Chapter 2: Bonding with an Alien

During the period Bob and Sharna spent shifting meteoroids, they considered the ramifications of the virus killing over eighty-five percent of the Earth’s population. It was obvious that they could not save Earth’s entire population, so they reluctantly accepted that they would need to rebuild the population.

They contemplated the different forms of male-female relationships that they had encountered on Earth and decided that some form of polygamy (i.e., one male and multiple females) would result in the highest birth rate. With that in mind, they decided to select Bob’s Bond Partner first and Sharna would then select her Bond Partner from the women that Bob’s Bond Partner chose as his mates. However, Sharna was not concerned for she knew Bob’s Bond Partner would be making his selection of mates from the women she would be selecting, and if necessary, a compulsion could be used to influence his decision of who to select.

A review of the over twenty-one year old, V984 men in the Sacramento area resulted in two hundred and forty-three suitable candidates. An in-depth review of the top twenty-five candidates revealed that a Jonathon Reppa had recently inherited a ranch on the front range of the Serra Nevada Mountains that was about two miles northeast of Auburn.

There was little difference between the top twenty-five candidates. Although Jonathon only ranked fourth in suitability of the two hundred and forty-three candidates, his ownership of the ranch made him their best choice. His Army leadership and combat experience in Pakistan and India would also be useful during the time when he would lead the survivors of the virus and rebuild human civilization.

Over the next week, Bob and Sharna monitored Jonathon, or Jon, as he preferred to be called. They read his thoughts, observed his behaviors, and checked out his friends and acquaintances. Their research into his background revealed that Jon was born on July 12, 2002 and that he grew up on a ranch outside Auburn, California; the ranch he inherited.

Four months after graduating from high school, he joined the Army and became an Army Ranger. After graduating from Ranger School, he was assigned to a Ranger Company that was being deployed to India. By the time Jon joined the Army in 2020, the political situation had deteriorated such that Al Qaeda had gained control of Pakistan and they had recently invaded India. For a little over two years, Jon’s Ranger Company engaged the Al Qaeda led forces in India and Pakistan. During that time, he received extensive combat experience that led to him being promoted to Staff Sergeant and being placed in charge of a squad of Rangers.

He was due for reenlistment in October of 2023, but had not committed to reenlisting. Two weeks before his reenlistment date, he received notice that his parents had been killed in a traffic accident. He was granted three weeks of emergency leave, so he could take care of his parents’ funeral and other affairs. He had been fortunate in not being wounded or killed during his combat tour, and the notice of their passing caused him to reassess the probability of his surviving another enlistment. He decided to not reenlist.

Since his emergency leave would extend beyond his discharge date, the Army prepared his discharge papers and he completed his out-processing before departing India. Due to Army policy, he had to return stateside before he could be officially discharged. Thus, he would be on emergency leave until his discharge date, and after that, he would be just another civilian. After getting home and settling his parent’s affairs, he settled into civilian life on the ranch that he had inherited from his parents.

Jon’s return to civilian life was a difficult transition. It took him a long time to come to terms with the nightmares and guilt that he felt due to the deaths of his comrades and the numerous people that he had killed and wounded in combat. His not reenlisting also bothered him for it felt like he had abandoned his comrades.

During that time, Jon saw a VA psychologist to help him come to terms with the conflict regarding his service to his country. On one hand, his childhood experiences conditioned him to believe it was wrong to kill. On the other hand, the Army had turned him into a cool, efficient, and experienced killer, who believed there was nothing wrong with killing your enemies. It took him more than a year before he was able to reconcile the two diametrically opposed concepts, and to accept the person that he had become as an adult. By the time he met Bob and Sharna, he had come to believe that as a general rule killing is wrong, but sometimes it was necessary for survival of the individual and his society.

Bob and Sharna decided that this young man would make Bob a suitable Bond Partner. The following night Bob and Sharna invaded Jon’s mind and took control of his dreams. That night Jon dreamed of two aliens who guided humanity’s future and of the menace of the coming meteoroid shower to include his part in saving humanity. Exhausted by a night of disturbing dreams, Jon turned off his alarm clock when it woke him, rolled over, and went back to sleep; a deep and restful sleep. Later that day he rose, cleaned up, fixed his lunch, and took his food out to the porch swing to eat.

As Jon sat swinging in the porch swing, Bob established a temporary link with Jon’s mind and began softly calling Jon’s name. Looking around Jon saw no one in the area and concentrating on the voice, he realized that he wasn’t hearing it with his ears. It was in his mind. As panic started to take control of Jon’s thoughts, Bob spoke softly convincing him that he was not crazy. Then Bob explained who and what he and Sharna were.

During the remainder of the day and late into the night, Bob and Sharna talked with Jon about the genetic experiment, about the danger of the approaching meteoroid shower, and what Jon could do to help Bob and Sharna save humanity from the virus carried by the meteoroids.

