Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: Book Club book Club book Club book Club. Hello and
Speaker 2: welcome to Cool Zone Media book Club. The only book
Speaker 2: club where you don't have to do the reading is
Speaker 2: I do it for you. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy,
Speaker 2: and every week I bring you stories. What kind of stories? Well,
Speaker 2: it depends on what I feel like bringing you or
Speaker 2: you all are my captive audience and I can read
Speaker 2: you anything I want. That's actually not true. I do
Speaker 2: have limits, or I just decide I have good taste,
Speaker 2: and so nothing I want to read you is outside
Speaker 2: those limits. I don't know how it works. I don't
Speaker 2: know how to do my own job, but I do
Speaker 2: know how to keep reading you. Her Medica by Alan Lee.
Speaker 2: That's right. We are on part four on her Medica.
Speaker 2: Well in her Medica, but it's also the name of
Speaker 2: the ship they're on, so it's sort of on her
Speaker 2: Medica too. You ever think about that. Allen Lee is
Speaker 2: the science fiction pen name of Peter Gelderlos, and you
Speaker 2: can check out more of Peter's work by looking him up.
Speaker 2: I don't know. He was written a lot of books, actually,
Speaker 2: and they're pretty interesting, and also has a substack that
Speaker 2: you can check out called surviving Leviathan and yeah, you
Speaker 2: might like it. But her Medica last time on her
Speaker 2: Medica Days lives on a generationship called her Medica. I
Speaker 2: already told you that, eh mh. But things aren't adding up.
Speaker 2: They found a piece of physical newspaper in the wall
Speaker 2: that is inconsistent with the history they've been told, particularly
Speaker 2: around political unrest back on Earth and the details of
Speaker 2: the ARPV, the acute respiratory passenger virus that keeps everyone
Speaker 2: on her Medica in lockdown, and the ship's library can't
Speaker 2: corroborate everything they were looking for because some things like
Speaker 2: ship's schematics are considered classified need to no information. After
Speaker 2: an attack on a different ship the wiki where we
Speaker 2: last left Days, they were taking a walk and witnessed
Speaker 2: one of their neighbors having a mental breakdown. Half an
Speaker 2: hour later, Zimp called Days, washed their face and turned
Speaker 2: on the screen. So how have you been fine? Zimp
Speaker 2: pursed their lips. You sure, Yeah, you know, ups and downs?
Speaker 2: Anything interesting at work? Oh, I've got a patient in medio.
Speaker 2: They told me about plants. That's cool. Have you been
Speaker 2: looking at the plants on your block? I guess no,
Speaker 2: more than usual, But you've been interested in the ship,
Speaker 2: right or the journey. I'm just having doubts. It's normal,
Speaker 2: you know that, right. Yeah, they say that psychologically our
Speaker 2: generation has at the hardest. We never saw ta we
Speaker 2: probably won't see the next home world. We're stuck yearning
Speaker 2: for two places that are completely unknown to us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so don't be hard on yourself, is what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's okay if you feel down or directionless. The system
Speaker 2: was made to take that into account. Take as many
Speaker 2: personal days as you need. Personal days don't help days
Speaker 2: surprise themselves with the feelings that came up. Zimp blinked,
Speaker 2: afraid they'd said the wrong thing. I mean, it's her medica.
Speaker 2: It doesn't feel right. It feels like nowhere. What do
Speaker 2: you mean, I don't know. I mean Tera, it had
Speaker 2: all this history, all these things happening, most of them terrible. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but here, I can't just spend my life waiting for
Speaker 2: the next block party. There's a lot more than block parties.
Speaker 2: Days shrugged, you're not gaming, are you? I got sick
Speaker 2: of it. There's some really good ones. I don't want
Speaker 2: to hear about it. They cut Zimp off. Look, I'm
Speaker 2: not bored. I just this doesn't feel real. Zimp raised
Speaker 2: an eyebrow. How's that like? Traveling through space leaving the
Speaker 2: Solar System on our way to another star? That's amazing.
Speaker 2: I'd love to be part of that. You are, I
Speaker 2: don't think I am Zimp paused, taken aback? What do
Speaker 2: you mean? None of it feels real? Do you think
Speaker 2: you could explain some more? Days could see that ZIMP
Speaker 2: was troubled by all of this, and they felt bad
Speaker 2: they had gone too far dumping weight on someone else's shoulders.
Speaker 2: No one else could solve their problems for them. They
Speaker 2: tried to fix it. Zimp was a practical person. What
Speaker 2: was a way to describe their feeling that would present
Speaker 2: Zimp with a path towards solving it, a path away
Speaker 2: from the boundless despair? Days? It opened up. It was
Speaker 2: an abyss that Zimp would be compelled to build a
Speaker 2: bridge over. Could never ever stare down into an answer appeared,
Speaker 2: and already the feeling slipped away, digging itself into a territory. Look.
