Dawn awoke JC from his first full night of sleep since his ordeal began. He knew his red blood cell count was increasing, his next task was to recover his muscle tone. He drank some water and ate a food pellet. He exercised his fingers and toes gently until he could feel fatigue and quit before he was to tired. He continued to amuse himself by recalling stories about his family until he dozed off. Each time he woke, he repeated the exercises and added new exercises as his muscle tone improved.
    He could remember time now, he could count the days by remembering the stories he had recalled. He could say a few words out loud, raise his head, or move his arms and legs a little before his energy left him. He removed the IV from his hand. His world was very limited, he couldn't raise his head high enough to see over the edge of the hammock and all he could see above him was a water tube, the food dispenser, the empty bags, the water bottles, and the tent roof. He had no idea how long he had laid in the hammock, but the bed sores told him it had been along time. He couldn't wait any longer, he had to try to communicate with the crew.
    He drank some water and said in a commanding tone, "MICROPHONE ON."
    After a pause a familiar voice said, "JC are you all right?"
    "I'm recovering, but very weak."
    "I assumed you were moving around when your brain monitor went blank."
    "The probe fell off when I was doing neck exercises and I couldn't reach it."
    "Do you want us to come and get you?"
    "NO."
    "You're a stubborn man. You'd risk your life to help someone else, but you don't want anyone to take even the smallest risk to help you."
    "I can't help it, it's what I want."
    "I know, you've told me many times."
    "And you have helped me."
    "How?"
    "Your voice, it's good to hear your voice."
    "A lot of help that is."
    "I hope you never have to understand what it means."
    "Me, too."
    "I'm tired. I'll call later. BYE."
    He fell asleep. When he woke he drank some water, ate another food pellet, did his exercises, recalled another story, and fell asleep again. He repeated the cycle many time until sunset, again he slept the whole night and each day added to the previous day's routine. Each morning he talked with Eric and now and then with some of the other crew members just to pass the time. Each day he could do more before he tired.
    Five days later he sat up and looked around, nothing had changed since he laid down. He quickly looked at the ocean to avoid recalling the error, but as he looked he knew he was ready to recall. He changed his mind, he wanted to walk more than anything else, he could recall when he was resting. He swung his legs over the edge of the hammock and sat while they adjusted to the blood pressure. Grasping the tent pole he stood. He walked, faltering, to the next pole and then to the next after resting. He was tired, but he couldn't wait to walk to the next pole. He fell on the hammock when he reached the other side, drank, ate, and went to sleep.
    When he woke, he ate, drank, rose slowly and went to the table, he was glad he had prepared so thoroughly before he lost his strength, everything was ready. He washed, shaved, and put salve on his sores. The sores were small and few, the hammock was specifically designed to prevent bed sores and it worked very well.
    It was a superb feeling to walk and to sit in a chair again. As he looked at the ocean, he could not prevent the recall from coming, so he directed his thoughts to the beginning of the mission so as to delay dealing with the error. He remembered the selection committee listening to the reasons why he should not be allowed to go to the Blue Planet. They readily approved his application to move to one of the colonies because he was allergic to dirt, the conditioned air would help until the doctors could find and eliminate his problem, but how could he even think about going to the Blue Planet, it was very dusty.
    Several hours later he persuaded the committee to let him go. He knew all the details of the next space mission, he knew he could reach the Blue Planet without interfering with the main mission. His wife had been killed in a freak accident and their children were busy with their families and education. He had only one burning obsession left, to find out what happened to his ancestors. He knew all the pertinent information by heart. They finally understood how much the mission meant to him and agreed to his mission under the condition that he wear a dust mask while on the planet if his allergy had not been corrected before then. He agreed quickly, he wanted to leave before they could change their minds.
    At age fifty, he was like a school boy waiting for his turn to leave for the colonies. He was hoping to arrive at the Blue Planet on the anniversary of his ancestors, but it was not to be. At every critical point the mission was delayed, first the test crew didn't return from the shake down cruise on schedule and then the changes took longer than anticipated. He was about to climb the walls when he was finally allowed to board an explorer attached to the new space ship.
    Because his mission was not in the original plan, he had to use an old slow explorer, with a very small crew, thirty two, and he couldn't choose them until after all the other crews were chosen. His two close friends, Eric and Tom, agreed to go with him, they would command the explorer, one in each ring, they had no desire to go to the planet. He had met the rest of the crew, but he didn't know them. They became close friends, once on board.
    The new ship was fast and almost made it possible for him to meet the anniversary date. They reached his departure time way ahead of schedule, but the old explorer made sure he would be late, it was slower than he thought, it didn't meet half the speed he used in his estimate. In hind sight, the delays were the luckiest thing that was to happen on the mission and shortly after their arrival at the planet, everyone thought the delays were a good omen.
