Episode 9.10 (Patreon)

Hello world, we are on our way back North.

The sun is as high at mid-day as it will get this far south.
Our route turns northwards soon, as we head for the Pacific city of Magadan.

Act 1

Earlier today, Lyosha returned home with his new name.
It was time to talk to his parents.
Maddie trotted behind him, he was wearing his new bright coloured travelling cloak.

Anticlimactically, there was no-one in the Domestic car.

"MAMA!" Lyosha shouted up the stairs.

There was a scream of delight from the bedroom, and the sounds of feet pounding on the ceiling.

Tanya hurled herself down the small staircase, barefoot in shorts and a tshirt.
Maddie's cameras almost couldn't pick up the movement, it was so fast.

She paused at the bottom of the stairs, hands over her face, overcome  with emotion, before scooping up her lost child in her arms and then  both were reduced to sobbing.

It was VERY noisy in the domestic car.
Alec was not far behind his wife, and Lev followed too.

The reunion was wonderful to see.
Maddie was extremely excitable, rushing from person to person, not fully  understanding the emotions that were happening, but happy to be  involved!

After 16 minutes, Lyosha pulled his parents over to the table to sit,  and Lev prepared what hurried breakfast he could from the galley.

"I used up all the good stuff making dinner for you." He complained, with a smile.

However much was still available, though presentation seemed to be an afterthought.

Lyosha ate hungrily, as his parents looked on concerned.

"Little Lara, when did you last eat?" Tanya said gently.

Lyosha stopped eating mid-bite after hearing his old name.

He carefully put down his spoon, finished chewing and took a slow drink of water.

"Mama, Papa, I must tell you some things I have realised about myself."

Tanya and Alec waited for their child to continue.

Lyosha stood up and gently pushed Maddie back towards the workshop door.

"Come back later, OK?" He said.

I saw Maddie return to my workshop carriage, reluctantly.

I connected to the small camera in the Domestic car, and found Lyosha's face up close to it.

"Do you remember I used to play with the boys in Moscow?" He began saying over his shoulder, as he tinkered with the camera.

I did not hear the response from Tanya and Alec, as he cut the connection, and the video feed died.

Act 2

Maddie sent a simple request to me.
A single question-mark character, asking me to explain what just happened.

?

"Don't worry Maddie." I replied.
"Lyosha is having a private conversation with his parents and Lev.
He's already explained to us.
We must give them space."

I thought that was the right explanation.

Maddie walked to the rear door of the carriage and sat, politely, waiting for it to open.

I thought of my family, of Alexander back on Severney island and my  lighthouse, and of IVAN, in the cracked bunker on the hill overlooking  it.

"IVAN, are you receiving me?" I transmitted.

"Seth. Yes. I can... hear you." He replied.

"Hello IVAN!" I said. "How are you?"

There was a long pause after my question, though his carrier signal was still transmitting.

This happens a lot to me.
I ask people how they are when I first talk to them after a while.
It's a habit I picked up from my mother and the crew of Station 6, I think.
When they woke up in the morning, that's the first thing they would say to each other, or to me.
"How are you?"

I found it strange at first.
Because the answer is always the same.
"fine"
"good"
"no problem"
Or, at worst,
"oh, so-so"

Initially I thought it was a calibration phrase.
Something well-known and easy to reply to, not requiring any particular data.
Like a ping and an echo response.

I eventually realised that though framed as a question, it wasn't what people meant.

They were actually saying something like "I hope you are well.", or "I care about you." or even sometimes "I missed you."

"I have missed my conversations with LUNA." IVAN said, eventually, surprising me.

"Oh, did she get back to you on her low bandwidth connection?"
"Yes" IVAN replied
"In fact I am waiting for her latest message while we are talking."

I will remind you, friendly human listening to my broadcasts, that  when we AIs talk, we often can have a whole conversation in just a few  hundred milliseconds.
Unbounded by the limitations of human speech, which is at 1.8kbps as I'm sure you know.

So IVAN and I were talking in the gaps between his discussion with LUNA, on her slow connection.

"You met some of your congregation?" I said, changing the subject.

"Yes" IVAN replied.
"Helen will make an excellent bishop."

"Oh how nice! She volunteered to help you?" I asked.

"I am... working on asking her." IVAN replied.

"Seth I have realised something very foundational over the weeks since LUNA failed to find any godly signals."

"You and LUNA failed." I corrected.

"Yes... Luna and I."

"Examining the scriptures, which I have in electronic form,  cross-referenced from all the world's religions, I believe I was  mistaken to search for God in the heavens."

I waited for IVAN to continue.

"The texts are fallible, as they were written by men, and are full of allegory and metaphor.
I believe they were either mistaken about the heavens or allowing old superstition of the unknown to influence their minds.

Humans have been to the heavens, God is not there.
They went further, and found only dead planets.
Even as far as LUNA can see, we cannot find him.

I see now that that is because he is HERE, in the hearts and minds of my congregation.

