Quantum Storms - Aaron Seven

by Dennis Chamberland

  “Cute? Manly men aren’t cute. Women want someone who is ruggedly handsome or seductively passionate, but not cute,” Seven retorted.

  “Oh, believe me, you definitely want me to think you’re cute!” Serea quipped playfully.

  That forced a smile from Seven who wrinkled his nose and sighed deeply, “Well, leaving at this precise moment wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.”

  “What if I were to tell you that what you were expecting is no match for what you’re about to get?” she asked, biting her bottom lip, obviously enjoying the unfolding high drama which was having its maximal effect.

  “I’d say that you didn’t understand your husband very well,” he responded in a tired voice, unable to hide his discouragement.

  Serea laughed again. “You mean, this?” she responded, opening the top of her towel, looking down at her exposed and well endowed bosom, then back to Seven again with large, inquisitive and potent eyes.

  “Stop it, Serea, unless you feel you’re up for a struggle just before we leave,” Seven warned genuinely.

  Serea stepped beyond his reach and tossed Seven a pair of blue jeans and white, long sleeved cotton T-shirt. “Get dressed quickly before you do something which you’ll regret,” she responded as she slipped into the nearby security of their bath. He could hear her giggling lightly as she rounded the corner and gently closed the door.

  “Wicked little wench,” Seven called loudly after her with half serious mockery.

  Short minutes later, they shut the door of their apartment high upon the wall of Pacifica and walked down a narrow hallway to the elevator. Serea was packing a white bag out of which protruded what were obviously two beach towels. Seven eyed the bag with some interest, but said nothing. As they rode the elevator to the lower levels of the dome, his obvious silence caused Serea to ultimately break down.

  “…you like the beach?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the elevator display before her.

  “Beach? Here?”

  “Yes. Here.”

  “Over two hundred feet underwater – a beach?”

  “Yep.”

  “I suppose you designed this as well?” he asked neutrally.

  “Of course,” she responded, finally looking him dead in the eye. “Just for this very moment, as a matter of fact!”

  “Oh?” Seven responded, now more intrigued by the impromptu field trip than annoyed.

  “Yes!” she responded completely unable to hide her building enthusiasm.

  At that moment the doors slid open to reveal Twink, dressed in a black suit with a white shirt, facing them with sunglasses and a wired earpiece hanging on his right ear. His expression was fixed and deadly serious. He stood outside the elevator in a brightly illuminated lobby that was filled with plants and the smell of salt spray.

  “The beach is all set, Mrs. Seven,” he said directly to her, not even glancing in the direction of his boss and mentor.

  “You doing Secret Service work now, Twink?” Seven asked drolly.

  “Just following orders, sir,” Twink responded flatly, not taking his eyes off Serea.

  “Good, now finish the plan. Don’t change anything until I tell you, then you can reverse all the systems back to nominal settings,” Serea commanded him smartly.

  “Yes, ma’am, I’m on it,” Twink said, maintaining his most solemn expression, as he turned and walked briskly away muttering orders into a hidden microphone.

  Seven looked to Serea who beamed a wide, special smile at him.

  “Okay, all systems are off-nominal, it’s dark outside, and we get to go to the undersea beach,” Seven said trying to temper the level of his borderline mockery. “Agent Twink is on the job and I’m red hot for some sand and sun. How ‘bout you? Did you remember to bring some sun block along in that bag?”

  “Follow me,” Serea responded, totally ignoring her husband who seemed to hate to be out of control, even for a moment.

  They rounded one huge pillar and entered into a pathway totally overgrown with luxuriant foliage. The lights of the central dome were fully lit in this area and the illumination seemed at least as bright as a noon-day sun. Seven also noticed that the path beneath his feet had turned from tile to warm sand. A few moments later and the lush pathway opened into a broad, white sand beach onto which a pool of brilliantly lit blue water lapped quietly along its edge extending some 100 feet in a wide circle. The sandy beach revealed half an arc around an astonishingly beautiful lagoon set against one of Pacifica ’s outer walls. The ocean outside the transparent walls of the city was inky black, but that blackness served to double the view of the colony’s ocean lagoon by mirroring and reflecting its image.

