GAIA

by Morton Chalfy

  "Sorry to be so late but Moms really needed me."

  Maeve was visibly exhausted and needed help getting her clothes off. She fell into bed and pushed Lucas around so he could spoon her, mumbled something he didn't catch about the morning and was fast asleep. Cradling her in his arms Lucas made half-hearted attempts to arouse her passions but was only rewarded with gentle snores. Lulled by her sonorous breathing he too fell asleep.

  The morning found them both groggy and snuggling into the comforter when Maeve suddenly sat bolt upright. "My goodness, look at the time. Hurry. Get up." She rushed around gathering toiletries and headed for the shower.

  "We have to be at Moms in fifteen minutes. Hurry."

  "We?" he called to the closed door.

  "Yes, we!" came the muffled response.

  Lucas rose and as soon as the sound of the shower ceased he entered the bathroom.

  "No fooling around," said Maeve, drying off in front of the warm blowing air.

  "No, no. Just showering."

  They rushed through their toilets and showed up at Moms' door with half a minute to spare. In her chambers a buffet breakfast had been set out and Moms was at her desk perfunctorily picking at her food. Sam and Mai Ling were already there and an open call to Harrison and Helene was in progress, their faces projected on the wall and each with a steaming cup in hand. Against the opposite wall, seated on a row of chairs, were four young people Lucas had never seen before, each balancing a plate on their laps.

  Moms looked around the room, "Lucas, I think you're the only one who hasn't met the interns, from left to right that's Beth , Arnold, Kelly and Nguyen. That's Lucas our chief IT officer."

  Lucas kept his face impassive as he learned of his new title and smiled at the nervous newbies. Moms took a sip of her herbal tea and began, "I don't have to tell you that the workload has increased tenfold and threatens to go tenfold more very quickly. We've had to organize for success more rapidly then I had planned but it's happening and we have to take advantage of it while we can. The interns have been assigned to each of you as assistants, gofers, helpers. I expect you to teach them as much as possible to make them more useful."

  Nods and smiles all around .

  "Harrison is to assume duties as our Ambassador to the government and he and Helene have opened the Urban Gaia office and will facilitate urban involvement. Mai Ling is doing our P.R. and media outreach. She is also overseeing the collection of material for the Book of Gaia which we hope to publish within a few months." She took another sip of tea. "Sam is keeping us safe and will continue to do so."

  All the eyes in the room went to Sam, and Lucas then looked around the room more closely. Not too much to his surprise he finally found Cindy who was nearly inconspicuous. Seated in an alcove two steps from Moms she blended into the background. Lucas grinned at her and received the briefest flash of eye in response.

  "Lucas for IT," Moms continued, "and Maeve for whatever I can't do. Now, the first order of business is to be able to do our daily tasks smoothly and in a timely fashion. Mail has to be answered promptly. Orders for pamphlets and globes have to be filled quickly and our website has to be updated whenever there is something new that should be up there. We do have volunteers arriving every day now and we're holding orientation sessions twice a week. If you need help put in a requisition. When you get help train them well and quickly. We need to smooth out the bumps as rapidly as possible. We don't want to lose momentum."

  Moms swiveled to look at the screen. "Helene, can you do a first outline of a plan for the Fall Festival? We'll need something to work on so if you could at least give us a list of the categories we have to pay attention to and whatever you can think of to get us started."

  "Sure," said Helene. "How soon do you want it?"

  "Really, asap. We only have three months and some things will take a long time, I'm sure."

  "Okay," said Helene. "Same hall in Vegas?"

  "Yes, I think so." Moms looked around the room slowly, "I want to say how much I appreciate you and the spirit you're bringing to this enterprise. I must admit I never imagined this sort of response but I'm greatly heartened and energized by it. It makes me think that if we do our jobs well we can make a major difference in the future of our world. So thank you." There were embarrassed smiles and murmurs and then she added, "So, let's get to it."

