Dear Jim,

Today we made the last batches of deliveries from the Zephyrus down to the planet. In the morning our colleagues went to Cluster 5, while Alejandra and I took a stroll through the empty corridors and looked down on the planet from the similarly empty lounge. It's a bit spooky at first, to be honest, but after a while you get used to it. I refrain from snooping around too much. I think Alejandra would probably judge me. The only interesting thing I have found was a stash of candy in a broom closet in a hallway. It wasn't good anymore.

Some time around noon we received a new status report from the Boreas. They are still on their way. All systems functioning as expected. No surprise there. They have now reached the half-way point of their journey, which means messages reach us with approximately one year delay – in case you care to know. We were bored enough to fill up the replicator's container with granulated matter, pull a random image from the computer's library and start the process. We giggled while doing that. It was pretty silly, to be honest.

When the others were not back by lunchtime, we slotted two bricks of insta meals into the machine and went on being lazy. Finally, in the early afternoon the others arrived, apologetically mumbling something about hot springs. Alejandra just laughed.

After we had loaded the shuttle, Alejandra and I left for the planet. We were on our way to Cluster 6, our last destination. We were going down somewhere in the middle of the plains. All around us there was the brown grass of last year and small patches of snow. Trees were scattered across the landscape and two small creeks were running through the collection of pods and met somewhere close to the center. There were also a few simple buildings and of course the meeting hall we had seen on pictures at the end of the year.

The first thing I noticed when Alejandra had set down the shuttle and we opened the hatch to unload, was how many people there were to help us. I mean... objectively there were not a lot of people. Just a few dozen. That may sound silly to you now, but it has been over a year since I have seen that many people. I didn't quite realise this myself until this point. I don't want to say I felt uncomfortable around 'that many' people, but I am certainly not used to it anymore. It was kind of exciting, in a way. It didn't seem like Alejandra had the same feelings, she was as social as always. She has also told me she has been here before.

When the shuttle was unloaded, of course Alejandra and I stayed to take a look around. At first we walked through the center of the settlement, where we met a few people going about their business. We passed two warehouses and workshops. A look inside showed, that the warehouses were mostly empty, but the inhabitants of Cluster 6 hoped to fill them over time. One of them was reserved for provisions, which would be harvested during summer. In one hall the local OMR was standing, waiting to be used again once the grass has grown enough some time in spring. Cluster 6 did not have to make do with a lousy tent.

Then, we came to the meeting hall, which from up-close looked even more impressive than on the picture we got in winter. It was standing close to where the two streams met next to a large tree. A few steps were leading up to the large, unlocked door on one of the narrow sides. Inside it was empty apart from a few lonely chairs, which seemed to make it appear even larger. At the side opposite the door there was a small, elevated area, like a stage. There were high windows in regular intervals on both sides. Looking up, I could see the underside of the steep roof and several beams, which were carried by pillars. It appeared like someone was just in the process of decorating them by painting them with intricate patterns. Only about half of them were done so far. It seemed like the whole hall was – while already a remarkable achievement – a still unfinished project. Still, I decided to take a few pictures for Barbara and the others and I attach them for you to this message.

We left the hall and slowly walked between the pods until we reached the edge of the settlement and then a bit more. There, on a small, low hill with a tree on top was a collection of 18 stones, each almost as it was found somewhere on the ground apart from a name which was carved into it. Here were the graves of those who came with us to this place but who never arrived. We spent some timer there, wandering around in silence. A cool breeze blew across the plains, which stretched out around us to the horizon. I looked down at the next grave and then I saw it, a small white flower. The first of this year
We were ripped out of our thoughts by a loud screech, coming from a distance. Then, another. Alejandra and I looked up and saw several birds coming towards us. It was soon clear that they were big, no, huge. They had two long legs, a long neck and what looked like the largest beak I have ever seen. They were closing in at large speed. Alejandra pulled at my arm and shouted at me to run.

'But they are fast! We can't outrun them,' I said quite desparately.

Alejandra quickly looked around, then pulled at me again and we ran as fast as we could up to the top of the hill.

'I hope they can't fly,' was all she managed to say.

I was out of breath at about half that distance already and promised myself to start doing sports in the future. When Alejandra started to climb up the tree, the birds had already almost reached the bottom of the hill. I grabbed the nearest branch and tried to pull myself up, but Alejandra had to help me from above because I was not tall enough to really get a hold. The birds were meanwhile on the way up the hill. The determination in their eyes was now visible and they were even taller than they seemed before. Just as Alejandra tried to pull me up th the next branch, I felt something pulling at my foot. I looked down and saw a bird had gotten hold of my shoe and it looked determined not to let it go. This was just what I had feared. The more Alejandra pulled my arms up, the more the bird pulled my foot down and I was screaming in the middle while the bird's friends seemed to cheer it on. It felt like this went on forever until very suddenly I felt my shoe giving up. My foot was free and I moved up to Alejandra as fast as I could. We climbed a little higher until we were sure that the birds could not reach us and then sat on the branch and looked down at them. They were, as I wrote before, rather huge, with long legs and long necks. Their feathered bodies were brown with white spots and their black eyes looked up at us with an angry glint.

'What do you even want from us?' Alejandra called down at them, but there was no coherent answer, just some more screaching.

As we were cornered, so to speak – we had no other chance than to sit there and wait until hopefully they would lose interest in us. Fortunately, we had brought water and some snacks and so we sat on our branch, ate our nutri bars and waited. My foot was getting cold and the branch became increasingly uncomfortable to sit on. At some stage, when the birds refused to leave, Alejandra informed people at Cluster 6 of our predicament.

After roughly 10 minutes we heard a terrible noise coming from the settlement. It became louder and louder, there was also something like music. The birds suddenly started to run around frantically. We could soon see several people at the bottom of the hill. It looked like they were striking buckets with sticks and clanged lids of puts together. Someone was playing a trumpet in the most terrible way you can imagine. At this point the birds fled. The others helped us down from the tree. I looked around for my shoe, but it was ripped into pieces. I had to walk back to the settlement with one shoe. We returned to our shuttle, where someone brought us tea to calm down before we returned to the Zephyrus.

Up on the ship we had to tell our colleagues everything that had happened – after I got a new pair of shoes from storage. Suddenly, Alejandra and I remembered the replicator. We hurried over to its room, followed by our colleagues, who were quite puzzled and asked what the matter was. Alejandra pushed the button, which lifted the hood off the replicator's platform. This revealed first a pair of bare feet, the many folds of a dress, almost seeming transparent over a pair of legs. Finally, a hand, holding a fold of the cloth, which contained a bunch of flowers. Further, stomach, then the half-bare chest of a woman and her second arm, holding a bunch of flowers. Finally, it revealed her dignified and pretty face and a wreath of flowers in her intricate hairdo.

For a moment all four of us were standing there, staring at the statue we had thoughtlessly created. Then, Alejandra cheerfully clapped her hands.

'Well, where should we put her up?' she asked.

After some discussion, we all carried her to the lounge together, where we put her up in a niche, which contained a flag with the mission logo. We decided to not tell anyone about it and just let people wonder about where it had come from. We also promised to ourselves not to do something like that again. For a while we sat down on one of the couches and regarded our work with some kind of pride.

Love,
Sarah

Tavaron

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