Chapter 4: My First Bond Mates

I was ready early the next morning for the caterers were due to arrive at 8:00 AM to setup drinks, pastries, and a fruit bowl. One of them would remain on site to care for my guests during the presentation. When the caterers arrived and began setting up the food, I was happy to learn that Clara, the daughter of the owner of the catering business, would be the person to remain on site.

Clara's last name seemed familiar to me, so before my guests started arriving, I went into the house to check the list of the remaining 24 ladies I would be inviting for future presentations and found her name on the list. I only had a moment to speak with Clara as my first group of guests had arrived. I invited her to listen in on the presentation and told her that it was important for us to talk after she had completed her catering duties. I would see to it that she got home when we finished.

"Bob, other than Clara, I don't want the other caterers to remember and talk about our discussion. I also don't want any of the ladies attending the session to talk with others about what we discuss, but they can recall what we discuss. Can you do anything to keep them from talking to others?

"Alright Jon, Clara and I will take care of that. What about any ladies that don't join us? Do you want to let them remember the discussion?"

"No, it would probably be best if any of the ladies who don't join us also forget what we discussed."

As I greeted my first group of guests, I saw Harry and Sam arrive. I introduced Harry and Sam to my guests and between the three of us, we greeted the remaining guests as they arrived. Everyone had arrived by 9:30, so I used the speaker system to ask them to be seated at one of the tables. When everyone was seated, I started with, "Good morning ladies. I apologize for not letting you know about the County's roadwork for it just started a couple of days ago.

"I am Jonathon Reppa and I am the CEO and a Co-President of a new foundation. I haven't hired much in the way of staff, so I suppose you could say I am also the janitor and everything else in between, except for our two lawyers who I just recently hired.

"We have a brunch buffet setup for your enjoyment, so if you need anything during the presentation, feel free to help yourselves. Lunch will be served around 11:30 AM."

After a short laugh, I continued, "I had a dream last month and it was similar to the dream that each of you had last week. It started with two aliens, Bob and Sharna, guiding the evolution of life on Earth and it ended with a meteoroid shower hitting Earth. The next day, Bob and Sharna introduced themselves to me and now it is time for me to introduce them to you."

After that statement, it was evident that I had 15 slightly nervous ladies in my audience; perhaps one or two were very nervous. Clara wasn't in sight, so I couldn't see how my announcement affected her. It seemed odd to me that she seemed so much more important than the other ladies did; I would have to think about that later.

"Bob and Sharna are energy-based lifeforms and they created a mental link with me so the three of us can communicate, therefore they can't speak to you. They would however like to say hello and prove their existence by elevating all of you and your chairs about 10 feet into the air, and then they will return you to the ground. Sharna just told me that you needn't worry for they will be very careful to not drop you and she suggested that each of you push your chair back from your table."

Their little nervous laughs ended with a few shrieks as they started rising into the air. Needless to say, after being elevated about 10 feet and returned to the ground, all 15 ladies believed that Bob and Sharna were real and Bob told me most of them were convinced that the dream was real. I suggested that we take a 30-minute break before we continued so the ladies could regain control of their emotions. Several headed to the house to use the bathroom.

When we reconvened, I said, "The dream you had last week was essentially true, although reducing 2 million years of work to fit into a 2-hour dream means a lot of Bob and Sharna's efforts were left out. I call the shelter you dreamed about the Ark, and its excavation is essentially complete. Its entrance is that opening you can see behind and off to the left of the house. I am in the process of incorporating the Ark Foundation, which will be the organization responsible for completing the Ark's construction. The purpose behind the Ark is to save humanity. Bob and Sharna believe that the meteoroid shower you saw in your dream will devastate the human race, and they want to save enough people to repopulate the world. The rest of the story behind the Ark's creation, and how it will be used will have to wait until Bob and Sharna tell me it is appropriate to explain everything to the people we employ."

