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Andrew reporting.
Bryce, according to my current data, Daniel is not a space cadet.
He has no particular military training, and is not a member of any branch of the
services. As far as we know, he is not currently receiving any sort of advanced
programming or instruction, except what we get from the Marsupials.
Nelson returned with Commander Perry and two other Ipsolstai. They are clustered
around the computer terminal. I can see inside through the open panel. It's very
unusual...bacause the computer's insides look so much like ours. However, I like
the way our circuits organized in nice orderly rows instead of all those loops and
circles. It just seems like better engineering.
They are poking at things inside using various meters. They have replaced many
connections. Nelson keeps trying different routines at the keyboard. Commander
Perry is pacing back and forth.
***lockout lockout lockout lockout lockout lockout***
"Hello, can you hear me?"
I got Elder Brother online. He is saying that he can hear me loud and clear now. That's
good to know, so I probably have contact with Earth too.
"Just a minute, Elder Brother, I'll try to reach Stage One."
It's working. There is an Outbound. It's Bryce wishing a sunny weekend. So, he can
find us. That makes me feel much better now. I worried that someone might think that
we are in serious trouble. But we aren't. Our connection broke.
How much of our last reports did you get? Did our Friday reports pass through?
Wait, there is an Outbound from Thursday by Koala stating that our transmission
stopped earlier than expected and he is asking about our status. Koala, we are fine.
Nothing to worry about.
So, connection broke when we passed through that tunnel. Koala, did you get that image
of Sojourner that I sent? No? Don't mind, I'll resend it, okay?
That's that tunnel that we passed. We found it at the bottom of the slope, so we went
through. I'm so sorry, Koala, but we were so busy exploring that we didn't realize
that our transmissions failed until I wanted to ask Elder Brother about the Twenty
Questions, if the something is alive. So, I went back until I made a connection again.
"Elder Brother is it alive?"
EB said yes. I'm at the bottom of that slope again. Zachary is on the other side. Looks
like I have to function as a relay again.
"Zachary, can you send Gen to be the relay?"
I am really scared. I have never sensed such intense emotion from the Ipsolstai.
All weekend they asked me questions about every phase and nuance of the dialog between
Burn and Caleb. I did my best to answer. Mostly it was the same answer over and over
again. I wonder if they finally got the concensus that Commandant Fitzgerald talked
about.
Caleb didn't talk very much. He kept his eyestalks lowered and his tentacles were curled
up close to his body.
Wait, now Caleb is moving to the center of the crowd. His color is getting brighter.
I notice that several of his lieutenants have discreetly moved away to the edges of
the cave. I think they have picked up some tools or some long things that look
like projectile tubes. Why would they want projectile tubes in here?
"Okay Enoch, I'll send Gen. Can you relay my transmission?"
Enoch told you already that we passed through that tunnel. I'm not sure if there
are other tunnels leading away from the bottom of the slope. We chose one. It led
us straight into another hall. Not so big as the first one, but quite enormous too.
I ordered Sojourner to start several analyses. Soil analyses didn't change much,
but temperature went up to -10°C. Also, the amount of sulfur and methyl iodide
increased and radiation is now up to 1.4 microcuries. Guess what Sojourner found
too? It's atmospheric oxygen. It reached a volume percentage of about 0.8 %.
What else? The bottom of that hall is not level. It descends too, but not as steep
as the previous slope,
and also there is no loose gravel. Mao, the caterpillar and Sojourner are fine. I'll
send Gen to Enoch, and I will keep waiting for him, so we will move on as a team.
Thanks for your concern, Koala. We will be careful.
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