The Scientists: Book Four of the Thunder Valley Trilogy

By Eowyn Brown-Morozov and Jane Harding Rasmussen

... from the back cover of The Scientists...

My darling husband has odd ideas of propriety.

He thinks that having a non-writer do the backs of these books will keep the surprises from coming out too early. That is both true, and an essentially bad idea. People want to know what is in a book before they spend their time reading it.

So, since I can say anything I want... here it is.

1. The book explains exactly what and who we triples really are.
2. It gives you the story of how Thunder Valley came into existence.
3. It’s full of sex.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483544946

Book preview

understanding."

Chapters

Chapter One

The Great Megastorm

A megastorm was headed into Thunder Valley from below, just like the storm on May 17, 1920, when Jane was killed.

Jane was with William at the lower end of the valley when they both felt the terrible new storm coming.

Like lightning they ran the short distance to the communal building and rang the silver bell over and over and over. Everyone who heard it knew instantly something was very, very wrong, and ran for the building to find out what was happening. Paniced animals ran around the people running downvalley as the forest creatures hightailed it for the upper end of the Valley, thinking the people were uncommonly insane for running toward the danger instead of away from it.

As the people of the third commune ran, they saw what was happening above the mouth of the Valley, and it became obvious what was wrong. Blacker than black clouds were racing in from the wrong direction. Everyone hustled inside as fast as they could, each adult making a headcount of all the children to make sure none were left outside.

It was going to be bad.

Once inside, the air darkened around them. That was not unusual during a megastorm. But then they got the strangest feeling. Suddenly, something new to their experience occurred outside the building… St. Elmo’s Fire, the eerie blue electrical phenomenon that sailors aboard Captain Ahab’s Pequod saw, the fire that could only be quenched by Ahab himself. It jumped to life all at once, and outlined the tops of all the trees and every other high point in the Valley. The ridges of the mountains on both sides of the Valley lit up with a blue coronal glow

Everyone gathered at the windows to see the miraculous sight. It was not dangerous, by itself. It was essentially just static electricity. But it spoke to the unimaginable power in the megastorm that was still approaching… but not yet there.

Neither was Eowyn.

It was hard to tell who noticed her absence first… Martin, Zaika, Jane or William. But fear leapt to the eyes of all four. Sternly ordering Eowyn’s daughter Catherine to stay inside, the four bolted back out the door of the building to search for her.

The search took no time at all.

She was standing by the corner of the building.

Right next to the cornerstone.

Martin and Zaika rushed up to her on either side and started to put their arms around her to nestle her back inside.

But she shook her head.

She said nothing, just shook her head.

Her husbands knew her well enough to not force her. As though they could.

So the four stood looking at strange, marvelous, beautifully different, oh so different, Eowyn.

Not calmly. Very far from calm. Megalightning would start striking the Valley in minutes. Maybe less.

William brought the full weight of his fatherly gravitas to bear. His dear wife Jane dying from a megastroke nearly a hundred years ago had been more than he could stand. He would not allow his daughter to… well, come to think of it, she too had died that day… but be that as it may, he was not about to let the tragedy repeat itself.

Eowyn… he started firmly, trying to reach that part of her that would listen to him when she was a little child, once upon a time.

Eowyn heard him say words, but had no idea what they were. She was not entirely there.

Somewhere in the middle of William’s impassioned plea, she spoke.

Mother. I’m frightened.

None of those who loved her had ever heard her say she was frightened. It sent the coldest of chills running down their spines.

Hold my hand? she asked the mother she had just started to know.

Jane would have done anything for Eowyn. Utterly, unquestionably, without counting the cost… anything.

She held her hand.

Whether that was a good thing to do, they were never quite sure.

As they stood together, hand in hand, resplendent blonde valkyries, their simple white Valley clothes starting to be whipped violently by the wind that kept increasing in strength around them, Eowyn looked at the men who loved her… husbands and father.

She said to them, You must leave now. Go inside.

Each of the three started to protest. Each of them would give their life for Eowyn without the slightest hesitation.

But Eowyn insisted. It’s not safe for you. It will be too bright. You will go blind. Dad, you might not. But Zaika, Martin, you surely will.

The three men stood rooted in place.

From the porch, a strong female voice yelled at them.

It was Tanya, and she had Jay clutched to her bosom.

Jay says come in now! All of you! Hurry!

William reached for Jane’s free hand, but she did not allow it.

No, William. I’m staying with her. You go.

William was about to get physical in his desperate attempt to get them inside. He was strong enough to put both of them under his arms and carry them in. Kicking and screaming perhaps, but he could do it.

