Ephemeral Species Book One - The Dawning

Chapter 16

  The next morning at 06:00, the meeting began promptly in the big tent. General Sherman presided over his objectives experts group of about 20 military specialists in a wide array of disciplines. Nisha and Rachel sat in front to give the impression of buying into the process.

  General Sherman displayed a map of the rapidly growing colony on a large screen.

  "Today we'll execute a reconnaissance mission. Our goal is to walk through the heart of the colony, and scope things out. We'll go in unarmed to not appear threatening. The goal of this entire mission is to make contact with the ?"

  He glanced at Nisha, recalling how she didn't want anyone to use the derogatory term 'Chamalien.'

  "... With the Omanji leadership. That will allow us to learn about their goals and establish a diplomatic connection with them. We'll leave from this location at 07:00 hours. You've already been briefed on protocol issues, so be ready to go."

  After 30 minutes, the meeting ended. Nisha and Rachel returned to their tent. Rachel looked out at the tents of the objectives experts group.

  "They'll be in for a surprise. The Omanji didn't like us walking through their colony. Do you remember that?"

  "Yes I do," Nisha said as she put on her hiking boots. "My heart raced when we got close to the human children so we got out of there. My heart is racing now. I'm not broadcasting audio or video of this mission."

  "Me neither," Rachel said. "But we should go and record in case they get into trouble."

  They met at the designated location, and climbed into several large trucks. They drove down the mountain to get as close to the edge of the colony as possible. After that, they hiked into the colony with General Sherman in the lead.

  "Okay, we need to spread out but still remain as a group. Focus on your area of specialty and if I give the signal to evacuate, we'll exit the colony as quickly as possible by retracing our steps."

  Nisha and Rachel stayed at the back of the group in case they needed to make a hasty retreat. The colony seemed much larger than a few days earlier when they last walked through it. The towers were massive and imposing, yet sinuous and artistic. Each tower base covered an area of about 3x3 city blocks and the tops couldn't be seen. Every tower soared to about twice the height of the tallest human made building and might have been 100 times more massive. They built over 200 towers in a 10x20 grid covering about 20 square miles in the flat lands along the base of the mountains. Several billion builder drones made white noise in the form of hissing and clicking sounds as they prepared new building sites and constructed new towers.

  Nisha looked around and gave Rachel a curious look.

  "So, over 200 of these towers are built, each of which can house one million of them. Shuttle spheres come and go every minute. Where is the traffic? Where are they? How do they get around? Do they work like we do? They're almost as mysterious now as they were in the single sphere orbiting the moon. And here we are walking amongst them."

  Rachel glanced up in an attempt to view the top of one of the towers.

  "Yes, I have a ton of questions and no answers. Right now I'm wondering what they're doing right now. A few are walking around, but considering this is by far the most highly populated city on Earth, few citizens are walking out here. And like you said, there's no traffic. The buildings are connected, so they must travel in those connections."

  The group continued to walk towards the central core of the colony with General Sherman leading the way. Light filtered down to them from many angles, producing prismatic and colorful effects. The Omanji polished the non-slip walking surface. Crawling builder drones worked on finishing touches, acting like 3D printers to form a multitude of artistic features.

  The General stopped to admire a tall and slender curve of the crushed and reformed granite-like stone which the Omanji used on the walking surface.

  "My proximity detectors indicate increasing numbers of Omanji are converging on us from different directions."

  He looked around and noticed small numbers of Omanji walking towards them. Nisha and Rachel walked up to the General.

  Nisha peeked at a small group of them and said, "Lucas, this happened to us last time. They gradually surrounded us. They didn't harm us, but we felt intimidated. So we left. Don't let the security of our numbers fool you into thinking you're safer now than if you were alone. In this colony of 200 million, a million of us would feel isolated."

  The General nodded and continued to poke around.

  "Thanks Nisha, I'll keep this in mind. I would like to find the human children and talk to their leaders. The leaders must be somewhere. There's a central intelligence which is capable of producing this incredible integrated environment."

  Gradually, increasing numbers of Omanji moved closer.

  "The human children are in that open area," one member of the group said.

  "Okay let's go there," the General said.

  He walked a few hundred meters at a brisk pace to view the children. He stopped to observe them from a close distance.

