Chapter 29

I casually walked from our home down to the gate. Sayel followed a couple of feet behind me. Rodney was walking with me, his M-16 combat slung, so he could bring it up and fire easily if need be. I took my time, making sure I took in everything.

There was a nice BMW parked well away from the danger line. A middle-aged man and a younger man were standing beside the car. The younger man had a briefcase in one hand, with a clipboard in the other. The other man wore a Savile Row suit, looking rather dapper. I was surprised there weren’t any granola folks protesting today, and asked Rodney about it. Apparently, they’d all been run off yesterday and told not to come back until Monday unless they wanted to be shot, which I thought was a little extreme.

Staying inside our area, I strolled up to the car, then looked at it through the double chain-link fence.

“Rodney here says you’ve asked to speak to the HMFIC. That’s me. What do you want?”

The older man looked a little confused, while the young man’s face twitched almost into a smile, but he stayed silent. Finally, the older man said, “Sorry, I’m not particularly familiar with that title. I’m Sir Jerome Green, MBE, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second’s Consul General for northern California and those states to the north of here. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”

“Speaking informally, I’m Cal Lewis. Going formal, Prince Lewis of the Punjabi, His Royal Majesty, King Lewis the First, from the Kingdom of the First People. How may we assist our sister?”

I’ll give him credit for coolness under fire, because I actually expected attitude.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Her Majesty is concerned that Her Highness, the Princess Diana, and two of her security guards, have not taken the British Airways flight that they were scheduled on, and fears that something may have happened to them. In addition, the Princess had several pieces of the Crown Jewels with her, and I am to inquire as to their status, and when they will be returned.”

“Our sister is right to be concerned regarding the welfare of her subjects. We shall address that momentarily. The three pieces of jewelry that Princess Diana delivered to us contained items which we term ‘shivalingam.’ The Princess stated that our sister had authorized us to do what we will with the decorative items, as the shivalingam could not be removed without destroying them. Therefore, we removed the shivalingam so that they could be used to increase our power and increase our chances of defeating the alien Shiva when he returns in Halley’s Comet. The decorative pieces were, of course, destroyed in the process. Based upon the remaining gems and precious metals, we estimate there was no more than fifty thousand dollars worth of material in them. If our sister so wishes, we can, of course, recompense her, although it is a rather trivial amount. As for the Princess...”

I looked thoughtful, then slowly nodded. “Yes, as for the Princess, we could say that something has happened to her. Her two security guards have voluntarily terminated their positions with our sister’s police forces, and are now employed by the Wackenhut Federal Protective Services, based here in the United States, with possible duties around the globe.” I had my hands behind my back, and made a signal with them. Rodney had been expecting it and casually moved his hand a little, keying his mike twice.

“Lady Diana Spencer will be remaining here, with us,” I said, as the house door opened with Cain, Abel, and Leonard coming out. “These are special US State Department envoys Brent Cain and James Abel, along with Leonard Poulson, a rather well-known attorney of Hollywood, California. These three gentlemen shall be journeying to visit our sister and explain ... well, certain facts of life. In the meantime, you can assure our sister and Charles Mountbatten-Windsor that no harm shall befall our Princess. Thank you for your concern. You are dismissed.”

I pivoted on my heel and walked towards the house, Rodney taking position with me, Sayel again guarding my back and watching what Green and his aide would do.

Green stood there for several long seconds, then started to step towards the entrance. I heard his aide say, “Sir, I wouldn’t do that if I were you! Read the signs, and look into the guard towers. I don’t think these chaps care whether or not you have diplomatic immunity.”

“Bugger!” was all that Green said. He got back into his car, then backed out, while I watched the Bobsey Twins and Leonard get into an SPTC bus for the ride over to Moffett Field.

Once inside, I said, “Well, that went a bit better than I expected. I didn’t have to get all snotty with Jerry Green. What’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?”

“You know this is only going to be the opening salvo, right?” Mike asked.

I looked at my wives, who were all sitting quietly, just watching me.

