The Reality Engine Ch. 18

Late on Saturday night, in Fuggville, Calvin and Shauna were at his house, in his bed, naked under the covers and making love.

"Damn," Calvin said, as he brushed Shauna's hair, and looked into her eyes. "I can't believe that you love me."

"You always say that," Shauna said, giggling and kissing Calvin. "Someday you're going to be convinced that I do. I love you for everything that you are. The Halloween party last night was fun, and what we did for Mark and Carla was a good thing that would have never happened without you."

"By the way, at what point was it decided that Carla would have sex with Mark?" Calvin asked. "I don't recall that being part of the plan."

"Carla, Mia and I had lunch with Ingred on Thursday afternoon, and all she talked about was how good her sex life was now that she's moved in with Mr. Bennet," Shauna said. "We all got horny, and Carla decided that if Mark would promise that he would never tell her mother, that she would fuck him. Mr. Bennet gives Ingred everything she needs in life, and her happiness inspired all of us."

"I wish I could give you everything in life you deserve," Calvin said, as he rubbed Shauna's back and kissed her again. "I wish I could marry you, buy a house for you, and I wish we could have children. I know how much you want that."

"How much we both want that," Shauna corrected. "I know you want to have kids, we both do, Calvin, but I'm willing to wait for you. I have faith that you will make it in time, and that we'll be able to start a family before I'm too old to have kids. I'm 18, so we've got plenty of time to wait. I truly believe in my heart that I've found the right man, and that it will all fall into place for us."

"I sure hope you're right," Calvin said. "If you ever feel like we're not going to make it, I want you to leave me. Believe me, I'll understand your decision."

Shauna pondered for a moment before replying.

"Do you remember the story you told all of us the other night, about the two brothers and the younger sister who were kicked out of their home land and had to become thieves to survive?" Shauna asked.

"Sure I do, why?" Calvin asked.

"I was impressed by how close that family was," Shauna replied. "The youngest sister had an easy way out of a life of misery, but she chose to stick by her siblings. I went to school with a lot of girls who would have never made that decision. If there was a path to a life of ease, they were taught from a young age to always take it. If you return home, get married to a wealthy husband, and have a good life, you can always help your brothers on the down-low if that's what you want. They wouldn't see a young woman who was sticking by her family out of love, they would see a young woman who was not using the charms God gave her to make life as easy as possible, both on herself and her two brothers."

"I think a lot of people, of both genders, would agree with that," Calvin said. "Which is one of the reasons why I think if it is a true story, it happened a very long time ago. It doesn't line up with modern sensibilities."

"In my own situation, the easiest path is to dump you, find a 30-something year old guy to marry, who has already got the top job and his own place, and then use whatever connections I can make to find a replacement girlfriend for you, if that's what I feel like doing," Shauna said. "Waiting it out with you is not guaranteed, finding an older guy who's already set is guaranteed, and I can start a family right away. I know some of my friends think this is what I should do."

"I can see the logic in that position," Calvin said.

"I can too, but it misses the point: it was never about security or ease of life for the youngest sister in the story you told us, was it?" Shauna asked. "It was about love. She loved her two brothers, couldn't stand the thought of parting with them, and would see things through with them, as a family, to the bitter end. I love you, Calvin, and I want to see things through with you to the bitter end."

"I wish we knew how the youngest sister from the story ended up," Calvin wondered. "It would be reassuring if we knew that her fate turned out okay, and that she was rewarded for following her heart."

"I'm positive she was," Shauna said, smiling. "Just like I'm positive you and I will be rewarded for following our hearts. When you love, and are loved, by a strong family like she was, that love will always be reflected in who you are and how you interact with others. Even if you are a thief at the start, you become a hero by the end of the story, like she did, because to have love like she did, you have to be a fundamentally good person."

"I love you so much it hurts," Calvin said. "We're going to make it, you and I. I know we will, because I have the wisest girlfriend on earth."

Far away from the drama of our protagonist's lives, a tall man dressed in a black cloak with a hood over his head approached the door to a large office. He carefully opened the door, being sure to make no noise, and entered inside. The office he found himself in was lavish; marble floors, fine art hung on every wall, and a massive desk of the finest oak wood in the center, and a large screen for video conferencing directly in front of the desk. Seated behind the desk was Luke, the son of Anakin, and one of the foremost contenders to assume the mantle as leader of the Grancel Society upon his father's passing.

"I have come as instructed, your grace," the man in the hood said to Luke.

