Chapter 5: New Recruits

Once the permanent link was present, I got a major shock; well actually several shocks. Clara contacted me mentally and it felt like a direct connection, although Bob told me that Clara’s thought were actually routed automatically though he and Sharna without their being consciously aware of it. My second shock was that I could experience Clara’s thoughts and emotions. I also sensed that if I wanted to, I could invade her mind and read her memories. Clara was sensing the same thing and our invading each other’s privacy was embarrassing.

When Bob and Sharna sensed our turmoil. They intervened to show us how to establish shields to protect our thoughts, emotions, and memories from unwanted exposure. They also showed us how to open and close our shield, so we could give someone else selective access to our minds. Bob and Sharna told us that we would become accustomed to hearing the other person’s thoughts, and they also showed us how to mask our own thoughts and how to block the thoughts of others.

This was a really neat ability! If we ever had a problem with communicating with each other, all we had to do was open our shields and we could tell what the other person was thinking and feeling. It also occurred to me that Clara and I would have to be scrupulously honest with each other, because if we weren’t, the other would eventually find out anything that we tried to hide. I guess that is what is meant by the phrase ‘double-edged sword’.

With all the turmoil that overwhelmed us, we had overlooked one very critical thing.

“Clara, I just had a thought. What are we going to tell your mother and father?’

“My real Dad died when I was six years old. Mom remarried and she divorced her second husband about five years ago. We lost touch with him over the past few years.

“I’m not sure how to tell my Mom. She has never seemed interested in my having a big fancy wedding, but I think that may be one of her dreams. I think I should just tell her what we plan, and hope for the best.”

Bob and Sharna broke into our conversation, “We were discussing it and we think Clara’s mother, Belinda, would make an excellent Ark Foundation employee.

“The Ark Foundation could use a lunch facility now, and the Ark will need dining facilities for the inhabitants. Belinda’s knowledge and experience would make her an ideal Vice President for a Food Service department.

“Actually, she would also make Jon a good Bond Mate.”

“NO! NO! NO! That is too much; it would be too weird for us to accept.”

“I agree with Jon. My mom and I sharing the same man is just ... eww.”

It was early evening by the time we realized we were hungry, so we got off the couch and headed for the kitchen to fix ourselves something to eat. During our meal, we continued our discussion of a Joining Ceremony. We both liked the idea of someone to officiate and witnesses. We believed that the two parties should publically declare their feelings for each other and declare themselves to be Bond Mates. We also considered the idea of adding a Bond Mate to an existing Bond Group. The new Bond Mate could describe her feelings for each of the existing Bond Group’s members and she could tell them what it meant to her to join the group. Then each of the group’s Bond Mates could tell the new Bond Mate what she meant to them personally and to the group.

As we finished cleaning up our dinner mess, we decided it was time for us to tell Belinda about our engagement and the Ark Foundation. Since it was still early in the evening, I followed Clara over to her place. When we arrived, Belinda was watching one of her TV shows. We joined her and made ourselves comfortable in the living room. Belinda’s attention was fixed firmly on the TV when Clara calmly said, “Mom, I’ve accepted Jon’s proposal of marriage.”

At first, Clara’s comment did not seem to register with Belinda. When it did, her head whipped around to stare at us and confirm what she thought she had heard. When she finally accepted that what she thought she heard was true, the two of them came together in the middle of the room. After a great number of hugs, tears, and utterances of joy, surprise, and shock they calmed down. Note to self: when informing a future mother-in-law of an engagement, wear earplugs.

The TV was turned off and the three of us moved to the dining room table to talk. Belinda said, “I’m so happy for you, but you haven’t been together very long. Certainly not long enough to get to know each other. Are you sure? It’s not wise to make such a serious commitment too quickly.”

“I agree with everything you say Mom. Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you fully, but this isn’t a normal relationship. You see, Bob and Sharna meddled in our relationship in a way that sort of accelerated everything.”

“Who are Bob and Sharna, and how did they accelerate your relationship?”

“Ah, Belinda, Bob and Sharna are two friends of mine that I introduced Clara to yesterday.

“I know it is difficult to believe, but they are from another galaxy and they enlisted my help a while back. The usual way that they prove their existence is to levitate people off the ground, so I suggest that you get comfortable in your chair and relax.”

As I finished warning Belinda of what was about to happen, Sharna raised Belinda and her chair above the floor by about two feet, rotated her chair in a full circle, and then set the chair back onto the floor.

Being elevated and rotated in a circle was a bit more than Belinda was expecting to happen to her. Her eyes were opened wide in shock, and it was all she could do to say, “I believe you.”

