Dear Jim,

Seeds are still drifting through the air around us. It seems like all the trees far and wide are letting them fly through the air. The cool wind makes me think that we will probably need hats and gloves soon, and maybe also warm jackets.

I got a call this morning from Yang. He just got home from the Zephyrus, where he spent the last three months. He has finally been relieved and is back with us. Upon his return, Yang noticed that during his absence Dough caused quite a few problems in the pod. I had already noticed that Dough came to eat over at the tent at the meeting place quite often recently. Yang found out the reason for this. When he wanted to make himself breakfast, he realized that something was wrong with the insta-meal machine. Now what do you guess happened? Dough – who obviously never had anything to do with household appliances before – had gotten his hands on a few potatoes from Tom. Surprisingly he managed to peel and more or less slice them without chopping off his fingers. After this things went wrong, though. He had the idea of cooking himself a meal by stuffing all the potato slices into the meal-slot of the insta-meal-machine. Of course no meal ever came out for him, but the whole machine is now clogged with pieces of potatoes. Guess who has to go there and take the whole thing apart?

Usually Yang is a very calm man. He mostly keeps to himself and doesn't take part in many social activities, but I had the feeling he was really angry when he called me over. And that's why I crossed the bridge today, passed by Maia's and Arthur's pod and the meeting place and went over to Yang and Dough. Fuzzy nuts were whirling around me in gusts of wind as I made my way through the colourful grass.

When I walked up the stairs to the pod I could hear the two men having an argument inside. I was actually surprised, as Yang doesn't seem like somebody who is loud often. Dough had obviously enraged him.

I had to knock at the door several times and it didn't seem like they heard me, so finally I just walked in. The whole place was a mess. It appeared like Dough had hardly cleaned up anything while Yang was away. There were empty packages of insta-meals on the ground and dishes piled up on the table and the tiny space on the kitchen counter. Cupboards were open, and through the open door I could see that the bedroom floor (small as it is) was covered by a heap of clothes. I didn't even dare to look into the bathroom.

I looked at Yang. He looked defeated and tired. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, his thick black hair hanging in his face. Opposite to him stood Dough, a head taller and stronger but just as unhappy.

'But how am I supposed to know how to do all these things?!' Dough shouted. It was obvious he felt like he was treated unfairly.

'You are an adult! How did you even manage to get here if you can't take care of yourself?! I just can't do that anymore. You have to stop being like that,' Yang said exhausted.

At this point I decided to make my presence known. Yang's eyes lit up when he saw me.

'Thanks for coming, Sarah. I'm sorry for. . . Dough's mess,' he said, before waving me over to the insta-meal machine. As I had already suspected I had to disassemble and clean the whole thing. It took me most of the morning to finish this task. Meanwhile Yang supervised while Dough tidied up the mess in the pod and cleaned every surface. Dough was clearly not happy, but fulfilled his tasks begrudgingly.

'How should I know we wouldn't have a maid when we move to a new planet?' he muttered to himself. 'Come with us. It will be a good experience. Hah!'

I must say I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. I also felt like he really deserved a lecture from Yang.

When I left I decided that I should go over to the doctor's crashed pod, as I was already in the vicinity. As you know I have contacted some of my fellow engineers, whom I know from pre-mission training. I told Darius and Constance about my problems. They offered some good advice.

I opened the door and looked at what I had done so far. Most of the interior wall panelling was removed and stacked outside next to the pod, so it doesn't get in the way. I should remember to cover it with something so it doesn't get damaged from the weather, especially if it's going to get colder soon. I have also removed some of the floor covering, but before I can continue my work the others will have to help me to remove all the furniture and get it to some weatherproof place. Maybe there is still some space in a corner of the big tent at the meeting place, but since the doctors had to install their temporary office there space got tight. By the way, I still don't agree with tapping into the OMR's energy supply for this but it seems we have no other options at the moment.

While I have other things to do all the time I still try to solve the problem of getting a proper place for the doctors to live and work. I pulled out a small hovering light drone from me pocket and put it in the center of the room to be able to see. As you may remember from my earlier letters I disconnected the power cords a while ago so I can work safely. Of course this means that there is no artificial light. It was also not possible to remove all the panels of the outer hull as they got distorted in the crash and don't come off easily. As you can imagine the place is pretty dark.

I continued to disassemble the main console as well as the switchboard in the floor of the main room. I noon I went outside with my packed sandwich (9 years old) and my bottle of water (freshly filtered) and climbed up to the roof with a ladder I had stored at the pod. I sat up there and looked out at the landscape. In the distance I could see the predators' hill. I took out small binoculars to see more. I watched the animals move between the large white and grey rocks and I saw that they did not look as pretty as usual. They looked like they were heavily shedding fur. Nature knew that winter was on its way.

My gaze was wandering through the small field of vison of the binoculars. I watched the birds in the sky, the grass waving in the wind and the seeds of the trees flying around. Then, suddenly something caught my attention. It was far away and even with the binoculars it was hard to make out what exactly I was seeing, but it looked like a massive herd of large creatures wandering through the plains. They seemed to be coming from the north and passing us by at some distance. I informed Barbara about what I was seeing. About ten minutes later she was right next to me with her own viewing equipment. She had also brought an observation drone which she wanted to fly over to the animals we were watching from afar.

As the drone approached we got aware of how large they were with their long necks and tails, slowly but steadily moving southwards while grazing on the dry grass. We saw that they in fact were different sizes. Some seemed to be young. All of them were covered in colourful feathers in green, yellow and red. We also noticed that a large flock of birds was following them, sometimes even landing on the large creatures, searching between their feathers for something to eat. Barbara was very excited.

After watching for a while, I had to excuse myself. I was expected at the building site of the barn. I closed the door of the crashed pod and left Barbara to watch the large animals in the distance. I am sure she'll write an interesting paper to send home. Maybe you can find it somewhere.

Fortunately the barn is now finished on the outside, so we were sheltered from the cool wind. While the others continued to work on the interior of the building I tried to finish assembling the incubator. It was already dark outside when I closed the door and walked home to the pod I share with Barbara. We are now spending the evening watching footage of the animals we spotted today. Barbara has already informed her colleagues at the other clusters in case they pass their location.

Every day we find out new things about our new home. What else is hiding here? Which secrets do we not even dream of? Only time will tell.

Love,

Sarah

Tavaron

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