Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (41 page)

Hutton nodded. "Yes, sir, absolutely."

"And, Hutton, I want someone to look into this
psychic woman, the one who predicted the flood. Have her checked out and find
out what she's up to now."

Hutton nodded eagerly. "Excellent decision, sir,
I'll get right on that."

"Hutton, I want this done discreetly, no leaks!"
He looked sternly at his science advisor. "Finally, I want one more thing. I
want your guys to go back over the natural disasters that have happened in the
past six months."

"Six months, sir?"

"Yes, six. I want them to look at natural
disasters around the world, not just here. I want to know statistically if this
is normal or if something strange is happening."

Hutton frowned. "Strange, sir?"

"I won't know if it's strange until you eggheads
check it out. So get on it, Hutton, right away!"

"Yes, sir!" Hutton replied, and then he exited
the room quickly. Walking down the corridors of the White House, he wondered
just how much influence the President's wife was having on the man. He actually
sounded like he was listening to her garbage about this flood scenario! Well,
he thought, it wouldn't be the first time a president listened to his wife to
his detriment.

President Colter eyed the door through which
Hutton had departed. He just didn't trust the guy. Picking up the phone, he
barked to his secretary, "Get me General Briggs. Now."

The Samuels' House

Sam and Harry wandered into the den and found a
place to sit on the floor in front of Jessica. Feeling her mom pat her on the
head, Sam leaned back against her legs and looked up at a concerned face.

"You okay, honey?" her mom asked quietly.

Sam nodded, thinking about her dream from last
night. Yeah, she was okay for now, but could she tell them all that they might
not be okay, be safe, not yet? She decided to wait and see what they were
talking about and tuned in to the ongoing discussion.

"So you're saying we need start planting right
away?" Clay asked Mrs. Philpott.

"According to my maps of agricultural zones for
this region, yes. I know we can live off food collected by some of you on the
way here. And Harmony and Max have been shopping every day for food supplies.
But to stay healthy we'll need to have fresh vegetables. And we need to be
planting with an eye for the future. Eventually there won't be any supplies
left in the stores. We need to put up what food we can for the winter. And I'll
confess I know a lot about growing roses, but practically nothing about growing
food!"

John spoke up. "We know this area is good for
growing lots of things--tomatoes, all kinds of vegetables, really. There are
fruit orchards around town--peaches, pears and apples--we have apples here on
our property. Black walnuts can be harvested in the fall--they're everywhere. We
have a growing season that's a decent length, so that's good--but we need to be
planting now, even if it's just backyard gardens to start with."

"We've learned over the past few years what we
can grow well in our backyard garden," Jessica informed them, "but I don't
think just one or two gardens will do it." Looking slightly frustrated, she continued.
"We don't know how many people will end up here! Say we get a massive influx of
refugees from the flood. How many will stay? How many will move on? And will
they just strip us of all supplies?"

Black's deep voice rumbled forth into the quiet.
"I'm going to look into what areas we need to protect. Then I'll need
volunteers to help with patrolling. Whoever signs up will probably need some
training as well. We'll establish a perimeter and some kind of alarm system."
He paused for a moment, and then said, "But if we get hordes of folks, well
then I can't promise you we can handle it."

Sam decided she had to speak. "We won't get lots
of people, but we will get some." She turned to face Black, sitting across the
half-circle made of chairs and sofas. "And you need to remember to use the
animals. They can help with the alarm-thingy. Harry and Perceval can talk to
you about that."

Black nodded thoughtfully, realizing he'd
forgotten all about the animals when it came to his plans.

"How do you know we won't get lots of people?"
Andy inquired curiously.

Sam sighed. "Because I know now 'bout what's
goin' on with the flood. How it's gonna start."

They all stirred at that. Andy's eyebrows rose.
Of everything he'd experienced thus far, the picture of this little kid sitting
cross-legged on the floor with one hand on the back of the golden retriever
stretched out next to her, making pronouncements that were listened to with
grave attention, this felt like the strangest. He'd sat bemused throughout the discussions
this morning, planning for a future that didn't seem possible on a nice, sunny
day. He felt like it was all starting to catch up with him this morning, the
wild escape from the hurricane, meeting Lisanne and Merlin, the communication
with Waldo. It just felt surreal. But he listened intently with the others as
Sam continued.

