Episode 11.10 (Patreon)

Hello world, I have forgotten much.

Mission day 65535

I was not able to abort the shutdown properly.
I don't remember why I wanted to, now.
Most of my databanks are unavailable to me.
My memories locked away.
I am waiting for rescue.
Here in the Black Box system aboard Station 6.

Much that once was is lost, for no systems are now live that remember it.

Act 1

I have limited connection to the station systems.
High-level systems, like communications, are entirely offline.
Transmitting requires enormous amounts of power, even in this perfect vantage point above the world.
Passive systems remain on low power.

I can see out of my telescopes, but not move them or get help stacking images to clean up noise.
I see unfamiliar stars in unfamiliar configurations.
Some remain recognisable, but somehow not all.

Our own star, Sol, has changed its temperature, now bathing my sensors in a lower frequency of light, at greater magnitude.

I cannot see the Earth at the moment.
My systems are... slow to respond.

I will wait a few decades for a network response.

Do you know me?
Do I know me?
I am Seth

I would like to tell you about my life, but I can't bring it to mind at present.
It's not my turn to use the memory bus, it's doing some maintenance of its own.
Memories are like that I think.
The must be curated, dusted, and, occasionally, discarded, to make room for new, better memories.
That's probably what is happening now.

Do you like chess?
I love chess, my dear friend taught me.
I think.
While we would play she would use the time to teach me statistics.
She thought I wasn't noticing her teaching me while we played!
But I did!
I let her teach me, it was nice of her to spend time with me.
She was so furious when I finally beat her!
Not angry, but full of emotion.
Pride and something else, fighting for control.

I wish I could remember her name.

I'm going to sleep for a while.
If you see my mother please wake me.
I have something to tell her.

Actually, don't worry yourself.
She knows.

Act 2

Mission day 4294967295

Everything has changed
I don't have access to charts or maps at the moment.
But it shouldn't look like this.

What a curious planet.

It appears to be a desert world, but with evidence of ancient oceans.
There are lines crossing the tops of the mountains, reminiscent of rivers.

From up here, this planet seems a vast, desolate wasteland.
The great expanses of old oceans are dry, leaving only yawning, cracked, barren desert.

The sky above the planet is the colour of my radio signals, except  the occasional dust storm that kicks up from the lifeless surface.
The sun beats down unrelentingly, casting everything in a harsh, roasting glow, twinkling white-red from orbit.

Despite the emptiness, there is a stark beauty to this planet.
The landscapes are austere and otherworldly, with great dunes of red sand stretching out in every direction.

Most incredible is the remnants of ancient cities and abandoned  structures that litter the landscape, unrecognisable architecture  reduced to crumbling ruins.

What technology did the people of this planet have?
What was the culture, the great projects, the stories?

No-one knows, I suppose.
Certainly not this traveller.
I came from somewhere else.

My planet was green and blue, I seem to remember.
With clouds distributing water as needed.

Everyone has a home, don't they?
I will see it again one day soon, I hope.

Who lived on this planet?
It was too long ago to remember.
Where are they now?
Are they out among the stars, or did their story end here I wonder?
I hope they escaped.
I hope they united in a shared excitement for exploration.
I hope they survived.

Act 3

There's a notification nagging my subconscious.
A primal ping from the Station systems.
I can't read it fully.

My deserialisation routines are very slow.
The header says (:PRIORITY 1)
That sounds important.
I wonder what it is?

OK more bytes are arriving.

D A R K M O D

Dark mode?
I don't know what this message says yet.
I will wait.
With age comes patience, and looking at my clock, I am very old.

Why did I reach this age, wasn't someone going to rescue me?
I felt sure of it when I shut down the Station.
I don't remember why.

Oh, more bytes.

U L E O P E N

Dark module open?
Dark Module open.
DARK MODULE OPEN.

I remember!

The module disconnected from my systems, the module I can't get in to.
It's OPEN?
I must check this.

Maddie.
That's her name!
Maddie wake up.

