Chapter 9

Once all of the known foggers were destroyed, the Homlins began a systematic search for humans. Ann, who was used to talking into a microphone became our spokesperson. She recorded a message asking humans to show themselves, explaining that there was no longer any danger from the fog. Since the message was in English, we concentrated our search to Canada and the USA.

The Homlins were flying the scout version of the UFO. It was a one-person ship that was no larger than the common light airplane prior to the Octron attack. There were enough stored in the larger UFOs so that every Homlin could take one and assist in the search for humans. As soon as they would find a likely place for humans to be living, the small UFO swooped down and broadcast Ann’s message.

Strangely enough, the GPS satellites were still in operation, and the Homlin sent its position to our headquarters in Buena Vista whenever a human was spotted. One of us used the transporter device to jump to the indicated location to try to talk the human into joining us. This personal visit was almost always successful. There were a few refusals, but the vast majority of people were quite happy to join a thriving community, especially when they were made aware of the benefits we had to offer.

We picked up over 4,000 people by this means and had a very respectable community going in Buena Vista by the time we had covered the USA and Canada. Among those people, we found someone to speak practically every language that was common, and we had recordings of the same message that Ann had originally used. We managed to recruit a large number of Hispanics from Mexico and south. We never could figure out why we got such a poor response from Brazil, but there were only 87 people to join us from that vast country. None of them were the native Amazonian Indians, but that was not surprising. We had no one who could speak their languages, and they were suspicious of anyone who spoke the official Brazilian Portuguese.

Our plan was to get Earth back on its feet. As far as the Homlins knew, humans were the only race that was naturally resistant to the mental powers of the Octrons. As soon as possible, a study was begun to try to determine just what it was that made humans immune to that mind control. The hope was that the replicators could make some sort of device that was resistant to the Octrons the same way as the humans were. Truthfully, nobody held out much hope for such a gadget, but it was still worth working on.

Meanwhile, the replicators began turning out versions of the AA-12 combat shotgun tailored to fit the Homlins. Thompson was appointed instructor in the use of the AA-12 by the Homlins, and he did as good a job with them as he did with the Marines and with us. Within a few weeks, all of the Homlins on Earth were fully trained with the use of the combat shotgun. Since there were so many planets in the galaxy that had been taken over by the Octrons, Thompson had a life-time job as a shooting instructor if he wanted it. He did promise to train some Homlin instructors before he permanently retired.

All of the Octron spaceships that were on Earth were actually operated by Homlins, so there was no problem finding somebody to be the crew of the commandeered ships. As far as anybody knew, all humans were equally resistant to the Octron mind control, so it was planned that four humans would travel with each spaceship as it was sent from Earth to liberate other planets. There was no trouble in finding human volunteers to go with the Homlins to free people on other planets.