GAIA

by Morton Chalfy

  “Can you print these few and bring them to the dressing room? Moms will want to see them.”

  With that arranged she went back to while away the hours with the others. Their plan was to choose an image and have enough prints made to distribute to all the attendees with contact information on the back. A lot was predicated on this one action to put Moms at the center of the Gaia movement. When Maeve returned to the dressing room she found Moms excited after the invocation, Harrison watching his sister in a bemused fashion and Lucas watching his computer screen.

  “They look great. He'll bring several proofs along as soon as he can print them and you'll be able to choose your favorite. We should have the cards ready to distribute before the end of the session,” said Maeve excitedly.

  And that's how the day went. The proofs came, the favorite was chosen and carried to the waiting printer and they sat back to wait. An hour before the last speaker was done the cards were delivered and ushers were posted at every exit to hand them out to the departing crowd.

  “A good day's work,” said Moms. She still had the closing prayer to deliver and she and Maeve fussed over her appearance. In the event she came out into the same spotlight and called upon Gaia to smile upon their efforts.

  “By doing Gaia's work you insure a livable world for generations to come,” she intoned. She raised her arms in benediction, “May Gaia flourish in your care.”

  The music swelled, the spotlight vanished and the audience left with the dramatic vision of Moms as the last image of the day.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  In the dressing room after the session Moms collapsed into her chair as though she had just completed a marathon. She was spent and listless, took occasional sips of the tea meant to revive her and smiled at everyone in the room.

  “That went great,” said Maeve.

  “Do you really think so, dear?”

  “If that didn't establish you as High Priestess...” Maeve's voice trailed off.

  “What do you think, Harry?” asked Moms.'

  Harrison shook his head sadly. “I'm afraid Maeve is correct. We should start acting that way immediately.”

  “What way?”

  “As though you are High Priestess.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means more security for you for one thing. More attention to the demands of that position. More planning of your public appearances. That sort of thing.”

  “Why more security?” asked Maeve. “Gaians are peaceful people.”

  “Others are not,” said Harrison. “Nut jobs abound and some are always looking for a high profile target.”

  Moms waved as though to table the subject for the moment. “Right now,” she said, “I'd like to go back to my quarters, order in some food and take a long soak in the tub.”

  “Good idea,” said Harrison. “Let's use the secure elevator.”

  The convention was scheduled for three days of talks, workshops, demonstrations and reports. Moms was in great demand, enough so that a personal robo-car was placed at her disposal so she could satisfy all the requests for her presence. Harrison and Maeve and a security robot formed her entourage and were all exhausted at the end of each day.

  Lucas spent the time in his room working through the labyrinths of several communication nodes pinpointing the stops on the message trail meant to foil investigators. Along the way he learned much about the policy leanings of what he thought of as the Stations of the Message. In the end he was sure who was acting as their agent inside the government, much to his surprise, so much to his surprise that he couldn't believe it and so started again to trace the pathways.

  In the evening he joined the others for a catered dinner and a discussion of the day's events. The only change to the routine came on Day 3 in the early afternoon. A quiet rap on his door startled him and put him on high alert. A glance at the door monitor showed Maeve outside and he eagerly opened the door to let her in.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, grinning.

  Maeve was walking across the room. “Moms is taking a nap to be fresh for the closing ceremony,” she was heading for the bedroom and shedding clothing as she went, “I thought I'd do the same. Care to join me?”

  Lucas stumbled and fumbled following her until they fell into bed and each other's arms. They made love, first passionately and then more slowly and ended in a tangle of sheets and sweat and entwined legs.

  “Well, that was glorious,” said Lucas. “What brought it on?”

  “Oh, Moms was stretching out on the couch and said, “Lucas must be lonely up in his room. Why not go and keep him company,” and the way she said “company” made my knees go weak thinking of you. So here I am.”

  “And here we are. Remind me to thank her profusely.”

  “You'll do no such thing. You'll keep quiet about this.”

  “Yes, ma'am.”

  “Don't be smart. For now this is between us. Have you discovered an agent?”

  The abrupt change of subject snapped Lucas back to his reality.

  “I've found the person it all points to, but I can't believe it so I'm starting over and delving deeper.”

  “I see,” Maeve said, noncommittally.

  “I'm sure you do. Want to give me a hint?”

  “No, but I'm willing to give you something else.”

  Lucas fell back into her arms and before he lost himself in her caresses thought, “She plays me like a drum, but I don't care. I don't care at all.”

  Moms' appearance to close the convention consumed hours more than she had planned. When she completed her benediction a crowd of convention-goers surged toward the stage to get closer to her. She moved slowly through the crowd surrounded by Harrison and Maeve and two security robots, taking the time to exchange words and greetings with her fans. Harrison was bemused by the activity and driven by the earnestness of the crowd, the obvious love and affection they displayed toward Moms, and the depth of passion for Gaia they revealed, he began to modify his stance on whether playing up the religious aspects was wise. By the time they made their way to the bank of elevators and said their last goodbyes to Moms' admirers and she had signed the last card with her image, he was a complete convert.

