ep10 - do sirens wiggle their fins in ice?

Jaran ventures out in the blizzard to see and old, fused friend about a comet. Someone is heard singing in the murderous winds, and back at the facility someone finally wants to meet.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hey there, this is Jaran. I'm the facility manager at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department located on the coastal strip in East Antarctica. I'm signing in for yet another cold shift. So just before heading out into the blizzard to deliver the voice transcriber device to Alexander Voss on board MS Valbar, man, I I had just put my mittens on when Ingrid came by handing me yet another letter. Perhaps not a letter as much as it was a note, but it's I still had to remove the mittens, which takes some time. They're great mittens, by the way, warm as a bonfire, without getting third degree burns. Practical. But yeah, I I read the note. Ingrid had already translated it, of course, and this note said your task, which is more accurately a duty, has not been discharged to the standard your government demands. We shall convene upon the matter at four o'clock this afternoon. Punctuality is not optional. TA grind. So obviously I am feeling a little bit nervous, you know. I have no idea who this man or this thing is, and I'm I'm not very keen on finding it out if I am to be honest with you. I thought I was, but now that I will, I won't, but I must. I mean what if he what what if he really is the mean, lean devil in genes? You know? I'm not keen on meeting the devil. I mean there are so many things I'd like to do before I perish. And I and I always thought I had more time to do them. You know, I'd like to paint the common room, for instance. I'd like to learn how to do a backflip. I'd like to build a miniature model of the Deep Earth Anomaly department. It would look great. And most of all, I'd like to celebrate the solar flare radiation celebration once more, you know. Like I said, many things. But now I am being summoned by what is most likely the devil to answer for my faults. Which I also wonder what are what are my faults. You know, I have been doing a pretty thorough job as a facility manager, and I don't think I have been sloppy in any way. So hopefully he's just being dramatic and that I'm only being summoned to get yelled at, you know, before learning that Thomas Grind is not really the devil after all. That is my hope, and I will I will try to hope until I don't. So yeah, I still have a whole night ahead. Then I'll go to sleep in the morning and get up in time to meet Thomas Grind, the overseer. Anyways, after reading the note I had to sit down for a bit. I tried asking Ingrid for what she thought, but she only told me a joke. She said, What is both wrong and right at the same time? Then I asked a clock. And Ingrid asked, Are you a clock? So I said, What? Ding dong, sing along. She said and laughed electronically and drove off. So yeah, I also have the dismantling and maintenance of a robot to attend to when I get back. But yeah, I got my mittens on, that's that's where where I started. I I I got my mittens back on, I took a deep breath and I headed out into the hellish blizzard. So the walk to MS Svalbach was longer than I remembered, and uh the blizzard has increased in strength over the last few weeks. I was I was really hoping it would die down a bit, but this one has just reached puberty and it's throwing a tantrum, let me tell you. And at one point, just as I passed Luna Ridge, I was hit by a gush of wind, and I had to sit down and put hooks into the ice so I wouldn't fly away. And I I swear I could hear singing flying through the wind, almost angelic. It was very strange. I you know I thought it was just you know normal wind howling, but I'm I'm I'm absolutely certain after a while that this was somebody singing. And when the the gush of wind was gone, the singing stopped. So whatever it was, it had nice pipes. So I think I spent roughly about an hour from here getting to where the ship sits. Uh it looked exactly the same as it did the last time I was there. So I went into it, I looked a bit around and uh I found my way to the captain's lodge and there, just like I had hoped, was Captain Alexander Voss. Hello there, old friend, you know, I said to him. I found a chair and I sat down on it. It's it's tiring walking through a blizzard after all, so I had to sit down. Voss, first thing he said, he said I told me I must be crazy or mad going out into these conditions. Or both, he said, you know. Crazy and mad. Imagine that. But I just said, nah, you know, I'm just a man with good clothes and better gear, I said. However, I said, I heard singing, I heard melodies in the wind, I said. And I think if Voss wasn't fused with his desk, he would have repositioned to a more comfortable position. I could see it in his face. Then he said, even as a sailor, he said, I never believed in sirens. And I never encountered any, not even when we anchored near the Sorentine Peninsula for four months. So you could only imagine the surprise when we heard them here, he said. Well, I bet, I said, I mean, how in the hell, oh my good man, do they wiggle their fins in solid ice? No, I'm confused. And Alexander Voss replied, Well, I am fused. So we laughed a bit at that. Then Alexander broke out into a cough that sounded like an old engine burning dry. So I asked, you know, are you okay there, old buddy? Well, my lungs are not what they used to be, he said, Neither is my heart, he said. So I just reassured him. I said, Well, as cold as your heart may be, it warms us around it. Then I went on to ask if he was able to drink anything, if he still feels thirst, you know, or hunger or anything. And he said that the first couple of weeks after the fusion, he was sure he'd die from starvation, but decades later he he has given up hope. I'm still hungry as a shark in a pool of blood, he said, and thirsty as a fish on land. Well then, I said, and took out my thermos. You know, see I have a robot, I said, her name is Ingrid, I said, and she makes the best hot chocolate brandy there is, I said. So we had a toast to Ingrid and took a sip and his face skined color for the first time in many, many, many, many, many, many years. So