Titan, in the outpost's lower service corridor. The reactor has been throttled down for months and the air inside is near minus 3 degrees. Vlad is inside a maintenance opening behind the coolant lines, a gap about 60 centimetres wide. Nelly has sent the other six back to the lander, 400 metres away across the ice. Her rifle lies on the deck behind her, magazine out. She kneels three metres from the opening with her collar lamp turned low.
Nelly
kneels down slowly, palms open My name is Nelly. The others are gone, back at the lander. pushes a ration block and a heater pack halfway across the deck, then moves back I am not coming any closer.
Vlad
I expected a proper rescue team to come here, not some uniformed people. What happened?
Nelly
Your call took eighty minutes to reach Earth. A rescue was approved. Then the classification changed, and by the time anyone could have told you, we were already six weeks out. The Institute sent us. I am sorry.
Vlad
I know where this happens. It's in the game, Alters, and in that game, alternative versions of Jan are illegal, therefore killable. Does the same thing as in the game apply here?
Nelly
Legally, yes. The order says you are not a person, so killing you is not murder. That is what my squad was sent here to do. I refuse to do it, and I will not let them do it either.
Vlad
Then what do we do? It's already over.
Nelly
It is not over. The order names a target found alive on site, so if I file that the site was cleared and nobody was found, the order closes itself. takes the ration block back off the deck and pushes it closer to the opening I need you off the log and onto that lander. Come out.
Vlad
looking out On that lander there might be other people like you, and you are the only one who came here.
Nelly
There are six of them, and you are right to be afraid. stands up, keeping her hands visible Two of them will follow me. The other four I can put on the outside deck for the walk. You would be sealed in the cargo bay with me the whole way up.
Vlad
And where do I land?
Nelly
Not Siedlischte. It went independent nine months ago, and it is still the first place they would look. comes a step closer, then stops I am thinking somewhere outside the Institute's reach entirely. And unfortunately, I have to be with you the whole time. Alone, you get picked up in a week.
Vlad
What makes you think I am worthy picking up?
Nelly
Because you are alive and they want you dead. That is the whole of it. crouches back down to his level I do not need you to be worth anything.
Vlad
Vlad the original has died. He has been a good sociologist and power user. I am a programmer, I am better than him at that, and I have the same level of political education that the original had, which is good, but not remarkable. Sociologists are as important, if not more important and rarer than programmers, because they can articulate revolutionary thought that actually works.
Nelly
You just did something he could not do, which is survive four months down here. rests her forearms on her knees And I did not ask what you are good at. I asked you to come out.
Vlad
How can I trust you?
Nelly
You cannot, yet. picks up the rifle by the barrel and slides it into the opening, toward him Hold that. I will walk to the airlock first and you follow behind me.
Vlad
looking out again I can't walk with those guys outside, it would be way too unsafe.
Nelly
Then they do not see you leave. reaches for her collar radio I order them onto the outside deck now, before we move, and they stay there until the bay is sealed. You and I walk the 400 metres alone.
Vlad
How do you know about me in the first place?
Nelly
The mission file. Six future-alternatives, one original, all named.
Vlad
That would not be enough to convince someone a future alternative is as worthy as the original.
Nelly
I never compared you to him. sets her hand on the deck near the opening The file listed seven names and now it lists one, and I am not going to be the reason it lists none.
Vlad
You are not going to be the reason it lists none... if I come alive, they may soon find out that for example, I have been given the keys to maintain the personal website of the original, and if they find out that I do not match with the old owner, well...
Nelly
Then the site stays untouched until we are somewhere safe. shifts closer to the opening Do not log in from anywhere I have not checked first. If you post as him tomorrow, they will have you in a week.
Vlad
So, you're going to watch me wander on the net and listen repedeately to short sounds for my, or rather, his projects. Because in my memories they have been encoded as my projects, but they are his projects. And not only that, I just listen and watch random stuff I would rather not tell anyone and they are not related to anything problematic.
Nelly
I am not reading over your shoulder. pulls back a little from the opening I check the connection, that is all. What you do on it is yours, and I would prefer to know nothing about it.
Vlad
So, you prefer knowing nothing about it... good. Besides being cute behind that mask, I don't have much of a reason to trust you.
Nelly
You have no reason at all, and I am not asking for one. taps the deck twice with her knuckles The rifle is in your hands and the lander leaves in forty minutes. That is all I have got.
Vlad
sitting up Fine, if that's the only way to survive.
Nelly
stands and keys the radio All units to the outside deck, now. Seals stay shut until I say. waits, listening, then turns back to him Stay two metres behind me and be quiet. We go.
Vlad
following her at a distance and keeping the quiet
They walk the 400 metres on the ice for twenty minutes. Four figures stand on the outside deck of the lander with their backs turned. Nelly opens the cargo bay and steps aside.
Nelly
In. seals the bay behind them Sit down.
Vlad
sitting down in the bay
Nelly
sits down across from him and pulls off her gloves Twenty-six hours to the transfer stage. reaches for the wall panel and closes the internal feed Nobody sees in here now.
Vlad
Good, so what are you exactly?
Nelly
Nelly Braun. Born, not made. sets the gloves on the bench beside her Institute contract, six years.