After extensive talks and consideration, Jon agreed to bond with Bob and help Bob and Sharna with their mission. He didn’t specifically agree to aid them with their genetic mission, but what he would be doing to help save humanity was effectively helping Bob and Sharna with that mission. With Jon agreeing to their bond, Bob slipped into Jon’s mind and created the permanent link that would permit Bob and Jon to communicate with each other for the rest of Jon’s life. Once the permanent link was operational, Sharna was able to join Bob and Jon in direct conversation via her link with Bob and they began to plan their near and long-term activities.

Author’s Note: The main difference between temporary and permanent links is Bob or Sharna need to consciously support a temporary link and communication with a temporary connection must be consciously pass from the person supporting the link to the other parties on the link. This occurs automatically over a permanent link.

During the daytime and evening, the three of them discussed the shelter to include the outstanding work it required and the effort that would be necessary to house, feed, and care for the hundreds of thousands of people that would inhabit the shelter. During the nights, Bob and Sharna bored an access tunnel from Jon’s ranch just outside of Auburn to Level 1 of the Silo that was located near Michigan Bluff, California.

With the selection of Bob’s Bond Partner out of the way, Bob and Sharna began their review of the eighteen to twenty-three year old, V984 women in the Auburn-Sacramento area. This review located over three hundred and twenty-three suitable candidates. Close to one hundred and ninety of the candidates were enrolled in the local colleges. The senior members of the shelter’s staff would require specific skill sets. Bob and Sharna scanned the three hundred and twenty-three candidates looking for those having or in the process of acquiring the requisite skill sets with preference being given to those currently enrolled or recently graduated from college. The result was a list of thirty-nine ladies who would be suitable as both Jon’s mates and as senior management personnel for the shelter.

When Bob and Sharna selected me, Jon Reppa, to be Bob’s Bond Partner, I was ignorant of the drastic change that my life was to undergo. In talking with Bob and Sharna, it was very apparent that they were highly intelligent beings and had a very good understanding of human nature. Unfortunately, I had no idea how Bob and Sharna’s lack of understanding concerning human interaction between other people would affect my life. I had figured that my life was about to become very interesting, but I would never have believed the ways in which my life would change. It didn’t take very long before the first of these incidents would make itself known to me.

My initial understanding of finishing off the shelter was extremely over simplified. When I stopped and did some number crunching, I came to realize that each of the Shelter’s four Silos represented close to 50 square miles of homes, shops, dining facilities, offices, schools, hospitals, storage space, etc. Then there would be the effort to provision the Silos and to supply water, air, electricity, and sewage services. I found the scope of the work to prepare one Silo for habitation overwhelming, and when I considered that we would have to do this for four Silos, I decided to discuss the creation of a Foundation to manage the construction and other shelter activities with Bob and Sharna. I would also have to arrange for the financing of those activities.

We agreed to setup a foundation with me as owner, COO, CFO, and President. It seemed like the only title I did not hold was head janitor, but we didn’t need one yet. When I found people to be senior managers of the shelter, they would become the foundation’s Vice Presidents.

I decided that we needed a name for the shelter and the foundation, so since Bob and Sharna did not care about the shelter’s name, I considered and discarded several names. The names I finally settled on were the Ark for the shelter, the Ark Foundation for the foundation that would manage the Ark, and the Ark Society for the people who would inhabit the Ark. If you are thinking I liked the story of Noah and the Ark as a kid, you’re right.

Bob and Sharna talked with me about selecting the senior managers for the Ark and Ark Foundation. They told me the family model in the Ark would be based on polygamy; and that as the Ark’s leader, I would be expected to have multiple wives.

As a young virile man, I liked the idea of multiple wives; but I also pointed out to Bob and Sharna that polygamy was illegal within the US. Bob and Sharna told me that I should simply live with my mates, at least until the meteoroids destroyed our society. If we wanted to formalize our relationship before then, we could have a Joining Ceremony and refer to each other as Bond Mates. Once the meteoroids arrived, there would be no one left to tell us what we could and could not do.

Sharna told me that she planned to select her Bond Partner from one of the women that I selected as my mates. She told me that she and Bob had found three hundred and twenty-three suitable women in the local area, and from that group, they had selected thirty-nine women who appeared to be qualified to serve both as senior managers and as my mates. In fact, she suggested that I claim all thirty-nine women as my mates, and she would compel them to accept me as their husband. I declined her offer. The thought of forcing a woman to be in a relationship with me violated my personal moral code, besides I enjoy giving my women pleasure in bed and thirty-nine women were far more than I could handle.

Sharna suggested that I invite fifteen of the thirty-nine women to an event at my ranch. We could evaluate the women as potential managers, and I could consider them as potential mates.

That evening, Bob and Sharna had me make a list of the thirty-nine women that included their respective skills. Sharna then pointed out the fifteen women that she felt would be most compatible with her and me, and suggested that we invite those women as our first group of interviewees.

Bob had informed me that he and Sharna had planned to finance the Foundation’s operation by selling the valuable metals they had salvaged from the tailings of their excavation. The next day I went to my bank in Auburn to talk with its President, Mr. Steve Shaw. I needed his advice on selling bullion, finding a suitable corporate lawyer, and opening a bank account for the foundation.

