As the first light of dawn broke, Nisha awoke once more to the sound of Bok walking around outside her tent. Many nights were filled with dreams containing nightmarish scenes, but mornings were pleasant. Nisha walked outside of the tent. Bok stood near a large container.

“What are you looking at?” she said.

“This is a crate with items you’ll need. I created several hundred translation devices for the Yoots as well as a complete list of Earth foods they can eat. We have a lot of food left over in the colony, but the food will run out for these 50,000 Yoots. You can find the rest of it down at the edge of the colony. I’ll deliver more food replication units later.”

“Thank you. You care about the Yoots, don’t you?”

“Yes. I’m guilty for having believed they were simply another animal. I’m embarrassed for my species too. And I’m angry. Feelings are depreciated in Omanji society. However, I’m sad for the hundreds of generations of Yoots that are dead, and for these 50,000 here now. They’ll be living on Earth from now on. I hope I can help.”

“These translators will help a lot. Make more when you can.”

“Okay I’ll make more. I should go. I’m having problems with my parents. They’re increasing the pressure for me to merge. They think I’m wasting my time playing with the humans and I need to get serious about my future.”

“Do you want to merge?” Nisha asked as she muted her audio broadcast.

“I’m repulsed at the idea of giving up my individuality and my privacy. Most of my friends don’t want to merge either. They say this is a new world and we should adapt to it.”

“I’m happy to learn that.” Nisha said as Rachel walked outside to join them. “I think you should start your own colony. When you’re serious about it, let me know and I’ll find out if I can locate a place for you to start it. People know me now.”

“Thanks Nisha, I’ll do that,” Bok said as he walked down the hill to the colony.

Nisha turned to Rachel.

“Do you think I’m doing the right thing when I encourage Bok to start his own colony?”

Rachel thought silently for a moment.

“I think you’re doing the right thing despite the danger. Bok’s movement might turn into something big which that disrupt Omanji society and who knows what would happen. You know their history. On the other hand, this might be our only chance to have someone on our side who can influence the Omanji. I don’t think the Yoots will be able to help outside of giving us information. They’re smart but they’re peaceful. This isn’t their planet to defend.”

They walked back into the tent as Priya and Sophie were waking up.

“How are you today?” Nisha said.

They both turned to Nisha and said, “Fine.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,” Priya said.

They got dressed and walked up to the mess tent. Nisha kept her audio muted.

“Look at all this food Mom.” Priya said.

Her eyes opened wide.

“Yeah, and it’s real human food too,” Sophie said.

“What did the Omanji make you eat?” Nisha asked Priya.

“They gave us weird stuff. None of it looked real. It consisted of cubes of various things which might have been meat or vegetables, but they weren’t. The food tasted good and I’m healthy, but it felt unnatural to eat. It was like vegetables, but not from plants. Thank goodness we had only water to drink. At least water is familiar.”

Priya gazed out over the colony.

“I’m glad to be out of there. It’s a beautiful place but they’re humorless. I’d become some weird thing to keep around for amusement. I think I’ll take the pancakes with real maple syrup. I’m sure they don’t make maple syrup on Oma.”

They sat down to eat.

“Priya, how are you mentally and physically?” Rachel said.

“I’m energized. I have this strong urge to learn now. I think I can remember everything I read easily. I’m physically healthy.”

“Bok said they’ve made improvements to you. Do you feel improved?” Nisha said.

Priya paused briefly.

“Um, yes. I can’t explain it. I’m more aware of things. I’m coming to grips with the fact I might live to be 300 years old. I don’t know about that. My life cycle will be out of sync with the world. I’m still getting used to the implants and the neurons connecting to the implant. The Omanji say they can’t be removed without causing brain damage because my neural network has integrated with it.”

“How do you feel having this implant?”

“Imagine being in a big party with thousands of people talking,” Priya said. “Only you can hear and talk with all of them. It’s hard to filter out the noise. The Omanji told us we’ll learn how to filter out the noise. I’ll have to practice.”

