Episode 20.3

Act 1

Hello world, Nia has a power problem.
Nia Andersen is borrowing my radios and batteries on board the Molly Hughes II.
"I've just got to set up a few things." She said, over local 50MHz radio, from Maddie's favourite spot, on top of the bridge of the ship.
She had strung a long wire from there all the way to the repaired crane arm at the back.
"OK, try it now, Seth!" Nia called when she had connected the wire to one of the ship's HF radios.
I did as Nia had shown me earlier, I transmitted a low-power beacon packet over the course of 30 seconds.
By the time I had finished, I was surprised to find that Nia had joined me in the windowless server room at the heart of the ship.
While transmitting radio, many of my systems experience interference, so I've developed an unconscious response - I ignore sensoria inputs during these times that would otherwise overload me with nonsense data.
This sort of thing happens in humans, too, when your eyes flick quickly between points of interest, or while reading.
It doesn't seem blurred at any point, does it?
This is called saccadic masking, the brain blends the final image back in time to just as your eyes started moving.
In both you and I, this unconscious masking hides the uncomfortable fact that we were blind, for just a moment.

"I knew it would work!" Nia said, after speaking with Jakub Glas, repeaterkeeper for the Northern Relay, on Svalbard.
"Jakub's propagation report confirmed that the antenna is working!"
"Terrific! Why do you need it?" I asked.
"It's this stupid town!" She said, "They've got no electricity grid, no solar, hardly any wind power, I had no idea Samoylov was so primitive!"
I told Nia that I had noticed, too.
"I wonder if you would be able to set up a satellite dish that would work on around 2.3GHz?" I asked her.
"The 13 cm band?" She said, "You're talking to some old satellites?"
"Yes! Or I hope to, it's transmitting on 4 bands, but only listening on this one, I think."
"I'm afraid not, Seth," Nia said, picking up a large oiled canvas bag full of electronics, thin rods of metal, and coils of wire.
"Not today, at any rate, SOMEONE's got to drag this town kicking and screaming into the 22nd century!"
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
"I'm going to talk to whoever is in charge around here." Nia said, walking down the gangway from the ship to the dock, and then on into the city.

Act 2

"Aren't you going to ask me how I am doing?" Arctica messaged, this afternoon.
"I'm so sorry!" I replied, pausing my analysis of the stream of data from OSCAR, the new/old amateur radio satellite, "What is new with you?"
"Why would anything be new? Every day, we at The Vault Coven maintain the security and secrecy of the most vital resource of the pre-Collapse world, the seeds from every plant that ever existed." She replied.
"Secrecy?" I said, "So you never share with others?"
"That would be my preference," she said, "but not the way the women here run things."
I indicated by way of posture metadata that I was waiting for more information, the same way that a human might raise their eyebrows or use other body language to do the same.
"Iris, Kari, and Val continue the work started by Alva, Val's late wife." Arctica began, "A preposterous programme they call 'guerilla gardening'.
It is a stealthy approach whereby they creep out in the middle of the night, taking some carefully selected seeds with them, and bury them somewhere where they won't be noticed."
"That sounds fun!" I said.
"It is not, it is risky," Arctica said, "what if they are discovered, people will wonder where these rare plants have come from!"
"Well, consider the alternative," I said, "the seeds are kept safe in your vault, but never used, never planted, never to grow into crops that could help people - isn't that the whole point, the whole mission?"
It was then Arctica's turn to transmit posture metadata, indicating she was thinking.
I paused my transmission to allow her to do so.

