Dear Jim,

I did not sleep well last night. I still had a cough, although it seemed to get better and I noticed that there was a rash on my back. I applied the next best ointment I could find in the medicine cabinet. The itching and coughing woke me several times and then I had to think of Barbara and how she may be doing. I must have fallen asleep anyway, because I suddenly woke up to it being almost noon. When I opened the blinds on the tiny window at my bed, I saw that there was a thick fog outside. I found it strange for the time of the year, but on the other hand we have not been here long enough to know what to expect.

I applied more ointment to the rash, which seemed to have become better during the night and got dressed. I grabbed a nutri bar from the kitchen and munched it while putting on my jacket and shoes. My plan was to go to the doctors as soon as possible and see how Barbara was doing. I took another bite and opened the door of the pod. I took one step down the stairs and started to cough hard enough that I spit out my breakfast. My eyes were burning and every part of my body itched like mad. I gasped for air, which made the coughing even worse. I had to hold on to the handrail because I almost fell down the stairs. Somehow I managed to pull myself back inside the pod and press the button to close the door. For a long while I remained sitting on the floor, trying to get enough air into my burning lungs. I managed to press the emergency call button on my wrist pad before I closed my eyes. I did not pass out, but all I could do was to sit on the floor, leaning at the wall and concentrating on my breathing. Then I realized how badly everything was itching and I had to sneeze.

Some time later, I have no way of knowing how long, I heard noises outside. When the door opened I forced myself to open my eyes. The first thing that happened was that I started coughing again and I had burning, watery eyes. A shadow appeared at the door, which turned into the blurry vision of a creature. It was orange, with a big, featureless head and wrinkled arms and legs. I screamed, the coughed and sneezed while trying to get away. I heard the creature pressing the button to close the door, I would be locked in with it and nobody else was there. I was too weak to get far and there was no thinking about getting into a fight in my condition. With sheer terror I felt how it grabbed me on my leg and tried to stop me.

'Will you stop it now?' the creature said with a muffled voice.

It still held me on my leg and I had to turn around and try to kick it away with my other foot. To my surprise this led to the creature shouting a curse at me and held its head. It then actually started to turn it's head around and pulled it off, which for me was a sight of terror. I closed my eyes.

'Are you mad, Sarah?' asked a slightly angry and more familiar voice.

I stopped and tried to open my eyes. Everything was still quite blurry, but there was now a white figure fighting with getting out of the remains of the orange creature, part of which was just a pile on the floor. My mind was just working enough to realize that someone had come in an environmental suit. I was terribly embarrassed.

After blinking a few times I could make out a bearded face and disheveled hair, which I recognized to be Peter's. Of course it made sense that he had been sent over by the others as he was closest to me. Not, that I thought about that at that time, but realising that I was in no danger and probably even in good hands I decided that I could just as well close my eyes again and remain lying on the floor. Everything else appeared to be too much effort. I felt Peter pulling my arm out of my jacket more or less gently and then a sharp sting in my shoulder. Then I heard Peter walking a few steps away (there isn't much more than a few steps to walk away in a pod).

'I got her; she put up quite a fight, so I think she'll be ok,' I heard him say. Then, someone answered him on the radio, telling him he should stay with me and giving further instructions.

When I opened my eyes again I saw Peter sitting on my chair at the workstation in the pod's main room. He was leaning forward, arms on his knees, watching me closely with his usual frown. When he saw me looking at him he quickly got up and helped me to sit and lean against the wall.

'Feeling better?' he asked.

I nodded weakly, which prompted Peter to help me over to the tiny sofa. I was instructed to sit there and not move, while he rummaged through the kitchen cabinets. He filled a glass with water and fished a small sachet out of one of his trouser pockets. After ripping it open, Peter poured the powdered contents into the glass and mixed it with a spoon. The water bubbled and then turned yellow. For a moment, Peter regarded this like a professor conducting a particularly interesting experiment.

'The label says it's supposed to taste like orange,' he said sniffing at it. 'I don't think the person who created it ever actually ate one.'

Peter put the glass down in front of me on the tiny coffee-table and ordered me to drink. He watched me closely while I took the glass with shaking hands and took a sip. Orange really wasn't what came to my mind.

'What's going on?' I wheezed.

'You didn't check any of your messages this morning, did you?' Peter asked, to which I shook my head. 'Everyone is to stay in their pods until further notice. Going outside is only allowed if absolutely necessary and you have to give a notification if you do. Environmental suits are of course mandatory. And next time you should refrain from collapsing in the airlock, right at the door. It kind of defeats the purpose.'

'And next time you properly announce yourself,' I coughed.

'Who did you think this is? The Man from PT546?' Peter laughed. He enjoyed this more than me, it seemed and I felt embarrassed again. I threw a cushion at him and almost didn't miss.

'Glad to see you're feeling better,' he said, winking. 'But really, don't go outside. We'll have to wait this out, it seems. It has to get better at some stage.'

'But what is actually happening?' I managed to ask without any incident.

'It seems,' Peter said with an exaggeratingly serious face, 'that what we are witnessing is mad tree love.'

'What?!' I said.

'This,' Peter said pointing out of the window into the fog,' Is pollen. Lots of it, obviously. They spout it from the hollow ends of their branches and while some of the local wildlife seems very much unbothered, this is certainly not the case for us. And it's happening all around the place. All the clusters report the same. Well, apart from Cluster 4; it's colder up in the mountains, so the biologists guess they are a bit behind. For the time being we're all stuck inside.'

'And what about Barbara? How is she?' I wanted to know. I slowly started to feel better, I became more and more aware of the itching all over my body.

'I heard she was awake already, but she will still have to stay in sickbay for a while. A few days at least. Candy, too, by the way. She will be ok, if you care to know,' Peter told me.

When Peter was sure that I was halfway alright he sent me to have a shower to get rid of the remaining pollen I was exposed to. He however made me leave the bathroom door open by a crack and called to see that I was alright. I thought it was all a bit much, but I did not argue. Peter seemed to act under strict orders from Ingrid.

When I had dressed and applied ointment to almost all of my body, I went back to Peter, who was passing the time by watching something on his wrist pad.

'You know what's one of the good things about being frozen for eight years? There's plenty of new episodes of your favourite shows. . . on the other hand you discover some have been discontinued,' he observed. I wasn't sure how to comment on this wisdom. I changed the topic by telling Peter that I was fine and he could go home, but he produced a pack of cards from his pocket and we played for an hour or two, until Peter was sure I was really alright and nobody would blame him for something happening to me. He put his environmental suit back on (it seemed to be too large for him) and I thanked him for coming over. Then I closed the inner door of the airlock and he was on his way back to his pod.

Nobody knows how long we will be locked inside while the trees do their thing. I hope that at least Barbara will be alright soon.

Love,

Sarah

Tavaron

19.08.24 Front Page

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