on holiday weekends, we’d given our kitchen crew the time off to spend with their own families.

Mycroft spoke up while we were cleaning up. “Are you available to take a phone call from Coach Elway?”

“Sure, but if you could run it through the speakers, that’d be great.”

From the speakers, Coach said, “Cal, I wasn’t sure if you’d still be here today or if you’d head back to Kansas.”

“I need to finish up some papers for a couple more doctoral dissertations sometime this weekend, so Eve and I are just relaxing here. What’s going on?”

“With this being the last real weekend of games, and us not having one, I’m inviting all the guys on the team who either didn’t go home for the holiday, or live close enough, to come to my house for a cookout and football watching day. We sort of decided on this at the last minute, so that’s why I’m calling around this morning.”

“Um, you want to have it here, instead? John’s the only one who’s ever been here, and I’ve got multiple big screen televisions. We’ve also got a commercial kitchen, since it’s cloudy and damp outside.”

It was quiet for a couple of seconds, Coach chuckled. “Sorry, I had two thoughts that were irrelevant. The first was, wouldn’t you need your parent’s permission? The second was, is your house big enough?”

“If there’s no more than forty people, we can do it all inside. Well, eighty, if we use the dining room as well.”

“Some of the guys want to bring their girlfriends, if that’s okay.”

I laughed. “I promise not to steal any of them. Oh, and it’s BYOB if they want any, and I insist on them being responsible if they do.”

“Certainly. Thanks! I’ll let everyone know of the change of location. See you in, what, two hours?”

Eve nodded, so I said, “That’ll work. We’ll provide the hot dogs and burgers. Thanks, Coach.” Mycroft disconnected the call.

“I just let Mom know that they’ll need to bring plenty of ground beef home from Kansas, because we’re going to raid the freezers here. You send security out to the store for hot dogs, cheese slices, and both hot dog and hamburger buns. Oh, plus lettuce and tomatoes, and lots of two liters! Probably some more condiments, too. I’ll get the ground beef out of the freezer, thaw it, and start making patties.”

Just over half the team, their girlfriends, and most of the coaches and their wives came over. There was uniform amazement from everyone about our computer desk set-ups, but when I mentioned the cost, that went away.

Once everyone was present and getting ready, I did make one announcement.

“Okay, Cardinal, listen up! You’re all aware of the whole Guardian of the Earth thing, and for those of you ladies that aren’t, ask your men to explain later. Due to the security I need because of that, this house is a Faraday cage, and I have a created intelligence inside that monitors literally everything inside the house. He’s also wired into the house, and there are speakers in every room – including the bathrooms. If you’re using the toilet and run out of toilet paper, just speak out loud and ask him where it is. Do not go searching on your own, please.”

Mycroft chuckled from the speakers. “No, that would definitely qualify as a bad idea. My loyalty is to Cal and his family first and foremost, so I will do everything I can to protect them.” Then he showed himself on a television.

“You’ll note there are assorted cameras around the house as well. I monitor those so I can have ‘face-to-face’ discussions on televisions, as you can see. Simply assume all of the cameras are on, even if the television below it is not. Thank you, and enjoy your football games. Oh, and if you have any questions for me, simply ask, even if you’re in another room. I can handle multiple conversations at the same time.”

Coach Elway looked at me. “Is that your home computer?”

I chuckled. “My grandfather helped program him. He’s one of the few things that I was able to salvage from the lab where my parents worked. You don’t even want to know what I went through to get him. Oh, and his name is Mycroft.”

We ended up having a blast, even Mycroft. He hadn’t had much opportunity to interact with ‘normal’ people. While most of the girlfriends were content to sit and watch the games with their boyfriends, a few of them went into another room to talk about whatever it is that normal Earth girls talk about. It wasn’t common knowledge around campus, but due to the parties we’d had, the team and their girlfriends knew Robert Heinlein was a friend of mine. A couple of them were also fans of his, so one of them asked Mycroft about his name. Once the source was confirmed, the other one asked if he’d also created the ‘Michelle’ persona that Robert’s Mycroft had made.

He hadn’t, which ended up getting Pahto involved as well, and by the time the girls rejoined us for the last game, we now had two computers that were equally comfortable with presenting themselves as either male or female personalities.

Once that game was done, everyone helped clean up, making things easy. Then everyone but Coach Elway and his wife, Jan, headed home.

“Two things, Cal. First, thank you for having all of us over today on short notice. Jan was ready for a home invasion, but this worked out better. In line with that, I know you spent some money on food that I’d planned on spending. While I also know that to you, it’s simply a drop in the bucket, I’m still going to give you this money, and you’re going to take it, to help cover expenses.”

