Amirhan desert mission, day 329
I woke up this morning utterly confused. I don't know what happened last night. There are two versions of the events in my head. In one version, our solar panels were malfunctioning because of the cold, and Enembe said he would get them fixed today, like I wrote in yesterday's log. In the other the badger we followed yesterday (or some other animal, I suppose) had chewed through a power cord that Enembe had changed using a cord from one of the ground drills. He and Ndali left for Ashakati for a new cord and some supplies. I at first thought one of these had been a dream, since that is the logical explanation, but the more I think about it, the more sure I become they are both real memories, despite the fact it is completely impossible they are both true memories.
In the morning I tried to figure out, which version of last night in my head is true. All I was able to find was that the power was still out, there was a power cord missing and Ndali and Enembe are gone. The missing cord is missing from the drill, and the cord that was supposed to be broken is not broken. I'm not sure if it's the broken cord that is missing, or the cord originally from the drill. I am certain, though, as much as I can be certain about anything right now, that all the cords were intact yesterday morning as we examined the solar panels together, before we went after the desert badger with Ndali. If the problem had been something as simple as a physically damaged chord, we would have found it yesterday morning.
I spent almost all morning trying to figure out the truth about last night, but there was simply no way to do that. The broken chord and Enembe and Ndali missing would suggest that's really what happened, but that version too doesn't seem to fit the reality. The one I wrote in the log yesterday feels to me more like the truth, though I acknowledge that means absolutely nothing. After pondering over this for a couple of hours, I decided to push it out of my mind and try to figure out the truth once Enembe and Ndali were back. Three memories of the events are going to give us more input and hopefully get us closer to the truth. I don't know when they will be back, though. It is already dark and they haven't returned. I have been assuming all day they went for Ashakati, despite of which version of my memories is true, because that seems like the only place they might have gone, but if they did go there, they should be back by now. Or soon, at the very least. I feel like I'm going crazy. Maybe that is what Amirhan does to a person after they have spent enough time here. I would not be surprised to learn that.
No, I might not know what happened last night, but I am not going crazy. All I need to do is stick to the science. That's what I have been doing all day today. There has been a now anomaly in the desert. They seem to have been piling up in the last few days, and it is getting harder for me to believe it is a coincidence, although there isn't yet enough data and enough anomalies to make any kind of scientific conclusion.
Anyway, I noticed today there was a star in the sky. It doesn't sound like much, I know, there are loads of stars in the sky, but this one was visible almost through the day. I noticed it in the afternoon, near the eastern horizon. I spent the day tracking it. It is lucky the equipment we have needed for astronomical measurements mostly don't require electricity. It slowly turned in the sky throughout the afternoon, exactly as you would expect a star to do. Only I'm not sure I expected this star to behave exactly as I would expect a star to behave. It is not supposed to be there, after all. There are no stars bright enough on our sky to be visible during the day, aside from the sun of course.
Once it got dark I was able to place the star more exactly on the sky in relation to other stars. I of course had quite a good idea of what was supposed to be around it, but seeing the other stars as well gave be a much more accurate location for it. It is almost exactly halfway in between Binta and Nyot, and it stayed there for the entire time I spent watching it after the other stars became visible. In the dark its brightness became even more obvious: It is easily the brightest star in the night sky. It even dims out the few stars very closest to it with their brightness. I could still see them too, though, but I knew they were there and so knew to look for them.
I think I have spent enough of our spare power on this log now, even though I could say more. I don't know when Enembe and Ndali will be back, but I already switched to use candles as a light source and lowered the heat by another two degrees, or the spare power source wouldn't last until noon tomorrow. If they don't return before that, I will have to take another look of the panels myself, even though Enembe understand that kind of thing a lot better than I do.
UPDATE: I found the missing cord. It was among our electronic waste. It was unbroken, at least so far as an eye could see, which means nothing had chewed on it.
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The topic for tomorrow is Gloves.
~matu
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