“It’s over as far as I’m concerned, Mike. Eddie, George, if you want to make some phone calls to your mates and pass along a quiet word, that’d probably be best. You might tell them what you know, so that maybe, just maybe, we can save some lives. Otherwise ... I’m willing to die fighting Shiva to protect those ladies sitting there. I don’t think it’s any stretch of the imagination what I’ll do to something merely terrestrial that threatens them.”

George quietly shook his head. “I’m glad I’m on your side, mate.”

The campus itself was celebrating Founders’ Day, which actually was rather low-key. A couple of speeches, some cleaning up of areas on the campus by some of the Greek houses, and not much else. For us, the agenda for the afternoon involved taking Diana to the bicycle shop, so she’d have a couple different bikes to ride with us. Once that was done, Marcia, Hannah, and Helen took her shopping.

Courtesy of different school calendars, Holly was on Spring Break this upcoming week, while the other two girls wouldn’t be off until the second week of April. So, I took Holly over to the football stadium to work with her a bit, and received some help from a couple of my new teammates. Eve took Carrie and Cally to the gymnasium, to work on their basketball skills. Toby went shopping with his Mom for more clothes, as he’d had a growth spurt. Dora had some of her cousins come up to do some dirty work.

When they’d fenced in the area for our home, they’d basically enclosed right at thirty acres. We had plenty of room for a garden, so they brought in the equipment to break up two acres, then tilled it all so the soil would be ready for planting soon. They also put up a greenhouse as well. That way, not only could we grow some of our own vegetables, we could also grow some specialty foods from India and Pakistan, instead of having to import them.

That evening, four of us spent a couple of hours working on the last of the papers we needed to have done by Friday, so we could officially receive our initial batch of degrees in April. As part of their casual conversation during the day, which was mostly mental, Diana was brought up to speed on the rest of the actual reality regarding the Messenger, the Angels, and what all was going on.

I was nearly done when Diana came up from behind and put her hands on my shoulders. She leaned forward, allowing her hair to brush my ear. I inhaled the scent coming from her, the reminder of Star Home sharp in my mind.

“What are you working on?” she asked.

“Just finishing up my last paper. I have a total of twelve of these that I need to have ready for Friday, so I can be awarded some degrees in April.”

“Can we have a bit of a discussion?”

“If you don’t mind staying in just about that same exact position for about three more minutes, so I can finish this one, that would be great,” I replied, wondering what was going on.

I felt her hair move as she nodded. I increased my typing speed a little, with Mycroft sending the pages to the printer automatically. Two and a half minutes later, I reached up and took them from the printer, put everything into a neat folder, complete with cover sheet, and then set it on the table. I spun the chair around, and made a place for her to sit on my lap. I was a bit relieved when she took it. I leaned back a little, while at the same time using a bit of levitation so our combined weight didn’t break the office chair, and looked in her eyes.

“Okay, paper’s done. You have my undivided attention.”

She shyly smiled. “I find that I like that. You know that I’ve been talking with the rest of your ... wives ... today. There’s a couple of things that ... well, that bother me about the situation I find myself in.” Her expression changed then, to one of concern. “Will you tell me the truth, if I ask you something intense and very personal?”

“I’ve told the other girls this. I will never knowingly lie to any of the women I love.”

Her eyes searched mine then. “That’s actually part of the question. Do you? Love me, that is?”

I grinned, and she could see the smile in my eyes. “There are a lot of things about me that even sometimes I wonder about. Loving my wives ... all of them ... isn’t one of those things. I know this isn’t exactly the type of marriage that much of the world would consider normal. One minor detail is that I am a male of the species, which means I’ll sometimes do stupid stuff. Not loving you won’t ever be one of them, Diana.”

She closed her eyes, then leaned her head against my chest. “I don’t know if you can even begin to understand how safe I feel, here in your lap right now. I ... my childhood ... it wasn’t a happy one. My father didn’t want me, he wanted another boy. An heir, someone to carry on the family name. All my mother was, so far as he was concerned, a baby factory. First she had two daughters, then when she finally gave him a son, John died as an infant. At least Sarah and Jane were a couple of years apart. He barely gave her time to recover before she was preggers with me. I was barely out of the womb before he packed her off to Harley Street, so the doctors there could find out what her problem was. I heard that snort in your chest! What?”

