"I can't believe you found this," Ana says. "It's Helsom's journal."

"Helsom was a xenoarchaeologist during the Golden Age. He believed there were instances of contact between extrasolar species and humanity, long before the Traveler."

"By all accounts, Helsom was a cigar smoking, whiskey-drinking explorer who hated flying. He'd refused to use jumpships for planetary exploration. Would just hop in a rover and drive halfway across Mars to do his research."

"In spite of all that, every log entry I've ever heard made it sound like he was the happiest guy in the room. His laugh was just…"

Ana seems lost for a moment. "I don't know if Helsom ever found what he was looking for. According to this, he stayed here through the Collapse, because he believed in something."

"I guess I'll have to make that choice, too."