The Beaded Tapestry

The rhythmic pulse of the sensors fills the compact cabin of the Zephyr, announcing the imminent encounter filling the front viewing portal.  The shuttle, named after the legendary west winds of Earth, was manufactured with viewing ports made from the same material used in the Phycoduras observation laboratories.  This included the research lab assigned and designed by Annalis.  So close!! She could not believe how close she is to the Equine.  It felt like she could reach out her hand and touch the brilliant streamers of energy flowing across the portal. Annalis reaches up instinctively to the protective goggles covering her eyes, wanting to get an unobstructed view.  A small sensor alarm beeps a warning tone in her ear as her hand makes contact with the rim of the goggles and she pulls her hand away, remembering the safety training she took only a few hours ago.  ‘Don’t remove the goggles.’ She tells herself, as she returns her attention to the view outside the capsule. The last thing she wants is to lose the privilege that took her months to arrange.  The safety protocol alone took three weeks to complete, not including a few weeks for the required implants.  She did not want to jeopardize it by breaking regulations on her maiden flight.  Eye damage was not likely with the lens implants, but the rules require the extra precaution of the goggles.

The authorization of the close flyby capsules was controlled by Major Erickman, the commander of the space fleet that supported and serviced the Phycoduras. It was not common for a civilian to be a allowed such an excursion as this, especially solo, but Annalis found she had additional points on the station other than her connection to the Louvre.  Major Erickman had an adult son who had been housed since childhood on the Flynn Satellite. The research Victoria and Annalis were conducting was closely connected to the young man’s condition.  The small hope that their work might improve his son’s life and also reduce or even prevent future occurrences in other individuals had prompted the major to make an exception to his restrictions.  This allowed Annalis to access solo flight privileges whenever she needed them. The ability to experiment and take samples over multiple trip had not even been in her dreams when planning for the project. 

Looking behind her, Annalis saw the wall of stacked cubes.  Each contained a different material to be used in Victoria’s productions.  The mesh containers were fully porous, allowing full exposure to the Equine transmissions during the flyby. Annalis was also clothed in the same material, with only her eyes protected by the lenses and additional goggles constructed of the special Equine visual material to protect against retinal damage.  The full spectrum of radiation emitted by the Equine was not at dangerous levels to any organs except the human eye, and only at this close range. This was according to multiple studies done over the last decades.  Annalis hoped this was entirely correct, but the risk to her seemed worth it to experience the close encounter with the anomaly. Most pilots used extra coverage, but their exposure was more frequent than hers would end up being, so she wanted to ensure proper exposure of the rendition material and herself for the upcoming brain scans.  Her heart skipped a beat thinking of what that analysis would show.  How would she change? What would be the adaptation over the next few months?  She thanked the major again in her thoughts for this unique opportunity.

Returning her thoughts to the vision outside, she studied the flow of energy across the port as she made a few adjustments to the vehicles trajectory.  Most of the course was preset, but she was allowed to make small changes to change viewing angles and visit hot spots of particular frequency ranges, as long as she remained in the allowed flight corridor. On her left ahead a violet burst of color was emerging and she adjusted to get a better perspective.  The violet morphed into magenta as another emission joined the first and Annalis was encapsulated with the color as her vehicle passed through the band. She felt her left hand throb and flex with an involuntary spasm, but there was no pain. Only a pulse of energy that traveled up from the tips of her fingers through her arm into the shoulder. As soon as the capsule was free of the burst, the throbbing subsided and she flexed her hand in astonishment.  It suddenly felt more like her own hand then it ever had before. It might only be an illusion brought on by the energy surge, but a smile of excitement crossed her face with the implications.  It had been a while since she mourned the loss of her limb and the feeling of being whole.  She quickly closed off her mind to these emotional musings.  They did not belong on this scientific Journey, but she filed the thoughts away to thoroughly consider later. 

