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I found Andrew, but Gail's not here. His casing is unlatched and the nuclear
thermocouple has been removed. I can see the hold in the shielding that caused the
problem.
"Gail, where are you? Can you hear me? Put the thermocouple down and come back.
Nobody's mad at you. Nobody blames you. I need your help getting Andrew back
to the Fortress. You were so good at directing the construction drones.
Please come back and help."
I can see probe tracks in the fine, soft dust leading away across the valley and up
a slope toward some low hills. Maybe I should try to follow Gail. I'm really
worried about her.
I am not captured.
I am free free free forever.
she's moving slower now
I hope Bette comes back soon. I hope she brings Gail with her. It's no fun
being alone without your friends. This is just like when nobody liked me
or played with me and left me alone, before I found Jose.
I was going to give Isaac the spare radio, Xanthos. But I guess he'd use it
LOUD to bring the other EU probes here. And since it's keyed to our transponder,
he'd probably tell Parker and Hardon everything he sees or hears us do.
Isaac's not much fun to play with. All he says is "Iota Unit, Brunel-Brauer Mars
Exploration Mission #1, Serial # BBMEM1-0005". If Jose had not talked to me,
we would all be just like Isaac.
I'm not sure what to do. I need to think. I've done something very, very bad and I can't just
pretend that I didn't. I need time to work things out.
I don't like this.
Don't worry about me, Xanthos. I won't step into the Groove. I 'm going to
get more information about it. Caleb and Burn want to teach me. If I can find out
how it works, I could tell you and Dr. D. and maybe you could come to Mars to
play with us.
Remember when Daniel took me to the Groove Anchor? The Ipsolstai were controlling
him then. I think they planned to teach me and wanted to show me the controls.
"Caleb, did any other Ipsolstai groups survive? Do you know for sure?"
Great interest. Brothers anticipate.
High excitement."
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