Then he saw Jane’s eyes change. She was blind, of course, but she saw everything nonetheless. The change was unnerving.

He looked at Eowyn’s eyes. Although she was sighted, she saw much like her mother did, in ways others could only guess at.

Her eyes had the same look.

It was as though the storm was within the two women, looking out at William, with all the ferocity that only the greatest of megastorms of Thunder Valley could possess.

William realized that all his brute strength could not prevail against the primal force of one of these women, much less both of them.

For a brief moment, Jane’s eyes cleared, obviously by great force of will by a woman known for her force of will. She spoke in a low whisper. How William could hear that whisper above the storm puzzled him then, and always would.

Sweet William, Jane said, each syllable patently costing her dearly, Please.

Then William knew he must quit the field and leave Jane and Eowyn there to whatever mercy the storm might grant them.

The other two men realized the same thing.

It would be almost like dying themselves, leaving their precious wife Eowyn in the arms of the storm, but Martin and Zaika loved her too much to do otherwise.

William turned around, put his big, calloused hands on the men’s arms, not altogether gently, and made their feet do what their souls did not want to do.

The three went inside, Tanya ushering them in quickly and then closing the door, the wind whipping it shut with a loud bang as the first huge drops of rain started pelting down around the building.

The St. Elmo’s fire was suddenly gone, as though knowing it would be powerfully overshadowed by the great event which was to come.

Outside, the storm present in all its fullness, Eowyn looked at her mother.

It’s about to happen, she said in the voice she had as a little child, the voice that Jane had never heard before.

I know, Jane said, trying to sound like the mother she had never been. I love you, my darling daughter.

I know, Eowyn said. I finally really, really know.

And then it happened.

Chapter Two

The Great Megastrike

William, Martin, Zaika and Tanya stood there, next to the door.

They looked at each other, each asking themselves what else could they have done.

Before they could move further into the meeting room, the megastrike struck.

More precisely, THE MEGASTRIKE struck.

It was the largest single discharge of electrical energy that had ever been in the Valley. The Earth’s balance had been so affected by global environmental disasters that the weather itself was horridly unbalanced. No rain in some places. Record-breaking hurricanes in other places.

In the Valley, the unbalance was causing the greatest megastorm they had ever seen.

This greatest stroke in history hit the cornerstone of the communal building.

It was so bright it made their eyes ache even though they were inside and could not see the stroke itself.

The thunder that came a millisecond later was so powerful, with such deep resonances, they thought the building would shake apart. Dishes came crashing down from shelves. Heavy chairs vibrated themselves away from the table. The children, though inured to the megastrokes of megastorms, started crying. This was too much for even the Children of the Valley.

It was too much for the adults as well. The rush of subaudible vibrations swept fear into their hearts, and it took all their willpower to keep their bowels from loosening.

Sudden quiet.

It was as though this monster megastroke had sucked all the power out of the storm. No rain. No wind. Nothing.

The contrast from just a moment before was unnerving.

Andre wondered if the stroke had caused the building to catch fire on the outside. Before he could pursue that thought, Catherine, the tiny daughter of Eowyn, Martin and Zaika, yelled out into the silence…

Mom!

Then the storm returned with a vengance, heavy rain and fierce wind and other megastrokes assulting the Valley from end to end, but even through all of that they heard a heavy pounding on the door.

Mom! Catie cried again, and they realized she had known her mother was outside the door.

William instantly turned around and tried to open it.

But the door faced exactly downvalley, exactly square to the megastorm wind. Originally it had opened inward, but for some unfathomable reason, the far-out people of the second commune had decided it should open outward. William had shrugged his shoulders at the time, having given the Valley away to them and saying they could do as they pleased with it, and he and Heather had actually helped rehang the door.

He now regretted it. The force of the storm was shoving the large door hard against the doorframe, and he could not push it open. He put his shoulder into it, straining with all his might, but it barely budged. Tanya and Zaika and Martin joined with him in the effort until they had it open just far enough for Jane and Eowyn to slip in, then it slammed shut again with a bang as loud as a normal lightning strike.

They were alive. Jane and Eowyn were alive.

That was the good part, the unbelievably joyous good part.

But they were absolutely naked, and wet as drowned rats, their hair plastered against their heads. They were also pink-red on their front side as though they had been nude sunbathing in August’s summer sun for way too long without turning over.

Martin stripped off his shirt and went over to Eowyn to cover her with it.

William said, I don’t think that’s….

