GAIA

by Morton Chalfy

  "Okay. See you at dinner."

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Maeve and Lucas returned from their second weekend in the Sky Cabin to find the ranch buzzing. New volunteers were being trained. Helene had taken over the executive function with vigor and was organizing the work effort, and a rumor was quietly being passed around about Moms' health. The two of them were immediately pulled apart to separate meetings, Lucas with Sam and Helene, and Maeve with Moms and Harrison. An hour after their arrival Lucas was deep into his console, handling the list of tasks he received at the meeting. Maeve, he would learn later, was still with Moms and Harrison, crying and bemoaning fate.

  "But you can't die," she wailed. "I need you. We all need you." Later she would cry, "I'm not ready. I can't do this."

  When the three of them emerged Maeve's face was still red and puffy from crying and both Moms and Harrison looked sad. Maeve ran off to her bedroom to curl up on the bed and sob.

  "She'll be all right," said Moms. "She'll finally absorb the blow and come out to join us and do her part."

  "I hope so," said Harrison.

  "She will. I know her mettle."

  As the week wore on Helene's organizational skills took hold and a chart was sent to the cadre's screens listing every task and where it was on the path to completion. Everyone had to update their part daily and Helene checked it all every evening and posted comments and directions. The overview helped focus everyone's attention.

  Moms worked on her sermon with Maeve who was still prone to tears at the beginning of the week but somewhat less so at the end. Moms noted to Helene, "It's better for her to grieve now then to break down later." Helene agreed and secretly hoped Moms was correct and that Maeve would gain strength through the process. She and Harrison would leave the ranch right after the sermon and operate out of Harrison's apartment on a temporary basis until the Gaia World Executive offices could be moved to a suitable address.

  Sam, Cindy and Mai Ling had not taken the news of Moms' illness particularly well. Mai Ling had recovered first and began planning PR for the transition, but both Sam and Cindy refused to believe it. Cindy practically shadowed Moms from then on, unwilling to let her go for a minute and moving a cot into her bedroom to sleep on, ready to help or call for help anytime.

  Sam, his face aglower, left the ranch house for the mountains. Out of sight of anyone, he raged at the heavens. He tore a sapling out of the ground and beat the trees that bore witness to his grief while tears ran down his cheeks. For the rest of the week he remained unapproachable.

  On Saturday Moms delivered her sermon with more energy than she'd had for a while to the surprise of the inner circle. She began with the benediction and then, looking straight into the camera, said, "In answer to those who ask "What do the Gaians want? What is their purpose?" I say this. We are the first species to develop the time to do more with our lives than look for food and flee from danger. We have, unthinkingly, dominated the planet and laid waste its resources both animate and inanimate. When our species was young we were small beings in a giant, limitless world. At that time we could afford letting Greed be our dominant motivation but we can no longer afford it."

  She paused for effect and then continued, "The antidote for Greed, the opposite of Greed, is Love. In this case the Love of Gaia, which is our first directive. Greed cannot be fought. It can though, be replaced by Love. When you meditate on Gaia, on the Oneness of all Life, Love will fill your heart and Love will push out Greed. Practice the Love of Gaia and that Love will spread. Go with Gaia."

  When the lights were switched off the room burst into applause and Moms suddenly looked weak and spent.

  "That should drive traffic to the website," said Helene. "We better get home and get to work."

  "Just another minute," said Moms. She reached into a desk drawer and retrieved two sheets of paper which she proffered to Helene and Maeve. "Sign these," she said, "and stand here."

  As they read the papers and signed them and handed them to Harrison and Lucas the words "Marriage Certificates" ran around the room and into the hallway. The room quickly filled with people and two bouquets of flowers were produced for the brides.

  Moms conducted a truncated ceremony quickly, kissed the couples and fell back in her chair.

  "Be happy with each other, " she spoke in a near whisper, "and now let me rest."

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Helene's words about the increase in traffic were proving to be prophetic. The pent up desire to get behind something that was not destructive, that valued health and love and community above greed and destruction, focused on Moms' dramatic appearance and heartfelt message and overflowed and gushed forth in millions of communications. Harrison's apartment quickly became much too small to handle the number of volunteers who wanted to work for the Gaian vision and finding adequate space became a priority.

  With Foundation money available and the good graces of the landlord in hand they quickly located and moved into a large suite of offices that had been left vacant and fully furnished by a company bankrupted by the crash of the Martian Project. Within the week Helene was operating from behind a huge executive vanity desk which she declared "must go" because its incredible ostentation made her visitors ill at ease. The ongoing work of organizing on the fly took all her time and left her exhausted every night. She compiled her notes and observations in a file she jokingly called "Constructing A Religion 101" and kept secret from everyone but Harrison.

  Harrison's plan to begin work on the History was unceremoniously put on indefinite hold by the crush of work, principally training new volunteers to handle inquiries, provide information, send out merchandise and spread the word. In between tasks he did manage to begin a compilation of material, particularly on his father.

