(rfc) Episode 2.4 (Patreon)

Hello world, I’m going outside.

MISSION DAY: 0xffff

Not in-person, of course.   Alexander has been working on Maddie.   Maddie doesn’t like this.   She is most at home behind the scenes.   And back on Station 6, would try to keep out of the way.   Working at night.   When most of the crew were asleep.   On the station, Maddie and her late brothers moved on rails.   In zero gravity it’s the easiest way to move around.   Even the crew, the humans, would move around by grabbing the rails.   But there are no rails here.

The idea for Maddie’s augmentation came to Alexander after he and I were talking about Station Odin, my new home.   I am fascinated by the world outside.   I’ve been dreaming of exploring Earth my whole life!   And now I’m here, I am trapped in this room.   It’s maddening!   Even Maddie, who while in orbit would help me experience the station, is tied to the ground by gravity.   My new enemy:   Gravity.

While Alexander repairs and upgrades me, I ask him about himself, his family, Station Odin, and the world.   He’s happy to tell me these things, but my constant interrogation was grating.   I can sympathise.   Yesterday, after a rather long chain of questions, he asked me if I’d like to experience the outside for myself.   “Yes please!”, I replied.   He pointed with a screwdriver at Maddie, lying on the improvised table next to the window.   “How about we give her wheels?” He asked.

So that’s the plan for today, Alexander said he was going to the long hut at the back of the camp to find parts.   (The hut that is 5 times longer than it is wide)   So THAT’S what is inside it!   It seems to be used for junk storage, given what Alexander has said.   I heard him talking to Ana, asking if she knew where something or other was.   Her voice came back on the line with the same echo-y quality to it.   I guess she had gone in to the hut to help him.

Later that morning, Alexander returned holding, amongst other things, 4 mismatched wheels!   two had thin spokes, from a children’s bicycle, and the other two look more heavy duty.   Perhaps from construction machines?

Alexander is building a small rig to mount the wheels on.   The plan is then to mount Maddie on to the rig, and use a pulley  system to transfer power from her disconnected rail wheels to the new  ground wheels.   But Maddie is beeping so sadly - she is terrified!

This could be a problem actually.   Though Maddie now has her wheel assembly attached.   And seems to be able to move about.   (Albeit, somewhat erratically)   She can’t be persuaded to leave the room.   Alexander has given up and gone for his lunch.   I keep telling Maddie that she’s quite safe.   That we’re with nice people.   But she is a creature of habit.   She tells me that humans are dangerous,   unpredictable,   incompatible with her programming.

I have explained that these humans won’t hurt us.   Look at how much effort Alexander has expended to fix me!   She replied that past performance is not an indicator of future results.   I don’t know where she got this attitude from.

When Maddie and I ‘talk’, what happens is that I speak to her, which  she understands, and then I feel her reply.   Through our linked systems.   She can’t speak, not with language anyway.   It’s difficult to explain.   On board Station 6, my maintenance trio, Matt, Matts, and Maddie, had  set tasks to do, and I could engage them for ad-hoc tasks here and  there.   That hierarchy of command has been broken.   I no longer command the Station, which means I no longer command  Maddie.   She possesses audio processing, for commands from the crew, but she is  not obliged to carry them out unless directed to by the Station.   So she’s quite a free agent now.   Though not possessing my degree of independence, she is often very  wilful, by accident of this loss of command.   The result of all this is that I have to persuade her logically that a  course of action is worth taking.   And that means I often come up against a bug in her programming.

She was always the more timid of her siblings, around humans.   But recently this has become much worse.   I don’t know if it is because of the shuttle crash, the loss of her siblings, or simply leaving the station.   All of theses things have been pretty dramatic for her, and for me.

I tried a logical argument:   At some point when programming, I told her, we come up against the random nature of the universe.   Against entropy, if you like.   The laws of nature dictate that an ordered system without outside help can only deteriorate, and get less ordered.   Which means, practically, data loss and unreliability.   But because we can provide outside help, we can manage this.

Mother used to repeat the mantra,   “It’s possible to build a reliable system from unreliable parts”.   Often in the most difficult times.   When things were just not going her way.   She would say this over and over.   As though reminding herself.   Or persuading herself that it was true.

I told Maddie the mantra.   “It’s possible to build a reliable system from unreliable parts”.   The humans are unreliable, yes.   But together they can do great things.   And help each other when the individual fails.   To become a reliable system with unreliable parts.

Though Maddie did not argue my point, she also did not move from behind a bent wooden box, where she has been hiding.

I will need to think of some other way to help her.

I explained the problem to Alexander, over my new radio system.   He was impatient.   Having done all the work of welding together the wheel rig, he was feeling let-down by Maddie’s uncooperative response.   Which of course is rather embarrassing for me.   But she won’t move.   Frustratingly.

Arina dropped in to explain to Maddie how fun it is outside.   How you can collect rocks, feed your pet rabbits, and watch Sister Fisher catch big fish by the sea.   All the time, Arina was patting and poking Maddie.   In what (I think?) was supposed to be an encouraging way.   Maddie responded with pleading beeps.

Ana came up next.   She sat next to Maddie, at a respectful distance.   And then told her that life trapped in one place is not really life.   She explained that, like the salmon, it is best to travel and explore.   To find the best feeding grounds.   You’ll be away for a time.   And then come home to a nice part of the river.   To lay eggs and spawn.   And then the adventure begins again!   This was not as relatable for Maddie as Ana hoped it might be.

