The next morning, Rachel woke up early to review the latest news. Nisha woke up a few minutes later.
“Another 100 spheres arrived overnight. That makes 500,” Rachel said. She rushed out of the tent to survey the colony. “Nisha come out here. They don’t mess around.”
The colony expanded into the open desert at such a rapid pace that 100 huge towers had been built overnight.
“If they build 100 towers per day, they will house 100 million Omanji. To house 80 billion of them, they’ll need to move here at the rate of 100 million per day for over two years. The shuttle spheres are coming down and unloading about 10,000 at a time. That’s 10,000 trips per day to bring down 100 million. That’s about one trip every eight seconds for three years.”
“That’s mind-boggling,” Nisha said. “How can they plan it out? Imagine an airport having a flight land every eight seconds and unload 10,000 passengers each? They’re so industrious compared to us that sometimes I think they deserve to take over the earth.”
“Don’t talk like that.” Rachel said with her mother’s voice. “We can never give up our Earth. This planet is ours.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Nisha whispered as she placed her eyepiece out of audio range in case Bok listened in. “I’m not going down without a fight. I know we can’t force them out. We’ll figure out a way to get them to leave. Don’t ask how. I’ll probe every opening.”
They gathered in the meeting tent for the 06:00 meeting with General Sherman. He looked ready to go.
“Okay I’m going to dispense with the formalities and get to the point. The colony is growing and they’re going to take over this planet. I’m not going to sugar coat it. I’m not sure how many of them are here, but more are coming. So, first I would like to go around the room and get your input on how to deal with this problem starting with the colonel to my right and we’ll work around the room in that direction.”
Nisha and Rachel felt relieved because they would be the last to speak. A colonel got up and discussed his ideas.
“Standard military options are off the table. We spent much of the night assessing their capabilities. No matter what we simulated throwing at them, they would react as though pricked by a mosquito. We might only be able to make them scratch, if tried our hardest. The only thing I can think of would be to disguise nuclear weapons in shielded briefcases and smuggle them inside of or near each tower and set them all off simultaneously. We would be the insurgents in this scenario. We might be able to put to effective use what we’ve learned from decades of terrorism. The biggest problem is even if we were to succeed, which is unlikely, 500 huge spheres are in orbit. I think one of them could put a quick end to our civilization.”
General Sherman nodded in agreement and gave the floor to the Army’s lead biologist.
“Since military options are off the table for now, we’ve been examining their microorganisms. They have a built-in immunity to every infectious bug on Earth. However, my experimentation experts are testing everything, looking for a crack in the armor. Some of our prions are having limited successes against a few of their bacteria species. Prions can be easily modified, so we might be able to develop something which can infect them and not us. They may find cures more quickly than we can develop new prions, but we’ll be working to make an infectious agent a reality.”
Eventually, it was Rachel’s turn to speak.
“I’ve been working out their capabilities and making projections. They’re arriving in increasing numbers every day. About 100 million of them will arrive in the next day, and there’s no end in sight. Billions of them may live here eventually. On the bright side, this is their only significant colony on Earth. They prefer the Mojave Desert. They might decide to stay here and not bother us elsewhere. I won’t make big predictions, but I’m following things closely.
“Dr. Chandra, what do you think?” the General said.
Nisha stood up, still unsure about what she would say.
“General, I believe their capabilities are so ubiquitous they’re monitoring our conversation right now. They don’t take us seriously, so that’s our only advantage. However, they took us seriously enough to kill our President when she ordered the missile strike. Don’t underestimate them. Since they’re arriving in greater numbers every day, we should plan to get people in nearby communities out of the way of their colony development. Up to this point, they work around us, but at some point, problems will happen. I suggest we evacuate the towns of Mojave, California City, and all the unincorporated areas nearby. At this point we need to play a defensive game until we can come up with an offense. Personally, I want them to leave, and I’ll do everything in my power to get them to go, or at least give us back our kids. That’s all for now.”
