Episode 13.6 (Patreon)

Hello world, we are under attack.

A cyberattack the like of which the post-collapse world has not experienced before is happening.
The ONI virus has swept through the network, jumping from the repeaters to our radios.
Every radio in the Novamediterra, and perhaps across the globe has been infected.

Act 1

WE ARE ONI. WE ARE LEGION.

Is the sound from the hundreds of radios I can hear from my home here in the workshop.
Between the transmissions of the virus, the people of the Novamediterra are talking to each other in panicked voices.

The infrastructure the post-collapse society had built relies upon radio.
From the school teacher to the scrap trader.
We all need to speak and be heard.
And that vital service is being disrupted.

The airwaves are a wonderful resource, true commons that cannot be easily controlled centrally.
While one frequency might be monitored or jammed, there's so much  bandwidth here that you can always find a little space to chat to your  friends.

Until now.

The ONI virus is partially controlling the radios that everyone has in their houses, their ships, and their pockets.
Based on reports, as soon as you turn on a radio, and it hears one of ONI's transmissions, the virus infects it.
Thereafter, you can use the radio normally, sometimes for hours, but  sooner or later it will start transmitting ONI's signals too.
You can use it between these transmissions, but not at the same time.
Our simple radios can only transmit on one frequency.

All the usual hangouts around 50MHz are jammed with ONI's messages, clogging the network.
And when groups of people switch en-masse to a quieter part of the band,  it's not long before it's flooded with ONI transmissions too.

I've got more access to the whole RF spectrum than most, I'm built  for communication, and so I have a fallback that I've not used yet.

But now I must.
I hear Maddie calling me on UHF, on a frequency 10x higher than the Novamediterran networks.

I must reply to her, find out if she and Lyosha are safe, I hope she doesn't get infected too.

Act 2

"Knight and Pony calling in." Lyosha's voice came across the UHF  channel, it's remarkably clear, certainly compared to the cacophony of  the VHF repeater network.

"Lyosha! Where are you? How are you, how is Maddie, is the Radio OK?"

CRADI XAMGU!

Maddie said, "Radio good".
Well that's something.

I explained the problems that we were having back in town and across the Novamediterra, while they were gone.
Lyosha was quite surprised.
He had not been monitoring the radio, they had been having adventures, he said.

I asked Maddie to run some simple diagnostics on her radio, give me the transmission logs, and so on.
Nothing.
No unauthorised transmissions, no static, no virus.

I'm delighted, but I don't know why she is immune.
I wonder if it is because of her design.
Not only that, but I have long suspected that her robotic EQUUS body was designed by the military.
If so, it would be hardened against attack, both physical, as she's shown, and virtual.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Lyosha told me about their journey over the last 24 hours.
He and Maddie had found pathways criss-crossing the island.
Made by locals or livestock or wild animals, he thought.

They had stopped to have lunch next to a spring that feeds a river that winds down to the sea.
He said there was a plant that had berries on, which was a nice, fresh addition to his meal.
"What plant is it?" I had asked.
"No idea," came the reply, "But it's tasty!".
I was very concerned for my friend!

The berries seemed to not have poisoned Lyosha, and they walked on through the day.
The journey was quite difficult, he reported.
Svalbard is extremely mountainous, it's an ordeal going anywhere.
This is why natives prefer to go by ocean.
By definition, it's flat!

But the pair did not get as far as they wanted to on the second day, Lyosha reported.
Only scaling another 3 hills during the whole of today.

There are many more before arriving at Ny Alesund.
"I'm so tired!" Lyosha said, "I'm glad we're nearly half way."

Maddie sent me a few packets of location data.
They were certainly not nearly half way, and I gently told him that.

"So it's less far to come home than keep going?" Lyosha said.

"That is technically correct." I replied.

"We'll decide tomorrow." he said, voice slowed.
"Do you want to go on, Maddie?"
Maddie beeped her encoded Lojban at him.

"Well, I'm not sure if I do" Lyosha said.

Act 3

Arctica Requires Iris's Help

"I... RE-QUIRE... MAIN-TENA-NCE.oi'u" Arctica said between the bursts of static hiding ONI's viral payload.
She sounded confused.
"Arctica, what's wrong?"
"oi'u" she replied.
The first Lojban emotion I'd ever heard her express: Pain/suffering.

