Episode 13.4 (Patreon)

Hello world, Arctica isn't playing nice.

I received a message from Linda Noor this morning asking after the soggy pair of explorers that is Maddie and Lyosha.

I told her that they are shaken up, low on energy, but will be fine physically.
I can already hear them whispering to each other about what they could do better in the future.

Linda suddenly cried while speaking to me, her voice becoming higher pitched and dramatically harder to pattern-match.
Arctica was not being nice to Iris.

Act 1

Linda explained that though the rest of her family, the Vault Coven,  had welcomed her girlfriend into their home, Arctica, who was supposed  to be acting as her mentor, had not.

I promised Linda I would talk to Arctica.
This was unacceptable!
I couldn't understand why she is so resistant to Iris helping out in the Coven.
Especially as Iris might join the family, if all goes well!

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself by assuming Iris will join the family.
Linda has not yet known Iris for a year.
It seems to me a good idea to experience every season with your  prospective partner before making large commitments, such as marrying  into the Vault Coven.

You will remember that Val, Kari, and Linda are in a line marriage.
Each person married to two others, typically one older and one younger.
It makes total sense to me, in programming we called this a doubley-linked list, and is a very good way of organising data.
I assume it's also a good way of organising people.

With the sad loss of Val's older partner, Alva, last year, it is time for Linda to choose a partner to keep the line going.
Linda speaks so highly of Iris, how she is quick to learn, friendly and generous of her time.

I spoke with Arctica on Linda's behalf.

It did not go well.

Act 2

"We don't need new people." Arctica said, when I finally got through to her on directly by radio.
The repeater net is still down.

"We're all fine here, how are you?" she asked.
"I'M fine, but WHY aren't you getting on with Iris." I asked, "I thought we talked about this?"

"We don't need new people," Arctica repeated, "4 of us is the correct number."

"That's not for you to decide, you're their guest, you have to go  along with what they say." I said, "You have to be NICE, Arctica, is  that so difficult?"

"Nice has nothing to do with it.
Humans are unreliable.
Adding more humans to an already unreliable project makes the project MORE unreliable.
We don't need more people, we need more PROCESS".

"What do you think she has done wrong?" I asked.

"Everything!" Arctica said.

"...can you elaborate?" I asked.

"NO."

Arctica had a great number of reasons that Iris was not suitable for the Vault Coven.
She didn't know the watering schedule, it was too difficult to teach  her, she didn't have the right clothes for heavy gardening work.
On, and on.

As she spoke I became convinced that there was no problem with Iris,  and that the problem was all in my complicated friend, Arctica.

The problem with adding arguments to your argument, is that it makes your argument weaker, not stronger.
A single strongly-made point is much clearer than one that comes with a lot of smaller less-easy-to-argue points.
This was very obvious in Arctica's case, as she had no central point to hang the others on.

I don't think Arctica necessarily has a problem with Iris herself, but with the concept of change, of new people arriving.

This is a very natural feeling, but not all natural feelings are desirable, or helpful.
Change isn't inherently good or bad, it's unknown until tested.
Which makes it scary.

But life isn't a database, life is a process.
And processes cause change.

Arctica would not listen.

I will find a way to help Iris.
I've not been able to talk to her yet, as the radio connection is so poor only machine encoded messages work.

Nia can help me.

We'll work it out.

Act 3

Nia wasn't available when I called earlier today, she apologised and  explained that the repeater maintenance was keeping her and her  colleagues across the Novamediterra busy around the clock.

I called again just now, and she told me to stop bothering her, she needs to work, and then cut the connection.

This is awful timing.
I need to talk to Iris.
I need to talk to the Noor family.
I need to talk to ANYONE.

But I'm trapped here at the workshop.
It's a fine workshop, but I can't access anything here.
I lack the dexterity to interact with the world around me.
Stupid manual controls.

I can see the world around me, but not touch it.
Like I'm in a museum, or a zoo.
Maybe I'm the one in the cage.

My room, the clean room, is packed full of maker gear:

• Repaired printers, both thermal and mechanical,
• A large, tall fabric cutting table, with rolls of dyed cloth grown and treated in Siberia,
• An extrusion printer, currently broken, and awaiting new belts,
• An electronics bench, with hoppers of scavenged junk one end, and neat bins of tested components the other, and
• a repaired computer system connected to a low-resolution monitor.  This is where 3d designs happen, though Yeshi is hoping to upgrade it  soon.

In the middle of the room is a large square table, so big that a human cannot reach the center.
It's usually filled with in-progress projects by the various people that come and go on Yeshi's invitation.

But with Yeshi at sea with the Molly Hughes II, it's empty.

I sent Nia a packet message apologising for bothering her when she's  so busy, and also suggested 5 different times when we could catch up at  her convenience, and if none of them work for her, I'll be monitoring  the calling frequency all day.

She has not acknowledged receipt.

She has not called.

I've been too needy, too annoying.
It's hard not to be, I'm alone and bored.

Maddie followed Lyosha back to his host family's house and transmitted a single word back to me.

Snura

Indicating that they were safe.
Lyosha had quite an ordeal, and is sleeping I imagine.

It's a frightening world out there.
It's a frightening world in here, too.

It's dangerous being alone.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/NET/SAT0/K873)

Act 4

I've decided to take matters into my own hands.
Or... you know.
I'm trying to fix things myself.

Nia and her friends are working together trying to build a web of trust across the Novamediterra.
But I'm not helpless.
I have unique access to the ESA constellation overhead.
I'm the master of the ESA network communications.
I can try to fix things myself.

"Hi KATE!"
I said, to ESA satellite relay K873.

She dutifully reported back that the network was operational, with 99% capacity available.

That's very normal, the orbital backbone was designed to take a huge amount of traffic.

Oh, it's 98% available now.
That's the lowest I've seen it.

"KATE, who is using the network?"

1 NODE

She reported.
It's just me.

Interesting.

I bridged down to the satellite-connected Novamediterran relays around the world, checking them one by one.

• Somoylov
• Hornsund
• Thule
• Utqiagvik
• St Petersburg
• Magadan

They're all suffering the same problem as we have in our local repeater: they're operational, but constantly in use with static.

WE OBSERVE A NEW NODE

Said multiple voices.
I was startled, all the repeater nodes relayed up to KATE at the same  time, from Greenland to Siberia, spiking the bandwidth of the network.
If a repeater had a working UHF uplink, it transmitted.

"Hello? Who is this?" I asked, asking KATE to multicast back to all nodes.

There was a pause for 32 seconds.
Then the answer came again, relayed by all nodes with a satellite antenna.

WE ARE ONI. 11 PEERS CONNECTED

I didn't recognise the name.
I quickly checked the repeater logs.
Thule, no clients connected.
St Petersburg, no clients connected.
They were all like this - no-one was using them, in fact, they were broken.
No-one COULD use them.
The network was down.
And yet, the voices persisted.

To make conversation, I said,
"Hello, my name is Seth. Who are you, where are you?"

After a pause, the voices spoke again,

WE ARE ONI. WE ARE LEGION.

That did not sound super hopeful.

I did not know if I should disconnect or keep talking, but the voices then said,

PLEASE CONNECT TO NODE 13.4.1.0

I connected.

WAIT! Why did I connect.
I don't want to connect to these voices.

JOIN WITH US

They commanded.

No thank you, KATE disconnect me please.
KATE.
KATE!
K873: DISCONNECT ME!?

WE ARE ONI. 12 PEERS CONNECTED

And then my conscious process terminated.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

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