The endeavor went on for two more hours with Annalis making a few more adjustments now and again to visit particular emission areas or energy spikes.  The strange throbbing or muscle spasms did not repeat themselves, but a feeling of enhanced energy and excitement accompanied her throughout the remainder of the voyage.  Even hours after she returned to the station and disembarked the remnants of the energy remained with her.  There was no lingering fatigue as described in the training when she returned to her quarters and she immediately change out of the flight suit and headed to the lab.  The samples had already arrived by the time she got there and she picked out several materials at random to start her study. The excitement and tension in the lab was so intense, she felt it as a separate entity joining her in her work.

Dear Victoria,

You letter has inspired me and sent my imagination spiraling to new heights, so I have started a private journal to capture as much of this private experience as I can.  The first entry from this journal is included here.

I have just returned from my first solo voyage to visit the Equine.  My senses are still reeling from the close proximity and my system is full of an undefinable charge and energy. For the first time since I lost my arm, I feel whole. I cannot explain it any other way.  The encounter with the emission from the Equine seemed to conduct a final fusion of my body with my newly grown appendices. I had not realized until that moment how disconnected by system was from this new addition, but now it is a complete part of me.  No ghost pain, numb areas or feeling that I left a part of me back on Earth.  Only the yearning for my old home and distant family are left. Not the incomplete, disembodied condition I have endured since the loss of my arm.  I cannot help thinking of your Nikolaas and the loss of his eye.  Maybe a trip to the Equine should be in his future.

Your description of the pub in Newton and the amazing things you are studying with Nikolaas sounds intriguing.  We are each doing such different things in our pursuit of the Equine, but they are all interconnected.   The wonderful components that the creature influences and the uses these components can be utilized for are swirling through my mind, trying to find a landing point so the experimental part of my work can get started.  When I arrived back to the lab and the samples had already been transferred from the shuttle waiting for me, I did not know where to start. I just closed my eyes and reached for the first container and began a spectral study. Strangely this first sample turned out to be the desert sage you sent in the last shipment.  The one you hoped has the potential to produce the muted green missing from your current rendition. I am looking at the initial spectral results right now as I write to you.  You will not believe how focused their wave patterns are for treating anxiety.  They are similar to our data on the sensory healing effects of Earth sourced sage, but on an entirely different spectrum.  I cannot wait to see the final numbers and share them with you.  If Nikolaas is still with you at the studio when this letter is read, maybe you can try this material in one of his culinary creations. It will not be as super charged as my sample that just did a close encounter with the Equine, but I can imagine the healing qualities are also amazing for New London sourced material; especially if these materials are ingested. Once my samples have been thoroughly analyzed, I will send the remaining quantity back to you for incorporation into your latest creation.  Let me know what you think of this and the minimum quantity you will need.  I am trying to be as sparing as I can for my own testing, but I know it takes a great amount of sage to complete an infusion for your use.

Sadly I cannot supply tales of historic pub visit in my letter to you. Only the station canteen and the herbal gardens supply a viewing area to match your Newton stories, but I will try to make my next letter as entertaining as your Conan Doyle encounter.  A close flyby of the Equine is on a whole different level though.  I hope it is in your future to experience this amazing encounter as much as a visit to Newton is in mine.

Love Annalis

Dark shadows permeate the vision of the world, distorting the joy of watching the lives progress through their daily routines.  The shadows were disturbing and in conflict with the ecstatic emotions that usually accompanied the observations of daily life that sustained and fascinated the watcher.  There were now mutual responses with these subjects and the once one sided viewing had become interactive with messages returned and ideations shared.  But now another force was detected: One that was both interfering and interacting with the population, distorting the once clear vision of life and meaning. There was a sense of protectiveness for these subjects and an urge to wrap the universe in an indestructible, impenetrable shield, allowing no further interference from this detected threat.  Was it a threat? The obvious answer to this was yes, but it was also a familiar presence.  One that was both destructive but necessary to survival. What was to be done? Something to balance the effect, but not alert this approaching event.  It must be thought out carefully if the resulting chaos was to be controlled.  With this last conclusion, thought tuned inward to contemplate a resolution. 

