I don’t remember how I spent the next day. I paced around from one lab to the next without direction.

Everyone seemed to get more anxious as the evening drew near. Dr. Vellamy even spilled her coffee on her jumpsuit. I avoided caffeine. I would have a hard enough time falling asleep.

The Russians were coming tomorrow; we hoped. They will be able to communicate with us, outside of the dust cloud, and bring us valuable news.

I lay awake far too long, staring at my calendar until it went out of focus.

We had so many questions! But only one translator. Hopefully Colonel Aristov was able to come on this mission. He spoke fluent English. He missed the last mission due to illness.

I chuckled as I remembered trying to translate Russian to French, then to English! Both ships were bringing parts of the oxygen system; generators, sensors, spare tanks, the whole works. We had to organize mixed teams to install the equipment and it was a near disaster!

But this mission was succeeding, and will continue to do so!