Yoova and her parents walked up to them. Priya kept talking and encouraged them to sit with the group.

“In most ways, it’s like normal talking only you speak with your mind. The closer you are to the one speaking, the louder the voice is, but I can hear any one of us 25,000 at any time. Therefore, right now I can talk with Sophie and her mind-voice is sharp and clear. I can talk to someone in the compound a couple of miles away, but it’s more difficult. The Omanji said that when my neural net integrates with the implant, I will be able to talk with people on other planets with a delay depending on distance.”

“How do you know how to use the implants?” Nisha said.

“We were learning how to use them before we left. Right now, I can talk to someone in our network on the other side of the world once I learn how to do it. Every device in each brain extends the range of the network. The Omanji were in the middle of training us when they gave up on us and let us go. We were causing too much trouble and we weren’t cooperating. We weren’t the happy little pets they were looking for.”

“It happened that way for us too,” Yoova said. “They don’t take us seriously. They want to brainwash us as you say, for our yoom and our love. They only want us at their convenience. Here on Earth, we’ll get some respect among the humans and the younger Omanji.”

“I respect you,” Priya said. “The Yoots will find many friends here. Humans aren’t perfect though; some will fear you. Some will try to hurt you.”

“Are humans like the Omanji,” Yoova said.

“In some ways,” Priya said. “There’s good and bad.”

“Bok is your friend too,” Nisha said. “He told me he now despises the way the Yoots were treated. He didn’t know how intelligent the Yoots are. Now he’s telling all his friends.”

Yoova’s nose wiggled back and forth. She hugged her parents. While this discussion had been going on, Nisha anxiously studied Priya.

“Pree, you do seem different. You’re speaking like an adult. You’ve always been mature for your age, but you seem more so now.”

“Thanks Mom. I feel more intellectually mature than before. I’ll still want to call you Mommy sometimes. I’m anxious because I’m changing quickly. I understand the changes will take months to fully take effect.”

“I noticed the same thing,” Sophie said. “I think something is happening inside of me. Immediately after they modified my DNA and they put the implant in my brain, I began to think differently. It’s been three weeks now and I’m experiencing mental hunger. I remember everything. I’m having difficulty explaining it. I want to learn genetics like Pree.”

Nisha glanced at Rachel who seemed lost in thought.

“Oh, sorry,” Rachel said. “I’m thinking about what Priya and Sophie said. We’ll soon know the results of their DNA sequencing and brain tissue samples. My guess is the genetic code in each brain cell has been modified. If that’s the case, changes will manifest themselves over time, not immediately. If brain cells were reprogrammed, time is required for the relationships between the cells to grow or change. If the aging process has been slowed, we may not detect evidence of that for a while.”

Nisha rushed over and hugged Priya and Sophie.

“I let this happen to you. I’m sorry.”

Nisha cried.

“Mom, it’s okay,” Priya said. “I’m good. In a way, I’m glad they did it. I’m smarter than before. I’m an improved person. Every day I have a better outlook, especially since I’m not going to be someone’s pet. What’s weird is I understand you better now as an adult. I can’t explain it. I used to think adults were weird and rigid.”

“Thanks, Pree, that makes me feel better. Kind of. Yoova, did they do anything to you?”

“As far as I know, they haven’t modified us. I think they were planning on doing something, but they couldn’t figure out how to genetically simulate a hundred generations of domestication. Even the Omanji have limitations.”

“The DNA sequencing results are in,” Rachel said. “It will take a while to understand them. As we suspected, they made major changes to your genome in most cells in your body. They altered your telomeres, which shorten each time a cell divides which contributes to aging. We don’t understand the ramifications of the change, fewer cell division errors and a longer life span might be the result. The lab noticed more stem cells in the blood than usual. That’s critical to slow aging. You might be able to regenerate organs if they’re damaged. Also, the DNA in the brain cells has been changed.”

“What’s happening in my brain?” Priya said.