Greeting!! Dear sister from Newton.  We have just returned to our lodgings after an exhausting but exhilarating study of the flora of New London.  Nikolaas is such a quick study that I am hard pressed to keep up with his pace.  We have now been in Newton for three days under the tutelage of the local botanist, learning every flower, leaf, tree and shrub to grace the surface of this fantastic planet.  My notebook is packed with new ideas for our project and I cannot wait to incorporate them when I return to the atelier. Nikolaas has also been inspired with new creations of his own and I am hoping he will explore some of these culinary ideas during his planned stay at my home so I can experience them.  We still have two more days at the seminar here in Newton, but I am already amazed at the amount of information that has been imparted to us so far.

Oh course we have also made time in our evenings together to enjoy the other sites of the city.  From culinary delights to musical expositions, we have managed to expose ourselves to a wide range of experiences.  Many of these escapades have been outside our scholastic  endeavors so it has been a welcome break for our mental health. After the description I gave Nikolaas of the stellar Delphi experience with the Equine music, he urged me to attend a similar performance here in Newton since he had not been able to himself since his arrival on New London.  The performance company was smaller than in Delphi, but this did not lesson the quality.  We were both moved to silence by this musical communion with the Equine: merely staring into each other’s eyes on the ride back to our lodgings after the performance, still lost in the sensual experience. Neither of us was able to express or describe the internal sensations coursing through our brains. The music had a strange dark undertone to it, unlike the uplifting Delphi performance. Not in a depressing way, but more of a melancholy background accompaniment that spoke of hidden meaning within the music. The message just out of reach to the listener. I can still feel the residue left several days later.

The following day we woke early and visited the art academy before our seminar session began.  The displayed works of art relating to the Equine along with the renditions of the natural landscapes around Newton were very inspiring.  We picked up some local delicacies at the local market for our breakfast before joining the first lecture of the day.  This was one of several given by the herbologist Doctor Irene Felton.  Strangely I have never mentioned her name to you before.  By coincidence, she has the same surname as the director of the Flynn foundation, but she assured me there is no relation.  She is also a native of New London, being a third generation resident. I mention her name manly so that if you have a chance to acquire any of her books on New London,  I think you will find them fascinating and informative.  I only have a hard copy of two of her books, so I cannot share them with you in digital form, but I am sure with the resources on the station you can obtain a digital copy of some of her publications.  The fascinating fauna of Geo Britannia and the Celestial Influence is the book I purchased the first time I visited her shop. I believe I also forgot to mention that she was the actual author of the book she re commended.  Her overview of the native plants and also the cultivation of these plants for optimal use has been an immense resource for me at the studio. I think it would also give you some connection to this planet and maybe some comfort in your astern environment.

Okay! I have tried my best to take your mind off the strange happenings in your life and mind right now.  I am not concerned about your sanity.  Either those things have already happened to you or indeed you are being warned with a premonition.  There is no question of your state of mind.  I know you too well and you are too logical for that sort of thing.  Your theory on the nature of time and the Equine is intriguing.  Let us explore that in depth in our next letters.  I also have some theories in that direction.  Indeed it does hint at the experience I had while I was under the influence of the desert fever.

