It wasn't much longer before the evacuation plans fell apart. The colony was ready to go long before their estimated evacuation date, apparently the population more than believed their lives were in danger and found efficiency to be a very useful survival tool. They had also collected enough data from their network of Satellites to confirm the speed and width of the wave. It would blanket the sky in less than eight months. This wasn't a problem for the human population who had successfully tested the ring and was ready to travel through it. But the Starseed's tree was not yet ready and based on its growth rate, they would be cutting their evacuation very, very close.
The Starseeds sent a representative to the colony senate, the representative urged the humans to leave while they could and assured them that the Starseed population would take care of itself. Their collective consciousness had covered almost half the planet in inky darkness and the sooner the humans had gone the sooner they would have less territory to defend from their own thoughts.
The senate discussed for nearly a day. In the end they voted to leave ahead of schedule. By the end of the week, they would abandon their colony.
Mew and Eamon went home for the last time expecting their father to be in sour spirits, just as they were. But he turned out to be just the opposite. He was ecstatic. He met them at the front door smiling ear to ear. "Come in, Come in!" He ushered them in and shut the door behind them.
"Why are you so happy?" Eamon asked.
Their father sat them at the dining room table and pulled a box out from under the table. "My children are going to outlive me." He pulled the top of the box off to reveal freshly printed books. "And I have finished my life's work." His eyes gleamed as he picked up a copy and handed one to each of his kids. "Not a moment too soon I might add." He laughed at his own morbid joke.
"Dad that's not funny." Mew glared at him. Eamon opened the front cover of his book and his father stopped him. "Don't read them till you've gone through the ring." He demanded. "I want this to be the way you remember me, horrible sentence structure and all." His smile softened.
Eamon closed his book slowly and Mew looked like she was about to shatter into a million pieces. She leaned over and hugged him tightly, crying quietly into his shirt. Eamon gave up, stood up, walked over and hugged his father as well. It was the most affection his kids had ever shown him and it made him smile. "You two best not wear yourselves out. We still have to say good bye later tonight."
Mew squeezed him hard enough to make him groan.
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