  "They aren't speaking a single word," the General said. "They seem to be interacting like normal kids of their age but they're silent."

  "They're communicating via a telepathic brain implant," Nisha said. "Their DNA has been modified, but they seem to be walking around and interacting like normal adolescents. I'm encouraged by that."

  She surveyed the group of hundreds of children but Priya couldn't be found.

  Rachel felt a chill on the back of her neck and she looked behind her. "General, I think we're being surrounded," she said. "We better keep moving."

  "It's okay Rachel," he said. "I want to meet them up close and personal. The President and some members of Congress are watching. They can approach us at their own pace in this way."

  "I don't think we need to worry about that. They do everything at their own pace," Nisha said.

  Gradually, increasing numbers of Omanji walked towards them on the smooth surface. A crowd of them gathered around the General's group.

  The General glanced around.

  "I've never had this feeling before. They watch us as a tiger stalks prey. They sniff us up and down and scan us with those chameleon eyes."

  Nisha walked over to the General.

  "They understand what you're saying so be careful about comparing them to animals if you know what I mean. Their IQ's are off the charts so never underestimate them based on their looks or behavior."

  "Acknowledged," the General said as he examined them. "I'm going to attempt to communicate."

  He turned to one particularly intimidating Omanji and said, "Hello, I'm General Sherman."

  The Omanji briefly looked back at him and continued to monitor the group of curious humans gathered before him, or her, or it.

  The General looked at Nisha and Rachel and whispered, "They aren't friendly, are they?"

  "It's best not to say things like that, you know?" Rachel said.

  The General put his palm to his forehead.

  "Right, I keep forgetting."

  The General and his objectives experts group continued to attempt to communicate. They used every piece of communication equipment which existed, to no avail. The Omanji made no visible attempt to communicate back. They looked on and continued to get closer to the group. While the General attempted to communicate, Nisha and Rachel scrutinized the human children interacting in the open area.

  "I don't see Priya or Sophie anywhere," Nisha said with sadness in her voice.

  She paused for a second as she watched the kids.

  "It's tempting to go up to them and talk with them. I want to ask those questions."

  "Why don't we talk with them?" Rachel said. "I have questions too.

  "If only we two were involved, I'd do something. However I don't want to cause any problems right now. My attitude may change later though," she said with a sly smile.

  Rachel smiled back at Nisha and glanced at the objectives experts group.

  "Yeah, they don't seem to have any obje
ctives, and they aren't experts," she whispered and smiled. "They are a group however, though not a mutually-sentient one."

  Nisha tried to contain her laughter but a little got out and the group looked over at them.

  "Shhhh," Rachel whispered.

  The group walked over to find out what caused all the fuss. "Have you discovered something?" the General said.

  Nisha had to think of something quickly.

  "Well, I noticed how the children seem so normal besides the fact they don't speak."

  "Yes," he said. "They do seem normal. I'm going to try to talk with them."

  They stood 30 meters away from the children. He walked towards them slowly so as not to startle the children or the Omanji. Almost immediately, several Omanji walked quickly on an intercept course and soon were standing between the General and the children. Their skin turned from a flat gray to a dull red. The General stopped and looked back towards the group.

  "They're fast. I guess they don't want us to communicate with the children."

  "You think so?" Nisha whispered sarcastically.

  "Shhhh," Rachel reminded her.

  The General peered between two of the Omanji and shouted to the children. "Hello, can you hear me?"

  The Omanji closed ranks and turned a more vibrant and deeper shade of red.

  "Okay, I get the hint," he said.

  Nisha noticed one of them held a smooth and silvery object in one of its hands.

  "General, you better get back here right now. I'm serious!"

  The General turned around and walked briskly back to the group. The Omanji grabbed at the group's communication equipment.

  "Yes, I think we better leave. Did anyone get a reply on any frequency to our messages to them?"

  "We've detected no reply at all on any frequency," one group member said.

  "Okay, let's go," the General said as he walked around a growing group of curious Omanji which had gathered nearby. They made their way through the deep canyons of the colony.

  "The towers are so tall that we're really indoors," the General said casually as he tried to diffuse the rising tension in the group. Increasing numbers of Omanji appeared from the bases of several towers, in anticipation of the small group of humans walking by.