“It wasn’t her problem, it was his. Simple genetics. It’s the father that determines the sex of a baby, not the mother.”

“That’s ... not allowed. Men are the paragons of virtue and everything that is right and good in the world, and everything that’s bad is the fault of the woman, going back to Eve being tempted in the garden. At least, that’s what I was taught, and what Father said to Mother. When my brother, Charles, came along three years after I was born, they stayed together long enough to make sure he was weaned, then split up. I stayed with Mother while they were apart, but he took me from her that Christmas. He married again a few years later, but I hated his new wife. Sarah and Jane were out of the house, and I was a constant reminder to both of them of my mother. She bullied me, so ... I was an awful student in school. I think that’s one reason I leapt for the chance to become something, to become someone, in the world. To show them all that my life actually had meaning.”

She moved her head a little, raising her lips to mine for a brief kiss, then settled on my chest again. “Now ... the meaning of life isn’t what I thought it was. It’s not glamour and glitz, not being pampered and cared for because of who I married. It’s being...” She laughed. “Well, I was going to say, it’s being a simple housewife, but that’s not quite right, is it? From a legal perspective, I’m still married to Charles for several more weeks, but from inside my heart, I’m married to you and to sixteen other women. There’s really nothing simple about it at all, is there?”

“This is one of those areas where there really isn’t a right and wrong answer, my Love. If you want it to be simple, then it will be. Oh, there’ll always be some parts that are more complicated than others. I’m sure that the girls told you that the reason I took my secret identity is to make sure that there really is a world for them and for our children to grow up in. That was it.”

She lightly chuckled. “I’m sure the clerks in the bicycle store were wondering who that airhead that looked a lot like Princess Diana was, because I was having to be continually reminded to quit talking to everyone and pay attention to what was going on in front of me. You simply can’t know how it feels to only be close to just one sibling, then not being really able to talk to her, and then finding these people that I can share even my innermost thoughts and feelings with, and they understand. I don’t have to put on a facade to face the world, because I have a family! I’m sorry, that was careless of me to say that, considering what you’ve been through.” She started to get up, but I wouldn’t let her.

“I’m a little tougher inside now. It’s sort of amusing when a ten year old boy with an eighty year old man living inside of him tells you to ‘Grow the HELL up’! I’d like to think that maybe I have.” My tone of voice changed, grew lighter. “Are you familiar with what I call illustrated novels, what Dave and Beth call comic books?”

“I’ve read some of them, of course. Why?”

“In the comics, Reed Richards is supposed to be the smartest man in the world, and from an intellectual perspective, I’m easily his equal, maybe a bit smarter. Physically, I could easily go head to head with Thor, and win. But emotionally, I’ve been more like the Hulk instead of Bruce Banner. You make me angry, I smash. You make me sad, I smash. When I got here, I ... well, I wanted to be Beth’s hero, because I’d never had a girlfriend, never had someone depend upon me, never ... never grew up. I barely got to say goodbye to my parents before my entire world didn’t just get turned upside down, it was destroyed. Diana, you asked if I was rather blunt. When I was telling you the truth about your own life, I admit that I was doing so simply to make sure you had no issues turning the shivalingam over to me, and maybe do a re-evaluation of your own life, so you’d grow up a little and not be taken advantage of anymore. Margie always says I’m an overachiever. Once you took the initiative and kissed me...”

I shook my head. “There was no turning back from that. I am being truthful and honest when I tell you that I didn’t intend for you to fall in love with me. I also don’t mind in the least that you did, because I’ve done the same with you. You know there’s a side piece to this, right?”

“What’s that?”

“Falling in love means that you could just as easily fall out of love. That can’t happen for you and I, or for any of us. We’re not just in love – with life and with each other, we do love life and each other, if that makes sense.”

Her head came up again. “Can you take me into our bedroom again now, so that we can make love to the rest of your wives?”

I could, and we did.

