I should have expected the interest. Earth is not only an alien planet, but it’s also (relatively) similar to Muina, which is the main focus of research for most of the expeditionary force. Since Zee had control of the channel, she shifted it into two groups – people who could text me questions (Setari and a few of the department heads) and people who could watch if they wanted. I tried to ignore all the extras and pretend it was just the people in the room with me.
Eeli was fun to watch, round-eyed and delighted most of the time, though there’s a scene where a wolf hunts down this baby caribou and Eeli was so upset when it caught it. And didn’t much like sharks eating seals, either. The first episode is a really useful one to have done, because its subject is seasonal change, which the expeditionary force is particularly interested in. Fortunately it mostly explains itself. There’s a short mini-documentary at the end of each episode, which I’d included (since I’m basically just recalling the DVD set Mum owns), and even though I’d only gotten halfway through the next episode, Zee played it too because there were a couple of bits she’d particularly wanted to ask me about – namely how freaking huge the mountains on Earth are, what was the burning red stuff (lava) and what was with all the snow knocking down trees (an avalanche).
That caused some excitement, and I was bombarded with questions by the section heads when I ran out of subtitled recording. Earth’s geologic instability is something none of their planets have, which means their mountains are more worn down (if they exist at all). Muina does have mountains, but I don’t think they’re at Everest level, and there’s no sign of flowing lava. I fumbled my way through explanations of continental drift, the Ice Ages and dinosaurs until Isten Notra (although very interested herself) eventually called a close to my inquisition and said that the discussion could be continued at a later date, as could further helpful documentaries.
It was, Kaoren said, a useful demonstration that no matter how much I thought I’d described Earth, it was too large a topic to ever assume a proper understanding. I hadn’t properly explained dinosaurs before, apparently, and the avalanche got them all worried about the settlement at Kalasa. Both the Solarians knew about avalanches too, but hadn’t mentioned it because they were very rare on Solaria (again, a fairly flat world) and nobody had asked exactly the right question.
Kaoren wasn’t absolutely exhausted tonight, only tired. It was nice to have a night when he didn’t pass out.
August
Friday, August 1
Cleared
Another test day for me – I’m scheduled for every second day to avoid overstressing my system. It was only a repetition of the projections we’d already run through on Tare, and then I finished off the rest of the Mountains episode of Planet Earth. Zee wouldn’t let me push myself to exhaustion this time, since the idea is to get a better understanding of my powers, not churn out BBC documentaries. Still needed a long nap afterwards, though. But I’m doing well. Fewer headaches, better control, and it’s just so incredibly much easier to do this in the Ena.
The good news is that I’ve been stable and injury-free long enough that the bluesuits are willing to move on from David Attenborough. My next session will be a controlled attempt to look into Kalasa’s past – visualising a single room.
The Setari have divided into a morning shift and an afternoon shift to perform experiments on the Pillar, examining the inflow of the aether and trying to work out what the Pillar does with it. No sign of Cruzatch still, fortunately, although they were having real issues with deep-space Ionoth, and are debating whether it would be safer to send fewer people in the hopes of attracting less of them. A couple of minor injuries for Eleventh.
Twelfth got to spend the entire day carting stuff about, which is what Zan gets for being the strongest Telekinetic. They’ve seriously stepped the construction and deliveries up a notch, and there are now four ships (the Litara, the Diodel, the Wharra and the Luim) devoted to daily ferrying of equipment. Kolar and Tare didn’t have a bunch of spare interplanetary ships lying about, and couldn’t simply abandon all the trade currently established, so it’s taken a little time to get up to four ships devoted to Muina, and they’re fast-tracking construction of more. I still love watching them land, though apparently they intend to construct some kind of airbase well inland past the industrial complex. They haven’t quite finished designing that, though I’m not sure how hard it can be to design a big flat plain of whitestone.
This afternoon after he’d recovered somewhat from his session in the Ena Kaoren and I watched the latest episode of The Hidden War, which was me being idiotic during Maze Rotation and patting Ghost. The episode continues to build the idea of Faer developing some feelings for me, but otherwise is generally accurate in terms of me looking and feeling bad.
Saturday, August 2
End of Winter?
Ouch – combat training with Third this morning. And also a bit of friction between Squad Three and Eleventh Squad. I don’t know the exact cause of it, just noticed the atmosphere. Since Eleventh is injured, they’re not involved with the Pillars today, while Squad Three is on the afternoon shift. Endaran took the non-injured members of her squad out on a training run (it would be a training flounder, given the snow, but they’ve a strong Telekinetic and she had him to clear a path to the paths already cleared by machinery and they jogged around the settlement) until they were totally ragged and far too tired to even care that Squad Three existed.
I think it might be warming up. The snow’s looking a bit slushy.
Kaoren’s been having his post-Ena nap and now that I’ve finished my day’s subtitling (carefully just making the damn episode available over the interface rather than having a video party), I’m going to wake him up and ravish him.
Monday, August 4
Looking in the wrong place
I was a little keyed up for my visualisation exercise yesterday. Wanting to prove myself, I guess, but trying not to show it. Eeli, part of my guard escort, was a useful distraction, and I could see Sefen of Third and Wen of Eleventh suppressing a couple of smiles in her direction. She always lifts the mood, as excited about watching my projection as she has been going to study the Pillar.
My projection tests have all been held just a little way inside the gate to near-space (not too close or my projection might react with the gate) and Zee brings both a drone to record, and a sense-chair for me to lie on. I settle in and then Zee reads out a description of what she wants me to project.
Yesterday it was a room in Kalasa, a small square with no windows and a single door, where the floor had cracked and dropped in the centre, and all the furniture had tumbled and jammed into it. Everything was smirched with grot and tarnish and mould, the way most of the uncleared rooms in Kalasa are, but this one was extra-damaged thanks to water leaking through the equally cracked ceiling, leaving a total rotten mess. The most obvious shape was a big, formerly solid desk, and I could make out a couple of chairs, a brazier, ornaments. Lots of books, or at least the remnants of their covers.