“We aren’t sure yet. Normally neurons in the brain grow one axon and many dendrites. However, in the brain tissue scans of you and Sophie, many of your neurons are growing a second axon. The remaining single-axon cells are dying. We aren’t sure what it means. If each neuron in your brain grew a second axon, it might allow twice the number of total connections or more. Also, your new axons have more branches than normal. In general, more connections lead to a greater quantity and quality of memories. You might be able to think faster or more deeply. Also, your corpus callosum, which is normally a bundle of about 200 million nerve fibers connecting the hemispheres of the brain, is thicker than normal and has about 300 million nerve fibers. This is often associated with creativity. These features are slightly smaller than in a normal brain. So, the overall size of the brain is unchanged.”

“Good my head won’t explode with all these new connections. This might explain why I want to read all the time.”

“Yes,” Rachel said. “We’ll do more research into this. For now, I think you two should keep a journal to track your progress. Keep us up to date. I find it significant that the Omanji abducted children who are at the age when the brain is in its final stages of development.”

Nisha glanced at Rachel and Sophie.

“Do you two want to return to school?”

“Oh yes.” Sophie said. “I can’t wait to get back.”

“I want to go back too,” Priya said. “I want to learn everything.”

“What do you think?” Nisha asked Rachel. “Should they go back to school?”

“I think eventually that’s possible. However, they’ve been through the most traumatic experience of their lives. Time needs to pass before they’ll be able to reintegrate into the normal school routine. I’m not sure how they’ll be accepted at school. You know how kids are.”

“We could go tomorrow,” Priya and Sophie said in unison, while looking at each other.

Nisha gave them an expression of curiosity.

“What happened with you two just now?”

“Nothing.” they both said in unison.

Nisha looked at Rachel and smiled.

“I think we have a big problem on our hands.”

“Yes,” they said.

Everyone laughed except Yoova.

“What’s this problem? I don’t understand,” Yoova said.

They laughed again, leaving Yoova more confused.

“I’m sorry Yoova,” Nisha said. “We’re joking around. It’s humor. Humor is difficult to define. Watch humans, and once you’ve seen enough examples, you’ll start to understand. Soon you’ll be doing the joking.”

“I’ll attempt to be aware of joking,” Yoova said.

Everyone smiled.

“There’s a lot of confusion about what to do with the Yoots and humans in the compound. We need to go now,” Rachel said.

“Would you guys like to help us?” Nisha said.

“Sure.”

Soon they drove on the two-mile dirt road to the compound. Thousands of troops were constructing tents and setting up places for the humans and Yoots to eat and take care of their personal needs.

“This is chaos. We need to do something,” Nisha said.

“General Sherman informed me that since we’re the experts on both the modified humans and the Yoots, we’re in charge of them,” Rachel said

“That’s good. Okay, let’s think this through. We can do it.”

Nisha turned to Yoova and the girls.

“Would you like to help?” she asked them.

They agreed. Soon they found a tent and discussed the issues.

“What should we do first?” Nisha said.

Priya raised her hand.

“I think the human children need to go home as soon as possible. The people I met came from everywhere. They’re from all over the world, right?”

“Yes, they’re from nearly every country,” Rachel said. “We’re getting thousands of requests from parents for the return of their children. The problem is we don’t know if they’re the true parents. We need to set up a verification system.”

Yoova raised her hand.

“I think eventually we’ll start our own colony here on Earth. I noticed your system of currency and we have skills that can earn us money. We’re artists, musicians, and scientists. Perhaps we can buy some land for a colony of our own. It’s been over 20,000 years since we’ve had our own independent colony.”

“That’s a great idea Yoova,” Rachel said.

Sophie raised her hand.

“I think we need counseling. A nightmare came true when they took us away. We’re having nightmares now. I had a bad one last night.”

“Sophie, I was told hundreds of psychologists will be here soon,” Rachel said. “What’s that sound?”

“That’s our music,” Yoova said. “Do you want to watch how we make it?”

“Yes.” everyone said at once.