Speaker 2: I never got to take in advanced education. I never
Speaker 2: got into the stuff you and all the others got into.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've never even been able to touch
Speaker 2: her Medica to be part of the ship. Does that
Speaker 2: make sense? I need to ground myself, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: Zim said, face brightening. So how do you do that?
Speaker 2: I tried to find schematics of her Medica, but they're
Speaker 2: off limits of course, compartmentalization NTK. What do you need
Speaker 2: the schematics for. I don't even know where on the
Speaker 2: ship I am. I've only seen the tiniest part of it. Well,
Speaker 2: I know I've seen more than you, but still I
Speaker 2: haven't even seen two percent of the whole thing. But
Speaker 2: that's the new safety for you. If the ship's population
Speaker 2: has a high interconnectivity, trouble spreads fast. How do we
Speaker 2: even know the ship is as big as they say?
Speaker 2: Days blurted out, how do we know we're even going anywhere?
Speaker 2: Zimp rocked backwards. That's all paranoid. Days set their jaw.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I mean, we know her Medica is huge.
Speaker 2: There's millions of people on board. You can talk to
Speaker 2: all of them, get to know them. Days supposed it
Speaker 2: was true, though they had never excelled like the others
Speaker 2: in their cohort and making friends over a screen. In fact,
Speaker 2: the only people they had ever called the only ones
Speaker 2: they would consider friends they had met in person. You
Speaker 2: know what, I have an idea, zimp offered. You say
Speaker 2: you need to feel grounded, days nodded. I can whip
Speaker 2: up just for you a special science experiment. Yeah, what
Speaker 2: would you say if I told you I could give
Speaker 2: you the chance to take a look at her Medica?
Speaker 2: You'd be my hero? Obviously, I can't get you a
Speaker 2: permit to go to an observation window or take a spacewalk,
Speaker 2: but I can let you see the spinning of the
Speaker 2: giant platform we're on right now. Do I get to
Speaker 2: be your student for a day? Even better? My students
Speaker 2: do most of the syllabus through simulations, but you and
Speaker 2: I we can do something hands on. I'm not allowed
Speaker 2: to take materials out of the lab, but I bet
Speaker 2: Zim's head was turning this way and that looking about
Speaker 2: their own module off camera. I can find all the
Speaker 2: supplies I need for a simple experiment. Tell me about it,
Speaker 2: Dace pleaded. You'll have to do some homework to understand
Speaker 2: what you'll see. I promise. So we're on a giant
Speaker 2: platform attached to a ring that's spinning around her Medica's core.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, right, But that's what generates the
Speaker 2: pseudo gravity that keeps us in place. But we can
Speaker 2: detect the coralois force that correlates with our rotation. Okay,
Speaker 2: Day said uncertainly. They understood the principles that Zimp was describing,
Speaker 2: but not how it would allow them to see her Medica.
Speaker 2: Their friend picked up on their skepticism. What that means is,
Speaker 2: if the experiment works, you'll be able to tell which
Speaker 2: way our platform is rotating. You'll be able to look
Speaker 2: up into the sky and visualize the axis of that rotation,
Speaker 2: which in this case is the core of her Medica itself,
Speaker 2: and you'll be able to tell which way we're heading.
Speaker 2: What do you say to that that would be wonderful?
Speaker 2: Zimp looked around again. Well, I need to make sure
Speaker 2: I can design this thing so the result will actually
Speaker 2: be visible to the naked eye. They chuckled. The rings
Speaker 2: have a really low RPM, and I don't want to
Speaker 2: let you down, so I'm going to get to work
Speaker 2: on that. I wonder if I can get my hands
Speaker 2: on some ball bearings, but I'm going to send you
Speaker 2: some materials, a little light reading on inertial forces to
Speaker 2: get you up to speed. Part in the joke, same
Speaker 2: time tomorrow. Days asked, sure, I'll try to have it ready.
Speaker 2: You're such a sweetheart. Nice to see you smile. It's true,
Speaker 2: Days realized as the screen went black they were smiling.
Speaker 2: You know who else will schedule a science experiment to
Speaker 2: reassure all your deepest discomforts and then leave you smiling
Speaker 2: and giddy. Do you know who else loves to see
Speaker 2: you smile? It's the products and services that support this podcast.
Speaker 2: I know you knew that, but I'll tell you anyway,
Speaker 2: and we're back. The next morning, Days doubled their exercise
Speaker 2: routine and then went in to see some patients. The
Speaker 2: air on the block broiled and rippled. Neighbors walked by oblivious.
