Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (51 page)

Zack walked across the room to the king-sized
bed, wearing a towel around his waist, his shoulder-length hair curling damply.
Maria's breath caught as she watched the play of muscles across his chest and
abdomen. Who would have ever known that underneath the work shirts and worn
blue jeans lurked an absolutely gorgeous body like this? She heard him laugh
softly as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"You're staring," he said in a low, delighted
voice.

"Where did you get all those muscles from?"
Maria blurted out.

"From following you up hill and over dale and
all over creation reporting the news while lugging tons of equipment," he
replied.

"Oh. Well, do you think you could bring all
those muscles over here to me? I think I feel a really sexy news story coming...which
will need some...um...equipment of yours...."

"Oooh, really sexy," he asked, moving across the
bed to her side.

"Oh, yeah," she breathed, fingers gripping the
edge of the towel and slowly sliding it off his body. "Really, really sexy."

Harmony sauntered into the large cabin by the
lake, shaking raindrops out of her wildly curling hair. She loved the view
outside the window of her new home. It was surrounded by trees--Hickory and a
giant White Oak dominated the scene, and the pretty pink flowers of a Redbud
tree wafted back and forth on the breeze. She loved being outdoors after it
rained. The dark bark of the trees when wet contrasted sharply with bright
green spring leaves and buds. This morning's rainstorm, edges of the hurricane
that was parked in the center of the country, had drenched the region, but now
tapered off to let a little sunshine through on the sparkling surface of the
lake.

She wanted to be out there still, but she had to
finish unpacking and help Alex and Dr. Shapiro move into two of the other
cabins. Dr. Shapiro hadn't been too happy about finding out his house was on
the wrong side of town to maintain electricity, Harmony thought, laughing
quietly to herself at the look of chagrin on his face when Lisanne told him. So
today, she and Max would help out with the move. Poor Alex didn't have much to
move since she'd never made it home after returning from Africa. Fortunately
the five cabins were all in great shape and furnished with rustic looking
chairs and comfy couches with well-made quilts on the double beds in each
bedroom. Harmony finished setting out a row of crystals on the kitchen window
ledge. Looking out at all the fresh, vibrant beauty, she suddenly burst into
tears.

"Hey! Anybody home?" She heard from the front
door.

Wiping her eyes and stifling the tears, she
crossed the room to open the door. Nathan was standing there, guitar in one
hand, duffel bag in the other. "Hi, Harmony," he said brightly. "Just wanted to
see if I could rent one of your cabins. I can pay with free concerts," he
continued, holding his guitar case up with a grin. "With all the empty houses
around, I guess I could have picked any I wanted, but I feel the need to live
in the midst of people--"

He stopped talking as Harmony gave a little cry
and threw her arms around him as she sobbed.

"Well, well, now, it's okay--Harmony?" he asked,
bewildered, as he gently patted her on the back.

Harmony's tears continued for a minute, and then
she took a shaky breath, pulling away from him. She turned back into the cabin
and motioned him inside.

"Sorry," she mumbled, "shouldn't have done that.
You came at just the wrong time." She laughed hollowly. "Then when you
said--about wanting to be around people, all the empty houses--"

Nathan advanced into the room and set his
belongings down, saying, "Here, sit down and let me make some tea. Now tell me
what this is about."

Harmony took a deep breath, sat down at the
kitchen table and laid her head on crossed forearms on the table while Nathan found
the tea kettle and filled it with water.

"It was seeing it all," she said in a small
voice, lifting her head up to look at him. "Seeing how beautiful it is, the
world out there. Nature. The Earth. And then knowing, really knowing, so many
people are dead. That so many more are going to die. It was just so--so--big all
of a sudden. All those people."

Nathan sat across from her and reached out to
hold her hand as her voice trailed off. "Go on," he urged.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess, we've been so busy,
I've been so busy. Shopping, planning, meeting new people. Dreaming. And it's
like you know that the dreams are coming true, you know there is worse to come,
but you still have to live. You have to keep going, keep helping, to make this
be a place that is safe. But to know, really know, there are so many who won't
be safe...it feels selfish. Wrong somehow. And terribly unfair. All the ones who
won't get to see a pretty spring day again. Who won't get to go for a walk
under the trees, smell the scents of growing things, hear the birds chattering
at each other, all the things they will miss out on, all the life that's
just...gone."