  Seven turned and looked back to the pathway along which they had arrived. It opened out of a wall of tropical plants that reached high above them and completely encircled and enclosed the tropical lagoon of Pacifica .

  “Well, what do you think of our beach?” Serea asked with all the keenness of a little girl.

  Seven just gaped at his surroundings, and then looked back at her, totally overwhelmed. “It’s… I can’t believe this,” he replied, every trace of cynicism washed away, as filled with awe as the first moment he had seen Middlearth and now just one of the jewels of Pacifica . His eyes swept around this lush tropical background set against the high walls of Pacifica and the hundreds of lights that represented the individual apartments and their dwellers as they seemed to all look down upon the scene.

  Serea laughed and embraced him tightly. “I hoped you’d like it!” she responded sincerely. “When I designed this beach, I was thinking of this very moment, right here - right now.”

  “This moment?” Seven responded with questioning eyes. “How’s that?”

  “Remember, my love, I’ve known you far longer than you’ve known me,” she began. “And, truthfully, I’ve been in love with you for a long time. It was this little beach trip I’ve dreamed about, as a matter of fact, this very one.”

  Seven just stared back at her as she held him tightly.

  Serea kissed him tenderly as they stood on the white sand. The brilliant lights above them seemed even to lend heat to the surroundings almost like many joined artificial suns. Then she began slipping his t-shirt from his upper body. He did not resist. She kissed him again, as her hands swept down and began to undo the top button on his pants.

  “Mmmm… he responded as gently as he could and, with as much discretion and sensitivity as he could manage, he backed his face away from hers. “Hmmm, sweetheart,” Seven continued softly, “I really would like to get into this with you – you do know me so very well when it comes to this - but, all our friends and neighbors up there, I mean, this is probably going to make their evening’s entertainment complete, don’t you think? Come on, sweetie, what’s Frank gonna say about all this? What if someone else takes a beach walk? And then there’s the little issue of live television cameras broadcasting all of this to your father…”

  Serea laughed and giggled at the same time, obviously enjoying this scene to the max. “I never, ever thought some little distraction would cause you to actually resist hot passion!” she said laughingly. “But Twink and I, we fixed all that.”

  “You and Twink fixed this beach so no one could watch us?” Seven asked, his eyes scanning the hundreds of overlooking windows. “What’d he do, tell ‘em all not to look?”

  “My dearest Aaron, Twink and I have created the only naturist beach this side of Honokohau, and we did it just for you, since you’re such a well known naturist and all.”

  Seven could not help but reflexively laugh with an embarrassed grin. “Oh yeah, and who well knows this about me? And what about all those windows up there?”

  “We – or I – specifically engineered the lights so that under the right conditions after dark – like right now – they’re positioned to block the view by glare. We can see them, but, believe me, no one can see us. They were engineered that way – for this purpose!”

  “Just so that you could hav
e your own nude beach?” he asked.

  “No. Just so that you could have your own nude beach!” she responded sincerely.

  “Awesome!” Seven responded. “What can I say except thank God you really did your homework! I’m totally speechless.”

  Serea kissed him deeply again with hot passion. Seven pulled back just long enough to slip her dress away with a single sweep of his hands, revealing her naked form. His fingers gently explored the sweep of her body as she unbuttoned his pants and began sliding them down his legs. As he felt the cool air on his warm body, his fingers began to move with purpose and deliberation, their tips lightly touched her breasts and she shivered involuntarily and laid her head against his shoulder.