  "The tower walls appear to be closing in on us," the General said.

  The group shared his sentiments, except for Nisha and Rachel who felt energized by the environment as well as anxious. They had grown somewhat used to the Omanji.

  As they neared the perimeter of the colony, Nisha read a message in her Eyepiece.

  "This is Bok. I see you!"

  She forwarded the message to Rachel, who smiled and gave Nisha a knowing glance nobody else in the group understood.

  "Let's talk later," Nisha messaged back.

  "OK," Bok said.

  After a half hour of walking, they exited the colony.

  "I'm glad to be out of there!" the General said. "I've never felt this level of anxiety anywhere at any time. My heart is pounding. This includes war zones when surrounded by the enemy."

  Several other group members echoed the General's sentiment.

  "We'll meet in the objectives experts tent tomorrow morning at 06:00 hours to discuss today's events and what we can do tomorrow. I'll meet privately with the President in a few hours to discuss options. You're dismissed."

  Nisha and Rachel walked back to their tent.

  "Rachel, I'm relieved nothing happened. That was a close call."

  "Yeah, did you notice how angry they got at the General? For a few seconds there, I thought they were about to do something painful to him, or maybe stun him."

  "I know!" Nisha said, smiling. "What was he thinking?"

  "The General doesn't realize the Omanji think of us as nothing more than another animal species native to Earth. Do you think we should tell him?" Rachel said.

  Nisha stopped smiling and looked down in silence for a few seconds.

  "I don't think we should tell anyone anything. People are bad at keeping secrets. Word would get out and the economy would collapse because of psychological depression. Who knows what would happen."

  "Okay, you're right," Rachel said. "I keep thinking we should be transparent, but things have gone too far now. Telling anyone might set off a series of events which would lead to catastrophe. Of course anything we do or don't do has consequences. Sometimes I wonder if we're doing the right thing. But there's no way to know in advance."

  Nisha seemed to be preoccupied for a minute.

  "What is it?" Rachel said.

  "I got a message from Bok wishing to talk with us. I'll turn on message forwarding to you. Do you want to talk? Our time is free right now."

  "Yes, the sooner the better," Rachel said.

  Nisha entered her reply.

  "Hello Bok, we can talk now. Turn on your audio translator so we can talk more quickly. Messaging is slow."

  They waited for almost a minute.

  "I understand you two wish to ask me questions."

  Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other, wide-eyed.

  "How do you know Bok?" Nisha said.

  "I listened to both of you talking while your group walked around in the colony. Nisha, you said to Rachel you had many questions for me. And Rachel replied that she also had many questions."

  They glanced at each other again.

  "They seem to be omniscient," Rachel said.

  "Yeah," Nisha said. "And I have a question."

  "Please proceed."

  "How did you know we discussed having questions? I thought we were alone when we whispered those comments about having questions."

  Bok paused for a few seconds.

  "Everything which happens at the colony is recorded. Every noise, action and most thoughts by anyone or anything can be accessed later. I set up an alert so I could follow all human activity within the compound. I listened to you make the comments about having questions. Sensors are built into everything. They send data to the central locus."

  "So you're telling me all events everywhere are recorded?" Nisha said.

  "Yes, within reasonable limits. Random noise and vibrations are filtered out. Whenever a living thing takes action, all Omanji know if they care to look. Not everyone cares, but the information is available if needed. In Omanji society, knowledge is the pinnacle of existence and the reason to exist."

  "Don't you think your privacy is being invaded?" Nisha said.

  Bok didn't speak for a several seconds.

  "Sorry for the delay," Bok said. "I had to consider the word privacy. I've never thought much about the human concept of privacy. Everything is transparent in Omanji culture among the elders. The young Omanji enjoy some privacy because not everything we do is tracked. This conversation I'm having with you isn't being recorded because it's not considered important. And that's because young Omanji are not important and neither are humans. The elders don't consider what I do to be important unless I break a law. As far as I know, I've never broken a law. The only reason your actions were recorded is because you were a human in an open space in the colony and you might cause trouble. You might need to be stunned, or removed, or eliminated. Privacy isn't an issue for the elders because they share each other's thoughts, and most things are transparent. There's a degree of what you call privacy however. We can choose to not share thoughts. Sharing is optional."

  Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other and raised their eyebrows.

  "Are you upset that everyone in Omanji society will be monitoring you after you merge with the collective awareness?" Rachel said.

  "No, why would that upset me?" Bok said, turning a pale gray.

  He fell silent again. Young Omanji are used to some autonomy and they lose it when they merge.

  "I'll give more thought to your question. I don't know how to answer right now. Please ask another question if you wish."

  Nisha muted the audio for a brief second. She gave Rachel a surreptitious smile whispered, "I think we planted a s
eed!"

  She restored the audio.

  "I detected an artificial silence in the audio stream. Were you attempting to become self-aware amongst yourselves?"

  "Yes Bok. That's what we strive for, even though humans are often not self-aware on any level. Okay, it's going to take a while to assimilate what you told us, but can you tell us about your home planet? And why did you come to Earth?"

  This time he didn't hesitate to answer.

  "That's an easy question. We're moving to Earth because our home planet of Oma is becoming uninhabitable. Oma orbits closely around a stable red dwarf star. Oma receives about the same amount of energy from its star as the Earth does because Oma is closer to our star and our star isn't as bright as yours. On Earth, we wear lenses in our eyes to protect us from your sun's brightness. Oma is on the borderline where the difference in the star's gravitational pull between the close and far side of Oma will cause the planet's rotation to slow and eventually stop."

  Rachel interrupted.

  "Oh, we call this tidal lock."

  "Yes," Bok said. "You're correct Rachel. I'm happy you know some basic astronomy."

  Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other and rolled their eyes.

  "Yes we do Bok, please continue," they both said at once.

  "Oma's day period is currently 20 Earth days and the weather is getting more violent. With each passing century, the rotation will slow and the weather will get more violent. Eventually one side of Oma will permanently face our star just as one side of your Moon faces the Earth. Unfortunately, both continents are mostly on the side of the planet which will be always facing away from our star. Eternal darkness will cause most of the ecosystem on land will collapse. We tried to keep the planet rotating but the task required too much energy. My star is part of a trinary star system. However the other two stars are far away and give the planet little heat or light. They are each as bright as your moon at night."

  "Before we continue, I need you to clarify something," Nisha said. "Did you say you're moving to Earth?"

  "Yes."

  Bok's answer reverberated in their minds and they fell silent for several seconds. Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other, unsure what to say, or ask. And if they asked the question they had in mind, they were afraid of the answer.

  Bok couldn't tell what happened because he couldn't see their faces.

  "Are we still connected?" he said.

  "Sorry Bok," Rachel said, being the first to be able to muster up anything intelligent to say. "We were digesting this new information. Are you saying the entire population of your species is moving to Earth?"

  "No," Bok said quickly.

  They breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Some Omanji elected to stay behind and face the increasingly harsh conditions on Oma. A small patch of land in a favorable daylight location will support a small population after tidal lock."

  "Bok, how many will stay behind?" Nisha said.

  "About one billion of us will remain on Oma."

  Nisha seemed relieved that so many would stay behind. She hoped one billion would be most of them.

  "What is the population of your species on Oma?"

  She held her breath waiting for the answer.

  "Approximately 81 billion of us used to live on Oma," Bok said. "So I estimate that 80 billion of us are moving to Earth."

  Silence.

  Nisha and Rachel were glad Bok couldn't see them because they were in a state of shock. Rachel spoke first.

  "Um, so you're telling us that 80 billion Omanji will be leaving Oma to move to Earth?"

  "That statement is partially true."

  "What do you mean Bok?" Nisha said.

  "Those 80 billion of us already left Oma and are heading to Earth right now."

  Silence again.

  "Nisha and Rachel are we still connected?" Bok asked again.

  "We're still here," Nisha said, still not sure what to think about anything. "We're listening. I think Rachel is making some calculations. What are you doing Rachel?"

  "Bok, I'm calculating the final size of your colony. Right now, about 300 spheres are in orbit. Each holds about one million Omanji, right Bok?"

  "Yes, that's close to being correct."

  "Approximately 250 towers are completed with about 100 more being built. Each of those towers also holds about one million Omanji, correct?"

