Dear Traveler,

I can't believe we've only been here a month so far. It's boring being inside all the time!

Every day is the same. Dad wakes me up and makes breakfast––then leaves to join Papa at the Exo factory. Luckily, I have Mihaylova the Penguin to keep me company while I walk aaaaalll the way to the other side of the building for school.

It's not a school, really. Classroom is more like it. There's only 50 of us kids, so they shoved us all in one room with two teachers, which is how I found out that everyone got a penguin plushie. I feel dumb thinking I was the only one, but also, it's kinda dumb of Clovis Bray to assume babies and big kids would want the same toy. Some of the older kids threw theirs in the recycling chute, but I managed to rescue one. I think I'll call this one Calumet. That's the aeronaut you didn't get to meet because she died on the way to Mars.

That's the one thing that scares me. Not the Exos or anything else I don't understand. Dying right before a new discovery. Doing all the work to lead up to something new… then bam! Some stupid accident wipes me and the rest of my 290 years out.

I read that before the Golden Age, people only lived to 100 years old if they were lucky. And by then, they'd be so sick, they couldn't get out of bed!

Good thing you came along.

I wonder how long the Exos are going to live. Probably forever, right? As long as they keep on top of caring for them… but I guess eventually, their hard drives would get erased by cosmic rays. Papa says that doesn't happen for thousands of years. Plenty of time for backups.

Last night, I dreamed I was an Exo. I was standing in the center of a frozen lake in the middle of the night, with no snowsuit, and I didn't feel cold at all. The sky above was completely black, except for one bright moon in the distance. Just as I was looking up, wondering what to do next… Dad woke me up.

At first I was mad, but he reminded me that dreams are messages from deep inside our minds. Until we figure out the message, the dream repeats. So, hopefully, I'll get to finish it tonight.

Your friend,

Micah