I’ve returned to the surface to visit my childhood home. It feels like nothing has changed here, like I’ve only been away for a few days. Marge greeted me with a big bear hug and took my bags to my room. Father was out, but returned shortly. He grunted a few questions at me, and shook my hand. It was all very proper, but I hope he is pleased to see his only son in good health.
Unfortunately, Mother was away when I returned, jet setting to Istanbul or some other place. I hope she will return before I leave again, or I will have to rely on Father to tell her I am in good health. Marge made quite a feast for the two of us, apparently she missed having more than one person to cook for! I’m so stuffed I can barely keep my eyes awake.
Things are not entirely comfortable, but I am glad to be home. The Cavern is so empty, I sometimes realise I’ve been talking to myself for hours. I sometimes imagine I can still hear the engineers, chipping away at rock with pickaxes.
Perhaps I’ll bring some music down to my quarters in the Cavern. Then at least I can talk with Mr. Miles and Mr. Coltrane.
It has been so long since the cavern emptied, and yet I have not dared venture into the areas of the City untouched by restoration efforts. The physical barriers aren’t the issue, I had little problem ignoring their warnings on the Great Stair with many other explorers those years ago. It is something else. Something intangible.
The first few weeks after the Cavern closed I busied myself with transporting supplies from the surface and suitably furnishing a living space. Of course, due to the location and nature of my work, I could not simply hire labourers to complete the task as I normally would, which significantly slowed my progress.
Once that work was completed, I had no more excuses. I was free to wander. free to explore every inch of the Cavern, unrestrained… and yet I didn’t. I stayed within the safe confines of the DRC-approved areas. For years, I’ve been obsessed with this place, frustrated with the setbacks and the DRC’s painfully slow approval process. Yet when these barriers are removed, I stand motionless.
If Father knew of this, I wonder if he would enjoy the irony of my reluctance to explore the City I was so insistant to journey to, or if he would be disappointed in me for so blatantly ignoring a Rule. Either way, he would scold me roundly.
Father is nothing if not consistant.
I must step outside. I must! If I cannot, the City will perish. I must search for the elements of its salvation. I will begin my journey to the outer districts. I only hope it will be worth it in the end.
First though, I will return home for the first time in almost six months. My family may be insufferable, but I do love them, and it would be horrid of me to let them think I’d perished down here.
My connection is unstable, and has gone down several times in the past few days. Unfortunately I am not a technically-minded person by any means. It was only thanks to serendipity that none of the wireless rerouters were damaged and simply required a new power source.
What will I do if there is a technical malfunction of a much more serious nature? I cannot repair this equipment alone, and yet the possiblity of being forced to bring anyone down to the City to assist could be very dangerous.
I’ve begun a long and winding journey and have decided to shoulder a great deal of responsibility all on my own. Perhaps I should seek out others to help me. The possiblity of failure terrifies me. I cannot let this place die, even if it holds on only by the strand of life that I sustain; but am I even strong enough to sustain that?
No, I cannot dwell on such fears. If a problem occurs, I will find a way to fix it.
It has been an entire month since this place became silent again. It has passed by in the blink of an eye.
And yet, it feels like I have been here for years. For lifetimes.
That night truly was quite a spectacle…
Continue reading »
I seem to have misplaced my physical journal. It must have happened while I was mucking about in the tunnels trying to re-activate this cursed wireless connection. I really need to be more careful. What would happen if I was that careless with a Linking Book? An intact Linking Book obviously, not the one I converted into my journal.
No matter, the entire point of re-establishing this connection was the ability to update this online journal from the cavern anyway. I was going to transition from hardback to digital eventually, this simply sped up the process. This system should prevent data loss and make journal entries easier.
How poetic, one was lost to create another.
I’ve finally got it working. Took long enough. Of course, my bloody luck that they would already have a wireless connection to the surface. Took me forever to find it, it was disconnected in a lot of places. They had to set up wireless repeaters all the way through the cavern and the Great Shaft to even get this abysmal signal. What a monumental waste though, aquiring enough cable to reach the cavern from the Cleft. My fault for not looking hard enough while I was exploring I suppose. Father always tried to teach me to be observant, how disappointed he would be.
This is a test…Testing DRC-NET connection…
[There is a problem with your connection to the server. Any data received may be corrupted or incomplete. Please verify that your internet connection is working and try again.]
.
..eed..%..dat654stream…Co1nexo12…2crr…df3f4f…4.df.55.gd#_#_#nd….Gofyee.df…e..sen.d..
DRC-NET…8080..f..unt…dsffd…thi….is….t3xt.a..tes….irles…con.f.e.y4…
.
..
[Connection to DRC-NET lost; result = timeout]