“Jon, I placed a compulsion on her to not talk about us and anything else you choose to tell her about the Ark and the meteoroids.”

“Thanks Bob.”

Clara had moved to the side of Belinda’s chair, and while kneeling on the floor, she grasped and held Belinda’s hand to reassure her. “Don’t worry Mom. Bob and Sharna are friends and they won’t harm you or us. There is a great deal more that Jon and I need to tell you about them, but I think we need to start off by explaining our relationship.

“Bob and Sharna communicate over a mental link. When Jon agreed to help Bob and Sharna as Bob’s Bond Partner, Bob created a permanent mental link with Jon so they could talk with each other. After I accepted Jon’s proposal, I also agreed to become Sharna’s Bond Partner. After she created a permanent link with me, Jon and I were able to communicate with Bob and Sharna and with each other over the link.

“However, the link is more than just a means for communication. It allows Jon and me to look deeply into each other’s mind. We can see how deeply we each care for the other, and we can tell what type of person the other is to include their thoughts and feelings. We each know the other far more completely and intimately than your average unmarried couple who have been dating each other for several years.”

I added to Clara’s comment, “Belinda, we each know that the other is not a perfect person, but we can also see that we are right for each other.”

“Clara, I am going to accept what Jon and you are telling me. I have a hard time understanding how something like that can be true, but I will accept that you know what you are talking about.”

“Mom, there are several other things that you need to know. Jon, would you tell my Mom about the meteoroids and the shelter?”

It took a while, but I explained the meteoroid shower and virus, the Ark, and the Ark Foundation to Belinda. Then I explained Bob and Sharna’s suggestion that she join the Ark Foundation. By the time we finished, it would be an understatement to say Belinda was overwhelmed.

Belinda needed time to take in everything that had happened this evening, so I said it was getting late and I needed to head home. Clara and Belinda walked me to the door. Belinda gave me a kiss on the cheek and welcomed me to the family. Before I left, Clara gave me a very different type of kiss when we said good night.

On the way home, I contacted Bob, “Bob, we need all of our silver ingots and 100 of our gold ingots moved to the barn for delivery to the buyer’s representative at noon tomorrow. Can you and Sharna do that for me?”

Sure, that will be easy to do. Do you need anything else done tonight?”

“Nothing comes to mind at the moment, but if I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”

When I finally climbed into bed, I fell asleep thinking about what I wanted in a relationship with Clara. The next morning I was up early, got ready for the day, and then called Clara. I had considered using our mind link, but did not want to wake her if she had had a late night. I imagined that she and Belinda had talked for a while after I left.

Belinda answered the phone and told me that Clara was in the shower. I thanked her and hung up the phone. Very softly, I thought ‘Clara’ to activate our link, but she did not answer immediately. I could sense the surprise and shock in her thoughts when the link activated, after all this was the first time her link had activated without warning.

“Jon, is that you?”

“Yes darling, it’s me.”

“You startled me so much; I almost slipped and fell in the shower.”

“Your mom told me you were in the shower when I called, but it didn’t occur to me that you might fall.”

“Well, I’m happy to talk with you this morning. Was there anything special you wanted to discuss.”

“No, I thought we would just talk about anything that may have come up since I left last night. Oh yes, I did want to tell you that I loved you.”

“And I love you to.”

We talked for quite a while about the various topics that new couples typically talk about while she got ready to leave for her morning class at college. During our conversation, the subject of a ring came up.

“What are we going to do about a ring Jon?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well if we exchange wedding rings, then people will assume that we are married, so a standard wedding ring could result in us having problems with the authorities.

“Image a group of us living together wearing wedding rings. People will think we are married in the normal legal sense, and then the police, DA, and courts will get involved. There are a lot of bigots in this world and they will make trouble for us just because it looks like we are married.”

“Okay, I can see where you are headed. A ring is just a symbol of the relationship and other people will resent our using a ring as the symbol of our relationship. The simple answer is to use something other than a ring as our symbol. We could design a nice bracelet or necklace to use as our symbol. Other Bond Groups can come up with their symbol, but have a different design. Would that work for you?”

“I suppose it will. Let me give it some thought for a couple of days and play around with a design that will symbolize our Bond Group.”

