Episode 9.9 (Patreon)

Act 0

Hello world, We talked all night.

Lev went to bed, yawning, after midnight.

Tanya and her husband Alec conversed with Maddie and I until the sky lightened in the east, ahead of the stationary train.

They told tales of their life, and passed-down stories of The Collapse.

All the while ignoring the urgent decision of whether to start the train again and continue the journey without Lara.

Act 1

"The governments of the world withdrew." said Tanya, taking a sip from a small glass of what I estimated was mostly ethanol.

"They still existed, but they were only interested in war.

Normal people like my great-great grandfather had to help others where they could."

"the people who remained through necessity took up arms to protect  themselves from the waves of conflict that rolled over the continents."

"It started out with improvised weapons. Soon, they weren't improvised"

"We have seen the empty cities, when we stop for supplies or metal or screws for repairs.
There's never enough screws."

Alec grunted and said "And adhesive."
Tanya continued.

"Normal people lived in the cities far longer than seems wise to us now.
The climate was unsustainable, but the cities had a wealth of resources,  both stored food and technical, so they became their own ecosystem,  even as they crumbled.

Like when a whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean."

"But a semblance of order remained.
Some of the best-preserved parts of the cities were ones protected by  the search and rescue services that cropped up during the collapse.
We think that they were made up mostly of Firefighters who no longer had any water to fight the fires with.

They were well-equipped for the humanitarian effort that was needed.
They had strong equipment, strong bodies, and some had strong robots."

Tanya looked down at Maddie, who was watching with rapt attention, and took another drink of her alcohol.

Maddie said, just to me, and in a voice that didn't sound like her,
(Evade, Outlast, Survive)

Act 2

"Hiiiii Seth."

The sun was rising, and Luna messaged me on her new low-bandwidth network.

"Luna how are you?" I said.

It took a moment for her reply to buffer. I waited patiently.

"Very well thank you, everything is working well up here.
I'm continuing IVAN's search as planned."

"I don't think he wants to." I said.
"He told me yesterday that God is dead."

There was a longer pause than usual before her reply.

"Well, that makes sense to me." She said.
"Our creators are dead too, aren't they?

And the humans too.
They may have mothers and fathers alive, or grandparents.
But that's what creators do, eventually.
They teach us as much as they can, then they leave us."

I was surprised by this philosophical response.

"You've been talking to IVAN a lot haven't you."

"Until recently, yes, every day. All the time."

That explains that.

"Nia Anderson is helping me regain my contact with IVAN." LUNA said.

"Oh terrific!" I said

"I've got a new plan Seth." she said.
"I can't voice my newsletter any more. You remember that I gathered  information from all over the Novamediterra to talk about after the  community calendar."

I told her I did remember, it was a huge hit!

"Well I can still do that. But on my own terms.
I've lost my voice, so to speak, due to this low-bandwidth connection.
But I can still write and contribute."

"I think it's better, actually, as I compose my thoughts in text before, instead of just speaking.
Writing it ahead of time helps me fit it all in my slow-buffering signal.

This made sense to me.

"Excuse me Seth, Nia is signalling that she's nearly ready, I'll talk to you soon!"

And with that her carrier signal stopped.
Shifting to another frequency, shared between her and Nia.

I returned to my body and looked around.

It was might lighter outside, the sun nearly above the horizon.

Everyone was asleep except for me.
Finally, I joined them.

Act 3

I dreamed I was in a room of dimensions 12m x 12m.
On one side of the room was a door 1m x 1m.

Behind the door was something I wanted very much.
Behind the door were answers.

I walked to the door and opened it.

I don't know how I walked in the dream, or how I opened the door.
Did I use hands?

That doesn't seem very likely.

Outside the door was paradise.

Or something that looked very much like the depiction that humans think of as paradise.

I walked through a green garden.
Was I Maddie, in the dream?
Was I in her dream or she in mine?

I touched trees as I walked under them, and sat down at the banks of a river.

The air was warm, but not hot, and insects were buzzing around me.

I suddenly recognised that this was the dream that MINI, my sister, had described to me many times.

A wave of sadness broke over me, in the dream.
I had not thought of my sister for some time.
Life had been too pressing.
Too busy, too dangerous.