"Good, you're here, Esmont," Luke said, addressing the man in the hood. "Just wait a moment while I finish this call."

Esmont approached the desk to see who was on the other end of the call; and found it was General Ambrose Stanley, a man at the very top of the US military chain of command.

"You understand clearly what I want you to do?" Luke asked General Stanley.

"Sure I do, and it will be done, but why?" General Stanley asked.

"I give orders, and you follow them without asking questions," Luke thundered. "See that you remember your place, General. Now, repeat to me what I want so that I can be sure you understand everything."

"Yes sir," the general replied, visibly uncomfortable. "I am to assure that, as a stipulation of the new Air Force cyber-security contract, that Calvin Longfellow's new company is given a sub-contract to perform no less than 10% of the total work. Was that what you wanted?"

"Exactly, make absolutely certain it comes to pass, or else, well, you know what happens," Luke said.

"Yes sir, will that be all?" General Stanley asked.

"For now, do not disappoint me, General," Luke replied, as the view screen turned off and the call ended.

"Your grace?" Esmont asked Luke.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, old friend," Luke said, as he put his hand on Esmont's shoulder. "You know what a blathering fool General Stanley can be, and how he always needs things to be spelled out for him."

"I'm more concerned with why we're helping one of our enemies," Esmont replied. "Forgive me for being ignorant of the situation, but I thought Calvin Longfellow was part of Eric's team, and therefore, in direct competition with our position."

"When I was a small child, my father gave me a piece of advice that has proved utterly invaluable over the years," Luke replied. "Never pass on an opportunity to put your enemies in your debt. I have applied that advice many times in my life, and I have never come away worse off for having done so."

"If you say so, your grace," Esmont replied. "It doesn't make much sense to me."

"Well, how you do what you do for a living doesn't make much sense to me, my friend," Luke said, with a smile. "I imagine the years of grueling training required to become a member of the guard requires a man to gain much in the way of difficult knowledge, but you accomplished it. I will never forget that time in Mongolia a few years ago when I saw you take out two tanks with your bare hands."

"That is an exaggeration, that I wish you'd stop perpetuating, your grace," Esmont said, flustered. "In the first place, I had a backpack filled with all the normal supplies a member of the guard is required to have, so I wasn't barehanded, and, in the second place, those two tanks were old and obsolete, dating back to before the fall of the Soviet Union. They were hardly a match for the modern equipment I had at my disposal."

"You could give me as much equipment as you liked, and ask me to fight enemies on a bicycle built for two, and I know I couldn't do it," Luke said, laughing. "The realm of combat know-how is above my head, I'm afraid. I'm just glad I have you to take care of that stuff for me."

"I appreciate your vote of confidence, your grace," Esmont said. "However, I'm not nearly as good as I ought to be; when I compare myself to Leo, I can't help but see all my inadequacies."

"No less than I see all of mine when I compare myself with my father," Luke said. "We all feel rather small when we consider how far we have to go to measure up to our heroes. The last person you should compare yourself to is Leo, his blade is simply not of this world. No one else will ever be like he is, so don't try. Rather, try to be the best version of yourself."

"That's good advice," Esmont said.

"It's another thing my father taught me when I was very young," Luke said. "Why, I'll bet even Eric, for all his technical brilliance, feels very small when he compares himself to Obi-wan. Both of you are very young, and still have many decades of life experience yet to go, before you gain a full understanding of what your heroes accomplished. It's the same with me. Eric was right about one thing: perhaps my greatest flaw is my impatience to be on equal footing with my father. For all your feelings of inadequacy, my friend, I would venture to say that you are closer to Leo than I am to my father."

"Speaking of Eric, how does helping Calvin Longfellow help us?" Esmont asked.

"Many years ago, I helped General Stanley advance his military career when he was a young man, as I helped Doja Heningway get his start in business," Luke replied. "Both men had simple wants in life. Doja wanted the means to provide a life of luxury for himself and his family, and General Stanley wanted to be an important person in a position of power. Neither man had any grand ambitions, and neither had much in the way or vision, force of personality, or work ethic. After some time, their entire livelihoods became dependent on my whims, since my support ensured their comfortable lifestyle, and they had no ability to plan out fallback options should my support ever be withdrawn. They aren't overly clever men, who understand how to avoid becoming trapped in life. Neither man started out as my friend, but today, they are both my puppets."

"I see your reasoning, your grace, but there is no guarantee Calvin Longfellow will follow that path into a life of servitude to you," Esmont replied.

