Soon Yee has worked for me over five years. She’s not a Psycept, but Kyle is and Zhengli shows signs that she inherited her father’s fauna PsySapient abilities. This would mean that Soon Yee has some recessive traits somewhere in her background. Kyle and she don’t want to genetically test Zhengli now, they feel it’s a decision Zhengli can make for herself when she’s older. Soon Yee and Kyle are treating her as a normal six-year-old child who has an affinity for animals. They’re not ignoring the possibility, rather allowing her abilities to not limit her choices in life. I spot Kyle and Echo enter the room and make their way to me.
“Thanks for sticking around, Gray. Soon Yee said she was texting you and I hope you’ll be okay with staying to talk with me here rather than leaving right away.”
“No problem. Do you want to have a seat?”
“At the bench? Yes, we can spread out some things. Echo’s been fed and watered and should be good for a couple hours.”
“It’s not going to take a couple of hours, is it? We both have tomorrow to think about.”
“No, I’m referring to the bike ride back home you have to make. Should be max twenty minutes to talk.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“So, this is even more work than I thought it would be. Maddie and I were both finally convinced to come forth as candidates. I’ve only been here six years, one of the few asylum applicants that trickled in this decade as you know. But Maddie’s been here about a dozen and I wish she’d won the vote; I don’t know what I’m doing. Soon Yee helps, but I this isn’t what she agreed to when we chose to seek asylum.
“Have you noticed, most new residents that trickled in are PsySapients? I wasn’t treated badly in Canada nor was there any indication that the government had designs on PsySapients. I mean, what, we’re going to take care of the horses for the military cavalry unit that doesn’t exist any longer? But I could feel this weight hovering and pressing down on me. I can’t explain it very well, but I knew I had to leave. Since we left San Francisco, there have been many issues brought to mainstream light about the massive deaths of animals in the ocean and how sick the environment is. The acidity of the water, the garbage floating in the Pacific, the highest surface temperatures of the oceans ever recorded. These things were already out there from climatologists, oceanic scientists, and environmentalists, but like most of the world, I just didn’t pay attention. But it was all I could do to breathe sometimes. I feel a lot better after moving to SWACon, but I also feel guilty for not staying and trying to do things to save the environment, especially the animals as they have too few to speak for them.
“Anyway, back to why I wanted to speak with you. I don’t want to keep using Soon Yee as an assistant, I know she’s just helping me out for now. What do you suggest? Can I get together with you before upcoming meetings and proposals?”
“Kyle, I completely understand. I hired Dio and I’m paying him out of my own pocket now. But Jamison and I are meeting with the ABQ Financial Chief in a couple of weeks to discuss our expenses and budget. I’m hoping to get approval to hire aides for councilors. I should have more information about possible aides for us all afterwards. If Soon Yee can hang on for another council meeting pending further information, that would be great. Even if aide money isn’t approved, there may be a PsySapient that wants to volunteer as an aide. Or maybe we can make arrangements with a college or university to have interns in exchange for course credit.
“I truly want to help you, but I don’t think regularly meeting together before council meetings will accomplish this. Dio and I can meet with you and Soon Yee to discuss my process, what I look for in the proposals and agenda, general stuff like that. But I don’t want to influence or sway our opinions by meeting with you to discuss exact proposals. We all come at these things from different perspectives and I want to retain that separateness and uniqueness as much as possible.”
“Thanks, Gray. Yes, to meeting with you and Dio to discuss generalities. Soon Yee would also like that, she’ll use it to help come up with process that works for me.”
“Dio and I can talk to you sometime Friday morning. I’ll have him check our schedules and send an invite.”
“Sounds good, we appreciate it.”
With that, I’m finally able to return home. We’ll have a busy day tomorrow seeing to the new residents.
CHAPTER SIX
Sunday afternoon finds me standing in the center of an apartment block housing the largest number of new residents. The center is surrounded by six neighboring complexes, thus ideal as my main location. I wear a radio chest harness with multiple pockets including one for my two-way radio with my mic headset clipped to the outside of the harness. The pockets are filled, my largest pocket holds my tablet, my phone is tucked into its pocket, a small writing pad and pen are in another within easy reach of the radio pouch. My smartwatch is strapped to my left wrist and each processing booth has two handheld radios they can contact me with. If a visual is needed, they dial me up on the video chat app installed on all the computers and share their screens. Or position the person in front of the camera if I need to speak with a new resident or someone directly. There is a battery charger station and I carry extra batteries for my phone and the radio. If anyone claims they couldn’t get ahold of me if an issue arises, I will riot.
My team and I are efficiently processing
