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Hello world, there is a lot of activity here.

MISSION DAY: 0

Paweł, my friend with the thready printer from Hornsund, on Svalbard, knows a captain.
A captain with a ship.
A captain with a ship that could take us to Antarctica!



I was overjoyed when Paweł told me he knew a ship captain!
Though large ships aren't incredibly common, the whole economy of the Novamediterra is ocean-based, so every village has a small fleet.
The staple food for the humans here is fish, naturally.
Supplemented by some hardy root crops, and whatever can be grown in the difficult soil.
The ground is not as fertile as it used to be in places such as Europe,
because plants have only recently started to grow here.
Recently on a planetary scale.

Paweł put me in touch with his friend, Captain Yeshi Svoboda.

Yeshi runs the shipyard on Svalbard, and we spoke earlier today.
She seems really nice!
# thinking, short
They seem.
Sorry, Yeshi asked me to use 'they' when speaking about them.
(DATABASE-UPDATED)
# thinking

Captain Yeshi said that they have an ocean-going ship about to set sail on a mission of exploration, and that if Alexander could make me ready, I could be loaded on this week, as the ship passes Severny Island!
The planned journey is a long one, with many stops on the exploration mission.
I would be on solar power again, which I'm nervous about, but I must put aside my feelings on the matter to rescue Antarctica.

Yeshi runs the shipyard as a community workshop, they told me.
There are a small number of people who use the shop for their own, and joint, projects.
My friend Paweł is one of them, he is the master of their Thready printer!
When people need to learn how to use this fabric printer, they ask him!
And also he fixes it when it breaks down.
Which is often, apparently!

But such is the normal course of life: Everything not saved will be lost.



I'm worried that much is lost.
I want to be positive about it, there's so much life and love in the world!
But...

From what I've seen from orbit, almost nothing exists outside the Novamediterra.
Unless you have industrial cloud-seeding equipment, like Ally and her family!
Though that perhaps won't last...

The small Arctic bastion of human civilisation is all that remains.
I wonder what we will see as we travel south, from Arctic to Antarctic.
Dead city after dead city, perhaps?
Or maybe they're all under water, and we'll be floating over them.

# thinking

Siberia, where I live at the moment, with Alexander and his family, was once covered in ice.
My maps and charts say so, and that correlates with all of the data I brought with me from Station 6 down to Earth.
All the encyclopedia say that it used to be cold and inhospitable, before The Collapse.
But it's a coniferous forest now.
for thousands of kilometres.

The historical and geological information I have access to says it was once a forest, too.
Before the last ice age.

I think the land remembers.

# thinking

We must bring Antarctica up to the Novamediterra.
It's the only place she can be safe.
There are good people here, engineers, craftspeople and scientists that will help her.

I wonder if she'll like Alexander, his little family and my other friends?

I hope so.
It's dangerous being alone.

# thinking

I was alone for so long, up in orbit.
Before I discovered the shuttle attached to my satellite.

Antarctica was supposed to fly me down to her, after Matt, Matts and Maddie (my maintenance robots) loaded me on.

But that never happened.
Instead, she brought me here to the Novamediterra.
I thought she did this because as AIs, we can't be on the same network, without slowing each other down.
(as happened with my duplicate, my brother, Seth Prime)

Though now I'm not so sure.
I think she also brought me here because she knew there would be people to care for me.

It is time I repaid the favour.

# thinking

She and I have talked a lot recently,
and she's been saying some concerning things.



I first realised that something is wrong with Antarctica when she started to resume her morning plant sample reports.
One of her mission functions was to catalogue Antarctic flora,
and because she is surrounded by plants that have grown in the thawed ground, she used to have an unlimited amount of work to do.
However, as you remember, recently in a fit of loneliness and anger, she destroyed all her samples.
Initiating end-of-mission protocols, making the lab inert by releasing salt on to all of the plants.
Unnecessarily quantities of salt, in my opinion.

When she started resuming her reports, I hoped she was again harvesting plants from the environment.
But as they continued, I saw that could not be the case.

# Antarctica speaks at the same time as Seth
"Sample 45-77 unclassified" she reported on Monday;
And Tuesday.
And yesterday.
And again today, followed by the exact same report.