"What became of Doja and General Stanley is one of two possibilities, and is the possibility that happens far more frequently," Luke said. "Sometimes, it so happens that you aid a man who has vision and the capacity to avoid the traps that you set at his feet, and this man achieves enormous levels of wealth, power, and influence. Your help early on means nothing to him, since he has many other options should you withdraw your support."

"How can you say for certain Calvin isn't such a man?" Esmont asked.

"It doesn't matter," Luke replied. "If Calvin is such a man, then my help to him early on in his life will leave me no worse off than I would otherwise have been. Men who have the rare gifts of clarity of insight always achieve great things. If Calvin is such a man, he'll be in the exact same position ten years from now whether I help him today or not, so nothing about the future changes. Best case scenario, I pick off and control a key part of Eric's future coalition to succeed father, worst case scenario, I'm in exactly the same position I would have been in anyway. That's a bet worth taking."

"I begin to see your reasoning, your grace," Esmond said.

"Remember, the high law of my father, which governs all affairs of the Empire, explicitly prohibits sabotaging our enemies," Luke said. "Father, rightly in my view, sees sabotage as an act of weakness and cowardice; the tools of men who lack insight and genius and who do not aggressively deal with problems as soon as they arise. If Calvin Longfellow becomes a problem at some point in the future, the time to deal with him is right now, when he's manageable, and not years from now, when our options will become more limited. I never sabotaged any of my puppets, they all became what they are due to their own weakness."

"Your father truly is a great man," Esmont replied. "Wise and benevolent to those who work with him, but ruthless and without mercy to those who oppose him. If you become half the man he is, you will be a great leader and a worthy successor to his throne."

"Even becoming half the man that father is constitutes a tall order for any single lifetime," Luke replied, laughing. "My father's singular gift in life is his ability to see opportunities where other men only see roadblocks. It is that talent which has allowed him to achieve so much. When you trained with Leo, did he ever allow you to handle Ackbar Shal?"

"Leo's great sword?" Esmont asked. "Yes, I was granted the favor of wielding Ackbar Shal during a training session held in commemoration of my promotion to the guard."

"I got to train with it too, many years ago when I was a child," Luke said, smiling. "A marvelous blade, is it not? Sharp, strong, and yet, light as a feather. It feels like an extension of the arm, and it requires no effort whatsoever to wield. Did you know that it was forged as one of a pair? There is another blade that is its equal."

"No, I did not know that," Esmont admitted. "I always thought Ackbar Shal was one of a kind. Where is the other blade?"

"I don't know, and I don't think anyone but my father knows," Luke replied. "That is, again, my father's singular talent. I know very little of how the great sword was crafted, since it was done before I was born, but I do know why the blade is light as a feather and can be wielded easily by even the most inexperienced swordsman. Part of the alloy that makes up the sword is Upsidaisium, the anti-gravity metal. Father came into a small supply of it as a young man, and saw its potential, when others did not."

"There is such a thing as an anti-gravity metal?" Esmont asked.

"Yes, but it's not as great a thing as you might think," Luke replied. "For one thing, Upsidaisium is very difficult to work with, since the metal always falls up. It has to be mixed in as an alloy, so that the anti-gravity properties of the metal mix with the pro-gravity properties of other elements of the alloy to create extremely lightweight materials. Other men refused to work with Upsidaisium, since the process of trial and error to determine which compounds would create superior, lightweight materials was so fraught with risk. Father saw the potential, took the risk, and was rewarded with the creation of Ackbar Shal."

"I'm not sure that any other man whom I have ever met has vision quite like your father," Esmont admitted.

"I am not sure of that either," Luke said, with a faint smile. "However, father always taught me that competition brings out the best in everyone. I do not know that I have it me to take over the Empire after his passing, but I do know that I am honor bound to give it my absolute best effort. Eric is as well, and so too are all the other contenders to my father's throne. To do anything less than our absolute best would be to dishonor the great man whom we all owe so much too, and whom we are all grateful too."

"I know your father appreciates the dedication that all of you show," Esmont said.

"Speaking of dedication, have you prepared my private jet for our departure?" Luke asked.

"Yes, your grace," Esmont replied. "If I might ask, if we are going to Houston, Texas, does that mean we are paying Jonah a visit?"

"Indeed it does, old friend," Luke said. "Several other pieces on the board have moved, and it is time we begin the final phase of our plan for Scott Cooper and the LAVCM. Step one of that plan is to gain the reality engine performance data from the man tasked with gathering it: Mr. Jonah Watson."

End of chapter 18.