The trio made their way back down the stairs with no small amount of trepidation. Neither Shane nor Haru were eager to invite a repeat of her anxiety attack, and Jen was seriously worried about having to run Lauren and her crew off. She liked Lauren, and knew that Haru would be devastated, but she wasn’t willing to trade some pretty faces for a skilled gunman in the face of a crisis. 

Luckily, the mood seemed to be a lot lighter. Gene was nowhere to be seen, probably waiting in the car, but Lauren, Emma, and Rafael were chatting in low tones, their expressions moderately more cheerful than they had been moments before. Maybe Gene’s absence had something to do with that. Shane and Rafael had never exactly been friends, but they’d never been on the verge of physical violence before, either. 

Not, Jen thought with amusement, that it would have been much of a fight. Rafael was in excellent shape, but that was a far cry from being a serious fighter. Shane was over a hundred and forty pounds heavier, and most of that was muscle. Professional combat sports had weight classes for a reason. All else being equal, the big guy would pummel the little guy 9 times out of 10, and she highly doubted they were anywhere close to equal in terms of skill and experience. 

Emma glared up at Shane, as though daring him to ask where Gene was at. Shane simply shrugged and took a seat in one of the folding chairs. To everyone’s surprise, Haru curled up in his lap. She almost never chose his lap when Jen or Lauren were present. She was making a statement in her own way. 

“I believe we were discussing what, if anything, we should do in response to NOAH’s potential shenanigans,” Jen said. 

“Right,” Lauren said. “And after discussing it with my other partners, I think it’s safe to say that we should probably come up with some sort of plan for the family.”

She nodded towards Shane, making sure that he knew he was included in her definition of family. Whatever Lauren may have thought of him personally, it was plain that Haru cared about him, and that was enough to sway her decision. 

“I concur,” he said. “I think Rafael was right to suggest that the actual risk is low-” Rafael nodded in acknowledgement of the concession “-but it’s not zero. And when you think about it, on a long enough time scale, some sort of disaster is bound to happen. We probably should have sat down and come up with a plan a long time ago.”

“What sort of plan do you have in mind?” Rafael asked. “You mentioned that hoarding supplies would be…inadvisable.”

“So long as we’re near a major urban center, that’s absolutely the case,” Shane said. “And with Austin less than 30 minutes up the road, we have to assume that in the event of a mass casualty scenario, we can expect a strong government presence. If they declare martial law, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they’ll sweep from house to house, looking for supplies or weapons.”

“That seems a little far fetched,” Emma said. 

“They did it after Hurricane Katrina,” Shane said. “Hell, they had the cops tackle a little old lady on live TV when she pulled a revolver out of her purse to show it to a reporter.”

“Jesus,” Jen said. “That would never fly in Texas.”

“It’d be harder, sure, but Austin is already a fairly liberal city, at least by the standards of the state,” Shane said. “Good for a lot of things, but they tend to view the right to keep and bear arms as a pesky inconvenience when shit gets rough.”

“He’s got a point,” Jen said. “Texas might be an absolute nightmare in some respects, but the state’s gun fetish could work in our favor. If that changes, we could be in serious trouble.”

“Bunch of queer folk living together as a polycule, and they’re not all white?” Rafael said. “I could see it.”

“The cops will see us as easy targets, especially because you won’t find too many folk willing to give up their guns without a fight,” Shane said. “That could become our problem with a quickness. They’ll get to thinking we’re a bunch of hippies and try to storm the place rather than pick on the rednecks. Best thing we can do in that scenario is get the hell out of Dodge before all hell breaks loose. Fortunately, land is fairly cheap if you know where to look, especially if you don't care about things like ease of access or utilities. Between the seven of us, we have enough capital to make even a fairly remote part of the world comfortable.”

“We were thinking about buying a camper,” Lauren said thoughtfully. 

“That would do nicely,” Shane said. “I figure we can stash some building supplies on site and work on it at our convenience. Even if we don’t get it built before we need it, we can use the camper as a base until we get more permanent accommodations in place. The main thing we’ll absolutely need is a well.”

“Okay,” said Jen. “That’s a starting point. Let’s say we have an absolute worst case scenario, with the flooding and all. What then?”

“Well, we have to warn people, don’t we?” Emma said. “Go to the government, let them know that NOAH might have gone rogue.”

