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Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 119/?]
🕑 Added 2024-11-12 16:48:48 +0000 UTCAuthor's Note: Hello everyone! I have a big announcement to make regarding Humans Don’t Hibernate. I’m afraid that as a result of a combination of irl circumstances, largely involving my work, living situation, as well as family issues, I will have to change my post schedule for the series. The chapters will now be posted once every two weeks, so the next chapter will be released two weeks following this one.
I’m incredibly sorry for this change. There’s just been an unexpected uptick in irl responsibilities I have to handle, most of which involve the decline in my grandmother’s health and me needing to play an active role in arranging her medical affairs for her, as well as a few other issues I’d rather not get into. I want to continue providing the same level of quality and care I normally put in for Humans Don’t Hibernate, which is why I’ve decided to make this change in my posting schedule. As I want to ensure that I can deliver the same level of quality I expect from one of my chapters.
I really hope this will be alright for you guys, and once again, thank you so much for your continued interest in the silly little space adventures of my anxious space axolotl and his ragtag crew of ragtag survivors. :D
117 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Dunir-Sar Moon Base. Loading Bay.
Lysara
The first few tentative steps off of the shuttle weren’t as dread-inducing or fear-inspiring as I’d imagined it to have been for Evina.
Because as soon as we left the landing ramp, passing through the shuttle’s gravitic fields, the felinor practically tumbled forward — landing flat on her face as she let out a solid oomf at the abruptness of the whole affair.
It didn’t take me long to figure out what happened.
As Vir let out a digitally-tuned sigh at the whole situation.
“Moon gravity. You should’ve turned on your suit’s gravitic compensatory systems, Evina.” Vir pointed out through the intercom, but barely garnering a reaction from Evina.
Instead, the felinor began hopping, in a manner reminiscent of most early astronauts on low-gravity celestial bodies.
It took me a few more moments to determine exactly what the felinor was doing, as a series of high-pitched, rapid-fired breaths started to first worry me, but then slowly managed to untangle my frayed nerves.
The felinor was laughing maniacally, in a manner that the translator found difficult to capture in the first few moments of that laughter, as it eerily resembled breaths that I would’ve easily misconstrued as frantic and panic-filled breaths.
This continued on for a solid half minute, as Evina seemed to be savoring and reveling in the low gravity environment, before conceding and activating the gravitic compensator as per Vir’s instructions.
“It’s not everyday you get to step foot on your moon.” The felinor spoke, as she attempted to justify her earlier actions with a sheepish tone of voice. “I figured, if we’re going to somehow die in the next few hours or days or whatever… why not indulge just once y’know?”
That rather macabre and dark frame of mind would’ve taken me by surprise when we first met. However, after getting to understand Evina’s past and frame of mind, the surprising and rather concerning statement simply felt… expected.
And to an extent, I understood where she was coming from.
As this ‘refusal to fade quietly’ mentality was something seen even amongst members of my own kind during my contemporary years. It was a regrettably understandable phenomenon, given the unpredictable nature of hibernation for certain rungs of society, and how each cycle might very well be one’s last.
Not all hibernative facilities were built equal, after all.
“I completely understand, Evina.” I answered earnestly, and without much fanfare.
The next few moments were filled with a series of back and forths between Evina and Eslan, as the latter began raving about the former’s exploits on the moon, expressing his excitement in the form of a cavalcade of increasingly esoteric questions that threatened to drown the airwaves if it wasn’t for Vir’s prompt intervention.
Following which, we began our entry into the moon base in earnest, entering into a world that had been radically transformed by the AI’s efforts in preparation for our field mission; ensuring that the whole place was both structurally sound and easily accessible on foot.
“Wow.” Evina uttered out, her helmeted head glancing this way and that despite the HUD readily providing her with more than enough visual angles on the sights around us.