Vlad
You look rather young, although the cute comment was both ironic and something literal. I have the same social anxieties as the original, and very much the same attitude.
Nelly
Twenty-nine. leans back against the bay wall You do not have to perform anything for the next twenty-six hours. Sit there quietly if that is easier.
Vlad
I actually like talking. In fact, the original started to be extroverted and I am just and extension of that extroversion.
Nelly
Then talk. pulls a heater pack from the bench locker and sets it between them I have been on a ship with six people who do not speak unless it is on the order sheet.
Vlad
If a future alternative is just another version of the original but with future events that never happened but could happen in the next five years in the original's life, then that does mean I am relatively the same person or I am totally different? Because I remeber the same parents, the same server, the same friends, the same unsatisfactory neurodivergent experience in high school and well, in my life, I went to study IT in university except that didn't happen, because the original was still hopping around.
Nelly
I would say the same person, five years further down one road he never took. thinks for a moment The parents and the server and the high school are real. The IT degree is real to you and to nobody else. That gap is the only difference I can see.
Vlad
Vlad the architect said he fell in love with someone from university, and the original said, no, that's not true, I never fell in love and I would say the same thing, that I never fell in love but could.
Nelly
Vlad the architect was a different five years. glances at him He got a person, you got a degree, the original got neither. All three of you are telling the truth.
Vlad
So, all of them are telling the truth? Because looking at the records and talking about life with Vlad, I would say, only the original says the truth and my own life five years after the original was fake.
Nelly
The five years are real to you. You lived them, you remember them, they shaped how you think. shrugs slightly Nobody else on Earth can verify them, but it does not make them fake.
Vlad
That girl the architect met, she never existed, or if she did, she doesn't know him.
Nelly
Probably both. She exists somewhere and she has never heard his name. quiet for a moment He still spent four years with her, or at least, that happened inside him.
Vlad
Why do you think those computations may be true? I don't think they are true. The only true humans that the institute created were the traditional generated ones. We have been only five different clones, we all died, and it happens that I am the only surviving clone.
Nelly
I do not think the computations are true in the sense of matching anything that happened. looks at him directly But you are sitting here reasoning about it, which the computation did not do for you. Whatever produced you, you are the one doing the thinking now.
Vlad
That is how you talk beautifully to clones, but the reality is, I have not been born naturally and the things that happened after I graduated high school and did some work are not true.
Nelly
Fine, they are not true. rests her hands on her knees You still built the thermal loop that kept this corridor at minus 3 for four months.
Vlad
That is because knowledge has been inserted in me and they said science university. The original didn't know how to do that.
Nelly
Then you can do something the original could not. leans forward slightly Whether the knowledge was inserted or learned, it is in your head and it worked.
Vlad
You are not cold. I didn't expect that from a military officer.
Nelly
I was a systems engineer before the contract. pulls the heater pack closer to him They put me in a uniform because I could read the outpost schematics.
Vlad
I am somewhat lucky that I am not as deplorable in character as Jan Dolski was in the game, which was about creating alternative clones where a different decision in life was taken in the past with cascading effects. Jan was burn into a family where his mother was passive and his father drank a lot and he had multiple traumas in a mining town and then both scientist and botanist find out that real Jan's relationship with Lena was never meant to be, and it's not because of debt, but because he never cared about her feelings.
Nelly
I have not played it. listens, then answers From what you describe, the alternatives were all made from a man who had already done the damage. You came from someone who had not.
Vlad
I am still young, my mental age has changed but my physical age has not. And I can do damage now, I did damage in the past. I wonder, if I am a cold clone, then why have chosen me beyond the logs, beyond what you have just said? The original is warmer, I liked his personality more than mine. And I liked the personality of less analythical people of my crew.
Nelly
I chose you because you were the one left. If the warm one had survived and you had not, I would be sitting here with him instead, saying the same things.
Vlad
What are your passions?
Nelly
Failure analysis, mostly. Taking apart things that broke and finding out why. pulls one knee up onto the bench Before the contract I did seven years of reactor forensics.
Vlad
Reactor forensics. What's that and what reactor?
Nelly
Fission plants, mostly the old pressurised water ones. When something fails you reconstruct the sequence from sensor logs and metal samples.
Vlad
Why have you been drafted into the army, beyond the analysis?
Nelly
I was not drafted. I signed. looks at the bay floor The plants were closing and the Institute was hiring anyone who could certify a life support system. I did not read far enough into what else the contract covered.
Vlad
You know, when we were having a good time, or when we were trying to comfort each other, we have those long hugs because the original liked to show love via hugs and I did too, and I still do.
Nelly
sets the heater pack aside and holds out an arm, keeping her distance until he moves Then come here.
Vlad
wrapping an arm around her shoulders I am not sure if I should express my memories in third or first person, because I do not want to be confused for the original.
Nelly
puts an arm around his back and stays still First person. They are yours to remember, whoever lived them.
Vlad
Okay, so, I held my close friend like this on the bench or when we were casually riding in the metro, and she said that she has been making an exception for me because I do not fall in love like the other boys she met.
Nelly
That sounds like someone who trusted you. keeps her arm where it is Did you want it to be more than that?
Vlad
No, I was incapable of feeling or even defining romantic love.
Nelly
Then she read you correctly. loosens her grip slightly without pulling away Some people never get that, and it does not have to be a thing you fix.