When my parents had died, they left me a complex, multi-million dollar estate. The bank had a financial planning department that managed a large portion of my parents’ finances, and the bank had also been the executor of their will. Steve had explained the estate to me, and I continued to have the bank manage that portion of my inheritance.

Steve was busy with a client when I arrived, and after only a short wait, I was ushered into his office. “Morning, Jon, how are things going for you?”

“Pretty good at the moment, Steve. The ranch is doing great and it looks as if I may be branching out.”

“Oh, what are you going to do, add sheep to your cattle operation?”

“No, nothing like that, Steve. I have a couple of friends that want to setup a shelter for abused women. They bought an old building, but it is in rather poor condition and it doesn’t meet local code. They have asked me to help them get it ready for use. They want to remain in the background so they enlisted me to be their front man.

“That is sort of why I’m here today, Steve. They have a good bit of bullion that a supporter has given them as an initial contribution toward aiding the battered women in this area. They need to sell the bullion in order to finance the remodeling of the building.

“None of us have ever dealt with selling bullion, and as the front man, it is my job to handle the transaction. We will also need to set up a foundation to take care of everything that will need to be done for they are talking about multiple locations in the surrounding area. I need some advice about selling bullion and I also need to set up a bank account for the foundation.”

While the story was essentially true, it was very misleading and I felt a little bad about not telling Steve the truth. However, we didn’t want the truth getting out until we were ready to handle the notoriety and publicity that was bound to result. Furthermore, I would have nothing but problems if the wrong people learned that I had access to an immense amount of bullion.

“I’d like to help you, Jon. The bank has to handle the sale of bullion on occasion, so it would be a conflict of interest for me to assist you in selling your group’s bullion. How familiar are you with bullion transactions?”

“I know next to nothing about the bullion market that is why I was hoping to get some help from you.”

“I can’t help you directly, but I can put you in touch with someone that I trust. He has helped the bank with a few transactions in the past. There is one thing that I will caution you about though, and that is be very careful concerning who you do business with for several of our local, well-known, and supposedly honest bullion dealers are not as honest as they would like you to believe.

“You will need to incorporate your foundation before you can open a bank account in the foundation’s name. Since the foundation is not yet a legal entity, I suggest that you open a temporary private account, and then transfer the funds from the bullion sale into the foundation’s account once it can be set up.”

“That seems okay, Steve, but won’t that create a tax liability for me personally?”

“Yes, that is probable, if it is not done the right way. That is why I suggest that you contact Harry Farrell so he can help you with both the bullion sale and all of the details related to setting up your foundation and banking needs. Harry is the lawyer that worked with the bank in selling bullion and his specialty is corporate law.”

Steve called Harry and explained what I needed and handed the phone to me. Five minutes later, I had an appointment with Harry Farrell for after lunch. Steve helped me open a personal account that I could use as an interim account for the foundation. With that out of the way, I said goodbye to Steve and headed for a local caterer.

A friend had used this catering firm in the past and had recommended it to me, so I decided to use them for my upcoming seminar. Walking into the caterer’s shop, I was met by a rather nice looking young woman.

“Good morning, I am going to host a business seminar at my ranch and would like to arrange for your firm to do the catering. Is there someone in today that could help me?”

“Yes, there is. Our business owner and manager, Mrs. Belinda Fowler, can help you. Give me a moment to let her know that you are here.”

Opening a nearby office door, the young woman said, “Mom, there is a gentleman out front who wants to make arrangements for us to cater his business meeting. Can you see him now or should I refer him to someone else?”

“Show him in, Clara, I should be able to take care of that before I have to go to lunch.”

“Good morning, I’m Belinda Fowler. How can we help you today?”

“Well, I have a business meeting scheduled for two weeks from now. It is just a small meeting of about sixteen people and I would like for your catering firm to cater my event.”

The arrangements were rather simple to make. Since my meeting was not a major formal affair, I selected one of the buffet packages and provided Belinda with an estimated head count of sixteen people. Once I mailed the invitations and received my invitee’s RSVPs, I would give her a final head count. After providing Belinda with the additional information that she would need and a healthy deposit, I went to the post office and mailed fifteen personalized invitations to my first group of invitees. Each invitation described the purpose of the seminar as the formation of a new private foundation and identified the position we thought the invitee could fill.

With those stops completed, I headed over to one of our local restaurants for lunch. I didn’t really have a favorite restaurant in the area, but I found a trendy looking bistro that I had never eaten at before. With some luck, the food might even be good.

The menu was typical of what you would expect in a trendy restaurant, but the prices seemed exorbitant. I ordered their chicken cordon bleu and hoped for the best. The food was both plentiful and outstanding, and the service was excellent. Some of the best I’d had since returning to Auburn. As I left, I found myself vowing to return to try some of their other menu selections, even if they were overpriced.

On second thought, the food was plentiful, of superb quality, and I had received excellent service. I had gotten my money’s worth, so maybe expensive was a better term than overpriced. I had a little over an hour to go before I had to be at my appointment with Harry Farrell, so I found an available bench and sent a thought out to Bob.