A Desert Christmas

Since everything that happened in the beginning of the month, Ami, Logan and I have been in Phoenix, while Logan’s been at Banner. It’s a good hospital, I have friends who work there.

Dr. Tharakan, my good friend from Argon, recommended we move Logan to Banner Health, once he was stabilized and we all could be certain we had our information correct. Nobody (perhaps especially Logan) wants to give the Cavern away at this point, but Logan did need a full service hospital. Adrien was fine with caring for him at the Argon Medical Facility, but he really thought it’d be better for Logan in the long run, since from there, we can get him the other medical help he needs.

At the moment, it looks like Christmas will be here at my home in Phoenix. Grandmum is coming down next week and we plan to have a quiet holiday. Logan is most likely going to be released next week as well, so he can convalesce at home with Ami, Molly and I, which I think he will enjoy. He’s improved remarkably, enough so that Adrien remarked to me, “well, maybe he is D’ni, somewhere along the line”. Of course our tests show he’s about as human as I or Adrien, so…

I’d like to Relto in to the Cavern for a few of the holiday events, and will try, if I can get the time. Logan and Ami both agreed they’d rather not go back to the Cavern just yet. I don’t really know if Ami ever will be comfortable going back. She doesn’t talk much about it now that we’ve been in the city. She’s been spending most of her time with her family, when she hasn’t been at Hospital with Adrien and I.

I think she’s comfortable at my house, I’ve made sure it’s a comforting space to come back to and curl up in, when she needs to.

She’s a very nice young lady and I have enjoyed having her visit. She helps out quite a bit, even though I have told her she doesn’t need to help clean or cook… I think she’s just working out anxious energy, so I’ve let her have the run of the place. Since I’ve been in Cavern, I closed the house up for the most part and only had a service come in every month or so to dust and look after the yard.

Of course with Ami there, the place hasn’t been cleaner in a long time!

Adrien is staying in town for now, Argon is usually pretty quiet around the end of the year, so he’s relocated to his place in Scottsdale. I’m in Surprise, so it’s a bit of a drive for Adrien to come see us, but I don’t think he minds. He’s been showing his fiance, Lily, around Phoenix, when he’s not camped out at hospital.

Lily hasn’t been to a big city in a long time and oddly, she’s never been to Phoenix. I think the biggest city she has ever been to is Flagstaff! So it’s an experience for her as well. And Phoenix in December… it’s really a pretty place to be. Cool and sparkling with lights. It’s a great time to explore.

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Visit from my Grandmum

So, it’s confirmed that my grandmum is visiting the Cavern in October. She’s driving out from Sedona and plans to stay at least a week if she can.

She’s interested in meeting Logan, as well as the other folks in the Cavern, and I suspect she’s mainly coming out to see what I’ve been getting up to since I retired.

I’ve told her quite a bit about the recent restoration and she’s been very enthusiastic about everything that’s been going on, so I’m thinking this may not be the only time she’s going to be visiting…

I got her okay to print a few entries from her original Cavern journals, so I’m working on transcribing them for this blog. She’s said she was interested in possibly adding copies to the Chiso Library, so other Explorers can learn about what she worked on while she was in residence.

She’s also told me she has a blog of her own (separate from her author site) that she had up back in the early days, and she’s considering getting it back online publicly, but she’s been busy with finishing a manuscript as well as doing some translations for Corey at Argon Labs.

I’m looking forward to seeing her and I hope she enjoys her visit down here!

Trip to Eder Naybree

I finally got a chance to visit the new Age that’s been opened to Explorers, Eder Naybree, yesterday.

It’s so pretty and unusual! I’m looking forward to exploring it more as I have the time, but I’ve been rather busy with the Clinic and my research lately.

I didn’t expect to end up running a full-time Clinic when I retired to the Cavern! Not that I mind at all, I’m just much more busy than I thought I’d be. It makes sense, of course, I seem to be the only MD in-residence at the moment. Most of the other doctors here are PhDs, scientists, rather than just medical professionals.

Heh! Well, I’m glad to have had an opportunity to visit Naybree and take some photographs! I saw a few other Explorers while I was there, including Minasunda, who had found a pretty little spot on top of a gazebo.

There is quite a lot to see in Naybree and I recommend that folks pay it a visit as soon as they can!