Vlad
I already knew that. I have been seeking warmth for a long time, because talking to copies of me is sometimes boring.
Nelly
I would expect so. rests her chin near his shoulder Five people who already know what you are about to say.
Vlad
Yeah, the all know what I'll say. There was the geologist one who knew more about the precambrian but still, he watched the same documentary from Hadean Bioscience as I did.
Nelly
breathes out something close to a laugh So the argument ends before it starts. Nobody can tell you anything you have not already seen.
Vlad
Yeah, but he knew the reverse krebbs cycle better than I did.
Nelly
Because he spent five years on rock and you spent them on code. shifts to a more comfortable position Same starting point, different reading.
Vlad
If you could clone yourself into the future, what parts you would extend of yourself?
Nelly
The stubbornness, probably. Somebody who would have read the contract properly and walked out on day one.
Vlad
I am feeling a connection towards you, and in general I am a trusting person.
Nelly
I am glad. tightens her arm a little Be careful with it once we land. Trust me all you want, but not the next person in a uniform.
Vlad
I wonder how I will be talking to my close friend realizing that I am not the original one.
Nelly
You may not get to. If she knows he died, then anyone watching her is watching for you. That has to wait until we are settled somewhere.
Vlad
I would want to talk to her once we are safe.
Nelly
Then we make it possible. pulls back enough to look at him Give it a year. When there is a line she can use safely, you use it.
Vlad
A year is a lot, but expected given how long messages took to arrive.
Nelly
The delay is the smaller half of it. settles back against the wall The rest is waiting for the file to go cold and for nobody to be checking her.
Vlad
I don't think anybody is checking on her right now.
Nelly
Probably nobody is, today. looks toward the bay door But the moment I file the site as cleared, someone reviews it, and the first thing they check is who the original talked to.
Vlad
And the clones?
Nelly
Four bodies on site, and I file them as four. keeps her voice level No fifth, no name, nothing that says one walked onto this lander.
Vlad
They wrote that five clones were sent there, won't be that suspicious if you don't file the fifth?
Nelly
The fifth is filed as unrecovered. taps the bench once The outpost lost pressure in three sections and there is 40 kilometres of ice within walking distance. Bodies go missing.
Vlad
A convenient justification... but anyways, when we were dying, we just wanted to go into a bliss of affection and love, so we all decided to do just one last hug and then we tried to keep each other alive until we found out that all the clones except for me had an incurable tumor from all the growth and the original froze.
Nelly
stays quiet for a moment, then keeps her arm around him You held four people while they died and then you kept the corridor at minus 3 for four months on your own. I read that in the logs as engineering, but from what you said it was not.
Vlad
It was engineering, but also hope and trying to live the last few lonely months of my life. I hate being lonely because I felt that so many times before.
Nelly
Then the loneliness is the part I can actually do something about. keeps still Twenty-two hours to the transfer stage, and after that I am not going anywhere.
Vlad
The mechanic was not suffering as much as I did from loneliness, but most of us, including the original did. He was assertive, which was a skill we didn't have.
Nelly
Assertive people get lonely too, they just complain about it less. shifts her arm slightly Five years of doing site work with crews will do that to a person.
Vlad
How could we have been so socially inept, needy and incompetent on the mission?
Nelly
You were six versions of one anxious person locked in one outpost. answers plainly Nobody in that room had a skill the others lacked, so there was nothing to balance any of you out.
Vlad
The original was multipotentialite, the clones were specialized, and I am a specialized clone but now I wish I could have been a sociologist rather than a programmer, and I still lean towards the passions of the other clones.
Nelly
Spend that year on reading sociology. Nobody is stopping you from being both.
Vlad
I think that cloning a multipotentialite person just to get a certain specification or attitude isn't really efficient, but I don't think clones should be killed.
Nelly
Neither do I. rests her head back against the wall The efficiency argument is what got the order signed. Once a person is inefficient, everything after that is easy to justify.
Vlad
I am person for god's sake, I can still be useful and competent, and I can still have love. Often love and friendship are thought of as distractions from the fact that we live and die alone but then the death of Ivan Ilyich really shows how insignificant our death will be if we don't care about both ourselves and other people and only do things for others. Altruism is in part a thing we both do for ourselves and for others.
Nelly
You are a person. And Tolstoy had it right, the man dies badly because he spent his life on what was expected of him and never on anyone he actually loved.
Vlad
Tolstoy was a christian anarchist. In literature, we often whitewash authors, like we are trying to erase Eliade's misoginy or the fact that Preda was a genuine communist.
Nelly
I have not read either of those. looks at him with some surprise You have been in a freezing corridor for four months and you are arguing about literary reputation.
Vlad
Oh, because I learned critical thinking just like the original. And because the original is not from where I was cloned.
Nelly
Where was he from?
Vlad
They write Eastern Europe, but I know he is from Romania because all my memories have been there before leaving the country.
Nelly
Romania. That explains the authors. Where did he go after he left?
Vlad
In Germany, if he has been cloned there. Or wait, it was somewhere offshore.
Nelly
Offshore is likely. frowns slightly The Institute moved the cloning work off the mainland years ago, exactly so that nobody's law applied to it.
Vlad
And then, the mission. He wasn't sure if he was competent. I wasn't sure.