  Seven’s eyes reflexively glanced upward again toward the lights above him that seemed to mock him by their sheer visibility. “I sure hope you’re right about those lights and that glare theory of yours,” he said as she urgently pulled him down into the sand. His worry was short lived as it was replaced by ardor and that sweet struggle known only by the love that consumes, by the passion that ignites, and by the flame that can be contained only by the fleshy chambers of a fervent heart.

  gh

  An hour later, Seven and Serea lay embracing one another on their beach under the brilliant lights of the countless artificial suns of Pacifica .

  “Aren’t you going to put your dress back on?” he asked, still nervously waiting for the random beachgoer to amble down the tropical path and stumble onto them to the surprise of all concerned.

  “No. Twink has this place shut down until I give him the word. Besides, if you wear anything at all on this beach, I hear the management will revoke your membership.”

  “My kind of organization!” Seven responded without pause. “Tell me, Serea,” he said, rising up onto his elbow and staring down at her beautiful face. “What did you ever see in a scalawag like me? I mean – you planned all this long before you ever met me face to face. How could you have been so sure?”

  “You’re anything but a reject, Aaron Seven! You are, in fact, the savior of the world.”

  “Ha!” he laughed. “Isn’t it something of a stretch to say that the discoverer of a disaster is synonymous with the one who actually saves the planet from it?”

  “If you hadn’t predicted the storms, my father wouldn’t have seen them coming and everyone would’ve died. No one would’ve been saved at all. Then, if you hadn’t corrected the model, we would’ve been too late to save as many as we have. No, my humble dear, you’ve saved us not once, but twice!”

  “Okay, fine, be that as it may. But what do you really see in a certified trouble-maker? I mean, you could’ve set all this up, assigned me a quiet single apartment, and never spoken two words to me, ever. It was your choice all along. And yet, you chose to love me – truly love me, sincerely and deeply – even before you met me. I can’t get over it and I really can’t say I understand it at all.”

  “If you don’t stop referring to yourself as such a rascal, I’m going to personally shred your beach membership!” Serea responded, now lifting herself on her arm and facing him. “I’ll tell you what I saw in you: a man of deep integrity, of intense and world class genius, a man who loves his friends with his life, who considers them on the same level and with the same intensity as his very own family. I saw a man who values trust and honesty over self indulgence, who’s not afraid of pouring out his life into many others. I saw a man who loves children and links his own well being to theirs. I knew all along that one of the recipients of all that watch-care would be me, so it was absolutely no risk on my part, even if you were never romantically inclined. Your legal entanglements and the reasons for them just certified your deepest character was true, solid, courageous and real.

  “Now here’s the very best part: I saw that you have a very specific personal tendency of diverting your incredible energy of creativity, love, adventure and exploration into, shall we say, more sensual outlets, and what kind of a woman would I be not to want to be the personal recipient of that kind of energy? You’re a certified hero, a certified genius, and - I might add - a certified naturalist! What more could anyone possibly want?”

  “I believe you mean, naturist, dear,” he responded meekly.

  Serea laughed her deep, resonant laughter, her eyes burning deeply into his. Her fingers began to trace random patterns across his smooth chest just he leaned toward her and kissed her softly once more – then more passionately and fervently. The bright lights that were specifically engineered to shield their presence on the deep sea beach would burn on for hours more.

  gh

  The following morning, far earlier than he would have liked, Seven sat before a bank of television monitors in a secluded corner of the Pacifica Command Center facing the crystal clear image of Raylond Desmond broadcast live from Middlearth.

  “According to your model, the storm will commence in less than a week,” Desmond said, his face grave and ashen. “The transient indicators all predicted by your model are each holding strong with no more than a ten percent variation everywhere across the board. The Sudbury data network is reporting a neutrino stream that matches your predictions precisely. Statistically, your forecast is precise and on the mark and indicates that the generation of the storm is imminent – or at least within a week, no more.”

  Serea sat next to him, her image relayed alongside Seven’s back to her father’s identical bank of monitors at his command center. Seven could see concern lining her face as she stared back at the image of her father.