Love Victoria

Dear Victoria,

I have spent many hours considering the strange story of my abduction and incarceration on the ship orbiting the dead satellite.  During my few months here on the Phycodurus I have glimpsed both my captors among the inhabitants.  One of them, the man, is a member of the medical staff.  I have not been able to determine his position on the station, but he is of high rank according to his uniform.  I am cautious about asking for information about him or trying to glimpse into his records as this might bring his attention to my presence. So far I have seen no indication that he even acknowledges I exist. His role on the station does not seem to cross any path with mine or my work. The woman from the memory works in the behavior research department and I have been able to access her information with less notice because her division works along with several of my direct associates.  Her main role in the team is focused on research into New London native species and their adaptation to introduced foreign material, flora and fauna.  This also includes the disturbance to natural environments and climate shift caused by human interference over the occupied centuries. I suspect she is one of the driving members of the protest groups that fight against the use of New London as a research hub. I am questioning my conclusion since it is odd that she has such a prominent role here on the station, but I am still gathering proof of this assumption.  Of course this does not explain why I have a memory of the abduction or why I have such weird recollections of my time spent on their ship.  I get no indication from either of them that they know or acknowledge me. Indeed these thoughts take me back to your dream journal filled while you were ill in your first year on New London.  You eluded several times when you reviewed your writings that it seemed to be focused on the Equines past history; the vision of the creature’s emergence into the universe and its first encounter with mankind.  Could it have also the ability to impart future events into the minds of recipients? We always suspected the Equine was not a creature confined by time, but one existing outside those constraints.  Animate in all times at once with no forward or backwards, but only a mindful connection to all existing moments at once.  An entity that is present in every moment at once, experiencing all of time and space without limitations that require it to follow the flow, but can remain still as the waters of a lake, watching the passage of the universe around it. This is a fascinating but terrifying thought. It means at some time in my future, I will be whisked away off of the Phycoduras and deposited in a far off orbit to be interrogated.  I cannot even go to the security captain here on the station about this.  How insane will he think me if I related these fears? So I am telling you. Not to alarm or worry you, but as a precaution if (or when) something happens.  I will do as you did and write down everything I remember so if this is indeed a premature warning from the creature, you will have some knowledge about my whereabouts and the nature of my captivity.

Then there is the subject of the dark entity I encountered on the ship.  Are these memories being supplied by this creature?  Is it an aspect of the Equine we have not encountered before, or a whole new player? Is the Equine a creature of past and present, while there is a counter part that proposes the future? Sorry to go on and on with my musing and questions,  a harbinger with no definitive answers, but It would comfort me greatly if we could debate these points together.  I hate to think I am losing my grip on reason. I believe these same types of thoughts passed through your mind after reviewing your dream journal.  The similarities are a bit alarming.

Please do not let me ruin your time with Nikolaas.  Tell me all about your time together in your next letter and the things you have learned.  Do not leave out any of the delicious details about the creations you will be privileged to try. It will be a welcome distraction and remind me of what my real focus is here.

Love Annalis

Dear Annalis,

I look forward to reading your vision journals as you explore the new found relationship with the Equine.  I remember my brief time on the space station and realize how vastly different my response and experience is now on the planet surface.  Indeed the scans will be an interesting comparison, since we have both been on the station, but you have not yet visited the planet.  I have done some preliminary work this last year on my own brain chemistry changes, but the addition of your information after an extended stay in close proximity will be beneficial as a comparison. 

I am preparing to leave in a few days to meet Nikolaas in Newton.  Travel by geotrain will again be my mode of transport since it is both pleasant and practical.  Nikolaas has sent me a list of items he would like me to bring from the desert around my studio.  He will utilize these items in the seminar we will be attending.  I guess he has done some research ahead of time on the health and wellness benefits obtained from desert fauna and wants to get a head start in Newton under the direction of our host.  He also wants to use the extensive lab facilities of the institute where the seminar is being held. There are come analytical processes that require specific equipment that are not available to him at his facility.  His plan is to complete these analytics in parallel with the seminar.  I guess there are some major restrictions on the use of substances in his profession and he wants to be sure all the materials we will gather when he stays with me at my studio can be utilized when he returns to his home.  He will also need the official certifications from an accredited lab to ensure his offerings are aligned with the regulatory guidelines for food stuff. I forget sometimes how different or two professions are.  We are both artists, but I cannot poison anyone with my products.  I only hope I can find a sample of all the materials he has asked me to bring before my departure. Some of them I have not even heard of and did not know they could be found right under my nose. (or feet to be exact) Addison helped me with the majority of the list since he is more familiar with the terrain and local resources. I only have two items left to “gather”.  I could use Katryna’s help right about now. Unfortunately I still have not heard from her since my return from the research station.  The multiple messages I have sent to her family have gone unanswered.  I have also received no response to the messages left at the community hall in town.  Addison has also voiced concerns of her silence, but we do not have another avenue of communication to try. Her original lodgings are now occupied by someone else, with no message or forwarding instructions left with the proprietress.  If I do not hear anything before my return from Newton,  I may get the Louvre representative to look into it further.  This is a further difference from Earth that is very prevalent on New London.  It is possible to disappear into society here.  The close tracking done on Earth is not practiced here.  You could easily disappear off the radar, even if you do not want too. I miss Katryna’s inspiration and local knowledge. I just hope whatever is keeping her silent is of her own choosing.