  In the elevator he said, “Well, I'm convinced. I didn't think so but I see that the High Priestess strategy is a good one. Religion is stronger than politics and this is a religion I can sign onto.”

  “Thank you,” said Moms demurely. “Perhaps you'll write up an account of the convention for the Annals of Gaia. We don't have a professional historian on the staff besides you."

  Harrison gave his sister a look which showed her he understood the meaning of every one of her inflections and stresses. He smiled ruefully and said, "Of course."

  The trip back to the ranch was full of excited talk about the success of the convention and their plans for the future. In the midst of their excitement a call came in from Sam, "Moms, we're under surveillance here by several drones. We can't tell whose they are or what they want or whether they're armed. And I don't want to shoot one down in case they're innocent. So I want you to come in through the tunnel."

  Moms looked worried, "Are you sure it warrants that?"

  "I'm not sure but I don't want to be sorry. Please do as I ask."

  "Okay, we will. Be ready to pull us out."

  "What tunnel?" asked Harrison.

  "Our water supply aqueduct. It runs underground from our reservoir and is accessible from our bunker. There's enough room for the car to float but Sam will have to grapple us in when we get to the ranch house."

  Several tens of miles from the ranch Maeve took over the controls of the car from the robot and steered it to a large pool of water hidden from the roadway by a line of trees and bushes. She gingerly drove into the water and slowly let the car sink, checking for leaks all around. When she was satisfied she turned on the head lights and let the flow carry the craft into the tunnel. Several hundred yards in she was able to pop up to the surfa
ce and allow the current to carry them along. Through the car windows the trip was an eerie passage through total darkness with only a patch of water and wall visible.

  After a long, slow journey a pool of light appeared before them.

  "That will be Sam," said Maeve. She turned to Lucas sitting behind her, "Open your window and be ready to grab on. If we drift by I can't back up."

  Lucas did as he was told thinking, "If we can't back up where do we come out?"

  As they drew closer he could see Sam and two of his men holding a large mesh net out over the water and put his head and shoulders out of the window to grab it. Once he had it he held on tightly against the flow of the current while Sam attached a grapple to the roof of the car. When he was satisfied that it was secure he gave a signal and a winch slowly lifted them out of the water and onto a wide platform.

  "I hope that was necessary," said Moms emerging. "That's a nerve wracking passage."

  "Necessary or not," said Sam, "it's safe. That's what counts."

  "Anything on the drones?" asked Harrison.

  "Come and see. Maybe Lucas can make some sense out of the radio traffic."

  In single file they climbed a long flight of stairs to the underground offices, Lucas taking care to position himself behind Maeve.

  "What are you doing?" she asked.

  `"Enjoying myself," he said

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  In the days following the convention Harrison was occupied with writing an account of the proceedings which kept Moms in the forefront without skimping on the work that had been accomplished. He felt hurried by the need to get back to his office and students and slowed by his desire to do a good job.

  Lucas stayed out of sight in the bunker office trying to find the source of the drones which had become fixtures in the sky over the ranch. He wasn't having much luck as there were no visible markings on the craft. Sam, finally reaching the limits of his patience, tried to settle the matter by sending a drone of their own into the sky to grapple with the other robot and bring it to the ground.

  With the spy drone in hand Lucas and two lab technicians took it apart in search of clues. Maeve and Sam were interested bystanders as they disassembled the aircraft and examined each piece under magnification. The lab techs subjected the material to a chromatograph and determined that the carbon fibers that made up the body had been manufactured in the near east.

  "Probably the New Caliphate," they opined, "maybe, though less likely, Iran"

  "Why would the Arabs be spying on us?" asked Sam.

  "I don't think it's the Arabs. The composite probably came from them and was manufactured elsewhere," answered Lucas, "but even if we knew who made the machine we wouldn't know who's using it on us."

  "Do you have any ideas?" asked Maeve.

  Lucas gave her a look which she properly interpreted as "Yes, I have plenty of ideas and they all involve you and me and no clothing," and blushed.

  "I think the most likely watchers are government agents," Lucas said, "and that they're still looking for me."

  "Don't be paranoid," said Sam.

  "I can't help it. Have we started to distribute the anti-chip yet?"

  "Not quite, but we're getting close," answered Sam. "Why?"

  "Well, they know I took it and they'll want it back and they'll certainly want to prevent its distribution."

  Lucas turned to Maeve, "It may be that the best way I can serve Moms is to get my behind out of here so the drones will leave."

  Maeve shook her head. "They're here and they don't know you're here so if you leave they'll still be here. More than ever now that we've plucked one out of the sky." She punctuated her thought with a scowl at Sam.

  Unperturbed he said, "Whoever it is, they know me and they know I wouldn't stand for the surveillance forever. And they're right."

  He turned back to Lucas, "So you can't tell me who sent them?"

  "Not yet, but maybe soon. We have some other tests we can run and I haven't hacked its cpu yet. Give us another couple of days."