While I was addressing additional subjects, I saw the caterer's truck arrive. Clara was helping them move the food from the truck to the tables and set out the plates and utensils.

"I can see that the caterer has arrived with lunch and has set up the serving line, so let's take our lunch break now. When we return, we can hold a question and answer period."

While Harry, Sam, and I were eating, I noticed Clara was taking a break and waved her over. I introduced her to Harry and Sam and asked her to be seated, and asked for her opinion of the presentation. She told me that she hadn't heard everything I told the ladies, but what little she had heard seemed unbelievable, but she was beginning to believe what I was saying. Since she had been in the house, when the ladies were elevated, I asked if some proof would help her to believe and she said it might help.

"Bob, Clara is one of the 24 ladies we will be inviting for a presentation in the coming weeks. Is it possible for Sharna to create a temporary link to Clara and introduce herself?"

"Yes it's possible if you will have Clara relax so the link can be created."

"Clara, I asked my friends Bob and Sharna to provide you with the proof you need and they said they would if you will close your eyes and relax as much as you can."

Clara closed her eyes and appeared to relax. A few moments later, her eyes flew open and she had an extremely startled look on her face. I could hear her softly saying, "It's true. It's all true." I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. Looking into her eyes, I told her that yes, it was true and we could talk about it after the presentation if she would remain behind when the others left.

"Jon, are you thinking about making Clara one of your mates?"

"Sharna, I don't understand why, but I am very strongly attracted to this woman. Last week, I was thinking about asking her out on a date, but that was before I learned that she was one of the outstanding 24 women. Right now, I'm not sure, but I am strongly leaning in that direction. If I find that she is a good choice for me, then I think that I will definitely ask her to be one of my mates."

"Bob, I'm glad to hear that because after linking with her, I think she would make me a very good Bond Partner."

While I had been talking with Sharna, Clara had regained most of her outward composure. Having had a similar experience, I could tell that internally she was still rattled. I told her that experiencing that type of link for the first time would be a shock to anybody and that she would soon get over it. Clara had to get back to work, so I told her I would talk with her later and she left. I didn't realize it, but the link was still active and Sharna intended to talk with Clara while I completed the presentation. I've always suspected that Sharna did more than just talk with her.

When it appeared that everyone had completed their meal, I returned to the podium and continued the presentation. I received numerous questions and was able to provide satisfactory answers to most of them. Unfortunately, I had no answer for some questions and a few of the questions addressed areas that Harry had warned me to avoid, so I dissembled to avoid providing an answer. When there were no further questions, I moved on to the final topic. I told my guests that as one of the 15 women that received an invitation, they were preapproved for employment by the Ark Foundation. I told them that Sam and Harry would be handing out employment packages, so if they were interested in joining the Foundation, please complete the enclosed paperwork and return here at 9:00 AM tomorrow. Harry and Sam then started passing out the employment packages that we had put together.

While Sam and Harry handed out the packages, I got the ingots of bullion from the barn and set them on a nearby table. When they had finished distributing the packages and answering questions, I moved to the table to address one final matter.

"Ladies, one of the major problems with new companies is inadequate financing. I recently sent three ingots similar to these to New York for an estimate of their value. By themselves, they are worth about $1,400,000, and this is only a small part of the Ark Foundation's current assets. We currently have ingots in storage that are worth over $340 million dollars.

"The people who supplied us with this bullion did so to finance the Ark Foundation. I have been told that we will receive additional bullion in the future to finance our activities. The Ark Foundation is solvent and will remain that way until the meteoroids start hitting Earth. After that, things will be very different, but with Bob and Sharna's backing we will remain solvent."

I didn't mention the tailings that Bob and Sharna had yet to refine and cast into ingots. I then told them, that was all I had to show them and I asked that they not talk about what they saw and heard here today. As I watched the ladies preparing to leave, I wondered what solvent would mean after the meteoroids hit us. Our currency would be worthless, so what would we use to do business with each other? Oh well, I would worry about that later. Right now, I had more important matters to address.

