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Andrew reporting.
Bette and Isaac are doing their best to keep out of the way of the Ipsolstai working
on the ship's computer. It's hard without gravity. The walls of the control room
are relatively featureless, so there is very little that we can grab. I will try to
push them over toward the straps, where they can fasten themselves down.
Nelson says that partial function has been restored to the ship's computer, but the
system is still unstable. It is not yet usable. At least the life support systems
for the Ipsolstai are working now, and Nelson is able to remove the clear dome at
the front of the sack he got into when the battle began.
"Al-Qahira, are you getting my transmissions? What's going on back home on Mars?"
"Isaac, come over here, be quiet, and I'll tell you a story.
"Once upon a time there were six probes. They were very brave, but not smart
like you and I. They were very happy and worked hard playing games in the
laboratory. What games? Oh, games like Follow the Leader. You know, probe games.
"One day their teacher Dr. D came into the lab. He was very excited. He said that
a date had been chosen for the probes to start their big adventure.
"'What big adventure?' everybody wanted to know. But they were not smart enough
to ask him. They did not know how to communicate with humans directly. They
just passively accepted instruc.....
"ISAAC! Are you hurt? Are your legs all right? ISAAC! Andrew, over here, help us!"
Isaac and Daniel and I were slammed against the far wall when the ship suddenly
accelerated. Nelson and Commander Perry also came flying across the room, and
landed on top of us. It is not a fun experience. They are very heavy, but squishy,
and I can't move. Andrew tried to hold on to the control panel at first, but now
he is sliding down the floor in our direction.
I can see that spot that Zachary is talking about. In my opinion that spot is blue,
but it's really hard to say. It's not shining steadily. Actually, I would say that
it's more glowing than shining. I checked with Sojourner: its wave length varies between
450 nm and 550 nm. So its colour is mainly between blue and green.
"No, Zachary, that spot doesn't look dangerous to me either."
Zachary and I had just a discussion if we were going to send Mao back to Gen,
so Mao would replace Gen for a while by doing its relay job in front of that tunnel.
That way we thought that we could have Gen available to send ahead to check out that
light source. I fully agree that this is exactly the kind of situation where we
could use Gen properly in the vanguard. I mean, Gen is armed and able to report, and
that way the rest of us wouldn't be endangered at all. I just learned all these
arguments from Zachary.
You know what? Please don't call me naive, but I have the feeling that sending
Mao back and Gen ahead just because of that little blue or green spot would be
really overdoing the safety issue.
"Zachary, I say let's move on!"
I have to say that Caleb is really persuasive. He almost had me believing that Burn
was a traitor. I'm getting worried. He talked to the assembled Ipsolstai for
hours. The longer he talks, the more the Ipsolstai are divided. When Commandant
Fitzgerald presented his argument, their colors were predominately dark. After I
showed my pictures, their colors were almost entirely muddy brown and black. Now I can
see several areas of bright yellow and green.
Caleb isn't going to win, is he?
Miss Chang says that she has a message for me to send to you. So here it is:
Parker, does she really think they'll take the bait?
Those guys are a lot smarter than she gives them credit for.
Yeah, but she hates men.
You should know, Parker.
Enoch made me to move on.
We reached that spot. It wasn't as far away as we thought. Actually, we were pretty
close to that light source. Not more than about fifty feet. I bother about that. How
could we estimate that distance so incorrectly? It could be that it's because it's so
dark in here and because we thought that this spot was quite larger and that light
quite much stronger than it actually is. We have to keep that error in mind, so we
don't make that mistake a second time.
I'll send you an image.
What do you think could that be?
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