Part complaint, part defiance seasoned with a pinch of cock-eyed pride.
“Since I heard on the grape-vine that you’re living defacto with Cherie.”
“So?”
“So Cherie’s expecting commitment from you mate. Whether you’re home or away. And while you’re away under my leadership, I intend to ensure she gets it.”
Brendan looked taken aback.
“Doesn’t apply to me,” asserted Dale. “Cara hasn’t got me tied down. She’s just a girlfriend.”
“A girlfriend who’s expecting you to show integrity in your relationships with other women. Whether you’re home or away.”
“And while I’m away you intend to ensure she gets it?”
“You catch on fast.”
I glanced up at him. He reminded me of a lion nuzzling his unruly cubs into line.
“Now both of you. Shirts off and give me fifty.”
“Sir?” began Brendan querulously.
“Now!” barked Zac.
The expression on their faces was priceless. I smothered a chuckle.
“And if that doesn’t take the edge off your lust, you can give me fifty more... Pete - I’m appointing you Maya’s chaperon until notified otherwise.”
“Why’s Pete her chaperon?” murmured Dale between push ups.
“Because he’s respectful enough to moderate his behaviour around women.”
I watched them in breathless disbelief. They were up to about twenty push-ups and hardly panting.
“Maya... Care to join our workshop tonight?”
“Not if I have to do push-ups.”
Zac laughed benevolently.
“We’ll let you skip the push-ups... Incidentally are you married, mating or dating?”
“No - I’m solo.”
“Perfect.”
Zac lowered his voice to a loud whisper.
“First thing I need you to do is get into Jake’s personal space and scare some of the shy out of him.”
“Too easy!” I grinned.
Ω
I was wrong about it being easy. I sank down next to Jake on the couch. He tolerated my presence for maybe ten seconds, then inched away from me. I closed up the distance again and brushed my arm against his for a millisecond. He recoiled away from me like I was a tiger snake, then fled over to the bean bag. My astonishment must have registered in my expression. Zac caught my eye - his lips twitching with amusement. I held onto my smile like a life preserver and got slowly to my feet.
“Haven’t they done more than 50 push-ups?”
They were breathing hard now. Both of them gasping for air.
“Whatever they’ve done it’ll do. Okay you two, quits but stay on the floor.”
Brendan and Dale sank to the floor. Exhausted. Zac motioned Pete over with his eyes. He knelt down on the floor near the others.
“Jake - you’re observer. Move that beanbag over here near me and don’t move out of it... And don’t let anything or anyone distract you while you’re observing us or you’ll be doing 50 as well.”
Jake responded instantly. Possibly spurred on by the threat of push-ups.
“Maya - join Jake in the beanbag. You can observe too.”
I could feel the pangs of protest rippling out of Jake as I sank down next to him. He tried the same distancing trick that had worked on the lounge but the more he tried to wriggle away from me, the closer we ended up. His ears were scarlet and I could see his carotid artery pulsing wildly. Zac made silent eye contact with me - mischievous delight flaring in his eyes. No doubt about it. Zac was a leader of men. And a moulder of them.
“So how’s the sex with Cherie?”
“Okay.”
“Not good. Just okay this early on in your relationship means you must be doing something wrong.”
I could feel the waves of embarrassment coming out of Brendan. Zac refused to let the pressure off.
“Come on Brendan. You want to pursue a career as a scientist don’t you?”
“Yeah, you know I do.”
“Well problems on the home-front don’t always stay home... They can press in around you, until you’re just going through the motions of being a scientist, instead of really being one... So let’s work out how to improve the sex with Cherie in the interest of your career development, eh?”
“In front of everyone?”
“Why not? We’re all blokes except for Maya. And she’s quite grown up enough to eavesdrop on our conversation...You’ve spent ten years preparing for your lifelong career as a scientist. How long have you spent preparing for your lifelong marriage? Ten weeks? Ten days?”
“When you put it that way, probably not long enough.”
“Let’s address the issue this week then, so you go back to Cherie with at least ten hours marriage training under your belt. Let’s start with some massage strokes that will bring out the best in her. Experience them first, then I’ll teach them to you. Pete - copy me, using Dale as your guinea pig, then we’ll swap places. Okay... face up, the pair of you...”
I watched Zac’s fingers gliding over Brendan’s naked chest... Brendan’s eyes reflecting their initial surprise... widening in shock... moistening his lips as he did his best to control the sensations he was obviously experiencing... Zac corrected Pete’s technique on Dale to give Brendan some breathing space, then coaxed him to refocus his attention and took him through whatever he was teaching him again...
“Observer comment Jake.”
“Um... er...”
“I told you not to let anything or anyone distract your observations.”
“I haven’t been Zac. And I’m learning stuff. It’s just that I can’t put what I’m learning into words yet.”
I had to agree with Jake there. Just watching Zac in action was setting loose something wild inside me. Something I couldn’t put into words.
“Okay, let’s work on expressing yourself then. Ask Maya five questions.”
“Five? How am I gonna think of that many?”