I simply nodded as he gave me two hundred dollars. We’d actually gone through nearly a hundred pounds of hamburgers and hot dogs.

“The other thing is this. Eve, I know you have games Friday and Saturday. Having said that, I had an interesting conversation with someone who shall remain nameless, but we all know. Cal will not be in attendance at your games, because he and I will be in New York, Friday afternoon through Sunday night for the Heisman Award ceremonies, whether Cal wins on Saturday or not.”

“I’m not surprised, I just didn’t know when they’d be happening. I’ll tell the Coach I’ll have to miss those games, then,” Eve said.

Elway shook his head. “No, you won’t.”

She looked at him in surprise. “I won’t?”

“Nope. Not unless you plan on riding the bench for the rest of the season. Oh, I’m not Coach VanDerveer, so I don’t know how she operates. But that’s how I’d do things, if I were her. Missing the games in January for the coronation? Yeah, that’ll be forgiven, because you are a Princess of the Kingdom. But this isn’t Kingdom business, this is football business.”

“Well, that sucks,” she said, then she nodded. “You’re right, too. Dammit.”

“Um ... I knew there was a possibility of the Heisman, but realistically, do you think I have any chance of winning it? If not, I’d just as soon go to Eve’s games,” I said.

Coach scratched his head, and replied, “I just don’t know. Yes, you’re a freshman – even if I know you’re not – so this was still your first year of college ball. You finished with the most yards passing of any quarterback this season, and you had no interceptions or dropped passes, which is unheard of.” He paused, then gave me a sharp look.

“All on the receivers, Coach. No ‘Guardian’ shit involved. Same as when I was in high school,” I said.

Jan Elway nodded and said, “That’s what I told Jack. I’ve been around football for way too long to not notice if something weird was going on. Oh, whatever strange secrets you have are still just those, but my husband had to tell me something when I realized how much better you are than our son.”

Coach also nodded, then said, “Add in forty-two touchdown passes, which puts you in second place of all time, five behind Jim McMahon in 1980 at Brigham Young, and he had a passing rating of one seventy-six point nine that year, while you’re at three forty-eight point nine, and I think you really have a shot.”

He bit his lip, then said, “The year John was nominated was the first year they invited more than just the winner to New York. He was so upset from The Big Game that he didn’t go. He felt like losing to Berkeley cost him the Heisman, and it probably did. Herschel Walker won that year, and John was second in voting. Jan’s right, and I’ll deny it if you ever ask me in front of him, but you’re a better player than John.”

“He’ll go, he just doesn’t know it yet,” Eve said. I’d noticed out of the corner of my eye that while the Elways had been talking, she’d had the ‘telepathic conversation’ look on her face.

Jan Elway nodded and said, “Listen to Eve on this one, Cal. Even if you’re not chosen, you’ll be meeting your peers, and the men you’ll either be playing with, or against, when you do play on Sunday.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. I don’t have classes on Friday, anyway. How many ... never mind, I’m guessing things are only set up in New York for there to be one woman with the nominees, not sixteen.”

“That’s right. Fortunately, since this isn’t game related and because most of the players are seniors, it’s possible they’re married. That means we don’t have to worry about bed checks. The only thing we do have to deal with is reporters and photographers. A lot of reporters and photographers.”

I grinned, then. “Including one Allison Candella, I presume. There’s no way that Jule doesn’t have her finger on the pulse of what’s going on.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny any discussion or knowledge otherwise,” Coach said.

“Figures it’d be her. As many exclusives and top stories she’s gotten from us, I’d have been shocked if she didn’t know some things already.”

“You’re one of the finalists. I know that. That’s literally all I know. There are too many sportswriters in the Far West and Southwest that’ve seen you play. They used to announce the results midweek, but with this new format of inviting the top few, it’s all kept secret by the accounting firm literally until the announcement.”

“As long as they’re not kept in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall’s porch,” Eve laughed.

Coach rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that was a bad Carnac the Magnificent Thursday, wasn’t it? ‘A bomb at the airport,’ and ‘What is it when Cal Lewis throws a pass at LAX?’ Well, if you win, at least it won’t be your first time on his show. And it’ll give you something to do during the winter quarter, because there will be a huge number of public appearances you’ll need to make.” Then he shrugged, and said, “I could be putting the cart before the horse here. Just be ready in case it happens.”