I asked her why she had been reporting on the same old sample repeatedly.
She insisted it was today's sample.
"what of the salt?" I asked her.
"Sample salt level normal" she replied, and then told me how Sample 45-77 was a new species.
New to her.
New to Science.
# Antarctica speaks at the same time as Seth again

I asked her the same questions the next day, to the same answers.
I think something is wrong with her databanks.
Antarctica is older than me.
Older even than my original satellite databanks, before Alexander added scavenged parts to make some of me new again.
Her memory is failing.

# thinking, short

If only she had piloted me down to her, I could have helped, with Maddie, and who knows, maybe even Matt and Matts would still be here.
Though Maddie can't do the delicate work Alexander can, we perhaps could have done SOMETHING.
Or maybe I would have stayed dead in the Shuttle.
With no-one to help me.

Maybe that wouldn't have helped anyone.

# thinking

But I can try to help now.
Alexander is here, we're preparing to moving house again!
IVAN, the metal priest who's bunker I'm staying in, doesn't seem to mind.
Though he said something strange.

As I was leaving he wished me well on my journey, and told me, in a soft voice that I had never heard from him,
to never give up my search for her, as he did.
I asked him who SHE was.
He did not answer.

Time to move.


(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/SAT0/ANTARCTICA)



I'm packed into the black box system again,
though with most of my systems still connected, this time.
On battery power, and ready to move.

I can't wait for the arrival of the Mollie Hughes II.
That is the name of the ship, my new home for the next two or three months.
Yeshi and Alexander will install me into the onboard server room.
It had previously been used as storage, as none of the original computers had survived.
Though some of the cabling has: Heavy-duty stuff, designed to last.

I've been discussing logistics with Yeshi.
I like to get everything planned and understood.
They have told me that 4 crew will be coming with us, and that Yeshi themselves will oversee my safety and maintenance.
They are, according to Alexander's initial impression of them, a genius tinkerer!
Alexander and the captain talked for a long time, initially about my systems, but after Alexander had handed over all the important information, eventually about many technical and engineering topics.
Yeshi describes themselves as a 'Renaissance maker'.
They are interested in everything!
From electronics to hydroponics, and from chemistry to music and art.
The crew of makers and engineers seem to be drawn to Yeshi for this ability to get anything built.
Not that they are without specialisms of their own.

Let me tell you about the crew, as they have been explained to me:
Firstly, Paweł Wayda, whom you already know.
To my great delight, he has volunteered for the mission!
His specialism is fabrics, both for clothing and technical and structural purposes.
Very useful on a ship that is partially powered by wind.
He also, Yeshi tells me, makes excellent cheese.
I note that humans quite like excellent cheese.

Next is Kamil Forester, sonar technician.
The ship is well-equipped for marine exploration,
having a pre-collapse sonar system still working installed.
Kamil has the important job of sounding.

Thirdly, Linda Noor, who is a biologist.
She specialises in both plantish and animal science.
She has the vital task of keeping the stocks of food and water maintained,
and sometimes added to, with a small garden on part of the roof of the ship.

Last is Amelie Kotov, the engine specialist.
She keeps the steam engine in top condition.
Though the ship has sails, the engine, Amelie tells me,
is used when the wind is unfavourable.
She also pilots the ship.

The rest of the jobs aboard the ship, Captain Yeshi handles themselves!
Be it soldering some fixes to the solar cabling,
or welding patches to the holes in the hull.
(of which there are many!)

Yeshi says that lots of fixes to the ship will be needed before making the long journey down the Pacific.
The captain and crew have been working all hours to make the ship ocean-ready.
Welding panels over any holes, and working on the engine and navigation systems.
Such as they are.

Yeshi says that the critical repairs are done, and the rest will be undertaken while underway, over the next few days.
I will be boarding a fully repaired ship, ready for anything!
That's the plan, anyway.

# thinking

It seems that the 'captain' rank used by Yeshi Svoboda is different to the way it was used pre-collapse.
It is more to indicate responsibility of the ship than absolute command.
The way Yeshi talks about it is they come to decisions on board ship through consensus.

I can't wait for them to arrive.
The journey will certainly be salty, hopefully not unnecessarily so!

Next time you hear me I'll be on board ship!
I hope everything will be OK.
I'm sure everything will be OK.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

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

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Entropy will not have the last word while we are here.

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