#69: InBriefing

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The meeting with the new guys, who some were calling the “islanders” was in Virtual Reality. Carlos, Sherry and Weldon weren’t familiar with Virtual Reality to start with but they learned fast, as did their neighbors. They discovered that the neuro-loops around their necks could inductively affect their brainstem non-invasively. In other words they were voluntarily hallucinating. They were, effectively, dreaming while they were awake. The term was Lucid Dreaming.


Everything seemed perfectly real. They felt exactly as if they were there, sitting around a big table with a lot of other people eating breakfast. There were bowls of fruit, several varieties of eggs, pancakes and waffles, several types of hot and cold cereal, bacon and several types of sausage. There was also biscuits and gravy and something called SOS. The aroma was ambrosial. The taste was sublime and the coffee was FANTASTIC.

It was perfect in every detail except for one small insignificant item. They weren’t there and none of it real. They, and Carlos were in the Chris Craft sitting in recliners. Full immersion, full sensory, virtual reality. The same as lucid dreaming, voluntary hallucinations without the drugs. Everything seemed perfectly real, but it wasn’t.

“Welcome everyone. I’m glad you all managed to be here. You all have some problems and we, the crew of the Banana Slug are happy to be able to help you as best we can.” An oriental lady at the head of the table spoke with a West Texas accent. She didn’t speak forcefully nor was there any sound equipment evident but Carlos, the Meltons, and everyone else, could hear her perfectly well. “Fortunately we just happened to be in the neighborhood, or rather we will be soon, in a week, or perhaps two. Let’s just say that we’ll get there when we get there.”



“First things first. Does everyone have enough food?” she asked. “I don’t mean here in this instiation of virtual reality...I mean in the Real World. Don’t be shy. We are all survivors of a ten thousand year flood event, perhaps worse. It’s a disaster such as never before seen by modern man. If you are short on food let us know. We have a bit extra and we’ll share. The Banana Slug doesn’t have much excess in stores, we grow our own food as we need it, but we won’t let anyone starve.”

Kamiko looked around.

“Yes?” she said.

It was Carlos Skirmish. He spoke to the Assembly. “On behalf of my wife and I we wish to thank you for our lives. If it wasn’t for you Carla would be surely dead. I would probably be.”

Carlos was entirely too serious and somber.

“Just trying to be a good neighbor. You’re welcome but don’t worry about it.” Shelby told him.

Carlos smiled uncertainly and the POV moved away from him.

The image of another of Weldon’s neighbor’s zoomed in close. The guy was sitting toward the end of the table. It was a BIG table virtually even if it wasn’t real. The table was so big that he was all the way across the room from Weldon. In a typical setting such as this, say, at the PTA luncheon or the Lion’s club he would barely be visible much less audible. Not so here. When Weldon focused his attention on anyone he had two options depending on how he had configured his mental ‘browser’. Either a small window opened in his reality, or he zoomed in close. Either way it was as if he was sitting right next to the speaker. Weldon, and everyone else who cared to, could hear every word perfectly clear. There was no background noise and the conversation of everyone else did NOT drown him out. Weldon was beginning to see some real advantages to Virtual Reality.

“I imagine everyone is getting short on food. We are. We normally have a pantry stocked with enough food for a month or so, but it’s been a month or so.” the man said.

“That said.” he continued “We all know where there is almost unlimited food. There are a large number of warehouses, grocery stores and distribution centers nearby. A lot of that food should still be good even if it is underwater, canned goods for example.”

“Now THAT is good to know.” Shelby said. “We just happen to have underwater salvage capabilities. We might as well take it. I’ll let the RowdyBunch know. This is right up their alley. The water’s are NOT going to recede in our lifetimes. Trust us on this.”

Apparently that was news to some people. There was dispute and denial. A lot of people tried to speak at once. Oddly enough Weldon could understand each and every speaker perfectly, if he wanted to. In Virtual Reality there was no such thing as being able to speak over someone and drown them out. Everyone got their say and anyone who wanted to hear them could do so. Kamiko let it run it’s course. When everyone had settled down she said.

“Look at it logically folks. It’s been raining for a long time, right? How many months, if not years has there been record breaking rain month after month in the summer and record breaking snow, month after month, in the winter, not to mention those lovely, lovely ice storms?” she asked sarcastically.

Everyone had to agree...that was true. It had been doing that for a long, long time. Some of them couldn’t recall the last time they’d seen the sun.

“TheMississippi river had flooded heavily in the years 1543, 1734-5, 1788, 1809, 1825, 1844, 1851, 1927, 1945, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1993, 2002,. 2008, 2011, 2014 and later. In the other years the flooding has been less intense.” She said.

“In other words, flooding is not an unusual thing, it’s the yearly norm. The question is not “if” but rather “how much.” You must know that. Possibly the worst occurrence was in 1927, prior to the construction of very much in the way of artificial levee’s. There had been reported heavy rains from the fall of 1926 until the spring of 1927 in Kansas, Oklahoma, the Ohio Valley, the White Valley and the Red River Valley. There had probably been heavy rain other places also. This massive amount of water flooded an area of 27,000 square miles to a depth of thirty feet. The river below Memphis Tennessee reached a width of sixty miles.” she continued. “Aren’t we below Memphis?”

“That was NOT as bad as it is now. We came all the way from River City. The river is over it’s banks the whole way. Reports are that it’s the same way all the way north to Watertown. That has NEVER happened.” she said.

“If it were to stop raining, right this minute, it would take months, if not years, for the water to drain away. “ she said “That’s not going to happen”

Stunned silence. No one had really given it much thought. It was obviously true though.



“It’ll be a while yet before we arrive. The vessel we are in is a slow mover at best. We’ll see about salvaging those warehouses while enroute. We have technology that can do that. You’ll like it.” he said. “As soon as we get done here anyone who is short on food tell me what you need. We’ve recently developed high speed surface transport that we call ‘fast mantas’. We can get some food to each of you long before we get there in our ‘slow boat.”

“We plan on a major rebuild shortly after our arrival. Our vessel has some serious shortcomings that the shakedown cruise has shook out.” She said. “Shelby can explain.”

“Here’s the deal folks.” he said “We basically threw a tarp over an island, tacked it down around the edges and and inflated it. We added a makeshift crawler arrangement underneath for mobility , chipped the island free from bedrock and slithered away. It works, after a fashion, but not very well. About the only good thing we can say about it is that it’s kept us alive”

“There’s definitely something to be said for that.” Weldon said and the other’s agreed vehemently.

“That there is.” Shelby said “Being mobile is a big part of the reason we survived. We’re just barely mobile, but that’s better than being stationary. We are finalizing plans for a complete rebuild. We haven’t decided yet what’s best for us but we’ll share. You can join us if you’re interested. Or not, it’s your decision, we’ll share the technology regardless.”

“I’m interested.” Weldon said “I’m a farmer without a farm. It’s all submerged. I need a new line of work, or at least a new way of farming.”

“And I”, “Me too,” “Count us in”, “Don’t forget us” all of his neighbors chimed in.

“Ok.” Shelby said “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. We’ll be there in a few days, or a week, or so, like the Dragon Lady said. It depends on how many times we break down.

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The Next Episode Is
#70: The Ship Comes in…
The Previous Episode was
#68:Advice from the Matriarch…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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