Speaker 2: At the health center, they saw the botanist and a developer,
Speaker 2: a regular. Their sessions dragged on. Days's mind was elsewhere.
Speaker 2: The patients didn't seem to notice. Back at the module,
Speaker 2: Days down in mre then called up another one ate
Speaker 2: that too, fidgeted Awhile went to the green, sat on
Speaker 2: a bench beneath the colored bunting and tried reading. It
Speaker 2: was an archaic work, full of obsolete pronouns and range
Speaker 2: social relationships. Days had a hard time following conflicts that
Speaker 2: didn't seem to make any sense at all. This one
Speaker 2: was about a person named Edna who spent all their
Speaker 2: days in idleness, first on vacation, now with one lover,
Speaker 2: now with another, but never happy with anything. It described
Speaker 2: a society in which everyone seemed to be perpetually running
Speaker 2: away from one another and at the same time chained together.
Speaker 2: Days put the novel down. The air had become a
Speaker 2: solid thing. What was the conflict in the story? Was
Speaker 2: Edna just a weak, fatuous person that wouldn't make for
Speaker 2: an interesting tale. Amidst the nebulous anxieties the novel plotted,
Speaker 2: Days perceived the outlines of another character, unnamed, invisible yet
Speaker 2: ever present, filling Edna and all the others with dread, oppressive,
Speaker 2: and everywhere, all at once, like the heat that day.
Speaker 2: Were there video cameras at the time this novel was written,
Speaker 2: Days didn't think so. That might explain the fear of
Speaker 2: being seen all the characters seemed to display, but they
Speaker 2: were sure the novel predated video cameras by half a century.
Speaker 2: They lifted the portable again. Intrigued leonce came back into
Speaker 2: the narrative, Days didn't understand that character at all. They
Speaker 2: seemed to have no connection whatsoever with Edna, and yet
Speaker 2: they were bound. Leonce decided where Edna's children should go.
Speaker 2: At one point they spoke with a doctor about what
Speaker 2: should be done with Edna, without Edna even being present.
Speaker 2: But most of the time they were just somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Did Leonce possessed some magical power over Edna? The story
Speaker 2: made no mention of magic, but perhaps they were supposed
Speaker 2: to intuit its existence. Primitive literature was often strange like that.
Speaker 2: The stiffness of the air continued to build. Her Medica
Speaker 2: produced a lot of heat. Surely it could not hold.
Speaker 2: And there it was, the first wisp of movement. It
Speaker 2: would all come falling down. Now already was falling, even
Speaker 2: if no one else else noticed. Now the story was
Speaker 2: getting interesting. Edna was speaking with a musician, a pianist.
Speaker 2: They had a nice relationship, one that made a little
Speaker 2: more sense, And the pianist did not seem to be
Speaker 2: afraid of whomever it was that terrified everyone else so much.
Speaker 2: Another lick of air ruffled Das's hair. An alert popped
Speaker 2: up in the corner of the screen. They tapped on it.
Speaker 2: A PSA Meteorology has fast tracked an atmospheric adjustment for
Speaker 2: this afternoon. The scheduled precipitation event has been upgraded to
Speaker 2: a Class three adjustment. Citizens are advised to remain in
Speaker 2: their modules. Starting at eighteen h Days grinned from ear
Speaker 2: to ear called it. There was still another hour before
Speaker 2: the call was zimp an eternity. They suddenly lost their
Speaker 2: patience with the novel portable. Is there an open slot
Speaker 2: for a jog? It wasn't easy to get a slot
Speaker 2: on short notice, but in this heat it was possible.
Speaker 2: Not many other people were out on the block. There's
Speaker 2: a fifteen minute slot opening up in six minutes. Is
Speaker 2: that acceptable? Book it? Days went back to the module,
Speaker 2: changed into track clothes, and went out the door, keeping
Speaker 2: a good pace. They went around the block the full
Speaker 2: cross ten times four kilometers. The portable beaped in paternal
Speaker 2: consternation a few times. On the last lap, they had
Speaker 2: exceeded their slot, but no one else was showing up
Speaker 2: To run back in their module, they stripped and threw
Speaker 2: the clothes in the chute. The shower extracted and they
Speaker 2: stepped in cold water, making them gasp in exhilaration. Once
Speaker 2: they'd had enough time to get soaked twice over and
Speaker 2: relish the chill just a little longer. The module chimed in,
Speaker 2: Shall I switch to hot now? Right on time? Soon
Speaker 2: the air was steaming, and Days leaned against the tiled
Speaker 2: wall and bliss, Can I get another leader? Just steam?