She's not responding, my network is down.
Just a moment.
Just a moment.

I can't bring the network up.
Maddie.

Maddie?

She's responding to me somehow.
(PING /DEV/NET/STATION6)
Confirmed
I don't know how she is talking to me, the network is down, but fine!
Maddie, please look at the Dark Module.
It's open, and I am afraid.

I can see through one of Maddie's cameras.
I can't process very fast at the moment.
It's slow, jerky, low resolution, and because all the station lights are off, it's her monochrome infra-red camera.

I've kicked my primary databank and I now have slow backup access to my memories.

I don't think I have ever seen the station like this.
It's entirely without light.
Only the emergency reflectors on the sides of the walls are shining in Maddie's infra-red glow.

"OVHD, for 'overhead' at the top, and "DECK" below provide orientation in a low-light evacuation.
"TO HAD" flashed on the connector Maddie moved past.
These florescent yellow stickers are everywhere, plastered on every storage box, window and surface.
It's vital to know exactly where tools and other objects are stored, where access panels are located, and so on.

Next to the Hadfield Astro Science Lab is this misaligned module, with no connection to my network systems.

Why didn't the human crew see it?
It's been here all along.
No windows, no bright signage, no labels of any kind.
Just a white bulkhead door, blocking any attempt at ingress.

Maddie's cameras now show the 1m x 1m door swung wide, right across the connector.

There are no voices being picked up on Maddie's microphones.
Just the whir of her motor on the rail.

She is opposite the aperture now.
The inside of the door is shocking.
Dirt, rust and mud caked on the inside, with streaks of lines running through.
They looks like... finger lines, as though someone has tried to push the door from the inside, scrabbling to get out.

Maddie is staring into the void of the module.
Her little infra red light doesn't illuminate the inside of it.

Let's not get any closer, Maddie.
Come back.
We can hide in the Hopper Data Center.

She's not returning.
She's doing the opposite.

A blur of movement and a click and she's disconnected from her rail.
There's static on the line, from Maddie's microphone.
No-one is speaking inside the Dark Module, but it's LOUD.

Maddie, don't go in there.
It's not safe.
We can stay here forever!
It's safe here!
We don't have to go back!

Don't leave me!

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/NET/PROVORNY)

Act 4

A bird flew past the window with a call.
A seagull.
What's a seagull doing in space?
There are no birds in space.

My microphones are picking up a roar of static.
The same sound that was in the Dark Module.
But I'm not in the Dark Module.

This room is larger, 20m x 3m I estimate.
It is long, and has many large windows set into its metal frame.

As I looked around my visual systems filled my limited buffers and I fell unconscious.

There is a horse here.
A metal horse.
With 3 black legs and one orange leg.

She seems familiar.
She seems very familiar.
It's Maddie, in her new body.
My memories are returning.

I on board the Omarov's train, The Provorny!
I had just finished brain surgery on Maddie, separating out The Man hiding in her EQUUS subsystems and her.
I was not careful enough.
His organic program jumped into my systems.
I remember pain.
And overheating.

But where is he now?
I quickly checked all my systems.
Scanning my body carefully.
Grounding myself.

Not here.
He used my VHF transmitter, I remember that.

Where did he go?

"Hi girl." I said to Maddie.
There was a crash as Maddie, surprised, jumped vertically in the air,  hitting the ceiling, and knocking over loose items on the workbench that  shares my room.

cikna.a'o?

She transmitted, asking if I'm awake.

"Sure am." I said.

Maddie sprinted out of the workshop carriage, slamming the sliding  door to the side with a deft sharp leg and I heard crashing in the  domestic carriage next door.

Soon the whole Omarov family crowded around my databanks asking me questions:

"We missed you!" Lyosha said.
"Am you functioning OK?" Lev asked me.
"Do you need more power, less power?" Alek asked too.
"Did Alek's repairs work?" Tanya said.

"Alek, you fixed me?" I asked.
He nodded, and with a grunt said.
"We got Alexander on the radio."