listen, I said, and he did. And I told him then I told him about the device I found while searching for blankets. And he quite liked the idea. He asked me to set it up close to his hand so he could actually use it without moving, you know. He can't move. He is, after all, fused with a wooden desk on a frozen ship, so yeah. So I did what he asked me to. We tested the device, made sure it worked, and then we had a toast to it when it did. And I told him to let me know whenever he needed anything, and then I told him about the metal sphere in the sky above us. A bit of a leap there, but you know, I couldn't wait to hear what he had to say. And the first thing he asked was, Were there inscriptions on it? And I said, none that I could see, I said, but I'm certain it has been made by something or or someone. Alexander would have turned his head and looked into nothingness, thinking, but you know, he couldn't move his head, so he didn't. But he said, Look in my top drawer. He said, There is a notebook in it. Take it out, will you? I said that I I said I would, but first I asked him if if he would feel it. I mean, wouldn't it be like opening up a part of his body if I opened a drawer? You know what I mean? But he he he said he couldn't feel it, so I wonder what would happen if I put food into it. Would he be full? Is it part of his system? Not that I asked him about that, you know, that would be weird. So yeah, I did. I I opened the drawer and I found a notebook. Then I asked, what am I looking for? And he told me to look at the last few pages, I think he said, so I did. And if I had had hot chocolate brandy in my mouth, I would have spat it right out. Because on the page, drawn with a fountain pen was a sketch of a metal sphere. Identical to the one I saw, to the one above us. My first thought was amazing drawing. You know, you drew this? I asked Alexander, and he said yes, so I applauded him. You know, you have to, he's an artist. But then I asked, when when was this? Which is obviously a bit difficult question. He's been there very long, so he said it's hard to say. But I mean, it has happened before. And I asked him that, did it happen before? Or I mean what had happened before? I mean, what had happened at all? I asked, you know. I sometimes think out loud. Well, he said, looking around with his eyes, waving his fingers on both hands, fingers that are on his arms that are fused in the desk. I think it was a hint that this happened. So I asked, you know, I thought you said the ice entities did this. I said. I did say that, he said. And that sphere is where they came from, he said. Now, at this point, I wasn't sure if we were talking about the same thing when we talked about ice entities. So I said, you know, Joshua thinks they are ghosts of explorers, I said. And Alexander was said, Well, in a way they most likely are explorers. The question is where they come from, you know. Where I come from, we don't call them ghosts, we call them demons. Are these the ones that build the arch? I asked Alexander. But he wouldn't know. He told me I wouldn't know, he said. Which is fear. You know, this happened after he got fused with the ship. So what must I do? I asked. Then he said, hide. Be still, be quiet, do not move. All the things that we should have done, Alexander said. And how long from they appeared on the sky until they were here? I asked. But he didn't know a few days maybe, a few weeks, maybe, a few months maybe. And what do they want? I said, you know, I'm I'm I don't know, he doesn't know all these questions, but I just had to know. And the only answer he gave me was pray you never find out. Then he asked me if I was feeling okay because I started to look a bit pale, he said, and I told him, I'm I'm doing all right. I have a lot on my plate right now, I said, lots of big tasks, I said, and the biggest task of all is trying not to worry about it all. So he said, I might be wrong, he said, that the sphere about the sphere and all and the fusing. It could be all a coincidence, you know, that these two things just happened simultaneously, not having anything to do with one another, and that the hiding was only to be on the safe side. I think he felt bad for my pale face. I think he felt bad for scaring me, you know. So let's get these devices working first, he said. Then everything will sort itself out. So I took another deep breath and I changed the subject. I told him all about the solar flare radiation celebration, and I invited him to the next one. And I know, all great divers from the far future, that he is stuck on a ship, but I have thought about it. And with a little bit of planning, with a little bit of work, MS Svalba is a great location for a party. So I still have many months, hopefully, to prepare. And Alexan Alexander thought it sounded like a great idea. You know, it will be great for the morale of my crew, he said. Which made me think of his crew. And I asked, How are you communicating? I asked. And again he didn't know, he said, We just do. So then we finished the contents of the termos before I went back into the blizzard and headed back home from to my dear deep earth anomaly department. I even heard the sirens on my way back. They they were harmonizing this time, but I didn't feel compelled at all to follow their voices. You know, there is a blizzard outside after all. So I just went home and when I got back it was getting early in the morning, so I went into the control room. I checked the status of the facility, which all looked pristine, by the way, thanks to Ingrid and Joshua. They are great facility managers, too, probably a lot better than I am. So I'm I'm lucky. What a team. So yeah, I need to get some rest before I have to get up again to meet Thomas Grind, which may or may not seal my fate. Who knows? So I I I hope I'll sign back on, life intact, limbs intact, as I am now really. But if I don't, please, oh great divers from the far future, make sure the Norwegian government hear these tapes and and make sure Ingrid is taken care of, and that Joshua gets a tenure at one of the finest universities for astrophysics there is. Please. And also keep this facility running. The the spiders don't like the cold, they need it. So yeah. This is Joran signing off yet another cold shift.