The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

Alterians smiled. Dr. Bentley stood up.
“Well, some of us might like the other continents, especially some of the small islands, we have fishermen with us who would like to fish there,” he informed them. Harry stood up.
“Excuse me for interrupting but if any Alterians move to Eden then the continent of Eden is the only continent they will be permitted on, the rest of the continents belong to me and I don’t want anyone living on them,” he said firmly. A few people grumbled.
“I can see why people wouldn’t like living on Savannah or I can see why you don’t want to share the Greek Islands, Henry, but are you telling us that you won’t permit people to live on Sherwood?” his mother Kate stood up and asked. Harry nodded.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Mother, Sherwood is my continent and I might want to live there someday. We all might want to live there someday, we’re going to have a very long time to decide where we want to live and I like Sherwood and I don’t want a lot of people crowding it,” he stated and stressed the words ‘long time.’ A few people got it and laughed. She didn’t and frowned at him.
“For heaven’s sake, Henry, Sherwood is a very large continent, millions of people could live there comfortably, I don’t see how a few thousand Alterians could get in your way,” she insisted. He shrugged.
“It’s not up for debate, I said no and it’s final,” he said firmly and with a sigh, she sat down. Mayor Daniels looked at him and frowned.
“Who are you, what’s your name?” he asked. Harry smiled.
“My name is Harry Talbert and I see that you do indeed have a serious problem and nowhere else to go, so, yes of course you must bring your people down to Eden and make your home here, but you must do it on the continent of Eden,” he told him firmly. “But as you can see; it is a very large continent and there is plenty of room for growth, the weather on the west coast is very harsh in the winter and there is no snow on the east coast but they do get horrible bugs in the summer.”
“We don’t have to worry about weather, we have weather shields that can block out the snow easily and we really wish to build out town next to yours so that we can enjoy the company of you humans and live together in peace and harmony,” the Mayor said smoothly. Harry thought him the typical politician.
“If you need help bringing your people and their belongings down, I have a ship capable of bringing down two thousand bins at one time and we have several pilots who can help,” he offered and the three people beamed.
“That would be splendid,” the Mayor said. “We have a shortage of pilots and only three ships and they are small ones, our religion forbids flight and we had to pray very hard to permit our people to learn to fly these small ships. Once we are down, they will be destroyed.” Harry thought that a terrible waste, but it was their wacky religion and who was he to argue with that.
The three Alterians walked back to their ship to fly back to their ship in orbit and tell their people they had a new home and everyone began to talk excitingly about the new arrivals. Harry let them talk for a few minutes before he walked to the front of the room.
“Listen, everyone,” he shouted and they all turned to look at him. Max sighed.
“Now what?” he snapped. Harry smiled at him.
“Just a few words of caution before we welcome these new people to our planet,” Harry informed them. Sarek nodded. “Now, we don’t know who these Alterians are and what effect the atmosphere will have on them, if they will age the same way we are, so I think we shouldn’t mention anything about our long lives to them until we can determine that they have been affected the same way,” he suggested and his mother Kate stood up.
“I agree with you, Henry, if these Alterians aren’t affected by the atmosphere the same way we are and they age differently it could cause a serious conflict,” she told everyone. Dr. George stood up.
“I agree, we say nothing to the Alterians about our aging process until we determine what their aging process is,” he agreed. Max sighed.
“But what will we tell them?” he asked. Harry shrugged.
“There is no need to tell them anything about us and our medical history, it’s none of their business and the less they know about humans the better it will be. They’re going to outnumber us four hundred and eighty-seven to one and that number will only increase so the less they know about us the less power they’ll have over us,” he explained. Sarek nodded.
“I agree with, Harry, there is no need for the Alterians to know anything about humans or minosians, our physiology is none of their business, they are not our doctors and we won’t be going to them for medical help or services so they don’t need to know anything,” he said firmly. His wife stood up.
“I agree one hundred percent, we would be foolish to tell them anything about ourselves, even if they appear to be friendly, they are strangers and we don’t know them, you do not tell strangers things that could be used against you, that is foolish,” she stated. Everyone nodded.