  At the ranch Lucas was also deluged by the rising tide of work and felt bereft because any contact with Maeve was brief and didn't allow for intimacy. Moms' needs over-rode his and often extended far into the night causing them to sleep apart more often than not.

  His work had risen above responsibility for security to encompass administration of a large and growing network. The site offered info on all things Gaia - classes on Earth and biological sciences, archives of Moms' sermons and appearance at various functions, and the super-secure channels of communication. He and Sam conversed frequently and offered each other the opportunity to vent their feelings. Lucas' fears that he would be married to a Virgin Queen figure reappeared with all its attendant anxiety. Sam's rage at the disease was his way of expressing a love of Moms which he couldn't express directly.

  Construction began at the ranch to accommodate the visitors who wanted to see Moms personally and experience the spiritual power of the place. Robocopters delivered several pre-fabricated modules fitted with pre-fabricated utilities and the crews of specialists who put them together. Within a week of the beginning of construction reservations were accepted for stays in their rooms.

  Mai Ling convinced Maeve to let her subtly alter Maeve's appearance to more closely resemble Moms'. It was a matter of trimming hair, highlighting certain features and only being seen in public in the High Priestess' robes. Mai Ling also recruited a sort of Speaker's Bureau to send to places that wanted personal visits from Gaian representatives.

  For Moms' next sermon Helene commissioned a teaser ad for the Fall Festival with shots of Moms, beautiful scenery and happy crowds with the message that the Festival would be just that - festive. "Meet and socialize with other Gaians, learn about Gaia and its work, enjoy the atmosphere of community." The message and its variants would be shown before and after the sermon.

  On that Saturday the promo piece ran as an introduction and then Moms appeared. To Harrison the strain on Moms was apparent but Helene insisted she looked and sounded fine. "Welcome fellow Gaians and friends, and let me extend my personal invitation to attend the Festival. We have received many messages whose central question comes down to 'What can we do to help?' The job right now is to heal Gaia. Where Gree
d has sown destruction, let us build. Where the biosphere has been wounded, let us bind the wounds. Humanity cannot stop competing with each other. Perhaps we cannot end war and violence as much as we would wish to but we can refrain from trashing our environment in pursuit of selfish aims. At the Festival we will host many classes on specific actions you can take to oppose and repair the destruction of our world. We have come far since the official beginning of acknowledging climate change one hundred and fifty years ago but the work is far from over. The main work has to be done within the human heart.

  The world is not "mine", it is "ours". Greed destroys, Love heals. Let us love Gaia for through our love we will heal Gaia. It is not for us alone that we take up this task, it is for all the children of humanity as far into the future as we can manage to live. Love Gaia."

  When the cameras stopped and the lights came up Helene could see what Harrison's brotherly eyes noticed earlier. Moms was drawn and very visibly in distress as Maeve and Cindy helped her to her quarters followed by her personal physician.

  Before the private feed from the ranch ended Lucas looked into the lens and said, "Hectic here. How're you doing? When can you visit?"

  Harrison replied, "Hectic here too. Probably can't get away very soon. Call on secure phone if you need to talk."

  Lucas nodded and broke the connection.

  "What's that about do you think?" asked Helene.

  "Probably the lack of Maeve in his arms would be my guess."

  "Well, we should go back before the next sermon. I need some things signed before witnesses and a face to face wouldn't hurt."

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Hectic didn't really do justice to the situation, thought Lucas. No descriptive single word or phrase could cover the atmosphere of controlled though chaotic growth, spiritual intensity, youthful idealistic enthusiasm and the increasing fear of losing his wife to her role as High Priestess that he lived with.

  The new volunteers were true believers, idealists with stars in their eyes and a belief in the essential goodness of people. Lucas, who as a spy technician had been witness to the opposite, kept his own counsel. No reason to squelch the workforce if their beliefs energize them, he thought.

  He started to look for his unknown benefactor several weeks before, at first idly but then with more attention as lead after lead led nowhere. He wrote short robot programs and sent them looking in every cranny he could think of. Between his regular list of IT tasks he would check to see if any new data turned up.

  And then, there it was. One of his bots had been detailed to collect all information containing Moms' name during her school years and had naturally found a mountain of data. Lucas further refined it by asking for all pairings of her name with any others and one day checked the resultant list. There it was - in the yearbook from her sophomore year she was shown in a photo identified as she and her beau, a senior, a senior who was now the chief operating officer of Lucas' spy organization.

  "Gotcha!" he couldn't help exclaiming.

  The outburst brought stares from his cadre but when he said no more the stares re-focused on their own work. The discovery momentarily elated him by lifting the shroud of mystery but he shortly came back to earth. So her college lover is looking after me. So what? Has he been part of this all along? Am I a player or a playee?

  He felt the need for Maeve more keenly than usual and resolved to have her spend the night in their quarters no matter what. That feeling built in him through the day and he mentally rehearsed what he would say to get her to do so. "I need you," sounded weak and feeble to his ears but any version of "I command you," would go nowhere. He looked for her at afternoon break time but she was closeted with Moms. At the sound of the dinner bell he resolutely set out to find her but before he had closed down his work station the door flew open and Maeve was there practically crawling into his arms.