She paused while Nathan got up and poured hot
water over tea and brought the mugs to the table. He asked, "But is it wrong that
we survive?"

Shaking her head vehemently, blonde curls moving
across her shoulders, she said, "No! No, someone has to survive, don't we? I
guess I wonder why us, why me, but--" She waved an arm in the direction of the
front door. "There is so much life out there, and we are a part of it. It's
almost like it's our duty to live, to enjoy what is left, to make the most of
the life we have been given. But we can't forget them, can we? Those who are
dying, we can't forget they existed."

Nathan sipped his tea and leaned back in his
chair, thinking how he'd surely underestimated this woman. You just never knew
about people, about the depths inside everyone. Her rather overwhelmingly
pretty surface appearance and lighthearted manner had made him not really see
her until now. But what she was saying, these were feelings they would all
experience in one form or another in the coming days, weeks, months, hell,
years, probably.

"No," he said quietly. "We can't ever forget
they existed. We have to mourn them, mourn the loss of a whole way of life. We
may not have always thought it was the best way of life, or believed everyone
out there was wonderful and good, but they were like us. They were people like
us. And now they're gone, and in the end, very few of us may be left." He
reached down to pat the guitar case at his side. "Part of what I hope to do
someday soon is start to write about them, about the world we knew, in songs
that will help us remember."

Harmony nodded approval. She hadn't had much
time yet to get to know Jessica's brother, but he looked a bit like an
adventurer, she thought. Those khaki shorts he always wore with a different
t-shirt each day. Noticing the logo on today's shirt, she said, "So, did they
know about
Nine Inch Nails
in the part of Africa you were in?"

He laughed, looking down at the image on his
faded green t-shirt. "Let's just say it wasn't the most popular music out
there."

"And now you'll be the one making the music
here," she said. "Do you kinda feel like you have the weight of the world on
your shoulders now? I mean, since as far as I know, you are the only musician
here, it will be up to you to keep the music alive." She giggled as a look of
horror crossed his face.

"I-I never actually thought about that, Harmony,"
he said in concern. "It's not like I'm a Mozart or Beethoven--or even The
Beatles--holy shit."

She laughed out loud then, caught up in a wave
of amusement that was a relief after the earlier tears. "Oh Nathan, your face!
You look terrified. Don't worry. I don't think anyone is expecting symphonies,
not yet."

He watched her laughing and slowly grinned. "Well,
good. I've played guitar and written music since I was young--and don't believe
anything Jessica tells you about my early efforts, sisters are the worst
critics--but the thought of my being the only musician, yikes. There'd better be
more of us out there."

Harmony's laughter faded as her voice turned
serious, "We'll just have to see, won't we? Who will be left at the end. Or
maybe I should say, who will be left at the beginning."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, as much as the
world seems to be ending, it is also a beginning, I agree. Of what, where we
are going, what this new world will be like, I guess we won't know that for a
while." He sat up straighter in his chair and asked, "So, what about that
cabin? You have one for me? Can you tolerate a musician on the premises?"

Harmony looked a bit puzzled. "Well, yeah, sure,
Alex already asked and I've got one set up for you guys--"

"No," Nathan shook his head, chuckling. "I'm not
staying with Alex...unless we run out of room, of course."

"But aren't you guys--" Harmony began.

"Ah, no, no, we aren't," he replied in a bemused
tone. "Why does everyone assume Alex and I are a couple? We work together, yes,
but that's it."

"Oh!" said Harmony. "I see." She looked him up
and down with more interest in her eyes.

"Anyway, I think my sister's house is full
enough, and I'd prefer to have my own place. Alex and I will need to spend time
together as we sort out what's happening here, but we don't need to live
together."

Harmony nodded. "No problem. In fact," she said
with an inviting smile, "the cabin right next door to me is available. You're
welcome here, anytime."