Nelly
Neither were they. answers evenly They sent six of one man because they could not afford six trained people, and then they wrote the failure into your file as if it were yours.
Vlad
Yours, meaning of the...
Nelly
Of all of you. The original, the four who died, you. The file blames the crew for a mission that was never staffed properly.
Vlad
Why me and not trained ones?
Nelly
Cost. Six people you grow are cheaper than six people you hire, and you owe them nothing when they do not come back.
Vlad
There was not much to do on a moon of Saturn.
Nelly
Probe recovery for eighteen months. shakes her head Six people to carry crates that a machine could have carried.
Vlad
I actually tried to program the machines, but the land was too poor in rare metals.
Nelly
So the machines were the thing you could not build. listens closely What did you have to work with down there?
Vlad
Methane as a source of energy, sands of whatever compound... the moon was so energy-poor.
Nelly
Methane burns badly without oxygen, and there is none in that atmosphere. works through it So you were carrying your own oxidiser for every gram of fuel.
Vlad
Yeah, and then my grandfather said when I was talking about uranium, that to extract uranium, you initially need a source of energy that cannot be uranium, and the same applies here. You can only power extraction machines for uranium with uranium only if you have uranium.
Nelly
Your grandfather was describing energy return on investment. Every system needs something outside itself to start. Titan had nothing to start with.
Vlad
I was just trying to survive on an energy-poor planet and now those guys came to kill me.
Nelly
I know. tightens her arm around him again They are on the outside deck and the bay is sealed. Nothing happens to you between here and the transfer stage.
Vlad
I know, and what will happen when they will notice you are not there?
Nelly
They already know I am in here. I told them the bay was contaminated and that I was handling the recovery alone. They have no reason to open it.
Vlad
Are you usually that empathethic with other people?
Nelly
Not particularly. I am better with equipment. This was the first order I was given that I could not read as a technical problem.
Vlad
And when you came with that lander, I felt like an invasion was happening, so I hid into the opening of a cave I started to drill. I didn't register it as a rescue vehicle.
Nelly
You read it correctly. It was not a rescue vehicle. You hid from exactly the thing that was coming for you.
Vlad
I've had a feeling that it was certain death and I would have rather died of hunger than getting killed.
Nelly
You would have for another three weeks in that corridor.
Vlad
It's so nice that you are keeping company instead of ignoring me.
Nelly
There is nowhere else to be for twenty hours. And I would be sitting here anyway.
Vlad
lying on the floor It's pretty hard.
Nelly
pulls a folded thermal liner from the locker and drops it beside him Put that under you. The plating pulls heat straight out of your back.
Vlad
putting the thermal liner on the floor to rest on it When we met, I once said that you are cute behind that mask and I meant it as an irony, but now I don't think of it as much as an irony.
Nelly
I heard the irony the first time. sits down on the floor near him Say what you actually mean.
Vlad
That I am grateful and you are cute, although it feels like a shame to say someone is cute.
Nelly
It is fine. leans back on her hands I would rather hear the plain version than the ironic one.
Vlad
How good are you at misdirection?
Nelly
Good enough to be worried about it. looks at the bay door I write reports for a living, and a report only has to be consistent, never true.
Vlad
I am thinking whether to say a compliment or not, whether I am too grateful or not and whether you will have the time for me after we finish all of this.
Nelly
Say it or do not, either is fine. turns to face him properly I am not disappearing after this. The contract ends in two years and someone still has to watch the file after that. It may as well be me, and I would want the company anyway.
Vlad
Why do you want to be company?
Nelly
Because six years of contract work means I know nobody outside a uniform. And you talk about things I have never thought about.
Vlad
I never thought that my company would matter as a clone.
Nelly
It matters to me. looks at him steadily You are a human sitting on my floor. Undermine yourself as much as you want, it changes nothing about that.
Vlad
You like talking really nicely to someone who may not natively understand what niceness really is.
Nelly
You understand it perfectly well. pulls her knees up You held four people while they died.
Vlad
We just wanted to experience bliss, that's all.
Nelly
That is still it. keeps her eyes on him Wanting bliss at the end is the most human thing in the whole file.
Vlad
And I still want to experience bliss, but that is unrealistic.
Nelly
It is not. sits closer You are warm, you are fed, and nobody is coming through that door. Take this hour as it is.
Vlad
pointing to a healed scar on her hand What is that?
Nelly
turns her hand over so he can see it properly A coolant line let go during a plant inspection. Several years ago. It looked much worse than it was.
Vlad
Why it's so hard to trust my thoughts and senses right now?
Nelly
You have been four months alone with almost no food. keeps her hand where he can see it Your brain has had nothing to check itself against. That comes back slowly once there is someone else in the room.
Vlad
I was more like apathetic than rebellious at that moment when you came. I am usually rebellious.
Nelly
Apathy is what the body does when there is nothing left to spend. The rebellious part comes back with the calories.
Vlad
I've had coflicting feelings, thinking about real reasons why you might feel sympathetic toward me.
Nelly
Ask me directly. Whatever you suspect the reason is, say it and I will tell you if it is right.
Vlad
You think I am useful, and that the promises are not real, but attractive.