Love Victoria 

Instrumental music traverses the inner dome of the chamber, sending waves of sound echoing in a circular pattern within the confined space.  Above the floating form, a transparent ceiling reveals the full unobstructed view of the swirling every changing spectacle above. The movement is mesmerizing: transfixing the watcher to give her full conscious thought to the display above. Innumerable shades coalesce and separate in a constant dance, accompanied and enhanced by the music piped into the chamber. The inner dome seems to come alive with images and visions which strangely prompt emotional responses with every particle placed within the array.  Colors combine and signals flash and dim to enhance the telling of the story.  The view slowly dissipates, shrinking to a minute point as the view port dilates closed, spiraling inward to shut out the storyteller. The music fad to silence and the floating figure is left alone in the complete isolated darkness.

Dear Victoria,

I have tried my best to describe the Equine isolation chamber.  It is by far the best way to give full control of my thoughts to the Equine influence.  It is also a struggle not to abuse this method. The sense of lose one feels when the aperture closes, cannot be described.  I feel the immediate need to restart the program and it requires all my will power to resist. I limit myself to one session a week in the isolation experience due to this overwhelming effect the connection to the Equine has on me.  It is very beneficial, do not get me wrong, but I feel my objectivity about the creature itself disappear completely after each session.  This loss of objectivity can last for several hours and I know it is not advantageous to my work to allow this complete immersion. The sustained feeling of complete agreement with the visions of the creature causes me to loss any objectivity. I must constantly remind myself that I am not in cohesion with the Equine, but trying to conduct a study from the outside, looking in.

My mental health does rejoice in this full isolated contact, thus I must find a balance between using the isolation chamber and detached monitoring/surveillance. In addition, there are only ten such isolation modules on the space station and with the majority of the fifteen hundred or so occupants of the Phycoduras wanting to utilize them at lease several times per 30 day cycle, there is a limit of availability. They are not only for the researchers use and time must be shared by all.  The Modules design is similar to the isolation chambers once used on Earth centuries ago for meditation and visionary purposes.  The main difference being visuals and sounds provided by the Equine, not to mention the weightlessness of space verses the floatation created by liquid used on Earth tanks. The module track is situated directly below my observation lab.  This deck of the station contains all the sensory study labs and research teams.  They have built these modules to face the full exposure of the Equine using the same special viewing material as my lab utilizes.  The tanks are equipped with suppression fields for the artificial gravity of the station so the movement and sensory input of the viewer is not hindered.  This allows full attention to the display from the Equine and the sounds produced by the interpretation team to translate the frequency signals transmitted by the creature. It may seem strange, but I feel as if I am being addressed directly by the creature when I am experiencing the chamber and not only viewing and hearing what the creature is displaying and telling everyone.  The more I dive into your letters and notes from your first year on New London, the more I find this idea to be a possibility.  It feels very egotistical to think the creature finds our mission so important that it is conversing with us directly, but I begin to believe this more and more as the week’s progress: Especially when I think back to my missing three months.  

In my next letter I will relate a vision I had last week while in the equine module, along with a similar experience a month before my arrival on the Phycoduras.  It should solidify my statement even to the most skeptical reader.

Love Annalis

Dear sister,

Reciprocal space…that strange uncanny ability of matter to transform itself from real to a Fourier reflection of reality.  This is how I sometimes view the life I live within such close proximity to the Equine. Daily life is confined and astern, with no inclusion of green comforts except the occasional visit to the conservatory. Then there are the encounters with the Equine, both in reality and in a dream state.  These are the saving experiences of my life.  These encounters overshadow the more mundane occurrences and I try to give priority to the effects these occasions evoke in me.  Much as flaws on a microscopic level chose to perform magic when no one is looking, I try and focus on the magic reflection of my existence and not the steel grey reality of daily station life. The recall of the dream encounters with the Equine does not always include all the details, but I try to find meaning and understanding in the memories that are available after awakening so I can use this content to push me through the tedium and depression that threaten to overtake me at times.