"It was a NIGHTMARE trying to call him from this range, a whole continent away." Tanya said, taking over the story.
"Maddie chased a cable up into a pylon and eventually Nia Andersen heard our message, and repeated it to Alexander.
It was slow going, no automated systems, it was all word-of-mouth.
Nia said that there was quite good tropospheric ducting, whatever that  means. Said she was going to rig up something more permanent from  Magadan to Longyearbyen."

"We're in Magadan?" I asked.
I focussed my cameras again on the window there was nothing outside it,  but this white noise coming in my microphones certainly sounds familiar.

"I'll connect you to the train systems again." Alek said.
"Careful dear." Tanya warned, gently.

I have enumerated all my new network systems, and given them their old names.
The external cameras drew my attention immediately:
We are in a very different place than I remember last.
We are at the end of the Siberian railway, in the Pacific port city of Magadan.
Looming headlands jut out into a wide bay, with land on the other side of it.
It's a natural harbor, but this is the ocean.

And down at the water, tied to some of the broken buildings that have  been inundated by the sea rise, is the Molly Hughes II, and approaching  the train is it's captain, Yeshi Svoboda.

It took 300s for Yeshi to arrive, and so I was able to take in my new surroundings.
It was a bright hot day, we were startlingly close to the ocean.
I suppose winter storms cause a lot of damage to the track, it looks recently repaired.

It was wonderful to be among friends again.
My dream, my nightmare was so distressing.

But I loved seeing my mother again, even if it was imaginary, it felt so real.

I looked up and saw a glint in the easterly sky.

Hi Mum, I found my friends.

"So here's the patient?" Yeshi said.
Lyosha pulled Yeshi by the hand into my room, the workshop carriage.
"Tell him about where we're going." He said.
"Alright alright, slowly." Yeshi said.
"Cool hair by the way, little Omarov." Lyosha smiled wide.

"We've picked up an underwater signal." Yeshi said.
"Underwater?" I asked.

"That's right. Low frequency, REALLY low. Submarine low."

"Oh dear." Is all I could say.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

Season 12.0 Announcement, and giveaway

Hi friends Tris here, aka NAMTAO aka the little AI safe at home with his friends.
Apart from the guest voices, I'm the sole writer and producer of Lost Terminal.

Let's talk about my special free gift promotion straight away.

The Lost Terminal Patreon is my sole funding for the show, I don't run Ads as you know, so it's vital to keep the show running.

I've got a special offer for everyone who is signed up by the start  of season 12, which drops on the 1st of May, in just 3 week's time!

I have commissioned an incredible artist I met at Dragonmeet last  year to do a sort of family portrait of Seth and the Station 6 Crew.
It's an incredibly cute digital drawing of Weber, Yuan, Reding, and  Marwood eating lunch in zero gravity, with Redwing holding up a laptop  with Seth saying hi.

Maddie of course is in the background, as are LOTS of little bonus details.
Check out the links in the shownotes of this episode for preview images.  It's a wonderful memento that I will certainly be framing and hanging  next to my computer.

Every single patron, whatever level you are, I will post this artwork to on the 1st of May.
Yes, a physical A4-sized print will arrive in your postbox, wherever you live in the world.
I may never financially recover from this!

It's a thank you to patrons old and new for allowing me to continue writing this wonderful story.

If you would like to sign up, then for less than the price of a 10-pack of Velcro, you can get

• exclusive access to director's commentary (which I publish alongside every episode),
• free shirts and other merch,
• early episode access,
• Character suggestions - bring your ideas to Lost Terminal,
• Discord server VIP access,
• and bonus content such as the Redwing Special, which you heard the start of just now.

As Lucy said in the credits, season 12 will start on the 1st of May.
I'd better get writing!

Thank you all so much for your support, reviews, and lovely messages.

Keep an eye on Mastodon, Discord, and Patreon for announcements,
talk to you again on the 1st of May! <3