    He remembered his first sight of the Blue Planet, it was awesome, a beautiful blue, just like earth, the emotion that swept over the crew was something else. When they were on shift, everyone stared as the planet grew larger and larger on their screens. Slowly the explorer looped into position to approach the trailing LaGrange point. They approached from the top using the right hand rule, fingers in the direction of rotation and the thumb points north.
    The scream of warning horns and the numbing sensation of warning lights nearly petrified the crew. Before the crew could move, the computer automatically put the explorer into reverse and displayed the danger on their screens. More than twelve meteors were approaching at very high speed. The next display was read very quickly by everyone, these meteors were not in the data base and they were at the threshold of detection, three more readings were needed before their orbit could be calculated.
    The next hour was like an eternity, no one could think. The computer displayed updates as each new reading was obtained. With each one the crew relaxed a little more, they were not in danger. They would have been if they had continued even one more minute. The preliminary orbit passed right through the trailing LaGrange point.
    They were stuck until the meteors passed, then they could move slowly into position, any other course of action would not save time. The tracking telescopes would follow the meteors as they went around the star, their orbit could be calculated with certainty when they passed the orbit of the planet again. They were larger than first estimated and faster than any meteors in the data base.
    "How could his ancestors have missed these dangerous meteors, why weren't they in the data base?"
    JC asked the computer to calculate their orbit back in time. His hunch was confirmed. The explorer ships of his ancestors would have been near the LaGrange point at the crossing time, but why didn't they move out of the way? A thought crossed his mind and he asked the computer to display known meteor showers for the previous two months. Only one, a very large cloud of very small particles. The cloud passed while they were looping into position.
    He asked the computer to display the orbits of the cloud and the new meteors and as he thought, if both crews had moved slowly toward the planet for some reason, the cloud would have masked the meteors and after they had detected the cloud, the telescopes would have been covered or turned away to protect them. By the time the cloud passed it would have been to late to get out of the way. If they accelerated rapidly toward the planet they would not have enough power to escape the planets gravity and they would have become a 'shooting star'. Any other direction and a collision could not be avoided.
    He requested a data base search, starting with the last report, he couldn't remember any mention of the cloud in the reports, his memory was correct. He requested a search of each explorers status log, starting with the last transmission. He read in reverse order, telescope recalibration, covers removed, an estimate of the time of arrival, a routine laser telescope report of the cloud, and a slow position change toward the planet. The energy released from the collision must have disrupted the last status log transmissions. Now he had a plausible explanation.
    Now attention focused on reaching the planet's surface. The orbiter was launched and the new data gathered confirmed the old data, so they proceeded with their plan. They used the same landing site, an island a few miles south of a large northern continent. The site was originally chosen because it was far enough away to avoid the large dust storms that swept across all large land masses not in the polar regions.
    From space the storms appeared very dark, but on the planet they were barely noticeable. The dust particles were very small and JC was the only one who knew the dust was present. The wind was not a reliable guide because the wind was always blowing across what can only be described as a world of bad lands, deserts, and mountains. It rarely rained, but when it did it was a down pour. The average temperature was higher than earth and the day was shorter, but other than that it was an earth twin. JC's first impression when he put his feet on the ground was, "We recovered from the drought, we can reclaim this planet."
    Once the base camp was established, they turned to exploring the lakes near by, hoping to rediscover the lander. JC went with a different crew each day, three crews of four left in different directions in hover vehicles. Most of the lakes were dry and could be surveyed very quickly, they stopped in the middle and each crew member searched a quadrant. Each night they returned with out success.
    From the old data he had reason to believe that his ancestor's hover craft would be found near the base camp, but after a few months of searching doubt began to erode that belief. At the end of each month one hover crew rotated. JC stayed on the planet. Eric, Tom, the doctor, and the farmer stayed on the explorer. All the others rotated from the explorer to the orbiter to the planet to the explorer.
    When the exploration trips became longer, the crews made a temporary camp each night and only returned at month end. JC remained at base camp, he reviewed the old and the new data hoping to glean a clue. No luck. The original excitement was replaced by dull tedious explorations, every rotation welcomed their turn to return to the explorer, everyone complained about feeling dusty while on the planet.
    JC didn't mind staying on the planet, the temperature was pleasant, the sky and water blue, he could easily pass the time looking at the waves. The walls of the tent were removed to let the wind blow through, he rarely wore more than shorts, and he took short naps during the heat of the day. He was very content with the life on the planet, not so with the progress of the exploration. He was very disappointed and at times became so tense, he had to sit and watch the waves to relax.
    While the hover crews were doing the preliminary work the orbiter changed to an inclined orbit to make a radar map to the planet. They guided the hover crews to locations of interest near their present location, but what ever the radar saw was buried and was left until the preliminary survey was complete.
    The first discovery came following a down pour. As the last of the water disappeared from a muddy river bed, a crew left the shelter of their hover craft to find the foundation of an ancient building exposed. Their excitement infected everyone. The other crews converged on their discovery. One crew pick up JC on the way.
