Chapter 7

Gilleena and I were lying in my bed, basking in the afterglow of a long, very satisfying bout of doing nice things to each other’s bodies. As much as I look forward to the energetic, rough and tumble encounters with Ellana and Mallya, the slow, sweet, gentle sessions with Gilleena fill me with such a sense of happiness and well-being, I can hardly wait for our next one.

As I lay there, I wondered in passing if any mortal human in history felt as satisfied with his lot as I did. I think if I were asked to choose a wife from among the three Ennahai women I’d known in a biblical way, it would be Gilleena. I mean, how could you go wrong with a woman like her? I freely admit to being madly in lust with Ellana and Mallya, but with Gilleena, I feel a much more powerful sense of attachment. I suppose that’s what being in love means. Whatever male finally claims her as his wife is a man - rather, an Elf - I’ll envy for the rest of my life.

I wondered if any or all of the six eligible males in the clan had designs on her. I hadn’t seen any outward indications of that, but that didn’t mean anything. Any of them would make a good husband for her since they were all intelligent, hard-working, and dedicated. And of course, they were Elves, something I sure as hell couldn’t compete with. Even fantasizing that I could lay exclusive claim to any of my lovers bordered on the absurd.

Based on what Grandfather Jakoby said about the absence of children, I had the impression that any new permanent bonding would be delayed until they were on the new world. Likely, soon after their arrival, most of the fertile females would be impregnated as they began to build a new population. That was all just a guess on my part, but it made perfect sense that they wouldn’t want children and infants to be in stasis for however many years the trip took.

I turned to look at her lovely face, eyes closed, almost asleep.

“Gilleena?”

She opened her eyes and turned her head to smile at me. “Jesse?”

“How do you feel about the trip, leaving Earth to go to a new world, I mean?”

She looked at the ceiling and thought about it for a while. “I feel sad and hopeful at the same time. My people have always loved this once-beautiful Mother Earth beyond all measure. Our hearts break to see her so badly treated.” She sighed and looked at me again. “But we’ve lost that battle, haven’t we? We can’t live here any longer. I’m so thankful that we’re being offered a second chance, but I’ll always grieve for the loss of my true home.”

“Yeah, that is sad, isn’t it? Um, I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“What would you think about bringing some of my kind along on the trip? Don’t you think we should have a chance to start over like you and your people?”

Instead of answering my question, she asked, “Jesse, have you spoken to Grandfather about this?”

“No, not yet, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot. How do you think he’d feel about it?”

“I haven’t his knowledge, experience or wisdom. I wouldn’t presume to guess his feelings. You must go to him soon and discuss it - tomorrow! What we’re preparing for has taken years and years of planning. The same would be required if others of your kind were included. We leave in less than four and a half years, and that isn’t as much time as you think.” She slapped her hand on her forehead and groaned, “Damn, I should have sensed this coming!”

I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll talk to Grandfather in the morning.”

She turned onto her side and I snuggled up to her backside. We drifted in our own thoughts for a while, then we slept.

I found Grandfather Jakoby in Errol’s shop carving an intricate design into a rectangular piece of walnut that would become a cabinet door. For a couple of minutes, I stood to the side and watched his sure hand manipulate the razor-sharp blade. I definitely wanted to learn how to do that someday.

Without even looking up, he asked, “What is it, Jesse? I sense you have something serious on your mind.”

“I do, Grandfather. Do you have time for a couple of questions?”

“Of course. Are they questions where we must sit and look at each other, or can I continue my work?”

“You decide. I think some of my kind should go to the new world along with the Ennahai.”

He continued carving an ornate leaf into the wood as if he hadn’t heard a word I said. After a minute or so, I thought he was intentionally ignoring me, and assuming that was my answer, I turned to leave. But then he put down the knife and said, “I’ve been wondering when you’d get around to bringing that up.”

He stood, stretched, and gestured toward the entryway. “Let’s take a walk, shall we? My back is getting stiff.”

We left the shop and followed the tunnel downward toward the water. We were probably half way there before he spoke. “Tell me, Jesse, how many people did you have in mind? Obviously, you’re including yourself.”

“Well, I haven’t really thought about numbers, yet. I guess maybe a hundred or so, enough that there would be a reasonably diverse gene pool.”

“Ah, good thinking on your part. I see you’ve learned a little something about genetics. So, you’re also thinking young people for breeding stock, and childless, of course. How would you go about recruiting this hundred or so people?”

“Um, I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“Rather a key question, wouldn’t you think?”

“It is, but I don’t even know if it’s a possibility yet.”

“Well, here are a couple of immediate concerns: However you might go about recruiting your men and women, I won’t allow your efforts to jeopardize my people in any way. We’ve come to love you as one of our own, but I won’t hesitate to ask our friends to place you in stasis if you pose a threat to our objective. You do understand that, don’t you?”

I hadn’t really given it any thought, although the way he put it made it obvious. His bluntness startled me a little bit. “Yeah, I understand that. The clan is my first priority of course, but I’m sure some way could be found to bring in some, uh, non-Ennahai people.”

