Nisha woke up and glanced at the clock. “It’s 7:15 and only now is the sun hitting our tent. Winter is approaching.”

“Yeah, and it’s cold outside too, at least compared to Bora Bora,” Rachel said as she looked outside. “Um, there’s a lot of activity out here.”

“This is getting to be a big deal. Bok must be freaking out.”

Nisha contacted Bok via her eyepiece.

“How are you doing Bok? There’s a lot of activity this morning.”

“So far, I’m trying to keep things in order. There’s chaos. I’m not sure how the elders coordinated this move with 80 billion of us arriving on Earth over a several month period. Approximately 200,000 live here now with seven million on the waiting list. We didn’t leave a planet, travel 23 light years in under 50 years elapsed ship time and build a colony on another planet. We’re only a minute away from the main colony by racer.”

“True. Okay, I won’t bother you,” Nisha said. “Let me know if you need me for anything.”

“Thank you,” Bok said.

They disconnected.

“Rachel, this is getting out of hand, don’t you think?”

“Yes, the idea of not merging must be going viral in the colony. When I examine the trends, I estimate 40 million of the 55 million Omanji in the Age of dissonance will want to be in Bok’s colony.”

“There’s no way the Esteemed Elders will accept this number,” Nisha said. “Their entire society will collapse if the trend continues. The process would take a long time since the Omanji lifespan is long. Hold on, I’m being contacted by General Sherman.”

She blinked into her eyepiece to connect.

“How are you doing General?”

“I’m doing my best to hold things together. There’s a constant stream of people trying to get into the colony. The perimeter keeps expanding, so it’s impossible to build a fence to keep them out. Some hawks continue to propose aggressive ways to force the Omanji to leave, which is a waste of time and might get us all killed. Now I’m in charge of evacuating the town of Barstow. I want your opinion about the new colony. I watch your video stream broadcast, so I know what’s happening. Nisha, I can’t talk now, but I’d like to know what you think are the implications for us with this new colony?”

“We were just discussing this. Historically, the Omanji culture experiences violence when splits happen in the culture. They try to maintain a single culture to avoid wars and promote cohesiveness. This might develop into a split, though there’s no way to tell at this time. On Oma, there’s a separate colony for those who don’t wish to merge. The relationship is peaceful because only about 0.1% of the total population live in that separate colony. For now, things are okay, but I’d make contingency plans should things turn bad. I don’t want to be in the middle should a fight break out. I don’t know what weapons they might use against each other. I don’t want to find out.”

“Thanks for the input, Nisha. I’ll be in contact with you later.”

They disconnected. Nisha glanced at Rachel.

“Well, our government seems to be aware of what’s happening,” Nisha said. “I think for now, we need to keep a close eye on Bok and what’s going on around here.”

“Yeah, like what are they doing over there?” Rachel said, pointing to the nearest nuclear power generator.

“I don’t know. Let’s check it out.”

They walked about 100 meters to the generator, which was the size of a small school bus. A group of young Omanji was standing nearby.

“What are those little objects they’re taking out of the generator?” Rachel said.

“I don’t know,” Nisha said. “They’re small. They’re like hummingbird eggs. I have a nest in the back yard.”

“Maybe they’re energy storage units,” Rachel said. “They might be used in the speeders. When we flew to Tahiti, didn’t the speeder seem light in weight?”

“Yeah, I wondered about the power source, but I forgot to ask.”

“Power might come from these eggs. They must have something to do with power since they’re being removed from the generator.”

“Why are they huddled around the eggs?” Nisha said. “They must be important. For now, let’s pretend like we don’t notice.”

They walked up the side of a hill to get a better view.

Rachel said, “They’re starting to build several of the large towers that could each hold a million of them.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Also, Bok hired dozens of human guards to keep people away. Many people are still watching from the highway though.”

They monitored the activity until darkness fell. They walked back to their tent and slept soundly all night.