    The preliminary survey was abandoned until the tediousness of the dig dulled their excitement. One crew and JC remained at the site and the others finished the survey without finding anything else of interest. An archaeological dig began and as artifacts were recovered the specialists retired to the explorer to study them. After six months only three hover crews and JC were working on the planet. The crews rotated to the orbiter from the explorer, but not to the planet. Those on the planet didn't mind, they would rather dig and discover than study, they could study on the way home.
    Several times sudden dust storms forced them to stay in their vehicles for hours and once a storm came up so quick it caught all of them out in the open. JC wore his dust mask every time he left the island, the others put on dust masks, but not before they inhaled a fair amount of dust. Most of them coughed for the next three weeks, but know one thought anything of it.
    The storm was stronger than usual and caused considerable wind erosion. Now the dig was the strongest radar signal on the planet and the analysis of the signal indicated it to be a city on the edge of an ancient lake. It was very large and each crew worked a different area. They returned to a common point each night for the usual evening camaraderie and a radio conversation with the orbiter and explorer. They rarely chose the same point each night and therefore didn't travel the same route.
    Several weeks later one crew notice a rectangular shadow on top a small hill as they returned. They made note of it and told the others they would explore it the next day. It gave them something new to talk about. The others teased them saying, "Only block heads would notice a rectangle," and that started a slap happy conversation.
    The shadow turn out to be anything but routine. It was caused by the corner stone of an ancient building. The returning crew recognized it before they landed and radioed the others. Everyone dropped what they were doing and hurried to their location. If what they said was true, it had to be the find of the dig and the find of the mission so far.
    It was true, they remove a time capsule before the others got there. They were careful not to destroy any more of the block than was necessary. The two facing sides with their inscriptions were carefully left intact. JC was nearly beside himself, it was a historians dream.
    "This calls for a celebration. Lets take a break, we need to rest." Not another word was spoken, they packed and returned to base camp. They couldn't wait to swim, to get the dust off their bodies. After a nap and food, they played cards, listened to music, and danced. Everyone had a good time, the first real break during an otherwise boringly routine dig.
    JC stayed at the base camp when the others returned to the dig. He wanted to find out what was inside the capsule. He had surprised himself because he had waited so long and he chuckled to himself about his patience. He took the capsule into the small lab on board the lander and opened it in an oxygen free environment. Can you imagine his disappointment when the capsule was empty, only a large amount of specks and dust in the bottom. He returned to the beach, collapsed in a chair, and watched the water.
    A call from Eric broke his melancholy, "JC, Tom has come up with an interesting analysis of the meteor data, we're going to move to the leading Lagrange point."
    "What did he come up with?"
    "He was playing 'what if' with the data and asked, 'what if the collision merely slowed down some of the meteors and did not destroy them?' His analysis indicated that most of them would eventually be captured by the star, but a small number would remain in a delayed orbit similar to the others."
    "You better relocate and keep a sharp look out for any stragglers."
    "We are, but in the mean time you guys be careful, the move will not be completed for awhile and our response time to any emergency will be much slower."
    "We will."
    "By the way, some of the crew have complained about fatigue, anyone there?"
    "Not that I know of, we've been working long hours, we're always tired."
    "OK, talk with you later."
    "OK, bye."
    This was the second clue that he and all the others missed. The first occurred during the slap happy night at the dig. The coordination of some of the crew was a little off. The changes were so slight they were hard to detect, but he was still mad at himself for missing them.
    The call from Eric jogged his brain. The 'what if' made himself ask 'what if'. What if he was not giving the creatures who made the time capsule enough credit, maybe they were more advanced than he thought. He ran back to the lab and put one of the specks under a microscope. He hadn't given them enough credit. He became so excited he could barely adjust the scope, they were micro dots. He returned to the beach to calm down and plan.
    Later he returned to the lab to copy the dots to the explorer data base, he could browse through them later. He carefully put each dot on a slide in a rectilinear pattern and sealed the slide. He carefully stored each slide after putting them under the microscope. The computer controlled stage moved each dot underneath the scope, adjusted the fine focus, and transmitted the data to the data base. He worked twelve hours a day, there were many more dots than he thought. He neglected himself and when he finished two weeks later he was very tired. He forced himself to take a break. He called the dig crew and told them to take a break, they said they would as soon as they finished their current task.
    While he was waiting for them, he scanned the data just to get a feel for the shape of the characters. His first task was to find away to put the dots in order. Surely such an advanced civilization would not leave anything to chance, they would include a pictogram to aide in decoding. He invoked the translation system. The first program instructed the computer to search for a numerical sequence of dots, lines or any other character with a single character near them, and to sound an alarm if it found any, he left for the beach.