Stifled chuckling from the three amigos. Zac shot them a look which silenced them.
“Um... Question 1. What’s it like having a name like Maya when there are so many apocalyptic predictions circulating?”
“It sucks majorly. Hollywood has raised doomsday paranoia to an art-form.”
“I agree. The Mayan civilization had an advanced knowledge of astronomy and mathematics and were superb architects. Did you know they calculated the solar year to be 365.2420 days long without computers or sophisticated equipment and astronomers have only recently discovered it to be 365.2422 days long?”
“Er... no.”
“And did you know the Mayan believed that the universe had a specific creation date - around 3114BC, with subsequent history broken up into major time periods of 144,000 days which they called b’ak’tun?”
I glanced at Zac. He was pretending to rub his mouth with his hand but his dancing eyes told me he was really working hard at controlling his hysterics.
“Er... no. I didn’t know that.”
“Yes, and December 23, 2012 was just the end of their thirteenth b’ak’tun. Not the date for an apocalyptic event...”
The rest of what Jake said was drowned out by a pulsed roaring sound.
So much for the outback being silently spiritual. It sounded like Apocalypse D-day.
Jake sprung to his feet and dashed through the door. The others were milliseconds behind him. Outside, a red-orange ball of fire was hovering almost directly overhead. The fireball’s flames swirled around in a spiral pattern and disappeared up inside a black hole. The men surrounding me seemed unperturbed. I wanted to be brave like them, but I was spooked. Majorly. I instinctively reached out for Zac, searching for his silent reassurance. To my immense relief he grasped my trembling hand and interlaced our fingers.
“Anything like your UFO?” he said gently.
“Yes, but it’s much bigger... Zac, what is it? What’s making it? What’s it gonna do? When’s it gonna go away? Why a
ren’t you all scared of it?”
I ran the questions together. Alarm sharpened my voice.
“Jake mate... Maya reckons it’s her turn to ask the five questions. Want to answer any of them for her?”
Time to find out how much our prodigy knows about E/M technology.
“It’s a plasma fireball. There’s a Tesla magnifying transmitter nearby. Someone’s using the telluric activity in the rocks to feed a standing wave and get more energy out than has been put in. Dumping the energy sharply creates a fireball. Potentially it could modify the weather on the opposite side of the earth until whoever’s playing the thing back and forth quits experimenting. Except a fireball this large could have repercussions...”
“Repercussions?”
Jake drew in a noisy breath.
“Destructive storms... Possibly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in sensitive regions along its trajectory. You asked ‘why aren’t we scared of it?’ Well I am scared of it. Even Tesla was scared of the technology he’d discovered because he realized it could be disastrous in the wrong hands. People could even get killed by it. And one disaster could feed the next and the next and the next...”
Jake’s voice wavered.
“Zac! We can’t just stand here and observe... We’ve got to do something to make sure whoever’s experimenting with a Tesla effect on this scale doesn’t stuff up and cause a disaster!”
Jake looked overwhelmed... Ready to burst into tears. Zac moved closer and draped a comforting arm around him.
“That’s part of the reason why Gordon’s placed you on this assignment with us Jake. To help us do something about it...”
Ω
Zac steered Jake into the quarters. I followed them inside. Jake looked white as a sheet and was shaking involuntarily.
“The fireball hasn’t left yet. Shouldn’t we keep observing it?” managed Jake.
“Nah. Leave that to the others... You’re shaking like a leaf. How about a warm drink?”
The water in the kettle was already hot. Zac made two Milos in record time and handed one to Jake.
Father lion cub... Nurturing the runt of the pack.
“Thanks... Sorry I went to pieces.”
“Hey... being frightened is a pretty laid-back response, everything considered... From memory, I blubbered the first time I saw the same thing.”
Jake tilted his head to one side then exhaled noisily. It was as though the revelation had freed up something inside him. A lengthy silence as they both took another sip of Milo.
“I want to know what’s going on!” I demanded.
I knew I was cutting in on their shared moment but I felt like a tracking dog vainly trying to pick up a scent.
“Jake already told you what’s going on.”
He redirected his attention back to Jake.
“Actually Jake... I forgot to compliment you. You play answer five questions much better than ask five questions.”
I pushed in between them again. Agitated. Exasperated.
“Stop fobbing me off Zac. The only bit of his explanation I understood was that he was stressed to the max that this fireball can somehow influence the weather and generate natural disasters on the other side of the planet. Which is unbelievable from a meteorological perspective.”
“How about from a journalistic perspective? Let’s review world news around April 14th and 15th, 2010. Remember where you were at the time?”
“I was in Kishangunj. Covering this freak storm which ripped through 11 districts of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, killing 120 people and leaving thousands homeless.”
“Interesting. I didn’t know about that storm. I was in Iowa county. A few hours before I arrived, several million people in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio had seen a gigantic fireball similar to what you saw tonight. Some witnesses said it hovered in the sky for about 15 minutes. Other witnesses heard a freight train sound before the fireball and a sonic boom after it. Remember the report?”
“Vaguely... CNN aired footage of it for a day, then Iceland kinda drowned out everything else.”
