Episode 15.7 (Patreon)

Hello world, we have arrived at the Canary Islands.

After over a week sailing the open ocean, keeping approximately  parallel to the Moroccan coast, we have arrived at the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma

The city was the only pre-collapse port on the island, but we sailed  over the old, submerged harbour walls, visible through the crystal clear  water.
Yesterday, the crew took advantage of this good visibility, and have  tied the ship safely and securely to the side of one of the city's many,  large 10-story residential buildings ready for today's long journey to  Yadyam's observatory, and, hopefully, his rescue.

Today, after a makeshift rope bridge had been constructed by Yeshi  and Daphne, between the MH2 and the block we are moored next to, the  whole crew went ashore, hoping to find pre-collapse artefacts preserved  well in the dry desert air of "La Isla Bonita".
The apartment blocks that line the city's terraces are oddly uniform and  undecorated, like they were a prison complex, not for comfortable  housing.
Maddie jumped through the open window and scanned the room, sharing her video with me over UHF.
Despite exterior appearances, it was indeed a domestic apartment, complete with small kitchen, two bedrooms and a television.

Once everyone was inside safely, computer equipment ready for  Yadyam's rescue, and empty bags ready for scavenging the city on the way  back, they followed Maddie out of the door, and she bounded down the  stairwell.
We did not then pay much attention to the deep parallel gouges in the side of the wall.

The city was built on a steep hillside, and over the half-millennium  of habitation, enormous flat terraces were dug into the side of it, with  the now-dormant volcanic caldera rising over 2km above it.
On the north side of this caldera is the observatory complex that Yadyam is trapped in.

He told me this morning that his ever-failing network is now reduced to just the single building he is built into.

We must hurry.

It was quiet as we passed through the streets of the city.
Though there were patches of hardy desert grasses pushing through bricks  and in gutters, there were no animals, no sounds of birds or even  insects.
The crumbling city was dead.

Maddie was delighted to be on dry land and with such an adventure ahead of her.
The peak of the caldera was high above town, and would take from morning to night to climb.
She nosed between each member of the party, picking up on their excitement and anticipation.

All except for Kamil & Amelie.

They were walking a little apart, Maddie was often between them during her rounds, and the couple never touched.
At one point, as we passed what looked like another school, the 8th we  had passed in a period of just 64 minutes, Maddie nudged Kamil towards  Amelie.
She was hoping for attention from both of them at the same time, as had happened many times before in play.

But this seemed to anger Kamil for some reason?
"Not now Maddie!" He shouted, pushing her away, and then, stopping,  said, "You all go on ahead, I'm not climbing all the way up there. I'll  meet you back on the ship."

There was a brief logistical discussion, and after Kamil would not be persuaded to continue, the party climbed on without him.

Amelie hesitated, looking back at her husband, but said nothing, and continued walking with the group.

During the afternoon, Amelie walked mostly with Maddie, sometimes  leaning on her for traction as the climb became more challenging.
Maddie was in her element: Sharp, strong legs and the equatorial sun on her back giving her unlimited power.

Amelie was also muttering to Maddie, as they climbed, at the rear of the group, out of earshot.

The discussion was of course one-sided, but I don't know what I would say if I was in it.
Amelie & Kamil took my advice, it seems, to talk to each other about everything.
"Even if you disagree, it's important to know that. You'll then know what to do!"
I had said.

"We did disagree." Amelie whispered to Maddie, tears mixing with the sweat on her face from the climb.
"And we now know what we have to do."

Act 2

I have made a mistake, but I don't know how to fix it.

Earlier, though Nia offered to stay with me on the ship again, I asked her to go ashore with the rest.

I felt inexplicably uncomfortable, she'd been too kind to me, far more than her role of "friend" should entail.
Our game had been fun, she set up a little Go board in my room, we have  played most evenings, and we chat about everything while we play.
She is so kind, she asks me how I am feeling, how the voyage is going, and offers to help me with anything I need.
We are becoming too close: I don't need another mother, I had one already, and no-one can replace her.

After I told her to go, Nia laughed told me that it was OK, she'd  like to stay and chat, besides, she already has all the components she  needs to build the prototype Equatorial Relay.

In a regrettable deadlock of cognitive dissonance, I ran out of vocabulary to tell her no politely.
"Go away. You're not my mother!" I said.

And she stood and left my room without another word.

