SO, CHECK THIS OUT.  IT'S HELENE'S FIRST REPORT BACK TO EARTH.

Pleased to report that all mission members are safely on the surface of Mars, and the Colony is (broadly speaking) still functional, in the state we were told to expect.

[Helene paused in her typing, and looked off to her left side, towards the 10 centimeter square window onto the Martian landscape, thinking what to type next.  Should she report anything regarding the attitudes of the colonists?  No, there was a possibility that anything she said might be misinterpreted, or intercepted.  Best to stick to the obvious and indisputable facts.]

The Colony population is currently 30, of whom 10 are minors.

[Of course, Earth already knew that.  Helene looked off to her right, staring at a blank space in the corner of the small apartment in Building 29 which she was in.  Should she mention that two of the women were pregnant?  Not yet.  They might be wanting to abort, for example if they wanted to return to Earth and could not spend so long in zero-gravity while pregnant, and they might consider it a violation of privacy for this fact to be generally known.  She needed to find a way to talk to them about it, privately.]

Mission members are currently recovering, and adjusting to Martian gravity.  I have consulted with a few colonists, briefly, but more extensive conversations will happen soon.

[Helene grimaced slightly.  She had imagined arriving on Mars to rescue the abandoned children, bringing hope to the hopeless.  There were mission planners back on Earth, some of whom wanted to maintain the Colony (although also some who wanted to shut it down, in an orderly way this time).  Helene had resented the idea of condemning the remaining colonists to a grinding life of poverty, on a distant outpost far from Earth, and looked forward to empowering them to return to a civilized life on Earth.  Now it was looking like it would be a more complicated task, to get things back on track.  The two she had talked to the most, Oliver and Emma, both seemed to be in denial, imagining their cramped and impoverished life to be all they could hope for, and frightened of the prospect of leaving.]

Detailed discussions will include the feasability of fish farming on Mars...

[She erased that sentence, looked off to her left for a moment, tried again.  No need to ignite a firestorm of debate back on Earth by saying anything that seemed to question the idea that the fish farm project would be a success.  There were people on Earth very committed to that; she needed to bring them around to things gradually.]

Detailed discussions regarding the planned projects will be required before any conclusions can be drawn.  There is some resistance among colonists to accepting expert help, which will take time to work through.

[She gazed off to the right, her eyes seeing, not the blank wall, but the scene of the day before, when Olivia refused her leadership.  There was, in theory, no hierarchy among the remaining colonists, since the last Director had died without any adults left to appoint to the position.  The initial period afterwards had been too disordered by the malware complex on Earth for any attention to be given to Mars, and by the time things had been restored on Earth, their hold over events on Mars had been more or less entirely broken.  It was, Helene knew, part of her intended mission to reassert control over the Colony, even though it had never been stated quite so plainly (because it had never quite been admitted that control had ever been lost).  It was becoming apparent to her that there was, in fact, a hierarchy in place on Mars, with Olivia at the top.  Her authority was illegitimate, but the other colonists were too intimidated to question it, because it began when they were children and she was the oldest.  They had never known anything else.  Helene would have to move carefully, to help them break free of her hold over them.]

There are several remaining defects with Building 29 which were not previously disclosed, which will require that some crewmembers temporarily relocate to the spaceship quarters while they are fixed.

[She looked out the tiny window onto the lifeless, alien landscape, and her eyes narrowed.  She stayed that way for several minutes, before finally saving her report and authorizing transmission to Earth.]