Nisha worried about whether the General would press her for more opinions, but he didn’t.
“I agree,” he said. “We need to evacuate residents as quickly as possible. Shelter must be found. We’ll requisition funds for temporary housing. Let’s focus on this. We’ll continue to study them today and no actions will be taken against them for now unless defensive in nature. The next scheduled meeting will be at 06:00 hours tomorrow.”
Nisha and Rachel left the tent by themselves to eat breakfast. Nisha felt relieved as they walked out to their customary picnic table with the view of the colony.
“Rachel, I think I worried about nothing. The General doesn’t appear as though he will do anything drastic.”
“I hope you’re right,” Rachel said. “He’s part of a giant bureaucracy and momentum can shift, leading to bad outcomes. We must be careful to fly under the radar.”
Nisha looked out over the vast colony reflecting the morning sun like a frozen icy waterfall.
“Rachel, there’s some movement between us and the colony.”
Rachel magnified her eyepiece view.
“Several Omanji are running towards us. They run quickly although they’re going uphill. Their legs are so flexible.”
They finished their breakfast and walked to the edge of the encampment and watched as the Omanji continued running towards them.
Rachel’s mouth opened wide.
“See those guns pointed towards the runners? Those are the biggest handheld rifles I’ve ever seen.”
“A lot of good those will do,” Nisha said. “Why bother with guns?”
“I guess old habits are difficult to break,” Rachel said. “Here they come. They’re going to walk into General Sherman’s tent. Let’s go.”
The General met with a few of his top people when the gray colored Omanji entered the tent with Nisha, Rachel and several army guards carrying those big rifles close behind.
“At least the Omanji appear to be in a neutral mood today,” Rachel whispered.
“Yeah, I’m glad they’re not red,” Nisha said.
She recorded audio and video but didn’t broadcast the content to her 350 million Twitter followers in case there was violence.
The largest and most intimidating Omanji in the group pulled out his silvery disc from a fold of skin. All Omanji appeared to carry one. Something white emerged and appeared as a thin piece of paper.
Nisha and Rachel stood at the tent opening while the General stood up at his seat at the head of the meeting table. The Omanji walked around to the General and looked him up and down, concentrating on the General’s eyes. It gave him a good sniff. The General tried to maintain his composure as best he could. The Omanji gave the General the piece of paper. On the page were printed letters against the white background of the paper. It looked like a typical printed page of text. Nisha and Rachel turned to each other with raised eyebrows but said nothing.
The General took the paper from the muscular-looking six-fingered gray hand and read it carefully.
He smiled weakly and read it.
“Well, the good news is it’s written in grammatically perfect English. I’m trying to figure out an effective way to explain this, but I think I’ll simply read it.”
“Good morning General Sherman. We are addressing this message specifically to the humans in this meeting area, and to the entire human species. Before we built our colony here on New Oma, we studied all plants and animals. We took great care to not disrupt ecological systems. We are closely monitoring human activity because the human species is slightly more dangerous than other animal species found here. Yesterday, we monitored your meeting held here in this temporary structure and we will continue to monitor all human communications.
We know you are devising violent plans to force us to leave Earth. We are warning you for your own protection, your plans will fail. We are by far the most highly evolved species on this planet, and in this local galactic region. You must accept your reduced position in the new hierarchy just as other animal species on this planet had to adjust to the presence of humans. Humans, more than any other animal species on Earth should be able to understand the concept of hierarchy.
We do not wish to kill humans or any other animals on Earth. However, we will defend ourselves. There is one other warning you should heed. We consider the use of prions or other harmful biological life to be an act of war. Humans, who plan, encourage, or participate violent or destructive acts against us, will be terminated.
We have therefore deactivated all nuclear weapons on New Oma. It is for the good of all. Every country is required to immediately deliver all nuclear weapons and material to this location within seven days. Termination awaits those who do not comply. Anyone (or their accomplices) who is discovered in the possession of a nuclear device will be terminated. All nuclear devices on New Oma not in Omanji possession in seven days will detonate or be forcibly confiscated on the eighth day. There will be no exceptions. The construction of new nuclear or biological weapons is hereby prohibited.