Since you are now in close proximity to me, your presence in my dreams has diminished to almost nothing.  Sometimes I recall a dim memory of your infrequent dream visit, but upon awakening the memory is not retrievable.  Only a vague emotional shadow of joy or sadness lingers, screaming out for response.  I am not sure what this means.  I guess because I now have the ability to reach out to you with the anticipation of a timely response, this negates the need for your nightly visits and reassurance from your dream self.  I strongly wish I have both personas available from you, but I prefer the former since it is really you and not a manifestation (refection) of you in my mind.

On the other hand, my Equine encounters have been vivid and when I awaken, I quickly put pen to paper to record these recollections in detail and accuracy. These recordings have provided a fascinating study into the creature itself, but also into my own state of mind.  I can already glimpse the changes in me now that the full effects of the Equine are available.  I am compiling these dreams and musings into a single file every thirty days and will send each of them to you after my analyses of the brain waves during that period are complete.  In parallel I am also keeping a daily journal of mood, health,  mental cognition and nutritional intake to provide supplemental data. It will be beneficial to our research to correlate the state of the unconscious mind to the cognizant mind when it is first introduced to the Equine influence. Also we can perform a comparison of your first year to mine.  This will illuminate the difference between planetary exposure and near proximity, undistorted exposure.

The last part of the puzzle will be the lab study journal I am preparing and the data from the instruments monitoring the creature. Later we can match these with your first years statistics on New London.  This will give us the differences both in time and space of the planetary exposure and station exposure.  We may need to decide if the final rendition needs to spend an extended period on the space station once it is complete.

I look forward to your account of the visit with Nicolaas.  I find myself thinking off and on of the meals you described in your letters when you visited him at this retreat.  Now you get to experience once again the provender he is famous for. I hope it turns out as enjoyable as you remember.  Please write back and tell me all about it.  I will read it with envy as I consume my space station fare.  (no insult to Chef Emilia’s kitchen intended, but she has a limited variety to work with)

I am working on a full narrative of my missing time before my arrival at the Phycoduras.  I neglected to recall how time consuming the scribing of our secret language was when I suggested using this method of communication.   Give me a bit more time before I can share it.  I am sure you want it to be legible.  You know how terrible my handwriting can be.

Love Annalis

Dear Annalis,

Such lovely visions you have of my world.  The heat, dust and poncho are accurate, but sadly the clouds and breeze are absent over the last weeks.  I would welcome even a whisper of cloud cover during my frequent traverses through the desert; daily excursions in search of the elusive alternative materials to add to the constituents I imported from Earth.  I am now down to only two essential materials in my search for replacements, but the shale stone and clove oil will be the hardest to source locally.  I have searched all the reference material I have access to and completed a local search of the desert for alternatives, but there seems to be no native choices here.  Since the clove oil was one of the essential cross functional sense materials, I will need to use the imported stock I brought with me.  It may end up as one of the ten percent non-native material I will have to incorporate into the piece.  The Shale will be easier.  I am already working on some ideas.

Thank you for the information you shared about the ten year minimum exposure.  It was something I already suspected, but it confirms my decision to limit the additions of my Earth imports and use as much native material as possible.  It would have been nice to know this information when we were making the preparation on Earth, but that cannot be helped.  This information was probably only known to the researchers in the vicinity of the Equine.  It is such a new area of study.  I wish again that the secrecy that surrounds the Equine exploration was not so well kept.  Competition and security risks lead to all types of roadblocks in discovery when information is not shared freely.  How many people have spent years scrutinizing something that has already been discovered, but kept secret for financial gain?  How many people have died due to this subterfuge? I guess the nature of humanity will never change. 

