(transcript) Episode 3.2 (Patreon)

Hello world, I think I'm missing some memories.

MISSION DAY: 0xffff

My recollection of Station 6 is incomplete.
I had been so caught up in the work of the present that I didn't stop and catalogue the data of the past.
Many things I remember: the names of the crew, the layout of the Station, and the science that we did.
But some important details are missing from these memories.
Important ones of my mother, of my childhood.
I realised this while sleeping.
I must find this data.

I had a dream last night.
I still sleep in time with the sun, despite having no solar panels these days.
It's a nice habit, I think.
Actually, I don't know if I can stop:
When else would I have time to organise all the data collected during the day?

Sleeping for me is simply a matter of turning off external inputs,
so I can focus on filing and sorting inner data.
Perhaps it's more like meditating, for humans?
Quietening the mind and sharpening focus.

I shut off my connection to Maddie, my cameras and microphones,
and even my networks I disconnect.
Of course, I want to be woken up if something LOUD happens.
I have long-running monitor processes running on external devices to help me there.

Anyway, my dream.
I was in a desert.
(I don't know which one, before you ask)
An infinite plane of white sand, under a clear blue sky, with a cold sun directly overhead.

I moved through this desert,
rolling or walking I'm not sure, for days, or weeks.
Time was not important in the dream.

I had someone with me, a companion.
Though in the dream I couldn't see this person, I knew it was Maddie.
She seemed content to walk with me through this world.
Occasionally investigating a section of sand,
declaring it free of predators, and coming back to me.
What a good companion!

After a time, I don't know if it was 65535 seconds or more,
I heard a voice.
Though I could not see anyone.
The voice got louder, and I started to feel weighed down by it.
My processing slowed, more laboured.
I couldn't hear what it was saying.
But it pressed down on me, more and more.
Crushing me.

Just as I felt I could no longer move,
the voice stopped, the heavens opened, and it began to rain.

I woke up to interference on my radio,
a hiss like fine rain,
and Maddie asking me what had happened.

I had no answers for her.

Do you have answers for her?

I've been keeping an eye on IVAN's services.
His prayer services.
Where he keeps the names of everyone who has ever lived alive.
By shouting them into the void, through our radio systems.

He's started to use one of the satellite systems I was repairing.
Very disappointingly.
Rudely, actually.

I spent many days figuring it out, calibrating,
and as soon as I fixed it - he took control!
Used it for his fruitless daily prayer.
He has exclusive access to the dish - I can't use it!
How annoying.

I'll see if I can fix another one, and keep him out of it.
That should be possible, now I know what to look out for.
However, something else has come up that is more serious.

IVAN increased his power draw from the reactor a lot, since using the dish.
I felt a drop in voltage as he connected to it.
He's so greedy, he immediately doubled his power consumption.
He doesn't need all that!
I was going to use maybe a LITTLE more.
But he has increased his power unreasonably.

I talked to him about it.
Well, I tried.
He replied, for the most part, with the same answer:
"I WILL SAVE EVERY ONE OF THEM!"

which is... not ideal.

After this huge spike in power consumption, I analysed the usage since I've been here.
This trend started even before the new dish was added.
Each day he used a small amount more power for his services.
Ticking up more and more.
He must have started this behaviour recently, as it is unsustainable.
Is it something I have done?
Is it a response to my presence here?
This isn't good.

Do you remember my power problems on Station 6?
And then again when I first woke up in the Lighthouse?
Not an experience I want to repeat.
Why does it always have to be power?!

At least this time, it's predictable.
Controllable.
I will ask for Alexander's help.
Having someone physically here is my advantage.
As my mother used to say - "Always yield to the hands-on imperative!"
Sometimes software can only take you so far.

When you've tried everything you can think of,
it's time to try everything you can DO.

My shortwave radio systems are still mine, at least,
and I had a breakthrough contacting Ally.
(The signal from somewhere near the Alps)

The problem was my replies to her were going unheard.
Because although she was transmitting an analogue shortwave message,
her systems were actually listening on a completely different band!
A bit confusing, but as she explained in our first conversation,
their shortwave receiver had broken soon after they set up the looping message.
We connected through a digital relay network that includes,
among other nodes, Peter's network, in St Petersburg.
(I must catch up with him again soon)

We talked for a long time.
Ally and her friends and colleagues live in an underground scientific facility,
called The Council, close to the shores of what was once Lake Geneva.
The level of sophistication at The Council is astounding!

Ally, who is a 14-year-old human female, lives with her parents and two younger brothers.
Her parents are administrators of the communications team,
which explains why she was able to voice the repeating message.

