GAIA

by Morton Chalfy

  Leah was short, chubby, dark haired and when excited, bouncy. Helene spoke with her at length, detailing some of her wish list from the artists. "We're entering the proselytizing stage now and we want to do it through art, through music, through dance and through story. We especially want material for children for it's their minds and hearts we most want to win. We have to think in generations."

  Leah became animated hearing this and burbled about some artists she wanted to work with who had developed several characters just for children.

  "Give me a few weeks and we can have some rough ideas for you," she promised.

  Helene left the booth feeling excited about the prospects. She was planning a wholesale outreach to schools, which, she hoped, would be based on a regular weekly program for children broadcast from her headquarters.

  Chapter Seventy

  Sunday started slowly. The Gaians had mingled and partied much of the night away and were slow to arise, eat and return to the Festival hall. The line to see Moms, however, started before the opening bell. Moms herself took even more time than usual but insisted on getting to her post.

  Maeve and Lucas, Cindy and Moms' physician and a cadre of acolytes stayed with her and regulated the pace of visits. After a quiet break for food Moms asked for Sam to be called. She was sitting back in her chair when he arrived and opened her eyes to say, "Sweet Sam. Thank you for all you've done." Sam's eyes turned red with tears and his breath was sharply drawn in. "Please take the same care of her," Moms said, indicating Maeve, "as you've cared for me. She has a lot of work to do."

  Moms opened her arms for him to hug her but before Sam could get around the desk she stiffened and then slumped. Sam hurried to her side as did her physician who, feeling for a pulse, found none. "Bring her back here where I can work on her," she said.

  Sam carefully lifted Moms' limp body which was like a child's in the huge man's grasp and carried her into the room used as a medical station. The doctor injected a substance meant to kickstart the heart but Moms remained lifeless. When the doctor rummaged for a stronger drug, Harrison, who had been called by Lucas, said, "That's enough. She wouldn't want anymore. She made it to the end. That's enough."

  Helene came in and sent for Mai Ling. They had been prepared for this moment by Moms and Mai Ling proceeded to carry out her orders which had been, "When I die, make the most of it."

  First the public address announcer read a solemn announcement of her passing, which elicited a loud gasp and then groan from the crowd. Many people burst into tears at the news and wails rose from the exhibition floor. Then Mai Ling released the news to the global media.

  The hall manager found Helene and offered the space for another two days to allow the visitors enough time and space to mourn and Helene gratefully accepted. Runners were sent out to tell all the exhibitors and an announcement was made for the attendees. Moms body was to be transported to the ranch where she would lay in virtual state for three days before entombment in the mausoleum that already held her parents.

  To Mai Ling's delight the days leading up to the funeral were filled with media reports and images of Moms. Her last sermon played endlessly and the virtual "lying in state" enjoyed its own 24/7 space in the broadcast sphere.

  Despite the months of preparation for this moment she had received Maeve was heartbroken and retreated with Cindy to her quarters where the two women, one hard, one soft, mourned.

  Epilogue

  Time passed and Gaia grew. Under Helene's direction its organization grew stronger and its outreach broader. The ranch produced a steady stream of young people happy to undertake the task of proselytizing, carrying the work of Gaia around the world. A sub-group were trained to interact with the Indies and bring Gaia to the most far flung areas.

  Harrison worked on the History, taking care to suppress his natural distrust of religion in order to advance Moms' vision. "The least I can do," he thought.

  Lucas adjusted to the greater work demands on Maeve by diving into what had become his passion, the secure network of communications. Several months after the Fall Festival, in the week between Christmas and New Year's, he and Maeve spent a weekend at the Sky Cabin. It was like old times, he thought and wondered. Maeve was excited, playful and full of love. Lucas was grateful and responsive but curious about what brought the surge of energy and elation to the fore. After their second round of lovemaking, a particularly impassioned event, he lay back and asked, "Not that I mind at all, but what's brought this on?"

  Maeve rolled on her side, "Well, I love you."

  "And?"

  "And the doctor confirmed what I've suspected. I'm pregnant."

  (The Story of the Gaia movement continues in Gaia II)

  READING BONUS

  The Gaia Trilogy II

  GROWTH

  Morton Chalfy

  Chapter 1

  Harrison checked the time. They were due to leave in half an hour and would miss their connections if they were late. Their luggage was packed and waiting but Helene was still at her desk dictating instructions and directing operations.

  Since becoming the executive head of the Gaian Foundation she had become subsumed by the work of realizing its vision. Under her leadership the number of members had grown exponentially, the wealth of the emergent religion had piled up despite its rapid re-investment and the efficiency of her organization inspired nothing short of awe from her colleagues and workers.

  These accomplishments came at a price though, a price discernible in her frequent fatigue, her rapidly graying hair, the hollows under her eyes and the difficulty she had with movement. Harrison had watched the changes taking place day by day in mute despair. He wanted her to be vibrantly alive as usual but her devotion to her tasks made it impractical to advise her to slow down, let alone stop.

