Reconception: The Fall (6 page)

When Morgan wanted to study classified material, it
had been an easy matter to get Ripley to break the codes. He'd
simply said, "Ripley, I have a problem and I need your help. I need
to get into old classified military documents." Ripley did not ask
why. The puzzle was interesting. The solution was elegant.

The bomb was well within range of the land vehicle
that had been constructed to travel to Southeast sector, and upon
its return, Morgan intended to use it. He had hoped to be able to
launch the missile electronically, without leaving the safety of
East USA, but there were certain mechanical operations that had to
be initiated before the warhead could function. He intended to take
Jersey Lipton with him, and as he sat before his computer console
working out the details, he thought about the tactics he would use
to convince Jersey to help him.

Jersey was a brilliant man, a physicist. Although he
was qualified as a New Scientist, he wasn't really at ease with
anything that didn't have the clarity and precision of mathematics.
He thought in eloquent computational terms. His dreams were of
geometric forms and spatial relationships rather than people. Words
bothered him. He thought of words as deceptive and misleading, thus
he was a quiet man who lived in his laboratory and spoke only when
spoken to. His relationships were only with those who could
communicate on his terms.

What could a man like that want or need, Morgan
wondered? How could he be recruited and convinced to help launch
the missile. The more he puzzled over it, the more Morgan thought
he should find someone else. Jersey was immune to most forms of
coercion. He needed nothing except to continue his research. A
lightbulb flashed at the idea, and Morgan realized he'd found the
handle he'd been looking for.

"Jersey," he said, entering the man's laboratory,
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but there's a problem."

Jersey looked up from an intricate mass of wires and
coils that sprouted from the banks of machinery lining the walls,
and studied Morgan with complete abstraction. Morgan felt that he
might as well be a table for all the emotional content that Jersey
expressed. The seconds passed and then the minutes. The physicist
turned back to his work, having decided that the intruder was of no
apparent consequence.

"I said there's a problem," Morgan repeated. "We're
going to have to close down this lab." That would get his
attention.

"What?" Jersey said, "This is my lab."

"Not any more. Atmospherics needs the space. We've
got priority over ... what is it you're working on?"

"It's pure research. I haven't any results to publish
yet."

"I guess that's why we have priority. Anyway, you'll
have to move."

Jersey knew that he didn't stand a chance against
Morgan. The man had a reputation. "Where am I being moved to?" he
asked.

Morgan smiled to himself. This was going to be easier
than he had supposed. "I don't know," he shrugged, casually walking
through the lab and fingering first this piece of equipment and
then that.

The physicist's anxiety rose in direct proportion to
Morgan's nonchalant handling of his life's work. "I don't think
there is any other space. That's why we're taking over this
one."

"But I have to continue my work!" Jersey cried. "I
can't stop now. I'm so close!"

Knowing the impact his offhand manner was having and
timing his response for maximum emphasis, Morgan waited. He
marveled at the passion residing just under the surface, which his
actions were so accurately eliciting, and watched, elated, as
Jersey began to emotionally unravel. When the physicist's anguish
reached exquisite heights, Morgan stepped in to save him.

"Calm down man," he said, "if it's that important
maybe there's something we can do."

From there it was an easy matter to gain Jersey
Lipton's undying devotion.

Mountain People: 2128

Evie and Garret drove their vehicle slowly and
carefully over the rutted road. Ahead of them, Eye of Eagle stopped
and gestured for them to go to the left. Garret couldn't see any
road but he followed the directions of the big man and turned. He
and Evie had hardly spoken since their meeting with the three
mountain people just two hours ago. They'd agreed to go with them
to their village and had gotten the van turned around and had
driven off the road. From then on there'd been little to do but
drive and watch the scenery. They had a million questions and
nothing to say.