Breakfast the next morning was rather quiet. Either Mary had briefed Linda, or she just expected the unexpected around us. She didn’t skip a beat, asking Diana how she liked her eggs cooked. When Diana said she’d simply have a small bowl of oatmeal, so she could stay in shape, Linda lit into her.

“Nope, not in my kitchen, you’re not! We have exercise equipment that we all use, to get rid of those excess calories. I went through all that the first couple of weeks with Hannah; I’m not even going to tolerate it with you. Plus, you’re with the Boss. That means by next weekend, you’ll be eating for two, just like the rest of the adults.” Linda looked at Dora, Beth, and Eve. “You girls are smart, waiting until you’re old enough. I’m glad the three of you get enough exercise, too.”

She whipped back to Diana. “Now, how do you like your eggs?”

Once her plate was in front of her, Diana just looked at it in amazement. “I don’t even want to think about what this is going to taste like ... hey, wait a minute.”

From her end of the table, Beth moved the syrup bottle and poured a little onto the pancake on Diana’s plate. “Nope, you won’t want to worry about it coming back up. You had two things going on. A mild chemical imbalance that was brought on due to stress and anxiety, causing you to get sick. You also had the mental image from being browbeaten by Charles that you were fat, so you had to make yourself skinny for him. He’s out of your life now, and ... well, you’re not just our sister-wife, you’re also physically our sister internally, too. Until, or if, you get a full change like the three of us have had, you’re going to need three thousand or more calories per day, because you’ll be expending it.”

Marcia said, “I’ve been dealing with the Hollywood image my whole life. You just now realized that not only didn’t you vomit up anything you ate yesterday, you feel better than you have in years, both physically and mentally. Congratulations, Dear!”

After breakfast, we went off to classes. Jennifer took Holly and six of the Indian girls that had expressed an interest in learning over to the Stanford driving range, so they could play some golf. The other five went to our offices, so they could get Diana up to speed on what CEDEM was doing, and discuss her role with us.

In Constitutional Law, we got a surprise by not having a paper this week. This being the last week before our final exams next week, the Professor explained we’d probably stress out too much if he gave us one. In Criminal Law, we got no such reprieve. Pushing us to the limit was his intent, and he didn’t pull any punches about it. After lunch, I spent the afternoon in the computer department with a couple of the professors, working on the code needed for the computer systems of the trains in Saudi Arabia.

I was rather surprised to see the BMW of the British Consul General outside our fence when I got home. This time he was waiting patiently, seated on a small stool, with his assistant standing. As I pulled up, the Consul General stood up.

“Ah, Your Majesty. Forgive the intrusion, I shan’t take but a few moments of your time. My assistant has a couple of simple forms that require your signature, is all. Of course, due to us not being permitted to enter your property and wait properly, we were forced to wait here.”

“Unfortunately, Jerry, the rules that my guards operate under are quite specific. So far, we’ve only had to kill, what, two people for crossing the line without authorization?”

Dave was with me this week. “Yeah. That, and of course, they shot that one lady’s car so we didn’t have to kill her. Let me see what you have; nothing gets handed to him directly.”

“So I assumed,” Green said in a frosty voice. “Andrew, the papers, please.”

His assistant was rather smart, simply handing the papers themselves over, rather than pulling out a briefcase or otherwise making a threatening move. Dave glanced at them, then handed them to me.

I looked at them, then read through them again. Shaking my head, I said, “No. These are quite incorrect, not just in what they request, but in their actual form. Unless I need to actually get formal, I tend to not do that. This one isn’t even filled out properly, and I have no idea what it is you’re trying to pull with this one. You might tell Oliver that if he wants to have a face to face talk with me, well, I’m here for another two weeks, because it’s the last week of classes and then I have exams next week. Of course, I also expect my team to be home by the end of the week, which will render all of this folderol moot.”

He looked offended. “Sir ... Your Majesty ... this is quite serious! This is a summons by Her Majesty to address these charges!”