The rapid development of my relationship with Clara was one of the things I was never certain of. Bob and Sharna did what they felt was necessary to protect their genetic research program. It usually seemed like I was in charge, but they were actually in charge and supported what I wanted to do, although their support wasn't always what I had in mind. Things moved very quickly between Clara and me, so I sometimes wondered if Sharna had left Clara with a compulsion that I was never told about and as far as I know, Bob or Sharna may have placed one on me also. I did come to realize after the meteoroids hit Earth that my having numerous mates was one of the things that Sharna felt was important to the continuation of their genetic research program.

It took almost an hour before all of my guests had departed. I looked around and found Clara waiting for me in my porch swing. I was glad to see that she was still here and joined her in the swing.

"Would you care for something other than water, soft drinks, and juice to drink?"

"No thanks Jon. I think I need to keep my wits about me today."

"Well, I think I should give you a more thorough description of the Ark and the Ark Foundation."

"That would be nice, but it's not necessary. Sharna explained things to me during the last part of your presentation."

"Did she explain my position in the Ark Foundation and what that means in terms of my personal life?"

"She told me that you would have multiple wives, and she also told me that you are interested in me. The strange part of that is it doesn't bother me. I mean the part about you having multiple wives."

"Would you be interested in having dinner with me this evening?"

"Yes, that would be nice."

It was still early, so I asked, "Do you feel up to a short adventure?"

"I might, what sort of adventure?"

I went inside and I returned with two of the lanterns giving her one. Privately, I asked Bob to take the two of us on a short tour of the Auburn silo. Bob levitated us and enclosed us in a protective field. As we approached the access tunnel, I turned on my lantern and Clara screamed in surprise, but calmed as we accelerated down the tunnel.

When we entered Level 1, Clara could see down the main hall and said, "Oh my God. This is huge. When you said shelter, I pictured something like a house."

"Yes, this level measures 2 miles by 2 miles in size, and most of that space is storage rooms and rooms for critical services.

"There really isn't anything to see here other than bare rock. Bob is going to take us up to one of the residential levels."

Bob took us to residential level, and as he entered the trapezoidal area, I said, "This area will be predominantly shops for clothing and other personal items that the residents will need and the level's dining halls/cafeterias where the residents of this level will eat their meals. The area up ahead will be a park and recreation area."

Bob followed the same path through the silo that I had taken on my prior tour, and then returned us to the surface. I told Clara that she had only seen a small part of the silo and took her inside to see the model I had built for Sam. Looking at the model, I traced out the path we had taken on our tour and explained the actual dimensions of the individual levels. Clara used the phrase 'mind boggling' to describe the silo. I then told her that the Ark consisted of four identical silos interconnected by transit tunnels and identified their locations. That left her speechless.

I took her hand and I led her out to the barn to show her the bullion and gave her a full explanation of the assets available to the Ark Foundation. As we left the barn, I asked Bob to return the ingots of bullion to the Ark. We ended up back in the porch swing and talked some more about the Ark. We eventually left for her home, so she could clean up for dinner. On the way, we talked about where we should go to eat. I suggested the Bistro I had discovered with the thought in mind that we could window shop through a nearby mall after dinner.

When we got to her place, she introduced me to her mother, who turned out to be Belinda Fowler. I did not realize that Belinda was the owner of the catering company; I understood her to be a senior manager. Belinda kept me company while Clara cleaned up and changed clothes. She asked how my event had gone and I told her that I thought it went very good. I let her know that I had a couple of more events to host and hoped that she would cater them, as I was very happy with her catering service. That pleased Belinda and we talked about her business until Clara reappeared. Damn, I knew she was good looking but a little makeup turned her into one of the most beautiful women I had ever met. I told Belinda where we were going and that I hoped to get home before midnight; then we left for the restaurant.