The countryside was not as barren
as it looked from a distance. Many small plants and grasses hugged
the ground, holding the remaining soil together. It was not quite
desert but close enough to make Evie wonder how the mountain people
were able to survive. Obviously their bodies had adapted to the
ozone and CO
₂
in the air, but what
about food, the ultraviolet radiation, water, heavy metals? Relax,
she told herself for the third time in as many minutes, her
excitement nearly beyond control. All questions will be answered in
time.

Rounding a knoll, the van moved ponderously over the
rocky ground. The sight which greeted them was like nothing they
had ever imagined. Eye of Eagle signaled for them to get out of the
van and they did.

"This is our farm," he said, sweeping his arm across
the scene. "From here, we feed our people and our animals." It did
not look like any 20th century farm. There were no orderly rows of
grains and vegetables, all alike, but clusters of many varieties of
useable plants, including small trees and bushes.

"It doesn't look like a farm," Evie said
doubtfully.

"It's what's known as sustainable agriculture,"
Teller explained. "Different varieties of foodstuffs grown together
support the soil and eliminate the need for artificial fertilizers
and pesticides."

"But how?" Garret wanted to know. "How is it
possible? It looks more like a garden or a forest than a farm!"

"It is more like a garden. We've encouraged the
growth of a great variety of plants, trying to get it as close to a
natural system as we could."

"But what about the ultraviolet radiation? What about
water?"

"Most of the monocultures they used to cultivate at
the end of the industrial era were too weak to withstand excessive
UVB, but these plants were not. Our people have been here for a
very long time, you see—over a hundred years. They chose their seed
carefully. Many of these crops were originally weeds. They're
strong and adaptable.

Like here, this is dandelion. It has many uses. The
leaves are delicious as a salad green. The roots can be made into a
kind of coffee. It also has medicinal uses. Or here," Eye of Eagle
continued, "these are blackberries, and this is a hazel nut tree.
That stand of grasses over there is a kind of wild wheat." He
stopped talking for a while.

"It's beautiful," Evie whispered to no one in
particular.

"These are legumes aren't they?" Garret asked,
stooping to touch a drooping pod.

"Right," Eye of Eagle replied. Pulling a pod off the
vine and splitting it with a fingernail, he offered a pea to Garret
who tasted it carefully and one to Evie, who chewed with
relish.

"But what about water? We thought this area was
pretty much desert."

"Come on," Eye of Eagle said, "We'll show you."

They walked through the farm, past flowering vines
and confusions of berry brambles, stands of wheat and rye, patches
of beet and dandelion, and under fruit and nut bearing trees. A
squirrel scurried across their path, startling Evie into an
exclamation half fright, half delight. Laughing, she leaned
momentarily against Eye of Eagle. Emerging from under the trees, he
pointed out the foods that needed full sunlight and grew in the
meadows. Beyond the meadow, the hills dropped away to the river.
"We get our water from this river ... "

"But isn't the water polluted?" Garret
interjected.

"Actually it's a lot cleaner than it used to be.
It's also a lot bigger. It used to be just under 1000 feet across,
now it's more than a mile. Part of the Greenhouse Effect, you know,
more evaporation, more rainfall. We get some really serious storms;
that's why we picked this place; it's high ground. The river seems
to have stopped rising in the last few years, and it seems to be
slowly cleansing itself as heavy metals get washed out to sea and
clean water is recycled up to the mountaintops, but we still
distill it."

"But doesn't that take an enormous expenditure of
energy?"

"No," the mountain man replied. "When we came here
in 2010, we knew that things were going to get worse, not better,
so we planned for that eventuality. We built solar distillers to
clean the water, you can see them over there." He pointed to a wide
swath of land, at the edge of the palisade, which was covered with
long lines of metal and glass rectangles, catching the sun's light
and heat. "We think that in another fifty years or so, the water
will be clean enough to drink again, but we know that irrigation
can ruin the land, leaving salts behind, so we will probably always
distill our irrigation water."

"How do you get the water up here?" Garret wanted to
know.

"The pumps are solar powered too."

