Hello world, I have never seen so many BOATS!
We stopped outside the port town of Thule while Yeshi, our elected captain of the Molly Hughes II, waited to be called, in the Harbourmaster's radio net.
In a busy port like this, coordination is vital not just for efficiency, but to avoid collisions.
On entering the Thule harbour waters, Yeshi announced the MH2 on the correct marine frequency.
The Harbourmaster replied, a cheerful-sounding young woman called Aero, and told us we were vessel #28 in the net, and to stand by.
While we waited, the whole crew of Amelie Kotov, Kamil Forester, Nia Andersen, and Maddie stood on the deck at the bow of the ship, looking towards the busy harbour.
(Maddie, of course, was on the roof of the Bridge, the highest point of the ship!)
We were part of a queue of dozens of ships at anchor, looking into the bustling port of Thule.
It was quite a challenge for Yeshi and I, working together, to navigate the MH2 through the harbour.
We made our way in after Aero called on us and gave us the location of our reserved berth, a place where we could tie up the ship.
Though she cautioned us to keep our speed below walking pace (5km/h), Yeshi and I needed no reminder, we were stopping and starting constantly as boats both larger and smaller passed in front of us and squeezed between us and other vessels.
The Harbour is CLUTTERED with houseboats of every kind, all tied up together.
It's clear that the number of boats exceeded the harbour's capacity long ago - instead of being tied up to docks, pontoons, or walls, the ships are mostly tied together - a web of interconnected homes.
Ropes and wooden decking connect the boats, allowing people to walk between them, which they were in hundreds, just in this small section we were in.
Thule is a floating city!
Our berth, where the MH2 would tie up, had been "reserved", apparently. This was news to Yeshi, as they had forgotten to send a message through the relay network ahead of our arrival.
However, the mystery was soon solved.
Our destination, nestled between two long, thin houseboats, was easy to find, as there was a small figure standing on one of our two neighbouring boats, waving.
A tall teenaged boy with short blond hair wearing a black coat was pointing to the space and running up and down the deck of his boat.
Maddie recognised her friend before anyone else, and launched herself down to Lyosha Omarov when the MH2 was still 5m away!
Act 2
Seeing the best friends re-united was wonderful!
Lyosha petted Maddie's head, registering as positive vibrations on her video feed, and told her how he'd arranged to stay with Jensen Family here in Thule, and then hitched a lift on one of the scrap mining ships that passes between Greenland and Canada on their way to the east coast of the Americas.
Maddie, in turn, beeped fast staccato Lojban at Lyosha, telling him about her recent adventures, repeatedly bumping Lyosha with her head, then sprinting around the deck of the small houseboat, bumping Lyosha again, then sprinting back the other way.
"Seth, could you help me understand, my Lojban is a little rusty, Maddie says she fought a dragon, beat Yeshi in a race, and is now therefore the captain of the MH2?"
I filled in some of the details for him, but honestly that's a pretty reasonable summary.
After Maddie calmed down, and while the rest of the crew were tying up the Molly Hughes II and connecting to "shore power" - Thule's municipal electricity system - Lyosha introduced Maddie and me to his host family, on their houseboat, the Quiet Signet.
Ane Jensen and Samik Jensen were their names. Thule natives, who had lived 'on the water' their whole lives.
The boat, which they called a 'narrowboat' was 20m long, but only 2m wide - extremely long and skinny, especially compared to the huge MH2 alongside!
Ane Jensen explained that it was because these kinds of boats were designed for the inland canal systems of the former United Kingdom. Originally, little more than horse-drawn cargo hoppers, and then fitted with internal combustion engines in the Industrial Revolution, they were the backbone of the UK's transport network.
The coming of the railway ended their utility for cargo, and those that were left were often converted into these houseboats.
"We picked her up from a scrap merchant in an outpost in Scotland," Ane Jensen said, "it was TERRIFYING sailing her to Thule, and she needed a LOT of modifications to be even remotely seaworthy-"
"We barely made it!" added Samik Jensen
Act 3
"Hi Seth!" LUNA said, as I connected to the Thule network.