“Yeah, Vir’s drones have been working overtime here.” I pointed out, gesturing at the light fixtures attached to mass-fabricated struts and cables, all of which were painted in bright orange and white so as to clearly demarcate which parts of the facility were our additions, and which parts were the original in-situ artifacts. “All the objects you see here remain as close to in-situ as possible, in adherence to xeno-archaeological protocols.” I continued, gesturing at the various space suits, weapons, and munitions scattered about. “Given the conditions of the moon, and considering they were sealed within here for centuries, they were unsurprisingly well preserved.”
Evina took a moment to analyze the whole scene, her eyes looking over at the space suits, the weapons, the loading equipment, and everything within a room that had probably once been the bleeding edge of her kind at one point in time.
“I remember seeing this in documentaries back before the war.” She began, taking careful paces around the stacks upon stacks of scientific and military equipment alike. “They said this place was a sort of international research cooperative or whatever, founded by what was effectively the strongest multinational organization at that time. There were… a few other organizations that existed to sort of facilitate international relations, but the International Space Exploration Initiative was the only organization that had a tangible impact on the world. At least, tangible in that they didn’t just spend all day everyday drafting decrees and condemnations that went totally ignored.” The felinor shrugged, as she began rummaging through one of the crates, causing me to immediately flinch and reflexively shout.
“Evina! Wait—”
“Hang on, I’m trying to check on something here.” She responded in an almost lackadaisical tone of voice, before grabbing hold of a plain numbered tarp covering a shipment of weapons. “Rumors say that most of the big-box stuff in the loading bay here were faked for the cameras, so that the public wouldn’t really know exactly what was going on behind the scenes after the grainy cameras stopped rolling.” It took a few moments before she finally managed to unstrap that tarp, pulling it to the side, and then rapidly proceeding to flip it over.
After a few moments of awkward flapping and unfurling, the underside of the plain-numbered fabric was exposed. Revealing itself to be… a printed-on high-resolution image of some primitive mass spectrometer.
Evina quickly took this opportunity to double-down on her experimental archeology efforts, as she re-covered the crate with the tarp, confirming her hypothesis.
From close up, the whole thing looked almost laughably obvious.
However, I could imagine that from further away, as a background set piece for a low-resolution broadcast… the disguise was passable.
“I fricking knew it!” Evina yelled out, gesturing at this revelation. “Alright so, this place seems to be research-second, and military first…?” She began that sentence as a statement, before transitioning over into a half-question directed towards me.
“That’s what we’ve managed to garner, yes. However, it should be said that the research being conducted here does seem to be genuine. It’s just that the military presence here seems to be disproportionately… large when compared to what one might expect from a fledgling intrasolar civilization’s first forays into space.” I explained, before quickly gesturing at the vinyl tarp. “Though your insight into the nuances of this whole affair is much appreciated, Evina.”
“Thanks.” Evina nodded in response. “However, I doubt it’ll be much help in the grand scheme of things. I’m just here adding context to stuff that’s probably very negligible.”
“Filling in the dots and providing valuable everyday context to archeological finds is a fundamental part of my field, Evina. If anything, it’s these minor details that truly add up to form the beating heart of a civilization. From trivia to daily routine, and tradition to social norms, these seemingly ‘minor’ details once lost, sometimes prevents you from truly making sense of the bigger picture. Common knowledge is often barely written down, as it is assumed that it will remain common in perpetuity. And thus, common knowledge is the first thing to be lost. Whether gradually through the natural ebbs and flows of civilization, or suddenly like in the case of your kind, the result is the same — you lose vital context that explains what could’ve been once-obvious motivations behind a peoples’ actions. So to put it bluntly, Evina, there are xeno-archaeologists that would kill to talk to someone from the past they’re so meticulously digging up. As a person of that era would be able to point and tell them what would otherwise be something entirely inexplicable.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Evina nodded. “And… heh… you’ve probably got the right person for the job too. If you’re looking for weird random factoids about conspiracy theories or weird nerdy stuff from our heyday… my first iteration is definitely the one to ask.”