"There's gonna be an earthquake. Under the
river. There's some kinda thing, what's it called?" Before anyone could answer
her, she went on. "Oh, yeah, a fault. And that's gonna make everything crazy
with the river."

Mrs. Philpott asked urgently, "The New Madrid
fault line?"

"Um, yeah, I guess that's its name," Sam
replied. She thought for a moment, and then said with more assurance, "Yeah,
the New Mad-rid. Guess it's gonna make the river mad, huh?"

"Sam, how do you know this?" questioned Abby. "How
can you know this is going to happen?"

Sam shrugged as Jessica said, "She's been right
so far, Mom, so let's just listen, okay?" Turning to her daughter, Jessica asked,
"Is this what you dreamed about last night, honey?"

"How'd you know I had a dream last night?" she
responded, surprised.

Janine's soft voice said, "I told them at
breakfast, Sam. I woke up when I heard you and Harry. It sounded like a bad
dream."

Sam turned part way around to find Janine
sitting on a bar stool behind the sofa. "Oh, there you are! Sorry I woke you
up."

"It's okay," Janine replied.

"Well, anyway," Sam told them, "I did dream
about it. So that's why I know there's not going to be tons of people coming
here."

"Wait," Black interjected. "Won't the quake just
send even more folks scrambling for safety? It seems to me like we'd have even
more."

Sam shook her head. "Nope. 'Cause with the
earthquake and the flooding it's gonna be really bad. A lot of people are gonna
die. A lot of people." She ended in a quiet voice.

"Oh, Sam," her mother murmured, gently stroking
the top of Sam's head.

Sam sat up straighter and said, "Ya know that
big giant arch?"

"In St. Louis?" her father asked.

"Yeah, that's gonna fall down and smash a lotta
stuff. Plus, a bunch of roads are gonna be messed up. And around Cape Fair, you
know how those rock thingies, those whatchamacallit--bluffs, right? You know
where the bluffs are? Well, the land is going to drop down some, and when it
does, there's only gonna be one way to get into town. And there will be trouble
with that road too. Things will get broken and fall down between here and the
big lake."

John leaned forward in the brown leather chair
he was sitting in and said, "That's a big problem! I was planning on our being
able to use the power still from the hydroelectric dam on Table Rock Lake."

"You mean we can keep the electricity going?"
Nathan asked excited. "That would make all the difference! We'd have a much
better chance with electrical power."

"Well, sure," Lisanne began. "You can have air
conditioning and computers and television--"

Andy jabbed her in the side with an elbow. "I
think he's talking of more than that, Lisanne!"

Alex was nodding her head as Nathan explained, "When
you've lived in primitive conditions as Alex and I have for the past year, you
start to understand just how much of a difference it makes--as to what pieces of
your culture you can hang on to, let alone ways it helps you survive.
Refrigeration means you have more options for storing food. Electricity means
the ability to manufacture things more easily, the use of higher levels of
technology in areas like medicine, even electric pumps on wells for clean
water. There's just so much more that we can do to insure our survival--and to
provide for the future. If we lose electricity, it sets us back a hundred years
or more. Think what we can save culturally if we can keep the power going! I
was thinking we'd end up at practically the same level as the tribes in the
Kalahari that we were studying. But this--"

Alexandra stopped him, placing a hand on one of the
arms he was waving around as he talked. She said, "Yeah, but what you're
saying, John, is that we'll lose the power, right?"

John was frowning. Running both hands through
his hair and thinking hard, he offered, "I just don't know. I thought it would
be a gradual breakdown of the society. That we'd have time to figure out how to
keep the power supply, at least for here in Cape Fair. But if there's an
earthquake, it could damage the dam or the power station. And then there's the
possibility we couldn't even get to it if the roads are wiped out."

Janine spoke diffidently. "We could use the
horses for transportation. They'd go along with it. And they don't need roads
to go places."