    He stood to greet the crew as they came across the water and the alarm sounded. He ran to the lab and didn't see them get out of the hover vehicles. One fell like a drunken sailor, but when he heard the story, they made him out to be a klutz from fatigue and everyone laughed. If he had seen it, it may have alerted him to their danger, but after they had a swim and a short nap, he didn't notice the slight hesitation in their speech or the short lapses in memory or orientation.
    As he expected, the computer system found many pictograms with an increasing number of characters along the left side. He scanned a few before he found the one he wanted. It had a series of small squares down the left side, the first was empty, the next one dot, and increasing to seven dots. The next column contained a binary code, the next an octal, and the next their alphabet. The left hand squares were blank after the first eight, but the other codes continued until their alphabet and other symbols stopped. Quickly he told the computer how to create a cross reference list so he could display the mirco dots in order and left to join the others.
    They kidded one another about how they could become accustom to a life of leisure, but after five pleasant days together, each one was ready to go back to work. They returned with a treasure trove and after resting they were eager to find more. Before they left, they checked with the orbiter crew. After a few minutes of joshing around the orbiter crew said, "Hey you guys, while you were lounging around, a huge dust storm passed over your dig."
    "Ya, so what?"
    "Well I accidentally pushed the remote reply button and we received a signal from an ancient hover vehicle. It slowly faded out as if its solar batteries were low."
    "Are you sure?"
    "Yes. The reply was automatically recorded and we had the computer check the ID code."
    "We're on our way."
    JC climbed aboard and three vehicles raced to the dig. Without saying anything they spread out as they approached the dry ancient lake bed. Within seconds one of them spotted the solar panels partly covered with sand and dust. Minutes later thirteen pairs of hands had uncovered the ancient craft, perfectly preserved and completely empty, not one item was found. Because of their excitement they forgot to wear their dust masks.
    JC sat down with a thud, he quickly reviewed his memory of the records. He had assumed the second crew was going to try to recover the craft from water. They didn't mention water nor did they mention a dry lake filled with sand. Obviously the second crew found the craft exactly like they had. Some questions were answered. He never could understand how the craft could be at the bottom of a lake unless it was completely out of power. The first crew must have abandoned their vehicle. Even this clue didn't trigger his memory. He remained seated, completely baffled. "I'll take you back JC."
    "OK, but transmit the log if and when the solar batteries recharge."
    "Will do," and they did, but it did not contain anything more than they already knew.
    JC ran the facts through his mind over and over until they arrived at camp where his thoughts quickly returned to the micro dots. He laid out his plan mentally and began to help the computer translate the data. His depression of the morning evaporated as he thought about how he was going to spend his time on the return trip to earth. He could wait for the larger computer on board the space ship, he had a lot of preliminary work to do. He barely noticed the coming and goings of the dig crew as they returned to the island to wash, swim, and take of break from the dig. Only after they left did their words finally break through his new obsession. He pushed the talk button, "Did you guys say you wouldn't be back for six months?"
    "Yes."
    "Where are you going?"
    "Didn't you hear one word we said?"
    "I guess not."
    "After a dust storm the orbiter crew said, 'We've received a very strong signal from a site that previously gave only a very weak signal.' They were confident that the wind had uncovered something important. We have finished the easy work here and decided to check the other site before we did any hard work here."
    "Why so long?"
    "It's half way around the planet and the signal indicates a large complex."
    "OK. Be careful."
    "Yes. We know."
    The orbiter went into geosynchronous orbit half way between the base camp and the new site. The dig crew called JC every evening. Minor discrepancies crept into their speech, but JC didn't notice until the orbiter crew called his attention to it and it finally shook JC's memory.
    "Was it beginning again?" That evening he asked if they were OK and they responded, "Sure, why do you ask? Maybe a little tired, we're in a rut, you'll never believe what we're finding and we have difficulty stopping to rest."
    "Well take a break. Go to the ocean and rest."
    "OK."
    They didn't call the next night and JC didn't think anything about it, but when they didn't answer his call the next night, he asked the orbiter crew to check their location. He relaxed when they said the hover vehicles were at the beach. They called when they returned to the dig, they were going to work over time so they might not call every night. They called every other night and their speech became more illogical with each call. JC told them to take another break.
    The next morning the message light was on. When he responded, Eric said, "We didn't want to wake you, but we thought you should know we are tracking what we think are the laggard meteors. We still can't explain why they have a comet like orbit or how they can maintain their orbit without crashing into the star. Must be some kind of harmonic interaction out there. To be on the safe side we're calling the orbiter back and we are moving out of the orbit plane. We will keep you posted."
    "Did you tell the dig crew?"
    "Yes, but I'm concerned, they didn't sound quite right, maybe you should call them in."
    "Thanks, I'll do that."