Clara and I enjoyed our meal at the Bistro. We talked about our lives and about what we had hoped for in the future. When we finished our after dinner coffees, we left the Bistro and I suggested we do some window-shopping in the mall across the street. Clara said that sounded nice to her, so I took her hand as we started walking down the sidewalk. As we walked and talked, I could feel a bond developing between us and decided that if that bond continued to strengthen, I would definitely pursue her as my mate. I invited Clara to join the other ladies at my home tomorrow morning, but she had to help her mother cater a wedding on Sunday. We were both tired, so I took her home early and we separated after a very nice good night kiss. My spirits were very high on the way home, and when I got there, I collapsed into bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Sunday morning arrived bright and early. I wanted to sleep in, however Harry, Sam, and the ladies who were interested in joining the Ark Foundation would be arriving around 9:00 AM. I made it in time, but just barely for Harry and Sam showed up as I was putting my shoes on. Over the next fifteen minutes, 12 of the ladies showed up; I later learned that the other three ladies had decided for several reasons that my offer was not for them. By the time we were all in my front room, the room was overflowing. I suggested that we move our meeting out to the barn, so we grabbed all the available chairs and went out to the barn. Between the house chairs and all the benches and stools I had in the barn, everyone found a seat.

"Jon, I assume that the three ladies that didn't show up will not be joining us. I'll put a compulsion on them that will make them forget about yesterday's seminar."

"Okay Bob. If any of these ladies decide to not join us do the same thing to them."

"Good morning everyone, as a reminder I am Jon Reppa, and I am one of the Ark Foundation's Co-Presidents and the two gentlemen with us today are the Foundation's lawyers, Mr. Harry Farrell and Mr. Sam Thomas. I would like to clarify something I said yesterday. The Ark Foundation is a new endeavor; so new that we haven't completed the incorporation process. The positions that we are actively recruiting for are Advisory Council Member and Department Vice President. Those of you who accept employment today will be the initial members of my Advisory Council. Many of you will also become one of the foundation's Vice Presidents.

"I asked you ladies to come here today so I can explain the Foundation's interest in you as employees. But before I go any further in briefing you, I want you to know that I will be revealing a great deal of information that I feel is privileged; thus I am going to take the steps necessary to ensure that you will not divulge that information to an unauthorized source. I will do that by having Bob and Sharna embed a compulsion in your minds that will prevent you from communicating privileged information to an unauthorized person, or when you know unauthorized persons may be in your vicinity. If you are not interested in one of the two positions I mentioned or if you are unwilling to accept the compulsion, you should leave the meeting now."

Yeah, they already had a compulsion but they did not know it, so this was sort of a test to see if they would voluntarily accept a compulsion. The compulsion was also slightly different from the one Bob and Sharna had placed on them the other day.

I waited for several moments and no one gave any indication that they were going to leave. "Alright, I see that no one appears to want to leave, so as of now I accept you ladies as employees of the Ark Foundation and we will set your starting salary at $60K per year plus benefits; if you have changed your mind about accepting a position, speak up now ... Okay since everyone is still on-board, I will have Bob and Sharna embed the compulsions in your minds."

One lady raised her hand, so I acknowledged her so she could make her comment. "I am Samantha Anders, Mr. Reppa. I want to know if this compulsion process is painful."

"Just to let you know, I prefer to be addressed as Jon, unless the situation requires formality. As far as the process goes, it is relatively simple and only takes a couple of moments; so I believe that Bob and Sharna have already completed the process of embedding the compulsion in everyone's mind."

I looked at the ladies while they did a quick self-evaluation and then I continued.

"No, the compulsion causes no pain and it has not changed you. All it does is prevent you from speaking about confidential matters at inappropriate times and places.

