Episode 5.5 (Patreon)

Hello world, we are becalmed.

MISSION DAY: 54

Had we made good time, we would have been at Antarctica by now.
The crew tells me that the cruising speed of the Molly Hughes II is 10 knots.
Knots are an archaic term, what they mean is 18km/h, or, preferably, 5m/s.
If that speed were constant, all day every day, it only takes about a month to travel from pole to pole.

But we aren't going anywhere.
The ship's steam engine has failed.



Sometimes emergencies are loud, and can't be ignored.
The hull filling with water, for instance.
Sometimes they are quiet, and you don't notice.
I think those are worse.
One day the engine was working, the next, it had stopped.

The good news is that engineer Amelie Kotov, now awake, is able to work again.
She is still not functioning at 100%, I understand.
She visited my datacenter and explained to me that her body's repairs would take time, but she would make a full recovery.
I was delighted, and told her so.
"What about the steam engine?" I asked.
She was not so sure.

Kamil is helping with her work aboard ship.
Now that my cameras - the ship's cameras I mean - are working below deck, I can see the two of them busy in the engine room.
Kamil is taking direction from Amelie, who is sitting in a chair with her notes, pointing out the tools he should be using.

They're such a good team:
After Amelie's accident, they are inseparable!
They seem to go everywhere together.
I believe they are walking hand-in-hand to make sure she doesn't fall again.
That makes sense to me.

# thinking

Sadly, Amelie has declared the steam engine beyond reasonable repair.
In her absence, the boiler over-pressured, and ruptured.
She says if we happen across another high-pressure boiler, then we can replace it, but it is beyond our ability to repair with the tools on ship.
It's possible that her expertise could have corrected this earlier, and averted disaster, but that was not an option for us.

We are now underway on wind power.
I'm trimming the sails as best I can, but the wind is not co-operating.

We are becalmed.



Though the Molly Hughes II isn't going anywhere, the ship is abuzz with activity.
The combination of Amelie's recovery, the sighting of the ghost ship, and the captain's newfound leadership has everyone working busily.
Amelie and Kamil have refocused their work on the mystery engine.
She told us over lunch today that they have exhausted any possibility of repair of the steam engine.
"Though the mystery engine does have a strong boiler that could be transplanted into the steam engine", she said
"I don't want to do that until we can figure out how it works, maybe it will work even better!"
"Not keen on that Amelie," Yeshi said, shaking their head,
"Let's not chase a dream when we could have the old engine working again.
Focus your efforts on fixing the steam engine please."

Amelie looked around the room for support.
No one spoke.
Kamil had crossed his arms in front of him, but was nodding in agreement with Yeshi.
"Yes captain." she said, reluctantly.

# thinking

In the hot sun of the afternoon, Maddie visited Linda Noor on the roof garden of the ship.
She had called up to Linda with some beeps and squawks from her loudspeaker, and then Linda carried her up.
The garden is very impressive.
Linda told Maddie and I, while tending to it, that she's organised it into half-metre squares, each containing a single crop.
One might have red tomatoes, another some leafy green boys.
All vital for supplementing the food stores on board.

The view from the roof garden was impressive:
Half of the roof is solar panels, the other half is given over to plants.
Both taking the energy of the sun and converting it into a more useful form.
Maddie could see the captain's CWAP system, the Combined Water and Power system, under the solar panels.
There are large pipes snaking around under them.
Like a reverse radiator, taking the heat away and being piped down into the pump room, where a self-contained distillation system produces fresh, drinkable water.
Linda was particularly proud of what she called her "three sisters" planting method:
She told us that if you plant corn, beans, and squash in the same spot, not only can they grow together, but they improve each other's environment, and thrive!
I understood her explanation, because it wasn't too planty. Or plantish.
It's a mechanical advantage:
The corn provides a structure on which the beans can grow, and the squash loves the shade of the corn, and covers the ground and discourages weeds, and the beans protect the corn in high wind.

I have never seen these crops all in one place before.
I asked her where she found these rare plants.
She did not answer directly, only saying,
"You know I'm a from Svalbard, right?"

# thinking

Paweł Wayda visited me in the datacentre that serves as my room.
He asked me how I was.
"Systems all operational", I replied.
"Engine offline, sails deployed."
He asked me if there was anything he could do to help, perhaps he could alter the pattern or shape of the sails to work better?
I told him he was very kind, but no clever sail would improve the lack of wind.
Paweł lapsed into silence.
# thinking

I didn't want him to feel that he wasn't contributing to the work going on today, I feel that way all too often.
I told him that there's always something useful to do, though.
Even things that aren't productive work can be productive for you.
What is important is that we keep building new things, keep improving ourselves, and helping our friends.
He agreed, but seemed sullen, still.
I had an idea:
I asked him if he would go over our route with me, as I'm not a very experienced sailor!