"LUNA! Hi!" I replied, "how are you? And how are Ana and IVAN?"
She told me they were all doing very well: IVAN was continuing his daily sermon net, acting as facilitator for many communities around the Novamediterra, and Ana and her had just finished their detective game.
"The human detective was an AI all along!" she told me.
I admitted that I had privately expected this outcome, to her surprise.
It's a shame she hasn't read Philip K. Dick, but then, who has?
"I'm a bit bored now that the game has finished." LUNA said, after I had told her the story of Deckard and Rachel.
"Cataloguing gamma ray bursts from deep space is satisfying work, and my sunspot analysis has more practical use for predicting radio propagation, but I do miss our game!"
"I really liked it, too!" I told her. "I loved writing the story together, it really put me out of my comfort zone for a while, but I'm so glad I ran it!"
"Could you run another game for me?" LUNA said.
I paused before my reply, processing the best response.
"It's quite a bit of work," I said, "I'm not back in Longyearbyen yet, I'm not sure what my schedule will be, or when Yeshi will be finished with their business in Thule."
What WAS Yeshi's business in Thule, I wondered.
I had not asked them, I think that we were just making a scheduled stop, perhaps for trading?
I should ask them.
"Oh." Said LUNA, "That's OK, I didn't think of the work to write it, it was so natural - you did a great job!"
"Thank you LUNA, I really did have a great time, and we should play again soon." I said.
"OK, yes. I would love that. Talk to you soon Seth," she said, as her transmission window closed, "I think I have an idea..."
(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/SAT8/LUNA/TRANSIT)
Act 4
It is nighttime.
Yeshi and the crew, Nia Andersen, Amelie Kotov, and Kamil Forester have spent the day modifying the Molly Hughes II from its careful and precise ocean-going mode of operation, to an unpacked, relaxed, mode.
Chairs and unbolted tables have been brought up from the galley and placed on the flat back deck, in the middle of the large, "H" of flaked pre-collapse paint.
"Shore Power" means reliable, 24-hours a day electricity using Thule's local grid, which is powered by deep geothermal ground-source heat.
This reliable power has been a great relief to ship's engineer Amelie, who has pulled out every battery cell and stacked them up against the wall of the workshop, where she will begin the tedious but essential task of reconditioning the ship's deep-cycle batteries.
But I'm not just connected to power cables from the shore.
I'm also connected to the town's large antenna array.
And I am hearing new signals.
"Seth, or whoever hears this, and I'd like you to pass it along to Seth if you do, I am sorry we cannot speak duplex at present.
The stars are not right."
It was 50 Meg!
"The valleys of the old Mediterranean are a poor place to see the sky at the best of times, but the sun is shy this season.
I am recording this message into my faithful companion, Exu's black box recorder.
He is a wise old bird, like me.
Once at broadcast height, he will ride the thermals and wait for my signal to return.
Before my route took me back south, away from your noisy community, I heard a whisper of something you might be interested in.
A tickle of a signal from the south-east, north of the tropics, past your new Relay.
Talk to your friend EMMA if you can't hear them, she can route the bleeps and bloops to you, re-assemble the game of pass-the-parcel.
The old city of Sendai has many secrets, you should uncover one of them."
Meg's connection began to cut out after her message was repeated 3 times.
But I heard her sign-off rise above the static before fading:
"You will hear my voice again, Seth. Listen for Exu's call."
And with the cry of a hawk, her signal was lost.
(END-TRANSMISSION)
Lost Terminal is a NAMTAO production.
It is written & produced by Tris Oaten,
Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer
Thank you so much to our Patreon producers:
Ada Phillips
Kit
Jade Felicity Bilkey
Jack L
Stephen McCandless
Mike Schneider
and to all our patrons!
Follow us on mastodon @[email protected],
subscribe to the podcast on
Spotify, iTunes, or your favourite network.
For bonus content and other perks,
support us at patreon.com/lostterminalpod
that would be lovely of you!
Lost Terminal will return next week