“That makes it easy, then. Marcia will be who goes with you, Friday,” Eve said. “She’s the one who’s most used to dealing with fame already, and won’t have any problem with smacking Cal on the back of the head if he acts up.”

That got a laugh from Coach and his wife. After that, they said their goodbyes and left.

Once they were gone, Eve and I went back to the living room and snuggled together on one of the love seats.

“Well, shit,” I said. “I didn’t even think about that possibility.”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry yourself about it, love. Our schedule’s pretty good after the New Year, with our travel games being on weekends. We have two away games during the week, but they’re close – USC and Berkeley. Also, this is still part of our plan for you to be well known and popular. Unless something drastic happens, you’ll still be in Punjab for a week or more after your coronation and will have to miss some of my games then. You’re the one who’s going to be ruling the world, not me.”

I sighed. “I don’t want to. Not anymore. I did, when I thought it was really the only way to keep the planet from destroying itself. Now? I feel like I need to give myself the same speech I gave Beth when I talked to her about ‘The Angels.’ I think I can do more for everyone by simply staying behind the scenes. Oh, I’ll still be the ruler of the Kingdom, and everything that entails. But I’ve done way too much blatant interference in how things are done here.”

She was quiet for a few seconds, then asked, “How much of that is you, and how much of that is from you talking to your grandfather?”

“About half. Part of it’s from talking to Bob and Elroy while we were home Thursday, as well. Part of it is from what I talked to Hiram about, and even from talking to what is an incredibly smart eleven-year-old girl.” I spent a couple of minutes recounting those conversations with Eve, then continued with, “I’ve set myself up, because I sort of did plan on taking over, once I was both old enough and more mature. I know that’s why I had all of you as my planning group originally, the ones who would figure out for me what I needed to do to achieve that goal. You’ve all done a marvelous job of it, too. I just feel like we need to reevaluate what goal I should be trying to achieve, is all.”

“Rather obviously, we can do that. At the same time, I suspect you’re overthinking this, which you have a tendency to do. You’re thinking that if you end up running the world, you’ll be stuck in that job for the rest of your life. And due to your heritage, that’s a long time.”

She looked at me curiously when I chuckled at her words. I grinned and said, “Grandfather just admitted he may have erred slightly. He was thinking I’d be doing the job for a thousand years or more.”

Eve grinned back. “If you were, then you would be setting yourself up for failure. It’d be okay if you were President of the Terran Federation, for a decade or so. Hell, by that point, we’ll have the space station in operation, probably have a moon colony, one on Mars, too, be mining the asteroids, and have manned ships exploring the rest of the solar system. Weren’t you the one that told Bob you wanted him to be in charge of keeping the peace between Earth and the rest of the solar system?”

I nodded, then said, “True.” Then I had to laugh again. “You’re definitely applying your education to help me. Using psychology to get my head back on straight.”

“That’s what you pay me the big fucks for, love.”

“Um...”

She laughed. “Well, hopefully it’ll be a good one, anyway.”

It was.

Eve and I spent Sunday morning writing papers. She was working on two more degrees, and I almost had no clue what I was going to get. The rest of the family returned home in the afternoon, to let them get ready for our last week of classes.

Monday morning’s breakfast and security briefing had a couple of amusing stories.

Mike, Karen, Cally, and Carrie had gone to Nebraska. Karen’s brother and his family had also come home for the holiday. Lieutenant Colonel Donald Buckley got a very personal briefing from his sister regarding some of the abilities of a Guardian. Because they were family, his wife, Kim, and daughter, Grace, were also shown a few things. Mike extolled the virtues about how a little telekinesis goes a long way in convincing people. Grace was just a little upset that she didn’t have the same abilities as Cally and Carrie, because she thought it was ‘cool.’

Yagyu and Cindy were also present, but their trip to Indiana hadn’t gone quite as well as they’d hoped. Apparently, it was perfectly fine for Cindy to work for me, but it wasn’t acceptable at all for her to marry someone who wasn’t chosen by her father. Her three brothers and some cousins had been given the mission of teaching Yagyu that it was unacceptable for him to even think he was worthy enough to be near their sister.

Shaking her head, Cindy said, “I had to play the diplomatic immunity card with the Indianapolis police, to keep Yaggie out of jail. And I’m proud of him. He didn’t kill any of them, which almost certainly would’ve made any further contact with my mother difficult.”