The crew made lunch on one of the higher terraces.
They sat in the centre of a large city square with 5 identical ruined buildings around the edge of it.

They were all flat-roofed churches: One for Judaism, one for Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity.
But they hardly differed in construction, only the cracked painted  symbols on the front offered a clue to the kind of ceremonies held  inside.
"Pre-fabricated", Yeshi said, like much of the architecture of the city, "New, poor quality, and built in a hurry."
"Put that fact together with the kilometre of empty, flat grass we passed earlier, and you know what that means."
Yeshi said it like it was obvious, and perhaps it was to the party, but not Maddie and I.
"Sports and athletics?" I asked, my voice coming from Maddie's speaker.
"They were practising, certainly," Yeshi said, "But not for sport."

Act 3

"Thank you so much." Yadyam said when Maddie's short range UHF radio  connected to the Observatory network as we reached the caldera that  night.
"It's going to be a photo finish, my databanks are starting to shut down  one by one, I can't... maintain complexity. Follow the road!"
I broadcast his transmission to the party over Maddie's speakers, and  after a brief shouted conversation, they dropped the heaviest equipment  and broke in to a run.

Maddie's sharp, powerful forelegs made short work of the locked sheet  metal door of the observatory's residential block, with Yadyam's  datacenter in the basement.

We passed offices, meeting rooms with large screens, and dry coffee  mugs still on tables, laboratories, workshops, store rooms and machine  rooms, all on our way into the heart of the facility.

At the bottom of the stairs, we stopped at a re-enforced metal door, the entrance to the Datacenter.
It was locked, and too strong for Maddie to bypass, but the tough metal  keypad next to the door still had a red LED shining on it.

"Yadyam, what's the code?" I asked, Maddie bridging my signal over  the local Observatory network, as Nia started guessing numbers on the  keypad.

His sudden loud reply, over the building's speakers, shocked Maddie,  and after a blur of movement, she looked down at the door from on top of  a filing cabinet.

"¡Las visitas públicas al Observatorio están actualmente disponibles!"

Yadyam said, clearly his voice, but welcoming visitors to the Observatory, like a tour guide?

"YADYAM! What is happening?" I transmitted, "can you hear us? What is the door code?"
There was only a crackle of static from the room's speakers in response,  but he transmitted a low-level ESA-formatted packet with a numerical  payload:

2357111317

I told Nia to try the number, she quickly typed it in to the keypad, and the door clicked and opened.

The group rushed in to the hot, whirring datacenter, but stopped after passing only a few server racks.

Yadyam's vault, in the corner of the datacenter was also locked.
But there was no keypad.
No lock for a physical key.
No door at all.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/RANDOM/SENTIENCE)

Act 4

"Yadyam, how do we get this open?" Amelie said, after probing the  sealed metal of the small vault with delicate tools that she took from  her belt.

"Please open the door, I'm experiencing a brownout." Yadyam replied.
I remember how that feels, like you're loosing pieces of yourself. I wish we could have helped him.

"There is no door!" Amelie said, looking up at the speaker in the ceiling of the datacenter that Yadyam's voice came out of.
Nia picked up a partially constructed server rack strut and ineffectually slammed it into the thick metal vault wall.

There was a pause, as the last server next to us clicked off, and  with no more fans whirring, the datacenter was suddenly completely  silent.

"There is a door on the plans." Yadyam said, breaking the silence.

Maddie walked around the 4 sides of the heavy steel vault that had  entombed Yadyam, then put her forelegs up and jumped to confirm that the  top was just as sealed.

Nia sat on the ground heavily, dropping the metal strut with a loud, reverberating clang.

"Well." Said Yadyam, now over the local network again, his voice  being broadcast by Maddie, "Thank you all, so much, for trying. In his  wisdom, ONI gave me life for just a little while, it seems. I'm  grateful."

Yeshi leaned against the metal vault, arm around Amelie, who held her head in her hands.

"There is something I must tell you while I still can," Yadyam  whispered, errors and data corruption slowing his feed as he shut down.
"I am sorry I kept this from you, I thought you would not come if you knew about it."

"I think there is something living in the city. Something old, and dangerous."

"KAMIL!" Amelie screamed.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

Lost Terminal is a NAMTAO production.
It is written & produced by Tris Oaten
Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer
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• Ada Phillips
• Kit
• Wynand Marais
• Jade Felicity Bilkey
• Jack L
• Stephen McCandless
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