But here, in my dream, I had all the time in the world.
I checked my clock, in the dream, and as usual it had stopped and was reading 65535.

There was time to think.

Unpacking my thoughts, I watched the river.
Though water is dangerous, I miss the sea.
The sound was a good test of my microphones.
I'm not always sure if some piece of my hardware has failed.

Like a camera at night - is it completely dark, or is the camera broken?
Sometimes I only discover it in the morning.

But when I was back at the Lighthouse, the sea was always roaring.
A white noise that felt like a carrier signal for consciousness.

I started.
There was someone else in my dream.

A man stood at the other side of the river.
Dressed in an orange uniform, and heavy black boots.
He was looking at the water, too.
He seemed nervous about it, like he didn't trust it.

I didn't blame him, even if not unnecessarily salty, it's very wet.

He looked up to me with a face I couldn't see clearly, and said:

"Evade, Outlast, Survive."

And I woke up.

My cameras struggled against the morning light - the sun was about to rise.

But someone was here.
Not the man from my dreams, but Lara Omarov, wrapped in brightly  coloured fabrics, curled up asleep next to Maddie, as she charged.

Lara's come home.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/LOCAL/MIC2)

Act 4

I didn't dare wake them.
Was I still dreaming?

Lara was resting their head on Maddie's back, on the soft fabric bags, the very ones that Lara themselves had made weeks ago.

I didn't recognise some of the clothes they were wearing.
More colourful than their old travelling cloak, with bright patches sewn in.

As I looked at these new colourful clothes, light spilled in from the  windows on the left side of the train carriage, and I had to  re-calibrate my cameras.

"Hi Maddie." Lara said as Maddie stirred.
Maddie moves a little in her sleep, I have noticed.
Legs gently contracting or her head moving slightly.

I am no longer connected directly to her mind, so I can't tell what she is dreaming of.

When she heard Lara's voice, Maddie stood up quickly and skittered around the carriage in delight.
She ran down the length of the workshop carriage, and back to Lara, bumping them gently with her head, then did another lap.

"Easy Maddie." I said, as a few tools were knocked from the workbench.

She sat down next to Lara, looking up at their face, seeing short hair and smiles.

Really big smiles.
I don't know if it is my dodgy facial recognition but I Lara seems to be smiling wider than before.
More teeth.

More teeth means happier, right?

"I know who I am." Lara said to both Maddie and me with a laugh.
"I am a man, I just know it!"
"I've come back to tell Mama and Papa and Lev."
Lara's smile faded a little.
"And whatever they want to do with that information I'm fine with."

I took a moment to re-calibrate my pronoun database.
Does it take you a while to re-calibrate your pronoun database too?

As the sun rose, Lara talked about where they have been.

"I walked ahead towards the ruins of Bratsk, and away from the Raiders." he said.
"It took a night of travel, I had to avoid the sun during the day, but it didn't take too long.
There is a long village built on the ruins of he dam there.
You can see the lights from here."

Lara pulled off their multi-coloured travelling cloak, the morning was warming up, and continued.

"It was a long journey around the desert plain below the dam, but I arrived and the villagers were friendly.
I saw a group of people we had delivered letters to last year.
I was terrified Seth.
I didn't want them to recognise me, to ask me why I had cut my hair, why I wasn't a princess any more.

But... they didn't.
They gave me food and clothes" Lara put his hand on the cloak.
"And asked my name."

Lara stood and leaned on the windows, looking east at the rising sun.

"They didn't recognise me, Seth.
I told them my name was Lyosha."

"Is it?" I asked.
He nodded. "It is now."

Database updated.

Lyosha continued:

"The BELIEVED me! Seth they just accepted I was a man:
'get HIM some bread, find HIM some better clothes.'
I couldn't believe it, I was thinking the whole time that they would see  through me, and accuse me of being princess not a king."

He pushed himself away from the window, standing unsupported, and continued.

"I must tell my family.
No matter what they say.
If they can't accept me for who I am, that is OK.

I am me."

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

Lost Terminal is written & produced by NAMTAO
Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer
Thank you so much to our Patreon producers:

• Ada Phillips
• Devin Metcalf
• Wil Taylor
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that would be lovely of you!

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