It would take time for transportation vessels to be prepared and for them to travel from Gad to Earth. In the interim, people began to prepare for the great migration. Some who had for their entire lives struggled to deny their actual ancestry now rushed to resurrect it. Others, though eligible, showed no interest in the grand offer, preferring to remain on the homeworld no matter how paradisiacal any offworld opportunities might be. Despite the overt generosity of the Gadeu and the reassurances offered by the four returned humans, there were always the suspicious, the skeptical, and the downright disinterested.

But many—very many—opted to accept the offer.

Not just in Israel but descendants of Abraham and Isaac, Sarah and Rebecca all across the planet were faced with the heart-rendingly permanent decision to stay or leave. Many of those who had formed deep friendships or working relationships with those who were not eligible to migrate opted to remain.

One who did wish to go but who was not qualified manifested itself in the person of Dev as he joined others in a conference room at the Pentagon not long after having been returned. Among those he recognized were Michael Corren, a colleague from NASA; Emilio Natase of the European Space Agency; Wang His of the China Space Division, and the lovely but at present dead serious Maria Amotenada, science advisor to the White House. Outnumbering them were an assortment of colonels, generals, and mostly rear admirals. Though Dev had participated in and contributed to many such meetings, it was the first time he felt truly overwhelmed. Not by the number of participants as much as by the topics to be discussed.

As soon as a Colonel Davis formally opened the meeting, Amotenada turned to Dev.

“How can we be sure these descendants of long-absent offspring of Earth have no inimical designs on our present-day world? How do we know they won’t come back still promising help, even if only to a certain segment of the population, as a cover for future conquest?”

“Of course,” one admiral murmured, “if they’re only interested in taking revenge on certain small portions of the population, in a certain limited part of the world …”

As he mentally assembled an appropriate response, Dev found himself wondering, not for the first time, if he really wished to continue identifying as a member of his species. The A'jeii were more subtle, the Olone more direct. There was nothing for it, however. He was stuck with being a human inhabitant of Earth whether he wished to identify as such or not.

“The Gadeu want only to offer a haven to those descendants of the relatives their own ancestors were forced to leave behind. Nothing more.”