First, we visited Nifehrehn after a break of over one week. When we linked in, we almost immediately recognized it was terribly cold. We linked out again and returned with our maintainer suits on.

Somebody had opened the airlock – letting the cold air from the outside into the complex! Work of months has been destroyed, many instruments and scales again are deeply frozen. Who did that? Who has access to Nifehrehn besides us? The books have been kept safe, nobody inside the expedition could have gone there without anyone noticing. So who was it?

The second strange thing that happened: When I linked to Afelahn today to take measure for the new living quarters I plan to add, the whole place was covered in greenish fog! Panicking, I linked out, fearing the worst. But as my skin didn´t dissolve and I didn´t feel any pain, I returned with a suit. The fog was gone again, and no residue was found.
Whatever it was, it seems to have been harmless – who might play such a sick prank on me? I´ve been scared to death!

The third thing that happened – and this one is REALLY weird – was told by B.P. He and a team had done research in Dasharen, when a huge quake hit. Well, that´s the normal part, at least in this age. But then they looked on the print-outs of the seismographs – and the instruments recorded NOTHING! As if nothing bad had happened.

Could all this phenomena have been caused by Bahro? Who else could have done that?
We are puzzled, and concerned. Trying to keep you updated.

It is the highest room at the moment, reaching up to the surface of Afelahn, to lead any kinetic energy of a possible explosion outwards.

Tom Woods, Shane Kennett and Carla Mastrelli led a team that installed the power marble in its encasement. The inner part is covered by nara, the hardest  artificial stone the D’ni have invented. On the outside a massive concrete layer has been added for additional safety.

The room will have a heavy blast door, as planned.

Now, all that’s left to power the base, are the wirings and control computers.

It´s amazing, what they were able to accomplish – a neat mixture of surface and D’ni technology. I do hope, it doesn’t blow up, though.

I have some more KI-shots for you. The first two are of lamp designs I used in the garage:

They are rather huge, as you can see.

Then, I added some artwork to make the base a little bit more friendly – it’s not a Picasso, but for a first try on canvas it´s not that bad imho:

There was another, big earthquake in Dasharen. Nobody of the expedition was there, but the seismographs recorded it.
Maybe the quakes are the reason, Dasharen was deserted and left alone – maybe the D’ni who lived there had enough of the constant danger and went to live in a more – convenient age.

Ah, and I forgot: two nights ago, someone again tried to break into one of the sheds at Asheten mansion. But this time, the lock – one of the secure ones we installed after the last incident – didn’t give way. So they – whoever they were – gave up and left.

Unfortunately, the video data isn’t good, you can only see dark silhouettes. But now we know, they are humans, not Bahro. They wore boots and trousers of surface design, so they aren’t D’ni either (unless D’ni trying to fool us by dressing like us… unlikely, yes, but possible.)

The question is – are they other explorers? Members of our own expedition? Looters?

I suggested to let guards patrol the area – without weapons of course, the only guns we have are the hunting rifles Noemi and Clint brought, and we don´t want to start a war down here.
But whoever they are, they won’t be successful again.

The council met immediately after the theft was detected. Teams searched the near vicinity of the mansion, but no clues were found.

This is really disturbing – until now, we hadn’t had any problems with other groups or individuals in D’ni. The list of suspects is long – from surviving D’ni over begrudging explorers to evil Bahro, everyone could have done it. Even our own expedition members could be involved.

For now, the council decided to improve security – cameras  around the mansion, and safer locks will be installed.

I’m thinking of increasing security in Afelahn as well.. at least take the linking book to a safer place. If the culprits are Bahro, of course everything we can do is in vain.

Nevertheless, there are positive news as well.

I’ve brought some samples from other ages to Afelahn, to finally start to work in my new home base, though it still isn’t complete yet.

I’d like to show you some of those samples on KI-shots:

The first image shows a “Star fruit” from Yagee Mohts. It is quite big – approximately the size of a medium pumpkin – and tastes sweet and sour. This one has been primed (right english word?) to last without rotting.