As we were talking the phone rang, so I told Clara that I needed to answer it. It was Harry wanting to know if I was okay. I had forgotten about our morning meeting. I apologized to him profusely and explained that I had gotten engaged to Clara last night, and in the excitement, I had forgotten about our meeting. Harry gave me the usual kidding about getting engaged and kindly accepted my apology. Although he did mention that, my lapse was probably due to me using my small head to do my thinking. We agreed that considering the time, they should come out to the ranch to discuss the lease, since they had to be here to meet with the bullion buyer at 1:00 PM. I was thinking that I really needed to arrange for a secretary. Clara told me to make sure that the secretary was one of our Bond Mates, so I wouldn’t end up chasing some floozy around my desk.

I had forgotten that our link was open and was quite surprised by her comment. Now I had four matchmakers looking to provide me with more wives. I told Clara to remind me to introduce her to Delbar and her husband Amir; I must be a glutton for punishment. I said goodbye to Clara, since she had to leave for class, and it would not be a good thing to keep the link open while she was driving; at least until she became more accustomed to using the link. I then contacted Bob and Sharna to have them check out Delmar and Amir for Ark Foundation membership. They ran a successful grocery store so they may be ideal to help out with the provisioning aspects of stocking the Ark with food and other supplies.

While I waited for Harry and Sam to arrive, Bill returned my call regarding our purchasing the building. He told me that he would handle the building inspection and other items, and there was nothing further for us to do until it was time to close. Since that effort was under control, I decided to go out to the barn and see what $83 million dollars of bullion looked like. It looked like a large pile of silver colored metal bars and a somewhat smaller pile of yellowish colored bars. It was nothing special or startling.

While looking at the ingots, I considered the buying power of those two piles of metal and found that to be an eye opener. While I was thinking about what we would buy with those bars, Harry and Sam joined me in the barn. Like me, the bullion did not look like anything special to them, but they also appreciated its buying power.

We walked over to the house and sat down at the dining room table with cups of fresh, hot coffee; I preferred Columbian, Sam liked French Roast, and Harry wasn’t a coffee fancier so he was happy with whatever was available.

“Bill called me to let me know that he would handle everything that needs to be done and keep me informed of everything that is happening.”

Sam said, “Alright, but what we really want to know is how did you go from meeting the young lady one day, and getting engaged the next.”

“It is hard to explain everything, but when Sharna created a link with Clara, she and I were able to see each other in a way that I have never experienced before. We just knew that we should become partners for life.

“We both know that a traditional marriage will not work for us due to the Ark relationships needing to be based on polygamy. The way Bob and Sharna put it, we can just live together, or if we wish, we can have a commitment ceremony.

Sam said, “You need to be careful how you word your statements during your commitment ceremony Jon. Several court cases have established the precedence that a marriage ceremony creates legal bonds. Therefore, any ceremony that creates a legally enforceable commitment to a permanent relationship is a marriage; regardless of what you call it. Do that more than once and the courts will find you guilty of polygamy even though it is not a church or civil marriage.”

Harry countered with, “I think what Jon is thinking of as a Joining Ceremony, is an exchange of statements defining a committed personal relationship. Such a ceremony creates no legal commitments to remain together, so it cannot be defined as a marriage.”

Jon said, “I personally don’t care about the definitions as long as we don’t end up in jail. I will leave it up to the two of you to advise us as to how we can do this without running afoul of the law. Clara and I decided last night to use the terms Bond Mate, Bond Group, and Joining Ceremony. The Joining Ceremony would be each of us publically stating that we care for each other and wish to live together for the rest of our lives in a committed relationship.”

Sam said, “That shouldn’t create any type of problem. However, I am willing to bet that some religious idiot is going to raise a stink, so be careful how you phrase your personal commitment to each other.

“Before I forget it, I went to the Forest Service Office two days ago. I explained to them that I was a lawyer representing a client who is interested in leasing some land from them. They gave me a copy of a boilerplate lease and several pamphlets that describe the process of applying for a lease.

“I told the lady at the counter the sites we were thinking of leasing, and asked if they were available. She checked and told me one of them is currently leased. I thanked her and left telling her that I would return once I talked with my client.”

Harry and I reviewed the pamphlets and saw nothing that would cause us a problem with applying for a sub-surface lease. We discussed how we would make our approach and what we would say. We decided that Sam would return and talk with the lady who had helped him. He would explain that his client had an unusual lease request and that he wanted to discuss his request with a senior member of the Forest Service. We decided that we would present our case to the senior Forest Service official the way we had previously discussed. We would emphasize that the current lease on the leased site was for use of the surface and our building a shelter at that site below sea level would not conflict with the current leaser’s use of the land. We would also point out that the surface of the other three sites would still be available for lease, and when they were leased, the Forest Service would be collecting double rent money for each site. The three of us discussed in detail what would be said and who would be doing the talking, then adjourned for lunch.

