A few days later, Nisha awoke to the sound of a notification from Priya.
“Pree, how are you doing?”
“I’m fine Mom. I’m almost finished with the 10th grade. Today I take the finals in all my classes. They’re easy, so I should do fine.”
“I’m proud of you Pree. It’s only December first. You finished the entire tenth grade in only six weeks. How are Sophie and the rest of your new friends doing?”
“Sophie is doing well. She’s here right now and next week we start eleventh grade. All the mods are on a similar intellectual level. Some are a little faster or slower in different subjects, just like normal people. Warren told me he’s getting ready to make his biggest leveraged investment so far in the market. He told me he’s noticed a pattern with the Omanji. He thinks the market is about to go up a lot, but he won’t tell me why. He’s using ‘out of the money’ call options which are the riskiest thing out there. He’s risking his entire two million dollars.”
“That’s a lot of money for a high school student to be playing with,” Nisha said. “I hope he knows what he’s doing.”
“He does. At least about the markets. He’s nervous around me though. Okay, I gotta go. Bye.”
Nisha and Rachel walked to the mess tent to eat breakfast. The cool and clear early December morning after a storm from Alaska, left a bit of frost on the ground in the low shadows This was not low desert.
“We arrived here in the summer and now we’re approaching winter,” Rachel said. “It gets colder here at night than Pasadena. Doesn’t it?”
“That’s the truth,” Nisha said. “Camping in the cold is not the most fun in the world.”
“Nisha don’t be such a baby. Our tent is heated, and we enjoy all the amenities of home. We’re not camping, we’re glamping.”
“Glamping?”
“You know, glamor-camping. It’s an old term.”
Nisha laughed.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It warms up in the daytime though.”
They ate at a picnic table in the sun overlooking Bok’s colony.
“Rachel, how many spheres are in orbit now?”
“Let me see. The count is holding steady at a little over 25,000. It’s unchanged from the day before.”
“That’s odd. For a month now, several hundred per day arrived in orbit from Oma.”
“Yeah, something is happening,” Rachel said. “That’s what Priya’s friend Warren noticed.”
“Let me contact Bok,” Nisha said.
“Hi Bok. We’re eating breakfast and we noticed that spheres have stopped arriving in Earth’s orbit.”
“Yes, I noticed that too. They stopped arriving about 10 hours ago. I’m tracking no new arrivals coming from Oma. I’m not sure what’s happening. Somewhere in space are 55,000 more spheres from Oma. I’ll ask my friends. Please wait.”
Bok paused for a few minutes while Nisha and Rachel tried to warm themselves up in the low morning sun.
“My friends didn’t know arrivals had stopped,” Bok said. “I guess the collective awareness isn’t that aware after all.”
“Maybe they don’t want the freedom meme to spread to all of the Omanji including the ones still on their way to Earth,” Rachel said, swatting at a drone. “Oh, I wish those things would go away.”
“Bok? What do you know?” Nisha said.
“Now I can’t contact my friends at the big colony. My connection gets terminated each time I try. Hold on. Now I can’t access the public databases. I’m completely disconnected.”
“Have you seen any new arrivals at your colony today?” Rachel said.
Bok fell silent.
“There have been no new arrivals for 10 hours. Let’s continue this discussion later. Something is happening.”
“Okay,” Nisha said. “Don’t forget to meditate.”
They disconnected.
Nisha and Rachel finished their breakfast and walked back to their tent with two pesky drones in close pursuit. Nisha gave the President the latest news. They spent the rest of the day with General Sherman creating a plan to evacuate the entire Mojave Desert in case something went wrong.
In the evening, Nisha spoke with Priya and celebrated her completion of the 10th grade in only six weeks.