  "Yes that's also close to being correct," Bok patiently said, letting the humans do their calculations.

  Rachel continued asking her questions.

  "If each tower holds one million and 80 billion Omanji are moving to Earth, 80,000 of these towers will be required to house all Omanji. There will be 80,000 spheres orbiting Earth. Now bear with me here. I want to get an idea of the scale of this endeavor. Each tower takes up almost a 3x3 city block area. The density is about 10 towers per square mile in the colony with some space in between them. Eventually the colony will cover a little over 8,000 square miles of land. That's an 90x90 mile area at the current population density of this colony. Am I close Bok?"

  "That's an accurate estimation," Bok said. "The final population density will be higher than in this initial phase. Larger towers will be built. The towers here are smaller and more conservative while we monitor the stability of the building site. I estimate a 70x70 mile area will be the final surface area of my colony."

  Once again, Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other in disbelief.

  Nisha paused again.

  "How are they going to fit 80 billion Omanji into an area not much bigger than the size of the greater Los Angeles-San Diego area?"

  "I can answer that," Bok said. "On Oma we lived in dense colonies. Here, we generate our own power and the colony is a self-contained arcology, as you call it. I managed to access the master plan for the colony. The elders don't know I did this. Juveniles like me have limited access to everything on Oma. According to the plans, the colony will be constructed entirely in this Mojave Desert. Few humans will be displaced. We'll get our water from the ocean and our ecological impact on Earth will scarcely be noticed."

  Nisha asked the next question.

  "Bok, how can you feed 80 billion Omanji without stripping the Earth of its resources?"

  "We've noticed you grow your own food using native plants. Some of those plants feed animals you also consume. These inefficient practices were abandoned milennia ago on Oma as our population grew. The food humans eat here on Earth is solar energy that plants convert into sugars and other nutrients. The plants also contain other chemicals and minerals humans consume. We manufacture our own food from energy obtained from nuclear fusion and other energy sources I should not discuss with you until you discover them yourself. I notice humans are attempting to create energy from nuclear fission and your technique is not efficient. Soon, you'll figure out how to generate energy more efficiently with nuclear fusion. It's taking you a long time to learn how to do it. There's a trick to it you're overlooking, but I can't say more than that."

  "Instead of using the Sun as the energy source to create food; you use fusion and other technologies?" Nisha said.

  Yes, that's correct. Solar energy doesn't provide enough energy to supply 80 billion of us in a small area. Our bodies are somewhat similar to what we observe in the bodies of the Earth's animals. In our colony, we convert nuclear energy directly into sugar-like organic molecules. After that, we do some processing to create substances we enjoy eating. There's an important difference between human food production and Omanji food production. Humans consume the results of passively collected solar energy in plants, and the Omanji consume fusion energy that's actively created. We create our own food on every level of those towers in the colony. We don't need sunlight to do it. Does this make sense?"

  "I understand," Nisha said. "Now I want to ask you another question. Where is Oma?"

  "Can I control your Eyepiece for a minute?" Bok said. "I'll show you my home planet. I'm not sure if you'll understand."

  Nisha felt nervo
us about the fact that Bok seemed to be able to control her Eyepiece so easily but she wanted to keep going.

  "Rachel and I are both astronomers, so we're familiar with basic concepts of the universe. We can grasp galactic distances and locations. We understand how stars are formed and we've directly confirmed approximately 45,000 planets in our galaxy, including 150 Earth-like planets residing in the habitable zones of their stars."

  Nisha opened up her Google Universe app on her Eyepiece and shared with Rachel.

  "Okay Bok, control this app and show me where you came from. All human known potentially habitable planets are in there. My heart is racing, but in a good way."

  Bok deftly manipulated Google Universe despite being unfamiliar with the software. The view approached a small red star only 22 light years away in the constellation of Scorpius. The galaxy is 100,000 light years across. The label identified the star as Gliese 667 C.

  "This is my home star, which is part of a three-star system. The other two stars are too far away to affect my home planet. I approximate the pronunciation my star for you as Pfeex. As you can tell, it's much smaller and less bright than your Sol. I see that your application has our star identified as Gliese 667 C, the third discovered star in the system. Very good! Maybe there's hope for you humans."