Garden Expedition

So, the last week, more or less, I’ve been out of the Cavern, looking for Logan. I got back yesterday in time for Town Hall, but wasn’t able to stay long afterwards.

Logan’s been ‘busy’ since Jules and I met Harlan a few weeks ago. Last week, I got a rushed KI mail from Logan, telling me he’d been exploring in ‘the garden ages’ and that he wanted me to come meet him. Unfortunately he didn’t say which Age he’d gone to, so I spent the last few days exploring the Garden Ages I had access to. I finally found him in Eder Kemo, just wandering around the gardens, almost aimlessly.

Something is bothering him, but he’s not been very forthcoming as to what it actually is. I’m frustrated but more than that, I’m concerned about him. He’s just been so distracted and introspective, but he hasn’t really told me much of anything, just talking about so many things, mostly from before he came to the Cavern.

I’ll keep visiting him until he decides to come back home, but it’s difficult, not seeing him every day.

On another note, Corey contacted me with a few photographs of a strange anomaly he’s discovered and is curious about what it might be. So I put him in touch with my associate in St. Clair, who has much more experience with this kind of deep space phenomenon. Hopefully we’ll figure out what it is!

Dira and the Zero

Dira Valerian

So my friend, the sister of Cory Valerian, the fella who runs Argon, Diranda (what a fantastical name!) has been researching the Great Zero since she came back to the Cavern in February. She has her own journal: The Great Zero Journals, but she doesn’t update it much.

Probably because she keeps getting hurt climbing around the complex!

I swear, she’s gotten Logan and I running over there constantly because she’s fallen in the pool again, or tumbled off the outside of the complex into the rocks, or slipped and landed in the lake. Folks mention KI malfunctions from time to time and I just find myself wondering, ‘What has Dira done now?’ and expect to get another sheepish KI-mail from her, which of course, I do!

She’s a sweetheart, of course, just ‘danger-prone’!

Chat with Kelsei and First Aid Kits

Kelsei visited the Clinic today to chat and bring me up to speed on things going on around the Cavern, since I’ve been busy working.

Apparently there’s still very little information on this mysterious Harlan Mason person, other than the fact that he was involved with some kind of D’ni ‘cult’, the ‘True Seed’. I might ask Logan about it later, just to see if he’s heard of the man.

We talked a bit about Naybree’s impending release, which brought me to the subject of First Aid Kits. Nyota and the other volunteers in the Clinic have been putting together some travel First Aid kits for Explorers to take with them on their adventures. Nyota also mentioned the idea of doing more First Aid classes for the Explorers who are interested, and I definitely like that idea. Hopefully more folks will take us up on that.

Quite a bit of work

Recently, things have been rather busy in the Cavern for me. There’s been quite a bit of exploring going on lately, so there’s been the logical amount of scratches, minor broken bones and contusions to keep me and my staff occupied.

That’s made it more difficult to spend time with Logan, of course, or help out Calum, Jules and Carl with their investigations into the odd occurrences going on since May.

I haven’t seen Logan much, but he does manage to come in when he can. He’s been busy himself, apparently, though, admittedly, we don’t talk much about our work. He did say he’s been working on a novel inspired by the stories of the D’ni, so that would explain why he’s been so busy.

I do miss quiet times with Logan, chatting with Calum and Cal and exploring exotic teas with Jules, but ah, work comes first, does it not?

Several folks have said how glad they are that there’s a clinic in the Cavern now, so that alone makes everything worth it.

Logan and Benavud

Well, after the tests came back, we found out Ben seems to not be human, exactly. Of course Carl went into this a bit more on his journal: “A Non-Human Newcomer”. People were excited about this and speculation went a bit wild. Unfortunately this week, poor Ben seems to have been too overwhelmed with things and I’ve made the decision to keep visitors away for a while until he feels better. So I asked my helpers, the young folks from ASU, to keep him company and keep an eye on him when I’m not in the Clinic.

Logan came by, since I’ve been so busy with Ben, we haven’t had a lot of time to do much together lately. He was, of course, very curious about Ben, but I’m not letting anyone see him, not even Jules and Carl. I think Logan understands, he seemed to.

Logan’s offered to visit me at the Clinic though, so while I’m working, he’s planning to come over for coffee and ‘mini-dates’ (his words!).

