Apart from this minor destructions, all went well. We excavated a corridor downwards, and then a huge room, which will be our “atrium” for the residential wing of the base.
Shane also used a smaller D’ni machine, which is able to cut stairs out of the rock to add an amazing stone staircase downwards to the atrium.
From this place, we will be able to dig deep into the rock and establish all the rooms necessary to live here for a longer time.

The number of expediton members is now equal to before all went down some years ago.
Most members have returned and/or rejoined the expedition now.
Some of those who stay away might have been involved with the destruction of Asheten mansion…
Since nobody on the surface officially knows about the cavern, we can´t really do anything against them – at least not legally. They are at least banned from any age or area we are researching and/or rebuilding – they cost us a lot, not only money, but also time and ressources.
Now, we have to depend on the ressources of D’ni and its ages mostly – we gather food from the ages, use more and more D’ni tools and machines, and many of us have made a home down here in the caverns on a permanent basis.

As I am writing this, Yeeshas words from her last visit at K’veer come into my mind: “Find a way, make a home!”
Well, I guess that´s exactly what we are doing.

Maybe we together, explorers, scientists, visitors – not only of the Forberg expedition, but the whole number of people down here in the caverns and in D’ni can find a solution to the big conflict that might still be going on out there…

Chances were that in a few weeks nobody would be around any more.
I had big doubts myself about staying down in the caverns, but I had invested so much work and time, that I decided to stay, whatever happened around me.
Then, in march 2014, surface issues forced me to abandon my team for some weeks, spending a lot of time in my home country of Austria to sort things out.
I finally returned to Afelahn in June, only to find the age deserted. Everyone had left. I tried to contact some of the other groups, but no one answered. It was as if D’ni had once again died.

From my previous experience, I was sure, that D’ni finally would revive again, like it had again and again – still, a dark spot of doubt lay on my soul. What if nobody ever would return? What if D’ni was done for good this time?

I lost motivation. Many of my projects came to an abrupt halt. I locked away the books I still had, with the exception of Afelahn, which I visited sporadically.

Then, in september 2014, when I once again browsed some of the explorers forums, I read an announcement by some former team members of the Forberg expedition. Funding had been secured again, scientists, workers and explorers from the former team returned at a fast pace, and projects were restarted, continued and begun.

Euphorically, I packed my stuff, told the surface goodbye once again, and returned to D’ni.

It wasn´t for the first time, but it felt different – hope, and a feeling of determination were stronger and more urgent than ever before.

Maybe you remember, where my last post stopped – after our escape from the prison age called Panuehr, after the destruction of most of our research and of our homebase at that time, Asheten mansion.

As you may recall, the Forberg expedition continued to work in the caverns, this time from an age I can now give the name of – Yoshonah, a beautiful, lush and peaceful age of green hills and meadows.

From this time on , the expedition started to fracture. More and more of its members left for good, many to form their own smaller expeditions, some to return to the surface.
The core team around B.P. Forberg stayed for the moment, but their fundings and ressources dwindled quickly, until they were limited to a few ages they researched.

I was one of those, who broke away. I always have tended to be a loner, and all this turmoil, chaos and mistrust led me to the conclusion, that I should join one of the smaller groups, particularly one, that did a lot of research on my ages and were kind of friends to each other.

It seemed, that the perpetrators of the previous attacks had been expedition members all along, because when the expedition fractured, the attacks came to a sudden halt.

All of that happened in a time frame approximately from January 2013 to June of the same year.

To be continued…

Now, we finally have managed to get it out of there, with the help of the more powerful Critter 3 and a small grappling hook.

Of course, Critter 2 is a little bit damaged now and has to be repaired, but at least we have it back

Today, I´ll tell you a bit about Unknown age 03. We found it in the mantainer facility I´ve written about some dozen posts ago, on a pile of ages that we suspect were to be examined by the maintainers, shortly before the fall. As we know, they never got to finish this pile, so the age lacks any maintainers stamp. The linking book we found had no name on its cover, nor did we find any books of commentary.

So, we used extreme caution when visiting the age. Tom Woods, Alex Rebman-Bartos and B.P. Forberg were the first three members of the expedition to link through, wearing maintainer suits.

B.P. wanted to try out one of the biggest, heaviest suits we have, so we helped him putting it on.
After the three linked, we waited for some seconds, till they reappeared in the facility.