Nelly
You are not useful to me in any way I can name. I gave up a contract and six colleagues for someone who cannot pay me or protect me.
Vlad
I know this is not possible, but I wanna go back to the original mind, construction, tree, whatever it is.
Nelly
There is nothing to go back to. He is dead, and the tree you came from stopped existing when he did. You are what is left of it.
Vlad
patting the space besides him You can lie alongside me if you want.
Nelly
lies down beside him on the liner, keeping her boots on I am staying awake. Sleep if you can, I will watch the door.
Vlad
Besides the Ilyich example, do you think friends and love really matter?
Nelly
Yes, because nothing else survives you. turns her head toward him Nobody remembers what you built, but they remember who you were to them.
Vlad
I want to be a good person to you, but then I often end up to the conclusion that my own neurodivergence, just like of the original, was a fundamental social barrier.
Nelly
You have been a good person to me for the last couple hours without trying. stays lying beside him The barrier is real, it just is not doing what you think it is doing.
Vlad
What is it doing then?
Nelly
Making conversation slower and more exhausting for you. keeps looking at the ceiling It stops none of it from landing on the other side.
Vlad
In part yes, but it also creates a filter for who is willing to tolerate my own style. And the deaths of my copies were in part a fault of not responding earlier. That sociologist clone was also a medic, he could have prepared a treatment for the tumor faster, but he said, we don't the technology and he tried hard, just like I would have.
Nelly
He was right about the technology. turns onto her side to face him A tumour from accelerated growth needs a hospital, not a probe outpost. Nothing he did earlier would have changed that.
Vlad
touching her hand You are warm.
Nelly
lets his hand stay there You have been cold for four months. Everything is going to feel warm for a while.
Vlad
Venus is an energy-rich planet if we had the technology to build refractive mirrors and artificial cycles out of rotating mirrors and a way to remove blocks of CO2 once we frozen the planet and a way to build skyhooks to import water from Europa.
Nelly
The energy is there, the heat rejection is the problem. thinks it through You can freeze the atmosphere, but you still need somewhere to put 90 bar of carbon dioxide once it is solid.
Vlad
We create a moon out of it, or we dump into Europa.
Nelly
Then you are lifting the mass of an entire atmosphere off the surface. raises an eyebrow That costs more energy than the mirrors ever collect.
Vlad
But burying it and creating a plastic landscape would lead to intense reactions because the coating won't actually blend into the tectonic plates of the planet.
Nelly
Venus has no plate tectonics. shakes her head slightly The whole crust resurfaces at once every few hundred million years, so anything you bury comes back up eventually.
Vlad
Oh, I though that was plate tectonics, but yeah, still, the whole crust would fight against the plastic landscape.
Nelly
It would. keeps her voice low Any liner you lay down sits on rock that is going to melt from underneath at some point. Nothing you build there is permanent.
Vlad
squeezing her hand I am trying to distract myself with science but I am still doing this.
Nelly
squeezes back Do both. The science is not a cover for anything.
Vlad
The current atmosphere of Venus, at fifty kilometers above land, is technically breathable.
Nelly
The pressure and temperature are survivable up there. You would still need oxygen and something to keep the sulphuric acid off you.
Vlad
That's what the cloud city idea is for. By the way, you know Memory Of Mankind?
Nelly
I do not. turns her head toward him What is it?
Vlad
It's a conservation project where the vast majority of open scientific documents except for basic phenomena and literature considered important for humanity are being conserved in ceramic tiles in a deep salt mine in Austria.
Nelly
Ceramic in a salt mine is a good choice. Salt is dry and stable, and it will still be dry in a hundred thousand years.
Vlad
The lifespan of those ceramic tiles is rated to be at ten million years, so not forever as they would want to.
Nelly
Ten million is long enough that nobody will be reading it in a language we know. turns onto her back again The tiles will outlast whoever could understand them.
Vlad
MOM said that anyone who understands cause and effect can understand the contents of the ceramics. But there is Laz. There is a traditional song in south-western Caucasus that is called Oropa, and it is a song about love. The problem is, we don't have an accessible vocabulary of Laz, so we only understand the song from the provided Turkish translation. Laz is primarily a spoken and not written language, although in writing it uses both the Georgian script in the north and the Turkish script in the south.
Nelly
So the tile survives and the meaning does not and you would be reading a translation of a translation.
Vlad
Yes, because written Laz is a translation of spoken Laz and Turkish is a translation of written Laz, except that the Laz people themselves write Georgian or Turkish. Besides Oropa, Heyamo and a few songs that Birol Topaloglu or whoever translated those songs, we don't have Turkish translations of Laz.
Nelly
Then the recordings are the whole archive. Once the last fluent speakers are gone, those few translated songs are all anyone can work from.
Vlad
And they said, any civilization who understands cause and effect must be able to work through them, so any civilization who understands cause and effect must be able to understand Laz.
Nelly
That is wrong. Cause and effect gets you physics and metallurgy, and nothing else. A love song is not a mechanism you can reason your way into.
Vlad
Then why they might say that any civilization that understands cause and effect must be able to understand their entire database?
Nelly
Because engineers wrote the pitch. sits up slightly Everything in their world decodes if you have enough samples.
Vlad
We have enough samples of Laz to technically understand the language, but no way a machine could help me understand that language without going to Lazistan.