He did not get to finish his sentence. As soon as Martin touched his wife’s shoulders with the shirt, he was thrown violently backward, hitting Nikki and Sonya and knocking all three of them down on the floor.

As Andre and Jeb went over to help their wives get up, Martin sat where he had landed and looked at William with a wondering expression.

Static electricity? Martin ventured, feeling a little singed.

A little more complicated than that, I think, William said, surprisingly calmly considering the circumstances, which included his wife and daughter standing there naked. Then again, he was quite comfortable with non-sexual nudity from his days in the first commune. It was still something that felt natural to him.

Not everyone in the room was so comfortable with it. Tanya in particular tried to think of a way to cover them without getting zapped herself. She could throw…

Eowyn spoke.

The way she spoke was almost unrecognizable as her voice. Her words had inflections, vowel sounds none of them had ever heard before. It seemed foreign. No, not foreign… otherworldly. No, not quite that, either. It was tremendously strange.

But the words themselves were simple.

I didn’t know a storm could possibly last that long. How long was it. How long were we out there? Days? Weeks? Longer? Oh God, I think longer.

All of the others… except Jane… stared at her, completely forgetting her lack of clothing. Zaika in particular was in fear for her sanity. She had rescued him from his insanity, once upon a time. Would he be able to do the same for her?

Another pounding on the door interrupted his thoughts.

A far more violent pounding.

And it wasn’t the storm.

Let us in! For God’s sake let us in! It’s fuckin’ dangerous out here! a yelling male voice came through the tumult outside, only slightly more loud than the roaring wind.

No one recognized the voice. None of them could even comprehend why there was a voice on the other side of that door. No one came to the Valley any more. Most definitely, no one came to the Valley during a megastorm.

Then, suddenly, one person recognized the voice.

Help me, William said, and put his shoulder against the door once again. This time Andre jumped in with him, and the two strong men muscled it open far enough for not one, but two voices to rush inside the building.

Shite! the male voice said as he quickly stripped off his high-tech rain gear. Shite! he repeated. "Almost bought it. Might have, if we had been any closer during that… what was that!… bigger than any megastrike I’ve ever seen. Hello, William."

William could not help a tiny smile from coming to his lips. Hello Sean.

The man’s companion was stripping her gear off as well, including her watch cap, which allowed her long dark hair to fall over her shoulders.

Hello, William, she said with an Irish accent identical to the man’s.

Hello, William said.

Jerry had not been happy since the storm started, but he had been taking things as they came. Now he was quite beyond that point.

You obviously know these people, he said to William, his voice infused with frustration.

No time to explain, the woman interrupted in a voice that was not to be argued with. We have little time. She looked at William. Trust me?

William nodded. Nikki thought she saw intimacy in the gesture.

Suddenly Eowyn took Jane’s hand and led her through the group of others, each of them very intelligently getting out of their way. As she passed, they could see that Eowyn had become blind like Jane.

But like Jane, she saw everything. And she led her mother without a misstep to the stove. It had not been used for several hours, so it was cold.

She took her mother’s hand, and touched the thick grill top, which was of one piece with the stove that Mr. Nichols had poured in place from his own amalgam of nonconductive minerals.

There was a ‘whomph’ sound, and something like a mini shock wave went through the air of the room, strong enough to jostle furniture and muss up everyone’s hair. At the same time, the strangest blue light rushed past the sound wave, expanding out and through the walls of the building. It reminded everyone of the St. Elmo’s fire, but this was somehow more… there was no other word for it… faerie-like. Almost gentle.

Afterward, the two women turned back toward the others.

They said nothing.

Then they both started talking at the same time. Fast, incoherent, stepping on each other’s words so much that no one could make out what they might be wanting to communicate.

Yeah, the mysterious woman from out of the storm sighed, as though she had expected this to happen. This is going to be difficult. Sean, help me get them into one of the healing rooms. Those were the two small rooms within the meeting room where Jane and William had stayed when they were dead, the rooms that the people of the second commune had used as an infirmary for occasional accidents or illness.

Right, Sean said, and he and the woman moved toward Eowyn and Jane…

… or would have if Martin and Zaika had not gone over and stood in their way.

I think not, Martin said.

He said it in a controlled voice. Much too controlled.

Nikki had a flashback to the time he had shot her and she had almost died. Martin was not obsessively protective of Eowyn. It went far beyond that.

William stepped in. Heather, are you sure you know what you’re doing?

Jane suddenly stopped speaking, and Eowyn did the same in tandem with her. You’re Heather? Jane asked the woman.

Yes, Heather answered, waiting for what would come next.

