GAIA

by Morton Chalfy

  "It sure feels peaceful here," said Lucas.

  "It is. That's why we guard the approaches."

  Lucas thought that guarding the approaches wouldn't work against attacks from the air but held his tongue. John, practically reading his thoughts added, "There are air defenses of course, mostly deep underground bunkers, but we don't expect attack. We're entirely peaceful, we live at the edge of land that's considered barren and we make a lot of people happy with our produce. We fully expect to be left alone."

  "I'll drink to that," said Lucas, "as soon as I get a drink."

  "Let's head back then."

  As soon as their faces were turned homeward the camels took over navigation. Their gait was considerably livelier than on the outward trip and Lucas found it necessary to hang on with both hands lest he be pitched from the swaying back.

  Once in the barn the camels contentedly munched their fodder as soon as the saddles were removed. Lucas followed John's lead in the removal process, but very warily. The intelligent eyes, the large yellow teeth and the general air of dislike of strange humans given off by the animals made discretion seem very wise.

  "I wouldn't want to be bitten by one of these," said Lucas.

  John snorted in laughter. "No, you wouldn't. It hurts like hell and leaves a scar."

  There were still two hours to go before dinner and Maeve's presentation would take place directly afterward.

  "Want to get high?" asked John.

  Lucas was surprised. He used drugs and everyone he knew used drugs but somehow he had imagined that the purity loving Vegans got high on life. Still, intrigued, he answered, "Sure."

  John led him to the bank of elevators in the center of the Grow Tower and they rose nearly to the top floor. When the doors slid back Lucas was buffeted by an overwhelming aroma of marijuana. Stretching out before him was a plantation of pot with several robots slowly rolling down the aisles carefully harvesting the buds. Lucas could feel himself getting high on the fumes and saw John grinning broadly at him. "That's all it takes," he said. "A few minutes up here and you're high for half an hour. Not stoned out mind you, but high."

  Lucas was grinning back at him. "Ship a lot of this?" he asked, taking several deep breaths.

  "Yessir. Finest quality, top drawer pricing, easy to grow. We sell it every which way including in baked goods."

  "Another good reason for tight security," observed Lucas.

  After a few more deep inhalations they went smiling to the dining room to drink iced tea, indulge in "high" chatter and wait for dinner and Maeve.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Maeve came in with Mary arm in arm and, in Maeve's case, looking radiantly beautiful to Lucas. Her face was aglow and her laughter at a comment of Mary's was a musical tinkle in his ears. They were all seated at the head table though at opposite ends. Lucas spent the meal enjoying the sight of her being vibrant and happy.

  At the end of the meal Mary used her fork on her glass to call for attention and introduced Maeve as the "High Priestesses' number one acolyte." Maeve was wearing her white acolyte's robe and when she stood to speak she could have been a clone of Moms.

  "I want to begin," she said, "by saying how much at home I feel among you and how kindred are the spirits of our two settlements."

  She went on to talk about Gaia and the Gaian network with verbal nods to all the places it overlapped perfectly with Veganism. At the end she received a standing ovation which Lucas interpreted as friendliness towards her beauty and felt he was right when Maeve was surrounded by well wishers, mostly young and good looking themselves. Afterward they were shown to their rooms and admonished to sleep well as the day started early.

  "Oh, I love it here," said Maeve when they were alone.

  "Yes, it is pretty special," agreed Lucas.

  "Mary has asked if we could stay through Saturday to make sure that Moms' sermon is received without any glitches. I told her we'd be happy to."

  She looked at him inquiringly for his approval. "Sure. No problem. We don't have to meet up with the Buffalo Hunters for two weeks. I like it here too."

  "Do you know their entire philosophy is based on two words?"

  "Yes, I do know that. John told me. No Killing. Seems simplistic until you start really digging into it and then it's obvious that it shapes everything."

  "Mary says their main problem is balancing growth. They're limited by how much water they can capture to how many people can be supported, but their sales keep going up so they need to expand."

  "There's a limit to how many can live on the mesa even with water," said Lucas.

  "Yes. She says she goes to bed worrying about that all the time."

  "Can they build satellite communities down the coast?"

  "I don't know but we'll have all week to find out. By the way, you looked awfully dashing on that camel. I saw you through the window heading to the water catchers."

  "And you looked particularly vibrant and beautiful delivering your speech. Particularly."

  "Well then, do you care to come to bed and ravish me a little?"

  "How about a lot?"

  They spent the next day being shown around the complex. An early breakfast in the Grow Tower was followed by a walking tour of the commercial kitchen and the packing and shipping areas. All parts of the Grow Tower were kept comfortably cool and when they first stepped outside, even though it was well before noon, the heat immediately made them uncomfortable. The walk from the Tower to the barn was several hundred meters long and by the time they arrived they were drenched in sweat. The barn was cool and shady and stank of camel. When Lucas remarked on the odor John looked quizzically at him. "I don't smell anything. Not much, anyway." Lucas and Maeve rolled their eyes.

  "I wonder how long it takes to get so used to the smell that you don't smell it?" asked Maeve.