During lunch, I informed them about my offer to Belinda of employment by the Ark Foundation and that I was considering making the same offer to Amir and Delbar. When I explained their backgrounds, they agreed that they would probably be good choices for filling our future needs.

The bullion buyer’s local representative showed up with an armored car, a security detail, an assay kit, and a scale. After Harry introduced us, we went to the barn to start transferring the bullion to the buyer.

He tested each bar to ensure that it was the appropriate material and then weighed it. When he finished, he totaled the weights of each type of bullion and gave us a receipt for the ingots. His security detail then loaded the ingots into the armored car and left to transport it to the airfreight depot at the Sacramento Airport.

The bullion buyer needed the silver in New York immediately to meet another customer’s order, so our sale was to be expedited. After they left, the buyer told us that due to the New York office’s urgent need for the bullion, we should hear from the company’s main office by Thursday or Friday at the latest. As he was departing, my link activated while Harry, Sam, and I were walking toward the house. It was Clara.

“Jon, I am on the way home from school. Do you want me to stop by your place or do you want to meet me at my home.”

“Come on out to the ranch.

“Clara, do you think it is a good idea to use our link while driving? Especially, since you haven’t gotten accustomed to it yet. Remember when I activated it this morning, you were so startled you almost slipped and fell.”

“Well now that I know what to expect, I shouldn’t react as much. Besides, it is no different than the phone ringing on a hands-free phone system.”

“That may be, but I believe that regardless of the phone system, handheld or hands free, talking to someone while driving takes your attention off the road and that increases the probability of having an accident.”

She didn’t exactly agree with me, but she did agree to talk with me after she arrived. When our link closed, I contacted Bob and talked about my concerns with Clara talking on the link while doing inherently dangerous things, and asked him if there was some way to create a protective shield around her.

“Jon, don’t worry. When I bonded with you, I created such a field around you and when Sharna bonded with Clara, she created a shield around Clara.

Your shields will protect each of you from almost every possible danger. If some guy were to punch you, you would feel nothing and he would probably break his hand. If someone shot you with a gun, the shield would stop the bullet and you would barely feel it. However, if you are ever hit with a 120mm round from a main battle tank, you might be knocked off your feet and backwards a bit, but you will not be harmed.

“If Clara were to have a major car accident with the body of the car caving in around her, the shield would protect her. While she would have to be cut out of the car, she would emerge unharmed. Except for fire and lack of air, I can’t think of a single thing that could harm the two of you with the shield in place.

That information gave me a great deal of comfort. When I finished talking with Sharna and Bob, Harry, Sam, and I were still walking back to the house; mental conversation is much faster than spoken conversation. By the time we got back to the dining room table, I had finished talking with Bob. Harry told me that he had put together complete employment packages for each of the 12 ladies, which included some additional paperwork that they needed to complete.

I told Harry and Sam I would make some phone calls and have the ladies come to the ranch tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. Harry said he would bring the packages. I then asked them if they had any ideas for duties that I could assign the ladies that would be beneficial for the Foundation. Harry and Sam rattled off at least a dozen things for them to do; some of the things were items I had on my private list of things I would do. I realized that I wanted to be involved in everything and was finding it difficult to relinquish direct control of every task. If I wasn’t careful, I could turn into a micromanager and wear myself out. I needed practice in delegating tasks and the responsibility to complete the tasks to others and then staying out of their way, unless they indicated that I was needed. Harry and Sam said their goodbyes and left. As they were driving away, Clara drove up to the house. I greeted her with a very satisfying kiss and hug, and then walked her over to the porch swing. Once we were settled, we told each other about our day’s activities.

Clara told me about her classes and we talked about how much she wanted to be a nurse. I asked if she would be interested in becoming a doctor instead and she said no. She explained that she wanted to have a family, and becoming a nurse was more in line with what she wanted to do in her life.

I told Clara about my day and about how I felt that I was becoming overloaded. She jokingly told me she would be happy to come to work for the Foundation as my secretary. I laughed and told her that I would be happy to chase her around my desk, but she already had a job with the Foundation and that surprised her. I explained that due to our links with Bob and Sharna, the four of us were Co-Presidents of the Foundation; but publically we needed to indicate only two Co-Presidents. I jokingly told her that she would have to pick up her share of the work or there would be repercussions. She missed that I was teasing and started apologizing for letting me down, so I stopped her and made it clear that I was just teasing. However, that did prompt a conversation about the Ark Foundation’s organization and what part she would play in running it.