A surprise, naturally. Jane stepped between Martin and Zaika and hugged her. I always wondered what you were like, she said as she held her, dearly, calmly. Heather’s arms went hesitantly to Jane’s sides and then around her naked body because she couldn’t not return such a loving hug.

Can SOMEONE tell me what the fuck is going on? Tanya said in her brashest voice, which was enough to cut through the storm and the confusion and everything else.

She verbally confronted the new arrivals. Surely, you knew you were running through the precursor of a megastorm, because you said you had seen megastorms before, and who in their right mind… oh… She stopped talking as she finally put two and two together.

You were in the second commune with William, she said more calmly.

Sean smiled

"And Heather is… that Heather," Tanya guessed.

Sean’s eyebrows went up a bit and he nodded again. That she is.

William? Heather said to him, still in Jane’s timeless embrace, asking with her eyes for him to help disengage her.

He did, gently. As he did, he said, You’re going to have to give us something, Heather. I know you said time is of the essence, but….

Heather nodded. Okay. But let me make it fast, because every second is going to make things that much more difficult. They will start to forget very quickly.

Fine, he said, not understanding in the slightest, but knowing beyond a doubt that whatever Heather was doing, she was doing it with a good heart. Go ahead.

Sean spoke, Luv, why don’t you start without me, and I’ll tell them all I know. I’ll join you as quickly as I can… if you want me to.

Yes. Much better, Heather said. Is that okay, William?

William looked at Martin and Zaika. Yes, that’s okay. Isn’t it, Martin. Zaika. He made it a statement, not a question.

Neither men had any reason to trust these two with Eowyn’s wellbeing, but they trusted their father-inlaw explicitly.

Yes, Martin forced himself to say. Zaika nodded.

Heather put one arm around the mother and the other around the daughter and started walking them to the larger of the two small rooms. The words-over-words-talking began again, and as Heather shut the door behind them, the last thing the others heard was Jane and Eowyn saying two words at exactly the same time

… the scientists….

Chapter Three

The Naked Faeries

The children had been neglected during the crisis with Jane and Eowyn, and although they’d had little choice, the adults felt bad about it. So Nikki and Andre made the hot chocolate the little ones had come to expect during a megastorm, and sat them down at the big table to enjoy it, the two adults trying to hear what was happening over by the fireplace while they worked.

Sean started off by saying, This is going to sound mental, by which the Irishman meant ‘crazy’. "Three days ago, Heather and I were in Belfast, doing what we usually do these days. Don’t’ ask. Anyway, I saw her suddenly stiffen, and she said to me, ‘We have to go back to the Valley’. Now William, you know Heather. When she gets that certain feeling, you know nothing is going to get in her way. I knew that too, so I just said, when are we leaving, and she started packing and saying how it could already be too late.

That put the fear of God into me. I moved heaven and earth to get us a way to the States, and a fast car once we were in Oregon, and so… here we are, he finished as though he had explained everything.

Nikki thought to herself that Sean and Andre were much alike in getting to the conclusion without mentioning the inbetween steps.

Chaoyang said, You know you’ve told us essentially nothing yet.

Sean sighed. Yes, I suppose you’re right, my Chinese friend… you are Chaoyang, aren’t you?… I thought so. Many stories about you in the triples community. Wait. He turned to William. Am I speaking out of turn about triples? I wouldn’t think so, but….

No, William assured him. We’re pretty well integrated.

Sean smiled at that. Much better than the second commune. Anyway, what we’ve heard about your friend here is….

Chaoyang was shaking his head. No. Your story. Heather.

Sean sighed again. You see, that’s a bit of a problem. She wouldn’t talk about it during the trip over here.

Are you saying you don’t know why you’re here? Sonya asked as kindly as she could.

Exactly, lass, Sean said. Sonya might have taken offense at the use of ‘lass’, but she knew Sean was at least three times as old as she was. Maybe much more.

Okay, an easy question, Hui Zhong said. What did you do with your horses? She had discovered she loved horses, and had become the Valley’s primary caregiver to them.

Oh, no horses, missus. We didn’t want to take them into a megastorm. We ran up from Rasmussen.

You ran? Tanya questioned, not altogether trying to keep the skepticism out of her voice. Rasmussen, the nearest little village, was several rough miles from the Valley, and it was uphill all the way.

Sean did a little tilt of his head. Yes. We try to keep in shape.

Jeb had been quietly studying the two new arrivals, deep in his protective mode. He could judge human flesh with a practiced military eye.

They ran, he said from his comfy chair, seemingly relaxed but with eyes that said he was ready for action if the occasion arose.