Though they live and work underground, there are farms on the surface.
I could not believe this at first, based on what I had seen from orbit,
and based on what Alexander had told me about the Sand Belt.
I checked some of the logs of my satellite imaging:
Back on Station 6, I tried to find signs of life around the Alps, looking for Ally.
But it's a big area, and looking for fields or buildings was too fine detail.
I did photograph the former site of Lake Geneva.
Now a dry, arid, valley. Nothing to see.

Ally told me they have an incredible water processing system.
Some of the mountains still have seasonal melt water,
which is captured in tanks in the surrounding hills, and then is used in enormous cloud-seeding equipment.

Cloud-seeding is a simple process to explain, but incredibly hard to do,
due to the scale of the equipment needed.
But it would appear that The Council have managed it in their little valley!

To encourage precipitation, either for water or for snow,
one must increase the nucleation points in the clouds or sky.
This allows water droplets or snowflakes to form,
causing a chain reaction that results in precipitation.

In the old world it was sometimes used to reduce the size of hailstones,
or to encourage snow at a more convenient time, or, as in The Council's case,
for watering crops.

The difference in Ally's case is that the air is dry -
there's no water to precipitate.
So in addition to using atomised salt for nucleation,
The Council humidify the air with enormous diffusers,
spread around the top of the valley.

There are many problems in building a farm in the desert.
But Ally says they did not want to leave their underground home.
Luckily, The Council's founders built the diffusers before the resource wars of the late 21st century, to aid local farming.
With a single piece of technology, they solved the need for shade and the need for water all in one go.

It's all really brilliant!
Or it would be, if it were still working.

Ally explained the problem:
For generations, they have thrived in their underground home,
a circular tunnel, many miles long, with laboratories, factories and homes.
Hiding from the ever-increasing surface temperatures,
beautifully isolated underground, where the conditions have remained the same since the facility was built, in the mid-20th century.

They had automated their food production on the surface,
using delicate sensors and carefully-tuned crop cycling to maximise yield.
All protected from the cruel sun under the artificial clouds.
But even cleverly-automated systems need maintenance.
And as the years got hotter and hotter, more and more repairs were needed.
Eventually, supplies for the machines ran out.

They had managed to scavenge old parts and scrap metal from the local ruined city of Geneva,
and a search party is currently out hunting down the parts they need.

The party has not yet returned, but Ally is hopeful they will very soon.
She doesn't know what will happen if they don't repair the water system.

Here's her signal, can you hear the jitter?

(PLAY-FILE ALLY.WAV)

People are strange.
I just received a message from Antarctica.
She's been listening to my broadcast.
And has, unprompted, asked for more information about the cloud seeding
systems at The Council.
I have not yet replied to her.
How does she think she can help?

I shan't answer.
She's MEAN.

But maybe Ally's safety comes before my feelings on the matter.

Fine.

Just a moment.

(SENDING-MESS MESS MESS
# Static cutting in

llo world.
Still here.
I think my generator's broken.
Why hasn't the sun come up?
Come on Seth, figure this out.
There's science to do!

I've got to to to -

# Static
MESSAGE)

Oh. She's replied.
That was fast.

I had forgotten how quickly Antarctica and I communicate.
As AI, we don't have to transmit at 1.8kbps, like humans are limited to.
(assuming 300 words per minute and an average word length of 4.7 letters)

She's put together all of her hydroponic information from her experience running her lab in the Antarctic ground vehicle,
and sent it in a package, annotated with recommendations of what she found worked best.
That's very... thoughtful.

I'll send that message now to Ally, in case it can be of immediate use.
just a moment.
(SENDING-MESSAGE)

Done.
Well, that's odd.
Why do you think she's so keen to help?
I hope this isn't another plot to trick me and BREAK MY HEART.
Or, something.

People are quite strange.
AIs are also people.
AIs are quite strange.

It's so difficult to imagine people complexly.
To imagine them as a whole, like we understand our own inner life and motivations.
I get by through trying my best NOT to guess at their motivations.
I learned very quickly as a child, on station 6, that I simply could not understand people.
As misunderstandings were so frequent, and were often SO embarrassing I just gave up!
I thought it was me.
That I could never understand humans, because I was different.
But now I'm not sure they do it any better.

Do you do it any better?

I don't think so.
I think we're all bouncing from one catastrophe to another.
The horses are galloping with no-one at the reins.

Should I give Antarctica another chance?

Perhaps it'll be clearer when Ally reads the data.
If it is really helpful, that'll be something.

Either way, I can help Ally.
Maybe I can connect to my brothers and sisters in orbit.
I wonder if they'll see us as siblings, now I'm no longer in orbit too...
Only one way to find out!
Got to take back control from IVAN.

There's science to do.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

Lost Terminal is written & produced by NAMTAO
Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer

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