“Correct. Shortly after the fireball sightings in Midwestern America, Eyjafjallajokull erupted and brought air traffic throughout Europe to a grinding halt for weeks.”
I frowned slightly.
“And on the Tibetan plateau an earthquake killed 2,700 people, injured 12,000 others and left 85% of the remaining population homeless in subfreezing temperatures.”
My mind was pushing away the facts he was presenting. Not wanting to link the events.
“CNN love sensationalizing unexplained phenomena... That’s just the American way.”
“Okay... Let’s bring it closer to home then. On June 5th 2010, thousands of Aussies living along the coast in Queensland, N.S.W. and the ACT saw a swirling fireball in the sky. Not only that, your fellow Aussie reporters covered the sightings hours before CNN had a chance to sensationalize them. The witnesses weren’t ardent UFO fanatics either... Just everyday Aussies en-route to work and Saturday morning activities at the time of the sightings. Some radio stations on the east coast were even getting listeners to call in so they could track the trajectory of the fireball. One witness described how their group of four had seen it start as a light in the middle of a type of swirling cloud, and as the cloud cleared it became a bright oval shaped light which grew larger and larger. Witnesses viewed it in Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney’s north shore, Burleigh Heads, Brisbane, Moorina, and everywhere in between. The event even made morning happychat on the tele a little more palatable that day.”
I was starting to feel unsettled. He refused to let up.
“The same day, residents of South Australia’s Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas reported an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale... Within hours, two volcanoes in Vanuatu emitted simultaneous plumes. Meanwhile 44 tornadoes wrecked havoc throughout the Midwestern U.S. and Great Lakes regions across five states for the next two days.”
“There’s always been natural disasters.”
My comeback was faltering.
“I agree. Not every disaster on this planet is preceded by a fireball. Nor is every volcanic eruption or earthquake man-triggered. What I’m trying to get across to you Maya is that the key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy, release a vastly greater amount of energy. And that E/M technology is being misused by some people to do some very unethical things.”
“Like trigger earthquakes?”
“...and steer tornadoes and exacerbate drought.”
“And trigger underwater volcanoes to melt Arctic ice and cause warmer than normal sea currents which generate destructive weather...” added Jake.
I eye-rolled.
“Sure. I can just see the headlines. SCIENTISTS CREATE GLOBAL WARMING.”
I meant it to be sarcastic, but even as I said the words, I had a strange desire to burst into tears. Jake and Zac glanced at each other. A tacit exchange between two scientists.
“There are two ways to be fooled by science Maya. One is to believe what isn’t true. The other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
“Let’s say for argument’s sake that E/M weather changes are being generated to create the illusion of climate change. Why?”
I knew he was about to drop a bombshell.
“Hitler once said, the masses will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one. Tell a big lie that generates enough fear in the masses, and they’ll give their government full control over their lifestyles and private property in order to feel safe.”
It hit me like a truckload of bricks.
“Generate enough fear in a country and the U.N. can step in and exercise global authority and that entire country will rescind their independence in order to feel safe.”
Make that two truckloads of bricks.
“Go ahead... Say it.”
Silence.
“I’ll say it then... And journalists like me f
uel that wave of fear, paving the way for one world government.”
“So do some scientists,” retorted Zac.
I felt sickened inside.
“You look like you’ve reached saturation point for one night.”
He parted my hair with his fingertips and planted a gentle kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes and savoured the moment.
“Chaperons coming through!” yelled Pete and Dale in unison, hurling themselves between us.
I stood dazed as Zac’s warm body was torn away from me. It was now part of a conglomerate of tangled arms, flailing legs and a beanbag which was in danger of turning the room into a snowfield.
“Gentlemen!” pierced an authoritative female voice through the general din.
I turned and glanced at the diminutive woman, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. The rumble stopped and three sheepish faces bobbed up from underneath the beanbag. Jen redirected her gaze to me.
“You look a little overcome honey,” she clucked like a mother hen. “I was just on the H.F. saying goodnight to my friend Cheryl and she suggested I come over and see if you’re coping alright with them...”
“It’s been an eye opener of a night, but I’m still intact,” I replied truthfully.
“I’m glad to see my beanbag’s still intact. You three - the generator shuts down in ten minutes, and after that you have only 12 volt lighting and appliances. So hop to getting yourselves organised for bed.”
“Yes mum!” grinned Zac, saluting Jen cheekily.
Jen erupted into laughter. It took about ten years off her face instantly.
He had a flair for that, I mused. Bringing the best out in everyone he touched.
“Okay, headcount... 1,2,3... Maya makes 4... Hmmm... You haven’t seen Brendan around I suppose?”
“Yes. He’ll be over in a minute. He’s just using our sat phone to say goodnight to his sweet-heart. I overheard him telling her how much he loved her and couldn’t wait to give her a massage. It’s such a rare thing to see such whole-hearted commitment in a young man these days.”
Zac’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“I agree wholeheartedly... Well come on everyone... Time to go our separate ways. Catch you in the morning Jen.”