As soon as they materialized, green fumes appeared, having attached themselves on the suits. At once, an alarm started to sound – chemical alert! We ran out of the linking chamber, and the doors shut automatically behind us. The three remained in there, when the ventilation system ran up and sucked the greenish haze out of the chamber.

The sensors showed, that it was a rather corrosive, highly toxic gas – hadn´t we reacted so fast, who knows what had happened!
The ventilation system worked flawless, and soon there was no more sign of the gas in the linking chamber.

The door opened again, and we helped the three out of their suits.
“It is a whole mess. The place is absolutely unsafe”, were B.P.s first words when we lifted the heavy helmet part of his suit.
It seems, that the age is covered not only in this gas, but also in kneedeep dust composed of the same corrosive material, in a chemical compound with other matter.

We decided to put the age under quarantine immediately – it is much too unsafe to let anyone go there, at least without the proper security measures.

The expeditions new plan for food supply is to use as much of the D’ni ages as possible – it saves costs, and helps restoring these ages at the same time.

Of course, extensive research is necessary to determine the safety of particular food sources. We don´t want to get a second Tehranee, understandably.

Unknown age 07 is still off-limits, as of unanimous vote of the new expedition council – by the way, did I already tell you about the new council?
Until some weeks ago, the expedition solely was led by B.P. Forberg. But the more people take part, the more the need arose for more democracy – so a council was founded, with Dr. Forberg as a chairman, and eleven elected councilmembers. At the moment, these are the leaders of the different sections of the expedition – research, restoration, exploration, survey, and so on.

I´ve been offered a seat, but declined – too much responsibility for me, and too much dependency.

It is a very beautiful and relaxing place – but beware, if you ever visit it, don´t forget your sunblock. It can be quite hot sometimes, especially when both suns are visible at the same time.

Well, since nobody cared to solve the riddle I wrote last time, I guess we can call this experiment a failure.
For those interested in the solution, here it is:

The riddle was: “I am not sad, but crying silently all my life, I have no feet but stand, until one day I’ll fall.”

The solution: A weeping willow.

Now to something completely different…

Work on Afelahn has come to a halt recently, because we are waiting for some tools being prepared since months. These are ancient D’ni tools, mainly for excavating small openings for pipes, energy conduits and data cables. Until we have these tools, we can´t finish the important installations in the home base.

I´ve thought about letting people in already, but it is still a place under heavy construction, so I think, it wouldn´t be too satisfying for people to visit. Maybe I can provide some KI-shots for you, so at least you can see some more details of my home base.

In Afelahn, Tom Woods and I set up lights in most of the rooms in my home base. They are simple and not very pretty, but they´ll do.
Although the age is not complete yet, I´ve decided to start using the base. At first, there´ll be only limited access, for expedition personnel.

I brought a crate full of firemarbles from Dasharen to Afelahn, I´m planning to design some lamp variants for my ages with them.

The Forberg expedition has made a lot of progress in the meantime – I will gather intelligence about all the new stuff over the next weeks.

As I returned to the maintainer website, I saw, that many posts have vanished due to a technical problem – I will have to repost all of my inspections. Due to this, I will proofread them once again, and try to adapt to the new style the maintainers seem to use since some time.

Work in Afelahn has been stopped while I was ill, but Shane Kennett told me they are ready to resume as soon as I want them to. Great!

Fortunately we decided to break off for the day. Shane Kennett, who led our little working crew, said he would try to find some D´ni equipment – maybe they have some faster, less exhaustive means of doing this.

I used the break to become familiar with other members of the “Forberg expedition” (it really needs an official name, one which can be abbreviated, like the DRC or SR, or TTP, or all the other cool names.)

I had a nice conversation with Alex and another woman, Noelle Belfiore, who is the expeditions linguist. They told me more about the Yagi, the first – and yet only – people of “ahrotahntee”, the expedition has encountered until now.
They seem to be a simple, but spiritual fishing community, living in the age of Yagee Mohts. They aren´t aware of the art, of the D´ni or of the terokh jeruth, and it is official policy of the expedition to not telling them if possible. I agree. It would be a cultural shock to them.
Alex and Noelle have visited them several times – they said, they came from far away (which, from a certain point of view, is true). They did research on the culture, religious believes and the language of the Yagi.
Alex again invited me to join them on their next visit, which is planned for the next week. I´m looking forward to that!

And I was able to meet B.P. and ask him about a place to sleep… told him about my problems with Relto. He assigned a room on the second floor to me. It´s small, but sufficient for me. And it is rather quiet, so I can work on my age.