  The room slowly emptied except for Beth, the intern, Moms, Maeve, Lucas and, of course, Cindy. Lucas said, "Don't you want me at my desk?"

  "No," said Moms. "I want you here. Can you work from here?"

  "Let me bring a couple of pieces of hardware up and then I can."

  "Do it please. I want you and Maeve with me."

  Chapter Fifty

  From Lucas' point of view the world turned upside down. The trip to Veganville and the Buffalo Hunters seemed like a romantic idyll from a long ago time in his life. He saw Maeve everyday and slept with her most nights but the tenor of their interactions had completely changed. Moms' needs dominated Maeve's existence now and with the pace of action speeding up exponentially Moms' needs came thick and fast.

  A work station had been set up for Lucas in a corner of Moms' receiving room but proved unworkable. A steady stream of visitors made concentration nearly impossible so a spare room, just off the receiving room and usually used for storage was quickly converted into the IT nerve center. With the door open just a little Moms could call him in without shouting.

  He and Maeve arrived at Moms' quarters in time for breakfast with her and a discussion of the upcoming day's highlights. That was on mornings when Maeve hadn't spent the night with Moms. Immediately after the meal, with coffee cup in hand, Lucas retreated to his desk to tackle the pile of notes and requests. The workload was making him testy and his truncated access to Maeve was making it worse.

  As soon as the dishes were cleared and Lucas in his office the line of visitors and staff began to file into Moms presence. With Maeve at her side and Cindy in the background she tackled the day's work. Friday afternoons were given over to preparing her sermon which she delivered live mid-Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, by circumstance, was time off. Circumstance was defined by the fact that the week's work, the preparation of the sermon which took much thought, and the delivery of the sermon, left Moms exhausted.

  Shortly after the delivery of the talk and the end of its video capture she would take a cup of herbal tea and retire to her bed for a long nap. Lucas and Maeve would follow suit in their own bed, Lucas with hope for a cuddle, Maeve in need of the rest. As the pace of growth and the subsequent size of the workload showed no signs of abating Lucas took to making dates with her to which Maeve gratefully acquiesced.

  On those nights they followed a ritual. They ate a small meal together in their quarters. They drank a little wine, played soft music in the background and limited their conversation to remarks about each other's beauty and charm. When the mood was right they made love.

  Increasingly the dates were harder to come by which made the mood harder to achieve. On those nights they resorted to drugs.

  "Someday it won't be like this," said Maeve.

  "I don't know when that will be," moaned Lucas. "They're flying the visitors in by the busload and my Incoming file is always full."

  "Someday," said Maeve. "Someday."

  Indeed the volume of visitors who couldn't be turned away had grown to outlandish proportions. It had become necessary to hire a robocopter service to ferry them from the airport to the ranch as the overland route took too long to traverse. Suggestions were routinely made to move the headquarters to a larger city with better transport connections but they were always nixed by Sam. He was paranoid about attempts being made on Moms' life and grew more paranoid as the Gaian movement gained popularity.

  "But who would want to kill her?" asked Lucas naively.

  Sam growled at the question which was posed in front of many of the cadre but took the opportunity to make his fears explicit.

  "Who would want to
includes anybody in the extractive industries, the fisheries and what remains of meat husbandry. Gaia is a threat to their way of making money and Moms is Gaia. We can protect her here. I don't want to find out if we can protect her in the city. Maybe we can, with a lot more people and effort, but maybe not. I don't want to find out. She's safe here and that's it."

  The finality in his voice quashed all comment. Lucas thought, "Maybe he's right, maybe not, but this argument is over."

  Because of Sam's mania about security the Fall Festival, which would be held in Las Vegas, took an inordinate amount of planning time. Sam dragooned Lucas for two days so they could fly to the venue and walk it with the head of security for the facility. While Sam discussed protocols with the officer Lucas rummaged through their electronic systems and installed a secure channel for communications.