END.”
The Omanji adults walked around the table and surrounded General Sherman.
The General looked uncomfortable as they all ran their eyes over him. He looked back at them and back towards the Omanji who gave him the paper.
“I understand. Now I’m wondering if I might ask—”
The Omanji turned around and walked briskly out of the tent.
General Sherman, the eternal optimist, turned to the people in the tent and said, “Well, that wasn’t the friendliest interaction, but it didn’t go bad considering it’s the first direct contact we’ve had with an extraterrestrial species.”
Nisha had been biting her tongue, trying not to be sarcastic or humorous. She made first contact. However, she couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“General, go outside, they’re no longer an extraterrestrial species. They’re a species here on Earth now. Rachel and I have been speaking to them for a while now.”
Some of his staff squirmed in their seats uncomfortably.
The General smiled and said, “True, they’re here and you did speak with their cute children. Okay we’ll meet again tomorrow morning at 06:00 hours to discuss further plans. For now, we need to get people out of the path of the colony development. I’ll update the President on what happened here and discuss the worldwide deactivation and delivery of the nuclear weapons.”
The meeting adjourned. Nisha and Rachel walked back to their tent. Nisha stopped recording.
Rachel whispered, “Well, I guess we know where we stand now. Bok was right about their attitude towards us.”
“Yes,” Nisha whispered back. “And adults on both sides don’t take the children seriously. We must be careful what we say. I think whispering might be the only form of secure communication left. If the sound vibrations don’t reach their sensors, we should be fine. They can’t read our minds, which helps.”
“How do you know?” Rachel whispered.
“There’s no evidence for mind reading, even by the Omanji. They get their information about us from our electronic interactions. Even they need an implant to read other minds with implants to be self-aware on a species level. I find it ironic that the oldest way to keep a secret is the best way, even in this new advanced age of high technology.”
“Thank goodness. I’m happy nuclear weapons will be off the face of the earth. That’s one good thing the Omanji have done, if they can do it. I wonder if—”
Nisha appeared distracted.
“I’m getting a message. Bok wants to voice communicate. I’m going to connect and share with you. Okay Rachel?”
“It’s okay.”
“Bok, it’s good to hear your voice.” Nisha smiled as if he were an old friend.
“It’s good to absorb your thoughts.”
“Are Omanji always this polite?” Rachel said.
“Protocol and etiquette are important, despite your recent experiences,” Bok said. “It’s difficult to describe to humans who don’t hear the thoughts of others in their minds, but every thought has a time and place. So many thoughts are floating around, that we must be careful about the etiquette of thought and action. If we aren’t careful, there’s chaos. Omanji history is filled with destruction and chaos.”
Nisha’s childhood memories came back. She used to imagine discovering new worlds and civilizations.
“Tell us more.” she said.
“To explain our history, you need to understand the layout of Oma. Activate Google Universe and navigate back to Oma and I’ll explain.”
Nisha recorded but didn’t broadcast. She traveled to Oma and descended to a few hundred miles above the surface.”
“Okay, stop here,” Bok said. “First of all, our star is only three billion years old, which is much younger than your sun. It’s a smaller red star, so it has a much longer life span than your sun. Oma is about three billion years old compared to 4.5 billion years for Earth and Sun. As I’ve mentioned, two other stars are in the system, but the others are far away and don’t affect Oma. For most of the last three billion years, only primitive life existed on Oma. Oma is over three times the mass of the earth and there’s a lot of internal heat buildup. Volcanoes often erupted, triggering mass extinctions just when more advanced forms of life were in the process of developing. So, it took a long time for advanced life to evolve on Oma. Approximately 100 million years ago many of the volcanoes became dormant as the planet’s rotation slowed and its core cooled. This allowed advanced life to develop. The rotation slowed since the orbit of Oma is close to our star. Are you listening?”