"But this is wonderful!" Evie exclaimed. "You have
food and water, and you've adapted to the air and the ultraviolet.
You've survived!"

Eye of Eagle exchanged a glance with Teller before
answering. "Yes and no. We do have food and water, for a limited
number of people. And the air is okay, but there are problems." He
sighed. "Come on. Let me introduce you to some of our people."

"What about our van? We need it ... "

"We know. Don't worry. We'll bring it around."

Taking Evie's hand, and signaling to the others, Eye
of Eagle continued across the meadow, through the trees on the
other side, and into a large wilderness area. Here, too, everything
that could be green was green. Pathways were made of natural rock
and weeds grew profusely. "We call this the garden of the
Goddess."

"That's because we don't touch it," Teller added.
"We've done nothing but water it for over a hundred years. We've
often found valuable food plants growing here and added them to our
stock."

"How big an area is it?" Garret asked.

"It's about 100 acres."

"But I thought we were heading toward your village?"
Evie said.

"We are. It's on the other side of the Garden of the
Goddess."

"But why does this Garden stand between you and your
farm? That doesn't make sense." Garret said.

"Actually, it makes a lot of sense," Teller replied.
"If we'd located the Garden at the outskirts of the farm, then how
would we expand our areas under cultivation? By destroying the
Garden? This way, when we expand we only reclaim the desert. We
never touch the Garden."

Garret smiled. "I see. You're right, of course."

"It takes a little more work this way," Eye of Eagle
added, "to move food across these 100 acres, but we think it's
worth it."

The Garden of the Goddess, except for a system of
pathways crisscrossing it, was a complete wilderness. Evie breathed
in the fragrant air, savoring a moment of complete happiness. "Why
is it called the Garden of the Goddess?"

Eye of Eagle laughed, "I could give you a quick and
easy answer to that, but it's really a complex question ... .I
guess by the time you leave here, you'll know."

Ducking under the branch of a tree, Garret waited
for Evie to catch up. Cries at the Moon seemed to have disappeared,
and Garret assumed he'd taken a different path. He was worried
about the van, and questioned his judgment in leaving it behind.
What if these people weren't as well-meaning as they acted? What if
he were being careless? After all, his and Evie's life depended on
that van.

It was stupid to leave it in the hands of others.
Because of his anxiety, he was in a hurry to get to the end of the
Garden, and kept walking ahead, only to have to wait for the others
to catch up. He tried to communicate his apprehension to Evie by
catching her eye, but she was so lost in the beauty of the place,
she didn't get his feeling at all. He felt strangely alone, in a
way he'd never experienced before.

Almost from birth, he and Evie had been inseparable,
and here she was so busy with the place and the people that she
seemed to have forgotten him. At that moment, she and Eye of Eagle
caught up with him. As Garret held the branch up for them to walk
under, she looked up and smiled into his eyes. Recognizing his
distress, a question replaced the joy in hers.

"Are you okay, Garret?" she asked.

"We need to get back to the van," he replied.

Teller, who had been bringing up the rear, asked if
he was all right.

"Yes. I'm fine."

"I feel great!" Evie said.

"Don't worry," Eye of Eagle said. "Your van is just
ahead. Cries at the Moon has gone ahead to get help to bring it
around. No harm will come to it or to you."

Evie smiled, and Garret felt the constriction around
his chest ease up a little, though he wouldn't be happy until he
was back in the van.

After a few more minutes, the group emerged into a
large clearing. Built into the hill, on the north side, were
several long and wide porches with sliding glass doors leading
inside. The south side sloped down toward the cliffs at the edge of
the river. A barn and animal pens lay to the east, and beyond that,
the desert began again. The entire farm sat in a little valley
surrounded by rocky hills on three sides with the river completing
the enclosure. In the center of the area was a large open room with
a thatched roof. Wooden picnic tables took up most of the floor
space. Some people were sitting in the shade having a heated
discussion. They looked up at the arrival of the small group, and
watched them intently.