    They didn't respond and JC left a message. They called that night and convinced JC to let them continue until the orbiter returned. He returned to the translation. The routine changed from calling to leaving messages and the tone of the messages changed. Statements such as 'Don't call us, we'll call you,' began to appear. JC sent a command, something he had never done. "Return to base immediately."
    They responded with a message, "Gone to the beach," and didn't respond to JC's, messages.
    "We have a problem. Are you going to go and get them?"
    "You've been listening then, Eric?"
    "Sure and they don't answer our calls either."
    "I have to do something, but I don't know what."
    "Well wait a couple of days. We're almost back in position and so is the orbiter."
    JC couldn't concentrate on the translation so he reviewed the dig crew's reports and logs. "It was happening all over again. What did I miss. What's wrong?" A chill ran down his spine. 'Wrong', cause him to review his own actions. He had been sleeping longer and tired quickly and he couldn't explain some of his actions. He ran to the lab and placed a sample of blood under the microscope. One look was enough.
    "Eric, we do have a problem. Test everyone and see if their red blood cell count is low."
    "Hey, you sound scared."
    "I am scared."
    "We'll do it right away. Do you want us to come and get you?"
    "No. Don't come down until I ask, it maybe a pathogen. Don't risk further exposure. You know my wishes."
    "You know I will respect your wishes."
    They left unspoken their mutual concern, if the crew became to small the life support system on board the explorer would be in jeopardy if an emergency arose during the return to the space ship.
    JC issued another command to the dig crew and told them he was anemic. They responded with a message over the transcriber, "We're at beach. We pack up pick up equipment at dig return." He received the message in fits and starts.
    "We are in trouble."
    Without realizing what he was doing, he put up the hammock, hung a large food dispenser and many water bottles in parallel just of above it. Next he put a port-a-potty underneath the hole in the hammock and wired a speaker phone and brain monitor next to the pillow. Instinctively he moved about completing the preparations. In the back of his mind he knew what was going to happen. He knew his chances were very good, but he didn't think the dig crew had a chance, they had inhaled and swallowed a lot more dust than he had. He took a bag of artificial blood from the lab and went to the hammock and gave himself an infusion.
    "We do have a problem."
    "What did you find, Eric."
    "Everyone who spent time on the planet is anemic and the degree is in direct proportion to the length of time spent on the planet. We're busy doing additional tests. As a precaution you and the dig crew should inject artificial blood."
    "I'm already doing it, but I can't raise the dig crew. They don't answer. I'm afraid it's already to late."
    "We can't raise them either and a very violent dust storm is heading right at them. The orbiter crew activated the warning system in their vehicles and on their beepers and still no response."
    "Damn it."
    "What is it, JC?"
    "It just hit me like a ton of bricks. Check for lead, heavy metals."
    "How can that be, every analysis has indicated all heavy metals are way below the danger level."
    "I don't know, but an ancient story just returned to me, the one about a polar expedition and our actions and those of both previous expeditions to this planet sound the same. Subconsciously I've been preparing to recover from lead poisoning. I didn't realize what I was doing until now."
    "If your guess is correct, you need to calm down and rest, immediately, to avoid brain oxygen depletion. You will need all your strength to create new red blood cells and to eliminate the heavy metals."
    "I know. Call me when you know something."
    JC returned to the lab after the IV bag was empty, took a double dose of chelating agents to help eliminate heavy metals from his body, and took all the artificial blood and three bags of glucose solution. He hung the bags, connected like bags in parallel and then connected them to a common drip container, removed his shorts, got into the hammock, connected the container to his IV, adjusted the flow of both, and called Eric. "I've hook up the brain monitor, you know what to do."
    "Yes."
    JC lost all concept of time, he just laid still and listened to the wind and tried not to think.
 

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    Each day JC walked further and more often. His new obsession deserted him. Aimlessly he moved things from one place to another. He checked his red blood cell count each day. When it was normal he stopped checking it, but he still didn't feel right, something was still wrong. He couldn't think, his brain refused to function. He shuffled to the beach and slumped into his chair. Watching the waves usually had a calming effect on him, not this time. Tears trickled down his cheeks and slowly increased to a flood. He hurt. Only the decrease in light as twilight came stimulated him to move, hunger was absent. He returned to the hammock and couldn't sleep.
    Dawn prompted him to move, he drank and ate a little and returned to the beach. As he looked over the unending waves, he recognized his feeling, it was loneliness. His brain began to function and he knew he was grieving for his friends. At his acknowledgment, his pain increased. He didn't fight it, he let it run its course. At noon his appetite returned. He ate and drank a little, returned to the hammock and fell asleep. He awoke reinvigorated. After breakfast he removed the bottles, bags, and the rest of the survival gear and put them away. With the task finished, he remembered he had not talked with Eric or Tom for several days.
    "Hello up there."
    "We were waiting for you to call," several voices responded.
    "How are you feeling?"
    "Better. I think I'm all most ready."
    "Almost ready to do what has to be done?"
