Nisha and Rachel practiced their early morning yoga routine and stepped outside of their tent to view the colony. Bok stood in front of his tent, lifting some equipment into his racer.
“Bok, how’s the construction going?” Nisha said.
“It’s going well. We received the silicon and other building supplies we ordered. We’ll shred them and mix them into the rock-based material we use to build our towers. The material has five times the compressive strength of your best iron re-bar reinforced concrete and is more flexible than steel. We’ve been building and programming drones all night. Now we’re ready to construct the first tower. We’re just in time, because 20,000 of us are ready to move in.”
“There were 10,000 last night,” Nisha said.
“My movement continues to be more popular than I originally thought. I need to finish the first structure.”
“That’s exciting,” Nisha said. “Are the elders giving you any trouble?”
“No, there’s been no response at all. It’s as though we don’t exist. That’s how it’s always been. We’re no threat to them, so they’ll ignore us. The Omanji ignore things they think are irrelevant.”
Nisha turned to Rachel.
“That explains a few things.”
“That’s the truth.” Rachel said.
Yoova emerged from her tent and joined the conversation.
“Hi Yoova,” Bok said. “I listened to your concert on Saturday night. Now I understand why the Yoots were popular as pets.”
“We were popular, in the past tense?” Yoova said. “Over 100 million domesticated Yoots are currently being kept as pets by the Omanji.”
“Yes, they’re popular at the moment,” Bok said. “But word about the true intelligence of the Yoots is spreading among the elders. Now, many are hesitating to adopt them as pets. So, I’m using the human past tense.”
Yoova wiggled her nose.
“That’s good news.”
Nisha asked Yoova, “So what are you doing today?”
“I’m helping to organize more concerts in various locations for the humans to watch. We’ve earned over two million US dollars in two concerts. I created some recordings, and we’ll sell them too. We know of a large parcel of land we’d like to buy in the redwood forest of Humboldt County in the north direction.”
“That’s exciting.” Rachel said. “When can you move?”
“I think in a few days we can put a down payment on the land and begin building the colony shortly thereafter. We can only buy the land if we reserve 80% as open space for the humans. We can build on 20% of it if we don’t cut down any trees and we protect the native plants and animals. This place reminds me of our old land on Oma, but the trees are a lot taller because of the weaker gravity on Earth. It’s dark in the forest, so the sunlight won’t hurt our eyes like it does here in the desert. The climate is good because the temperature doesn’t get below freezing or too hot. There is too much oxygen, but we can live with it. No planet is a good as the one you evolved on.”
“My parents thought our lives were over when we left Oma, but our lives are starting again,” Yoova said.
“I agree,” Bok said.
His nose wiggled.
“I thought my life had also ended because I felt I had to merge. Now it’s a new beginning. Okay, I must go to the new colony now.”
Nisha and Rachel walked up to the mess tent to eat breakfast. Yoova walked back to her tent.
“Where’s this going?” Nisha said.
“I’m not sure. An alien species is buying land in the redwoods, and another is breaking away from its parent. What will Priya and the other mods become? Are they another species of human? Can the modifications be passed down to future generations? I think so. That’s a problem.”
“I’ll ask Bok that last question,” Nisha said. “Will my grandchildren be of a distinct species? I guess this solves the riddle of what came first, the chicken or the egg.”
“Why do you say that?” Rachel said.
“Well, Priya was born as a normal human and might give birth to someone of a new species from an egg which has different DNA than with what she was born. When the first chicken was hatched, the egg came from a bird which was almost a chicken but not quite. A genetic mutation in an egg from that ‘almost-chicken’ produced the first chicken. So, the egg always comes first.”
“I see,” Rachel said. “Of course, in the long march of evolution, eggs existed hundreds of millions of years before chickens. Therefore, no matter what, the egg came first.”
Nisha smiled.
“Very true.”
Bok’s racer streaked by before settling down in front of his tent. “Ugh, I can’t get used to that. It’s still going way too fast. Let’s go find out what’s happening.”
They walked down the dusty trail which had seen no rain in five months, which is not unusual for most of California in the summer half of the year.
“Bok, how are things going at your new colony?” Nisha said.
“It’s going well. The drones are programmed and they’re preparing the ground for the first tower. I know this is slow progress compared to the elders, but we must start somewhere.”
“I think you’re making great progress Bok,” Rachel said. “You’re all young and you are going to live outside of your normal Omanji life cycle.”
“Yes, about a year ago I discovered I’m emerging as a male. Then I met Beedee. I wished we would merge with the telepathic collective and later we’d raise a family, as you do on Earth. However, as I mentioned before, a genetic match was chosen for me. I applied for a personal mate choice with Beedee, but they declined my application due to genetic incompatibility.”
“I still think genetic matching is a primitive method of choosing a mate,” Nisha said.
“I agree. Once I decided to not merge, Beedee’s parents severed our connection, and I can’t communicate with her anymore.”
Bok turned a dark shade of gray.
“I want to be with her, but I have no choice now.”
“Do you know where she is,” Nisha said.
“I’m not sure. I think she’s still living with her parents. I wish I could talk with her. I miss her. I’m afraid they’ll pressure her to merge, and I’ll never be with her again. When we last talked, she had decided not to merge. She intended to live with us in the new colony.”
“Hmm, you’ll need to come up with a plan to get her back,” Nisha said.
“What type of plan? I don’t understand.”
“Do you think there’s hope for him?” Nisha said to Rachel.
“He seems pretty hopeless,” Rachel said as she glanced over at Bok.
“I’m hopeless? I don’t understand. I’m always hopeful.”
“What she means Bok is you don’t have a clue,” Rachel said.