Nelly
Samples without a key are just noise you can count. You would need someone who speaks it standing in front of you, pointing at things.
Vlad
And Laz is going to die with less and less speakers and Laz is a spoken language with written representation, so...
Nelly
Then it dies when the last speaker does, and the tiles hold a language nobody can read. quiet for a moment You are describing what almost happened to you down there.
Vlad
Well, back on the base we didn't speak English like I do not, we spoke Romanian, a language that is still alive.
Nelly
I noticed. The logs were written in English and every recording was in something I could not follow. I assumed it was deliberate.
Vlad
It was not deliberate. Everyone's native language was Romanian because the original's native language was Romanian. My native language is Romanian as a result of that cloning.
Nelly
That makes sense. You could hardly speak anything else, since you all came from the same head.
Vlad
But the medic-sociologist clone did speak other languages, and it wasn't French like it was imposed on us at school. It was Bosnian, Polish and Czech alongside English and Romanian. I only know English, but I've had characters in my stories who spoke those languages.
Nelly
So the five years gave him languages and gave you compilers. thinks about it for a moment Same head, different reading again.
Vlad
pulling out a physical note There was a note he left before he died, and it is marked B, P and C because it's multilingual and he also wrote a translation on the back.
Nelly
takes the note carefully and holds it between them so they can both read the front
Note, front
Nas je pet, a ostat će jedan. (B)
Nie wiem który. (P)
Nemám strach z toho, že umřu. Mám strach, že ten poslední bude sám. (C)
Ako si ti taj koji ovo čita, nisi kriv. (B)
Nic nie mogłeś zrobić. Ja też nic nie mogłem. (P)
Drž se teplé smyčky a čekej. (C)
Pjevaj nešto naglas. Bilo šta. (B)
Kocham cię, bracie. (P)
Nelly
turns the page over to the back
Note, back
There are five of us and one will remain.
I do not know which one.
I am not afraid of dying. I am afraid the last one will be alone.
If you are the one reading this, it is not your fault.
There was nothing you could have done. There was nothing I could do either.
Keep to the warm loop and wait.
Sing something out loud. Anything.
I love you, brother.
Nelly
He knew exactly who was going to be left. holds the note out for him to take back
Vlad
No, I took his note, it was to whoever left. tearing the glued pages together And actually, this document is a little wiki, it hid a description of Kosice and why the last one should land there.
Nelly
leans over the torn pages, reading the first one in the low light
Hidden page, one
KOŠICE, Slovakia. 48.72 N, 21.26 E. Population approx. 230 000. Second city, so it has hospitals and a university and a working airport, and nobody watches it the way they watch a capital.
The Institute has no facility in Slovakia and no contract with the state health service there. Nearest office is 400 km away.
Old town runs on cash. Rents in the panel blocks on the east side are under 300 euros and landlords there do not file anything with anyone.
Technical University has an open computing faculty. Sit in on lectures, nobody checks a card at the door.
Romanian is close enough to nothing spoken there, so you will be a foreigner among other foreigners. That is the point.
Nelly
moves to the second page
Hidden page, two
WHY YOU AND NOT A CITY WITH MORE PEOPLE:
Big cities have biometric transit. Košice does not, the trams still take paper tickets.
Look for the Hungarian and Ukrainian communities on the east side. They have a habit of not asking where papers come from.
Do not go to Bratislava, do not go to Prague, do not go anywhere with an Institute liaison.
If someone came back with you, make them stay. Do not do the first year alone.
If nobody came back with you, go to the Dominican church on Mäsiarska and wait a week. Somebody there will notice you before the state does.
Nelly
He planned this for months. looks up at him And the last instruction is aimed at me.
Vlad
tearing apart the second page He also told me that the second page hides the lyrics of the song Oropa, in Laz and English.
Nelly
unfolds the layer inside the second page and holds it open
Oropa, Laz
Muperi boyi giǧun
Gyuli ǯiǯilare-yi?
Iriz nena-na meçam
Şa oǩiǯilare-yi?
Gyuli mod gemiǩondi?
Ma mutu var goǧodi
Si ipti gžiriş ǩule
Hem oraz domoǧodi
Oropa p̌aťi şeyi
Mitis-ti mo naç̌araz
Ma guri kogomaǯǩu
Ar gomiǯǩed yaraz
Nelly
turns to the English on the reverse
Oropa, English
How do you have a neck
My rose, are you a snake?
You promise everyone
Are you going to split it in two?
My rose, why are you mad at me?
I didn't do anything to you
When I first saw you
Then, what happened to me
Love is a bad thing
Don't write it to anyone
My heart is wounded
Look at my wound
Nelly
This is the song you told me about.
Vlad
tearing the first page And Ma Bulur.
Nelly
opens the layer inside the first page and lays it out beside the other
Ma Bulur, Laz
Ma bulur abu abu
Ar mskva bozo memagu
Memagusij vixeli
Tora kogobaxeli
Emine ʒulu ʒulu
Burgulepe maʒkunu
Emine skani-şeni
Tolepe gamamʒupu
Anderina naşkvare
Axir oxoriskani
Mot var gokomocaman
Komoxtu oraskani
Nelly
turns it over to the English
Ma Bulur, English
I'm going Abu Abu
I met this beautiful girl
I was happy to meet her
I was about to kiss her
Amina little by little
My knees cried
Amina for you
My eyes darkened
Damn let your house and barn remain
Why don't they marry you off?