    "Yes. I've been grieving."
    "Join the crowd. We're mostly recovered, but you had more to do, that's why we didn't say anything. We didn't want to add to your burden by telling you what we have learned."
    "Thanks I appreciate that, but I think I'm ready , so tell me."
    "The dig crews who retired to the explorer will survive and they confessed that when you were not with them they did not wear their dust masks. The dig crew on the planet never had a chance. We know our data is skimpy, but the extrapolation based on time spent on the planet indicated their bodies couldn't eliminate the heavy metals fast enough and we weren't sure about you."
    "That's encouraging news. I'm glad you didn't tell me."
    "You were right about the heavy metals. Some of the artifacts contained enough dirt and dust for us to do experiments and a complete analysis. We learned something we should have known. A gentle stirring of the dirt selectively increases the amount of heavy metal dust in the air without reaching the threshold of awareness. The crew was slowly poisoning themselves without realizing what they were doing."
    "Damn it."
    "Calm down JC. You're not any more to blame than any of the rest of us, including them. Are you OK? Can I continue?"
    "Yes."
    "We found many heavy metals, each one well below the danger level, but together and over a long period of time they are dangerous. The cumulative effect is what everyone of us over looked."
    "I just wish I could have recalled before it was to late."
    "Don't we all. When you're up to it, we would like a sample of hair from you and the others to confirm our analysis and I think some of the metals will surprise you."
    "Which ones. I'm certain about lead."
    "Many could only be the end isotopes of nuclear explosions."
    "You're kidding. That has tremendous implications on the rate of evolution on this planet."
    "Yes, it must have reached a very high level very quickly because the residual radiation is only a little above what we would consider normal background radiation."
    "Wow. Do you want more samples then?"
    "Yes. Do you know what kind of samples we want and where to find them?"
    "Yes. Thanks for the task. It will help detract from what I have to do. I'll get ready and keep you posted."
    After lunch he keyed his plan into the computer and set about getting ready. The orbiter relayed his instructions to the hover vehicles. The activity lock out had expired long ago and he could activate the autopilot remotely. The hover vehicles returned to base, guided by the orbiter. The crew had filled them with artifacts, but had removed all personal belongings so he couldn't learn anything more about their fate. Each day he listened to part of one of the hover vehicle logs, updated his plan, talked with the crew above, and listened to music while he worked, his mood improved. When everything was ready, he was also psychologically ready for what he had to do.
    The orbiter moved with him across the planet, always staying half way between him and base camp so he could maintain communications with his data base. They kept him informed about local dust storms and carried on a cheerful conversation. He followed the same route the crew had selected, to stay over land as much as possible. The ten day journey was uneventful. He arrived at dusk and didn't have time to look around, "Just as well," he thought, "I would rather do it rested than tired." The other vehicles came to rest along side and automatically shut down. He called Tom to say good night and went to sleep in the vehicle.
    Before breakfast he dug the sand out of the latrine, he never left the vehicle without a dust mask in place. Using a vehicle, after breakfast, he toured the site. It was very large and the crew was right, he would not have believed what they found unless he saw it himself. The wind had filled in much of they had uncovered, but enough remained exposed so he had little trouble identifying a ballistic missile launch site with a camp nearby and a village more distant.
    Satisfied with his tour, he slowly dug a long trench in a sand free area near the top of a small hill over looking the site. When it was long enough he requested a signal from a personal beeper of a crew member and followed the signal in a hover vehicle. He placed a marker, cut a lock of hair and placed it in the proper sample envelope, removed all personal belongings and stored them in pre marked boxes, and moved the body with the hover vehicle. He placed the wife along side her husband and extended the trench, throwing the dirt over them.
    His pace was very slow. He did fairly well with the men, but he had great difficulty with the women. He went to the top of the hill to recover after he laid each woman to rest. He looked away from the trench and tried to think about anything but what he was doing. After recovering, he mechanically continued, he didn't talk to the others or listen to music. He couldn't even distract himself by thinking about the samples he said he would collect. He used a hover vehicle to place rocks on top of the trench and the surrounding area.
    The day after he finished he call Eric. "I'll bet you're glad that task is finished."
    "I hope it's a once in a life time event."
    "What's next."
    "I'm going to try to find the hover craft of the second mission."
    "Tell me how you plan to do that?"
    "Alice was still clutching her diary when I pulled her body from the sand. Her hand writing and sentence content was very poor, but I could understand most of it. I spent yesterday reading from the back to the front. Many questions were answered."
    "Why didn't they respond to the warning signal?"
    "She was in a hover vehicle writing the last entry, they found an ancient vehicle as they returned from the beach. Her last entry was, 'I'm leaving to warn the others.' She suffocated with the rest of them in the storm."
    "Why didn't she acknowledge? Why didn't anyone answer their pagers?"