Speaker 2: You're close to your limit. I'll skip tomorrow. Just give
Speaker 2: me another leader, please. The tight stream of aerated water
Speaker 2: toggled to a focused bath of steam, and Days felt
Speaker 2: time slip away. When it was finally over, they moved
Speaker 2: at an indolent pace, toweling off and leisurely picking new
Speaker 2: clothes as the shower vacked itself and retracted. Just a
Speaker 2: few minutes remained before zimp's call. Days opened the article
Speaker 2: they had sent, scanning through it on their portable. They
Speaker 2: kept the wall screen free black, like infinite potential. The
Speaker 2: article was a useful refresher all things they had studied
Speaker 2: before the aptitudes. The image of the examiner popped into
Speaker 2: their head. The screen at the front of the class,
Speaker 2: the tension of a ticking clock, a diminishing block of time,
Speaker 2: and so many questions too many to answer, all of
Speaker 2: them pointing to the future or closing the way They
Speaker 2: had gotten through half the article, ZIM still hadn't called.
Speaker 2: Looked up at the wall screen, nothing just blackness. Message, ZIMP,
Speaker 2: are we still on experiment giving you problems? Let me
Speaker 2: know if you want to postpone. They went back to
Speaker 2: reading three minutes later, and there was no reply. Call zimp,
Speaker 2: zimp is unavailable, module said, after a short pause. Unavailable
Speaker 2: like out of the module. Without their portable Days could
Speaker 2: imagine no other form of unavailability. One could always turn
Speaker 2: off calls, of course, but that simply routed calls straight
Speaker 2: to message there's a block a block. Days wasn't even
Speaker 2: sure what that meant. Please wait. Now things were downright strange.
Speaker 2: They wished snookums were here module what's please wait? Was
Speaker 2: module frozen? It had never happened before, but it was feasible.
Speaker 2: Maybe a programming upgrade had caused some functions to go off,
Speaker 2: They wondered if that meant they were stuck inside. They
Speaker 2: were just about to go to the door when the
Speaker 2: buzzer rang. Days jumped, and then, because they could find
Speaker 2: no explanation for the feeling of dread that boiled through them,
Speaker 2: they opened the door. A person they had never seen before,
Speaker 2: a bit older, with stern eyes walked in. Hello, Days,
Speaker 2: sorry for intruding like this. I'm emmyl I'm a block rep.
Speaker 2: May I take my mask off? Days made a gesture
Speaker 2: of polite descent. What's going on? Their mouth went dry
Speaker 2: as they spoke. I'm sorry to inform you we've temporarily
Speaker 2: blocked your communications. Oh is that what happened? Why you
Speaker 2: were flagged for circumventing some of the compartmentalization protocols that
Speaker 2: are integral to the new safety I'm sure it was
Speaker 2: an innocent mistake on your part, but I need to
Speaker 2: give you an evaluation just to make sure no further
Speaker 2: procedures are needed. What what did I do? You were
Speaker 2: about to participate in an unauthorized experiment that might have
Speaker 2: enabled the collection of sensitive information about her medica in
Speaker 2: violation of need to know? And do you know who
Speaker 2: else will aid? And a bet? Nope, it's just ads.
Speaker 2: They just show up. Here they are and we're back,
Speaker 2: Oh the corealis thing? Days asked, that's right, Emil replied
Speaker 2: with a patient smile. How is that a violation? I
Speaker 2: know it must seem like an innocent inquiry, something that
Speaker 2: would fall under the hobby Statute, But Unfortunately, only citizens
Speaker 2: working in physics are allowed to take measurements related to
Speaker 2: acceleration or even the axis of rotation for the life platforms.
Speaker 2: You understand why we need to compartmentalize with no exceptions.
Speaker 2: Remember the Wiki? How could days forget the Wiki? The
Speaker 2: history was drilled into the heads of every young cohort
Speaker 2: on the ship. The Wiki was her Medica's sister ship.
Speaker 2: The two had departed at the same time, heading for
Speaker 2: the same cluster of stars with the same objective find
Speaker 2: and colonize a new home world, but they had been
Speaker 2: designed according to radically different models. There had been a
Speaker 2: strong debate in the space program, and in the spirit
Speaker 2: of openness and scientific inquiry, the Terran governments that ran
Speaker 2: the program agreed to let proponents of the two top
Speaker 2: models each have a free hand in designing their ships.