“Yes,” Rachel said. “Please continue.”
“When the volcanoes calmed down, the buildup of magma caused continents to rise on opposite sides of Oma near the poles. The continents never came close to touching each other, so when oceanic life forms managed to crawl onto the land of each continent, they evolved independently. The last common ancestor to life forms that developed on each continent looked like an Earth amphibian. No higher species intermixed after the initial migration from the oceans to land. The planet’s rotation slowed, and no land-based life form could survive a violent trans-oceanic trip. We notice flying animals on Earth can migrate across the planet. On Oma, such a migration between the two continents is impossible. The ocean is too large, the winds aren’t favorable, and the weather is too violent.”
Nisha interrupted.
“Life on Oma seems to have originated as though from two separate planets. Is this accurate?”
“Yes, when you study animals on the northern and southern continent, they’re different from each other. Before I describe the differences, one similarity all species share is they’re shorter and sturdier than similar species on Earth. The circumference of Oma is about 1.6 that of Earth and gravity on Oma is 1.4 times that of Earth. Therefore, life forms on Oma are built to handle stronger gravity. The tallest plant species are about 40 meters tall compared to the redwoods on Earth which are over 100 meters tall. Walking on Earth is easy for us, but our bones are becoming less dense because of the reduced gravitational stress. We’re developing a genetic fix for this problem now.”
Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other as if they were dreaming.
“Okay, tell us about the life on the two continents. Did the southern continent also develop an intelligent species?” Nisha said.
“Yes, to a limited extent. Several near intelligent species evolved on both continents. Faster than on earth due to no mass extinctions. The Omanji evolved on the northern continent and the Yoots evolved on the southern continent.”
“What are the Yoots like?” Nisha said.
“They’re fur covered creatures from the coastal woodlands on the southern continent. They’re approximately five feet tall. Their fur and eyes are blue.”
“Are they intelligent?” Rachel said.
“That’s a matter up for debate. Before I met you two humans, I would have said no. They made a small amount of technological progress many years ago, but there’s no evidence of this now. According to what I learned in my education, they used to speak a primitive language. Omanji schools are like yours, with mostly non-AI teachers and students. Learning is often done via remote viewing, but we have live teachers too.”
“In Google Universe,” Nisha said. “I flew over the northern continent and checked out your massive cities. Now I’m flying over the southern continent and many more large cities are here. Are those the Yoot’s cities, or did the Omanji take over the Yoots’ continent?”
“Those are our cities. The Yoots don’t possess the skills to build large cities. They can barely speak an air-vibration language. They live in primitive conditions in their dense and dark forests.”
Nisha continued flying around the southern continent.
“The Omanji urbanized many portions of it. Did you push the Yoots off their land?”
“We needed land for crops and housing before we developed nuclear fusion, so we created special parks for Yoots. They’re happy now. They aren’t as happy as they used to be because the weather is deteriorating.”
“Did you bring some Yoots along on your voyage to Earth?” Rachel said.
“Yes. They were our favorite pets until we found the humans. We take them everywhere we go.”
Nisha got a chill down her spine.
“Hold on. Are you telling me you took an intelligent species and made them into pets as you did with the humans here on Earth?”
“They’re semi-intelligent, like more advanced versions of chimpanzees on Earth. They enjoy being pets. They were easy to domesticate because they’re passive. At least, they were easier to domesticate than the humans. From what I understand, we’re having problems with some of the young humans. Humans aren’t as easy to handle as the Yoots. The Yoots are friendly creatures, but the humans are less friendly. I’m not directly involved with the human domestication process, but I’ve listened in on discussions about the humans since I met you.”
Nisha felt upset but she tried to contain her anger.
“Chimpanzees and great apes make terrible pets. They’re too smart and independent,” Nisha said. “Okay, I want to know about the domestication problems with the humans, but first I want to know the history of how you treated the Yoots.”
