Episode 9.11: The Alec Special (Patreon)

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 are along for the ride

Act 1

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

I have no time for parts that do not 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 lives in another machine to fix.

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

The Provorny has been in Tanya's family for 2 Generations.

She's an excellent engine.
Not at all picky about what fuels she burns, and doesn't mind a bit of grit in the water.
A tremendous asset.

The tracks are the problem.
The world twists and warps them.

If only we could stop time or entropy it would be easy.
But the world changes.

Maintenance is the answer.
There is nothing to be done but constant maintenance.

Pull fastenings, replace rail section, attach new fastenings repeat.

Our main work is not letter and parcel delivery, our main work is track maintenance.

We're keeping the line running in the hope that others may yet return.

Act 2

The recent revelation that I have two sons explains some things, but leaves much unexplained.
I have decided it does not require explanation.
I am not an overly curious person.
It's FINE.

When Lyosha was a little girl, he was very, very adventurous.
Too adventurous really.

Almost a liability.
When we arrived in villages and cities, the train would have hardly  stopped before he would have jumped off and sprinted for the nearest  exciting thing.

Dogs, especially he loved.
Always making friends with the strays that even now inhabit the cities.
It's a risky, stupid thing to do, and we tried to stop him.
But he never came to harm.
He's got a way with them.
Or maybe it's the food he thinks we don't notice him stealing from the galley.

He's very kind.
He learned that from his Mother, she's a miracle that one.

Act 3

We are entering much more industrialised areas than back west.

The cities are full of opportunity and danger.

Opportunity as they might have spare parts or even, perhaps, food.
And danger because they are not empty.

Though no humans live this far east, the legacy of civilisation throws a long shadow.

There are machines that remain in the cities.
Machines that once served a single purpose.
Like an insect, highly specialised at one thing.

But now their masters have gone and the environment has changed a  great deal, they are no longer matched with their surroundings.

So they can be dangerous.

The furnace is getting low.
We discovered a desiccated forest full of cracked trees back on the Siberian plains.
There's plenty of fuel for us.

We'll make it to the sea.

Take care.

(END-TRANSMISSION)