At the lead scientist's words, the other engineers and scientists began to examine and look over their tablets and the holo displays that allowed them to monitor the transfer of the data and the translation into language we could comprehend without having to rely on the linguists and their efforts to translate the long-dead language of the Rif'nay'fex.

"Any indication on how much data there is?" I asked Jacksons.

"None before this," he told me. "It was hypothesized that the Rif'nay'fex left more than we've made and stored in our entire civilization as Humans and the Deva Collective. At last count that was nearly five thousand zetabytes. The servers down there are rated to hold more than fifty times that."

"Do you think that'll be enough?" I asked him.

"We can hope," he answered.

"How long before we're seeing what's useful for us and what's just stuff like history and bank account numbers?" Carrie asked.

"Honestly?" Jacksons said looking toward her. "Weeks at the minimum. Otherwise it could even be decades."

"Seriously? Why not just turn the Cybers loose on it all?" she demanded.

"That is after the Cybers are allowed to access it all," I told her. "They'd still have to sort through all of it and flag the parts that match with what we're looking for. After that, people are going to have to go through the whole thing and make sure that it is what we want and not just something that was flagged incorrectly. Cybers aren't infallible."

"Additionally, we don't want to repeat the Wardens blunder," Jacksons said. "They relied on the Cybers and their interpretations of the Internet and that accident, while one that worked out for them, is what led to the death of ninety-nine humans with almost no weapons."

"Still can't believe someone's made a movie on that," Carrie said. "They died in atmosphere, none of them made it to the ground. Well, you did Rickshaw, but not the rest of them."

"I've never cared to see that movie," I said. "I lived it, I don't need to see the dramatization of it."

"For the best if you ask me," Carrie said. "Sarah, Bunny, and I watched it and the movie ends with the actor playing you hooking up with one of the actresses."

"If I'd done anything like that, then I'd be in prison," I said. "Like you pointed out none of the others made it to the ground."

"Gross!" she cried. "I don't need that image!"

"What about the one where they made a love story out of the hero and the Scourge Queen?" Jacksons asked.

"I nearly threw up a little at that one," I said. "That was about the time I decided I didn't want to see anymore movies that featured the Nephilim-Scouge fight."

"Isn't that like all of them now?" Carrie asked.

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Before I could answer, the engineer in the containment theater turned to look up at the observation room and called out.

"We've got all the data, sir! Even have a little room left over!"

"How much room?" I asked over the intercom.

"About seven gigabytes," he answered.

"Wow, you guys cut it kind of close, didn't you?" Carrie said to Jacksons.

"Prepare to have the Cybers start sorting it all out," I told the engineer in the room. "After that, all of you go for a beer or something. You've earned it."

"No arguing here," he said with a grin before turning back to give out orders to others in the room, soon after the ones that had left for safety returned and they all gathered together around the tablets and displays to go over all the data from monitoring the transfer and to make preparations for the Cybers that would be allowed to sort the data and flag the parts considered important.

"Speaking of beer," Carrie said. "I could go for some drinks myself. Want me to grab Bunny and Sarah and the four of us get together for some margaritas and Mexican food?"

"I've got work," I said. "You kids have fun, but I can't just goof off and celebrate just yet."

"For the best probably," Carrie said. "Bunny tends to strip when she drinks tequila."

"Good for her," I said. "If anyone needs me, I'll be working out the details of having colonists move to the latest cleared planet."

"What are the population numbers for Humans and Deva at now?" Jacksons asked curiously.

"Over eight hundred trillion for the Humans," I said. "Deva are closing in on sixty trillion now. Of course that's just the numbers here and in the Milky Way. I don't have the data on the other two galaxies just yet. We've got a lot of real estate to move into before we've got problems. The Wardens are ecstatic themselves; races with less than one hundred thousand members have all surpassed a billion recently. That means that they're all closing in on pre-Scourge population levels, if not surpassing them."

"With the data from the Rif'nay'fex, I'm confident that things will change for the better for all aspects of society," Jacksons said. "With the growing numbers back home, we'll need better food and medicine production and having the infrastucture to support it all will be important."

"That's true," I agreed. "But that's part of the reason that all Nephilim and Deva planets are built to be self-sustaining. If we had to import any of the neccessary items, then we'd constantly be having supply issues. Better production numbers are nice, but building each planet to sustain itself indefinitely is a better long-term option than having them reliant on other planets for anything else. Any increases as a result of the Rif'nay'fex data is just going to make it all more stable."

I left soon after that to do just what I'd said I would be working on. Choosing the criteria for the colonists that wanted to settle on the cleared planets was important. If I chose someone who wanted to build a restuarant when the food production couldn't keep up, then I'd be sending a useless worker that couldn't contribute to anything. If I passed up an engineer with hydroponics training for a scientist with construction training, then the colony would risk lowered food production but have buildings put together faster. If a disease broke out among the colony and I'd left the medical personnel understaffed, then I risked losing the entire colony. Each decision came with a plethora of issues and they all had to be anticipated and balanced before any of the colonists were chosen.

"Cai, how many doctors did we say we were picking out for colonies?" I asked.

"Ten personnel with medical expertise for every one hundred colonists," he answered. "It is recommended that of them, two of the ten have medical care and administration be their primary field."

"The rest can have basic first-aid training?" I wondered.

"Affirmative. Would you like to review the candidates with medical training?" Cai asked.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Best to start with the medical staff before we look at the people that are going to keep the lights on. It's no good if the whole thing's built to last if there's no one to keep the colony healthy."

"A wise decision," Cai said as the data for the colonist hopefuls was filtered and then displayed on my tablet.