  "If saving the world isn't worth some hard work, what is?" had been her invariable reply.

  Until now. This trip they were about to take had been her idea though it was one brought to her by the President of Brasil. Rejuvenation City had gradually grown on the outskirts of Brasilia until it was the global destination of thousands of the world's elites. Brasil had invested heavily in bio-engineering techniques, DNA restructuring and stem cell therapy until it was the global leader.

  The original basis of Rejuvenao as it was called was plastic surgery and body reshaping but it had grown into the most sophisticated system of methods for extending life and restoring vitality. In a private meeting the President had said, "It will extend your working life for twenty or more years - isn't that worth a month's investment of time?"

  Helene had quietly agreed once she discovered that recuperation would take place in a hotel suite, and that she could take along a small group of assistants and world wide communications would be at her fingers. Harrison thought that quiet bed rest might be a better prescription but kept his opinion to himself.

  At last Helene appeared in the doorway trailed by the two assistants who would be traveling with them and nodded at Harrison, "Time to go, sweetie."

  They were flown in a robo-copter to the airport where a private plane was waiting. Their party joined a group of several others in a luxurious cabin and as soon as they were seated the plane took off. The jet was a private shuttle owned by Brasil that was solely for bringing clients to the hospital complex.

  Helene sat with her two assistants and continued dictating a stream of orders which they dutifully noted and relayed while Harrison gazed out at the tops of the clouds and thought about their destination. One hundred and fifty years before their trip Brasil had faced a huge crisis over the Amazon basin. Illegal logging and the clear cutting of the forest to plant sugar cane had reached the point of nearly no return when Brasil's first indigenous President had been elected. Her first act had been to declare that all the laws governing protection of the Amazon forest would be fully enforced.

  Enforcement had always been the sticking point. So much money and political power was arrayed on the side of the loggers and corpora
te farmers that the laws were disregarded with impunity. "La senhora de estillo" reversed that course through a series of draconian measures which began with arming indigenous militias and empowering them to put an end to the logging, a task they were eager to undertake. After a massacre of over a hundred illegal loggers it became more difficult for the brokers to hire replacements.

  The government used a combination of satellites and drones to pinpoint clandestine logging camps and directed the militias to them, sometimes airlifting the Indians to the sites. The very fact that the government had finally turned against the trade had been enough to close it down almost completely within a year.

  Intelligently the President made the militias permanent and put them on the government payroll. The death of the internal combustion engine gradually wiped out the sugar cane - ethanol business and the jungle did the rest on its own.

  It was in pursuit of foreign exchange to replace the money made by logging and farming that Rejuvenation City was conceived. From its slender footprint as a plastic surgery center it had grown into a powerful and lucrative enterprise which included half a dozen hospitals, labs, treatment centers and a university which served the world's wealthiest. The prices charged were enormous but as they were being paid by people whose fortunes were even larger the system worked. Its consequences were still to be fully understood but the support of the status quo was an immediate one.

  Because of Rejuvenation City the executive suites of the world were occupied by the same people for forty or fifty years now. Heads of states ruled for decades upon decades and some families were frozen in time and place by the fact that the ancestors never moved on but only refreshed themselves.

  Harrison was bemused by the developments but conceded he was willing to have them applied to Helene and, if he was being honest, to himself.

  "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Helene's voice came in his ear. They were flying over the forest now, dipping below the clouds on a long approach to their destination.

  "Yes, it is," he replied. "Amazing how it's all grown back. Forest cover is twice what it was last century."

  She had slipped her hand through his arm and was leaning across him to peer out the window.

  "You know that part of this process involves hormone therapy, don't you?" she asked.

  He smiled at her. "Yes, I know that. I'm counting on that to give us the first big payoff for going through this."

  She grinned at him. "You mean having sex is the main thing you want from this?"

  "Well, yes. Sex with you, that is."

  "How wonderfully shallow," she said gaily. "That's why I love you."

  Chapter 2

  A year earlier representatives from the hospital had visited Harrison and Helene and had gathered a number of biological samples from them. The material had been used to grow new organs, in Helene's case a kidney and in Harrison's a liver, and to produce a colony of stem cells.

  Their operations were scheduled over a period of two weeks and began with injections of stem cells into all their joints, cells which would grow into healthy cartilage and repair the grinding effects of a lifetime of wear. They also began a course of hormone therapy designed to re-energize their libidos.

  Both operations included a small amount of plastic surgery, small by Brasilian standards, which restored a certain youthfulness to their faces and in Helene's case, to her breasts. After the organ replacements they recuperated in their shared suite attended to by the hospital staff. Facilities were comparable to the most luxurious resorts and after a week both patients were clearly recovering well. So well that Helene insisted on resuming her duties, at least for part of the day, and her assistants took to arriving mid-morning and working with her through lunchtime.

