Dear Jim,

it is late spring again. In local terms one year has passed since we reached this planet. For you, at home, one and a half years have gone by already.

When I reached the pod I saw that the door was not shut completely. I gritted my teeth, angry that those who went in never cared enough to leave everything as they had found it. I hoped that they did not damage anything, as the interior of the pod was merely a skeleton with all organs visible. If anyone tripped over an energy line and ripped it out there could be considerable damage and we don't have endless replacements for everything. Until the Boreas arrives there is limited supply of everything.

I pulled the door open and climbed in, using the box I had dragged to the pod a few days ago as a step. It made things easier. Inside, I have put up a large light, which seemed more convenient than working with a flashlight or even a few hovering lights. I must confess the interior of the pod is by now a real mess. I have stacked all the floor, wall and ceiling coverings outside. I had help with removing all the furniture and bathroom fixtures. Now, the interior of the pod consists of metal frames with power lines and ventilation pipes hanging between them like the net of a particularly messy spider. It was my plan to finish removing all the power lines today so I can use them all in the new doctors' office. I have to save as much material as I can.

When I found yet another empty bottle of Crypto Cola. One of these days I'll hit someone on the head with one of these. I got even more angry when I noticed that some of the power lines seemed to have been damaged. At first I thought that maybe someone fell over them and they snapped. I was already steaming when I saw that they (and several others) had bite marks. They had been gnawed through. Next, I realized that there was a strange sound that I had unconsciously ignored. It was like a quiet cheeping. I followed the sound to a hole in the bathroom where I had removed all water pipes already. I stuck my head into the floor and looked around in the near darkness. Something looked back at me. Four somethings. Five. Five pairs of tiny eyes, reflecting the light. When I turned on the flashlight on my wrist pad, I saw a few tiny, fuzzy creatures in a nest of dry grass. These five were some of Barbara's little rodent friends. I sighed. It meant that I had to be careful not to disturb them too much and I would have to leave the door open for the mother. Or father? Who knew. I wished the little ones a good day and went back to my work.

While I was making some notes about what to do next I suddenly heard a sound coming from above. It was like someone or something was on top of the pod. Yes, I noticed that it were footsteps. In my mind I imagined one of the predators walking on the pod and leaping at me as soon as I go out of the door. On the other hand I was rather sure that the footsteps were human.

'Hello?!' I asked loudly. 'Who is there?!'

'The bogeyman!' answered a male voice.

After a sigh of relief I went out the door and looked up to the roof of the pod, squinting against the sun.

'Aha,' I remarked. 'It is indeed the bogeyman. Or was it the man from PT546? What are you doing there?'

I climbed up the ladder which was still leaning on the side of the pod. Its legs have sunken into the ground during the winter. Peter was sitting with his back to me at the top of the roof. I sat down next to him, eating my sandwich and drinking from my bottle. Peter just sat there without talking, occupied with whatever he saw through his glasses. Unsure if I should interrupt, I ate my lunch in silence. I had the impression that he was ignoring me when he suddenly took off the glasses he was wearing, rummaged in his bag for another pair and handed them to me.

I put them on and was suddenly high up in the air, looking down on the plains. I could see myself and Peter sitting on the pod in the distance. The grass, which stretched until the horizon was moving slightly in the wind, far away I could see the mountains like a black streak at the edge of the world. Below me there was Gerald's barn and the five calves playing in the grass on their fenced pasture. Ingrid sat on a chair under the nearby tree and read something on her wrist pad.

My view changed, I made a turn and drifted over pod 38. I could see Dough outside, doing workout, lifting weights. My view changed quickly, crossing the Pollak's 'residence'. Now that the temperatures are warm enough, they have basically moved back out into their tent. Only the jacuzzi was ruined completely. Soon I looked down on the meeting place, where Arthur just served lunch to Laszlo and Gerald. Frode was on his way over from the tent. He didn't lean on his walking cane as much anymore, I noticed.

I looked out at the lake which glittered in the sun. On its little island, the white rock shone like a beacon, then I turned to fly away over Peter's pod, his shed. I could see Barbara lying face down next to our pod. I was sure she had business with her rodent friends. Further away I could see Nisha and Susana sitting on the steps of their pod, chatting and laughing. I made a turn and went on past the bridge and up the river, where I could see Loreley and Yang meditating under a large tree. Candy meanwhile had put up a large mirror under a nearby tree and tried on wigs in different exotic colours.

'Ok,' I finally said to Peter. 'That's neat, you have a camera drone somewhere in the air. That was actually a nice flight, but why do you come all the way here to me for that?'

'You've got to see this,' he just said, again moving the drone with the controls on his wrist pad.

'What am I looking for?' I asked.

'Do you see Tom's field over there?' he asked. I confirmed that I did, while my view moved further towards said field. 'Now look at how the grains are growing, how they make shadows as some stalks grow taller and some shorter?'

I looked at what Peter told me and could indeed see some kind of pattern. There seemed to be shapes there, but it was hard to tell anything specific. That's also what I told Peter. He said to give him a minute and typed something on his wrist pad. I could not see it of course, as I was still wearing the glasses which showed me the drone footage.

'Just wait a second. I had Yang do something for me, told him I was looking for ore deposits and the like and needed an update on my system,' Peter explained.

After a minute or two, the picture I saw gradually changed. While the grass was hardly visible anymore and it was like I was looking down into the ground. The shapes I had seem on Tom's field became clearer. There were curves and swirls, some larger, some smaller.

'Wow. You want to tell me there's something here? Under the ground?' I asked.

'Yes,' Peter answered. 'If you ask me they are related to, if not the same as the white shards we have found.'

'They are buildings, right? How far do they go?' I wanted to know.

'Don't ask me what they are. I'm just a geologist, so I can tell you they are not rocks and they are not natural. Not sure we should make any assumptions? But yes, they look like... built structures? Whatever. I can't tell you the exact size yet, but it's not small,' he told me.

I was silent for a while and regarded what the drone showed me and thought about what it meant.

'So all this was once settled by... someone. But who? How long ago? And are they still here? � probably not. Otherwise we would have met them already?' I mumbled, more to myself than directed at Peter.

We spent a long time flying, debating about what may or may not have been and watching what was lying at our feet. At other times we just sat there in quiet amazement. At some time much later, Peter gently poked my side.

'Are you still awake? We should go. It is late,' he said.

I took off my glasses and blinked, disoriented for a moment. Suddenly I was not high in the air anymore but sitting on the pod next to Peter again. I noticed that he was right, the sun was considerably higher in the sky than I had expected. It was not evening yet, but it was time to stop dreaming and get on with work. Before we did that, Peter fished two pre-packed sandwiches out of his bag (almost 12 years old by now), which we shared for lunch. We promised to meet again soon and continue our investigation.

Love,

Sarah

Jim did not receive a letter from his sister on the next day and not the day after and not the next week. It was a while later that he found out that nobody else was getting any messages either – not relatives, not mission command. There was only silence from the Zephyrus and the Boreas.

Tavaron

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