Journal

The ancient journal continued:

'It took three years for the SenSaru to move their entire population to the new colony, though their ships continued making supply and salvage runs for several years after that. They, at least, got started right away. It took Earth's Human population most of that three years just to make the decision to mount and support the colony, let alone get started making preparations.

Final convincing, and the largest source of colonists, came from an unlikely source – unlikely at first glance, at least: Global Warming. As my readers know, our beloved Pacifica is made entirely of islands; indeed, our largest land mass is less than half the size of the smallest of Earth's continents. Which made it a perfect destination for the populations of all the islands and low coastlines being slowly inundated by the rising sea levels on Earth. A single trip to Pacifica by the leaders of those island nations is all it took; they had their people begin packing the moment they returned. And as most of them were living a very simple lifestyle to begin with, they had a much easier transition of it than those who came from the technically advanced flooded cities such as New Orleans and Venice.

Quite a bit of the initial resistance, of course, was sheer outraged reaction to the original raid by Commander SesTok carrying off some three hundred mostly female captives. His willingness to return them, and his very public apology, did much eventually to carry the day. The fact that he immediately took action upon learning of the ill treatment four of the girls had suffered during his captivity at the hands of a few of his crew was also a huge factor in his favor, and by extension the SenSaru. He took pains to discover the identity of those crewmen and turned them over to the girls they had wronged as their 'slaves', their punishment by SenSaru justice. The girls, learning they could, each decided to return the slaves to SesTok for their terms of service; he put them into the same pool of common laborers as he had his former second, JanDel. Although SenSaru justice is harsher and more primitive than that of so-called sophisticated Earth societies, the case marked only the first of many adjustments to be made on both sides.

SesTok made regular runs between Earth, SenSaru'a, and Pacifica those first three years, carrying diplomats, scientists, and supplies, and then offered his ship as the flagship for the transport of the Human colonists when their turn came. He also carried three linguists that entire time; by the time the first Human colonists were ready to move, they had developed not only a good English/SenSaru dictionary, but also basic courses to teach both sides the other's language. (English became the de-facto Human common tongue early on, following the worldwide trend already in existence.)

The three year delay worked for me, as well, as I was able to finish out my residency during that time, switching from brain surgery to general surgery and practice, and so could volunteer for the colony as a much-needed doctor. I didn't have the training to join the team of biologists working on SenSaru reproduction, but general practitioners were needed as much as geneticists were. In fact, I didn't even make it to the colony to live for several more years, as SesTok requested I join his ship as a healer for the Humans in transit, as well as his own crew. We retired from Fleet service together some eight years after that and built our home overlooking Marusska Bay, to raise our family.

The first few 'generations' of SenSaru children were ninety-eight percent infertile SenSaru clones, created in the lab and gestated in Human wombs, the same as in-vitro children already being created on Earth. Only after they had a good grasp on the natural SenSaru biology did they begin slowly integrating the two genomes, aided by the discovery of a genetic catalyst, leading eventually to the naturally cross-fertile population being born today. The genetic lab was only closed five years ago, no longer needed.

Our children, mine and SesTok's, were obviously of some of the first generations, very close to being his clones. Their children, our grandchildren, were therefore also started in the lab, but our recent great-grandchildren are all proudly natural-born.

Even though there were many SenSaru factions - and human ones, too - who did not want to "pollute the bloodlines" with each other's stock, sensible heads prevailed there, too. I wrote this also as a reminder of the dire situation of the time; the SenSaru would not have lived even another twenty years on their home planet, nor another generation without that mixing.

So, dear reader, I hope that I have laid to rest at least some of the untruths surrounding our early days and the founding of Pacifica. I didn't seduce SesTok, or the Council, and I certainly didn't start an intergalactic incident which had to be covered up by becoming pregnant! Nor were there wars, or unwilling captives ripped from their homes and forced to become colonists against their will, nor was SesTok a traitor to the Council or SenSaru'a.

Marusska's Promise, as made through the Traveler, will yet come true, when our distant children return home to SenSaru'a.

The Truth is always more interesting than the Lie.

Here stands Donna Marie Gallifrey n'ta SesTok, First Elder Mother of Pacifica.