Entry #7 - 9.21.5502

Today was a day for celebration. We finally figured out how to access, back-track and interpret the Telepods' sequential memory files so we can figure out where 101 disappeared to - then we received this message from Mar:

Hey kids -

hope I didn't cause too much worry, though Sona tells me you've been frettin' pretty bad. Hell, you should know by now that a crusty old bird like me's awful hard to knock off! But I must admit, this was a close one - I'd pretty much given up myself on the idea of ever getting off that forsaken rock of a moon. But I did! So here's the lowdown -

It was 10 days (I think) after being crippled and crash landing that I started slipping fast and seeing things. At least I thought I was seeing things - images like ghosts moving across the ridges above my camp in a gully (the only place I could find respite from the sun and sulfur gas). I hadn't had food for a week, or water in 3 days, and it was looking like my time to check out - I could feel lesions blooming in my lungs and I was coughing up blood something fierce. Not a pretty picture by any stretch. That's when I managed to get the radio working and sent my message - what I thought would be my last ever. But I passed-out before finishing, which pissed me off royally! Not the way I wanted to go - and I was sure, at that point, that that was it, the end - finito.

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke to find myself alive (though not too well), somewhere far below the moon's surface. At first I thought I was still hallucinating - thought I was still on the surface and delirious - seeing what looked like ghosts moving all about. But I realized pretty quick that it was all real. Then I learned that the 'ghosts' were actually local residents who'd saved my life - ecila, the call themselves.

I'll tell you all about 'em when I get home - it's a long and bizarre story - but now I just wanted to let you know I'm OK and on my way. And after this, I think I'm gonna stick around a while - I'm getting a little old for all this traipsing about the universe.

Later - Mar