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From: Koenraad Gertodtenhaupt <kgertodtenhaupt@ross128-ventures.com>
To: Soloviev, Nikolaos <nikolaos.soloviev@voortrekker.com>
Delivered-To: Soloviev, Nikolaos <nikolaos.soloviev@voortrekker.com>
Date: 14 Sep 2421 06:31:42 +0000
Date-Local: 31 Mar 2419 09:55:42 +0000
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Subject: Re: Weekly report: 27 March 2419
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Kolya - I've read your report of the 10th. I'm glad to hear that
you're getting things back on track out there!

It's especially good to hear that the last of your crew has
recovered from whatever bug you all caught after the crash. I won't
lie: you had us all worried, Kolya. To lose so many people right
off, and then to have everyone who was left fall sick...I was
afraid we might lose the whole colony.

On that note, it's great news that the interim hab is completed,
and your hydroponics are coming up cleanly. By the sound of it,
you'll be able to keep yourselves fed and housed until the second
expedition arrives. It's grim to say, but given the reduced
carrying capacity of what's left of your startup equipment and
supplies, the loss of so much of your crew in the crash might prove
the saving grace of the colony as a whole. In any case, whatever
you and your remaining people are doing, you're all really pulling
through for us, and I want you to know we know it.

By now you'll have heard of the new treaty between the Moon and the
Titan colony. It's pretty tense here at home these days. Nobody's
talking out loud yet about a war, but it's in the air; nobody wants
to come out and say it, but everyone knows it's coming. And it's
going to be bad, when it finally does get here. You know, I heard a
couple of days ago that the silo ships have started shifing
orbits. That hasn't happened since the Titan crisis. They didn't
launch then, and neither did Luna, but now...

That's why it's more important than ever you stay alive and healthy
out there, Kolya. All of you. It's not just about money and status
any more, not for me. I think it's going to be very bad here before
long. Worse than it's ever been. I'm not sure how many of us will
make it through, and as delicate as Earth still is...You and yours
out there, at Ross and Gliese and the other colony systems, you
might be the best hope our species has left. You need to protect
that hope above all else.

And that's why I'm not sure what to think about your crew members
who've been mutated as a result of the disease. Are you sure you're
safe? Those of you who are still human, I mean. Twenty-seven of
them...That's almost ten percent of your entire remaining crew. Are
they still the same people they used to be? Do we really know what
they might do? What they have, what's happened to them. Can we be
sure it's not still contagious, or that they might not try to
infect everyone else with it somehow? They're not human any
more. Can we really assume they still have the best interests of
humanity at heart?

Kolya. You're a compassionate man, and I know that. It's one of the
reasons we've had such an effective working relationship for so
long. But you know as well as I do that, in times of terrible
crisis, sometimes compassion has to be put aside for the greater
good. You and the others who are still human carry a share of what
may be the only hope left for humanity, once the war is over. I
know you'll all do whatever you have to do to protect that hope.

Let me hear from you again soon, Kolya. Everyone back home is
counting on you.

Koenraad Gertodtenhaupt
Senior Vice President, Business Development
Ross 128 Ventures, LLC
"Developing new worlds"
kgertodtenhaupt@ross128-ventures.com