  “Every shelter around the world is now completely manned as far as we can tell. No one is taking any chances of an earlier start. Today I will be holding a video conference with everyone here in Middlearth and I will be relaying the reports we have been receiving from all over the world. There have been far too many rumors and I think it is essential to tell them all I know.”

  “May we tie into your conference and broadcast it here at Pacifica ?” Seven asked instantly.

  “Yes, of course,” Desmond responded. “But I will be offering anyone the chance to leave Middlearth and join their loved ones outside. I understand many have been reconsidering their choices, as you hinted early on. At Pacifica , there will not be that option, of course.”

  “Save it for a personal message just for Middlearth at the end and we’ll cut you off before that segment,” Serea offered.

  “Certainly,” Desmond replied.

  “Serea, has your management situation improved there?” Desmond asked abruptly.

  “Father, you trusted me with this task, and I’m handling it,” Serea replied curtly. “You have enough on your plate there and shouldn’t be concerning yourself with our trivia. Consider this background noise, nothing more. Please concentrate on your issues because you know I can handle mine,” she said with undisguised concern for her father’s state of mind.

  “Aaron, I trust you to get along with Frank Spencer and settle your differences amicably and professionally,” Desmond continued authoritatively. “That community simply cannot afford any level of strife right now.”

  “I understand, Dr. Desmond. I’ll make every effort,” Seven responded sincerely.

  “Good,” Desmond answered, not lending even a hint as to his actual level of confidence. “The next few days will test our resolve and our systems to the max. Waiting for the storms to commence will be very difficult for everyone. Please announce to your community that a full planetary status report on the state of civilization will commence in six hours. I suggest that you make it optional viewing – some may not be able to handle it. Also be sure and record it for screening if anyone chooses to watch it later.”

  “Yes, sir,” Seven responded as the screen went blank before them. Seven looked to Serea whose silent eyes still focused on the empty monitor, revealing that her heart was thousands of miles away with her father.

  Seven glanced over his shoulder at Spencer who stood behind them wearing his best blankly professional expression,
his arms folded. “You heard the man, Frank. Best we get along…” Seven said with a straight face, mimicking Spencer the best that he could.

  Spencer returned his stare for three long seconds, then without even a nod, turned and walked away.

  “Frank and I are going to experience a serious personal deviation sometime soon, I’m afraid,” Seven said under his breath.

  “Huh?” Serea asked her eyes withdrawing slowly from the screen before her.

  “Nothing, never mind,” Seven replied with a deep sigh. Then his eyes met hers. He could not bear to see such deep pools of worry fixed where just hours before were luminous orbs filled with love reserved exclusively for him.

  “He’s going to be okay,” he whispered.

  She smiled and gently lifted his hand, pulling it to her cheek. “You think?” she asked softly, her eyes brimming with tears that threatened to spill over onto her cheeks.

  “Absolutely,” Seven responded strongly and truthfully. “If there’s anyone on the planet that can take care of himself, and everyone he cares about, it’s Raylond Desmond and his trusty sidekick, the Commander. Now us poor old scalawags in here way over our heads under the North Pacific - well, that’s a totally different story.”

  Serea smiled despite herself, moving his hand to her lips for a gentle brush. She looked into his eyes and said nothing, she did not need to. His strength bled over into hers and held her resolutely in its strong embrace.

  gh

  The “bad news” conference was announced to all hands immediately after breakfast. It was to begin at 12:00 noon sharp and Seven suspended all work activities of the rest of the business day to give all the citizens of Pacifica time to reflect on what was happening and what was to follow.

  Residents of Middlearth were to be given the full opportunity to leave its shelter at any time, even after the commencement of the storms. No such opportunity was available to the residents of Pacifica . There were no more flights, deliveries or shuttles scheduled to or from the undersea city on the books. For all practical purposes, they were now totally independent from the outside world, or totally cut-off, depending on one’s viewpoint.