“That’s how I got the black eye,” Yagyu said. “One of the cousins is a third dan black belt in Taekwondo and former Marine. The problem when it’s six on one is, you have to be careful that someone doesn’t end up grappling you while you’re dealing with another combatant. If I’d used weapons, of course, it would’ve been over rather quickly, but I felt constrained as they were members of the family.”

Cindy laughed, then said, “I’ve heard about how you beat Yaggie in Florida, but I’ve never really seen either of you in action. As fast as Yaggie moved, I can only imagine how good you are, Cal. After twenty seconds, Paul and Yaggie were the only two still standing, and then after about ten more seconds, Paul just stepped back and knelt down. My dad was somewhere between livid and shocked. He yelled at Paul to get up, and Paul just looked at him and said, “Hell, no. I’m nowhere near as good as Master Yagyu.” That’s when Dad called the police.”

Yagyu shrugged. “Like I said at our stop on our way here, your cousin is a good man, put in a bad position by your father.”

“Hang on. Stop?” I asked.

Cindy smiled, then. “Yeah. I’m over twenty-one, so we flew to Nevada Friday morning for the rest of the weekend, before coming home last night. I realize that since we’re both residents of your Kingdom that you could have done the ceremony, but I didn’t want to wait, or give this hunk a chance to have second thoughts.”

“A Las Vegas wedding?” Marcia asked, and Cindy nodded. “Okay, fine, be that way. We’ll still throw you a wedding shower.”

Sayel calmly looked at Yagyu. “Six on one, and you let one of them give you a black eye? I think we should work on your speed.”

“That’s okay, Sayel,” Cindy said. “I like it when he takes it nice and slow.”

That pretty much broke everyone up, and after recovering, we went on to other topics.

The last week of classes involved quite a bit of lab work for me on Tuesday and Thursday, as I was free those days. The official Heisman announcement was made Wednesday evening. It would be between me, Bo Jackson from Auburn, and Chuck Long from Iowa. Robbie Bosco from Brigham Young was announced in fourth place, but so far back in the voting totals he wasn’t invited.

Coach Elway, his wife, Marcia, and I, with Dave, Wendy, and Sayel as security, took one of our Gulfstreams to New York after breakfast Friday, landing at Teterboro at five that evening.

When we were on final approach, I looked at Coach and said, “I hate time zones.”

“Well, it’ll help us on the way home. We’ll leave after the dinner Sunday night, and it’ll still be early enough when we get home for you to get some sleep if either of you have tests on Monday.”

A large limousine took us on the hour long, fourteen mile trip, from the airport to the Downtown Athletic Club.

“I think I’ve mentioned I hate driving in San Francisco a time or two. I have no desire to ever drive here,” I said.

Dave chuckled. “I bet I could change your mind, presuming you don’t mind causing a bit of a ruckus. We do have a large selection of main battle tanks available in your vehicle section.”

I sighed. “Tempting as that may be, it might be too tempting to use the main gun.”

“And that’s a problem, why?” he replied with a laugh.

Jan Elway looked between us. “Main battle tanks? You’re talking about a Sherman, like James Garner had in the movie last year, right? That’d definitely cause a stir.”

Dave shook his head. “No, Ma’am. I’m talking T-72s and the M-1 Abrams, like in ‘Red Dawn.’ Cal literally owns the fourth largest military in the world.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I think bringing a platoon of them down the street would either clear out all the congestion, or flatten it. Either way, it’d be an improvement.”

Coach Elway looked at his wife. “Hon, I don’t think you ever saw the tape from that game of Cal’s from High School, when they brought out some armored personnel carriers for the National Anthem. That was back when he was just a humble quarterback, and not a King.”

That made Marcia laugh. “He’s many things, but humble as a quarterback?”

“I may resemble that remark. I blame the Unangan – well, and the Punjabi. All I did was kill Ramaeshwara Randhawa, which made me the Prince of the Punjab, but the Unangan decided I was their King.”

Dave shook his head. “No, that was after the Indigenous Australians said you were their King, remember?”

“No, the People said I was the Guardian – which I am – and then since the Unangan are related to the People, they decided I was their King all on their own, which then applied to all three groups.”

Jan Elway looked back and forth. “Good grief! How long did all that take?”

I glanced at Marcia, then shrugged. “What? Less than a month. We went to Disney in early December and discovered Helen and Gloria there, I took Jennifer to Florida for the Wackenhut Christmas party, found Hannah and killed The Thug there, then right after the New Year, went to Alaska and found Carrie, then on to India and got my eight slaves. It was all after I was done at Hutch but before we started at Stanford.”