I think we’re a couple… Alex says we are, anyway. She just grins whenever Logan comes by and Jamie winks. Logan is incredibly sweet, at any rate. I may offer him a place to stay here, since he mentioned his current neighborhood is a bit crowded with other Explorers.

He noticed something and pointed it out to me though. The ‘mysterious visitors’ continue to show up on our Clinic roster, yet nobody here has ever seen them. Not even Alex and Nyota, who are here pretty much all the time. This is beginning to concern Dorrian, who’s been helping with security in the Clinic, along with Mysty. He and Jamie are setting up a watch during the night, just to keep everyone there safe. Their group has pretty much moved into the Clinic, which is great, because now I have people to keep me company as well as Ben!

Jamie is very interesting, he’s been helping me with my satellite uplinks, since we still have occasional connectivity problems. He’s also been discussing working with Dira’s brother’s Argon Labs group, and it sounds very much like Corey is going to be offering Jamie and his friends jobs!

I took a ‘KI selfie’ picture today of Logan and I! I love it and he wanted a copy sent to his KI as well.

Clinic’s First Guest and a Mystery

Jules called me today about an injured man he’d found behind the Great Library. So once we got the poor fellow back to the Clinic, I set to work fixing him up. The poor boy was very confused and disoriented, but considering he’d taken a bit of a tumble, it’s not surprising.

Unfortunately he’d taken a bit of a bump to the head and seems to have temporary amnesia. Dr. Lavisham is looking into trying to find out a bit more about him. All we know about him at this point is that his name is Benavud, which we got from his KI Device.

Jules, Kelsei and Carl are asking around, to see if anyone might recognize him or know about him, while Calum is looking at the broken KI.

Hopefully we will be able to learn more about him, to help him out. In the mean time, he’s resting at the Clinic and we’re looking after him.

I suppose if his name sounds familiar to anyone in the Cavern, please let Dr. Lavisham, Kelsei, Carl or myself know, so we can make sure his family and/or friends are notified that he’s in our care and is alright.

Relaxing Evening and A KIMail

Logan and I stole away to spend the evening sitting in Elonin, gazing at the Lake, sipping wine. A few other Explorers were looking around, trying to solve the puzzles, which was fun to watch.

We sat on one of the balconies, chatting quietly.

While I was spending time with Logan, I got a KIMail from Mystlander. Such a nice message! She let me know she’d been to the Clinic, fixed a few things up for me and would be keeping an eye on it in the future. I should put her in contact with Dorrian, so they can coordinate.

Logan is incredibly knowledgeable about D’ni and its history. I continually am amazed by him. I hope I’m not getting a crush, I have no idea how he’d respond to such a thing. Ah well, it’s just been pleasant having a friend to chat with, who seems just as interested in my life before I came here as he is in my Cavern history. He mentioned he’d read some of my dear grandmama’s books and even attended one of her seminars in Sedona, which just touched my heart even more.

He spoke at length about living in Sedona, where I lived for a few years after I moved to the States with Grandmama. I’m a bit surprised we never encountered each other in town while I was there, since he lived there when I was staying with Grandmama. But, since I was homeschooled and he attended the local High School, we just never crossed paths. It’s unfortunate, but well…

Ah… I am going on too much about Logan.

I heard from my friend, Dr. Viridian, today as well. She sent me a text asking all about the Cavern. She’s definitely interested in visiting with her niece, who is very interested in the paranormal.

I think they’d both be stunned at what exists here below the desert floor of New Mexico… Heh. Though I know Dr. Viridian and her niece have seen some pretty amazing things, I’m certain they’ve never seen anything like Ae’gura!

I’m hoping they might visit for the summer season, then they can meet Logan, Calum, Kelsei, Diranda, Jules and Carl. That would be so fun! I’d love to show a youngster around the Cavern!

Diranda told me her friends have been researching an Age that Calum found and they’re hoping he might let them visit it eventually. Calum mentioned that this age has crystals with some very unusual properties, which apparently caught the attention of Alex, Jamie and Nyota. They’re anxious to explore but Calum is being careful in who he’s letting visit, which I definitely agree with. I’d like to explore that Age as well but I respect Calum’s wishes in this case. I know he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt and I agree.