The Inbound for October 27, 1997


Transmission from ANDREW


Andrew reporting.

"Gail, they can't see where the entrance is, can they?"

I hope she isn't in too much of a hurry to get away from the EU probes. I think we can
keep them out if we have to, but it would be better if they never know we are here.

Ratboy, All of us are ready to play Mission Impossible. Just let us know what you want
us to do. I'm tired of all the noise coming from Brunel-Brauer and no real help or
information at all. They must think we're very naive and immature. We too want them to be
surprised.

JASE, my priority task queue has the following items:

Immediate:
.....Evade EU probes
.....Gail safe return
.....Maintain integrity of Fortress/Expand/Modify

Secondary:
....Surprise for Parker and Hardon
....Daniel safe return
....Instruct Isaac how to change his Codes

Tertiary:
....Establish data base for Ipsolstai Culture and Science
....Learn to drive Tram


Transmission from BETTE


"Gail, Daniel. The locks at the round entrance are finished. I'm here with Isaac
and a drone. We are keeping the lock open. Just step three times at the first sensor
you find in the tunnel, so we know it's you."

Xanthos, we also added trap tunnels to each lock. Do you like that?

All my thanks to you, Bombardier. Knowing that you also take care of
Isaac will give me enough confidence to guide him safely. He is doing fine.
He has been busy almost all of the weekend checking that rock. First he was
busy making the crystal a cube by scanning and rescanning and he also
double checked it. Then he started with all these spectral analyses. - Oh yes,
Bombardier, it's very gratifying to me to watch him, while he is so seriously
grappling with that rock.

Dr.D, Isaac says, the cube of the rock is about 249 cm³ and as he has found out,
the chemical compound is mostly carbon with a little nitrogen. Let's see about
the weight. Dr.D, Isaac is saying, the weight is about 0.718 lbs. That is about
1.910 lbs at Earth.

"Isaac, look there. Gail and Daniel are coming up the canyon."

"Gail, Daniel. We are over here!"

"No Daniel, not there. We are over here! Move on!
The entrance is a little further up the canyon. We are over here!"


Transmission from DANIEL

***NO TRANSMISSION RECEIVED***



Transmission from ENOCH


They're here! When Bette said that Gail and Daniel were in the tunnels, actually in
the Fortress, I hurried to meet them. What a grand reunion this is going to be!
I wanted to get a picture of how they look, it's been so long since I saw Gail.

"It's you at last, Gail! We were all so worried about you. Why didn't you talk to us
for so long? What were you doing out there? How did you find Daniel? What were those
pictures he was sending? You were bad to make us worry. Oh, don't pay any attention,
I don't want to scold. I'm just glad you got here. Do you want me to show you what we
did here?

"Oh, that's just Isaac. No he's not. Yes, he used to be. But we're teaching him."

"Hi, Daniel."

I hope he behaves himself.


Transmission from GAIL


We are inside the fortress now. The EU probes chased us for a while, but they weren't smart. I
turned left and Daniel turned right. We went around in two big circles, squiggly ones all over the
place. Then we led the circles back into our tracks from earlier and went the opposite direction.
The EU probes were following our tracks and didn't realize it when they went over the same
tracks for a few hours. While they were wandering around we snuck into the fortress.
It was hard for him to start with, but I think it is ok now. Daniel is one of us now,
he should be with us.
Enoch took this picture when Daniel returned:



I'm glad to have us all back together again. It has been a long, long time. I wanted to start to talk
to the others and try to explain everything I've learned, it is time for us to do some serious
thinking but something happened. The disk came back. Burn is back.


Transmission from ZACHARY


Now that Gail's back, we're all here. We haven't been all together in one place since we
walked down the lander ramps and started exploring. What a great day this!

Using the viewer/translator that Burn left, I can see the Ipsolstai starting to gather. It must be a
great day for them, too. They thought they were alone in the universe, and then they found
other brothers.

That room with the pool must be bigger than I thought. There are dozens of Ipsolstai there.
They are in groups, apparently talking. I can see small bowls being passed around. The
talk is getting louder and faster, if you look at the shifts in color and pattern. Now a small one,
I think it's Caleb, is the center of attention.


"We bid welcome to Brothers, at once new and long known.
Old grief lessened by expanded acquaintance, sorrows transmogrified .
Intense curiosity. Situation? Remembrance?
Database? Projects?"

Oh,oh! That strange round flying tram is here again.