Speaker 2: The Wiki was designed according to a completely open source model,
Speaker 2: with every passenger given full access to all the information
Speaker 2: and permission to rewrite code and tweak design. It was
Speaker 2: billed as a constantly self correcting work in progress that
Speaker 2: made maximum usage of the full intellectual resources of the passengers,
Speaker 2: and it worked well for the first few years, with
Speaker 2: Wiki passengers developing a number of propulsion and life support
Speaker 2: innovations that her Medica quickly adopted. But as the two
Speaker 2: ships approached Pluto's orbit, communication cut out. One final transmission
Speaker 2: warned of an attempted takeover, with reports of fighting on
Speaker 2: the wiki, and then the entire ship exploded. No one
Speaker 2: would ever know who the saboteurs were, if they were
Speaker 2: terrorists or engineers of cabin fever, if there had been
Speaker 2: a power struggle between different factions trying to impose their
Speaker 2: design for the ship. All they knew was the mantra
Speaker 2: repeated in classrooms across her Medica. After the sociopsyches ran
Speaker 2: it through their simulations and confirmed the systemic flaw. Open
Speaker 2: source systems are vulnerable to sabotage by disciplined and determined parties.
Speaker 2: Centralization and compartmentalization are the best way to prevent anarchic
Speaker 2: power struggles. So Days asked, we can't do our Corealis experiment.
Speaker 2: I'm afraid not, and Days, I need you to tell
Speaker 2: me what's going on. What do you mean their palms
Speaker 2: got clammy, your line of questioning, your reasoning for wanting
Speaker 2: to do the experiment. The recommendation is for a psych
Speaker 2: evaluation and you were already flagged the day before for
Speaker 2: damage to your module. They knew about the wall panel.
Speaker 2: Of course they knew, So do they already know what
Speaker 2: they had discovered? If they did, hiding it would only
Speaker 2: make things worse. Days went to get the strange sheet.
Speaker 2: I found this in the wall. The rep pursed their
Speaker 2: lips as they gripped the sheet fingers like tweezers. Their
Speaker 2: look darkened as they scanned the contents of the two articles.
Speaker 2: And I imagine you're quite confused. I am. It talks
Speaker 2: about things that don't make sense, things that don't add up,
Speaker 2: and that's why you wanted to do an experiment. Well,
Speaker 2: the experiment was z IMP's idea. They don't know anything about
Speaker 2: the articles they rushed to add. But I was feeling
Speaker 2: estranged reading all those things about Tara. You know, I
Speaker 2: did poorly on the aptitudes. You did well on the aptitudes.
Speaker 2: Emmil interrupted. You simply got tracked to an assignment that
Speaker 2: perhaps you no longer find satisfying. Okay, But what I
Speaker 2: meant to say is I've never gotten to work on
Speaker 2: a system that's an integral part of her medica. Yes,
Speaker 2: I know, Days headed off the next interruption the human
Speaker 2: passengers are the most integral system of all, and palliative
Speaker 2: therapy is a vital part of the whole Days recited
Speaker 2: the PSA's dryly. But her Medica, it feels unreal for me.
Speaker 2: The rep did not look pleased with that answer. And
Speaker 2: why did the sheet exacerbate that feeling? It talks about
Speaker 2: a virus on Earth, on Tera, the choking sickness. How
Speaker 2: could the same virus have struck on Tera and on
Speaker 2: her Medica. We don't know the article refers to the
Speaker 2: same virus, the rep explained patiently. It could simply be
Speaker 2: a similar one. Maybe an ancestral strain was already dormant
Speaker 2: in human populations when her Medica set out, and similar
Speaker 2: virulent strains evolved in both places without a comparative genetic analysis.
Speaker 2: Who's to say yes? But how did an article from
Speaker 2: Tera about things that happened after we already left wind
Speaker 2: up aboard the ship. The sheet's non electronic. It didn't
Speaker 2: get beamed here. The rep held their silence a moment.
Speaker 2: A vein on their neck fluttered and bulged. Just because
Speaker 2: a piece of paper contains a bit of information doesn't
Speaker 2: mean it's true. I appreciate that you have many questions
Speaker 2: that seem valid to you. I also appreciate that, when
Speaker 2: faced with a doubt, you had the discretion to not
Speaker 2: go immediately onto your social life and begins spreading it
Speaker 2: throughout the ship. Nonetheless, certain inquiries, when they go beyond
Speaker 2: idle curiosity, to achieve a satisfactory answer require scientific exploration.
Speaker 2: As you know. Unfortunately, our safety demands a compartmentalized approach
Speaker 2: to avoid putting sensitive information in the open. Trust the experts,
Speaker 2: but let everyone become an expert. Emil repeated the old motto.
Speaker 2: Of course, no one person can become an expert in everything.
Speaker 2: That's impossible. People have to stick to their field where
Speaker 2: they risk confusing everybody. So what are you saying? You
Speaker 2: found an intriguing piece of a puzzle. I'll give you that,
Speaker 2: But you're not the only one. I'm not. No, days,
Speaker 2: you're not. Everyone else is working on the same puzzle.