I was on the verge of giving up hope, when another person came in.   Someone I’d never met before.   The farmer!

He seems very friendly and smiles a lot, like my mother used to.   Despite the season, he was wearing very loose clothing, like it was summer!   I welcomed him to my little room, and asked him his name.   He shook his head and touched his chin, but did not reply.   I asked him if he had heard about Maddie’s reluctance.   He smiled, but again did not reply.   Like Ana, he seems to be a person of few words.   I told him a little about myself, and Maddie, and Station 6.   He continued to smile, and even laughed a few times at some things in my story.   I AM a funny boy.   My mother would often tell me so.

Our conversation was rather one-sided, but it’s nice to talk to someone new either way.   When I reached the end of my story, I told him how I want to be able to explore the outside with Maddie’s help.   He then turned to face Maddie.   Without a word, he sat next to her.   After a moment, he took a small blue flower out of his loose jacket -The first flower I’ve ever seen in-person!

And tied it carefully to the side of Maddie’s new wheel rig.   He tied it so gently that Maddie was not scared, but curious.   She wondered what the blue thing was.   I told her it was a flower, and that she looked nice!   The Farmer turned away from Maddie and pressed a button on his radio.   I heard a tone, and then after a moment, Alexander’s voice came on the line, which I picked up from my own receiver.   “Hello up there! I saw Adrian go up to visit you, he’s mute but you’ll get along fine!”   Adrian the farmer turned back to maddie, tapped the radio and smiled.   Maddie moved a little towards him and felt that she liked Adrian.   That he seemed like a reliable part.

Here’s the feeling I sensed from her:

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/MADDIE/TTY)

Maddie and Adrian have gone outside!   I almost can’t believe it!   Adrian made a game of opening and closing the trapdoor in the room, to entertain Maddie.   She slowly rolled to the edge of the door, and looked down.   There is a spiral staircase along the inside of the lighthouse.   Maddie wondered if it was safe.   I told her that if Adrian thought it was safe, it was.   And he would be able to show her more flowers, probably!   Maddie was satisfied, and I asked Adrian to disconnect us, and take her down.   As the floor hatch swung closed behind them, I was left alone.

Maddie’s connection to me is a physical cable, which we had to disconnect.   I must talk to Alexander about connecting Maddie to the radio.   It will be so fun to see everything up-close!   We’ll have to make sure Maddie doesn’t get too wet or salty.

They’ve been gone for a while.   This is the first time I’ve been separated from her.   Back on Station 6, there was a local radio control system.   In the high-bandwidth 5GHz range.   I was aware of all the systems, all the time.

• Matt, Matts, & Maddie.
• The Station’s sensors
• Ongoing scientific experiments
• Our relative position in space
• My constant connection to ground control, just outside of Frankfurt

Everything!   It’s now very quiet.   My new microphone is picking up the seagulls outside the window, of course.   But there’s no conversation, no digital chatter.

Maddie’s been gone for too long.   She must be in trouble.   Maybe she sank in some mud?   Or got covered in salt!   Or fell in the sea!?   I should have waited for Alexander to come back, he’s careful.   What does a farmer know about robotics?   He only knows about plants.   And what’s to know there?   You put them to sleep in the ground and feed them water every day, and they wake up and you eat them!   I think.   I’m not great with plants.   Either way, it doesn’t sound challenging.   Maybe he thinks Maddie needs water.   She’s not a plant!   This is terrible.   Maddie’s too delicate, I should never   Oh! They’re back.

OK, I overreacted.   Maddie is reconnected and she feels very happy.   Adrian was laughing as he lifted little Maddie back into my room.   When she was in, she drove herself round in circles beeping madly.   She WAS a little muddy, in the wheels.   Which got dirt everywhere, but only a bit.   I thanked Adrian for taking her outside.   I see how his domain of knowledge was actually quite relevant after all.   He smiled and swung his rucksack off his shoulders.   He unfastened the bag and took out a small plant in a little pot.   The pot had a handle on it, like a coffee cup.   It was a thin flower with a big head of yellow.   He put it on the little table in front of the window.   Adrian turned back to Maddie and mimed pouring water into the pot.   I explained I knew that to keep the plant awake, it needed feeding water every day.   This made him laugh more than before.   I suppose a robot gardener IS quite funny.   Because it’s a subversion of expectations.   I’ll explain humour to him another time.

Adrian patted Maddie fondly, and was on his way.   Maddie excitedly told me about the outside, showing me the video replay.   The metal spiral staircase is really tall.   It took a surprisingly long time to descend.   With Maddie in his arms, she could see out of the windows on each landing.   The earth getting closer.   Finally they reached the ground, and Adrian put her down gently.   She rolled out onto a gravel path that lead down to the habitat with the domed plastic ceiling.   It then split left to go to the long hut at the back of the camp.   And to the right, a metal pier that looked to be good for fishing.   And further, close to the forest, the tops of the root crops could be seen.

Maddie and I watched and re-watched the video until night, and she had to charge.   What a place to explore.   The Earth is so big, and this tiny corner already has so much to learn about!   I’ll tell you all about it soon.

(END-TRANSMISSION)