Chapter 20

Rosa called me that evening and said that within two hours of sending out the e-mails she started getting back responses ... very enthusiastic responses. Many of the questionnaires returned with comments like, ‘Where do I sign up?’, and ‘I’m ready right now. Just give me some directions.’, and ‘Will I have time to settle my affairs before we leave?’.

I needed to do two things in short order. I had to get our group together to read through the responses and begin the penultimate weeding out process. As soon as that was done, we would need to send out e-mails to the selectees and tell them they were among the finalists, and that they’d be given further instructions on where to go three days before we left on our journey in early May. I figured that would give them enough time to clear up some important things in their lives and make the trip. I expected them to be coming from several countries around the world, and it was still my intention to select approximately equal numbers from different races.

The next day, Rosa called back and said she’d just received a call from her sister, Anna Belle. Apparently, someone she knew had received one of the questionnaires and Annie wanted to know why she hadn’t received one too. She also wanted to know why she hadn’t heard anything about any trip, since she’d spent time with some of the Ennahai, and believed she should be privy to that information. Rosa explained that we didn’t even know her name was on the original list, and Annie said that was because her comments on the blog were submitted under a pseudonym.

I asked Rosa how she felt about the possibility of her sister going on the journey, and she said she had mixed feelings about it. She said Annie could be flighty as hell sometimes, often selfish and demanding, but that her medical skills would probably be valuable to us. I made an executive decision; I asked Rosa to send her sister a questionnaire and we’d consider her along with the rest, but there would be no guarantees. She agreed to that.

Later that day, I ran across Lothos and asked how he’d feel about Annie making the trip. I knew he’d had a few passionate encounters with her, and I figured he might have an opinion about her value to the community (other than being sexually enthusiastic). He just grinned and said, “She’ll certainly add some spice to the soup. I guess I wouldn’t object since she also seems to have other redeeming qualities.”

By the new year, Steve, Rosa, Gilleena and I had whittled the list down to three hundred. I was making a wild assumption that two thirds of them would beg off leaving the planet. Of course, I had no way of knowing, but that was my best guess.

Steve made a suggestion that I should have thought of myself. He thought we wouldn’t want our exact location to be generally known, and we wouldn’t want three hundred people arriving at our doorstep at the same time. We should probably arrange for some place like a hotel or an arena where they could gather, then be ferried to the house a few at a time on a bus. That way, we could present small, easily manageable groups with the choice to go or stay after being introduced to the Travelers. We’d do whatever preparation was required and hold the ones who begged off somewhere in the cave until everybody got processed and the last of us was on board the primary ship.

I knew it was going to be more complicated than that, but it seemed like a good basic plan to start with.

Once the final e-mail is sent, I’ll have done pretty much everything I can do to accomplish my goal of helping to facilitate man’s exploration of the universe to a new star system. Now it was up to the Travelers to get us there.

As the winter of 2019/2020 turned to spring, other family units began to coalesce within our group. Mallya and Chiam agreed to bond with three from Hithfaeron’s clan, while Liam fell in with two others. Because so many of that clan were closely related, most opted to wait until we were on our new home planet, because there, they’d have literally thousands to select from. There really was no urgency to begin building the population the moment we made landfall, but it would still be a high priority.

Errol and Lothos didn’t seem to be in any big hurry to make their choices, and I wondered if Lothos was waiting to see if Annie would be included on our passenger list. If that turned out to be the case, I almost envied him the fun he was going to have in the sack.

I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that Katia would be bonding with Arrena and Jellico for the purpose of having another child. I was surprised because she was now in her late sixties. When I asked her about it, she educated me to the fact that Ennahai females are usually fertile well into their eighties. Arrena planned to get pregnant as well, and she had to be nearly the same age. Amazing!

Spencer showed up at least one afternoon a week to work with Grandfather and Hithfaeron on developing some kind of job description for himself and the staff he’d have to hire to handle the media circus following the announcement of a separate species of humans. Before that could be finalized though, they needed to secure the approval of those clan elders who would not be making the trip. To that end, Grandfather and Hithfaeron began making phone calls to representatives of clans around the world explaining in their common language that our home was being offered as a center for the Ennahai about to be “outed” shortly after the primary ship left the solar system.

In March, in a surprise move, Spencer brought out all the paperwork to sign over all of Uncle Sam’s holdings that now amounted to over 16.3 million, including the house and all the property. It was almost two months earlier than I was expecting it and he explained the change in schedule was in case any large expenses cropped up as we began our final preparations; things like travel expenses for the North American clans converging on our cave. He brought along two cases of champagne (already cooled) to celebrate the event.

Everybody gathered in the main chamber of the cave to witness the official transfer of all of Uncle Sam’s holdings. With my last signature on the dotted line, corks popped and bottles were passed around to fill everyone’s glass for a toast to the new millionaire, me.

I was sorry Steve and Rosa weren’t there to help us celebrate, but we hardly ever saw them any more except for the recruitment meetings. I knew things weren’t going well with them, but it wasn’t my place to stick my nose into it. I could only be there for them if they needed me.

Shortly after the toasting and congratulations died down, I signed another set of documents assigning every last penny to a trust fund for the Ennahai people, to be administered by Jonathan Spencer, Esq. That got even louder cheers and more popping corks.