I admit that sometimes I still wonder what would have happened with Arthur Mills had he participated in our regular orientation program before moving into the habitat. Might it have been different?

By the time he agreed to our contract, there was no time for him or his wife, Stacey, to participate in our regular orientation, where they would have learned the basics of who we were and where we were going. Our quarantine village had released its last resident just days before they arrived in Shively. Instead, they both signed all the necessary documents upon their arrival at the Inn, where they resided for a full thirty days, since Arthur could not provide a valid proof of vaccination.

We could not provide either of the Mills with mentors as we did with those who were quarantined within the habitats. And while I find it hard to believe that neither watched the orientation videos provided, their ignorance upon arrival was staggering.

I couldn't blame Cynthia for asking for a respite since she'd been dealing directly with them through their quarantine period. Effie believed either she or I should be the one to escort them, hoping the presence of a Foundation Board member, even a non-voting one, would leave a serious impression on him, and she thought I might impress him more with my multiple titles. I hated the idea, but given his personality attributes, I probably had the best chance of making a lasting impression. And so I found myself shepherding the Mills on their first day and was the first to introduce them to the habitats.

I'm not the tour guide Cynthia is, far from it, but I was also briefer in my guide remarks than anyone should be. While I was not prepared for them to be as ignorant as they were, I was also distracted by what I considered serious matters. Tensions were escalating rapidly worldwide, and all the intelligence Effie was receiving pointed to something imminent.

If they had more time to acclimate and absorb the information given to them, would Arthur have been more reconciled to the situation he found himself in? The compassionate aspects of myself wished it might have been the case.

The Foundation would never have recruited Arthur Mills, except for his knowledge of quantum physics and string theory. Recruiting scientists of all kinds was difficult; something in the field requires a focus that can eschew community interaction. Given our inability to conduct deep background checks, it was impossible to determine whether the traits gathered through our data collection were narcissistic in nature or a reasonable response within their chosen profession. We dangled our bait in front of several physicists who worked in quantum theory, far more capable than Arthur Mills; he was the only one who agreed to our contract. (1)

When Kevin and I came down in 2017, the population across all the habitats was one and a quarter million, with just over sixty thousand living in each. Since the Estimate, as it has come to be known, those who were part of the LCO migration initiatives chose to take the time constraints I voiced as a deadline to stock the habitats and double our population to two and a half million. We missed our goal, but not by much. By the time Arthur and Stacey joined us, we had increased our population by about fifty-three thousand residents in each habitat.

But our guardrails became thinner over the years as the need to rescue as many as possible superseded the slower requirement for knowing precisely who we were bringing in. First to go were the detailed and lengthy background checks; we didn't have enough people or time to delve deeply. The psych stability tests were eventually abandoned in favor of an analytic tool fed with data streams from social media posts and other sources. In most cases, the tool told us who met our standards and who did not. We were rushing against time and trying to bring down a majority before the pandemic hit, and we knew our quarantine measures would necessarily slow recruitment.

We lost a vital tool when Elon Musk, who owned the most influential social media network, decided to restrict anonymous automated searching. (2) While we might have been willing to pay the exorbitant fee demanded, the amount of information they required from us came at far too high a price.

We adapted our philosophy to attract individuals, along with their families, who possessed the skills we needed for both the present and the future, through five- or ten-year employment contracts with guaranteed upfront payment in regular monthly transfers from an escrow account. We hoped to entice them to our way of life as they lived among us for the duration of their contract. In effect, we were giving up the anonymity the Foundation had guarded so fiercely, to save as many as possible within the constraints of our social experiment.

Until Athur and Stacey Mills, those hoping to be contracted were required to attend an orientation session to introduce them to the concept of where they would be living and for minimal observation. They knew nothing about the habitat system, having been told the job they were being contracted for was in an underground city. Once approved, they were asked to sign an NDA, the Charter and their contract.

For the most part, we were successful. However, the Catastrophe occurred before any of the contracts expired. For those who had not fit in and were looking forward to the end of their contract, the aftermath revealed discordant notes in an otherwise harmonious community.