  Two days later Lucas sauntered into Sam's office with a smile on his face. "I don't know who sent the drones, but I know where they're flying from."

  Sam's interest perked up as Lucas brought a map up on his tablet screen with a big, piratical X in the center. "Send a drone there to collect images and data and we may know who it is."

  Sam studied the map. "This isn't too far away. How'd you find it?"

  Lucas smiled, "We analyzed the dust in the rotor mount and found traces of four plants. We researched their ranges and that X marks the spot where they all overlap. Clever, huh?"

  `Sam grunted and tapped his communicator. "Josh, send a drone to image," he paused and read the map and then intoned the coordinates. "Yeah, do it right now. And beam the images back to me in real time. I don't want the drone captured before I've got the images."

  He turned to Lucas, "We should have a good idea in less than an hour."

  Forty-six minutes later a dot appeared on the screen and quickly grew larger until the image of a long, low building came into focus. Sam picked up his communicator again, "Fly on by, we don't want to spook them." He fiddled with the controls and magnified the image until they could see people in the yard of the structure.

  "Recognize anything?" asked Lucas.

  "You bet I do. I've been to that place and I'm not happy about who's doing the spying."

  "Tell," said Lucas.

  Sam rose heavily to his feet, "Nothing to tell. Not much anyway. They're neighbors, the ones who have the herd of yaks and llamas. I guess it's all just a front."

  "You sound, I don't know, hurt," said Lucas.

  "Yeah, we've had them over here, fed 'em, socialized, helped them during calving season, thought they were friends."

  Sam was on the move and Lucas quickly followed. He was thinking that Sam's voice was carrying more emotion than he expressed but decided to let it rest until he learned more.

  They went to Moms' office where they found Maeve alone.

  "Where's Moms?" asked Sam.

  "Probably in the dining room with Harrison. She wants to mingle with the troops after that event in Vegas."

  Sam wheeled and took off at a fast pace, Lucas stayed behind.

  "What's going on?" asked Maeve.

  Lucas recounted the flyover and showed her the ranch house. "He said they were neighbors, the people with the yaks and llamas."

  "Oh no," said Maeve. "He wouldn't like that at all."

  "Why not?"

  "Because he's been seeing a woman who works there. The ranch cook. They've been an item for over a year."

  "Ouch. We'd better go see what they plan to do about it."

  They walked toward the dining room. "Is there anything they can do about it?"

  Lucas looked concerned and hurried along.

  "Best is to do nothing if they don't know we know. Otherwise they'd be forced to make some kind of move. Maybe even close down. This way we have a chance to learn more."

  In the corridor they ran into Moms and Sam and Harrison heading their way.

  "War council," said Moms tersely and beckoned them to come along.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  "I say we just go and confront them," said Sam.

  "And they say it's a toy and they were just playing. Or it's the way they keep track of the livestock and it strayed. They can say anything they want." Harrison was making sense and Sam knew it but the desire to take direct action was still etched on his face.

  "I think the main question is who are they working for?" said Moms.

  "The government, of course," said Lucas.

  "Not necessarily," said Moms.

  "Then who else?" asked Lucas.

  "It could be something local," Moms responded. "After all, with all the goings on here on the ranch they could be suspicious of us. They do use the drones to watch the animals and it would be reasonable to watch us occasionally as well."

  The discussion went on for an hour while they
explored as many possible ramifications as they could imagine. At last they agreed on a course of action. Since, as neighbors, they would want to return lost property, Sam was elected to bring the drone back to its owners. He could be open about it, "We didn't realize it was yours until we brought it down." At worst they would think he was being disingenuous. At best they would conclude he was stupid."

  "At any rate I'll get to see Marlene and see what she has to say," said Sam.

  "Be circumspect," said Moms.

  "Oh, I will be."

  He turned to Lucas, "By the way, here's your little toy back," he said handing over the anti-chip device, "and here's its new little brother."

  He handed him a copy which Lucas carefully compared to the original.

  "Wow, that was quick. Who made this?"

  "Some robot factory somewhere," said Sam. "The Israelis reverse-engineered it. Distribution has already started."

  "I want one," said Harrison.

  "You're not chipped," said Moms.

  "Not yet. But I have to get back to my classes and if they want to chip me I don't want to put up too big a fuss."

  Moms nodded, "So you've decided to return?"

  "Yes. I've been here long enough to give up on finding Lucas and there's nothing really for me to do here."

  "There soon will be," said Moms. "Gaia will grow more quickly now and I'll need your help."

  "That's okay. At least I can finish a term or two while it does and then make an orderly exit."

  Lucas watched the interchange and for the first time saw the close bond between the siblings and how much of their communication was wordless - a cocked eyebrow, a tone of voice, body posture, these all carried messages not expressed in words or really understood by anyone else.

  "What about me?" he asked. "Do I just lay low in my underground office?"

  "Yes!" a chorus of voices responded.

  "And hack every site you can," rumbled Sam. "Especially our next door neighbors."