    "She didn't write anything about that, but she did write earlier, they though you and I were conspiring to stop them from exploring and they agreed not to answer any of our calls directly."
    "O brother. That explains the very brief reports in the vehicle logs, they recorded just enough to keep control of the craft."
    "From the location of the bodies, I would say they were so disorientated they couldn't find the ancient craft after they landed and were so focused on finding it they didn't see the storm until it was to late."
    "Did you get some hair?"
    "Yes and another thing, they ate shellfish at the beach. I'll collect a sample on the way back."
    "Good. I'll bet I know what we will find."
    "Me, too. Talk to you later."
    "OK."
    "Orbiter, would you press the automatic reply button and guide me to the vehicles."
    "Sorry JC, no reply. They must have been seeing things."
    "Or maybe the wind reburied them."
    "Could be. I'll watch for another storm and try again."
    "Thanks."
    JC spent several weeks surveying the site and gathering samples, discovering caches of artifacts left by the crew while doing so. He packaged and stored the samples and artifacts in a hover vehicle. He returned to points of interest and continued their work. Duplicate artifacts he left undisturbed. He abandon an area when he could no longer find some thing different or when the work became to strenuous. His mood improved, he listened to music or carried on a running conversation with one of the crew while he worked.
    "Don't you get tired of looking for artifacts?"
    "Yes, I get tired of looking for artifacts, but I'm looking for history, I never get tired of that."
    He was disappointed though, he couldn't find the dig crew's log book and he didn't find very much history. The nuclear holocaust and time left very little for him to find. He decided to go to the beach when the orbiter crew warned of an approaching storm.
    He parked two vehicles and surveyed the beach with the other. He searched endless sand for an hour in both directions. He returned and waited for low tide, gathered some shellfish, talked to Tom, and retired for the day. At day break he scanned the horizon and the beach in both directions, the sameness was mind numbing. The water, sand, and mountains seemed to continue forever.
    "You better find something to do, JC. That storm is a doesy."
    "Well, give me some ideas, my well has gone dry."
    "About four hours east is an intermittent river delta. Our scanners indicate chlorophyll."
    "I'm on my way."
    The delta was huge and it was covered with alga and primitive sea weed, most of it would be under water at high tide. He used a vehicle to collect samples, the delta would not support his weight. He circled the low water mark and flew high above it. He soon tired of it and traveled up the dry river bed. Again the same lifeless terrain numbed his brain, he turned around and returned to the other vehicles, bored. He didn't need to rest, he had remained disciplined and didn't over do anything.
    "Orbiter, I'm going back to base camp."
    "You might want to wait another day, the dust storm has passed and a thunder storm is following right behind it. I think you should find a more sheltered area."
    "OK. Where do you suggest?"
    "About an hour and a half west, it looks like a small valley."
    "I'll try it."
    JC arrived at dusk, it was a small valley. He went up the valley and parked the vehicles in a saddle between to hills. A wise choice because water flooded the lower part of the valley before day break. The bulk of the storm stayed north of him, but the wind and rain kept him inside the hover craft for two days. He read the diary several times. JC was glad when the rain stopped, his legs were cramped. He walked in ever widening circles around the vehicles, on the damp ground, ending at a rock atop one of the hills. He sat and surveyed the valley.
    Again the mind numbing sameness greeted him. He looked at the sea in an attempt to keep his mind functioning. He scanned the valley several more times and each time returned to looking at the sea. He walked to the top of the other hill to have a change of scenery. Again he scanned the valley, a rock pile caught his eye. He couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like it may have been constructed. His mood changed from boredom to excitement as he ran to the pile, compared to the sameness this was exciting.
    It was constructed, the rocks were stacked to carefully to be natural. Quickly he removed the top rocks uncovering a small vault, its entrance now apparent. On the floor was the dig crew's log book, on the ledges clay storage jars and rectangular piles of dust, the possible remains of books. A few jars had been cracked by falling ceiling rocks, their contents destroyed by oxygen, but the rest were still sealed. He cleaned out the entrance and carried the jars one at a time to the vehicles. With each trip his excitement increased, he could hardly wait to get back to the lab to open them. He wanted to leave right away, but knew he had to wait till morning. He called Tom and told him about the jars and his change of plans.
    He let the orbiter crew guide the vehicles while he read the log. On the third day the orbiter crew said, "JC, we think you should return to the site. We're receiving a signal from an ancient hover craft."
    Now JC's excitement rose to a fever pitch. "Turn me around and guide me to it. Check the status of the solar batteries, if they have enough charge, remote transmit the report and status logs to the explorer data base."
    "Already done."
    The next two days were the longest days in JC's life. He read and reread the same paragraph so many times he stopped reading. He couldn't remember a single sentence for more than a minute, his mind was else where.
    The crew occupied his time, "JC you won't believe it, the second crew witnessed the collision. They were eating dinner and thought they saw the largest meteor explosion of their lives until they asked their explorer crew if they had seen it. The excitement in the report voice changed rapidly to fear when the other crew did not answer and they realized what they had seen.