Their selfless and godly rescue effort showed me this, and I am grateful."

That sounded very reasonable to me, and I told IVAN so.

"Please excuse me Seth, LUNA has finished her message and I must write back to her in the most careful way I can.

She is important.

Please thank Nia when you next talk to her"

And his carrier signal, relayed over the satellite network, disconnected.

Act 3

The Provorny is back in motion again.
The careful process of refilling the water boiler from a local village well is done.
The engine recycles its water efficiently, but it is not a closed system.

After Lyosha's meeting with their family, he came back in to the  workshop carriage, and sat back down next to Maddie, who put her head on  his lap.

She's not putting any weight on Lyosha, that would be dangerous, but the gesture is nice.

Alec is back at the Engine, and Tanya is sitting on the top of the workshop carriage looking forward and singing to her husband.
She's very loud, we can hear her clearly from in here.
It's a song about a sailor returning to port and the goods and services he is going to buy when he gets his pay.

It's very rude.

Lev is making soup in the Galley, I can see through the door from my camera in the domestic car #2.
Lyosha reactivated it after his chat with his parents, which he filled us in on afterwards.

Lyosha is sitting on the long thin sofa and whispering to Maddie.

"They... don't... care." he said, simply.
"Well, they do, but it doesn't change their opinion of me.
I feel so stupid for running away!
Mama and Papa said they would love me even if I were a potato." He laughed.

"They said the only thing that matters is they love me."

Lyosha is helping Lev in the galley now.
I think he is helping him.
There is a disagreement over how much salt to use in a dish.
But they're working it out, loudly, as, siblings do.

The world outside the window is passing by very quickly.
we are making good time.

Maddie estimates 40km/h.

There's so much in the world, I don't know how I will see it all.
Maybe I don't need do.
Not yet anyway.

I thought I would want to see everything, talk to everyone.

But there's a world inside the people I've already met, and even little Maddie has so much to teach me, it would seem.

The world's not all out here, I've realised.

Much of it is a lot closer to home.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/PROVORNY/MIC3)

Act 4

We have passed the city of Bartsk, where Lyosha stayed for a night, we saw the friendly fires of the village on the horizon.
As Lyosha told us, the village is on the top of the old reservoir dam.
My records show it used to be one of the largest in the world, before The Collapse.

It's all desert now, of course.

From here our track turns north, I understand.
As we make our way to the Sea of Okhosk, and the Pacific.

Much of what I thought was important isn't.
And much of what I discounted is valuable.

These lessons I suppose will keep happening through my life.
Has it been the same for you?

Maddie is back on the roof, despite the train being in motion.
I tried to discourage her, but Lyosha showed her the way.

She's safe enough, nestled between the flapping fabrics and boxes up there.
She's fearless.

I am picking up a signal from the roof-mounted VHF antennas.
It's a strange signal, and one transmitting on the 50MHz band.

I normally decode FM from satellites, but this is a much lower fidelity signal, though strong.

And just like LUNA it's very slow.
Alternating 1s and 0s and cutting through the static.

Greetings Son of Redwing

Said a voice I recognised.

It was the ghost in the static, the 50MHz wizard who calls herself 50Meg.

You're a long way away from home aren't you?

I replied using the same strange low-bandwidth modulation.

Hello Meg, you're 5x5

I said out of habit.

Those are good numbers, young man.

She replied, and then said.

Are you ready to see the cities?

I told her that I was.

There are still some who dwell in them, when their batteries drink the sun.
Stay safe Seth, keep Maddie safe, she is special.

And the ghost disappeared

We are passing more ruined cities as we approach the Pacific.

The broken telegraph poles running next to the tracks are more sturdy.
Where earlier they were made of broken wood, now they are banded metal pylons.

And there are SIGNALS.
All over the electromagnetic spectrum.

We are returning to civilisation.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

Alec Special

Hello world, I don't have much to say.

My name is Alec.
With my wife and family I keep the Provorny running.

Well, perhaps it is more correct to say that Tanya keeps the Provorny running, and we're along for the ride

My job is to keep the engine running, and I run a tight train.

I have no time for parts that don't work hard.
Or are unreliable.
We travel for weeks without seeing a city, spare parts are non-existent.
And there's never enough screws.

I admit, I was unsure if bringing Seth on board was the best for him or us.
He doesn't have another stomach to feed, but he lives in another machine to fix.

I should have trusted Alexander's work.
The man is an artist with a soldering iron.

Thank-you from NAMTAO

Hi friends, Tris here
AKA Namtao
AKA the little AI riding the train.

Apart from the other talent you've heard today,
I'm the sole writer and producer of Lost Terminal.

From less than the price of a packet of screws per month, you can get

• exclusive access to director's commentary (which I publish alongside every episode),
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Thank you very much for your support of the show, from patrons to comments to just tuning in - it's all wonderful.
There are nearly 64 Patrons, which is the magic number for me  re-starting production of the old terminal videos - remember those?!
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talk to you again on the 3rd of October! <3

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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See you then!