  The most important protocol they established was the requirement to pre-register with no reservations taken after thirty days before the event. Sam had established criteria and red flags and Lucas was to set up a system for background checks. Sam promised two intelligent operatives to do the plodding work of verification. The venue's head of security said, "That's probably the best you can do."

  "Maybe," replied Sam, "but I'm still thinking about it."

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Moms called Lucas to come out of his office to look at a message on her screen. He grumbled as he secured his work and then put a smile on his face. Maeve greeted him with a grin and walked him over to Moms' desk. On her screen was a one word message, "Done."

  Moms and Maeve were both grinning broadly at him and at the mystified look on his face.

  "I don't get it," he said.

  "You will," said Maeve, "and you'll love it."

  Moms said, "As of now you're officially assigned here as a mole in our midst. You have to write a monthly report on any activities you deem subversive to the government and if there are none you can just report, "None."

  Lucas still looked mystified. "But I don't want to spy on you. I don't get it."

  "My contact needed to provide believable cover for you being here officially. There's now no question of you being pursued. Your pay will continue and you can travel anywhere."

  "That's good, I guess," said Lucas.

  "What's the matter with you?" cried Maeve. "This sets you free."

  "Yeah, I get that part. It's just making me feel that stealing the dongle and making a run for it was all just a waste. That I was a fool to think I was doing something noble and brave and it turns out they wanted me to do it."

  "No dear," said Moms softly. "You did do something brave and noble but you're too valuable to us and to them to let you suffer for it."

  "Why am I valuable to them? To you and Gaia, yes. But what's in it for them?"

  "Two things," said Moms. "Nobody wants to admit that the dongle technology was stolen. Distributed, okay, but under their auspices. Stolen would be a terrible breach of security with re-authorization coming up in Congress. This way, if it comes out, it was just part of a secret plan and won't get media coverage."

  "What's the other thing?"

  "They do want you here with me. They want a secure agent on site to keep an eye on things. Someone to call in a pinch."

  "But obviously they could just call you."

  "Not if I'm the pinch or the one in it."

  Lucas still looked wary and unhappy. Maeve put her arm through his. "What you did was brave and noble but so is your work with Gaia, perhaps not requiring as much bravery but certainly as noble. And now you're free to work in the open."

  Under the pressure of her arm in his and her sweet voice in his ear Lucas began to relent. "Just feels funny," he mumbled but managed a smile at them both. "Gotta get back to work, though. This spying on you has left a huge pile of tasks on my desk."

  "Okay," said Moms, "we'll let you get on with it. I did think this news would cheer you up though."

  "It will, I guess, when I get used to it."

  He started back to his office when Maeve said, "Oh, wait. There's another piece of news."

  "Yes?"

  "You know the band The Dirty Dozen? With that lead singer Quatro?"

  "Yes. From Australia, right?"

  "Right. Well he wrote a song called Gaia. Listen."

  She pushed a button on her screen and the images of the band came up. The song had a hypnotic back beat, heavy rhythm and a melody reminiscent of ancient, early rock and roll. The lyrics were simple in the extreme, solely the word Gaia repeated over and over along with the melody. The overall impression was of great dance-ability and profound meaning. When she had played about a minute of the song she turned it off. "It goes on like that for five minutes and thirty seconds," said Maeve.

  "Should be a hit," said Lucas. "It's great."

  "It is a hit already in Australia and it's racing up the charts all over."

  "Wow."

  "And the band will play at the Fall Festival!" Maeve's voice was trembling with excitement. Lucas got very thoughtful. "Have you told Sam?" he asked.

  "Not yet. We just got confirmation."

  "Well, you better tell him. Their last concert drew so many fans the National Guard had to be mobilized to handle the crowds."

  Both Maeve and Moms looked caught short. "I hadn't thought of that," said Maeve. "Mai Ling was so excited about getting them to come."

  "Well, tell Sam right away. This will make his job a lot more complex."

  "But you think it's a good thing, don't you?" Maeve asked. "That it will help Gaia?"