    Boy, talk about an eerie feeling. Everyone of us said our blood turned to ice water upon hearing the change in tone. It took several hours before we felt warm again.
    The next report was two weeks later and the sound of resignation and futility was very evident. One even said, 'I don't know why I'm doing this, it must be habit.' Later they reported living on shellfish and sea weed. All following reports were unintelligible."
    "Were the first reports illogical like the ones we studied?"
    "Yes, we had difficulty extracting the meaning from what they were saying."
    "OK. At least I will be mentally prepared for what I will find when I get there. Thanks."
    Later, after he had completed the second once in a life time task, JC said to himself, "Stop kidding yourself, how can anyone be mentally prepared for what I had to do." The only compensation was he had more than he could read on the return trip, he would have to enlist the help of many people, an under statement as he would learn later.
    Again JC arrived at the site at dusk and waited until morning to begin. The orbiter crew led him directly to the craft. It was parked on what now was a ledge in a shallow narrow canyon. The water and wind had removed all of the fill and then some. The different levels could be easily seen in the strata. The other vehicles were still buried in the lee of the first vehicle. He entered the craft and activated its power system. He rocked it from side to side and end to end until it was able to lift from the sand. He parked it on the rock rim of the canyon some twenty feet above.
    He removed the data cell, all personal items, logs, and samples and stored them in his vehicles. He sorted artifacts and returned duplicates to the old vehicle. When he returned for the next vehicle the wind had nearly uncovered it. "Why not let the wind do the work," and he left to find the bodies, he knew where to look. With the a hover craft he searched down stream, he found them one by one.
    He returned to the hill, removed some rock, and dug a second trench next to the first. JC was fine until he found the first dehydrated body, from then until he finished he worked like a robot. He didn't remove anything from the bodies and followed the same procedure as before punctuated by moving the next old craft liberated from the sand by the wind. He replaced the rocks and parked the old vehicles on top of the rocks, sealed them shut, and anchored them. He recovered quickly this time, the emotional strain was more subdued, but it was still present. The weird feeling of burying his ancestor and his crew returned many times during the rest of his life. The bodies of the first crew were never found.
    After a brief rest at the beach, he inventoried the material removed from the old vehicles. He was pleasantly surprised to find all the items they had recovered from the first mission's vehicle. He knew he could spend hours listening to the report and status logs from each of the vehicles, something he could do when he tired of translating the dots. He connected each data cell to confirm the data integrity and was reassured by the test program. He checked his record of samples gathered and collected missing samples at the beach and returned to the site.
    He repeated the sample check at the site and then checked all areas of the site for any loose ends. He paid special attention to new areas exposed by the water and wind. In one such area, an ancient road was exposed every now and then, but frequent enough to lead him to a military control center built underneath a mountain. The flood had under cut the debris from an avalanche allowing the rest to fall exposing the entrance. The massive protecting door had been moved like a mastiff before a glacier.
    He made a cursory tour of the complex, wearing a life support system. It was so large one person could spend a life time and never examine all of the rooms in detail. Much could be learned about a civilization that failed. He spent ten days sealing the inner doors to protect the artifacts from further degradation. Except for a layer of dust, the still intact artifacts were as if they had been used the day before.
    After he completed his check for loose ends, he used a vehicle to make one last check. Being satisfied, he left for the base camp the next morning, collecting samples on the way. On his return he packaged and transferred all the items except the data cells from the ancient vehicles to the lander. He took each vehicle to the beach and filled their water tanks with drinking water and stowed all but one on the lander. He asked the orbiter crew to guide him around the planet to collect the remaining samples.
    He talked with the crew, listened to music and the report and status logs, to prevent the sameness of the terrain from numbing his brain. The story between the lines for all three crews was identical to the ancient arctic exploration crew. This time he was aware that he didn't become angry at himself for not recognizing the error. An unusual calm came over him, he did not understand. On completion of the sampling tour, he asked Tom, "How much time do I have before departure."
    "Until your food runs out."
    "I won't cut it that close, I like a margin of safety."
    "Why, what are you thinking of doing?"
    "I want to revisit the polar regions and pay attention this time."
    "OK, but go to the summer pole first."
    "Well, I wasn't planning on going during the winter, I want to see as much land as possible."
    He stowed as much as he could of the base camp until spring reached fifty degrees north and then he circled the planet following spring to the arctic sea. He was encouraged to find here and there plants similar to earth's tundra plants emerging from the winter freeze. He collected samples and made note of land features until summer began to fade and left on a direct route for the base camp. He worked on the dots until he could repeat the same procedure at the southern pole. On his return, he called Tom, "I've had enough, I'm returning." That statement set in to motion all of the activities necessary for his return to the explorer.
 

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