  Nisha raised an eyebrow at Rachel.

  They were transfixed as Bok traveled virtually within his solar system to the 4th planet in his star system and said, "This blue fuzzy object is my planet, Oma. You've identified Oma as Gliese 667 C, planet c. I assume the lowercase letter c designates it as the third planet you discovered in the system. I'm impressed. You already know about Oma!"

  "Yes, I know that one!" Nisha said.

  Rachel looked like a girl opening presents on her birthday.

  Nisha continued.

  "Gliese 667 C c was one of the first exoplanets we discovered which had a possibility of having an Earth-like environment. It's still never been officially confirmed as suitable for intelligent life but I always thought so. We were right Rachel!"

  Rachel smiled from ear to ear.

  "I remember thinking its close distance might make Oma the first planet outside of our solar system we should explore once we master the technology."

  "Two other planets are orbiting Gliese 667 C in the habitable zone. There's a planet f and a planet e. They orbit further away but they're still in the habitable zone. Why did you not colonize one of those planets?"

  Bok understood the excitement in their voices although he had only studied human emotional makeup for a few weeks.

  "I'm happy you were aware of the possibilities of my solar system. The other two planets are too cold and dry for us because the oceans were too small. They're mostly similar to your planet, Mars. Much of the Earth is too cold for us but we found areas like here in the Mojave Desert which are near an ocean with plenty of sunlight. My planet is near the warmest edge of the habitable zone and we live on the coolest polar areas of Oma. Most of Oma is too hot for us."

  "So why did you want to leave your planet?" Rachel said.

  "About 2,000 years ago, we sent a probe to Earth for the same reason you're considering sending one to Oma. However, we had a more urgent purpose because conditions on Oma were deteriorating while Earth will be fine for at least 500 million more years. Our probe 2,000 years ago had an advanced version of the ion propulsion drive I now observe humans developing. We decided the Earth would make a good home since we didn't find an advanced and intelligent society here. We found a few other candidates, but Earth was the closest compatible planet."

  "The Earth of 2,000 years ago didn't have a technological society, so I guess you thought Earth would be a good place to go. Is this correct?" Nisha said.

  "We sent another probe 100 years ago and we still regarded life on Earth as primitive. When we recently arrived on this planet, we realized human society had advanced slightly more quickly than we had anticipated. However, the elders still don't perceive an advanced society on Earth where its inhabitants are self-aware on a species level. That's why we decided to move our species here."

  "So, you moved here knowing how the Earth is now?" Nisha said.

  "Yes."

  Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other in disgust and said nothing.

  "I wish to ask a question Nisha," Bok said.

  His artificial voice sounded more natural to Nisha and Rachel. They didn't know if Bok had written software enhancements, or they were getting used to his voice.

  "Can I upload some data to your Google Universe app regarding my solar system?" he said.

  "Bok, you can add whatever you want," Nisha said.

  "Please wait," Bok said. "Your systems are slow."

  Nisha and Rachel let out a simultaneous gasp as the fuzzy blue blob they knew as Gliese 667 C c, sharpened into a small and well-defined blue and white dot.

  "Can I zoom in now?" Nisha said.

  "Yes," Bok said. "You now have as much accessible geographic data about Oma as you do for your own Earth."

  "No way!" Rachel said.

  "Way!" Bok said.

  Nisha and Rachel glanced at each other with wide open eyes and smiled.

  "Should we be more impressed with the fact he gave us this data on Oma, or with the fact he said 'way'?" Nisha said.

  They both giggled like children.

  "Please, visit Oma. I'll guide you," Bok said. "I can watch through your eyes."

  Something about that last comment made Nisha anxious, but her excitement won out over caution. Nisha blinked to activate fly mode and the view first showed Oma to be a single pale blue dot illuminated by the dull and softly red star, Pfeex. She traveled towards the dot.

  "This is better than any dream I've ever had," she said.

  The dot expanded, to four pixels, eight, and 64.

  "I don't have to travel 22 light years to be here!"

  Rachel stood next to Nisha and grabbed her arm, as though they were approaching the planet for real.

  "Keep going!" Bok said, urging her on.

  "I will Bok. I'm nervous about what I'll find out."