“No, that is a worthless piece of paper. Jerry, I haven’t even finished law school, and I can assure you that, as written, it is invalid and void. As for this one, I’m amused, if nothing else. Not only does it contradict what the first paper says, it also presumes multiple things that simply aren’t correct. Look, I’m pretty much a fairly firm believer in, you don’t shoot the messenger, and it’s rather obvious that’s all you are. Oliver can come out himself, and I’ll check if my schedule allows me to see him. But the clock is ticking the other way as well. Pass this message back. Lady Ogilvy is looking more and more like she’s going to move up the line of succession the longer these games get played.”

Sayel spoke up then. “Small, private demonstration inside one of the garages.”

I nodded. “Not as impressive as inside Hangar One, but still, sufficient. Excellent advice. Jerry, Andrew, follow me.”

“On foot, leave the car,” Dave said when they started to get back into their car. We got back into our golf cart, going slow enough they could keep pace. We went to one of the garages that had one of the big buses in it, and nothing in the other bay at the moment.

Once the door was shut, I said, “Andrew, you’ll find that the camera you have that’s going to the recorder in your left front jacket pocket isn’t working any longer. Neither is the tape recorder in your right shoe. It’s not that I particularly care whether things are recorded or not, simply that you get things that we release, so we’re all on the same page and there’s no editing by someone else’s intelligence services. That’s why everyone that was present and returned home on Saturday will be receiving, via special courier, two copies of the video we made. I freely admit certain portions of that were edited, but only for time, and not for content.”

“Now ... let’s see here...” I paused, looking around.

Dave walked over to a barrel of oil. “This one is full.”

“Is there one that’s empty, too?” I asked.

“I think they keep those over here. Yeah, here’s a smaller steel barrel, it looks like it had grease in it.”

“Great! Jerry, Andrew, just so you don’t get your jackets dirty, you might slip them off. There’s a hanger there.” They surprised me by doing so, without arguing. “Nothing against you, Jerry, but you might hurt yourself. Andrew, would you please satisfy yourself that this barrel is basically full of oil, and probably weighs more than four hundred pounds?”

He walked over, hit it on the side to check the sound. “It looks like it’s still sealed.” He grabbed it by the side and tried to move it. “Okay, yes, this is full. Since you have this area labeled that way, I’m presuming it’s motor oil.”

I looked up at the wall. “Oh. First time I’ve ever been in here, so I didn’t know. That one’s on me. Oil, grease, empties for return. Anyway, that smaller drum should weigh about thirty pounds.”

“Here, Andrew, I’ll help,” Green said, which told me that he wasn’t afraid to get his own hands dirty. That actually surprised me. The two of them worked together, picking up the empty drum. “Yes, Your Majesty, I’d say about thirty to thirty-five pounds, and it held grease for lubricating bearings and such.”

Sayel silently handed over a couple of rags for them to clean their hands off.

“Thank you. All right, now we’ve seen that you maintain your own transportation equipment, what was the demonstration you mentioned?” Green asked. From his tone of voice, he was getting a little peeved.

“If you recall yesterday, we mentioned that our sister had given us shivalingam to increase our powers. Those are, in many respects, similar to the powers that the alien visitor to our world has demonstrated. Some of those skills and abilities, we possessed long before we had a single shivalingam in our possession. Watch the video tapes of the Hutchinson Salthawks football team from early in the season. We had none of these devices then. Sayel?”

“I have done so, Master. I have reached the conclusion, based upon my studies, that I would have been unable to defeat you in combat then, before the enhancements that your ability to use the shivalingam has given you. Now, of course, it would be completely impossible.”

“Thank you, Sayel. There are other skills and abilities. The simple ability to see through your clothing, or your bodies themselves. Children of the Sacred Souls possess that ability without the use of shivalingam. However, this is something that we did not have prior to encountering the shivalingam.” With that, I reached out with my mind and picked up the full barrel of oil, bringing it up and over their heads, spinning it around, before setting it down in a different spot.

I motioned towards it, so Andrew walked over to it. “Bugger me, it’s just as heavy. That must’ve been a trick of some kind.”

“We have powers of the mind that we hope will allow us to defeat Shiva, powers that even the alien Messenger has not demonstrated. Don’t dance around.” I picked him up and moved him to where he was standing over the oil drum. I let him go from about an inch up, so he could feel the drop.

