Episode 8.1 (Patreon)

Act 0

Hello world, I hope you can hear me.

I am broadcasting from The Netherlands.

Sorry for the radio silence, my communication has been deliberately disrupted.
I have a lot to catch you up on, but that will have to wait till the current emergency is over.
We've lost contact with Maddie, my robot companion, somewhere outside Frankfurt.

Act 1

We arrived 2 weeks ago, sailing over what was Amsterdam, now 12 meters underwater.
I'm back on Captain Yeshi's ship: The Molly Hughes II, but this time,  with a skeleton crew of just Linda Noor and me, and until recently,  Maddie.

As we landed on Veluwe  island she set off on her journey to Station 6's Mission Control, somewhere outside of Frankfurt.

Let me tell you how this all began, back in the Novamediterra.

#thinking

The Novamediterra is the name of the newly-navigable ocean around the north pole.
As the ice melted during The Collapse, and the climate changed to be  more hospitable to human life there, trade routes criss-crossed this  ocean.
Sailing from Greenland to Siberia, and Alaska to Svalbard was now possible by a much more direct route, over the pole.

The desertification of Europe and the Americas during The Collapse  caused huge population shifts northward into the planet's Arctic  landmasses.

Those who lived the wrong side of the equator had to take sea or air routes to join the new Northern societies.
Not all of them were able to.

Their empty last outposts are still visible from space in the deserts  of the southern tip of Argentina, South Africa, and Australia.

#thinking

A new sea-faring community has emerged in the temperate climate of the Novamediterra.
Like it's more southerly namesake, sea trade is booming between the new capital cities of Samoylov, on the northern Russian coast, Longyearbyen and Hornsund, on Svalbard, Thule, in Greenland (which is actually green, these days), and Utqiagvik, North Alaska.

And of course in many smaller towns and villages.

Fishing and farming are the primary industries of most of the towns  and villages, traded in the bigger cities for commodities or finished  goods, and the ever-present scrap and detritus of the Old World.

Detritus like me and Maddie, I suppose.

I was born, or perhaps built, in orbit, aboard Station 6, a European Space Agency research satellite on the 13th of July, 2077.
My mother, my creator, and her crew, were aboard when The Collapse happened.
They listened to Mission Control tell them that there would be no more resupply shuttles.
That their 60 days of food and water would have to become a lifetime supply.

I wish I remembered her more.

#thinking

That is why we came here.
Frankfurt Mission Control is, or was, responsible for talking to the ESA satellites.
And one of them has become very, very hostile.

Act 2

"You'll be safe, Seth?" Alexander asked me, after he checked all my systems on the ship.
We had visited him in his home on Severny Island, north of the Siberian coast.
He and his family live in relative isolation, on the northern tip of the  island, overlooked by a nuclear lighthouse, a lone sentinel of the Old  World.

When I crash-landed on Earth, Alexander rebuilt me. He was my doctor, my friend, and the closest thing to family I have, now.

"Do you have to go?" he asked, not for the first time.
Though he was asking me a question, I believe he was actually making a request.

I've noticed humans do this sometimes.
They will ask a question, instead of telling you to do something.
I'm very good at reading human emotions and intent these days, if I do say so myself.
I'm up to a 12% success rate.

Alexander is, more than anyone else, like a father to me.
He was saying "Don't go."

#thinking

I just said that Alexander and his family live on the island, but I should clarify.
I've found that when I say that, humans jump to the conclusion that there's more than just Alexander on the island.

An example.
Arina, who lives with Alexander, is 4 years old.
She has four rabbits in a hutch on the island.
She showed them to me once.

She pointed through the front of the cage, at a rabbit.
Then took me to the left and pointed through at the same rabbit, then the back, then the right side.
Four rabbits she asserted, though I was seeing the same rabbit from different angles.

It's like this with Alexander and his family.
There are four of them:
Alexander,
Adrian, the farmer,
Ana, the fisher, and
Arina, the child.

They are all distinct people, but they have to share one body.
It all depends on your perspective.

For the longest time I didn't notice.
I tend to believe people's statements about themselves.

Act 3

I mentioned a hostile satellite.
Our motivation for coming south is twofold:

• To reason with this satellite,
• And find more sun.

The ship is principally solar powered, though with reassuringly large  battery backups, but above the Arctic circle the sun doesn't rise in  the winter.

Which is a problem for me.

#thinking

The satellite that we're trying to find is difficult to talk to.
We've tried to communicate with it by the normal ways we have,  connecting through the Novamediterran repeater net to IVAN's bunker,  where there are satellite uplinks.
But the satellite is unhelpful.
Irrational.
Unreasonable.

I think he is alive.

We connect to him and he screams "FAILSAFE" at us until we disconnect.
He's really quite loud.

Maddie is scared of him.
She was so brave to go.

#thinking

Just over a week ago, Maddie disembarked.
Her new ambulatory system is incredible.
The old-world scrap robot legs that Yeshi attached to her back in the Shipyard on Svalbard are nothing short of wondrous.

When we had travelled as far south as we could, sailing over the old  lowlands of the Netherlands, we landed on the top of a large hill.
Old parkland, we guessed it was, now reduced to a dry, patchy grassland.
Linda lowered the disembarking gantry, so she could reach the land.
Maddie followed by jumping from the ship to the shore!
I was terrified!
But the 5m fall didn't phase her.
She's so brave with her new legs.

I'm not SURE she's waterproof.
I asked captain Yeshi if they thought she was waterproof.
They dodged the question.

#thinking

The hostile satellite, we call him FAILSAFE, has been slowly taking control of all my brothers and sisters in orbit.
I connected to gateway satellite KATE, K873, before we left.

"Hi KATE! How is it looking up there?"
"Network at 48%" She replied.
"2 contacts lost today."

There was nothing KATE could do to get them back - she is not part of the old command and control system of the network.
The only way to override this FAILSAFE was from the ground, at
the Space Operations Centre, outside of Frankfurt.

#thinking

I woke up in orbit, my sister MINI, too, perhaps others will?

I must keep the network operating.
It's the only link to my past.

It's like the old manuals say:
Everything not saved will be lost.

THE SIGNAL

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/SAT0/FAILSAFE)

Act 4

Let me tell you news from home.

Arctica, my friend who used to be called ANTarctica, before we  rescued her from her crumbling exploration vehicle, is doing well.
The Svalbard Seed Vault is stable and cold again, thanks to her recent reparatory actions.

The Noor family, who Arctica joined in the Vault, have sad news.
They said goodbye to the eldest member of their family, Alva Noor.
After a lifetime of service in the Vault Coven, she left Val Noor in charge of her archival duties.

Perhaps you heard this news in one of IVAN's broadcasts?

IVAN, my metal preacher ex room-mate, living in his bunker south of  Alexander's Lighthouse on Severney Island, still transmits a sermon  every day.
Now helped by my friend LUNA!

I suppose she is still helping IVAN with his deep-space search for his god.
I didn't follow that very closely.
It's not like they are going to find anything, right?

#thinking

OH! Happy news!
Kamil Forester and Amelie Kotov have become married!
I helped him make her a silver ring, but I had no idea...

It happened on this very ship.
I understand that captains can conduct marriage ceremonies.
That makes sense...

Right?

#thinking

There's so much to catch up on.
But my transmission window is closing.

Being so far away, I rely on the ionisation of the atmosphere to  bounce my signal up to the repeater stations of the Novamediterra.

We're all much closer to nature after The Collapse.
Even me.

Talk to you soon.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

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