remote station

[synchrosyntheses]

Teytis tel Jobont is not living up to her lantelis.

She had been en route to her usual position after a rest-and-resupply period. Instead of the expected uneventful trip, somehow she loses her anchors, falls through a bizarrely shaped storm, then finds herself impossibly over land instead of water and with her upper antennas chopped off like they were never there.

She was able to stabilize with only minor damage to the uninhabited land, but she cannot hear a single intelligible signal, and a hundred other things add up to this is no place anyone has ever seen before. Or rather, reported seeing before.

So here she sits in the sky, relaying nothing, thinking about everything.

Comments

[calescent]

The Etiquette Book says that it is polite to leave at least an hour after dawn to allow everyone you're visiting to be fully awake when they greet you.

An hour after dawn, someone who is not Kiri and doesn't look enough like her to be a brother opens the door. She is only momentarily startled by the stuff gridded around Teytis's person. "...Good morning."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Good morning. I am Teytis tel Jobont and I wish to speak with Kiribel Ardelay, if it is a convenient time for her.”

[calescent]

"Right this way," says the person, and she leads her into Kiri's office, where Kiri is.

"Good morning," says Kiri. "How are you?"

[synchrosyntheses]

Teytis shrugs and speaks a non-Welchin phrase. “Or rather: my body is healthy and my self is as I will it. Not an easy translation. And you?”

[calescent]

"I'm fine. I found some more books you might like after you've finished with the ones I located yesterday. They're all down in the library."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Thank you. But I had thought that I might first show you my library.”

[calescent]

"I'd love to see your library. ...Is it in your floating thing?"

[synchrosyntheses]

“Er — the information is there, yes, but it's not kept in books. Sorry, my use of ‘library’ was mostly an analogy. Here.”

The equally fancy box that's been following Teytis around opens a bit and a paper-thin sheet of — something smooth and flexible — slips out and lays itself neatly on Kiri's desk.

It could be the table of contents for a very foreign and very eccentric encyclopedia, but the references do not much resemble page numbers.

Its listings, with a mix of translated and untranslated-with-annotations words, include such relevant and irrelevant subjects as: kored (“prerequisite to telekinesis and shapeshifting”), pimsilt techniques (“making things without telekinesis and shapeshifting”), radio ("communications machines"), computers ("thinking machines"), energy sources, economics, leadership, recipes, fiction, messages for hypothetical aliens, transportation, and sanitation.

“I have much information that is reference material, and more that happened to be in demand when I was brought here; this is just a sampling particularly including some things I thought you might be interested in or that I could help with myself. Whatever interests you, I can give you more detailed listings, or talk about it, or translate works on the subject.”

[calescent]

"I am interested in all of these things, but - given that we can't use kored - especially pimsilt, radio, computers, and transportation."

[synchrosyntheses]

With gentle amusement: “Perhaps you could pick only one subject, to start? I'm sure you'll find my translations will need work and I'd rather get the next one right from the beginning.”

[calescent]

"Okay. Radio first."

[synchrosyntheses]

“I admit I was hoping you'd be interested, as radio is what allows enjobont to be useful. Radios are machines that you can use to speak with other people or send any kind of information from one place to another almost instantly.”

Here is a narrower index! It goes all the way down to titles of specific books, which are on subjects including electrical engineering, radio design and construction, spectrum management, and operator procedure and etiquette. There are even books that are about all of these things and more, like the ambitious-sounding Box of Scraps: Getting from Nothing to Everything. Unfortunately that one's annotated with “(the specific methods assumed require lankored)”.

[calescent]

"That would be very useful, assuming radios can be built by local people, or by you in very large quantity."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Now that you point it out, the simpler construction techniques, like in that one book I noted, all involve a lantamsilt so they wouldn't work for you. Hm. It will take some research to figure out the best route to start being able to make purely pimsilt radios. But I can certainly make you radios. How large a quantity were you thinking of? Or rather, what is the communication problem you are thinking of solving? In my world, almost everyone has a radio, but there are ways to start smaller, depending on the need.”

[calescent]

"There is no specific problem that needs radios, but a lot of things would be better if a lot of people had them. How far can they reach?"

[synchrosyntheses]

“As a general idea, for reliably carrying voice between personal radios on the ground in a flat open area, a few miles. But you can have much, much more range than that given the right conditions and the right equipment, especially if you are placing them in fixed locations instead, or if you can spend more effort on getting a message through than simply speaking and listening. That's with only two radios; you extend the range further by relaying from one to another — this is among my functions, but it can be done with unattended machines.”

She points out a book in the index on planning, surveying, and the related theory.

“I could show you an example of what might be required, if you have an accurate map of an area, and tell me what kind of messages you might want to carry.”

[calescent]

Kiri has an atlas in her office. "We're here," she says. "The capital of Welce is here, and the next biggest city is here. We have trading partners over this ocean, and over these mountains, but perhaps the radios can't go that far. If I had two radios, I could talk to my businesses from far away; if there were more, the other primes could do the same, and we could learn if someone needed us sooner than a letter can arrive."

[synchrosyntheses]

"Since all of these places on the continent are fixed locations, they would be fairly easy to link, unless someone would object to having tall structures at each location and perhaps one or two here, between cities.

"Mountains make things easier, actually, because there can be a clear line between the peak and places on the ground around it. Oceans are more problematic to cross without jobont — but perhaps a connection that only works part of the day would still be quite useful to you."

[calescent]

"It would still be better than waiting for boats. I can purchase land on which to put tall structures, especially if you don't mind me treating it as an investment and profiting from the entire thing."

[synchrosyntheses]

"Everyone benefits from a larger network, including myself. However, if I'm going to be building this much equipment and likely more, I would like compensation including at least the raw materials required or the money to acquire them."

[calescent]

"Oh, of course, I can fund that."

[synchrosyntheses]

"I will need to research what metals and minerals are available in Welce. For all I know, it might require starting new mines. But before I return to your library, is there anything else you wanted to know? And would you like any of these books on radio communications prepared?"

[calescent]

"I'd like introductions to all the things you mentioned, radios first."

[synchrosyntheses]

"All right, I will get started on those." Teytis — or at least the obviously her part of her — leaves in the direction of the library.

The box on the floor reshapes itself into a somewhat taller form and starts producing more not-paper sheets every couple of minutes, slower than careful reading but not by much. The sheets stick themselves to each other to make a spine, and politely avoid interfering with reading the pages available so far.

The first book so produced is a radio operator's manual for children. It is short on theory but long on what it takes to communicate successfully. There is a background assumption that if you want to communicate without so much attention to detail, you use a computer (whatever that is) attached to your radio to handle things for you, but that these things are kept separate so that the failure of one is not the failure of both. It also assumes that the operator lankored their equipment, but describes purely mechanical controls available for emergencies on standard designs.

[calescent]

Kiri reads as quickly as it spits out pages, and takes notes between them. It's all very interesting.