“Missus Elway, don’t forget there’s a culture difference. The eight Indian wives of Cal’s that you’ve met were slaves in India,” Marcia explained.

“Jack, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Jan Elway said.

That made the rest of us laugh.

“Hon, Cal’s from Kansas,” Coach said while chuckling to himself.

“I know. I’ve been to every one of the home games, and I’m still not used to someone seventeen years old with seventeen wives.” She looked at me and said, “That’s not a note of disapproval, mind you. Just...”

“It’s all good, Missus Elway,” I said with a grin. “I understand completely. I think if my parents were still alive, they’d wonder what the heck happened to their little boy.”

Grandfather thought to me, ‘They’re not the only one, you lucky Jornat!’

There was someone from the Club waiting for us in the lobby.

“Welcome to the Downtown Athletic Club, Mister Lewis, Coach Elway. I’m Peter, and I’ll be your concierge during your stay with us tonight through Sunday evening. We have rooms for your party on the twenty-eighth floor, with southern views.” He motioned for bellhops to take our luggage. Dave and Wendy kept their rolling cases instead of giving them to the bellhops to load onto the cart, but allowed them to take the rest of our luggage.

Peter was a little confused. “Sir, they’re just going to take all the luggage up via the freight elevator, so we’re not crowded in the passenger elevator while I show you where your rooms are.”

Dave shook his head. “We’ll keep our weapons with us. Thanks, anyway.”

“Uh, weapons?” Peter asked. A police officer standing in the lobby looked our way.

Dave pulled out his badge. “Deputy US Marshal David Parsons, this is Agent Wendy Thacker. We’re assigned to protection for His Majesty, so we’re federally authorized to carry heavy for that reason. Especially since he has diplomatic immunity, of course.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “Um, okay, this way to the elevators.”

Dave waved the uniformed officer over, so he could record Dave’s badge information and let the rest of the officers that would be around know what was going on. Then we took the elevators up to our rooms. Once there, we met the bellhops, went into our rooms, unpacked, and then followed Peter back to the elevators. He took us down to the sixteenth floor, to a dining room for dinner.

We were the last group to arrive. There were two groups of three people, already seated and waiting, in the room. The men all stood up when we walked in, for introductions. I met Coach Pat Dye and Bo Jackson, from Auburn, and Bo’s girlfriend, Linda Garrett, first. Then I shook hands with our Rose Bowl opponents, Coach Hayden Fry and the Iowa quarterback, Chuck Long. His girlfriend, Lisa Wells, was also present.

“I’m curious about something, Jack,” Pat Dye said once we’d all sat down.

Coach said, “Why’s Jan with me? She’s never been to New York, so while we’re doing our thing during the day, she’s going to spend some money on Christmas presents.”

Coach Fry snorted. “They must pay you all right out there, then.”

“It makes a difference when you don’t have taxes taken out,” Coach said.

“How did you manage that?” Fry asked.

“Stanford’s not in California or the United States after the Trustees sold it to Cal,” Coach explained. “That’s why we play two anthems at home and away games. The order that they’re played is which country we’re in.”

Dye frowned, then. “You’re not in the United States? Seems to me the last time some folks decided to not be in the US of A, the Federal Government took exception to it and the War of Northern Aggression was the result.”

I shook my head. “It’s a long story, Coach Dye. All we had on the jet were sandwiches for lunch. How about we get whatever it is they’re going to serve us going, and I’ll explain while we’re eating?”

Coach Fry laughed. “Yep, you’re a football player. Food first.”

The meal was what I’d learned was called ‘comfort food.’ Meatloaf, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, and rolls. They also knew they were feeding football players, because the three of us found twice as much food on our plates as what everyone else had, which caused a chuckle from the ladies.

I snorted, too, which got a look from Coach Fry. “I had to come back from Kansas on Friday for Eve’s basketball game, so on Saturday, we had however many of the team that was available and their girlfriends over for a cookout. Twenty players, and we went through a hundred pounds of hamburgers and hot dogs while we watched the last games of the season. You guys got burned by that last second field goal.”

Jackson nodded. “Agreed. Beats my screw-up last year, when I cost us the game.”

Chuck Long frowned, then. “I thought your name was Marcia, not Eve?”

“It is. Eve’s one of my sister-wives. She’s on the Cardinal Women’s Basketball team, and they have games this weekend,” Marcia said.

“Sister-wives?” both girlfriends asked at the same time.

“Yeah,” I said. I spent the rest of the meal explaining how I have seventeen wives and how Stanford and parts of Washington, Alaska, and Kansas are no longer part of the United States.