Rachel nodded to Nisha, expressing her support.
“Okay I’ll tell you what I know. The Yoots are only thinly discussed in our education. I’m not sure why. I’ll tell you what I know. About 400,000 years ago, no wait, about 40,000 Earth years ago—”
Rachel’s calculating mind began to turn.
“Wait Bok I’m confused. Are you talking Oma years? I know Oma revolves around its star about once every 28 days which is less than 1/10 of an Earth year. That’s how we discovered it, by its orbit.”
“That’s good Rachel.” Bok said.
An inflection of excitement could be detected by his extra intense blue color.
“You already know much about Oma. About 40,000 Earth years ago, our wind driven oceanic vessels discovered Yoots on the equatorial islands. At the time we didn’t know the southern continent existed. Many lives and vessels were lost on the difficult voyage back to the northern continent, but some Yoots were brought back for all to see. They were domesticated and we bred them to do labor and other chores. Eventually—”
“Bok, you made slaves out of them, didn’t you?”
Nisha continued to get more upset. Rachel had to wink at her several times to calm her down.
Silence lasted for a minute.
“One moment Nisha, I’m accessing your definition of slavery. Yes, they were slaves. Later we stopped enslaving animals of any species to do work against their will. So, we released some of them into a specially created park on the southern continent to live out their days in peace with undomesticated Yoots.”
“What happened to the rest of them?” Nisha said.
“We domesticated them. They’re happy being pets. We ask little of them and they bring us joy.”
“Do you communicate with them?”
“They speak a simple language and communicate using air vibrations like humans. We communicate with them via hand commands. Their neural structure wasn’t conducive to implants. They’re obedient and they like to please us.
More silence.
Nisha stared at Rachel with anger in her eyes. Once again Rachel had to wink to calm her down.
“Are you being self-aware as a group as before?” he said. “Group self-awareness is the first step towards full species self-awareness. If humans were to develop this, the elders would respect the human species more.”
“Yes,” Nisha said. “We know. That’s what we’re doing. So, explain this to me. What’s the difference between a slave and a pet?”
“A slave is forced to do labor against its will. A pet is an animal which is taken care of by its owner, and in return joy is brought to the owner.”
“So, slaves and pets both have owners?”
“Yes.”
“In your mind, the difference between a pet and a slave is the owner forces a slave to do labor against its will, and with a pet there’s no labor being done against its will?
Bok said nothing for ten seconds.
“Yes.”
“You don’t sound sure of yourself Bok,” Nisha said. “Do you realize pet Yoots and pet humans are being forced to do things against their will, even though it’s not forced labor? Do you realize animals of a higher intelligence should be treated differently than those of a lower-level intelligence?”
“I’m reprocessing the information now. I have a counter argument. I notice humans think it’s okay to domesticate every other life form on Earth regardless of intelligence. Is this true?”
“Yes, but I disagree with this policy,” Nisha said. “I don’t think Earth animals such as the higher apes or monkeys should be domesticated or abused. They’ll be unhappy and won’t make good pets. Humans often do things I don’t like.”
“Okay, I have another counter argument. I notice dogs are favored as pets by humans. They’re intelligent animals. Are they happy being pets?
“They’re happy,” Nisha said. “In the wild, they’re subjected to disease, starvation, and predation by other animals. In nature they live short and difficult lives. They’re happy being pets. They bring us joy.”
“I have proven that having Yoots and humans for pets is agreeable by human standards,” Bok said.
“What?” Nisha said. “What are you talking about?”
“I have proven equivalence.”
“Explain,” Nisha said.
“I’ll correlate your answer regarding humans having dogs as pets with Omanji having humans and Yoots as pets. First, the 9.5 billion humans in the wild on Earth are subject to disease. We’ve modified the human specimens we’ve domesticated to better resist disease. I know that one billion humans face starvation every day. Our human pets will never starve. Our orbiter has studied humans for over 300 years. Humans in the wild face predation by other humans. We observe what you do to each other. Our human pets will never worry about predation or war.”