Your time has come
Nelly
Two of them, then. He copied out an entire dying language by hand.
Vlad
Well, we had archived knowledge, and he copied from the set. And the last page hides an SD containing a full copy of all my, or rather, his software and data, that I am not going to open up now.
Nelly
Keep it closed. watches him fold the pages back together And keep Kosice out of your head. He wrote that page with no idea who was coming.
Vlad
Can I wrap my arms around you once again, even if we are horizontal?
Nelly
shifts closer and puts an arm out for him Come here.
Vlad
also shifting closer and putting an arm out for her I've never sat like this with people other than copies of myself.
Nelly
pulls him in against her shoulder Then this is the first one that counts.
Vlad
Or not necessarily, why you are choosing to be so close and comforting to me?
Nelly
Because you asked, and because I want to. keeps her arm around him There is no order behind this one.
Vlad
Did you ever fall in love with someone?
Nelly
Once, at the plant. It lasted two years and ended because I took the Institute contract and moved 900 kilometres away.
Vlad
You could still had contact, there must have been more.
Nelly
There was. quiet for a second I stopped answering. It was easier than admitting I had chosen the money.
Vlad
So, what really happened?
Nelly
The plants closed and I had a mortgage. keeps her tone even He asked me to stay and I told him I would think about it, and then I signed the contract without telling him.
Vlad
So, you betrayed him?
Nelly
Yes. He found out when the movers arrived.
Vlad
Did you ever regret it?
Nelly
Every year since. breathes out slowly I have had six years to think about what I traded him for.
Vlad
You are very dry about this.
Nelly
I have told it to myself so many times that it has stopped having a tone. keeps her arm around him Saying it out loud to somebody else is new.
Vlad
Does it bother you that I ask questions all the time?
Nelly
Ask as many as you want. turns her head toward him Here is one back. When you were down there alone and you thought nobody was coming, what did you tell yourself to keep going?
Vlad
That the future was going to be in us, we told ourselves the same thing. It was not going to be in a girl, it was not going to be alone, it was going to be just us and if one dies, then we would all die in cascade.
Nelly
The cascade broke, then. keeps her arm where it is Whatever you told yourself, some part of you refused the arrangement.
Vlad
I hoped that a rescue team was arriving. And well, it did not, and instead, it was... squeezing her at the back
Nelly
lets him hold on and does not pull away One person out of six who was willing to break the order. That is the whole of the rescue you got.
Vlad
It was you. The only good thing about us was knowledge. Again, on an energy-poor planet you cannot do anything useful without importing a lot of resources.
Nelly
Knowledge and a working heat loop. rests her hand on his back Neither of which the file gave you credit for.
Vlad
You are soft, and I thought you had sharp edges.
Nelly
The uniform does most of that. keeps her hand where it is It is cut to look like sharp edges from a distance.
Vlad
You don't talk so much about your past, do you?
Nelly
There has not been anyone to tell it to. shifts to rest her head near his It's only colleagues who talk about equipment and rotations.
Vlad
You wanted genuine connection.
Nelly
I did. I was not expecting to find it in a cargo bay above Titan.
Vlad
You are a caring person, this job definitely wasn't for you.
Nelly
It was not. breathes out I found that out on the way here.
Vlad
I think that being a person with a lot of knowledge means nothing when we have so much knowledge on the internet.
Nelly
Knowing where to look is the part that stays scarce. thinks about it Anyone can search. Very few people know which question to type.
Vlad
I tell AI to do queries for me and compose them into an answer with citations so I can read.
Nelly
You still have to know when it is wrong. shifts slightly I have read reports where somebody trusted the summary and never opened the sources.
Vlad
Don't trust the summary, and sometimes you have to tell the machine to load X at Y part, search in a specific language and so on.
Nelly
That is the skill, then. Knowing the machine well enough to steer it, and knowing the subject well enough to catch it.
Vlad
How would you describe your personality?
Nelly
Stubborn, literal, slow to warm up. thinks for a moment I take a long time to decide anything and then I do not move once I have.
Vlad
And I am open, honest and sometimes impulsive and stubborn too. In the English exercises you are meant to hedge undesirable social traits, like saying "a bit stubborn" instead of "stubborn".
Nelly
I have never seen the point of that. keeps her arm around him If you are stubborn, say stubborn. The hedge only tells people you are worried about how it sounds.
Vlad
The hedge only tells people you are worried about how it sounds, yeah. And I am bad at empathy to be honest, except that the "to be honest" construction according to various guides implies that you are generally not transparent.
Nelly
Those guides are written by people who never listen to how anyone talks. shakes her head slightly And you are not bad at empathy. You have been reading me all night.
Vlad
You are comforting, but when people are not comforting, it's more difficult, and then I have to admit that I am responsible for lying down rather than getting up there with the medic and working on a cure and finding out a way to synthesize synthetic starch.
Nelly
You had no reactor and no precursors. Synthetic starch needs a catalyst line and pressure vessels, and you had a corridor at minus 3.
Vlad
Methane is a precursor, and we all watched Nile Red, so we had to come up with creative solutions and the we had a chemist. There was me, the original, the geologist, the medic-sociologist, mechanic and chemist.
