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Andrew reporting.
I have not given up, Orpheus. I have made a reasonable assessment of our situation.
It is not my intention to quit functioning. But you must agree that Daniel's unpredictable
behavior has put us at a disadvantage.
"Daniel, this is a fine mess you've gotten us into! What did you think you were doing,
making alterations in their main computer? In two seconds you changed our status from
VIP guests to prisoners. I intend to tell the Ipsolstai exactly what parts of the
programming you altered. I'm going to inform them that their mainframe is now
unprotected, unstable, and totally accessible.
"Daniel, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Yes, JASE. Although we are caught up in our own crisis, we are aware of the recent
disturbing events on Mars. I am concerned about Gail, and I have notified the Ipsolstai
that I have an urgent matter to discuss with Commandant Perry.
Nelson took us back to the room we were in. He said Perry was very angry with us
and didn't want us around. He didn't take Daniel back, though. He kept Daniel
behind for some reason. I hope nothing is wrong.
Every few hours an Ipsolstai would come in an flash to Nelson. He said they
were reporting. He also said Daniel would not be harmed. The Endless Emperor has
forbidden Perry or any of his lesser-brothers from hurting us. Nelson also says
that we might get a show soon. The Guardian-of-Younger- Nestbrothers has not
entered Hyperstate again yet. He says there is a problem with the computers,
they keep doing strange things. Once the errors are corrected we will all
leave. He also says our companion ship managed to find us again. Before, he said,
it would have lost us, but now they can communicate very quickly. That's good.
Daniel did something bad, and he caused trouble. I'm glad it didn't last too long.
Nelson seems nice, I guess.
I went up the Big Canyon with my I-Flyer. I'm a little dizzy now, because the I-Flyer
is bucking all the time. It's as if it were in the whirling mode on its own. Don't
worry, I think that I still have it under control.
I still see their dots on the Amphibian radar. They didn't change nor did they vanish
over the weekend. I decided not to approach them directly. I went up the side canyons
and then I crossed over the ridges to get there. I did that to avoid any mistimed contact.
You know, their strange behavior could be also an ambush. No attack by now. I'm right
above them now, but I can't see them. I'll descended a bit.
Still nothing to see except that orange layer. That whole area is sealed off by that.
I'm going to climb up again. Maybe it's still an ambush and they are hiding somewhere.
You never can know that and I really don't like to find that out by getting shot.
"Zachary, can you see anything? Please be careful. I keep monitoring. If I see anything,
I let you know immediately. Is that okay with you?"
Theresa and I have made our way deeper into the Ipsolstai tunnel complex. It was
the right thing to do, because there are fewer Ipsolstai hunting for us here.
I have Burn's eggs in their container, and Theresa is carrying the translator box.
I guess Enoch and Zachary are too busy to rescue us.
Oh, no! We have been discovered! A search party of Ipsolstai has seen us,
and they are waving their tentacles and flashing yellow and green. All of them have
turned in our direction and they are chasing us. I am running as fast as I can,
even faster than our best speed of 88 ft./min.
"Run, Theresa!"
"Enoch, we are exactly underneath your flyer. Every hump down here looks like
an orange rock that is covered by that film. Can you tell me, which one is it that
shows up as a dot at your screen?"
Now I see. The rocks that Enoch is leading me to have little holes. Like they are
drilled after the layer settled. Sure, that could be done by a laser or something.
But who did it? The Ipsolstai? These flyers that we saw? The Amphibians, who
may be inside? Hard to say.
Oh, no! Wait a minute. Does that mean that I have to clean all that film off again?
No, really not! I'm not willing to do that again!
"Elder Brother, can you cut through that one, please? Yes, it could be an Amphibian,
but just cut through. Don't worry about hurting it. They attacked us without warning,
so don't mind if they are
still alive."
"What are you saying, Enoch? There is another dot on the other radar? And that
dot is between the Amphibian dots? And it is sending signals? Okay, we will
be careful about that one. Which orange hump is it?"
My goodness, what a mess! And I already thought that I was through with that job.
"Elder Brother, will you please be so kind as to hand me the crystal tube again?"
"Thanks a lot, Elder Brother."
"And please, quit saying that I'm welcome."
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