Humans need more intellectual stimulation and variety in their lives. They won’t be happy,” Nisha said.
“Many Earth animals want variety in their lives. We’re educating humans so they have an intellectually stimulating life, unlike domesticated dog pets which sit around for most of the day doing nothing. Humans in the wild live short lives which end in a gradual deterioration of the DNA and stem cells, leading to suffering and long painful deaths. If they don’t die from violence. We’ve rewritten portions of the human genome in our human pets, so they’ll live a healthy life for at least 300 years and probably more. Nisha, you should be happy that your daughter will live such a long and happy life. One other thing, we’ve reprogrammed the DNA in each brain cell of our human pets, so they’ll be almost as intelligent as us. We’re in the initial stages of testing but the results are as expected.”
Nisha and Rachel looked at each other in silence.
Bok noticed.
“Are you still connected?” he said.
Nisha broke down and cried. She wouldn’t stop.
Rachel put her arm around Nisha and said, “Bok, I think we’re going to continue this discussion later. Okay?”
“I don’t understand what’s happening Rachel. Please explain.”
Rachel said, “You’ve modified her child and she’s upset. I’ll explain later. Okay?”
“Okay, I will terminate now.”
Nisha broke down into painful sobbing.
“Should I leave you alone?” Rachel said.
“Yes, I want to be alone right now. Later, I want to talk to Quinn about this.”
“Okay,” Rachel said as she walked out of the tent into the bright sunlight. “I’m going to hike in the hills and get some exercise. I’ll be back in a couple of hours for dinner. I’m sorry about this. I still believe things will turn out well. I don’t think you’ve lost Priya.”
“Thanks, we’ll talk about this later,” Nisha said, still sobbing.
After an hour, Nisha contacted Quinn.
“Neesh?” he said.
“They’ve modified Priya.”
“What? They modified her? How?”
Nisha told Quinn what Bok had told her. She teared up again. Quinn tried to cheer her up.
“I know things seem bad right now, but the good news is she’s alive and isn’t being physically abused in the classic sense of the word. I think she’ll be okay. Find out if you can visit her. Focus on this for now. Make this your short-term goal. We’re doing fine here. I’m making a lot of progress torturing; um I mean tutoring Sanjay.”
“You heard him, Mom.” Sanjay said.
“You can live with me and the Omanji if you’d like,” Nisha said.
“Um, never mind. I’ll take the torturing,” Sanjay said.
“He’s doing well. He’s no longer subject to the bullying and the taunts. He’s happy other than he misses you and Pree. I love you more than ever Neesh. You’re my gem.”
He hoped to lift her mood a little. It improved after talking, but she realized her heart will be empty until Priya was at home with her.
“I love you too. I need to go. I’m too upset to talk. At least I’m establishing a good relationship with the alien child Bok. There’s potential.”
They ended the call and Nisha took a short and restless nap on her cot. As dinner time approached, Rachel returned to the tent.
“How are you?” she said.
“A little better, I guess. I want to focus on being able to visit Priya and the other kids.”
“That sounds like a good plan. The next time Bok contacts us, we’ll ask him. Let’s go eat.”
They walked to the mess hall and sat at their favorite picnic table with the view. They ate in silence for a while, and watched the sunset throw cascading shafts of blue and red light between the towers and canyons of the ever-expanding colony.
“It’s still growing,” Nisha managed to say, still looking sad with puffy eyes.
“Yes, another 100 spheres arrived,” Rachel said. “That’s 700. The colony continues to expand into the desert towards California City and Mojave. Those cities have been evacuated.”
“Yes, much of the Mojave Desert will be evacuated. Fortunately, the population density is low here.”
“How are you? Do you wish to talk about Priya?” Rachel said.
“Tomorrow I’ll want to talk. I need to think for a while. I’m sick to my stomach thinking about my baby being molested by them. I’m going to do some reading and go to sleep.”