Chapter 15: Only the Strong Survive

Sometime in Michael’s past, supposedly smart and knowledgeable politicians had decreed and built a wall across the southern border of the United States to keep out unwanted immigrants. Michael thought from the start that it was much like trying to plug a pussy with a ring. As long as the reward was viewed as attractive enough, folks were going to keep trying until they succeeded. Now it wasn’t just reward - it was survival in its rawest form.

A two-thousand mile border fence sucked up a lot of resources, and the politicians had clearly failed to learn from such events as the Mariel Boatlift, refugees crossing the Mediterranean to escape mid-east genocide, and drug lords smuggling people as well as drugs. The resources to patrol many multiple thousands of miles of US coastline were severely reduced in order to staff and fund the two thousand miles of fence.

Pre-Swarm, he thought this meant the most desirable, educated, and especially law-abiding, immigration wannabes were severely restricted when compared to the desperate people whose first contact with the USA was to break a law. Now, with the Sa’arm presence, truly desperate people breached the borders in almost every possible way. Refugees even smuggled themselves into Canada and risked crossing the border near the Swarm’s presence in hopes of avoiding capture. The Sa’arm killed many of these, even more were unintentional victims of the napalming designed to slow the advancing Swarm.

Yet, politicians protecting their reelection prospects, continued to cling to old, emotionally based policies, diverting resources needed to fight the Sa’arm and alienating whole populations of potential allies.

Thinking that these illegal immigrants might prove to be a resource - on several fronts - Michael called a powwow with Sam and Randy. The powwow, of course, expanded to the usual cast.

“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Michael started, “the politicians and the good ole boys don’t want these folks, and I’m not real thrilled that they broke the law to get here. BUT, big chucks of them are exactly what I’m looking for: Kids making it through college in spite of the odds against them. Persistent tryers who failed and kept trying. Those who risked it all for their families.”

“Randy, that’s the first part of what I want to do,” Michael turned to his still boss and future security head. “Partner up with Immigration and see if the INS will give you a heads up when they find illegals, then make sure they have or get a CAP score, and we’ll offer extraction to those that fit our needs. We’ll offer the students extraction and with a parent’s okay, the opportunity to take younger siblings with them as dependents. Because they will be leaving the country voluntarily, everyone should be happy. At any of these extractions, offer extraction to US citizens that are present and qualify.”

He turned to Sam, “If you make sure that Randy has a current list of various colony needs, Randy can route them to your pool. Now that Lolli has enough crew and space, I plan to finish loading all our current colonists and then transfer any of our new extractions directly aboard right from the pickup point.”

Michael looked to reassure them both, “We are still some time away from departure, so I plan to maintain a skeleton staff here on Luna. But Sam, it would be a good idea to pool together the passengers you want transported to other colonies - including the ones we promised to Novo Roma. I’ve reserved room to transport ten thousand sponsors with families, and am willing to make up to five delivery stops while we are in transit. If you let your folks know, they can get planning and execute. Just make sure that every passenger knows and understands the rules of conduct while aboard. I’ve placed the recordings in the library.”

“We need kids, lots of kids,” Michael continued. “Contact the refugee settlements and have them send us orphans or any children parents are willing to turn over to us for a promise of extraction. We’ll take kids and staff from our own orphanages and foster homes in the States. We’ll need more teachers, social workers, nurses, caregivers - so send them my way - sponsor or concubine. We’ll weed out the unsuitable ones.”

Michael smiled, “Now the best part from the worst circumstances. There are thousands of kids walking north from central and South America. I want them. I want them all, but I’m willing to share. There are kids who’ve hiked, hitchhiked, whatever for hundreds and thousands of miles. We’ll take as many as we can find, and assimilate them into the colony. We can probably use the college and high school kids to mentor them.”

“The Mexicans must be beside themselves with all the refugees heading north, and the US refusing to help alleviate the pressure. Luckily, Katie speaks fluent Spanish so I’ll send her down to speak with the Mexican president. I need a guy to go with her to stall off any machismo, sexist bull crap. I’ll go with her myself if needs be. Anyway, we’ll offer to take a ton of kids and CAP tested folks capable of taking care of them.”

Cathleen and Sunny instigated and ran another project to extract children. Following the pattern set by Katie in setting up the Merchant Marine Academies extraction, they recruited the CEO of a prominent children’s research hospital and the subsequent extraction at the eighty-bed hospital netted nearly a thousand children, family members, and healthcare providers from the hospital, its outpatient population, and its affiliated clinics. The on-the-ground coordination was sophisticated, but was exceeded by that at the receiving end.

Cathleen pulled heartstrings, used whatever clout she could muster, and called out the remaining cadre of extracted teachers, students, and victims to receive the arriving children and families. The sick were immediately moved to a med tube. The sheer volume of extreme illnesses and injuries tied up almost all available med tubes for several days. There was not a single begrudging comment.

When the now healthy children were escorted aboard The Good Ship Lollipop, T’Kuudshpp, attired in its Shirley Temple persona, delighted the boarding younglings and was delighted in return. Would it not have been perceived as an insulting comparison to the Darjee, one might even have said that Lolli took the arriving children under its wing.