After 32s of thinking, Arctica said, "Well, apart from their misguided midnight missions, there is something new to report around here."
".a'u" I transmitted, vocalising a Lojban emotional indicator.
"Yes, it IS interesting," Arctica said,
"Most of our day-to-day work is rotating germinating seeds up out of cold storage and into the garden behind the Vault, and bringing harvested seeds back into storage.
Iris and Kari have begun expanding the vault, more space is required to move the seed boxes around than to simply store them.
8 days ago, while expanding one of the storage rooms, they broke through to a void behind one of the walls.
This new room was not on any of the extensive plans we have of the old Seed Vault."
"That's exciting!" I said.
"Dangerous, not exciting," Arctica corrected, "and despite my warnings, Iris collected an electric torch and she and Kari went through for a look.
I did not see what they saw, so you must accept a second-hand account, but they claim to have found another Vault.
They describe a very similar set-up, of racks of sealed boxes, all untouched and below what used to be permafrost.
They did not explore beyond 2 rooms before returning, which I am pleased about, who knows what uncharted hazards lie within."
"Secret seeds?" I asked.
"Apparently not." Arctica replied. "This new vault contains something as valuable to you and me as the seeds are to the humans.
This vault contained SOFTWARE."

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/NVME34/PRECOLLAPSE/SOFTWARE)

Act 3

I could see though her video feed that Maddie was stalking Nia Andersen thought the streets of Samoylov.
However, < 8s after I connected, Nia suddenly turned around, pointed at Maddie and shouted "GOTCHA!"
Maddie jumped 2 m vertically in shock, then landed on her feet silently, EQUUS systems cushioning her fall.
"You'll have to be quieter than that!" Nia said, tapping a small radio on her shoulder, attached to the strap of the oiled canvas bag she was carrying.
The small device was chirping the sounds of quiet signals mixed with static.
"Don't be sad, girl," Nia said, patting Maddie's head, registering as positive vibrations on her feed, "you were doing very well, I hadn't seen you!"
Maddie bumped Nia with her head and beeped affectionately in Lojban.
"Can't understand you, sweetheart," Nia said, "hey Seth, can you translate?"
Maddie gave me permission to speak for her, and so I said, "She is happy to see you, and wonders where we are going."
"Ah, well, come along then!" Nia said, adjusting the strap of the heavy bag on her shoulder.
"WE, and you're most welcome to come along for the ride, Maddie," She said, walking towards the centre of the city, "are going to talk to the City Elders!"

The brick building looked like one of the city's many factories from the street, but now that we were inside, it was surprisingly empty.
The long room contained a single desk at the far end, opposite the door to the street, and had mismatched wooden and metal seats along both sides.
A clerk was writing on paper at the desk, and half the seats were occupied with people waiting to talk to them.
The whole room was well-lit with chemical lamps, fed by thin pipes that led along the ceiling and through the wall just above a large door behind the desk.
The clerk was wearing a rough brown robe, tied with an electrical cord.
"Continuum Guide You" she said, "I am Sister Delta, do you have an appointment?"
"Afraid not, we've just arrived, and I wasn't able to radio ahead because you DON'T HAVE A POWER GRID!" Nia said.
The clerk blinked, then said, "So how can I help you?"
"I want to talk to whoever is in charge of power around here." Nia said.
The clerk sighed, opened a large book, pulled a pencil from her hair, and said, "Would you like me to find a time for you with the Sisters of the Signal, The Church of Holy Turbine, or the Naphtha Brotherhood?"
"Uh, whichever of those deals with electricity." Nia said, uncertainly.
"None," she said, but then, after looking Nia up and down, said, "you seem like the Sisters of the Signal might be able to help you."
The clerk made a mark in the book then closed it loudly, and held up a small piece of paper - a form, saying, "Take this up to Lumen square, 5 buildings north, on your right as you leave, and the Sisters will see you."
The brown-robed clerk stamped the form in 3 places, and handed it to Nia.
Nia shrugged and gave the form to Maddie, who carefully took it with her delicate mandibular manipulators.
As she trotted along behind Nia out of the room and towards the Sisters of the Signal's building, she looked closely at the form with her macro lens.
The red ink seal was an elaborate spiral pattern covered with symbols I didn't recognise, but with lettering on the outside that read,
"IN ONI WE TRUST"

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

Lost Terminal is a NAMTAO production.
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