  "I think it's great. The song will be a great tool and the band will draw people who hadn't heard of Gaia before the song came out."

  "Mai Ling is setting up a video explaining Gaia with the song in the background."

  "That'll be good. Tell Sam. I'm going back to work. Love you both," Lucas said, and kissing Maeve on the cheek whispered, "but especially you."

  Maeve held him closer and whispered in his ear, "Helene asked if Moms would perform a marriage ceremony for her and Harrison when they came back out here for the Festival."

  "Oh great. That's a terrific idea. I'm happy for them."

  "She can easily make it a double ceremony..."

  For a moment Lucas didn't get it and then said, "You mean us?"

  "Well, who else?"

  "Well, great. Great!"

  He hugged her to him, "I love you," he said.

  "Good. I wouldn't want to marry anyone who didn't."

  Over her shoulder he could see Moms smiling broadly at them.

  "Thanks," he said to her and grinned in response.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Harrison was brooding in his office. Ever since Moms had announced her intention to turn Gaia into a religion he was haunted by a thought that popped into his mind as soon as she said it. "She's going to be killed," he thought and that thought would not let him rest. On a daily basis he communicated with Sam and discussed the security measures in place and those they might employ. Sam shared his fears and often sought his input, especially when anything out of the ordinary came up. For the moment nothing special was on the agenda but the Fall Festival and that loomed in both their minds as a minefield of danger.

  This bout of Harrison's brooding was brought on by the message that the Dirty Dozen were to appear. He was torn between the idea that the crowd they would attract would skew heavily young and those were Gaia's best recruits, idealistic, energetic and passionate. On the other hand such a large crowd would require a larger venue and could easily provide cover for any number of assassins.

  In the end he dismissed the possible good that could come of it as not being nearly worth the bad that might ensue. "Just too dangerous," he concluded and sent that message to Sam and Moms and Maeve and Lucas and Mai Ling. It wasn't until much later in the day when he heard that the band's manager had called to apologize - the band would be in Australia that day on tour. He was sorry and all that and said they'd make a video greeting the festival goers, supporting Gaia and
playing their hit song, that Harrison's mood lifted.

  "Now that's more like it," he thought.

  Helene came to his office late in the day with several pages of notes regarding the festival logistics for him to go over with her. Helene's presence lifted his mood greatly and made him want to play, but her mood was somber.

  "Not now," she said to his advances. "Look this over and help me with it. Security under the conditions she's proposing is going to be a nightmare. Half the time she intends to be receiving visitors and schmoozing with dignitaries. There's no way to keep her safe."

  Harrison stifled the urge to minimize the dangers and turned his attention to her list of notes.

  "Life would be so much simpler without violence," he mused, and sighed. "Perhaps on another planet."

  "I don't see how that would be possible," said Helene, "since it starts on the microbial level. The big microbes eat the littler ones. It's in the most ancient part of our DNA."

  "Yes, I know. I was just wishing."

  "Well, there are no genies to grant your wishes so focus on preventing violence rather than wishing it away."

  For the next several hours they pored over her plans, continually referring to the 3D images of the convention hall and its surroundings. By the time they adjourned for dinner they had made several improvements to the plan with the foremost being the admonition that "all security personnel must have high IQs." They strolled the long corridors to the restaurant section to let the exercise move their blood and refresh their brains.

  "There's one other thing we could do," said Helene thoughtfully. "We need to enlarge on Moms' message to religious people that Gaia is not in opposition to any religion. Gaia is not God and doesn't intend to supplant God. In fact Gaia is the expression of God's will on Earth."

  Harrison was puzzled, "Why bring God into it?"

  "So we don't become seen as God's enemy. Many people will only see Gaia as a new religion and people's experience with religion contains hatred of other religions - pogroms, Crusades, the Inquisition, burning of heretics, beheading of apostates, and all of that. Religions are jealous organizations because they all believe they have the One Truth at their heart."