By the morning of June fourth, two days after the New Hope entered Earth orbit, Nick was feeling pretty overwhelmed. Over 187,000 emails in the past 12 hours alone. Somebody at yxzmail must have noticed my account and leaked it.

Nick remembered reading comic books where the heroes talked about how the world always needed saving, and how hard it was not to spend every waking moment rescuing people. He knew that everybody needed rest, but he was feeling that pressure now. I could kill dictators, blackmail people, topple governments, build rivers in the desert probably. He had never found those discussions satisfying. There was no neat little four-color solution to the problem of how to wield vast power for good.

I could find mineral deposits. Fix climate change. Search and rescue. Root out corrupt cops and politicians. Stop crimes in progress. How do I cope with all of this? I can't, there's no way. Nick thought about the morals of some of those stories.

I can't do it alone. We have to save ourselves, and each other. I need people to put in charge of charitable foundations, law-enforcement support, anti-corruption organizations...

I bet Vanessa would run a humanitarian foundation, or know who to ask. Then, I'd have to vet them, look for their dirty little secrets. I need to protect the people I ask to do these things, too. How do I keep them safe? I can't bring them all up...here...huh.

Nick shook his head and grinned, then headed down to the quarantine area. He found half a dozen curious aliens staring at the humans; it reminded him of exhibits in a zoo. They were having conversations too, but that was his first impression.

He found Jillian Mason recording a video on her phone, and waited until she finished the take. Then, he waved to her for attention. She hurried right over when she saw him. "Nick! Hi! What's up?"

"Hi, Jillian. I've got a favor to ask, and it's right up your alley, I think."

She grinned at him, her blond hair waving as she tilted her head. "Shoot."

"I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the things I need to do, and one of those is figuring out which pieces of technology to give Earth first. I was wondering if you would be willing to make a poll on your website, and ask people what they would like. I'm sure there's things lots of people want that I don't even know to ask for."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Oh, I feel you, Nick. I've actually got a poll like that already going, but I can make a couple more. I can tell you right now that advanced medicine is going to be most of the top ten."

"Yeah, well, I can't speed up the medical stuff, so maybe a poll of the not-medicine stuff?"

"Absolutely. Hey, can I record you asking for it? I can put a sound bite in my post."

Nick agreed, and it actually took four takes before she was satisfied. He had to admit that he sounded a lot better in the last version. "You're good at what you do," he observed.

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't," she answered cheerfully. "Gotta keep the quality up. Rise to the moment, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I definitely do."

"Hey." She leaned closer to the transparent wall. "You seem like a good guy, Nick. I'm glad it was you." Her gaze bored into him, as if willing him to believe her. "Seriously, this would be overwhelming for anybody. You're doing the most important things. You are rising to the moment. Don't slack off, but give yourself some credit."

"Thanks."

"Besides, I absolutely loved it when you basically told the whole world not to be dumbasses. You know that's a meme going around, right? It's like, extra peer pressure not to be a dumbass right now. If you did that on purpose it was brilliant."

Nick grimaced. "No, it was an accident."

"In some ways, that's even better." She punched the transparent material between them gently. "This is me punching you in the shoulder. You've got this."

"Thanks." He tried to think of a way to be polite and make conversation. "So, how are you holding up?"

"Well, one day down, I guess. Hopefully only one day to go."

"You must have tons to talk about already."

"Oh, yeah. Breakthroughs in medicine, I think we've got five cures for diseases promised so far, and that's just what we happened to be carrying in our bodies. Dr. Hernandez is very excited."

"I'll bet. How is the acclimation going?"

"Well, we've already had the pills full of new gut bacteria. Dr. Vickall said that you had it with no problems, and it will enable us to eat alien food. Sort of like taking a Ga-Lact-Aid," she joked.

"That's good! Definitely put it in one of your videos," Nick encouraged her. "No surprises with your health, specifically?"

"No, I'm all good, so far as I know. Wouldn't mind a tune-up to be eighteen again, but I guess we'll find out what's possible and what's still impossible even for aliens centuries ahead of us in technology. Of course, everybody's top concern is protecting Earth from alien plagues, so that always comes first."

"Absolutely."

"Apparently, we'll get tested individually, exposed to alien germs, and if none of us get sick with that, then we can mingle up here, and we'll be one step closer to aliens being able to visit Earth. Of course, it might be longer than that for Penny."

Nick asked Petra silently, then answered, "Oh, Penny is Penelope, the sick girl on the bed?"

"Uh, yeah, Nick, Penelope Ann Montpelier? The billionaire heiress?"

Nick shrugged helplessly. "I don't keep track of the rich and famous."

"No? Don't you like music, or movies?"

"Sure, but I just never got into following what actors do when they're not acting. Not my thing. Besides, there's like thousands of billionaires now, and some of them must be super into privacy."

"Well, you're probably going to be a billionaire yourself soon, if you play your cards right."

"I've got a friend working on that. He's happy to make me stupendously rich and get a good cut for himself. I'm glad to let him handle it."

"Can you trust him?"

Nick smiled. "With my life."

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