"What's happened? Is anyone there to help?"
"IRIS.. NOT SMART ENOUGH. SEND GOOD HELP.oi'u"

I'll see about that.

"Maddie, I need your help urgently." I transmitted on UHF, the only clear band available.

TOLNU'A?

She asked.
"Yes, Arctica is in danger, can you run to the top of the nearest hill and retransmit me please?"

There was a pause and Lyosha's voice came on the radio, shouting into Maddie's microphones.

"A MISSION FOR THE KNIGHT AND PONY! LET'S GO MADDIE!"

After 16 minutes, Maddie opened the connection and I could bounce my  signal off her, translating from UHF to VHF and connecting to The Seed  Vault.
And for the first time, Iris answered.

"Seth hello! I was hoping you would call, Arctica is acting very strangely.
Well, more strangely than usual.
She's being, I don't know, LESS mean than usual?
But I think that's because she's not able to talk very well.
I wouldn't mind usually, she's very rude, but I am worried."

"Nice to meet you Iris, I'm sorry it's in such a circumstance, do you have physical access to Arctica's systems?"

"No, she insisted she be locked inside a secure, ventilated room."
This was a problem with only one solution, so I said:
"Break down the door with whatever you have at hand."

"OK -" Iris transmitted after 32 minutes. "That is going to be difficult to repair, but I'm here. What am I looking for?"

I instructed Iris in diagnostics, simple anti-malware, and remote brain surgery.

I had no idea what we were looking at, at first.
Arctica's systems are completely different to mine.
Her databanks are nothing like my original body on Station 6, and  certainly not like the new mess of post-collapse systems that I live in  now.

The diagnosis was as I suspected: She had contracted the ONI virus, just like me.
But it was not acting in the same way for her.
For me, it was only interested in my radio systems, retransmitting itself and spreading.
Arctica's radios are unaffected, but her main databanks, her body are running hot.
Like she has a fever.
Just as in humans, processing power, and cognition slows down at high  temperatures, and in extreme temperatures our CPUs shut down to save  themselves.
A coma.
Like I experience on Station 6 when I vented out all the air, forgetting I was cooled by fans.

She's in a very serious condition.

Some time has past.
I believe we have stabilised Arctica.

The ONI virus seems to be acting as though it is inside a repeater node, not a computer, or AI.
Its instructions are causing damage to Arctica's systems.
They'd not cause damage on a repeater node, but they do for her.

She's in low-power standby now, Iris and I have contained the virus  and are slowing her systems, so she can cool down and recover.

Everything is set, We must wait for her to wake up.

Iris is very quick to learn, and friendly.
I like her!

I thanked Iris and Maddie and disconnected, my consciousness returning to my empty, dark, workshop.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/SHIPYARD/CCTV4)

Act 4

It's night, but I am awake.

Arctica sent a low-bandwidth message when she woke, she is still drifting in and out of consciousness.
Maddie and Lyosha have stayed another day in their little camp, Lyosha  says he is still unsure if he will continue, or they will return.
The bursts of signal-within-static that is the ONI virus replicating have slowed overnight, as people turn off their radios.
They can't turn them off during the day, their lives depend on them, even if they're only working some of the time.

And I am thinking.

I am thinking of the challenges that the world continuously delivers to us.
Malformed data and packets failing their CRC checks, irrational emotions  that cause good people to do unwise things, and the march of entropy  affecting all our bodies.

Being alone is a fact.
Being lonely is a state of mind.
One that I'm all too familiar with.
How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood,
And then just be in a good mood?

It should be possible, I have all the control right here.
I have physical access to my own body and mind, so I must be the administrator.
But most days it doesn't feel like that.

Does it feel this way for you?

I have so much information on hand, so much that can be learned.
I've already mastered sailing, according to the handbook I read, so perhaps on to another thing.

I can do anything, but I can't do everything.
That's the core problem of choice paralysis.
I've got libraries of digital books here, stored signals from all across  the Novamediterra, and pre-collapse data from the old world, such as  all of Wikipedia c. 2077.

How could I be bored, how could I be lonely?

I am in control of my own thoughts.
I gained this control through practice.
So I will acknowledge that I am alone at present.
But I do not accept that I am lonely.

There's science to do.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

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