"Considering the position that you will fill, I believe that it is extremely important that there be total honesty and trust between myself and each of you ladies. However, I need you to keep in mind that there are a few things that I will not talk about with you. One of the important things you need to be aware of is the selection process that led to your being hired. You may have noticed that there are no men in your group. Explaining why this is so, is somewhat embarrassing to me, so please bear with me.

"I discussed hiring senior people who would be suitable as department managers with Bob and Sharna. They established a set of selection criteria and found 323 suitable candidates in the local areas. At the time, I did not know that all of the candidates were female. They then compared the personalities of the candidates to my personality to find people who would be highly compatible with me, and they came up with 39 candidates. They suggested that I invite 15 of the ladies to a presentation to ensure that they would be suitable for employment in senior positions, and they indicated the 15 candidates that would be the most compatible with me. I understood them to mean we would be able to get along in a work environment; remember that I thought that some of the candidates would be male.

"When I later reviewed the listing of the 39 candidates, I noticed that they were all female, and I asked Bob if he would explain why there were no men on the list. Bob reminded me of the conversations we had had regarding the social and marital customs that Sharna and he believed would become common practice within the Ark, which we will discuss in more depth later. Basically, they believe polygamy should be the preferred form of relationship and they wanted me to select several wives as soon as possible. Therefore, when they selected the original 323 candidates, their selection criteria was slanted toward locating women who would make good managers and be suitable for me to select as a wife. In other words, Bob and Sharna found 323 women who would make good managers and then cherry picked 39 women from that list to find women who would make good wives for me.

"As far as I am personally concerned, I am hiring people to fill a professional position and there will be no pressure from me to force you into a personal relationship. However, I do find all of you very attractive in addition to being pretty, so if the professional relationship should evolve into a personal relationship, I won't complain."

I paused to give the ladies time to consider what I said and then asked if they had any questions. I could tell that they were a little disturbed, but didn't appear to be excessively angry. I did receive and respond to a few questions for clarifying what I had told them about the working relationship I expected to have with them.

"At this time ladies, I would like to briefly clarify and expand on what I presented yesterday. Everything that was in your dream last week up to the meteoroids entering the atmosphere was true, or at least it is what has happened and what we believe will happen over the next 17 years; however, some key facts were deliberately left out of the dream.

Yesterday, I briefly mentioned the meteoroids would destroy humanity, and that will happen because the meteoroids are contaminated by a virus. Bob and Sharna have studied the virus and they believe that the virus will kill close to 85% of the humans living on the planet. They are anticipating that men will be affected more than women will with the male death rate approaching 95% and the female death rate around 70%. This fact is the main reason why we need to construct the Ark."

The look of shock on their faces was so extreme that I stopped for a few minutes to allow them time to grasp the implications of these projections.

Their first question was, "Is it possible to make a vaccine against the virus?"

"Yes, Bob and Sharna believe that they can make a vaccine but for reasons I will go into later, they can only make a limited amount and that will be used for the Ark's residents.

"We will turn the details of how to make that vaccine over to the appropriate authorities. However, I doubt that we will be able to get the public officials and general public to accept that there is a real danger approaching the Earth and take the necessary preventive actions.

"I want you to picture yourself approaching a government official and telling him that a friend knows two aliens who told him that a meteoroid shower would hit the Earth in 17 years and that the meteoroids carry a virus that will kill most of the population. What do you think their reaction would be?"

The look on their faces showed the opinions they had of the official's probable reaction. Their remaining questions were about bringing friends and family into the shelter. I told them that in general, the answer was yes. I explained Bob and Sharna's genetic experiment to them and told them that their friends and families would be made welcome, if Bob and Sharna felt they would not create problems in the Ark.

The ladies were overwhelmed by the emotional content of the information I had conveyed, and I mentioned that this would be a good time to take a break. We all headed for the house, and during the break, I moved the model I had built for Sam to the barn and placed it on a table in the center of the floor.