  "The little pale blue and white dot assumed the classic round form of a planet so familiar to Nisha and Rachel.

  "Wow, Oma looks a little like Earth," Nisha said to Rachel.

  "It looks somewhat the same, but where's the land?"

  Nisha continued to fly towards Oma and noticed the same thing.

  "Yes, it's difficult to find land because so many clouds are in the sky. Wait, there's a land mass surrounded by the planetary ocean. Is there any other land?"

  "Nisha, fly downward from your perspective," Rachel said. "There's more land down there."

  Gradually, Oma filled up the entire viewing area. Nisha squinted.

  "Bok, there's not much land on Oma. It's a water world."

  "There's slightly more dry land on Oma than on Earth. Oma is a much larger planet. It has over three times the mass of Earth. Those two land masses are each as large as Eurasia on Earth. As a percentage the surface of the planet however, Earth is 70% ocean and Oma is over 80% ocean."

  Rachel seemed confused too.

  "The continents seem far apart. In relation to where your star is, each continent seems to be near each pole. Is this right Bok?"

  "Yes, they're near each pole though not directly over them."

  "Nisha, the weather patterns are much different than they are on Earth," Rachel said. "The poles and the land masses are mostly clear like on Earth, but storms are stretched out circling the equator all the way to about 60 degrees latitude on each side of it. Are these storms violent? Are they because of the slowing of the rotation due to tidal lock?"

  "Yes the storms are violent compared to Earth. It's because of the impending tidal lock. As the rotation slows, the days become longer and hotter and the nights are longer and colder. That's mitigated by the fact that except for near the land, the planet is covered in deep oceans. The average ocean depth on Oma is 20 kilometers or 70,000 feet, compared to 4
.3 kilometers or 14,000 feet on Earth. Storms race unobstructed across the surface of Oma's ocean. Storm winds can reach the equivalent of 500 kilometers per hour or about 300 miles per hour. Storm patterns on Oma are similar to hurricanes which can produce stronger local winds than what I mentioned. What you on Earth call the Coriolis Effect is weak on Oma because of the slow rotation of the planet. So storms can spin in either direction anywhere on the planet."

  "So the weather is too violent for you now?" Nisha said.

  "Yes, the weather is growing increasingly violent. The energy requirements to modify the winds are becoming too high. That's why we decided to move away from Oma and find a more hospitable planet. We estimate the Earth will remain hospitable for about 500 million years. After that, the luminosity of the Sun will begin to increase. That will gradually make the Earth too hot for advanced life forms to exist. The Earth seemed like the perfect choice for us to live for a long time to come."

  Nisha flew her virtual spacecraft within about 20 miles of the surface of Oma and dodged the storms she encountered.

  "This is completely realistic. I'm immersed in your world. The ocean in places has been whipped up into white foam from the winds. I'm wondering something. Before the Omanji developed their advanced technology, how did they cross this enormous and violent ocean? The winds are mostly east to west, not north to south."

  "We had difficulty navigating wind driven vessels into the open ocean. Few vessels reached the equatorial islands where we found the Yoots. Only after we developed air flight, were we able to cross the ocean all the way to the southern continent where the Yoots had independently evolved."

  "Okay hold on for a second Bok," Nisha interrupted. "Are you telling me another intelligent species evolved on Oma? You mentioned the Yoots before."

  "They're semi-intelligent and friendly, so we took them as pets when we found them on the equatorial islands during our age of discovery. I've studied human history and the Earth is a better place for technologically challenged early explorers. The wind and ocean currents allowed them to travel all around the Earth in wind driven vessels. On the Earth, you have predictable trade winds and currents which allow vessels to travel in all directions between continents. On Oma, no reliable north-south ocean currents or winds exist. Most winds are east-west and can destroy any wind driven vessel. We couldn't sail from the northern continent into an ocean that's three times the surface area of all the Earth's oceans combined and expect to arrive at any destination. When we discovered the Yoots, we only suspected another continent existed. The equatorial islands were too small for the Yoots to have evolved there. I'll explain that later."

  Nisha and Rachel loved learning this information. They heard the crunching sound of boots on the coarse granite desert sand.

  "We must go now Bok. People are coming," Nisha said. "Can we continue this tour tomorrow?"

