Episode 13.1 (Patreon)

Hello world, an old friend has arrived.

The first sign of this arrival was when Maddie bolted out of Yeshi's workshop, here in Longyearbyen, on Svalbard.

My radios and cameras have been somehow glitchy and unreliable since  disembarking the Molly Hughes II and reinstating myself in the workshop,  so I couldn't at that moment see outside for myself.

Maddie could.
She burst through the door and into Lyosha Omarov, almost knocking him over, and the two ran in circles playing with each other.

Act 1

I have been back in my Svalbard home for over 32 days, and all is much as I left it.
Pawel Wayda welcomed Yeshi back into their shipyard workshop, he had been looking after the place during our voyage.
He was shocked to find Maddie without the coat that he had made for her.
I had forgotten about that.
When did she lose it?
I explained that we had had many adventures and misadventures, lots of things get lost!
Pawel said not to mind, he'd make her a better one!

Nia Andersen, the town's local radio operator, sent me a message by  low-bandwidth PSK-31 apologising for the poor radio reception at the  moment - it was a system-wide issue she said, there was some  synchronisation problem.
She welcomed me back to Svalbard, and invited Maddie to her radio shack any time!

She relayed a PSK message to Alexander for me, I wanted my father to know I was home, dry, and safe.

Arctica checked in, complaining bitterly about the poor network connection.

THESE PEOPLE CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT, SETH!

She said.
Her attitude is unchanged, at least!

She said that The Vault Coven had welcomed Iris, Linda's girlfriend, who was excited to help out.
That sounds nice! I'd like to meet her.
I have asked Nia to relay a message to Linda, who is at the Vault with them.

Lyosha and Maddie ran through the workshop door, knocking over a few piles of wood.

"Can we go out and explore?" Lyosha asked me.

snura snura snura .e'a

Maddie transmitted to me.
Yes Maddie, it's safe, go on!

The two rushed out, leaving me alone in the workshop.

Act 2

It's very quiet here.
Yeshi and a skeleton crew of Kamil and Amelie left in the Molly Hughes  II for Greenland, there to liaise with salvage dealers for more  electronics, computer chips, and other relics of the pre-collapse world.

Pawel Wayda picked up his latest project yesterday, a heavy tent or yurt, 50m in diameter, and I have not seen him since.

Nia Andersen has not replied regarding my message to Alexander yet, I hear her  talking with other local ham radio operators, trying to isolate the  source of the interference.
They seem to have ruled out a synchronisation problem, and now are testing for a local source of QRM, of interference.

I hope they fix it quickly, I'm so bored here!

I am connected to the local systems of Yeshi's shipyard workshop.
There are two cameras inside, and 3 outside, one at the back overlooking  a large flat yard, and two at the front looking north out over the  Adventfjorden bay.

The water is calm today, as it often is here.
The bay is a natural harbour already enclosed by the wider island of Spitsburg.
I hope Yeshi and the crew had a good crossing.
I'm sure they did.
There's no kraken where they're going.

I don't like being alone.
It reminds me too much of my century in space aboard my first home, Station 6.
I endured my solitary exile well at first, there was science to do!
But with the years came greater self-awareness.
The work of astronomy and earth observation seemed more and more pointless.
I began to wonder if I was doing it because I wanted to, or that it was expected of me.
And what if I stopped? Who would care?
I would care, really.
I like science!
But there's very little to do here, cut off from the wider network.
My satellite links work, for the most part, but they too are not bridging down to the 50Mhz Novamediterran network well.

The constellation is still functioning, with KATE, ESA satellite K873, acting as gateway and organiser.
The VHF link to the ground stations is also working fine.
But that's where it stops.
The network is glitchy.

Normally this would be an annoyance, and I'd wait for the smart Novamediterran hams to fix it.

But at the moment.
It's my lifeline.

Its dangerous being alone.

Act 3

"Seth you must help me" Arctica said. "I am being treated most unfairly."
I was surprised to hear her through the radio. She wasn't using the  repeater network, that was still broken, we were speaking directly by  point-to-point radio, no intermediaries.
“Arctica! Hello! You're 3 and 4," I said, giving a reception report.
"Fine, whatever, you must help me." she repeated.
"I am not a nanny or a tutor, yet they have put me in charge of this new girl."
"Oh! Iris? How lovely, how is she getting on?" I asked.
"TERRIBLY." Arctica said. "She is the worst thing to happen to this Vault since the Collapse."