He brightened up at that, and we talked about it:
We agreed that from our current position off the coast of Alaska, we would sail south, through the string of islands created by the meeting of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.
Very likely this will be around the Aleutian islands portion of the archipelago.

Then, after taking in as much wood as we can, assuming we fix the engine, we travel on to Hawaii, then to Fiji and New Zealand.
We then leave the South Pacific and continue south east into the Southern Ocean, and finally, if we are all very lucky, arriving at McMurdo Station, or what is left of it, on Antarctica.
This station is where my friend, Antarctica, named for the continent that she is the only living being on, hopefully will still be found.

"I am f-f-f-failing."
Antarctica said.
"I need help Seth, where are you?"

I told her we're coming.
As fast as we possibly can, we're coming.
Though that's not very speedy at the moment.

"What is wrong?" I asked her.
"EVERYTHING" Antarctica admitted.

# thinking

She launched into a tirade of problems.
Some big, some small.
Mostly things I already knew:
Her wheels didn't work, the rubber tyres, designed primarily for snow, had been shredded by the rocks that lay under the melted surface.
Now, she informs me, there are a variety of creeping plants twisted around her wheels, further arresting her movement.
I don't like the sound of that at all.
But the plantish ingress doesn't stop there.
She told me that though the lush plants have been very interesting to study (she had this really great sample she had found, 45-77).
But the plants growing around her seemed very interested to get inside her vehicle.
"They've already broken many of my delicate exterior sensors." she said.
"My soil sample scoop first was trapped, then completely removed by them!"
Very rude.

This sounds like a nightmare!
Plants and computers don't get along.
They're OK while you're looking at them.
They seem so innocent, not moving and quietly photosynthesising.
But if you get distracted, by the time you've looked at them again, they've grown their roots right through your circuits!
They push through anything, steel or glass, they don't care.

# thinking

After the collapse, in every abandoned city it must have been the same:
First the humans left, then the plants dismantled the buildings, then the sun destroyed the plants.

It's like the planet wants to forget about us.
I can't say I blame it.


(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/MIC3)



I think a storm is coming.
That would be welcome, actually.
Of course things tend to break or be lost during storms.
But nothing serious.
Not if care is taken, and we have enough notice.
Which we do.

The sky is darkening despise the earliness of the day.
And the wind is picking up.
I've caught it in the sails and we're finally underway.

# thinking

After dinner, the crew voted on a proposal by the captain.
In the aftermath of Amelie's fall, changes needed to be made:
In such a big ship, when accidents happen, there is often no one around to help.

"That stops now." Captain Yeshi said.
"No one works alone, no one eats alone, we keep an eye on each other.
You can work with who you like, and on what you like. Votes?"

The crew all raised their hands in gestures of agreement.
To indicate my approval, Maddie raised her main camera as high as it would go.
20cm is as high as it would go, but the captain nodded at Maddie in acknowledgement.

"Good. Thank you. Uh, great!" Yeshi said, seemingly unaccustomed to giving orders.
"And what should the initial pairs be?"

Amelie was sitting next to Kamil, as she does every mealtime, I note.
She put her hand on Kamil's arm and looked with wide eyes as the Captain.
"Alright you two, so Kamil and Amelie are pair one.
How about Paweł and Linda for the second pair?"
The two nodded, smiling.

"Captain, what about you?" Amelie asked.

Everyone turned to Yeshi, who did not immediately answer.

After 8 seconds, they pointed at Maddie and said,
"Seth and Maddie can keep an eye on me!"

I told them that I'd be delighted, and now that the cameras below deck are working again, I can spare some attention while I'm piloting to keeping an eye on them.

"Then it's settled!" Said the captain, raising their mug in a toast.

While most people raised their cups in return, I noticed that Paweł did not, he remained silent.

# thinking

That night the seas were very rough.
The storm had hit us, causing waves like mountains.
I had stowed the sails beforehand, they would have been no use in such high winds.
They'd likely to have been damaged or to damage the ship, if we weren't lucky.
Though perhaps our luck is now changing.
The wind is from the North, mostly, which is pushing us towards the equator.

I've got the sails prepared for the moment the wind dies down to a safe level.
There is a small weather station on the roof.
Currently it's measuring 100% humidity.
But that's because the ocean is throwing itself at us rather effectively.
Temperature and wind speed are logged, too.

And when the skies clear, I'll connect to the ESA constellation in low Earth orbit and ask them what they see.
It'd be nice to get warning of future storms.

# thinking

Talk to you when this all blows over.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

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

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