“Fine, fine, we won’t tell them anything, I think you’re all being silly, but if that’s what you want to do, I’ll go along with it,” Max said and everyone nodded. Harry and Sarek went to the scuba shop and pulled all the oxygen tanks and loaded up the Elizabeth and flew up to the ship in orbit. They greeted them warmly and gave them more oxygen which they needed and Harry showed them city layouts on his engineering computer which they didn’t have and they found one they loved and when he told them he could build the roads in about three weeks they hugged him. Their ships couldn’t do that. They decided to stay in orbit while he built the roads and he and Sarek flew back down and started to dig roads and make the city.
While Harry and Sarek build roads and house plots, Mayor Daniels and Mona met with Max and Charles and the other people and formed a government and arranged a treaty and signed it. Other Alterians came down and everyone became very friendly and it looked like the three species were off to a great start. The humans were very happy to see more people after all this time alone and the Alterians were very friendly people.
Once all the roads were built Harry and Sarek began bringing down people and bins filled with houses and supplies. The Alterians were very organized so everything was brought down in the proper order and put exactly where it needed to go and Harry appreciated that. It made things a lot easier for him to drop off bins exactly where they went and he told Jake every night he loved an organized people which made his husband laugh.
Within a month the ship was empty and they just left it up there to burn up in the atmosphere and what they did with their three ships Harry never knew, according to Bali, their four-headed God they weren’t allowed to fly anymore once they got on the planet so they destroyed the ships. Max wanted him to ask for the ships but Harry didn’t think that was such a good idea because they weren’t their ships and after their religion thing, he didn’t want to mess with that.
“Harry, the mayor wants to talk with you about getting some money, the Alterians want to use the same money that we use,” Charles informed him the next day. Harry nodded, that seemed like a good idea to him too. So the next day he drove over to their temporary City Hall and met with Mayor Daniels.
“You own the bank, how interesting that such a young man would own the bank,” the mayor said and Mona Patterson nodded. Harry shrugged.
“I’m the one who put up the twenty million to fund the economy so it’s my bank,” he told them and they looked surprised.
“You funded the human economy, very clever, we would want twice that of course, since there are so many of us, we would deposit forty million in gold in your depository, do you insure its safety?” he asked. Harry nodded.
“Oh, yes, my depository is very secure, no one’s going to get into that building, I have the best security system on the planet, in fact, I’m the only one who could hack into it,” he bragged and they both laughed. They followed him over to Edenville in an armored car with armed guards and he showed them the security and they were very impressed. They put their forty million in with his twenty million and he told them he would deliver forty million in cash and coins as soon as possible. He gave them a receipt for the gold and they drove back to Medford which was the name of their city. He thought that an odd name for an alien city, it sounded very human, but then so did all of their Alterian names.
For the next week Harry and Jake worked at the depository printing lots of currency and coins for the Alterians and then loaded it up in their Jeeps and drove it over to Medford to deliver it. The mayor was astonished that they had just put it into their Jeeps without armed guards and not called for their armored car.
“You could have been robbed, are you two insane?” he asked. Harry grinned.
“Don’t worry, Mayor, no one knew we were coming today so they couldn’t rob us and besides, we know everyone in town so if they robbed us we would know them,” he reasoned and the man sighed. They loaded the money into the armored car for safety and Harry got his receipt back and ripped it up. He and Jake drove home laughing at the silliness of the whole thing.
“Well, now that there are eighty-five thousand, eight hundred and ninety-seven of us on the planet and of course more to follow, I guess we’ll be needing that bank and money now, honey,” Harry told Jake who nodded.
“I guess but it kind of gives me the creeps to be so out numbered like this,” he admitted and Harry nodded.
“Yeah, me too, that Dr. Bentley, there’s something about him that I find creepy, I don’t like him at all,” he confessed and Jake sighed and hugged him.
“Oh, well, they give us too much trouble, we can just move to Sherwood to get away from them,” he told him and Harry agreed.
“Yeah, that’s why I wouldn’t let any of them move there, I wanted to keep Sherwood as a back up continent,” he said and Jake nodded.
“I thought as much, boy your mom is a dumb as a light-bulb, everyone in the town meeting got that except for her,” he said and they both laughed.
“She just likes to impress people with how much influence she has, look at me see what I can do,” Harry told him. Jake nodded.