  Harrison spent his recuperative time on a lounge on their balcony, reading mostly, but intermittently working on "The History of The Gaian Movement" which he hoped never to complete.

  Two weeks after the operations the residual puffiness had faded from their faces and stiffness in their limbs and joints had loosened considerably. They had taken to showering together to inspect each other's bodies and were beginning to eye each other speculatively and lasciviously. The doctors had warned against vigorous exercise before all the healing was done and put a big NO next to sexual congress until at least six weeks had gone by. Both Helene and Harrison secretly thought a month would be enough.

  After the third week they were prepared by the hospital staff to receive a visitor, the President. To receive him they were dressed in formal work attire and met with him in the sitting room of their suite. To their surprise he shooed everyone else out of the room in order to speak with them privately.

  "How do you feel?" he asked pleasantly.

  "Getting better," said Helene. Harrison grunted.

  The President made small talk for a bit, clearly assessing the pace of their recoveries and then said, "I have a request to make of you which requires the utmost secrecy."

  He looked at them expectantly waiting for assent but instead was met with two suspicious faces. He sighed and continued, "Let me say I would very much appreciate if you keep what I am about to tell you in confidence."

  Helene smoothly said, "We'll do all we can to respect your wish."

  "I'm sure you will," he said resignedly, but great harm could come if this comes out prematurely."

  He had both of their undivided attentions now.

  "Perhaps you know that my brother is the head of this complex, of Rejuvenao?"

  Harrison nodded, "And an eminent biologist in his own right. The author of Directing Human Evolution."

  The President looked pleased, "So he is. And he requests a visit from you."

  He was looking at Harrison.

  "Why me?"

  "Ah yes, why you. First, as a representative of the Gaians. He wants to become part of the secure network we've heard about..."

  He paused while both Helene and Harrison carefully closed their faces. The network was a secret to most and they didn't want to betray acknowledgment.

  "... and second," he continued, "to show you what he is working on so that it might be possible to enlist the aid of the Gaians." The President paused before adding, "of course, if you keep our secrets, we'll keep yours."

  "Visit him where? And when?" asked Harrison.

  "In a week at his research facility in the forest. We can transport you there in an ambulance-copter and of course he has full medical facilities at the laboratory so you'd be safe and secure."

  Harrison looked at Helene for her reactions and saw her studying the President's bland face. Beneath the smooth exterior she thought she detected a tightening of his jaw line which she interpreted as a strong desire for the visit to take place. She nodded at Harrison who said, "I'd love to. Just to see what he's working on would be a privilege."

  The President's features relaxed and Helene noted his relief.

  "Excellent. I'll have a liaison officer visit later this week to make preparations and to accompany you. But please, tell no one. We will have a suitable story to explain your absence if need be. If that's all right with you?"

  When the President had gone they discussed what had happened. Helene focused on their desire to be part of the network and Harrison speculated on what the secret project could be.

  "I'll contact Lucas and have him prepare what you'll need to plug them in," said Helene. "That way a call will be all it takes to start the process."

  Harrison looked thoughtful, "I'd better re-read his book on directed evolution. I'll be surprised if it's not something to do with that."

  "Does he want to play God?" asked Helene.

  "I wouldn't be surprised. Part of his thesis, if I remember correctly, is that humanity is in an evolutionary bind right now and natural evolution is too slow to fix it and that we have the tools to speed it up."

  "Ugh," said Helene distastefully, "the arrogance of eugenics rears its ugly head once more."

  "It certainly could be something like that," said Harriso
n.

  "I don't know how much of that we could keep secret," mused Helene.

  "Well, we can decide that when I've seen what's what."

  For a long while they sat together sunk in their own thoughts.

  "There is no ideal human," muttered Helene eventually. "None at all."

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  ANTLER’S POINT

  CHAPTER I

  My grandfather is the Arbiter of Disputes for my people and they call him the Judger of Men out of respect and fear. I, of course, call him Tati (grampa). We live a half day’s walk from the nearest village, on a hill among many hills, because my grandfather says a judge needs to maintain a distance from those he judges lest his personal likes or dislikes influence his decisions.

  I nod my head when he says this but I know he built this house and lived here with Momi for many years before the People chose him as Arbiter. Momi has been dead for two years now but he still misses her keenly and often goes alone to his sitting rock where he releases his spirit to the wind in order to better feel her presence again. Sometimes a cry of anguish escapes his lips and echoes through the valley. He still never speaks of her and ignores me or merely smiles whenever I call her to mind.

  A granddaughter cannot fill the place of a wife and I do not try, but I look after the house as well as I can and I assist him in his work.

  Momi said before she died that my tragedy hid its blessed side. I don’t know what she meant but it did completely change the course of my life and by bringing me to live and work with my Tati, gave me a purpose and a point of view I never would have had.