To: Dr. Alexi Coleman

From: Geoff Henson

Wednesday 26-5-3221c.t. 20:04

Alexi,

I'm sorry that I offended you. You're right; I don't know how to deal with mentally unstable people. I just so used to knowing what to do that I give advice without thinking about it. Also, I didn't know that she had progressed so little. I'll stop pushing. One thing, does this John look anything like Jon, or is his name alone enough to trigger her?

Maybe I can be of more help when it comes to you and Ben. I don't want to see you lose him. Are you two fighting about anything in particular, or is it more of a walking-on-eggshells situation?

No, I don't think that it was an attack from the Araeu that took out the array. While it is marginally possible that they got a ship out there, I don't see any way that they could have gotten away without someone seeing them. It couldn't have been a suicide mission, either. We've scanned the space for a several hundred kilometers in each direction from the arrays placement, and there is no sign of Araeu technology. My thinking is that there was probably some kind of malfunction. I just hope that it's something easily fixable.

From what I've been able to gather, the reason there weren't any auxiliary arrays set up is that it would have taken eight or nine temporary arrays in order to bounce the signal to reach any of our colonies. A communication array is very expensive, and takes a day or two to set up. I guess that the navy wasn't willing to spend the money or take the time to do it. Besides, it's almost unheard of for an array to fail.

Sorry again,

Geoff

To: Geoff Henson

From: Dr. Alexi Coleman

Thursday 27-5-3221c.t. 10:48

Geoff,

I accept your apology and send one of my own your way. It's been a really rough couple of weeks for me, and I was taking it out on you. It's not your fault that my life is going to hell.

I suppose that I hadn't thought of the time or money to set up communications. I just hope that once this is fixed it won't come up again.

Ben and I are fine, most of the time. We're both being really careful not to upset one another, though. Sometimes, though, we bicker. It's not fun or nice. All sorts of things are coming up that I didn't realize either us were upset by. This fight isn't just about my taking him for granted anymore. I'm starting to fear that one of us will do something rash that we'll both regret. On your advice, we're taking a three day weekend to try to rebuild things between us. Starting at about 19:00 tonight I'll be completely away from my computers. We're going camping. Hopefully, the sun and the stars, with some serious time together we will be able to gain some of the closeness that we've lost.

John looks nothing like Anne's Jon. He's in his sixties, is short and overweight. His name alone is enough to put her off her food. I've written up orders for in-room meals for her. We try to avoid having patients eat in their rooms, regular mealtimes with other people gives them a since of normality. In her case, I think it's needed. I told Anne this morning that it could only be temporary and only if she had skipped the previous two meals. I've also put her on a higher calorie diet so that she can, hopefully, gain some of the weight she's lost back.

Anne's paintings have been getting stranger and stranger. She's always painted hyper-realism before. Now her paintings are more and more abstract, but still look real. They're pretty disturbing, and I don't even know what half of what she's painted means. She refuses to explain most of them, saying that they should speak for themselves. I've tried to explain to her that this isn't a gallery, but she just stares at me as though I were the biggest fool in the world. I have an art history professor coming in to look at them on Monday. Hopefully he'll be able to make some sense of it.

Your friend,

Alexi

To: Dr. Alexi Coleman

From: Geoff Henson

Thursday 27-5-3221c.t. 14:35

Alexi,

I'm glad to hear that you and Ben are going away. You need the time off, and a little closeness will do you two some good. You might want to, I don't know… Try to not treat him as though he were made of glass. He's a big boy, if there is something that you need to say which could be hurtful he can take it. I know you. You avoid saying anything which might offend, and choose to say nothing rather than hurt someone else's feelings. Some frankness might be what you two need to start the conversation which will lead to the rebuilding of your relationship.

Is Anne really painting abstracts? I wish I could see them, they must be amazing. I've been thinking about what you said, does John need to be the nurse in the room during mealtimes? It may not be the wisest thing to bring in someone to critique her work, though. She really doesn't like critics.

The science and research team will be reaching the array on Saturday. We should have some answers by the time you get back to a computer. Hell, they may have even fixed it by then.

I can understand some basic phrases in Araeun. It's difficult to try to explain how different it is than our own. It's a little like looking at a hieroglyphic language and trying to read it aloud as English. There's nothing in my knowledge to compare what I'm hearing with what I know. It seems like they speak with a lot of metaphors, which can be very difficult to follow. I'm really glad that we do have translators; that my understanding them isn't completely vital.

Enjoy your trip,

Geoff

To: Geoff Henson

From: Dr. Alexi Coleman

Sunday 30-5-3221c.t. 17:35

Geoff,

I know that you weren't anticipating a message from me until tomorrow, but I had to tell someone. Ben and I broke up. I'm sitting in a café a couple of kilometers from home while he's getting some essentials. He's going to move out while I'm at work.

He's been having an affair. On the night this whole fight began he didn't go to his sisters, but to this mans' house. I can't believe that he would do this to me. It's been going on for months. He tried to tell me that he would break it off, that it would never happen again. I know that even if that were to happen I wouldn't trust him again. I told him that I never want to see him again.

I can't be in my house. Not tonight. I've called Janet; I'm going to stay with her and the kids for a few days. I don't know what I'm going to do past getting very drunk tonight.

I wish you were here. You'd go out to some seedy bar with me, get extremely drunk, and make me feel a little better. If there is any feeling better. I don't know what to do with myself now. Hopefully, I won't do anything stupid.

Your very sad friend,

Alexi