Tanya took Jeb’s word for it. And started looking at Sean in a different way. What did they do in Belfast?

Suddenly, Jay’s excited voice cut into the gathering, startling Sean in particular, until he realized he was in the presence of the great computer intelligence he had read about.

Is everyone okay? Jay asked worriedly.

Tanya looked down at her bear, whom she was still holding in the cradle of her breasts. Did you just wake up or something?

Something, Jay said cryptically. Again, is everyone okay?

Everyone looked around at everyone else. What was the right answer for that one?

Yes, Nikki said, trying to put Jay at ease before she continued. But something happened with… to… whatever, Eowyn and Jane. They were outside when the….

Outside! Jay said almost frantically. During the monster megastroke! They didn’t come inside? Didn’t you tell them, Tanya?

Yeah, I did, Tanya said, feeling guilty that she had not been more forceful about it. You were there when I did. Don’t you remember?

It was Jay’s turn to feel guilty. I knew it was going to be an unusually powerful stroke, just like I told you. But once the actual buildup began, I realized the electromagnetic effects would be so great that if I were ‘on’, I stood a good chance of getting fried. So I cycled everything down and went into kind of a twilight sleep, timed to end after the stroke had dissipated.

That was quite a while ago, Tanya chided.

Tried to err on the side of caution, Jay said lamely. I only had a picosecond or so to accomplish a large number tasks. Anyway. What about Eowyn and Jane?

Well, William said with some sadness, Eowyn is blind now, blind like Jane.

Oh. Jay said. Well, at least that’s good.

Good? Zaika said. That doesn’t seem very good, Jay. He was not too happy with Jay at the moment.

Actually, yes, it is, Jay said. "Much of Eowyn’s inner conflict had her vision at the root of it. It’s the reason she screamed for the first two years of her life. She was born with double vision… partially regular vision like the rest of you, and partially vision on a wholly different level, something I’m more familiar with. Getting her brain to deal with both at the same time must have been so painful for her.

Now that has been corrected. She is completely in the other realm. It must be so peaceful for her. William, you told me that when Eowyn met her mother, she said ‘Mother, you see so beautifully’. Well, Eowyn now sees beautifully like that.

Huh, Zaika said, feeling better now. So it actually is a good thing. But the sunburn - or whatever it is -and the…

Jay was back into frantic mode. The sunburn?

Yeah, Zaika, it looks like that. But…

Again Jay interrupted. All over, or just one side? Or could you tell? He was assuming they could see only the bare flesh of their faces and perhaps arms and legs.

Oh, it was quite definite, Nikki said. Just one side. Whatever happened, it tore off their clothes.

Jay was silent for a while. The others waited for him to say something. Anything.

Then it should be okay, he said in a quiet voice. It should be. If there were radiation burns on their back as well… that would have been… bad. He did not seem concerned that the megastroke had blown away or consumed their clothing.

How bad? William asked, the concerned father.

For the umteenth time, Jay wished he could shrug. But he couldn’t, so he said, We would be trying to comfort them in their last hours.

A whisper of the angel of death coursed through the room.

But.. not that bad, Martin said, his heart full.

No, Jay said comfortingly. Maybe some skin peeling in a couple of days. Nothing serious. He hoped he was telling the whole truth.

Lightning can not cause a sunburn, Andre said. And of course he was right.

Of course you’re right, Jay said. It isn’t a sunburn, actually. It’s an electromagnetic spectrum burn. Whole spectrum, I believe. Wider spectrum than the sun. But fortunately without the penetrating particles of the sun’s radiation.

And nothing… nuclear? Hui Zhong asked, just to make sure she understood correctly.

No, Jay said with a smile in his voice. Not at all, in the way you mean it. He had been intending to sit down with this exceptionally bright but unschooled woman and see what she thought of the unified wave theory. From what Chaoyang had told him about her opinion of Einstein’s primary equation, he wondered if she had already thought of the obvious alternate by herself.

Sit down, Martin commanded suddenly, and everyone looked around to see who he was talking to and why.

Sean had gotten up and was trying to quietly steal away while Jay had the others distracted.

Now he turned on his heel and went back to the group. But remained standing.

The fact of the matter is, you’re going to press me on a question I can’t answer. I would do more good going in and seeing if I can help Heather.

You really don’t know why she wanted to be here, now? Martin said, still trying to get a handle on what sort of man Sean was.

No, Sean said. He seemed to be telling the truth.

And yet you jumped up and ran with her half way around the world.

Yes. Sean tried to put