  "Yes, that's fine," Bok said. "I must go too. My parents are summoning me."

  They signed off.

  "Rachel, here they come. We'll talk about this later. I recorded the whole thing," Nisha whispered.

  "General Sherman, come on in," Nisha said, still in shock over what she had learned.

  "Rachel, please call me Lucas. I'm here to let you two know the meeting scheduled for 06:00 hours tomorrow is still on. In the meantime, I need your help. I consider our expedition into the colony today to be unsuccessful. While it's interesting to visit the colony and interact with the aliens, I mean the Omanji, we learned little. At tomorrow's meeting, I would like your recommendations about how to proceed from here."

  "Okay Lucas, we'll do some brainstorming tonight and we'll be at the meeting at 06:00 in the tent."

  "Thank you," the General said.

  He smiled and left quickly.

  Nisha and Rachel let out a deep breath of air, as though they had been holding their breath for the time the General had been in their tent. For about a minute they stood in silence.

  "I don't know what to say or think right now," Rachel said.

  "I don't either," Nisha said as she continued to watch the colony filtering the light of a blazing sunset as they walked to the mess tent. "I like to think of myself as a forward looking and open minded person. However, the future now scares me. I want things to be as they once were. But this is reality and it's exciting. I can't believe what we saw and learned. I always wanted to visit an alien world, but I guess the clich? is right, 'be careful what you ask for.'"

  "What do we advise the General to do in tomorrow's meeting?" Rachel asked as she loaded her mess tray with all the vegetarian items she could find. They took their food out to a picnic table with a view of the colony.

  "I don't know. On one hand, the world should understand the reality of the situation. On the other hand, I don't want the General to know what we know. I think the government would screw things up, just when we're making such good progress in establishing what may be a real personal relationship with Bok. And from the looks of it, Bok may be our only hope. Soon, about 80 billion hyper-smart and arrogant Omanji will live here. They think the Earth is theirs for the taking. Not only will humans be a small minority group, it'll be a marginalized one as well. And that's if we're lucky and they don't become abusive towards us."

  "Speaking of being a minority group, I'm getting a notification that over 100 new large spheres entered Earth's orbit in the past day," Rachel said. "Over 400 of them are in orbit now. Once they move into this colony, humans will be a minority group in the United States."

  That's only half a percent of their population!" Rachel said.

  "Yeah, that's right," Nisha said. "The colony has expanded east along the mountains right across highway 14 and into the open desert. They built an over-crossing right over the highway. Now the highway is in a tunnel. Thus far they're avoiding towns, but people will need to move out of the way. It's strange how they're so considerate yet they treat us like animals."

  "Well, we humans are considerate when we preserve bear habitat, but if a bear wanders into a neighborhood and becomes dangerous, we shoot it," Nisha said. "It makes no difference if we built the neighborhood on the bear's territory or not. So humans are considerate and not considerate both at the same time."

  "Yeah, it's easier to spot inconsistent logic in others than in us," Rachel said." So what will we advise the General to do tomorrow?"

  "Well, we can't tell him what we know and how we know it. However, we can make conjectures which later turn out to be true, if you know what I mean."

  "Yeah, you're right Nisha. We can speculate that the Omanji may be here to stay and point to the ever expanding colony as evidence to support the theory. In hindsight, it's obvious that huge numbers of them are moving here. And not for a two week vacation either. There's something about knowing an absolute fact that changes things. You know?"

  "I know what you mean," Rachel said.

  She peered out at the darkening skies behind the colony. The colony itself had a faint glow at night. Although its skyline was already many times larger than the top 10 biggest city skylines in the world put together, the glow wasn't as bright as they expected. However, the colony appeared beautiful to the eye.

  "We need to figure out a way to tell the General that the Omanji know everything we do and say in the colony," Nisha said. "We also need to tell him the Omanji are monitoring all electronic conversations. Nothing is secure. Their databases must be immense. They must grow at the rate of petabytes per hour or more!"

  Rachel gazed at the colony.

  "I think we should let the General figure things out independently. We can't let him know they regard us as only another animal on Earth."

  "Yes," Nisha said. "We need to limit our input to speculation."

  They walked into the tent and fell asleep quickly, knowing the meeting would be early.