  "Never, I think," said Lucas.

  Mary took her leave and John directed the saddling of three beasts in preparation of showing off all their grounds.

  "Why do you use camels instead of robocars?" Maeve asked.

  "We use cars when we go to the urbs," answered John, "but they require an extensive support system. The camels are here, they're intelligent, they mostly care for themselves and they keep us in touch with the living world. Also, without roadways, camels confer much more freedom than cars."

  When Maeve was helped onto the saddle and her camel rose from the ground, first onto its knees, then lifting its rear and then standing upright, she gave little squeals of fear that morphed into delight.

  "Wow, you can see for a long way from up here," she said.

  John supplied them with parasols and bottles of water and then led the way out of the barn. The mesa covered a square mile and ran along the edge of the sea. Greenery flowed from the water catchers at the edge in gradually thinning amounts. Where the greenery met the desert John stopped to point out some features.

  "This is the current border of life and the interesting thing is that the irrigation canal stops a hundred meters back. The last bit is done completely on its own. Apparently underground seepage gets this far."

  "Can you capture more water?" asked Lucas.

  "Yes. We just have to raise the height of the catchers."

  "Will you?"

  "Eventually. Mary and the Council feel that we are still digesting our last bout of growth, but we're preparing the materials to add half again as much height as we have now."

  "Will that provide half again as much water?"

  "Yes it will. So we'd have to extend all the infrastructure to handle it."

  They turned the camels toward a small copse of trees along a water course. When they reached the trees the camels began eating leaves and grunting in pleasure.

  "These trees are volunteers. I don't know how the seeds got here but the trees are thriving. In less than a decade we expect them to rival the photovoltaic trees as shade providers all over the mesa."

  The sun was halfway past its peak when they turned the camels home
ward after traversing the plateau. In the barn, after carefully dismounting, Maeve whispered to Lucas, "My butt hurts."

  "I'll rub it," he whispered back.

  John, experienced in the aches and soreness of first time camel riders waved them to their rooms. "You'll need a rest before dinner."

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The Vegans lived in homes built to house up to a dozen family groups each. The structures were scattered throughout the area and featured many common areas complementing private apartments. As they had ridden by them John had pointed out places of interest, the bachelor house, the sorority house, the mommy's house, the daddy's house, the dining hall and Mary's house.

  "Is she the only person with a private house?" Maeve had asked.

  John snorted in reply, "Private? That's the house set aside for the Council President. It has a suite of offices built on in which her aides go to work every day. There's a constant stream of visitors at the door from first light on. Private? Not so's you could ever see."

  At dinner Mary told them some of the history of the settlement. "There were several families, young couples with young children mostly, and the number fluctuated over time. They were friends who socialized together and found they coalesced around the phrase No Killing! Some character in a movie had spoken it very forcefully and it became sort of a mantra in pop culture and with this group. The difference was this group took it to heart and decided to live that way. I'm not sure how they got the initial money to buy the land, that's not in the records, but they did. One of the group was a very creative engineer. He found the material used on the water catchers and laid out the system of pipes and cisterns and pumps and strainers to handle it. They built the water system first, then installed the electrical system starting with the photovoltaic trees and then built the first house."

  "Out of adobe?" asked Lucas. "Yes. That was the only building material available to them."

  She went on to detail some of the early hardships, the dissensions that caused several of the early settlers to leave and the gradual improvements in their position. "Of course they planted a garden as soon as there was water. They built a green house and grew hydroponically, but that meant they had crops after just a couple of months. They'd been eating freeze-dried food until then and when the first tomatoes were picked they held a celebration. We still celebrate Tomato Day."

  "How long ago was that?" asked Maeve, "When they first came here?"

  "Next year will be our centennial."

  "Wow," said Lucas. He looked around thoughtfully. "What does the growth curve look like?"

  Mary smiled at him.

  "At the end of five years there were about sixty people. It took another twenty years to break a hundred. Overall growth averages five percent or so but the last ten years has shown a quickening of the rate."

  "How come?"

  "We need help for one thing and the word has seeped out for another. We send our kids off for a year of schooling in the urbs, more if they want it, and many of them return with friends and lovers."

  Maeve was looking around the dining hall with a bemused expression. "I wonder about how you rule yourselves," she said. "Everyone looks pretty happy."

  Mary laughed. "I guess we're happy. We work hard but maybe that helps us. "No Killing!" is a powerful rule. Once murder is off the table violence necessarily follows it to the abyss. With power removed only persuasion is left and tolerance provides the space for persuasion. We're lucky, though, thanks to our founders. We're isolated and we're essentially a worker-owned company town. Major decisions are arrived at in concert and the proceeds of the business are used for the good of the community."

  "Sounds utopian," said Lucas, "in the most positive way."

  "As long as we can maintain our distance," Mary went on thoughtfully. "One of the reasons we're drawn to Gaia is that you deal with the wider world and can represent our interests. The longer we can maintain the physical separation from the rest of the population we can handle the electronic presence in our lives."

  Later that night as Maeve and Lucas lay in bed she tugged at his arm and asked, "Did you see the diorama of the Founders in the dining room?"