On the second shot you can see a crystal from Eder Kamonee. Do you remember our first, disastrous expedition to that age? If not, I recommend reading the old posts on this blog.

To give you a summary: The crystals of Eder Kamonee are very fragile and sensitive to vibrations – as we found out the hard way, when someone accidently hit one of them, and – well, you could say, hell broke loose on us. Luckily, most of us were only injured lightly, and the age as since been closed for anyone.

Some weeks ago, a small group of expedition members went there in medium maintainer suits, though, and took some samples. After sealing one of the crystals with some kind of artificial wax (forgot, how they called it), Tom Woods gave me this sample for my studies in Afelahn. The wax keeps the crystal from imploding or hurting anyone.

On the third picture you can see a vase we found in one of D’nis lower districts, in a devastated pottery shop. It was one of the only undamaged pieces – not interesting scientifically, but a nice example of D’ni craftsmanship. So I took it to Afelahn and put it into my lab.

Oh, by the way – I nearly forgot to mention the earthquake in Dasharen.

I wasn’t there when it struck, but Alex was. She told us, that it scared them quite a lot, and that one of the hallways broke down, fortunately without injuring anyone. It wasn’t a major quake, but still did some damage.

Keira Bracetty and her team will try to secure the structure in case of more quakes.

B.P. suggested bringing one or two seismographs to the age so we can record the frequency and intensity of future quakes. Might help us to understand the geological status of Dasharen better.

I saw the lobsterpede again, crawling under the same rock as before. Now I´m convinced it has a nest there. Maybe I should watch the place for some time and write down my observations?
I´m not even sure if it is a crustacean or an insect, or maybe a arachnoid-like creature… it has characteristics of all of these.

To relax a little, I made visits to some of the ages we got from the DRC. Spent an hour or so in Negilahn. The reepahs are shouting again (at least I think it´s them), but besides a swarm of kiri I didn´t see any creatures there. I wonder, if the animals of “rehziksehv” have recovered from the unfortunate events back at the beginning of the Bahro incidents…

In the next days, I plan to intensify my work in Afelahn, and maybe making some preparations in Ahnoto and Tufolehn, as well. Now that the cavern is getting more and more active and populated, it would be nice to have something to contribute. But no promises or actual dates yet, sorry.

The village we visited lies on a rather big island, adjacent to a small bay. We were joyfully welcomed by nearly the whole village population. The Yagi are clearly humanoid, and quite similar to us. But there are some differences: They are smaller and broader built, and their heads are rounder. Their language is strange, they seem to speak very fast (I couldn´t make out any single word) and add many snarling and hissing sounds.
They are a very friendly and peaceful people. Noelle and Alex are already well known, but I was eyed curiously. Some of them touched my hands and my arms, as if they hadn´t seen something like them before (but their arms and hands are nearly identical to ours, so I guess it´s some kind of greeting gesture).
Noelle is quite fluent in their language by now, and she translated.

I got to observe the fishing techniques of the Yagi – I think, I´ve seen this techniques in TV on our own earth. They stand in a semi cycle in the shallow water and slowly direct the fish between them into the direction they want: A gap in the circle, where another group of Yagi waits patiently with big nets. When the fish have been driven into the nets, the Yagi enwrap them quickly. This technique works surprisingly well, and we were invited to a opulent fish meal that evening.

The most intriguing fact about the Yagi are their domestic animals: They have tamed a huge species of herbivore, which they call “Toosha”. They are bigger than a Rhino, but very calm and imperturbable.
They are really strong – Onsha, one of our hosts, showed us a Toosha pulling a big tree down – it didn´t seem to strain itself a lot.

I wonder, if the Yagi might borrow us one or two of these formidable beasts – they could easily pull a medium excavator!

We left the Yagi late at night. They first wouldn´t let us go, and always brought more food. Very hospitable.

That visit will stay in my mind for a while, what a great day!
And, of course, the Toosha.