"Erhm, thank you," he responded. Life was indeed
continuing on here at the end--beginning of the world.

San Juan Islands, on board the Rhondavous
yacht

Margaret heard the sound deep within her bones
as she leaned against the railing at the front of the deck. The power of the
whale before her was incredible. The mental power. Radiating outward. Suddenly
she understood what Captain Hollywood had said about their brains being four
times bigger than human brains. There was intelligence here, all right, a
stunning amount of it! She let herself relax and opened her mind.

Alan Beakman watched as Margaret closed her
eyes. Didn't look too complicated, he thought wryly, just close your eyes and
breathe deeply--yeah, right. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing
his eyes--and was overwhelmed with information. He fell to the deck of the boat.

Dusty ran forward and knelt beside Alan,
cradling his head in her hands. "Alan? Alan, can you hear me?" she asked
urgently.

Maria and Zack came up beside her. "What
happened to him?" Maria asked.

"I don't know! Ask that woman!" Dusty snapped,
pointing to Margaret.

But Margaret was caught up in the grip of a
powerful intellect, striving to teach her things she wasn't ready to hear. He
was telling her she was wrong. But how, she thought frantically, what did I do
wrong? She was bombarded by so many impressions, not visual images exactly,
more dimensional than that--many dimensions. The tremendous whale disengaged
his mind from hers, moving away physically as well.

Zack watched as Margaret sank down in a faint,
and he gazed sharply at the mammoth whale moving alongside the boat. He felt a
gentle touch upon his mind, a welcoming. And he heard a message. Smiling a bit
as he found himself on his knees on the deck, he whispered Maria's name as he
slowly keeled over and passed out.

"Captain! Captain Hollywood, get us the hell out
of here!" Dusty shouted. "They're dropping like flies!"

Washington D.C., the Oval Office

"If this flood happens, General, I want you
ready to attack, to take action," announced the President.

General Briggs looked carefully at the
President. He seemed to be as normal as ever; he sounded like the same old Jeb,
his friend of many years. But what he was proposing...to attack the planet?
Nature? What the hell? His argument seemed to be that the scientists said all
the recent tragedies were from natural causes. Nature. And Jeb had got it into
his head that the spate of disasters could be stopped from continuing if humans
fought back. Evidently his wife having dreams of the flood was having a major
impact, General Briggs decided.

"Mr. President, I'm not sure what kind of battle
plan we could come up with for fighting our own planet."

"General--George, how long have we know each other?
Fifteen years now? And have you ever known me to be crazy, to move without
thinking?"

"Well, no, sir, but--"

"But nothing!" the President roared. "I've been
staring at a report this morning from that idiot science advisor of mine, and
there's a pattern. A pattern in the disasters that are occurring all over the
world. They're happening in built-up areas, places where probably we shouldn't
have settled huge population centers, if you listen to the environmentalists--which
I've also been doing this morning. Disasters in places where there's been
heavier extinction of species than usual. Places where we've tried to change
the shape of the planet--or rivers--and in each of these disasters, I can tell
you there is something like that connected to it."

The general nodded thoughtfully, but said, "Mr.
President, the problem is we don't have an enemy to face, to fight. There is no
Army of Nature. Who am I supposed to tell our boys to go attack? Sir?"

The President leaned back in his chair and took
off his glasses. "You don't attack people. You attack the planet itself. You
find a place deep within the earth to attack. Isn't there some trench out in
the ocean somewhere that we could drop a few bombs into and see what happens?
Or how about a volcano? I think that would send a message."

"But--but--" General Briggs stopped and stared at
his boss for a minute. "Sir, just who are we sending a message to?"

"Why, the planet, of course! There have been
theories for years that perhaps the planet has some kind of sentience.
Everybody with any sense thought those ideas were pure hooey, but now--now we
have the evidence. You can't tell me it's normal for all these disasters to be
happening. My director of FEMA collapsed the other day from exhaustion! No, it's
not right. So we're going to stop it. I'm also going to have you go after this
woman, Margaret, the one who was on TV. She says she's in communication with
the planet--well, let's see how the planet likes it if we get rid of its
stooge."