Nisha awoke at first light. She listened for the familiar crunching sound, but she heard nothing. She stayed in her cot and watched the patterns the rising sun made on the canvas ceiling of the tent. Rachel had recently woken up.
“I’m overwhelmed,” she said.
“I can’t imagine how this is for you.”
“Everything is out of control. Priya wants to go back to school while her brain is morphing into who knows what. I haven’t seen Quinn or Sanjay in over a month. You haven’t seen your family either. We’re responsible for 25,000 children and 50,000 Yoots. Priya’s changes alone are enough for a lifetime of angst. What will happen with the Omanji and life on Earth?”
“That’s why we need to take things one moment at a time.”
“You’re right. Okay what do we need to do today? Besides meditate.”
“Well, I’m checking the news. SpaceX launched a satellite this morning and it struck one of the orbiting spheres. Nobody has detected a reaction from the sphere it struck or any other sphere. It’s as though nothing happened.”
“That’s because to them, the satellite hitting a sphere was like a gnat hitting a thick window. How many spheres are in orbit now?” Nisha said.
“Approximately 3,000, which means three billion of them are living in the colony.”
“It’s hopeless,” Nisha said. “We’re doomed to be second class, or lower on our own planet, but I’m not giving up.”
She paused.
“Where’s Bok? Usually, he’s here by now. I’m going to contact him.”
Nisha connected after about 15 seconds.
“Bok, how are you?”
“I’m doing poorly. I’m not living with my parents anymore. I’m with some friends. My parents are applying more pressure for me to merge. I don’t like them telling me what to do with my life. They don’t understand what it’s like on this planet or to have grown up in space. I can’t talk now, but I’ll stay in touch.”
“Okay, take care of yourself Bok. I’ll be waiting for you.”
They disconnected.
“What happened?” Rachel said.
“I think he had an argument with his parents. He’s staying with some friends right now. He doesn’t want to merge. He sounds like a typical teenager.”
“That’s great,” Rachel said. “If he merges, we lose contact with the Omanji as a whole. We need Bok right now.”
“That’s right. He might need us too. I’ll tell him later that he and his friends can stay in the compound with the Yoots if they don’t want to merge.”
“This might get dangerous,” Rachel said. “I don’t want to get involved in an interstellar parent-child dispute.”
“Me neither, but this might be a good development. I think some layers are about to peel off the onion.”
As they discussed the events of the day, Priya and Sophie woke up. They wanted to walk to the mess tent to eat breakfast.
“Pree and Sophie, I’ve been thinking,” Nisha said. “You should move back home and get back to school. Normally, when a traumatic event happens to a young person, lifelong scars can result. However, you don’t appear traumatized or emotionally flat. You seem energized and happy. Are you ready for it?”
“Yes.” Priya and Sophie said simultaneously.
“Mom, we’re ready to go. I’m connected to my new friends all the time so I’m never alone. I can be alone when I want. The connection is voluntary. I gotta admit the Omanji are awesome at networking. I want to visit with Amy and our other friends at school. I want to learn genetics. I’m in 10th grade now and even though it’s October and I’ve missed a month of school. I know I can catch up.”
“That’s a lot to make up, are you sure?”
“Yes,” they both said.
“Okay, it’s settled,” Nisha said.
While the kids celebrated, Nisha contacted Quinn. Ninety minutes later his car drove up the dusty road, through the two security check points and soon they reunited.
“Oh Quinn, I’m so happy to see you.”
Her hands shook.
“Me too, Neesh. Are you okay?”
Nisha laughed.
“Sorry, I’ve been under a bit of stress lately. I’m not sure why. The job is boring.”
Everyone laughed.
“Daddy, can we be back in school tomorrow?” Priya said.
“I made the arrangements before I drove here. You can both start tomorrow. Sophie, your parents say it’s okay. They’ll contact you shortly.”
“Yay. Can we go now?”
Quinn glanced at Nisha for her approval.
“Sure. Go ahead,” she said. “I gotta work anyway.”
Nisha stared at the ground.
“Sorry Mom, I know you want me to stay, but I think my place is in school right now. If you want to ask any of us questions, let me know.”
“Us?” Nisha said.
“Yes, as in, all of us who were modified. We call ourselves the mods. We’re modified and modern. We don’t know what will happen, but I’ll tell you when I’m aware of any changes. Even today I’m different than yesterday somehow. I’ll explain later.”
They hugged, got into the car, and drove off with a trail of dust swirling behind them.
A tear ran down Nisha’s cheek.
“I’m losing her.”
“No, things are changing,” Rachel said. “As long as you support her, it’ll work out okay.”
“You’re right,” Nisha said.
She shook her head to reset her mind.
“Okay we need to get these kids back to their families. If Priya and Sophie are any indication, many thousands of kids are waiting to get back to their families and to school.”
They spent the rest of the day working with programmers to complete the setup of databases with retina, fingerprint and DNA scanning of the kids and parents. Long lines of parents formed. One by one, the children were returned to their parents. Arrangements were made to fly the children of other countries back to their confirmed places of origin and families.
Late in the day as Nisha and Rachel ate dinner, Yoova walked up to them and sat down.
“Hi Yoova, how are you?” Nisha said.
“I’m happy,” Yoova said, wiggling her nose in a shaking motion. “Many of us decided to put on a series of concerts to introduce our music to the humans and any Omanji who wishes to listen. We’ll charge a voluntary donation in US currency, and that will enable us to build our own food processors and create a new life here on Earth. I set up a Twitter account. Can you mention this to your followers?”
“Sure.”
Nisha put up a quick post and soon thousands of people followed @YoovaOnEarth. Within minutes, she had 50,000 followers.
Yoova tweeted, “I’m happy to be here on Earth. It’s a beautiful planet. Listen to our music tomorrow evening at our Mojave compound. (Map) Only $20, for a worthy cause. Our survival. (Music Sample).”
Rachel smiled and said, “Not a bad first tweet Yoova. I think you’ll do well on your new planet.”
Yoova wiggled her nose again.
They watched her Twitter stream for a few minutes and soon the word got out.
“You better get ready,” Nisha said. “There’s a lot of interest.”
“Okay, I need to get ready. We’ll meet tomorrow,” Yoova said as she stood up and walked back to her tent.
Nisha and Rachel watched the sunset and walked back to their tent.
“This colony is growing by the minute,” Rachel said. “Those 3,000 towers in this colony represent one for every sphere in orbit. Some of the new towers are taller than the standard 6,000 feet.”
Nisha nodded her head.
“Yeah, we could never have dreamed of this a month ago.”
Darkness settled in over the colony. They fell asleep.