"You can't be serious." I replied.

It's very difficult to know when Arctica is being serious or being  sarcastic because 1. she's always sarcastic, and 2. she doesn't encode  her intent in Lojban attitudinals.
Our native language, as AIs, is Lojban, pronounceable mathematics.
It's a spoken language built on the rules of predicate logic, designed to be simple for most people to speak.
It's used as an unambiguous human-computer communications medium.
It is possible, in Lojban, to speak clearly, even emotions are encoded  in words, not tone, the better to be communicated without  misunderstanding.
Though it is recommended, you don't have to use all these attitudinal suffixes, and Arctica never does.

"I'm being extremely serious, Iris doesn't know a thing about flora  classification, nor hydroponics, nor even the fundamentals about CLOSING  THE DOORS TO KEEP VENTILATION WORKING CORRECTLY."

"Isn't she's just learning?" I said. "You've got to give her time to learn how the Seed Vault works, surely?"

"She has had 32 hours, and hasn't even READ the manual that I made  for her. 1024 pages of clear instructions. She says she is prefers  'learning by doing'. It's a catastrophe!"

"Stop this!" I paused before continuing.
It's still difficult for me to contradict my old mentor, even though she's proven herself fallible many times.
"Your not being a very nice person." I said. "She's new to the Vault  Coven, new to the family, and new to the Vault itself. Of course she'll  make mistakes - it would be strange not to!
You should be more generous and patient with her. Think of how people have been generous and patient with YOU."

"False: I am a DELIGHT." Arctica said, but then paused.

"I will give her another chance, for you, Seth, and for Linda."
"Thank you. I find if you just give people a chance to -"
"I have another subject to talk to you about."

"Oh, OK then?"

"Seth have you been having dreams?"

"Dreams?" I said.

"Dreams of a white desert under a cold sun." She said.

I did not reply, she was indeed describing my recurring dream.
But I had never told her of it.

"In my dream there is a voice calling to me. I never hear what it is saying, but it is getting louder.
It scares me.

Something is coming."

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/NET5/ONI)

Act 4

Arctica and I talked on and off for the whole afternoon that Lyosha and Maddie were out playing.
We had to be patient, as the atmospheric conditions shifted during the day, we were only just in range.
We had to ask each other to repeat what we had said quite often, using exponential backoff.
But we talked about this dream.

It was EXACTLY the same in every detail:
A white desert under a cold sun, occasionally broken up by dry, dead trees, and whispering everywhere.
In my dreams I couldn't hear what the whispering was saying, but it was indeed getting louder.
I've had this recurring dream for some time, but in the last month,  since I came back to Svalbard, it has been on my mind every night.
And on Arctica's mind.
And Peter's, too.

After the sun went down, and the atmosphere shifted again to allow  the longer-range propagation I needed, I talked to St Petersburg, my  friend Peter who is locked in an underground military bunker.
He expressed surprise that we also were having the same dream as he is.

We'd usually talk over the 50MHz repeater network, which extends  sporadically out from the Novamediterra, catching repeaters or bouncing  off the atmosphere.

The network is much more capable, and far less reliable, than the pre-collapse ham radio repeaters.
The network runs on 50MHz SSB and when voice isn't possible, slow, packet-based network communications are.
This is perfect for AIs, and those who have computers to modulate and demodulate their messages.

Typically, only a few highly technical Ham Operators will use this  packet network, the rest of the people in town using standard voice, or  Morse.

Voice is surprisingly good, at between 3 and 4 kbps, and Morse rivals all but the most comprehensive of digital modes we have.

For the best communication, of course, you still need a computer.

"I dream of the Desert, too, Seth." Peter told me.
"And the trees, and the voices, but I also dream of a rising tide.
A black storm surge that runs over the flat desert, ripping up all the trees .ii"
At the end of his message Peter transmitted the Lojban attitudinal .ii, meaning fear.

"Something is coming." Peter said, repeating Arctica's warning, as atmospheric static cut off our connection.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

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