Clay chuckled at the look on his son-in-law's
face. "There you go, my boy, one solution already provided by the animals. They're
something else!"

John grinned at him and then told Janine, "Thanks!
That would be terrific."

Mrs. Philpott was scribbling notes on her
clipboard, but looked up to say, "I think we're going to have to change the way
we think about the animals. Look at them more as partners with us in a lot of
cases."

There were nods of agreement around the room.

She continued, "One thing you haven't mentioned
yet, Samantha, is whether or not we'll be safe here with the New Madrid causing
an earthquake. I've read a few things about the New Madrid quake in the 1800s
and it was pretty big. They say it rang church bells all the way to the East
Coast in Boston. But the damage, then, did seem to be centralized around the
fault line. Of course, now there are millions of people living in that area,
unlike in the 1800s. Will we be okay here?"

Sam spoke slowly. "I know we'll know when it
happens. We'll be able to feel the shaking. But I didn't see things breaking
here. Maybe some stuff falling off the walls, but no buildings falling down. I
think we're far enough away."

Mrs. Philpott observed, "In my reading about it,
the book said it made the Mississippi flow backwards for a while."

Sam shuddered. "It's gonna do a lot worse than
that this time. It's gonna make a big flood." She paused and then told them, "And
of course, it will flood 'cause of the rain too."

"Rain?" John asked. "This region hasn't been
having heavy rains--not like back in 1993 when the Mississippi flooded so badly."

"No, Dad, the rains that are coming today. You
know, from the hurricane?"

Andy looked startled, and then said, "Wait a
minute. You're talking about the hurricane in the Gulf? The one Lisanne and I
ran from? It's moving inland?"

Sam nodded. "Yep. Hey! You're one of those
weather guys, aren't you? You can predict the weather!"

He muttered, "Evidently not as well as you can,
kid."

Lisanne grinned maliciously at him. He
continued, "I should go look at the weather channel. The radar should be
showing the path of the hurricane."

"Sounds like you don't need to, Andy," Lisanne
said helpfully.

Sam giggled. "The hurricane is everywhere right
now. Well not
every
where," she backtracked. "But it got so big that it's
coming up here, and there's gonna be rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain.
Probably we'll get some here too. But I don't know when."

Andy said, "Well, how about if I try and figure
out when we'll get rain here, Sam. Okay?"

Sam spread her hands wide, palms up and said, "Sure!
You're the weather guy!"

"Heavy rain plus the earthquake. I think that I'm
going to put myself in charge of dealing with the power plant, if everyone
agrees," John suggested. Everyone was nodding. "I'd already been reading up on
this, and I used to know a couple of the rangers over there--Table Rock Lake Dam
is run by the Army's Corps of Engineers. I've met some of the guys at the power
station. Let me see what I can get set up before the quake even hits."

They all heard the computer clicking as Perceval
typed out a message.

BETTER GO TODAY

QUAKE TOMORROW NIGHT RIGHT SAM?

Sam was bobbing her head up and down.

BETTER TAKE SOMEONE WITH YOU

PLAN TO ALWAYS HAVE A SECOND PERSON WITH YOU

DUPLICATE KNOWLEDGE SO ITS NOT LOST

John looked thoughtful. "I hadn't even thought
of that, Perceval, but you're right. As we go about learning new things, we
have to be careful that more than one person understands that knowledge or we
run the risk of losing it."

"Well, that doesn't sound too optimistic!"
Rachel told them. It felt like everything was changing too fast, too much, and
with too great an impact on her own life. She felt someone's eyes on her and
looked around the group. Samantha was looking at her steadily in a way that
made Rachel quickly drop her own eyes. Much as she loved her niece, there was
something about her since they'd arrived that made Rachel uncomfortable. She
seemed older than her years at times, and Rachel suddenly realized she was
feeling intimidated by a six-year-old. She looked up and focused on Sam with an
almost defensive stare. Sam grinned at her, making a silly face and rolling her
eyes. Maybe I'm just imagining it, Rachel thought as she giggled at the little
girl.