“For the sake of convenience, let’s refer to the different species as men and Elves, shall we. I don’t like the word but it serves. So! You’d like to go out and locate a hundred or so young adult, reasonably intelligent, mentally and physically healthy individuals, presumably of various races, and ask them if they’d like to board an alien spacecraft and travel in stasis for many, many years to live on a planet they have absolutely no knowledge of. I’d say you have your work cut out for you, Jesse.”

“I never thought it would be easy, Grandfather. Of course, I’ll have to plan it very carefully; maybe begin with some sort of online poking around for people who already believe in extraterrestrial life. I don’t mean ‘Trekkies’ and people like that; more like legitimate scientists and scholars.”

“A narrow field, I must say. Surely people skilled in the arts and literature would be of equal value. And how about craftsmen and builders? Wouldn’t they take precedence over academics, at least for the first few years we were building our homes?”

“Of course. I just mean I’d want to be really picky about who we asked. With so few slots, we wouldn’t want to get stuck with any losers, would we?”

“Now you have to define ‘loser’. Never mind. I’m just illustrating that the selection process wouldn’t be as easy as you might think.”

We arrived at the pool. Jakoby bent down to pick up a few stones and began dapping them across the water.

He said, “You can see the selection process is the starting point, Jesse, but then you have to find some way of convincing these bright minds that you can get them to another world, that you’ve already seen the aliens who have altruistically offered to ferry them to the promised land. Are you that charismatic, that you can sway otherwise rational minds to believe what any reasonable person would think is utter nonsense?”

He had me in a corner, and we both knew it. I looked into his face to see if he was intentionally busting my balls, but he looked perfectly serious.

I shrugged and answered, “At this point, Grandfather, I really have no idea how I’d convince anybody. I’d probably never be able to do it by myself. I’d need some help.”

“Ah! You’d need help. So, you’re thinking that at some point I or one of our clan will have to step in to lend your recruitment pitch some legitimacy. One of us will have to ‘out’ himself.”

I felt like I was getting in over my head. “Probably. I suppose.”

He laid his arm over my shoulder and continued, “Let me bring up another issue. Aside from your attachment to your own species, perfectly reasonable and understandable, are you thinking in the back of your mind about a mate for yourself?”

I hadn’t consciously thought about that, but of course he was right. “Yeah, I guess that would be a part of it. I definitely want to go with you, but once we get there, I’d probably want something more than just the sexual gifts I’m getting now. I’d want my own family, my own children. I don’t think you Ennahai marry out of your own species, do you?”

“Who told you that?”

“Well, nobody. I just assumed...”

“You assumed wrong, Jesse. I happen to know that Gilleena is rather smitten with you. And from what I’ve seen, you feel the same way about her. Am I wrong?”

Total surprise!

“Um, you’re not wrong about me, but I didn’t know she felt the same way. I hoped she did, but I didn’t know. Are you saying you’d allow her to actually marry me? Have kids with me?”

He turned to face me and took my shoulders in his hands. “Jesse, I don’t think you understand the nature of our culture or our relationships, and that’s surprising, considering how long we’ve lived together. It’s not up to me to say who can bond with whom. Granted, as far as crossing species lines is concerned, there would be some serious issues to consider, but if you asked Gilleena to be your mate and she accepted, well, that would be that. Of course, there can be no pregnancies until we reach our new home, but that’s the only restriction in place at the moment.”

“I wasn’t even sure elves, uh, Ennahai were genetically compatible with men. So, I could get her pregnant?”

“Of course! There have been mixed unions throughout our common histories, just like modern man probably interbred with Neanderthals. That’s why I asked if you had our blood when we first met. I still think you might.”

I was suddenly feeling a lot more confident. “I’m sure happy to hear that!”

“Now!” he asked, peering into my eyes like he was examining my brain, “Does that alter your thinking about wanting to invite men and women of your species to join us on our journey?”

“No! It’s not just about me, Grandfather! Look, we’ve done a terrible thing! I know that! But most of us want the same things you want - a clean, healthy place to live and work and raise our kids. It’s true my people are doing a great job of wrecking the planet and we’re driving you off of it, and that’s an incredible disaster, but I can’t fix it. I’m sure there are hundreds of millions of people out there who feel just as badly as I do about what’s happening, but they can’t fix it either. I don’t have any confidence that humans will ever be able to undo the damage we’ve done, but I’d sure like to see my species get a second chance at survival like your species is getting. Is that too much to ask?”

Jakoby took a deep breath and shook his head. “No, Jesse, I don’t believe it’s too much to ask. But it’s actually not up to you or me to decide, is it? Those benevolent creatures who are our salvation will have the final say as to who will and who will not be allowed aboard their vessel. Perhaps you should talk to them.”

“Can I talk to them? I mean, is it possible?”

We headed back up the tunnel. “You should give more thought to how you would accomplish your recruitment, and I’ll see what I can do about arranging an interview with one of our space-faring friends. But consider this, Jesse, the Travelers are highly sophisticated and advanced far beyond us in almost every way. If you’re going to ask them to make room on their ship for members of a species that has irrevocably trashed its own home planet, I suggest your case must be very convincing indeed. Don’t expect them to feel much sympathy for your cause. Your arguments must be clear, concise and logical, not emotional.”