Speaker 2: The physicists are working on propulsion, the biologists are working
Speaker 2: on life support systems. The designers are working on quality
Speaker 2: and entertainment. My team works on safety, and all of
Speaker 2: us are working together on the greatest mystery of all,
Speaker 2: how to sustainably project life into the stars. I play
Speaker 2: my role and you play yours. Something they had said,
Speaker 2: stuck with Days, you work in safety. I thought you
Speaker 2: were an inter block. Rep Emal's jaw clenched again. They're
Speaker 2: overlapping fields. Sometimes we have to work together. Now, listen
Speaker 2: to me. You can stick to your assignments and your
Speaker 2: social circuits. If you feel that your curiosity is related
Speaker 2: to a capacity that can be trained and put to
Speaker 2: Hermetica's use, I can arrange for you to retake the aptitudes.
Speaker 2: If you feel like these restrictions are unfair, you can
Speaker 2: enter into a reconciliation, A reconciliation with whom Days asked,
Speaker 2: who have I harmed? A reconciliation with the ship's agreements.
Speaker 2: The Rep replied tersely. Days nodded they could tell, arguing
Speaker 2: what only make things worse? The Rep left. A short
Speaker 2: time later, the communications block would be removed after a
Speaker 2: short period of observation. They had said. They confiscated the
Speaker 2: sheet with the two articles. What did they called it?
Speaker 2: The paper? Days felt wrecked, like they were surrounded with
Speaker 2: nowhere to go. The confines of the module were oppressive,
Speaker 2: tattle tale, they growled. It was too much. They wanted
Speaker 2: to smash the screen, to yank out all the wall panels,
Speaker 2: to pull out the bed and rip off the sheets,
Speaker 2: to call up mrs and throw them on the floor.
Speaker 2: The austere face of the examiner came to mind, the
Speaker 2: damned aptitudes circumscribing their future. This damn block rep or
Speaker 2: whoever they were. It wasn't fair. They had to move,
Speaker 2: They had to go somewhere. Fortunately, the door opened and
Speaker 2: let them out into the street. The air was heavy
Speaker 2: and damp. As they walked towards the green boiling, the
Speaker 2: first drops began to fall, fat, heavy, cold drops of rain,
Speaker 2: a precipitation event when all the specialists couldn't get humidity
Speaker 2: optimally distributed across the ship, and they had to flood
Speaker 2: a few blocks with a downpour. With all their systems,
Speaker 2: all their modeling, all their aptitudes, the experts could still
Speaker 2: not work out the unexpected. The chaotic days laughed at them.
Speaker 2: As the rain fell harder. A sudden flash made them jump,
Speaker 2: a major electrostatic discharge ripping across the sky. But was
Speaker 2: it in the sky the projection or was the flash
Speaker 2: reel a bolt of charged particles equalizing from one end
Speaker 2: of the platform to the other. They could give no answer.
Speaker 2: All they could do is look upwards, face full of rain,
Speaker 2: and wait for another one. And it came, and they
Speaker 2: felt the light run through them. Now they were at
Speaker 2: the green, and the rain was falling so hard it
Speaker 2: filled their eyes and soaked their clothes. No one else
Speaker 2: was out, unthinkable. All the cameras were blinded by the
Speaker 2: thick sheets of rain. Not even a drone could fly
Speaker 2: in this downpour. Days was completely alone, and they danced.
Speaker 2: The world opened up to them. The shrubs swayed and trembled,
Speaker 2: the bunting drooped and broke, the benches splattered and endured.
Speaker 2: And Days danced generous, leaping and joyous pirouettes, their arms outstretched,
Speaker 2: taking everything as though there were no end to what
Speaker 2: could be given, and offering all of themselves in return.
Speaker 2: They were doing loops around the maypole, now bouncing, spinning
Speaker 2: circles of endless return. More lightning flashed, the rain pounded
Speaker 2: on the street like a stampede. The street was full,
Speaker 2: Days and a million feet arriving, always arriving, endless. Days
Speaker 2: was panting. Never had they run so hard. Their mouth
Speaker 2: was full of rain, their hair was a river. The
Speaker 2: rain was in their belly button and the crack of
Speaker 2: their ass on their eye. Last, between their toes, they
Speaker 2: could hear the world breathing. As the paroxysm eased, Days
Speaker 2: found themselves wandering around the block. Everything was newly acquainted.
Speaker 2: Not a single meter of darkened water slick street was
Speaker 2: the one they had walked down before. Spent years walking
Speaker 2: down these streets belonged to them. Tonight, when the last
Speaker 2: drizzle subsided, Days returned to their module. They shed their
Speaker 2: soaking clothes and went straight to the far wall. Module.
Speaker 2: Surprised reacted late. The bed extracted after they had already
Speaker 2: arrived waiting for it. Had they been expected to towel
Speaker 2: off first. Now they too were part of the unexpected.