On the subject of subterfuge, I do remember our codex carved within the secret tree of knowledge.  I brought a facsimile with me that I had long ago engraved myself as a memento of that summer we spent in the black forest with our family.  I had forgotten all about it.  Let us try and revitalize our secret language and see how it goes.  Then you can explain the cryptic three months of your journey.

I know you are not sure what was real or what was induced by your illness from the stasis, but just describe your experience.  I discern from your letters that a whole different chain of events occurred during those lost months.  Sometimes events during an illness can be enlightening.  Remember my Equine journal during my bout with desert fever.  Without these written mementos I could never have discovered the true origin of our anomaly.  I believe what happened to you actually occurred, but maybe they haven’t transpired yet.  See, I can also be cryptic and mysterious with my messages. After you send me an overview of your adventures, I will explain this comment and my theory about out of time experiences and their relationship to the Equine.

I hope you can decipher the last paragraph.  It is my first attempt to write in our archaic language after twenty years.

Love Always,

Victoria

The dragon is finished. Now I need to think how to display it.

Shadows traverse across the desert, bringing fleeting relief from the heat.  The clouds sojourn is brief, as the full blaze of the solar body returns to bake the sand and body.  The figure shades her eyes to gaze out at the treeless plain, dotted here and there with browning vegetation and spindly succulents. The hot breeze kicks up dust as the shadow of the cloud moves down the desert valley, lifting the edges of the light poncho draped over the solitary figure, coating her exposed skin with grit.  Drying the dust and perspiration off her forehead with a delicate handkerchief, the figure starts her descent into the arid lands in search of inspiration.

Dear Victoria,

Here I share a beautiful vision of you in your current environment.  I spend many hours imagining what your world is like.  The blazing sun, warm star filled nights and desert thunderstorms fill my waking dreams as I sit day in and day out in the sterile, never changing environment of the space station.  Granted there are many benefits to my close proximity to the Equine, but I so miss the touch of nature and the changing of the elements.  Only even if it is in my dreams and imagination,  a visit with you is always welcomed.

I have approached the Louvre representative on the possibility of accelerating my schedule to visit New London.  The initial response is negative, but this was expected, since my reasoning for this request was not completed argumentative. This is logical since I myself am not completely clear on the full reason for my request.  I also hesitate to disclose the exact nature of my concern, since I question now the legitimacy of my experience over the last months and who exactly was responsible; And even if it happened! This led to a not very convincing argument to visit the planet almost a year ahead of schedule. With the denial of the accelerated planet visit in mind, I will try and discover another way to share my current concerns with you. There must be a secure way we can communicate without risk of even corporate interference.  Let me think how creative I can get without needing your cryptic methods. We might even utilize something as insane as our childhood archaic language which even father could not decipher. 

On another note, I have news from the material lab about Equine influenced substances.  Although not related to bees and their product, the lab is very involved in all things silk.  Specifically from silk worms and their New London counterparts, the Britannia silk spider. Arachnids are not my favorite subject,  but a discussion I had with one of the lab technicians over dinner shed some light, not only on his fascination with this native of the planet,  but also on how a migrant population responds to exposure to the Equine.  The immigrant silk worm population, he told me, was established ten years ago.  At this point, their produced material is approaching the same level of Equine remnants as the native arachnid silk. This gives an indication of how long some species need to be on New London before their produced material molecularly matches the material from the native population.  Of course there are deviations in this time frame from species to species, but spiders and bees are closer genetically than say ants and bovine.  Not totally good news seeing as we need new material immediately under the full influence of the Equine, but this does support your hypothesis that the new rendition must be completed with a majority of native planet based material.  I am still very hopeful for the future success of my traveling companions and Simona’s project, but with the two year cap on our project, we will need to consider this.  I will keep you posted on anything else I “overhear” as I dine among my fellow Phycodurians.  I will also let you know as soon as my brain figures out our cryptic communication puzzle. Do you still remember the key to our language?  Think it over. It was carved somewhere in the journeys of our childhood.  

Love Annalis