From: Chris Maldonado

To: Sameen Lee

To: Amelia Nine

Delivered-To: Sameen Lee

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Date-Local: 3 Apr 2419 23:42:19 +0000

Date: 17 Sep 2421 22:18:19 +0000

Subject: So excited to be part of things again!

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Hi, Sam! Hi, Lia! (Sam mentioned you were coming to see her at L1 -

so happy for you both! Are you there yet? I'm sending this to you

directly, so you'll still get it either way.)

The last day and a half has been amazing! I'm working hard to help

build our new bio lab, and it's going really well, even when

everyone else is in bed and I'm working all on my own. Eve made me

stop a few hours ago, though, and told me very firmly to get some

sleep. But I'm not tired! So I thought I'd write some more to you.

You know, I never realized just how big Voortrekker was? We had

plenty of holos and everything, but I never really got to see her

from outside. Even when they shuttled us aboard, there was only the

one port about the size of my hand, and I wasn't sitting anywhere

near it anyway. But she's huge! Even now, after the crash, it took

us a good few minutes to abseil down from the hull. That was scary,

but also a lot of fun! Easier than I thought it'd be with the

gravity here, too. But I was still glad to be done by the time we

finally got to the ground.

Director Soloviev and Eve met us there. Eve had water for both of

us, and we were glad she did! But trust her to think of something

like that - she's our senior surviving doctor. And she's changed

like I have, too! Well, not exactly like. She was tall even before

the change, and her new legs must be twice as long as mine. She

towered over all of us, even Director Soloviev, and he's got to be

close to two meters. I never had the courage to really try to talk

with her, even back before, and now? I could barely even say hello!

Lucky me, the Director started talking before I could embarrass

myself. He shook my hand - didn't hesitate, either, which made me

feel good - welcomed me back, said he was glad to see me up and on

my feet again, and did I feel up to getting back to work? That was

when I found out about the new bio lab, and of course I volunteered

for that right away, and we got into what we had and what we

needed, who to talk with about fetching things from the ship, and

so on.

About the Director - I think he really has changed. Back on the

ship, he was never rude or anything, but he always seemed like he

was incredibly busy. You never saw him in any of the crew common

areas, except passing through, and when you talked to him it was

like he already had twenty things to deal with in the next hour and

he was really hoping you weren't going to become number twenty-one.

But on Saturday he was actually smiling! Like he was genuinely glad

to see me, and we never passed more than a half dozen words at a

time on the ship. He asked me twice if I was sure I was ready to

work, and told me to take all the time I needed if I wasn't! I've

asked around a little, and I'm not the only one who thinks he's

different now. I don't know if it's just the crash and the bug, or

if there's something else going on, but either way I feel a lot

better about him than I used to, and I'm glad.

Eve stopped us before we could get too far into making plans. It

was all very well getting me back to work, she said, but I'd

changed more than anyone else, and I wasn't going anywhere right

now but straight to her infirmary so she could make sure I was

healthy and likely to stay that way. The Director said of course,

and I knew they were right but I still asked if that could wait.

If it could wait until it'd be someone else and not Eve doing the

exam, I meant! But I didn't really see how I could say so, and

professionally, I knew she was best qualified to do it. Just -

she's devastating, and I knew I was already blushing, and...you

both know how I get. And in any case, Jen was already saying

something to the Director about some kind of engineering problem

and did he have half an hour right now to talk about that, so it

was too late to find any excuses there.

Eve was very good about it, though. She managed to make me

reasonably comfortable by the time we got back to the hab. And it

turned out delaying wouldn't have helped anyway! She's making a

study of all of us who've changed, gathering data and working to

find out whether there's anything we especially need to worry

about. You know, basic research. Which is what I should've been

thinking about, too, instead of getting all nervous about - I mean,

I know it's just a regular thing, but it was my first time! But Eve

understood and gave me what I guess was the same advice she'd give

anyone, and it wasn't actually bad, just a little

uncomfortable. (Go ahead, laugh, it's okay! I am too.)