Speaker 2: A wisp of storm broken off, unvanquished. They smiled fiercely
Speaker 2: as they dripped into the sheets, rising on the rising
Speaker 2: cumula of dreams. In the morning, they knew Emil had
Speaker 2: been lying. All of them had been lying. They walked
Speaker 2: straight out the door, unclosed, fast, unbroken, leaving Module in
Speaker 2: the middle of a sentence. They walked up and down
Speaker 2: the street, looking at the modules the sky. They did
Speaker 2: not have zimps knack for equations, but surely they could
Speaker 2: find something, a proof, But all there was were two
Speaker 2: cross streets and four nodes. No other way out? What
Speaker 2: had the reps said? Their choices were keep to their circuits,
Speaker 2: retake their aptitudes, or a reconciliation. No, they were lying.
Speaker 2: There were always other choices. The smaller units were three
Speaker 2: meters high, with a rounded lip and no hand hold
Speaker 2: on the facade. No way a single person could get
Speaker 2: on top of one. But Days was not a single person.
Speaker 2: They were a million feet. They were a storm cloud.
Speaker 2: As neighbors avoided their gaze and hurried onwards towards destinations,
Speaker 2: Days found themselves in front of the maypole. Hello, dancing partner,
Speaker 2: they smiled. The maypole kept on pointing towards the sky. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're the one, aren't you. You take me where I
Speaker 2: need to go? Now, if I can just get you
Speaker 2: to change position. They knew it was possible. They had
Speaker 2: seen it done. All they needed was an accomplice. Days
Speaker 2: could only imagine what sort of blocks they had on
Speaker 2: them all throughout the system. By now, a neighbor was
Speaker 2: rushing along to one of the nodes, studiously avoiding Days's nakedness. You,
Speaker 2: they said, stop, Terrified the neighbor complied, Days smiled, we
Speaker 2: need to clear the way for a therapeutic intervention. Tell
Speaker 2: the block to release this element so we can move
Speaker 2: it out of the way. Clearly uncomfortable, but seduced by
Speaker 2: the logic that a therapeutic intervention was indeed in order,
Speaker 2: The neighbor stepped forward and said, in a trembling voice, Block, Uh,
Speaker 2: we need you to uh release this poll Days could
Speaker 2: almost sense the hesitation. Clearly, all kinds of models and
Speaker 2: algorithms were telling the block this was a terrible idea,
Speaker 2: but human overrides were given a back door precisely for
Speaker 2: those situations in which the system did not understand which
Speaker 2: criteria to prioritize. The block relented and the ground panel
Speaker 2: released its hold on the maypole. Thanks, Day said pleasantly,
Speaker 2: you can go. They got a grip on the pole
Speaker 2: and lowered it down onto their shoulder. It actually didn't
Speaker 2: weigh that much despite its height, and they were able
Speaker 2: to drag it off the green. The day was going
Speaker 2: perfectly so far. A claxon sounded in the direction of
Speaker 2: the health center, but Days didn't care. They were humming.
Speaker 2: They couldn't remember what song. Arriving at a single person unit.
Speaker 2: Days propped the pole against the edge of the roof.
Speaker 2: It leaned in at an angle that was somewhat steeper
Speaker 2: than forty five degrees, but still not so steep that
Speaker 2: they couldn't shimmy up it, And shimmy they did. The
Speaker 2: medics arrived then, running towards them, but they were most
Speaker 2: of the way up, and the medics were afraid to
Speaker 2: dislodge the pole and cause Days to fall. Hello, they called,
Speaker 2: and then they were at the roof. Good Bye. The
Speaker 2: roof was the same color and texture as the facade.
Speaker 2: The most remarkable thing about it was once they walked
Speaker 2: in a couple meters, the street disappeared. They were in
Speaker 2: a completely new place, all their own, not in a
Speaker 2: module out of doors, but not under the watchful eyes
Speaker 2: of the street. But they weren't out yet. The adjoining module,
Speaker 2: a family unit, was two meters taller. They were able
Speaker 2: to gain the roof with a running jump. Now they
Speaker 2: were higher than they'd ever been in their life, and
Speaker 2: the next destination was already in reach. The module's roof
Speaker 2: connected with a broad platform, the roof for the life
Speaker 2: support and storage facilities that filled up each of the
Speaker 2: four corners.
Speaker 1: Of the block.
Speaker 2: They ran thirty odd meters and then they were at
Speaker 2: the wall, the wall that they had never seen but
Speaker 2: always intuited, marking the outer boundary between this block and
Speaker 2: the next, and it was only a meter higher than
Speaker 2: the roof where they now stood. Days was nervous. They
Speaker 2: had not known what they would find here. In theory,
Speaker 2: every block was walled off on all six sides, and
Speaker 2: the only way in or out was through a node.