They walked into an unsecured area between the tents in the compound of the Yoots. Over 50,000 Yoots wandered around in the compound. 25,000 of them were assembled standing room concert style as a group of musicians played unfamiliar instruments.

“I’ve never experienced sounds like this in my entire life,” Rachel said.

The others agreed as the Yoots played on.

“Yoova, what’s the singer singing about?”

“We don’t sing with words. We sing with tonal sounds. No direct ideas are being transmitted in the music, only feelings.”

“I’m getting chills down my spine,” Nisha said. “We need to get back to work, but I want to stay and listen.”

“Yes, let’s keep listening for a while,” Rachel said.

Priya and Sophie were in a trance as they listened to the music.

“Thousands are coming from the human children’s compound. They’re streaming in to listen,” Nisha said.

“The humans like our music,” Yoova said. “I’m happy about that. We love music and other forms or art. We like to share them with others.”

“I can’t explain what I’m experiencing,” Rachel said. “It’s electric. We gotta leave, but I can’t. Yoova, how do I stop myself from being attracted to this?”

“Put your fingers in your ears,” Yoova said. “Then walk away.”

They did as they were told. The effect dissipated. Rachel shook her head back and forth as though she were shaking water from her wet hair.

“I need to understand what’s happening on a biological and psychological level when we listen to music from the Yoots. It pulls you in and won’t let you go.”

“Yeah, we want to stay and listen.” Priya said.

“I’m not sure what happens in your human minds,” Yoova said. “For us it’s pleasurable to make music and listen to it. It’s one of our favorite pastimes. The Omanji are as attracted to our music as they are to our yoom.”

“Okay, we need to get organized,” Nisha said. “We gotta get these children back to their families as soon as possible. A retina, fingerprint and DNA database has been set up to match parents to kids. I tweeted and sent video messages to my followers to get the process going. I guess we’ll fly the kids back to their country of origin. General Sherman is setting up the process now.”

The sun dropped low in the sky. They headed up to the mess tent and sat at the picnic table with the view of the colony.

Nisha surveyed the grand view and took a deep breath. She studied Yoova, who ate with her four chopsticks.

“We need to make sure the Yoots have enough food. Yoova, I know you’re young, but can you help us provide food for the Yoots to eat?”

“Yes, I’ve noticed Earth has many fascinating insect species. Some are like those living on Oma. When we were abducted by the Omanji, we were forced to eat cultured plant protein. It’s not as good as the real thing. We were allowed to raise a small amount of our native plants and insects on the journey to Earth, but we rarely ate real plants. I’d like to grow different plants here on Earth and discover which ones work for us. We have our seeds and databases for reference.”

“Great idea,” Nisha said.

She sent out messages to her followers to get the process started.

Yoova wiggled her nose.

“Here’s another idea. I’ve been learning about human economics. We need to survive in the human world, so we need to interface into your economic system. We need to raise money to buy our food and land to build our colony. Perhaps humans would pay a modest amount of money to listen to our music. Then we don’t need to accept much generosity from humans. We’re used to being self-sufficient on Oma.”

“That’s another great idea Yoova,” Nisha said. “Millions of people are listening to us right now, and I’ll send out some messages to my followers to explore the possibilities. I’d love to listen to more of your music. I’d pay to listen. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Perhaps we like your music as the Omanji like your yoom. Humans can become addicted to music.”

“Mom,” Priya said. “Sophie and I would like to go back to school. Can we? Can we take Yoova?”

Yoova wiggled her nose again.

Nisha smiled.

“Let’s wait a while Pree. Soon you can go back to your normal life once we’ve tested the children to make sure it’s safe to let them go. The process might take a few weeks. There’s no need to rush, especially if you’re going to live 300 years.”

“I know but I want to start learning now,” Priya said. “The sensation is similar to when you’re hungry and you need to eat right away.”

“Do you think all the modified kids experience this?” Nisha said.

“I think so but let me see.”

Priya silently queried a large group of her new friends in her neural network. She and Sophie fell into a meditative state for about a minute.