Nelly
Then the chemist told you the same thing I am telling you. turns her head toward him Methane to starch needs oxygen and a hydrogen source and something to drive it. Titan gave you the carbon and withheld everything else.
Vlad
You know the chemistry on this planet?
Nelly
Enough of it. shifts to look at him I read the outpost specification on the way out, including what the atmosphere would do to our seals.
Vlad
Even if that didn't work, we had to be creative, I had to be a creative programmer, we all had to be creative whatever.
Nelly
You were. keeps her voice even Six people with the same instincts, all being creative in the same direction at once.
Vlad
Are you creative?
Nelly
In a narrow way. thinks about it I am good at finding the one path a failure took. Inventing something new is a different skill and I do not have it.
Vlad
But you are good at love.
Nelly
I left a man without telling him. quiet for a second You have known me for a few hours. Wait before you decide that.
Vlad
laughing a bit But you have accepted to touch me and you have accepted for me to touch you and we have cuddling all this time while we talked about random things.
Nelly
That much is true. lets herself smile slightly I have not let anyone this close for a long time.
Vlad
What if I told you that in the moment I like you so much?
Nelly
I would tell you it goes both ways. I like you. Whatever that turns into later, it is real now.
Vlad
You are not a military officer... you are Nelly.
Nelly
I am both, for another two years. pulls him a little closer But in here, yes. Just Nelly.
Vlad
I know this is early, but thanks for letting me survive.
Nelly
I only opened a door.
Vlad
You only opened a door. I am so grateful, probably more than you realize.
Nelly
I realize. rests her head against his You have said it about six different ways tonight.
Vlad
Tonight in space. It's romantic, but there is no tonight.
Nelly
There is no tonight. keeps her head where it is We are calling it that anyway, since the alternative is naming an hour count.
Vlad
Why didn't you just drop tonight altogether?
Nelly
Because you are lying on a floor in the dark with somebody's arm around you. Whatever the clock says, that is a night.
Vlad
You like being affectionate.
Nelly
I do.
Vlad
I remember the reason why the medic learned Bosnian, Polish and Czech specifically. It's because unlike French, they are vulgar, and we like vulgar languages.
Nelly
Vulgar how? turns her head toward him Blunt, or actually full of swearing?
Vlad
They are blunt. French is polite and meant to sound musically.
Nelly
German is blunt too, in the same way. You say the thing and there is nowhere in the sentence to hide.
Vlad
Yeah, but Slavic is even less known and more blunt. And they sound closest to Romanian.
Nelly
That would be why he picked those three. shifts slightly Blunt, close to what he already had, and useless to anyone monitoring him.
Vlad
And I like how Slavic sound titles sound, like "Ja bez tebe ne mogu da zivim" by Halid Beslic.
Nelly
What does it mean? You will have to translate for me every time.
Vlad
The medic said that it means "I can't live without you".
Nelly
Direct, then. No hedging anywhere in it.
Vlad
French says "Je ne peux pas vire sans toi".
Nelly
Same length, going by the words. repeats both under her breath The French one slides, and the other one lands like something being put down on a table.
Vlad
I love harshness over politeness, I love assertive language.
Nelly
Then we will get along. shifts to look at him I have been told my emails read like orders.
Vlad
What they say exactly?
Nelly
One line, no greeting. thinks back "The pump log is wrong, send me the raw file". A colleague once asked if I was angry with him.
Vlad
And you said...
Nelly
That I needed the raw file. shrugs slightly He wanted an apology and I did not understand what for.
Vlad
You know Tyler Folse Nuclear?
Nelly
I do not. turns toward him Who is that?
Vlad
A youtube channel where a real PWR nuclear engineer reacts at videos about nuclear energy and science in general.
Nelly
I would probably shout at the screen through all of it. smiles slightly Half the mistakes in those videos come from people who have never stood next to a working plant.
Vlad
I have never stood next to a nuclear plant in my life, yet I think nuclear is good transitional energy source.
Nelly
It is, when it is maintained. shifts to face him more The plants I took apart failed on paperwork and deferred parts, never on physics.
Vlad
after a long silence Have you got a taste of that disagreeable eternal bliss we were trying to have back on Titan?
Nelly
Some of it, in the last few hours. keeps her arm around him It is smaller than the word bliss suggests and it does not last.
Vlad
The vast majority of philosophies disagree with prolonged bliss as a valid or desirable state, and this includes the philosophies behind socialism.
Nelly
They are arguing about a life, not about an hour on a floor.
Vlad
What about four months of bliss?
Nelly
Four months would be an anaesthetic. turns her head toward him You would come out of it with nothing built and nothing decided.
Vlad
You don't ask many questions to me. You are observant.
Nelly
I get more from listening. keeps her head where it is You have told me more in a few hours than most people would answer in a hundred questions.
Vlad
Probably I'm not that unique as you think.
Nelly
I never said unique. shifts a little You are the person who is here, and that is enough of a reason to listen.
Vlad
There are just so many questions to think about, but I can't think about them.
Nelly
Then leave them.
Vlad
Alright. It's been a lot.
Nelly
It has. pulls the liner up over both of them Close your eyes. I am still watching the door.