Green’s face was rather pale, but he asked, “What’s the meaning of all this?”

“Quite simple, Mister Green.” I then picked up the empty grease drum with my mind, made a motion with my fingers like I was crushing it in the middle. The lid popped off, so I caught it before it could fly elsewhere, then moved my hands like I was bringing them together and crumpling a McDonald’s paper cup. The steel drum crushed like it was tissue paper, rolling itself into a ball. I brought the bowling ball sized chunk of steel over and dropped it at his feet.

“Go ahead. Kick it. Squat down and pick it up. You want to make sure that it’s the same empty drum you saw before.” I motioned with my hand, bringing Andrew down from the oil drum.

Once the two of them were satisfied, they both looked at me, their mouths hanging open a little.

“Consul General Green, we are not angry at our sister, Elizabeth. We expected that she would require some persuasion before submitting to our requests. We suspect that your first-hand reports will help her reach the conclusion that our envoys are discussing, and suggest that you return to your consulate to give her that report. Ah, thank you.”

Hannah had entered the garage, carrying a couple of VHS tapes. She said, “These are copies of the same tape, so their content is identical.” She handed them to Andrew. “You might mention to Her Majesty that if she has any questions whatsoever about Cal’s sincerity and level of commitment, she is always welcome to call my Uncle Robert or my Grandfather. It’s, of course, impossible to ask my father, unless you have a direct line to Hell!” Her smile was devastating.

Green finally got his voice back. More importantly, he also showed he really was a true professional, which made me sad that he was wasted in his position. “Your Majesty, on behalf of Her Majesty, I shall ... pass the message along to her. I realize that you have a very busy schedule, so I thank you for your time.”

“We are always pleased to discuss with our sister and her representatives those things which can be mutually beneficial to our realms.” I gave a little nod of my head. They quickly walked to the door to leave, where one of our guards was waiting to escort them to their car.

Dave walked with us to our house, chuckling for most of the way.

“What’s wrong, Dave? Has being engaged to Mary destroyed your brain cells?”

He snorted. “No. They don’t know how you played them like fiddles. Better than Johnny when he beat the Devil.”

“I have simply learned to parse my sentences during negotiations even better than I did in the past. I don’t need a golden fiddle laid on the ground at my feet.”

I wrote the paper for tomorrow’s Criminal Law class after dinner, then spent the rest of the evening playing board games with the kids.

Tuesday went by without anything out of the ordinary happening so far as I was concerned. The girls let me know that they’d discussed the job that Diana should do for us, and asked me if her being the face of our charities and our brand was okay with me. I told them I didn’t have any issues with that.

Wednesday afternoon, the computer lab had a couple of engineers from Siemens and chip guys from Intel up. We needed to discuss the control systems for both the wind turbines that were starting to roll off the assembly line in Kansas as well as the specific needs for Saudi Arabia. Mostly, it was about how to keep the actual computer modules themselves as dust free as possible.

That evening, we had another family talk at dinner, but this time it was originated by the Indian girls. They were now all linked telepathically, courtesy of sharing not just my semen, but also when Beth came, her fluids helped increase their mental capacity as well. While it wasn’t really possible to override their basic cultural programming and they would remain my slaves, they were all wanting to learn as much as they could, so they could become more helpful to the entire family.

“Just so I’m not being an idiot guy here, which I’m quite capable of being one, do I need to make more necklaces and rings?” I asked.

Jasveer shook her head. “Thank you, Master, but not at this time. We are your slaves. We all look forward to when we can bear your children ourselves, but we are and always will be your servants. We are not unhappy with this, by any means.”

I looked at my other ladies, who nodded in agreement with what Jasveer had said. The message was clear. Different cultures, just accept it.

After my last classes on Thursday, I dropped off all of the papers I’d needed to write to earn assorted degrees. I made sure I had completed all of the appropriate paperwork so that, after we came back from the break, everything was properly filed so that I could start getting some letters behind my name when degrees were awarded on April 4^th. I stopped by President Kennedy’s office on the way home, just to check in and see if he had any questions for me.