“Yes, we’re all experiencing mental hunger. We want to get back to school right away. We don’t want to be psychoanalyzed. We survived this experience and we’re better people for it. We don’t want sympathy. We’re happy with who we are.”

Rachel turned to Sophie.

“Do you think this way too?”

“I do. We all do.”

Nisha smiled at them.

“I’m happy you have each other. I believe you. I think you’ll be okay. You’ll be better than okay because your future is bright. I’ll help you however I can. I spoke with your dad. In a week or two you can go back to school when the school is ready.”

“Yay!” Priya and Sophie said in unison.

They gave each other a high five.

“We’re going to start a genetics company and find a cure for Sanjay’s autism and other diseases.”

“Okay,” Nisha said. “We need to get some sleep. Yoova, how are your circadian rhythms working out?”

“On this planet, I’m awake for two entire days and I sleep for one entire day. We’re trying to adjust to this short day/night cycle. It’s hard because on Oma, each day/night cycle is 20 Earth days long and getting longer every year since the Omanji gave up trying to stop the rotation from slowing. We’re having trouble adjusting to this 24-hour cycle on Earth. Our sleep cycles are not coincident with day or night. Sleep is random for us. When we get tired due to a buildup of certain chemicals in our blood, we sleep. We live a second life in our lucid dreams because we’re aware when we’re dreaming.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Nisha said.

Yoova stood up from the picnic table.

“I’ll go to take care of my parents and return later. I hope all Yoots will be happy on Earth. I think we can be happy if the Omanji don’t come after us again.”

“I think they’ve had enough of you,” Rachel said. “You were too disruptive as were the humans. I think they’ll leave us alone now. They won’t make us their pets and they don’t need us as slaves or for any other reason. The Omanji claim to be an advanced species. Therefore, they should leave uncooperative subjects alone.”

Yoova walked down the path to her family tent.

“Mom, can I go back to school now?” Priya said.

“Me too,” Sophie said. “I’m missing out on things.”

Nisha smiled, “Okay guys, stay here for a few days while Quinn decides with your school. In the meantime, I need your help dealing with 25,000 traumatized high-school aged kids.”

“I’m not traumatized,” Priya said. “I’m improving every day. I couldn’t say that a week ago but feel better than I’ve been in my whole life. After talking with everyone, we all feel the same way.”

“I forgot they communicate as a group,” Nisha said to Rachel.

“Yes, we communicate,” Sophie said. “We don’t need psychologists either. We’re doing fine.”

“You may not think you need them right now,” Rachel said. “However, once you adjust to life in the real world with unmodified people, you’ll begin to understand the problems you’ll face. Under your new shiny exterior, you’re still a human adolescent with her life in a state of flux. I can’t tell you what problems you’ll face, but they’ll be big. Go easy on yourself and take time to grow into your new brains.”

“Yes,” Nisha said. “Take time to adjust. I’m excited and happy for you.”

Nisha acted excited on the outside but feared the worst. Brains don’t undergo substantial changes without big problems to go with them. Priya and Sophie stood up and walked back to the tent. Soon they fell fast asleep. Nisha and Rachel stayed behind as the last light fell across the overwhelming artificial landscape of the colony.

“You put on a good face, but I can tell you’re worried,” Rachel said.

“Yeah. Her brain will have twice the number of axons stuffed into the same volume. What’s that going to do to her? How can she go back to school after suffering through such a traumatic experience? I think I’m losing her. She used to be affectionate, and now she stays away. She acts like she’s 20 or older, not 15, but then she acts like she’s 10 also.”

Rachel put her hand on Nisha’s shoulder.

“She’s growing up in ways we can’t forecast. You must be flexible and adapt to whatever comes your way. She’s still your Priya.”

“You’re right. Thanks for being there for me. I’m glad they chose you to be my partner in all of this. I guess we better get some sleep. We need all we can get.

They walked back to the tent. Priya and Sophie were sound asleep. Nisha updated Quinn and her twitter followers on the events of the day and soon went to sleep.