Dear Jim,

We had a meeting scheduled today. Against the wishes of everyone else, Mr Pollak first insisted on holding it in the tent next to the OMR. Then Gerald offered the barn again and everyone just decided that this was the better option. Mr Pollak begrudgingly agreed.

Barbara and I walked the narrow path through the snow which we have trodden while walking there during the last few days. We made our way over the bridge and looked at the river for a few minutes and how pretty the ice was all around its banks. Then we walked right along the water and over to the barn.

When Barbara and I arrived some of the others were already there. Frode was sitting at a table with Nisha, Susana, Loreley and Candy, telling stories of home. I saw Tom was watching them from the next table.

'As I have already told you I was a doctor at the Katastropolis General Hospital. Did I already tell you about the tourists that went missing during an excursion outside of the city?' Frode started. 'Some managed to sneak away from the group without their guide noticing. They didn't manage to find back to their group and got lost between the greenhouses. Obviously they were also unable to find their way back on a map. And then suddenly there was a sandstorm. I was in one of the search parties. We were out there for hours. The tourists themselves kept searching for a way back, you know? Worst thing you can do. Especially when everything you see is sand whirling all around you. We only found them when they were out of oxygen and couldn't move anymore. It was almost too late by then.'

What followed was an explanation about how the tourists were brought to the hospital and how Frode and the other doctors helped them. I only listened peripherally and instead walked over to the incubator. The four women at his table however seemed to be fascinated. I opened the control panel and looked at the data. Everything seemed to be fine. Six little harts were beating in their chambers. Gerald noticed me at the machine. He smiled and nodded at me.

When our Cluster Coordinator had arrived and everyone was seated the meeting could begin. Mr Pollak stood at the front, talking about how it would be spring soon and that we should all prepare for the work we had to do then and how everyone only seemed to be lazy at the moment. He also made a side-remark at me not having finished repairing the robo-maid yet (which of course is a top priority...). When he had finished with all he had to say, Mr Pollak asked whether anyone else had anything to tell.

Arthur stood up and cleared his throat.

'Laszlo and I have been talking,' he started. 'He agreed to help us add a housing module to mine and Maia's pod in spring so we get a bit more space. Like a proper bedroom, for instance. And as you all seem to enjoy my cooking, I thought I could maybe get a larger kitchen. Of course we'd appreciate help from any of you.'

There were sounds of agreement from almost the whole room. At this point Crystal jumped up, screeching.

'You get a larger place? You?! But what about us?! We have been living in that tiny pod for MONTHS now! Isn't my husband the Cluster Coordinator here? Do we not deserve this?! We should be the first!' she shouted.

Mr Pollak thumped the table with his fist and stood up.

'You are right. We have lived in this condition for long enough. Never was our heating fully repaired. The furniture in our tent is being ruined. Lately I had to chase a flock of birds out there! I think it must be obvious to all of you that we cannot live like that,' Mr Pollak said and nodded in agreement to himself. He did not notice that most of the present people did feel differently.

'We also owe it to our future Cluster Coordinators to prepare a house for them which is worthy of this title. And there are less than four years left to prepare. And anyway. Did you see the pictures of that meeting hall they built in Cluster 6? We can do better than that!' Mr Pollak said.

'We'll build a better meeting hall?' Peter asked. 'I think that's a good idea, nobody wants to freeze in that tent anymore.'

'No! They already did the meeting hall. We will be the first to build a Cluster Coordinator house. Everyone will be envious of what we have achieved,' Mr Pollak went on.

Everyone was silent, looking at each other in disbelief. There was a snort from Peter and I could hear him mutter something, for which Mr Pollak shot him an angry look.

Finally, Ingrid stood up.

'Mission regulations state that young families have priority over others. Therefore we should indeed build a better home for Maia and Arthur, she said. 'However, Frode and I cannot go on working in that tent next to the OMR. That conditioned cube we are working in is alright temporarily, but not in the long term. We had a patient from cluster two come in last week and it was almost impossible to care for him properly. This issue is really urgent. We cannot risk losing people because of these working conditions.'

I noticed that she was also looking at me as she said that and I felt very embarrassed because I did not make any progress in repairing the doctors' pod during winter.

After lunch I went over to Peter's shed to tinker on the robo-maid and think. When I arrived Peter was not there, so I boiled some water and made myself some tea. Then I rummaged through Peter's stock for some cookies. While I waited for the tea to get ready I turned around to go back to the robot. I stopped when I noticed that Peter had moved some shelves and created an empty space at one wall. After some looking around I found a small projector, which I activated. On the wall appeared a map of our part of the planet. I could see the marked locations of all six clusters and I could zoom in to get a closer look.

The map showed features of the terrain, rivers, lakes, everything a map usually does. It also let me switch to different features. Peter had for instance added information about different rocks he found, ore deposits, sources of clay... I didn't understand all of it, but I could see the maps were still rather empty. Peter still had a lot of work to do obviously, although some of the information seemed to come from a colleague of his at Cluster 4. I sipped my tea and looked at all the information Peter had gathered.

When I switched to the last option of the map I first couldn't make sense of what I saw. Then I understood that Peter had added information to where he had found any of the white shards. It didn't look like much yet, but there seemed to be a pattern. Or maybe there just was not enough information to really tell. This made me go over to the box where I had found the shards and take one of the larger shards out. I absent mindedly let my fingers run over the surface while looking at the map.

Suddenly I felt terribly homesick. I thought of mum and you, Filippa and the kids. I will never see any of you in person. I thought of that small apartment I lived in before I gave everything away to go on this mission. It was cute, wasn't it?

Suddenly the door opened and I was ripped out of my thoughts. It took me a few seconds to realize that Peter had come in. He stood at the open door and talked to me. I didn't immediately understand that he asked me if I was alright. I noticed that I got cold from him leaving the door open. I noticed there were tears running down my cheeks. I also noticed that I had dropped my half-empty cup and there was a puddle of tea on the floor.

Peter asked again if I was alright, I just mumbled an excuse and stormed out of the open door next to him. He called after me but I was too embarrassed and confused. I went for a walk in the snow.

I miss you all.

Love,
Sarah

Tavaron

03.06.24 Front Page

Back Issue Page