Speaker 2: There was a transparent membrane under the sky that allowed
Speaker 2: for the controlled circulation of air and water. But Days
Speaker 2: didn't know if the membrane came all the way down
Speaker 2: to the top of the physical wall, forming a pocket
Speaker 2: around each block. If they could detach the membrane or
Speaker 2: tear it, it turned out to be even easier. There
Speaker 2: must have been a substantial gap, because Days could not
Speaker 2: see or feel any membrane as they climbed up on
Speaker 2: the wall, and just like that, they had gotten out
Speaker 2: of the block. They had made their own choice, their
Speaker 2: own way out. Days started to run. The top of
Speaker 2: the wall was broad and flat, and running was easy.
Speaker 2: They ran fast, They ran far. They didn't know how
Speaker 2: many blocks they left behind, and they kept running the
Speaker 2: sun was bright and glorious. The wind blew freely. It
Speaker 2: was all connected, unobstructed. They were sure of that. Now
Speaker 2: a cumulus clouds swelled up past them into shadow. Their
Speaker 2: skin cooled. The cloud moved on, and immediately the heat
Speaker 2: and light returned. Tears came to their eyes. The sun
Speaker 2: was majestic, undeniable, The wind went wherever it pleased. All
Speaker 2: the colors unfolded themselves from the blue and blinding white.
Speaker 2: The wall continued as far as they could see. Every
Speaker 2: hundred meters, they came to an intersection where another wall
Speaker 2: perpendicular stretched right and left, making the horizon in both directions.
Speaker 2: But they knew the grid was not unending, because when
Speaker 2: they strained to look into that farthest distance, the horizon
Speaker 2: curled down, not up, but down. They were in a
Speaker 2: different place entirely. Their tears flowed freely. The wall passed
Speaker 2: over another node. How many blocks did they run past?
Speaker 2: Now their world had grown infinitely larger. This time they
Speaker 2: veered to the side. A gentle worrying accompanied them from behind.
Speaker 2: Now they were running atop modules again, peering over the
Speaker 2: edge into the street of an unknown block. It might
Speaker 2: as well have been a foreign country. People were in
Speaker 2: the street, strangers. They looked up in astonishment. The sky
Speaker 2: is real, Days cried at them, The sky is real.
Speaker 2: The whorrying came closer. Days ran on another block, atop
Speaker 2: the modules, overlooking another street. Now they were sobbing, uncontrollably joyous, broken.
Speaker 2: The sky is real, The sky is real. No one
Speaker 2: knew what to make of the crazy prophet on the rooftops.
Speaker 2: They didn't have to think about it long. The safety
Speaker 2: drones caught up to Days. Four milliamps of current pushed
Speaker 2: through their skin and into a circuit of muscle and
Speaker 2: bone by fifty thousand volts of electromotive force, and they
Speaker 2: were on the ground. Dunt, dunk, dum the done. That's
Speaker 2: the end of part four. What's gonna happen next? You're
Speaker 2: gonna have to wait a week unless you listen all
Speaker 2: at once and like wait and binge the whole thing,
Speaker 2: in which case you don't have to wait. You can
Speaker 2: just cut ahead. Now. Honestly, you could have got a
Speaker 2: head like now now, I'm just gonna do plugs here
Speaker 2: at the end. But if you want to know more
Speaker 2: about Alan Lee, the author of her Medica, you should
Speaker 2: check out Peter Gelderlos. Peter is p E t e
Speaker 2: R and Gelderlos is g E l d e R
Speaker 2: l o O S. And that is the name that
Speaker 2: they write most of There's he whatever. If you ever
Speaker 2: do the thing where you just like, are theying people
Speaker 2: so much that you became incapable of remembering that there's
Speaker 2: gendered pronouns for a second, you can catch Peter by
Speaker 2: reading his other books and also his substack, which is
Speaker 2: called Surviving Leviathan and I will talk to you next
Speaker 2: week on cool Zone Media book Club. Oh, I almost forgot.
Speaker 2: We have our own feed. Now, that's right. If you're like,
Speaker 2: why would I listen? All I could happen here. I
Speaker 2: just want to listen to cool Zone Media book Club.
Speaker 2: Well you can do it by subscribing to cool Zone
Speaker 2: Media book Club, which is fucking cool. All right, well
Speaker 2: that's cool Zone, fucking cool z. Nope, I almost had something,
Speaker 2: but I don't. I'll just talk to you next week. Bye.
Speaker 1: It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Speaker 1: Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can
Speaker 1: find sources where it could happen here updated monthly at
Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.