“I was never given clues. I’m confused with these human clichés and customs.”
Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other and shook their heads.
“Bok, you need to go after her,” Nisha said. “You can’t let her go. You’ll regret that decision for the rest of your long life. What’ll you think 100 years from now, or 300 years from now, if you do nothing? You’ll always wonder what your life would have been like, had you found her.”
“Sometimes you humans can be illogical and logical at the same time. I agree when you describe things this way. What should I do?”
Nisha glanced at Rachel and raised her arms in the air as if to give up.
“I’m not sure what to do with you Bok. You’re much smarter than me. Do something. Come up with a plan to contact her. Plan it so neither of you’ll get in trouble.”
“Good idea. Thanks Nisha.”
“I didn’t come up with the idea, that’s your job,” Nisha said.
“I understand now. I’ll come up with a plan. I’m going into my tent, and I’ll stay there until I devise a plan.”
With that, he walked into his tent.
Nisha glanced at Rachel with wide open eyes.
“When he decides to do something, he commits to it. I like that.”
“Me too,” Rachel said. “Well, I guess we better get back to work. Who knows how long it’ll take him to—”
“Bok, what is it?” Nisha asked as he walked back out of his tent.
“I’ve devised a plan.”
“Really?” they both said in unison.
“You were in your tent for about 20 seconds,” Nisha said.
“Yes, I spent some time and devised a solution,” Bok said. “I know some friends who haven’t been pressured to merge. They have open minded parents. I’m going to get them to contact her for me. Perhaps she can get a message back to me.”
“Good idea,” Rachel said. “Make sure you don’t use technological means to send the message. That can be traced. I’ll give you some paper and a pencil. Write her a message and tell her write you a message and send it back to you.”
“I must relearn how to handwrite. We’re all taught our ancient written language, but it’s forgotten soon after. I like this plan,” Bok said. “There may be hope for you humans.”
His nose wiggled and he turned bright shades of orange and blue.
“I’m going back to my tent to write the note and begin this operation.”
With that, he walked into the tent again. Nisha raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“Young love. I guess it’s a universal thing.”
They laughed and walked into their tent.
“I have over a hundred messages from kids wanting to go to school at the Stanford compound,” Nisha said. “Many of them are from other countries.”
“That’s good news,” Rachel said. “How can they travel here if they don’t get visas? They’re outcasts. Nobody loves them except for their parents. Would they be able to get visas?”
Nisha looked up for a few seconds.
“How about this? These kids are smart, and they’ll make many inventions and discoveries in the future. They’ll be valuable assets to the economy of this country and to the world. We need to market this idea to the President. We don’t need to say nobody loves them, and act like the bleeding hearts we are.”
Rachel smiled.
“Great idea.”
Nisha contacted the President directly for the first time since she was given a direct connection. She wanted to use the connection sparingly. This was the right time. After a long wait, they discussed the situation for about 20 minutes.
“So how did things go?” Rachel said as she walked back into the tent.
“She likes the idea. She’s going to get Congress to approve it because they could help this country. She advised me to proceed with plans to create the school at Stanford. I’m excited.”
Back home, Priya, Sophie and Amy were taking a lunch break after watching classes in the morning.
“I think I’m getting too far ahead,” Priya said. “The topics they’re discussing now are things we already know.”
“Yeah,” Sophie said. “We’re at least two months ahead now after only a week of studying. I don’t think we should be spending time watching the classes anymore.”
Amy looked dejected.
“I wish I could keep up with you. I’m only a month ahead, but I’m falling more behind you guys every day.”
“It’s okay,” Priya said. “You can still stay here and— wait, my mom wants to talk. Mom?”
“Yes, it’s me. I learned some great news. Your friends will be able to come back to this country and study if they want. They’ll get special visas and can go to school at the new compound at Stanford in Palo Alto.”
“Awesome.” Priya said. “This is perfect because we’re getting too far ahead in our classes now.”
“Tell everyone on your social network about this. I’ll give you more information later, I gotta go.”
They disconnected, and Priya broke the news to everyone.
“I can’t wait to go there,” Sophie said. “I want to learn all we can so we can find the cause of autism and other genetically related things.”
“I’m losing you guys, aren’t I?” Amy said.
“No way,” Priya said. “You’re losing nobody.”
“You guys will be in your special school, and you’ll forget all about me.”
“No Amy, we won’t be far away, and we can talk every day,” Sophie said.
“Thanks guys but I understand things are changing now. That’s life. I’ll adjust. Adapt or perish, as they say.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Priya said as she gave her a hug. “We’ll always be friends. We support each other. Now let’s tell everyone on the network what’s happening.”
Within seconds of posting the news, the replies came back.
“All of us are having problems in school,” Priya said as she read the replies. “We want to go to the new school.”
“Let me set up a registration system,” Amy said. “We need to get this organized right now.”
As Amy created the database, Priya thought silently to Sophie, “She’s good at this.”
“I know. I wish she could get her confidence back,” Sophie thought back.
After about three hours, the registration system ran smoothly. They studied for the rest of the day. Before Sophie and Amy left for the night, they browsed the registration system. 1,000 had already signed up.
“I can hear the excitement on our telepathic network in my mind,” Priya said.
“Yeah, everyone is discussing it,” Sophie said. “I think it’s going to be a big deal. I’m excited now. There’s hope we can live a normal life somehow. I’m in prison now. You’re fortunate Amy,”
Amy didn’t feel so fortunate. She had always been the smart one, always helping others. She found it difficult to accept the help of others. She felt inferior. She wanted to live 300 years and be as smart as Priya and Sophie. However, she knew this separation with different career paths would happen anyway, it’s just accelerated. Soon thereafter, they fell asleep.