  "Can we skip dinner and go to bed?" she asked. "I'm desperate for you."

  After his day of worry Lucas' heart soared. Without a word he nodded and hand in hand they went off to their apartment. The excitement on both sides was so palpable that after the initial bout of love-making they continued to cling to each other and murmur loving words in each other's ears.

  After the round of reassuring loving they curled up in bed and talked over the happenings of the week and how it was affecting them. Maeve decreed that he was to pick her up for dinner every evening. If she couldn't get away at least they would have some contact. She also decreed that he begin to take on some of her executive functions, at least as long as she needed to tend to Moms.

  "The first thing I want you to do," she said, "is take over directing the Welcome Committee. I don't have time to teach basic manners and consideration for visitors to a bunch of teenagers."

  Lucas resisted pointing out that he too was busy. "Sure," he said, thinking that it would keep him in closer contact.

  "Harrison and Helene are coming Thursday for meetings with Moms and the lawyers and I want to meet with them and you to work out some organizational details," she continued.

  "Like what?"

  "Like putting you in charge of the ranch as Chief Executive."

  "Who's going to do my work? Some of it is too sensitive to give to anyone else."

  "Can't you give up the rest, though?"

  "Probably, let me think about it. One problem is that I don't have anyone I trust to pass it on to right now."

  "Well think about that too. We have tons of applications to volunteer or come to work for us."

  "Okay. I'll need to discuss it with Sam as well. Two pairs of eyes on the security aspects will help."

  Her hand reached up to smooth his brow and soon they were making love again. This time when they were done they lay back drowsily.

  "I love you," Maeve said, "and I can't do this job without you."

  "Don't worry sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere."

  "Even though you don't like religion?"

  "Yes, even though. The religion part is nothing compared to the being-with-you part."

  Maeve sighed and snuggled deeper into his arms.

  "Good," she said and snoring gently, fell asleep.

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  For what seemed like a long while Lucas lay beside her thinking. Soon he got out of bed to sit in his easy chair where he followed his own thoughts with increasing excitement. He started with the drive toward universal chipping.

  That's not just a possibility anymore, he thought, it's a reality that will soon flood the world. He had been constructing a secure communication system since his arrival and now felt more sure of its need than ever. It would be good for Gaia but it would also be useful to the growing number of Indies popping up all over the globe. Requests for participation in the network were coming from isolated "tribes" and the governments of some small countries. Rising sea levels already caused severe dislocations around the world leading to refugee populations, islands abandoned to the sea and simultaneously the opening of new lands in the Arctic.

  Lucas began to appreciate Moms intelligence in positioning Gaia as a religion. Religions could wield political influence without the constrictions of a political party. Religions crossed all lines and boundaries as they existed in the hearts and minds of its adherents. Religions could operate networks, schools, churches and seminaries with impunity and religions could constantly ask for donations and volunteers to spread the word.

  The more Lucas looked at the advantages being a religion gave to the movement, in contrast to say, being a registered non-profit subject to political restraints, they were enormous. He began to see the ties between Gaia and the struggle for personal independence and that an executive position with Gaia would provide the perfect camouflage for his anti-chipping work.

  Lucas could feel the endorphins bathing his brain. The mental explosion set off by his new perspective felt positively glorious and contemplating the new landscape he could see was accompanied by intense feelings of pleasure.

  The reque
sts arriving from the Indie groups and the foreign countries formed a web he could see in his mind as nodes in the developing network. Through Gaia many groups could work together to preserve islands of freedom everywhere.

  With his mind aflame Lucas suddenly remembered their last morning at the Sky Cabin. While he was still in bed Maeve had stepped out onto the tiny porch naked to greet the rising sun. He had opened his eyes just as the first rays outlined her body and set her hair on fire. She was a lovely silhouette with a red halo. The image was so powerfully arousing that he let out a small moan.

  "Honey, are you up? What are you doing?" she asked sleepily.

  "Getting religion," he replied to his own surprise.

  "Well come here and give me some," she murmured drowsily.

  Lucas hastened to comply.

  As he rejoined Maeve in bed, adjusting his body to hers, he did so with a new found feeling of elation and commitment. For the first time since his arrival at the ranch he felt eager for the next day, eager to get back to work, eager to participate in what he now saw as a great enterprise.

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  The meeting was like a mortgage closing with onlookers. Moms and Helene sat at the end of the long table with two lawyers for the Foundation signing screen after screen. Harrison idly watched Helene assume more and more power and responsibility while taking notes for the History. Lucas and Maeve sat at the other end watching intently, Lucas barely able to contain his eagerness.

  Sam and Cindy hovered behind Moms watching her for signs of pain or fatigue and Mai Ling recorded the scene for a media release. The signings seemed interminable until at last one of the lawyers said, "That's it then. Congratulations, you're now President of the Foundation," he said to Helene, "and you're the official High Priestess now, Maeve," he said to her surprise.