The felinor went silent following that, as we proceeded to do several laps around the loading bay.
The back and forths were relatively quick, so it wasn’t long before we promptly found ourselves near the entrances to the rest of the facility. Or rather, the specific routes that we’d agreed upon giving a closer look.
However, just prior to entering one of those passages, a beep from Vir told us to shift our course towards a small security booth that had previously been completely overturned during the first round of our investigations. Entering it, we came across a neat stack of papers, along with several digital tablets that’d somehow been brought back to life courtesy of Vir’s efforts.
“I’ve taken the liberty of transcribing and translating most of the documents scattered within the room, following the creation of a translation suite between your language and our own.” The AI paused, taking a moment to bring up a whole laundry list of transcribed documents which more or less scrolled across both of our HUDs. “Most of what I’ve been able to translate have yielded largely inconsequential correspondences. Stuff involving equipment transfer, personnel manifests, some lowkey run-of-the-mill corruption, nothing special. However, there remains a suspicious number of documents that I’ve been having some trouble deciphering. Documents that seem to make no sense at all, as they’re written using words that are translatable, but are strung together in sentences where they just don’t make any sense.” Vir noted through the intercom, as Evina began picking up the documents one by one, the transcribed versions quickly popped up on both of our HUDs.
“I was curious if you’d know something about how—”
“Oh, yeah, no, this makes perfect sense.” Evina surmised almost instantly. “I told you guys about how the written text you use and the way you speak more or less resembles the ‘formal’ version of our language right?”
“I believe you’ve noted that before, yes.” I nodded.
“Well, there’s your problem. Our language is… a bit of a hot mess. The formal lingo is usable in most cases. However, it’s sort of like… plain white bread. There’s lots of ways to spice it up using toppings and fillings and stuff, at which point, it becomes difficult to decipher.” The felinor paused, before letting out a sigh. “That’s probably a shit analogy. Alright, I’ll just get to the point. Our formal language can often be modified in a way that’s purposefully difficult to decipher. Using known words and known phrases, but in ways they weren’t meant to be used. A lot of the time, this is to obscure meaning for niche communities or specific occupations. Though this can sometimes also evolve into niche code-languages for spies and people working in crime or espionage and stuff. And in the case of the documents you haven't been able to translate? Well…” The felinor took a few moments to rummage through the papers once more, her eyes growing wide with each passing document. “... yeah… no… this…” Her voice slowly faded, as the rate of rummaging hastened, to the point where it became almost haphazard.
“Right… first of all… this is an obscure form of military lingo that’s using a lot of pop cultural references during my first iteration’s era to purposefully hide what’s being conveyed. Because what they’re hiding is… rather fricking concerning.” Evina took a moment to single a document out, placing it on the table with a slap.
Or at least, what would have been a slap if there was air to conduct sound with.
She pointed at several big bold letters, along with several rubber-stamped words, circling them using a pen. “‘Through peak running blaze inferno’ is what this directly translates to. However, when combined with the context of the rest of the obscured lingo and the various rubber-stamped words, you get ‘emergency order: activate kill protocol’.”
Comments
Dale
Thanks for not canceling the series! Always my fear when I read an authors note starting like that
Jcb112
Thank you so much for the kind words! I genuinely do appreciate them, and for your understanding about everything! I was very reluctant about making these changes to the schedule for Humans Don't Hibernate so I do appreciate your thoughtful response! However, I can definitely say that the updates will at least still be coming! It's just that it'll be a bit slower haha, with Humans Don't Hibernate releasing once every 2 weeks rather than weekly. :D
David Betz
Sorry to hear you have some significant personal issues you are dealing with but I am glad you are there to be able to watch over everyone and take care of them. Of course, the updates will be missed, but this is because you have a great product and fun story to get lost in. But I would rather you take care of your real life than worry about my “fantasy life” fix! Take care, be safe, and I will see you on the flip side! 😎
Skrzynek
Best health for your grandmother, man. Hope she gets better soon!
