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Author: Pink
Date: May 26, 2182 (Earth Standard Time)
Location: Orestes Outpost
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Olive's become quite the young lady. She's twelve now. She takes
after her father. I can't blame her for that. He took care of her
alone for the first five years of her life.

I wish, so deeply, that I could have that time back. I learned not
to blame myself so much for neglecting her, but that took a long
time. I can only put that lapse of judgement and responsibility
down to the effects of the crystals, and the subsequent withdrawal
of those effects.

There are true crystals and false crystals. False crystals are
everywhere. They are shiny, man-made. They come in the form of
computer screens, space rockets, fancy clothes and beautiful
objects of all kinds. They are complex, manifold, but they are
artificial. Designed to mimic an effect. You can find that effect
in true crystals. True crystals are dense formations that reflect
the cosmos.

There is true and false love too. False love can feel so nice and
can work well for a while, but true love is a whole other story. It
was eons in the making and bound tighter than the earth is to the
sun. True love is like true crystals. What I had with Green wasn't
true love, it was something to cover over the loneliness. The
crystals were the real thing. They were deep, universal,
unbreakable. That was why I rejected Olive, I suppose. She seemed
to emerge out of something false. But I was wrong, what I feel for
her now is unshakable.

That is why I am so happy that it was Olive who finally returned
the crystals to us again.

I don't know how she did it. She is a strange child in many ways.
She had Green fashion her a space suit, and she's been going on her
little exoduses to that rock with the scribbles twice a day. Navy
accompanies her. He says she just sits by the rock and mumbles
things to herself. Anyway, after several months of this, Navy
reported to us that, on their trip there this morning, two tiny
masses of red crystals had begun to form.

I'm still too excited to even go and look. Could they really be
back?

Anyway, I suppose that's why I'm writing this message to the void.
I'm trying to postpone going and seeing for myself. I want to prove
to myself that I don't really need them, that I'm happy with what I
have now; Olive and Green.

===
Sent via the QEC