“I thought about that,” Jen said. “The problem is, I don’t think anyone would believe me, not without some fairly substantial evidence. Marcus, my boss, promised to look into it, but he thinks we’ve been hacked.”

“Think you’ll turn up anything?” Shane asked. 

“Maybe,” Jen replied. “I just don’t know, though. If NOAH knew enough to hide the evidence when I found it, then there’s always a chance that it’s done a thorough purge of its source code and hid anything incriminating somewhere I’ll never be able to find.”

“I could help look,” Emma said. “That is, if that wouldn’t be a problem. This sort of thing is my company’s specialty.”

“I would appreciate that,” Jen said. “The code is technically proprietary, but all the relevant stuff is mine anyway, so it’s not like I'd be violating any NDAs. I can bring you in as a subcontractor.”

“Excellent,” Emma said. 

“Let’s assume we can’t stop it,” Lauren said. “What then?”

“If I may be so bold, I think we should find a submarine,” Haru said. 

“Not too many of those laying around,” Rafael said. 

“You’d be surprised,” Shane said. “Lots of museum ships floating around out there, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

“In working order?”

“I am sure we can find something I can fix,” Haru declared. “My first career was as a marine engineer, and I have studied submarines extensively. So long as the machinery is in place, I can fix it.”

“Gene could probably help with that,” Emma said. “He fixes boats for a living. Yachts, technically, but I can’t imagine they’re too dissimilar.”

There was a distinct note of pride in her voice. Whatever Shane might have thought of Gene, Emma was obviously proud of him. And, Shane had to admit, it was probably a lucrative career. Rich arseholes with floating palaces would pay through the nose to keep their investments afloat.

“Oh, that would be very helpful,” Haru said. “We will probably need a support vessel of some kind.”

“Er, can I ask why we need a submarine?” Rafael said. 

“Storms,” Haru said. “If the world is truly to be covered with water, we can expect storms more violent and fierce than anything we have encountered. Without the promise of safe harbor, our best bet is to submerge. A dozen meters below the surface, a storm is but a nuisance. In addition, a submarine can be armed in ways that a civilian vessel cannot. Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I think this is our best option.”

“You’re not speaking out of turn, love,” Shane said, stroking her hair gently. “You’ve as much right to speak your mind as anyone else. And if it really does come to that, I think you might be right.”

“Not a whole lot of torpedoes floating around on the civilian market,” Rafael pointed out. 

“Eh, if I can get my hands on a deactivated one, I can probably reverse engineer it,” Shane said. “And the old school subs, the ones that end up as museum ships, they usually have deck guns, too. Even if I can’t do torpedoes, if me and Haru put our heads together, I’m sure we can come up with something.”

“We’ll put the submarine thing on the back burner for now,” Jen said, “but Haru, if you want to do some research, see if you can find a viable candidate, by all means.”

She wasn’t just throwing Haru a bone. Haru didn’t bluff, and she didn’t bluster. If she said she could get a submarine going, Jen believed her. Haru had the magic touch with all things mechanical. Jen was less certain that they’d need a sub, but wasn’t willing to dismiss the possibility out of hand. This was new territory, for all of them, and the more she thought about it, the more scared she became. 

“If that doesn’t pan out, I’m sure Gene can get us a boat,” Emma offered. “His company almost always has one or two on hand that they’ve repossessed from some rich asshole who didn’t want to pay their bill. I mean, he usually auctions them off right away, but he does technically own them. I can have him go look tomorrow, see what’s available.”

“That’s a great idea,” Lauren said. “Why don’t we meet back here next week, once we’ve had a chance to do some digging and figure out where we stand? That is, if that’s okay with you, Jen. I don’t want to put you guys out.”

Jen looked over at Haru, who nodded ever so slightly from behind Shane’s protective embrace. 

“That’s fine with us,” she said. “Just so long as there’s not a repeat of earlier. I know everyone is tense right now, so I’m sure we’re all willing to let bygones be bygones. But right now, we need to work together, okay?”

“Of course,” Lauren said. “We’ll have a talk with the boys and make sure everything is cool before we come. Shane, are you okay with that?”

“Fine by me,” Shane said. “Sorry about earlier, by the by. I don’t usually lose my cool like that.”

For the first time that evening, Jen dared to hope that maybe this would work out after all.