She gave me a clean bill of health, anyway. We talked some about

karyotyping me, but as I said before, it'll have to wait a little

while. Then she told me where to find the bio team and turned me

loose, and I don't mind admitting that even if it had gone better

than I'd expected, I was still a little glad to get out of there

before I said something silly.

We're putting the bio lab right near the infirmary, since there'll

be a lot of overlap especially at first, and I found Nandi

there. You remember Nandi - chief of the biology section, I'm sure

I mentioned her a couple of times at least while we were on the

ship? She'd heard about me from Jen, but I hadn't even known she

survived! We were really happy to see each other, too. She's got

less time for nonsense than almost anyone, but I like her pretty

well, and I think she must be one of the smartest people I've ever

worked with. Once we'd got done catching up, she assigned me to

cytology, since I did some of the initial work with the Ross bug,

and we tried calling Gareth, who's keeping track of the fetch

teams. Hand unit comms have been spotty, though, and we couldn't

get through, but Nandi said she thought he was in hydro and sent me

after him there.

Our hydro farms are clear on the other side of the hab from where

we're doing bio. That's not great, but this place went up in a

hurry, and there was nowhere closer with enough space and water

supply. On the way there, I passed through the refectory, and -

it's not a large space, but I just had to stop for a minute and

take it in, because it felt like half the colony was there or

passing through. People talking and eating, people moving gear and

supplies to where they needed to be, stopping to chat, planning

where to put up more hab space, planning how to start breaking down

debris for usable scrap, planning studies and experiments to start

really understanding what sort of planet we've got to work with

here - I even saw a couple more of us who've changed - and...

I know, it doesn't sound like anything especially amazing, just

what a working colony is supposed to be. But that's amazing all by

itself! Remember, when I went down, we were still struggling to

keep people alive (so I thought) and nobody except maybe Director

Soloviev and the section heads were thinking more than a day ahead,

at most. I hadn't been there when that changed - when people

started coming out of it, when everyone realized that no one was

going to die and there was time to start building what we came here

to build. By the time I got here, everyone was already hard at

work, and I was a little ashamed I'd been off hiding, scared of

what people would think of me, while everyone else had been doing

all this. But more than that, I was so proud just to be here, to be

part of it all!

And I decided that I'm all done with letting everyone down. Yes,

I've changed. Yes, I was scared. Yes, I wasn't quite right for the

first little while there. But I'm not scared any more, and I'm all

right now. And for all that Jen and everyone - even the Director -

have been very kind, it's time I start contributing instead of

being carried. So I got back to finding Gareth, who wasn't in hydro

after all. Letsie was, though, and he said I might want to try the

botany lab, which at least was pretty close.

I know, this is sounding more and more like a scavenger hunt! But

that's just what it's like right now, and it's actually not so

bad. We're so small that everyone is mostly pretty easy to find,

and it's actually sort of fun in a way! In the ship, our different

groups and sections tended to stick pretty close for the most part,

just because of the way the shifts were set up and everything - oh,

we all had friends and people we were close with in other

departments, but they were the exception. Here, for all that we're

each still absorbed in our own work, everyone's still part of

everything. Even me!

Anyway, I did finally find Gareth in botany, and he and I and Elva

found out some things that...I'm honestly still not sure what to

think, whether I should be afraid or amazed or both at once. I

think I'm both at once. But I'd better pick that up next time,

because if I start talking about it now I really will be up all

night, and I should at least try to get some sleep if I can. Even

if I don't feel like I need it! I'm sure Eve will ask me tomorrow,

and she'll be very disappointed with me if I didn't at least try.

So I'm going to send this, and then I'm going to stretch out in my

bunk here and see if I can't remember what it feels like to be

snuggled up between the two of you. If that doesn't help me sleep,

nothing will! I'll write again as soon as I can. In the meantime, I

love you both and miss you, and I can't wait to hear from you!

Yours with love as always - Kit.