  "Just glanced at it. Why?"

  "Well, whether by accident or design they provided the basis of a genetically healthy tribe. There's a family of whites, one of blacks, one Latino, one east Indian, one clearly bi-racial and two families who look cobbled together. Intermarriage would definitely yield a healthy population."

  "I did notice how many different shades of humans live here," said Lucas, "and how healthy their life style is, what with all the walking they do."

  "And I love the fact that "No Killing!" gives rise to a really peaceful society. I mean, the level of anxiety here is non-existent compared to the urbs."

  Lucas nodded. "It does seem like they've taken conflict resolution to a very high level. I just don't think it would work in a less controlled situation than this one."

  "Why not?"

  "For some people and for some situations killing is often the only answer."

  Maeve sighed and squeezed his hand. "At least there can be pockets of peace. That's something."

  "Pockets of Peace, I like that," said Lucas. "Perhaps we can publicize this place and the No Killing! philosophy."

  "Oh no," said Maeve quickly. "Mary made it clear they don't want publicity. They try to keep this location as secret as possible."

  "But many people already know about them."

  "Yes, but not where they are. Mary says they have prepared a visual and oral presentation of the philosophy and the structures they've developed to implement it. She says we can broadcast that and distribute the readable file."

  "That would be something. I can see why they want to stay secret as long as possible. It took a hundred years to get here and it could be ruined in a day."

  "Just like our ranch," murmured Maeve on the way to sleep.

  "Yes, just like the ranch," he said thoughtfully.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  When Helene finished working with the techs a little production set was erected in Moms' office. She could deliver her sermons from behind her desk, at a lectern or just standing before a huge globe. Before Helene and Harrison took their leave of the ranch Harrison spent most of a morning walking the grounds with Sam. They looked for anything that might lead to a breach of security and talked over in depth protecting Moms.

  "We haven't seen a situation like this before," Harrison pointed out. "The responses to the first sermon have been tremendous and the requests for visits and workshops are just piling up."

  "I know," rumbled Sam testily.

  "I'm not saying you can't handle this, I'm just expressing my profound nervousness at my only sister becoming a religious icon."

  "I've recruited four more patrolmen. We have our best person on her personal security detail and I'm screening all requests for meetings personally."

  "Good. I'll still be nervous but I know you're doing as well as anyone could. She's contrary though, and will try to flout you occasionally. Who's your best person?"

  "Cindy. She's the mousey looking young woman who always wears really nondescript clothing. Small, wiry, super observant and quick."

  "What makes her the best you have?"

  "Nobody ever sees her. She fades into the background like a piece of furniture."

  "But can she handle violence?"

  Sam laughed uproariously. "Sorry," he said. "Sorry. Yes she can handle violence." He began to tick off items on his fingers, "Black Belts in Judo, Tae Kwon Do and Kendo, expert marksman with hand guns and long guns and certified in Japan as a ninja. The main thing is that no one sees her as a threat until it's too late."

  Harrison could see that Sam was convinced of his operative's abilities and that further conversation was a waste of time. "Okay, I'm convinced. Where is she now?"

  "With Moms. I moved her into Moms' apartment the day before the sermon and she's been like glue ever since."

  When
Harrison and Helene went to say their goodbyes to Moms he was pleased to see her personal guard in the room and to marvel at how self effacing she was. It wasn't until they turned to leave that he realized she'd been in the room with them. He shook her hand as they left, surprised to find the small, pink appendage was as hard as a rock.

  "I'm in good hands with Cindy," said Moms. "Don't worry."

  Despite his sister's assurances Harrison spent the trip back to the city worrying and thinking about possible dangers. By the time he and Helene entered her apartment he had a page of notes for Sam, another for Moms and a reference book about assassinations for Cindy. Helene added several diabolical schemes to watch out for to the litany of fears he had already compiled.

  "I'm glad you're on our side," he remarked after reading her additions.

  "I'm glad I'm on your side too," she said.

  Afterward, after showering and changing clothes, after sending off their missives to Sam and Moms and Cindy, they went in search of a place to eat. They were also on the lookout for a good venue to host a Moms Gaia sermon party. They strolled along the shops and restaurants and settled on a vegetarian eatery that served lunch and dinner. The dining room was huge and inviting and giant TV screens dominated the decor. After their meal Harrison approached the manager and explained that they would like to rent the space for Saturday morning as a place for Gaians to gather. The manager quickly accepted, offered to have a brunch ready for purchasing and to place placards announcing the event at the entrance.

  "How many do you expect?"

  "We have no idea. We'll post an announcement on various bulletin boards and we'll just have to wait and see."

  "As long as you pay our fee up front we'll have no problem."

  They spent several hours putting the word out on every board they could, let Moms know so she could make a personal comment about it and then turned their attention to catching up with their regular lives.

  On Saturday morning they dressed in a version of going to church clothes and made their way to the restaurant. To their amazement a line snaked out of the entrance. They waited to enter and gasped when they saw that the room was nearly filled and the line extended down the hall behind them.