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Earth Date: 29th Apr 2238
Log: Agent Amanda Forrester
Location: Planet Verius VI
Agent Marcus Smith, Agent Samantha Watson, and Agent Natalie Ortega have all been captured and sent back to the U.F.P Titan.
No doubt they have sent in their reports already but here’s my assessment of the situation.
After we landed, all the new colonists were spilt between the men and the women. All the men were brought into a building
while all the women were shepherded into another building. Later a few men came and took out Agent Samantha Watson and
Agent Natalie Ortega from the women group.
During the journey to Verius VI, I’ve made some friends among the new colonists and I gathered some intel from one of the
men later on. It seems that all the men were seated in front of a stage where a Mind-Runner was introduced to them. The men
were told that the Mind-Runner was going to do a telepathic ‘exercise?with all of them. All the men had heard the rumors
of alien telepathy and they all look forward to see if it’s real. My friend said that he saw an image of the logo of the
United Federation of Planets in his mind and then Agent Marcus Smith was suddenly taken away by some guards.
I do not know what happened to Agent Smith after that, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Earth Return got info out of him that
Agent Watson and Agent Ortega were with him on the mission and the fact that they managed to get intel out of Agent Smith
so fast leave me to conclude that the Mind-Runners were involved in the extraction of the information.
The only reason that I am safe was because Agent Smith did not know of my presence in the group. The cooperation between
Earth Return and the Mind-Runners in this incident leave me to conclude that the Federation’s fears of the settlers and the
Mind-Runners becoming close allies are coming true.
After Agent Watson and Agent Ortega were taken away, the rest of the women were shown a propaganda video about the City of
Restart. Called an orientation video, this was but the first of many video and lecture classes we took during our one-month
‘orientation?period.
Although they do show life on Verius VI and the city of Restart, a lot of play was also given to the role of the Federation
in the murders of their previous leaders, Dr. Marcs Boecker and Mahmoud Pompano, and the role the Mind-Runners had in
solving the murders.
A Mind-Runner was the one who discovered that Agent van Hook was the one who poisoned Pompano, and from there the conspiracy
to undermine Earth Return was discovered. I tried to poke holes in their arguments and asked how they knew the Federation
was involved in the murders. However any questions anyone had on the matter were quickly answered when they showed taped
confessions from all 3 agents.
The new colonists I was with were greatly alarmed at the murders and the propaganda period did cause them to view the
Federation with more hostility. Since I believe this was what the orientation period was for, Earth Return can think of the
orientation period as a great success.
I wish to note that the women colonists were given a set of rules to follow. Outside the normal rules that are given to
both men and women, the women have a few extra rules to follow like covering our hair in public. Earth Return advised that
the most practical way was to tie their hair in a bun and then cover it with a bonnet. The wearer can choose what color of
the bonnet to wear but certain colors are not allowed. These colors are white, black, yellow, red, and gray because these
could be colors of the human hair. Most women in Restart wear either green or blue bonnets as these are the official colors
of Earth Return.
Women are also encouraged, though not required, to wear long sleeves shirt or dresses that would cover their arms and to
wear pants or skirts that reach below their knees.
More than a few of the women were unhappy at these rules but the organizers of the propaganda period, led by one Andrea De
Cruz, were quick to explain that this was to the benefit of the small number of Mind-Runners within the city.
It was explained that due to their poor sight, the Mind-Runners have a hard time spotting the differences between a male
and female human and Earth Return has found that the best way to help the Mind-Runners is for men and women to dress as
differently as possible.
De Cruz related a story that during one of the first contact between Earth Return and the Mind-Runners, one of the
Mind-Runners sent a mind picture to a female human. The female settler immediately gave a great cry of pain and was in the
medical capsule for over 2 weeks.
De Cruz emphasized that this incident was an accident. Although only male Mind-Runners have telepathic powers, female
Mind-Runners can receive them without pain. However this is not true for human females due to biological differences.
She also said that the men also had rules on clothing. They must wear long pants, no baggy pants allowed, and a short
sleeve shirt. Also men who are bald or balding had to undergo hair transplants and surgery to make sure that there is at
least something on the head. De Cruz said that considering the required surgery, rules for men are actually tougher than
for women on Verius VI. However everything is but a small price to pay in order to live in harmony with their new world.
This played well with Earth Return’s stated goal of living and working alongside nature and being in harmony with the world.
The fact that all the women here in Restart had been wearing the bonnet for a few years already also added social pressure
for the new arrivals to conform to the culture.
However it was De Cruz’s line about human females being unable to receive the mind-pictures due to biological differences
that interest me. Earth Return could be guessing but maybe they know this because they themselves had already conducted
experiments on the matter.
I have also completed my initial discovery of the political landscape in Camp Restart. After the death of Pompano, Earth
Return had been ruled by a council of eight members led by Isiah Tashime who is the ‘Mane?of the council. Two things of
note in the council; there is surprisingly only one women on the council and Andrea De Cruz seems to be in the council only
because she is the “Head of Women’s Affairs?
The other thing to note is that there is a Mind-Runner advisor to the council. This is alarming as it indicates that the
alliance between Earth Return and the Mind-Runner may be far deeper than we thought. I will continue to monitor the
situation.
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