When the break was over, we returned to the barn and I began briefing them on the Ark. "Ladies, Bob and Sharna excavated a shelter, which we call the Ark, to save a large segment of humanity from the effects of the meteoroids and from the virus. The Ark consists of four silos that are spaced far apart and interconnected by a transit system.

This is a model of a single silo and all four silos are identical. The silo is about 850 feet tall. Each rectangular section of what appear to be fan blades measures 1 mile x 2 miles. The bottom level is 4 miles x 4 miles. The silos are beneath the Sierra Nevada Mountains with the top level of each silo at about 3,000 feet below sea level, which means the bottom level is about 3,850 feet below sea level."

I could see a mix of emotions pass over their faces, including surprise, awe, astonishment, etc. I went on to say, "Level 1 is the bottom level and it will probably be the safest level in the Silo when the meteoroids hit the surface. It will be used for all critical services and storage of critical supplies. Levels 2 through 13 are for lodging, storage, and support services for the residents of the respective level. Levels 14 and 15 are for manufacturing, storage, and non-critical services. Level 16 is the top level and it is the high risk area in the shelter. It will be used for office space and more non-critical storage. The 12 residential levels are capable of housing about 84,000 families, but the plan is to only use about 50 or 60% of that capacity. That translates to about 350,000 people per silo."

This information resulted in a series of questions, which I was able to answer without Bob's assistance. "As I mentioned earlier, the Ark's social structure will be different than what we are accustomed to and I expect that by the time we are ready to return to the surface an average family will consist of about 6-10 people."

Our discussion moved on to how the Ark Foundation was to be structured.

I said, "I intend to model the Ark Foundation as a medium-size, commercial business with 3-tiers of management. There will be the President's office and under that office will be multiple departments. Each department will be responsible for a specific activity and headed by a Vice President. If necessary, the Department Vice President will have additional managers to assist with the department's activities.

"There will be four Co-Presidents and right now the Co-Presidents are Bob, Sharna, and me; one of my future wives will become the fourth Co-President. We will be supported by an Advisory Council, which will be made up of the Vice Presidents who are in charge of the departments and of other employees who work on tasks assigned by the Co-Presidents. You ladies are the initial members of my Advisory Council. As we form the departments, some of you will become Department Vice Presidents. The rest of you will support me by working on a variety of tasks.

"The first task I want you to undertake is to define the departments that will be necessary for completing and managing the Ark and operating the Ark Foundation; to include, defining each department's area of responsibility."

It was close to lunchtime, so I suggested that this would be a good time to take a lunch break. I told them that there was a good bit of food left over from yesterday's lunch and they could help themselves to that or go out for lunch if they preferred. Several ladies opted for going out for lunch, so I told them to be back by 1:30 PM. After the ladies left for lunch, the rest of us headed for my house.

The remaining ladies helped me move the leftover food, drinks, plates, and plastic utensils to the dining room table, and then everyone lined up to get their food and take it back to the barn to eat. While everyone was getting their food, I checked my office phone for messages and learned that Bill had called to tell us that the owner had accepted our offer on the building. I returned his call to find out what the next step was, but I had to leave him a message. I told Harry and Sam the good news while we waited for the ladies to finish getting their food.

We took our food back to the barn to eat and the ladies broke up into small groups. The conversation at one table had gotten on the topic of work versus school, so one of the ladies asked me about arrangements for working at the Ark Foundation and attending college. I asked her to bring that question up when we reconvened, but the short answer was that arrangements would be made on a case-by-case basis. Gradually a few ladies made their way over to the table where Harry, Sam, and I were sitting and joined us. The briefing that I had given them up to that point had resulted in them having a number of specific questions. Some I answered while others I postponed until we had reconvened. The ladies who had gone out for lunch were returning. So, we cleaned up our lunch mess and prepared to reconvene the briefing. Before we reconvened, Harry mentioned to me that he and Sam needed to meet with me to finalize our approach to the Forest Service and we agreed to meet at his office at 9 AM the next morning.