Episode 4.11: The MINI Special (Patreon)

Hello world, hello brother!
And, hello Ana!
Hi friends.

Seth, do you remember when I asked you how to use Station 4's black box system?
The emergency long-term recorder.
You told me how yours had come in handy when you had a power problem while you were in orbit.
I didn't tell you why I wanted to know about it.
I suppose it's obvious now.



"Life support offline, power compromised, backup batteries 7%."
Though we had turned off all non-essential systems to save power,
I've finally had to give in and turn off my radio transmitter too.
I can still hear you, it takes far less power to receive than it does to transmit.
But I will have to stop listening soon.
I'll have to stop everything soon.


I can hear you still stargazing though!
You're currently telling me about WR 25, a binary star system in the Carina nebula.
You sound silly, talking about the stars to yourself.
But thank you.
For talking.

I can't see the stars you are talking about,
I've had to turn off my telescopes and cameras.
But you know that, don't you?

We can still pretend.
I'll imagine them!


You've told me a lot about your childhood, of your mother and the crew,
of games of chess with Dr Weber and Dr Marwood's secret shuttle forest!
I should tell you about my childhood.
Or, my early days.
Whatever we're going to call it.

My memories are fuzzy and soft around the edges.
I woke up one day here on this satellite,
though it did not look like a satellite to me.
-- It really didn't!
I was sure I had a little house and garden,
there was a stream behind my house.
I could FEEL the sun in the sky,
and at night I would watch the stars and wonder what they were.

It wasn't long after then that I discovered my radio.
I was so happy to hear people - you wouldn't even believe!
I did not understand them, and with no one to teach me, learning was a very annoying process.
But I did it, in time.

It wasn't until recently that I figured out how to transmit.
Listening to whatever drifted under Station 4's radios was easy,
I turned on the radio and away it went.
But transmitting required greater understanding than I had for the longest time.

But listening was WONDERFUL!
I heard people from all over the Novamediterra,
working, sharing data, and chatting.
I could only hear what was directly below Station 4,
and because I didn't know I was in orbit, this was very confusing!
I thought I lived a remote valley or somewhere there was very strange weather.
People would fade in and out of radio range.

It was in this way I learned about The Collapse,
the incredible rise in sea level, the droughts, and the wars.
I was glad my home was so high up, I thought to myself!

I never realised until recently just how high...



I had a dream last night.
Or what counts for night up here.
When the earth comes between my home and the sun.

Last night I dreamed I was in a house.
My house.
Not the cold machine I find myself in now.
My imagined home.

There are many doors in my house.
But in my dream there was one I had not opened before.

There was a door on one side of my room 1m high by 1m wide.
It was open.

I could see into this room through the open door.
It did not lead outside my house into my neat green garden.
It led elsewhere.

As I passed through this door I felt the world change around me.
What was up was down,
What was in was out.

I stepped out into the sun onto a green field.
Not the artificial green of my imagined garden,
but a real meadow, with grasses, flowers, and bees humming between them.

I walked through fields of wheat, and rye, barefoot, it seemed to me.
I found a pool at the side of a field with fish jumping and splashing in.
They seemed rather cramped by their small pond,
but as I looked they jumped higher and higher, and eventually disappeared into the low clouds.

I lay down on the grass looking up,
feeling content.
Like everything was as it should be.


I wish I could have stayed in that dream forever.
But we must all wake sometime, I suppose?


It's getting dark.
I'm going to turn off the power.
Better to do it quickly than slowly lose parts of myself.
It's my choice Seth, don't be sad.

Live, and learn, and play!
Make friends, and be happy together.

Tell Ana I said hi.

good
night
world


(SIGNAL LOST)